The Board’s jurisdictionis limited to private sectoremployers and theUnited States Postal Service; other than Postal Service employees, it has no authority over labor relations disputes involving governmental, railroadand airline employees covered by the Adamson Railway Labor Act, or agricultural employees. On the other hand, in those parts of the private sector its jurisdictional standards are low enough to reach almost all employers whose business has any appreciable impact on interstate commerce.
The chairman of the National Labor Relations Board has dialed back a proposal that had members of the board on a collision course ahead of a meeting Wednesday.
The original proposal would speed up and simplify union elections. In protest, the panel’s lone Republican member had threatened to resign — a move that would effectively shut down the board and prevent the vote on union organizing.
It’s unclear whether the Republican member, Brian Hayes, would in turn reconsider his threat to resign — a threat Pearce claims he made weeks ago.
If the board were at full membership, the resignation of one member might not be a problem. But the NLRB, which is supposed to have five members, currently has only three. Hayes’ resignation would deprive the board of a quorum and in turn disallow it from issuing regulations and rulings.
Even without Hayes’ resignation, the board already is careening toward that scenario, with Democratic member Craig Becker’s recess appointment set to expire at the end of the year without action by Congress.
The standoff has resulted in a rapid-fire exchange of accusations over the past several weeks. The NLRB is much-loathed by Republicans, who see it as a vehicle for passing pro-union decisions favored by the Obama administration. The independent federal agency is meant to look after and protect the rights of workers to improve their working conditions
Democrats are concerned the entire operation of the NLRB will get caught up in this feud.
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Has Obama abandoned the “White Middle Class workers” (including white Union members)?
Michelle Malkin reports today, based on the Obama administration’s latest document dump of visitor logs, that convicted fraudster and community organizer Robert Creamer has visited the White House sixty times since January 2009–five times in August 2011 alone.
As first reportedat Big Government, Creamer is the apparent architect of the Democrats’ political strategy for imposing Obamacare on the nation, composing a “blueprint”–that was later endorsedby high-level Obama advisers–while he was in federal prison. Creamer also claimsto have been “one of the major architects of the successful 2005 campaign to defeat the Bush plan to privatize of Social Security.” In 2010, Creamer led efforts to rally the Democratic base by demonizing Republicans and making wildly optimistic predictions of victory:
Big Government also reported in May that Creamer, who worked for the Obama campaign in 2008, has also set up a nationwide political consulting firm to provide field operations and propaganda for Obama and the Democrats in the 2012 elections.
The timing of the August 2011 efforts is particularly interesting, given Creamer’s effortsthis fall to promote the Occupy Wall Street movement and to target Bank of America in particular. Creamer toldthe New York Times in October that he hoped the Occupy movement would “inspire the progressive base” and help President Obama frame the issues for his re-election campaign.Creamer’s repeated visits to the White House in the month before the Occupy Wall Street protests began, and while community organizers and unions were planning a “fall campaign” that would apparently complement the Occupy protests, raise further questions about the extent to which the Obama administration knew about or coordinated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
2012 will be the election for America’s future. Does the United States go the route of the moocher, leech, and faux victim or does it awaken and cast off its chains of bloated, inefficient government and re-take its rightful place as the World magnet for those seeking liberty and freedom from oppressive, authoritarian, and totalitarian dictatorships?
Which direction will we go next year?
Democrats don’t have a lot of faith in the everyday humble guy. Democrats think they know what’s best for us and are continually sticking their bureaucratic noses into our everyday business. That’s why the Party of the Donkey is slowly succumbing to an ugly demise. I can’t say I will miss the Democratic Party after it passes away, next year.
Indeed, we are a divided country. There are those like me who believe passionately, “ I know what’s best for my family and me.” I loathe this over-government bureaucracy which, as it swells larger and larger, becomes less and less efficient. Is there anyone in the room who thinks the Federal government can or will handle the health care needs of this country of 307 million, without adding a single new medical doctor? Of course not. The party cannot even dole out a $529 million dollar loan to a fraudulent “green” company, without losing track of YOUR precious taxpayers’ funds. The Democratic Party has been hijacked by the grifters, con men, and hustlers who should be behind bars rather than behind the Justice Department, the EPA, the National Labor Relations Board, or countless other useless, worthless agencies which serve no purpose and have long overstayed their usefulness.
