THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Obama Is Just About Every U.S. President All Rolled Into One!: Except, it would appear, George Washington, who managed the neat trick of being all things to all people, according to this Wall Street Journal op-ed by John Miller, who is writing a book about the nation's first commander in chief:
Throughout the 19th century, activist groups of all stripes used Washington's birthday to further their causes. Antislavery activists claimed Washington since he had freed his slaves. Immigration supporters claimed him as a stalwart of religious, political and economic refugees. Advocates of Indian rights noted that after defeating the Iroquois in Revolutionary War battles, Washington restored their land and maintained their reservations. Striking Massachusetts shoemakers invoked his name as that of the first great American rebel. Temperance supporters praised his prudence, but given his fondness for Madeira, the connection there was less clear.
The hapless President Barack Hussein Obama, on the other hand, is incapable of pleasing anybody, not even those in his base. The Washington Post notes that while Obama "did everything this week that a loyal member of the labor movement could hope for … [s]ome unions remain firmly by his side, while others think he has reneged on promises or - as he seeks to mend relationships with business leaders - abandoned them altogether”:
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said he "resented" the president's recent calls to reorganize the government and freeze salaries because they seemed to feed into a growing criticism of workers. Pointing to Obama's defense this week of Wisconsin public workers, Gage said, "It's about time."
The tensions underscore a careful political balance faced by Obama, who has frustrated many unions leaders and activists after courting their support in his 2008 campaign. …
Obama's support for free-trade deals has irked some labor activists, who recall that as a candidate he was deeply critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement and opposed the George W. Bush-backed South Korea free-trade deal. ...
He has satisfied labor on some fronts. In 2009, he imposed a tariff on Chinese-made tires, winning praise from the United Steelworkers union, which represents workers in U.S. tire plants. And his renegotiation of the South Korea deal scored popular concessions. …
"One is that he is very understanding of the need for state governments, governors, state legislatures to reduce spending," [White House press secretary Jay] Carney said. ". . . But he also feels very strongly that we need not to make this an assault on the collective-bargaining rights of workers in a given state."
† Never Mind Marxism. Will An Obama Administration Be Totalitarian?: Part II: Commenting on the union-fomented rioting (video) over Gov. Scott Walker's (R-WI) emergency budget bill, which attempts to close a projected $3.6-billion deficit, Iain Murray and F. Vincent Vernuccio of the Competitive Enterprise Institute outline the stakes in this Washington Times op-ed:
Across the nation, public-sector unions realize the game is up, and they aren't happy about it. They're doing everything in their considerable power to stop newly elected governors and legislatures from doing what they were elected to do: bring state finances under control by revoking the union privileges that have strained state budgets for years. The question now is, "Who governs America?" If the unions win, the answer will no longer be "the people." …
Across the country, similar trouble is brewing. In Idaho, similar plans to curtail teachers unions' collective-bargaining powers have led to threats and vandalism directed at the state's schools superintendent. In Ohio, attempts to change the collective-bargaining agreements for police, firefighters and the highway patrol have led to clashes at the statehouse. In Tennessee, an attempt to restrict teachers' collective bargaining likewise threatens to escalate.
In all these cases, the struggle pits newly elected representatives and executives against entrenched union power. The unions have considerable privileges dating back 40 years or more and are determined to hang onto them by any means necessary. They have powerful allies in Washington.
Union allies in Washington include the man at the top. The Washington Times notes that rather than being a “grass-roots uprising” siege of the state Capitol “is being organized and directed by Barack Obama's Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee” and explains what this means:
Message to Wisconsin taxpayers: President Obama and the Democratic National Committee have declared war on you. Message to other states: You're next. …
This development is consistent with Mr. Obama's instructions for supporters to "get in the face" of those who oppose them, but in this case, they are seeking to derail a lawful legislative process.
