ANOTHER EXAMPLE: Marxist Indoctrination In Our Schools

Well, this can't come as much of a surprise.

This is a page out of a workbook for your government school student. What school and what schoolbook I can’t tell you … maybe the lady who sent this to me will step forward and let us know.

This is how our government schools – and the liberals who run them – effectively brainwash (though indoctrinate is a much more polite word) our children into accepting the liberal philosophy as basic truth... The headline at the top of the document reads “Distribute the Wealth.” And there you have the picture of the pretty little girl with the cute little pony tail.

She’s holding a bag of money in one hand, and giving away some of that money with the other. Yes! She’s distributing her wealth! But if you study the picture you’ll see there’s an even more subtle message. She’s not handing money away from her wallet or her purse. No! That wouldn’t get the real message across! Why pretty much every little girl has a wallet or a purse. No... this little sweetheart has a BAG of money! Not every little girl has BAGS of money … so this girl must be really RICH! And since she’s rich her money needs to be redistributed! So she’s being a good little rich girl and she’s smiling as she hands her money away.

As Thomas Sowell warns us, America's state-run schools are undermining American society."

I'm soliciting other examples: For those parents with school-age kids, please check out their textbooks and study guides. Email me any snapshots of interest, the age and grade of your youngster, your city and state and whether you wish to remain anonymous (my default assumption is to keep all contributions anonymous).

WE NEED MORE ROLL-FREE ZONES: GM Recalls More than 69,000 SUVs and Trucks Because They May Roll Away

A brake is a terrible thing to waste

General Motors... says more than 69,000 full-size pickup trucks and SUVs distributed globally may be affected by a problem that could cause them to roll away after being parked.

According to safety regulators, certain 2013 model Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles including the Escalade, Sierra and Silverado, may have been built with a cracked park lock cable or a malformed steering column lock actuator gear in the lock module assembly.

In this case, said vehicles may shift from Park with the ignition key removed or in the OFF position, as well as without the application of the brake pedal while the key is off... "Either of these scenarios may cause the vehicle to roll away after the driver has exited the vehicle, resulting in a possible vehicle crash and/or injury," GM said in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

In related good news, the U.S. taxpayer will get hosed for about $20 billion when it sells its GM stock, even though GM has reported roughly $16 billion in profits since President Obama "saved" the company -- using our money.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

UNITED VAN LINES: Workers Fleeing Forced-Unionization States for Right-to-Work States

Dick Trumka hardest hit.

...According to an annual study conducted by the moving company United Van Lines, the top ten states that Americans are fleeing from continue to be those states that do not have Right-to-Work laws...

...In fact, according to UVL’s study, the Top Ten states with the highest outbound traffic are forced-unionism states:

MOVING OUT

The top-five outbound states for 2012 were:

• New Jersey
• Illinois
• West Virginia
• New York
• New Mexico

New Jersey (62 percent) displaced the outbound leader from last year, Illinois (60 percent) reclaiming the top spot for high-outbound migration that it held in 2010.

The Northeast is the most well-represented region on the high-outbound traffic list. In addition to New Jersey, New York (58 percent), Maine (56 percent) and Connecticut (56 percent) are also included.

Michigan (58 percent) and Wisconsin (55 percent) along with Illinois represented the Great Lakes region. Michigan fell to the No. 6 from the No. 4 spot it held in 2011. Previously, it had claimed the top outbound spot every year from 2006-2009.

Kentucky (55 percent) joined West Virginia (58 percent) as the only Southern states to appear on the high outbound list. New Mexico (58 percent) was the only Western state to appear on the list. [Emphasis added.]

The fact that forced-union states have been losing taxpayers shouldn’t come as a surprise... where there are laws giving union bosses the power to force workers to pay unions or be fired, union bosses also have the power to get politicians elected that will raise taxes and enact legislation that make the state unattractive to running a business.

As a result, when businesses find a state hostile to business, they either close or move–leaving fewer jobs in the state.

All of this information will come as no surprise to real Americans, but will stun and shock the typical low-information Democrat voter.


Hat tip: Winterspirit.

OH, MY: Some Chevy Dealers Opting Out of Selling Volts

Eh, perhaps it's because they don't want to expand their carbon footprint, or something.

According to Automotive News, the sales of the Volt at some dealerships does not justify the cost of special tools needed to repair and service the vehicles. Dealers are spending up to $5,000 on tools, including a new item that is needed to drain the vehicle’s battery to send back to GM in case of repairs.


