Mr. President, Your Recovery Has a Problem...

No amount of caulk will fix the cracks in the fantasy that the economy is getting better.  The numbers are bad and they're really not improving.

The number of Americans claiming jobless benefits has risen for the second week running, as the US economy continues to wrestle with persistent unemployment.

First-time jobless claims rose by 7,000 to 480,000, according to labour department figures on Thursday, defying expectations of Wall Street economists that they would sink. The less volatile four-week average of new claims, however, fell by 5,250 to 467,500, maintaining a healthier trajectory.

“Jobless claims join many other indicators in suggesting that the official government payroll data have been overstating the degree of improvement in the labour market,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist at MFR.

Ooops!  Sorry, Mr. President, we hate to break it to you but no amount of talk on caulk will fix this mess.

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Unions' Health Care 'End Game' Revealed

It's been known for quite some time that unions want to nationalize health care for their own gain (increased members = increased dues).  However, few have blatantly come out and stated just how far they want to take the nationalized health care train...until last night.

The new "super" union for nurses, National Nurses United, which is headed by former Teamster Rose Ann DeMoro sent out an e-mail blast last night calling not only for nationalized, single-payer health care, but as well as mental, dental, vision, and long-term care. [Truly a 'womb to tomb government plan.]

URGENT! Tell Senator Reid:

"Support Amendment No. 2837"

The US Senate healthcare reform process is clearly off the rails, with proposals being thrown about willy-nilly. Meanwhile, an elegant, efficient, and politically expedient amendment awaits its vote: The Medicare-for-all, single-payer Sanders Amendment No. 2837 should have gone before the body for debate last weekend.

Funny thing, though. In spite of Sen. Harry Reid's statement that he would get to amendments "in numeric order," the Sanders amendment keeps getting bypassed. Senator Reid gave no explanation for this.

We've been through this before. We had promises from the House leadership that the Weiner Amendment for single-payer would receive a full debate and go to a vote. We know how that worked out. Senator Reid must follow through on his promise to hold the debate this Tuesday as promised!

Unless we act now, Senator Reid can easily argue that he's skipping over this amendment due to a lack of public hue and cry. We can't let this happen.

Tell Senator Reid in no uncertain terms that a full debate and vote on Sen. Bernie Sanders' Amendment No. 2837 is absolutely essential.

Senator Sanders' amendment, cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown and Roland Burris, gives states the power to enact single-payer programs with federal funding. It has everything a state single-payer bill needs: one plan that covers health, mental, dental, vision, and long-term care.

Right now the Congressional Budget Office is scoring a plan to establish private, nonprofit health insurance programs run by private companies, with a trigger for a new government insurance plan if the private plans are not "acceptable."

Let the American people decide what's "acceptable" before everything falls to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and their influence over the Senate. Tell Harry Reid that this amendment matters.


Make the calls to Sen. Harry Reid TONIGHT:

• Washington, D.C., office: (202) 224-3542
• Las Vegas, NV, office: (702) 388-5020
• U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

In solidarity,
California Nurses Association
National Nurses Organizing Committee
National Nurses United

[Emphasis in original.]

There you have the unions' end game: Not only do unions want to nationalize your health care, they also want your teeth, your eyes, as well as the ability to change your diapers when you get old. 
 
h/t RNs Against Forced Unionism
 
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Desperate Dems: White House tells Harry Reid "cut a deal"

Tension must be tight in the White House. The President and his Democratic cronies have everything riding on a government take over of the nation's health care. However, resistance is strong against an increasingly unpopular plan, with the president's poll numbers sagging like a two-bit free prostitute in Copenhagen.

Evidence is mounting that the Democrats are getting desperate as the White House is reportedly telling Harry Reid to "cut a deal" with Sen. Joe Lieberman.

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

[Audible 'ahh' here.]

Now, President Obama apears to be showing his desperation as well by inviting all 60 Democrat senators to the White House tomorrow:

President Barack Obama will meet with Senate Democrats at the White House Tuesday to press for action at a make-or-break moment for his health care overhaul.

All 60 members of the Democratic caucus have been invited, according to three Democratic officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public.

Sounds like poor Joe's gonna get a Chicago-style beat down. [We wonder if the SEIU will be invited to the meeting.]

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Cross-posted.

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"In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit." - Ayn Rand

The Smoking Gun? Former IL Gov Defense Team Wants FBI Data on Obama, His Surrogates & SEIU Bosses

Not having been in the news of late is last year's post presidential election scandal of now-ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and his alleged attempt to sell then-Senator Barack Obama's Senate seat in exchange for...something.

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting this morning that:

Rod Blagojevich's lawyers want the FBI to give up details of interviews conducted last year of President Obama, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and others as part of the investigation into the former governor.
....

Then-President-elect Obama, Emanuel and Jarrett sat down with the FBI about a year ago --just after Blagojevich was arrested on charges of trying to sell Obama's recently vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Obama revealed he was interviewed in a report he made public last December.

The defense request, filed in federal court, asks for "notes, transcripts and reports" of interviews with the Obamas, Emanuel, Jarrett and union chiefs Thomas Balanoff and Andy Stern.

While this may just be subterfuge by the governor, is it possible there is a smoking gun linking the SEIU bosses to the sale of Obama's Senate seat lying somewhere in the FBI's files?

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The UAW's Rubble: The Ailing Union Picks a New King as UAW Staff Has Contract Driven Down Their Throats

It hasn't been called the Union of Ailing Workplaces for nothing.

The UAW, the once-mighty auto workers union has become something of a joke, a pitiful shadow of its former self, taking government handouts and trying to unionize anyone that is breathes, from graduate students to casino dealers.

