I know I’ve said it before, but unionism is antithetical to good government. It is impossible to have both unions and effective government in a democratic republic such as ours. Unions destroy good government, waste money at all levels and they move strictly against the best interests of the voters in all cases. Once again my axiom is shown as a truism with a report by Michael Barone with his Dec. 30 Examiner piece.

Barone details the findings of a recent Rasmussen poll that reveals that Americans that aren’t in government unions and government jobs feel that the economy and the job outlook is getting worse while those in government jobs and unions think everything is going swimmingly.

That isn’t because the government jobs are materially better, but that the government jobs are raiding the public treasury and returning nothing of worth to the country through undue influence on politicians. You might ask why government workers feel things are so good if their jobs provide nothing of worth to the country? Good question. The problem is, even as government jobs are useless to the health, wealth, and welfare of the country, even while government jobs tear us all down and make us weaker in every category, they do provide something of relative worth to politicians: campaign cash.

Barone notes that a large part of the so-called stimulus cash went to governments and those government turned around and handed the cash to public employees unions in order to “save” their unnecessary, make-work jobs. Why do this? Because the unions donate big money back to the politicians that’s why.

The policy aim, Democrats say, was to maintain public services and aid. The political aim, although Democrats don’t say so, was to maintain public-sector jobs — and the flow of union dues to the public employees unions that represent almost 40 percent of public-sector workers.

Those unions in turn have contributed generously to Democrats. Services Employee International Union head Andy Stern, the most frequent nongovernment visitor to the Obama White House, has boasted that his union steered $60 million to Democrats in the 2008 cycle. The total union contribution to Democrats has been estimated at $400 million.

In effect, some significant portion of the stimulus package can be regarded as taxpayer funding of the Democratic Party. Needless to say, no Republicans need apply.

It is an incestuous relationship, certainly. Politicians steal our tax money and give it to public employee unions that do nothing for the nation. In return the unions take some of that tax money and flow it into the coffers of politician’s campaign warchests. Then politicians pass even more union friendly laws that give unions even more tax money. Then the grateful unions give even more to the politicians. Then… well, you can see where this is going and how wrong it is.

And as unions enrich themselves and their political lapdogs, the politicians pass more laws to help their union pals and create ever more useless, needless union jobs so that more union pals can put their cronies in make-work jobs. It’s a great world if you’re part of it. the only people that get screwed are the actually productive members of society (hint: that ain’t union members OR politicians) who are forced to pay the ever growing tab (another hint: that’s YOU and ME!).

Unions should be outlawed for government workers. Period.

By Leon Weinstein

Please visit via the link below the Dec 30, 2009 entry into a Video Blog “My
love story with America”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oefeqCmuZRk

“You take wheat to cast into the Earth’s bosom; your wheat may be mixed with chaff, chopped straw, barn-sweepings, dust and all imaginable rubbish. No matter; you cast it into the kind, just Earth. She grows the wheat–the whole rubbish she silently absorbs, shrouds it in, says nothing of the rubbish. The yellow wheat is growing there; the good Earth is silent about all the rest” (Thomas Carlyle).

What a grand thought! Another wonderful concept: God takes our broken glass and makes a new mosaic for us. There is a story of a town during World War II that was bombed, and its lone church reduced to rubble. The survivors in the town decided to use the broken glass from the former beautiful mosaics and make a new design from the shattered pieces. They had to put together their own shattered lives, too. They put their griefs into God’s bosom and prayed that their lives would be whole again. Oh, how it touches my heart to envision our compassionate Father holding our shattered minds and hearts to His own; absorbing the anguish at the foot of His cross, for this is where all sorrow finds its way.

These past few weeks we have witnessed so much broken glass, what I call the potsherds of life. First there was the shocking news of the 17-year-old boy, the grandson of friends of ours, who died after what he thought was an innocent night of fun, including drugs and alcohol (oh, young people, take care – this dear young man was the light of so many lives, and now it is snuffed out for one night of carelessness!); then the email from my beloved daughter-in-law in California that her sister was dying of malignant melanoma (she was beautiful, only 45 years old, and she leaves a husband who adored her, and two teenaged children); and in the past few days the death of the recently-retired president of our local university, only 66 years old, he went in for a routine operation for a routine disease, and was gone in a matter of days. He had just retired from the university a few months before to spend time with his family and community, a beautiful soul who gave and gave and gave. I am so heartbroken! Nothing, dear friends, NOTHING is routine, is it?

Live today as if it will be your last. I pray it won’t be, but we do not know. Look at your family with new eyes and a renewed heart. Don’t hesitate to tell them that you love them; that they are your mosaic, that they are the jewels that make your life sparkle!

And be the wheat of life, too!

Turn on the television, switch on the radio, or open a magazine, and you are likely to hear a discussion on the continual victimization of one group or another based on race, religion, or gender at the very least. Centered within this narrative are the power-wielders with their thirst for absolute control, and the helpless victims that must continually gasp for air under the boot of domination. The Ibbetson WrightRoad Victimization Index offers an easy-to-understand guide to what happens when one group interacts with another, as well as a no-nonsense evaluation of how victimization works in the modern society.