Despite sales of the Volt reaching 20,828 through November, some dealers are unable to sell enough of the range-extended electric cars to make up the cost of the parts. Requiring to sell just five Volts to break-even on the costs of the tools, some dealers are instead opting out of the Volt authorized dealer program...

For those of you wondering, the accompanying photo (as I understand it) depicts the first Volt arriving at a dealership sometime last year.

HOW UNIONS BILK THE RANK-AND-FILE: By the Numbers

Excerpted from Union Facts:

Financial Information

• Annual Dues Paid to Unions: $8,209,113,955
• Total Union Assets: $8,775,962,626
• Total Spending
• Representational Activities: $4,074,510,945
• Political Activities: $582,248,875
• External Contributions: $333,982,197
• Overhead: $3,914,513,501
• Unions that fail to pass Department of Labor audits: 92%

Diversity

• Major Unions with White Presidents: 94%
• Major Unions with Male Presidents: 89%

Union Officials

• Total union officers and staff members: 173,389 people
• Total compensation paid to union officials and officers: $1,152,061,495
• Total compensation paid to union employees: $2,563,981,776

Crime, Corruption, and Violence

• Recorded Incidents of Union Violence and Intimidation since 1975: 9,000+
• Union Racketeering Indictments since 2001: 2,056
• Fines Paid Resulting from DOL Racketeering Investigations since 2001: $670 million

Pensions

• Pension Funds controlled by unions: 7,585
• Average Pension Funding Level: 48%

Just for grins, please note the percentage of Annual Dues Paid to Unions that is devoted to compensating union bosses and their lackeys (Total compensation paid to union employees). And Democrats dare talk about how health insurers are ripping off consumers? How about what unions are doing to the rank-and-file?

UNION SUCCESS STORY #7,407: Only Seven Percent of 8th-graders in Detroit Public Schools Read Proficiently

As they say, someone new is blocking the schoolhouse door.

...In the public schools in Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading.

Some public school teachers in the City of Detroit and around the state of Michigan are reportedly taking a vacation or a sick day today to protest right-to-work legislation likely to be approved by the state legislature. Under current law, Michigan public school teachers must pay dues to the teachers’ union. If the right-to-work law is enacted, Michigan public-school teachers will be free to join the union and pay dues to it if they wish, but they will also be free not to join the union and not to pay it dues.

Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education. While only 7 percent scored highly enough on the department’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test in 2011 to be rated “proficient” or better in reading, only 4 percent scored highly enough to be rated “proficient” or better in math...

I blame Bush. And Sarah Palin.

But certainly not the unholy alliance of the Democrat Party and public sector unions, which exist only to fleece the beleaguered American taxpayer.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

WANTED PHOTOS: The Union Thug Who Tried to Kill Steven Crowder

Fox News contributor Steven Crowder was in Michigan today to record the pro-slavery protests orchestrated by the same union bosses who've economically obliterated Detroit. The death threats and physical violence were just what we've come to expect from the Marxist-aligned Leftists:

...the crowd started tearing down the AFP [Americans For Prosperity] tent that was there. When Crowder attempted to intervene, he was assaulted by multiple protesters with one ... shouting that he would "kill a mother f***er with a gun..."

Do you know this douche? Dana Loesch has a donation page where you can contribute to a reward to find and charge the assailant.


Update: UNION THUG Who Beat Steven Crowder ID’ed – His Name Is Tony Cummings.

UNION SUCCESS STORY #7,308: Chrysler forced to rehire workers caught drinking, getting high during lunch break

And people wonder why the American auto industry required tens of billions in bailouts (most of which will never be repaid)?

In 2010, the American automobile manufacturer Chrysler released several of its employes for negligent behavior after they were caught on camera drinking and possibly smoking marijuana during their lunch break. After many months of a union-backed arbitration process, however, Chrysler was forced to rehire the workers.

“While [Chrysler] does not agree with the ultimate decision of the arbitrator, we respect the grievance procedure process as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement and our relationship with the UAW,” a statement released by the automaker read.

Unfortunately, the company was put in a very difficult position because of the way the story was investigated and ultimately revealed to the public. These employees from Jefferson North have been off work for more than two years. The time has come to put this situation behind us and resume our focus on building quality products that will firmly establish Chrysler Group’s position in the marketplace.

