A Democratic Disaster: Biden blasts Obama, Clinton and Edwards...

Oh, Joe...

Talk about imploding before your candidacy even gets of the ground!

Within days of failing to entertain SEIU bigwigs at a secret-meeting in Florida this past weekend, in which the union bosses found him to be "long-winded," Senator Joe Biden has just about finished his short-lived bid for the presidency by slamming his fellow Democrats in an interview published by the New York Observer.

In the interview, Biden rips into Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and newcomer, Barak Obama. While most of Biden's remarks involved his opponents' positions on Iraq, he used what his campaign considers "unfortunate" words when discussing the Democrats' newest superstar, Barak Obama.

Biden's stupid choice of calling Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” has gotten the usual response from those who make their living on the politics of race, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

As reported in the New York Times, both Jackson and Sharpton - who have both run for president — "said they had no idea what Mr. Biden meant. And both suggested they felt at least a little offended by the remarks."

Unfortunately for poor Joe, instead of the media focusing on the substance of his remarks regarding the other two contenders, his remarks have turned on the race machine which will just as surely knock him out of the race as if he had called Hillary a "smart chick."

However, what Biden said about Her Highness Hillary and John Edwards was equally castigating...

Clinton: "...she can’t break out of 30 percent for a choice for Democrats..."

Edwards: "...doesn’t know what he’s talking about..."

...But, in today's politically correct America, it's easier to knock a candidate out on inappropriate remarks than it is on the substance of his or her ideas (or lack thereof).

As Biden's campaign will be short-lived (very short lived), suffice it to say that, in this crowded field of Democrat behemoths, there is now two down and two to go for Her Highness to take her throne. (Does anyone remember John Kerry, our National Pariah and International Embarrassment?)

P.S. Click here to order your own pair of Biden Blockers!

Coming to a Piggly Wiggly near you: 'Bunny-hugging' PETA caught killing and dumping!

One might wonder, what does an article about PETA have to do with employers, employees or unions (aka the mission of EmployerReport.com)?

Well, not much...Other than the fact that an ongoing story about PETA staffers killing and dumping bags of dead dogs and cats into a dumpster behind a North Carolina Piggly Wiggly has caught our attention. Beyond the startling hypocrisy of the PETA story, however, is one revealing factoid in middle of that story that makes us wonder, where does this ultra-left hypocrisy end?...But we'll get to that in a few minutes.

For those few of our readers who are not familiar with PETA, PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. For a Wikipedia overview of PETA, click here.

Suffice it to say that PETA is a well-known radical animal rights groups that rejects the idea that animals are property, and believes that eating, wearing and otherwise using animals for anything other than to look at in the wild is unconscionable...dare we say even evil.

For an interesting article on Man's Rights versus Animal Rights, click here.

PETA, since its inception (and on behalf of the animals) has often taken it upon itself to resort to campaigns to disrupt, harass, and impede companies and individuals of making use of animals for such things as medical testing, clothing, and even food. Inasmuch PETA has been linked to the extremist groups Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, both listed as terrorist organizations by the FBI.

PETA has also targeted children in its campaigns by handing out pamphlets entitled "Your Mommy Kills Animals" or "Your Daddy Kills Animals." As well as alienated African-Americans and other minorities by comparing animal ownership with slavery.

Now, PETA, the group that supposedly stands for treating animals ethically, the group that has gone to court to stop "cruelty to animals" and has splattered ketchup on countless fur-adorned women across the globe, has become the Dr. Kevorkian of the animal world--killing the very animals the organization was supposedly founded to protect. That's right, according to the article online, PETA is now murdering animals and dumping their bodies.

A PETA spokeswoman, Kathy Guillermo, said PETA never wanted to get into the business of euthanizing animals. But she said the group couldn't ignore the horrible conditions in animal shelters around Norfolk and in northeastern North Carolina. The group now euthanizes thousands of animals a year.

"Euthanasia is a better alternative to sitting in a stinking pound," Guillermo said.

In fact, according to Wikipedia, PETA euthanizes the majority of unwanted animals that are given to them. Among, recommending euthanasia for sick and dying animals, PETA also recommends killing certain breeds of animals (e.g. pit bull terriers)[1] and in certain situations for unwanted animals in shelters: for example, for those living for long periods in cramped cages.[2]

Ingrid Newkirk, one of PETA's founders, has said: "Our service is to provide a peaceful and painless death to animals who no one wants."[3] PETA recommends the use of an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital provided it is administered by a trained professional.[4]
Before founding PETA, Newkirk was chief of animal-disease control and director of the animal shelter in the District of Columbia.[5] During her time working in animal shelters, she said she would "go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn't stand to let them go through ... [other workers abusing the animals]. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day."[6]

Now, in North Carolina, two PETA staffers are on trial for killing animals...and, of course, dumping their bodies behind the Piggly Wiggly.

