Leftwing Logic Fails Again

When I am in the mood for some nonsensical, ludicrous, rantings and ravings, there is a very good chance that someone (or some agency) that embraces a left-wing ideology, will come through. This week, I was not let down. The left came through with a couple of highly visible, and highly questionable, actions. One of which is on-going, and currently in the legal system, and the other has received so much blow-back, it has already been withdrawn.

International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150

First, in response to Indiana’s new labor law, making Indiana a right-to-work state, a union decided to file a lawsuit. The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, filed suit in Northern Indiana District Court, against Governor Mitch Daniels, Attorney General Gregory Zoeller, and Indiana Department of Labor Commissioner, Lori Torres. The union claims that they must be allowed to continue to collect dues from non-union workers, because the non-union workers also benefit from the union’s negotiations and receive similar pay to unionized workers (I think of it as a knee-capping being sold under the guise of “fairness”). While I understand that the union has to coordinate various activities and pay assorted administrative costs, when I see unions in different states, throwing millions of dollars at campaigns to recall governors, and donating millions of dollars to get “friendly” candidates elected, my empathy wanes.

It appears that the union wants the methods it uses to exact goodies from the employers, to be used on the workers as well. The union is saying that they need someone or someway to compel people to give them capital, so that they can perform operations. The Indiana law removes that compelling force, and makes unions responsible for actually creating a tangible return on payee money. Instead, the union wastes more money on a lawsuit that they are more than likely to lose, and as if that were not a big enough fiasco, the lawsuit claims without that compelling force, the state is acting in a manner that is tantamount to slavery. Citing the 13th Amendment, the union claims that they are being forced to provide a service, without payment, which is therefore, “involuntary servitude.” The union mentions too, that the new law violates Article I, Section 21 of the Indiana Constitution, because the union would have to provide their services “…without just compensation.” Yes, that is correct – the union is claiming that they are being made slaves to their members, since the members would no longer have to pay dues. Never mind the fact that the union can choose to not provide services to non-paying members…

The second liberal logical misstep occurred when it was revealed that the United States Department of Labor wanted to change rules regarding child labor laws regarding farming. For Americans already fed up with what they consider government meddling, hearing that the government wants to dictate to parents, that they can no longer have their kids farming beside them was a step too far. The proposal would have allowed for some older children to work around animals and equipment (banning nearly all teens under 16 from working around power equipment), but only after completing a new “90 hour federal government training course”, which would replace tried and true training from other entities (like 4-H). Farming families were shocked to learn that they now were at the mercy of the government as to the things that they could teach their children. Thousands of angry emails and messages later, the administration decided that, perhaps this was not such a great idea to waste their non-existent political capital on. Trying to spin the reversal, the Labor Department said they wanted to help “…protect the rural way of life.”

These two failures of the left to use some common sense and insist that their way is the only way, is precisely why a large amount of the country does not trust the left, or do they any longer accept anything that the left says with an open mind. The continuous nonsense that the left has tried to sell the U.S. for the past decade, has created a hyper-cynical and disbelieving public, which has had the effect of also infecting the media, due to their strong support of the policies. We now have a highly ineffective media, and a political wing, whether it may ever stumble on a good idea or not, that is not even taken at face value. The country now faces one large group of angry, entitled special interests, and an administration and press that reinforces their (incorrect) belief that they should be entitled. What could go wrong?

It’s Those Darned Kids Again!

The recent comments of Hilary Rosen have both inflamed millions of stay-at-home-mothers, and ruined any Democratic battle plans for a spring and summer-long “War On Women” that might have been used against the GOP to bolster Barack Obama’s election efforts. The incendiary language she chose was quickly used against her by members of her own party, as they speedily scrambled to put space between she and they. My reaction, was at first, complete amusement (as I am bound to find myself whenever I see the left cannibalizing itself). Then, I stopped laughing for a moment, and began to consider the validity of the whole “War on Women” the left claims it is helping to fight. I realized that there were two things wrong with the left’s premise though: while there may be some attacks aimed at women (and it has been my experience that those attacks come from the left, not so much that they are decried by the left), and more importantly, there is a much longer, ongoing “War On” occurring few may realize – a “War on Children.” Thinking through the newly realized war, I think that there is much more information and support available to prove it.

You'd be crying too...

The left has long supported “on-demand” abortions. Walk into your nearest clinic, tell them you have an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, and that is it. It is simple and straightforward. The clinics would rather not know any more than they must. Is the mother-to-be, underage? Is she a victim of abuse? The clinics do not seem to care so long as they can provide abortions to “fix problems.” This seems like  a massive over looking of the welfare of a young girl who may find herself pregnant, but surely the snuffing out of the unborn life is an attack as well? It is a double attack on young people. Quoting the president himself, he infamously said that he did not, “…want them [his daughters] punished with a baby.” A baby can be a blessing, a surprise even, but a “punishment”? That is disgusting.

The First Lady has criticized both home nutrition and school lunch programs, and we have seen some schools go so far as to ban lunches students bring from home. Americans have been given a nice new, easier to understand, color-coded plate, “thing” to use as a nutritional guide so we eat more healthy meals. (I am unsure how exactly the healthier eating habits are being measure, but the government has its best intentions at heart). In Los Angeles, a massive school-lunch overhaul, costing millions of dollars, ended with rejection by the students, who were throwing away unopened food and uneaten entrees - but at least there was one good lesson learned from that fiasco. The school children created a de facto black market for junk food, probably learning more about economics at lunch than in the classrooms all year. The school’s economic lesson – well, they increased spending ten-fold from 2006 to 2010, on fresh fruits and vegetables, instead of serving canned.

