The UAW certainly let us know who’s running the country as it flatly rejected any concessions in discussing the auto industry bailout:

The US United Auto Workers (UAW) union has ruled out concessions - at least for the time being - to help rescue the ailing Detroit-based car industry.

Ron Gettelfinger, the union president, said at the weekend that “the focus has to be on the economy as a whole as opposed to a UAW contract”.

Will Barack Obama bring us real change and stand up to the unions?  I’m not holding my breath.  Democrats owe the unions and putting the industry on permanent taxpayer funded life support is just part of the payback.  It’s a policy Democrats will pay for as people tire of bailout nation.  Even Wall Streeters are starting to hear the music as some of their senior executives are giving up bonuses this year.

Any talk of “change” was pre-election hype.  Welcome to the post-election reality of business as usual by Obama, Reid, and Pelosi.

How many millions did unions spend getting Democrats elected this season?  They must be livid that Democrats can’t shove the auto industry bailout through:

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he knew of no Republicans who would support the Democrats’ $25 billion proposal and said he was disinclined to move a bill without bipartisan support.

“I’d want to be careful about bringing up a proposition that might fail,” given that a rescue plan would likely fare better under a President-elect Barack Obama administration, Sen. Dodd (D., Conn.) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There’s some political considerations that need to be made over the next few days.”

What political considerations?  If it’s the right thing to do, get your Democratic majorities moving.

More from Pelosi:

A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats were “hopeful” they could get a package passed but that the chances hinged on support in the Senate and from President George W. Bush, who hasn’t indicated whether he would sign the legislation.

Maybe the Democrats aren’t going to get much done after all.  I suspect the days of trading safe Republican votes so Democratic Congressmen in more conservative districts can vote no on issues like illegal immigration are over.  First, the compassionate conservative is gone, so there’s nobody undermining the party from the inside trying to drag votes across the aisle.  Sure, guys like McCain will always play the sap, but he won’t drag Republicans with him like a sitting president can.  Second, as the minority party, Republicans must now clearly delineate what separates them from Democrats if they ever hope to return to power.  “I voted with the other guys” isn’t a very compelling campaign slogan when you’re asking people to make a switch.

Democrats better get their house in order if they’re going to govern.  Republicans have no incentive to rescue you guys.

The great tax cut to the middle class reached a bit deeper  than the $250,000 cutoff. In fact, it went a wee bit below $100,000.

By the time The One bailed out the fat cat union bosses at Ford and GM, got open voting card checkoff, it stopped just above $13,900, which is good, cause Lil Ewell here kin now get him sum pants.

And a used Ford, iffen we’re lucky! And sum tarpaper for the saved home.

I have a sinking feeling that NYC Mayor Bloomberg and President-elect Obama will be sharing similar tax plans this year:

To illustrate the problem, the mayor said a 7.5 percent increase in income taxes for a family of four earning $50,000 to $70,000 annually would mean they would pay an extra $116 a year.

That “does put in perspective what might have to change,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg defines the “rich” as a family of 4 making $70K a year in the world’s most expensive city.  You have got to be kidding me.  But that’s not all by a long shot.  Mayor Mike wants to eliminate property tax rebates, hike property taxes, fire 1,000 cops, raise sundry fees, and hire more meter maids to, as liberals would quaintly put it, raise more revenue.

I’m so glad the Republican Party supported the liberal Bloomberg.  He not only embarrassed the party by turning independent, but he continues to damage the Republican brand with liberal policies.  It would have been better to have a Democrat in office to push these liberal policies and let them own them.

That’s right.  If Republicans are going to rise from the ashes, they have to let liberals own their policies.  This will be especially important for Congressional Republicans.  If they follow the moderate “reach across the aisle” meme and provide a fig leaf for the failed Democratic policies soon to be pushed by Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, they’ll be slitting their own throats.

There’s nothing in Obama’s priorities that Republicans should support.  Are Republicans going to “compromise” on higher taxes?  Is muzzling talk radio via the Fairness Doctrine a good idea after the media just kicked the “moderate” McCain in the teeth?  How about adding 10s of millions to Democratic coffers by supporting card check for the unions?  Will the GOP add 20 million new Hispanic voters after they just broke 2 to 1 for Obama even though John McCain has been front and center on all their issues?

There’s nothing to do now but let the Democrats kill themselves.  They’ll overreach.  They’ll kill an already bad economy with higher taxes.  Be disciplined, take some media flack, get out of their way, and get ready to run against them when even a blind monkey could tell their policies have failed.

