Critics: NLRB May Gut ‘Right to Work’ Laws

The federal government’s top labor arbiter may use its regulatory power to force non-union employees in right to work states pay union dues.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) put out a call for legal briefs on Wednesday asking labor law scholars to weigh in on whether unions should have the ability to extract dues payments from non-members. The announcement drew immediate criticism from right to work activists.

“It is unfortunately not surprising that the Obama NLRB is now actively working to undermine the 25 state Right to Work laws. Its ‘call for briefs’ signals this NLRB’s intention to reverse over 60 years of Board precedent to give union bosses an unprecedented tool to eviscerate employees’ Right to Work protections,” Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, said in a release.

“Right to work” laws ban coercive dues systems in which employees must join a union and pay dues as a condition of employment. The laws have passed in 25 states and are spreading in traditional union strongholds: Wisconsin, the birthplace of public sector unions, passed such a law in March, just two years after similar regimes were implemented in Indiana and Michigan.

Unions have fought the law in courts in nearly every state that has adopted the measure, arguing that since labor groups negotiate wages and benefits on behalf of all workers, non-members are “free-riding.” In most cases, those challenges have not prevailed in state or federal courts. Unions in Indiana, for example, filed a flurry of lawsuits intended to block the implementation of the state right to work law. Federal Judge Phillip Simon tossed them out of court in 2013.

Via: Washington Free Beacon

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What Today’s American Politics Tells Us

There is something very disquieting occurring in American politics today. Most dramatically, the Democratic Party is offering a candidate who is a moral cesspool filled with lies and a history of behavior that would render anyone unthinkable for the highest office in the land. Something is very wrong when Hillary Clinton is, at this point, the only candidate for President the Democrats will be able to vote for and, worse, an estimated 47% of them will vote for her.

What we are witnessing is a Democratic Party that has been debauched by decades of socialism, an economic and political system that has failed everywhere it was implemented.

By contrast, what is being largely overlooked is the wealth of political talent—Rubio, Walker, Paul, et al—-that the Republican Party has to offer as an alternative. Instead of obsessing over the different aspects of its candidates, we should be celebrating the fact that voters will be able to choose someone of real merit for whom to vote.

While the brain-dead media talks about the Republican candidates, seizing on every small element of the policies they are individually offering for consideration, the contrast with Hillary Clinton widens into a gap as large as the Grand Canyon. Her campaign thus far has been an exhibition of media manipulation. She talks of “income inequality” as if it has not existed from the dawn of time and is based on the socialist utopia of everyone being equally poverty-stricken. Who wants to live in a nation where you cannot become wealthy if you’re willing to take the risks and work hard to achieve it?

Via: Canada Free Press

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The Loretta Lynch Race Game

Saturday’s Washington Post front page carries on its recent tradition of fanning racialist flames without substantial regard to fact or context. 

The header reads: “Race creeps into debate over stalled nomination for attorney general” and the first graph notes that “African American and other civil rights leaders” are infuriated that Loretta Lynch’s confirmation as attorney general has been held up because of -- you guessed it -- racism. Responding to the president’s dog whistle, National Action network and multimillionaire tax scofflaw Al Sharpton says he’s going on a three-day hunger strike to force consideration of her nomination. Be our guest, Al. (Although after the stomach stapling, there’s not much more to be lost.)

Again the formerly respectable civil rights movement is shilling for the Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, and the Post fails to present the issue fairly. Once again the “civil rights groups” prove themselves as blindly partisan as the no nukes crowd who protest the building of nuclear power plants here and say nothing of the Iranian nuclear arms buildup and the human shields who never tie themselves to the doors of Israeli nurseries. How easily they all ceded any moral authority.

The record shows that the holdup is not racist and not unprecedented. The charge, moreover, is pure projection -- the left attributing to its opponents its own bad behavior.

Via: American Thinker

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Who actually pays their “fair share” of taxes?

