Saturday, March 26, 2011

Tea Party in Petoskey; FLA Bans Automatic Deductions for Union Dues; Consideration to Sell Some Public Lands to Reduce Debt; Lautenberg Would Give No Constitutional Rights to Tea Party Members; Obama's Ties to Independent FCC Explored; Sri Lankans Don't Love Obama; Look for Union People Who Might Videotape your License Plates; Media Matters Declares War on Fox News; Wisconsin Unions Coming Around

A Call to the Tea Party in northern Michigan: On April 3, 2011, the Emmet County Fairgrounds in Petoskey will be hosting a union rally.  The Petoskey Tea Party will be holding a Right To Work counter rally outside of the fairgrounds.
Please gather at the gazebo next to the fairgrounds on Eppler Road.  Or, park at Turcott Field on Charlevoix Avenue if the lot off Eppler is full.  We would like to have a presence on Charlevoix Avenue outside of the fairgrounds by 10:30 AM.  The union rally begins at 11:30.
The purpose of this rally is not to be confrontational, but to show an opposition presence to the union rally taking place inside the fairgrounds.
Please make sure your signs are positive and on the message of “Right To Work”.  Right to work signs will be available.  American and gadsden signs will be appropriate as well.
For further information, please send an email to petoskeyteaparty.org.
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The Orlando Sentinel reports: The Florida House delivered a major blow to public employee unions Friday, approving a bill that would ban automatic dues deduction from a government paycheck and require members to sign off on the use of their dues for political purposes. 
Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, the House sponsor of the legislation, said this was simply the state's movement to get out of the dues deduction business and let the unions take care of it.
"It's a bill that empowers membership of labor unions," Dorworth said.  Florida is a "right to work" state, which means a worker is not forced to join a union. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/fl-bill-bans-automatic-union-dues-20110325,0,1209569.story
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Fox News reports: Three Republican lawmakers are seeking to force Uncle Sam to sell about 3.3 million acres of land he no longer needs to help pay down the national debt.
Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah introduced legislation this week in their respective chambers that would order Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to dispose of the federal property that the Clinton administration identified in a 1997 report as suitable for sale.
The lands are located in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming and amounts to roughly 1 percent of all land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and less than one half of 1 percent of all federal land, the lawmakers said.
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Red State writes: Some people are beyond parody. Back in 2007, Frank Lautenberg voted to expand the right of habeas corpus to foreign citizens detained overseas in the war on terror. In other words, if you are a terrorist, Frank Lautenberg thinks you are not getting all the Constitutional rights you deserve and he is going to do everything he can to make sure you get them. However, if you are a United States citizen who has not committed any crime whatsoever, apart from opposing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Frank Lautenberg believes you deserve no Constitutional rights at all. At a Planned Parenthood rally in Englewood, NJ, Lautenberg, addressing the counterprotestors who were protesting continued government funding of Planned Parenthood, said:  http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2011/03/24/frank-lautenberg-thinks-terrorists-should-have-more-rights-than-tea-partiers/
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Expose Obama writes: In what is now the third letter sent to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Issa, California Republican, demanded Thursday that the agency turn over information regarding communication between the agency and the Obama administration, including notes on meetings and emails concerning proposed “net neutrality” rules unveiled last year. Issa wants to know if the FCC — an independent agency — colluded with the White House to draft the new rules on internet distribution.
Issa cited the number of times FCC officials met with White House advisers just days before major policy proposals were made public last year. From January 2009 to November 2010, Genachowski visited the White House 81 times, and FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus visited about 60 times, according to the letter. http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/03/25/issa-turns-up-pressure-did-white-house-write-net-neutrality-laws/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=db5729ce5e-EO_03_25_2011_13_25_2011&utm_medium=email
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Yahoo News reports: Sri Lankan Muslims beat and stamp on an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama during a protest rally against the allied forces' air strike in Libya, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, March 25, 2011. http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//110325/481/urn_publicid_ap_org4f5e66f76c6043fab3de0d477ff216c6/
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American Thinker reveals: Yes, unionistas were videotaping license plates of Republicans arriving at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Wisconsin..  This may be the first step in setting up counter-intelligence databases to be used against Americans citizens based on their political inclinations. 
Of course, blackmail and extortion are the well-worn tools of the union movement. Old school union tactics usually meant slashing tires; these new school unionista's know that messing up your credit, boycotting your employer, and reducing your ability to find another job would be just as effective as sending a goon with a baseball bat to break a few windows.

To those who attended the Lincoln Day fundraiser, I might suggest you file a request with the Wisconsin DMV to see who has accessed your car registration file in last few days. I'm sure it would make interesting reading for your family, your lawyer, and your local District Attorney.  http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/it_gets_even_uglier_in_wiscons.html
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Politico writes: The liberal group Media Matters has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel.
“The strategy that we had had toward Fox was basically a strategy of containment,” said Brock, Media Matters’ chairman and founder and a former conservative journalist, adding that the group’s main aim had been to challenge the factual claims of the channel and to attempt to prevent them from reaching the mainstream media.
The new strategy, he said, is a “war on Fox.”
Media Matters, Brock said, is assembling opposition research files not only on Fox’s top executives but on a series of midlevel officials. It has hired an activist who has led a successful campaign to press advertisers to avoid Glenn Beck’s show. The group is assembling a legal team to help people who have clashed with Fox file lawsuits for defamation, invasion of privacy or other causes.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Townhall opines: The unions in Wisconin didn’t want to sacrifice anything for their state budget, despite the fact that schools spend about 80 percent of their budgets on labor costs. But now, with Walker's legislation set to become law once it clears legal hurdles, the unions are suddenly coming to their senses. They are jumping at the chance to extend their collective bargaining agreements, in exchange for meaningful concessions that will help schools survive the financial crisis.