The scandal was uncovered by a Detroit-based Fox affiliate in September, 2010.

At Chrysler, quality is, like, job -- dude! You hungry?

BUT THEY'RE DOING IT FOR THE CHILDREN: Right-to-Work in Michigan Will Cost Union Bosses $100 Million a Year

As the union bosses have admitted, their opposition to right-to-work has nothing to do with kids or education. It's all about the Benjamins.

Two Michigan school districts will close Tuesday after hosts of teachers called out sick, apparently to join protests against efforts to pass right-to-work legislation in the state...

The school district superintendent in Taylor, MI, a Detroit suburb, said the district would not have enough teachers to fill the district’s classrooms, according to local news reports. The Taylor Federation of Teachers is reportedly helping to organize the protests...

Polling shows that almost a quarter of union members would stop paying dues if they could. That would cost Michigan unions $100 million a year (they represent 700,000 Michiganders, and their dues average $600 to $900 a year). Union bosses would much rather workers had no choice.

But many workers feel differently. The most vocal calls for right to work have come from workers upset with their unions. Terry Bowman, a member of UAW Local 898 who works at Ford’s Rawsonville plant, argued for right to work long before Republicans considered taking it up; Bowman believes the government should not force workers like him to support a union they oppose.

I have no problem with unions so long as joining and paying dues are voluntary acts.

Collective bargaining is little more than a polite form of indentured servitude. And, depending upon the union, sometimes not so polite.

TAXING "THE RICH" WORKING OUT SWIMMINGLY IN CALIFORNIA: Revenues to State Fall 10 Percent

Who could have predicted such a phenomenon?

California ... state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.

Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation.

But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.

Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) trumpeted: "California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions.”

State bureaucrats immediately ramped up deficit spending far beyond the state's $6 billion annual tax increase, with the Departments of Health Services and Developmental Services increasing this month’s spending by over $1 billion versus last year. The lower tax collection and higher spending drove the State’s deficit after the tax increase to $2.7 billion for the first 5 months of this fiscal year...

Who could have predicted such a phenomenon?

Oh, wait. I did. Just three short weeks ago*.


*See: DELUSIONAL: California Predicts Budget Surplus in 2014 Thanks to Tax Hikes, Anti-Business Regulations.

A Brief, Illustrated History of the Public Sector Unions That, Together With The Democrat Party, Are Waging War on the Taxpayer

Throughout American history -- and as recently as the 1950s -- there were no unions for government workers. Public-sector employees were expected to earn a bit less than their private-sector equivalents. The reasons they did so included an interest in public service, job security and reasonable benefits.

But that changed in the late fifties with New York City Mayor Robert Wagner's cynical appeal to the votes of city workers. He signed an executive order authorizing them to unionize, and soon other local and state Democrat legislators around the country followed his lead.

These efforts culminated in 1962, when President John F. Kennedy granted federal employees the right to collectively bargain. Since then, public sector union membership has skyrocketed while, in the private sector, unions have fallen out of favor.

In 2009, private sector union members were outnumbered for the first time by their public sector counterparts.

The historical basis of unions revolved around workers receiving a reasonable share of a company's profits. But that tenet is nonsensical when applied to public service. Governments don't make profits; they simply assess taxes.

The aims of public sector unions conflict directly with the interests of taxpayers.

And because it has been exceedingly hard to fight public sector unions, the salaries and benefits of public employees have skyrocketed in recent years. Since the election of Barack Obama, the number of federal employees making over $150,000 a year has more than doubled to over 10,000.

In 2009 government salaries jumped 2.4%, approximately twice the increase earned by private sector employees. In fact, the average salary of a federal worker is now $71,000, about $22,000 more than the average private sector employee.

Worst of all, public sector unions have negotiated pension plans that are proving financially untenable. Many allow workers to retire at age 55 at around their full salary in their final years of employment. These pensions often include inflation adjustments as well as lifetime free health care.

These plans are so outrageous that state retirement systems, for example, are currently underfunded by about a trillion dollars.

So how have public sector unions achieved these amazing results? The answer is the hundreds of millions of dollars that unions have donated to federal campaigns since 1990. Almost every single dollar went to Democrats or Democrat causes. In the 2008 election alone, some estimates put public sector union contributions to Democrats at $60 million.

These unions are also astroturfing for Democrats, providing slush funds to help liberal causes. An example is ThePartyIsOver.org, a faux populist website designed to discredit TEA Party activists.

