Is the TEA Party electoral poison?
Well, to answer the question, Rasmussen conducted a poll which stated 43 percent now see the TEA Party label as a negative. Of course they do, since the media constantly portrays the TEA Party as part of the problem and not part of the solution. I think the number around here who would agree with the 43% is only about half of that.
But the labeling trend is definitely not in the favor of those who believe in smaller, more limited government as independents dislike the TEA Party label by a 42-25 margin. Generally they are the ones who fall in the middle politically and supposedly it’s the great unwashed whose votes pile up on election day.
So here’s my message to the 43 percent: if you don’t buy the TEA Party and its message of limited government it’s only because you believe the lies told about the TEA Party by those who have a vested interest in keeping things just the way they are!
Do you want to know the way it is? We spend way too much money in government, and it’s money we create out of thin air. The question now isn’t if we’re heading into an inflationary era, but when and how much. It’s sort of like our experience with Hurricane Irene – some got a little wind, some got a little rain, but most had some sort of damage done to their towns and dwellings. All that differed was the degree.
So follow the money. If you didn’t get a raise last year or – worse – lost your job, well, what has the current big-spending government done for you? Maybe you’re getting some sort of transfer payment like unemployment benefits or food stamps but wouldn’t you really rather have the standard of living of being a productive full-time worker returned to you? As it stands you have less but government has more because they set the rules and print the money! Let my people go!
Verizon on strike: is the middle class really in peril?
With no end in sight, the varying group of red-clad picketers at the Verizon location just around the corner from me promises to be a sight I’ll see for awhile – at least until the economic reality of making no money from working begins to rear its ugly head. According to reports like this, the union and company have been far apart in negotiations.
The Communications Workers of America union calls the strike “standing up for middle class jobs.” Their complaint is that an immensely profitable Verizon has “regressive demands” which “would roll back 50 years of bargaining gains.” Too, the union condemns the “Wisconsin-style tactics” employed by the company.
And the union is getting support in its efforts – for example, the Teamsters who represent UPS workers have ordered drivers not to make deliveries to Verizon facilities where they would cross a picket line. (Sounds like an opportunity for FedEx.) The CWA also claims that over 100,000 have signed a petition decrying Verizon’s “corporate greed.”
Yet Verizon states a case that the workers represent a division of the company that’s not profitable and all they are asking is for well-compensated union employees to chip in a little bit on their benefit packages. The company is also accusing the union of misrepresenting the company’s bargaining demands and also several incidents of vandalism and sabotage. (That seems to be par for the Big Labor course, as I’ll explain later.)
In essence, the conflict boils down to this: Verizon is trying to cut costs in a division that’s on its way to obsolescence. No longer are Americans tied to a phone line as more and more households have eschewed a landline phone for cellular service. Nor does Verizon even have the monopoly on landline service as they used to because cable providers and others have made these services available. Unfortunately for the Verizon employees affected by the strike, their business will eventually go the route of the horse and buggy just as that of the telephone operator went away years ago when direct-dial phones became available.
The other irksome item within the union’s argument is playing that old class envy card. Their claim that the “very profitable company has paid its top five executives more than $258 million over the past four years” doesn’t address how these corporate leaders were paid. Most likely much of the compensation came in the form of stock options granted because the company was “very profitable” – would they prefer these executives lost millions of dollars instead? (By the way, that $258 million number works out to $1433.33 per striking employee per year. Would the strikers accept such a measly pay raise on even a $60,000 salary, let alone upwards of $90,000?)
Certainly that sounds like a huge amount of compensation for these executives – after all, who wouldn’t want a gig where they made an average of $12 million per year? But then again, would you like the hard work and long hours these people put in on their way up the corporate ladder? I doubt these positions were handed to them, and they certainly require more thought and skill in a number of areas than the average line worker would be able to exhibit. A failure on a line worker’s part may mean a few hundred customers are inconvenienced until someone can fix the issue. A CEO’s screwup could drive the entire company to bankruptcy and cost thousands of workers their jobs – so let’s get a sense of proportion here.
It seems to me the unions are becoming more and more desperate as they realize their hold on power is slipping away. Thus far Verizon has managed to keep their service going – albeit at a somewhat slower pace – and as the strike drags on Verizon’s management may find that they can do without some of these striking employees on a more permanent basis. Surely above all that’s what the CWA is afraid of, and the sabotage now may lead to more violent attacks later.
