Business

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Farming - Fox Business Network - Free Trade - Journalism - Media - Warner Todd Huston

Fox Business Network Flies the Skies Covering the Midwest Drought

July 27, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Midwest has been suffering a major drought this year, one that will surely cost us all in higher food prices over the coming years. Fox Business Network has been literally flying the friendly skies — in a helicopter — to cover it.

FBN’s intrepid reporter of the skies, Jeff Flock, has been touring the Midwest reviewing the effects of the drought and covering the devastation it’ll wreck on the country.

Flock has literally been flying around in a helicopter covering the drought. Yesterday I got some updates on Flock’s journey right from the whirley-rider himself.

Over the past month our team has reported live from corn fields already lost to the drought, irrigated fields with corn plants over your head, a grain elevator that expanded to hold what was expected to be a record harvest, and a dairy farm using fans and spraying cows with water to keep their herds cool. I’ve also been to the corn and bean pits at the CME where traders have bid up both commodities to record levels. And I’ve also reported from a chopper 1200 feet in the air over the drought-baked Midwest landscape.

Each of our stops has brought a texture to what is a complicated and compelling story that has yet to fully unfold.


Over the fields in Sugar Grove, Illinois

Take Thursday’s chopper trip over the farm town of Sugar Grove, Illinois. The country singer Jason Aldean has a song called “Flyover States” which is about the Midwest and how people on the coasts only know the likes of Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois from flying over but never stopping in them. Just like in the song, we found that just flying over gives a skewed picture of the drought.

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Fox Business Network Flies the Skies Covering the Midwest Drought”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Environment - EPA - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - YouTube

EPA ‘Crucifixion’ Video Pulled From Youtube, The Liberal Cockroach Behind the Move

April 28, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier in the week a video surfaced on Youtube of Al Armendariz, head of the EPA office in Dallas, saying that he and his agency planned to “crucify” any business that crosses them. The video caused a lot of consternation on Capitol Hill as well as recriminations for the EPA. But by Friday the video had been pulled by Youtube because of complaints from the man that originally made the video. Turns out he’s an extreme environut connected with the gay community.

To quickly recap the video, Armendariz noted that his job as an EPA enforcer was like that of the ancient Romans. He joked that the EPA’s philosophy was like the Roman’s who, when mollifying a populace, would “find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.” This, he laughed, would make the town “easy to manage for the next few years.”

So apparently Armendariz felt that the EPA’s job was that of indiscriminate intimidation as opposed to law enforcement.

That said, how does one guy get a video like this pulled and why did it happen?
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EPA ‘Crucifixion’ Video Pulled From Youtube, The Liberal Cockroach Behind the Move”

Barack Obama - Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Fox Business Network - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

A Few Things Illinois Needs to know about the Debt Crisis

July 31, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The debt crisis is a national disaster, of course. But Illinois will likely be affected worse than many other states. For one thing, Illinois is the most broke state in the union and will be affected more immediately by the mess that is our national economy than any other state. But, as Fox Business network’s Ashley Webster reports, there are five things that Illinoisans need to know about how the crisis will affect them.

Webster will be doing a special report on Fox Business Network on Monday, August 1 at 5AM, talking about how the debt crisis will affect Illinois, but I had a nice exchange with him and he gave me a little sneak peek at his report.

Webster told me several important points that the debt crisis means for Illinois.
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A Few Things Illinois Needs to know about the Debt Crisis”

Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Congress: When Will These People Retire?

June 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Iowahawk recently Tweeted (@iowahawkblog) an interesting fact:

“91 of 435 US representatives and 40 of 100 US senators are over the SS retirement age. 15 members of Congress are over 80.”

So, why are these people telling all of us that we need to retire at 65 while they are sticking in there long past their “sell by” date?

Just wondering.

Animal Rights - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Regulation - Warner Todd Huston

For Every Awful Gov’t Action There is An Equally Awful Reaction, Horses Worst Hit!

