Union Bullying of Wis. Businesses Backfiring

Finally. A palette cleanser for a day filled with stomach churning news.

Dawn Bobo shows the sign that she put in the front window of her store, Village Dollar, 1000 Main St. in Union Grove, Wednesday March 30, 2011.

As I have reported here and here, Wisconsin unions have been using strong-arm  tactics to intimidate local businesses into displaying their pro-union  posters in their store windows.

According to The Journal Times, the intimidation isn’t working in Union Grove, Wis:

Several weeks ago, Bobo said, five female union members showed her the poster and asked her to display it in her front window.

“I said I can’t put up any type of signage for either side,” she recalled. “They said, ‘No problem,’ they were all smiles.”

But Tuesday shop owners got the letter from AFSCME Council 24 Field Rep. Jim Parrett, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

“It is unfortunate that you have chosen not to support public workers rights in Wisconsin,” it began.

“These signs simply said, ‘This business supports workers rights,’ a simple, subtle and we feel noncontroversial statement given the facts at this time,” Parrett wrote.

He listed the government institutions AFSCME represents in the area, including Southern Wisconsin Center and several corrections facilities.

After making a case that government workers are badly treated by Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans’ recent moves to remove most collective bargaining rights, Parrett wrote: “With that, we’d ask that you reconsider taking a sign and stance to support public employees in this community.

“Failure to do so will leave us no choice but do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

Few signs visible

Parrett ended his letter by offering a phone number merchants could call to get off the boycott list.

In Union Grove, that must be a long list. The union thanked shops it counted as supporters, listing 27 local businesses. But merchants and The Journal Times could only find two Main Street businesses displaying the AFSCME sign Wednesday.

One was Raceway Food Mart, 1645 Main St. Owner Hushyar Singh said one of his workers told union members the store would take a sign.

“I will just keep it a week or two, because I don’t want to have so many signs in the window,” said Singh, who clearly had no passion for the issue.

Glen Cayemberg, co-owner of Grove Insurance, 815 Main St., said they got the boycott letter even though they’d never even been asked to display the poster. He would’ve said no anyway.

“As a business owner, your business needs to remain neutral, and you’re not in a position to hop on either side of the fence,” Cayemberg said.

Jeff Kieslich, owner of Ruma Sports, 1000 Main St., said he called Parrett after getting the letter. “I was just disappointed; I didn’t like the tone of the letter,” Kieslich said. “To me, it bordered on strong-arm tactics.

“I have every right to keep silent,” he added. “It does me no good to put a sign like that in my window.”

Kieslich said Parrett told him in that phone call, “‘We just sent you that letter because we wanted to give you one more chance.’ He was kind of smug about the whole thing.”

The threatened boycott may backfire, based on what merchants heard Wednesday. “We have actually had quite a response the other way today,” Kieslich said.

Nancy Washburn, owner of Main St. Market, 1002 Main St., said the same. “Instead of a downturn in our business, we have seen an increase in support from the community around us,” she said.

Now that’s what I like to hear.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

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Here It Is: Video Of Van Jones Speaking at Oakland Anti-American Rally Right After 9/11

I’ve been waiting for this to surface ever since I heard that Obama’s “Green Czar”, (and front page poster at Huff-Po), spoke at this rally.

I’m sure that those of you who can remember all the way back to 9/11/2001, were appalled that there were left-wing creatures, so shockingly vile, and openly seditious, that they would actually protest against America right after the worst attack on our soil in history. I will never forget the visceral disgust I felt for these degenerates when I heard about it. Who could ever have imagined that such a creature would, in less than the span of ten years, be working inside the White House, and have the ear of the President?

Van Jones at 4:38 Mark: “It’s the bombs that the government has been dropping around the world that are now blowing up inside the U.S. borders… We’ve got something stronger than bombs, we have solidarity. That dream of revolutionary change is stronger than bombs.”

Via Breitbart TV:

I can’t wait for the MSM’s non-coverage of this story. It will be a spectacular…

What’s the opposite of firestorm? (like what happened after Trent Lott made a joke in an elevator on Strom Thurmond’s birthday) — cold fizzle?

