Mass SNAFU

Barack Obama's Amerca, err, America

Some of the local SEIU members showed up at Al Sharpton's counter rally on Saturday and were proudly displaying this banner:

 
If only that had been a teacher's union.  Oh well, I guess the SEIU version of the American Dream doesn't include a quality education.

NJ Governor Chris Christie tells it like it is

The video below is a few days old but it is priceless.  The governor tells a disgruntled teacher that if she doesn't like the pay then she doesn't "have to do it."  After arguing incessantly over her monetary compensation from the state, the teacher then says "teachers teach because they love it."  

This guy is a breath of fresh air and is making many a conservative proud in the way he's taking on the establishment and reigning in the tax and spend philosophy.

SEIU thug tactics on full display

The SEIU - Obama's union of choice - has been crossing the line of acceptable behavior for years and as its former president Andy Stern once said "If we can't use the power of persuasion, we will use the persuasion of power."  Translation: support our radical agenda or we will intimidate and bring violence your way.

That mentality was on full display as 14 buses carrying 500 SEIU thugs descended upon the lawn of an attorney for Bank of America.  His teenage son was the only one home at the time and was understandably scared for his life when he woke up to see a mob of half a thousand purple-shirted people-beaters screaming on his front lawn.

Now keep in mind this was the private property of a United States citizen these mindless sheep were trespassing on, allegedly to protest bank “greed.”  Megyn Kelley from Fox News actually had some idiot on that was sticking up for these tools.  Via Red State:

That guy is a leftist hack without a clue and no matter what anyone says, it is never acceptable to intimidate someone in their own home - no matter how high the interest rate of your credit card.  Ever. Take it to their office and send your message there. Period.

Anyway, the interesting thing is that this may have been about a whole lot more than the populist cry of greedy bankers taking advantage of the downtrodden.  As Liberty Chick points out at Big Government, SEIU is in some deep financial trouble:

Perhaps the most important piece of information of all that was left out of the posts from SEIU, the Huffington Post, and Media Matters is the fact that Bank of America is one of SEIU’s major creditors.

In 2007, the SEIU owed Bank of America nearly $95 Million.

By the end of 2008, SEIU owed more than $156 Million in total outstanding liabilities.  Only six years prior, its liabilities were $8 Million.  And we’re not even addressing their debts to other banks, like $15 Million with Amalgamated Bank.

Perhaps all that campaigning for President Obama has emboldened the union to think that they deserve a free pass on their debts to Bank of America, and encouraged them to employ their usual thuggish shakedown tactics.

SEIU has historically underfunded the retirement plans of its rank and file members and was banking on card check and millions of new members – and their financial contributions – to balance out the hole they’ve created with reckless spending on politicians open to their agenda.  With card check all but dead in Congress, trying to wipe out $156 million owed to BofA via old school, Chicago-like, ACORN-style intimidation tactics makes a lot of sense.

What that GM ad should have said

GM created a very misleading ad claiming they had paid back their government loan in full 5 years ahead of schedule.  Unfortunately for GM, that wasn't exactly the case.  At all.  They merely took money from a taxpayer funded escrow account to pay off part of their loan and attempted - with the blessing of U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner - to con America into thinking what a great and fiscally responsible company GM had become.

Well, someone made a spoof of the GM ad and added the actual facts in place of their absurd claims:

H/T Michelle Malkin

The liberal Utopia sets itself a modern day record with 12.6% jobless rate

 

Oh, when will they learn:

California's unemployment rate reached a new high of 12.6% in March, bolstering fears that a weak labor market will remain a drag on the state's economy at least through the end of the year.

The unemployment rate in February was 12.5%.

Despite hints of an economic turnaround, some of the 2.3 million unemployed in the state found March the toughest month yet. That's because tens of thousands have been out of work so long that their unemployment checks will be cut off within the next few weeks. They're not helped by the $18-billion measure signed Thursday by President Obama that extends jobless benefits for many Americans through June 2.

The Employment Development Department estimates that about 100,000 Californians will have exhausted their benefits by this weekend.