June 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a jester of a Chicago Alderman named Ed Burke who back in the early 1990s made local radio audiences laugh by his plaintive plea of “what about the horses” on the floor of Chicago’s City Hall. He was worried that horses in downtown Chicago’s carriage trade were somehow being mistreated and so he tried to pass all sorts of absurd new regulations in Chicago to help his equine buddies. His plea rings in my ears as I read this new story of the “unintended consequences” of federal regulations meant to save the horses that has only made their lives more miserable.

Since we became a country there have been businesses geared to dispatch and butcher ailing, broken down, or unwanted horses. These horse abattoirs may be remembered once upon a time as supplying some of the raw materials for glue factories. But they also supplied the meat for zoos, circuses and increasingly for meat markets overseas where consumption of horsemeat by humans does not carry the cultural shock that it might here in the United States.

But congress knew better, you see. Congress had become the ultimate horse whisperers and could read the horses minds to know that they felt abused by these evil slaughterhouses. And so, because congress is oh, so caring, that august body passed laws that materially harmed horse slaughterhouses in America. These rules eventually made such businesses close up and disappear in the USA.

It’s for the horses, ya know?
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For Every Awful Gov’t Action There is An Equally Awful Reaction, Horses Worst Hit!”

Banks - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Economy/Finances - Financial Reform - Fox Business Network - Free Trade - Media - Money - Warner Todd Huston

Fox Business Network Opens New Studio Overlooking Floor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange

May 31, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fox Business Network is leaping head first into full time coverage right in the thick of it all at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with a new CME-based studio booth on the next level up from trading floor itself. Interestingly, this marks as the very first time a financial network will have its own, branded booth so close to the floor.

Thursday afternoon I spoke to Fox Business Network correspondent Jeff Flock about the grand opening of the CME booth and asked him what made the Network make this move. “Since both exchanges were consolidated there that makes that floor the center for futures trading in the country and now Fox Business will have a permanent presence where all the traders can see us.”
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Fox Business Network Opens New Studio Overlooking Floor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Peter Roskam - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Thanks Governor Quinn: Illinois Loses Another Business and One More (Sears) on the Way Out

May 10, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wisconsin is celebrating over the stupidity of the political class in Illinois, a state that is steadily destroying its business climate and mounting some pretty high tax rates. The town of Menasha, Wisconsin, though, loves Illinois because Prolamina Corp. has chosen it for a new flexible-packaging plant, one it is moving from the Land of Lincoln to Wisconsin.

Prolamina Corp. will begin building its new facility in Wisconsin in August. The facility will be serving the needs of the “tobacco, cheese, pouch materials, pet food, medical, produce and snack food markets.”

“The location offers lower operating costs, improved response times and lower freight costs to customers,” said Bevis, who started the company last year as Packaging Solutions Holdings Inc., Lake Forest, Ill.

So, Illinois has lost yet one more business. There has been a steady stream of business fleeing from Illinois.

This news comes as a prelude to reports that Sears is shopping for a new state to move to, as well.

Sears has its Headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago but is now considering a move out-of-state.
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Thanks Governor Quinn: Illinois Loses Another Business and One More (Sears) on the Way Out”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jim DeMint - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Dueling Union Bills in DC

March 10, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

First Congressional Democrats offered a national forced unionzation bill, and now Republicans have countered by putting forth a national worker’s freedom bill. With the luck breaking against unions in Wisconsin and the issue in an uproar in Ohio and Indiana it is now surprise that Congress has come to loggerheads with the same issue.

On Tuesday eight Republicans introduced the National Right to Work Act. Senator Jim DeMint says that he hopes it will, “reduce workplace discrimination by protecting the free choice of individuals to form, join, or assist labor organizations, or to refrain from such activities.”

