Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Labor Unions’ Minimum Wage Push: A Shameless Scheme to Fatten Their Own Coffers

Protesters calling for pay of 5 an hour and a union march toward McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

Utterly shameless. There really is no other way to describe what some unions are trying to pull when it comes to the minimum wage.
The issue, of course, has been in the news quite a bit lately, especially in Los Angeles, with supposedly incensed workers waving their “Fight for 15” placards. It’s all perfectly packaged for the media, an alleged David versus Goliath fight. Will those mean ol’ fast-food joints and other stingy employers finally start paying a “living wage”? Tune in for the dramatic video.
Never mind that a substantial hike in the minimum wage would price many unskilled workers right out of the market. Goodbye, entry-level jobs for men and women who will later become workers making a much better wage at a job with more responsibilities.
And never mind how this minimum wage hike would make the price of fast food soar. A huge part of the draw for fast food, after all, is the fact that it’s relatively cheap. Take that away, and now it’s goodbye to the industry, which, of course, will hardly help the workers who are supposed to benefit from the wage increase.
Employers, after all, don’t have a bottomless safe in the backroom from which to pull vast reserves of cash for these salaries. They’ll react by cutting hours, for one thing. Labor expert James Sherk, for example, found that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cause a 36 percent drop in hours worked in fast food.
Think of what such a hike would mean for a major city such as Los Angeles. “If the effects are the same for all low-wage food-service occupations,” writes economist Salim Furth, “the ‘Fight for 15’ will cost more than 20,000 Angelenos their jobs in those occupations alone.” We can expect the same type of effect everywhere if such a drastic hike is enacted.
Of course, we don’t hear about any negative effects from much of the media or from breathless proponents of such “wage equality.” Or if we do, the effects are shrugged off as the scaremongering tactics of employers who just don’t want to pay up.

Via: CNS News

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Dow loses gains for the year; transports off 2%

U.S. stocks closed near session lows on Monday as investors weighed multi-month highs in bond yields amid greater expectations of tightening following Friday's strong jobs report. (Tweet This)
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down about 80 points, posting losses of 0.32 percent year-to-date. 
"I think everybody's a little unsettled about the way U.S. and European bond markets sold off in the last week," said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.
Analysts noted relatively less volatility in bond and currency markets in Monday trade. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield held slightly lower at 2.39 percent. The U.S. dollar pared recent gains, down about one percent against major world currencies with the euro rising to $1.1287. The stronger greenback has weighed on corporate earnings.
On Friday, a surge in bond yields to multi-month highs on a strong jobs report pressured equities, with U.S. stocks closing narrowly mixed. 
Nonfarm payrolls for May beat expectations with the addition of 280,000 jobs. Analysts also cheered a greater-than-forecast 8 cent increase in hourly wages and a 5.5 percent unemployment rate. Signs of continued strength in the labor market strengthened the case for the Federal Reserve to begin raising short-term interest rates in September.
"I think the market's trying to figure out if (Friday's employment report) is going to move the Federal Reserve to act in September," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth. He also cited weakness in the Dow transports as weighing on stocks.
The Dow transports, led by a decline in airlines, closed down 2.06 percent for its worst day since January 6. The index posted its first positive week in four last Friday. 
JetBlue closed down 7.2 percent for its worst day since Sept. 15, 2014.United ContinentalAmericanSouthwest and Delta held below their 50 and 200-day moving averages.

MSNBC: Tingles Says Hillary Can “Scold” Republicans In A Way Obama Couldn’t Because She’s White…

Because Obama has been so reserved in his attacks on Republicans?

THIS IS THE MOST UNSHOCKING OBAMA VIDEO YOU’LL WATCH TODAY

In a press conference overseas, Obama admitted today that he still doesn’t have a complete strategy on taking down ISIS:

Told ya it was unshocking. After all, why would he have a complete strategy when he doesn’t want to take ISIS out?
Via: You Tube

‘Trust Us – We’re the Government’ Isn’t the Best Justification for These Huge New Power Grabs

Seton Motley | Red State | RedState.comWe are deep into Year Seven of the Barack Obama Administration. It has not been a great time in the history of government transparency and accountability.
He at the outset sounded good.
We have to use technology to open up our democracy. Its no coincidence that one of the most secretive administrations in our history has favored special interests and pursued policies that could not stand up to the sunlight.
Then so quickly disintegrated.
Ill let you participate in government forums, ask questions, in real time offer suggestions that will be reviewed before decisions are made. And let you comment on legislation before it is signed.…”
Then…not so much.
President Obama promised transparency and open government. He failed miserably.
Speaking of fake transparency.
This “record number of comments” was ceaselessly touted.
The Left wasn’t pleased with the Net Neutrality order as it was then written.
Concerns for the new rules center around “fast lanes” and “slow lanes”….
President Barack Obama wasn’t pleased – and big-footed the whole process by saying so.
Then after the landslide, Less Government 2014 election – the President made it official.
Then this happened.
Then – it happened. The President’s FCC gave him exactly what he wanted.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Curtailing Voting Rights vs. Curtailing Vote Fraud

