But It's For The Children

Teacher unions and union-represented teachers’ associations control/dominate America’s public school system. You wonder why our public school system is a joke? It’s called socialized schools brought to you by the “defender of worker’s rights”. You know, class struggle and all that.

You can never claim true ownership to your home because you rent it from the government in the form of property taxes. Public school systems in America are largely funded by your property tax dollars. So as the employers of these teachers, why do these taxpayers allow their employees to join unions in order to keep a firewall between their employers?

So here’s what you get for a return on your tax dollars:
Paying union member dues to unions so teachers can strong arm and extort taxpayers.
Paying union dues so unions can lobby elected official to make policy detrimental to you
Paying union member dues to run huge political ad campaigns for politicians who oppose your views.
Having teacher unions sue the taxpayer.
Having unions refuse concessions in times of economic hardships.
Having unions demand more money while school budgets are being cut.
Union strikes.
Current union campaigns for governments to raise property taxes, income taxes, user fees, ad infinitum.

Unions should be banned in all government institutions, especially the public school system. It’s all about the children my ass. It’s about political power and the “class struggle between workers and labor”. Please get these corrupt institution’s tentacles unwrapped from the taxpayer. I urge you support the abolition of teacher unions in public schools in America.

To close, let us look at a sample of benefits the American taxpayer earned from teacher unions in 2009-2010:?

Union money flowing into Oregon tax campaign
As of Dec. 15, the biggest donations in support of the measures have come from the Oregon Education Association ($827,000), and local and national organizations of Service Employees International Union, which represent state employees and health care workers ($742,826 combined) …to prevent possible cuts to schools, social services and public safety, including prisons. ( me – union jobs)

Southern Lehigh teachers contract to get vote Monday
June 20, 2009
The Southern Lehigh School Board will vote Monday on a proposed three-year teachers contract that would allow the district to avoid a strike in September.

Anheuser-Busch, union, politicians join to oppose beer tax hike
March 30, 2009

School budget woes require team solution
February 10, 2010
The preliminary projection shows a tax increase of at least 10 percent. At the same time, I am disappointed and concerned the teachers contract includes an average 4 percent salary increase for next school year.

State Teachers Union Continues Push For Penny Tax
April 6, 2009

Teachers reject renegotiation
January 27, 2010
The Bangor Area teachers union has rejected a request by the administration to renegotiate the union’s contract and consider pay cuts to help

Teachers to strike for 20 days
October 15, 2009

Even the sidewalk is an issue on the first day. Pickets told to get off school land.
Whitehall-Coplay property taxes may soar
Preliminary budget for school district calls for 7.27 percent increase, far over state index

Next school year, teacher salaries are scheduled to rise 3.6 percent, for a spending increase of $888,354. Benefit costs are rising 18.2 percent, roughly $1.49 million. Included in that amount is a 20 percent medical insurance increase and a 72 percent retirement cost increase

Teachers union touts poll support for penny tax
April 07, 2009

Teachers union spends big on 2009 lobbying
Feb. 25, 2010

The Wisconsin Education Association Council spent nearly twice as much as any other organization to lobby lawmakers in 2009, according to the Government Accountability Board.

The state’s largest teachers union reported spending more than $1.5 million and 7,239 hours lobbying,Teachers union spends big on 2009 lobbying

Teachers union blasts Horsford on education
Friday, March 13, 2009

War of words points to fraying of coalition to stanch budget cuts the hotel room tax increase for education funding approved this week…came in the form of an initiative petition, crafted by the teachers union and three major gaming companies.

The OEA was disappointed to learn today that at least two Oklahoma school districts are passing their tax responsibilities onto the National Board Certified teachers (NBCTs) in their districts.

The Arizona Education Association and Gov. Jan Brewer have joined forces in a campaign to convince voters to pass a 1-cent sales tax increase…for the next three years to pay for education and public safety program
Feb. 23,2010

Palm Springs Teachers Association
January 2009
C. T. A. is in favor of a state sales tax increase of 1% that would raise about $2 billion dollars specifically for schools and classrooms in particular.

