Unions

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

Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills

July 5, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois is broke. So broke it can’t pay its bills. Yet on it goes stiffing its creditors and it’s making me wonder why I bother to pay my bills at all. If the state can get away with thumbing its nose at its bill collectors, why can’t I? Oh, yeah. I’m not a Democrat. Unlike them, I’m expected to pay my bills. I forgot for a moment there. Oh, and I’m not a union member, either.

According to the Times story Illinois owes its schools, rehab centers, and childcare obligations $5.01 billion. And there’s no payment in sight.

Then there is the state employees pension plan that is underfunded by 50 percent.

Also, as the state legislature left the Capitol last month for its summer break there was no budget settled upon.
Continue reading “

Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Democrats Continue to Use Tax $ to Pay Union Members to do Union Business

July 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again Democrats decided that it was a good idea to pay workers of federal employee unions 100% of their salary to do union business during work hours instead of doing the job they were hired for. That’s right, instead of paying these federal employees to do the job we the people hired them to do, Democrats are paying these workers to do union business during the workday. It’s on YOUR dime, folks.

The bill was HR 3251, The Federal Employee Accountability Act of 2009, and it would have stopped this practice of paying off union thugs to do nothing on our dime. Gingrey claimed that it would have saved the federal government $1.2 billion in wasted wages that are now given as a gift to union members. This bill was introduced by the Congressional Republicans to get rid of the union sop, but Democrats with their majority pushed this illicit union payoff through to a win for continued graft on a federal level.

The GOP leadership featured this bill on its YouCut.com website. A video featuring Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey explained what it was all about.
Continue reading “

Democrats Continue to Use Tax $ to Pay Union Members to do Union Business”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Roadworkers Vote to Go On Strike

June 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers’ District Council of Chicago have voted to walk off the job Wednesday night leaving roadwork on the Eisenhower expressway stalled and travelers inconvenienced.

The union is demanding a 5 percent raise each of three years to come. Employers counter offered 1 percent. Currently workers make $35.20 an hour for the laborers and up to $45.10 for the operating engineers (machine operators).

As it happens, while the construction trades are seeing up to 40 percent unemployment, these roadworkers are demanding a 5 percent a year increase for a three year contract. Interesting that the union doesn’t see the economic situation all around them and don’t find themselves grateful they are working at all.

Also remember, these people are extorting you and me for their 5 percent a year luxury. After all, they are working to rebuild state roads and are being paid by our tax dollars.

Apparently, grateful thy name is not union!
Continue reading “

Chicago Roadworkers Vote to Go On Strike”

Business - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Illinois - Labor Law - Liberals - Regulation - Warner Todd Huston

Worst Teachers Rewarded by Unions, New Teachers Abandoned

June 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the Chicago Tribune published an editorial detailing the biggest reason why unions as they have operated in the U.S. for decades are an illegitimate venture. The Trib published a plea to new Chicago teachers union chief Karen Lewis not to protect the bad teachers under her charge and to help the younger teachers that haven’t yet proved to be bad for kids by allowing the bad ones to be laid off without complaint.

The Trib’s editorial called the practice of keeping bad teachers “dancing lemons,” revealing the sad practice of shuffling bad teachers around the system instead of firing merely because they may have tenure on the job. While new teachers are automatically laid off due to budget cuts, teachers that have a disciplinary problem or a troubled history are kept because they’ve been on the job longer. This is wrong and reflects badly on the union and teachers alike, not to mention that it leads to a bad education for our kids.
Continue reading “

Worst Teachers Rewarded by Unions, New Teachers Abandoned”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Free Trade - Government - Oil - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Drilling Moratorium a Sop to Unions?

June 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The president of the Seafarers International Union’s Gulf Coast District, Dean Corgey, recently penned an op ed in which he noted an interesting fact: deepwater oil drilling rigs are “100 percent non-union.” With this in mind one of union bought president Barack Obama’s major decisions — in fact, one of his few actual decisions — in the BP Oil mess was to shut down the very oil rigs that unions have been trying to organize for decades with a six-month moratorium.

