op ed review 12/16
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
With Michigan
the latest state to pass a right-to-work law, the national movement has its
eyes on the next prize. And that could be one of several other states.
"We´ve been active for a long time in a bunch of states where we´d like to
see things move forward," said Greg Mourad, vice president of the National
Right to Work Committee. "Those include Wisconsin,
Missouri, Indiana,
Ohio and Kentucky." Michigan became the 24th state on Tuesday to
pass laws that prohibit requiring employees to join a union or to pay fees
comparable to union dues to be employed.
Union goons destroyed Clint Tarver’s hot dog cart, which he
has operated since 1996: another
casualty of the union protest against the right-to-work law. Union members
destroyed the cart and called Tarver an “Uncle Tom,” among other racist
epithets, for serving right-to-work proponents
As protests against Michigan’s
right-to-work laws swelled, pro-union Democrat legislator Douglas Geiss took to
the state House floor – and Twitter – to promise violence. “…there will be
blood.”
Obama schedules photo-ops, parties, golf as ‘cliff’ nears
House Speaker Boehner said that unless Obama makes
further concessions on spending cuts, Washington
will head over the cliff and into a series of tax hikes and massive budget
reductions. "The president wants to pretend spending isn't the problem.
That's why we don't have an agreement," said Boehner, R-Ohio.
"Unfortunately, the White House is so unserious about cutting spending
that it appears willing to slow-walk our economy right up to -- and over -- the
fiscal cliff." Meanwhile, a group of Democrats sent Obama a letter warning
him against accepting Republican proposals to reduce entitlement programs.
A new poll conducted by Politico/GWU/Battleground finds that
76 percent of Americans favor "Cutting government spending across the
board."
By federal law, the Obama-Biden campaign is supposed to
disband. But it shows no signs of disbanding, and is instead launching a whole
new campaign. In an email sent out today and signed by Obama campaign deputy
manager Stephanie Cutter, Obama-Biden is urging supporters to flood the capitol
switchboard in Washington
with calls to Republican congressman. Callers are urged to pressure GOPers into
caving to the president’s demand for higher taxes
President Obama travelled to Michigan and made his case for class war in
defense of the welfare state. In Detroit,
34.5% are on Food Stamps, 45.7% are not in Labor Force...
After an election in which President Obama stoked class
warfare and demonized the rich, he will now appoint the richest man in the
Senate to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
Only 15 states have told the federal government they plan to
operate health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama's reform law,
leaving Washington
with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for two-thirds of the
country.
Get ready for the costs and chaos of Obamacare: “it turns out Pelosi was wrong. In fact, we
have to implement Obamacare so that you can find out what is in it.”
For months, federal agencies and the White House have
sidetracked dozens of major regulations that cover everything from power plant
pollution to workplace safety to a crackdown on Wall Street. The rules had been
largely put on hold during the presidential campaign…..But since the election,
the Obama administration has quietly reopened the regulations pipeline.
Coming to Washington
State:
“Denver
Drug Agent: Our Problems ‘Have Exploded’ With Pot Legalization - Experts
Have New Concerns About Pot & Children”
In a huge win for gun-rights groups, a divided federal
appeals court in Chicago Tuesday tossed the
state’s ban on carrying concealed weapons and gave Illinois’ Legislature 180 days to craft a
law legalizing concealed carry.
Turns out the State Department security force at Benghazi was
unarmed.
"Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created
in the United States
over the last five months are in government, according to official data
published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Beijing and Shanghai each have more
multi-millionaires now than Los
Angeles. Among "ultra-high-net-worth
individuals.", Beijing
has 1,318 people in that group. Shanghai
has 2,028. Both are higher than Los
Angeles, which has 950 people worth $30 million or
more.
According to the National Association of Realtors, non-American
buyers accounted for $82 billion in home sales last year. More than $7 billion
of that is by the Chinese, who are now the second largest foreign home
purchasers after Canadians. They're buying high-end, multimillion-dollar homes
from California to New York and paying cash.
A Chinese car parts maker has won the auction for bankrupt US battery
maker A123 Systems. In October, A123 – which was awarded a $249m
grant from the US
government – became the latest stimulus-backed company to file for bankruptcy,
prompting a fresh round of attacks on President Barack Obama’s support for
emerging energy technologies.
President Obama has been pictured shaking hands with a South
Korean rapper who sang about wanting to kill American soldiers. PSY, born Park
Jae-sang, performed at a White House charity event on Sunday, despite a deeply
controversial performance in 2004 that has shocked and outraged American fans.