The Democrats' health care bill, the 'Employee Free Choice Act' and the $800+ billion stimulus bill all contained payoffs to public sector unions. In fact, while the private sector has shed 8,000,000 jobs since the recession began, the number of public sector jobs has risen nearly every month -- led by President Obama's various spending programs at the federal level.

Public sector unions are killing our economic system and the American taxpayer. The debt unleashed by their outrageous benefits plans simply cannot be paid. The union bosses have lied to their members about lifetime benefits and they have betrayed the American people. Public sector unions must be disbanded and outlawed before more of our country begins to resemble Greece, Spain and other European countries.

Those countries are teetering on the brink of economic calamity, thanks to unions just like ours. And please observe that the union bosses and the Democrat Party could give a rat's behind about American taxpayers -- 20 percent of whom are currently unemployed or underemployed. They still want theirs.


Based upon: Amy H. Laff, StateBrief. Linked by: Mark Levin, The Washington Examiner, Ace o' Spades and TigerHawk. Thanks!

IT'S 1937 ALL OVER AGAIN: The Ongoing Obama Depression Will Continue Until Further Notice

When George Santayana said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it," he was describing ideologues like Barack Obama.

How else can one explain his desire to replay the Great Depression? Based upon Obama's policies, we're replaying the year 1937, just months after FDR's reelection to a second term. In short, FDR's incessant interference with the private sector and his commitment to the socialist-progressive principles of Stuart Chase turned out to be abject failures.

But Obama is replaying FDR's failed strategies to a tee.

...According to the BLS, real weekly earnings adjusted for inflation for Q3 2012 are the same as Q4 2007. Even worse, seasonally adjusted real weekly earnings for full time workers, all occupations, are at similar levels to the mid 1980's.

Overall, weekly earnings dropped -0.2% in October and since October 2010 have fallen by -1.8%. The above graph means 50% of workers are earning less than $332 per week in real purchasing power, accounting for inflation since 1982-194. Not adjusted for inflation, the median weekly earnings for all occupations was $765 in Q3 2012. Now think about rents of $1500+ a month in many cities and how 50% of all earners are making less than $765 per week, before taxes...

...[Above] is the real hourly wage, or adjusted for inflation since 1980. Again we see in terms of real dollars, workers aren't really getting ahead...

If Obama truly cared about "the middle class", he'd abandon his destructive policies that are literally crushing American families.

Individual taxes must be lowered, especially in the highest brackets, because business owners need the funds to hire more workers. Corporate taxes must be slashed and "double jeopardy" foreign profits taxes eliminated to attract money to our shores. The vast regulatory bureaucracy must be scaled back. And the out-of-control labor unions need to be brought to heel.

And government must spend less. Much, much less.

But the president won't change his disastrous progressive course and will instead continue on the road to economic misery. He is an ideologue who believes he has a "mandate" (51-49, mind you) to continue the Depression that will forever bear his name.


Update: Historian Amity Shlaes agrees: "2013 Looks a Lot Like 1937 in Four Fearsome Ways."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger tries to teach Bill Kristol about conservatism, fails

Kinzinger makes a valiant effort, but explaining conservatism to a Beltway hack like Kristol is akin to teaching calculus to a cow:

Bill,

All this haggling over a tax rate made me realize one thing... We have failed to explain what conservatism really means.

Immigrants who have come here since Reagan have never had a strong spokesman for conservatism, and in a world where the prevailing worldview is through a spectrum of government, this concept is insanely foreign.

I don't care what tax rates are, they are all random number[s] derived from haggling and negotiations. What I want is a small government with a strong and fierce military that can kill our enemies and break their toys, legitimate safety nets that provide food and not a way of life, and some roads and bridges. Put that vision into action and set the tax rates at a percent that covers those costs. And once you have our payment, leave us the hell alone. That my friend, is conservatism.

The musings of a soon to be sophomore congressman.

Adam Kinzinger

Sent from my iPhone

Kristol's shrill cry to raise taxes on the businesses that employ more than half of the private sector proves that he is both an economic illiterate and an intellectual lightweight.

Kristol isn't a conservative: he's an entertainer -- and a piss-poor one at that.

