Fictional Job Report Stats - The Obama Way!

The reports echo what Thomas Perez in the Labor Department and the President want reported, on behalf of a failed administration. That is way the seasonally adjusted data soft-pedals the 94,298,000 Americans relegated to Not in Labor Force standing by the BLS. Since it fell from the record high 95,051,000 in January, at least some might argue Obama's largest increase of any individual BLS count showed a modestly positive trajectory for one month, at least. Slow clap.

A few more figures are worth considering in light of claims of an impressive February Employment Situation Report from the President's team at the Labor Department. Of the 242,000 jobs reported to have been added according to CES data gathered from around 165,000 businesses, it's important to note roughly 200,000 of those supposed gains materialize monthly based upon the birth and death cycle invention the BLS implemented from 2003 onward during months not considered recessionary for an assumed "dynamic economy". Americans find this treatment of the facts less compelling than the President's appointees.

The not seasonally adjusted counts are hardest to compare and least accurate in January and February, since major changes to BLS estimates conceived in 2000 were gradually implemented through 2003 for the expressed purpose of adjusting for population controls. Unfortunately, the reality since the change was introduced has seen not seasonally adjusted figures progressively separate from actual survey data to more nearly approximate what BLS statisticians' insist they were seeing or anticipated in ensuing months to bring actual collected data more in line with their predictions.

As a result of the adjustment process begun early this millennium, January's not seasonally adjusted count from about 165,000 businesses showed a loss of 2,961,000 employed Americans, falling from 144,116,000 to 141,155,000 on January figures. With February the second least accurate month of the year, as statisticians work to bring real data more in line with their vision of the workforce, a counterbalancing 850,000 jobs were added after successive months of job losses on Household Survey counts showed a repeat of late 2008 to 2009 results. Ahead of February's modest gains partially offsetting January's 3 million jobs lost by Not Seasonally Adjusted counts, job losses across four of the last six months on CPS counts showed workforce results skewing negative precisely the same number of months as the six-month period through January, 2009.

On Household Survey numbers, January's 666,000 loss of jobs (adjusted for population controls) was followed by 932,000 supposed jobs added, while statisticians' worked to bring  figures more in line with their seasonally adjusted estimates. Without further comment about the creative and potentially misleading figures early each new year since 2003, February's Employment Situation Report unquestionably appeared to be the best report on the past four months. Of course, that's in light of 1,107,000 part time jobs added in November, while just 50,000 jobs were added overall, according to nsa survey responses.

In January, the reported 666,000 jobs lost, paired with 384,000 part time jobs added, turned into the second month out of the last three during which Labor Department figures recorded upwards of 1,050,000 full time breadwinner jobs lost. So the bar for February looking like an improvement wasn't altogether high. It just needed to improve from devastatingly bad numbers late in 2015 through January's first ESR for 2016.

Since a range of measures all supported jobs added to the economy in February, let's look at a breakdown of who gained jobs and what kind of jobs those actually were, according to the Household Survey results. 18 yo 19 year olds gained 103,000 jobs in February, while 16 to 17 year olds added 15,000 more for teens increasing jobs numbers by 118,000 for the month. The age group having gained the most jobs is shown as 55 years and older at 393,000 jobs on Household Data Table A-9, but incredibly, 227,000 of those went to super-seniors 65 years and over who reentered the workforce to supplement retirement income, according to HD Table A-6.

Hispanics turned in another banner month with 362,000 jobs added, which was softened somewhat by statisticians' more modest 300,000 seasonally adjusted estimate for the month. Since January 2009, Hispanics have gained 5,514,000 jobs, showing 24,967,000 employed after starting Obama's Presidency holding 19,453,000 jobs. The foreign born gained another 63,000 jobs and are second only to Hispanics with 4,301,000 jobs gained since they first appeared as a newly counted demographic on HD Table A-7 in January 2010. In February, the foreign born held 25,391,000 jobs, while their first official appearance on BLS counts showed 21,090,000 in January, 2010. Asians continued relentless workforce gains with an impressive 294,000 jobs added, which meant nearly three-quarters-of-a-million jobs went to Hispanics, the foreign born, and Asians combined, turning into 719,000 more jobs for mostly foreign demographics in February alone.