Continuing on schools, and the mess they have become – how about the left and their cozy relationship with teachers’ unions? The teachers work hard, pay dues to their unions, and then see those dues used for things like election recalls in Wisconsin. Reports came to light at protests in Wisconsin of the union members and teachers getting bogus sick notes to join the crowds, and there were even reports of teachers bringing their confused students to the mess (YouTube video here – listen closely at :08). So teachers take days off from school, under the guise of sickness, leaving the students with substitute teachers, while they chant and protest the governor’s request that they pay a small portion of their own retirement or healthcare plans. So it seems, some teachers’ greed comes before the welfare students that they claim to want to protect.
I would be interested to hear more from school reformers, who have run into brick walls while trying to fix schools. Union and special interests target people like Michelle Rhee, while she tried to fix Washington D.C.’s schools (and was actually seeing some good results after actually firing some 200 teachers). Despite her resignation, the left continues to push back against voucher programs and school choice.

Although these are just three major efforts to affect the children, there are plenty more, easily identifiable progressive tactics and plans in action in the “War on Children.” Things like trying to prevent McDonald’s from adding toys to Happy Meals and forcing McDonald’s to offer approved food items, attacking Newt Gingrich’s suggestion that children who are a certain age be allowed to do menial labor in their own schools (and earn a paycheck to help their families), and continuously pushing their brand of learned dependency – it all has the terrible effect of turning a bright, able, capable generation, into a needy, dependent one, unable to even think for itself. The fact is, the left does not think too highly of children, or else they would treat them with a modicum of respect.

The left’s style really seems crimped by the mere existence of children, and if the left had its way, kids would just kowtow to the left as the left would love to have them do, then everything would be copacetic. But, like so many on the right, kids aren’t stupid, and they know BS when they see it. So, once again, it seems like the left has met its match.

No Plans, No Problem!

So, our dear leader warns us that once again, those crazy Republicans want to drive this country into the ground – by stealing money from everyone of us, who are struggling to break even, and then generously give it to people that hardly need it (their filthy rich buddies – the 1%). He neglects to mention that the fact so many of us are struggling to break even may have something to do with his still-failing economic policies – but that is ok, since, as he has promised us for three years now, happy days are just ahead (thanks to him). The GOP just wants to cut and cut, like a mad lumberjack in a forest, not caring what they strike, so long as the ax connects, the president would have us believe. Obama even went so far as to claim Republicans’ mentality as being “…driven by our ideological vision about how government should be” and he went even further, claiming the Republicans were sticking with the same types of economic decisions that drove the country into the Great Depression.

The Senate, having not given the country a budget in the past three years, has not deterred Republicans from trying their hands at writing one in the House, but Paul Ryan’s most recent effort was met with the usual scatterbrained excuses and rhetoric. Obama tells us children will starve and Medicare patients will be without their medicines (never mind his own cutting of $528 billion from the Medicare roles, via Obamacare), and finally, that he is not the extreme progressive that he is painted. Indeed, he even went so far as to invoke the names of two outstanding Republicans to compare himself to – Abraham Lincoln (yes, again) and Ronald Reagan. By talking of the Reagan-era, Obama attempted to point out how far right the GOP has moved, and claims Reagan could not win a primary now. For their parts, Republican leaders took the most natural response: they snickered and asked what Obama’s policies would do to help the country. After stumbling, and realizing how much his words were parsed these days, he sauntered off.

I find it odd, that the man who thought it would be brilliant to sign into law, legislation that no one had read, and who continues to defend his administration’s $535 million boondoggle loan to a solar company that “needed” talking robots, would be criticizing anybody’s plans. The president who has created more debt and higher deficits than any other president in history – wants to criticize others’ efforts to try to fix the mess? On the administration’s face, it has been do-little as a matter of course. When it has actually done anything, it seems to be with negative outcomes, or so completely, horribly wrong, one has to wonder if anyone is awake at the wheel. In Iran, with the promising “Green Revolution”, he did nothing as people were beaten in the streets – now he wants to punish some of the same people with crippling sanctions. The president wanted to help Libyan rebels – but violated the War Powers Act to do so. He wanted to help and support the Egyptian uprising – but he stalled for so long, now it appears the Muslim Brotherhood is licking its lips at a presidential election run. In Syria now, where civilians are being fired on, and bombed by the military? The president decides it is better to let the region solve that problem on its own. Our ally in the region, Israel recently had intelligence on their own allies leaked as well. Former Ambassador John Bolton points his finger at the administration…

Obama’s record is so anemic and is full of massive failures. He cannot kowtow to his base of environmentalists, without having the rest of America howling about oil prices. He cannot stretch the military much further than he already has. And he cannot do anything but tear down others, to even make it seem as though he has accomplished anything (I call that “maximizing by minimizing”). At this point, I would rather have a coin in the Oval Office – after all, you can count on it to make a right decision 1/2 of the time.

"...you can only hide it for so long..."