CHART: The Top 10 Union Fat-Cats Who Destroyed 18,500 Jobs

No Twinkies for you:

These union boss salaries explain how the AFL-CIO–affiliated Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International got so carried away as to bleed Hostess Brands literally to death, throwing 18,500 people out of work and putting an end to the iconic Twinkie:

You can make a nice living as a parasite. On the down side, it only lasts until you have killed off your hosts.

Or, in this case, Hostess.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

DELUSIONAL: California Predicts Budget Surplus in 2014 Thanks to Tax Hikes, Anti-Business Regulations

There's crazy -- and then there's West Coast Crazy:

When is a prediction of a $1.9 billion shortfall actually considered good news?

In deficit-battered, recession-weary California, that's the case.

It sounds strange, until you consider that it sounds a whole lot better than the staggering $41 billion deficit projected at the end of 2008 -- and much better than the $25 billion hole that the state's Legislative Analyst was forecasting in 2010. And much more rosy than the $16 billion shortfall Gov. Jerry Brown was projecting just last spring.

On Wednesday, the Analyst's office -- respected for its nonpartisanship -- said its $1.9 billion deficit estimate covers the next year-and-a-half. The report cast the state's recovering finances in a favorable light, thanks to earlier budget cuts and the voter approval of Proposition 30.

"The additional, temporary taxes provided by Proposition 30 have combined to bring California a promising moment: the possible end of a decade of acute state budget challenges," the LAO report said.

In fact, the report floated the possibility of the state actually running a surplus of up to a billion dollars by 2014.

Let me be the first to predict that California will not have a budget surplus in 2014. Nor will it run "only" a $2 billion deficit.

By my estimation, California's budget deficit will run at least an order of magnitude higher -- at $20 billion plus. You can stick a fork in the Golden State.

FORWARD! HOPE! CHANGE! Illinois Youth Called a "Lost Generation" as Unemployment Reaches Record Levels

How much more misery will Illinois' beleaguered "middle class" tolerate before throwing out the Democrat bums who led them into this rat-hole?

Quite a bit more, if history's any guide.

The 2012 Illinois legislative drive to increase the state’s minimum wage

Illinois is tied with Connecticut and Nevada having the fourth highest minimum wage in the country at $8.25 an hour. Illinois’ rate is a dollar higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and the highest in the Midwest... most states adhere to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

In short, each time the Democrat masterminds try to engineer society, they fail. Miserably.

The Great Recession and the post-recession years have hurt all Americans, but one group particularly hit hard has been teens. From 2002 through 2007, before the recession, an average of 37.08 percent of Illinois teens aged 16 to 19 were employed. The unemployment rate averaged 16.2 percent, with a low in 2006 of 11.5 percent.

...The average unemployment rate for those 16 to 19 years old increased by a stunning 8.15 percentage points, to a recession and post-recession average of 24.35 percent. The unemployment rate more than doubled from 2006-11. The unemployment rate peaked in 2010 at 26.9 percent, a 15.4 percentage-point increase from its low of 11.5 percent in 2006. And as the job market worsened, the average hours teens worked per week fell from a pre-recession average of 8.3 to a recession and post-recession average of 6.65, a 25 percent drop...

"For three decades, we've sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning. And the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan." --Ronald Reagan

MUST READ: We Have Lost

Spotted at Denny's Place, a guest post by Casey:

Dear Friends:

The most productive people, the small business owners, the entrepreneurs and the honest wage earners of America are so demoralized right now I am not sure we will recover as a country. We have lost the most important election of our lifetime and did so after giving our best effort, spent the most money ever and working the hardest we have ever worked. The very people that America needs the most to generate a real recovery now have the least motivation to do so and worse, lack the confidence necessary to even justify the effort.

We opposed a foe who was so obviously incompetent, corrupt and inept in leadership we really expected a landslide victory and a redeeming mandate to return the nation to conservative values. Instead what we got was a harsh slap in the face by an American public telling us it is not like us and it no longer believes in what we believe in.

As a country we are hopelessly divided by a malignant polarization approaching that which divided us prior to the Civil War. Our side will not march in the streets, but the rebellion, protests and resistance will be just as determined -- though more subtle. The American can-do spirit, our optimism, our traditional dependence on our own ingenuity is now mere kindling on the advancing flame of an insidious yet steadily advancing socialism.