Yep. Obama’s former Green Czar, who was only let go after his Marxism was exposed by Glenn Beck, but is still an influential player on the left, writing on the front page at  Huffpo, leading the radical Color of Change, and a “Senior Fellow” at “Obama’s idea factory”, Center For American Progress, protested against the United States, while the rest of  us were still recovering from the shock, wiping away our tears, and seething in anger at al Qaeda, the terrorists who were responsible.

MORE:

I’m still not sure I was able to convey just how deeply offended I was by these protesters.  I remember hearing about it (on Rush?, Hannity?) and being astounded that such a thing was even possible. At the time, the country was almost 100% united in righteous fury at the terrorists responsible for the horrific attack that killed thousands of innocent fellow citizens. Only a malevolent and  extreme lunatic fringe could actually use that time of national outrage and mourning to protest against their own country, I thought. Only eight years later, one of the speakers from that national embarrassment and abomination would actually work in our White House.

UPDATE:

Via Andrew Breitbart at Big Journalism:

Take a moment and sign our petition demanding that the Huffington Post not buckle under to the intimidation tactics of this man and the anti-free speech organization he founded. Make your voice heard. Speak truth to power.

Addendum:  The video discussed in this post was originally posted by BizzyBlog in September, 2009.  It was reported on at the time by PowerLine.

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, thanks.

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Thursday Link-a-thon

Have you  heard about this, yet? While the left-wing media works itself into a frothy lather over every penny the Koch’s spend on libertarian causes, their  benefactor and puppet-master, “spooky dude” Soros is busy plotting to remake the global economy.

Newsbusters has the latest: Stacked Deck: Soros Adds More Lefty Supporters to Event Aiming to Remake Economy

Soros has spent $50 million getting the group INET (Institute for New Economic Thinking) to throw a remake of the famous Bretton Woods conference held near the end of World War II. This conference begins April 8 and Soros’s goal is to “establish new international rules” and “reform the currency system.” It’s all according to a plan laid out in a Nov. 4, 2009, Soros op-ed calling for “a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order.”

Of course it’s gotten little press, despite having eight separate journalists on the list of 90 speakers. That list includes six from The Financial Times, which hasn’t mentioned INET since November.

Though the Soros-funded INET keeps adding new speakers, more than two-thirds of those are still connected directly to George Soros. Some of the newer additions are also blatantly liberal, in case there was any doubt about the nature of the event.

See Newsbusters to see who’s speaking.

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Moonbattracker: Unions Still Threatening Wisconsin Businesses: Put Up Our Sign, or Else:

Talk-show host Jay Weber posted a message today on his website reportedly showing a letter template from an AFSCME representative used to intimidate local businesses in the city of Union Grove. The logic is baffling. The letter doesn’t accuse the business owner of coming out against the union or vocalizing support for Walker, but rather says that since the business did not respond to requests to post a pro-union sign, the business is tacitly supporting the governor. The penalty for such inaction? A boycott:

Go ahead –  read the letter. It begins: It is unfortunate that you have chosen “not” not support public worker rights in Wisconsin.

See also, Cold Fury: Goon squads take next step in intimidation campaign: blackmail.

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The Glenn Beck Show, 3/30/2011 runs the gamut from who’s behind Obama’s Libyan war policy (which seems to point to Soros) to the boy genius who is trying to disprove the big bang theory.

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The Shark Tank has this exclusive video: Herman Cain- “A Real Black Man May Run Against Barack Obama”:

Cain called out the mainstream media as being ‘afraid’  to cover his candidacy because of their alleged fear to see him go toe-to-toe with President Obama.   Cain also explained why that the ‘liberal mainstream media’ has relentlessly tried to smear Governor Sarah Palin and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann because of their fear that either of these two women would take a big portion of the female vote in 2012 if  they were to decide to run for the Presidency.  Mr. Cain finished by stating that “they (the mainstream media) are doubly  scared that a real black man may run against Barack Obama.”

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Susan Swift at Big Journalism: Media Tale of Two Marches: Solidarity Saturday v. Pro-Life Sunday

Over 5,000 pro-life advocates marched for the unborn at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Sunday, March 27th. They walked to send a positive message of life, to answer “yes” to the question of life in the womb. The only paper to report this first ever Rose Bowl Walk for Life was the Pasadena Star News, a local paper owned by umbrella Los Angeles Newspapers Group (the Group also ran the labor rally story in one of its other local papers, The Daily News).