They are salvaging things like automatic annual salary increases for teachers, a generous number of paid sick and personal days off, reimbursement for unused sick days, salary and benefits for union officials who do not teach, retirement bonuses, overage pay for teachers with a few extra students, and many other items.
Those contractual perks would have gone by the wayside if local collective bargaining agreements had been allowed to expire. Under the new law, the unions will not have the power to negotiate for many of the items listed in current contracts.
So the unions will save some time-honored perks and schools will save a lot of money. This type of compromise would not have occurred without pressure from Gov. Walker and his supporters in the legislature. http://townhall.com/columnists/kyleolson/2011/03/26/gov_walkers_legislation_has_unions_caving_already/page/full/
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Friday, March 25, 2011

Donald Trump's Birth Certificate Request Garners Applause; Romney Commits to Executive Order for Obamacare Waivers for All States; Lawsuit Vs. Department of Health and Human Services over Waivers; Homeschooled Child Forced to go to Public School;

Business Insider opines: Donald Trump packed his appearance on "The View" today with as many outrageous soundbytes as possible -- but one was pretty insane, even for him.
After co-host Joy Behar asked Trump if he's a so-called "birther" -- someone who questions President Obama's U.S. citizenship -- Trump shouted, "Why doesn't he show his birth certificate? There's something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like."
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg responded: "That's the biggest load of dog mess I've heard in a while."
But the audience didn't agree with her. Listen closely while watching the clip below -- Trump earned hearty applause for suggesting that the President may not be an American.
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National Review Online reports on Mitt Romney: If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states. The executive order would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health-care solutions that work best for them.  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/262800/if-i-were-president-obamacare-one-year-mitt-romney
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Fox News writes: On the first anniversary of President Obama's health care reform act being signed into law, the Washington based GOP super think tank known as Crossroads GPS plans to file a federal lawsuit Wednesday in D.C. District Court against the Department of Health and Human Services.
Fox News has learned the group is seeking documents to better understand how HHS makes decisions to grant waivers to the new health care law.
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Life Site News reports: The New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a lower court order Wednesday that sided with the father of a homeschooled student and forced her into a government-run school against her Christian mother’s wishes.
However, in the original order issued in July 2009, Judge Lucinda V. Sadler reasoned that the girl’s “vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view.”
“Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,” responded Simmons. “Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. That’s precisely what the lower court admitted it was doing.” HERE. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/nh-supreme-court-homeschooled-girl-must-go-to-public-school-against-moms-wi
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AmeriPundit writes: We’re not waging war, we’re just bombing military infrastructure, killing foreign soldiers, and attempting to defeat an adversary. How could you possibly think that’s a war?
In the last few days, Obama administration officials have frequently faced the question: Is the fighting in Libya a war? From military officers to White House spokesmen up to the president himself, the answer is no. But that leaves the question: What is it?
In a briefing on board Air Force One Wednesday, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes took a crack at an answer. “I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, and setting up a no-fly zone,” Rhodes said. “Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.”
Barack Obama consulted the Arab League. Barack Obama consulted the United Nations. Barack Obama consulted France. But he never took the time to consult Congress, which is the body of government allowed to declare war under the United States Constitution. http://amerpundit.com/2011/03/24/white-house-its-not-war-just-kinetic-military-action/
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Townhall Finance writes: On a day that Toyota has announced plans for a possible shutdown in the US because of supply problems in Japan, the United Auto Workers said that they are on the verge of the "largest boycott in the history of the global economy," according to the Michigan's Royal Oak Daily Tribune. The UAW is organizing the boycott to protest the refusal of transnational automakers to unionize employees in the US.
The head of the union, Bob King, has admitted that declining union membership rolls means that if the UAW doesn't "organize these transnationals, I don't think there's a long-term future for the UAW — I really don't."