French PM says world ‘on edge of abyss’

PARIS/LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday the world stood on the “edge of the abyss”, gripped by a global financial crisis now threatening industry, trade and jobs worldwide.
Fillon’s words echoed a growing sense of alarm sweeping EU capitals ahead of an expected U.S. Congressional vote on Friday on a $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry. Approval is far from certain. [snip]

Monsieur Fillon, the French economy has been in the cloacae since the German Chowder and Marching Society showed up in Paris a couple hundred thousand strong.

After that excursion into French diplomacy, France employed Marxist economics, which is why you are such an economic powerhouse today.
How about working on your end of the problem, like firing the dead wood and killing off the leech unions. France might even find productivity in that mess.

Listen to Sarkozy, You have a chance of getting out of the ditch.

US Congress passes 25 bln loan guarantees to automakers

The US Senate Saturday approved 25 billion dollars in loan guarantees for the financially strapped US auto industry, intended to spark a wave of automotive innovation.
The loan guarantees were included in a continuing resolution that included funding for the US government and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President George W. Bush has indicated that he intends to sign the bill.
“We’re very pleased Congress has chosen to act at this critical time,” said Greg Martin, director of communications for General Motors Corp’s Washington office.
GM had been subject of much speculation that it could be forced into bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy could be one of the better things to happen to the auto industry. It eradicates the union contracts, all the health plans, places the pensions in a holding company, giving the companies an opportunity to compete with the Asian and European companies.
If GM and Ford takes advantage of the opportunity to clean out the deadwood in upper and middle management, pick up the good workers from the workforce and hire new to fill in, they can be a force in manufacturing again.

The unions have to go, the adversarial work relations buried otherwise this doesn’t work. It becomes a bailout for the unions, nothing more.

The unions are at it again—pushing the absurd idea that a card check is fairer than secret ballots.  But here’s an idea for the unions, maybe membership is falling because you haven’t updated your value proposition since the early 1900s.  Honestly, what does a union do for us today that isn’t already codified in law somewhere?

Management’s not responsible for declining membership; it’s their inability to react to a vastly different world that’s the problem.  For example, in an era of globalization, how does the union propose forcing a company to keep wages high instead of outsourcing?  Even the union fat cats won’t get their paychecks under those circumstances.

..Against taxes in Massachusetts? 

Massachusetts - The issue is whether to erase the state’s income tax in two phases.  The 5.3% tax would be sliced in half  next year and disappear entirely in the following year.  Advocates or repeal are hoping for support from voters worried about tough economic times and angered by bloated government spending.  Six years ago a similar proposal attracted 45% of the vote…

I’m pleased, but cynical.  The progressive cancer runs too broad and deep in Massachusetts.  Their ways are many, and their determination to sustain, if not expand, the state, ferocious.  Once in the door, they spread through the administrative bureaucracies, the unions, the quid pro quo “private” services,  the education hive, the health systems, the environmental enforcers and into every elective and appointed tier from Washington to township.    Nothing short of a total collapse will rid the state of their control.  Good luck.

Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. — Some workers at a local plant will no longer to be able to take their Labor Day holiday because of religious reasons.

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. [snip]

 Former employee and Shelbyville resident Anthony Proctor said he thinks what’s happening is wrong.

He said he helped build a special Muslim prayer room that’s located inside the plant and that no other Tyson facility has been that accommodating for any other religion.”If we want to go pray, we don’t have one for Christians,” he said.

This pertains only to the unionized workers at this plant. You know what that suggests for the dues checkoffs. One more reason to can unions and socialist policies.

Maybe the whole country should celebrate this day the same way they do in Iraq and Somalia.

(A close friend, American, who lives in England and works in Europe, comes back here for all medical work, including dentistry. He says, “I wouldn’t take a chance in their health care system.”)

Privatisation’ of NHS hospitals faces backlash

Plans to allow private companies to run failing NHS hospitals have prompted a major backlash from doctors, patients’ groups and unions.

Ministers have outlined proposals to monitor hospitals and primary care trusts against a set of standards and if no improvement is seen the whole board of managers will be sacked and a new team brought in from elsewhere in the NHS or from private firms.

But there seemed little interest from private sector companies that are already providing care to NHS patients citing the major risks involved with taking on a failing trust.

Why should any private company take on this mess? The government cannot run the health care; they want some one to assume command so they have a punching bag when it fails.
All this has another name: Hillarycare.

[snip]
Other private hospitals that already treat NHS patients have privately expressed concerns and stated they would not be bidding for the contracts.
[snip]
“There is an immense amount of talent within the NHS - in leadership and management - and this should be nurtured, grown and developed to ensure NHS Trusts do not find themselves in a position of failure in the first place.”
[snip]

Righto, chaps this is why those who can afford to, travel to India or the U.S. for surgical procedures.