Tax collections are down for the year and are projected to decrease further, next year. These anticipated revenue declines of $4 million and contractual increases of $6 million have left the town facing a $10 million deficit.
April 15, 2009

The Carpet City Chronicle recently obtained an email sent by Enfield Teachers’ Association President Mary Lombardo to Board of Education Chairman Andre Greco: The Executive Board has already given you the answer that there will be no concessions…We do not plan to make any public statement. Past practice has proved that to be a mistake.

Schools For Fair Funding
A coalition of 74 Kansas school districts made good on a threat today by formally asking the Supreme Court to reopen a key lawsuit that prompted huge increases in school funding.

Sentinel exclusive
February 06, 2009

The state’s teachers union is betting that parents and educators are so fed up with budget cuts that they’ll help pass a penny sales-tax increase to raise money for schools…to avert an “education disaster,” said Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association, which is proposing the bill.

Kirk Dillard Endorsed by Teachers Who Want Higher Income Tax State Senator Kirk Dillard has been endorsed by the Illinois Education Association.
January 29, 2010

Kingston school district, teachers’ union at impasse
February 3, 2010

The contract between the district and its teachers’ union, whose membership includes the district’s approximately 700 teachers

Harlem Federation of Teachers AFT/IFT local#540
“The IFT still supports an income tax increase this year to prevent layoffs in schools and in state government.

Well, this is just a sample of what unions are doing to our public learning institutions. Not all public school systems are unionized and I do have sympathy for those non-union teachers who are cast in this negative light.

Teachers are not unlike most Americans currently facing economic hardships. Why should unionized government workers be able to hold the taxpayer hostage, over pay, insurance, benefits, pensions, etc.. if their demands are not met, while those of us out here  are paying these  teacher’s salaries. The unions’ unwillingness to concede on issues while pressing the government to hike taxes on those that pay their salaries show what part they should play in our children’s education. None!

Possibly, the non-unionized teachers should push to ban unionization in the public schools instead of swelling the union’s ranks.

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In case you didn’t notice Harry Reid’s switch from the bi-partisan jobs bill to “his bill”, apparently he went with the Union’s Plan as outlined in the job’s bill letter dated 2-18-10.

Here are the highlighted points in the letter:

• We join the President’s call to Congress, and strongly urge the House and Senate to enact bold legislation that provides immediate relief to people who are out of work and employers that are unable to maintain their workforces. As included in the House legislation, it is critical that substantial fiscal relief be made available to help stabilize State and local governments, and to preserve essential services and safety net programs in our communities and the jobs of tens of thousands of workers around the country.

• Of equal importance…legislation must provide tools for ensuring that stimulus funds go to…those regions where homeowners were targeted by unscrupulous mortgage lenders.

• Appropriate $40 billion a year for two years to create employment opportunities for unemployed and underemployed residents of distressed communities.

• Funds Allocation:

5% for Indian tribes and discretionary grants,
30% allocated to states to be re-granted to small localities
65% to metropolitan cities and counties under the Community Block Grant formula.

• Invest $1 billion to hire workers to maintain and rehabilitate abandoned and foreclosed properties in neighborhoods by appropriating a second round of funds for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

• Provide a work sharing tax credit, as proposed by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)- The tax credits would be used to pay firms to shorten the typical workweek or work year, while keeping pay constant.

• Extend through FY2011…existing TANF Emergency Contingency Funds, which can be used to create subsidized jobs, as well as to improve access to cash assistance and other one-time assistance for low-income families.

• Provide $20 billion for school maintenance and repair…this could generate 250,000 skilled maintenance and repair jobs.

• Provide $50 billion in capital funds for the lowest-income school districts.

• Prioritize investments in public transportation,

• One percent of all dollars for infrastructure investment should be dedicated to creating a pipeline of workers ready to step into apprenticeship programs and construction careers…ensure that public agencies and contractors receiving federal funds utilize Community Workforce Agreements.

• Prevention of foreclosures

• Allocate $10 billion of appropriated TARP funds to HUD to provide fixed-rate, low-interest loans to unemployed people facing foreclosure who don’t qualify for other assistance.

