TSA Fights Back

Blowing the dust off this place after almost a year of inactivity to present to you, complete and unedited, the most recent edition of a publication called The TSO Voice, which I picked up at work (at General Mitchell Int'l Airport) while waiting for the employee shuttle. For reference, the flyer states that this is a weekly publication, although this edition is dated November 22, 2010.

AFGE'S USA TODAY AD REMINDS TRAVELERS TSOs' JOB IS TO PROTECT FLYING PUBLIC
AFGE Local Vice President in Memphis Appears on ABC News to Discuss Enhanced Pat-Downs

The largest and most trusted labor union at the Transportation Security Administration is running an ad in USA Today on Nov. 23 to alert airline passengers of new screening procedures and remind them that Transportation Security Officers are there to do their job and protect the flying public against threats and terrorism.

"The Transportation Security Officers who staff the checkpoints are frontline DHS employees. they are there to do a job that protects us all," says the ad paid for by the American Federation of Government Employees. "They have been charged with implementing the new policies with one goal in mind -- the safety of the flying public. Our nation's TSOs deserve our respect and our thanks."

The USA Today ad is one of AFGE's latest attempts to safeguard TSOs, who have been at the receiving end of passengers' anger and frustration following the implementation of TSA's new screening policies that include full body scans and enhanced pat-downs.

AFGE on ABC World News

AFGE Local 555 Executive Vice President Valyria Lewis appeared on ABC World News last Friday to discuss the pat-down situation. Lewis told ABC News that TSOs understand passengers' concerns, but TSA's top priority is to protect the flying public. Watch Lewis on ABC News

Because a high volume of passengers is expected during the holiday season, AFGE last week called on TSA to provide the travelers with educational pamphlets that spell out what passengers can expect and what their rights are.

"TSA must do a better job explaining these measures to the flying public," said AFGE president John Gage. "This absence of information has resulted in a backlash against the character and professionalism of TSOs."

AFGE strongly believes that TSA should work with local authorities to ensure that adequate numbers of law enforcement personnel are deployed to the airports to deal with anyone looking to disrupt the security process or assault a TSO in the line of duty.

Feingold Isn't Listening

Interesting post from Boots and Sabers today covering Senator Feingold's recent listening sessions up in Washington county.

Most telling, perhaps, is the news coming from Deekaman over at Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC:

...Deekawife 3.0 went to Senator Feingold's (I'm not) Listening Session at MATC today. The crowd was overwhelmingly against his stands on Obamacare and Cap & Tax.

He didn't care.

As mentioned in the comments over at Boots and Sabers, if the GOP can find a viable candidate, things could go very badly for Feingold come November.

In other news, I'm considering a name change for this blog, and (hopefully) will begin posting more regularly.

I Will Not Buy Another Frommer's Travel Guide

Because Arthur Frommer thinks that people who legally carry guns are "thugs".

Hat tip Fox News

Political Triage

Verum Serum has a great post up on the current political salvos from the Obama administration; Justice Sotomayer, the energy bill, and health care reform. Boiled down, it looks like this:
-Sotomayer: let it go. We're not going to win this one, and it's not going to change the balance on the Supreme Court.
-Cap and Trade: make them wait. If Obama and the Democrats have to wait, we can focus on the most pressing matter (below), and the whole thing will (ideally) get the media attention it deserves, making people realize that it's a disaster.
-Health Care Bill: oppose the "public option." This thing is a huge disaster, not to mention a back door to government-run healthcare. This is the big one, and we need to make sure it doesn't happen.

This is just the bullet points; go read the whole thing. It's worth it.

Obama's "We Can't Keep Our Homes at 72 Degrees All The Time" Statement Expires

I'll call the official expiration date as this past Wednesday, as that is when this article appeared in the New York Times, where Obama's chief of staff, David Axelrod, states that Obama is from Hawai'i, and likes it warm, going so far as to say "you could grow orchids in there."

