-By Warner Todd Huston
Unions try to steal credit for the efforts of the American crew hijacked by Somali pirates.
Unions had nothing at all to do with this situation. Yet they are trying to steal the spotlight. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, union theft is common, isn’t it?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Most lefties claim that “no” means “no,” but not where it concerns unions that have lost the organizing argument over and over again. We can see that refusal to listen to the workers in the case of Unions vs. Wal-Mart. Repeatedly Wal-Mart workers have generally refused to unionize, yet instead of taking that as an answer, the unions continue to push. And they are at it again.
The United Food and Commercial Workers is stepping up its efforts to organize Wal-Mart workers yet again.
Unions Going After Wal-Mart Again”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Seven Republican Senators have this week signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asking for the proof upon which the Department of Homeland Security based its outrageously accusatory report on so-called rightwing extremism in the Untied States.
The seven scold the DHS and the Obama administration for its over-broad generalizations that seem to assume that nearly half the electorate is prone to becoming terrorists merely because they hold right of center political views.
The letter alludes to the central point in this whole episode: that the U.S. government has now determined that the traditional American beliefs of small government and adherence to the Constitution is now suddenly a determinant in forming citizens into homegrown terrorist groups. After 200 years, all of a sudden believing in run-of-the-mill American beliefs makes you a terrorist! These seven Senators want to know why.
7 Senate Republicans Reply to DHS ‘Rightwing Extremists’ Scaremongering”
-By Scott Cleland
There are two primary problems with eBay-Skype’s attempt to get the Government to force competitive wireless providers to carry Skype’s free communications app under the guise of wireless net neutrality and Internet openness: first, it is wildly uneconomic, and second, it is anti-competitive.
The issue has surfaced in the news (USAToday, WSJ) as Apple enabled a Skype app on the iPhone for use on free public WiFi networks, but not on the iphone’s commercial network provided by AT&T; and again when Google’s Android banned a tethering app because it violated T-Mobile’s terms of service as reported by CNET.
Continue reading “
Skype’s Anti-competitive Uneconomics”
-By Warner Todd Huston
From www.shopfloor.org
(Hat tip: James Lileks, who uses Xtranormal.com for Retweet Theater.)
The Best Pro-Union Argument a Thug Can Make”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Herold Meyerson of the Washington Post is a not a very good columnist. But he is a great ad copy writer that should be working on Madison Avenue. Oh, I won’t say that all ad copy is filled with lies, but if lies sell then Meyerson would be the best of them all. Anyone that reads his April 7 pro-union column can only come away marveling at the malarkey this guy is peddling to sell the union cause.
Meyerson begins by lamenting the troubles that unions have seen over the last few decades. Union membership has dropped to all time lows in this country and Meyerson is all about the wearing of sackcloth and the gnashing of teeth over it. But he sees hope in a recent effort to gather several union chiefs together in a sort of cooperative effort to flog unions on Capitol Hill, a sort of uber lobbying organization that will be charged with strong-arming Congress to accede to union demands.
But one thing he doesn’t get is that Americans just don’t like unions. They have bad reputations as economy wreckers, thugs, and thieves. It’s obvious that this is the case because, after all, union membership has fallen through the floor.
Union Thugs Admit Workers Hate Them, Only Government Force Expands Unions”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Free national advertising. It’s a thing that most business people hope for in their dearest dreams. What could be better than a national spotlight on your business without having to spend money on advertising? Well, dog breeder Linda Brown found out what could make that dream worse: Democrats.
In December of 2008, Brown felt what she thought was the “honor” of being picked by Vice President elect Joe Biden as his source for a new German Shepherd puppy. “Out of millions of breeders in the country, in the world, he picked me,” she gushed… at first.
Then came the death threats from wild-eyed PETA members, Internet rumor mill attacks, and the constant harassment by state inspectors.
That “honor” quickly devolved into horror.
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Warning: NEVER Sell a Dog to a Democrat, Especially if it’s Joe Biden”
-By Warner Todd Huston
So what would you call it if someone picked some elderly man’s name out of a phone book, then sent a mailing in his name out to people to convince them that a political cause is worth supporting? Would you call it identity theft? To a degree. A newer term might be astroturf. But what ever you call it, at the very least it is a lie.