A remarkable 676,000 part time jobs were added in February, again, nearly doubling the 346,000 full time jobs based partly on the first months of the year's adjustments for "population controls" which make January, and to a lesser extent, February figures suspect, to say the least. The BLS acknowledged the anomalies by showing just 75,000 full time jobs added, while estimating 489,000 part time jobs added on seasonally adjusted figures from HD Table A-9. Since teens and super-seniors combined for 345,000 of the jobs added in February on top of the 719,000 gained by the three predominant foreign bloodline (non-native or recent newcomer) demographics, it seems natural to wonder how America's majority white demographic has fared under Obama.

Thanks to 784,000 jobs added in February, which more than offset the 357,000 losses estimated in adjustments for population controls in January on HD Table A-1, white Americans have for the first time across Obama's 86 months in Office topped a million jobs gained. At 118,584,000 in February, the nation's majority demographic making up 75.1% of the latest estimated 323,113,125 count from the U.S, Census Bureau has finally reached seven figures with 1,175,000 jobs gained from the 117,409,000 in place more than seven years after Obama was inaugurated January 20, 2009. Blacks or African Americans who make up 13.05% of the populace, according to USCB counts, have shown more than double the majority demographic's job gains at 2,391,000, counting 17,665,000 in February, after recording 15,274,000 in January, 2009.

I'm fully willing to acknowledge February's jobs report is the best of the past four, and arguably the best of the last seven months, a period during which four showed losses on the Household Survey. Nevertheless, in breaking down who's actually benefitting from modest gains, and dissecting some of the internal mechanisms used by the Labor Department for its estimates, most Americans would be horrified to learn what the real data shows. The only actual nationwide count from employers' payroll records is kept by the ETA, where Report r539cy uses state and U.S. territory employment office UI tax records to show a miserable 2,383,292 jobs gained through February 2016. One would think the nearly ten million jobs gained by Hispanics and the foreign born, combined, and 2.4 million more by blacks or African Americans would show clearly enough why the disenfranchised 94,298,000 Not in Labor Force Americans and America's majority demographic employment woes would suggest reason for change.

Record numbers casting ballots in Republican caucuses and primaries, including for the seemingly most aggressive outsider candidate, could be seen as a predictable response to Obama's seven-plus years of painful fundamental change.

Summation - most of the job figures have been skewed to report progress and while foreign workers have benefitted the most from Obama, more people than ever can find gainful employment that isn't part-time. Did Obama create this?

Yup.

Guitars, Cadillacs and Government Interference

So when the Obummer government wanted to crush the spirit of American business, ruin a key and historic industry for America and ensure hundreds if not thousands of Americans lose their jobs and become government dependees, they attacked Gibson guitars for their use of "endangered" wood - despite the fact that Gibson had complied with all laws in the US, and all laws overseas. Other guitar firms that weren't managed by prominent Republican CEOs, of course, were not targetted by the fleets of armed soldiers the government sent into Gibson to terrorize their workforce and purloin all of their working materials.


The government insists that business - even in matters of health care, cannot be trusted to do the right thing by their market, country and customers and must be forced, at the point of a gun if required, to comply with mandates that bureaucrats in Washington - yes the same ones that made all the GREAT decisions over at GSA, the ones we know we can trust with our money, have come up with.


But I digress.


But what if a business, a progressive, market attuned and smart business, interested in doing the right thing was to be left alone to solve a problem? According to the government office of Compliance and Thuggery, such businesses don't exist, and if they did, they surely would only be motivated by short term profits at the expense of their customers, their country and all natural resources? Is this true?

I give you Taylor Guitars.


Taylor recently acquired an ebony weood mill in Cameroon. Black ebony is a prized material for guitar fretboards. It's also on the verge of extinction.


Was this a hedge against diminishing worldwide supplies of ebony? Was it an effort to stabilize prices, or was the move was more about thoughtfully introducing sustainability into the supply chain? Surely no greedy business would THINK through the supply situation and get involved unless the government MADE them do it?

Perhaps not.


Alarmed by the diminishing supply of this wood, Taylor visited ebony loggers in Cameroon -- the last legal ebony harvesting site in the world. What they saw there defied business sense and common logic. Since the harvesters were unable to see whether an ebony tree would produce rich black wood, or an 'inferior' striated variety unless they first cut down the tree, they cut down 10 trees just to find the one "good one". And the nine trees that had been needlessly felled were left to rot.