Perhaps to distract attention from her own scandals, Hillary Rodham Clinton charges that Republicans want to curtail young people’s and minorities’ voting rights.  The charge that Republicans engage in vote suppression has been in Democrats’ playbook for years.  (By regurgitating this hoary claim, Mrs. Clinton lends credence to Marco Rubio’s observation that some pols may be antiquated.)


We need to investigate her assertion that GOP concerns about election fraud are overblown.
Given America’s dependence on elections, it is essential to the nation’s well-being that citizens have confidence in elections’ honesty and integrity.  People must be able to assume that candidates and parties declared the winner of an election won honestly.  Vote fraud saps people’s trust and confidence in government itself.
Sadly, the U.S. has a long history of vote fraud. 

Unless efforts to thwart fraudulent voting are successful, Americans should expect even more in future elections.  It is conceivable that, unless preventative action occurs, Americans may endure more contested elections that will make the 2000 fiasco in Florida look like an episode of good government.

Election fraud takes many forms: “voting the graveyard,” stuffing ballot boxes, “repeater” voting – sometimes in separate states – noncitizens casting ballots, preventing citizens from exercising the franchise, and miscounting election results, just to list a few.

In the late 19th century, most states introduced requirements that citizens register in person at designated locations before Election Day in order to prevent, or at least minimize, the kinds of fraudulent practices then in vogue.  Requiring people to register in person and in advance of Election Day had salubrious effects, at least for a time.

Via; American Thinker

The U.S. State Department’s ‘Become-Liars-Like-Us School-of-Journalism’

The country infamous for its running dog-mainstream media cheering anything Obama in a cacophony of barks,  including the “fundamental transformation” of their own country,  is now branching out through its State Department to the world.

Bureaucrats of the U.S. State Department, who have already taken it upon themselves to teach “ethics” to the “up and coming journalists” of India, are going to “embed” up-and-coming Russian journalists in American newsrooms. Having gained control of the mainstream media on home turf,  why not try for world media control?

“The U.S. State Department is looking to design and facilitate a media ethics course for journalists in India, and has even proposed appropriating the name of Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” as a title for the course. (Weekly Standard, April 20, 2015)

“The U.S. consulate general in Hyderabad, India, is looking for a non-profit to co-develop the course to help Indian journalists gain a “baseline understanding of the international industry standards,” including “accuracy, honesty, transparency, impartiality, and accountability,” and is willing to spend $20,000 - $25,000 on it.

“The grant documents note that credibility is a key part of journalists’ jobs to “keep their readership informed, hold us all accountable, filter fact from fiction, and unmask false narratives masquerading as truth.” To that end, the State Department would like a full-time faculty member to propose curriculum content and develop a syllabus tailored to communicate journalistic standards to an Indian university audience. Additionally, the grant calls for a “U.S.-based, university-level journalism professor,” suggested by the non-profit subject to approval by the State Department, to act as consultant in the development of the course.

“Once the course preparation is complete, the journalism professor will visit India at least three times: to meet with the coordinating university in India and “observe existing on-the-job training in various media houses,” to conduct a three day seminar for other stakeholders, and to participate in first offering of the newly-designed course. The grant specifies that both the accommodations for the professor and the venue for the seminar must be a four-star hotel.”
Via: Canada Free Press

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Press Fails to Note That Weak First-Quarter Economies Have Been a Democrat Phenomenon

The business press has gotten really excited about the possibility — some of them are even treating it as a probability — that the first-quarter's recently reported annualized economic contraction of 0.7 percent will go positive if it gets revised for so-called "residual seasonality.

" "Residual seasonality" is "the manifestation of seasonal patterns in data that have already been seasonally adjusted." (Supposedly, the way to fix this is add more "seasoning.") On April 22, CNBC's Steve Liesman contended that it's been a chronic 30-year problem. As far as I can tell, no one in the press has followed up on that claim. If they had, they would have found that it has not been a 30-year "problem," and that it's a "problem" remarkably unique to the presence of Democratic Party presidential administrations and policies:

 There was virtually no net first-quarter GDP underperformance from 1985-1992, i.e., the first eight of the 30 years Liesman claimed the trend has been present. He certainly should not have included those years, which "just so happen" to have had GOP presidential administrations (Ronald Reagan from 1985-1988 and Bush 41 from 1989-1992). 