Well, leave it to Democrats to perpetrate this theft/lie to gin up support for a political cause. This is what happened in Massachusetts as uncovered by newspaperman Matthew Nadler of the Halifax-Plympton Reporter and Enterprise. (Talk about a name, that one is a mouthful)
Democrats Steal Old Folk’s Identity in Propaganda Mailing”
-By Warner Todd Huston
As President Obama engaged in his “America Stinks” tour of Europe this week he told audiences in Turkey that the U.S. is not a Christian nation. “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation,” he said on April 6. This echoes his statement in 2007 when Obama told CBN, “whatever we once were, we’re no longer just a Christian nation.”
The subtle difference between those two statements just over a year apart is interesting. Candidate Obama seemed to admit that we might have “once” been a Christian nation but are no longer “just” a Christian nation. But, suddenly as president, he seems to be saying squarely that we “don’t” consider ourselves Christian. Interesting that he seemed to feel obligated to mitigate as a candidate his now openly admitted belief that we just aren’t a Christian nation.
In any case, it is obvious that this is Obama’s way of ingratiating himself with Muslim audiences. But whatever his immediate goal, his sentiment is a popular one with Americans that sport left-wing, anti-religious ideology, people who look to Obama as their leader.
But is he right? Is it true that we aren’t a Christian nation? Did the Founding Fathers choose the Christian ethic as the one upon which they based this country, or not? The answer would appear to be an emphatic yes once the historical record is reviewed. It would also appear that we are straying far afield from that grounding.
What are we if NOT a Christian Nation?”
The easy fraud of the card check process.
-By Warner Todd Huston
My exclusive interview with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief
On April 4 I wrote about the testimony of Heather Heidelbaugh who appeared before Congress to speak about the various shady, if not criminal, actions perpetrated by ACORN (the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now) and its Project Vote offshoot over the last few years — and especially during the late campaign for the White House. There was vote fraud and financial misdealings galore and it was all perpetrated by a group intimately tied to presidential candidate Barack Obama. Not only that, but it seemed the Old Media was trying to cover it up.
That testimony has been the talk of the country since the end of March. But, as the story has progressed, some of the details that have been accepted as fact have turned out not to be true. It’s high time some of these misconceptions be cleared up.
There are fallacies about this case both big and small knocking about the pundocracy. TV pundit Bill O’Reilly, for instance, recently wrote an Op Ed with the misinformation that ACORN whistleblower Anita Moncreif had testified before Congress. MonCrief, however, did not testify before Congress (her information had merely been read into the record by Heidelbaugh).
ACORN/NY Times/Obama Campaign Story: Some Details Not as Reported”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here is the nanny state at its most ridiculous. Healthies — people that obsess about health — are on the march in Madison, Wisconsin trying to get the state government to ban people from feeding peanuts to squirrels on the state Capitol grounds. It’s a state emergency, ya know? Why these casually discarded peanuts could just maybe affect a child that has an allergy. We MUST ban the evil peanut to SAVE THE CHILDREN!
One would think that people are dropping dead every 5 seconds from peanut allergies with all this energy and focus directed against that monstrous Mr. Peanut. You would think that this important health effort would save uncounted lives, wouldn’t you?
Maybe not.
Do We Restrict Peanuts Because 100 People a Year Die from Allergy?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Citizens Against Government Waste is announcing the release of the 2008 Pig Book.
The Congressional Pig Book (download in pdf format) is CAGW’s annual compilation of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. The 2008 Pig Book identified 11,610 projects at a cost of $17.2 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2008. A “pork” project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures. To qualify as pork, a project must meet one of seven criteria that were developed in 1991 by CAGW and the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition.
The latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 18-year exposé of pork-barrel spending includes $3,000,000 for The First Tee; $1,950,000 for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service; and $188,000 for the Lobster Institute in Maine.
In fiscal year 2008, Congress stuffed 11,610 projects (the second highest total ever) into the 12 appropriations bills worth $17.2 billion. The 11,610 projects represent a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007. The $17.2 billion is a 30 percent increase over the fiscal year 2007 total of $13.2 billion. Only the Defense and Homeland Security bills included earmarks in fiscal year 2007, so comparisons of other bills are made between fiscal years 2008 and 2006. Total pork identified by CAGW since 1991 adds up to $271 billion.