Taylor realized that the striated ebony wood made acoustically and ergonomically perfect fretboards, amongst other guitar parts. In fact, Taylor had been using striated ebony for guitars since the company started -- initially as a cost-saving measure. Now, if other leading guitar brands could be convinced to use this wood, the ebony shortage would suddenly disappear, guitar builders would have ten times the supply and the Cameroons could sell 10 times as much wood.


Prior to the Cameroon acquistion, Taylor guitars had contemplated feedback from consumers recommending the company support tree replanting programs in areas stripped of ebony. It was a simple solution that would, in theory, provide a sustainable supply of the prized wood. It would also make for a wonderful corporate sustainability story.

In reality, however, the idea was less than ideal.

Bob Taylor said, "In places like Cameroon, it's not possible to do anything without a bribe. Planting trees in situations like this would simply fuel illegal harvesting, and do nothing to make the wood supply more sustainable." Taylor came to understand the solution was more complex. With the company's purchase of the mill, the full extent of that complexity was revealed.

"We quickly grasped there were fundamental issues that needed to be addressed -- contradictory laws and lumber accounting systems, for example" says Taylor. "We had to start by helping fix the system, demonstrating by example that doing business honestly -- taxing us and auditing us -- was in the government's best interest." Taylor is quick to point out that his company's approach has, of necessity, been methodical rather than splashy. "We aren't planting trees yet. We're working first to stop the illegal harvest, and get a better understanding of how many trees there actually are. Our focus is ensuring the harvest is legal, and then sustainable. It's a long-term strategy that might not make a great sound bite. But ultimately, it will help us save our own industry and the ebony species in Cameroon."

Taylor Guitars understands that looking at and understanding whole systems is key to creating successful, sustainable innovation, instead of "fake"solutions that make Western consumers feel good but do nothing to correct underlying problems. And this point is underscored when government bodies, with even less knowledge, with suspect motives and no accountability to anyone interfere with free market forces and , at the point of a gun, make companies behave the way they want them to.

It is bad business, bad poltics and bad ethics. While Taylor is succeeding because they were left alone, Gibson is still trying to get their ebony back from our government.

When will we learn?

Justice Department wants the facts. Their way.

So the justice department gets pissed off at Texas (the Great State Of) because Texas has the audacity (not of hope, but of reality) to seek to remove fraudulent, dead, illegal and duplicate voters from the voter rolls. You know, Democrats.

Anyhoo -

So the Justice Department hires (actually a no-bid contract, so anoints is closer to the truth) a data firm to ensure that the people being removed from the rolls are being purged fairly and accurately. As always, an Eric Holder justice department is the justice department of the people, and not the justice department of the Democratic party. Right. (okay - play along, I can't make this seem all dramatic if you keep reading ahead!)
Let's take a look at the unbiased, politically neutral, no axe to grind, independent, academic, scientific, pure, wholesome and honest folks over at "Catalist", the chosen firm of the Democr.... I mean justice department.


Client Listing:

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Democratic Governors Association

Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Democrats.com

Texas Democratic Trust

Vermont Democratic Party

Obama for America

Maine Democratic Party

Arizona Democratic Party

Surely that is just an error, and there is a Republican or two in there? Nope.


Surely that is just an error, and at least there is a conservative or two in there? Nope.
.

I'm sure their mission statement clarifies this whole big misunderstanding and outlines the depth to which they will pursue data excellence and impartiality?
.

To provide progressive organizations with the data and services needed to better identify, understand, and communicate with the people they need to persuade and mobilize.
.

Crap, struck out again. Well let's look at the owners, the founders of a great and noble business, retained by our justice department to provide, well, you know, justice.

Laura Quinn is a founder of Catalist, and has led the company since inception in 2006. Ms. Quinn has an extensive background in communications, technology and data innovation. She is a founding partner of QRS Newmedia, Inc. started in 1996, which specializes in communication technology design and integration services. QRS clients have included the DNC and every Democratic Presidential campaign from 1996 through 2008; a wide of range of progressive organizations and non-profits; and other corporate and academic institutions.

Patricia Bauman is President of the Bauman Foundation. In recent years, the Foundation has supported civic participation through general support of organizations engaged in voter registration and outreach and election protection. She has also led policy efforts to foster public access to government information. She is also a real estate investor, and is active as a donor to Democratic candidates.

Well, dang it, it seems like fairness can't get a fair shake around here can it? Justice may be blind, but she certainly knows when to take a peek from beneath her blindfold for Democrat causes doesn't she?

