Calif. Teachers Show Support For Cop Murderer

-By Warner Todd Huston

What the hell the un-American, murder-loving “teachers” in California should care about a cop-killing scumbag in Philadelphia is anyone’s guess.

Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal is finding some support in an unusual place – at the California Federation of Teachers Convention.

Last month, delegates there passed a resolution to reaffirm their support for Mumia.

Of course, the former member of the Black Panthers who was found guilty of murdering Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner around 13th and Locust streets back in 1981.

He has been sentenced to death. His supporters argue that his trial was unfair and that he is actually a Civil Rights hero.

This murderous piece of garbage put a gun to a policeman’s head and pulled the trigger coldly and with calculation and in front of multiple witnesses.

Mumia should not be drawing breath. He should be executed and with extreme malice at that.

Yet we have these so-called teachers all the way in California coming to his support decades after his guilt has been established. And they are calling Mumia a “journalist,” worse yet.

Unions are inherently un-American.
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Calif. Teachers Show Support For Cop Murderer”


Obama to Sue States to End Worker’s Right to Secret Ballot

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama has given more payoffs, sweetheart deals, and new favorable regulations to Big Labor than any president in history. They should love him for his incredible largess. Next, in his never ending quest to harm the business community, defy the will of the voters, and give his pals in Big Labor paybacks, Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — a federal labor regulatory agency — is about to sue any state that dares attempt to protect the right of workers to have secret ballots in their workplace elections. The states have made the mistake of sponsoring worker’s ballot protection laws.

Recently the NLRB announced its intentions to sue Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah because those states had the gal to implement constitutional amendments to their state constitutions guaranteeing that workers have a right to a secret ballot in union elections.

With this the Obama administration is moving to deny workers their right to a secret ballot, a right that has been sacrosanct in democracies for hundreds if not thousands of years. Why does Barack Obama want to take away the right to a secret ballot? Because his union pals don’t want workers to feel safe voting against a union.
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Obama to Sue States to End Worker’s Right to Secret Ballot”


Rick Sanchez And The Showbiz Third Rail

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bob Parks of Black&Right is talking about that “third rail” of the entertainment industry: them Joooos. Bob is a bit mystified as to why it’s such a no-no to say that the entertainment industry is filled with folks of the Talmud?

Unless Jews are hired into the business based primarily on their ethnicity and not relevant prior experience (and there’s no proof of this), I don’t see why people are canned for making an observation that any other group would be proud of?

I can see Bob’s point, actually. Jews fill the entertainment industry at every level and always have, at least since the days of film and radio began. Their particular aptitude for understanding the humor and pathos of human existence leaves them in good stead to create fine entertainment, for sure.

Parks also wonders why idiot CNNer Rick Sanchez was fired from CNN for his rant on the radio last week if the unvarnished truth that Jews fill the entertainment industry is such common sense.
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Rick Sanchez And The Showbiz Third Rail”


Newest House Net Neutrality Bill Cuts FCC Out of Internet Authority

-By Warner Todd Huston

It looks like House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-Calif) is so desperate to get a Net Neutrality bill out of the House before the recess that he was willing to strip the FCC authority from it this week. For months he Federal Communications Commission has been angling to take power over the Internet and left-wing Net Neutrality supporters were keen to let them but with the clock running down Chairman Waxman took a different path.

Tech Dose Daily reports that the bill would prohibit the FCC from reclassifying broadband under title II of the Communications Act. But there is a two-year sunset clause that would open up the FCC to reapply for this undue power at a later date.

Waxman apparently hopes to get this version of the bill passed out of committee so that the House can pass the bill before the recess. He hopes then that the Senate can tackle its part of the bill during the upcoming lame duck session.
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Newest House Net Neutrality Bill Cuts FCC Out of Internet Authority”


(2nd District) Hayes Says Supreme Court Decision Will Protect Families and Property

From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…

CHICAGO: Republican nominee for Illinois 2nd Congressional District Isaac Hayes released the following statement following today’s Supreme Court decision overturning the Chicago handgun ban:

“Today’s Supreme Court decision will allow residents being held hostage by urban terrorists the opportunity to defend themselves, their families and property. With 26 people being shot in Chicago this past weekend and 50 the week before, it is quite apparent the Chicago gun ban is not working.