The Arch Bishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez delivered the opening remarks. Live Action’s Lila Rose, African-American pro-life preacher Walter Hoye, film producer Jason (“Bella”) Jones, and Hispanic actress Karyme Lozano spoke to the cheering crowds of pro-life families before the three mile march. Families stayed afterwards to express support for those in crisis pregnancies, visit pro-life booths, and enjoy music by Christian bands including Christafari.

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Also at Big Journalism, watch Lee Stranahan use Media Mutters’ favorite debunking ploy against them: Media Matter’s Deceptive Editing On Fox Story:

Media Matters for America is doing a victory lap over their story about Fox News exec Bill Sammon supposedly lying repeatedly on air during the 2008 election after audio they have released shows Sammon saying he found the idea of Barack Obama being a socialist to be ‘far fetched’. But not so fast.

The watchdog group has actually produced a video about the story with blatantly deceptive editing, using trick editing that is so blatant that one wonders why they have such contempt for their fan base. Of course, that fan base includes Howie Kurtz and Greg Sargent. (Is it coincidence that these are the two reporters who were carrying water for Arianna Huffington on the recent Breitbart / Huffington story?)

I’ve done a video showing exactly how MMfA uses editing trickery to lie and frankly, every time I watch the original video I’m stunned with what they try to get away with. They do such a botch job of literally making Sammon say something he never said that repeated viewing make me almost admire their cajones. You’ll see.

Watch video at link.

Check back for more. I have to take a quick break, but I have more on tap.

***

Long post at Michelle Malkin on a subject I’ve been saying deserves more attention : Project Gunrunner: Obama’s Stimulus-Funded Border Nightmare:

Watch AG Eric Holder do what’s he done his entire career: Stonewall, deny, forget, cover up, give passes, and get passes.

More on Gunrunner and ties to the ICE agent Jaime Zapata’s murder at Patterico’s.

The Truth about Guns’ coverage of the scandal is here. Andrea Shea King’s Gunrunner archive and radio interview with Gunrunner insiders is here. Laura Ingraham’s coverage of the scandal and interview with Sen. Grassley is here. Jim Geraghty and Cam Edwards ask tough questions at NRO. Townhall’s Katie Pavlich has beentrackingthe story.

This disaster has only just begun.

***

Buried in Barack Obama’s failed trillion-dollar stimulus program was a $10 million bloody border racket that has now cost American lives. This goes far beyond the usual waste, fraud and abuse underwritten by progressive profligacy. It’s bloodstained government malfeasance overseen by anti-gun ideologues — and now anti-gun ideologue Attorney General Eric Holder will “investigate.”

Welcome to Project Gunrunner. Prepare for another Justice Department whitewash.

***

J. Christian Adams at Big Government: Surprise: Justice Department Exonerates Itself In New Black Panther Case

The New Black Panther fix came in just as we suspected.  Yesterday the Department of Justice completed its 19 month internal investigation into whether Steve Rosenbaum and Loretta King, the political appointee attorneys who ordered the dismissal of the voter intimidation case, acted unethically.  No surprise, DOJ found that DOJ acted ethically.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have heard about the conclusion.  The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) report was the narrower of the two DOJ investigations of the matter, and Congress will be sure to conduct a far broader, and more competent, inquiry.

More J. Christian Adams at NewsReal: How Eric Holder and Barack Obama Squandered the Promise of a Post-Racial America:

What has been most amazing to see is how the left-wing blogosphere has taken this limited and predictable finding and pounced like genuine reactionaries.  The fly has buzzed by the frog and a long tongue darts automatically.  The cat sees a mouse, and pounces.  They cannot help themselves, they cannot do otherwise.  It is like the Borg, all moving in unison, in common preprogrammed purpose. (With credit to the brilliant Jennifer Rubin).

There are a number of reasons, if I may stain that noble word, why the Left acts like this when it comes to the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation scandal.  For starters, conservatives have never had permission to speak on racial issues, and until recently, conservatives have submitted.  For decades, Republicans were particularly guilty.  Too afraid to articulate a competing philosophy on racial issues, they were content to stay silent and allow thinkers like Shelby Steele to do all of the heavy lifting.  After all, he could get away with it.

I am reminded by a conversation where someone said, “don’t stir up the anthill, we don’t want to raise these issues.”

