Unions And the Path to Power

A report in this morning’s Wall Street Journal points out:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they’ll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies — including Wal-Mart.

…

According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.

Well, of course that’s just common sense. And of course the unions now have their tighty Whiteys in a knot. 

All of this of course centers around a Union-advocated bit of legislation, called, ironically, The “Employee Free Choice Act” .   King Banian over at OTB  notes the issues surrounding the legislation, and says:

I’ve been involved lately in a little issues advocacy regarding card-check.  Card-check involves a union being able to use a card that workers sign to compel a firm to recognize the union as the sole bargaining agent of the entire shop.  My first post on the subject included Congressional testimony by a former union organizer.

A “card check” campaign begins with union organizers going to the homes of workers over a weekend, a tactic called “housecalling,” with the sole intent of having those workers sign authorization cards. Called a “blitz” by the unions, it entails teams of two or more organizers going directly to the homes of workers. The workers’ personal information and home addresses used during the blitz was obtained from license plates and other sources that were used to create a master list.

In most cases, the workers have no idea that there is a union campaign underway. Organizers are taught to play upon this element of surprise to get “into the door.” They are trained to perform a five part house call strategy that includes: Introductions, Listening, Agitation, Union Solution, and Commitment. The goal of the organizer is to quickly establish a trust relationship with the worker, move from talking about what their job entails to what they would like to change about their job, agitate them by insisting that management won’t fix their workplace problems without a union and finally convincing the worker to sign a card.

…From my experience, the number of cards signed appear to have little relationship to the ultimate vote count. During a private election campaign, even though a union still sends organizers out to workers’ homes on frequent canvassing in attempts to gain support, the worker has a better chance to get perspective on the questions at hand.

…
 The point remains that a major push for Democratic candidates this year is coming from gobs of union cash — some of it compelled under threat of financial penalties from their locals — and their top goal is to eviscerate the rights of workers to have a secret ballot by which they can decide whether they want to be represented by a union.  They don’t like the heat from Johnny Sac calling them out for what they’re doing.  For more, read here.

Wal-Mart is correct, of course in that this act actually takes away worker’s rights, and their money, as King aptly demonstrates in his peice. I strongly suggest reading here.

Remember a few days ago, I mentioned why Edwards was still playing large in the Veep race until that love child thing came out, was because the unions like him?

Add it up, folks.

To bolster his rather meager political resume, BO had argued that hiss words, not his rather scant deeds, matter, video:

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Simply put, BO’s only politcal success has been to win elections.  Yet having a skimpy political record for the voters to judge, the BO campaign is now atttempting to put BO’s words themselves off-limits as well.   Johnathan Martin and Ben  Smith, Politico:

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said McCain’s campaign was “misinterpreting” both the “tenor and the meaning” of Obama’s words. 

“I think they should probably be a little less paranoid about parsing every word we say and a little more focused on actually addressing the challenges that Americans expect the president of the United States to take on,” he

So if we were to play by BO’s rules, one we can’t criticize BO’s record, he has none, and two, we are now not allowed to criticize his words. I got any takers?

• I note with interest, Brian Mahoney over at Radio Equalizer, pretty much echoing my thoughts of  as regards the Knoxville Shooter and the attempt tp attach him to all things right-wing. As Brian says:
  

  Our lefty friends need to decide how far they really want to push this argument, because soon enough, future news events will not work in their favor

  Well, yeah, Brian, but be careful about the concpet of the left being shamed by association. Ponder just a moment, the case you yourself point up; the Unibomber was a follower of Al Gore. GRanted, I don’t recall a big push from the rigt that tarred Gore with the Unibomber, but neither did we see any effort to disassociate the left from that nutball, either.  See, the difference between the left and the right on such matters, is the left is shameless. 

• Obama seems to be losing ground. Seems Celebrity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
  

  Yeah when you’re a Celebrity
  It’s adios reality
  No matter what you do
  People think you’re cool
  Just cause your on T.V.
  Being a Celebrity…
  Yeah Celebrity!

  Seems Obama has lost 8 points in the last 4 days… well outisde the margins on this loss.

