Happy July 4th
July 4, 2008 | Filed Under Constitution, Education, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
As we take a day off, please do take advantage of the day to look over our archives, or go to the PatriotPost.us and read the Declaration of Independence.
Have a great and safe holiday!
Update on NY School Bus Union Mob Ties
July 3, 2008 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
We’ve reported on this story several times in the past and we have a conclusion for at least one of the mobbed-up participants in this case. The former president of the union representing 15,000 New York school bus drivers, Salvatore Battaglia, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in Federal prison after he leaded guilty to extortion and receiving bribes from mobsters under the control of Matthew Ianniello, the former acting boss of the Genovese crime family.
Mr. Battaglia was the president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union from 2002 to 2006, when he lost the job because of his indictment in the case. In that indictment, he was accused of being a member of the Genovese family.
Two other union officials have pleaded guilty to charges in the case. Julius Bernstein, an employee and officer of Local 1181 for more than 30 years, pleaded guilty in August 2006 to working with the Genovese family since the 1950s and admitted crimes including labor racketeering, extortion, bribery, gambling and obstruction of justice. Ann Chiarovano, an employee of the union for more than 40 years, also pleaded guilty in August 2006 to charges of obstruction of justice.
Despite constant claims to the contrary by union supporters, the Mob has never been very far away from any union. At least these mob controlled union thugs were apprehended and kudos to the investigators for doing so.
CBS’ Steve Hartman Has an Ugly Baby
July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
**Video Below the Fold**
Last week, with an “Assignment America” report on the CBS Evening News, Steve Hartman perpetrated a perfect example of why the media simply has no credibility on any subject, even humor. Hatrman’s report was not only dishonest, but missed the main point by a fair margin.
To set his report up, Hartman claims that before his son was born he had wondered why parents universally felt their own children were be so darn cute? He wondered how it could be that every parent thought theirs was the cutest child ever born? So, after Hartman himself recently had a son, George, he thought that he might go out and explore his curiosity on the subject.
The result was Is My Baby Cute? Really? where Hartman went out on the street to ask parents if they thought their own babies were cute. CBS had also previously asked parents to send in to them photos of babies, ugly and cute, in preparation for the story.
Philly Inquirer Says No 4th For You, America is Evil, WOT is a ‘Scam’
July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Founders, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Patriotism, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
You know, I was wondering when this was going to happen, when someone in the MSM would say Bush has ruined July Fourth? The Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t disappoint by wallowing in the worst example of blame-America-above-all as well as the most extreme case of BDS that I’ve seen outside the kind of nutroot sites like Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground. A mainstream paper has now gone that extra mile to let us all know that America does not deserve a July Fourth celebration this year because of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, CIA secret prisons, and, lest you imagine otherwise, the fact that we have made George W. Bush our president. “Cancel the parade” because America is evil. It’s all there in all it’s anti-American splendor in A not-so-glorious Fourth, U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage.
Inquirer columnist Chris Satullo thinks that America is fraught with sin and that we don’t deserve a Fourth celebration. “This year, America doesn’t deserve to celebrate its birthday,” he whines. “This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.”
We have failed to pay attention. We’ve settled for lame excuses. We’ve spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago.
We’ve “spit on the memory” of the Founders? Does he mean when the Democratic Party helped us lose Vietnam? How about when liberals somehow divined in the Founder’s name a “right to privacy” in the Constitution? Were either of those times when we spit in their faces? How about when the American left destroyed religion in America, or when they invented a “right” to abortion, or when they turned our various systems of education into places where fringe, wackos reign supreme and American history, civics and… well, anything actually educational… is banished into the mists of the past? Does Our pal Chris Satullo mean those times when the Founders saw the spittle fly?
You can guess that no is the answer to my questions.
No, to Chris Satullo, the only time we’ve “spit on the memory” of the founders is when we reacted to the time when 3,000 of our own were killed in New York City by Islamic terrorists. He is all upset that we’ve tortured prisoners, illegally imprisoned people “for years,” and practiced “rendition.”
CNN Finds NEW Way to Count Body Bags, Now in Afghanistan
July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Media Bias, Military, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
We’ve taken notice that Iraq is suddenly out of the news now that things are consistently going so well for U.S. forces there. Well, since CNN can’t find much bad to talk about in Iraq they’ve finally found some “bad” news they can use as a needle to stick in the Bush Administration’s collective eye. In Coalition troop deaths in Afghanistan surpass Iraq, CNN has discovered that they can make a body bag contest out of casualties between Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh, joy!
For the second month in a row, U.S. and allied troop deaths in the Afghan war have surpassed those in Iraq, according to official figures tallied by CNN… In June, 46 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and 31 troops died in Iraq. In May, 23 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and 21 died in Iraq.
Stop the presses! And, did you notice that now they are adding foreign troops up because they can’t get enough American deaths to report? Can you remember the last time the American press was worried about the casualties among our foreign coalition?
It also doesn’t escape notice that the headline is a bit misleading. Read standing alone, one would think that the headline is saying more troops have now died in Afghanistan than have died in Iraq for the entire war. After all, the headline doesn’t restrict itself to just the two months in question! A lazy reader might tend to take away the wrong impression by this badly composed headline.
Unions Says Public Has No Right to Know About State Payments to Unions
July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Elections, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments
-By Warner Todd Huston
What happened when the Evergreen Freedom Foundation decided to request the public government records of the negotiations between unions and government in Washington State? All hell broke loose, that’s what.
The bloated public employee unions banded together to stop the public from finding out what went on between the government and the unions during the negotiations of state contracts — that is contracts FUNDED by tax money, by the way — for employee benefits and rules. They filed suit saying that the public had no right to know how their own tax money was to be spent.
One union official even said that if he thought his words would become public record he would “not be comfortable speaking” until he had “fully thought through” what he had to say. Of course, this forces one to wonder why he would open his yap without thinking about what he is saying whether his yammering would be public knowledge or not?
Yes, the Unions fought the EFF tooth and nail to keep their negotiations secret from the very public that is paying their bills.
Check out the whole outrageous story at Capital Research Center’s “When unions negotiate with governments” and download the PDF report. Its a great read and a cautionary tale that supports our contention here on the Union Label Blog that unions are antithetical to good government.