Visit the CAGW site to read a longer summary of the wasteful, pork spending perpetrated by Congress in 2008.
CAGW’s 2008 Pig Book Released!”
-By Scott Cleland
The combination of the severe recession and Congress’ requirement for the FCC to devise a National Broadband Strategy provides an excellent opportunity to inventory not only weaknesses, but also the many strengths, of the broadband sector and economy. Comprehensive analysis shows much that is going well that mustn’t be taken for granted in any new broadband plans. Unlike many other sectors of the economy, the American broadband sector is:
I. Strong Foundation to Build Upon
America’s competitive broadband market has an exceptionally strong foundation of positives on which to build upon, enhance, expand and supplement.
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Building upon a Strong Broadband Foundation — Part I in America’s Broadband Strengths Series”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Brendan Steinhuser of FreedomWorks is reporting that another official of an American city is trying to prevent organizers of a tea party tax protest from being “allowed” to stage their protest, this time in Burleson, Texas.
Unlike the the situation in Cape Coral, Florida where it was overburdening regulation that served as a stumbling block to the freedom of the people to assemble, the Texas case proves to be more un-American because it is an unelected city official that is vowing to block the tax protest by abusing his insider power to cajole city officials to deny American’s their rights..
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Another City Tries to Quash Tax Day Tea Party Gathering”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rob Simmons has announced that he’s running for the Senate against Senator Chris Dodd in Connecticut. http://www.joinrobsimmons.com/
Simmons is a retired member of our armed forces, served in Vietnam and served in the CIA for 10 years. He joined the staff of Senator John Chaffee in 1979.
Mr. Simmons also has a Twitter feed at : http://twitter.com/robsimmons
Good luck, Rob Smmons. Dodd needs to go down.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Who the Heck Elected YOU, anyway? Whether it be among friends or family, we’ve all heard that phrase tossed about by someone who found his pet idea left by the wayside. It’s a question of “official” authority, in most cases. Say your friends get together for a movie, say you make a film choice and everyone begins to agree. But there’s always that one guy that doesn’t agree with your movie choice. He wants to go somewhere else and when he finds no one siding with him he asks in frustration who elected you to make the decision? After all, there was no election so why did you get to make the movie choice over his druthers? It’s easy to laugh off that frustration in most cases and settle for a community decision among friends. But it is another thing when that concept is applied to decisions made by government placemen and appointees. And it’s even worse when our tax money is spent by the billions because of the requirements imposed by government workers unions that the polity did not elect to have the power to spend our money.
And we are seeing this illicit decision making by unelected union bosses grow at exponential rates these days. Take for instance the trouble that Governor John Corzine of New Jersey is having. His state budget is wildly over allocated and he’s decided to lay off some government workers to save precious cash, cash, it should be remembered, that IS the people’s tax money. This is a move that every business is confronted with at some time or another. When times are flush and a lot of work is in the offing, business hires. But when times get tight and the need for workers flails, unnecessary employees are let go. It’s a fact of life that cannot be avoided. Oh, but not government! Once you get a government job it is, for some unexplainable reason, assumed to be a permanent job.
Who the Heck Elected YOU?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In forcing the resignation of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, President Obama said he was seeking a fresh start, a “new vision and new direction,” for the beleaguered automaker.
But some critics are questioning why the president of the United Auto Workers union didn’t meet the same fate, to signal a fresh start on the other side of the bargaining table.
Even though UAW President Ron Gettelfinger argues that his workers have made significant concessions in recent years, critics say Gettelfinger should have gone the way of Wagoner — whose ouster could be seen as the final judgment for GM’s pursuit of gas-guzzling SUVs at a time when foreign manufacturers were winning over their customers with fuel-efficient cars.
Excellent question! Why is union thug Gettlefenagler allowed to keep his job? After all, he is just a guilty for the destruction of GM as Wagoner is!