Via: Newsbusters

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AP: Abortions decline in almost every state

With anti-abortion flyers and rosary in hand, Richard Retta, 80, waits for people to approach Planned Parenthood in downtown Washington, Wednesday, April 4, 2012.  Three days a week, for the past eight years, Retta has stood outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in downtown Washington, three blocks from the White House, and tried to convince women not to get abortions. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Abortions have declined in nearly every state, according to a recent nationwide Associated Press survey.

In states both red and blue, in places where Republican-led initiatives against abortion have succeeded and in states where abortion rights remain protected, the number of abortions nationwide has declined by about 12 percent since 2010.
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In terms of percentage, Hawaii experienced the biggest decrease, at 30 percent. In 2010, there were 3,064 abortions performed in the state, compared to 2,147 last year. New Mexico followed, with 24 percent, along with Nevada and Rhode Island at 22 percent and Connecticut at 21 percent.Five of the six states with the biggest drop in abortions have not passed any laws restricting abortion clinics or providers, the AP reports.

States that have recently passed more anti-abortion legislation — like Missouri, Oklahoma and Indiana — have seen a drop of more than 15 percent, while blue states like New York, Washington and Oregon also had similar declines. Approximately 70 abortion clinics have closed in the U.S. since 2010, the AP reports, citing state officials and advocacy groups.

Abortions only rose in two states tracked by the AP. In Michigan, abortions increased by 18.5 percent between 2010 and 2014; in Louisiana, there was an increase of 12 percent.
A major factor in the decrease, the AP reports, is an overall decline in the national teen pregnancy rate, which reached its lowest rate in decades when it was last measured in 2010.
Ben Clapper, the executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, suggested to the AP that the increase in his state was partly owed to new abortion restrictions in neighboring Mississippi and Texas.

Obama: Notice You Haven’t Heard Any Obamacare Horror Stories Lately?

obamaIn a round of questions following his remarks on the G7 Summit in Germany Monday morning, President Barack Obama dismissed the King v Burwell Supreme Court case as a tortured misreading of the law, and added, “Anyway, the thing’s working!”
“Part of what’s bizarre about this whole thing is we haven’t had a lot of conversation about the horrors of Obamacare because none of them have come to pass,” Obama said, citing significantly higher insured rates and lower health care costs. “None of the predictions about how this wouldn’t work have come to pass.”
The King case questions whether the federal premium subsidies were meant to be part of the law; an ambiguous sentence suggests they might have been withheld to pressure states into creating their own exchanges. But most involved in the writing and passing of the Affordable Care Act say it was a vestigial idea long abandoned by the time the law was passed.
If the subsidies were overturned, however, it would wreak havoc in the health care industry, if not the economy in general. One reporter asked why Obama didn’t have a Plan B in this event.
He responded that the ACA was a complex and interconnected piece of legislation that would be difficult to untangle, though he added that Congress could just fix the ambiguous sentence.
“This would be hard to fix,” he said. “Fortunately, there’s no reason to have to do it. It doesn’t need fixing.”

California’s Drought is a Communications and Policy Issue

Photo Credit: The International Rice Research Institute
Photo Credit: The International Rice Research InstituteIn the face of California’s crippling drought, public agencies will have to employ wide-ranging strategies and tactics to educate, motivate, enforce, and reinforce messages about drastic water cutbacks.
Their success or failure hinges on how they communicate to diverse audiences about managing water, a precious natural resource. In their dilemma, there are also communications lessons.
On Tuesday, California’s State Water Resources Board said residents used 13.5 percent less water against an April 2013 benchmark. This is a significant improvement over previous months, but it also shows a major gap in achieving the mandatory average 25 percent reduction in urban water use ordered by California Governor Jerry Brown. 
The drought has generated thousands of media stories and an unending stream of tweets and posts and sparked intense debate on what needs to be done. Water agencies, city managers, and other local elected officials will have to make major decisions, large and small, about how to urge residents to use much less, and conserve much more, water.
In this highly charged atmosphere, carefully developed communication strategies will be essential to get the public informed and accepting of the solutions required. Organizations will have to engage from the top down at the state level to coordinate messages and from the bottom up at the local level to make relevant, persuasive arguments.

TSA FAILED TO IDENTIFY 73 AVIATION WORKERS WITH ‘LINKS TO TERRORISM’

The Transportation Security Administration granted access to secure airport areas to 73 aviation workers with “links to terrorism,” according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.

