” Anti-government protesters were out on the streets of Ankara late into the night with police using water cannons and smoke grenades to try and disperse them.
Two of Turkey’s main unions have called a nationwide strike today. Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists have said they too will take part in the national stoppage.”
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” In August of 2009 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agreed to a labor contract with the National Treasury Employees Union. But Article 4 “Protections Against Prohibited Personnel Practices” contains sections that seem to indicate that in targeting organizations applying for tax-exempt status, IRS agents were required to break the terms of their union contract.”
” Section 8 of the preamble states that “Employees should be protected against arbitrary action, personal favoritism, or coercion for partisan political purposes; and prohibited from using their official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election or a nomination for election.”
While this contract was agreed to in Aug. 2009, by March 2010, IRS agents were clearly being directed to target organizations based on their political persuasion in an apparent effort to silence people who didn’t agree with the administration.”
Why should the civilian employees of the government enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining when the one department of the government that is constitutionally authorized ( the military ) has no such right ?
” A broader look at the values espoused in IRS agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union reveals a list of things Americans want government to stand for, but in light of recent incidents it reads more like a Saturday Night Live skit.
The introduction includes a short list of six IRS Values:
• Honesty and Integrity: We uphold the public trust in all that we do; we are honest and forthright in all of our internal and external dealings.
• Respect: We treat each colleague, employee and taxpayer with dignity and respect.
• Continuous Improvement: We seek to perform the best that we can today, while embracing change, so that we can perform even better in the future.
• Inclusion: We embrace diversity of background, experience, and perspective.
• Openness and Collaboration: We share information and collaborate, recognizing that we are a team.
• Personal Accountability: We take responsibility for our actions and decisions and learn and grow from our achievements and mistakes. [emphasis added]“
All employees of all branches of government , whether they be federal , state , county or municipal should be subjected to the same employment rules as the various branches of the military are . If you want to live off of the public dime then you should have to take the job with predetermined benefits , salary , job security and possibility of advancement .
There should be a predetermined ( by the various government budgetary departments ) pay/benefits scale as the military utilizes and when you sign on to the job it is a take it or leave it proposition … No negotiation with the taxpayer’s money . Job x receives salary x , job y receives salary y , no ifs ands or buts … If the prospective employee does not like the pay scale they are free to find a job in the private sector just like the rest of us producers .
It is time to enact a major draw-down of the looters and eliminate the power of the public employee unions . There is something inherently corrupt with unions negotiating salaries and benefits with the very politicians whose pockets they line year after year .
As long as government employment , union membership and it’s clout continue to grow and maintain it’s symbiotic relationship with the Democratic party we should expect nothing but partisanship from the State .
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IT'S A DREAM JOB: Mark Rosenthal, who pulls in $156,000 a year as head of Local 983 of District Council 37,nods off at his desk during one of a series of postlunch naps that have outraged members of the union’s executive board.
” Union fat cat Mark Rosenthal spends more time sleeping at his desk than organizing labor, a series of damning photos reveals.
“He eats lunch when he arrives at work at 2 p.m. Then, like clockwork, he goes to sleep with a cup of soda on the table and the straw in it,” said Marvin Robbins, a union vice president.
“Then he wakes up, looks at his watch and says, ‘I have to get out before the traffic gets bad.’ He’s usually out by 4 p.m. after being at the office two hours.”
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DHS Secretary Would Have The Power To Waive Most Requirements For Border Security
” About those strict new rules and requirements for border security set forth in the Gang of Eight’s immigration proposal: They’re not so tough after all. In fact, the 867-page mega-bill gives the secretary of homeland security pretty much carte blanche to waive the vast majority of the requirements detailed in the bill. And that’s not sitting very well with the folks charged with enforcing immigration law.
What the bill really says, then, is that people living in the country illegally can receive amnesty not when the border is actually secured but when the secretary tells Congress that she is starting to try to secure the border.
It is highly likely that if this immigration bill is passed, the administration will take advantage of many, if not all, of the bill’s provisions that give it authority to waive legal restrictions and rules that would require our borders to be secured and amnesty to be denied to many illegal immigrants for cause. As the Customs Enforcement Council concludes, “This legislation fails to meet the needs of the law enforcement community and would, in fact, be a significant barrier to the creation of a safe and lawful system of immigration.” “
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” One of the largest hospitality unions in the nation will protest President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary nominee on Thursday, the first day of her confirmation hearings.