While it’s not related to the Verizon strike, consider an event which happened near my old hometown where a non-union electrical contractor was wounded in an attack – presumably by a union electrician or supporter. (Having “SCAB” spraypainted on the business owner’s vehicle would be my first clue.) There’s no question Toledo is a rough-and-tumble union town and has been for decades; why do you think I’ve called them “union thugs” before? I know how they operate so as soon as I saw the “Ohio business owner” blurb for the story I figured it was from Toledo.
Still, the idea that someone would actually attempt to gun down a business owner who was protecting his property appears to me to mean the stakes are deadly high in Big Labor’s case. After all, consider the unions had the federal government’s apparatus lock, stock, and barrel for a two-year period but couldn’t get everything they wanted because a number of people said “no, you cannot have card check” and “yes, corporations have the same right to political speech as unions do.” That had to hurt, even if they picked up an automaker or two in the process.
Now does this mean the Verizon strike will turn deadly? I pray not, as cooler heads on both sides need to prevail.
But those walking the picket line around the corner from me have to know they’re whistling past an economic graveyard because in this day and age workers need to be flexible and the ball is usually in the company’s court. In all honesty, they’re only being asked to work under the same rules most of the rest of us already do and as such be thankful they have a good job.
Bear in mind profits are by no means permanent, nor are corporations. Too often a union has won the small battles of getting workers raises and better benefits only to lose the war when the company closes shop because it can’t compete anymore. There’s always the likelihood that in ten years Verizon may be a distant memory, another casualty of an ever-changing world. No work stoppage can ignore that fact.
Union thugs: SEIU lives up to the reputation
It probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day if not for a court case, but an organizing document put together by the purple shirts at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) shows that the bad old days of workforce strife may be returning.
“It’s not enough to be right. You need might as well.” That’s how the SEIU’s chapter on organizing tactics begins, and the tome shows they’re out to play hardball. Some of the means to their ends:
- “Job actions, such as refusing to do more than the bare minimum required by the contract or engaging in short work stoppages, or on-again, off-again ‘rolling strikes.’” In short, a work slowdown.
- “Outside pressure (involving) jeopardizing relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds.” Read: a point just barely short of extortion.
- “Community action and use of the news media can damage an employer’s public image and ties with community leaders and organizations.” If you hear it on the news, it must be true – even if the union is lying like a rug.
They also talk about escalating tactics – if something doesn’t get the employer’s attention, another more radical idea might just do the trick. This is why you get instances like the 14 busloads of shouting protesters who invaded the front yard of a Bank of America executive.
The problem is that sometime, somewhere, somebody is going to decide to fight fire with fire, and then you get an Auto-Lite situation. The difference will be that it likely won’t be the National Guard doing the shooting.
For all they’ve done on behalf of the American laborer in decades past, the labor movement can be thanked. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with organizing a workplace if the workers decide on their own to organize. But that outside pressure placed on employers also can be used to intimidate employees into signing their rights away as well.
The idea of their employing intimidation tactics like those was the reason unions, for all their political power in the Democratic Party and control of both Congress and the White House from 2009 to 2010, couldn’t pass ‘card check.’ Note that once the Dana plant’s employees made the union go to a secret ballot, the union lost. It doesn’t always happen that way, but in about 1/3 of the cases the union loses an organizing election.
So the SEIU is going over the head of the employees in a particular workplace and trying for the jugular of the employers themselves.
Sodexo, a catering company, was a target of SEIU pressure (as well as a smear campaign, which continues) but decided not to knuckle under. It’s their RICO lawsuit against the union which brought the SEIU pamphlet to light. (Worth noting, too, is that many Sodexo workers are already organized under UNITE HERE, a rival union to the SEIU.) But Sodexo isn’t taking the SEIU’s attacks without stating their own case, like this example.
How many companies, though, can withstand that sort of outside pressure? And what happens when government comes down on the side of unions rather than being a fair arbiter?
For one thing you get bills like Maryland’s “Fair Share Act of 2009,” which allow unions to collect a service fee from non-members. Even more troubling is the fact the state isn’t negotiating from a profitability standpoint because they have the power to tax and redistribute that largess to a union constituency, something a private employer doesn’t have. It’s not quite a license to print money but it’s a close as one can get. The unions then take a portion of those fees and reward their political friends. It’s a pretty sweet deal for everyone – except the taxpayer.
