Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals intriguing trends.
In 2010, the BLS said union membership fell by 617,000, to 14.7 million. A decade ago, 16.3 million people were in unions.
Union members now make up 11.9 percent of the workforce. A decade ago, that figure stood at 13.4 percent.
The BLS offers an interesting tidbit about union members.
* The occupations with the highest union membership rate included education, training and library jobs.
The state's Assembly passed a bill that would limit the bulk of Union collective-bargaining rights. The measure would require workers -- with the exception of police and firefighters -- to cover more of their health care premiums and pension contributions.
Collective bargaining would be limited to wages, though any pay increases beyond the inflation rate would be subject to voter approval.
An interesting note on the current public union battles was written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in an Aug. 16, 1937 letter to Luther Steward, the president of the National Federation of Public Employees
[M]eticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.
Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of pubic employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
Europe is most dependent on the oil exported from Libya and yet the U.S., again, is considering military action?
On Thursday, Obama spoke with the leaders of France, Italy and the United Kingdom on coordinating an international response to the crisis in Libya, the White House said.
There are no geographical boundaries. There are soft demographic, cultural and tribal boundaries. To get enmeshed in that without understanding the local culture is foolhardy but the most significant factor is our overstretched military.
Europe needs to step up to the plate and handle their own security affairs. The Muslims in the region seem likely to support intervention and if this is the case then they should handle their own internal affairs.
A recent Economic Report with Greg Gumbel featured a spotlight on Mr. Clean Car Wash. With 15 locations (and counting) in Georgia and Ohio, this concept from the Procter & Gamble family of companies is now franchising across the country. Visit MrCleanCarWash.com/franchising for more information.
A Tulsa, OK police captain has filed a lawsuit against a superior after he was transferred following his refusal to attend a Muslim event. According to him, ordering him to attend the event was a violation of his religious convictions, and transferring him was religious retaliation.
Capt. Paul Fields is currently under internal investigation for refusing an order to send officers to the Islamic Society of Tulsa’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day held at a local mosque:
“It is my opinion and that of my legal counsel that forcing me to enter a Mosque when it is not directly related to a police call for service is a violation of my Civil Rights,” Fields wrote in an internal police department memo obtained by Fox News.
“I have no problem with officers attending on a voluntary basis; however, I take exception to requiring officers to attend this event,” Fields wrote in an e-mail to his superior officer again obtained by Fox News. “I believe this directive to be an unlawful order, as it is in direct conflict with my personal religious convictions.”
KOKI-TV in Tulsa obtained a memo from Deputy Chief Daryl Webster to Captain Paul Fields explaining that the order to send officers had nothing to do with religion.
“Since you are not required to participate or assist in any religious observance, make any expression of belief, or adopt any belief system, this meeting is a secular law enforcement function that happens to take place at a venue associated with a religious belief,” Webster writes.
“Were we to pick and choose which belief systems we would associate ourselves with as an agency or which religious venues we would enter for secular or ceremonial purposes and which we would not, then I believe there would be an issue of disparate treatment that would reflect dishonor upon us all and possibly subject the Police Department to liability,” he adds.
An Islamic Society of Tulsa spokesperson told KOKI that the event was meant to say “thank you” to the police for investigating a threat made to the establishment.
“We wanted to have this opportunity to simply say thank you. I know its’ at the mosque but that was the address given as the target as the threat and it only made sense to have it at the mosque,” spokesperson Sheryl Siddiqui.
But complicating Webster’s claims that the event was non-religious is a promotional flyer saying the event would include “presentations” on “beliefs, human rights, and women.” Attendees would also be able to watch a Muslim prayer service and take a tour of the mosque.
Still, the flyer did note such elements were voluntary: “It’s up to you.”
“This was not religious,” Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan told KOKI. “I would never assign a police officer to participate in religious service.”
He went on to compare the event to any other community gathering: “Its just like a neighborhood association, Alert Neighbor meetings, there are lots of concerned groups that are concerned about crime. The fact that it is in a religious facility is not that significant we go to churches all the time. We don’t go to the sanctuary and we are not going to the sanctuary this time.”
The guy getting knocked down in the video is Marty Lamb, an attorney, Tea Party activist, former candidate for Congress (Massachusetts 3rd district).
Carney: It Is "Routine" For The White House To Meet With Lobbyists
Carney: It Is "Routine" For The White House To Meet With Lobbyists
During a pro-union rally at Colorado’s State Capitol yesterday, some alleged SEIU union supporters got into a shouting match with a black Tea Partier. But the conversation wasn’t just a loud, heated exchange. It got very personal when two union supporters ganged up on the conservative, one of them calling him “uneducated” and another asking him if he has any children “that he claims”:
According to RedWhiteBlueNews.com, the woman in red was later asked what she meant by her comments about the man’s children. “She said the black conservative was such a ‘free spirit’ that she assumed he would possibly not own up to the responsibility of being a father,” the site says.
