Right to Work Foundation Issues Special Legal Notice to Chattanooga Volkswagen Employees

UAW union bosses target Volkswagen workers for unionization

Springfield, VA (September 5, 2013) – The National Right to Work Foundation has issued a special legal notice regarding Chattanooga, Tennessee Volkswagen AG (VOW.DE) workers targeted by United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials for unionization. The notice can be viewed here: http://www.nrtw.org/en/vw-chattanooga.

Recent media reports suggest that Volkswagen and UAW union officials are in talks about unionization of the VW workers at the Chattanooga plant. The Foundation's notice debunks UAW union boss Bob King's remarks that Volkswagen workers must unionize with the UAW union in order to discuss wages and working conditions with their employer. The notice also informs workers about what they can legally do if they oppose, or change their minds about their support of, the unionization scheme.

"Volkswagen workers can discuss their work with their employer without UAW unionization," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "The UAW's campaign of misrepresentation is meant only to misinform workers into thinking that they have no choice but to unionize."

"National Right to Work attorneys have assisted workers across the country who have suffered the consequences of these top-down organizing campaigns designed by UAW union officials," added Mix. "Workers who feel they are being unfairly pressured when deciding whether or not to associate with the UAW union may request free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys by calling 1-800-336-3600 or contacting us on the Foundation’s website at www.nrtw.org."

Via: Freedom Works

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Updated: Refocusing on Obamacare

[Update: Based on what I'm hearing from House sources, the worst suspicions are confirmed.  Eric Cantor is floating an idea to pass a short-term CR with a defund rider.  But just as we predicted, they plan to write a rule that will sever the defund rider from the body of the bill after it passes the House.  This will allow the Senate to vote down the defund part separately, and send a clean CR straight to the President's desk without ever returning to the House.  This will ensure that we capitulate while allowing House and Senate Republicans to be shielded from charges of voting to defund Obamacare.  Here is the link from Politico.

This is exactly why we need new leadership in the party.  Call your members and make sure they are opposed to any trick that will allow the Senate to separate Obamacare funding from the rest of the bill.  If they support funding Obamacare in the budget, they should have the courage to do so through the front door.]

Washington is a strange place.  If you only spent your time inside the D.C. beltway you would come away with the impression that the most important policy issues are amnesty for illegals and air strikes for Al-Qaeda in Syria.  Yet in the real world, Americans are concerned about the lethargic economy and the destruction of the healthcare system at the hands of Obamacare.  Only in Washington can the focus be shifted to foreign interests just three weeks before implementation of the worst domestic program in American history.

On October 1, the Obamacare exchanges will officially open their doors, bringing us one step closer to the immutable dependency on government and the inexorable unsustainability of the private healthcare sector.  Employers are cutting health benefits, jobs – or both.  Healthy individuals who purchase their own health insurance will no longer be able to afford their own plan.  Doctors with decades of experience plan to retire due to the cumbersome mandates, restrictions, and paperwork.  Even many Democrats believe this plan is unworkable and are looking for leadership to stop this travesty from taking root.

Via: Red State

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Why Is It That Visits To Government Offices Are Routinely Dreadful?

If you stop and think about the parts of the U.S. that are not working well, they are almost all things that the government provides, not the free market. Public education has more than its share of struggles. Public mass transit often falls short. Roads are routinely congested. The healthcare system, while a mix of free markets and government programs, is universally acknowledged as overpriced and inequitably provided. Who looks forward to a visit to a government office?

What are the shared features of government provision of goods and services that lead to problems? That's easy; it is the lack of price signals and the missing connection to a paying customer.

Free markets do a wonderful job of providing people with what they want because it all happens automatically. People go into the market and make purchases. When lots of people discover a great product, the high demand for it results in shortages; the whole supply sells out quickly. This signals the manufacturer and the retailer to produce more and to raise prices. In this way the shortage will be alleviated and consumers will get more of the products that they like.

The extra profits earned by manufacturers and retailers with the larger volume and higher prices will be noticed by competitors. Those competitors will strive to rapidly create competing, substitute products and get them to market. To gain market share, these competing products will be offered for a lower price than the original product that was such a hit. If consumers find these similar products also to their liking, the new competition will gain some of the market and that competition will help bring the price down. Consumers get more of the products they like, and they get a fair price because of marketplace competition.

Similarly, if manufacturers make and retailers stock products that consumers do not like or price them too high, consumers will not buy much. Retailers, seeing the products sit on the shelves, will cut the price and place smaller orders for future deliveries. Some consumers will purchase the products once they are on sale, and as the production levels are reduced there will be less of the product in the marketplace. Supply and demand will move into balance.

Via: Real Clear Markets

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District of Columbia mayor proclaims ‘Lifeline Awareness Week’

OBAMAPHONES FOR EVERYONE

District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has proclaimed the second week in September to be “District of Columbia Lifeline Awareness Week” in an effort to sign up more people for taxpayer-funded phones.

“[T]he Lifeline Assistance programs offer tremendous benefits for eligible consumers in America which help make basic telephone services more affordable and provide a discount to eligible low-income customers,” Gray wrote in his proclamation.

The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia, an independent agency that regulates D.C. utilities, announced the Lifeline awareness week Thursday.

“The goal of the Public Service Commission is to sign up as many eligible District consumers as possible,” Commissioner Joanne Doddy Fort said in a statement. “We hope that by raising awareness of the Lifeline Program, we can ensure that the District’s Economy II Service Program can reach more consumers. In today’s highly interconnected world, no one should be left out.”