We do not have a health care problem here. We have a government caused insurance problem. States will not allow persons to buy basic policies from low cost insurers. Mandated coverage such as acupuncture and aromatherapy to grift special interest businesses add to costs. Community rating and preferred insurers jack up the premiums, a non-smoker pays the same premium as some 3-pack-a-day hacker for the same policy. That makes insurance premiums socially acceptable but out of reach for lower income people.

Dr. Lawrence Britt is a Secular Humanist which explains his reluctance to include any of the Marxist/Communist/Progressive governments engaged in heinous conventions. There cannot be any argument that all Islam incorporates this definition; they define the term. Additionally, he says nothing about Woodrow Wilson or the biggest fascist in this hemisphere, FDR.

Ah yes, he incarcerated (interned) about 120,000 Japanese, 62% (74,400) were American citizens. Furthermore, in the early ‘30’s FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court to overrun the Constitutional dictum on the Separation of Powers. All to get his socialist New Deal policies operating.

I ask that the reader look at the actions of the Soviet Union with the following in mind. Examine China too, along with Cuba, Venezuela.

The U.S. Congress of today regarding the disparagement of the wealthy and ideas about corporate “patriotism” a la Obama attain the true bill describing Fascism.

One finds that all countries may flirt with fascism at times. Those that have a strong constitution and follow that will step back. The shredding the document by redefining it as one “needs” removes the restraining chains, giving freedom to the slippage. Today’s Congress, particularly the House, exhibits many symptoms.

General characteristics of a Fascist Country

1. Fascism is commonly defined as an open terror-based dictatorship which is:

• Reactionary: makes policy based upon current circumstances rather than creating policies to prevent problems; piles lies and misnomers on top of more lies until the truth becomes indistinguishable, revised or forgotten.
• Chauvinistic: Two or more tiered legal systems, varying rights based upon superficial characteristics such as race, creed and origin.
• Imperialistelements of finance capital: Extending a nation’s authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political domination of one state over its allies.

Though a dictatorship is the most common association with fascism, a democracy or republic can also be fascist when it strays away from its Tenets of sovereignty. In the 20th Century, many Fascist countries started out as republics. Through the use of fear, societies gave up their rights under the guise of security. Ultimately these republics morphed into Fascist states.

2. Fascism is an extreme measure taken by the middle classes to forestall lower-working class revolution; it thrives on the weakness of the middle classes. It accomplishes this by embracing the middle-class’ love of the status-quo, its complacency and its fears of:

1. Generating a united struggle within the working class
2. Revolution
3. Losing its own power and position within society

In a more simplistic term the people currently in control fear that if they allow equal rights and equal consideration to those being oppressed, they will become oppressed and lose everything. Generally those in power are of a smaller segment of society, but they hold the wealth and control of key systems like manufacturing, law, finance and government position, [snip]

In reality it is the oppressors’ fear of retribution by the oppressed that perpetuates fascism; for justification they dehumanize, demonize, strip them of rights, add new laws, restrict movement and attempt to control them by whatever means possible to prevent an uprising. It is very common in a fascist system to have the oppressed referred to as sub-human, animals, terrorists, savages, barbarians, vermin or any other term designed to create justification for the acts of terror and fascism perpetrated on the oppressed. [snip]

Propaganda also empowers the oppressors with elitism racially, socially, intellectually and/or spiritually.

The 7 conditions (Warning signs)that foster & fuel fascism are:

Instability of capitalist relationships or markets
The existence of considerable declassed social elements
The stripping of rights and wealth focused upon a specific segment of the population, specifically the middle class and intellectuals within urban areas as this the group with the means, intelligence and ability to stop fascism if given the opportunity.
Discontent among the rural lower middle class (clerks, secretaries, white collar labor). Consistent discontent among the general middle and lower middle classes against the oppressing upper-classes (haves vs have-nots).
Hate: Pronounced, perpetuated and accepted public disdain of a specific group defined by race, origin, theology or association.
Greed: The motivator of fascism, which is generally associated with land, space or scarce resources in the possession of those being oppressed.
Organized Propaganda:

a) The creation of social mythology that venerates (creates saints of) one element of society while concurrently vilifying (dehumanizing) another element of the population through misinformation, misdirection and the obscuring of factual matter through removal, destruction or social humiliation, (name-calling, false accusations, belittling and threats).

b) The squelching of public debate not agreeing with the popular agenda via slander, libel, threats, theft, destruction, historical revisionism and social humiliation. Journalists in particular are terrorized if they attempt to publish stories contrary to the agenda.