So, here's the gist of this whole late-night diatribe...

Here we have an organization (PETA) who is the self-appointed moral compass of how people should treat animals that admits, as well as gets caught murdering and dumping the bodies of its victims--the very animals it is supposed to protect.

Hmmm...Let's hope they don't start taking out their warped views onto the human species...

Wait-a-minute...

Isn't that similar to a union like the UFCW that admonishes employers like Wal-Mart on how they should treat their workers, and then tries to cut its own workers pay?...

Or, the SEIU whose Teamster-represented employees are also on strike?...

Editor's note: No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog.

So much to write about, so little time...

This week past has brought about a plethora that it is only fair to provide a summary of the news and events shaping this mind...

She is, she might be, SHE IS!

Did anyone really think that Hillary wasn't going to run...well, at least "explore" running?

On Saturday, Her Highness, Hillary Clinton graced us with her sort-of announcement of her intention of running for President of the United States by posting on her website her formation of an "exploratory committee." This is kind of like announcing that she's only half-pregnant?

To further create some excitement is the fact that her mid-winter announcement came amidst a back-drop of greenery that one usually finds in the Springtime--making pundits wonder: When did this rather indecisive stand-by-her-man woman tape this half-pregnant announcement?

In the meantime, just a full news cycle into Her Higness Hillary's exploratory campaign, one of her pollsters is claiming that arch-rivals Obama and Edwards' campaigns are "stalled or falling".

Speaking of Obama...

Is Barak Obama JFK reincarnated? A just fawning article in the from the Sun-Times News Group compares Barak Obama's "rock star aura" to that of the late JFK. Crazy, huh? First of all, the man does have some hype to his name...But to compare him to JFK is just a little ridiculous. To me, it's something akin to the hype that surrounded Howard Dean before his implosion in Iowa.

In other news...

Non-union trucking co. Swift has been sold in an all-cash transaction. While that is not news in itself, the fact that the Teamsters opposed the sale is interesting...BUT, what is more interesting is the revelation that the Teamsters, according to the article posted online, owns about 20% of the non-union company's shares!

Unions striking unions...In Canada, where all things cold reside, it seems Teamster members are on strike against their employer, the SEIU. And, as if to get further egg on the face of the union bosses up North, the UFCW has its office workers out on strike, as well. It seems the UFCW's workers are upset because their employer (the union) is seeking wage and benefit cuts!

Wait a minute! You mean a union that supposedly cares for workers is demanding wage cuts from its own staff?!? Now if that isn't hypocrisy at its finest!...

Unintended Consequences--Part Deux

In yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, we find this story out of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam protesting the recent Democrat-controlled House-passed minimum wage hike.

In addition to a hike in the minimum wage causing thousands of disabled Arizonans to lose their jobs, it seems the Guam Chamber of Commerce, as well as Northern Mariana Island officials, are objecting to the minimum wage increase due to the economic problems it will cause for those U.S. territories' "fragile" economies.

Doing a Deal with the Devil: How Democrats will cost Americans their jobs

If Americans thought 12 years of Republican congressional rule was bad for workers, just wait until things under the Democrats get rolling...

While posting news articles for EmployerReport.com this morning, the following news article hit me like a ton of bricks. It was clearly an "aha!" moment....

Here's the gist: The President's "fast track authority" on trade deals may be held hostage to such bills as the Employee Free Choice Act--one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation to hit the American workplace ever. EFCA is going to become a "package deal" to extort support from Republicans (and the President) in order to get deals on free trade legislation.

It seems ultra-liberal Barney Frank, the the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee is willing to trade with the Republicans on certain bills in order to get Democrats' (read 'union-backed') agenda through the Congress. Barney Frank is calling this a "Grand Bargain," but it is more appropriate to call it a "grand scheme" (at the very least) or, more adroitly, a "grand f**king."

In sum, the unions are going to be holding Democrats' feet to the fire (under the threat of political ostracization) to push some very dangerous legislation through Congress, such as:

1. Minimum wage hike. Although there will likely be a small debate on the subject, President Bush has indicated he will sign this legislation.



2. Universal Health Care (read Socialized Medicine). While there is going to be much debate on how to handle the nation's current "health care crisis," the country is likely to move toward socialized medicine...If not during this Congress, then most certainly under the next if a Democrat like John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama wins the White House in 2008.



3. Immigration Reform. To legalize illegal aliens or not to legalize illegal aliens is just part of the political question that will be debated in the weeks and months ahead.