The fact is, nothing the union has tried has seemed to work to reverse its free fall into oblivion. 

UAW's Failures Outweigh Successes

In its own industry, the UAW has tried and failed to unionize plants owned by Toyata, Nissan and BMW.

When it attempted to do an end-run around workers right to vote at Dana Corp., its tactics created a backlash from Dana's workers.

In 2007, the UAW began a campaign to unionize casino dealers in Atlantic City, NJ and elsewhere only to fail (so far) to get contracts for any of the workers it unionized.  In fact, its weapon of choice in the auto industry--the strike--has proven to be nothing more than a pea shooter in New Jersey's rough and tumble casino industry as the casinos readied to replace the UAW dealers if they struck over the summer.

"We take their threats seriously," said J. Carlos Tolosa, the company's eastern regional president. "There are 14,000 employees in Atlantic City who rely on Harrah's for their livelihood, and we are not going to let the misguided tactics of the UAW interfere with our guests or the employees who are working hard to keep Atlantic City competitive this summer."

Even the UAW's one notable success could be viewed as a dismal failure by the rest of America.

Early in 2009, the UAW (along with executives at General Motors and Chrysler) succeeded in getting the Obama administration to implement a government-structured bankruptcy of the two failing automakers which resulted in the UAW becoming significant shareholders of both GM and Chrysler.  However, the UAW's success has come with an estimated loss of $30 billion for American taxpayers who, in turn, have responded with revulsion toward the UAW.

Amid a Pile of Rubble, the UAW Gets a New King

Ron Gettlefinger, the UAW boss who has presided over much of the UAW's failures over the last decade announced earlier this year that he would be retiring.  His retirement is, at least in part, due to the union's own rule to give the boot to presidents when they reach the age of 65.  In Gettlefinger's place, the UAW hierarchy will be placing Bob King and the ailing union's helm.

King, 63, is a lawyer, the son of an industrial relations director at Ford, and has been in charge of the UAW's Ford department. 

According to the Detroit Free Press, King "ascends with strong relationships with many management figures, especially at Ford Motor Co., and the experience of navigating the shrinking union through the most turbulent period since its founding in 1935."

Meanwhile, in a shockingly hypocritical move, the UAW has taken what is normally considered a "management approach" to labor relations with its own unionized staff.  As the Detroit News reports, to cope with its misfortunes the UAW is laying off many of its union staff, as well as imposing cuts--even after they voted to reject the cuts.

The UAW has lost so many members that it is cutting at least 120 staff positions in an effort to balance its budget, UAW sources said.

"We've got to downsize," a union source said. "It may not end there."

In a stunning role reversal, Gettelfinger told UAW employees Thursday that he would impose the terms of a concessionary contract that they voted down last month. That means reduced benefits for the union's own retirees and requires each UAW employee to take a two-week unpaid furlough or give up their 401(k) matching contribution next year.
....

UAW spokesman Roger Kerson said the union had no comment.

Only time will tell if the UAW, with a new King at its throne and significant government-backed ownership of two failing auto companies, will be able to stop its decades-long slide into oblivion.

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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes."
Thomas Paine December 23, 1776

Wisconsin Students to be Force-Fed Union Propaganda

While the headline of this post says it all, here's the story from AP:

Wisconsin schools will be required to teach the history of organized labor under a bill signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The bill Doyle signed Thursday also requires Wisconsin schools to teach the history or collective bargaining.

The proposal has been around for years but never passed. This year it cleared the Democratic controlled Legislature despite opposition from school boards and administrators who said they didn't want the curriculum micromanaged.

Labor unions supported the bill.

Doyle said in a statement that he was happy to sign the bill so students would understand the importance of the labor movement in creating basic workplace rights.

No word on whether the curriculum will include how unions have killed industry, buy politicians, and beat dissenters.

Maids & Babysitters of the World Unite!

According to internationalists, lefties, labor bosses and other assorted loons, today (December 10th) is International Human Rights Day.  Organized around the 1948 signing of the U.N.s  Universal Declaration of Human Rights, union bosses co-opted this day some years ago to use as a day to push for the ultimate union bailout, the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free FORCED Choice Act or EFCA. 

The job-destroying EFCA, as it's commonly referred to, effectively kills secret-ballot elections on unionization and gives the government the ability to dictate workers wages and benefits through 'binding arbitration.' [Read the bill.]

This year's International Human Rights Day has taken a slightly different twist.  As opposed to the usual holding of rallies across the U.S. demanding that the government take away workers' right to vote, union bosses being a bit more subdued and, instead, calling for a whole host of changes in the way "domestic workers" (housekeepers, maids and babysitters) are treated.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's assistant Ana Avendaño states: “the domestic worker industry is riddled with abuse, mistreatment and labor violations.”

The mostly female and immigrant domestic workforce is particularly vulnerable due to the isolated nature of the industry, where women labor behind closed doors and out of the public eye.

Domestic workers’ exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act means they are unprotected when asking for respect of their basic rights and are unable to collectively bargain for conditions allowing them to labor in dignity. For all these reasons, it’s critically important that we create strong labor standards for domestic workers.

According to the AFL-CIO's blog:

In New York and California, domestic workers are proposing Domestic Worker Bills of Rights that ensure overtime pay, workers compensation, health and safety protections, notice of termination, vacation and sick leave, annual cost of living increases and five hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Imagine, some day, when Buffy-the-Babysitter comes to your door to care for your kids, she could be coming with her union steward in tow.

And, those smelly diapers?  They could be considered hazardous-duty pay.

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