Those of us who create real jobs, invest our capital, our fortunes and take the risks to build America, feel betrayed. The fundamentals of honest effort and hard work rendering the rewards associated with capitalism seem now like a cruel joke. We are now a targeted enemy not to be governed but coerced into submission by a lazy, corrupt, vindictive, arrogant government that is out for revenge, redistribution -- and to add a final insult -- one we believe is too morally bankrupt to lead.

The usual safeguards for a democracy found in a vibrant, independent press have lost any semblance of objectivity and instead have joined a side. What used to be principled, independent reporters have morphed into dishonest pundits spewing a disgustingly relentless partisan bile that neither informs nor educates. They are shallowly manipulated by the political marketers to the point that their words lack meaning. The "fourth branch" of government has become nothing more than an empty cathode ray irradiating a mind-numbed audience like a repetitive Beavis and Butthead rerun.

We have elected a President who not only feels we did not work for what we have, but feels we do not deserve it either. Had it gone the other way, Obama supporters would have torched America. Instead they will now legitimately consume it by gnawing at the soft underbelly of what was once her prosperity. Our Judeo-Christian culture -- that those on the left revile and call "extreme" -- now has as much relevance as a three-minute YouTube video.

Fighting for God and Country has now a new meaning, they will fight for Obama-Bucks, work the system, because this President gave them the right to do so.

C.W.

P.S. For starters, my next car(s) will be built, at a non-union plant, located in Lincoln, Alabama.

Denny adds, "My two BMW's were both built in South Carolina. I will never purchase an American car built by the UAW."

I agree. For starters, anything built by a union here in America should be ignored. If they're at war with us, we need to return the favor.


Hat tip: Wanda.

BUY FREE OR DIE: A Conservative's Buying Guide to Automobiles

I had planned on producing something like this, but The Morlock Revolt beat me to it

Buy Free or Die: Conservative's Buyer Guide: Automobiles

We can no longer be passive in our buying decisions, brands that we have known and trusted for years have chosen sides and chosen to lead our country in to socialism. This is the first post in a series to highlight which companies and states contribute to the decline of our American project that was started in 1776... we need to show these entities that we will not be sending our money to fund our own destruction.

The Autoworkers' unions in the United States are one of the largest contributors to the Democrat Party. The AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka said that he would like to have the Card Check legislation enacted in Obama's new second term. This would make labor unions almost impossible to stop, they would be present in every section of the country's economy. As such I am focusing this first post in the Conservative's buyers guide to Automobiles made in the United States... ...Any future automobiles that I buy will be from the list I have provided that are labeled non-union. Democrats suck and so do unions. Carry on.

If the unions are going to fight the taxpayers, then we are going to fight the unions.

In the past, I have owned a Chevy, a Mercury, a Chrysler, and a Cadillac.

But from now on my money will go only to companies that promote capitalism.

I look forward to Morlock's next buying guide.

NEVADA VOTE-FRAUD SCANDAL: Union registering non-citizens to vote, dragging them to polls, and forcing them to vote Democrat

I thought vintage media and the Democrat Party (but I repeat myself) said that there was no proof of systemic vote fraud?

Perhaps they should inform Glenn Cook of the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Voter registration fraud is not a groundless conspiracy. It is not a hypothetical threat to election integrity.

In Nevada, a battleground state that could decide the presidency and control of the U.S. Senate, it is real.

Last week, I met with two immigrant noncitizens who are not eligible to vote, but who nonetheless are active registered voters for Tuesday's election. They said they were signed up by Culinary Local 226... [As] the election drew closer. Then the Culinary canvassers started seeking them out and ordering them to go vote.

One of the immigrants was visited at home by a Culinary representative and said the operative made threats of deportation if no ballot was cast.

...After a few days of early voting, the union knew the immigrants still hadn't voted. So union canvassers kept visiting.

One day, when a Culinary representative was told the immigrant wasn't a citizen and wouldn't vote, things got testy. The immigrant was "in so much trouble," the Culinary operative said, according to Brenda Moraine, a local immigrant advocate who was there... They're afraid of reprisals from the union, they're afraid of losing their jobs, and they're concerned that their signatures are on a government document [could lead to perjury charges]...

I verified their identities, their lack of citizenship and their status as active registered voters in Clark County... One of the immigrants validated my worst fears about Nevada's weak voter registration standards and voting safeguards...

"There are others," the immigrant said.

Other noncitizen Culinary workers are registered to vote?

"Yes."