Ketchup Chips Pops Blogger Balloons

This lady said her blogs were about dance, movies and she liked sex....

T

 This lady said she was into Horses, Fashion and Food. I combined them for her.......

 This guy said he had a phobia about insect bites. I think he may be a little freaked after my reply:

 This lady writes a blog about interior decor and admonished us plebes to be more adventurous with color selection. I'm hoping this note served to shut her up.....

This guy insisted he was the Edison of India and could invent anything. Let's see him try and top this!

Hate Working Weekends? Thank a union member - part 3 of 3

It is impossible to calculate the cost of the unions’ greed on the rest of us, but several recent studies provide some sobering, and frankly piss-offing (off-pissing?) indications. Policy Exchange, a conservative think-tank, calculates that people in the British private sector work 23% more hours than their public-sector counterparts over their lifetimes, thanks to public-sector strikes, sick days, fat holiday benefits and early retirement.

 Barry Bluestone, a left-wing economist, calculates that the price of America’s public services increased by 41% in 2000-08, while that of private services rose by just 27%.

Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford University, argues that replacing just the bottom 5-8% of American teachers with merely AVERAGE performers could move the United States from near the bottom to near the top of the international math and science rankings.

Public Sector Unions – death to thinking

The rigidity of the public sector does not merely reduce the quality of services. It also discourages innovation. In the private sector innovative firms routinely experiment with new business models, measure the success of those models and then expand the successful ones. But whenever public-sector managers have tried to do the same—by establishing magnet schools that focus on certain subjects, or charter schools with longer teaching days, for example—the unions have opposed them. Rabidly.

Greed Kills – How the Unions chewed off the teat that fed them.

Public-sector unions now face the biggest challenge in their history. Governments almost everywhere—particularly in the rich world—are being forced to cut back public spending. Many governments (for example in Ireland, Greece and Spain) are cutting public-sector pay. Others (for example in Japan and America) are freezing it. Greece is increasing the retirement age from 58 to 63 and making it possible to fire public servants. Britain is cutting government departments by as much as a quarter, and is reviewing pensions.

In the United States several rising Republican governors are keen to turn the short-term struggle over pay and benefits into a bigger battle about trade-union power. New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty have both eagerly taken on the new “privileged class” of public-sector workers. Do the public exist to serve public-sector workers with their high pay and inflated benefits, they ask, or do public-sector workers exist to serve the public?

Tellingly enough, even people on the left are beginning to echo these complaints. Andrew Cuomo, the incoming Democratic governor of New York, is rattling his sabre against public-sector unions despite the fact that they make up an important part of his base. Davis Guggenheim, an impeccably liberal film director whose credits include Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, subjected the teachers’ unions to a merciless critique in “Waiting for Superman”, flagellating them for perpetuating a broken system and presenting Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, as “something of a foaming satanic beast”, as one reviewer put it.

The unions have responded by proclaiming war on cost-cutting governments. They have already organized strikes and protests. Millions of French workers marched against Nicolas Sarkozy’s modest plans to raise the retirement age by two years. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Ireland and Greece against austerity measures. London Underground workers have repeatedly paralyzed transport in the city. Cities across the US needed to be fumigated after the Occupy Whatever Flea Party came through town after town.

Despite all the bloviating “take them out” references by the likes of Hoffa and the putrid acts of the OWS fleabags, public-sector unions will find it hard to win these battles in the long run. Or even the short run.

They have not been particularly successful in mobilizing public anger, considering the scale of the cutbacks, nor have they notched up any notable victories. The Greek and Irish governments have implemented their austerity packages and Nicolas Sarkozy has raised the retirement age in France. They are also discovering that many people in the private sector regard their public-sector colleagues as an overprivileged, underworked remora on the belly of productive society. Spanish civil servants were shocked at how little support they got when, last June, they protested against a 5% cut in pay. And a recent poll showed that 65% of people in stick-in-the-mud Greece want civil servants to lose their job security.

 The pressure to rationalize the public sector is likely to continue in coming years. The debt level in OECD countries is expected to rise to 120% of GDP by 2014, thanks to a combination of ageing populations and inherited obligations, some of them driven by the public sector’s insatiable appetite for pensions. Joshua Rauh, of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, reckons that seven American states will have exhausted their pension assets by 2020. America itself will have its debt level over 108% of GDP – not far off from Greece in a year or two. 