The audit, released Monday, reveals that TSA was unable to vet out 73 individuals with terror-related category codes because the agency did not have enough access to terror list information.
“According to TSA data, these individuals were employed by major airlines, airport vendors, and other employers. TSA did not identify these individuals through its vetting operations because it is not authorized to receive all terrorism-related categories under current interagency watchlisting policy,” the redacted report reads.
“TSA acknowledged that these individuals were cleared for access to secure airport areas despite representing a potential transportation security threat,” it added.
The new audit comes on the heels of another damaging Inspector General report on TSA’s security measures, which found the aviation security body was unable to detect fake bombs and weapons in 95 percent of trial runs. Revealed last week in an ABC News report, the OIG’s findings resulted in the Acting TSA Administrator, Melvin Carraway’s, removal from the post.
In addition to the threats posed by aviation workers with terror-ties, Monday’s report also took issue with the TSA’s handing of aviation workers’ potential criminal pasts and/or immigration issues, noting the agency’s controls on criminal histories and immigration statuses were “less effective” than its terror-vetting.
“In general, TSA relied on airport operators to perform criminal history and work authorization checks, but had limited oversight over these commercial entities. Thus, TSA lacked assurance that it properly vetted all credential applicants,” the report reads.

Obama’s Slap in Britain’s Face

London — Two weeks ago, we went to Washington to argue for the immediate release of Shaker Aamer, a detainee at Guantánamo Bay. Mr. Aamer’s wife and four children live in London but he has yet to meet his youngest child, Faris, who is now 13.
We are unlikely political bedfellows from the left and right of British politics. The four of us agree on almost nothing, with this exception: Mr. Aamer, a British permanent resident, must be freed and transferred to British soil immediately.
Mr. Aamer was picked up by the Northern Alliance in November 2001 in Afghanistan, where he was doing charity work, and sold for a bounty. He was taken to the notorious Bagram Prison, where he was brutally tortured, before being sent to Guantánamo in February 2002. In 2007, under President George W. Bush’s administration, he was cleared for release. In 2010, under President Obama, he was cleared for release again — after an arduous process requiring unanimous agreement by six agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Departments of State and Defense.
We should never have had to make the trip to Washington. Earlier this year, during his visit to the United States, Prime Minister David Cameronasked Mr. Obama to release Mr. Aamer. The president promised to pursue the matter. On March 17, the House of Commons passed an unusual unanimous motion calling for Mr. Aamer’s immediate release and transfer to Britain. Since that time little, if anything, has been done by the United States.
We heard during our visit that “Congress has prevented transfers”; yet, under current legislation, Mr. Obama could give notice to Congress and then transfer Mr. Aamer 30 days later, as the British government has requested. We heard that there may be “security considerations.” Any suggestion that Britain does not have the legal structures, the security and intelligence skills, or the care capacity to address any issues with Mr. Aamer is deeply insulting.
Via: New York Times
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This New State Data Shows the Real Story Behind King v. Burwell

Every day there seems to be another article focused on how many individuals might lose their subsidies if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in the King v. Burwell case.
Yet, an even bigger group of individuals harmed by Obamacare has an equally good claim for relief that hasn’t gotten as much attention—the people who, thanks to Obamacare, must pay more for health insurance but who never got subsidies.

The Obamacare subsidies were intended, in part, to hide the law’s unpopular effects. At their root, Obamacare’s costly regulations, dictating what insurers can sell and what individuals and employer can buy, have resulted in premium costs going up, not down. In the 34 states potentially affected by the Court’s ruling, those regulations have driven up costs not only for the estimated 6.4 million receiving coverage subsidies, but also for at least another 15 million who have been forced to pay more for their health insurance without getting any subsidy.

Last month, The Heritage Foundation published a report highlighting that on average premiums could decrease by as much as 44 percent for young adults and 7 percent for near retirees if Congress, in response to a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in King v Burwell, simply eliminate three of the most costly Obamacare regulations—the age-rating rules, the actuarial value restrictions and the benefit mandates—in the affected states.
Today, Heritage will release state-specific data for the 34 states potentially affected by the King v. Burwell ruling.
For example, in Arizona, premiums could drop by as much as $1,044 for a 21-year-old and $402 for a 64-year-old. Similarly, in Iowa, premiums could decline by as much as $1,068 for a 21-year-old and $486 for a 64-year-old. In Ohio, premiums could be reduced by as much as $1,125 for a 21-year old and $633 for a 64-year old.
Congress’ first step in responding to the Court’s ruling should be to get rid of the Obamacare regulations that needlessly increased the cost of coverage for both those with and without subsidies.