• Allow homeowners to rent back their homes at market rates for up to ten years following foreclosure…modeled after the Fannie Mae “Deed for Lease”

• Support “cram down” provisions to allow bankruptcy court judges to approve changes to mortgage contracts for homeowners in bankruptcy

Endored By:
AFL-CIO
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Asian American Justice Center
American Association of People with Disabilities
Campaign for Community Change
Center for Responsible Lending
Coalition on Human Needs
Communications Workers of America
Demos
Economic Policy Institute
Half in Ten
Japanese American Citizens League
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Congress of American Indians
National Council of La Raza
National Partnership for Women and Families
Policy Link
Service Employees International Union
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Episcopal Churches
United States Student Association
United Steelworkers
USAction

Socialism Alert – Those that endorsed such a plan are complicit in bringing about a total socialistic makeover of America. The job creation that the unions have in mind are union jobs. Unions serve no purpose other than to enrich it’s leaders and develop large Democrat voting blocks. However, there’s a bigger threat from unions as they consolidate more power by their continued efforts to turn all public-service jobs into union jobs. The result will be an increased creation of inefficient government jobs that are a taxpayer liability. These jobs pay more than most equivalent private sector jobs, with very lavish benefits, including retirements and pensions (with minimal employee contribution) financed by the taxpayer. Then they can take that taxpayer financed salary to pay union dues and contribute to a socialist political party. When they feel the need for higher salaries, they demand it and strike if refused. Then there’s a good chance they will sue you (the taxpayers) when they don’t get their way.

Their answer: Not to cut back on publicly-financed jobs, or pay more of their insurance contributions, or furlough some workers, or take a pay cut. They want to add more government workers and raise property taxes, taxes on food, taxes on payroll, new user fees, new fines, etc..

They want to promote and support these socialistic goals for America:

AS LONG AS THEY DON’T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!

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Reconciliation is bad – that is if you are having the reconciliation process used against you in Congress. In a Sept. 2008 Cspan interview with Tom Daschle, Harry is clear about not using the Nuclear Option. No embedding allowed, so here’s the link: 195169&start=3006&end=3124

In specific reference to the Nuclear Option being used by Harry Reid in the future:

Daschle : Is there any likelihood that we’re going to face circumstances like that again.

Reid: As long as I’m the leader, NO!

Now fast forward to this week:

You’d think these crooks would cover their lies better than this.  What do you expect from crazy people. So, is Harry psychotic or just a liar. or both.

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The Office of Special Inspector General Trouble Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) is the program designed to oversee all aspects of the TARP program and protect the taxpayer dollars that funded it. Their quarterly report dated January 30, 2009 is a long read, but a very informative one. In short, the program has not been very successful in its goals.

As stated in the report:

Many of TARP’s stated goals, however, have simply not been met. Despite the fact that the explicit goal of the Capital Purchase Program (“CPP”) was to increase financing to U.S. businesses and consumers, lending continues to decrease, month after month, and the TARP program designed specifically to address small-business lending — announced in March 2009 — has still not been implemented by Treasury. Notwithstanding the fact that preserving  homeownership and promoting jobs were explicit purposes of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (“EESA”), the statute that created TARP, nearly 16 months later, home foreclo- sures remain at record levels, the TARP foreclosure prevention program has only permanently modified a small fraction of eligible mortgages, and unemployment is the highest it has been in a generation. Whether these goals can effectively be met through existing TARP programs is very much an open question at this time. And to the extent that the Government had leverage through its status as a significant preferred shareholder to influence the largest TARP recipients to carry out such policy goals, it was lost with their exit from TARP.

and finished with this scathing rebuke:

It is hard to see how any of the fundamental problems in the system have been addressed to date.

•   To the extent that huge, interconnected, “too big to fail” institutions contributed to the crisis, those institutions are now even larger, in part because of the substantial subsidies provided by TARP and other bailout programs.