Naturally, as is evident by Corgey’s op ed, unions are claiming the whole BP incident is a result of non-union workers and with Obama trying to shut down these platforms he lends credence to the union claims. Unions are sure to try and use the moratorium as a reason to convince skeptics against organizing workers of deepwater rigs.

But unions or no, Obama’s moratorium will potentially cause 120,000 jobs to be lost in the Gulf area just when the economy of the Gulf states is at its worst.
Continue reading “

Obama’s Drilling Moratorium a Sop to Unions?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. Harkin Promises Return to Card Check

June 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill is reporting that Iowa’s leading Democrat, Senator Tom Harkin, is promising that the lame-duck Senate will again take up Big Labor’s favored Employee Free Choice Act, (EFCA), the famous card check act that is neither good for employees nor one that facilitates “free choice” of any kind.

Apparently, what’s bad for the nation is easier to push when Democrats already feel that the 2010 election will erase their giant majorities in Congress so they want to launch a last ditch effort to sneak this through before the people can speak at the ballot box.

And isn’t that just the thing, here? The people did speak in 2006 and 2008, after all. They spoke in favor of Democrats. Yet, even with all that support Harkin and his far left cronies couldn’t lead their overwhelming majority to pass the jobs killing bill. Even their fellow Democrats were against it because they knew the voters stood against it.
Continue reading “

Sen. Harkin Promises Return to Card Check”

ACORN - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Federal Funds Paid for ACORN Youth Groups

June 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you haven’t checked out CNSNews.com, it is a great place to find stories not widely discussed in the Old Media. Often CNS hits stories before anyone else and the Old Media has to play catch-up to report what CNSNews already reported. Recently CNS had an investigative story detailing millions in federal funds that went to pay for ACORN sponsored youth indoctrination groups.

According to CNS the U.S. Justice Dept. gave $135,130 in 2005 to a group called The New York Agency for Community Affairs. It turns out that this group was just an adjunct of ACORN and served as a recruitment arm among young people for the parent organization.

The Government Accountability Office also reports that nearly $40 million in federal funds went to ACORN and groups like it between 2005 and 2009.
Continue reading “

Federal Funds Paid for ACORN Youth Groups”

Budget - Chris Christie - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - New Jersey - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Christie Issues ‘Judgment Day’ To Destructive Unions

June 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey Governor Christ Christie is still holding the path in his battle against the budget killing unions in the state of New Jersey.

“We have to hold each other accountable… You don’t get something for nothing in this world, ever… yet, government has been trying to sell you over the course of time this idea that… we are gonna give you something and someone else is gonna pay for it. Those chickens have come home to roost.”

This guy is the stuff, man!

Naturally, the putrid unions are so incensed that they have announced that they are going to raise union dues fees so that they have more money to attack Governor Chris Christie in the upcoming elections.

They just don’t get it, do they. THEY are the problem, not the solution. Unions are the single most destructive force in American politics today.
Continue reading “

Gov. Christie Issues ‘Judgment Day’ To Destructive Unions”

Children - Economy/Finances - Education - Jobs - New York - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

New York Teachers Union Has Branch in Florida?

June 15, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The outrage of union activities never ceases to amaze. From the Education Week blog we find that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the teachers union of New York, spends almost $200,000 a year of its member’s dues money on an office in Boca Raton, Florida! As EdWeek drolly says, “That’s not peanuts for a union fretting about its financially strapped members.”

Turns out that the reason the office exists is because of a union perk to retired teachers: permanent summer jobs at nearly $50 and hour.

According to Ed Week it’s called “retention rights.” The deal is that teachers with long tenure can come back each summer from their cushy retirement homes in Florida and take summer teaching jobs that would otherwise go to current, working teachers. These retired teachers essentially have first dibs on those summer jobs above the claims of the current workforce of New York educators. Retired teachers have a huge vested interest in keeping tabs on their old union, vote heavily to retain this perk, and they make huge cash taking advantage of the perk. So, the Boca office is there to serve them.

