Obama Stands Up For Wisconsin Public Service Unions

Governor Scott Walker, of Wisconsin unveiled his plans to salvage the economy and budget of Wisconsin. His plan calls for sweeping legislation that will weaken public employee rights and bargaining ability.

State officials alerted the Wisconsin State Employee unions that expired collective bargaining contracts will be terminated on March 13. A budget repair bill also unveiled will do away with all collective bargaining rights for nearly all public employees and make it much easier to fire employees.

On This Day in History…

If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program.

But if we act as one, we can safeguard our interests and send a clear message to every would be tyrant and terrorist that the international community does have the wisdom and the will and the way to protect peace and security in a new era. That is the future I ask you all to imagine. That is the future I ask our allies to imagine.
-Excerpt from statements made by the President of the United States

The Danger Of Believing Your Own Lies And Propaganda

I learned to ride jumping horses as a teenager from an old cavalry trooper. Sadly, my English riding and jumping style reflects that early instruction where function was valued over form. It wouldn’t be an issue, except here in America, only the affluent and those who want to appear affluent compose the majority of those who ride jumpers and they have spent years and tens of thousands of dollars to fine tune the image of how they appear or the image they want to project while riding: European riders have disdain for the American rider who seldom ventures beyond the arena; in Europe, they spend their time and money on being able to negotiate difficult courses on horses that aren’t trained to the Nth degree, while being able to train recalcitrant horses to perform at the highest international levels. Americans would rather spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on the easy to ride or push button horse that will win a rosette and a ribbon.

The certification bonanza – Industry uses the state’s police powers to limit competition and line their pockets…[Reader Post]

I constantly write about the evils of government unbound. Most of that time those comments are directed at a federal government that has ventured far beyond the constraints imposed by the 10th Amendment.

Although the federal government’s excess is often the easiest to see, Uncle Sam is far from the only offender in terms of governments growing too large and too powerful. On the contrary, state and local governments can be (and often are) equally guilty. Local governments use various devices such as zoning ordinances, arbitrary fees and various inspection regimes to impose their power the citizenry. One of the most dubious of those devices is called “certification”.