Obama Gives Pay Raise to Federal Workers. Union Complains

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: breitbart

Photo Credit: breitbart

President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Friday to end a three-year freeze on federal pay scales and give federal workers a one percent pay raise.

Union boss J. David Cox Sr., head of the American Federation of Government Employees, called Obama’s pay raise “inadequate” and “pitiful” but a step in the right direction.

“Although the 1 percent is a pitiful amount that doesn’t begin to compensate for the furloughs and three years of frozen pay, it is a welcome development,” said Cox. “To call this raise inadequate is an understatement, but it is good news all the same.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Workers of the World Unite…Against Obamacare

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Irish central

Photo Credit: Irish central

The greatest supporters of “Obamacare,” (disingenuously called the “Affordable Healthcare Act), are starting to openly revolt as promises made to them are not matching up to reality.

In a stunning move, 40,000 dues paying members of the International Longshoremen/Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced they have formally ended their association with Richard Trumkas AFL-CIO.

Trumka one of the most frequent White House guests of the Obama administration, played a key role in ginning up union support for the passage of Obamacare. A main selling point was unions wouldn’t be taxed on their existing Cadillac healthcare plans.

In the August 29th letter to Trumka; Longshoreman Union President Robert McEllrath said: “President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits.”

But since that time President Obama has proposed a tax on those unions “Cadillac” health plans and the AFL/CIO under Trumkas leadership has lined up in lockstep behind Obama.

McEllrath closed with: “We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along,”

This is spelling trouble in labor paradise for President Obama as he tries to take Obamacare from promise to harsh reality.

Even Trumka said in a recent press conference regarding Obamacare: “Somebody” needs to fix the law pronto!

To add fuel to the anti Obamacare fire, in July, leaders of three major U.S. unions, including the Teamsters, sent a scathing letter to Democratic leaders:

In it they warned-unless changes are made, Obamacare will “destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.” If not modified, Obamacare will “destroy the very health and well being of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.”

Does “fixing something” mean more special exemption carve outs and subsidies for the special protected classes of politicians and Obama supporters? If Obama tries an end run to make an exception for union members, look for a defection of political support for his party as the 2014 elections loom and public resentment grows.

Already organized labor is at an all time low in the private sector with just 11.3% of the workforce. If workers are forced to pay taxes on healthcare plans they consider sacrosanct, especially after they were promised it would never happen…look for a tidal wave of defections from unions.

If unions lose, the Democrat party will lose. If unions win, the Democrat party will lose.

_____________________________________

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Citing Obamacare, 40,000 Longshoremen Quit the AFL-CIO

/11 Comments/in , /by

picture - trumkaIn what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation.

In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, ILWU President Robert McEllrath cited quite a list of grievances as reasons for the dissolution of their affiliation, but prominent among them was the AFL-CIO’s support of Obamare.

“We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along,” McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.

The ILWU President made it clear they are for a single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy and are upset with the AFL-CIO for going along with Obama on the confiscatory tax on their “Cadillac” healthcare plan.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Senators’ Petition to Defund Obamacare Hits 1 Million Signatures (+video)

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: BizPac

Photo Credit: BizPac

With less than a month to go before millions of Americans will be required to enroll in Obamacare, the petition to defund the program has hit a landmark 1 million signatures – on schedule, by Labor Day.

In what’s being called the last chance to stop Obamacare, U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are going full-bore to get other senators to sign on.

Last week, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signed the petition supporting the effort.

“The time for rhetoric and ceremonial votes in Congress is over,” Palin said in a statement released at the time. “The time to take serious action to stop Obamacare is now.”


____________

Read more from this story HERE.

US Aid to Syrian Opposition Tops $1 Billion Mark

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Jordan Schachtel

According to USAID (United States Agency For International Development), the federal agency in charge of distributing the vast majority of foreign aid monies to other countries, United States taxpayers have paid for over one billion dollars in foreign aid packages to help support the “Syrian Humanitarian Response.”

Despite the threat of continued chemical attacks against the Syrian people that has served as the focal point of rallying cries for advocates of US military intervention (including the Obama administration), The Daily Beast reported that gas masks were not among the items purchased with the American billion-dollar aid package. While the President and his deputies (namely Secretary of State John Kerry) continue to forcefully denounce what they now claim to be incontrovertibly proven chemical weapons use by the Syrian Government, the Executive Branch notably omitted to include funding for gas masks in its omnibus aid package.

Instead, The Obama Administration armed the Syrian Opposition with advanced weaponry.

Read more from this story HERE.

________________________________________________________

Pentagon pushback: Joint Chiefs said to oppose Obama’s Syria strike order

By WorldTribune.com.

President Barack Obama has encountered vigorous resistance from the military to his plans to attack Syria.

Administration sources said the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as many in the U.S. military command have opposed Obama’s directive to prepare for imminent air strikes on the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The sources said the opposition within the military and the Defense Department has warned of retaliation by Iran and Syria against U.S. interests throughout the Middle East and Africa.

“The president has been told point blank that this could be the start of a military intervention that could take months or even a year until there is any resolution,” a source who has been following the debate said.