• Resession? Um… no…. the economy grew at a 1.9% pace in the second quarter. No resession here.
• That Edwards thing just won’t go away.  Edwards is now down to evading reporters. Meanhile, Kaus, no conservative attack dog, he, nails it but good:
  

  “It’s not merely the stench of liberal bias that bothers me but the unfortunate reality that we in the MSM are giving up a good story to the internet. And if we in the major media continue to cede such stories to the internet, we won’t be major much longer.”

  Isn’t that pretty much what I said to Tony Pierce last night?

• Nancy, the only hoax here is you. Your problme is you’d rather kill the economy, just because doing what the Republicans suggest might make them look good. I’ve got news for you, Nancy… with Near as no matter 75% of Americans saying DRILL… how do you figure your roadblocking is going to be dealt with come November?
• On the path of destroying HIV.
• She’s a MAN, baby!!!!!

Me at OTB just now:

 

Oh? What claims then do you think you can honestly make about the success of the surge other than tactical?

Well, the number of provinces now being fully controlled by Iraqi forces leaps to mind. Certainly, unattainable pre-surge. Them taking ownership of the situation… wasn’t that one of the stated goals, even from a political standpoint?

In the main, the Surge has undeniably had effects, psychological, and well as practical, on both the enemy and the people of Iraq. Based on these, the victory is already in hand. What was needed for a political solutino was to secure the region against people who would given the chance prevent that political solution. That being done, there is a sense of momentum now, toward the goal on both parts where there was none previously.

And I suspect and suppose that the biggest problem that the Democrats have with all of this is that rather than the picture the Democrats were painting, of them heroically stopping a hopeless war, we have a picture of a Republican White House winning the war, despite their contunual roadblocks to victory… despite their actively seeking our defeat…and the Democrats trying to explain to angry voters why losing the war would have been better.

Jim Rutttenberg, New York Times, is shocked that John McCain is painting BO as ill-informed, arrogant and out of touch:

WASHINGTON — After spending much of the summer searching for an effective line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain is beginning a newly aggressive campaign to define Mr. Obama as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency.

The truth hurts, Jim.  Watch BO open mouth and insert foot, video:

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John, Powerline, sums up BO:

Obama is a curious case. He gives the impression of being an intelligent guy, but through his unscripted comments we have learned that he knows little about history, science or mathematics. He also seems rather shockingly short on common sense, as this most recent gaffe illustrates

My Ninty-Seven Jimmy needed a tune-up every one hundred thousand miles.  I drove it nine years and it needed one tune up.   So what does BO drive, a Model T?

American motorists are paying over four dollars a gallon for gasoline, and BO offers utterly no hope that he either wants to bring down the cost of driving or is capable of it, evem if he were so inclined.   Properly inflating tires might save a few million barrel of oil  The estimates of oil shale reserves run to the trillions of  barrels.   Take you pick.

Simon Owens over at Blogasm managed to grab an interview with LA Times blog editor Tony Pierce. Yes, that’s the guy who sent the letter that put the kibosh on stories about John Edwards at that Hollywood hotel that’s been the topic of many a blog post outside the LA Times Blogs.

Perice seems to pass the whole thing off as innocent editorial choices. Says Owens:

When I brought up the argument made by many that they were trying to bury the story, Pierce pointed out that one of the blogs had already written about it. The editors simply wanted to give the metro reporters a chance to dig into it and see if they could find any new information, he said, rather than just having the Times website create a bunch of noise.

It gets better.

I asked Pierce if the metro desk had the chance to follow up on the story, and if so, would he send out another post allowing his bloggers to write about it. He said that to his knowledge the LA Times reporters hadn’t found any additional information and expressed some skepticism of the National Enquirer story’s authenticity.

It strikes me as more than a little odd that the LA Times can’t come up with much more than this one source, given the whole thing has gone to court, with the security people being named in a lawsuit. If they can’t find anything, where exactly are they looking?  If they’re having that much a problem tracking the story, Tony, perhaps it’d be wise to turn the bloggers loose on the thing again?  And let’s put this into some perspective; If the National Enquirer getting this stuff, trust me, it’s low hanging fruit. If the LA Times can’t do better than the lame excuses we see here, the charges of a political cover-up are true.