On Thursday, 14 Democratic state lawmakers fled Wisconsin's capital to prevent the legislature from conducting official business. Dan Grandone, state director for the president's campaign apparatus, accused Gov. Scott Walker of "ignoring Wisconsin voices today and asking for the power to drown them out permanently tomorrow." It is important to note that the voices of which Mr. Grandone speaks are not those of the public at large. Voters sent an unmistakable message in November by taking solid majorities in the state Assembly and Senate away from Democrats and handing even greater control to Republicans. Mr. Walker, a Republican, won by six points. …
The White House and its allies have backed similar demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, and more may be planned for other states. One can reasonably ask why Mr. Obama is spending his time seeking to undermine democratic processes in U.S. state legislatures and ignoring the pleas of Iranians trying to throw off the shackles of Islamic rule. [Note: The Stiletto has some thoughts on this; keep reading till the end of this post.]
This is an all-out war, and with the president’s help the public sector unions are already opening up fronts in other states, reports The Washington Post:
The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to get thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.
Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights.
By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were organizing additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, where an effort is underway to trim benefits for public workers. Some union activists predicted similar protests in Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. …
The White House political operation, Organizing for America, got involved Monday, after Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy M. Kaine, a former Virginia governor, spoke to union leaders in Madison, a party official said.
The group made phone calls, distributed messages via Twitter and Facebook, and sent e-mails to state and national lists to try to build crowds for rallies Wednesday and Thursday, a party official said.
The Wall Street Journal offers a partial explanation of why Obama has abandoned any pretense of being the president of all Americans, and is fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with public sector unions:
Public unions have a monopoly position that gives them undue bargaining power. Their campaign cash - collected via mandatory dues - also helps to elect the politicians who are then supposed to represent taxpayers in negotiations with those same unions. The unions sit, in effect, on both sides of the bargaining table. This is why such famous political friends of the working man as Franklin Roosevelt and Fiorello La Guardia opposed collective bargaining for government workers, even as they championed private unions.
But there’s more to it. Remember the "enthusiasm gap" in the mid-term elections, that resulted in historic wins for Repubs at the local, state and national level (second item)? A couple of weeks before the election The Associated Press wrote that “President Barack Obama's winning coalition from 2008 has crumbled and his core backers are dispirited.” The only way Obama can hope to counter the highly motivated Tea Partiers is to whip his union base into a frenzy - and hope they can energize the rest of his 2008 coalition.
But once the hounds of Hell have been unleashed it’s going to be hard to keep them from biting indiscriminately. Dem governors in MO and NY, for instance, also prefer to rein in public service worker entitlements to solve their budget woes without raising taxes again and they’re not going to appreciate being sabotaged by Obama’s minions. As the president stumps for votes in blue states these governors won’t be inclined to roll out the red carpet for him.
Editorial Note: Before Obama declared war on WI his administration spent last year carpet bombing AZ with lawsuits (seventh item and fourth item), investigations and global opprobrium (penultimate item). † Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun: Guess, a 5-month-old schnauzer-poodle mix, who was rescued by postal workers from a parcel that 29-year-old Stacey Champion tried to mail from MN to her son in GA for his birthday, now has a new home. Terri Ford adopted Guess after she won a drawing held by a Minneapolis animal shelter, reports The Associated Press: Ford, who wouldn't give her age, said she lives alone and is unemployed, so she has plenty of time to housebreak a dog. "I think it might be good to get out of my pajamas and out of the house," she said before the drawing. … Ford, who used to be a legal assistant, said she already has a black cat named Danvers, after the character Mrs. Danvers in an Alfred Hitchcock film. She said she will think of a new name for Guess and expects him to get along great with her cat. She admitted, however, that she hasn't yet asked her landlord for permission to have a dog. Hmmm. This woman is unemployed and now has two pets to feed and pay vet bills for, and doesn’t know whether her landlord will be OK with bringing a dog into her home. Doesn’t bode well for the poor pooch. † Drug Dog Sniffs Out Mutt: A Beverly Hills criminal defense attorney Michael Inman pleaded no contest to smuggling 14.25 grams heroin into a secure area of a downtown Los Angeles jail last year, reports The National Law Journal: † Updates To Previous Posts (The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): In NYC, there is a huge disparity between the haves and have nots, and it's not just real estate-based (second item). Rich and famous NYers enjoy another perk that city residents of more modest means - who, arguably need it more - do not have: handgun licenses and carry permits. The New York Times reports: Among the more than 37,000 people licensed to have a handgun in the city are dozens of boldface names and public figures: prominent