• To the extent that institutions were previously incentivized to take reckless risks through a “heads, I win; tails, the Government will bail me out” mentality, the market is more convinced than ever that the Government will step in as necessary to save systemically significant institutions. This perception was reinforced when TARP was extended until October 3, 2010, thus permitting Treasury to maintain a war chest of potential rescue funding at the same time that banks that have shown questionable ability to return to profitability (and in some cases are posting multi-billion-dollar losses) are exiting TARP programs.

• To the extent that large institutions’ risky behavior resulted from the desire to justify ever-greater bonuses — and indeed, the race appears to be on for TARP recipients to exit the program in order to avoid its pay restrictions — the current bonus season demonstrates that although there have been some improvements in the form that bonus compensation takes for some executives, there has been little fundamental change in the excessive compensation culture on Wall Street.

• To the extent that the crisis was fueled by a “bubble” in the housing market, the Federal Government’s concerted efforts to support home prices — as discussed more fully in Section 3 of this report — risk re-inflating that bubble in light of the Government’s effective takeover of the housing market through purchases and guarantees, either direct or implicit, of nearly all of the residential mortgage market.

This is yet another valid example that government is never efficient, effective, or competent. However, they are very effective at being inefficient and efficiently ineffective.

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This is not a Democrat-Republican issue. This is not about the fact that since KIrk is still voting, why couldn’t the Senate go ahead and ram healthcare legislation through Congress.  This act is about an unrepresentative Congress. Perhaps some Massachusetts voters could argue that Kirk’s vote still represents their views, but it doesn’t change the fact that this one vote affects how every American is represented in Congress.

Breitbart’s BigGovernment covers the issue very well here. It is spelled out that once Scott Brown (R-Ma) was elected, Kirk became a non-member of Congress. Regardless of the support or opposition to whatever legislation Kirk is voting on, members of both parties should have not allowed the vote.

Logic leads one to conclude that the Republicans have not opposed Mr. Kirk’s voting because it allows some of them to actually not have to vote yes on unpopular and insane legislation that they really support.

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Remember this quote:

“I can promise you that this is just the beginning of a new way of doing business here in Washington, because the American people have every right to expect and to demand a government that is more efficient, more accountable, and more responsible in keeping the public’s trust,”

That was Obama in early 2009 when discussing openness in the way the Federal Government does it’s business, and particularly, the no-bid contracts that have become a main-stay in Washington’s corruption. Apparently, a big Democratic Party donor landed a $25 mil contract to train the Afghanis in the “rule of law” by way of a no-bid contract.

As reported by Fox News,

Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids…

The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide “rule of law stabilization services” in war-torn Afghanistan.

This contract’s purpose is to train the legal profession in Afghanistan in order to develop a sound legal framework for the country. These no-bid contract were to become the exception in emergencies. I just don’t see the emergency. When Fox News asked a USAID spokesperson about this contract, they got a typical Obama Administration smart-ass remark

Asked about the contract, USAID Acting Press Director Harry Edwards at first suggested his office would be too “busy” to comment on it. “I’ll tell it to the people in Haiti,” Edwards snapped…

Rep. Darrell Issa (R) has found this no-bid contract distrurbing and has asked for all related contract documents. Issa notes, in a letter to USAID Administrator

“the consulting contract awarded to Checchi to support the Afghan justice system does not appear to be so urgent or attendant to an immediate need so as to justify such a waiver.”

And if to make this a bigger joke, when Fox tried to obtain interviews and comments from Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc. competitors about the no-bid situation, they were all afraid of repercussions from the Obama administration, so interviews and comments were declined.

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In another case of the Federal Government being complicit and covering up the events of the AIG bailout/payout and America’s manufactured meltdown, the SEC has allowed the details of the AIG fiasco to remain secret until 2018. Of course, if that date holds up, those complicit in this corruption will be far removed from its association and lessen the likelihood that revelations of the details will result in criminal charges.

As reported by Reuters News,

It could take until November 2018 to get the full story behind the U.S. bailout of insurance giant American International Group (AIG.N) because of an action taken last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In May, the SEC approved a request by AIG to keep secret an exhibit to a year-old regulatory filing that includes some of the details on the most controversial aspect of the AIG bailout: the funneling of tens of billions of dollars to big banks like Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Merrill Lynch.

and

The SEC’s decision to approve AIG’s request for confidential treatment…could spark controversy now following the release last week of 14-month-old emails that reveal that some at the New York Fed had discussions with AIG officials about how much information should be disclosed to the public about the Maiden Lane III transaction.