The victimization index owes its conception to the work of Houston radio talk show hosts Damon Rexroad and James Wright (www.conservativefunhouse.com.) Pondering the ramifications of interracial violence, they came up with a numerical system of understanding whether society would react with praise or punishment to an act of violence based on factors such as race, gender, religious/political affiliation, etc. I have been graciously allowed to extend and develop the theoretical foundations of this unique concept. Before we observe and apply the victimization index, it is important to understand how victimization has come to be applied in this country.

America is a very compassionate country. The United States has traditionally been marked by the unique spirit that includes a tendency to root for the underdog, naturally supporting the victims of oppression, against those who would look to dominate a lesser group or individual for their own self-seeking purposes. After all, the story of the throwing off of oppression is truly an American tale in itself. However, the American perspective on victimization versus the modern liberal highlights vast differences in perception. The founders of this country would have seen their position as victims of England’s oppression as a short-lived situation they would resolve, and not a life-long label to gain power through manipulation.

Unfortunately, the term victim today has been hijacked, and its true meaning altered from a descriptor of the oppressed to a label often used by counter culture, anti-biblical, special interest, and anti-American groups. The word itself—victim—now carries less of a connotation of helplessness and need for assistance, and is more often used to describe a position of power through entitlement. In this liberal scheme, the majority progressively becomes ruled by the minority. In short, to be labeled a member of a victimized group is to gain massive formal and informal power. The victimization index allows both for both positive and negative consequences. Formal consequences include the presence (or lack) of fines and prison sentences, and informal consequences can come from news articles, television stories, reactions from family and friends, etc.

The victimization index is a numerical reflection of the modern liberal narrative of the most oppressed to the least oppressed and goes as follows:
1. Muslim Male
2. Gay/Lesbian
3. Black Male
4. Black Female
5. Hispanic Male
6. White Female
7. Hispanic Female
8. Muslim Female
9. White Male
10. Conservative

From the index it is simple to determine the potential outcomes (formal and informal consequences) “based on individual-on-individual, (or group-on-group) interaction” by simply subtracting the index scores of the person who initiates an action with the person who receives the action. After subtracting the index scores, if the ending result is a positive score (+), the more positive the score, the more likely negative (formal and informal) consequences will take place. If the end result comes out to be a negative score, the more negative the score (-) the more likely positive (formal and informal) consequences will occur. The scoring is as easy as it is accurate. Let’s try a few examples and then readers can apply the victimization index as many times as needed to demonstrate its validity. How about when looking at border security, Jim Gilchrist, white male (9), calls for securing the border and creates the Minutemen Project that affects, among others, Hispanic males (5). Well, that’s 9-5=+4 which brings about negative informal consequences for Gilchrist such as being called a racist and being ambushed by radical liberals while giving university speeches.

Let’s go the other way, Barack Obama, black male (3), disparages a Cambridge police officer, white male (9) with abusing his authority against a minority professor at a university. Here the math is 3-9=-6. Note we are over half way up the positive consequences scale. So, Obama does not receive the Nobel Peace Prize for falsely injecting racial conflict, but instead is allowed to have a beer-summit with all parties involved at the White House and is later described as a grand peacemaker. Conversely, Joe “the plumber,” white male (9), asks then candidate Barack Obama, black male (3), on the campaign trail a question about business taxes and a much different situation occurs. Sorry Joe, but 9-3=+6 and it’s time to turn your life upside down. When liberal activist Jeanine Garofalo accuses Rush Limbaugh of being the spiritual leader of a racist tea-bagger movement, no matter how you do the math (white female to conservative 6-10=-4 or lesbian to conservative 2-10=-8), Garofalo is guaranteed book deals and TV show appearance invitations. As a person begins to fully comprehend the victimization index, it becomes easier to answer questions of how an identified radical Muslin, like U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, could continue to operate despite sending red flags to so many people in the military. It is not that Hasan adeptly fooled onlookers, it’s that few were in a rush to face the consequences of testing the index’s outer limits of being a white male or conservative to point the finger at today’s victim “king” in the Muslim male (10-1=+9 or 9-1=+8).

The simple truth, is you can do this all day with the same outcome; the numbers just don’t lie. The lowest rung on the index is the conservative (10), and it is important to note that all identity, (race, sex, religion, etc.) is taken away from this person. To be a conservative in the modern world of liberal victimization is to be all but faceless. The Ibbetson WrightRoad Victimization Index is not meant to provoke, rather to describe the world as it currently exists. As important as this current reality is the evidence that this index is in continual flux. If society has the capability to alter our conception of victimization then it must be possible, it must be within our ability to lift triumph over victimization, and success over failure. I not only believe Americans can do this, but I also see it as in our true nature to do so. These are the numbers I would prefer to add up in our country’s future.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 f.m. www.ibbetsonusa.com. For interviews or questions, please contact ibbetson91.9@gmail.com

In September of 2005, the liberal political establishment successfully laid the Hurricane Katrina disaster at the feet of then President George W. Bush, in what was perhaps the greatest propaganda “sleight of hand” in modern history. Mired in corruption as a result of a near monopoly of Democrat political power, the City of New Orleans, and in fact the entire State of Louisiana, was woefully unprepared for the magnitude of the storm that hit it.