Obama is the same man who, while on the campaign trail, told us we can't keep our houses at 72 degrees all the time and expect the rest of the world to be OK with it, and even said "that's not leadership."

Anyone have the current expired promise count?

Hat tip Not Evil Just Wrong, via Facebook

Obama Freezes Some White House Salaries

Saying "families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," President Barack Obama is freezing the salaries of about 100 White House aides who make more than $100,000 per year, according to Yahoo! News. For as much as I disagree with Obama, this is something I can agree with. Lets hope the cuts and spending freezes keep coming.

H/T: Terrace Crawford (via Twitter)

House Joint Resolution 5

When I got on Facebook tonight upon getting home from work, I had a cause invitation from a friend to join a cause he had created, opposing House Joint Resolution 5. Being intrigued, I followed the link, and not wanting to be taken in by something that was not in fact real, I did some digging. Rest assured, this is very real, and very scary. Here's the breakdown, with a little constitutional history lesson thrown in for good measure:

The 22nd Amendment (link will take you to the Wikipedia article) states that a president may not serve more than two terms, consecutive or not, unless the president took over for someone else, and has served more than two years of that person's term as president, in which case the person that took over can only be elected to the presidency once, and cannot be re-elected. I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia article.

A search of the Library of Congress' aptly named Thomas site brings up House Joint Resolution 5, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jose Serrano of New York, currently under consideration by the House Judiciary Committee. The purpose of this resolution is to repeal the 22nd amendment, thereby making it possible for a president to serve as many terms as he or she can be elected to, much the way FDR was, who, by the way, was elected to his fourth term in 1944 and died in office in 1945.

Long story short, if this thing goes all the way, Obama (or anyone else, really), could keep being perpetually re-elected. I don't care who's in office; the 22nd Amendment serves a purpose and needs to stay. As Jefferson said (with apologies for my updated take), if that happens, POTUS could be for life, and would become an inheritance, not an elected position, which flies in the face of why we started this nation all those years ago. We elect a president, not a king.

As of right now, I've sent an email off to my representative (Paul Ryan), and I'm hoping to hear back from him soon. I've also joined the cause on Facebook; if you'd like to do the same, click the link below. I plan to fight this every step of the way and make sure this doesn't happen.

I guess now we know where Obama's "eight to ten years" statement comes into play, eh? (Assuming that one hasn't reached its expiration date)

UPDATE: Join the Cause "Americans Against H. J. Res. 5" on Facebook

Romney on the Detroit Big Three

Excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times (of all places) by former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on the bailout the Big Three are seeking. What I really appreciate about this is that he doesn't just say let them fail, he outlines what they can do to regain their footing, and what the government can do to help them. As he states in the article, his dad was brought on to run American Motors after the death of its president, and he learned a lot from that. His most important point, though, is that if Detroit wants help from the government, they need to create a win-win situation, which they haven't done yet. Go read the whole thing; it's not long, and I guarantee it's worth it.

Side Note: Post number 75! 100 here we come!

Big Three Bailout: Not So Fast

CNN is reporting this afternoon that while Congress intends to keep the Big Three afloat, they will need to show what it is they are going to do with the $25 Billion they are after. Said Pelosi: "This is an important industry in our country and we intend to save it. Until they show us a plan we cannot show them the money."

While I don't think a bailout of the Big Three is a great idea (they got themselves into this mess, let them go to bankruptcy court and get themselves out, not to mention the first bailout was supposed to get credit flowing again), there is no doubt in my mind that it will happen. I am at least encouraged that Congress is not going to simply throw good money after bad. But, here's the catch; most of the members of Congress are going to be leaving town on Thursday, and aren't expected back until next year. So, if this doesn't get done by Thursday... things will get interesting, fast.

The Lie of Deregulation

Tip of the hat to Verum Serum for putting up this video and the bullet point summary. I'll send you there instead of reposting the whole thing here.