As expected from these Federally-appointed crooks, the SEC declined comments on this.

The Fed’s bailout of AIG long has been controversial because the banks that sold CDOs to Maiden Lane III were paid 100 percent of face value, even though many of the securities were worth substantially less

This country, along with its economy will continued to be drugged into submission. It seems the design of this collapse was well designed and orchestrated. The intergral players were chosen to help grease the skids as to allow the American economic collapse while these banking and moneyed interests of this country lined their pockets with taxpayer dollars.

If that’s not enough, in an supposed unrelated matter, Rahm Emanuel was a Director at Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae (Clinton appt.) when the decisions were made to cook the books to mislead and swindle shareholders as to actual losses and to use accounting methods that would prolong disclosure of these events until after those who collapsed Fannie and Freddie were long gone. You know, those people who made millions out of their fraud. The result was the collapse of Fannie and Freddie being backstopped with an endless amount of taxpayer dollars, including the $800 billion given to them the last day of 2009.

Under the protection of Executive Privilege, the Obama administration has refused to cooperate with information requests for the minutes of meetings attended by Rahm during his 14-month stay.  Unfortunately, the statute of limitations runs out soon, so for now, Obama and gang have kept the hounds at bay. This is key to uncovering the massive corruption within the White House.

Rahm used money from his Fannie/Freddie piggy bank to help finance his successful Congressional race. The more onerous issue is the fact that during Rahm’s Congressional stint, he co-sponsored a bill that took away regulatory oversight on Freddie/Fannie by leaving the Federal Housing Finance Agency(FHFA) without an Inspector General, as reported by ABC in November 2009.

Amazingly enough, Rahm, ended up being appointed to the House Financial Service committee and also on the sub-committee that oversaw Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae. A good read on this can be found here, titled Rahm Emanuel’s Freddie Mac Profits.

And of course, there’s Barney Frank’s involvement in this fraud and the fact that he had a homosexual relationship with then executive of Fannie Mae, Herb Moses. A good read on that can be found in this article, ‘Media Mum on Barney Frank’s Fannie Mae Love Connection’.

So, as we peel back more layers of this rotten onion, we start to see intentional efforts to sink the American economy by financial and moneyed interests as they steal taxpayer money.

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In a story reported last week, BusinesWeek reported that the current U.S. Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, while heading up the New York Federal Reserve Bank, told AIG to not publicly disclose the payout it provided to banks with taxpayer bailout money.

A statement by Congressman Darrell Issa revealed the findings:

“It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information”. Issa said Taxpayers “deserve full and complete disclosure under our nation’s securities laws, not the withholding of politically inconvenient information.”

AIG refused comment and U.S Treasury Dept. deferred comments to New York Federal Reserve Bank. The Fed wanted to keep that AIG payout detail out of the public disclosure, with Donald Kohn of the NY Fed testifying that revealing the information would hamper AIG’s ability to continue operations.

The e-mails span five months starting in November 2008 and include requests from the New York Fed to withhold documents and delay disclosures…The NY Fed and its lawyers declined comment on the emails.

the New York Fed suggested that AIG refrain in a filing from mentioning so-called synthetic collateralized debt obligations, which bundled derivative contracts rather than actual loans.

As part of a bailout that swelled to $182.3 billion, AIG and the Fed created Maiden Lane III, a taxpayer-funded facility designed to remove mortgage-linked swaps from the insurer’s books.

I think it’s obvious that the banking and moneyed interest in the U.S. designed America’s economic meltdown. As the layers of this onion are peeled back, more corruption is revealed. In a follow-up to this you will see the continued corruption, with the likes of Tim Geithner,  the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Treasury. the SEC, and others. As reported on 1/ 12/10, the SEC agreed to allow the details of the AIG bailout/payout to be kept secret until 2018. Talk about covering your ass.

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