This report comes courtesy of the American Family Association. They are using it as a political move to promote voucher programs. I think they should also encourage parents to flood public school boards across the nation with demands that pro-homosexual efforts NOT be promoted by their school system.

The bottom line is, if your highly paid school system superintendents and the ELECTED school boards heard a response from YOU, like Congress did over their efforts to promote amnesty for illegal aliens, those school systems would REJECT the efforts of the NEA (National Education Association) on their own.

I’m all for vouchers and all for you being able to get as much money for your child to attend a private school as is spent in the public school system for your child. However, right now not enough private schools exists to even accommodate all parents who would WANT to send their kids to another school if not for the current financial burden. So getting a good system of educational competition going will take time, even if you were given money for 100% of private school expenses right now. You’ve got to keep the public schools in check as best you can, for the sake of others and society in general, even if you can get your own kids out.

Just like other political offices, everywhere I’ve lived school board members are ELECTED to their position by VOTERS. Now instead of always looking to see what the Federal government will do about something, it’s time to look at the boxes near the end of your ballot and let school board members know you’re watching them. They pick the superintendents, that set the tone for entire school systems.

You’ve let state and federal government know you endorse one man and one woman. Now it’s time to let your local public education leaders hear it.

Tell them to keep heathen values out of your school system.

I’ve continually tried to show how Unions work against workers rather than for them. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the government’s show piece raid of Swift & Company. We know it was a show piece raid, because this administration has been weak on enforcement and the company was alerted prior to the raid of when it would occur. The company even tried to fight it in court. Who knows how many illegals got away because the Feds gave advance warning. Well since the raid, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has been crying on behalf of the illegals!!! Using all the typical Liberal rhetoric you would expect from anyone trying to defend illegals. Crying about race and even claiming illegals are “American workers” .

Lou Dobbs spoke with Marc Lauritsen, the Union’s International VP. And Lou gave Mr. Lauritsen a well deserved verbal smack down! You should check out this video, because Lou lays a smack down that exposes the union for the bogus fraud that it really is.

I’m not with all the talk about “Dobbs for President”, but on this issue Dobbs knows how to hit the ball out of the park.

You can get the full transcript from CNN.com here.

The bottom line is that Senators and political parties feel they need more money to run a state-wide campaign, than US House members who run in smaller districts. So Senators and parties cater more to big business, because big business has big money to help fund their campaigns. Big business, labor unions and big religious players like leaders in the Catholic church are all for illegal immigration, amnesty and anything else that will boost their numbers. For big business it’s all about getting cheap labor. For labor unions it’s all about growing the size of their union base. For big religious players in the Catholic church, it’s all about allowing as many supporters of the Catholic church in as possible.

Redstate.com has all the pertinent details. Those details come from this Investor’s Business Daily article, that requires a subscription to read. (They do offer a free trial.) I did find another copy of the article on the Americans for Legal Immigration message board. That thread also has a CNN transcript with other details.

This is why the House had a bill in HR 4437, that mirrored the views of Americans overall. But we saw the effort to honestly end illegal immigration shot down in the US Senate, because GOP leaders and Republican Senators cut a back-room deal. The side that wanted to stand up against illegal immigration in the Senate was told to stand down by those who favor illegal immigration and amnesty programs.

…
At their winter meeting in Washington, D.C., RNC members approved a pro-Bush plan resolution by Texas committeeman Bill Crocker. That forced the withdrawal of a resolution against the plan proposed by Arizona committeeman Randy Pullen.
…
GOP leaders, including Vice President Dick Cheney, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, lobbied hard for the Crocker resolution and against the efforts of immigration critics.
…

The Crocker resolution is the McCain-Kennedy bill.

Now don’t go thinking the Democrats would act any differently. While Republicans are stereotyped as cutting deals like this, Democrats do the exact same thing! This is why you must vote based on what a candidate is about and not their party affiliation.

Hat tip reader rightonpeachtree.

Me and rightonpeachtree have been discussing how to address big business’ influence over Senators. We both like the idea of term limits, but how would you ever get that approved? Nice idea, hard to get it done, but we’ve got to push for it.

I have also thought of another means of ensuring US Senators work in the best interests of the state they represent, instead of some big money interest group. I think Alan Keyes may have had a point when he mentioned that our means of selecting a Senator may not be best. Maybe we should consider going back to the way the founders intended that be done?