Check your boots for cling on poop.

It would be a mistake to write off the public-sector unions. They are masters of diverting attention from strategic to tactical questions. Undoubtedly the unions will lose some of their privileges over the coming years; the scale of the debt crisis makes this inevitable. But will governments have the courage to tackle the root causes of the problem (such as pensions) rather than dealing with secondary problems (such as wages)? 

And will they dare to tackle questions of power rather than just pay and perks? If they are to claim victory in the coming fight, they need not just to restore the public finances to health - rather they need to remove the tiger grip of mediocrity placed around the necks of scociety by the uions and the limp souled politicians that support them.

Buy union made? I'd rather go without.

Solidarity is how WE all get screwed by the public sector unions - part 2 of 3

Economists still debate exactly what impact public-sector unions have on pay but, you probably already know the answer to this one. Evidence from the American Bureau of Labor Statistics support the conservative argument that they have used their power to extract a wage premium to wit public-sector workers earn, on average, a third more than their private-sector counterparts.

Three economic facts are clear:

·      Unions have suppressed wage differentials in the public sector.

Wage differentials are relatively small in the public sector. Lower-level workers, such as secretaries, are usually better paid than their private-sector equivalents, whereas higher-level workers are worse paid. This not only makes it difficult to attract high-flyers into the public sector, but also makes it hard to raise standards by, for instance, putting the best head teachers in charge of groups of schools.

·      They have extracted extra-ordinary benefits for their members.

Why are benefits are generous in the public sector? Easy answer – corrupt and lazy politicians. Governments tend to give their workers light workloads and generous pensions in lieu of higher wages (which have to come out of the current budget). In America teachers teach for a mere 180 days a year. In Brazil they have the right to take 40 days off a year—out of 200 working days—without giving an explanation or losing a centavo of pay.

The defined-benefits revolution that has swept through the private sector has hardly touched the public one: 90% of American state- and local-government workers have defined-benefit plans, compared with 20% of private-sector workers.

Generous pensions have produced an epidemic of early retirement. In Brazil civil servants can retire on full pay after 35 years on the job (30 for women) and teachers can retire after 30 years (25 for women). The result is that Brazil spends as high a proportion of its GDP on pensions (12%) as Britain does, even though the population is much younger. In Poland soldiers and policemen can retire after just 15 years, so it is possible to come across 33-year-old retirees.

 Add to this the fact that any public-sector worker can hide behind union power to game the system—82% of senior California Highway Patrol officers discover a disabling injury about a year before they retire—and you have a dysfunctional mess. Makes you wonder how dumb the other 18% are!

·      They have protected underperforming workers from being fired in order to create a reason for the existence of the union (not to mention the retention of the dues revenue stream!)

Unions have made it impossible to shit-can incompetent workers. In Greece there is a law against sacking government workers solely on grounds of poor performance.

In other countries there might as well be. Mary Jo McGrath, a Californian lawyer, says that “getting rid of a problem teacher can make the O.J. trial look like a birthday party.” In 2000-10 the Los Angeles school district spent $3.5m trying to get rid of seven of its 33,000 teachers, and succeeded with only five.

Incompetence is so endemic that several countries have invented phrases to deal with it. Brazilians joke that public-sector workers turn up on the first day, hang their jackets on the back of the chair, and are never seen again. The Greeks talk about putting incompetents “in the fridge”—giving them pretend jobs. In France it is the cupboard. Americans refer to “the dance of the lemons”—the practice of reassigning bad teachers to new schools rather than getting rid of them. They also refer to the “rubber room” where incompetent or criminal teachers bounce around, often for years, while administrators and unions haggle over what is to be done with them.

The unions’ influence extends to the size and nature of the public sector. Private-sector unions have learned to exercise self-restraint when it comes to pushing for more manpower: they realize that more workers may reduce the wages of their members and that a higher wage bill may drive their employers out of business. But public-sector unions are relentless in demanding more resources and more personnel, which conveniently translate into more members and more dues.

In California, the prison guards’ union has been one of the leading advocates of getting tough on crime. The result of this policy has been a dramatic increase in both the size of the state’s prison-industrial complex (from 12 prisons in 1980 to 33 in 2000) and the pay of the people who run it (prison guards in 2006 made $70,000 a year in base salary and $100,000 with overtime).

