Hoffa: "Let's take these son of bitches out...!"

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa had some rough rhetoric for the union faithful today while firing them up for Obama's speech.  Via RCP:

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa added.

 What happened to the new civility?

Flashback to January when Martin Kaplan wrote on HuffPo:

If you're worried that violent video games may make kids prone to bad behavior; if you think that misogynic and homophobic rap lyrics are dangerous to society; if you believe that a nipple in a Superbowl halftime show is a threat to our moral fabric - then surely you should also fear that the way public and media figures have framed political participation with shooting gallery imagery is just as potentially lethal. 

I'll be expecting Kaplan's censure of Jimmy Hoffa just any time now.

Even Obama spoke of a "new civility in discourse" in January.  Did I miss the part in his speech today when he censured Hoffa for his lack of civility? 

Nope, I don't think he addressed that.  In fact, he said

"We're going to see if we've got some straight shooters in Congress. We're going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party."

"Straight shooters"?  Can we still say "shoot" in the new discourse?

Added:  Politico headline:  "Rick Perry Fires at Mitt Romney at S.C. Town Hall "
I guess Perry is a "straight shooter."

NEA Gives Obama an Early Endorsement and Loses One More Member

Years ago, when I first started teaching, I was told to join "a professional organization" (i.e. a union).  "You never know when you might need them!"  I was told.  "It's for your own protection!"

As a new teacher, you're so overwhelmed with things, which group to join didn't really seem to matter; I naively assumed they were all the same.  

It pains me greatly to say this, but I joined NEA.  And each year when we get that sheet to renew, drop, or change membership, I just sign off on it without much thought.

I'm such an idiot.

I'm changing now.

Now I'm paying attention.

This past weekend the NEA convention was held in (of all places) Chicago.  As you may have heard, they voted "by a good margin: 5,414 delegates, or 72.04 percent," to endorse Obama for 2012, reports Education Week.  This puts NEA PAC dollars in motion towards Obama's re-election campaign.

Even worse:

In conjunction with their Obama endorsement, the NEA approved a controversial measure that doubles individual member contributions to their political action funds from $10 to $20. The increase was made in effort to combat declining membership numbers and to ensure that the NEA remains the single largest contributor to partisan politics for the upcoming election cycle.

I've already put in motion cancellation of my membership to NEA.  It makes me want to just throw up that I've been so negligent in my attention all this time.

This is not the only issue that I have with NEA; there are plenty of others.  I only wish I'd joined the thousands of others and dropped my membership before now.  Mike Antonucci wrote about this at Hot Air back in February.

But the most recent numbers show NEA lost more than 54,000 active K-12 members since this time last year. Coupled with less-than-expected increases in the average teacher salary – upon which NEA dues are based – the union will find itself with $14 million less revenue than it had planned. This includes about $500,000 less in the political and media funds.

 I'm outta there.  Better late than never, I guess.

Update:  Linked at Don Surber - thanks!

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has been giving the entire country a huge civics lesson.  And as insane as things got last night, I'm pretty sure it's not finished. 

What About the Unions?

As the battle in Wisconsin continues and even spreads throughout the nation to other states, I'm wondering what your experience or opinion is of unions.

As a teacher, I'm a member of a union, except they're usually euphemistically referred to as "professional organizations" around here.  When I first started teaching fifteen years ago I was told by mentors, "It's for your own protection!  If you get sued, they'll provide a lawyer for you!"  As a naive new teacher, this sounded pretty reassuring and I signed up.

Through the years I've only called upon the union one time.  My first teaching job was with a strict micro-manager who oversaw every detail of your day and felt the need to comment on it all.  One time she called us into faculty meeting and told us that kids were not to be allowed out of class to go to the restroom; those issues should be handled between classes.

The very next day a student runs into my room between classes, tosses his books on his desk, and runs back out saying, "I have to go to the bathroom!"  He did not return before the tardy bell and as procedure directed, I put his name on my tardy slip report for the day and turned it in.   The next day I had a note in my box that a letter had been placed in my personnel file that I was insubordinate and had allowed a student to leave class when previously directed not to do so.

Obviously this is not what happened.  Long story short, I had to call upon my union rep to help me get the letter removed from my file and get the matter straightened out.