In D.C. the Lifeline Program is known as Economy II Service and under the federal and local program District residents who participate or are eligible for certain public assistance programs are able to receive phone service through Verizon’s Economy II Service as a discounted rate of $3.00 a month or, for seniors, $1.00 a month plus applicable fees.

The Lifeline Program, which is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has come under criticism from Republicans recently as the program’s cost has more than doubled, from $822 million in 2008 (when the FCC expanded the program to subsidize cell phones) to $2 billion in 2012, leading some to label the phones provided though the program “Obamaphones.”

“This phone program has expanded far beyond its original intent, and as so many middle class Americans struggle underneath this economy, it is really offensive for Washington to make taxpayers pay for free cell phones for others,” Louisiana Republican Sen. Davis Vitter said in a statement earlier this year introducing a bill with Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe to end the mobile phone service subsidy in the Lifeline Program.

In August, a National Review reporter revealed in an article how she ended up receiving three taxpayer subsidized cell phones, despite being well off and upfront about her ineligibility. According to the author, as recently as June there were 13.8 million active Lifeline subscriptions.

Via: Daily Caller

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Fundamentally Transforming the United States of America

Remember when candidate Barack Obama promised his acolytes that they were only “five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America”? That was back in October 2008, when the hectic flush of Obamamania was at its peak.  To be fair, it’s taken a bit longer than five days, but here we are, five years into the most destructive presidency in the country’s history, and we can see that fundamental transformation at work just about everywhere.

The economy: During Obama’s first term, the credit rating of the United States was downgraded by S&P for the first time in history. That might seem pretty abstract: who cares about a country’s credit rating?  But then there’s news like this: According to a report released in 2012 by the Federal Reserve, Americans have seen their wealth plummet by 40 percent over the past few years. Hope & Change.

Race relations: They are in a rawer state than I can remember thanks to a president who played the race card at every opportunity. The Cambridge police were “stupid,” according to the president, in the way they handled the case of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., famous Harvard huckster, back in 2009.  If he had had a son, said the president, he would “look like” the thug Trayvon Martin, who jumped George Zimmerman and was shot dead by Zimmerman while pounding his head into the concrete sidewalk.

And then there’s the position of the United States on the world stage.  Obama was supposed to hit the “reset” button not only with respect to our relations with Russia (how’s that working out?), but also with respect to our position in the world more generally. The bad old days of unilateral action under George W. Bush were to be banished in favor of a kinder, gentler America that was no more “exceptional” than was Britain or Greece. He’s certainly done a lot to make that true.

Via: PJ Media

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Obscure Caucus: The Quiet Men of Congress

Obscure doesn’t mean ineffective or passed over. In fact, in the congressional context, some of the best work gets done behind the scenes by members who would rather build relationships with their colleagues than spar with cable news anchors. These members take on low-profile policy agendas, gain reputations for expertise and benefit from tenure to climb committees or lead issue-area caucuses.

Inclusion in this caucus is not mockery or criticism, but highlights the frequently unhighlighted legislators who spend time on parochial concerns or constituent service. Few lawmakers opt not to stuff a PR portfolio with press releases, television appearances and photo ops, but Obscure Caucus members have few national news mentions or moments in the public eye. Many of these members are big players in policy and political circles, but for whatever reason — political style, personal preference or the issue itself — they earned few or fleeting headlines for their achievements.

Not every member gets considered for this ever-shrinking club of those who avoid the spotlight. To make the first cut, a member must have served at least two full terms and be running for re-election to his or her House seat in 2014. (The size of the Senate provides too much visibility to its members, although there are some camera-shy senators — Republican Jim Risch of Idaho, for instance, doesn’t work the mic much.) Culling the showhorses, the newbies, the scandal-hounded and members who face tough elections leaves a rather short list of representatives. Social-media activity oriented toward local issues or restricted to retweets from party leaders won’t knock you off the list, but any kind of self-promotion (even not-very-successful attempts at it) will.

Perhaps their membership in the caucus isn’t indicative of their legislative achievements — as many have had bills signed into law and have teamed up with colleagues on notable measures — but it is indicative of what they haven’t done. They haven’t grandstanded, they haven’t brought bold personalities into a debate, they haven’t sent inappropriate Twitter messages and they haven’t, in recent years, sought a higher office than the House of Representatives.

Via: Roll Call

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Judge Napolitano on Fox: Obama Can Be Indicted as War Criminal If He Strikes Syria

The pressure to strike Syria is really heating up fo rPresident Obama (even if there now appears to be a way out), but it might not necessarily be legal to do so. Judge Andrew Napolitano reiterated as much to Shepard Smith on Tuesday, saying this time that if Obama strikes Syria, he could very well be declared a war criminal by the European Union.

Napolitano walked through all the ways the United States could exercise authority under international law, from a retaliatory attack to preempting a “dangerously imminent” attack on American soil. Even intervening when a nation has violated an international agreement they are partner to is okay, the problem being that Syria never signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Napolitano warned that if Obama proceeds anyway, the consequences could be particularly dire for him.

“The president runs the risk of being declared a war criminal by a magistrate in the EU…. If they indict him as a war criminal, an indictment for which there’s no statute of limitations, after he leaves the White House, he can’t go to Europe for fear of having to confront this.”

Watch the video below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediaite.com

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