He's given foreign automakers including BMW, Volkswagen AG, Toyota and Nissan an offer they can't refuse: Unionize their workers or else he'll single out one automaker and put the screws to them with a boycott. Never mind that the boycott will hurt workers, consumers and the economy.  http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/03/24/uaw_plans_suicide_bombing_of_economy
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The Hill writes: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance at a time when federal funds are short.
The report discussed the proposal in great detail, including the development of technology that would allow total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to be tracked, reported and taxed, as well as the pros and cons of mandating the installation of this technology in all vehicles.  [ I suppose this would not be counted toward raising anyone's taxes, for this President solemnly swore he would not ever do that.]  http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/151765-cbo-says-taxing-drivers-based-on-miles-driven-a-real-option-for-raising-revenues
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Politico reports: President Barack Obama is resisting pressure to deliver an Oval Office speech explaining his policy on Libya — in part, because he doesn’t want to equate what he regards as a smaller, time-limited mission with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Administration officials haven’t ruled out a big speech, but Obama is reluctant to make a major address on Libya until the United States hands over most command and combat duties to its allies.
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The Washington Post writes about that brilliant U.N. resolution:
Russia’s Vladimir Putin is already calling the Libya operation a medieval crusade.
China is calling for a cease-fire in place — which would completely undermine the allied effort by leaving Gaddafi in power, his people at his mercy and the country partitioned and condemned to ongoing civil war.
Brazil joined China in that call for a cease-fire. This just hours after Obama ended his fawning two-day Brazil visit. Another triumph of presidential personal diplomacy.
And how about NATO? Let’s see. As of this writing, Britain wanted the operation to be led by NATO. France adamantly disagreed, citing Arab sensibilities. Germany wanted no part of anything, going so far as to pull four of its ships from NATO command in the Mediterranean. Italy hinted it might deny the allies the use of its air bases if NATO can’t get its act together. France and Germany walked out of a NATO meeting on Monday, while Norway had planes in Crete ready to go but refused to let them fly until it had some idea who the hell is running the operation. And Turkey, whose prime minister four months ago proudly accepted the Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, has been particularly resistant to the Libya operation from the beginning.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-and-libya-the-professors-war/2011/03/24/ABPjvmRB_story.html
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Big Peace writes: Up until a few weeks ago, the west and Gaddafi had an agreement on a broad range of counterterrorism  proposals.  These included sharing information on radical islamist groups and Gaddafi’s promise that he wouldn’t support terrorist groups again.  I think we can assume that all bets are off right now.
By attacking Libya we have hit the hornet’s nest with a baseball bat.  This is not a time for slow, methodical progress.  Time is on Gaddafi’s side.  The longer he hangs in there,  the more likely we will become the target of his terrorist attacks. http://bigpeace.com/pschweizer/2011/03/25/time-is-on-gaddafis-side-watch-out-for-a-coming-wave-of-terrorist-attacks/
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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Biden For Impeachment Back Then; Stephen Lerner, SEIU and Plans to Destabilize America; KGB Tactics Working in America; Obama's Policies Are a War on the Middle Class; Michigan Proposal to Mimic AZ's on Immigration; Justice Department to Sues Chicago School District Over Muslim's Vacation Plans

The LA Times writes: But it's something else when President Obama's own vice president, Joe "I Don't Use Words Lightly" Biden suggests that a president who commits U.S. troops with no imminent threat to the country or its citizens and no congressional approval should be impeached. (See video)....That was, of course, back when Biden still thought he should be president and George W. Bush and Obama should not.
Obama did, however, get United Nations approval for the ongoing strikes on Libya. About which there happens to be nothing in the Constitution.
Not many can find any real, new or imminent threat to America from Kadafi now that hasn't been around for many years.   . http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/03/biden-impeach-the-president-who-goes-to-war-without-authorization.html
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The Washington Post reveals: The Treasury Department team had been working nonstop on a plan to freeze Libyan assets in U.S. banks, hoping they might snare $100 million or more and prevent Moammar Gaddafi from tapping it as he unleashed deadly attacks against protesters who wanted him gone. Now, at 2:22 Friday afternoon, Feb. 25, an e-mail arrived from a Treasury official with startling news. Their $100 million estimate was off — orders of magnitude off. The e-mail said there was in “excess of $29.7 Billion — yes, that’s a B.” And most of the money was at one bank.
It also shows that government officials have learned from other recent economic sanction efforts, including against Iran and North Korea. Instead of being a secondary measure, as in the past, economic sanctions have become a centerpiece of national security policy. 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/sanctions-in-72-hours-how-the-us-pulled-off-a-major-freeze-of-libyan-assets/2011/03/11/ABBckxJB_story.html
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Following up on yesterday's blockbuster revelation: Here are more key remarks by former SEIU leader Lerner regarding his plans to destabilize America:
"Unions are almost dead. We cannot survive doing what we do but the simple fact of the matter is community organizations are almost dead also. And if you think about what we need to do it may give us some direction which is essentially what the folks that are in charge - the big banks and everything - what they want is stability.
There are actually extraordinary things we could do right now to start to destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement.
For example, 10% of homeowners are underwater right their home. They are paying more for it then it's worth. 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home.  That's totally spontaneous. They figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up.  If you could double that number you would, you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again.

