They Lived Happily Ever After

H/T The People's Cube

Union Money

Classical Values commenter Frank was discussing the upcoming election at Instability Is Becoming Unstable. Here is what he had to say (corrected by his correction).

The signs for future domestic turmoil in this country are becoming apparent. And they are being surreptitiously directed. From the union takeover of the Wisconsin state house, to the bused in union thugs at the Port of Longview, to Hoffa's speech with Obama on stage in Michigan, to the Black Congressional Caucus demonizing the Tea Party, it all fits a pattern.

The pattern is one of the community organizer who agitates by rubbing resentments and fanning hostilities, and then redirects anger at the victims.

This subject is already the talk at cocktail parties in Georgetown. Should Obama be voted out of office, they are setting up a situation for civil unrest. From one of the insiders, the former editor of The New Republic, comes the following:

"If they defeat him, [Obama] I fear we will no longer be participating in a civil conversation, however fraught, but in a civil war.”

For those of you with a weak stomach the last link (my addition to the comment) is to Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan just hates Christian Conservatives.

But that is not what I wish to look at. I want to look at where the Unions are getting the money for their current campaign.

Some of the nation’s largest labor unions are cutting back dramatically on their financial support to the Democratic Party, saying they are highly frustrated with the failure of Democrats to put up stronger resistance to Republican proposals opposed by labor.

The unions have cited what they see as Democrats’ tepid response to Republican efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, cut Medicare funding and require voters to show identification at the polls.

There is a chart at the link.

So that is where they are they are getting the money. Now the lower rate of union donations does two things. It gives them a war chest for current actions and increases the chances of Democrat losses. And you know, it feels to me like pre-civil war conditions. Unions are upset about changing labor (read pro union) laws. Blacks are upset at a Drug Prohibition regime that targets them. And Democrats in general are screaming bloody murder about their prospects in the next election. A very toxic brew.

I remember the Detroit riots of 1967 when Light My Fire was the theme song. The country is starting to get that feeling.

Update: Frank reminds me of an old post of mine The Old Order Is Breaking Down

Cross Posted at Classical Values

SEIU - Disrupting Capitalism

Of course the SEIU will make things more difficult for their private sector counterparts. But what do they care? They have government guns on their side. If they can maintain the left's hold on government.

That may be coming to an end.

Busing In Outside Agitators

A commenter at Althouse said:

They are clearly talking about Union Thugs being bused in from out of state.

In reference to a video link some one posted up thread (225 comments long last I checked).

This sparked remembrance of the civil rights marches of the 60s (I went to a few) and the cry from pillars of the community that "outside agitators" were coming in and disrupting peacefully segregated communities.

The old "outside agitators" ploy.

It is a good thing. The union funds for 2012 will be trimmed. I read of one union taking out a $90 million loan to fight this battle. Even if they win it has got to hurt in 2012.

Weaken them and when they are weak go for the (word meaning demise by external forces). How is that for civility?

H/T Instapundit

Pricing Yourself Out Of A Monopoly Market

Thanks to Instapundit I was perusing the comments at Althouse and came up with this really great one about the Wisconsin Teachers Mafia.

Seven Machos said...

3. Your union foolishly raised wages and benefits to a point where it priced itself right out of a monopoly market -- really fucking hard to do, but as we have seen, possible if you are absolutely committed.

Instead of willing to be a nail fungus they were trying for ebola status. They are at least up in tapeworm territory. Yeah. I know. Too rough on tapeworms. Tapeworms don't try to tell your children what to think.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wisconsin Teachers Mafia

Wisconsin Teachers Mafia: Give us the money or the kid gets it.

Parent: Gets what?

Wisconsin Teachers Mafia: Educated by us.

Parent: But you don't educate the kids.

Wisconsin Teachers Mafia: OK. How much will you pay us to leave the kids alone?

Parent: You are going to need a doctor's excuse for that.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

We Are The Middle Finger

The above image is from Looking At The Left where you can find a larger version plus many other images. The occasion was a union rally in Denver supporting the Wisconsin Teachers Mafia.

H/T Instapundit

Bursting The Lower Education Bubble

What is going on in Wisconsin is the bursting of the lower education bubble. You heard it here first.

Welcome Instapundit readers.

Take The Bastards Down

I think they have the wrong bastards in mind. But if they want smashing this 66 year old is up for it. Let them fire the first shot. Then give them some serious counter battery fire. Two for range and then fire for effect.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

What Madison Is All About

Chuck Sweeny - a Rockford Register Star reporter that I know from his days of covering the local Libertarian Party - gets to the heart of the goings on in Madison and explains why it is so critical for the unions to win against Governor Walker and the Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature.