Yet in its wake, the bumbling of race-obsessed Mayor Ray Nagin and the indecisiveness of Governor Kathleen Blanco, both Democrats and clearly the greatest contributors to the botched evacuation and resulting losses of life and property, were somehow given a “pass.” In their stead, the political left cried out with a monolithic voice to condemn the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), its chairman Mike Brown, and of course the president who appointed him, George W. Bush.

Initially, the strident “outrage” was intended to distract America from the culpability held by the Democrats, since the region had been under their dominion for decades, and the abominable response to Katrina was directly tied to the universal dysfunction of bloated and corrupt state and local bureaucracies. Yet the success of their diversionary ploy so vastly exceeded early expectations, that its ringleaders seized the opportunity to develop it into a major campaign issue for the next year’s elections.

It mattered not that the real responsibility should have fallen to those who accepted and squandered vast amounts of money expressly intended to shore up the dikes, or institute other measures to minimize destruction from the inevitable storm. George Bush did it all, no doubt motivated by his animus towards the minority population of New Orleans. End of story.

Indeed, had those countless lives been endangered and ultimately lost as a result of Bush Administration indifference, such condemnation would certainly have been appropriate. Now, in the aftermath of a near miss from yet another Islamic terrorist, the blatant incompetence and callous indifference of the Obama White House is not creating nearly the stir that was generated by the network anchors following Katrina. Nevertheless, the evidence is glaring, and like the “Climate Gate” revelations of wholesale fraud from England’s East Anglia, Climate Research Unit, this story will not remain hushed forever.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano typifies the real interests and intentions of this administration. Ultimately, the safety of American and international travelers in our nation’s airports is a major annoyance and distraction from the more important objectives of the liberal agenda. In its raw form, an event of this nature, despite nearly costing the lives of three hundred people, cannot be invoked as evidence of “global warming,” the lack of equitable medical care for all, or as an excuse to raise taxes.

Napolitano, in her second response to the incident, which is admittedly a marked improvement from her initial reaction (asserting that the current airport security system had worked well), offered measures reminiscent of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who directed Americans to sneeze into their sleeves as the proper fix for the impending global pandemic of swine flu. Napolitano is directing flight attendants to demand that all passengers keep their hands visible during the final hour of flight, thus forcing would-be terrorists to detonate their explosives and kill the passengers and flight crews further from their intended destination. We can all rest easy now.

Yet even this absurdity is not as appalling as the non-reaction from Barack Obama. He clearly did not want to be bothered with the whole affair, since every aspect of it screams in the face of his delusional appeasement agenda. Having groveled at the feet of every Middle-Eastern ruler willing to give him audience during the past year, Obama convinced himself and his acolytes that he was mending fences with that culture that had been devastated by an overly bellicose Bush White House.

Where the former president had exhibited arrogant resolve, Obama showed fawning and capitulation. Of course those brutish regimes would buy into Obama’s narcissism and make nice in response to it.

Now, the word is out that al Qaeda has moved into Yemen and is fortifying there. Somehow, negotiations from a position of weakness and submissiveness do not seem to be winning America any new friends. It is as if the old saw about those people respecting strength is true after all, and as a result, the utopian dreams of international collegiality envisioned by Obama and his leftist cronies are dissipating. Forget the dangers posed to Americans by this situation however. It looks really bad in front of the cameras and will likely not generate any gains in approval polls.

After less than a year in office, the evidence of the real Barack Obama is undeniable. Here is a man who sat under, and absorbed the venom and bile of the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright for more than two decades, fomenting such sentiments as expressed in his “bitter clingers” characterization of heartland America. Here is a man who shows no respect for this nation, its national symbols, its heritage, or its anthem. Yet he bows low to other national leaders, particularly from regressive regimes.

He does not believe in the concept of American exceptionalism, and has made it abundantly clear that he intends to wipe out every vestige of it. He does not regard those organizations throughout the world who express overt hostility to America, or those individuals in the country who are similarly motivated to commit the mass murder of Americans, as his real enemy. Such a characterization is reserved for members of the political right.

The pattern of escalating animosity and boldness from America’s most virulent enemies, witnessed throughout the 1990s, is beginning to repeat itself. So too, but on a more disturbing scale, is the pattern of inaction from a leftist executive with more pressing priorities, such as the implementation of his Marxist agenda. If America and its government refuses to learn the lessons of September 11, 2001, namely that the bestial threat still exists and that only through greater force, abandoning the absurdities of “multiculturalism” and “political correctness,” and maintaining the inherent instincts of the American people to fight for and preserve their country, can the threat be confronted and overcome. Otherwise, a repeat of the 9-11 attacks, perhaps on a far greater scale, is inevitable.

Christopher G. Adamo has been active in Wyoming politics for many years and is a managing partner in Best American Buy (www.bestamericanbuy.com), an e-commerce business that markets American made products including the incomparable Abigail Adams Bedspread Set from Bates Mills. Contact information for Chris Adamo, and his archives, can be found at www.chrisadamo.com