3. Fascism dovetails business & government sectors into a single economic unit, while concurrently increasing in-fighting and distrust between the units fostering advancement towards war.

4.

• Fascism promotes chauvinist demagogy, (appealing to the prejudices and emotions of the populace) by fostering selective persecution and accepted public vilification of the target group. It then promotes this a “patriotic”, “supportive” or “the party line” and disagreement with such as “anti-government”, “anti-faith” or “anti-nation”.
• Fascismcreates confusion through “facts”. It relies on junk science, revisionism, the elimination of cultural records/treasures and obfuscations to create its case and gain acceptance. Fascism can also combine Marxist critiques of capitalism or faith based critics of the same to re-define middle class perceptions of democracy and to force its issues, confuse logic and create majority consensus between targeted groups. This is also referred to as creating a state of Cognitive Dissonance, the mental state human beings are most easily manipulated.

5. Both middle and upper-middle-class dictated democracy and fascism are class dictatorships that use organized violence (verbal or physical) to maintain the class rule of the oppressors over the oppressed.

The difference between the two is demonstrated by the policies towards non-lower-working class classes. Fascism attains power through the substitution of one state’s form of class domination with another form, generally a middle class based republic segues into an open terrorist dictatorship, run by a few elite.

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism

by Dr. Lawrence Britt

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14-defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -
   Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -
   Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -
   The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military -
   Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism -
   The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media -
   Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security -
   Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -
   Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected -
   The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed -
    Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -
    Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -
    Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -
    Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections -
    Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

At the beginning of the week, Hotspur, in commentary, opined on the scrabbling in DC for protectionist legislation.
The government is the problem; nowhere in DC is the solution. Decibels of ululating amend not some very harsh facts. One may not eternally spend that which one does not have. Once more congress will violate that rule and hold a drowning economy’s head underwater. Shall we acquire the benefits of Carteresque economic policy once more?

When the Japanese acquired everything from Rockefeller Center to Movie studios, they over paid for businesses that they did not understand and for places that were mis en place. Today, the foreign buyers are procuring manufacturing, not moviemakers. While the physical plant may be immoveable, profits travel well. Globalization does quite well in textbooks; reality stains ones mellow like chaw drippings in a beard.

Overseas Investors Buy Aggressively in U.S.

Last May, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate bought a Massachusetts plastics maker. In November, a French company established a new factory in Adrian, Mich., adding 189 automotive jobs to an area accustomed to layoffs. In December, a British company bought a New Jersey maker of cough syrup.

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world’s largest market. [snip]

The surge of foreign money has injected fresh tension into a running debate about America’s place in the global economy. It has supplied state governors with a new development strategy — attracting foreign money. And it has reinvigorated sometimes jingoistic worries about foreigners securing control of America’s fortunes, a narrative last heard in the 1980s as Americans bought up Hondas and Rockefeller Center landed in Japanese hands.

With a growing share of investment coming from so-called sovereign wealth funds — vast pools of money controlled by governments from China to the Middle East — lawmakers and regulators are calling for greater scrutiny to ensure that foreign countries do not gain influence over the financial system or military-related technology. [snip]

Debate is swirling in Washington about the best way to stimulate a flagging economy. Despite divided opinion about the merits, foreign investment may be preventing deeper troubles by infusing hard-luck companies with cash and keeping some in business.

The most conspicuous beneficiaries are Wall Street banks like Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, which have sold stakes to government-controlled funds in Asia and the Middle East to compensate for calamitous losses on mortgage markets. Beneath the headlines, a more profound shift is under way: Foreign entities last year captured stakes in American companies in businesses as diverse as real estate, steel-making, energy and baby food. [snip]

As the German company ThyssenKrupp Stainless broke ground in November on what is to be a $3.7 billion stainless steel plant in Calvert, Ala., its executives spoke effusively about the low cost of production in the United States and the chance to reach many millions of customers — particularly because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which allows goods to flow into Mexico and Canada free of duty.

“The Nafta stainless steel market has great potential, and we’re committed to significantly expanding our business in this growth region,” said the company’s chairman, Jürgen H. Fechter, according to a statement.

Foreign giants like Toyota Motor and Sony have been sinking capital into American plants. Investment in the American subsidiaries of foreign companies grew to $43.3 billion last year from $39.2 billion the previous year, according to the research and consulting firm OCO Monitor.