In recent years, claims that “the rich” don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes have been repeated countless times. But that excuse to tax them more to line others’ pockets is blown away whenever the highly disproportionate income tax burdens borne by higher earners are reported. As the Wall Street Journal titled a recent article,“Top 20% of Earners Pay 84% of Income Tax.” In fact, the top 1 percent of American earners earn about one-sixth of total income, but pay nearly as much in income taxes as everyone else combined.

Rather than abandon the electorally valuable false premise that such disproportionate burdens are justified, however, the political Left rallies to its cause. They try to rescue it by asserting that other taxes are regressive, so that taxes aren’t “really” so clearly unjustifiable as income tax burdens reveal. The featured players in that drama are state and local sales and excise taxes and Social Security taxes. Unfortunately, those taxes are also misrepresented to defend “fair share” misrepresentations.

Columnist Michael Hiltzik illustrated the state and local gambit in a tax-day column echoing charges that their sales and excise taxes “disproportionately hammer lower-income taxpayers,” with that alleged regressivity offsetting income tax unfairness.

That claim arises because those with lower current measured incomes spend a larger proportion of them on those taxes. However, as Edgar Browning has noted, “relative to lifetime income, there is very little difference in the percentage of income consumed among income classes.” As a result, apparent regressivity using current incomes is shown instead as “roughly proportional” to income in the more-appropriate lifetime context. Low current-income families also consume a multiple of their income, largely financed with government transfer payments excluded from income measures. That further exaggerates the share of their incomes going to such taxes.

Via: California Political Review

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NY Post: How Menendez ‘Conspired’ To Import Rich Donor’s Babes

They are the models who could bring down a senator.

Sen. Robert Menendez mobilized his staff to secure a visa for a Brazilian actress who posed nude on the cover of Sexy magazine; he stepped up for a sultry Ukrainian student who wanted a plastic-surgery consult; and he directd a staff member to “call Ambassador asap” in order to reverse a visa denial to a 22-year-old Dominican model.

The young women were all paramours of Dr. Salomon Melgen, 60, a married eye doctor and one of Menendez’s biggest donors, prosecutors charge.

The New Jersey Democrat’s efforts on behalf of Melgen’s lovers came to light in a 68-page indictment against the two men unsealed this month.

Menendez is accused of using his power and influence to benefit Melgen in exchange for almost $1 million in gifts and campaign contributions.

If convicted, Menendez faces up to 15 years in prison on each of eight bribery counts alone. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

The senator is also accused of trying to influence a State Department official on Melgen’s behalf in a dispute involving one of the doctor’s business interests in the Dominican Republic.

Prosecutors also say Menendez and his staff tried to help Melgen in a Medicare billing conflict.

Melgen was charged with Medicaid fraud last week in a separate 76-count indictment.

Via: Fox Nation

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Schieffer to O’Malley: Why Are You Only One ‘Even Thinking of Challenging’ Hillary?

Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer sounded more interested Sunday morning in why Martin O’Malley was the only Democratic candidate seriously considering challenging putative frontrunner Hillary Clinton than in his candidacy itself.

“Here is a party that won last two presidential elections, yet there seems to be this one candidate,” Schieffer said. “Shouldn’t there be more people out there? Why is there nobody but you — I don’t mean this in deprecating way towards you — but you seem to be the lone guy who’s even thinking about challenging her.”

“I’m not sure why that is,” O’Malley said. “But I think it would be an extreme poverty indeed if there weren’t more than one person willing to compete for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.”

Clinton who finally officially announced her candidacy last week, has significantly outpolled the remainder of the Democratic field. O’Malley polls in the single digits against her.

Via: Mediaite

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CARLY FIORINA: ‘HILLARY CLINTON MUST NOT BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES’

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina warned the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Summit that “Hillary Clinton must not be president,” because she lacks the essential qualities of leadership such as a record of accomplishment, candor and transparency.

“She will pursue a set of policies that will crush possibilities and the potential of this great nation,” Fiorina said.