Without question unions are one of the bigger parts of the problem in Detroit. So why is Barry O not doing the same to Guiltleflinger as he is to Wagoner? Why are we the people firing CEOs but not union chiefs that are responsible for their own part of the destruction of the business?
Ah, but we KNOW the answer there, don’t we? Obama will NEVER hold his pals in unions accountable for their criminal destruction of the American economy. It’s only those eeeevil capitalists at fault, you see? Barry will never accept fault on behalf of government incompetence and union thuggery.
Must be nice to have a powerful apologist in the White House, eh? Too bad the taxpayers don’t have anyone in the White House that cares about them.
Why not fire UAW union Chief too?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Unless they can be used as weapons when Republicans are in power, ethics and corruption investigations are not interesting to Democrats.
During the final years of Bush’s presidency, the House Oversight Committee was abuzz with activity as Democrats used the power of the committee and it’s generous budget to “get” President Bush. Chairman Henry Waxman used the power of his committee chairmanship to subpoena Bush administration officials at the drop of a hat and his committee was deemed indispensable by Democrats for holding government accountable.
That was then.
Democrats Prove That Rooting Out Corruption Doesn’t Interest Them”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Implicit in the right to associate with a union is the right to disassociate from one and the later is the right that the teachers of KIPP Academy in New York are trying to employ by attempting to oust the United Federation of Teachers from their places of work.
Teachers at two KIPP charter schools in the Bronx and Manhattan, New York, took the action after the UFT tired to meddle in school affairs without contacting teachers and staff first.
Charter School Teachers Attempt Ousting of Union”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Atlanta thought it had a great idea. Instead of its citizens being accosted by bums and panhandlers in the street, the idea was to set up parking meter-like machines for people’s donations instead of handing the money straight to the bums. Then, the money collected from Atlanta’s well-meaning citizens would be used to enlarge government programs for the homeless.
After six months the donation meters have only netted $500, a sum that won’t go too far especially in the over priced world of government programs. In fact, the machines themselves cost far more than that. So, the meters are pretty much a bust. In that case one might think that the Atlanta city council would quietly shelve the idea as one born of that good ol’ college try, but a failed one nonetheless.
Atlanta Homeless Effort Fails. Solution: Throw More Money at it!”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Wisconsin’s Eau Claire County lost 800 full-time jobs and a $50 million investment that was to be rolled out over the next five years because of the Democrat’s Card Check bill. And it wasn’t just a single county in Wisconsin that lost this multi-million dollar development. It was the whole U.S.A. that lost this project.
Thank you Barack Obama. Some help with economic “stimulus” and jobs you are.
Consequences: Wisconsin Loses Jobs/Development Over Card Check”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Imagine the howls of anguish that would have belched forth from the Old Media if George W. Bush had decided to only talk to Fox News and Drudge? Imagine if members of Bush’s administration had reached out only to the Internet sites RedState and Powerline. What if Bush had instituted a concerted effort to only interact with conservative media sources? Who can doubt that the Old Media would have decried it as the end of the world as we know it? In fact, they did by so often attacking Fox News.
Yet, here is precisely where Barack Obama is going with his own media outreach. Not with out reach to conservative sources, of course, but to exclusively partisan, left-wing sources, often to the exclusion of moderate, right of center, and older media outlets. As Politico reported on March 24, the president’s team is “reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media” in hopes of going around long established Old Media outlets.
Obama Reaches out to Media… But Only Lefty Ones”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It’s the normal tale of union thugs acting like union thugs.
At an auto part plant in Indiana, one woman was threatened because she didn’t want the union. Why was she threatened? Because she and her fellow workers were involved in a card check effort and EVERYONE knew what her vote was. Once the union thugs found out she was against their unionization, they harassed her and threatened her to vote their way.
This sort of thuggery is what President Obama, Congressional Democrats, and union thugs everywhere want to visit upon EVERY U.S. worker.
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Obama administration has decided to buy cheap Chinese condoms instead of the U.S. made products it had been distributing for its efforts to spread condoms around the world by the U.S. Agency for International Development. So much for Obama’s “Buy American” promise.
Condom makers in Alabama will likely lose this business and perhaps as many as 300 American jobs. USAID plans to stimulate new contracts with a South Korean condom manufacturer and a Chinese company instead of Alatech, the Alabama manufacturer.
