MICHAEL MOORE WAS FAIRLY QUIVERING WITH RAGE. IT WASN’T A PRETTY SIGHT

Moore was just one angry blush short of bursting a blood vessel as he declared to Rachel Maddow, “This is War!! This is class war…”. Moore urged everyone within driving distance to converge on the capital and clog the buildings and assembly halls, effectively shutting down the process of government. He urged every thinkable action be taken, throwing in as an aside, “non violently”.
In a move, classic to the left, he called for high school children to walk out of school and join with the mob at the Madison State House. The presence of youngsters is always good PR. It was a call for indoctrination, not education. This crisis must not be allowed to go to waste.

Moore brought a pair of handcuffs with him to the show. That may not be incitement to violence like yelling “Fire!” in a theater, but one might say it’s like yelling “smoke”. He said they were for “anyone who works for the banks”. Tellers look out, Moore’s says his handcuffs are for you and everyone else who makes banking possible.

Setting one class against another is endemic across the full spectrum of the Left. It is hard to imagine the Democratic Party even existing without class distinctions and resentments between them. Who would be their constituents?
The video starts with goons breaking into the State House through a window and forcing their way past a guard. Then MSNBC goes on to give Moore a platform to spew forth his nonsense. Michael Moore is not wrong in most of what he said. He is wrong in everything he said.

I will bet you cannot sit through the whole video. There is no reason to try.

THE GREAT UNDECIDER

President Bush’s policy for the Mid-East was opposed by a lot of people. No one is opposed to Obama’s Mid-East policy because no one knows what it is. Now if John Kerry were president, we would know what America’s Mid-East policy would be. It would be exactly whatever the United Nations said it should be.

And on Libya, John Kerry again shows his leadership skill. Unlike Obama, who is still waiting for advice from his advisors, Kerry already has a plan. Kerry’s plan is to prepare to do something, but not to do it now. He says we must be ready to act, ready to do something in case Qaddafi does something really bad.

And then, there is Mrs. Clinton, our Secretary of State. She speaks as the voice of the most powerful nation on earth. Her stern message to all parties in the dispute is – ‘Stop It’! Nothing could be clearer than that. To show the U.S. really means it, rest assured the Secretary will continue to command all parties to Stop It, until the violence is finally over, however long that may take.

Meanwhile, the Saudi’s are getting over $100 for every barrel of oil pumped from under the sand. At least someone is benefitting from America’s foreign policy.

GOONS AT THE GATE IN WISCONSIN – Part II

By now it should be obvious to most everyone that there is more to what’s happening in Wisconsin than just issues affecting Wisconsin. In terms of national leftist issues, this ranks right up there with socialized medicine.

Let’s review Gov. Walker’s plan. The plan would:

1. Require employees of the state to contribute 12.6% toward the cost of their healthcare insurance. According to a Kaiser Foundation study, that’s about half of the average paid by state and federal workers nationwide. We don’t hear much from the union defending against this particular proposal.

2. Require employees of the state to contribute 5.8% toward the cost of their pensions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “for government workers with a required plan contribution, the average contribution is 6.3 percent” We don’t hear much from the union defending against this particular proposal.

3. End the requirement that all state employees must pay into the union whether or not they choose to join. Forcing non-members to pay as a condition of employment is easily seen as extortion. We don’t hear anything from the union in defense of this. They are dead quiet about it.

4. Limit collective bargaining to basic wages. This is where the unions are screaming bloody murder.

Items 1 through 3 are about money. Item 4 is about power. Items 1 through 3 concern Wisconsin. Item 4 concerns all unions nationally; it poses a threat to union power. The private sector develops its own wealth. The public sector, and that includes public service unions, taps the wealth of others. To do that requires power. In the private sector, money leads to power. In the public sector, it’s power that leads to money.

The AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) and the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) combined gave over $18M in political contributions for the 2010 election year. According to The Center for Responsible Politics, none of it, that’s 0%, went to Republicans. These unions and the Democratic Party are joined at the hip.

When Democrats are in power, the government and the union sit on the same side of the negotiating table. That’s how public sector employees have come to have higher compensation than their private sector equivalents. That, and the ability to tax and borrow without the constraints of having to be profitable to survive.

There is much, much more at stake in Wisconsin than meets the casual eye.

By the way, if you think “goons” is too strong you should watch this video, entitled “Joe the Plumber” Goes to Wisconsin.

LABOR PAINS

Michael Barone weighs in on the unions with an article over at Townhall.

The labor union movement is in deep trouble. Only 6 percent of private-sector employees are union members.

Voters are beginning to realize, thanks to governors like Chris Christie of New Jersey and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, that public-sector unions have negotiated unsustainable levels of pensions and benefits — and that public-sector unions are a mechanism for involuntary transfers of money from taxpayers to the Democratic Party.

Michael points to a “supposed pioneer of scientific management” named Taylor who encouraged “managers of assembly-line industries like autos and steel” to engineer their assembly lines so each worker did repetitive work. Then “merit pay” pay was set according to the speed of the laborer. I remember a variation called “piece work” in which the worker was paid according to how many “pieces” he completed. The amount paid per piece would be set at the lowest wage at which management could get workers. Then by adjusting the amount paid per piece, management could govern the speed of the workers, like adjusting the speed of a machine, for maximum output. It’s this abuse that gave rise to the labor unions.

[Unions sought to] prevent management from ordering dreaded speedups, based on Taylorite analysis, by insisting that every change in work rules must be negotiated between shop stewards and foremen. [And] by insisting that promotions be based on seniority and preventing any hint of merit pay.