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED
COLUMN
Investor’s Business
Daily 12/11
The president says right-to-work laws mean "the right
to work for less money." So how does he explain the fact that incomes are
up in RTW states while forced unionism is a proven job killer?
Campaigning Monday in Michigan
as it stood poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work state, President
Obama spoke the exact opposite of the truth to union workers at a Daimler
Detroit Diesel plant in the birthplace of organized labor. "What we
shouldn't be doing," he told the small crowd, "is trying to take away
your rights to bargain for better wages. We don't want a race to the bottom. We
want a race to the top."
Yet looking at the hard numbers, becoming a right-to-work
state is a direct line to the top. According to Michigan's Mackinac Center,
using data taken from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor
Statistics, private-sector, inflation-adjusted employee compensation in
right-to-work states increased by 12% between 2001 and 2011 compared with just
3% over the same period in forced-unionization states.
These good wages came from good jobs. Employment in
right-to-work states expanded 2.4% over the same stretch vs. a 3.4% decline in
non-right-to-work states. Ironically, Obama is taking credit for jobs created
in RTW states.
According to the National Institute for Labor Relations
Research, right-to-work states (excluding Indiana,
which passed a RTW law in early 2012) "were responsible for 72% of all net
household job growth across the U.S.
from June 2009 through September 2012." This is why people vote with their
feet and move to these states. RTW states experienced large population gains of
15.3% from 2000 to 2010, compared to 5.9% in non-RTW states.
Obama did get one thing right, though, when he said the
bills that passed both houses of the Michigan
legislature "don't have to do with economics. They have everything to do
with politics." The president who fought Boeing's expansion in RTW South
Carolina knows it's all about his keeping union dues flowing into Democratic
coffers and maintaining the plush lifestyles of the union leaders who support
him.
Michigan
law will now bar requiring workers to pay money to a third party, namely
unions, as a condition of employment. This has given rise to the big lie that
workers who refuse to join a union and pay dues will get a "free
ride" enjoying the benefits of union representation without contributing
to that representation.
"No one is forced to join a union," said House
Democratic Caucus Leader Tim Greimel, although workers in Michigan were forced to if they wanted a job
at a union shop. "They're asked to pay their fair share of the collective
bargaining process. (RTW) gives them the chance to freeload and
free-ride."
Yet in its most recent federal filings, the Michigan
Education Association said "representational activities" (money spent
on bargaining contracts for members) made up only 11% of total spending for the
union. Most of the rest went under the category "general overhead,"
which included union administration and, of course, the union political
activities that include lobbying for more government spending. It's the unions
that are getting a "free ride."
If unions satisfied workers, one would expect their
membership to at least remain constant. But between 2000 and 2010, union
membership declined by 9.5% in non-RTW states and 9.2% in RTW states. The only
growth was in government unions. Michigan's
right-to-work law is a positive blow for worker freedom and economic growth and
an example, as in Wisconsin and Indiana, of how
conservatives can win and are winning in states led by GOP governors.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"Right-to-work laws do not necessarily hobble unions;
rather, they force unions to compete for resources and prove their value to
their workers. Some unions provide obvious value: In places in which
private-sector unions already are strongly established, right-to-work laws have
in fact had little effect on union membership. The critical difference is that
workers have a choice. This is a principle that should be codified in law in
every state, and at the federal level as well. ... The shrieking in Michigan isn't about
workingmen's wages, but campaign coffers. That is why there is blood."
-National Review
"……this
conservative success in Michigan
is ... largely the result of liberal overreach. If the Dems and organized labor
hadn't been so greedy in the election ... this probably wouldn't have happened,
or at least not so fast. When the left goes too far it creates a
counter-reaction from the right. That's what the 2010 midterms were about (but,
alas, not the 2012 election). .... The fight in Washington may be bogged down, but the
fights on the ground in the various states are going better than we might of
hoped. Except of course in California,
where you people are doomed."
-Jonah Goldberg
“The counterculture, now as mainstream as the ‘60s mantra of
“sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” has been written into federal code. Rock music
achieved respectability decades ago. The Obamacare mandate that employers
provide contraception coverage at no cost will soon ensure that free sex is
indeed free. Now pot has cracked the barrier of acceptability. As “just say no”
to drugs fades into history, Americans must face the consequences of saying
yes.”
-Washington Times
"The only
reason the president insists on raising [tax] rates is because he knows it will
destroy Republican unity, it will cause a complete fracture of the Republican
majority in the house, it will hand him a Congress that he can then manipulate
for the next two years at least because the Republicans will be neutered. ...
