Unions Chant "Pork, Pork, Pork!" John Ransom

If you read me regularly, you’ll know that there are very few things that I feel strongly about ;-). I’m kind of a wilting violet in print, who tries hard not to impose his views on readers. Instead, I paint words pictures of objective fact, interlaced with strongly-reasoned logical progressions that allows readers to form their own opinions unguided by me. (Take a deep breath here, and clean the coffee off your nose, chin, lips and computer screen)

Today is no different.

Unions suck.

Really they do. I have said this before, as an objective fact:

(Editor's note: This column orginally appeared on December 14th)

“They suck the money out of our wallets,” I wrote in July, “they suck productivity out of workers; and suck up all the leavings from the public trough. Increasingly, the public has had it with the private country clubs known as ‘public’ unions.”

The trouble with education, much public policy, government spending and the every-twenty-five-year bailout of auto companies in this country starts and ends with unions. I continued:

They are out-of- touch museum relics, fitting for a day that used rotary presses to distribute the news, but wildly inappropriate for an age that‘s both wired and wireless. Unions have prevented, and continue to prevent, much-needed reforms in education, public finance and government. They cultivate a sense of entitlement wholly out of order for the times, which call for more self-reliance and entrepreneurship.



Union advocates like to reply to this thesis- with good reason- by sticking fingers in their ears, jumping up and down in place, saying “pork, pork, pork,” while vaguely threatening the voting public with vengeance if unions don’t get more “pork.”

The good reason they chose this line of attack is that they have no logical argument to make.

They are like the man told to us by Patrick Henry.

Amid the general joy and shouts of triumph by the freezing, threadbare American army that accepted the surrender of the British army under Cornwallis at Yorktown, Henry tells us, was one John Hook, who could only think of the beef he lost, confiscated to provide food for the starving, yet victorious army.

“But hark!” says Henry. “What notes of discord are these that disturb the general joy and silence the acclimations of victory? They are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely bawling through the American camp ‘Beef! Beef! Beef !’” in protest of his loss.

So it goes with unions.

Cities may go bankrupt, police may be laid off, public safety endangered and public finance corrupted but the unions get paid first, no matter what.

As real-life mobster and union delegate Henry Hill explained it in the movie Goodfellas: “Business bad? F-- you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? F-- you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? F-- you, pay me."

That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us that while most of America hails Michigan for victory in passing a right-to-work law in the union-controlled state that borders Canada, the unions are complaining about their beef- and their benefits. They did much the same in Madison in 2011 as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker forced unions to compete in an open way for benefit contracts. And despite union grousing, the world did not come to an end in Wisconsin. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Magically, school districts on the verge of financial ruin suddenly were able to find millions of dollars in new money. How did that magic act happen?

“When the Appleton School District put its health-insurance contract up for bid for instance,” writes the City-Journal, “WEA Trust [the benefit provider run by the union] suddenly lowered its rates and promised to match any competitor’s price. Appleton will save $3 million during the current school year.” That open bidding process outside of the union monopoly was a result of Walker’s reforms.

And it reduced costs without degrading benefits.

So now, $3 million will go directly into the classroom, which is what teachers tell us they really care about. So now, $3 million will allow the district to retain employees, which what the union ought to care most about.

And that’s also what’s at stake in Michigan.

Right-to-work means an end to the union monopoly on employment. It means that more people can have jobs. It means that unions have to provide a competitive environment or their customers will leave.

But in the up-is-down, black-is-white and right-is-wrong world of unions, progressives and mental patients, a competitive environment must be avoided at all costs. That's way too much pressure.

“Exclusivity for a union with majority support is not a monopoly, it is democracy,” said Brenda Smith, local head of the AFL-CIO affiliated American Federation of Teachers and apparently an Orwell fan. “It is order rather than chaos. It allows employees to select their representative freely, without coercion from the employer. It allows them to amplify their voice through collective action under our constitutionally protected right to freedom of association.” And for unions freedom of association means workers are given only one representative, one association, one, non-dissenting voice carefully following the party line

Spoken like a true Menshevik.

Freedom of association, in a free society, also includes the right to NOT associate, especially with known associates, like union thugs.

And the right not to associate is what’s at issue in Michigan.

All hail Michigan.

Ps.- This column in no way modifies my oft-stated contempt for the University of Michigan Wolverines, it’s alumni, faculty, football team, basketball team, traditions or history. I’m not even sure they are still an accredited university.