We have an entire economy that is built on debt and banks, so the question would be what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike - if we get half a million people to agree, it would literally cause a new finical crisis for the banks, not for us.  We would be doing quite well.  We wouldn't be paying anything...
We have to think much more creatively. The key thing... What does the other side fear the most - they fear disruption. They fear uncertainty. Every article about Europe says when they rioted in Greece the markets went down.
The folks that control this country care about one thing - how the stock market goes, what the bond market does, how the bonuses go. We have a very simple strategy:
  • How do we bring down the stock market
  • How do we bring down their bonuses
  • How do we interfere with there ability to be rich...
  • I will add the following, directly quoting from his speech:  1) begin to attack JP Morgan Chase in early May with demonstrations on Wall St.; 2) protest at annual shareholder meetings; 3) protests must be run not by unions, but by community organizers (does this mean he is calling on Barack Obama, the organizer-in-chief, to participate?); 4) a strategy to  disrupt and create uncertainty (Barack is already successful doing this); 5) destabilize folks in power; 6) have cities and states demand to renegotiate their debt in order to continue doing business with them; JP Morgan must rewrite interest rate and rewrite mortgages for everybody; 7) have students not pay their student debts; 8) public employees' unions must demand that negotiations of contracts occur; 9) bring Wisconsin to Washington; 10) disrupt how the system operates; 11) the other side fears disruption; 12) bring down the stock market; 13) politically and economically isolate them.
  • DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION YET? Is this not a form of economic terrorism?
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It has been noted on the visitors' log of the White House that Mr. Lerner has visited the White House at least 4 times in two years , twice for personal meetings [just one more radical courted by our President].  In related news: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking if he plans to investigate Lerner and his allies for domestic terrorism.
In part it reads: Recent media reports suggest that the former director of the Service Employees International Union’s (“SEIU”) banking and finance campaign has threatened to seriously endanger the welfare of the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The escalation of Mr. Stephen Lerner’s threats would clearly constitute domestic terrorism and pose substantial harm to the American people and the economy. I am therefore requesting that you investigate Mr. Lerner’s terrorist plans and notify me how the Department of Justice plans to respond to these threats. [Will Eric Holder pay attention to the letter he has been sent regarding this?]    http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/03/stephen-lerner-visited-white-house-4-times-in-2-years-will-justice-department-investigate-plans-for-economic-terrorism/
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This strategy of Lerner's coordinates well with a video I recently watched where former KGP officer Uri Bezmenov said these things about the KGB strategy (and I quote almost word for word):  intelligence was only 15% of the KGB's work;  85% of their work was ideological subversion or psychological warfare intended to change the perception of reality.  No one then can come to a sensible conclusion. Demoralization occurs by exposing people to the ideology of the enemy with no challenge. Bezmenov claims this has already happened in America through our equality and social justice agendas.  He said that this is due to lack of moral standards.  When the KGB reached this level of disruption, no amount of proof in any form could then sway those who have been brainwashed to believe otherwise.
Add to this the powerful teachings of Cloward and Piven for revolution in American, and I believe we Americans had better wake up, and soon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIFcnctnHsE&feature=related
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The great Thomas Sowell writes: The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.
Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees' free choice as to whether or not to join a union is precisely what that legislation would destroy.  http://thenewamerican.com/index.php/opinion/thomas-sowell/6605--union-myths
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American Thinker writes: The 18% real rate of unemployment during Obama's first two years in office has not done much for the middle class. At the same time, there has been an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the underclass. ObamaCare, financial services reform, mortgage reform, education reform, tax reform: in all of these areas, the administration's efforts have been to create and expand services for the poor at the expense of the middle class. Obama acts like a political general in the class war -- the war of the government services-dependent poor and unionized public sector against the middle class.
But since ObamaCare was passed, health care costs for the middle class are way up. Over the past 12 months the cost of private medical insurance, where it can be purchased at all, is up by as much as 59%. Hospital costs are up 6%, nearly three times the rate of core inflation. The cost of the most widely prescribed drugs has increased well above the rate of inflation, driven up by the prospect of future government regulation. None of this has helped the middle class. It is, in fact, part and parcel of a calculated transfer of wealth from the middle class to the underclass.As Obama understands all too well, one of the hallmarks of all socialist countries is the absence of an independent middle class. From the Bolshevik experiment in Russia to socialist Venezuela today, it is necessary for communist leaders to eliminate that class of citizens who are not dependent on government for their welfare. Throughout its history American society in particular has been the beneficiary of an aspiring middle class whose efforts have created the world's greatest democracy. It is an ominous sign that the political left, with the loyal support of more than a third of our population, is intent on its destruction.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/obamas_war_on_the_middle_class.html
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The Detroit News writes: A package of bills would crack down on undocumented immigrants who live and work in Michigan. One bill is similar to a controversial law passed last year in Arizona that empowers police officers to check the immigration status of people they suspect are undocumented.
It would also call into question Detroit and Ann Arbor's status as "sanctuary cities," where police look the other way concerning residents' immigration status.
The other two bills would mandate that state agencies as well as temporary employment agencies verify the status of job applicants before hiring them.
To Rep. David Agema, the bills' sponsor, the issue is simple: Undocumented immigrants are breaking the law, taking jobs away from Michigan residents and costing the state millions in public services. "I don't care what country you're from — legal is legal and illegal is illegal," said Agema, R-Grandville.
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The Washington Post reveals: BERKELEY, Ill. — Safoorah Khan had taught middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb when she made an unusual request. She wanted three weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The school district, faced with losing its only math lab instructor during the critical end-of-semester marking period, said no. Khan, a devout Muslim, resigned and made the trip anyway.
Justice Department lawyers examined the same set of facts and reached a different conclusion: that the school district’s decision amounted to outright discrimination against Khan. They filed an unusual lawsuit, accusing the district of violating her civil rights by forcing her to choose between her job and her faith.
As the case moves forward in federal court in Chicago, it has triggered debate over whether the Justice Department was following a purely legal path or whether suing on Khan’s behalf was part of a broader Obama administration campaign to reach out to Muslims. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-department-sues-on-behalf-of-muslim-teacher-triggering-debate/2010/07/28/ABfSPtEB_story.html?hpid=z3
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Horowitz on Obama; Germany Leaves Libya; Obama Loses Congress?; Obama's War on the Middle Class; Gun Laws by Executive Order; Foreign Leaders Call for Peace Prize to be Returned; Obama's Abu Ghraib Not Being Condemned by Main Stream Media; Shocking Video on Group's Plan to Destabilize America