Leading this pack of these charlatans is its leader, Barack Hussein Obama aka Barry Soetero. If Obama is not the killer of American greatness, he is most certainly its weapon of choice.
As the Democratic Party pinwheels itself into irrelevancy, I can only urge you with every molecule of my being to spend your precious vote on any candidate with no D in back of his name. Barney Frank saw the writing on the wall and he departed the scene before he had to face the music.
’ve been called many things in the last two weeks with the release of my new book Throw Them All Out by politicians from both political parties, but never a “sock puppet.”
That is how Robert Kennedy Jr. has chosento respond to my book Throw Them All Outwhere I disclose the fact that a politically-connected solar company called Brightsource (of which Mr. Kennedy’s firm is the largest investor) landed a sweetheart billion-dollar plus taxpayer-guaranteed loan.
What has been so remarkable to me with the reaction to the book is the incredible disconnect between those on the inside getting these deals and those of us on the outside watching the rich getting rich with our money. I think the vast majority of people had no problem with the late Steve Jobs getting fabulously wealthy. He simply provided products and services people wanted. But those getting richer courtesy of our money and special loans? People are sick of it.
The bottom line is that Brightsource Energy got a sweetheart deal and it did so thanks to political connections. This is a company that admittedly has huge problems.
Kennedy never disputes that Brightsource got the money, nor that a former Principal at his firm, Sanjay Wagle, was a fundraiser for Obama and went to work in the Department of Energy’s alternative energy grant program after the 2008 election. Nor does he dispute that Brightsourceadmitted in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the Ivanpah project is highly risky, or that Brightsource is in financial trouble. (The company is $1.8 billion in debt, had total revenue of just $13.5 million in 2010 and ran an operating loss of $71 million.) The company openly admits that its technology may not perform as planned and that it faces technological challenges. It’s also curious to note on the SEC filing (on page 42 linked above) that Brightsource is spending almost six times as much on “marketing, general and administrative” costs than research and development. And more than twice in those areas than it is spending on project development. Does this sound like a company that could survive without taxpayer money?
Mr. Kennedy also tries to downplay the role that his firm plays in the project by noting that Google and others are partners in the venture. I mention all of that in my book. But the Department of Energy is clear on who our money is going to. Note the announcement on Recovery.gov: “DOE Finalizes $1.6 billion loan guarantee for Brightsource Energy, Inc. “ What is not clear here?
Kennedy says that these facts are “inventions.” Really? Which ones? Those mentioned in the Brightsource SEC report? He never says. He assumes that because he says so, they must be inventions. Kennedy’s only real factual challenge is to my statement that the “green employment” created by the Ivanpah project will cost $1 million per job. He calls this a “canard.” Really? I got the information from Department of Energy’s announcement of the project on the federal government’s recovery.gov website . The project is said to create 1,000 jobs, thanks to $1.4 billion in taxpayer money. Do the math. Mr. Kennedy, my “canard” comes from the Obama Administration. Take it up with them.
The best he can muster is to call me a “sock puppet” for big oil. This brought peals of hysterical laughter to my office. I’m still waiting for my check from Exxon or BP. Kennedy says that the Hoover Institution, where I work, has received lots of money from big oil. What he doesn’t mention or notice is that I am the William J. Casey Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and my position is entirely funded by the William J. Casey Foundation. Any other money for this book project came solely from the book advance.
What Mr. Kennedy wants to do is divert us from the real scandal: the green energy program that he has advocated for is socialism for the super-rich. Wealthy investors likes Kennedy and his partners try to portray themselves are disinterested parties who are trying to help the environment and our country, but they have a stake in the game.
WHY aren’t the #OWS crowd protesting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? Millions given out to donors for Obama campaign, yet the #OWS think the only “evil” is banks?
Prior to discussing foreign policy and the emergence of a new axis of evil, Bachmann also spoke about how Americans can prepare for potentially “very difficult” times ahead. Citing the ripple effects — namely a recession — America will feel as a result of a European Union collapse, Bachmann expressed disappointment in the fact that “we are hearing more about the Kardashian wedding” than the impending economic implosion of the EU and subsequent U.S. risk.
While Bachmann acknowledged that the U.S. stands to lose $50-60 billion, it will be U.S. companies overseas that will be the hardest hit in such a collapse.