“Gangs don’t honor gun bans so infringing on the 2nd Amendment right of law abiding citizens only leaves them defenseless against violent offenders. In communities across Chicago urban terrorists must now think twice before entering private property.”

This statement appears on the Citizens for Isaac Hayes website at:
www.isaac4honesty.com


14th District Race: Sen. Lauzen Asks About All That Outside $$ For Ethan Hastert

-By Warner Todd Huston

During the January 14 Republican meeting and candidate forum in Geneva Township a question was raised by speaker Chris Lauzen (R, Aurora), State Senator from the 25th State Senate District. That question focused on all the support not only from outside the district but outside the entire state that is streaming in to shore up the campaign for Congress of the young Ethan Hastert. Senator Lauzen questioned the propriety of all this outside money pouring into the 14th District when there was already a worthy, proven candidate in the person of Randy Hultgren running for that seat. (Note: I’d have gotten this reported sooner, but was waiting on a few sources to confirm events)

This is a question that I have echoed and one that has formed one of the main reasons why I chose to endorse Randy Hultgren for the 14th District instead of Ethan Hastert.

At the event, Senator Lauzen stood before the audience and wondered aloud if there was a candidate from the 14h District that deserved the voter’s support based on “merit” or should the voters lean toward the candidate of “privilege”? Lauzen wondered whether the voters should support a man with a record of service or whether that support should be bestowed on the candidate with a mountain of outside support? Lauzen was primed to ask this question because of a campaign flyer being passed out by candidate Ethan Hastert that advertised an upcoming appearance by Georgia Congressman Tom Price who was in Illinois to stump for Hastert.
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14th District Race: Sen. Lauzen Asks About All That Outside $$ For Ethan Hastert”


Sandy Wegman: Team Player or Self-Interested Opportunist?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Incumbent Kane County Recorder of Deeds Sandy Wegman has before claimed that she is a “team player” for the GOP. Her actions, however, make that out to be a lie. The last time Wegman tried to get out of her dead end clerk’s job was when she ran for Lt. Governor in 2006 despite that she had no party backing. In fact, her run then likely took votes away from State Senator Steve Rauschenberger who also ran for Lt. Governor that election, the only candidate that had a chance to beat Joe Birkett for the nod. (She got a measly 13% to Steve’s 30%)

A team player in 2006 would have dumped her own effort in order to back either Rauschenberger or States Attorney Joe Birkett the only two in the race with any party backing at all. Instead she stayed in causing the race to look uncompetitive.

Now we get another example of Wegman’s party averse opportunism, once again seemingly intended to hurt former Senator Steve Rauschenberger. She has inexplicably launched a late “write-in” bid for the State Senate seat of the 22nd District in opposition, once again, too a Rauschenberger candidacy.

Wegman’s cynical opportunism comes just as Rauschenberger faces an odd but vexing petition challenge forced upon him by the Democrat Party aimed at keeping him from appearing on the primary ballot as a Republican.
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Sandy Wegman: Team Player or Self-Interested Opportunist?”


More Old Media Hypocrisy on Palin’s Book Deal

-By Warner Todd Huston

On his MSNBC show Hardball for May 13, Chris Matthews gleefully attacked Goveror Sarah Palin for hiring a ghostwriter for her upcoming book deal. In like fashion, Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune’s The Swamp Blog has also gotten into Laugh-at-Palin’s-book mode so you can bet that this will be the scoff du jour among the left-media. But, the thing that proves the Old Media’s hypocrisy and partisanship is this “collaborator” angle. The media are going nuts that Palin is working with what is essentially a ghostwriter — though an upfront one, not a hidden one — and acting as if this is somehow unusual. But it simply is not.

Few politicians that have books published under their name ever themselves put pen to paper. Politicians are generally not writers and it is completely common that they hire actual writers to do the heavy lifting of composing their book. But here is both Matthews and Silva acting as if Palin is the only one ever to do it.

Heck, sometimes politicians never even read the book that bears their name just allowing their name to be affixed to the cover and letting it go at that. Barry Goldwater, for instance, is famous for having hinted that he never read the famous book that bears his name. The Conscience of a Conservative was actually ghostwritten by Brent Bozell, Jr., father of L. Brent Bozell III currently of the Media Research Center.