While Feds Dawdle, States Tackle Fiscal Problems. Michael Barone

Democrats in Washington declare that they will absolutely, positively allow no changes whatever in the nation's unsustainable entitlement programs -- Social Security and Medicare.

But out in the states, politicians of both parties aren't averting their gaze from impending fiscal crises. They are working to change policies that put state governments on an unsustainable trajectory.

The most obvious example was the passage of a right-to-work law last week in Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers union.

This was retaliation for a failed power grab by both the UAW and public sector unions -- Proposition 2, which would have enshrined collective bargaining in the state constitution.

Michigan voters defeated Prop 2 last month by a 58 to 42 percent margin. It won in the two counties that include the effectively bankrupt cities of Detroit and Flint. It lost in the other 81 counties.

Right-to-work means that no one can be forced to join a union. The law also stops the automatic deduction of union dues from public employees' paychecks -- which is to say, taxpayer funding of the public employee unions that have driven costs and pensions on an unsustainable path.

Gov. Rick Snyder was initially reluctant to push right-to-work. But he saw that neighboring Indiana was attracting new jobs after it passed right-to-work last winter, while Michigan was losing jobs.

Michigan's law is similar to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's law limiting public employee unions' bargaining powers and stopping the automatic flow of taxpayer money to union treasuries. Unions there protested, but Walker prevailed in a June 2012 recall election.

The Michigan and Wisconsin laws were partisan Republican measures, opposed by all local Democrats. Republicans have leverage elsewhere, as well.

They hold the governorships and legislative majorities in 24 states with 52 percent of the nation's population (25 states with 53 percent if you count Nebraska with its nonpartisan single-chamber legislature). They also hold governorships but not legislative majorities in five more states with 6 percent of the nation's population.

In contrast, only 13 states with 30 percent of the nation's people have Democratic governors and legislatures. But even where Democrats are dominant there are stirrings of reform.

Consider Rhode Island, where Democratic state Treasurer Gina Raimondo has worked to limit the state's unsustainable pension obligations. The state pension fund is currently paying out more to retirees than it's taking in from current employees, and instead of getting an 8.25 percent return on investments, it has been getting 2.5 percent.

Rhode Island has hired Democrat super-lawyer David Boies to bring a lawsuit to reduce the state's pension obligations. "There's no contract," Boies said. "Even if there was a contract, the state, pursuing the public interest, has the right to modify contracts."

Or consider New Jersey, where Republican Gov. Chris Christie has famously opposed the public employee unions. He has formed a coalition with Democratic legislators with roots in private-sector unions.

Those Democrats, like Christie, argue that public employees should not get far more generous benefits and pensions than the taxpayers who are paying for them.

Another example is the state of Washington, where last week two Democrats joined with Republicans to form a new governing coalition in the state Senate. That wouldn't have happened four years ago, when Democrats had a 31-18 edge.

But in the Obama years that margin was whittled down to 26-23, and with two defections the new coalition is ahead 25-24. It installed a supporter of charter schools and critic of teacher unions as education chairman and a skeptic on Obamacare as health care chairman.

If you look back on the great conservative public policy successes of the 1990s, welfare reform and crime control, the initiative came from the states and localities, mostly from Republican governors and mayors, but from many Democrats, as well.

Something similar seems to be happening on pensions and union contracts. A few large states, notably California and Illinois, are trying to solve their problems by raising taxes. The result seems to be unemployment above the national average.

But in many states, reform is taking hold, led by Republicans in some cases but by Democrats, as well. The fiscal squeeze is felt more urgently in the states: They can't print money and can't count on Ben Bernanke's Federal Reserve to buy 70 percent of their bonds.

Some Democrats in Congress recognize that entitlement programs are on an unsustainable path. But they're not saying much in public.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama seems to be heeding the advice of those who say entitlements must never, never be reformed.