Unions are less than 8 percent of the work force at this point yet those states that have more union members than others are doing less well. DeMint says that having unions is part of the problem.
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Dueling Union Bills in DC”

Budget - Connecticut - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

For Crying Out Loud: Taxpayers Forced To Pay for Union Workers’ Coffee

March 7, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is absolutely impossible any more to come up with parody about how much government unions are ripping off the taxpayer. Witness the fact that a city in Connecticut is being forced to pay for the coffee and related refreshment supplies of its government union members.

Todd Starnes of Fox News reports that the town of Orange, Connecticut has been told by the State Board of Labor Relations that it must provide “free” coffee and milk to the members of the United Public Service Employees Union.

The union ripoff artists got upset when town administration eliminated the free refreshments in order to save money in the budget. Instead of seeing it as a logical belt-tightening measure, the union decided they were being persecuted and took their case to the Democrat heavy State Labor Relations Board which dutifully ruled in their patrons, the union’s, favor.

Of the expense for the “free” coffee, Wayne Gilbert, the regional director and chief spendthrift of the UPSE, scoffed that “It’s like a couple of bucks a week.”
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For Crying Out Loud: Taxpayers Forced To Pay for Union Workers’ Coffee”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Teachers Unions - The Heritage Foundation - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Government Union Collective Bargaining 101

March 5, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Are you a bit hazy on why government employee unions are a problem? If so the Heritage Foundation has made a great video to help you understand the deal. It’s a sort of Government Unions 101.

The Heritage Foundation also has a great fact sheet to help you learn more.

Here are some of the points on that list:
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Government Union Collective Bargaining 101″

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Peter Roskam - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Roskam Urges Democrats to Join in Spending Cuts While Majority of Dems Vote Against Pelosi on Cuts

March 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Significantly 104 House Democrats voted in favor of the GOP led temporary budget plan that is now on its way to the Senate. This majority of House Dems voted against former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) who voted against the cuts. Even Dem. Number two man Steny Hoyer (D, Maryland.) voted in favor of the GOP’s continuing Resolution budget plan.

The remaining moderate Democrats that were not swept from Congress in the 2010 midterms are worried that Pelosi is marginalizing herself by catering to the far left and not trying to appeal to the centrist voters that fled for the GOP.

On Tuesday I spoke to House Majority Chief Deputy Whip Congressman Peter Roskam (R, Illinois) and he said that this vote was an important first step toward a more fiscally responsible budget. It was also important for the legitimacy of the GOP led House, too. “Imagine how the media would be spinning this if we didn’t take this step toward cuts,” he said.
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Roskam Urges Democrats to Join in Spending Cuts While Majority of Dems Vote Against Pelosi on Cuts”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Civil Rights - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Free Speech - Freedom - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Planned Parenthood - Policy - President - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Rights - RNC - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Wisconsin

Left-Wing Group Takes Down Conservative Website — Petty Little Children Affecting Nothing

March 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left-wing Internet-based group calling itself “Anonymous” briefly took down the website of the conservative activist group Americans For Prosperity on Sunday, Feb. 27. Yet all the sturm und drang signifying… what? Me thinks that “Anonymous” is reading too many comic books.

Amusingly, with the Denial of Service (DNS) attack “Anonymous” imagines themselves striking a blow for the oppressed, or something. “Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people,” they sonorously tell us on their website. The amusing thing to me is that they imagine the oppressed are government employee union members. Only, here is the thing… people that work for the government are on average the best paid people in America. They have the best benefits, the earliest retirement ages, and the cheapest healthcare in the entire country — cheapest to them anyway, not to us the taxpayers. It is a fact that government employees are the new elites in America today. It is also a fact that they live high on the hog off the backs of the working poor.

So who the heck do these fools in “Anonymous” think they are come to the aid of?
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Left-Wing Group Takes Down Conservative Website — Petty Little Children Affecting Nothing”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Government Employee Unions Undemocratic, Unfair, Unsustainable

March 1, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A lot has been said about the thuggish behavior of these teachers in Wisconsin and other union toughs across the country who have been caught on tape calling people Hitler and dictators, and attacking peaceful Tea Partiers. The behavior of union supporters has been ignorant to say the least. But as we’ve focused on the behavior of these ignoramuses, we’ve also neglected to explain just why their unions are illicit in the first place.

