In This Issue:
|
|
1. Communist Job
Czar Quits
2. Third Time is the
Charm
3. Dawn of Denial
4. Healthcare Scare
Makeover
|
|
Communist Job Czar Calls It Quits
 It's amazing what liberals are willing to put up with. Van Jones, President Obama's “Green Jobs” Czar, gave the White House a smorgasbord of reasons not to hire him. First, Jones appeared in a YouTube video using an expletive to describe Republicans. Second, Jones was a member of STORM, a Communist/Marxist revolutionary group calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government. The Communist affiliation lasted a decade. More troubling still is that Jones lent his public support to convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
But it was Jones’ signature on a 2004 petition that finally forced his resignation. Sponsored by radical “9-11 truthers”, the petition suggests that the federal government had advanced knowledge of the 2001 terrorist attacks which took the lives of thousands of innocent civilians in New York, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Jones resigned from his White House post by email Sunday, saying that he has become a “distraction” from the President’s agenda of trying to take over the American health care system.
"I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.
On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.
I have been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum - urging me to "stay and fight."
But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.
It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead.”
|
Third Time's the Charm
 The union maxim, “Keep voting until you win,” took on new meaning in Wisconsin recently. Union members twice rejected wage and benefit concessions Mercury Marine officials said were necessary to keep 850 union jobs in Fond du Lac.
Three company workers petitioned for the third and final vote after company officials announced their intention to move operations to Stillwater, Oklahoma.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
However the three are viewed, it is clear that the efforts of Rick Schmidt, Fred Toth Jr. and Felipe Rodriguez led to the referendum Thursday and Friday in which Mercury Marine employees accepted a wage freeze and other concessions - and preserved the status of the outboard engine-maker as one of the biggest employers in the Fox Valley.
"When the time comes to fight for your job and your family, that's what you are going to do," said Toth, 46.
As many as 850 factory jobs and possibly 1,000 headquarters jobs in Fond du Lac were at risk.
So Toth, Schmidt and Rodriguez hastily began gathering hundreds of signatures on petitions demanding a new vote, despite some objections from within their union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. A disputed second round of balloting began late on Aug. 29, but the union later aborted it, saying the company's proposal had expired.
Then as pressure from workers as well as community and political leaders mounted, the company and the union agreed to accept a third vote - and on Friday night, the concessions were approved.
Toth summed it up best, when he said:
"The company wins because it still has a quality workforce," Toth said. "The workers win because we still have jobs. And the union wins because it still has union people paying union dues."
These three men are heroes to Mercury Marine employees who are willing to make concessions in order to keep their jobs. They are villains to those who are willing say “Jobs NO” in order to say “Union YES.”
Dawn of Denial
 In 2006, voters elected Milwaukee native Dawn Marie Sass to serve as Wisconsin State Treasurer. The post is one of five constitutional offices and thought by many to be worthy of elimination. Sass may have helped make their case when she used taxpayer dollars to fund expensive junkets to California, and to hire her 20 year old niece to travel with her around the state.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, not only has Sass taken exorbitant cruises, placed relatives on the state payroll, and failed to show up for work, she actually allowed the state's backlog of unclaimed property to grow.
Sass spent much of last week at the posh St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point, Calif., for the National Association of State Treasurers annual meeting. In addition to attending informational sessions and giving a talk on Wisconsin's unclaimed property program, Sass went on a two-hour sea-life cruise.
As Sass traveled to California, her aides tried to dig the office out from under a backlog that reached about 2,900 claims for property.
The problem is exacerbated by five vacancies in the 15-person office - some of which occurred after Sass sparred with employees.
To help fill the staff shortage, Sass hired her 20-year-old niece for a summer job staffing the front desk and processing claims. But her niece spent at least some of her time on the road with Sass, even though the treasurer had an aide whose job it was to accompany her on trips.
In another matter, e-mails show Sass sometimes clashed with employees over their hours.
In one exchange, former employee Robelia wrote Sass saying she called on a Monday morning to straighten out questions about her hours but was told Sass had left the office to mow her lawn.
Sass said that was appropriate because she had worked two weekends at the State Fair, traveled to Chicago for a conference and was due to go on a trip up north the next day.
"My grass was about over my knees for a month of no mowing," she said. "And you know what? I don't have to be here every day ....but I'm here pretty much every single day. I live alone; somebody's got to do it.
If voters catch wind of Sass’ escapades, she might just have the nicest lawn on her block two summers from now.
|
Healthcare Scare Makeover
 As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress regarding his plan to take over our health care system, Wisconsin citizens are gathering by the thousands to take back their government.
4,000 people turned out for a taxpayer rally in Sheboygan this weekend to speak out against excessive government spending and regulation.
"Everything the government runs is bankrupt," said Phil Zimmerman, a medical doctor and director of WisconsinRepublic.org and an opponent of President Barack Obama's health-care proposal. "Not only can we not afford a new massive health-care program, we can't afford the health-care program we have."
Those words were music to the ears of Milton Leganchuk of Howards Grove, a Canadian citizen living in Wisconsin for 13 years who was laid off from his job Friday as an athletic trainer at a Two Rivers clinic.
"I know what (government-run) health-care looks like and I can see it happening here," said Leganchuk, who attended Saturday's rally with his wife, Nicole, and 2-year-old son, Alexei. "Government-run health-care will bankrupt the country. If it happens here, we're going back to Canada. At least I know what I'm getting there."
American’s for Prosperity’s Wisconsin Chapter will host another taxpayer Tea Party on Saturday September 19th at Veterans' Park in Milwaukee, from 3:00 - 5:00 pm.
For more information contact American’s for Prosperity at 414-475-2975 or visit the AFP Wisconsin website at www.fightbackwisconsin.com .
|
|
|