Ed Week details how lucrative this perk is for retired teachers.
Continue reading “

New York Teachers Union Has Branch in Florida?”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Our ‘Unions are Bad for America’ Theme is Resonating

June 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those of you that have come to the blog often, there is a constant theme: unions are antithetical to good government. We’ve been saying this here for years, of course, but over this campaign season I think that meme is beginning to gain real traction because stories echoing this sentiment are everywhere these days.

Jay Ambrose has another such piece at Real Clear Politics this weekend.

Ambrose says that public employee unions are bankrupting both the state treasuries and the federal government so that their “members can live much better on average than those of us in the private sector.”

Spot on.
Continue reading “

Our ‘Unions are Bad for America’ Theme is Resonating”

Budget - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

ILL. GOP Demotes Two That Voted for Giant Pensions Loan

June 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two of the three Republicans that broke with party leadership and voted in favor of the Democrats idea to take out a massive loan to shore up the union pensions of state employees have been demoted from their party positions.

Danville area Representative Bill Black had his role as deputy minority leader taken from him by GOP leader Tom Cross over the “yes” vote on the pension bailout loan. Similarly, Representative Bob Biggins of Chicago-area Elmhurt was removed as minority spokesman for the House appropriations committee.

Both Republican representatives thumbed their nose at the party establishment and voted for the bailout supported by Democrats. curiously enough, before their Democrat supporting votes both had also announced that they are retiring from state government this year.

What this shows is that neither of these two were ever solid Republicans that always voted their conscience. Only when they’d decided to hang up their career did they all of a sudden start voting against Republican interests. Only now that they don’t have to stand for election does their true, liberal selves come out.

It would not be surprising if Black and Biggins start voting for all sort of left-wing garbage as their last days in office draws neigh.

Sad to see long Republican careers end in such hypocrisy, isn’t it?
Continue reading “

ILL. GOP Demotes Two That Voted for Giant Pensions Loan”

Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - New Jersey - Public Employees Unions - State Government - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Extorts Parents for Campaign Cash

June 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The indispensable Mark Hemingway of the Washington Examiner recently caught another union outrage. This time it’s the teachers union in New Jersey trying to extort cash from parents directly, as opposed to merely extorting cash from parents through their taxes.

Hemingway alerts us to a New Jersey parent that was aghast that the NJ teachers union would be so blatant as to send a letter home with her child suggesting a novel new way to raise funds for teachers.

As both she and the letter she handed me stated, my daughter was to accomplish chores around the house with the goal of being paid by me for those chores the sum of $20. She would then have to hand the full $20 over to the school to make up for the shortfall in their overall budget which, ultimately, disallowed the kids to go on yet another class trip.

This parent was so incensed at the “mandatory” aspect of the fund raising letter that she called the school to complain. She was assured that despite all the rhetoric about it being mandatory, it was just a “suggestion.” The parent was, of course, skeptical of the later claim.
Continue reading “

Teachers Union Extorts Parents for Campaign Cash”

AFL-CIO - Arkansas - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Pensions - SEIU - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions ‘Flushed $10 Million Down the Toilet’ in June Primary

June 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ben Smith of Politico is reporting that an administration insider told him that unions just wasted millions of dollars on a forlorn hope in the Arkansas primary in an attempt to beat Democrat Blanche Lincoln.

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Big Labor — like the SEIU and the AFL-CIO — threw millions of dollars into the Arkansas campaign of Bill Halter in an attempt to chastise Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln because she had yet to vote “yes” on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a union friendly bill they’ve been panting after for several years.
Continue reading “

Unions ‘Flushed $10 Million Down the Toilet’ in June Primary”

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

A Review of Film ‘The Lottery’: ‘Heartbreaking,’ How Unions are Destroying Education

June 10, 2010 by

-By SkyBluez

(Ed’s note: Sky_Bluez is one of my favorite Twitter pals and she wrote a great review of The Lottery, the film we discussed on Tuesday. It was originally posted on her blog The Song Remains the Same.)