Just so you know, the man admitted on camera he was gay.
SEIU’s involvement in the protest is supported by a schedule on the union’s website that names Denver, CO as a rally site.
Hale was not seriously injured in the altercation.
A member of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union was harassing an employee about his religion at a protest outside FreedomWorks’ Washington, D.C. offices.
As employees engaged with the lively group of protesters, one stepped forward out of the crowd to point her finger, calling the male employee a “bad Jew.”
The Congressman was endorsing violent behavior and criticism of his statements was followed by a formal statement that basically allowed him to re-state his position in a less offensive manner:
“I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech,” he said in a statement. “I wish I had used different language to express my passion and I regret my choice of words.”
President Reagan's Address to the Nation on United States Air Strike against Libya on 4/14/86.
Ronald Reagan Airstrike Libya, 1:58
Address to the Nation on the Air Strike Against Libya
April 14, 1986
Reagan bombs Libya, 3:50
BBC news report of the US air strike against Colonel Gaddafi's outlaw régime.
Operation El Dorado Canyon, 7:46
After years of occasional skirmishes with Libya over Libyan territorial claims to the Gulf of Sidra, and years of vulnerability to Libyan-supported terrorism, especially the Abu Nidal group behind the Rome and Vienna airport attacks of December 27, 1985, the United States contemplated a military attack to send a message about support for international terrorism. In March 1986, the United States, asserting the 12-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) limit to territorial waters recognized by the international community, sent a carrier task force to the region. Libya responded with aggressive counter-maneuvers on March 24 that led to the destruction of Libyan radar systems and missile attack boats. Less than two weeks later on April 5, a bomb exploded in a West Berlin disco, La Belle, killing two American servicemen and a Turkish woman and wounding 200 others. The United States claimed to have obtained cable transcripts from Libyan agents in East Germany involved in the attack.
After several days of diplomatic talks with European and Arab partners, President of the United States Ronald Reagan ordered the strike on Libya on April 14. Eighteen F-111F strike aircraft of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying from RAF Lakenheath supported by four EF-111A Ravens of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, from RAF Upper Heyford in England, in conjunction with twenty-seven A-6, A-7, F/A-18 attack aircraft and EA-6B Prowler Electronic Warfare Aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga, USS America and USS Coral Sea on station in the Gulf of Sidra struck five targets at 02:00 on April 15, in the stated objective that their destruction would send a message and reduce Libya's ability to support and train terrorists. Commander TJ Coughlin and his strike group of A-6 Intruders caused considerable damage to the Libyan Navy by sinking 2 Combattante missile boats. Cdr. Coughlin is credited with the sinking of both of these ships.
The United States was denied overflight rights by France, Spain and Italy as well as the use of European continental bases, forcing the Air Force portion of the operation to be flown around France, Spain and through the Straits of Gibraltar, adding 1,300 miles (2,100 km) each way and requiring multiple aerial refuelings. The attack lasted about ten minutes. Several targets were hit and destroyed, but some civilian and diplomatic sites in Tripoli were struck as well, and the French embassy was reportedly only narrowly missed, when a number of bombs missed their intended targets.
Among other things, the suit alleges that honor killings (p. 61, #267) have been "overlooked" in Dearborn.
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty, talks about the impact of political upheaval in the Middle East on oil prices. He speaks from Sydney with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television's "Global Connection."
Names were entered into evidence as "co-conspirators" during a federal trial which ended in 2008 with the convictions of several Muslim Brotherhood leaders on terrorism charges. The "list of unindicted co-conspirators" implicated these otherwise mainstream Muslim groups in a criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Palestinian terrorists under the guise of charity.
The 11-page document, submitted by federal prosecutors as "Attachment A" in court filings, has not been widely distributed or reported by the national media.
After 9/11, federal and local authorities identified more than 110 suspected shell companies, cut-outs and other fronts associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and its hub in Northern Virginia, known collectively as the "Safa Group. Their ongoing investigation of the Herndon-based Safa Group, which allegedly funneled money to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups, generated a separate list of suspected Brotherhood entities. The 13-page document, submitted by federal investigators as "Attachment C" among court filings, includes known al-Qaida charitable fronts as well.
A first big break came several years ago with the search of one of the Brotherhood leaders' homes in Annandale, Va., following his arrest on suspicion he had cased the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and other bridges for possible terrorist attack. There, in a sub-basement of suspect Ismail Elbarasse's basement, FBI agents uncovered a stash of secret manifestos, charters and other documents revealing the depth of the conspiracy.