“This is a vote of confidence in the American economy, the American marketplace and the American worker,” the deputy Treasury secretary, Robert M. Kimmitt, said. “These investments keep Americans employed and keep balance sheets strong.”

Five million Americans now work for foreign companies set up in the United States, Mr. Kimmitt said, and those jobs pay 30 percent more than similar work at domestic companies. Nearly a third of such jobs are in manufacturing, which explains why Rust Belt states have been wooing foreign investment. [snip]

“It’s the culmination of a series of fool’s errands,” said Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers. “We’ve hollowed out our industrial base and run up this massive trade deficit, and now the countries that have built the deficits are coming back to buy up our assets. It’s like spitting in your face.”

Other labor groups take a more pragmatic view.

“We need investment and we need to create good jobs,” said Thea Lee, policy director for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in Washington. “We’re not in the position to be too choosy about where that investment comes from. But it does bring home the consequences of flawed trade policies over many, many years that we’re in this position of being dependent.” [snip]

Never mind that it is these very unions that put most manufacturing job overseas to start.

“This is a phenomenon that could be called the growth of state capitalism as opposed to market capitalism,” said Jeffrey E. Garten, a trade expert at the Yale School of Management. “The United States has not ever been on the receiving end of this before.” [snip]

If fear of foreign money now inspires Americans to erect new barriers, that would damage the economy, said Todd M. Malan, president of the Organization for International Investment, a Washington lobbying group financed by foreign companies.
[snip] (Emphasis mine)

No such outcry has greeted the purchase of stakes in major Wall Street banks by state investment funds in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, China, Singapore and South Korea. This is largely because the banks sold passive slices and ceded no formal control, which would have set off a federal review of the national security implications. But the silence also reflects the imperative that these enormous institutions swiftly secure cash.
[snip]

“They’re buying financial assets at well under book value,” said Gary C. Hufbauer, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
[snip]

“The forces sucking in this capital are much bigger than the political forces,” said Mr. Garten, the Yale trade expert. “If there is a big controversy, it will be between Washington on the one hand and corporate America on the other. In that contest, the financiers and the businessmen are going to win, as they always do.”

Maybe the Donkephants should raise taxes to confiscatory levels, suck the economic marrow right out of US fiscal growth. That will solve the protectionist problem; the companies’ values drop to zero.

In an effort to make himself the education governor, Deval Patrick is proposing an additional $368 million dollars in spending today.  The teachers’ unions must be grinning ear to ear as the millions invested in Patrick’s campaign come back to them 100 fold in the form of our taxes.  But I seriously doubt this proposal is driven by Governor Patrick’s desire to educate the children.

In fact, my guess is you can throw out the majority of his proposals.  He’s not the education governor, or the transportation governor, or the life sciences governor.  He’s the casino governor because there are only 2 logical explanations for the governor’s spending orgy in the midst of a $1.3 billion dollar deficit.  He’s deranged, or he’s throwing all these proposals against the wall to pressure the legislature into action on the casino issue. 

The smart money says the governor has Casino Derangement Syndrome (CDR).  God only knows why.  Even if you use his revenue numbers, they don’t come anywhere near filling the spending gap he’s proposing by throwing everything from beach cleaning equipment to billions for transportation against the wall.

The infiltration of drugs into Vermont is a growing problem.

I was asked, “Didn’t we have a drug problem when we were growing up?”

I replied, that I did have a drug problem when I was young. it was on going and it was in the neighborhood, home and the school. Yeah a big drug problem for a kid. No escaping it!

• I was drug to church on Sunday morning.
• I was drug to church for weddings and for funerals.
• I was drug to family reunions and community socials, no matter the weather.
• I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.
• I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
• I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four letter word.
• I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flowerbeds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields.
• I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline or chop some firewood; if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.

Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack or heroin; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem…
America would be a better place.

Governor Patrick repaid the unions for their campaign cash yesterday:

It requires employers to recognize a union without an election once more than half its work force signs union cards. 

Public sector employees can now unionize through a “card check” written option instead of the elections.

Patrick says the law “is about leveling the playing field between labor and management.” 

Being governor of the state certainly qualifies Patrick as “management”.  So is he really saying that he’s abusing public sector employees?  And if the ever increasing number of $100,000 state pensions qualifies as abuse, where do I sign up?

And if you can explain to me how “card checks” are more democratic than secret ballots, I’m all eyes.  The not so well hidden secret here is that “card checks” allow unions to pressure employees.  The simple fact is that secret ballots are the fairest method of determining if workers are going to be forced to “donate” to the unions and Democratic Party, which is the real thrust of this legislation.