David Horowitz was one of the founders of the New Left in the 1960s and later became a conservative activist.  He writes: The nation building effort in Iraq led to a squandering of American resources and a weakening of American power. Putting a man who is hostile to American power in the White House is not the least aspect of this American decline. Because of these nation-building delusions we are still mired in Afghanistan — now the longest war in American history. And now we have been plunged into the Middle Eastern maelstrom with no clear agenda or objective.
The Obama Administration, in my view, is the most dangerous administration in American history, and conservatives need to be very clear about the limits and objectives of American power so that they can lead the battle to restore our government to health. To accomplish this, neo-conservatives need to admit they were wrong, and return to the drawing board. They should give up the “neo” and become conservatives again. http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/23/why-i-am-not-a-neo-conservative/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_campaign=a731957f04-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

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The UK Daily Mail reports: Deep divisions between allied forces currently bombing Libya worsened today as the German military announced it was pulling forces out of NATO over continued disagreement on who will lead the campaign.

A German military spokesman said it was recalling two frigates and AWACS surveillance plane crews from the Mediterranean, after fears they would be drawn into the conflict if NATO takes over control from the U.S.
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Powerline Blog opines: Of course, President Obama isn't around to answer those questions [about Libya]; he is in South America. Politico asks, "Did Obama Lose Congress on Libya?" National security adviser Tom Donilon stood in for Obama and tried to explain the administration's failure to involve Congress. Here is part of what he had to say:
First of all, consultation with Congress is important, as I said. Secondly, the administration welcomes the support of Congress in whatever form that they want to express that support.
So Obama has gone from 1) the President has no authority to undertake military action in these circumstances without prior Congressional approval, to 2) the President--as long as it is Obama--"welcomes the support of Congress in whatever form they want to express that support," after the fact. The arrogant presumption of the Obama administration never ceases to amaze. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028660.php
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American Thinker opines: It should be obvious that Obama and the left wing of the Democratic Party are not struggling to defend the middle class. Most of the time they are struggling to disenfranchise it by ignoring the basic rights of human liberty and of property that are guaranteed under our Constitution.

The 18% real rate of unemployment during Obama's first two years in office has not done much for the middle class. At the same time, there has been an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the underclass. ObamaCare, financial services reform, mortgage reform, education reform, tax reform: in all of these areas, the administration's efforts have been to create and expand services for the poor at the expense of the middle class. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/obamas_war_on_the_middle_class.html
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The Huffington Post writes: Faced with a Congress hostile to even slight restrictions of Second Amendment rights, the Obama administration is exploring potential changes to gun laws that can be secured strictly through executive action, administration officials say.
As for other possible actions that can be taken without Congress, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has compiled a wish list of sorts, suggesting that the national background-check system enforce the requirement that all federal agencies report individuals forbidden under federal law from purchasing guns; that the White House restructure regulations requiring that the FBI destroy firearm-purchase records after 90 days; that the FBI, DOJ and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives be more aggressive in pursuing federal prosecutions against those individuals who illegally attempted to buy firearms; and that the latter agency ramp up undercover investigations of sales at gun shows.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/obama-gun-laws-congress_n_836138.html
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Politico reports:  "Barack Obama has now fired more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined.”
Exactly who said that first is unclear, but at some point over the weekend, the line began circulating around Twitter.
Since President Obama announced Friday that he had ordered an attack on Muammar Qadhafi’s forces in Libya, he has attracted plenty of new critics, including lawmakers in his party. Now, some foreign leaders are asking that the Nobel Committee take back the peace prize it awarded Obama in 2009.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the vice chairman of the Russian legislature’s lower house, released a statement on Monday titled “Deny Obama the Nobel Prize!” In the letter, Zhirinovsky argues that Obama was given the Nobel for his “contribution to the struggle for nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in the world.”