Ohio imam gets just 1 year in $3.8M food stamp fraud
Posted on December 16, 2012 by creeping
#MyJihad
A few days ago we gave you five other examples of Muslim food stamp and medical fraud.
via Man in $3.8M food stamp fraud case sentenced | www.daytondailynews.com.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Al-Idu Al-Gaheem to one year and one day in prison for his role in a scheme that bilked $3.8 million from the federal food stamp program.
Al-Gaheem, the former owner of two Dayton View businesses and the imam of Masjid At-Taqwa mosque, was the second of four defendants to be sentenced in the case. All four defendants have pleaded guilty.
Al-Gaheem faced as many as four years in prison after he pleaded guilty in August to felony charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, food stamp trafficking and structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements.
Al-Gaheem, who previously was named Lawrence Phillips, was the owner of Five Pillars Market, 1263 W. Riverview Ave., and Riverview Cell & Cup of Dreams, 512 N. Broadway St.
Al-Gaheem worked and conspired with Abdul Yamini Sr., Abdul Qadir and Omar Yahya to defraud the food-assistance program. The men illegally paid customers 50 cents in cash for every $1 in food stamp benefits they redeemed.
Undercover law enforcement agents caught the defendants illegally trading cash for food stamp benefits and buying and selling products that are ineligible through the program, such as counterfeit clothing and firearms.
Authorities estimate that more than 1,000 transactions took place at Five Pillars Market that involved the illegal exchange of food benefits. The federal government deposited about $3.8 million into bank accounts controlled by Al-Gaheem and others as reimbursement for food benefits redeemed at Five Pillars.
Al-Gaheem repeatedly withdrew large amounts of cash from the bank account, but he always took out sums that were just less than the threshold that requires the filing of federal financial reports.
Al-Gaheem and the other defendants used the money they stole to renovate the Dayton View businesses and pay for personal expenses, such as rent, mortgage and other bills, said assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Keller.
Keller urged Judge Timothy S. Black to give Al-Gaheem the maximum prison sentence to deter him from breaking the law in the future and also to send a message that this criminal activity will not be tolerated.
“Mr. Al-Gaheem is arguably the most culpable” defendant in the case, Keller said.
Al-Gaheem’s attorney James Fleisher argued that justice would best be served by placing his client on probation or house arrest, because Al-Gaheem is an important part of his community and some family members depend on him for caregiving and financial support.
Judge Black said although Al-Gaheem had an “extraordinarily impressive” record of good deeds and charitable actions, he could not ignore his role in the criminal enterprise by only giving him “a slap on the wrist.”
Black sentenced Al-Gaheem to the same prison term that he handed down to Qadir in November.
In addition to prison, Black also ordered Al-Gaheem to be placed on three years of community control after his release.
Al-Gaheem and the other co-defendants in the case will be ordered to pay $3.8 million in restitution to the federal government, even though authorities doubt that they can even come close to paying back the money they stole.
Yamini is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 20. Yahya is scheduled to be sentenced in late February.
From our 2011 post, Ohio Imam Defrauds Taxpayers of $2 Million:
Al-Idu Al-Gaheem, the owner of Cup of Dreams and Five Pillars Market and a local imam, allegedly received more than $2.5 million in food stamp reimbursements from the federal government, between $890,000 and nearly $2 million of which was from “unexplained” food stamp charges, according to an IRS agent’s affidavit in support of seizing Al-Gaheem’s bank account.
For that he got 1 year. A lose-lose for taxpayers.
Help Share the News:
Twitter86
Facebook229
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Pinterest
Tumblr
Digg
More
Like this:
Like
Be the first to like this.
Filed under: Alerts, Creeping Sharia, FBI, Legal, Media, Mosque, News, Ohio, Politics, Religion, Sharia, Stealth Jihad Tagged: | Creeping Sharia, fbi, finance, islam, Media, Muslim, News, Politics, Religion, Sharia
« Fed judge rules against Tulsa cop punished for refusing to attend mosque
7 Responses
dannyboy88, on December 16, 2012 at 3:21 PM said:
Stories like this are not something reported on network news media, what strikes me is that , the ACLU and CAIR will most likely not be satisfied with just one year but will demand that the Obama Administration along with Eric Holder file charges against those undercover law enforcement agents for violating the Religious beliefs of the victims (Defendants)…..Most likely we will be reading blogs when Obama has those agents served…..
Reply
123321123321, on December 16, 2012 at 4:46 PM said:
So much for justice in the Courts.
Reply
behindtheberezina, on December 16, 2012 at 5:27 PM said:
I’d spend a year in jail for $890,000 without a second thought. For half that in fact. The gubment will expend no resources trying to collect that money from Muslim folk.
Reply
Anonymous, on December 16, 2012 at 8:05 PM said:
as i have said before; the muzzies will use every thing in our country against us;how much of it went for arms to kill infidels????
Reply
islamophobe, on December 16, 2012 at 8:34 PM said:
Had it been other than Allahs chosen, there would have been serious time. He likely won’t serve time. Too bad. The judge probably received a lot of death threats to get the short sentence.
Reply
bobby90247, on December 16, 2012 at 9:57 PM said:
“WOW!” I know someone that got more time than that for “petty theft!”
Reply
isahiah62, on December 17, 2012 at 1:55 AM said:
the mafia do good deeds too, give money to church- judge is an IDIOT- they need to get the MONEY BACK and set up a sting for the customer base who do this, like they do with johns and prostitutes
Reply
Talk it Out!