Politically, I seldom agree with my union - er, professional organization.  I've had very little dealings with them.  I know my father loathed the unions and swore that they were ruining the country.  I do know I pay a hefty amount in dues to belong to this professional organization.  Is it worth it?  I don't know, really.

So, as the battle in Wisconsin spreads, as it seems to be doing, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on unions and what experience you've had with them.

No Transparency To See Here...Move Along

We are well past the joke of calling the Obama administration "the most transparent" administration in history. There is absolutely nothing transparent about what is going on with the health care issue right now.

Daniel Foster at NRO's The Corner sums up what is about to be the mother of all entitlement programs and if it's not just plain illegal then it's bound to be unconstitutional.

As one pet group after another, and one begging Senator after another, and one bribe after another falls into place, the Obamacare legislation has become so tweaked, so manipulated and so filthy as to defy all understanding.

According to Congress Daily, the latest to come out of the all day closed door negotiations yesterday is the "Unions tentatively struck a deal Tuesday to exempt collectively bargained healthcare plans from a tax on high-cost plans expected to be used to help raise revenue for the healthcare overhaul." (Emphasis mine).

Reporting that opposition to the excise tax remains high, The Hill buries this nugget at the end of their report:

Nevertheless, Andrews, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and other Democrats indicated that a compromise that excluded more middle-class workers from the tax is possible “I think we could build a consensus around that idea, a majority,” he said. Increasing the Medicare payroll tax further than the Senate bill and applying it to investment income would help make up for the lost revenue, he said.

So - you're going to exempt "collectively bargained" health care plans from the excise tax AND middle class workers.

Buying votes, anyone?

And what was that we were told about taxes not going up? No taxes whatsoever?

As Foster says, "This would amount to nothing less than a bill of attainder against on all constituencies that are not especially useful to the president and his party."

Do Teachers Have First Amendment Rights at Work?

I find myself getting sucked by into the political realm this morning. As a teacher, politics is sometimes a tricky area. My students often ask me who I am going to vote for and I never tell them. I always tell them, "Oh! I never discuss my politics!" Well, that's just not true - I guess I should say, "I never discuss my politics with students!" I've worked in both Caddo and Bossier parishes and in both we've had to sign an agreement basically stating that we will not "politic" on the job. No posters, no campaign buttons on clothing, no discussions about candidates we favor with students, etc. You get the picture. We're not civil service, but Steve is, and his rules are even more strict. He can't even put a bumper sticker on his private car or a yard sign up. I can at least do that.

In New York the teacher's union has filed suit against this rule under the position that it violates the First Amendment of the teachers. Teacher's unions are almost always for the Democratic candidate. This particular case started when the union wanted members to distribute materials for Obama and sent out an email with instructions on how to do this. Education Department officials soon became involved and now they are to the lawsuit.

I'm a firm believer in the Constitution and in the rights of the people, which does include free speech; but this is conflicting for me too because I don't think I should be pushing my views on impressionable students. I hate the way it happens in college; liberal professors have been brainwashing and indoctrinating students for years (I spent lots of time in college and have seen it.) College is a slightly different story - those students are considered adults. But high school?

Lots of my students have professed an allegiance for Obama and are wearing buttons. Their reasons? Their parents are for him. Other reasons revolve around race; I had one tell me "Because he's a brotha." My point is that many of them do not know why they support him, they just do. I'm sure there are the same examples on the Republican side, too.

In a history class or a civics class I think a teacher would HAVE to discuss this election and it would be very hard to not let your bias in. I'm not certain I could do it! And what about the idiot Florida teacher who wrote the acronym C.H.A.N.G.E. on the white board then wrote out the disgusting "meaning" for it? In a seventh grade classroom?! (He was suspended then moved to an Adult Ed. school.) I guess it is because of people like him that these rules about discussing politics at school must exist. Was that a violation of his free speech? Or can you fire someone for being an idiot?

If the New York union wins its suit and we eventually are all allowed, as teachers, to impose our views on students (and on each other) at work, where will it end? Will students feel intimidated because they don't like your candidate? Will idiot teachers penalize students for having different views? I have one student who refuses to stand for the Pledge each day. He says it makes no sense to pledge a flag and that the people who died for his right to pledge the flag make no difference to him. He said, "People have been dying since the beginning of time." This makes my blood boil but I have to let it go. I cannot make him stand.

Where does it end?