The former California Senate candidate and likely 2016 contender said she was asked on Fox News earlier in the day whether a woman’s hormones prevented her from serving in the Oval Office.

“Not that we have seen examples ever of a man’s judgment being clouded by hormones, including in the Oval Office,” Fiorina joked. “Hillary Clinton cannot be president of the United States, but not because she is a woman.”

Fiorina contrasted her own history as CEO of the largest technology company in the world with that of Clinton.

“The next occupant of the Oval Office needs to understand how the economy actually works,” she said, adding that “executive decision-making…is making a tough call at a tough time with high stakes for which you are prepared to be held accountable.”

Fiorina described her own life – and that of her husband – as examples of the American dream – a dream she believes Americans see as lost.

Via: Breitbart

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Scott Walker NYC Lunch Invite Elicits Profane Response

“F**k you and your entire extended family.  And the c**t you came out of. Got it?” That was the message sent to New York state Republican Committee Director of Communications David Laska after a member of a club hosting an event for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker received an invite to meet the governor.

The email was sent from Jeffrey Putterman, a member of the Union League Club, where the lunch will be held on Monday. Putterman is a New York City real estate agent.

Walker is expected to join the field of Republican candidates running for president and just visited New Hampshire over the weekend.

Putterman hurled a slew of vulgar insults at Laska.

“That was a personal message, so cut the shit. And stuff your head up Walker’s ass,” Putterman said. “If you want to f**k with me, mano a mano, just let me know. You flaming jerkoff.”

“I’d be glad to meet and greet you, you little arrogant piece of shit,” he continued. He also called Laska an “asshole.”

After the initial response from Putterman, Laska told Putterman he would forward the email to Putterman’s employer and various media outlets, as Putterman had not said anything was off the record.

“We all have to deal with hate mail, and having thick skin comes with the territory, but every now and then people cross the line,” Laska told The Daily Caller. Putterman has taken shots online at other politicians in the past. He wrote a post on his Facebook page about Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in 2013 during the Trayvon Martin controversy. Cruz made remarks about the debate that Putterman attacked him for.

Via: Daily Caller

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Expert: Obama's amnesty 'profoundly unfair' to 4 million legal immigrants, a new high

While the administration struggles to move forward with its plan to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, the list of foreigners trying to get into the United States legally has surged to 4.4 million, over 100,000 more than last year, according to the State Department.

Those on the list either have a family member who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder, sponsoring their entry, or an employer wants them.

The list grew by 100,085 over last year. And more than a quarter of them, 1,323,978, are Mexican.

RELATED: Feds wasted $41 million deporting illegal immigrants on nearly-empty charter flights

According to a blog post written on the list bypolicy expert Jessica Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies, unlike illegals slipping over the border, many of those on the wait list have been there for up to 13 years or more as they go through the proper process to enter the country.

Unlike with illegals, the government regulates who can come into the country legally.

"The waiting lists are needed because of annual limits on the number of immigrants that can be admitted in certain family and employment categories, and because of caps on the number who can come from each country," she wrote.

RELATED: Huckabee hits Obama amnesty, warns of exploding welfare for illegals

The issue of letting more legal immigrants in is a key one for Washington as it grapples with what to do about the 12 million illegals already here.

"The existence of this massive waiting list of eligible applicants for family immigrant visas and green cards raises important questions for policymakers," wrote Vaughan.

"First, there is clearly no shortage of eligible immigrants being sponsored by family members and employers who are waiting many years for their opportunity to be admitted legally. Any move by the president to relax eligibility standards or grant benefits such as work permits, deferred action, or parole to illegal aliens is profoundly unfair and destructive to the integrity of the legal system because it gives illegal aliens preferential treatment over those applying through the legal process established by Congress," she explained.

RELATED: Applications for H-1B tech visas reach record levels

Fairness is also an issue, even outside the fact the administration is letting thousands of illegals into the country every year, she added.

Via: Washington Examiner

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