The sources said the biggest opponent of a military campaign against Syria has been the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. They said Dempsey, who sought to maintain a low profile, has warned that the U.S. military was not ready for any sustained conflict against Syria that could involve two of its leading allies, Iran and Russia.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hezbollah Joining Cartels in Mexico’s War

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Mexican Drug War has killed an estimated 60,000 people since 2006, but the violence has stayed out of the minds of most US citizens. That is about to change as Islamic extremist groups setting up shop in Mexico.

The House Committee on Homeland Security released a November 2012 report that reveals Islamic terror organizations and networks are indeed exploiting profits from narcotics, and the ease of weapons attainment, and the vast technological abilities of Mexican and other southern cartels that are thriving in Mexico’s lawlessness, along with other southern regions. The report, titled A Line In The Sand: Countering Crime, Violence, and Terror at the Southwest Border, details the growing involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in Mexico and other countries south of the southern US border.

In 2006, the Subcommittee reported on the presence of both Iran and Hezbollah in Latin America. Since then, that presence has continued to grow with Iran now having embassies in 11 Latin American countries that include Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua and Uruguay.

Read more from this story HERE.

South Carolina Tea Party Drafts Resolution Calling for Ouster of Lindsey Graham

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Image

Photo Credit: Getty Image

On Monday, Breitbart News reported that South Carolina Tea Party activists have drafted a resolution calling for the replacement of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., citing 29 points against the Republican senator.

In August, the Chesterfield County GOP passed the resolution with 98 percent of those present voting to approve the measure.

“This reflects the continued frustration of many in the party with officials who are elected as Republicans and then seem to forget the doctrine of the party when they assume office,” Joshua Cook wrote.

“The Chesterfield County Republican Party upholds traditional conservative Republican principles and we expect those who are elected under its banner to also adhere to this same standard,” said Chesterfield County GOP Executive Committeeman Glenn Gulledge. “Lindsey Graham has committed a long series of actions that we strongly disapprove of and hold to be fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party.”

“The 29 points documented in this censure clearly illustrate this trend and make it clear that he is not consistently representing some of our most valued, time-honored tenets,” he added.

Read more from this story HERE.

Jobless Rate is Worse than You Think

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

On Labor Day, we celebrate the American worker. And more than four years since the Great Recession ended in June 2009, the unemployment rate is 7.4%, a big improvement from the high of 10% in the fall of 2009. Unfortunately, the rate is hugely misleading: Most of that improvement was for all the wrong reasons.

Remember, jobless workers are not counted as being part of the labor force unless they are actively looking for work, and the decline in the unemployment rate since its peak has mostly been the result of workers dropping out of — or not entering — the labor force.

According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, if the labor market were healthy, the labor force would number about 159.2 million. But the actual labor force numbers just 155.8 million. That means about 3.4 million “missing workers” are out there — jobless people who would be in the labor force if job opportunities were strong.

Given the weak labor market, they’re not actively looking for work and so aren’t counted. If those missing workers were actively looking, the unemployment rate would be 9.4%.

We need 8.3 million jobs to get back to the prerecession unemployment rate, considering the 2 million jobs we are still down from the start of the Great Recession in December 2007 plus the 6.3 million jobs we should have added since just to keep up with normal growth in the potential labor force.

Read more from this story HERE.

Egyptian People Asking Why U.S. So Dead Set On Supporting Muslim Brotherhood?

/9 Comments/in , /by

muslimbrotherhoodLike many of us concerned Americans, Egyptians are now asking why is the Obama administration so intent on helping the Muslim Brotherhood regain and maintain power and control of Egypt.

We’ve seen overwhelming evidence come out of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government to show that they look at the US as enemies in the same way they see Israel. They have also stated that they want to see the US destroyed like Israel. In most definitions that I know of, that would clearly indicate that they are enemies of the United States.

Obama’s continued efforts to support the Muslim Brotherhood, the self-described enemies of the US, constitute treason according to Article 3, Section 3 of the US Constitution which states:

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

Now the Egyptian people are asking the same question that I and others have been asking, which is, why is he openly committing treason by continuing to aid and abet a sworn enemy government regime.

Read more from this story HERE.

Global Cooling at Full Tilt this Summer; Scientists Blame Volcano

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Accuweather

Photo Credit: Accuweather

Throughout history, large volcanic eruptions have been known to influence climate.

This summer, the Midwest experienced a cold wave referred to as “Julytober” following the June eruption of Mount Sheveluch in Russia. Experts continue to compare this eruption to others from history and debate whether it could have induced the cooler Midwestern weather.

“Large Russian volcano eruptions tend to cool the Midwest,” Historical Climatologist Evelyn Browning-Garriss said.

When a volcano erupts, if it is large enough, it can send debris miles into the stratosphere. The stratosphere is the atmosphere above where weather takes place.

Debris sent into the stratosphere by an eruption can include volcanic ash, chemicals and gases, specifically sulfur. This debris can influence temperatures by aiding in a decreased amount of solar radiation.

“Sulfur dioxide combines with water in the atmosphere to provide sulfuric acid aerosol droplets that reflect incoming solar radiation,” PhD Research Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Volcano Observatory David Schneider said.

Read more from this story HERE.