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The Black Panther case is just one more out of many offenses and outrages we’ve had to endure since the lawless Obama regime began, as Mike Hendrix notes in this exquisite rant at

Cold Fury:Depends on what you mean by failure:

Glenn repeats a popular myth re: Ogabe’s meaningless and ever-changing poll numbers:

OBAMA UNDERWATER: “A new poll out this morning from Quinnipiac of over 2000 registered voters nationwide puts Obama’s approval level at 42%, the lowest in any Q-poll for Obama, with 48% disapproving. His re-elect number is actually even lower.” That’s because he’s been a miserable failure at pretty much everything. Even the NCAA bracket…

Well, let’s see about that.

He’s gotten the first big step towards government health care implemented, and the Republicans are either unwilling or incapable of doing anything at all about it. He’s institutionalized previously unimaginable levels of federal spending, and has the Republicans dithering ineffectually over whether to cut a hundredth of one percent out of it or hold the line at a Draconian tenth of one percent, having conceded without argument that any truly meaningful reduction in the size of the federal government, even back to its Leviathan 2008 status, is just out of the question.

He’s effectively destroyed the domestic oil industry, resulting in gas prices that are around four dollars a gallon and will most likely be approaching five by the end of the summer, just as he said he wanted back during his campaign. He’s running a large chunk of the domestic auto industry and influencing the business decisions of the rest of it through Zombie GM. He’s rewarded his friends on Wall Street and at GE while wrapping their competitors in reams of new red tape, playing the corporate-fascism card to advance his own nefarious agenda.

Keep reading, he’s just getting started, of course. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows there’s much, much more. God help us.

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My friend Patrick O’Hannigan, with Apologies to Shakespeare and to Jimmy Buffet: No Compulsion in Religion:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:
I come to bury Uncle Sam, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Uncle Sam
And those for whom he stood.
His critics call him too ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault
And grievously hath he answer’d for it,
Both in the Civil War and afterward,
Stricken with a multitude of imperfections.

Look you where towers once stood paired,
Or near the river where warriors still meet
In damaged corridors.
Remember when the valor of hijacked passengers

Turned a Pennsylvania field into an altar.
American soil bears witness to Muslim rage,
And to the irony lost on people
Who reach always for the one verse in the Koran
Saying there is no compulsion in religion.

Keep reading…

***

Hey, look who’s back – it’s David Kahane, posting at NRO: Media Matters’ War on Fox News:

Like the minutes of a Union Square Communist cell in the 1940s, Media Matters eschews stylish writing and individual voices. It’s a true tool of the leftist collective, the media that matters for an America that needs its media to matter. No matter which of its many “senior fellows” is writing “research” or “columns” about Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, the Koch brothers, and Fox News, it all sounds exactly the same. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Eric Boehlert, Ari Rabin-Havt, Jamison Foser, Sarah Pavlus, Simon Maloy, or your great-aunt Hilda, the heroic prose reads like the product of the best J school in Belarus — or my alma mater, the Columbia Graduate School of Social Research, Marxism-Leninism, and Journalism. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

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All I can say is, it’s about time. For decades, we’ve been turning the other cheek as you hateful, hurtful right-wingers have inflicted injury after injury upon us, like beating us in elections every once in a while. Here all we want to do is effect a fundamental transformation of your entire country — its morals, its politics, its economic system, its place in the world — and you refuse to play along. And this with the splendid examples of my beloved Soviet Union and Communist China staring you in the face. How many people do we men of the Left have to kill before you take us seriously?

Keep working on it. That 11% could grow to 20% or 25% in no time. But will that matter after the nation’s  been transformed into a Socialist utopia by comrade Obama?

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Your grim laugh of the day:

Obama’s accepts transparency award in secret on the same day that Oversight Committee’s damning FOIA report comes out:

— The irony is so thick that transparency advocates are choking on it: “Obama met quietly in the Oval Office with Gary Bass of OMB Watch, Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Patrice McDermott of OpenTheGovernment.org, without disclosing the meeting on his public schedule or letting photographers or print reporters into the room.”

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William Teach writing for RWN: Obama’s Stealth Globull Warming Executive Order:

As the Republican led House, and many Republicans, and some Democrats, in the Senate look to keep the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, Mr. Obama has quietly implemented his own rules.