...how many of these ineligible voters have done the Culinary's bidding and submitted ballots, whether out of ignorance or fear, and how many have the knowledge and courage to follow the law and stay away from the polls[?]...

In Nevada you never have to prove you're a citizen to register to vote or cast a ballot. Forget about showing government-issued photo identification at the polls, as several states now require. You don't have to show a photo ID at any point in the process. The immigrants I met could vote Tuesday just by showing a Culinary health insurance card and a power bill.

...I spoke with Yvanna Cancela, political director for the Culinary Local 226, on Friday about what these immigrants have experienced... Cancela asked me to identify the workers so the union might be able to learn which Culinary canvassers had made contact with them and who had registered them to vote. When I said I couldn't under the terms of my interview with the immigrants, she added that if they came forward, the union would take corrective action against those canvassers to make sure they understood the law...

Cancela did not know how many noncitizens are represented by the Culinary Local 226...

Earlier columns by Glenn Cook outlined how Nevada mails voter registration invitations to noncitizens, felons and the dead and how it facilitates vote fraud through ultra-lax identification requirements.

As Cook observes, Nevada's system makes it "exceedingly easy to cheat and gives political parties and politically active groups a powerful incentive to break the law without much risk of being caught."

Which perhaps explains Harry Reid's last-minute surge to beat Sharon Angle in 2010.

But don't worry: I'm sure Eric Holder will launch an investigation any minute now.


Images: Las Vegas Sun.

President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts [Updated]

Yes, he's historic, alright.

Law and Justice

• First President to Violate the War Powers Act (Unilaterally Executing American Military Operations in Libya Without Informing Congress In the Required Time Period - Source: Huffington Post)

• First President to Triple the Number of Warrantless Wiretaps of U.S. Citizens (Source: ACLU)

• First President to Sign into Law a Bill That Permits the Government to "Hold Anyone Suspected of Being Associated With Terrorism Indefinitely, Without Any Form of Due Process. No Indictment. No Judge or Jury. No Evidence. No Trial. Just an Indefinite Jail Sentence" (NDAA Bill - Source: Business Insider)

• First President to Have His Attorney General Held in Criminal Contempt of Congress For His Efforts to Cover Up Operation Fast and Furious, That Killed Over 300 Individuals (Source: Politico)

• First President to claim Executive Privilege to shield a sitting Attorney General from a Contempt of Congress finding for perjury and withholding evidence from lawful subpoenas (Source: Business Insider)

• First President to Issue Unlawful "Recess-Appointments" Over a Long Weekend -- While the U.S. Senate Remained in Session (against the advice of his own Justice Department - Source: Heritage Foundation)

• First President to Fire an Inspector General of Americorps for Catching One of His Friends in a Corruption Case (Source: Gawker)

• First President to "Order a Secret Amnesty Program that Stopped the Deportations of Illegal Immigrants Across the U.S., Including Those With Criminal Convictions" (Source: DHS documents uncovered by Judicial Watch)

• First President to Sue States for Enforcing Voter ID Requirements, Which Were Previously Ruled Legal by the U.S. Supreme Court (Source: CNN)

• First President to Encourage Racial Discrimination and Intimidation at Polling Places (the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case, Source: Investors Business Daily)

• First President to Refuse to Comply With a House Oversight Committee Subpoena (Source: Heritage Foundation)

• First President to Arbitrarily Declare an Existing Law Unconstitutional and Refuse to Enforce It (Defense of Marriage Act - Source: ABC News)

• First President to Demand a Company Hand Over $20 Billion to One of His Political Appointees (BP Oil Spill Relief Fund - Source: Fox News)

• First President to Have a Law Signed By an 'Auto-pen' Without Being "Present" (Source: The New York Times)

• First President to Have His Administration Fund an Organization Tied to the Cop-Killing Terrorist Group, the Weather Underground (Source: National Review)

Scandals

• First President to publicly announce an enemies list (consisting of his opponents campaign contributors; and to use the instrumentalities of government to punish those on the list - Source: Heritage Foundation)

• First President to Attempt to Block Legally-Required 60-Day Layoff Notices by Government Contractors Due to His Own Cuts to Defense Spending -- Because The Notices Would Occur Before the Election. (Source: National Journal)

• First President to Intentionally Disable Credit Card Security Measures (in order to allow over-the-limit donations, foreign contributions and other illegal fundraising measures - Source: Power Line)