And the unions get mighty uppity, flexing their muscles if someone comes in and tries to upset the apple cart. There were quite a few SEIU members present and accounted for there as well as here.
So it’s good that the SEIU was busted, but of course you’re not seeing this on the nightly news or in the major newspapers. It’s living in the shadows, sort of like the Gunrunner scandal has been confined mostly to investigative blogsites like this.
With freedom of the press comes responsibility. I’m trying to do my part.
A messy divorce in the offing?
You know, one would think that an administration which is trying to prevent Boeing from moving production of the 787 jetliner to a right-to-work state and has stacked the National Labor Relations Board with union toadies – through recess appointments if necessary – would have Big Labor’s seal of approval. But they’re greedy and chagrined that ‘card check’ didn’t pass when Congress was fully in Democratic hands.
And now Big Labor has to worry about things at the state level. It’s the focus of a report by the Capital Research Center’s Labor Watch project co-authored by Ivan Osorio and Trey Kovacs. And to bear this out, remember that even the union-friendly Martin O’Malley was booed at this supposedly friendly gathering because he wanted to tinker with teacher pensions.
Yet Big Labor suffers from the same problem that any member of a broad coalition of special interests runs into when the Democratic Party seizes power – everybody wants everything they asked for all at once, no matter how noxious. Abortionists want easier access to abortions paid for by Uncle Sam, the gay lobby equates their cause with the civil rights movement and wants laws passed accordingly, gun grabbers want to flout the Second Amendment even more, and so on and so forth. Unions just don’t like taking their place in a long line of liberal special interest groups.
And the key question is: where else can they go? Like those on the conservative side who occasionally express their disgust with the GOP and threaten to boycott the next election if so-and-so is nominated, Big Labor is pretty much stuck with the one who brung them to the dance. They’ve obviously alienated themselves from Republicans, a party they bash mercilessly despite the fact a significant portion of their rank-and-file members vote that way at the ballot box, so I don’t doubt they’ll eventually suck it up and drop millions into the Democratic coffers because there’s nowhere else for them to turn politically. And the fact Big Labor still confiscates huge sums of money for political purposes via union dues means that, somewhere along the line, they and the Democrats will mend fences. It’s all about the Benjamins to both players in that game.
So don’t be surprised to see Big Labor make a push for a more liberal strain of Democrats to replace the ones they feel betrayed them in both state and national races. After all, if they can continue to play the class envy game with any success they’ll always dupe a few useful idiots into pulling the lever for their allies in the Democrat Party, even if they’ll hold their nose a little in the process. As long as President Obama is in office, their goals will be advanced regardless of means.
Keeping the Promise rally in pictures, text, and video
This will be quite the multimedia post as I have plenty of material to go with my observations.
The parade of unionistas was slated to begin at the Navy stadium, so there were staging units set up at that location.
Buses were ready to take the protesters down to Lawyers Mall.
We also parked at the stadium but we opted to take the city’s shuttle downtown. Our little band arrived onscene about 4:30, and a few hardy protesters were already there.
There were instructions given to us by organizer Ann Corcoran, mostly dealing with where we would be placed. Once the street was barricaded, we could go off the sidewalk.
We were shunted off to the side, adjacent to the House of Delegates office building. Meanwhile, the unions were busy getting their site built.
They also had their own security, dressed up in fluorescent orange vests.
By 5:30, people were beginning to congregate in Lawyers Mall. Remember, we were placed well behind and to the side of the venue.
But the busses dropped off some protesting teachers and others where we were standing. It made for some interesting interaction.
This video was shot when the Baltimore City teachers arrived. Notice how the union security positioned themselves, watching our group.
This was our message, in part.
And while they had preprinted Astroturf signs in varying colors, mostly saying “Keep the Promise,” we had more creativity. Here’s a series of our posters.
This lady was two-sided.
Pictures convey a message too.
So do socks.
We are a union too?
But some of their side had a little creativity too.
In the last picture, the gentleman was talking to an enterprising high school reporter who was collecting a lot of information from both sides (he had been among our group earlier.) Needless to say, there was a lot of media there.
That crew from WJZ in Baltimore alternated sides between theirs and ours. But if you got passionate, they would find you. Watch this.