Last night I saw The Lottery a documentary about the problems with traditional public schools in disadvantaged areas. The film follows four families who enter the lottery to get a chance at having their child leave their low performing public schools in Harlem and the Bronx and attend a much better performing charter school. The documentary shines a light on how the local Democrat political establishment and teachers unions throw road blocks at every turn and make it extremely difficult for more of these well performing schools to be available for parents who want them.

The film is very well done. You can’t help but feel invested in these children as Ameenah translates for her deaf mother, or Christian gets frustrated working on his addition with his father, or Greg Jr. Laments not wanting to go to “house #2” to visit his dad in prison. All three of these children are raised by a single parent and face great hardship . Then there is Eric Jr. who has better circumstances. Eric has two involved parents. His father is a Union bus driver and mother is an aspiring teacher. This family is torn because they are union supporters, but still want the best for their children, which is not public school.
Continue reading “

A Review of Film ‘The Lottery’: ‘Heartbreaking,’ How Unions are Destroying Education”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Freedom - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Marines - Massachusetts - Military - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Bullies U.S. Marine

June 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the upside down world of unions, if you aren’t on their side you are an enemy to the country… even if you are U.S. Marine of 20 years service and have been a highly recognized teacher in a ROTC program for 14 years. Because he refused to become a union member and has accrued $500 in unpaid dues the union thugs at North High School in Worcester, Massachusetts had retired Major Stephen L. Godin fired from his ROTC teaching position.

“It just seems crazy that they’re gonna fire me over $500,” said Maj. Stephen L. Godin, senior naval science instructor at the Naval Junior ROTC Unit of North High School. “Everyone’s talking about finding good teachers – I haven’t missed a day in 14 years.”

It is crazy, especially considering the reason why Major Godin refused to join the union. He isn’t just a hide-bound, anti-unionist — not that these aren’t good reasons themselves. He has a dang good reason for not wanting to join the union.
Continue reading “

Union Bullies U.S. Marine”

Children - Chris Christie - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - New Jersey - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Christie Knows Teachers Unions are the Schoolyard Bullies

June 4, 2010 by

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided that to protect our children’s futures beating the schoolyard bully is the way to go. But who is the bully? Is it the sign carrying, whiney teachers? No, it’s their powermongering, kid unfriendly unions pushing teachers to act like bullies.

The unions are the bullies and THAT is who Christie is staring down!

So far THIS governor is the real deal.

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.
Continue reading “

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

Bill Clinton - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

Bubba Playing the Anti-Union Card?

May 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Could it be? Could Bill Clinton be supporting a candidate because that candidate is not the union choice? Well, apparently Hell hath frozen over because your favorite lip-biting president and mine… OK, not our favorite, but you know… appeared at a fund raising event for Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln and said he supports her because she isn’t the chosen candidate of those nasty “outside” unions — as in Big Labor that comes from outside Arkansas.

Arkansas is not very union friendly, it should be remembered. After all it is a right to work state and one of the main reasons the unions are mad at Lincoln is that she was one of the few Democrats that have been soft on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). This is why Big Labor has been supporting her opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

Democrats think that Lincoln has a much better chance against what ever Republican that might face her than Halter does because he is the Big Labor candidate. Plus she is an incumbent and the party machinery is built to push her candidacy.
Continue reading “

Bubba Playing the Anti-Union Card?”

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.
Continue reading “

IRS Asked to Review Unions’ Political Donations”

Budget - Chris Christie - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - New Jersey - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NJ Gov. Christie To Union Member: You Can Always Quit

May 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

At a public meeting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tells a union teacher who is whining about her pay scale that she can always quit teaching if she doesn’t like it.

I LOVE this guy!