All that made a certain sense — in the 1930s and in decades afterward, when auto and steel managers, full of contempt for their workers, clung to Taylorism. Unions in turn clung to an adversarial model that assumed that workers’ interests were diametrically opposed to management’s.

Therefore,

[Union leaders determined] they would never allow management to speed up their work. Promotions and firing would be governed by seniority. They would never, ever allow merit pay.

As a result, non-union private-sector companies have thrived, while unionized companies have gone under. And public-sector unions, with their bought-and-paid-for politicians, have produced public-sector workforces that are unresponsive, unaccountable and impossibly expensive.

The sins of our fathers are visited upon us.

JUSTAPHOTO – IN THE FLARE

A SPLIT SECOND BEFORE TOUCHDOWN

WHEN DEMOCRACY IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK

There is a lot of talk in both the liberal and conservative press about democracy coming to Egypt and other nations in the region. In some instances that may prove to be the case. But in large measure the demand is for self-determination, not for democracy. The two are not the same.

Democracy is a system of ongoing rule by the will of the people. Self-determination is the right to chose the form by which to be governed. The choice can be democracy or some other form of government. Following the revolution, the French exercise their newly won self-determination by choosing one man rule, Napoleon. In large measure, the choice in the Muslim world is to be ruled by God and not by man. It’s called shariah, and shariah is not democracy.

LOW VOLTAGE – A CENTRAL PLANNING REPORT

THERE GOES THE CHEVROLET VOLT

Chevrolet sold 287 Volts in February, down from 321 in January. Toyota sold 25,860 Corollas.

Now that General Motors is Government Motors, the dedication to the green car, the Volt, was a central planning decision, not a market driven one. The decision to build it had nothing to do with consumer demand.
A great deal of money was spent on its development, promotion and production. If the product fails, that money represents a loss to the wealth of the nation. Any time an economic failure occurs, everyone loses. This is the big picture. The picture the Left does not understand.

It happens in private enterprise too. But private enterprise plans to win. Central planning plans to fulfill an agenda. If private enterprise reduces their wealth and that of the nation, they alter their plans. Government uses a different yardstick. Strange as it may sound, the wealth of the nation is irrelevant to government. Size of government is what matters. Growth is good. Profit is sin. Appropriating the wealth of its citizens is virtue.

The Volt is a central planning car. The Volt is an economic failure.

GOONS AT WISCONSIN’S GATE

It just doesn’t get any more reviling than this. Doubtless you have seen versions or clips of this video by now. When I first viewed it, it left me literally speechless. I started to write but the words would not come.

In the video we see an angry mob violently harassing a duly elected representative of the people of Wisconsin. The victim is Republican State Senator Glenn Grantham. The mob breaks into chant, screaming over and over in organized unison “SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!”. Air horns add to the chaos as they blare away. A woman shouts repeatedly at the Senator – “YOU SUCK! YOU SUCK!” The Senator’s escape is blocked by a door that has been locked to secure the building from being invaded and trashed by the very same thugs that have cornered him. He is trapped and surrounded by union members crowding in on him and shouting epithets in his face.

Stop right there. How can this happen in America. Aren’t we a Democracy? Doesn’t everyone have a right to speak and vote as they see fit? Or is that freedom only for Democrats today? What happened to the rule of law? Where were the peacekeepers? Violence springs easily from an angry mob. Every police officer knows that. Police presence at demonstrations is routine. Here they were conspicuous by their total absence. Did their union membership get in the way of their duties? We don’t know, but it is a fair question to ask.

As you watch this video, keep in mind that this is the stuff of community organizing. When Obama was training organizers for ACORN in Chicago, the government workers union (SEIU) and ACORN shared the same office and staff. The art of community organizing is agitating, polarizing and then using the anger and discontent as a tool to gain power. Percolate, intimidate, legislate. This was Obama‘s world. He ran for office on his experience as an organizer of events such as this.

Back to the scene. It took a valiant Democratic Assemblyman to quell the mob. He wore a solidarity T shirt under his jacket. He had the respect of  the crowd and the courage to do what was right. Both were needed. His job still wasn’t easy. The mob wanted vengeance. The leaders had a tiger by the tail. They had animal training experience and came prepared to tame a dangerous crowd. Chants again, and a salute.  Leaders start – “PEACEFUL PROTEST! PEACEFUL PROTEST”, arms held straight up high, fingers spread to form a V. It’s Democracy in action, Democrat style.

The Assemblyman maintained his protective position, shielding the Senator from his would be attackers. I ask again. Where were the police? When the crowd had finally tempered enough the Senator tried to leave. Union members were reluctant to let their victim go. Some stepped in front of him as he walked away. The scene pans out, still no police.

TO BE CONTINUED

PAUL KRUGMAN BREATHES LIFE INTO AN OLD JOKE ABOUT THE NEW YORK TIMES

Headline from the New York Times:
World to End Tuesday! Women and Children Expected to be Hardest Hit!”

That was the old joke. Krugman’s actual headline on Feb 27,2011 read “Leaving Children Behind“.
The theme of his piece is that Republicans are making “draconian cuts in spending… And who will bear the brunt of these cuts? America’s children.”

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

CINDY AND A FRIEND

This picture is a reminder of the good old days when politics weren’t so bitter, when union thugs didn’t beat up journalists, when elected Democrats didn’t scream “Your are all f****** dead!” right inside the legislature chamber, at Republicans who cast a vote they didn’t like.

Yes, those were the good old days when Cindy and the Code Pinkers set up a clean and peaceful camp a discreet distance from the President’s home. Now protesters are bussed in from out of state to trash and squat in a legislative assembly hall like a bunch of radical college freshman.

Those were the good old days when our President stood on the side of law and order – criticize, debate and vote, and didn’t urge his supporters to “Get in their face”.