This is entirely a political action, a way to get a surrender from the
Republicans."
-Charles Krauthammer
“Envy and covetousness are powerful emotions,
easily manipulated, and Mr. Obama is a master of manipulation. Demonizing a
neighbor in a bigger house who drives a new car is easy work. A new
Battleground Poll finds that 60 percent of Americans polled now think raising
taxes on households – not individuals but households – making more than
$250,000 a year is a good idea. The president has done a splendid job of
portraying these taxpayers as big-bellied plutocrats who summer in France, winter in St. Moritz, and dine on roast swan. But
nearly 70 percent in the Battleground Poll think raising taxes on small-businesses
earning more than $250,000 is a bad idea. Republicans have done a lousy job of
explaining that many, perhaps most, of the “rich” Americans and these small
businesses are one and the same. That’s why abusing small businesses is likely
to send the country reeling into another recession at the bottom of the cliff.
This one won’t be George W.’s fault.”
-Wes Pruden
VDH “The Real
Fat Cats” With all the talk of raising
taxes on the supposedly conservative rich who make more than $250,000 per year,
why not levy a $3 surcharge on tickets for movies, concerts, and sporting
events to “spread the wealth” from multimillionaires? That way, LeBron James
(approximate annual earnings: $53 million) or Oliver Stone (net worth:
approximately $50 million) might at last begin to “level the playing field.” Is
Michael Moore (net worth: approximately $50 million) a
one-tenth-of-one-percenter? If so, why do mansion-living-grandee movie
directors like Moore
and Stone need state subsidies and tax breaks to produce their films, when most
states are nearly as insolvent as the federal government?
Ann Coulter: “Tax rich liberals!” Republicans have been forced into a Hobson’s
choice of either letting the Bush tax cuts expire for everyone or agreeing to a
tax hike on the top 2 percent of income earners I note that rich
liberals — who somehow manage to avoid paying high taxes themselves — are
always wildly enthusiastic about raising taxes on the middle class to keep the
strivers down….Forget the top 2 percent. The top 1 percent of the top 1 percent
keep voting for higher taxes — and then take advantage of indefensible tax
loopholes and deductions. Get them…Let’s have a class warfare bloodbath!”
______________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Enlightened Marxist Harry Belafonte was on with pal Al
Sharpton this week. His advice for Obama was to imprison opposition like a
“third world dictator.”
Two weeks ago, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx made national
headlines when he called President Obama "Our lord and savior." While
hosting NBC´s Saturday Night Live this weekend, Foxx joked about how in his new
film "Django Unchained," "I kill all the white people in the
movie. How great is that?"
__________________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
Earlier this year the Obama Administration changed the way
federal agents are trained to combat terrorism and violent extremism by eliminating
all materials that shed a negative light on Muslims. Under White House orders,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) destroyed instructional material that
characterizes Muslims as prone to violence or terrorism in a government-wide
call to end Islamophobia. Under Obama practically every major federal agency
has been ordered to participate in Muslim outreach initiatives, including the
Justice Department with a special program to protect Islamic civil rights,
Homeland Security meetings with extremist Muslim organizations and the nation’s
space agency (NASA) with an unprecedented mission to focus on Muslim diplomacy.
___________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
“If there was a date
when Obama won reelection, it was probably a hot, sleepy Saturday in late May
when much of the country was stocking up on beer and burgers for Memorial Day
cookouts. Here was one of the few episodes of actual audacity in a grind-it-out
2012 campaign. The Obama team, meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White
House, settled on a risky preemptive summertime attack on Romney, one that
threatened the campaign’s financial foundation. Instead of hoarding cash for a
tomorrow that might never come, Obama’s advisers were now telling him to blow
up the campaign’s budget. They urged the president to pump more than $100
million into a barrage of negative ads in swing states attacking Romney where
it hurt most—on Bain, his tax policy, and his opposition to the auto
bailout…..“You could always get more money,” Axe recalled.” “Time? Once that was gone, it was
gone.” (Editor’s note: I remember republican strategists at the time
ridiculing this Obama strategy, comparing it to the ill-fated Pickett’s
Charge.)
Consider the implications of this Cliff Kincaid column for a
moment and its relevance to the Republican Party/Tea Party debate. While
Republican strategist Karl Rove was raising $300 million for television ads
depicting Republican candidate Mitt Romney as a would-be efficient manager of
the U.S economy, Bird said the Obama for America operation assembled a network
comprised of more than two million volunteers, backed by neighborhood political
teams and 2,700 field organizers.