To start with we should remind everyone that government employees have not always been allowed to unionize. Collective bargaining for pubic employees only started in 1958 after New York Mayor Robert Wagner signed what came to be called “the Little Wagner Act” allowing city workers to unionize. In fact, collective bargaining itself was only legalized even in the private sector in 1935 when Wagner’s own father, New York Senator Robert Wagner, sponsored the National Labor Relations Act, or the Wagner Act. Nationally, collective bargaining for government employees began in 1962 when President John Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988 allowing federal employees to unionize and gain collective bargaining.
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Government Employee Unions Undemocratic, Unfair, Unsustainable”

AFSCME - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Security/Safety - SEIU - Taxes - Teachers Unions - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Hate is What Unions Sell

February 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This situation in Wisconsin has brought out the truth about unions: they peddle hate. Unions are exactly what Democrats try to claim the Tea Party is, a hate-filled, uncivil, mob of name callers. Unionistas use hateful and violent rhetoric, they call everyone that opposes them Hitler and they lie about their ultimate goals.

Many of you out there may be saying that we shouldn’t hold the obscene actions of a few bad Wisconsin teachers against the whole of uniondom. But we don’t have to restrict ourselves to Wisconsin to see this sort of hateful, violence themed rhetoric.

Yesterday, for instance, Massachusetts Democrat Representative Michael Capuana told a union crowd that sometimes the protesters have to “get a little bloody” on the streets to prove their fealty to the unions.
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Hate is What Unions Sell”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Getting Rich Off the Taxpayers: School Administrators Double Dipping Pensions

February 19, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It must be nice to work for the government. Sadly it’s the most lucrative way to make a living in American history. To “win life’s lottery” all you have to do is get a job with the government — whether the federal or state government — at practically any level and voila, welcome to easy street. Here we have yet another case of the milking of the taxpayer by our “public servants,” this time it’s school superintendents that jump from state to state in order to double or triple their pension takings.

The Chicago Trib revealed the newest way for “public servants” to rip off the public by reporting that it has become common practice for school superintendents to “retire” from a school district in one state only to migrate to another state and take the same job in order to earn another lucrative pension. Some of these guys are making upwards to $500,000 a year off the backs of the taxpayers.

When questions over their greed are put to them these “public servants” demur from being characterized as fatcat, double dippers. They say that they are acting entirely within the law. They claim that there isn’t a single thing wrong with what they are doing. Well, maybe legally. Morally is another question.
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Getting Rich Off the Taxpayers: School Administrators Double Dipping Pensions”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Judges - Law - Liberals - Supreme Court - Warner Todd Huston

Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?

January 18, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the issues that many conservatives have focused on is our out of control court system and the constant judicial overreach that occurs therein. Here we have yet another case of a court insinuating itself into an area in which it previously never had purview and if this decision stands it will open our courts to a flood of court shopping that will turn our legal system further down the wrong road.

At least since the forced busing case of 1971 and the Roe v Wade abortion case, conservatives have been complaining about judges taking undue powers unto themselves. For decades these power mad judges have been expanding their reach to control our lives until even our state and federal legislatures have seemed to give up their rightful role as lawmakers. Once again we have a judge that has reached beyond his proper role.

The case in question is Marshall v. Marshall and, yes, once again Anna Nicole Smith is going before the U.S. Supreme Court — and from beyond the grave at that. The reason a Smith matter is again before the SCOTUS four years after her death is because one of her cases was decided by a federal bankruptcy court in California on reasons that had nothing at all to do with technical bankruptcy rules. The case before the SCOTUS would determine if the bankruptcy court acted properly.
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Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?”