Face it, with a court case going on now, if we were dealing with a conservative, the LA Times would have had it page one above the fold for weeks.

No sale, Tony. You’re going to have to do a lot better than this.

BBCT: Simon for the tip

Evidence is accumulating that John Edwards is right – there really are “two Americas.” There’s one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives.

To put it another way, it would appear that ambulances aren’t the only things John Edwards has been chasing lately

Ann Coulter.

Bit rambled:

Obama. Reparations. ‘Nuff said.

Not quite enough.   Speaking at the UNITY ’08 conventionb, BO said, Laurie Au, Star-Bulletin, Honolulu:

“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for,”

[…]

“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”

You want deeds BO, James Taranto, Best of the Web, offers deeds:

[T]the Civil War, the ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the continuing practice of racial preferences.

BO is playing it cute.  While endorsing the concept of repartions, BO avoids explicitly suggesting them.

Want repartions BO, I’ll give you this.  As the United State is home to the longest lived, and most prosperous blacks in the World, here is my offer.   For repartions, a one way passage to Liberia, and permanent revokation of United States citizenship.  Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Shut or simply leave.

• At some point, the rain around here has to stop. Not that we’ve had flooding of any serious amounts, but it’s rained around here about every day this summer, for at least part of the day. Today is another example.
• Yet another example for us all, of how “The Moderate Voice“, isn’t.  Am I getting through, yet, people?
• McGehee notes the Ted Stevens thing  I mentioned yesterday, and figures he’ll get re-elected anyway. He attributes this to Alaska being rather pathetic when it comes to it’s congress-critters. I don’t know as I fully disagree, but it must be said that given what the Democrats represent, the folks up there must figure he’s still the lesser of the evils.
• Let’s see… Businesses running away form the taxes and the unfunded mandates, and taking jobs with them, enviro-whack jobs costing the state billions, along with causing fuel prices like nowhere else in the country…and of course earthquakes. Makes me want to move right out there. What’s not to love? Sheesh.
• Speaking of taxes,  here’s some interesting stats from the Tax Foundation. Next time you hear the rich folks aren’t paying ‘their share’, here’s your numbers.
• Climate Change: Women and minorities hardest hit.  What a joke James Clyburn is.
• That ‘visiting the troops’ story is currently biting the annoited one in the ass. I can’t say I disapprove of him paying the price on this one.
• Obama. Reparations. ‘Nuff said.
• And what can be said when even Dana Millbank…  (Who, we hasten to add, we labeled as the king of presumption, back in his hunting hat days) labels Obama as presumptuous, you know it’s well past time to start going short on Obama being the next Presdient.
• Oh, speaking of Obama, I’m willing to bet he’s not too happy with Investors’ Business Daily. Too bad for Obama, but good for us.  People are starting to catch on to the financial and social disaster Obama represents.
• Glenn notes Mediabloggers saying thte the stats show bloggers who get sued win about 92% of the time. Pretty good odds, really.
• John Kerry, Party animal. But would Teresa approve?  Somehow, I begin to suspect there’s going to be some chatter about who gets the Heinz fortune. Hot Air’s Allahpundit notes the story too, and notes what is perhaps the funniest thing about all this; The pics they have of the event show him to be totally out of touch with what’s going on; completely out of his element. (Has anyone ever figured out what, exactly his ‘element’ is? When is he ever in touch with his surroundings?
• New Computer for Number one son: Actually, an old system, lots faster han his old one. It’ll take a while to build, though.
• Oil went up a bit today, which is to be expected after yesterday.  But did you see this report, today?  Note the price we’re suppsoed to be going to… $78/bbl, right where I said it’d go. But why is this being floated now? Frankly, my biggest fear involved with this drop is that the pressure is off to drill domestically. The problem with that is we’re still vulnerable, and we’re still pumping money out of America hand over fist.  The lower prices will cause us to be more inclined not to drill, I think… and that’s a fatal move we’ve done before.  We need to produce oil here at home as a matter of national security, not just as a matter of price control, and it’s time we started approaching the issue that way. 
•  Interesting… trailvoy.com is planning a get together at the place where they make the Chevy Trailblazer, the GMC Envoy, and of course my Buick Rainier. as well as the Saab 9-7x, out in  Moraine, OH. They’re planning on the 24th, I hear. I may even go. We’ll see.
• Getting a lot of hits the last few days from John Hawkins site… particularly from his Q1 version of the Forty favorite Bloggers, where Bitsblog won an honorable mention.  I’m still excited by that HM, but I wonder why all the activity, suddenly. Anticipation?