And while this teacher was whining that she makes no where near $83,000 per year, the truth came out today that she actually makes $86,000 annually.

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Government - Judges - Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Society/Culture - Teachers Unions - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The End of Our Legal System: Judges Joining Unions?

May 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unions are meant for one thing and one thing only: to “get” for its members. They have one purpose and that is to take as much from an employer as they can take, to get as much money and benefits as they can get away with. Unions are not interested in assuring quality workmanship, they are not interested in offering quality to customers, and they most certainly aren’t interested in efficiency and modernization. Unions have but one purpose, to extort as many goodies as possible from an employer regardless of what it does to a business or a profession. Unfortunately, in the State of New York, judges are looking to “get” from the Empire State’s taxpayers regardless of what it might do to our legal system.

The New York Post reports that New York judges are toying with the idea of throwing in with the New York teachers union, New York State United Teachers, so that they can engage in collective bargaining.

One activist judge in particular is behind this effort according to the Post. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Arthur Schack is a former teacher, member of the United Federation of Teachers has been agitating for a pay raise for quite some time.
Continue reading “

The End of Our Legal System: Judges Joining Unions?”

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.
Continue reading “

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.
Continue reading “

Our Anti-Religious, Anti-American, Arrogant Schools”

Banks - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Huffington Post - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Thugs Terrorize Teenage Boy

May 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nice work, SEIU. Service Employee International Union members descended upon the home of a banker to protest the banker’s work. The banker wasn’t home but his teenage son was and he was home alone and the 14 bus loads of union thugs scared the heck out of the poor kid.

This was no political protest, it was an inciting, angry mob of union thugs. The Fortune Magazine piece that reported the incident made a salient point about the whole thing.

Targeting homes and families seems to put SEIU in the ranks of (now jailed) radical animal-rights activists and the Kansas anti-gay fundamentalists harassing the grieving parents of a dead 20-year-old soldier at his funeral (the Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the latter). But that’s not a conversation that SEIU officials want to have.

Amusingly, Nina Easton makes another great point in the friendly coverage of this outrageous union thuggery. The Old Media didn’t even attend and the whole thing was covered by an activist Huffington Post blogger.
Continue reading “

SEIU Thugs Terrorize Teenage Boy”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Texas - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Texas Prohibits Unions Taking PAC Money from Teachers’ Paychecks

May 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, here is a victory against union thuggery. The Texas Attorney General’s office has released an opinion (GA-0774) that prevents school districts from implementing automatic payroll deductions as directed by teachers unions from the paychecks of teachers for union spending on political action committees.

Here’s the most relevant paragraph as it appears in the summary at the end of the decision. (download .pdf file)

Because the Legislature has not expressly or impliedly authorized school districts to process payroll deductions for contributions to political committees such as TSTA-PAC and NEA-Fund, Texas laws prohibits school districts from processing such contributions.

So teachers unions in the Lone Star State will no longer be allowed to forcefully remove money out of teachers’ paychecks to that they can spend it on left-wing political causes. This decision will not prevent teachers from individually sending their dues to political causes nor will it prevent unions from spending on PACs and political causes but it will prevent the schools from using school resources to make the deductions and for using school accounting departments to keep track of those deductions.
Continue reading “

Texas Prohibits Unions Taking PAC Money from Teachers’ Paychecks”

Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s $23 Billion Teachers Unions Bailout

May 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the rest of us in America lose jobs by the millions, Obama wants to spend another $23 billion more of your taxes on public employees in a teacher bailout plan proposed by Senator Tom Harkin (D, Iowa).

Harkin wants this new public employees bailout in order to prevent teachers layoffs, a concern echoed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We are gravely concerned,” said Duncan in a letter to Congress, “that ongoing state and local budget challenges are threatening hundreds of thousands of teacher jobs for the upcoming school year.”

Oh, Duncan had all sorts of recommendations for Congress on this newest bailout.
Continue reading “

Obama’s $23 Billion Teachers Unions Bailout”