“This is another flagrant intervention in the internal affairs of an independent state,” the Russian leader wrote.
Bolivian President Evo Morales has also called for Obama’s honor to be taken back, telling reporters: “How is it possible to give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone who has launched an invasion, a bombing? It's a violation, an assault, an aggression.”  http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0311/throw_it_back_ca3f5568-3b71-494e-bc37-b198cfd1a2b4.html
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Hot Air opines: When the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in 2003, the mainstream media and liberal blogosphere couldn’t find enough column inches to express adequately their shock and revulsion. The New York Times alone published 56 stories on the hideous revelation of —inexcusable acts that the Times placed squarely at the feet of then-president George W. Bush.
What a difference a president makes. Until you flash forward to today’s bombshell, dropped by the British newspaper The Guardian, noting that members of a self-styled U.S. Army “kill team” posed for photos not with tortured prisoners but with corpses. Of civilians. Whom they had killed. Investigators at Der Spiegel unearthed approximately 4,000 photos and videos taken by the soldiers. The accompanying article in the magazine provides shocking details about the depraved, sadistic behavior of the men.
A spokesman for the military is quoted as having apologized for the images, which in his words depict “actions repugnant to the U.S. as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States.” So far, the White House has released no statement regarding the images or accounts. Neither, surprisingly, has the New York Times[Perhaps Obama is learning that even a President cannot stop war-ravaged or evil people, even those in our military, from bringing dishonor on our country.  The difference here is the reaction of the media.]  http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2011/03/21/breaking-obamas-abu-ghraib-the-stuff-hits-the-fan/
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Following the shocking revelation by a brave Glenn Beck, Business Insider reports on the video of a speech by Lerner to a Pace University Forum.  A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, has a secret plan to "destabilize" the country.[How can it be described as secret when he was on tape giving the speech to a university forum?]
The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government.
Lerner said that unions and community organizations are, for all intents and purposes, dead. The only way to achieve their goals, therefore--the redistribution of wealth and the return of "$17 trillion" stolen from the middle class by Wall Street--is to "destabilize the country."
Lerner's plan is to organize a mass, coordinated "strike" on mortgage, student loan, and local government debt payments--thus bringing the banks to the edge of insolvency and forcing them to renegotiate the terms of the loans.  This destabilization and turmoil, Lerner hopes, will also crash the stock market, isolating the banking class and allowing for a transfer of power.
[For the full transcript of his radical plan, go to the website provided.]
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/seiu-union-plan-to-destroy-jpmorgan#ixzz1HQKfMxDM
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

AZ Backs Away from Immigration Laws; CA to Give In-State Tuition to Illegals?; AT$T Gets 42,000 Unionizable EmployeesSODEXO Targeted by SEIU; Obama Budget Misleads; American Conservation Youth Corps; Quotes about Obama; Imperialist Warmonger; How to Work the Union System; War Powers Acto of 1973

From UPI: 
The Arizona Senate, under pressure from business groups, has rejected a package of five bills aimed at curbing illegal immigration. Thursday's vote was a major change of course in the state, which adopted a law last year requiring police to investigate suspected illegal immigrants, The New York Times said. One of the bills that failed would have required hospitals to report to police patients who might be in the country illegally, and another resolution attacked the provision in the U.S. Constitution for "birth-right citizenship" for all children born within U.S. borders.
The Republican state Senate President Russell Pearce pushed for the bills' approval. But another Republican, state Sen. John McComish, told the Times "enough is enough."
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Congressman Campbell [of California] has signed
Washington Legal Foundation’s amicus curiae (friend of the court brief) to U.S. Supreme Court arguing against the state of California’s discriminatory practice of offering in-state tuition to illegal aliens, while charging higher tuition rates to out-of-state U.S. citizens.
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Redstate writes: Sunday’s breaking business story is the announcement that unionized AT&T will be buying union-free T-Mobile for $39 billion. With 42,000 mostly union-free employees, German-owned T-Mobile has long been a target of the red-shirted Communications Workers of America. Now, as the mostly unionized AT&T Mobility has agreed to allow the CWA to unionize its employees without secret-ballot elections (via neutrality and card-check), the red-shirted union bosses are seeing the green that will likely come from T-Mobile’s employees.  With 42,000 unionizable T-Mobile employees and the potential of raking in 1.3 percent of their paychecks—an estimated $15 million in union dues each year—top union boss Larry Cohen wasted no time on Sunday declaring the union’s interest in unionizing the T-Mobile employees: http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/03/20/att-to-buy-t-mobile-union-targets-15-millionyr-in-dues-through-card-check/
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Redstate writes: For more than a year, Sodexo has endured being targeted by the SEIU. Being on the SEIU hit list for the company’s refusal to turn its workforce over to the purple behemoth, the SEIU has (allegedly) engaged in rallies, unlawful retaliation against Sodexo employees, as well as other, equally ugly, tactics such as:
  • Throwing plastic roaches onto food being served by Sodexo USA at a high profile event;
  • Scaring hospital patients by insinuating that Sodexo USA food contained bugs, rat droppings, mold and flies;
  • Lying to interfere with Sodexo USA business and sneaking into elementary schools to avoid security;
  • Violating lobbying laws to steer business away from Sodexo USA, even at the risk of costing Sodexo USA employees their jobs; and
  • Harassing Sodexo USA employees by threatening to accuse them of wrongdoing.
Now, Sodexo appears to have had enough.
On Thursday, Sodexo filed a civil lawsuit against the SEIU under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (more commonly known as RICO). http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/03/18/sodexo-slaps-seiu-cockroaches-with-rico-suit/
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Yahoo Finance reveals: A new assessment of President Barack Obama's budget released Friday says the White House underestimates future budget deficits by more than $2 trillion over the upcoming decade.
The estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that if Obama's February budget submission is enacted into law it would produce deficits totaling $9.5 trillion over 10 years -- an average of almost $1 trillion a year.