4. Last, but not least is the Employee Free Choice Act. This bill, more than any other, has labor bosses in a feeding frenzy over its passage. It was the Democrat candidates' litmus test, not Iraq or immigration or minimum wage or socialized medicine, that candidates had to pass in order to get Big Labor's $100 million support in the mid-term elections.

Anyone who has followed EmployerReport.com since its launch on Labor Day '06 knows that we have devoted a lot of time to alerting the business community and media to the dangers of the Employee Free Choice Act also known as the Kill American Jobs Act. In fact, we have a whole web page devoted to the subject.

What is the Employee Free Choice Act? In sum, it is a bill that will destroy thousands of small companies and an untold amount of American jobs. Here's the essence of it:

What are its primary provisions?

1. To outlaw secret-ballot elections on the matter of unionization in workplaces with two or more employees that are under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act.



2. To force binding arbitration on above-referenced employers if, after 120 days of negotiations (including 30 days of mediation) fail to produce a collective bargaining agreement.

What are its likely consequences?

• Immediate gains in union membership, swelling union coffers immensely



• Closure of small companies under the burden of unionization, resulting in layoffs of workers



• Capital flight in the form of more outsourcing of jobs, as larger companies take flight from the onerous regulation



• More automation in those industries that cannot be outsourced resulting in fewer jobs



• Potential for one-party rule in state and national politics, as unions will be able to mobilize millions of dollars and thousands of members to polls.

In 2005, Andy Stern, Anna Burger and the rest of the gang at Change to W(h)in(e), published some statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), showing that, while overall manufacturing in the US fell 12%, union manufacturing fell 66% from 1973 through 2001. The Illinois Manufacturers Association just published an alarming statistic that manufacturing in Illinois has fallen 25% (or lost 200,000 jobs) since 2000.

The conclusion can easily be reached that being union has a dramatic (and negative) effect on a worker's job security.

So, let's put this into some perspective....

As outsourcing and downsizing has affected the American worker for the last two decades, the newly-elected Democrats are willing to give the President fast-track authority on free-trade deals like the FTAA, in exchange for Republican support on such American job-killing provisions as EFCA and amnesty for illegal aliens.

Pass a law to make it easier for my job to get sent out of the U.S. in exchange for a law that creates an incentive for companies to send jobs overseas! Talk about a betrayal of American Workers!!! (...But, hey, at least you've increased the minimum wage so that McDonalds will pay me more!...)

This gives new meaning to that giant sucking sound that Ross Perot talked about in '92. This Deal with the Devil will be will be the biggest flushing down the toilet of American jobs in history!

Dems already break post-campaign promise

So much for a bi-partisan spirit overtaking our nation's capital...

According to the Washington Post, the Democrats are planning to
blow off their campaign pledge of bi-partisanship.

[I]nstead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.

Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy over the holiday recess in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders. A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.

Did anyone seriously think Democrats were going to keep their word? C'mon now, we're talking Democrats here!

The Law of Unintended Consequences

There are certain things in life we can call truisms. Here is one such truism:

With every action there's a reaction.

Here are a few that would fall into this category.

World War I, it's been said, was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. The devastation of WWI brought about the Treaty of Versailles, which in turn resulted in Germany being required to make war reparations to the Allies, which in turn, many believe, caused the German economy to falter and inadvertently led to the Second World War.

In the meantime, here in the United States, following World War I, the 1920's was a period of prosperity and partying known as the Roaring Twenties. The Roaring Twenties boom came to an abrupt end with the stock market crash of 1929 and resulted in the Great Depression.

Further exacerbating the Great Depression were such political solutions as the Smoot-Hawley Tarrifs--a political scheme that was meant to 'help' America's economy, but government meddling actually made the Depression worse.

Another Action/Reaction example would be the Great Steel Strike of 1959, which helped cause the demise of the American steel industry.

Today, we other examples of the Action/Reaction equation...

The so-called "dot-com bubble" of the late 1990s saw the meteoric rise of internet companies largely due to speculation, a new generation of nouveau riche, and the spectacular bursting of said bubble. Action: Speculation ... Reaction: ***POP***

Other examples Action/Reaction are just now beginning to be realized in rather interesting sorts of way.

Take, for example, the story out of Arizona. Arizona, like many other states in November elections decided to increase its minimum wage. In so doing, the AFL-CIO backers who pushed the minimum wage hike had no idea that thousands of disabled would be laid off as a result of their efforts. Yup! It's another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Now, within the next few days, we'll be seeing a new Congress going to DC, armed with a whole host of legislative priorities.

Sadly, if these meddling politicos have their way, it seems that the history books will rife with the unintended consequences of their actions.