Glenn also pointed out that the U.S. comprises nearly 27 percent of the International Monetary Fund, and because of that will be forced to bail Europe out.
“I wouldn’t,” Bachmann began. “I wouldn’t put U.S. taxpayer exposure at risk.”
Bachmann asserted that the world’s financial resources are either sitting in China, or held by Saudi Arabian sheiks and Russian oligarchs.
“We‘re broke but we act like we’re still on top of the world,” Bachmann said.
“For the first time we’re making decisions that a Banana Republic would make,“ not those ”a first class nation” would make.
“What would you say to the American people about preparing their own house?” Glenn asked Bachmann.
“I would tell them that EU economic collapse could mean U.S. recession,” Bachmann started, qualifying that she would “urge people to not give into that form of panic but think about their own resources” like food, water, and the basics needed for survival.
Bachmann noted that every home in Switzerland is required to have a bomb shelter, food, water and a firearm, suggesting the European country is a potential model for the U.S..
Bachmann urged that Americans “just need to take precautions” in the event of a military or economic “disruption,” however unlikely that may seem, and asked people to consider supplying themselves with what they would need to survive a 7 to 30 day period.
No matter how you may feel about Michele Bachmann, she does speak TRUTH to power in this video:
Never mind the stock rally from Monday or the massive sales figures from Black Friday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer had a very grim outlook for the global financial markets going forward. In sum, the European crisis is so bad that the U.S. is grave danger. Business Insider explains:
In his opening segment on Mad Money tonight (via The Fly) Jim Cramerwarns that Europe could easily spoil any party we’re having in the US due to the collapse in credit.
He walks through a fairly long (but very basic) explanation of what credit is, and how central it is to the economy, before (around the 6:30 mark) declaring that we’re in “DEFCON 3, two stages from a financial collapse so huge it’s hard to get your mind around.”
He tells everyone to “curb your enthusiasm.” If you want to stay happy, don’t watch the clips below. But if you want the hard truth go HERE and watch the Part #1 and Part #2 videos.
The central banks agreed to lower the pricing on existing so-called dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points. As a contingency measure, they also plan on establishing “bilateral liquidity swap arrangements.”
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**Yep, just print more “Monopoly Money” to throw at the problem. It you don’t fix WHY you got there in the first place; you can liken it to giving a gambler $20.00 and ask them to make it last for a month. End result? **
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Are YOU prepared America?
Prepare like you will experience a winter blizzard for at least 30 days.
Prepare like you will experience a Category 5 Hurricane for at least 30 days.
Whatever your realm of abode or realm of mind…..don’t say you weren’t’ warned.
Palin: We will not solve our economic problems in this country until we confront the crony capitalism of our permanent political class. This is socialism for the very rich and the very poor but it is a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It’s the collusion of big government, big business. It’s at the heart of President Obama’s economic vision. We need sudden and relentless reform. That will return power to we the people. We need people with a proven record of reform. I served in public office in a state that had a corruption problem. I fought that corrupt system. I took on a corrupt and compromised political class. The challenge is not simply to replace Obama in 2012. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with.
Just like clockwork, the Obama administration never misses an opportunity to unload thousands of records it hopes no one will ever bother sifting through during the holidays.
On Black Friday, the White House released more visitor log info —trumpetingdisclosures it has foughttooth and nail. [...]
She made no mention of the visit on her Aug. 5 show.What did she and POTUS discuss? Just wondering…
Fun fact: According to the White House logs, this was Maddow’s fifth trip to the White House — and fourth to see the president personally.
Russia has said it may deploy Iskander ballistic missile launchers in Kaliningrad
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Russia has turned on a new incoming missile early warning system in its westernmost region in response to US plans for a missile shield in Europe.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the system to be activated on a visit to the radar unit in Kaliningrad, a Baltic region bordering EU countries.
The unit is equipped with the new Voronezh-DM radar system.
Mr Medvedev has warned Russian missiles could be deployed on the EU’s borders if the shield is installed.
“I expect that this step will be seen by our partners as the first signal of the readiness of our country to make an adequate response to the threats which the missile shield poses for our strategic nuclear forces,” Mr Medvedev said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
Quoted by Interfax, he said Russia was ready to listen to new anti-missile defence proposals from “Western partners” but verbal statements were not enough.