business leaders, elected officials, celebrities, journalists, judges and lawyers. … There are eight kinds of handgun licenses in New York, one of which is for dealers. The most common restricts the weapon to the owner’s home, but others allow license holders, including security guards, gun custodians and people who demonstrate a need for protection, to carry weapons with them. Nearly 4,000 license holders - those who have a “carry business,” “limited carry” or “special carry” license - can legally conceal their weapons. The Times obtained the database of handgun owners from the Police Department after filing a Public Records Act request and a lawsuit; the police released ZIP codes but omitted street addresses. The database also did not include the 14,602 retired police officers who are licensed to have weapons. … There are no comprehensive statistics available on gun ownership nationally because most states do not require licenses or permits. But an annual survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that about one-third of the nation’s homes have a gun. In comparison, at most, about 1 percent of New York City’s households have a licensed gun. [Emphasis, The Stiletto] (It’s impossible to know how many illegal guns are circulating in the city, but in 2010, the Police Department seized 5,318, including 2,984 pistols, 1,402 revolvers, 403 rifles and 349 shotguns.) † Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Why Elites Don’t Serve In The Armed Forces): Columbia University is holding a series of town-hall meetings to discuss whether the Ivy League school should reinstate an ROTC program. When freshman Anthony Maschek, 28, a former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after he was shot 11 times in a gun battle with insurgents in northern Iraq in February 2008, addressed a group of 200 students to argue in favor of ROTC (“It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting. There are bad men out there plotting to kill you.”), he was booed and called a “racist,” reports the New York Post:
Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds. Maschek, who is studying economics, miraculously survived the insurgent attack in Kirkuk. In the hail of gunfire, he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest. … More than half of the students who spoke at the meeting -- the second of three hearings on the subject -- expressed opposition to ROTC's return. Many of the 200 students in the audience held anti-military placards with slogans such as, "1 in 3 female soldiers experiences sexual assault in the military." … "The anti-ROTC side has been disrespectful and loud. They hiss and they jeer," he said. "It's been to the detriment of the argument." Columbia rejected the return of ROTC in 2005 because of opposition to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Some students are now opposing ROTC because of the military's current ban on transgender soldiers. Really.
In exchange for Inman's plea deal, the district attorney's office agreed to drop three other felony counts, including possession of a controlled substance in a jail and sale or transport of a controlled substance.
Inman had faced up to five years in prison, but was sentenced to 120 days in jail and placed on three years of probation.
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times): In addition to pre-employment credit checks, another cruel Catch-22 that ensnares unemployed job applicants and stymies their efforts to become productive wage-earners once again is that these days you can’t get a job unless you don’t need a job. The New York Times reports:
The message - “the unemployed need not apply” - has at times been explicitly stated in job announcements. In other cases, unemployed job seekers have reported verbal rejections after a recruiter or employer learned they were not currently working. …
Current employment is not relevant to jobs that provide on-the-job training. And even for jobs that require up-to-date skills, an interview or a test would be a more accurate and less discriminatory way to evaluate a candidate’s qualifications. …
Simply excluding unemployed workers also excludes candidates who may have been employed until recently as well as those who have used a period of unemployment to receive additional training or education.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a forum on discrimination against unemployed job seekers after being prodded to look into the issue by 54 Dems in Congress.
† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, Putting The “Boo” In Boomer): The Wall Street Journal warns, “[t]he 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn't a pretty sight”:
The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases. …
It isn't possible to calculate precisely how many people are able to cover the recommended 85% of their pre-retirement income, but Federal Reserve data suggest that many people can't.
Consider households headed by people aged 60 to 62, nearing retirement, with a 401(k)-type account at their jobs.
Such households had a median income of $87,700 in 2009, according to data from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, which derived this and other numbers by updating Fed survey data, at The Journal's request. The 85% needed for retirement would be $74,545 a year.
Experts estimate Social Security will provide as much as 40% of pre-retirement income, or $35,080 a year for that median family. That leaves $39,465 needed from other sources. Most 401(k) accounts don't come close to making up that gap.
The median 401(k) plan held $149,400, including plans from previous jobs, according to the Center for Retirement Research. To figure the annual income from that, analysts typically look at what the family would get from a fixed annuity.
That $149,400 would generate just $9,073 a year for a couple, according to New York Life Insurance Co., the leading provider of such annuities - less than one-quarter of the $39,465 needed.