I’ve said it before, California is slowly becoming the state version of Detroit.  On the surface, big government and big labor always seem to be doing something in the best interest of someone – in the short term, at least – but the ability to pay for it long term is always ignored.  Throw in big taxes and you’ve got yourself a Pandora’s Box bursting at the seams.

California just might be the lucky beneficiary of the next big bailout from the Obama administration.  He might as well own California too, right?

A case study in government policy: California vs. Texas

Michael Barone has a very interesting article today at Town Hall in which he compares the liberal utopia that is the state of California with the much more conservative leaning state of Texas. As Barone states in his piece, California has gone all in on big government – with big taxes, big labor and big deficits – and the damage has been devastating:

Democrats hold large margins in the legislature largely because affluent voters in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area favor their liberal positions on cultural issues.

Those Democratic majorities have obediently done the bidding of public employee unions to the point that state government faces huge budget deficits. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to reduce the power of the Democrati-union combine with referenda was defeated in 2005 when public employee unions poured $100 million -- all originally extracted from taxpayers -- into effective TV ads.

Californians have responded by leaving the state. From 2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates, there has been a domestic outflow of 1,509,000 people from California -- almost as many as the number of immigrants coming in. Population growth has not been above the national average and, for the first time in history, it appears that California will gain no House seats or electoral votes from the reapportionment following the 2010 Census.

Texas, on the other hand, has been a model of conservative principles and is in a much different position than California, as in, they're way better off:    

Texas has low taxes -- and no state income taxes -- and a much smaller government. Its legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, compared to California's year-round legislature. Its fiscal condition is sound. Public employee unions are weak or nonexistent. But Texas seems to be delivering superior services. Its teachers are paid less than California's.

But its test scores -- and with a demographically similar school population -- are higher. California's once fabled freeways are crumbling and crowded. Texas has built gleaming new highways in metro Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the meantime, Texas' economy has been booming. Unemployment rates have been below the national average for more than a decade, as companies small and large generate new jobs.

And unlike California, people are moving to Texas and staying put. California – the once gleaming destination of warm weather and a land of opportunity – is morphing into the state version of Detroit, slowly being destroyed by the unintended consequences of liberal policy.

Big Labor: now about as popular as George Bush at a Code Pink rally

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows the popularity of the Big Labor unions in steady decline:

Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions' purpose and power. Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions while about as many (42%) express an unfavorable opinion. In January 2007, a clear majority (58%) had a favorable view of unions while just 31% had an unfavorable impression.

The latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 3-9 among 1,383 adults reached on cell phones and landlines, finds that favorable opinions of unions have fallen across demographic and partisan groups. Still, far more Democrats have favorable views of unions (56%) than do independents (38%) or Republicans (29%).

It's no secret that Obama has been a big supporter of Big Labor and vice versa, as unions donated tens of millions to Obama during his campaign. This has allowed Big Labor unprecedented access to the White House as Andy Stern (above), head of SEIU, can attest. He has been at the top of the president's most frequent visitor list, as he meets with him weekly, and while he's there he can say hello to the numerous Big Labor appointees currently working in the Obama administration. How's that for some quid pro quo? As always, money talks – so much so, I imagine scenarios like this:

White House Aide: "Mr. President, General McChystal is on the phone from the Afghan theater."
Obama: (rolling eyes) "I talked to him a month ago. Take a message. I'm talking to Andy about tax exemptions for his members and card check."

This "pay-for-play" relationship is indicative of a change in tactics by Big Labor where they have gotten away from their traditional, core-principle of protecting workers rights and morphed into political action committees for Democratic candidates and their agendas. These unions have also become "messengers of hope" for the Democratic Party and have sent out thugs to promote their agenda with, as Andy Stern likes to say, the "persuasion of power." We saw this repeatedly with SEIU thugs in purple shirts beating down those with a different agenda at Town Hall meetings a few months back.