On March 4th, in a move surely designed to side-step Congress, Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality issued instructions to all federal agencies on how to adapt to climate change. All agencies, from the Food and Drug Administration to the Department of Defense, will be required to analyze their vulnerabilities to the impacts from climate change and come up with a plan to adapt. Thousands of governmental employees will be trained on climate science, like it or not.

The changes aren’t limited to just federal agencies. Countless numbers of private businesses that sell, build, provide logistics or maintenance, or anything else to the government will be forced to comply with new Federal climate adaptation guidelines—all because of Presidential Executive Order 13514.

Oh good God, make it stop.

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Is there any good news out there?????

The Economic Collapse: 17 National Debt Statistics Which Prove That We Have Sold Our Children And Grandchildren Into Perpetual Debt Slavery

NOPE.

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PACNW Righty: Stolen Valor Act Ruled Unconstitutional:

This one is a little tough to take.  The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has declared the 2006 Stolen Valor Act as unconstitutional based on the right of free speech guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.  I know the 1st Amendment is by design a very broad brush, put in place to protect dissenting opinions, even if the opinions are more hyperbole than substance.  But I am kind of surprised that lying is protected under the same amendment that protects political speech.

Of course, to the left, lying is virtually the only speech they have, hence this moonbat ruling.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Over-Taxed – More Overtime Needed

image via Free Republic

Sgt. Schmultz over at PMSNBC done  broke the hypocrisy meter again.

Newsbusters: Schultz: ‘Are You With The Terrorists, Or Are You With The President Of The United States?’

ED SCHULTZ: Republicans are attacking the Commander-in-Chief during a time of war! . . . There should be no debate: we should be kicking [Gaddafi’s] ass . . . Whose side are you on, Sarah: are you with the terrorists, Sarah, or are you with the President of the United States? . . . And I have to ask the question tonight: where is the patriotism from all of these war-hawks? Where’s the patriotism of the Republican party? . . . What about being a patriot? . . . So the question now for the doubters who are out and about: why don’t you support the president? . . . We’ve been talking about the lack of patriotism from prominent Republicans . . .  Laura [Flanders] what about the patriotism?

Watch video at Newsbusters, (if you can stomach it).

Good grief, but what a cretin. How can the left stand to have such detestable D-nozzels like Schultz, Olbermann, Mahr, Moore, etc  representing their viewpoints? No one on the conservative side even begins to compare to these bottomfeeders. Seriously. Who watches Ed Schultz and thinks, “That right there in one impressive, intelligent guy…he’s got the facts on his side, yessiree.”  Every time I’m subjected to one of his  imbecilic, fact-free  rants on YouTube, I feel like six months have been taken from my life because the amount of patience and willpower  it takes to sit through one of them puts undue stress on my entire constitution. (The same thing goes for Obama’s speeches, which is why I can’t  listen to them anymore.)

Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin presents: Debate on Wartime Patriotism — Today’s Matchup: Ed Schultz vs. Hillary Clinton.

-With Hillary taking the Bush years Democrats’ position.

I  addressed the Dem Socialist’s rank hypocrisy on this issue nearly a year ago: Patriotism in The Age Of Obama.

For eight long years,  we heard Democrats bleating continuously about how the Republicans were “questioning their patriotism”. Hillary was perhaps the loudest and most strident of a whole host of liberal voices.

I’ve concluded that it was a result of a coordinated effort by the Dem Socialists in Congress because they understood that their evolving, and cynical  positions on the Iraq war, (supportive at first, unsupportive and undermining when  it was politically expedient), made them look like unpatriotic swine. So their strategy was to get ahead of that perception by constantly accusing  Republicans of questioning their patriotism. But Republicans never did in any explicit terms:

Fred Barnes wrote in The Weekly Standard in Dec. 2003, after the meme had taken off:

The claim that Democrats are targets of a political low blow by being labeled unpatriotic has become a Democratic refrain. It’s been used by Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, and presidential candidates Dick Gephardt, Wesley Clark, and Howard Dean. Kennedy was upbraided by Republicans in September for claiming Bush had concocted the Iraq war for political gain. His response: “There’s no question that this White House sees political advantage in the war. And you can see it in the way they attack the patriotism of those who question them.”

But nobody called Kennedy or any other Democrat unpatriotic. Bush didn’t. Senate Republicans didn’t. House majority leader Tom DeLay denounced Kennedy, but didn’t accuse him of a lack of patriotism. In this and every other case in which Democrats claim to have been smeared as unpatriotic, the facts don’t bear them out. Bush has never used the words “Democrat” and “unpatriotic” in the same sentence or in nearby sentences. In fact, he’s never uttered the word “unpatriotic” in public in any context.