UNITE HERE, which represents tens of thousands of hotel and restaurant workers, will gather in front of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago to demonstrate against Penny Pritzker, one of Obama’s largest campaign bundlers.”
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” The National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council (USCIS Council) says the legislation fails to address its top concerns about the current system, including the pressure on USCIS officers to approve visa applications without thorough review and the bureaucratic barricades that prevent them from coordinating with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials.
Sources say it is highly unusual for the USCIS Council to weigh in publicly on legislation.
“Like the ICE Council, the USCIS Council was not consulted in the crafting of the Gang of Eight’s legislation,” wrote USCIS Council president Kenneth Palinkas in a statement. “Instead, the legislation was written with special interests—producing a bill that makes the current system worse, not better. S. 744 will damage public safety and national security and should be opposed by lawmakers.”
“The legislation will provide legal status to millions of visa overstays while failing to provide for necessary in-person interviews,” said Palinkas “We need immigration reform that works. This legislation, sadly, will not.” “
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” The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers is reportedly the first union to officially call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The health care law is prompting some serious buyer’s remorse in Big Labor, which worked hard on behalf of the administration to pass it:
The union’s statement can be found here. The full text is below:
United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers International President Kinsey M. Robinson issued the following statement today calling for a repeal or complete reform of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA):
“Our Union and its members have supported President Obama and his Administration for both of his terms in office.
But regrettably, our concerns over certain provisions in the ACA have not been addressed, or in some instances, totally ignored. In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the Act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer sponsored coverage could keep it. “
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” Authorities in the Mexican resort of Cancun say two gunmen burst into a bar in a working class neighborhood and fatally shot seven people. Four others are wounded.
Aiza says the assailants arrived to “The Mermaid” bar in a poor area far from Cancun’s hotel zone in two cars Thursday afternoon. He says two gunmen using automatic rifles went inside and began shooting.”
From Reuters:
Six Killed In Bar Shooting In Mexican Resort Of Cancun
” Two men armed with a machine gun and a handgun opened fire in a bar on the outskirts of the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun on Thursday, killing six people and wounding five, the office of the state’s attorney general said.”
Update : Death toll now stands at seven:
” Resort locations, such as Cancun or Acapulco in Mexico, have not been immune to violence in the past. In February, six women were raped by gunmen who broke into their rented beach house, according to Reuters. Acapulco, once a rival tourist destination to Cancun, has lost some appeal as it has been plagued with drug-related violence while Cancun has thus far avoided such violent high profile incidents.”
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Denise Inez Owens
” The theft of more than $433,000 by a former local treasurer was covered up by the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) because the union feared the “potential impact on membership and loss of members,” according to an insurance claim document obtained by the Salisbury Daily Times.
Denise Inez Owens was the treasurer of the Worcester County Teachers Association (WCTA) when she stole state and national dues money to feed her gambling addiction. MSEA discovered the embezzlement in March 2009, but failed to report it to authorities. Instead the union persuaded Owens to sign a confession and agree to a restitution plan. Owens then resigned her union position and returned to work as a middle school teacher without notifying the school district of her predicament.”
” Owens, 58, has repaid about $195,000 of the money she took, according to her attorney, Robert L. Marvel Jr.
He noted for the judge his client’s “unblemished” criminal history, saying she hadn’t as much as a traffic ticket on her record.
She told the judge that the stealing had been hanging over her head for three years, and she felt relieved to have been caught.”
She would like us to believe that she is relieved to be caught when in fact she was caught red-handed and protected by the union she robbed for three years … yeah , right .
And how has she managed to pay back $65 K annually for the past three years on a teacher’s salary ?
” Prosecutors said their investigation showed that during a period of three years, Owens had visited casinos in Delaware on more than 600 occasions, and gambled more than $1 million.
The Maryland State Education Association chose not to disclose the embezzlement to authorities when they learned about it in March 2009, according to Worcester County Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Rakow.