Food Stamp Fraud Scheme Sending Money to Yemen

Authorities made multiple arrests in a food stamp fraud investigation in Alabama where some of the money was being sent overseas to Yemen.
Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls announced last week that 20 arrest warrants on 257 charges were filed for Wednesday and a series of raids were performed on 11 Alabama convenience stores.
The charges range from fraudulent use of a credit card, theft of property and public assistance fraud.
AL.com reports, the massive probe targeted those who allegedly have been cheating the food stamp system to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and sending at least some of the profits to Yemen.
Central to the scheme were Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards, a government-issued debit card that replaced food stamps issued through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Falls said they learned owners of several convenience stores in the Birmingham, Alabama area had been buying EBT cards from those who have been issued the cards for roughly 50 cents on the dollar.
Once in possession of the cards the storeowners and managers would then go to a wholesale store where they would buy goods and bring them back to their stores to sell at an inflated price.
“Several of the store owners are Yemenese and in conjunction with this, the investigation revealed that these same persons were sending wire funds - cash back to Yemen.”
In return, the person who sold their EBT card now had cash to buy items restricted from purchases under the SNAP system, such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
"They're selling their cards to get those things,'' Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Raulston told AL.com.
"Part of the problem, in my opinion, is now they don't have their food stamps card so they don't have the money to take care of their families or themselves,'' Raulston said. "I think it's a huge cycle of remaining impoverished."

Bill Clinton Was Paid $400K By Singapore Company That Was Scamming Its Employees

The Internet was littered with scam warnings from small-time contractors who claimed they had been ripped off by Singapore-based UNI Strategic, but that didn’t seem to bother the State Department or Bill Clinton.
The agency, headed at the time by Hillary Clinton, signed off on a Nov. 14, 2010, speech delivered by the former president on behalf of UNI at the Presidential World Economic Forum held in Taipei, Taiwan.
The payday: $400,000.
Clinton’s speech was not remarkable, but it probably didn’t have to be. He spoke about the global economy, economic inequality and global warming in front of an audience of around 2,000 — eager to hear from an American politician of Clinton’s stature.
But while UNI could afford to pay Clinton a one-percenter’s annual salary, the company was ripping off a slew of contractors it had hired to provide training in various Asian nations.
Internet message boards, scam alert websites and independent blogs show up at the top of searches for UNI, which was founded in 2002 and specializes in workshops for governmental organizations and multinational corporations on a variety of topics.
It is unclear if UNI’s dastardly deeds were as well-known in 2010, but complaints stretch back to well before Clinton’s speech, and would seemingly have been easy to discover by anyone who cared to look.
Via: Daily Caller

HILLARY PHONES IT IN FOR FAST FOOD WORKERS

Speaking to a gathering of fast food workers and voicing her support for a $15 minimum wage, Hillary Clinton said, “I want to be your champion” to the assembled group.
Well, we do know special orders never upset the Clinton Foundation. It’s also accurate to say Hillary phoned in her support.
Appearing by phone at a meeting of 1,300 workers, Clinton voiced her most emphatic support yet for the nationwide Fight for $15 movement, which is also seeking to unionize fast food giants like McDonald’s.
Perhaps more important to the multi-millionaire presidential candidate was that she paid her dues to Big Labor, including the SEIU. Campaigns and foundations do not run on bread, or hamburger rolls, alone.
Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry told the crowd that Clinton’s call shows “how powerful people around the world are listening to this movement to change our world.”
Clinton also expressed broader support for organized labor union and the right to bargain collectively.
The appearance marks the Clinton campaign’s latest attempt to shore up her left flank and de-emphasize the centrist pragmatism that marked her husband’s presidency and her own record as senator and secretary of state.
Via: Breitbart

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SHERIFF JOE: DEMOCRATS USING ILLEGALS FOR VOTES


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Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Sunday Democrats are mostly interested in immigration reform because the newly legalized residents will eventually obtain voting rights and will vote for democrats
That’s common sense,” said Arpaio. “I don’t think that’s something that nobody knows. You make them here legally so they can vote.”
Arpaio was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphia’s NewsTalk 990 AM.
“There’s a push afoot nationally to sign up more Hispanics to be able to vote,” said Arpaio. “But you have to be careful now. But if you legalize these guys, these people, they are going to vote.”
As WND previously reported, Eliseo Medina, a former immigration adviser to President Obama, boasted in 2009 that granting citizenship to millions of illegal aliens would expand the “progressive” electorate and help ensure a “progressive” governing coalition for the long term.
Medina is the current secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Medina and Gutierrez served on Obama’s National Latino Advisory Council.
During the interview, Arpaio urged Republican president candidates to discuss the issue of drug trafficking when talking about border security.

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