Business - Capitalism - Competitive Enterprise Institute - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Right To Work - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Video: CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go

November 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Vincent Vernuccio of the Competitive Enterprise Institute appeared on Fox Business Channel’s “Follow the Money” show and talked a little bit about where the dues that union members pay goes.

Fox Business only gave a snippet of the video that CEI made so here is the full video.

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Video: CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go”

Crime - Elections - Government - Illinois - Judges - Law - Liberals - Warner Todd Huston - Will County

Kilbride Has ‘Forfeited His Right to Serve Another 10 Years’

September 26, 2010 by

From JUSTPAC…

In the video below, Edward Petka, retired Will County Circuit Judge, former State Senator and former Will County State’s Attorney, discusses Justice Thomas Kilbride’s record of choosing criminals over victims and law enforcement. This video was shot on the site of the 1983 Joliet “Ceramic Shop Massacre”. Thanks to overwhelming evidence, serial killer Milton Johnson was arrested and convicted of that massacre — but Kilbride called for Johnson’s retrial as part of a blanket call for the retrial of 25 Death Row inmates.

California - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Lobbyists - Public Employees Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif. Unions Already Spent $14 Million In Elections

September 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times recently reported that in California unions have already spent $14 million to defeat Republicans in California’s coming elections. This is what any Republican has to face anywhere in the country, though not always at such a high spending rate.

The fact is that when Republicans run for office they face not only the campaign coffers of their Democrat opponent, but they also face the millions of dollars that public employee unions and other far left-wing advocacy groups will spend against them. Rarely do Republicans find much support from high-spending outside forces in anywhere near the same numbers that Democrats command.

While many of Californian’s Democrats have yet to put much of their campaign cash into the race, unions have more than made up for that lack of spending.
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Calif. Unions Already Spent $14 Million In Elections”

9/11 - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Security/Safety - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Harry Reid’s Push To Nationalize ALL Cop/Firemen Unions

June 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid is quietly trying to nationalize rules governing every police, fire and first responder union in the nation. Through the benignly named Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R.413) Reid wants all first responders represented by collective bargaining rules emanating from Washington D.C. Naturally he thinks that it is necessary as a matter of national security.

Reid is pushing this monstrosity as a major sop to his union supporters who will greatly benefit from nationalized rules for police and fire unions. This plan would replace with federal rules all state laws on collective bargaining between state and local governments and their first responder unions and would greatly empower unions to dictate pay scales and benefits on a national level.

Imagine the loss of control that local governments will face when first responder unions no longer have to deal with local rules and laws but can force a federal one-size-fits-all style rule on all local governments. Local governments will no longer be able to determine pay scales and benefits and will lose control of their own ability to budget. Reid’s plan will also completely remove the ability of voters to have any say in local matters as a top down control from Washington will rule the day where it concerns local police, fire and other first responders.
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Harry Reid’s Push To Nationalize ALL Cop/Firemen Unions”

AFL-CIO - Campaign Finance - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - IRS - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

IRS Asked to Review Unions’ Political Donations

May 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Times is reporting that the Landmark Legal Foundation is requesting that the Internal Revenue Service review all the millions being spent by Big Labor on Democrat political campaigns during the 2010 midterm elections.

As we discussed earlier this week, Big Labor is spending at least $100 million on the upcoming elections — actually even more because we have no numbers reported by the AFL-CIO. Landmark is worried that this giant blanket of money could possibly raise questions of legality.
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IRS Asked to Review Unions’ Political Donations”

Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - North Carolina - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

As We Suffer, Gov’t Salaries/Jobs/Union Pyoffs Grow

May 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The City of Charlotte, North Carolina is still suffering an unemployment rate hovering around 12 percent. Jobs are hard to come by if you are a resident of the region, unless, of course, you work for the city government. Despite the hard times fatcats in government are still partying like it’s 1999! In fact, city salaries are likely to grow finds the Charlotte Observer.

For a whole year Charlotte City workers suffered under a pay hike freeze, but now the hard times are over as the City has announced that not only will the luxurious raises return, but more and more workers will be added to the rolls.