Tea Party Nation

The left wing has already started the narrative. In the best tradition of Rahm Emmanuel, they are not letting this crisis go to waste. They are doing their best to push it for all they can in order to get draconian gun control laws passed.

We conservatives have to seize the narrative from the left. They control most of the media but we have social media that we can use to change the narrative.

What is the narrative of this horrible shooting and other mass killings?

The narrative is that mentally ill people kill.

About 77 million Americans legally own guns. None of them went on a shooting rampage on Friday. One mentally ill man did. He was not even a gun owner. He stole those guns from his mother.

Immediately after the shooter was identified as Adam Lanza, a former classmate wrote on Twitter that he was not surprised that it was Lanza.

Lanza had a history of mental illness. According to some reports he had an altercation the day before at the school. The obvious question is why the hell wasn’t that investigated. According to another report after the altercation, Lanza tried to buy guns at Dick’s Sporting Good. Why didn’t this show up on some people’s radar? You have a mentally ill person who has a fight then tries to buy guns?

This is the one area I agree with the gun control nuts. The mentally ill should not be allowed to possess firearms.

But the problem is not guns; the problem is the mentally ill.

On July 20, 2012, James Holmes open fire on a movie theater in Aurora Colorado. 23 people were killed. Before he committed his crime, Holmes was a psychiatric patient. Holmes is being held pretrial and his attorneys are already raising a mental health defense.

On January 8, 2011 Jared Laughner opened fire on an open-air meeting being held by Congressman Gabby Giffords. After his arrest, he was the subject of forced medication because he was mentally ill. Eventually after months of treatment, he became competent enough to enter a guilty plea.

Seung Hui Cho was a mentally ill student at Virginia Tech. On April 16, 2007, he went to the campus and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others. He took his own life.

Again, the shooter was mentally ill.

Here is the problem.

We have 77 million legal gun owners. These are not the problem. The problem is the mentally ill. In this nation, it is almost impossible to commit someone who is mentally ill before they commit a crime.

In the 70’s the mentally ill were hospitalizes. In the 80’s the trend became to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill. Today, even if you do pose a threat to someone it is almost impossible to do anything about the mentally ill.

Instead the left wants to strip Americans of their rights. Our founding fathers knew that two types of people want a disarmed citizenry. The first was criminals and the second is tyrants.

The left is going to use this most recent and horrific crime to try and strip our 2nd Amendment rights away.

We need to change the narrative and we can do it through social media.

The problem is not guns. The problem is the mentally ill.

Not ever mentally ill person is a threat. Some lady who is OCD who spends four hours a day cleaning her kitchen is not a threat. But there are mentally ill people who are.

Those are the people we need to watch and in some cases institutionalize.

But one thing is certain. We must beat back the narrative that guns are the issue and we must fight back on that narrative or we will find tyranny taking away yet another one of our rights and our freedom.



Tags: adam, aurora, colorado, holmes, ill, james, jared, lanza, loughner, mentally, More…
Like 13 members like this ShareTwitter
Views: 974
▶ Reply to This

Finger Pointing...Blame the guns...Divert Attention From Obama/Congress Failures!

Obama administration, Congress quietly let school security funds lapse | WashingtonGuardian
http://www.washingtonguardian.com/washingtons-school-security-failure

Pro-Union Activist Threatens the Michigan Governor: 'We'll Be at Your Daughter's Soccer Game'

Pro-Union Activist THUG Threatens the Michigan Governor: 'We'll Be at Your Daughter's Soccer Game'

Russia denies it is switching support to Syrian rebels - Europe - World - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-denies-it-is-switching-support-to-syrian-rebels-8418172.html