I've been on a field assignment for the last 6 weeks or so and haven't had time or opportunity to write. But it appears as though I haven't missed anything.
89 days since Obama took office and air traffic controllers are STILL under the Imposed Work Rules.
And since I probably won't get another chance to blog in the next 2 weeks, here's the official Squawk Normal projection... drum roll please...
The plight of NATCA won't even be addressed within Obama's first 100 days.
Sorry NATCA. But I bet if you start collecting money now for Obama 2012, you'll be first thing on his list for his first 100 in the second term. I'm sure he'll double pinky swear this time.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Fundamental Principles of Labor
I love talking about fundamental principles, inalienable rights, and inherent liberties. Apparently so does Ruth Marlin, as posted in an article over at The Main Bang.
Even laughably liberal George McGovern is against it.
So what's the big to do? Well... imagine if a known member of an ultra-right wing "militia" showed up at your polling place last November and escorted you behind the curtain and was looking over your shoulder as you voted. And then announces your vote to the world. Imagine if this happened at every polling place for every voter.
I think the election might have turned out differently. I think some people would have cried foul, that our democratic process had been seriously infringed upon. Those militiamen should be in jail for violating all sorts of election laws, right!?!?
But now turn the tables and now a known pro-organization partisan can watch you vote for or against organization, and that's somehow a fundamental principle of Labor?
I think union members are throwing their money away in a majority of the cases, but I support the right to organize and I support the right to strike... even federal employees in position of national security. But do it the right, fair, and honest way.
The Republican minority had threatened to filibuster this confirmation [Hilda Solis as SecLabor] based on her support for the Employee Free Choice Act. It seems they are opposed to a Secretary of Labor that supports the fundamental principles of Labor.I don't know what fundamental principles of Labor that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) seeks to restore... but I'll call it a non-starter because it has one very anti-democratic principle in it. I don't say anti-democratic as anti-donkey... I mean anti-government-of-the-people. The EFCA will take away your right to a private ballot when voting to organize.
Even laughably liberal George McGovern is against it.
So what's the big to do? Well... imagine if a known member of an ultra-right wing "militia" showed up at your polling place last November and escorted you behind the curtain and was looking over your shoulder as you voted. And then announces your vote to the world. Imagine if this happened at every polling place for every voter.
I think the election might have turned out differently. I think some people would have cried foul, that our democratic process had been seriously infringed upon. Those militiamen should be in jail for violating all sorts of election laws, right!?!?
But now turn the tables and now a known pro-organization partisan can watch you vote for or against organization, and that's somehow a fundamental principle of Labor?
I think union members are throwing their money away in a majority of the cases, but I support the right to organize and I support the right to strike... even federal employees in position of national security. But do it the right, fair, and honest way.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Recession Sob Stories
My local small town newspaper is unabashedly liberal. It makes for an interesting read. This article had me laughing.
And the inset to that last article was just as good...
1) I drive through Leawood and a neighboring town every day. I see "HELP WANTED!" signs in store windows up and down major streets. The jobs probably don't pay professional salaries... but they pay more than unemployment (plus the fact that you are EARNING your pay rather than collecting WELFARE). Maybe those helpless 20-somethings can take a job here and support their mother instead of it being the other way around?
2) I'm going to hire people that take the initiative to respond to my "Now Hiring!" signs rather than cry to reporters about how cruel life is.
I've told my wife I'd be flipping burgers at the local McDonald's (also hiring, by the way) before I ever apply for unemployment benefits. And I don't say that because it's not happening to me. My projects are being outsourced to India. My company is letting people go. It's entirely possible I could be next. Same with my wife, though those jobs are flat out disappearing rather than being off-shored.
Get a life people. Read The Go Getter. I bet it's even at your local library, if you can't shill out the $2.99.
Putting faces on a recessionI don't know what it's like to be a single parent. I imagine it's more difficult than anything I've done to date. But a single parent of two twenty-somethings? I think the hard part of child rearing is over. Tell your kids to go get a freaking job.
Losing one income always hurts, but it is especially painful when there is only one to lose.
Karen Culbertson is a single mother, and even though both of her children are in their early 20s, there still are bills to pay. ...
And the inset to that last article was just as good...
His story went nationalTwo comments...
