Obama’s Favorite Union Just Raised The White Flag Of Surrender…

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Photo Credit: Western Journalism When the UAW (United Automobile Workers) union failed miserably in Chattanooga and was not able to unionize the Volkswagen plant, even with a staked deck, it started a chain reaction; and the next domino has fallen. The news that the AFL-CIO has decided to keep its money and not even try to save three Southern Democrat Senators comes as no real shock.

The powerful union reviewed the polls and the political climate in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and decided that backing the Democrats in these states would be throwing good money after bad. The decision left Democratic Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, and Kay Hagan in North Carolina on their own, with little major union help as they try to hold on to their seats in a region that is increasingly hostile to Democrats (especially those who are backed by unions.)

Despite an AFL-CIO spokesman’s attempt to put the best face on the news, his words ring hollow. He said, “Those states are states where we have relatively low union density. I think you’ll see in other battleground Senate states like Michigan, Alaska, [and] Iowa a really vigorous union program.”

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Rand Paul at CPAC: ‘What You Do on Your Cell Phone is None of their D_ _ _ _ed Business!’

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Photo Credit: Getty Images By David Martosko.

A sustained noise that could best be called a hoot and holler greeted Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at the mention of his name, before he took the stage at Friday’s Conservative Political Action Conference and declared that cell phone records sought by government agencies were ‘none of their damned business!’

By the time he launched into his blue streak against the National Security Agency and quoted Pink Floyd to criticize President Barack Obama, the overflow crowd of thousands sounded like Beyonce concertgoers who had stumbled into the wrong ballroom.

The crowd simultaneously drank it in and shouted it out, making Paul the star of the Conservative Political Action Conference’s second day and giving him – by far – the event’s loudest applause.

‘If you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance’ from the federal government, Paul warned in his biggest moment. ‘I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damned business!’

One group of partisans shouted ‘President Paul! President Paul!’ as he spoke.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRand Paul Is the King of CPAC

By Sarah Mimms.

A year after his 13-hour filibuster won the hearts of young conservatives just a week ahead of the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, the fandom for Sen. Rand Paul here has only grown.

Paul gave a speech Friday before the first standing-room-only crowd at the conference so far, asking a cheering audience, “Will you, America’s next generation of liberty-lovers, will you stand and be heard?”

Following his typical style, Paul’s speech focused largely on personal freedom, the Fourth Amendment, and rights he alleged are being usurped by the Obama administration, while avoiding the tricky topic of foreign policy, where his libertarian views are not as widely accepted by conservatives here.

Paul’s biggest applause line of the afternoon—the biggest applause line at CPAC so far—came during his discussion of what he perceived as President Obama’s failures, particularly at the National Security Agency. “As our voices rise in protest, the NSA monitors your every phone call. if you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance. I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business,” he said to loud cheers.

Paul continued an assault on Obama’s record, getting laughs when he asked how history will remember the president, and later quoting Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters in asking whether former supporters of the president now believed they had “trade[d] your heroes for your ghosts? … Did they get you to exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”

Read more this story HERE.

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‘Reunited’ Tea Party activists mount battle against IRS at CPAC

By Barnini Chakraborty.

The IRS targeting scandal may have faded from the headlines of major newspapers, but Tea Party groups renewed their battle cry against the tax agency on Thursday as the Conservative Political Action Conference got underway.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, kicked off CPAC — the annual conservative pilgrimage just outside the nation’s capital — by telling a crowd of the GOP faithful, “We need to abolish the IRS.”

“By virtue of your being here today, tomorrow each and every one of you is going to be audited by the IRS,” he said.

Following his speech, a six-person panel discussion, titled “IRS Targeting Scandal: Protecting the Voice of the People,” served as a refresher course for the standing-room-only crowd packed into the Maryland meeting room.

The purpose, panelists told FoxNews.com, was to come together and share stories about what they say are abusive targeting practices of conservative groups at the hands of the tax-collecting agency.

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Court Rules NSA Can’t Keep Metadata Longer Than 5 Years

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstA Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge denied a request Friday by the National Security Agency to keep Internet and phone metadata gathered through bulk surveillance programs longer than five years.

Judge Reggie Walton of the secret FISA Court that approves classified surveillance warrants said the government failed to make a compelling case for preserving the data beyond the current five-year maximum, especially in light of escalating privacy concerns sparked by programs leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Many of those program’s protocols were either misrepresented to the court, or not presented at all.

“The amended procedures would further infringe on the privacy interests of United States persons whose telephone records were acquired in vast numbers and retained by the government to aid in national security investigations,” Walton wrote in the order posted by Politico.

Read more this story HERE.

Common Core ‘Architect’ Deals Blow to Opponents with SAT Revamp

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Photo Credit: AP PHOTO/ TAMUG.EDUThe man known as the “architect” of Common Core has used his new job running the College Board to deal a devastating blow to critics of the national education standards.

The SAT was revamped to align with the Common Core Standards Initiative, the broad language and math standards adopted by 45 states despite growing complaints that it will result in nationalized control of K-12 curriculum. The announcement on Tuesday was made by College Board President David Coleman, who before taking the post in 2012, played a key role in designing Common Core.

Common Core supporters insist the program will ensure through testing a baseline level of learning throughout the nation, but critics say those tests will ensure a uniform curriculum springs up to prepare kids for the tests. Now, with the leading college entrance exam aligned with Common Core, critics acknowledge fighting Common Core could hurt students’ chances of getting into universities and even property values.