• First President to send 80 percent of a $16 billion program (green energy) to his campaign bundlers and contributors, leaving only 20% to those who did not contribute. (Source: Washington Examiner)

• First President to Propose an Executive Order Demanding Companies Disclose Their Political Contributions to Bid on Government Contracts (Source: Wall Street Journal)

• First President to issue an Executive Order implementing a "Racial Justice System", a system that tries to achieve "racially equivalent outcomes" for crimes (Source: Daily Caller)

• First President to Send Millions in Taxpayer Dollars to His Wife's Former Employer (Source: White House Dossier)

Economy

• First President to Preside Over a Cut to the Credit Rating of the United States Government (Source: Reuters)

• First President to Bypass Congress and Implement the DREAM Act Through Executive Fiat (Source: Christian Science Monitor)

• First President to Move America Past the Dependency Tipping Point, In Which 51% of Households Now Pay No Income Taxes (Source: Center for Individual Freedom)

• First President to Increase Food Stamp Spending By More Than 100% in Less Than Four Years (Source: Sen. Jeff Sessions)

• First President to Spend a Trillion Dollars on 'Shovel-Ready' Jobs -- and Later Admit There Was No Such Thing as Shovel-Ready Jobs (Source: President Obama during an early meeting of his 'Jobs Council')

• First President to Threaten Insurance Companies After They Publicly Spoke out on How Obamacare Helped Cause their Rate Increases (Source: The Hill)

• First President to Abrogate Bankruptcy Law to Turn Over Control of Companies to His Union Supporters (Source: Wall Street Journal)

• First President to Propose Budgets So Unreasonable That Not a Single Representative From Either Party Would Cast a Vote in Favor (Sources: The Hill, Open Market)

• First President Whose Economic Policies Have the Number of Americans on Disability Exceed the Population of New York (Source: CNS News)

• First President to Sign a Law Requiring All Americans to Purchase a Product From a Third Party (Source: Wall Street Journal)

• First President to Sue States For Enforcing Immigration Laws Passed by Congress (Source: The Arizona Republic newspaper)

• First President to See America Lose Its Status as the World's Largest Economy (Source: Peterson Institute)

• First President to redistribute $26.5 billion of the taxpayers' funds to his union supporters in the UAW (Source: Heritage Foundation)

• First President to Threaten an Auto Company (Ford) After It Publicly Mocked Bailouts of GM and Chrysler (Source: Detroit News)

• First President to Attempt to Bully a Major Manufacturing Company Into Not Opening a Factory in a Right-to-Work State (Boeing's facility in South Carolina - Source: Wall Street Journal)

Energy Policy

• First President to Endanger the Stability of the Electric Grid by Shutting Down Hundreds of Coal-Fired Plants Without Adequate Replacement Technologies (Source: National Electric Reliability Corporation - PDF)

• First President to Have His EPA Repudiated by a Federal Judge for "Overstepping Its Powers" When They Attempted to Shut Down Coal Operations in Appalachia (Source: Huffington Post)

• First President to be Held in Contempt of Court for Illegally Obstructing Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (Source: Politico)

National Security and World Affairs

• First President to Lie Repeatedly to the American People About the Murder of a U.S. Ambassador and Three Other Diplomatic Personnel for Purely Political Reasons (Source: Roger Simon)

• First President to Openly Defy a Congressional Order Not To Share Sensitive Nuclear Defense Secrets With the Russian Government (Sources: ABC News, Rep. Michael Turner)

• First President to Leak Highly Classified Military and Intelligence Secrets to Hollywood In Order to Promote a Movie That Could Help His Reelection Campaign (Source: Judicial Watch)

• First President to Terminate America's Ability to Put a Man into Space (Sources: USA Today, ABC News)

• First President to press for a "treaty giving a U.N. body veto power over the use of our territorial waters and rights to half of all offshore oil revenue" (The Law Of The Sea Treaty, Source: Investors Business Daily)

• First President to send $200 million to a terrorist organization (Hamas) after Congress had explicitly frozen the money for fear it would fund attacks against civilians (Sources: American Thinker, The Independent [UK])

Miscellania

• First President to Insert Himself into White House Biographies of Past Presidents (Source: The New York Times).

• First President to Golf 105 or More Times in His First Three-and-a-half Years in Office (Source: The Hill)

But remember: he will not rest until all Americans have jobs, affordable homes, green-energy vehicles, and the environment is repaired, etc., etc., etc.

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