A Leawood man who has been unemployed for a year recently was featured prominently in a national news service story, and subsequently interviewed by The Sun. Later, however, he said he preferred not to have his name in another story. ...
One reason he consented to an interview for the earlier story was the hope that a prospective employer might read it and then contact him.
“I didn’t get a blip at all,” he said.
As with the other people The Sun interviewed, he said is willing to consider other forms of work and less pay.
“I’m much more flexible and open-minded. I’m open to a lot of things I wouldn’t have been open to before,” he said.
1) I drive through Leawood and a neighboring town every day. I see "HELP WANTED!" signs in store windows up and down major streets. The jobs probably don't pay professional salaries... but they pay more than unemployment (plus the fact that you are EARNING your pay rather than collecting WELFARE). Maybe those helpless 20-somethings can take a job here and support their mother instead of it being the other way around?
2) I'm going to hire people that take the initiative to respond to my "Now Hiring!" signs rather than cry to reporters about how cruel life is.
I've told my wife I'd be flipping burgers at the local McDonald's (also hiring, by the way) before I ever apply for unemployment benefits. And I don't say that because it's not happening to me. My projects are being outsourced to India. My company is letting people go. It's entirely possible I could be next. Same with my wife, though those jobs are flat out disappearing rather than being off-shored.
Get a life people. Read The Go Getter. I bet it's even at your local library, if you can't shill out the $2.99.
33 days of Obama's IWR
It's been 4 weeks and 5 days of (to borrow one of The Main Bang's favorite fascist references) "jackboot" imposed work rules under the person NATCA swore would restore fairness to the FAA.
He's already had time to go on vacation... how Bush-esque of him!
I'm guessing NATCA's plight isn't as pressing to Obama as you were led to believe while writing your campaign donation checks.
He's already had time to go on vacation... how Bush-esque of him!
I'm guessing NATCA's plight isn't as pressing to Obama as you were led to believe while writing your campaign donation checks.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
15 Days of Obama's Imposed Work Rules
15 Days
And the FAA is a rumored to have a new administrator... one that isn't necessarily 100% pro-union. My guess is there were no pro-union people out there that didn't have a tax scandal. Just saying.
But don't worry, salvation is close at hand. [Read: start saving up $$$ for the 2010 congressional election campaign... you know the dems are going to need "just one more" election before you get your payback.]
And the FAA is a rumored to have a new administrator... one that isn't necessarily 100% pro-union. My guess is there were no pro-union people out there that didn't have a tax scandal. Just saying.
But don't worry, salvation is close at hand. [Read: start saving up $$$ for the 2010 congressional election campaign... you know the dems are going to need "just one more" election before you get your payback.]
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Obama's First 12.5 Days
I got called out of town, so I couldn't chronicle the count-up from Inauguration for all air traffic controllers still working under the imposed work rules.
According to Reuters on Monday, 26 January 2009, the US economy has turned the corner and we're now all doing okay. I'm surprised it took the media 2 and a half months to start reporting this. The self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession was started a year prior to the election. I thought they would have started talking it back up after the dust settled from the election so that they could sell Super Bowl ads.
Alas, they waited until 7 days after the Inauguration to declare victory. Obama created a new nationalized & socialized economy is 6 days, and basked in media glory on the 7th.
But, he still hasn't bailed out air traffic controllers.
12 days under Obama under the IWRs.
According to Reuters on Monday, 26 January 2009, the US economy has turned the corner and we're now all doing okay. I'm surprised it took the media 2 and a half months to start reporting this. The self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession was started a year prior to the election. I thought they would have started talking it back up after the dust settled from the election so that they could sell Super Bowl ads.
Alas, they waited until 7 days after the Inauguration to declare victory. Obama created a new nationalized & socialized economy is 6 days, and basked in media glory on the 7th.
But, he still hasn't bailed out air traffic controllers.
12 days under Obama under the IWRs.
Mr. President -- Matt Lauer
With apologies to Don Brown at Get the Flick, I hope someone sees the pointlessness of the points made below. Yes, I plagiarized this wholesale but changed a few names and the video of course. I'll call it "satire" so I don't get sued. -SP
-----------------------------
I certainly don’t expect you to click on this video and watch it. I’d prefer that you not. I just want you to see the image and I’d prefer that you use the time to reflect on what it represents.