Once upon a time in America, each state’s legislature voted for US Senators. So there was no statewide vote by the people. Which meant senatorial candidates did not need to run big money campaigns across an entire state. State legislatures had to answer to the people if they picked a bad Senator.

In 1913, the 17th Amendment changed that.

But before the 17th Amendment, there were similar issues.

So even if the 17 Amendment went away, big business would still know how to influence the Senate. Not to mention taking an even stronger hand in state legislatures. So term limits seem like the best available option.

Also before the 17 Amendment, there were other terrible issues.

…
Very shortly after ratification it was established that if a person possessed the qualifications requisite for voting for a Senator, his right to vote for such an officer was not derived merely from the constitution and laws of the State in which they are chosen but had its foundation in the Constitution of the United States. Consistent with this view, federal courts declared that when local party authorities, acting pursuant to regulations prescribed by a party’s state executive committee, refused to permit an African American, on account of his race, to vote in a primary to select candidates for the office of U.S. Senator, they deprived him of a right secured to him by the Constitution and laws, in violation of this Amendment.
…

But in the absence of the 17th Amendment, I feel that the same argument could have been made using Article. I, Section 2 of the Constitution. Which contains in part the following:

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
…

OK, so the short version is that parties and Senators are bought and paid for. Let’s press for term limits and pray for the best. In the mean time, vote the bums out that support illegal immigration and amnesty. Vote for candidates that really do express your views regardless of party and regardless of fear tactics used, to try and keep voting for people based on party affiliation.

Realizing that there was not enough support in Congress and that it could hurt his party in the November elections, Senator Bill Frist asked Dubai Ports World to give up it’s stake in US port management. The United Arab Emirates owned company has agreed to do so. They will transfer operations to a US based company. They only wish to do the transfer in an orderly fashion, that will not cause them financial damage. I think this is a good thing. At first Senator Frist was trying to stop efforts to totally block the deal while the 45 day review process was taking place. But he realized that pressure to end the deal was too great.

It was good that Senator Frist was able to see that the US portion of this deal needed to be ended. And it was not a big part of the total deal at all.

Now there are still some outstanding issues. So sorry Senator Frist, the “whole issue” is not going away. Just part of it is going away. Because we all can respect giving Dubai Ports World time to transfer operations to a US based entity. But the greater issue of foreign governments trying to manage US ports still needs to be address.

I don’t support “Chucky” Schumer, but I do support his bill in this regard. And I wish an effort to transition all US port management away from foreign governments would begin. (That at the very least, with the optimal solution being that all ports are managed by entities within the USA.)

Now that the UAE owned company is willing to transfer operations to a US based entity, there is the issue of that US based entity being profitable! The demands of Unions helped push US companies out of the port management business. It is time to allow US companies to profitably manage our ports and that starts by getting rid of the Unions. Something “Chucky” Schumer is against. But it will look pretty bad if no US company is capable or willing to pick up management of these ports, given they might not be able to do it and be profitable. It’s time for US ports to be upgraded with the latest technology and salaries of workers to be adjusted if needed. That will only happen when the Unions at our ports are done away with.

It is good that Americans now desire that their ports are working with management companies that do not have questionable ties to terrorism. Dubai Ports World would be in familiar company when you look at other government run companies that are managing port terminals in the USA.

For example in Hampton Roads, Virginia there is a who’s-who of suspect nations managing terminals at the port in that town.

This is just one port in one US city. It’s similar in ports across our nation. I can’t say I feel a level of comfort in this fact and I have no desire to see the number increase.

Of course if it was not for UNIONS more US companies would be better able to manage our sea ports. In the interest of one of America’s most risky points of entry being managed within this nation, it would make sense to disband all port Unions and initiate an effort to have US ports fully managed from within this nation. It has been mentioned that Liberal Democrats suggested that US ports should be managed by groups local to the area the port is in. Similar to how US airports are managed. Honestly I totally agree with the suggestion. All points of entry into a given area should be managed by entities within that town. It would be nice if a private business in each area could do this work, but if no private company can and it must be handled via that area’s local government (using taxpayer dollars) that would be fine with me too. Even if multiple ports were run by a private company within the USA that is based outside of the ports’ town, that would be fine as well. Yes Homeland Security does a good bit of the security at ports and terminal operators do some as well, but American points of entry should be fully managed by America.