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has changed his story and admits that FOX News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly never received talking points from the White House.

On Friday, McClellan said on MSNBC that FOX News commentators would receive White House talking points, adding, “It was something we at the White House… were doing in getting them talking points and making sure they knew where we were coming from.”

He then agreed with anchor Chris Matthews who asked, “Did people say, call Sean [Hannity], call Bill [O’Reilly], call whoever?”

But O’Reilly addressed the allegations Monday night, saying that McClellan was not telling the truth. And on O’Reilly’s radio program Tuesday, McClellan said, “I messed up. I was specifically not trying to single anyone out, including you. There were people, not you, but there were people,” who McClellan says received talking points.

That’s Britt Hume, of course.

So, why would McClellan even make such a statement? Because it’s to his financial advantage. It plays directly into the leftist mantra about Fox, and it makes Bush look like he was manipulating the media. the idea of course is as a counter to the well-understood and long proved leftist bias in the press.  Of course that Fox is biased to the right has all been proven a lie, but notice, please how few others actually take notice of said proof when there’s a mantra to pursue. Or, books to sell.

Not sure what to make of thisreport from Fox News:

An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was found dead from a gunshot wound Tuesday morning, the Virginia Democrat’s office confirmed to FOX News on Wednesday.

Frederick Wayne Hutchins Jr., 26, ran Webb’s Roanoke office.

According to media reports, local police had not made a ruling on the cause of his death and were awaiting the results of an autopsy.

The Richmond Times Dispatch reported that Hutchins’ body was found near his vehicle, which was parked on an embankment along a highway a few miles north of Roanoke, which is in southwestern Virginia.

He was found with a single gunshot wound to the head, and a handgun beneath his body, according to the paper.

 While it’s initially looking like suicide, Vince Foster roars to mind. So I’m holding judgement, here.

The House of Representative is set to pass this tripe:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

(1) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow;

(2) apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow; and

(3) expresses its commitment to rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.

Hell no I don’t apologize. The House has no power to speak for me, or any other citizen.  I demand an apology from Mrs. Pelosi for attempting to put her words into my mouth.

• A second place at the OTB Sheep Off caption contest.

• So, the Democrats are almost to a man, includng Obama, claiming that the Surge didn’t work. So why, then, is Obama proposing another surge, this time in Afghanistan?

• Oil is down again today. As this is written, about 2pm Eastern, oil is at $121.45/bbl and still falling.Remember, dear reader you heard it here first… last January.

• Former Ref Tim Donaghy  caught 15 months in prison, three years supervised probation. He says there’s more than just him involved. He’s likely telling the truth here, but don’t expect the NBA to follow up with an investigation or anything.

• You know, I can recall when listening to radio stations from around the country was a hobby that reqired some fairly interesting equipment.  Now, all you need is an internet connection.

• If you’re a fan of the Bennigan’s resturant chain, or “Steak and Ale”, find a new place. They all went bankrupt this morning, except the independant sites. We have one here in town. It’s not bad, but I don’t know as I’d go out of my way for it.

• AlGore’s about done, along with the carbon craziness…. so suggests Simon at Classical Values. I hope he’s right of course, but remember, this is a resurection of the nonsense in the 70’s. It’s come back to life once before.

• Still working on converting some of the vid files from the weekend. Perhaps I’ll get one up tonight.

• Presidential polling is back and forth and very close thoughout.  I have to tell you, anyone who tells you this is going to be a Democrat cakewalk is whistling past the grave yard.

WASHINGTON — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens allegedly made false statements to cover up gifts given to him by an oil contractor seeking his help on Capitol Hill, according to a seven-count federal indictment unveiled Tuesday.