Some would argue that with the passage of numerous labor laws designed to protect the worker, the need for unions has declined and this new tact was necessary to justify their very existence. Nonetheless, as the declining poll numbers show, a majority of Americans don't seem too enthused with Big Labor's new focus. This is especially true with the elderly who remember unions when they were focused on the worker, as Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points out:

These voters remember the heyday of unions, when they existed to actually protect workers from abuses.  Three years ago, seniors overwhelmingly approved of unions, 60/28.  Today, they overwhelmingly disapprove, 29/51.  The 31-point drop in approval is the worst among the demographics, and it represents a staggering 54-point reversal in the gap.

The general decline in popularity is worrisome enough for Democrats but a 54-point reversal in the elderly demographic – the Holy Grail of voting blocks – is going to turn heads. A lot of them. Vulnerable Democrats who have been knee deep in Big Labor may have to rethink their positions this election year and distance themselves from the pay-for-play thuggery many unions now represent.

A case study in leftist policies: Detroit, Michigan

Detroit currently looks like Hiroshima days after the explosion, as the video above from last year will attest.  The city currently sports an unemployment rate of 15%, has the nation's lowest graduation rate at under 25% and its highest crime rate, and a median home price at around $6000.   

So how did a city that was once one of the country's wealthiest drop so far so fast? Simple: in large part, unchecked liberal policies that created huge entitlement programs and a dependence on the government started the spiral into urban armageddon.  Add in out of control unions and you pretty much get Detroit today.

If any of that sounds familiar, it should: it's what those on the Left are attempting to accomplish on a national level today.

Watch the video in its entirety to get a glimpse of what the liberal Utopia ultimately ends up looking like and why we need to stop it dead in its tracks.

The latest victim of the Obama agenda: Big Labor

Big Labor is pissed that President Obama's nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker, didn't pass muster with the Senate, failing to get the 60 required votes, 52-33. After all, in their minds, Big Labor unions that now serve as Democratic Political Action Committees – who donate millions of their member's dues to get democratic candidates elected in order to help advance their agendas – should be getting something in return for their contributions.

And one of those favors, according to those in Big Labor, should have been a seamless Senate confirmation of Becker. But as Ed Morrissey points out today at Hot Air, guys like Becker and the far-Left unions in general, are no longer representative of mainstream America and the results are starting to show:

The problem for unions isn't that Democrats are weak allies, but that Labor's goals have become so radical as to split the only party that will countenance them. In decades past, unions fought for reasonable access to health insurance, workplace safety, and job security, an agenda that could win broad support from both parties.  Over the last twenty years, the unions have become much more interested in hard-Left policies such as universal health care, and in staking out ridiculous demands on the labor-management relationship, attempting to win through government force what it could never gain through any reasonable negotiation.

Becker makes a good poster child for the shift in unions.  Becker has argued for forced union representation, asserting that workers cannot legitimately choose not to be represented by a union but only should be allowed to choose which union that will take their dues.  That's not a mainstream view in America, or anywhere else.  Their rabid support for Becker to get confirmed to the NRLB demonstrates the radicalization of a a movement based initially on pragmatism, and the curdling of its core mission to protect workers into a mission to enslave them.  After all, forcing workers to pay tribute to a set of leaders whom they never agreed to appoint as their representatives as a condition of continuing to work doesn't sound a lot different in principle from the days of company scrip in the West Virginia coal mines a century ago.

Card Check is another example.  The unions propose to steal the right to hold a secret ballot — a core value in American electoral processes — and impose unionization by force through a card-signing process they control.  That isn't consonant with mainstream American values.  But it does show the desperation of unions that have failed to remain relevant, losing membership thanks to both the success in mainstreaming workplace protections into law over the last 70 years and to the radical, hard-Left agenda the movement now embraces.

Many of the unions, and their radical agendas, have morphed into political liabilities for many politicians and the days of quid pro quo for campaign contributions may be over, or at least minimized due to the absurdity of the crap they're asking politicians to vote for. Many on the left may deny this, but the political climate has changed dramatically after one year of the Obama radical agenda. The losses in VA, NJ and MA and all the latest polls are screaming "hey, we don't want what you want!" or better yet "we don't want to pay for what you want!" and politicians, now being watched like hawks by an angry electorate, have to vote accordingly to remain employed.

And the unions are just the latest in the mounting pile of collateral damage due to this dynamic brought on by this president's unpopular agenda.