Regardless of the truth, however, this Tribune hack really takes the cake. Here is how Mark Silva starts off his rant:

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More Old Media Hypocrisy on Palin’s Book Deal”


A Little Article in a Little Paper that is One Big Hit!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Elizabeth Sauls is a writer for the Beaufort Observer of Beaufort, North Carolina. It’s a little paper in a little town — area population around 50,000 — so it’s just the sort of town that New Yorkers or Chicagoans like to scoff at. But, Elizabeth Sauls wrote a piece that everyone should read.

Headlined, “Presidential Sleight of Hand Keeps Reporter Befuddled,” Sauls lays out with just the right amount of sarcasm, the lies, contradictions, misdirections, and un-American policies that Obama has haplessly stumbled into these last 100 days.

Presented as a letter to her “boss” Sauls is devastating in her critical attitude against all the lies of this president.
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A Little Article in a Little Paper that is One Big Hit!”


NYT Columnist: ‘Dark and Dangerous’ Conservatives Attack Obama (Did He Miss BDS for Last 8 Yrs?)

-By Warner Todd Huston

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the Pauline Kael-like left. It seems that leftists in America are either mentally stunted or living in such an enclosed, bubble-world that they cannot discern reality from their own fantasy. Such is the case with the faux shock expressed by one Chuck Blow (presumably his real name) from The New York Times whose latest article is filled with the horror that some on the American right might not wish much success for a president of the United States. One must laugh at this man’s alarm and wonder if he missed the last eight years where Bush, Cheney — and at the end, even today, Palin — were hung in effigy, where the past president was wished a long and torturous death, and where the left wanted untold horrors visited upon them and all Americans that support Republicans?

Charles’ sudden awakening to the passion that politics brings is amusing if only to the extent that it is so empty of any introspection. It is hilarious that Chuck only just now had his eyes opened to enflamed political rhetoric and talk of the grave concerns for this country by many millions of his fellow Americans. Sad, in the end, that this guy thinks such vitriol has only just now come from the American right as if born fully grown and never-before-seen.

Chuck must surely have been in a coma since the year 1999.

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NYT Columnist: ‘Dark and Dangerous’ Conservatives Attack Obama (Did He Miss BDS for Last 8 Yrs?)”


Stimulus: Obama Stiffs Alabama Condoms For Cheap Chinese Knockoffs

-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?

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Stimulus: Obama Stiffs Alabama Condoms For Cheap Chinese Knockoffs”

Cornell Staffer/Dean Oppress Student’s Free Speech

-By Warner Todd Huston

More on Our Failed System of Education

Students that belong to a pro-life campus group called Cornell Coalition for Life (CCFL) spent weeks and hundreds of dollars organizing a pro-life display to be featured on the Cornell University Engineering Campus in Ithaca, New York. This was no guerilla campaign, either, because the CCFL applied for and received permission for its display. Yet, scarcely an hour had passed before an associate dean for the university summarily decided on her own to support the removal of the display by an administrative assistant despite that the display was approved by the college.

The CCFL had erected its “Elena Campaign” signs in the Engineering Quad to raise awareness among students of the earlier stages of fetal development, stages when many falsely imagine that a fetus is just a “lump of cells.” As the CCFL says, its “Elena Campaign” is “a series of light-hearted educational signs with pictures and text detailing the biological development of an unborn child.”

The folks at the Fort Hard Knox blog are featuring the incident as described by members of the CCFL.

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AIDS is 100 Years Old? So Much for Conspiracy Theories

-By Warner Todd Huston

Negroists — that would be people who think “black” first, instead of American first — have posited for years that the U.S. government created AIDS to kill blacks and keep them down. But now geneticists are discovering that the HIV virus is at least 100 years old. That would sort of blow the ridiculous conspiracy theory out of the water, wouldn’t it? (And it would be contrary to what Barack Obama’s “spiritual adviser” Reverend Jeremiah Wright has said.)

According to a new report “The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests… Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908.”

The researchers also said that it isn’t a surprise to find HIV is that old.

Experts say it’s no surprise that HIV circulated in humans for about 70 years before being recognized. An infection usually takes years to produce obvious symptoms, a lag that can mask the role of the virus, and it would have infected relatively few Africans early in its spread, they said.