But Democrats can’t compromise on ending collective bargaining rights, because that would weaken their party’s key political bloc. Democrats know that Walker’s gambit to break the unions is part of the national Republican strategy in the run up to the 2012 elections.

Chuck thinks that the Republicans, who only need one Democrat to show up to pass their agenda, will fold in the face of union pressure. I don't think so. It costs real money to bus in all those protestors and keep them fed and housed. Every day Walker can keep the protesters on the street further weakens the Democrats for the next election.

What Chuck also leaves out is that recall elections can be called by petition in Wisconsin one year after a person is elected. All the Republicans have to do is collect about 25,000 signatures from a Senate District, get them verified, and six weeks later there will be an election. In a district that was barely won by a Democrat and with sentiment favoring the Governor there is a good chance that in 12 or 16 weeks Walker will have enough Senators to make a quorum and the unions will lose a LOT. Can he hold out that long? Walker has been in politics for a while and he has a reputation for not backing down. Time will tell.

As Chuck points out the Democrats depend on that union money to elect Democrats who will do the unions more favors so they can get their cut. But the marks are staring to wise up. My take is that the longer he holds out the stronger he will get. And he doesn't have to get everything to win. A couple of things would do it: yearly union elections and no automatic deduction of union dues. The last point alone would mean a raise of a few percent for those who didn't want to pay. In these hard times who wouldn't like a raise or even a smaller cut in pay?

Wisconsin is only the first battle. Ohio is next. Indiana is even going after private sector unions. And a labor leader emphasizes Chuck's point:

Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation's largest public-sector union, said the moves in various state capitals to target state employees were an explicit effort to undermine a key source of Democratic funds.

"They know how much we spent in the last campaign," he said. "They're going to try and shoot us down."

The 1.6 million-member AFSCME last year tapped emergency accounts and took out loans as it poured more than $90 million into Democratic campaign efforts in the mid-term elections.

Overall, unions put around $400 million into the 2008 campaign to help elect Mr. Obama and other Democrats.

That is quite a war chest. I think the Republicans would like to flatten it. I think they can.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Perfect Metaphor

H/T Hill Buzz

The Law As Blackmail

David Bernstein is discussing his forthcoming book Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reformin this audio clip. You can download the clip for casual listening.

The good stuff begins about 4 minutes in. The title of the post comes about 7:20 into the audio. The short version: a case of union extortion gone mad. Note: when I worked for a union packing house in Omaha we regularly had to do unpaid overtime. One day I messed up and didn't punch out until I was leaving the floor and the union steward was kind enough to "fix" my time card.

Unions do provide some worker protection, but the thing they are the very best at is providing union protection. They have in fact reached their peak in the competitive sector of the economy with the bail out of Government Motors. In the coercive sector of the economy (government) the peak has not yet been reached. It is coming.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Targeting Unions

The FBI has been going after "anti-war" activists who have given support to terrorism.

"These raids, searches and grand jury investigations are nothing more than an attempt to intimidate us and to intimidate the anti-war movement," Iosbaker said. "We have done nothing wrong."

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said Saturday that the bureau's investigations "are predicated on criminal violations, not First Amendment protected activities."

When reached Friday, FBI spokesman Steve Warfield declined to provide details of the searches, but said there was no imminent threat to the community and the agency wasn't anticipating any arrests "at this time." He said the FBI was seeking evidence related to "activities concerning the material support of terrorism."

And what about the politics? Well it is interesting if predictable.

The warrant for Kelly's home, provided by his attorney, sought evidence on travel he did as part of his work for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and information on any travel to Colombia, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria or Israel.

Two groups use the name Freedom Road Socialist Organization, one based in Chicago and one in New York. They split several years ago, and the New York group said it was not targeted.

The website for the Chicago group, which describes itself as a "revolutionary socialist and Marxist-Leninist organization," shows Kelly and Sundin have been affiliated with it. Kelly edits FightBack!, a Minneapolis-based website and newspaper for the group.

Kelly's subpoena also commanded him to bring records he might have relating to the Middle East and Colombia, along with "all records of any payment provided directly or indirectly to Hatam Abudayyeh."

I think pro-surrender might be a more appropriate name for the group. But that is a mere quibble.

What is even more interesting is the union connection.

According to the SEIU, Joseph Iosbaker is Chief Steward for Local 73 of the SEIU. Joseph Iosbaker is being investigated by the FBI for his connection to terrorist groups. Two days ago, ABC-7 also noticed that he was affiliated with the SEIU, and the Tribune has nearly noted this as well.