“I think the coverup of that theft, and the lies to the teachers, is far worse morally than Denise Owens having a severe gambling problem,” Rakow said. “There was some secret agreement; it was never written down.” “
We would like to know where the other half million came from that the prosecutors showed that she had p**sed away over three years .
This woman just seems to pull cash out of thin air , which will come in handy when she is released from jail and has to pay back $70K annually during her first three years back in the world as a convicted felon .
We assume that the new qualification on her resume will preclude her from ever working in her chosen profession again .
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” NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It’s an education bombshell.
Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before they can enter the City University’s community college system.
The number of kids behind the 8-ball is the highest in years, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday.
They had to re-learn basic skills — reading, writing and math — first before they could begin college courses.
They are part of a disturbing statistic.
Officials told CBS 2′s Kramer that nearly 80 percent of those who graduate from city high schools arrived at City University’s community college system without having mastered the skills to do college-level work.”
This story brings an awful lot of things to mind , but I’m not quite sure how to address them … More on this in time … Except who could leave out the one immediately obvious comment about how ” if we(taxpayers) just invested MORE in education ” we(NEA , UFT) would be able to teach 18 year olds how to read . Eleven point six BILLION just isn’t enough .
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State Takeover Looms In Detroit
” Is the governor caving to pressure from the suburbs? Detroit City President Charles Pugh said that’s a fact , as Rick Snyder on Friday declared a financial emergency in Detroit, setting the stage for a state takeover.
Pugh said, however, while there is pressure from outside the city, he’s certain there are people within Detroit who would welcome a state-appointed emergency financial manager.”
Because they’re doing such a good job on their own …
US Urban Misery – Forbes List 2013
40 Years Of ” Blue ” Governance Leaves A Mark
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As Barack Obama begins his second term in office, trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high. And for the first time, a majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.
Courtesy Of Steve McLaughlin
” Looks like 1199 SEIU found out that people are on to them and their plan to come to Albany to disrupt the rally on the 28th. The link I posted yesterday is now blocked and you have to create an account to see what they’re up to.
I thought the Obama organization was getting involved as well and in a way, it is.
I just called the phone #315-424-1743 on the link below and it answers “thank you for calling 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East.”
Think about that. They put the Obama Logo, Organizing for action title up and they’re not the Obama campaign, they are a labor union. The link is from mybarackobama.com
https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/dayofaction/gskwqb
SEIU, since I’m sure you’re snooping on this page and just so you know who it is that’s exposing you, the name is spelled McLaughlin. Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin. How is it that you have that many members who just happen to be off in the middle of the work week? Or, are they getting paid to protest?”
Do You Live In A Death Spiral State
” Don’t buy a house in a state where private sector workers are outnumbered by folks dependent on government.
Thinking about buying a house? Or a municipal bond? Be careful where you put your capital. Don’t put it in a state at high risk of a fiscal tailspin.
Eleven states make our list of danger spots for investors. They can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and an exodus of employers. The list includes California, New York, Illinois and Ohio, along with some smaller states like New Mexico and Hawaii.”
If your career takes you to Los Angeles or Chicago, don’t buy a house. Rent.
” Sure proof of the failure of the country’s education system is the fact that Americans, the casualties of that system, could listen to President Obama’s remarks on education in his 2013 State Of The Union speech and not laugh him out of the hall.
In his speech, Obama dished out the standard “education is the key and the government needs to spend more” drivel. But those whose critical skills were not damaged by the government institutes the president purports to improve will see the fraud to which parents and students have been subjected to for decades.
Obama’s laundry list of policy proposals starts with a new entitlement: pre-school for all. He also wants our system to graduate “high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job,” an idea that has been floating around for decades.
Obama wants “tax credits, grants, and better loans” to help kids go to college; he already has orchestrated a quasi-takeover of lending to college students and has relaxed loan repayment terms. And he wants to fight the high cost of higher educations by ensuring “that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.” “
The Dirt On ‘Government Motors’
” Maybe the most disturbing news in “American Turnaround,” Ed Whitacre’s new book that describes his stint as head of General Motors, is how naïve he was about what it means to run a company that’s been bailed out by the federal government, and is now regulated by the anti-business types who populate the Obama administration.