Once again, we find that the wild-eyed conspiracy theorists are fools, easily led, and not very bright.
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Teachers Union Using The Classroom to Push Barack Obama

-By Warner Todd Huston

A teachers union in Virginia sponsored an “Obama blue day” in schools throughout the state for teachers to show their support for Obama in the classroom. The plan was for teachers to come to work with a blue shirt to show solidarity with Obama.

Naturally — and properly — the Virginia GOP is crying foul and denouncing the effort to indoctrinate children with Obama’s message.

The Virginia Education Association sponsored “Obama Blue Day” on Tuesday. In an e-mail sent last week, it urged teachers to participate by dressing in blue.

“Let’s make Obama Blue Day a day of Action!” the e-mail continues. “Barack the vote!”

Of course, it is outrageous that our nation’s most impressionable, our children, are being indoctrinated by teacher’s unions to support a specific candidate in a contemporary election. It only goes to show how low unions will go to force their views on the voting, and non-voting, public.
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Obama Thinks A New President Will Take Over in 40 Days?

-By Warner Todd Huston

I’m just curious, but if McCain had made such a gaffe as Obama did in his news conference on the current economic situation, wouldn’t the Old Media lose its mind ripping McCain as a senile, uneducated, old coot? Yet, Obama makes an obviously stupid statement and the media has remained mum all day.

In his news conference after dinner time on the 24th, Obama said the following:

“With respect to the debates, it’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess.”

Well, here is the thing… a new president won’t be “responsible” for any decisions until January of next year.

Sure, in 40 days we will be going to the polls to vote for a new president. But he won’t take office and, therefore, won’t be responsible for anything until he actually is sworn into office in January of 2009.

So, no, Baarack. In 40 days we will NOT have a new person “responsible for dealing with this mess.”

So, why has decided not to lambaste this man who obviously has no idea when he might take office if elected?

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Flight 93 Update…

“They had some forewarning and they chose to take action.” The defenders of the crescent also have forewarning, and are trying to cover it up.

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Gordon Felt, president of the Flight 93 family group that supports the crescent shaped memorial, offered a nice summary statement of the heroism of Flight 93:

They had some forewarning and they chose to take action.

“It’s that citizen soldier, heroism message,” he said “that we want to get out and memorialize their actions.”

Mr. Felt also has forewarning of an enemy plot, but he and the other defenders of the crescent design are choosing not to act. They are displaying a perfect anti-spirit of Flight 93.
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Here is Where we WILL Hurt if Journalists Lose Their Jobs En Masse

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of course our purpose here at NewsBusters is to shed light on the obscene bias often underlying what passes for journalism here in the United States (and in Canada and Europe sometimes, as well). We here at NB, however, want to stress that we aren’t out to “destroy” journalism itself. We understand how important a free and open press is to keep our democratic republic on the straight and narrow. And, with this piece I’d like to present one reason why seeing journalists lose their jobs in such massive numbers should serve as a warning to us all about the health of our system.

Journalists have traditionally been antagonistic toward government, we all know. Certainly, they sometimes take this antipathy too far and become responsible for nearly treasonous actions — The New York Times is the perfect example of that these days. But this antagonism is not all bad because while in practice it can and does lead to exposing the sort of government corruption that can and should be stopped but won’t be unless it becomes public knowledge. The light that journalists shed on these corrupt government officials using open records requests is an integral part of our system and not one we should so blithely forget about while hoping to see the field of journalism get its comeuppance.

A recent little blog post by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a non-profit legal assistance agency for journalists (est. 1970), gives us a warning that we should all heed, which I repeat in it’s entirety:

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Atlantic Mag Apologizes, Says Won’t Hire Greenberg Again

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a follow up to the controversy over the choice of partisan photographer Jill Greenberg to shoot the cover shot of John McCain by Atlantic Magazine, we find that the Atlantic folks have issued an apology for ever having hired her. After it was revealed that she indulged in tricks and lies to ridicule John McCain while she was in a position of representing Atlantic Magazine as its photographer, the folks at Atlantic expressed their disappointment and shock at the photog’s unprofessional behavior. They promise not to repeat the error of hiring her again.

Editors’ Note

We stand by the respectful image of John McCain that we used on our cover, and we expect to be judged by it. We were not aware of the manipulated and dishonest images Jill Greenberg had taken until this past Friday.