Let the celebration continue.
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As We Suffer, Gov’t Salaries/Jobs/Union Pyoffs Grow”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Rights - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Our Anti-Religious, Anti-American, Arrogant Schools

May 21, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two stories from this week shows how out of control our fetid schools have become. In New York a young boy is suspended because he dared to carry his Catholic rosary beads in school and in Virginia a principal refused to allow a mother to take her own child out of school to go to a doctor’s appointment scheduled months ago. Both reveal an arrogance of school administrators that is sure to outrage any liberty loving American.

In the first case in New York’s Rockland County, young Jason Laguna, a former Altar Boy and proud Catholic, faces suspension merely because he dared to carry his rosary beads in class. School thugocrats claimed that the rosary beads marked young Mr. Laguna as a “gang member” and pronounced that he should be punished for such a violation.

In the second case in Chesapeake, Virginia, a school principal told a mother that she would not be “allowed” to take her own daughter out of class to take the girl to a doctor appointment that had been scheduled for months. How did this arrogant cuss of a principal imagine he had the right to deny a parent the ability to control her own child’s appointments? Why he sent a letter home saying so, that’s why.

It is amazing that we are living in an America where religious children in New York can be persecuted for their religious practices or a country where a Virginia mother is barred from taking her own child out of class for a doctor appointment. But this is the arrogance of our school administrators in stark relief. This is the Orwellian world in which we live, a world where mere school employees imagine that they have the despotic powers to summarily control the lives of the children under their care and the power to deny parental rights at any given time.

These stories prove that our mis-educational system is completely out of control and has crossed the line from a system serving the citizens to one imagining itself to be wholly unaccountable to them.
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Our Anti-Religious, Anti-American, Arrogant Schools”

Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Judges - Law - Regulation - Rights - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois One of the Worst Legal Climates in the Country

May 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Institute for Legal Reform has completed its 2010 rankings of the lawsuit climate in the various states and Illinois comes in at a dismal 45th place. If Obama needs some help, that would be 45 out of 50 states (not 57 or 58 states as he said during the campaign). This overly litigious lawsuit climate is yet another reason why Illinois has some of the highest unemployment stats in the country.

The rankings determine how reasonable a state’s tort liability culture is as perceived by U.S. Businesses and their legal counsel offices. In other words, do businesses feel that the legal system in a state is good for or detrimental to business interests?

According to the survey, Chicago/Cook County has the single worst tort climate in the country. The respondents felt that Cook County had the most biased judges, the most corruption, the highest most unfair damage awards, and a slow, unresponsive legal process.
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Illinois One of the Worst Legal Climates in the Country”

Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Government - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Taxes - Tea Party - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union News: Card Check Not Dead Yet

May 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wondering if a bad liberal idea is dead is sort of an amusing prospect. After all, liberals have been carrying around the stinking carcass of socialism and communism like a dearly beloved child still maintaining that it could work because it just hasn’t been tried right yet. So, saying that card check isn’t dead is sort of a given because bad liberal ideas never die, they just lay in wait like a highwayman ready to waylay an unsuspecting public at a later date.

Still, card check isn’t, dead I mean. And AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka is reminding us of that in stark terms. He might realize that getting it passed legitimately and standing on its own like an acceptable idea is not going to work but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t still scheming to fool the public once again.
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Union News: Card Check Not Dead Yet”

Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Jobs - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Mickey Kaus, Union Fighter?

April 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the Washington Post’s Post Partisan Blog Charles Lane’s somewhat irreverent, perhaps even dismissive treatment of the admittedly quixotic Senate campaign of journalist Mickey Kaus painted the would-be candidate as a union fighter. Interestingly, he isn’t far off the mark, which is odd for the fact that Kaus is a pretty straight down the line liberal.

Could Mickey Kaus be the “harbinger” of a new, mildly anti-union Democrat that might replace the sold out, in-the-back-pocket sort of Democrats we’ve seen for decades and decades?