As Whitacre takes the job back in 2009, he thinks that the automaker’s government masters are rational people looking to help the company survive and thrive. Along the way, he finds out that they’re not.
In fact, their true goal wasn’t to maximize profits to ensure GM survives for the long term, but to keep control of the company as long as possible (the feds still hold a 26 percent stake today) to both keep its union allies fat and happy and to please its green buddies by forcing GM to produce hybrid vehicles that the vast majority of Americans can’t afford now, and never will.”
” A ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’ introduced in Congress last week would require employers to show pay disparity is related to job-performance and prohibit employer retaliation for sharing salary information with coworkers.
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, both Democrats, said their legislation is aimed at closing the pay gap between men and women and would also address loopholes in the 1963 Equal Pay Act.”
Illustration By Yogi Love
“This was a case about abuse and betrayal,” U.S. Atty. André Birotte Jr. said in a statement after the verdict. “Freeman abused his position as leader of the SEIU, and he betrayed the hardworking people whose interests he was supposed to represent.”
Freeman, 43, faces a maximum of more than 180 years in prison when he returns to court for sentencing in April. His attorneys declined to comment.
Monday’s verdict marks the end of a steep fall from grace for a man groomed for a major role in the SEIU, the 2-million-member labor juggernaut that is a dominant force in worker organizing campaigns and Democratic elections from coast to coast.”
” Embattled St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson says new Utah Attorney General John Swallow helped broker a deal in 2010 in which Johnson believed he was to pay Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid $600,000 to make a federal investigation into Johnson’s company go away . “
” Certainly the allegations could be false, but it’s worth noting this isn’t the first time Reid’s name has come up in connection with some pretty shady propositions. Remember the lucrative, underpriced land deal? Or the green energy conflict? There’s so much there, pithily summed up by Investors Business Daily as follows:
. . .shadowy years he ran the Nevada Gaming Commission, through his public embarrassment over the Los Angeles Times investigation into his son and son-in-law’s Washington lobbying activities,the ethics investigation into the free tickets Reid happily accepted to boxing matches and the successful land development deal that ended up netting Reid $1 million when he sold it, in an amazing coincidence, to a friend and it became a shopping center. “
” A new report released today by the group 1001 Reasons to Vote Against Harry Reid shows that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has either steered or is attempting to steer a total of $3,360,000 in earmarked Defense Department contracts to a campaign contributor, despite President Obama’s direct opposition to the project.
The company on the receiving end of the funds, Arcata Associates, is a small privately-held defense contractor headquartered in Las Vegas, NV. The first earmark, already signed into law, occurred in FY2010 and was worth $1,360,000. The second, still under consideration, is slated to come during FY2011 and would cost $2,000,000. Both allocations use the Senate Defense Appropriations Bill. “
” Right now, as Senate Majority Leader, Reid earns $193,400.00 per year – a back-bencher earns $174,000.00.
Reid has been earning that 193 grand for a few years, but when he first entered the Senate in 1987, I think the Senate salary was about $125,000.00 per year. In order to build up $4.6 million dollars over the past 43 years, Reid would have had to sock aside – out of various government salaries – nearly $107,000.00 per year.
Does anyone want to believe that Reid has done this? That he has saved his government-salary pennies (including for all those years when he made far less than even $107,000.00 per year) and built up his fortune just out of the money we know he’s been earning since he entered public office? And what if Reid’s fortune is actually closer to the higher estimate of $6.3 million?
It’s just not credible that Reid has done this just out of his government salary. The man has raised 5 kids, through college. His various government salaries were enough to live on but how, with all the expenses, did Reid build up so much money? What did he do? How did he do it?
How does a man who’s “product” is legislation make so much money that he can build up more than four and a half million dollars of net worth? “
” Its small wonder that Reid believes in the power of government to make things good. They’ve certainly made things good for him. He’s risen from the son of a hard-rock miner to a fabulously wealthy Senate Majority Leader. Being in government, for Reid, has been like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He hasn’t had to work for money, but he’s managed to acquire quite a lot of it.
But is this what we want? Do we want people who enter politics poor and leave it very rich? Nothing wrong with a poor man being in government. Nothing wrong with being a rich man in government. But to start poor and end rich while never doing anything in the private sector is a clear indicator of trading on one’s position.