When we contract with photographers for portraits, we don’t vet them for their politics–instead, we assess their professional track records. We had never worked with Jill Greenberg before (and, obviously, we will not work with her again). Based on the portraits she had done of politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and her work for publications like Time, Wired, and Portfolio, we expected her, like the other photographers we work with, to behave professionally.

Jill Greenberg has obviously not done that. She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images she has created for her Web site of John McCain.

Personally, I find her work grotesque, even when she isn’t being overtly political.

Take a look at some of the grotesque photos of young children crying that she has created and this will show a deeply twisted look at children that should disturb anyone. They are almost pornographic in the harsh way in which these poor kids were depicted.

The Atlantic folks have definitely made the right choice, this time.

Continue reading “Atlantic Mag Apologizes, Says Won’t Hire Greenberg Again”

Whoopi Thinks Slavery Still In Constitution?

-By Warner Todd Huston

**Video Below the Fold**

On ABC’s “The View” on September 12, Whoopi Goldberg asked Senator John McCain if she should worry about being made a slave again once he becomes president. Newsflash, Whoopi: There was this little fracas we call the Civil War where six hundred thousand Americans died and that resulted in the elimination of slavery from existence. Oh, and Whoopi, it happened nearly 150 years ago! Just trying to help you with that whole “history” thing, Whoopster.

Apparently, Whoopi is unaware that slavery was removed from the Constitution, because during a discussion about the Law of the Land on the TV talk show, Whoopi wondered if she should “worry” about being cast into chattel slavery should John McCain get in office and institute his desires that strict construction of the Constitution be observed by his judicial picks.

The subject of how McCain would handle the Roe v Wade abortion situation is what prompted Whoopi to blurt out her uninformed view of the Constitution.

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Never Forget Sept 11, 2001

This morning, as we begin to observe the terrible day of September 11, 2001, let us not fall into mere rote actions and unthinking memorial. We cannot forget that this is not some long past, historical situation that we can comfortably relegate to remembrance on a single day of the year, the rest of our days to go on as if it is but a distant memory. We must keep at the forefront of our minds that we are still in extent danger of another 9/11 at any time and it is only because of the hard and dangerous work that our men and women in uniform are doing every single day that keeps the next towering inferno from our TV screens. The inhuman enemy that caused those Towers to fall, those planes to tumble from the sky, are still out there planning anew. 9/11 is fresh still. Let us remember with a keen pang of loss and rage lest we complacently imagine we are back to a 9/10 world when we are not.

Let us now take a moment to remember those innocents who lost their lives so unexpectedly ad illegitimately that day. And let us thank the many thousands of our first responders who risked it all by jumping immediately to give aid to their fellows.

9/11 is in our hearts and minds and we say with a unified voice, never again.

AP Next Going After Palin’s ‘Derided’ Religion

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press takes the attacks against Sarah Palin to the next level by saying that in her released bio Palin’s religion was “obscured.” The AP is suggesting that Palin’s ostensibly secret religion is really Pentecostalism which, they note, is a sect that is “derided by outsiders and Bible-believers alike.” So, the AP is saying here that the McCain campaign is trying to cover up Palin’s past because they must somehow know that her real religion is a cult or some wacko, fringe sect.

Sarah Palin often identifies herself simply as Christian… Yet John McCain’s running mate has deep roots in Pentecostalism, a spirit-filled Christian tradition that is one of the fastest growing in the world. It’s often derided by outsiders and Bible-believers alike.

But for all of the AP’s grave warnings about what it obviously considers wacky Pentecostalism, Palin and her hard working, middle class family have for the last 6 years belonged to the Wasilla Bible Church which is not a Pentecostal Church but describes itself as an independent evangelical church. So, even if she were raised in the Pentecostal Church — and even if we were to be alarmed at this — she left it behind 6 years ago. So, where is the “obscuring,” where is the secretive past?

Continue reading “AP Next Going After Palin’s ‘Derided’ Religion”

Campaign Admits Obama Lied About Abortion Vote, Media Asleep

-By Warner Todd Huston

**Video Below the Fold**

Question: Isn’t it big news when a leading candidate for president of the U.S. admits that since 2003 he has been lying about a vote he once made? Even more to the point, isn’t it big news when the candidate himself was on TV not long before that admission saying that everyone else is the liar? So, why is the media silent on the 180 degree about face that the Obama campaign has just made concerning Obama’s BAIP vote?