Just 8% of households approaching retirement have the $636,673 or more in their 401(k)s that would be needed to generate $39,465 a year.
The Journal reports that “[f]acing shortfalls, many people are postponing retirement, moving to cheaper housing, buying less-expensive food, cutting back on travel, taking bigger risks with their investments and making other sacrifices they never imagined.”
Well, boo hoo. At least Boomers have Social Security to supplement their meager 401(k) income. Younger employees face the prospect of Social Security benefits not being available to them, and having only their own personal savings to live off of. With hiring and wages expected to be stagnant for the better part of this decade, huge student loans to pay off and the vagaries of the investment markets, it's going to be even uglier for Gen X and Y workers than for Baby Boomers. Never mind developing a taste for cat food: Soylent Green will be made of Boomers.
Update: Some middle-aged folks are planning for the future - no, not by saving money - by learning to eat pet food well before their reduced circumstances require them to.
† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, Drug-Stealing Surgery Tech Exposes Thousands Of Patients To Hepatitis): A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 30-year prison sentence meted out to CO surgery technician Kristen Parker, who infected as many as three surgical dozen patients with hepatitis C when she stole syringes filled with the painkiller fentanyl from operating carts and replaced them with saline-filled syringes she had already used.
† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, Garbage In, Garbage Out: Part II): The Washington Post takes issue with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Washington Teachers' Union President Nathan Saunders taking issue with its complaint that the reinstatement - with back pay - of 75 probationary teachers dismissed from the school system two years ago infractions that "ran the gamut from teachers chronically AWOL to those neglectful, even abusive, of students" because they were supposedly denied "due process":
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Washington Teachers' Union President Nathan Saunders [did not] answer the question of why a union that purports to have no tolerance for low-performing teachers would fight to return to the classroom teachers so problematic that even the arbitrator acknowledged that their conduct warranted termination.
D.C. school officials are determining the best way to deal with the Feb. 7 ruling by arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum ordering back pay and reinstatement of teachers who, he determined, were denied due process. At issue was the system's failure to give exact reasons why the teachers were not being recommended by their principals for tenure. …
The critical question is what happens next. School officials seem leery of an appeal because of what they see as a propensity for the public employee relations board to find in favor of labor. Another avenue being explored is bringing back the teachers and then firing them, this time detailing the reasons. Here's another idea: Why don't Mr. Saunders and Ms. Weingarten - who both say they don't countenance poor teachers - try to work out an agreement with school officials to achieve that goal instead of refighting old battles about the long-gone [D.C. schools chancellor Michelle] Rhee?
† Updates To Previous Posts (ninth item, A Court Of Law, Not Of Justice): Former Luzerne County (PA) Judge Mark Ciavarella, 61, was convicted of 12 counts stemming from the “kids for cash” scheme involving him and another juvenile court judge, Michael Conahan, who sentenced thousands of kids to detention centers while receiving bribes and kickbacks from builders of those facilities, reports The Associated Press:
Federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella and Conahan of taking more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner. …
The jury found Ciavarella guilty of taking a $997,600 kickback from Robert Mericle, the builder of the juvenile facilities. … He was also convicted of failing to report the payments on his state-mandated financial disclosure forms and failing to pay taxes on the income. Jurors acquitted him of extorting Robert Powell, the facilities' developer and co-owner. …
Prosecutors alleged that Conahan, who pleaded guilty to racketeering last year, and Ciavarella plotted to shut down the dilapidated county-run juvenile detention center in 2002 and arrange for the construction of the PA Child Care facility outside Wilkes-Barre. …
Ciavarella and Conahan initially pleaded guilty in February 2009 to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal that called for a sentence of more than seven years in prison. But their plea deals were rejected by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, who ruled they had failed to accept responsibility for their actions.
A federal grand jury in Harrisburg subsequently indicted the judges on charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, bribery, extortion and tax offenses. Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering charge last year and awaits sentencing. Mericle and Powell pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and testified against Ciavarella; both await sentencing.
Ciavarella, who was acquitted of 27 counts, including extortion, faces a maximum of 157 years in prison at sentencing, but will more likely receive 12 1/2 years to about 15 1/2 years under federal sentencing guidelines.
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