One secret document found during the raid of Elbarasse's home lays bare the Brotherhood's ambitious plans for a U.S. takeover, replacing the U.S. Constitution with Shariah, or Islamic law.
Under the heading, "The role of the Muslim Brother in North America," it states:
The Ikhwan [Arabic for brothers was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions.
Foreign Policy, a major international affairs journal, ranks al-Qaradawi as the third most important public intellectual in the world as the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood and the most popular weekly preacher on al-Jazeera satellite television.
In a partial translation by the Middle East Media Research Center MEMRI "Al-Qaradhawi asked the Egyptian army to open wide the Rafah crossing and to pray for the re-conquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims, so that he and the Muslims could pray in security at Al-Aqsa Mosque. This part of his sermon was cheered and applauded by the crowd.
Links to MEMRI's extensive research on Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, the Muslim Brotherhood, and "moderate" Islamic preachers.
British "moderates" advocate the release of Aafia Siddiquiover the Dead Body of Barack Obama
Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted after a jury trial in a U.S. federal court of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. In September 2010, she was sentenced by the U.S. judge to 86 years in prison. She is now being held in Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.
She disappeared with her three young children in March 2003, shortly after the arrest of her second husband's uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief planner of the September 11 attacks. It was reported that Khalid Mohammed mentioned Siddiqui's name while he was being interrogated. When found and arrested in July 2008 in Afghanistan the Afghan police said she was carrying in her purse handwritten notes and a computer thumb drive containing recipes for conventional bombs and weapons of mass destruction, instructions on how to make machines to shoot down U.S. drones, descriptions of New York City landmarks with references to a mass casualty attack, and two pounds of sodium cyanide in a glass jar. Siddiqui was shot and severely wounded at the police compound the following day when she grabbed the unattended rifle of one of her American interrogators and began shooting at them.
At MIT, she graduated in 1995 with a B.S. in biology where she was active in the Muslim Students' Association (MSA). At Brandeis University she received her Ph.D. in 2001.
And, to add to the insult, the school system has underperformed for the past four years.
CNN's Candy Crowley mystified by Donald Rumsfeld's ignorance of Obama's good global image. Where has she been? The lamestream media is out to lunch entirely.
The reporters were assaulted after approaching a group of people standing near a memorial for 27-year-old Chester Jackson set up on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. I like the fact that some mourners have their soft drinks in their hands and continue the barrage against the reporters while drinking their cokes. Several local news outlets were present at the time and captured the incident on video from different points of view.
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage "fake people" on social media sites.
Madison police detain union operative who tried to destroy Tea Party sound system. Chicago Tea Party leader Steve Stevlic was among those that witnessed union thug tactics at Madison rally.
President Ronald Reagan speaks about the air traffic controllers strike. He states very clearly that if the striking union workers do not report to work in 48 hours, they will be fired from their jobs. 3:12
Remarks and Q & A with reporters on the Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike, 10:53
President Reagan's remarks and Q & A session with reporters on the Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike on 8/3/81.
The investigation has centered around a dispute Wheeler had with a neighbor. However, Delaware police confirmed that a smoke bomb was placed under the same neighbour’s house last week but have not released any more details.
While working at the Pentagon Mr Wheeler wrote a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons and recommended that the US should not use biological warfare.
Ray McGovern, an anti-war activist, verbally confronted then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asking him why he lied about WMD’s. As security approached McGovern, Rumsfeld stopped them and engaged the Veteran.
Of the different exchanges, McGovern says,
“When Clinton started talking about how people beat up and arrested people in Iran, it gave some poetic justice, a great irony, to my standing there and what happened to me then, when she's talking about what happened in other countries and there I am being handled in a vicious way...God knows what would happen next. Maybe some senior would ask her questions (she doesn't take questions). As bad as Donald Rumsfeld was, he let me speak. He let me speak and engaged me in dialogue.”
“At the same (Rumsfeld) speech, there was a courageous guy who stood with his back to Rumsfeld the entire speech. They left him completely alone and he walked out at the end, unbothered. Four years later, things have changed.”
About the first five minutes show the interaction between McGovern and Rumsfield with Oberman, the stupid commentator interjecting himself.
#2735 - Egyptian Journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal: "The US Will Be Transformed into an Islamic Republic" Al-Rahma TV (Egypt) - December 12, 2010 - 02:20
#2757 - British Salafi Abu Waleed: Aafia Siddiqui Will Be Released over the Dead Body of Barack Obama The Internet - 2010 - 11:55
[M]eticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.
Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of pubic employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protesters and do not allow free expression - and lauding freedom of speech on the Internet - 71-year-old military veteran Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes and hustled out of the building and, according to McGovern and his supporters, was “brutalized and left bleeding in jail.”
What McGovern did was simply remain standing silently in the audience and turned his back on her as Secretary Clinton began her speech.