Dang. A Government Union leader possibly involved in supporting terrorism? You would almost think unions were some kind of communist plot. Not to worry. The government media has failed to notice the union involvement.

One might think it would be big news that a Chief Steward for a Local chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is being investigated by the FBI for possible connection to overseas terror networks. Apparently, though, several Chicago news outlets didn’t see a reason to add this little fact to their stories. And even if it wasn’t big news that the FBI is investigating a union member, one would think that his profession would at least make an appearance somewhere in properly formulated coverage of the story… right?

Over the weekend the FBI announced that it was investigating Joseph Iosbaker for possible connections to overseas terror groups. Iosbaker and his wife Stephanie Weiner, both anti-war activists, are suspected of activities “concerning the material support of terrorism.”

The Chicago news has been all over the demonstrations that left-wing groups have mounted in Chicago to protest the FBI’s investigation of the anti-war activists. These stories are filled with all sorts of facts, dates and names. But in a significant handful of stories one little fact seems to have escaped the notice of these hardnosed journalists. Iosbaker is an SEIU union member. And not just a rank and file member but an official.

Gotta protect that union label. By covering it up.

That isn't all. The FBI is also investigating Andy Stern for, you will never believe this in a million years, corruption.

Prominent ex-labor leader Andy Stern is reportedly being investigated by the FBI and Department of Labor as part of a corruption probe involving the Service Employees International Union, authorities said.

Two organized labor officials met with federal agents this summer to answer questions about Stern’s role in approving money to pay the salary of an SEIU leader in California who performed no work and a book contract that Stern landed in 2006, The Los Angeles Times reported today on its website.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The FBI and the Labor Department’s office of inspector general declined to comment for the record.

Stern abruptly resigned as president of the 2.2-million member SEIU in April.

Stern, who currently sits on President Obama's bipartisan deficit-reduction commission, has not commented on the investigation.

As part of the corruption probe, the feds have been examining $150,000 in consulting fees paid to a disgraced former Los Angeles labor leader under a confidential agreement signed by Stern, then president of the powerful Service Employees International Union, according to documents and interviews.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles had considered filing embezzlement charges against Alejandro Stephens, who headed the SEIU local for county government workers, in connection with the payments, records obtained by The Los Angeles Times reveal.

Dang. Unions stealing from workers? What has the world come to?

Apparently it has come to this.

SEIU Local 1199's Upstate Pension Fund has plunged from 115 percent funded in 1999 to 75 percent funded, and its Greater New York Pension Fund was funded at only 58 percent of its future obligations as of 2007, according to Hudson Institute analyst Diana Furchtgott-Roth. The union fat cats blame Wall Street. But while the pensions of SEIU workers nationwide are in "endangered status," the pensions of SEIU top brass have been protected and remain fully funded.

The D.C.-based Alliance for Worker Freedom, which monitors labor union abuses, reported last year that 13 major local SEIU pension funds are in serious financial jeopardy. Indeed, fewer than one in every 160 union-represented workers is covered by a union pension with required assets. Local 1199 workers — already subject to wage freezes to salvage their pensions — might want to know how their leaders were able to pony up $1 million for Haiti earthquake relief in January while their retirement funds wither on the vine.

SEIU leaders have shown a special talent for squandering their workers' dues. They poured $10 million down the drain in Arkansas on a failed bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln. They spent $10 million on a nasty lawsuit against a competing union in California. They've burned through union dues to transport SEIU radicals to bully bank execs and their families at their private homes and to bus workers to Arizona to protest crackdowns on illegal aliens, who depress the wages of law-abiding working-class Americans.

Under former Purple Army Chief Andy Stern, the union's liabilities skyrocketed from $7.6 million to nearly $121 million. Stern burned through $61 million to put Barack Obama and the Democratic ruling majority in place. And before abruptly stepping down in April, he installed a cadre of labor management stooges embroiled in financial scandals across the country.

Well we can't have eagles guarding the hen house when foxes are so much more convenient.

I think a Krugman analysis is appropriate here. The unions are not spending enough to stimulate voters. They need to double or triple the amounts. If they want effective stimulation. And union members? I think it is safe to say that they are getting screwed.

And there is more.

Republicans on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee have released a new report leveling fresh allegations and evidence of corruption against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

Entitled “Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies [pdf],” the report presents information gleaned from committee investigations into hundreds of bank accounts, shell organizations incorporated under myriad sections of the internal revenue code, even an ACORN-directed accounting firm, Citizens Consulting Inc., charged with obscuring the trail and use of funding streams pouring into ACORN from taxpayers and charitable contributions alike.