And this is why Reid wants so desperately to remain in power – because it’s all he’s got.
The whole of Reid’s position in life has been built on his government office. Wealth, power and prestige, for Reid, are dependent upon his remaining in office. To lose office is to lose the ability to, say, build up another four million dollars. It’s not like Reid has any marketable skills for the private sector – even his skill as a lawyer is probably rusty as he hasn’t done any real legal practice since the 1960′s. “
” Votes without voters – the notion seems like something from “The Twilight Zone.” Yet this outcome, the result of a mysterious computer glitch, may have helped re-elect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over his Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, last week by a 50.2%-44.6% margin. Actually, the “mystery” is very likely the doing of a local of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which nationwide provides votes, money and muscle for the Democratic Party. Critics are charging thatvoting machines throughout Clark County (Las Vegas), where about three-fourths of Nevada’s population resides, were rigged to place check marks next to Reid’s name before a person even had voted. County officials insist that no tampering occurred. But the possibility can’t be dismissed, especially given that one of Reid’s sons is county commission chairman. “
” A South Carolina school district has launched an investigation into a high school teacher who allegedly threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it as a classroom full of students watched.
Mark Bounds, a spokesman for the Lexington –Richland5 School District, confirmed to Fox News that an English teacher at Chapin High School was placed on leave as they investigate the incident.
“There were allegations that at a teacher took a flag down from the post in the classroom and stepped on that flag as part of the lesson,” Bounds said, indicating the act was repeated in several other classes. “It was not a spontaneous act, but one he worked into the lesson.”
He said there was “sufficient evidence that the teacher needed to be put on administrative leave and a full investigation needed to take place.”
Bounds said they could not provide additional information because it was a personnel matter – but he stressed that the school district took the matter extremely seriously.
“We have a very patriotic community with many military veterans,” he said. “Fort Jackson, the largest training base in the world is part of our community and you can see why this is especially important.”
Michael Copeland’s daughter was in the classroom when the incident occurred. He told television stationWIS that the teacher’s actions were disrespectful and unpatriotic. “
” She grappled with trying to bolster the U.S. workforce at a time of fiscal crisis and recovery from recession. “There is still much to do, but we are well on the road to recovery, and middle-class Americans know the president is on their side,” she said.
Obama, in a statement, called her a “tireless champion for working families.”
So far, Obama has picked white males for the three biggest Cabinet positions – Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and former Senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. He was due to announce Jack Lew as treasury secretary on Thursday, a source said.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a close confidante of Obama, withdrew her name last month from consideration for the secretary of state post in the face of what promised to be a contentious Senate confirmation battle. “
” An Oklahoma local of the Teamsters Union is disputing recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), charging that recess appointments were made while the U.S. Senate was not in recess, according to legal documents obtained by The Daily Caller.
“The union disputes that the board is properly and sufficiently constituted, as ‘recess’ appointments (to NLRB) were made when there was no recess,” according to a Dec. 12, 2012 affidavit signed by Teamsters Local 523 President Gary Ketchum. “
“The guy worked at a company that did not have a collective bargaining agreement. This company was bought by a union company, and he didn’t want to belong to the union,” Ketchum told TheDC.
As part of the merger, Rammage was placed at the bottom of the seniority list for the merged unit, while other Dolly Madison employees previously represented by Teamsters Local 523 were placed higher than Rammage on the seniority list.
Interstate Bakeries told Rammage that he lost his seniority because he was not represented by a union.
“All of a sudden he wants to be dovetailed in?” Ketchum told TheDC. “That’s what they’re trying to force now. They’re trying to say that his seniority should be pushed up based on his time with the company ( well DUH ) , ahead of those who were union workers. That’s wrong. His seniority should start back at the bottom.”
Due to his low seniority, Rammage was transferred from his Ponca City facility to a different facility approximately 70 miles from his home, forcing him to move. “
Definition Of Seniority , Courtesy Of Webster’s New World College Dictionary
seniority
(sēn yôr′ə tē, -yär′-)
noun pl. seniorities
the state or quality of being senior; precedence in birth, rank, etc.
status, priority, or precedence achieved by length of service, as in a given job