This guy was a squeaky wheel as well. I think he was in my Baltimore teachers video above.
I even got my picture taken by AOL News (see update below.) They interviewed our side too, so we can’t complain too much about the amount of coverage.
And we are pretty media-savvy to boot.
In case you’re wondering where all the people came from, bear in mind that busses continually arrived and dropped off 50 or so people, like this group.
By 6:00 Lawyers Mall was comfortably full.
But the main group arrived a little after 6. The picture is the front of the parade, while the video is about 8 minutes’ worth of them passing by.
The lady with the upside-down sign amused me, but the number of kids was disheartening. Talk about being used as props.
Once they arrived, the speakers started (not that we could see or hear anything from our vantage point) and the two sides were separated. That’s where some of the fun I detailed above began.
Aside from words, though, there was no violence. There was even some capitalism among union ranks, like this guy selling buttons.
I have Wisconsin solidarity – I stand with Governor Walker.
Nor was it just a button seller. There was someone pushing hard-line socialist books (took the picture but it didn’t come out) and at union events it also seems the LaRouchites come out.
He was passing out a flyer talking about a general strike and return to Glass-Stegall laws, along with exhorting us to combat the British conspiracy. Yeah, those people are sort of nuts so it was just the right element for them.
And while it wasn’t as bad as other rallies, there was plenty of trash!
You know, no one got us a chicken sandwich for dinner! Sounds like a sweet gig – maybe that’s why they got several thousand. Gee, you would think the Koch brothers would have plied us with free food.
But the biggest question I have yet to hear the answer for is: what was the promise? It’s unfortunate that the unions and government colluded to tell workers the gravy train was never-ending but the money isn’t there. We can’t provide 40 acres and a mule, either. And our message was clear: “state workers yes, unions no.”
As a matter of fact, if the teachers were upset about how they’ve been treated in our recent budgets, they have only one person to blame: Martin O’Malley. In Maryland, try as they might, Republicans can’t cut the budget because the Democrats control the purse strings – our budget maximum is set by the governor and any Republican ideas for frugality don’t make it through the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. So if teacher pensions are in trouble, they are blaming the wrong people and party.
In all honesty, we knew we would be horribly outnumbered: the old game show 1 vs. 100 had nothing on this. Surely some on the other side were in it for the free food, and others thought they were making a point or even sticking a thumb in the eye of the TEA Party. But all the bloviating doesn’t change the reality that we are simply out of money. Raising taxes isn’t the solution because the returns will constantly diminish – just look at what occurred when we enacted the “millionaire’s tax.” Instead of raking in millions, we lost money.
But take away the free food and bus trip, and I wonder how many would have still shown up to stand up for an outmoded system that has outlived its usefulness. We drew several dozen people to speak our minds without any of those advantages, and may have done better had the protest occurred on a weekend. (A lot of those who might be on our side were also in Annapolis, but they were present for the March for Life. One of those riding with us came for that specific event and didn’t stay at our rally.)
One final aside: I was told that Delegate Maggie McIntosh, a strong backer of the gay marriage bill, lamented the demise of the bill and compained that if six additional Republican delegates hadn’t been elected last year the bill would have made it through. More proof elections mean things and our votes make an impact, even if we have a small minority in the General Assembly.
We had a tiny minority yesterday evening, too, but the truth and facts are on our side so we will eventually prevail. It’s only a matter of how much damage is done beforehand.
Update: the camera indeed caught me at the rally. Thanks to photographer Teresa McMinn of AOL News for the link, and don’t forget to read the coverage from the Annapolis Patch.
Astroturf vs. grassroots
It’ll be David taking on Goliath once again tomorrow evening in Annapolis.
On the astroturf side, union protesters, joined by teachers, are expected to be bussed in between 5,000 and 10,000 strong to Lawyers Mall for a rally tomorrow evening. AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka is expected to be the keynote speaker for the two-hour long union march and rally. For them, it’s all about keeping their hold on the goodies because Maryland already is a state under Democratic Party control and even though right-to-work legislation has been introduced it’s not likely to advance to even a committee vote.
The grassroots will be represented across the street by a few dozen who realize that the union’s goodies have started the state down the road to financial ruin and believe the steps taken in Wisconsin are necessary to right the ship. It’s most telling that the unions objected loudest not to the changes in pension and healthcare contributions Wisconsin public sector employees would have to shoulder, but to the new reauthorization schedule and taking away the dues checkoff in paychecks. Follow the money.