That went on for five more  years, with Republicans always scratching their heads – who’s calling them “unpatriotic” other than some Freepers, or something? Who of import and influence is using the words “unpatriotic” or “unAmerican” to describe the Dems?

Finally, in October 2008, one Republican finally did “question their patriotism” – Michele Bachmann caused a media firestorm after  she (correctly) noted that Obama might have “unAmerican views”, and that there were some congress critters the MSM should be investigating  for their unAmerican activities. Oh, the palpitations that caused on the left! Someone finally did what they feared.

Anyhoo, “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” officially ended with the New age of Obama upon us:

9/27/2008: Video: Pelosi calls House GOP “unpatriotic”

12/12/2008: Dingell blames ‘some Southern senators’ for auto bailout defeat

Senators from states where the international automakers do considerable business unpatriotically blocked a bill that was supported by the White House, that passed the House with a bipartisan majority, and that had the support of 52 Senators.”

12/13/2008: Michigan Governor Granholm explains the “un-American” or parochial behavior of Senate Republicans.

7/1/2009: Henry Waxman Questions the GOP’s Patriotism; Will the Media Question Him?

July 5, 2009: Los Angeles Times: Tea Parties are ‘Un-American’



 

4/15/2010: On Hardball: Slamming Republicans as ‘Un-American’ Is Fine, But Don’t Dare Talk About Obama That Way

Now the latest thing for the left is to accuse Republicans of treason and sedition:

Daily Kos 10/2/2009: Republicans are UnAmerican Treasonous Bastards

4/19/2009: Joe Klein: Yes, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck ‘seditious’

Of course, I could update that list, if I wanted to take the time. But I think the left’s hypocrisy on this issue  is pretty well established at this point.

I wonder if  there’s  been any progress by the linguists in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to find a word stronger than “Hypocrisy”?

UPDATE:

Oh, well…check this out:

Newsbusters:Lauer Shocks Bachmann: Should We Show Compassion to Al Qaeda in Libya?

NBC’s Matt Lauer, on Wednesday’s Today show, startled Michele Bachmann as he tried to convince her that Obama’s strategy of bombing Libya was a good way to show support for the rebels as he pressed the Republican Minnesota Congresswoman “If there are flickers, as you say, of al Qaeda among the rebels, would it not be a sign to them or showing them that the United States has compassion and we are willing to use our military might to help all people?” Bachmann was taken aback by the thrust of the question as she responded: “Compassion for al Qaeda?”

Look for Schmultz to ask Lauer the same question he asked Palin: “are you with the terrorists, Matt, or are you with the President of the United States?”
(In this case, both).

3-2-1—-never.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

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Video: Sen. Sessions On Senate Floor: Dem Leaders Think Cutting $61 Billion Out Of $3.7 Trillion Is “Extreme”?

I love this.  Sessions throws the Dem-Socialists’ favorite talking point right back in their faces as he reads off all the latest  examples of them using the word, “extreme” in their “messaging”:

Video via

On the Senate floor this morning, Sen. Sessions chastened Democrat leaders after it emerged that they were coordinating their talking points to paint Republicans as “extreme.” In a conference call yesterday, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said, “I always use the word ‘extreme'” when discussing Republican plans to reduce spending.

Also yesterday, former DNC Chairman Howard Dean said that “I think it would be the best thing in the world to have a [government] shutdown.”

As Sen. Sessions has noted today and in recent days, nearly every freshman Republican lawmaker was elected on promises to reduce spending. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has already passed a bill to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, but the Democrat-led Senate has not yet done so.

 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Dems have nothing but contempt for the American voter – they think we’re stupid.

RELATED:

Ace of Spades HQ: GOP Positions Itself For Shutdown, Working On Bill Called “Shutdown Prevention Act”

Previously:

Chuckie Schumer: To the EXTREME!!! (Updated With Audio)

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Tea Partiers Need To Keep On Fighting

Gabe at Ace of Spades HQ brings the good news that Judge Sumi’s  amended TRO (PDF) to halt implementation of the budget repair only orders the Wisconsin Secretary of State not to publish or implement the law. There are two major problems with that:

(1) this law has already been published and (2) the Secretary of State does not “implement” the law in the sense that his office does not deal with withholding of union dues, setting pensions withholdings, etc. The Wisconsin AG says implementation is ongoing and will continue.