Recently City Journal writer Steve Malanga wrote a great piece detailing how the public employees unions are killing California. “The unions’ political triumphs,” Malanga wrote, “have molded a California in which government workers thrive at the expense of a struggling private sector.”
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Mickey Kaus, Union Fighter?”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Public Employees Unions - State Government - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AFSCME Official’s Threats

April 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees chief Henry Bayer addressed a rally of Illinois unions members on April 21. During his harangue this man revealed the exact sort of logical disconnect in which union thugs everywhere wallow.

Bayer noted that 10% of the workforce in Illinois is out of work. OK, then what was his prescription to solve this situation? More taxes! How even higher taxes on the few lucky enough to have a job could help enlarge the workforce is the $64,000 question. The answer, of course, is that it can’t.

Catch this complete lack of common sense and logic in Bayer’s spittle specked rant…

“… so they (the legislature) can’t do their job, ‘you know we can’t raise taxes because people are hurting.’ And they are absoroo…lutely right. People are hurting. But let me ask you this: if we raise revenue for senior programs will it hurt the elderly? If we raise revenue for childcare will it hurt working families? If we raise revenue for community colleges and universities will it hurt students? If we raise revenue for programs for the disabled will it hurt will it hurt those individuals who get those services? If we raise revenue for public safety will it hurt our communities? If we raise money for schools will it hurt our kids? Yes people are hurting that’s why we need a tax increase!”

If this isn’t the most stupid blather I’ve yet heard from a union tough, then I’ve never heard any. Where does this guy think all those taxes are coming from if not the very people he invokes? Does he think no one that he is interested in pays state taxes? The very people he mentioned are already losing their services because government has spent itself into a hole the size of the Grand Canyon!
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AFSCME Official’s Threats”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Government - Michigan - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Warning to Mich Teachers Unions: ‘The Time to Stand up to the Unions Has Arrived’

April 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Universally, teachers unions cry for more money and insist on raising everyone’s taxes to get it. And in an era when government spending needs to be reined in, unions are dinosaurs in the modern age, outmoded and wasteful.

Kyle Olson of the Education Action Group, an education reform organization based in Michigan, spoke to the Lansing, Mich. tea party rally on April 15. He had a few warnings for the profligate spenders in teachers unions.


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Warning to Mich Teachers Unions: ‘The Time to Stand up to the Unions Has Arrived’”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs at Capitol Demand Illinois Gov’t ‘Raise Our Taxes’

April 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the late morning hours of April 21 dozens of rented buses streamed into Springfield, the Illinois capitol, and began spewing out hundreds of tax-gorged union thugs. It was as if the Illinois Hog Producers association had pulled up to the capitol and thrown wide the doors to their livestock carriers.

Some estimates say the unionists mounted some 15,000 participants all there to wave their professionally printed signs and wear their gang colors… er, I mean wearing their T-Shirts bearing their union’s signature colors.

And what did they want? They wanted the Illinois legislature to raise taxes on everyone in the state so that those few union members could get even more undeserved bennies, richer pay scales and even higher pensions than anyone in the private sector could ever expect — all things they already enjoy.

But, a protest is all American, right? These guys are just like the tea partiers, aren’t they?

Not so much.
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Union Thugs at Capitol Demand Illinois Gov’t ‘Raise Our Taxes’”

Britain - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Brit Union Strike Over Severance Pay Might Soon Hit in U.S.

April 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few weeks ago several British civil service unions launched a two-day strike over cuts in severance pay that the government authorized for workers that were let go because of reductions in the government work force (called a “redundancy cut”).

The cap in “redundancy pay,” said British government unions, could see workers losing a third of their “entitlement.”

Government officials said that the new pay scheme could save the government £500 million. Starting in April “anyone earning £30,000 or less will be entitled to a maximum of three years’ pay or £60,000, whichever is lower.”
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Brit Union Strike Over Severance Pay Might Soon Hit in U.S.”