Locally, Cathy Keim is spearheading the effort to represent Salisbury at the event, and I plan on going with her to cover and participate. There are two slots left in her vehicle, although if others wish to drive that would certainly help. Cathy can be reached at (443) 880-5912.
Unions have their place in this nation, and I have no animus toward collective bargaining in the private sector. But there is a reason public-sector unions were discouraged until the 1960′s. Moreover, unions overstep their boundaries once they force workers to participate and contribute money to candidates and causes the rank-and-file may not completely support.
Come up to Annapolis and be part of that “irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” Before long, we won’t be the minority anymore!
Give Maryland workers true freedom!
The timing on this couldn’t be better, as the Madison protests and associated labor strife have put the power of Big Labor on display. Yet in reality the effort to make Maryland a right-to-work state like its neighbor Virginia culminated with the introduction of HB743 on February 10, before the Madison protests broke out days later.
However, this effort truly started two years ago when the so-called “Fair Share Act” was passed and signed by Governor O’Malley. It changed a standing prohibition on unions charging non-members a service fee for representation, and that effort bore fruit for Big Labor last month when just over 5,000 members of the 23,000 member AFSCME union in Maryland voted to ratify a new three-year contract which included a service fee provision. Since that group of 5,000 or so was 89% of the members who could be bothered to vote on the pact, it passed – and slapped a service fee of up to $400 on both union and non-union workers. If all 23,000 members were maxed out, this would be a $9.2 million bonanza for AFSCME – as it stands they still should rake in seven figures, with a significant portion of that ransom surely going for political purposes.
Yet one key difference between Maryland and neighboring Virginia is that right-to-work law Virginia employers enjoy. Without the advantage of a closed shop, unions in the commonwealth have found it a much tougher go and political results reflect this fact: Virginia has a Republican governor and Republican legislature. While having closed shops in a state isn’t necessarily a death knell for Republican chances – both Ohio and Michigan have a heavy union influence in their urban areas but both elected GOP legislatures and chief executives last fall – it certainly presents less of a barrier if unions are kept honest by the open shop.
This afternoon is the hearing for HB743, and we can be sure that Big Labor will have its place at the table.
Yet the battle really isn’t all about politics; it’s about the role labor unions now play in our government. This has become especially true over the last half-century as the once-dominant private-sector unions have withered away and most union organization occurs in the public sector. In the case of public-sector negotiations, it’s akin to two wolves debating a sheep over lunch: one wolf is the public-sector union and the other is the government, with taxpayers being fleeced in their role as sheep. When a group of taxpayer-paid employees negotiate with another group holding the power of taxation, it’s no surprise that both groups can find mutual benefit by picking the pockets of hard-working taxpayers.
Opening the shops is a good way to starve the beast and make the union sell itself on why they should collect dues from each and every worker for the services they do provide in negotiating wages and benefits and standing up for the worker when unfairly targeted by management. If they stayed out of the political realm and returned to their proper role as collective bargainers, their perception may improve.
But when a huge pot of money is collected, the tendency is for less-than-honest people to skim a little off the top and the tendency for less-than-principled politicians is to accept every dollar of ill-gotten gain they can get for the perpetual re-election campaign. It’s the problem we seem to have in many areas of the country, and Maryland can take a positive step in the right direction if the majority party would break their chains and stop serving their masters in fleecing taxpayers.
A time to protest
In this civil (or perhaps uncivil, for as Axl Rose says, “What’s so civil ’bout war anyway?”) war around our land, the one which has progressed beyond ballots but thankfully not yet to bullets, it seems we’re as divided as we have been in any recent time. Even in Maryland, which is written off as a hopelessly single-party state, there’s a rear-guard action which requires the attention of the status quo in power.
For example, even though the same-sex marriage bill passed a key hurdle in the House of Delegates by narrowly passing the House Judiciary Committee on a 12-10 vote, there’s still hope that the correct course of action will be taken and the House at-large will defeat the bill, since the pro-gay forces have no guarantee they’ll get to the magic number of 71 Delegates needed to pass the bill. To that end, Robert Broadus of Protect Marriage Maryland is seeking a daily protest this week in Annapolis:
We are arranging a PROTEST in front of the Maryland State Capitol Every Day Next Week!! If unions (and) teachers can protest in Wisconsin over union benefits, we can certainly protest in Maryland over marriage!! I am asking ALL of you to please come WHEN you can.
