Cain: Obama's Backing Of Unions 'Losing Proposition'

Atlanta talk radio host Herman Cain, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, says as the American public’s backing of Wisconsin’s protesting unions wanes, President Barack Obama’s unabashed support of their demands is increasingly a “losing proposition.”

“I believe that the sentiment on the part of the American people for the unions is going down,” Cain Monday told Fox News’ Stuart Varney. “The fact is, what Gov. [Scott] Walker has proposed is that they do give up their right to collectively bargain for benefits, but nor their wages. Why? Benefits represent on average 46 percent of their total package. Gov. Walker inherited a $137 million deficit for this year, and if he does not do anything, it’s going to be $3.6 billion over the next two years.

“So they are totally in denial about the severity of the problem,” said Cain, who recently formed a presidential campaign exploratory committee. “So the more the American public finds out the facts associated with Gov. Walker’s proposal, the less the sentiment on behalf of the unions is with the American public.”

Varney asked whether President Barack Obama’s backing of the unions’ positions is going to hurt his political standing.

“It is a losing proposition for him,” Cain said. “Unions represent approximately 10 to 12 percent of the workforce: What about the rest of us 88 percent? What are we, chopped liver?

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CR passes House, step freeze left behind

Budget behemoth passes House without proposed amendments to withhold funding for within-grade increases or for promotions of federal employees. The House version of the continuing resolution proposes cutting $61 billion from hundreds of federal programs. The Senate is expected to propose holding spending at current levels.  

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Rasmussen: Almost Half The U.S Backs Scott Walker

A sizable number of voters are following new Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s showdown with unionized public employees in his state, and nearly half side with the governor.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided.

In an effort to close the state’s sizable budget deficit, Walker is proposing to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees including teachers on everything but wage issues. He is excluding public safety workers such as policemen and firemen from his plan.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters think teachers, firemen and policemen should be allowed to go on strike, but 49% disagree and believe they should not have that right. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

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BREAKING NEWS:

Somali pirates kill all four hostages onboard a yacht, NBC News confirms

D.C. Council Chair To Return Fully-Loaded SUV

WASHINGTON -- D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown is seeking to return an SUV the city leased for his use, WTOP has learned, following criticism over the vehicle's cost and leasing agreement.

The chairman is looking into the "financial feasibility of returning the SUV," says Brown spokesperson Traci Hughes.
 
Brown came under fire following a Washington Post report saying he asked for a fully loaded, extended wheelbase Lincoln Navigator, according to e-mails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.
 
A base-model Lincoln Navigator L Series costs $60,660, according to Kelly Blue Book. That doesn't include the "fully loaded" extra features, or an extra $3,000 for the 4x4 version.
 
The newspaper reported Sunday that the city is now paying for two leases because the first vehicle leased for Brown didn't have the black interior the new chairman wanted.

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Advocates Urge Senators To Prevent Proposed Cut In Per-Pupil Spending

Despite the state’s continuing problems balancing its budget, education advocates – from State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick to community leaders – pleaded with members of a Senate budget subcommittee on Friday not to cut funds from schools. Gov. Martin O’Malley has proposed a total of $6.4 billion for public school education in his fiscal year 2012 budget, a figure he described as “level funding.” But the total amount winds up being 4.6% less than schools are receiving in the current fiscal year, due to a loss of federal stimulus dollars.

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Ex-Leader Of Charity for Disabled Gets 10 Years In Prison, Must Pay $65 Million

Yesterday, a judge sentenced the former CEO [1] of an El Paso charity to 10 years in prison and $65 million in restitution for corruption and embezzlement involving the federal government’s biggest jobs program for the disabled.

The sentence is the result of a federal probe launched after a 2006 investigation by reporters Les Zaitz, Jeff Kosseff, Byan Denson and photographer Faith Cathcart at The (Portland) Oregonian. Examining charities that hired the disabled nationwide, they found non-profit executives were cashing in huge paychecks [2] while their disabled workers made pennies an hour.