But public-sector unions can prosper simply by opposing rationalization: Buffalo, in New York state, has as many public workers in 2006 as it did in 1950, despite the fact that the city has lost HALF its population.

Public-sector unions combine support for higher spending with vigorous opposition to more accountability, performance based pay or outsourcing.

The teachers’ unions have an impressive record of terminating reformers. When Marietta Giannakou, the education minister in the last New Democracy government in Greece, insisted on teacher accountability, she lost her seat at the next election. Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the awful school system in Washington, DC, closed failing schools, fired more than 200 ineffective teachers and principals, and advocated merit pay. But the unions fought her every step of the way, using their muscle first to get rid of her patron, the city’s mayor, and then to bring about her own resignation.

Next posting: Hate working weekends? Thank a union member. Part 3 of 3.

Unions Suck at Being Unions - Part 1 of Three

Unions suck at being unions. Except for the Public Sector Unions

The past 30 years have been dismal ones for the labor movement. In the American private sector trade-union density has fallen from a 33% in 1979 to just 7% today. In Britain it has dropped from 44% to 15%.This isn’t just a major market anomaly - less than 20% of workers in the developing countries belong to unions.

There is one big exception to this story of decline, however: the public sector. In the Canadian public sector union density has increased from 12% in 1960 to more than 70% today. In America it has increased over the same period from 11% to 36%.  There are now more American workers in unions in the public sector (7.6m) than in the private sector (7.1m), although the private sector employs five times as many people. Union density is now higher in the public sector than it was in the private sector in its glory days, in the 1950s.

This private-public shift has transformed the trade union movement. In the 1950s unions were solidly working class organizations, dominated by men who had left school at 16 and leant left on economics but right on social issues because they knew right from wrong – but they also knew where their bread was buttered.

Today union members are much more middle-class: more than a quarter of American unionists have college degrees, and even more have liberal views on economic, social and environmental issues.

The shift has also created tension between the public and private sectors. The private sector is dominated by competition and turbulence. Performance-related pay is the norm, and redundancies (and the resultant lay-offs) are commonplace.

The public sector, by contrast, is a haven of security and stability. Many people have jobs for life and performance measures are rare. The result is an economic paradox: the typical public worker is better off than the people he or she is supposed to serve, and the gap has widened significantly over the past decade. In America, pay and benefits have grown twice as fast in the public sector as they have in the private sector.

Now that the sovereign-debt crisis is forcing governments to put their houses in order, the growing discrepancy between conditions in the public and private sectors has eroded much of the sympathy public-sector workers might once have enjoyed.

The times – they are a changin’.

The Unions are gunning for your VOTE or your ASS!

Public-sector unions are some of the world’s most powerful interest groups. Many of them have large memberships and comparably large wallets: the American National Education Association, the main teachers’ union, has 3.2 MILLION members, an annual budget of over $300 MILLION and a vibrant tradition of political activism. But don’t they work for the betterment of the kids? Not really.

As Albert Shanker, President of the United Federations of teachers put it “I’ll start representing the interests of children when school children start paying union dues.”

Comforting.

But their influence goes much deeper. In many countries unions prop up the left. In America Andy Stern, the head of the Service Employees International Union, was the most frequent guest at the White House in the first six months of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Public-sector unions enjoy advantages that their private-sector rivals only dream of. As providers of vital monopoly services, they can and do, close down entire cities. And as powerful political machines, they pick the people who sit on the other side of the bargaining table. Daniel DiSalvo, the author of an excellent essay on America’s public-sector unions in Nation Affairs magazine, points out that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was the biggest contributor to political campaigns in 1989-2004.

He also notes that such influence is more decisive in local campaigns, where turnout is low, than in national ones. Even if they fail to elect “their” candidates, public-sector unions have a relatively easy time negotiating with politicians.

Private-sector bosses are accustomed to playing hardball with unions because they know they will go bankrupt if they don’t.Politicians have no such discipline: they can always raise taxes or borrow from future generations. Those who have challenged the unions have often regretted it. Even the Terminator got terminated by the powerful unions. California’s former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, tried to fight the unions in the court of public opinion, only to be outgunned. Others have attempted a more stopgap approach, only to get the blame when services are disrupted.

 Next Post - Solidarity is how we all get screwed the same way by the Public Sector Unions

Paulina Gretky - not union thug

America is Soft and Lazy. So Says Barry.