We must now redouble our efforts. Are there enough people who care about this issue in MD to sustain a week long PROTEST here in Annapolis?
Maybe, maybe not. But this fight will drag on for at least the next few months as opponents have vowed to place the bill to referendum. In a Presidential election year, a referendum vote may hinge on black turnout as that community tends to oppose gay marriage and President Obama will presumably be on the ballot for re-election.
And then we have the mother of all protests next Monday, the 14th. Dubbed the “Rally to Keep the Promise” by its organizers, the Maryland State Education Association, it’s certain the usual big-government apologists will be there. And there’s nothing like a little class envy to fire up the troops:
We’re rallying to ask the General Assembly to prevent devastating cuts to public education and the retirement security of educators, police, health care workers, librarians, and many more hard-working Marylanders.
These cuts will threaten the quality of our public school system and the quality of the public services that we depend on everyday.
As Maryland recovers from the recession brought on by the excesses of Wall Street, we urge legislators to keep their promises to Main Street and provide great public schools, great public services, and a great future for Maryland.
What about their fiduciary promises to taxpayers and the solvency of the state? There is a point where taxation works to negative results like job losses and capital flight. And – how does revamping teacher retirement affect the classroom in the here and now? Their job should be to teach children, not worry about contributing a few more dollars toward their retirement. In that respect, welcome to the world most of the rest of us share.
The principle of bargaining between those who receive taxpayer funds to run operations and who receive taxpayer funds to perform a service leaves one side always a loser – the taxpayer. It’s why those of us who are Taxed Enough Already (a.k.a. the TEA Party) are calling for a stop to the madness. We’ll be represented in Annapolis, too, and although our numbers may be smaller we’re not going to be quiet and allow our representative to be bullied. Governor Walker is on the right track, and although it’s going to be a long 3 1/2 years until we can rectify the problem here we’re setting out to do just that.
Step one is cutting the piggishness of Big Labor down to size.
Friday night videos – episode 59
Another edition of this long-running series is upon us, and the star doesn’t need rehab! Let’s see what we’ve got this time.
The recent CPAC event was a gold mine of video inspiration for conservatives. For example, Human Events interviewed Ann Coulter before she made her remarks.
Not to be outdone, Townhall.com latched onto Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for her take.
And on it went, as both entities catalogued dozens of interviews there.
Since the last time I did this, a number of videos have looked at the battle between TEA Party stalwarts on one side and Big Labor on the other, in Wisconsin and elsewhere. I have four different videos on the subject, beginning with Wisconsin’s protest.
Americans for Limited Government has its take on the Madison protests, then covered the event in Annapolis.
Expanding on the coverage was Renee Giachino and CFIF’s Freedom Minute.
But there’s one more protest which comes from inside the Wisconsin state house.
Sore losers. Wonder what would happen if Maryland Republicans adopted the same style of tactics?
This is different and a humorous take on overbearing nanny state governance from CEI, who is usually good at this sort of thing.
I don’t wear makeup but I sure don’t drink coffee with soy milk either.
Okay, there’s no music video this time because next week will be an all-music edition. So that’s it for this edition of FNV.
Odds and ends number 26
I have a bunch of stuff today which piqued my interest but only needs anywhere from a sentence to a couple paragraphs to take care of. So here goes.
Over the last few days as the Madison protests continue, we’ve had Big Labor flex its muscles in a number of locations around the country. Needless to say I can’t be everywhere at once, and I was working during the Annapolis protest.
However, my blogging cohorts have helped me out. With on-the-spot reports I feature my Potomac TEA Party Report friend Ann Corcoran from Annapolis and the excellent photojournalist who goes by the moniker ‘El Marco’ reporting from his hometown of Denver on his Looking at the Left website.
Corcoran also lets us know that the unions will be back with their Astroturf in Annapolis on March 14, with the intent of making this a bigger and better protest. (By the way, school is scheduled to be in session for Wicomico County students on March 14 so the teachers here risk the last preparation day for grade 3-8 assessment tests if they skip town to attend.)