That was it.
McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing Veterans for Peace t-shirt.
Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, "So this is America?"
According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, “For this peaceful expression of dissent, he ended up bruised, bloodied, arrested, and jailed. Secretary Clinton never paused, continuing her speech lecturing other countries about the need to allow freedom of expression and dissent, while Mr. McGovern was hauled out in front of her.”
McGovern was later found to have his arm covered with bruises. The metal handcuffs were fastened so tightly that his wrists were cut and some blood flowed from the cuts.
After being held by local police, McGovern was told he was being charged with disorderly conduct.
The First Amendment says:
Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today admitted under questioning from Sen. Sessions that the president's own budget, submitted Monday, calls for interest payments and obligations that are "excessively high" and "unsustainable." The president's plan accumulates $13 trillion in new gross debt, with interest payments on the debt rising to $844 billion a year by 2021.
Additionally, the Obama's budget ignores the recommendations of his own fiscal commission, causing the Democrat Co-Chair of the Commission, Erskin Bowles, to remark that the budget "goes nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare."
Under Obama's budget, total federal spending will increase another 65% by the end of the decade. In fact, accumulated deficits under the president's budget are greater than those in the Congressional Budget Office baseline, which assumes we essentially do nothing.
White House press secretary Jay Carney says the Recovery Act added several million jobs and lowered the unemployment rate. According to Carney, the "goals" of the stimulus package "have been met."
A reporter asked Carney why unemployment is at 9% and not 7%, the percentage projected if the stimulus worked. Carney dismissed the question. "We've said repeatedly that we don't want to relitigate the battles of the past," Carney told the reporter.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146147/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-Mid-February.aspxWe are now at 10% unemployment.
Protests swell to 25,000 people at Wis. Capitol
"Budget Repair" Bill Protest in Madison, WI Capitol Rotunda Feb 16, 2011
Walker takes broad swipe at public employee unions
At yesterday's demonstration against Scott Walker's budget plan, this video was made of a woman with a sign portraying the Governor with a Hitler mustache. Thereafter, a young man with a bullhorn explains that we need to tax the rich.
Madison schools, others closed amid call for demonstrations.
State Democrats absent for vote as Wisconsin budget protests swell.
Obama: 'Assault'...
Cf. http://realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/02/17/obama_on_wisconsin_collective_bargaining_law_an_assault_on_unions.html
The Wisconsin Republican Party put together a video using evidence from this week‘s liberal protests against the governor’s emergency budget bill that uncovers angry rhetoric from the left. The video juxtaposes the evidence with accusations and calls for civility from the left.
Rep. Paul Ryan On Wisconsin Protests: "Like Cairo Moved To Madison"
Cf. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/02/17/rep_paul_ryan_on_wisconsin_protests_like_cairo_moved_to_madison.html
Unions want to overturn election result.
Walker calls for Senate Dems to end their boycott and vote.
Budget Battle: Democrats Who Left State are Located.
Tea Party Activist Corners Dems Who Fled State
Teachers Union Has Stranglehold on Wisconsin Schools
Cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AADcf2E6myI
Violent Left
Cf. http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/02/17/video-from-wisconsin-protest-reveals-the-violence-and-hatred-of-the-left/
Qaradawi advocates establishing a "United Muslim Nations" as a contemporary form of the caliphate.
The Voice of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
The term caliphate "dominion of a caliph ('successor,')," (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa, Turkish: Halife ) refers to the first system of government established in Islam, and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation).
10th-12th Centuries, Shia Caliphate
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Sachin Shah, a special situations and merger arbitrage strategist at Capstone Global Markets LLC, talks about Deutsche Boerse AG's agreement to buy New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext in a $9.53 billion all-stock deal. Shah, speaking with Betty Liu, Jon Erlichman and Sheila Dharmarajan on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses the prospects for more consolidation of exchanges. (Source: Bloomberg)
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Ethan Ilzetzki, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, talks about the proposed fiscal 2012 budget that Barack Obama will present today as his administration and Congress negotiate boosting the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse".
Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both reduced the relative burden of government, largely because they were able to restrain the growth of domestic spending. The mini-documentary from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity uses data from the Historical Tables of the Budget to show how Reagan and Clinton succeeded and compares their record to the fiscal profligacy of the Bush-Obama years.
Egypt: How Obama Blew It, Niall Ferguson, Newsweek
An army in control is not a democratic, liberal, revolution. Moreover, Obama was taken completely by surprise. The only organized organization is the Muslim Brotherhood advocating sharia law and the restoration of the Caliphate. Any appearance of a liberal, peaceful, democratic revolution is extremely unlikely. The Egyptian revolution is most similar to the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979. Almost all revolutions are characterized by internal chaos and foreign aggression.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmr1uUZae6Q
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