As I reported on August 13, the media pretty much ignored the great work by Jill Stanek in uncovering the truth that contradicted nearly 6 years of claims that Obama made concerning his vote on the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act when he was in the Illinois State Senate. Obama claimed that the Federal “neutrality clause” wasn’t in the Illinois bill and that if it were he would have voted for the bill instead of against it. Stanek proved that the exact same clause Obama said wasn’t in the bill was actually placed in the bill by the very committee Obama chaired. Yet he still voted against it.

Since the August 13 report, Obama was a guest with CBN’s David Brody File where he told the world that anyone who doubts his word on his Illinois BAIP vote is a “liar.”

Here in part is what Obama told David Brody in Saturday’s August 16 interview:

Continue reading “Campaign Admits Obama Lied About Abortion Vote, Media Asleep”

Union, Charity Paid Thousands to Firms Owned by Official’s Relatives

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A.Times had a great investigative story this week about typical union corruption. Before going into the story, I’ll remind you that Barack Obama is promising the unions that he will gut the Office of Labor Management Standards responsible for rooting out and prosecuting union corruption. It seems Obama thinks unions are innocent until their corruption is ignored later.

Now, as to the Times story, what he have is typical union cronyism and corruption writ large. Paul Pringle of the Times give us “Union, charity paid thousands to firms owned by official’s relatives” in which we discover the sort of union cronyism that we find in nearly every union everywhere, especially in the Service Employee International Union (SEIU).

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Georgia/Russian War: Blame Obama

-By Warner Todd Huston

General Wesley Clark had one thing right during his tenure as a general in the U.S. military. He understood the portentous nature of the Russian’s move to take control of the airport in Pristina, Kosovo at the end of the 1999 NATO engagement in Yugoslavia. He ordered NATO forces to gear up to prevent the Russians from taking the airport but was opposed by British Gen. Michael Jackson, at the time head of the Kosovo peacekeeping forces, who reportedly told Clark that he wouldn’t help him start a third World War.

I don’t know if Clark fully realized what the investment of the Pristina airport might have meant for future Russian actions, but he seemed to know then that it wasn’t a good thing. In retrospect, we can see that, even though they backed down in 1999, it taught the Russians the lesson that they could act with impunity without fear of any real consequences. Later, though, the Russians found that they could not count out any action with Bush in the White House.

Now, let’s face the truth about Russia. She has never, ever been part of the club. No Russian leader has ever seemed convincingly interested in joining the western world and act as a responsible member of an international community. Oh, there was that brief, shining hour when Boris Yeltsin came close, and then only just. But none before and certainly none after have been interested in joining the enlightened world. And, once again, we are seeing Russian belligerence hold true. In this case, instead of purely militaristic aims, we are seeing a Russia planning on an energy hegemony over Europe and willing to act the bad boy to achieve those aims.

Certainly the weakling states of the European Union haven’t the guts nor the military to force Russia to behave herself. Just as certain, the members of the EU have no will to stop Russian plans to control all energy in the region. Only the U.S.A. has displayed the will to oppose moves such as Russia’s in the world today and even that will is anemic.

Continue reading “Georgia/Russian War: Blame Obama”

Flight 93 Update…

“Flight 93 Families Divided”

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Tom Burnett Sr. entered the lion’s den on Saturday to oppose the crescent memorial to Flight 93 (now called a broken circle). An excerpt from the beginning of the Somerset Daily American‘s banner headline story about division amongst the families:

“Tom Burnett Jr. led the effort to take the plane back,” his father said. “When I was on the design jury, I saw the red crescent of embrace and realized it was an obvious and blatant symbol of Islam. It does not properly honor our people — those Flight 93 heroes. I think it’s a travesty that it’s moved along so fast.”

He called for an investigation into the design. When he has brought up his concerns, some of the task force and advisory commission members have dismissed him, he said.

“This is a cataclysmic mistake,” he said. “I’m going to save you from yourselves. I’d like to ask for an unbiased, transparent, honest investigation. This is just a terrible, terrible mistake. I’m asking every American — we must stop this mistake. This panel doesn’t own the design, I don’t own it, Pennsylvania doesn’t own it, all of America and all of the world own it.”