Stevens, 84, is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and has been under investigation for more than a year, with a heavy focus on work done to his Girdwood, Alaska, ski-community house.

“We are at the very beginning of the criminal process,” said Matthew Friedrich, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department Criminal Division. “Like any other criminal defendant, Senator Stevens is presumed innocent.”

But of course since he’s a Republican his case will be run to the front of the line, during an election year, and William “Cash in his freezer” Jefferson’s case won’t come up until well AFTER the election.

Look, I’ve no problems with the investigation per se, (Frankly, I’d have been happier if the guy were have resigned a long time ago…) but given how long the Jefferson case, for example, is taking by comparison, I have to wonder if there isn’t a little political gamesmanship going on here. Just coincidental, you understand, that this comes up in a Presdiential election year.

Right?

So, now, it starts. You knew it hadda happen. Once we saw this business in Knoxville, you just knew the left was going to attach itself to the happening like a vampire bat. All the liberal hotbuttons are there for the left’s sick enjoyment;

• Gun control
• Anti-Religion fervor
• Right-side talkradio
• anti-leftism
• sexual politics
• Fox News

And all of it gets placed under the guise of arguing about hate and intollerance. What leftist seeing this bonanza wouldn’t leap into the verbal fight? And RJ Eskow at (Yeah, I know, surprise, surprise) The HuffPo leaps in with both feet: :

Jim Adkisson of Powell, Tennessee was the man with his finger on the trigger. He had mental health problems, and a hard and bitter life. He apparently left a letter explaining that he hated the church for its liberal beliefs and opinions. And the church had a sign outside indicating it welcomed gays and lesbians.

Who really killed those Unitarians? Was it the preachers who spread hatred and intolerance? The politicians who court and flatter them instead of condemning their hate speech? The media machine that attacks liberals, calls them “traitors” and suggests you speak to them “with a baseball bat”? The economic system that batters people like Jim Adkisson until they snap, then tells them their real enemies are gays and liberals and secular humanists?

If you ask me, it was all of the above.

You killed them, Pat Robertson. You killed them, Pastor Hagee. You killed them, Ann Coulter. You killed them, Dick Morris and Sean Hannity and the rest of you at Fox News.

This is about as shameless and opportunistic, and self-serving as it gets. I haven’t the words for the utter disgust I feel at the moment for this clown, Eskow. And trust me, leaving me speechless is not an easy task.

 Here we have someone who even by this moron, Eskow’s lights, has a metal issue or three. But, instead of placing the blame where it belongs… on that mental issue… he takes the opportunity to capitalize on the tragedy and advance the leftist agenda. 

That’s cynical opportunism, grade one. It should be disregarded out of hand, but of course because it matches the mantra of the left, it won’t be. We’ll see the other jackels in the pack taking up the call soon enough.. all the usual suspects.  I’d also suggest a retraction of this nonsense by the HuffPo, but they have far too much leftist political opportunism in their history for any reasonable person to expect that. I’m that much a realist, at least.

But what about this, Mr Eskow? What about the constant attacks from the left on those who have conservative beliefs getting the blame for these deaths?  What about the marginalization of such people by the leftists in the mainstream media, and in the supposedly popular culture, to say nothing about the chruch itself?  Might these also be listed among the culprits?  Are these not as much to blame for this guy snapping? Or is it only views you disagree with that could have affected this man so? Are these so far outside the realm of the possible? Or is it simply because the suggestions run afoul your myopic worldview, that you do not dare consider them?

Do you begin to understand what this kind of gamesmanship you’re involved with can lead to? I’d say offhand, you and yours, and the people I’ve listed here, are as responsible as anyone else.  You failed to listen  with as open a mind a you claim to have, to those who oppose the left and helped to push this man over the edge of his personal cliff, as surely as setting your hands to the man would have done. 

 If you want to see the real monster, Mr. Eskow, look in the mirror, and tend to that set of issues. I suspect you’ll have your hands more than filled with the problems that guy in the mirror generates, even absent all of the rest of the ills you crusade over in your self-serving piece.