Turning to national politics, the other day I was talking about the prospects of Ron Paul’s third Presidential bid. Well, the ‘money bomb’ on Monday for the Liberty PAC that Paul leads raised over $750,000 – the ticker inhabits the front page of the Liberty PAC site. Guess he can afford those plane trips now and, if I were a betting man, I’d wager an announcement of his 2012 campaign will occur shortly after (or even during) the Iowa trip.
Finally, let’s talk about a poll or two. This morning Rasmussen released a poll claiming that 67% of Americans don’t support the ‘cut-and-run’ Democrats in Wisconsin (and now, Indiana) – naturally, the only group which approved by a bare plurality (48-44) are those who self-identified as Democrats.
Speaking of those who identify themselves as progressives, I have some exciting news on a new experiment.
I’m working with Progressive Delmarva‘s ’Two Sentz’ on a joint poll which will appear at both sites later this afternoon; it’s the final polling on the City Council primary race.
While I’ve found that the fundraising results roughly parallel the polling I’ve done insofar as the top contenders are concerned, it’s obvious my readership skews to the right. So in order to perhaps get a clearer picture of the electorate I figured I needed to add some lean to the left. So we’ll see what the results show when the poll ends on Monday.
And then we’ll all see just how accurate we were Tuesday night.
Madison: the shape of things to come
I’ve written for The Patriot Post for a number of years, but they invited me recently to contribute to their commentary page.
Last May we saw violent political riots in Greece and last week a February of discontent began in Madison, Wisconsin. While the issues at the heart of the Wisconsin protest aren’t exactly identical to the austerity measures dictated to the Greek government as a condition of accepting a continent-wide financial bailout, they’re still all about spending money the government doesn’t have.
The Madison protest arose from a GOP bill which would both curtail the negotiable items in labor contracts and bring to heel the ability of public sector unions to continually collect dues by removing “closed shop” provisions for certain employees and mandating annual authorization elections — those provisions strike (no pun intended) at the heart of the Big Labor political machine. To stall the inevitable passage Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate took advantage of a rules loophole and left the state, leaving their Republican counterparts fuming but powerless to take action on the law. Considering these Democrats have been offered sanctuary by religious leaders in adjacent states, they could be gone awhile.
(continued at the Patriot Post…)
If Ravens fans weren’t already bummed…
They may have to wait for quite a while to see their heroes take on the Steelers, or any other team for that matter.
With a player lockout looming in March, the 2011 season may be in doubt and players are being told to be prepared for a long work stoppage – save their money.
Interestingly enough, players are appealing to the fans to put pressure on the owners to negotiate but there’s a class envy element present in this dispute which you normally don’t see in a typical strike - in this instance you have millionaires taking on billionaires (even rookies who play a full season are assured a minimum salary of $325,000, with longtime veterans grossing at least $860,000 a year.) Nor do they seem to have a receptive audience in Washington.
Yes, it can be argued that the career span of an NFL player is relatively short, as most players wash out of the league in five years or less. One key aspect of the dispute is the owners’ desire to extend the regular season to 18 games by cutting the final two exhibition games – players contend they’ll run an even larger risk of serious injuries by extending the season. (This doesn’t count the numerous minor injuries they suffer during a season, like twisting their ankles or pulling muscles.) NFL players tend to have a shorter life expectancy than society at-large because of the abuse their bodies take.
But there is a conscious choice being made by these men, who generally have the opportunity to have their college education paid for thanks to their athletic ability. Many NFL alumni have taken advantage of their education and name recognition to build successful second careers after their playing days, but others cannot for various reasons.
As far as I’m concerned, the dispute can push the season back to open around the first of November, just in time for the conclusion of the World Series. My suspicion is that we’ll see the advent of the 18-game season by 2014 after the current four-year scheduling cycle ends and in return the players will keep the same percentage of revenue they currently receive. Maybe the post-career health insurance package will be sweetened as well.
It’s not unprecedented for an entire season to be wiped out, as the NHL lost the 2004-05 season to a labor dispute. Major League Baseball has lost portions of several seasons due to player strikes, with the 1994 season ending early and no champion crowned. The NFL lost a large portion of the 1982 season due to a strike and used ‘scab’ players for a few weeks during the 1987 season.
So Baltimore fans, you can just hope the Orioles have a good season because you may not have the Ravens to talk about this fall.
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