(Editor’s note: Dick
Morris was among those predicting a Romney landslide….now he’s had some time to
look at the data) : “…the fundamental
reason for Romney’s defeat is apparent, if largely unreported. It is not just
that blacks, Latinos, and single women showed up in record numbers at the
polls.……We lost because whites stayed home! Particularly among the elderly, the
voter turnout was disappointing with seniors casting only 16% of the vote, much
less than had been anticipated. Romney was, in fact, leading before Sandy
and his chances blew away in the storm with its famous bipartisan photo of
Governor Chris Christie with Obama.....But the real question is why the support
for Romney among whites was so shallow that the winds of Sandy blew it away. The answer lies in the
fundamental strategic mistake the Romney campaign and the super PACs made in
June and July — of not answering Obama’s Bain Capital attacks. These withering
attacks undermined Romney’s standing among white voters and led directly to
their diminished turnout. The Romney campaign and the Super PACs were so wedded
to their attack ads that they failed to realize that Bain posed a mortal threat
to the credibility of their candidate. Many other consultants joined me in
pleading in vain for a reply to the Bain attacks, but none was forthcoming……..By
contrast, the Clinton campaigns always focused on rebuttal media. “Never sleep
under the same roof with an unanswered negative attack” was the motto of Clinton campaigns nationally and in Arkansas. As a result, his ability to
survive negative attacks has become legendary. Only a change in doctrine at the
Republican Party can stop this pattern from being repeated.…..Finally, the
storm Sandy had
a great deal to do with Obama’s re-election. His presidency may be its most
lasting damage to our nation and its inhabitants. One voter in six cited the
storm as the key factor in their decision to back Obama according to exit
polls, a last minute bump for the president that was not reflected in the
polls.”
According to new studies, President Obama’s electoral
victory in the 2012 election cycle was greatly helped by his massive victory
with a previously unnoticed voting bloc: the irreligious. While statisticians
focus on the impact of the Hispanic vote in swing states, it turns out that those
who do not attend church and consider themselves religiously unaffiliated broke
huge for President Obama in the swing states.
Jonah Golberg addresses a touchy subject: “In the scramble to make the GOP more
diverse, a lot of people are looking at Asian Americans, whom many believe are
a natural constituency for the party. I would love it if Asian Americans
converted en masse to the Republican Party, but the challenge for Republicans
is harder than many appreciate.: …. According
to Pew studies, barely a third of Chinese Americans are Christian and less than
a fifth of Indian Americans are. "Whenever a Gujarati or Sikh businessman
comes to a Republican event, it begins with an appeal to Jesus Christ,"
conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza recently told the New York Times magazine.
"While the Democrats are really good at making the outsider feel at home,
the Republicans make little or no effort." My friend and colleague Ramesh
Ponnuru, an Indian American and devout Catholic, says the GOP has a problem
with seeming like a "club for Christians."
“This is painful for
a liberal to admit,” writes liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof,
“but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes
entangle people in soul-crushing dependency.” Kristof is writing from Breathitt County, Ky.,
deep in the Appalachian mountains, about
mothers whose Supplemental Security Income benefits will decrease if their
children learn to read.
__________________________________________________________________________
CHRISTMAS UNDER ATTACK
AFA’s naughty or nice list of companies and whether they
recognize Christmas or “holiday”
__________________________________________________________________________
CONNECTICUT
SCHOOL SHOOTING
What we know about the Connecticut school shooting
It´s Time to End Gun-Free
Zones
Democrat Lawmaker: “Obama Must ´Exploit´
School Shooting To Get Gun Control”
________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
______________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Leno: Obama and Clinton played golf last weekend. Clinton asked Obama,
´What´s your handicap?´ Obama said, ´Joe Biden.´……..President Obama met with
tribal Indian chiefs the other day. They gave him his own Indian name:
"Running Deficits." Good news: Prince William and his wife Kate are
expecting a baby. Bad news: Prince Harry is planning the baby shower for Vegas.
_______________________________________________________________________
HUMOR
"U.S. Rep.
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz accused Republicans of trying to make it a crime to be
an illegal alien. Democrats see a conspiracy plot. First Republicans want to
say that illegal aliens are illegal, next they're going to want to take away their
voting rights."
-Argus Hamilton
"It's so cold outside I just saw a Democrat with
his hands in his own pockets."
-Casey Kelley
posted by gary at
2:49 PM
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