Obama: Hypothetically Speaking

Tip of the hat, and congratulations, to John and Scott over at Verum Serum on their first YouTube video.

Milwaukee Labor's Obama Love Fest

As I've mentioned previously on the blog, my dear mother has worked for Milwaukee County for over 25 years, and as a member of the AFL-CIO/Milwaukee Area Labor Council (translation: union), she receives their Labor Press newspaper periodically. I've never paid much attention to it in the past (truth be told, neither did she), but lately I've taken to glancing over it, as much of the content has been political in nature. Previously, I covered Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton's foul mouth in regard to the County Executive race. Now, they've got a much bigger fish to fry; the White House, and getting Obama into it.

According to their front page article, "it seems that Republicans can only win November 4 by discouraging voter turnout, while the Democrats must strive for record turnout to guarantee a mandate for change." Yeah, change; the only thing we'll have left if BHO becomes POTUS. They talk about how he's raising more money than McCain; no mention of the fact he did this by bailing out of the public financing system he said he was going to use, and of course no mention of the fact that there are virtually NO safeguards in place to keep people from outside the US, or even people that don't exist, from donating to his campaign, which has been covered elsewhere.

Here's another fantastic quote: "Obama has been a balanced steady voice with practical ideas through the economic disaster." Practical? Like, say, allowing people to pull up to $10,000 out of their 401K plans, which will further depress the stock market? Like "spreading the wealth around," as he puts it? I could go on.

Go read the whole thing, if you can. I can't stomach it.

Obama Admits ACORN Will Shape His Presidency

JS Editorial: "Nope, No Media Filtering Here"

Yeah, right. The JS, in an editorial in today's paper, denies that there is any media filtering going on with Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, that's just not true.

As shown elsewhere in the blogosphere, the MSM has been making edits that have either hurt Palin, helped Obama, or both.

Nope, nothing to see here, move along, these aren't the droids you're looking for.

H/T to Verum Serum and The Mark Levin Show

Understatement of the Week Award

In the Student Center at MATC, relaxing and surfing between classes while watching MSNBC. They had on a newscaster from Anchorage, who said that Joe Biden has a "tendency" toward gaffes.

Understatement of the week? That might be the understatement of the campaign so far...

Who Put the House on Fire?

That's the question asked by John over at Verum Serum, who also provides the link to a related Hot Air article, complete with video and highlights. The Democrats continue to try to pin the whole thing on the Republicans, but in truth, the Dems are the ones who created this mess, and the Republicans tried to stop it, but were rebuffed at every turn.

More on the Meltdown

Hat tip to Ace of Spades for this video, another dealing with the current economic meltdown, who's behind it all, who tried to stop it, and who benefited from the events leading up to it.


UPDATE: Would help to embed the actual video...

A Brief History of Financial Crisis

This could also be described as a brief history of how we found ourselves in the mess we are currently in, who we have to blame for it, and who tried to stop it before it started. With a tip of the hat to John at Verum Serum, I present the following from Fox News:



No further comment from me. You, however, are welcome to have at it.

The Real Culprit Behind the Fannie/Freddie Meltdown

From an editorial in Investors Business Daily:

Obama in a statement yesterday blamed the shocking new round of subprime-related bankruptcies on the free-market system, and specifically the "trickle-down" economics of the Bush administration, which he tried to gig opponent John McCain for wanting to extend.

But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions.

Go read the rest.

H/T Verum Serum

Round Four (Five?) for Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader was on CNN today, talking about McCain/Palin, Obama/Biden, and why he's running for president again. Here's a CNN article from February, pointing out that this is his fourth attempt at the White House, fifth if you count his write-in campaign. As I recall (and as CNN pointed out), Nader cost Gore the election in 2000. Of course, Nader went on about how unfair the system is, how it is set up to keep him down, blah blah blah.

Please, please PLEASE let this be true. If it is, Nader may have just handed McCain the White House on a platter.