“It’s a roundabout way to put pressure on states that opted out of Common Core,” said Whitney Neal, director of Grassroots at Freedom Works. “If you are legislator from Virginia let’s say, this will put pressure on you obtain material to make your district more appealing especially to homebuyers. SAT averages are often included in realtor information and high school success rate is always a selling point.”

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Perry: ‘Time for a Little Rebellion’

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Texas governor Rick Perry broke through as a serious presidential hopeful Friday with a spirited speech to a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Perry brought the audience to its feet with a call to bring the successful conservative policies of red state governors to the national level.

Perry took jabs at targets including New York, California, and the Department of Education, noting that common-sense governance has been absent not only from blue states but from Washington, D.C.

“It’s time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” the Texas governor said, paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson.

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States Give Criminal Exemptions to Union Goons

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Photo Credit: National Review By Alec Torres.

Labor organizers and union enforcers are exempt from important criminal laws in some of the country’s largest states. California, Illinois, and Wisconsin are among the states that allow union members to stalk, harass, and threaten victims — so long as they are putatively doing “legitimate” union business.

As National Review Online recently reported, one such state, Pennsylvania, is pushing to repeal exemptions that give union members freedom from prosecution for stalking, harassing, or even threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Other states have similar laws on the books, but unlike the Keystone State, they’re not even trying to fix this double standard.

California, for example, has a union carveout for stalking and trespassing. Those engaged in “collective bargaining, labor relations, or labor disputes” are also legally free to “willfully [block] the free movement of another person in a [public-transit] system facility or vehicle.” If an ordinary Californian did that, he or she would face a $400 fine and 90 days in prison.

The Golden State even exempts those “engaged in labor union activities” from prosecution for making “a credible threat to cause bodily injury.”

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsLittle-Known PA Law Shields Unions From Stalking, Harassment Charges

By Fox News Insider.

We heard an unbelievable story on Fox and Friends this morning about a Pennsylvania businesswoman who says she has been repeatedly harassed by union workers. And because of a little-known state law from the 1930s, nothing can be done about the menacing tactics.

The dispute between Sarina Rose and local Philadelphia union members started when her employer, Post Bros., hired some non-union workers to build apartments. The company refused to hire an all-union labor force for the job, and the resulting dispute led to daily protests at the site by union workers.

Rose says non-union workers were routinely harassed on their way to and from work and their vehicles were damaged as the behavior became more and more violent.

“In a couple of incidents, guys were chased with crowbars. Some were actually hit,” she explained to Steve Doocy this morning. But prosecutors are handcuffed by a clause in state law that protects parties in labor disputes from charges of stalking, harassment, and terroristic threats.

Rose said that many lawmakers she has spoken to about the exemption are “perplexed” about it.

Read more this story HERE.

Poll: 67 Percent Would Vote Out All Current Lawmakers

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Photo Credit: APMost voters would oust all current members of Congress — including their own senators and representative — if given the opportunity, the latest Fox News poll finds.

By a 67-26 percent margin, voters would kick everybody on Capitol Hill to the curb and replace them with new people. That includes two-thirds of Democrats, Republicans and independents.

The result is perhaps not so surprising, given how voters feel about lawmakers these days: just 12 percent approve of the job Congress is doing, while 78 percent disapprove.

Congress received a record-low 9 percent approval rating in October 2013.

Democratic candidates hold a slim two-percentage point advantage when voters are asked about their preference for Congress this year.

Read more this story HERE.

February: 223,000 More Unemployed Individuals

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Photo Credit: APThe number of unemployed individuals 16 years and over increased by 223,000 in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In February, there were 10,459,000 unemployed individuals age 16 and over, which was up 223,000 from January…

In addition, according to the BLS, there were 91,361,000 Americans, 16 or older, who did not participate in the nation’s labor force in February, meaning they neither held a job nor actively sought one.

That brought the national labor force participation rate to 63%, which matched January’s participation rate.

Read more this story HERE.

‘Suffocating Pressure’: Former ThinkProgress Writer Describes White House ‘Censorship’

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed Zaid Jilani, a former blogger with the left-wing think tank Center for American Progress, explained this week how the Obama administration frequently tries to censor the progressive organization’s content when it departs from the White House’s agenda.

Jiliani was reacting to two on-air protests by journalists opposed to Russia’s invasion of southern Ukraine. The two worked for Russia Today (RT) — an English-speaking media outlet funded directly by Moscow — and felt their bosses were trying to censor their opinions.

In a post titled, ”How Working in Washington Taught Me We’re All A Little Like RT America,” Jilani explained how the White House frequently played the part of the Kremlin — leaning on management to push their writers in a particular direction, and punishing them if they strayed from the party line.

“I’m writing this post to explain how working in Washington taught me we’re all a little bit like the good folks who work at RT America,” Jilani explained, “struggling against editorial censors, doing our best to follow our conscience despite sometimes suffocating pressures from our publishers and sponsors.”

The blogger never assumed he would agree with everything pushed by the Center for American Progress’s Action Fund when he joined the 501(c)(4) nonprofit to write about national security in 2009. But he soon discovered that one topic in particular was entirely shielded from criticism — the war in Afghanistan, which President Obama was then in the process of escalating.

Read more this story HERE.

Larry Kudlow Retires from CNBC’s ‘The Kudlow Report’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Free market-oriented reporter Larry Kudlow is retiring from his 7 PM time slot on CNBC, the second major name to leave the business news network in the last two months.

TVNewser reports that Kudlow’s 12-year career as a CNBC host will finish at the end of March, though he will remain a contributor for the network.

“Larry expressed his love of the network and personal pride in what had been accomplished on his program over the years but now wanted to slow down just a bit,” network president Mark Hoffman said in a note to staff.

Read more this story HERE.