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Texas Bill Aims for Guns on College Campuses

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Lawmakers in Texas are expected to pass a bill allowing students and professors the right to conceal and carry on campus.

The Betrayal Of Public Workers

The Great Recession and its aftermath are entering a new phase in the United States, which could bring even more severe assaults on the living standards and basic rights of ordinary people than we have experienced thus far. This is because a wide swath of the country’s policy- and opinion-making elite have singled out public sector workers—including schoolteachers, healthcare workers, police officers and firefighters—as well as their unions and even their pensions as deadweight burdens sapping the economy’s vitality.

The Great Recession did blow a massive hole in state and municipal government finances, with tax receipts—including income, sales and property taxes—dropping sharply along with household incomes, spending and real estate values. Meanwhile, demand for public services, such as Medicaid and heating oil assistance, has risen as people’s circumstances have worsened. But let’s remember that the recession was caused by Wall Street hyper-speculation, not the pay scales of elementary school teachers or public hospital nurses.

Nonetheless, a rising chorus of commentators charge that public sector workers are overpaid relative to employees in comparable positions in the private sector. The fact that this claim is demonstrably false appears not to matter. Instead, the attacks are escalating. The most recent proposal gaining traction is to write new laws that would allow states to declare bankruptcy. This would let them rip up contracts with current public sector employees and walk away from their pension fund obligations. Only by declaring bankruptcy, Republican luminaries Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich argued in the Los Angeles Times, will states be able to “reform their bloated, broken and underfunded pension systems for current and future workers.”

But this charge is emanating not only from the Republican right; in a front-page story on January 20, the New York Times reported on a more general trend spreading across the country in which “policymakers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.”

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Leader Of Egyptian Unions To Wisconsin Protesters: "We Stand With You As You Stood With Us"

One of the most underreported stories about the pro-democracy movement in Egypt was the role of labor unions in the demonstrations, many of which were protesting against neoliberal right-wing economic policies just as much as they were protesting against the Mubarak dictatorship. During the uprising in that country, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka praised the role of organized labor, saying, “The people’s movement for democracy in Egypt and the role unions are playing for freedom and worker rights inspires us and will not be forgotten.”

Now, as tens of thousands of union members and other Wisconsin residents are taking to the streets to protest against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attempt to abolish collective bargaining rights for most public workers, a leader of Egypt’s largest umbrella group of independent labor unions is praising the Wisconsin movement. In a videotaped statement, Kamal Abbas, the General Coordinator of the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services, tells the Wisconsin protesters, “We stand with you as you stood with us.” He says “no one believed” that the revolution against the Mubarak regime would succeed, yet they were able to bring the dictator down within 18 days. He encourages demonstrators to stay strong, saying, “Don’t give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights”:

I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, “Liberation Square”, which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights. From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us. [...]

No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable. We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don’t waiver. Don’t give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.


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House Approves SAN Supported Measure To Suspend EPA E15 Program; Senate Action Next

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a provision to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using agency funds to permit an increase in the amount of ethanol content in gasoline to 15% (E15).  The provision is part of a larger bill to fund the federal government during fiscal year 2011 which must also be approved by the U.S. Senate. The SEMA Action Network (SAN) requested this action and worked hard to secure the vote.  When signed into law by President Obama, this timely legislation will protect automotive enthusiasts and consumers from misfueling and other unnecessary harm.

On behalf of millions of auto enthusiasts across the country, SAN applauds the House of Representatives for acknowledging the need for more unbiased and independent testing on the impact of E15 on vehicles and engines.  The provision suspends EPA’s premature efforts to permit E15 in the marketplace in fiscal year 2011.  The SAN is now working to help pass a newly introduced bill (HR 748) to repeal the EPA E15 program altogether.

The SAN will continue to take proactive steps in Washington, D.C. to oppose E15 until there are conclusive scientific findings that demonstrate that it will not harm automobiles of any age as a result of corrosion or other chemical incompatibilities.