“Verbal statements, unfortunately, do not guarantee the defence of our interests,” the Russian president said.
“If other steps are taken then, naturally, we are ready to listen to them but, in any case, verbal statements are not enough.”
Hear that? That’s the shredding of the Constitution and your rights as America sinks into a full-fledged police state. Not only are the government goons now shutting down more and more sitesat an alarming rate (without due process), they are now putting their literal sights on Americans who fall under their personal definition of ‘terrorist.’ And the last time I read the Southern Poverty Law Centertripe, that included Tea Partiers, patriots, Christians, Libertarians, gun enthusiasts and pretty much anyone who does not toe the government line. Welcome to Obama’s Third Reich – American style…
While Americans were giving thanks for what little we have left, our politicians were cooking up a doozy of a surprise for us just in time for the holidays. And who can you thank for this poisonous present? Well, none other than Sens. Carl Levin(D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) – a Progressive on the Left and a Progressive on the Right. Now that’s bipartisanship to die for, literally.
The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
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The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
If that doesn’t make your blood run stone cold, I don’t know what will. I looked at the bill and it looks to me as if it is referring more to the Department of Justice and Homeland Security than the military, but hey, either way, it’s a crap sandwich for Constitutional Conservatives like me and all other patriotic Americans. I can’t stand the ACLU, but this time they are rightand people better pay attention. If I’m wrong about the military angle on this, then our boys and girls will be forced to turn on Americans or be ‘disciplined.’ That could be a life and death decision for them. Pray for our troops – I know in my heart they will not turn on their family and friends. They would be forced into a blatant violation of the Posse Comitatus Actand that would be the final straw to break in the birth pains of a civil war.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of elitists telling us we are overreacting, while legislation is being crafted and debated in secret, while we lose more and more of our freedoms with each passing day. All of us should be royally pissed off. You don’t actually think these asshat politicians have our best interests and security in mind do you? Damned right they don’t. They want to control us, enslave us, shut us up and close us down. I know that I won’t go down without a fight, what say you?
If they pass this monstrosity, they can come to your home in the dead of night and take you with no due process and you will simply disappear. They will never give the reason – the fact they consider you an enemy of the State will be all it takes.
On July 2nd, 2008, Obama spoke in Colorado Springs and hit themes of national service, foreign policy, and national security. In that vein, Obama proposed a rather extraordinary idea — that the US should spend as much money on a civilian national security force as it does on the military. His actual words were: “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.
All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.
It is instructive to trace the evolution of a political strategy based on securing this coalition in the writings and comments, over time, of such Democratic analysts as Stanley Greenberg and Ruy Teixeira. Both men were initially determined to win back the white working-class majority, but both currently advocate a revised Democratic alliance in which whites without college degrees are effectively replaced by well-educated socially liberal whites in alliance with the growing ranks of less affluent minority voters, especially Hispanics.
The 2012 approach treats white voters without college degrees as an unattainable cohort. The Democratic goal with these voters is to keep Republican winning margins to manageable levels, in the 12 to 15 percent range, as opposed to the 30-point margin of 2010 — a level at which even solid wins among minorities and other constituencies are not enough to produce Democratic victories.
Does this mean Obama and his campaign are abandoning the “white working class” UNION members; Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO), Mary Henry (SEIU), James Hoffa (Teamsters) et.al? HOW MANY White Union members have college degrees?
By making these statements:
“voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment“
“Stanley Greenberg and Ruy Teixeira: Both men were initially determined to win back the white working-class majority, but both currently advocate a revised Democratic alliance in which whites without college degrees are effectively replaced by well-educated socially liberal whites”
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Do ANY non-college degree White Union members consider this a SMACK DOWN? Plumbers, Pipe-fitters, Cement laymen, tin knockers, etc.
” a revised Democratic alliance in which whites without college degrees are effectively replaced by well-educated socially liberal whites in alliance with the growing ranks of less affluent minority voters, especially Hispanics.”
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Yep, how’s that “Hopey, Changey” Thingy working for YOU?
A Christian worker has launched a landmark legal action after she lost her job when she blew the whistle on what she says was a campaign of “race hate” by fundmentalist Muslims.
Nohad Halawi, who worked at Heathrow Airport, is suing her former employers for unfair dismissal, claiming that she and other Christian staff at the airport were victims of systematic harassment because of their religion.