Hopefully the current uproar will start a drive towards the goal of port management being run within the USA. This will require getting rid of Unions and hopefully Americans will realize that as well. People are asking “why can’t an American company run our ports?”… Because of the Unions, that’s why. In the interest of America being able to fully manage our sea ports the Unions should be disbanded. Some effort towards the USA managing all entry into the USA needs to be made, or America will continue to be more compromised as a nation.

Here in Georgia the state legislature has been debating an issue that is really a twisted mess. And all of their proposed solutions miss what really matters most. In short the debate is over Cobb County’s rules for deciding who will attend a newly built school. The county’s rules include a race-bait clause, that mentions the racial makeup of a school should not be changed whenever school redistricting is performed. What this would mean is that students near a newly built school would not be able to attend that school because they have the wrong skin tone. They would have to continue going to a school further away from their home in the name of “diversity”. The affected students happen to be White.

Of course in modern times where race neutral things like location are used to determine school redistricting and anyone of any race can live most anywhere, a rule that plays on race is a bad idea. It results in school enrollment being based on race, instead of students being able to attend the school closest to their home. In this particular case Republican House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart’s child would probably be attending the new school in the future, if not for being born in the wrong skin tone as some of his neighbors (White). So he proposed a bill to ban Cobb County from being able to use race as a factor. While his efforts are very much self serving I agree with him. Because his efforts will stop a practice that is simply wrong.

When I was in grade school the local government changed school district lines so that I would have to attend a school much further away from my home. All in the name of “diversity”. So I’ve had personal experience in this redrawing of lines because of race. I did not like it then and I still don’t like it as an adult. Even if a few kids are sent to a school that is further away because it is “better” than the school near them, it does nothing for the masses of children still at the school closer by. Educational efforts should involve making schools better, not trying to shuffle a few kids around in the name of “diversity”. It should be parents that have the ability to move their kids if they feel the need.

OK, so now you know why I’m so much against populating schools based on race. And why I agree with the effort to change Cobb County’s rules in this regard. Well you know the race hustlers do not want something to be race neutral. And one particular race hustler jumped up. I consider her a hustler in training, because she’s a young NAACP member and state legislator. She’s not as “seasoned” as some other race hustlers in this state. Democratic State House member Alisha Thomas Morgan declared that changing the rules to not include race would bring back “segregation”. She also made personal attacks towards Chairman Earl Ehrhart. This got her a swift rebuke from House Speaker Glenn Richardson. He had her mic turned off and then informed her that she was violating House rules.

The article linked below has video of the heated exchange:

This article from the Atlanta Journal Constipation Constitution has other details.

The bill passed in the House and this week it goes to the State Senate. I expect race hustling nuts like Democratic State Senator Vincent D. Fort might have something stupid to say. (He is loved by the NAACP and ADF, need I say more?)

Now that I’ve gotten that all out of the way, I must say that the entire debate is junk! These legislators should be working on a way for parents across the state to be able to decide where their children attend school. If you watched John Stossel’s 20/20 report called “Stupid in America”, you saw how this effort by legislators to force kids to only be able to attend a single school is terrible for fostering competition in education. It allows some veteran teachers to rest on their laurels and not feel pressed to do their best job. His report did not mention how terrible parents are a major factor in schools being bad, it focused on what schools and officials could do on their end of things. And the report did show a whole lot that schools could do better. The number one issue being school unions. Given Unions make it very hard to get rid of bad employees.

Schools in America need to reflect the competition and choice available in other parts of America’s free market system. As Mr. Stossel’s report showed, it does work.

It would seem that this would be a violation of Union Members’ privacy, but even if it is not it shows that Unions can carry a great deal of leverage in actions done by Union members. Actions done outside of what would be considered Union activity. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is an effort to stop race based preferences in Affirmative Action policies and other hiring efforts. Because hiring based on race is simply unconstitutional. It is a ballot initiative, that has enough signatures to go on the ballot for a vote.

Liberals who support race based preferences have been trying to prevent this initiative from going through the legal process, using literally any means necessary! As part of the Liberal efforts, they have tried to claim that petition organizers lied about the actual intent of the petition.

As Blog Discriminations reports:

So Liberals feel that the removal of race based preferences in hiring does not protect Civil Rights. I must say, regardless of how MLK Jr. would feel about this, that’s just insane! As if it was bad when Whites discriminated based on race to give other Whites jobs, but when done for other races it is fine .

