End Collective Bargaining

There is no reason why a public sector employee requires collective bargaining. I can understand - to an extent - that it works for public safety employees. The police is essentially a local army, and there is a valid argument for payment based on rank. But the schools are not. And there is no reason why teachers should be paid based on anything but performance, as determined by their manager.

Why should a bad teacher with 10 years of service get paid more than a great teacher with 5 years of service?
Why should someone besides the principal get decide how much her employees get paid?

The whole collective bargaining system should be dismantled.

Government for sale

Democratic senators comprise 13 of the top 15 recipients of lobbyist cash in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Couple that with the strong likelihood that the same senators will be lobbyists in just a few years, and you have a political climate that is ripe for corruption.

Using gas to attack the middle class

Since 2006, the price of gas has increased by more than 55%. That is the effect of a Democrat-controlled Congress and Executive.

The tank of gas that once cost $20 to fill is now $30. To put that in perspective, let's do just a little math...

• In the U.S., the average driver drove 13,476 miles in 2010 (the last year for which data is available)
• The average MPG of a model-year 2007 car in the U.S. is 31.2 (combined)
• These numbers equate to a total of 432 gallons of gas purchased each year.

In 2006, a typical American would have spent about $975 for gas. At current gas prices, a typical American will spend nearly $1,600 for gas this year.

For the wealthy, this difference is trivial. But it matters a lot to a middle-class family. And the Democrats in the Senate and White House simply do not care.

Sources:

• Federal Highway Administration
• Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Extortion on the Left

So now we know that if Planned Parenthood decides that it disapproves of a private organization's decisions, it will bring the full weight of its media machine to bear, painting it as evil and cowardly. How dare they?

Every day, private organizations chooses to fund or not fund initiatives, causes and other organizations. When the Komen Foundation made a corporate decision not to award a grant to Planned Parenthood, they did so based on their own policies and priorities. The uproar by those who felt slighted or offended was amazing to me. And what did Komen do? They caved. They said it was all a misunderstanding. How disgusting. They had an opportunity to show courage and strength. And they chose to show cowardice and weakness.

The Komen Foundation has done some good things over the years. The survival rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer has soared, thanks in part to the work of that organization. It's too bad that their legacy will soiled with the blood of innocent, unborn children.

The Useless U.N.

What is a resolution? In the parliamentary sense, it's a a body agreeing to make a statement, to declare its position. It is that group stating what it believes.

In the hands of a body with moral authority, it can be a weighty and substantial tool. In the hands of the the United Nations Security Council, it is yet another vapid expression of futility.

Even in a case so unambiguous as the legitimacy of Bashar Assad's presidency, China and Russia vetoed a resolution demanding that he step down. Of course, the UN has no power to enforce such a resolution ... at least not without the will and power of the United Status armed forces. But if it had possessed even the tiniest bit of moral standing, perhaps such a resolution would have been taken seriously. Since the UN has no moral standing, it may be just as well that the resolution failed to be adopted. The Devil of Damascus cannot defy a declaration that has never been made.

A Regressive President

Sometimes, it boggles the mind how something so blindingly obvious is utterly ignored by the intellectual elite.

The industrial age is ending, as the President himself acknowledged. Shouldn’t the administrative state be ending as well then? Instead, the President proposes more rules and regulations.
From Progressives and Regressives, Letters from an Ohio Farmer

The administrative state was created in response to the centralization of power in the hands of a few successful men (or, in the case of the Kennedys, Gores, Bushes and Daytons, their children). The administrative state has given us such gems as Sarbanes-Oxley, Frank-Dodd, the Great Society, the Social Security Act and McCain-Feingold. Haven't we seen enough?

Power ... political, economic, and even social ... is now more widely and evenly distributed than ever before. President Obama's desire to expand the administrative is simply an attempt to curtail this distribution, roll it back, and consolidate power in the hands of a few, privileged men.

He misplaced the money ... check the sofa cushions

$1.2 Billion
$1,200,000,000

Let that number sink in for a moment. And then consider this statement from the former governor of New Jersey:

I simply do not know where the money is.

That is what Jon Corzine told Congress on Thursday, Dec 8, 2011. Can you imagine?

We are not talking about investments that failed. We are not talking about risk-capital put into play with the potential for reward. This is money that was simply ... lost.

And this not just a couple hundred thousand dollars. This man lost more money than the total output of 15 countries! Countries like Saint Lucia (GDP of $985MM in 2010), Grenada (GDP of $674MM in 2010), and Gambia (GDP of $1.08B in 2010).

The clients of MF Global may never get the restitution they are due. But Mr. Corzine deserves, at a minimum, to live some portion of his future days in abject poverty. He should have no fiduciary responsibility for any firm or government agency. And he should be convicted of criminal negligence.

A drop in the bucket

A few facts:

• The current Congress cannot adopt a budget that binds a future Congress.
• The targeted spending changes of the so-called "Super Committee" amounted to less than 5% of the projected spending over the planning period (10 years).
• There were no spending cuts in the charter of the "Super Committee." Government spending increases in every plan given serious consideration.
• It has now been over 940 days since the U.S. Senate has passed a budget of any kind.

My opinions:

• The President and Senate have both abdicated their authority and have shown themselves to be fiscally irresponsible.
• The Democratic party, and its primary constituents (unionized government labor), are demonstrating a blatant disregard for the fiscal health of our country, in favor of their own personal well-being.
• Unionized government labor is becoming a ruling class and is attempting to make that status permanent.

Solyndra - Worse than it appears

Andrew McCarthy, writing at The National Review -

... If the Solyndra case came walking into a competent prosecutor’s office, the theory of the investigation would be fraud. We have the loss of over half a billion dollars in public money (in the form of government credits), which was pledged to back a company that had a hopelessly flawed business model and that was gushing losses with no realistic prospect of a turn-around. We have grossly misleading rosy-scenario pronouncements by key players (including President Obama and Vice President Biden) at a time when Solyndra backers were gearing up an initial public offering of stock — and when Solyndra’s independent auditors had issued a dire warning that it was doubtful the company could continue as a going concern. In addition, we have executive-branch officials renegotiating the loan arrangement so that corporate insiders, including Obama administration cronies, would be given priority over taxpayers in the liquidation of assets when the company inevitably went belly-up — a novation that appears to be as illegal as it is inexplicable.

On the surface, it appeared to be just a well-connected investor making good use of his network to secure a nice contract. But in fact, we have a well-connected investor making good use of his network to secure a federally subsidized loan that the firm could not have qualified for on its merits.

I don't understand how even conscientious liberals can accept this state of affairs. If they truly despise "crony capitalism," then surely they despise this! Don't they?

Mr. McCarthy's commentary is worth reading. You'll find it here: The Solyndra Non-Investigation

Growing corruption

The stink surrounding the so-called Fast and Furious gun-running scandal is growing by the week. On Friday, FoxNews.com reported that a "third gun linked to 'Operation Fast and Furious' was found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry." This contradicts earlier reports that only ... ONLY! ... two guns linked to the program were found at the site. The report goes further to say that "Unlike the two AK-style assault weapons found at the scene, the third weapon could more easily be linked to the informant. To prevent that from happening, sources say, the third gun 'disappeared.'"

So not only did a major, legally suspect and morally indefensible operation result in the death of a law-enforcement officer. But now we learn that there is even more of a coverup going on than first suspected.

Why isn't the mainstream media covering this?

Why isn't the New York Times calling for the resignation of Eric Holder, and for a special investigator?

Why indeed!

Credit where credit is due: Read more more at FoxNews.com