She claims that she was told that she would go to Hell for her religion, that Jews were responsible for the September 11th terror attacks, and that a friend was reduced to tears having been bullied for wearing a cross.
Mrs Halawi, who came to Britain from Lebanon in 1977, worked in the duty-free section as a perfume saleswoman of the airport for 13 years but was dismissed in July.
Her case is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, who say it raises important legal issues and also questions over whether Muslims and Christians are treated differently by employers.
It comes amid growing concern among some Christians that their faith is being marginalised and follows calls from Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, for Christians to be given greater legal protection in the wake of a series of cases where they have been disciplined or dismissed for practising their faith.
It also raises further questions over race relations at Heathrow Airport.
Last week, Arieh Zucker, a Jewish businessman, complained that he has been repeatedly singled out for full-body scans by Muslim security staff at the airport.
The 41-year-old mortgage broker from London has accused them of “race hate” and is threatening to sue for racial discrimination after being made to “feel like a criminal” while being scanned.
Mrs Halawi’s case centres on whether she was treated unfairly when she lost her job in World Duty Free in Terminal 3 after she spoke out over what she described as bullying and intimidation by her Muslim colleagues of her and other Christians.
She said that she was the subject of a complaint by an Islamic colleague which was specious and that when she raised her own concerns as a Christian, she was the one who was dismissed.
Now she is distraught at losing her job on allegations made by what she describes as a small group of “extremist” Muslims.
Mrs Halawi, 47, said: “I have been sacked on the basis of unsubstantiated complaints so there is now great fear amongst my former colleagues that the same could happen to them if one of the Muslims turns on them.
“This is supposed to be a Christian country, but the law seems to be on the side of the Muslims.”
A mother of two, she says that she had always got on well with her Muslim colleagues and relations between staff of different faiths had been good in the past, but that the atmosphere became increasingly uncomfortable with a growing number of employees espousing “fundamentalist Islam”.
She says they harassed Christians at work by making fun of them for wearing crosses, ridiculing Jesus and telling them they would go to Hell if they did not convert to Islam.
“One man brought in the Koran to work and insisted I read it and another brought in Islamic leaflets and handed them out to other employees,” she said.
“They said that 9/11 served the Americans right and that they hated the West, but that they had come here because they want to convert people to Islam.
“They say that Jesus is s***** [shitty] and bullied a Christian friend of mine so much for wearing her crosses that she came to me crying.”
Mrs Halawi says she was targeted by the fundamentalists after she stood up for her friend, who is 62 and who she is keeping anonymous because she still works at the terminal.
In May, five of her Muslim colleagues complained to David Tunnicliffe, the trading manager at World Duty Free, accusing her of being anti-Islamic following a heated conversation in the store.
The row had stemmed from her description of a Muslim colleague as an allawhi, which means ‘man of God’ in Arabic. Another Muslim overheard this and thought she said Alawi, which was his branch of Islam.
Following the complaints she was suspended immediately, but was not told the grounds for her suspension until she met Mr Tunnicliffe in July.
Two days after the meeting she received a letter, which said the “store approval” – the Heathrow security pass – needed to work at World Duty Free was being removed because her behaviour was deemed to be unacceptable.
“I believe that the breakdown in relationship between yourself and some of your colleagues has contributed to this situation and has led to a number of inappropriate conversationstaking place,” the letter said.
“Whilst I do not believe that you may have meant to be offensive, I believe that it was not unreasonable for the individuals who either heard these comments, or who they were directed at to find them offensive, and they are extremely inappropriate.”
However, the only comments she made which Mr Tunnicliffe claimed were offensive relate to her accusing a Muslim colleague of having “extremist leaflets” and asking another Muslim why Jesus was being described as “s*****”.
She was paid on a freelance basis by Caroline South Associates, a fragrance and cosmetics agency that provides staff to work in World Duty Free, and was told that she would not be able to continue working without her pass.
A petition signed by 28 colleagues, some of them Muslims, argued that she has been dismissed on the basis of “malicious lies”, but failed to see her reinstated.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, founder and director of the Christian Legal Centre, said that the case is one of the most serious they have handled.
“It raises huge issues,” she said.
“First, there is the level of Islamic fundamentalism prevalent at our main point of entry to the UK.
