Audacity of Truth
Rahmbo:
"Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."
-Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) on Obama's COS, 3/7/10
Velvet Lair- Legends March 18, 2010
- Some things are just not cute March 18, 2010
- The adventures of the lady spider killer continue March 11, 2010
- Intermission February 19, 2010
- People who allow their dogs to poop in other people’s yards February 16, 2010
Democrats, the MSM, and warped priorities
We all know by now how long it took for Democrats in the House and Senate to pass a non-cut and run funding bill for our military earlier this year, but there’s also at least one other part of our government that the Democrats would like to cut funding on, too, and it won’t surprise you once you find out what it is:
The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law.
In the past six years, the Office of Labor Management Standards, or OLMS, has helped secure the convictions of 775 corrupt union officials and court-ordered restitution to union members of over $70 million in dues. The House is set to vote Thursday on a proposal to chop 20% from the OLMS budget. Every other Labor Department enforcement agency is due for a budget increase, and overall the Congress has added $935 million to the Bush administration’s budget request for Labor. The only office the Democrats want to cut back is the one engaged in union oversight.
Although Congress has long insisted on copious reporting by corporations, including the burdens of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, lawmakers have been relatively nonchalant about union reporting. Unlike the quarterly filings of corporations, unions must only file once a year with the Labor Department using a free software program. They don’t have to get an independent certified audit, are only rarely audited by the government, and don’t have to follow standard accounting methods.
OLMS, the Labor office that watches over union disclosure forms, says that last year 93% of unions met its reporting requirements. But the other 7% deserve scrutiny. Union members deserve to know how their dues are spent. They might want to know that in 2005, the National Education Association gave more than $65 million to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and dozens of other liberal advocacy groups that have nothing to do with the interests of teachers. In 2006, 49 individuals employed at the national AFL-CIO headquarters were paid more than $130,000. “Union members are also discovering the extent to which their dues money is funding lavish trips for union officials to luxury resorts and other expensive perks unrelated to collective bargaining,” says Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
So they wanted to ‘clean up Washington, DC’ when they took the majority, but apparently are ok with rampant union corruption. Now, if this were the other way around, and Republicans were trying to make things a little easier for big business to escape accountability, it would be on the front pages of every major newspaper across the country, and a top story on the nightly news.
Strange, the priorities of Democrats and the mainstream media. Or perhaps ’self-serving’ would be more appropriate …
Hat tip: ST reader Sev
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6 Responses to “Democrats, the MSM, and warped priorities”
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Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Speaking of bad laws and media silence, the Democrats are again trying to ram through a “hate crimes” bill that protects gays from violence. The REAL goal of this bill is to silence those who speak out against homosexuality (e.g., Christians) by claiming such criticism is “hate speech” that can cause crimes.
What is this?! Are the Dems resorting to “thought crime” laws a la 1984?
Learn more here and then your Senator NOW to halt this attack on free expression:
LINK 1
LINK 2
and this from wikipedia:
In recent decades the NEA has greatly increased its visibility in party politics, endorsing almost exclusively Democratic Party candidates and contributing funds and other assistance to political campaigns. The NEA asserts itself “non-partisan”, but critics point out that the NEA has endorsed and provided support for every Democratic Party presidential nominee from Jimmy Carter to John Kerry and has never endorsed any Republican or third party candidate for the nation’s highest office. [6] Based on required filings with the federal government, it is estimated that between 1990 and 2002 ninety-five percent of the NEA’s substantial political contributions went to Democratic Party candidates. [7] Although this has been questioned as being out of balance with the more diverse political views of the broader membership,[8] the NEA maintains that it bases support for candidates primarily on the organization’s interpretation of candidates’ support for public education and educators.
Those darn critics, always pointing things out.
and this from opinion journal:
We already knew that the NEA’s top brass lives large. Reg Weaver, the union’s president, makes $439,000 a year. The NEA has a $58 million payroll for just over 600 employees, more than half of whom draw six-figure salaries. Last year the average teacher made only $48,000, so it seems you’re better off working as a union rep than in the classroom.
LINK
Yeah, and when a blog, “Right from the Right” is started by a Conservative teacher, the left and WebSense want to silence it.
In April 1998, I went to work at Bombardier Aerospace-Wichita(Learjet). I joined the IAMAW. Within 2 weeks of my starting the union took delivery of a brand new Learjet Model 60. This is quite a hot rod biz jet. It also goes for about 12 million dollars. When I asked the plant chair about this, specifically, “Is this what my dues are for?” I did not get a straight answer. Makes one go HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, doesn’t it. After 3 years, I quit the union. In Kansas you can do that.
Unions NEED OVERSIGHT. This is from personal experience. Mom was in the NEA all of her working life and Dad was in the IBEW. As for me the unions have gotten out of hand and to be taken down a peg. I now work for a railroad contractor( 2 lay offs in 15 months at Learjet). We are privately held: no union and we all do very well with out their interference, thank you.
But if the law is broken, something must be done. There is no ifs, ands or buts.