The difference is chiefly because CBO has a less optimistic estimate of how much the government will collect in tax revenues, partly because the administration has rosier economic projections.
But the agency also rejects the administration's claims of more than $300 billion of that savings -- to pay for preventing a cut in Medicare payments to doctors -- because it doesn't specify where it would come from. Likewise, CBO fails to credit the White House with an additional $328 billion that would come from unspecified "bipartisan financing" to pay for transportation infrastructure projects such as high speed rail lines and road and bridge construction.  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/CBO-Obama-understates-apf-1323525507.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=
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Gateway Pundit reveals: THEY NEVER STOP
Just when you thought this radical administration was ready to cut back on their socialist agenda they surprise you with another shockingly radical initiative.
Team Obama announced this week the formation of their American Conservation Youth Corps.
Through the 21CSC America’s young people will be indoctrinatoed to play a key role in “reducing the impacts of climate change on our natural resources.”  http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/03/unreal-obama-adminstration-announces-creation-of-conservation-youth-corps-of-america/
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Real Clear Politics publishes these quotes:  Michael Moore tweets that President Obama should return his Nobel Peace Prize after he approved military strikes on Libya.......
Newt Gingrich says: "What leads you to believe that if he stayed home and spent every day in the White House it would be any better? This is an amateur team engaged in amateur opportunism and I think there is no evidence that they have a clue what they are doing. It is truly a little frightening. You know, you can be fairly incompetent domestically and it increases the deficit or weakens the economy, but if you are incompetent in national security matters it has really big long term problems," Newt Gingrich told Laura Ingraham on her show today.

Lt. Col. Oliver North says French President Sarkozy forced President Obama's hand because they were going to go in with or without him. North says that is when Obama sent Secretary of State Clinton in, but the strike against Libya was inevitable at that point.  "Obama Has Made Sarkozy Leader Of The Free World."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/20/michael_moore_to_obama_return_your_nobel_peace_prize.html
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Townhall writes: It seems like it was just yesterday when we had an "imperialist warmonger" in the White House who was going to be replaced by a peace-loving Democrat who promised "hope" and "change" instead. It's funny how that worked out, isn't it? We still have troops in Iraq, we've escalated the war in Afghanistan, and now we're bombing everything that moves in Libya. Yet, the same liberals who were protesting in the streets and calling George Bush a war criminal have mostly been meek and quiet about the fact that the President they supported has been following in George Bush's footsteps. http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/03/22/7_questions_for_liberals_about_obamas_libyan_war/page/full/
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Here is how it works for many teachers, according to Arizona Central: Phoenix's Isaac School District, which plans to shutter schools and lay off employees because of money problems, will let Superintendent Carlos Bejarano retire June 30 and return to his same job - with the same compensation and perks - the next day.
Bejarano, 58, will retain his $130,000 annual salary, an $8,400 car allowance, an $8,000 annual tax-deferred annuity, and a $3,000 community-affairs allowance to use at his discretion. The district also will give him $11,238 so he can buy health-insurance coverage, according to district officials.
Bejarano will receive an annual pension estimated at $104,650 after retiring with 35 years of service, records reviewed by The Arizona Republic show, bringing his total annual compensation to roughly $265,000.
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Examiner.com writer asks: So here's the $64 question -- what if US military involvement in Libya goes beyond the 90 day limit that the Commander in Chief has, as mandated by the War Powers Act of 1973?
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Monday, March 21, 2011

No Senate Input on Libya; Gadhafi's Mustard Gas; Gadafi Addresses Obama; "Yes We Can Becomes "Er, Maybe We Shouldn't"; Farrakhan's Warning to Barack; 78% of NYC Voters Against Tenure; San Francisco Pension Crisis; John McCarron Predicts Walker Win in Wisconsin

Jeff Emanuel at Redstate writes: As you may have heard, the U.S. is now at war in Libya, leading a coalition of a dozen or so countries (including some nebulous group of “Arab nations” of which only Qatar will allow itself to be publicly named) in offshore SEAD strikes and anti-aircraft patrols against a country whose sole resources are oil and terrorism.  In this case, of course, there have been no presidential addresses to the nation explaining exactly what our rationale is for this action, and laying out our specific goals (contrast this to, to pick one example from the Iraq War run-up, President Bush’s statement to the nation explaining exactly why he was preparing to go to war there, and giving Saddam Hussein and his sons 72 hours to leave Iraq as a means of averting that war).  In fact, the president isn’t even on this continent right now; he’s in Rio, and he’s canceled any opportunities the press may have had to ask him questions about anything, including Libya.
That lack of explanation doesn’t appear to reach only to the American people themselves. Based on the statements of Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman, and of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen (whom you’d think would be a fairly important player in this action), Obama hasn’t bothered to tell the Senate or his highest military brass what the actual goal of our action in Libya is.  http://www.redstate.com/users/jeff_emanuel/
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The Right Scoop writes: West says that as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and considering his lengthy military background he should have been consulted before we started a new combat front with Libya. Instead, he says, Congress was sent home to their districts and the next thing you know is that the US is engaged militarily with Libya. He says he’s not even sure what the mission is: http://www.therightscoop.com/allen-west-very-concerned-about-military-mission-in-libya/
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The Wall St. Journal online writes: U.S. intelligence agencies are watching for signs that a desperate Col. Moammar Gadhafi, under attack from a coalition air assault, could resort to acts of terrorism against Western targets.
Col. Gadhafi has extensive stockpiles of mustard gas and high explosives at his disposal that could be used in attacks against targets in Europe or against his own people. He also has a documented history of orchestrating strikes against civilians and other world leaders.
"U.S. officials are keeping an eye on that possibility," one U.S. official said. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703292304576212893002664106.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
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Times Now reveals this from Gaddafi: "Libya is not for you, Libya is for the Libyans," he said.