I didn't see this on The Daily Show and I don't expect to really. This is business as usual. The President of the United States of America -- and everything that office stands for -- sitting around the White House with Matt Lauer.
I'm pretty sure most Americans understand all this. But think about my overseas readers. They're really bored by all of it. Presidents do interviews. Holy crap. The supposed leader of the Free World -- the man in charge of two active wars and charged with responding to a world economic crisis that began in our country -- makes time in his schedule to deal with the likes of Matt Lauer?
The symbolism alone is reprehensible. The elevation in stature it provides Mr. Lauer is obscene. The fact that the President -- and all those responsible for protecting him and the Office -- would make time for such a wretched, loathsome, third-rate gossiper is viciously vile. It's... it's... words fail me.
It's hard to avoid thinking the unthinkable -- our system of government completely and utterly failed. We elected a socialist (once, but since he turned the economy around in 7 days according to Reuters, I think he'll be reelected) and our vaunted system of checks and balances did virtually nothing to save us. America failed. Americans failed. I think you're all idiots. I despise America. Honestly speaking, you don't know what's best for yourselves. Democracy is overrated.
May God forgive us. I'm not sure the rest of the world should. Matt Lauer, from Ohio University? Seriously now. It's a party school.
----
Guess what? We elected Obama. He is my President, our President. I disagree with more than a few of his policies but my vote counted (sort of). Most Americans seem to like Hope and Change. Good. Great. We'll get what we voted for.
And my President has the right to talk to whoever he wants whenever he wants wherever he wants. I'm not a fan of Lauer. I think he brings as much to the intellectual table as does Hannity or Randi Rhodes, but a free press and the competition of ideas is essential to liberty.
So, Obama, talk to Lauer. Talk to him in the Oval Office. Talk to him will sitting on the First Toilet for all I care. And if you don't call on a reporter in the pool because that reporter has openly declared that you are the worst President America has ever had... good for you!
Obama is doing the exact same things Bush was doing. The difference? The reaction of the "loyal" opposition.
-----------------------------
I certainly don’t expect you to click on this video and watch it. I’d prefer that you not. I just want you to see the image and I’d prefer that you use the time to reflect on what it represents.
I didn't see this on The Daily Show and I don't expect to really. This is business as usual. The President of the United States of America -- and everything that office stands for -- sitting around the White House with Matt Lauer.
I'm pretty sure most Americans understand all this. But think about my overseas readers. They're really bored by all of it. Presidents do interviews. Holy crap. The supposed leader of the Free World -- the man in charge of two active wars and charged with responding to a world economic crisis that began in our country -- makes time in his schedule to deal with the likes of Matt Lauer?
The symbolism alone is reprehensible. The elevation in stature it provides Mr. Lauer is obscene. The fact that the President -- and all those responsible for protecting him and the Office -- would make time for such a wretched, loathsome, third-rate gossiper is viciously vile. It's... it's... words fail me.
It's hard to avoid thinking the unthinkable -- our system of government completely and utterly failed. We elected a socialist (once, but since he turned the economy around in 7 days according to Reuters, I think he'll be reelected) and our vaunted system of checks and balances did virtually nothing to save us. America failed. Americans failed. I think you're all idiots. I despise America. Honestly speaking, you don't know what's best for yourselves. Democracy is overrated.
May God forgive us. I'm not sure the rest of the world should. Matt Lauer, from Ohio University? Seriously now. It's a party school.
----
Guess what? We elected Obama. He is my President, our President. I disagree with more than a few of his policies but my vote counted (sort of). Most Americans seem to like Hope and Change. Good. Great. We'll get what we voted for.
And my President has the right to talk to whoever he wants whenever he wants wherever he wants. I'm not a fan of Lauer. I think he brings as much to the intellectual table as does Hannity or Randi Rhodes, but a free press and the competition of ideas is essential to liberty.
So, Obama, talk to Lauer. Talk to him in the Oval Office. Talk to him will sitting on the First Toilet for all I care. And if you don't call on a reporter in the pool because that reporter has openly declared that you are the worst President America has ever had... good for you!
Obama is doing the exact same things Bush was doing. The difference? The reaction of the "loyal" opposition.
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