President Zero continued his 2012 De-Election campaign in Asia this week by telling attendees at the Asia-Pacific economic summit that America has gotten “lazy” in the past few decades at attracting foreign investment. Thanks Barry, really, thanks very much.

What he should have said, in the light of his administration’s handling of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, is that America has become quite adept at BLOCKING foreign investment. 

TransCanada Pipelines wants to invest $7 billion in building a pipeline across the United States to carry oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast. If we were merely lazy, we’d have accepted the project and the thousands of new construction jobs long ago. That would be the path of least resistance, not to mention common sense.But we refuse to take the easy way out. The bureaucrats and the environmentalist whacks produce exhaustive studies. The brightest lights in Hollywood mobilize. The White House calculates its political interest. 

How thoughtless of President Obama to underestimate the effort expended in rejecting a foreign investment.

To delay the project for more than three years and then, after giving every indication that it would go through, announce that the ultimate decision will be kicked past the 2012 election takes hard work and frankly a political death wish we have seldom seen the likes of in US politics. Well, except for Carter. And Clinton.

The president’s “lazy” comment is one of a series of remarks carrying an undercurrent of disapproval of the country he is so luckless as to govern. A few weeks ago, he observed that Americans had gotten “a little soft and we didn't have the same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades.” 

At a San Francisco fundraiser, he lamented that “we have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam.” This from the man that cancelled NASA manned space programs so we have to beg rides from the Russians. 

Obama is prone to the cynical view of the hip socialist, floating above the foibles of the great unwashed masses in America. It never seems to enter his mind that HE might have disappointed us, but he certainly seems to think that we have disappointed him. We’ve been lazy and soft in our practices going back decades, hopeless until the advent of one Barack H. Obama, the would-be Savior President frustrated by the recalcitrant nation of fools he is forced to work with, a Picasso who has been dealt a bad canvas.

The distance between President Obama’s self-image and reality is as big as the Grand Canyon. 

Ambition? 

His heroic stimulus bill funded roadwork to create temporary insta-jobs and subsidized green-energy projects, some of which would have happened anyway. 

Imagination? 

He perpetually wants to send federal money to the states to prop up their existing un-affordable public union and welfare structures. 

Willingness to do the hard things necessary to build? 

His National Labor Relations Board is harrying Boeing for the offense of building state-of-the-art aircraft in a non-unionized South Carolina plant.

It’s within the president’s power to do a few major things to make us more competitive. The president has shown no interest. He apparently prefers waging a blunt-force campaign against a “do-nothing Congress” and carping about what’s wrong with us.

The only thing wrong with all of us that I can see is that we voted for him. We may be lazy, and have gotten soft, but I think this is one mistake that we will soon be rectifying.

Green is the new green, but black still gets covered in brown.....

So where do all the "carbon credits" come from if Al Gore sells enough carbon indulgences, and enough western sheeple pile on the green pedi-car? Surely people in poor countries wouldn't lose their land or be forced to lose their food crops to those what want to plant higher "carbon offsetting" crops in order to grab more of the filthy lucre that carbon indulgences industry has created?

Said it ain't so Joe. I mean Al.

The government of Uganda and the U.K.-based “carbon credits” firm New Forests Company — accredited by the United Nations and largely financed by the World Bank and the European Union  are rolling in the carbon dough after 20,000 poor Ugandan farmers were brutally evicted from their lands in order for New Forests Company to plant trees.

“We were beaten by soldiers. They beat my husband and put him in jail,” Naiki Apanabang, who obtained her family’s land in recognition of her grandfather’s military service, told Oxfam investigators. “The eviction was very violent.” Apanabang and her eight children no longer have enough food to eat — let alone money for schooling, unanimously telling investigators horror stories of brutality, shootings, wanton destruction of livelihoods, and more. “The communities Oxfam spoke to describe the evictions as anything but voluntary or peaceful,” the report noted.  Francis Longoli, a small farmer from Kiboga district was tearful: "I remember my land, three acres of coffee, many trees – mangoes and avocados. I had five acres of bananas, 10 beehives, two beautiful permanent houses. My land gave me everything. People used to call me 'omataka' – someone who owns land. Now that is no more. I am one of the poorest now," he says.

Ugandan authorities granted the UN-accredited carbon-trading firm a license to plant trees on the land in 2005. So-called “carbon credits” earned from the plantation would then be sold to companies to offset their emissions of CO₂. The problem was that tens of thousands of people had been living off of the land for decades, using the area to feed themselves and their farm animals.