Well Unions are always in the “protection” game. Usually protecting their own existence and have a history of playing on race. In Michigan AFSCME Local 207 and AFSCME Local 2920 realized that the removal of racial preferences does not play into the agenda of their allies in the Democratic Party. So they have joined the fight against the ballot initiative. And they are also pulling out all the stops to assist their Liberal allies. The Union bosses have cross referenced their member lists with petition signers! Then they actually questioned Union members who signed about their actions. Of those questioned by AFSCME Local 207, about 20% (27 in total) of the petition signers have signed affidavits saying they were misled. AFSCME Local 2920 was able to do the same with about a dozen of their members.

This is very disturbing. Because those Union members had no idea that their signature would be used by Union bosses to approach them personally about their actions. To me this is a misuse of a Union membership list. Also, being approached without prior knowledge that Union bosses might spy on them, probably left the questioned Union members feeling pretty intimidated! Although most did not sign an affidavit, it probably scared some of them from ever wanting to do something that might go against the Union again. Not to mention, who knows if others outside of the Union bosses have found out about this. There could be pressure on signers, that trickles down from Union bosses to co-workers that side with the Union.

Zarko Research & Consulting has the full report and audio from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission hearing.

There needs to be a separate initiative to prevent Unions for misusing their member lists in this fashion. Better still, I would prefer an initiative to abolish the Unions completely. Their time has long past us.

Fred Barnes was able to get Conservative Thinker Thomas Sowell to do a one on one interview on FoxNews recently. Like Mr. Barnes and other Conservatives, I really enjoy Mr. Sowell’s work. So I’ve made notes from the interview. In my notes I attempt to cover the major topics covered during the interview and Mr. Sowell’s general view on them. There was so much covered that it would be difficult to capture every word. Mr. Sowell brings up so many facts, figures and perfect analogies on the fly that it’s hard to keep up if you’re actually trying to document everything. So I’m hoping I’ve just captured the general points and my notes are in no way a fully detailed report of every single thing covered. But I’ve captured enough that I feel satisfied with sharing my notes here on the blog.
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Every bad employee’s best friend, unions. In New Orleans the police union is standing up for the police officers fired for their beating of Robert Davis, that was caught on video tape.

As usual, when an employer attempts to take corrective action against a bad employee, there runs the Union with lawyers in tow to defend the disciplined (former) employee(s).

Related post: 2 cops fired for beating Robert Davis in New Orleans

Just before Christmas New York’s transportation Union strong arms have decided to start an illegal strike. It is now day 2 of the illegal strike. About 33,000 Union members have joined with their foolish leaders in shutting down mass transportation in the city. About 900 transportation workers have crossed the strike line and shown they will not join with the band of fools. I’ve got a message for all you New York Transport Workers Union members on strike and I hope it can be made official, YOU’RE FIRED! Everyone taking part in the illegal strike should be fired for breaking the law and simply being pains in the butt near Christmas.

You can read the media report about this whole mess here. The video on that page really gives the sad picture. Millions of people depend on that transit system daily. (Over 3 million daily riders.) Which is why any kind of strike was outlawed in the first place. The union leaders should be imprisoned for inciting this illegal activity. Just a $1 million a day fine and no pay for people on strike is not good enough. Imprison the union leaders, fire the members that don’t want to work and have the biggest job fair to hire new workers that the city has ever seen. This mess is costing the city $700 million a day! The pension benefits, health care benefits and pay raise desires of 33,000 do not outweigh the needs of an entire city. Fire their butts! Then we’ll see how they act when they have no pay, no health care and no pension. I’m sure there are others looking for work that won’t mind the current pay, health care and whatever retirement package is offered.

My solution for this illegal strike is a real free market system. Fire people that don’t want to show up for work and hire new people in their place.

Given this action the Transport Workers Union should be disbanded and no future union allowed!

update (12/22/2005 2:19PM ET): After giving themselves a couple of extra days off to do their Christmas shopping, the union goons have decided to end their strike and get their butts back to work! I guess the threats of imprisonment and bigger fines on regular members did the trick. Now the city needs to disband that union before it threatens them again with their strong arm tactics.

You’ll never see a mess like this at Wal Mart. Because regardless of whatever else they do, the one thing they get right is no unions!