Details of Gaddafi's letters were released by the Libyan government spokesman at a news conference in Tripoli. Defending his decision to attack rebel cities, Gaddafi told Obama, "Al Qaeda is an armed organisation, passing through Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. What would you do if you found them controlling American cities with the power of weapons? What would you do, so I can follow your example."

Trying to strike a personal note, Gaddafi prefaced his letter saying, "To our son, his excellency, Mr Baracka Hussein Obama. I have said to you before, that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, god forbid, you will always remain a son. Your picture will not be changed."  http://www.timesnow.tv/Gaddafi-defends-attack-on-rebels/articleshow/4368205.cms
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"Ineffectual, invisible, unable to honour pledges and now blamed for letting Gaddafi off the hook. Why Obama’s gone from ‘Yes we can’ to ‘Er, maybe we shouldn’t’..."
Express.co.UK opines: Let us cast our minds back to those remarkable days in November 2008 when the son of a Kenyan goatherd was elected to the White House. It was a bright new dawn – even brighter than the coming of the Kennedys and their new Camelot. JFK may be considered as being from an ethnic and religious minority – Irish and Catholic – but he was still very rich and very white. Barack Obama, by contrast, was a true breakthrough president. The world would change because obviously America had changed.


Obama’s campaign slogan was mesmerisingly simple and brimming with self-belief: “Yes we can.” His presidency, however, is turning out to be more about “no we won’t.” Even more worryingly, it seems to be very much about: “Maybe we can… do what, exactly?“
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/235196/Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-#ixzz1Gyx39mRF -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Farrakhan: "I warn my brother [Barack Obama] do you let these wicked demons move you in a direction that will absolutely ruin your future with your people in Africa and throughout the Arab world... Why don't you organize a group of respected Americans and ask for a meeting with Qaddafi, you can't order him to step down and get out, who the hell do you think you are?  http://nation.foxnews.com/louis-farrakhan/2011/03/19/who-hell-do-you-think-your-are-farrakhan-blast-obama-calling-qaddafi-step
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The New York Post writes: A whopping 78 percent of New York City voters said teacher layoffs should be based on performance, not the seniority-based "last-in, first out" law, a poll released today found.
Even 63 percent of voters in union households agree that layoffs should be based on merit, not LIFO, according to the Quinnipiac College survey.
Meanwhile 73 percent of voters said layoffs of cops, firefighters and other government workers should be determined by performance, not seniority. And a majority of voters in union households agree.
The results mirror the findings of a statewide poll released last month, which found that 85 percent of voters backed the elimination of LIFO.
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Beforeitsnews reveals: San Francisco's public pension crisis is way worse than many thought... The San Francisco Employees Retirement System (SFERS), which covers most of the city's municipal workers,faces an unfunded liability of $4.4 billion on a market value basis. That's nearly $35,000 per every San Francisco household.

...SFERS' reported liability is based on an optimistic 7.75% annual rate of return. If the 1990-1999 historical average rate of return - 6.2% - is used, the city's unfunded pension liability grows to $6.8 billion.
...The city also reports more than $4.364 billion in unfunded retiree health care costs. That figure will likely grow to $9.5 billion by 2028. Without major policy changes, "the probability of San Francisco meeting its unfunded health care obligation is zero."  [Those union contracts are working out so well, aren't they?  It is so bad that I wonder how many states will go to the United States citizens to pay their pension deficits - to bail out their states?  I think that if this should ever happen, that state should be without any voting representation in the US House of Representatives and the Senate - just to encourage them to get back on track.]  http://beforeitsnews.com/story/494/018/Thank_a_union_boss:_workers_shell-shocked_after_half_of_Costa_Mesa_employees_are_laid_off_and_one_apparently_commits_suicide.html
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Democrats are being lured into a battle they cannot win, according to John McCarron, in the Chicago Tribune.
"Benefits are another story. Most salaried workers in the private sector, where defined-contribution 401(k) plans are the norm, can only dream of the defined benefits common in the public sector. And most salaried private-sector workers — which is to say most workers — can only dream of benefits that vest in as little as 10 years, or full vesting at age 50, or cash credit for untaken sick or vacation days or minimal contribution to health insurance premiums, even in retirement.
So hit those picket lines, fellow Democrats, and wave your union-made signs. Me? I'll sit this one out. You're not wrong to defend union bennies, just naive. Get back to me when the fight shifts to someplace we can win."
John McCarron teaches, writes and consults on urban affairs.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/19/republicans-seek-sell-disposable-federal-lands-help-pay-debt/#ixzz1H8vr9kAo
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