But not any more!

Greed wrapped in green is the cruelest mistress of all. From multi million dollars homes and private jets, from marriages to Hollywood actresses and living in the Palace of the King of Lesotho - these guys have got it going on over there in Africa. Why - it's as much fun as an Al Gore massage session!

But hey - as long as green is the new green - the old black can still get covered in brown.

Mike McGinn - Our green friend in Seattle, spends $65M to insulate 3 homes....

Mmmmm. Your tax dollars give me a righteous buzz....

Who's a hairy bear? Can I get an "oh yeah?"

These Green Jobs Fools like Mike McGinn (Chief Fool of Seattle) have got it made in the shade. Why not take the regular folks money, throw it a "Green Jobs" toilet and then cash in on the La La land vote parade of green weenies. Sorry if I am sounding a bit harsh, and I regret calling McGinn a green fool. That would be disrespectful to both fools, and the color green. Sorry Kermit.

Let's check this guy out. Environmental activist, chairman of the Sierra Club (business bad, beavers good) who got elected on the promise of "kick starting" the economy with hip, green jobs, "sustainable" development and pony rides for everyone.  Let's see how he's done shall we?

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeee's Greenie:

• McGinn and the rest of his friends first made sure that "Big Box" stores couldn't get into the city of Seattle, costing several thousand jobs. Attaboy Mike!
• Created a special tax for businesses that had employees who travelled to work alone. Several hundred more jobs gone. I can now commute nowhere with nobody, because we all lost our jobs. At least we can catch the View!
• Removed the ability of local neighborhood parents to have a say in their children's education by creating a School Board run by professional teachers, (and dissolving local PTAs) What do parents know about teaching anyways, they just clog up the system with their "ideas"....
• Encouraged the police force of Seattle to not enforce marijuana laws (possession, use, manufacture or distribution). I was going to type out the sound of a righteous hard pull on a thick spliff, but I don't know if it is "tooootootoot" or more like "wheeeeze -  ahhhhhhhh"?
• Was then featured on the cover of "Dope" magazine. I think that is a noun. Or is it an adjective?
• He and his advisors actually advocate (this is a quote - Im not making this up!!!!!!!) taking auto drivers who accidentally kill or injure cyclists and "hang them by their toenails at the edge of town until buzzards peck their eyes out." . Gee guys, talk about harshing our mellow...
• McGimp has called for homeless people to be given free housing that the taxpayer pays for on free city land. Hey if it's free, like those samples at Costco - count me in!
• Advocates that the city should be mandated to pay for Transgender surgeries. In related news, the nearby city of Tacoma says that they will pay for surgery to turn you into robot that shoots lasers. I'm off to Tacoma so I can defeat drag queens with my laser beam of death!

Now this genius has had to come forth on his job record. Letting the people know what their hip, sustainable future is bringing them in terms of jobs and prosperity and wealth and security.  Let me get the number right for you. I'm punching it into the Cray 7000 right now - and the answer is:

ZERO. No jobs created. None. Nada. Since taking office Seattle's growth has been exactly - zero.

Despite $20 million pissed away on a home weatherstipping program for Seattle that created 14 jobs. All of them clerical and office staff, he says that if we were just patient we would see the light. By the way - McGinn made the contractors pay the workers $21 per hour to participate in the program, when the going wage was $12 for the same kind of work. He was creating "new economy jobs" ( you know the kind that look good on paper, but don't actually exist past election day.) Dozens of businesses lost their workers and failed. Hundreds more jobs lost. Go Mikey Go!

So 14 jobs created. That sucks, but how many houses did they upgrade?

3

If it wasn't so tragic it would be funny. Who are the fools here? We can point at the electorate of Seattle and laugh, but it wouldn't do much good. Toledo, Kansas City and PHOENIX spent $65 million under the same laughable federal program and created 72 jobs in total. Since this program works so well, Obama has put ANOTHER $5 BILLION into it. Dat stimbulus done be da shit.

You want comedic fodder? Go look in the mirror. That's who is being laughed at. Who is the fool now?

As G. Gordon Liddy famously said after the re-election of Clinton - "you people deserve yourselves. You sicken me - and I'm not going to hang around just to prove me right."

Talk about harshing the mellow - Hey G. Gordon - would transgender surgery make you feel any better? I mean it's free and all.........