He said he is also tired of the controversy, but that they must honor the heroes properly. It will reverberate in history.

“I’m not going to stop fighting this thing, it is very, very bad,” Burnett said. “Wake up. Get your heads out of the sand.”

Continue reading “Flight 93 Update…”

What About Those Oil Companies and Their Big Profits?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Wall Street Journal had a pertinent piece on August 4 that bears some repeating. In it they asked “What is a ‘windfall’ profit anyway?” and provided some much needed context about the money that oil companies make.

On Aug 6, Obama made an amazing policy suggestion. He said that the government should actually confiscate money from private businesses and redistribute that money, giving it away like welfare! This is pure, socialist, redistribution of profits. It is also as anti-American as you can get.

So, the Journal made some pertinent points to ponder about just what the oil company profits are and how they measure against other industries.

First of all, the Journal notes that Exxon, for instance, paid an enormous amount of taxes. “Between 2003 and 2007, Exxon paid $64.7 billion in U.S. taxes, exceeding its after-tax U.S. earnings by more than $19 billion.”

According to the WSJ, here were some more facts about Exxon’s “obscene” profits:

Exxon’s 2007 profit margin = 10%

Here are the profit margins of some of our other industries and companies:

  • Areospace Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 8.2%
  • U.S. Manufacturing Sector’s 2007 profit margin = 8.9%
  • GE’s 2007 profit margin = 10.3%
  • Berkshire Hathaway Investors = 11.47%
  • Chemicals Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 12.7%
  • Computers Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 13.7%
  • Electronics and appliances Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 14.5%
  • Pharmaceuticals Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 18.4%
  • beverages and tobacco Industry’s 2007 profit margin = 19.1%
  • Google’s 2007 profit margin = 25.3%

Want “obscene” profits? How about electronics company LG that saw profits increase 505% in 2007? Maybe we should lay low the evil profits from Abbot Laboratories that saw a 110% increase?

So, why are we attacking just the oil companies again? Could it be that it’s just because the Democrats want a whipping boy? Why, yes. Yes it could be.

Continue reading “What About Those Oil Companies and Their Big Profits?”

A Great Lakes Eco ‘Catastrophe’ That ISN’T

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Tribune posted a story in the July 30 edition that highlights the often absurd hyperbole all too common in the language of environmentalists and eco-watchers. The story detailed the findings of scientists studying Lake Michigan and the ecology of the Great Lakes, one of them saying it is in “catastrophic” shape. Native fish and vegetation are being crowded out by new species and the “Great Lakes are at a tipping point” the Trib warns. It’s all presented as some major disaster that should alarm us all, as if Mother Nature is being ruined, presumably by man.

But a closer reading of the story proves that Mother Nature is doing just fine. It is only that our conception of what sort of ecology the Great Lakes should have that is taking a “catastrophic” turn.

The Trib report details the massively changing ecology of Lake Michigan as new species — like the zebra mussel, the guagga mussel and the round gobie, etc. — are remaking the ecology of the Great Lakes into something completely new in relation to what it once was. Scientists have found native fish species changing in their eating habits or beginning to disappear with new species adding a new aspect to the chain of life there.

It seems somehow to be alarming scientists.
Continue reading “A Great Lakes Eco ‘Catastrophe’ That ISN’T”

Track Votes on Any Bill in Washington D.C.

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have been made aware of a great resource tool for tracking bills that have taken a vote in Congress. It is called Govit.com (http://www.govit.com/) and it really helps when looking to see what Congress voted on, who voted for what, and when it happened.

Here is the “about” section to better describe the site:

Govit empowers citizens to take action in our representative democracy. On Govit you can connect with your elected representatives. Organize and promote specific legislation.

Vote on active legislation and have your vote sent instantly to your reps. Keep a a running record of your votes compared to your reps, and others (when election time comes, you’ll know if your representatives have really represented you!).

You can also do cool things like see what legislation the presidential candidates have sponsored, or check their voting records.

Govit is a non-partisan democracy platform. It was built by a regular citizen (Taylor Norrish), and has no special interest or government backing.

Go on over to http://www.govit.com/ and take a tour. It’s a very useful site.