Getting Rich Off The Taxpayers: School Administrators Double Dipping Pensions

School superintendents that jump from state to state in order to double or triple their pension takings

It must be nice to work for the government. Sadly it’s the most lucrative way to make a living in American history. To “win life’s lottery” all you have to do is get a job with the government — whether the federal or state government — at practically any level and voila, welcome to easy street. Here we have yet another case of the milking of the taxpayer by our “public servants,” this time it’s school superintendents that jump from state to state in order to double or triple their pension takings.

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Hero's Unwelcome

Wounded Iraq vet jeered at Columbia

Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.

"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.

Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.

"It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."

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LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE BRAVE

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Demar Police Department Press Release

Incident: Controlled Substance Violations
Date: 02-10-11
Location: E Line Rd / Old Stage Rd Delmar, Md
Suspect: Thomas Bradfield 39 Y.O.A. Delmar, Md & Thomas Marshall 26 Y.O.A. Fruitland, Md

On February 10, 2011 Law Enforcement Officer of the Delmar Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Thomas Bradfield. The passenger was identified as Thomas Marshall. During the stop, a Wicomico County K-9 Unit scanned the vehicle for presence of controlled dangerous substance. The K-9 alerted on the odor of controlled substances and officers searched the vehicle and the area around the vehicle and subsequently located a plastic bag containing suspected cocaine. a box of sandwich bags, and 2 hypodermic needles. The amount of cocaine seized was of sufficient quantity to indicate distribution by Bradfield and Marshall.
The Officer transported Bradfield and Marshall to Wicomico County Detention Center where both were held on a $275,000.00 bond.

Charges:
Possession with Intent to Deliver Cocaine
Possession of Cocaine
Possession of Administrative Equipment

Editorial On The National Anthem At The Super Bowl

“So, with all the kindness I can muster, I give this one piece of advice to the next pop star who is asked to sing the national anthem at a sporting event: save the vocal gymnastics and the physical gyrations for your concerts. Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten — straight up, no styling.

Sing it with the constant awareness that there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines watching you from bases and outposts all over the world. Don’t make them cringe with your self-centered ego gratification. 

Sing it as if you are standing before a row of 86-year-old WWII vets wearing their Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and flag pins on their cardigans and you want them to be proud of you for honoring them and the country they love — not because you want them to think you are a superstar musician. They could see that from the costumes, the makeup and the entourages.  

Sing “The Star Spangled Banner” with the courtesy and humility that tells the audience that it is about America, not you.” 

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Christiana Mall Road Bridge To Be Rebuilt

Work Required to Allow for Future SR 1/I-95 Interchange
Dover -- The Department of Transportation (DelDOT) announces that Middletown based contractor Mumford & Miller has been awarded a $12.2 million contract to build the new Christiana Mall Road Bridge over Route 1. This project will include work to build the new bridge and roadway approach tie-ins to the Christiana Mall "ring-road". The project will also include redesign and drainage work to the existing storm water management pond.

Construction for this project will begin February 28, 2011, and is anticipated to be completed within 259 calendar days, pending weather. Currently the project will require nighttime lane closures only. At a future point, day time impacts are expected for short periods. Notification will be provided in advance of those conditions when they are expected.

This work is part of a multi-year, multi-project I-95 Improvement Program that has included work at the Churchman's Road/Route 7 Intersection, the Churchman's Road Bridge over I-95; the I-95 Fifth Lane widening; and the reconstruction of the I-95 toll plaza in Newark.

The final project of the I-95 Improvement Program, expected to begin later this year, will include the construction of the new I-95 & Route 1 interchange ramp system. Increasing traffic volumes and development south of Route 1 has led to deteriorating levels of service within the area of Christiana Mall and the Route 1/I-95 interchange. This project will add high speed connecting ramps from both northbound Route 1 to northbound I-95, and from southbound I-95 to southbound Route 1, as well as the removal of the current Christiana Mall Road Bridge. The relocating of the bridge is necessary for the construction of the high speed connecting ramps.

WWII Poster

Forgive Me, But...........

I do believe I've come across a baby picture of Gary Comegys.