So, while Obama talks about American stimulus, USAID is deflating one American company in favor of causing foreign stocks to rise, screwing the economy in Alabama at least for Alatech and its 300 employees.
Isn’t it great that we have a president like Obama so willing to give our economy the injection it needs?
Stimulus: Obama Stiffs Alabama Condoms For Cheap Chinese Knockoffs”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Shop Floor is reporting once again on the lies that the SEIU is using to try and cajole people into thinking that the Wall Street Journal supports the Employee Free Choice Act, today. But now that story has taken a twist. It appears that the House Education and Labor Committee is using the same lie.
Originally the SEIU surgically removed a few words from the WSJ article to make it seem as if the Journal was somehow supporting the EFCA. On what the WSJ said, the SEIU wrote the following:
“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act,” wrote the WSJ.
Only that isn’t really what the WSJ said at all. Here is the full sentence the Journal wrote in its headlined “Unionize or die” (my bold for emphasis):
“The bill doesn’t remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act but in practice makes it a dead letter.”
So, in essence the WSJ was saying that the EFCA eliminates the secret ballot in everything but words.
Lies Used to Support Card Check”
-By Warner Todd Huston
During the late presidential campaign, vp candidate Joe “gimme a f*ing break” Biden visited with his friends at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Iowa. Joe was in The Hawkeye State to participate in some union campaign boilerplate called Walk A Day In My Shoes. There he “walked” with an upstanding union fella named Marshall Clemons, custodian for an Iowa school system and SEIU member.
So, the vice president “walked” in Clemons’ shoes one day helping him replace air conditioning filters and sweeping floors. It was a feels good day all around, for sure. But Clemons now has a new walk to take, one generally known as a perp walk. You see Clemons was video taped by an alert lobbyist stealing people’s wallets out of unguarded purses and bags in the Iowa State House in Cedar Rapids. Police caught Biden’s buddy with several stolen wallets when they arrested him later in the men’s bathroom there.
VP Biden’s Union Friend, Video Taped and Arrested for Pickpocketing”
-By Scott Cleland
A post by a Google policy analyst yesterday attempted to make the economic case for open access in the U.S. and suggested reasons why American infrastructure providers should embrace a mandated open network model. This proposed theory warrants a strong practical rebuttal. The proposed case for the economics of open access does not hold up to close scrutiny because it has fatal flaws in both logic and economics.
I. The fatal flaw in logic in the case for the economics of open access:
Since the post assumes broadband markets everywhere are basically the same, it concludes that the open access experience in some European countries is relevant and applicable to the U.S. situation. The fatal flaw in logic here is the core assumption that European and U.S. markets are factually analogous. They are not. They are substantially different factually and structurally as I will explain in detail.
Continue reading “
The Flawed Economics of Broadband Open Access in the U.S.”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Obama is going to bring a new age of “working together” to D.C. He is the man to initiate that era of nice we’ve all been waiting for. He is captain bi-partisan… remember all that? When he finally got to the Oval Office he had a few meetings and some cocktails with a few Republicans. Everyone hailed this as the “new” Washington the promised land of post-partisanship.
Then came the omnibus spending bill. It was planned entirely by the Democrats in Congress, the Republican leadership thoroughly excluded from the planning sessions. Obama said not a word nor did he raise a finger to change the situation. It shouldn’t be surprising because the flavor was set by Obama early. When asked about working across the aisle, Obama told Republicans that he didn’t have to. “I won,” he pointedly said.
Another Example of Obama’s ‘Bi-Partisanship’ Lie”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Our institutes of “higher” learning are all about being inclusive. They are stridently for freedom of speech and stand 100% behind the concept of open political debate. Well, unless you’re a Christian, that is. Christians, you see, are the only group that our fetid colleges and universities have agreed to discriminate against.
Last week, another example of that well known “tolerance” our schools are so concerned with promulgating was seen in Pomona College in Claremont, California. There two Christian, pro-life students were banned from the Pamona campus. Their crime? Video taping a question-and-answer session with a Planned Parenthood representative invited to speak there.
Free Speech For Students… Unless You’re Christian, That Is”