Is this judge really so incompetent that she doesn’t understand the law?

Another thing many people may not realize is that even though election day for Justice Prosser’s seat is next week, he will continue on the Supreme Court until August.

… which means that no matter what happens next week, he will still be on the court when the TRO is considered. He will also likely still be on the bench when the merits of the Open Meetings argument are ruled on, though that will depend more on how much the liberal Chief Justice can drag her feet if Prosser isn’t reelected. Keep in mind that there won’t be a drawn-out appeals process here because the appellate court already took a pass on the case.

So, even if he does lose the election, all is not lost.

None of this is reason to sit back and relax. Conservatives in Wisconsin and elsewhere should understand that Wisconsin is ground zero in the public-union budget battles, and what happens there will have repercussions everywhere. Republicans have a massive fight on their hands against a powerful, well funded and ruthless adversary.

Michael Barone asks: Where’s the Tea Party?:

Next Tuesday voters will have their say in an election for state Supreme Court. Incumbent Republican David Prosser is being challenged by Democrat JoAnne Kloppenburg, who is giving strong hints that she’ll uphold a dubious ruling by a lower court that the legislature acted illegally in limiting public employee unions’ powers. A Prosser defeat would give Democrats a 4-3 edge on the court.

Off-year elections tend to have low turnout, and the public employee unions are working hard to get their voters out. It’s unclear whether Tea Partiers and others whose enthusiasm and energy transformed Wisconsin from a 56-42 percent Obama state in 2008 to a 52-46 percent Walker state in 2010 will be similarly energized.

In addition, both parties have threatened to recall at least some of the other side’s state senators. Recall petitions are being circulated and require relatively few signatures.

The IWV poll says that voters would oppose recalling Democratic state senators by 60 to 38 percent but oppose recalling Republicans by only 52 to 43 percent.

There’s an assumption by many Republicans, seemingly shared by Walker, that voters settled these issues definitively in the November elections. But the IWV poll suggests that voters are not necessarily well-informed and have been swayed by those who frame the issue as collective bargaining “rights.”

Respondents become more favorable to Walker’s position when informed that public employees are paid 45 percent more than private-sector union members and that union dues have been automatically deducted and go to support candidates workers may not favor.

In New Jersey, a more Democratic state than Wisconsin, Gov. Chris Christie has won majority support in his struggles with public employee unions by making his case repeatedly, with facts and figures, and with a forcefulness that has made his town hall appearances a YouTube hit.

As I’ve been saying, Chris Christie has been showing Republicans how it’s done.  These other Republican Governors need to follow his lead.
As for the tea party…Wisconsin tea partiers need to get motivated. The 2010 election was just the beginning. We can’t let down our guard, now that the organized left is in full attack/propaganda mode.  Wisconsinites need to find out when and where tea parties are being held in their state, and plan to attend as many as they can.

Rally to support our efforts! Sen. Maj. Leader Scott Fitzgerald
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Saturday, April 2, 2011
10am
West Mason Street Office
2685A W. Mason St.

Tax day rally
Madison, Wisconsin
Saturday, April 16, 2011
11:00am/3:00pm
State capitol
madison

Get out there Wisconsin Tea partiers.
UPDATE:

Please help the Tea Party Express blanket the airwaves in Wisconsin  this weekend with this new ad in support of Justice Prosser:

We are buying every available airtime slot on Wisconsin TV – statewide – to run this ad. We need your help, urgently. With so little time we have to raise as much money as we can, so we can purchase this airtime for the TV ad. You can now donate to our Wisconsin State PAC.

As The  National Review notes:

Wisconsin supreme court justice David Prosser went to bed one night a respected former prosecutor, and woke up the next morning the target of a $3 million union-run smear campaign, falsely accused of being an enabler of pedophiles. That is what you get when you oppose the political machine that has been fleecing taxpayers in Wisconsin and elsewhere for a generation. Or, as in the case of Justice Prosser, when they suspect you might merely stand in their way and do your job.

You can help get this ad on the air by donating here.
You can endorse Prosser for Wis Supreme Court, here.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Doug Ross, thanks!

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