The 112th Congress is going to have a lot to do when they get sworn in. What they should focus on is repeal (or defunding) of a few recently passed laws and investigations.

No Varnish

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gives the teachers union of his state a well deserved reaming.

I'd like to see a lot more politicians who can run the numbers. Refreshing.

Since I posted this it appears that the video has gone viral. Roger Kimball has a few words on the subject.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Taking A Bath

Divias For Geeks explains exactly how government assets and income will be apportioned when the financial meltdown reaches its final crisis.

...the creditors of the "broke" entity take what is called "a bath." That means that under the bankruptcy laws of the United States of America they are paid a fraction of what they are owed. Because well, there just ain't enough money to go around, other wise the government, business or person wouldn't be "broke."

There is one small difference when governments go "broke" though. Then instead of bankruptcy law we have to rely on our Congress our Senate and fifty state legislatures to figure out who gets paid and who takes "a bath."

Those decisions will be made as follows. The least politically powerful people will be screwed first and hardest. The most politically powerful people will be screwed last and least.

He ends his note with a pointed suggestion.

That's how it's going to work. I don't tell you this because I dislike you. I tell you because I figure maybe you can use the warning to plan ahead, and buy lots of canned goods and a wood stove.

Sounds good to me. Don't forget to have a rotation plan for your canned goods and other semi-perishables. Keep your stocks fresh. Even if you can't afford a firearm, ammunition is always good for trade. Then you have to start thinking about alternate stashes. Depending on just how dark you think the days ahead may be.

Me? I'm looking forward to the Rejection in Nov of this year to fix at least the slide if not totally reverse the course.

In Transition

There are labor troubles in China.

The wave of strikes rippling through China's southern manufacturing heartland have forced the country's officially sanctioned unions to try something novel: speak up for workers or risk being permanently sidelined.

Migrant workers, wary of company unions seen as ineffective or allied with management, chose to shut them out altogether when they made demands for higher wages and better benefits. It was a wake-up call for the umbrella group, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and their patrons -- the communist leaders who thought they could rely on it to help keep a tight leash on labor unrest.

So where is China headed?

"It's a very pivotal time. China must change the mode of economic development or it will meet difficulties. You can't sacrifice workers to drive the economy any more."

Reformers within the union body are pushing for change, and they're finding support in the upper ranks of the ruling Communist Party who hope a more vigorous national union will placate worker frustration as China attempts what could be a rocky transition from being a predominantly low-wage manufacturing economy.

Japan made the transition from a low wage economy beginning about 20 years after the end of WW2. China has taken a little longer. About 30 years from the start of the Deng Xiaoping economic liberalization era. China started from further behind than Japan and in addition had the handicap of Communism and Mao's Great Leap Backwards. So they are not doing too bad.

Give Us The Money

With shouts of "Give Us The Money" and "We Need The Cash", public employees demonstrate in Springfield, Illinois.

Nothing could make it more obvious after a demonstration like this that there is a war going on in America between government and the people over who is going to be the Master and who is going to be the Servant. Who will be on the leash and who will be on top.

The American Thinker has more.

H/T Jccarlton at Talk Polywell

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Adopt A Loser

The Democrats appear to be adopting another losing position when it comes to the Banking Bill.

With crucial midterm elections nearing, Democrats have lost the advantage they've held for years as the party the public trusts to steer the economy.

I wonder if that loss of trust has anything to do with the banking bill proposals? In theory (whose?) there are supposed to be strict limits on Government borrowing for bailouts. In practice? Well it may not work out that way.

The Wall Street reform bill headed for a test vote on the Senate floor Monday night will allow the Federal Reserve to continue to pump trillions of dollars into major banks largely in secrecy, the co-author of House language that would open the central bank to an audit charged in a memo to the Senate.

“The Senate has a provision in its reform bill that purports to audit the Fed. But, it really doesn’t do anything of the sort. I’m going to run down the details for you, and reprint the legislative language so you can read it yourself,” writes Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.).

It would not allow the GAO to look into the Fed’s massive purchase of toxic assets, its hundreds of billions in foreign currency swaps with other central banks or its open market operations, among other restrictions.

I'm convinced that there are never any accidents, oversights, or loopholes when it comes to drafting legislation. There are paid for holes and gratuitous holes. Never loop holes. Because if what Congress does is not intentional then what do we have? That would mean they do not even rise to the level of a Parliament of Whores.

The bail out "loop hole" is not the only criticism of the bill.

Relatively small institutions compared to the names often cited in the news, community banks typically operate in small towns, urban neighborhoods or the suburbs. Their remit usually involves funding small businesses that require credit in order to operate payrolls and to expand, and lending to families financing home purchases or college. Many of those familiar with the banking industry, overall, say that community banks bore little to no responsibility, on balance, for the financial meltdown that occurred in 2008. Nonetheless, an analysis of the Dodd bill indicates that if it passes, community banks will be subject to a whopping 27 new regulations that one individual who has worked with banks professionally and is closely tracking the legislation says “could threaten to put many community bankers out of business, thus reducing competition in the banking sector overall, and diminishing consumer choices.”

And that friends is how the government cartelizes the economy. They regulate the competition out of business.


And then there are the corporate governance issues.

Another handoff to unelected bureaucrats, this time at the SEC rather than at the Federal Reserve. They did so well with Madoff, why not give them the additional job of rewriting Amerian corporate governance? The "investors and pension holders" that Mr. Obama really has in mind are things like the New York and California state pension funds that have already been troubled by scandals and politicization. Shareholders have a role in corporations, as even good capitalists like Carl Icahn recognize. But using the proxy power to take control of companies away from management and directors and into the hands of radicals is straight out of the Saul Alinsky playbook.

The question is: why are these economy wreckers doing what they are doing? Is it really revolution by legislation? Stupidity? Campaign donations?

Or just help friends and hurt enemies.

Section 972 of the bill authorizes the SEC to require firms to allow shareholders to nominate directors in proxy statement. Such proxy access turns corporate board elections from a process designed to ensure that each board has a good mix of skills and experience into a popularity contest where the long-term interests of the stockholders become secondary to political agendas or corporate raiders. The process can also be used by labor unions, politicians who manage public pension funds, and others to force corporations to respond to pet social or political causes.

But that is not all. The real corker in my opinion is the silent Inspector General. You never heard what he didn't say? I think that is the point:

Does nothing to address problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two government-sponsored housing giants helped fuel the housing bubble. When it popped, taxpayers—because of an implicit guarantee by the U.S. Treasury—found themselves on the hook for some $125 billion in bailout money. Not only has little of this amount been paid back, but the Treasury Department recently eliminated the cap on how much more Fannie and Freddie can receive. Yet the bill does nothing to resolve the problem or reform these government-run enterprises.

I discussed some of that in The Best Congress Fannie Could Buy and Barney Frank Frankly Not Frank and ACORN Is Not About Nuts and probably a few other places.

The root cause of all this is the belief that a badly run corporation sucked dry by unions and management can be reformed by government intervention. I admit of the possibility. I deny the likelihood.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Unions Declare War On GM

In an effort to keep their jobs some unions in Europe have declared war on General Motors. They claim that GM declared war on them first.

BERLIN (AP) -- Employee representatives at General Motors Co.'s Opel unit on Friday slammed the automaker's announcement it would cut 8,300 jobs and close its plant in Belgium as a "declaration of war" on European workers.

Armin Schild, head of the IG Metall union in Frankfurt and a member of Opel's board, criticized GM for lacking a clear and thoroughly financed restructuring concept, the DAPD news agency reported.

"Now, GM is apparently off on the next horror trip," Schild said.

He criticized GM for mismanaging the company for 15 years and called the planned closure of the site in Antwerp, Belgium, "a declaration of war against all European Opel employees."

Opel CEO Nick Reilly announced on Thursday that the company will cut 8,300 jobs across Europe, including 4,000 in Germany, and close the plant in Antwerp -- casualties of the "tough reality" of a shrinking European auto market.

Of course. Declaring war on your employer is always a smart move. A smarter move would have been to ask Obama to bail them out. After all he is very popular in Europe.

Unions Don't Like Taxes

It is true. Unions don't want taxes on their members.

Union leaders, among the most passionate backers of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, pressed Democratic senators Thursday to drop a tax on high-value insurance plans to pay for remaking the nation's system.

Members of several labor unions denounced the proposed tax on so-called "Cadillac plans," arguing it wouldn't just hit CEOs but also middle-class Americans who did without salary increases to negotiate better health benefits.

"I support health care reform but I can't afford this tax," Valerie Castle Stanley, an AT&T call center worker and member of the Communications Workers of America, said at a news conference outside the Capitol. "For families like mine that are on a budget, the results will be devastating."

The US Government has never met a budget it couldn't bust. I don't know what the Union guys are complaining about any way. Aren't they willing to sacrifice for the sake of providing almost universal health care?