Come visit us at our new web site: www.interestingitems.org Leave your thoughts, comments and opinions. We look forward to hearing from you. Interesting Items Alex Gimarc [email protected] Monday April 18, 2011 Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy – In this issue: 1. Boeing 2. Poker 3. Dearbornistan 4. Vehicle Fee 5. Birther 6. Syria 7. Medicare 1. Boeing. Multiple strikes by machinists and other unions at their Seattle plant have forced Boeing out of Washington State. In 2009, they announced they would build a new manufacturing plant for the 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina, a right to work state. To date, they have spent $2 billion and created 1,000 new jobs in South Carolina. Boeing unions in Washington State went to the newly union friendly NLRB (populated by two union droids Obama installed via recess appointments since 2009) and demanded relief. The majority on the NRLB responded beautifully (for the unions) by going to court and asking an administrative law judge to stop the move out of state because it was “acting out of anti-union animus” and the decision to move would “discourage membership in a labor union”, which is illegal via federal law. It will be interesting to see how the judge rules on this one, as it has the potential to steal property from corporations and their shareholders by not allowing them to make business decisions to move from state to state as they see fit. It will also put the NLRB fully in charge of every single business nationwide – unionized or not, for any business decision to open, close or move a business is by definition anti-union. This gangster government is all about unions all the time, and the interests of taxpayers, business owners, non-unionized employees and shareowners are not important at all. Hot Air, Thurs. 2. Poker. We had yet another example of gangster government from the FBI early last week with the shutdown of several online poker web sites. Holder’s (In)Justice Department handed out indictments of money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. Prosecutors are asking for the permanent shutdown of all three sites and $3 billion in fines against the businesses. Hot Air Monday reported that an estimated 8-10 million people gambled regularly at the two sites, with no small number of them making their living via online gambling. Interestingly enough, the indictments and federal shutdown of the three online poker sites come on the heels of approval of internet gambling in Washington DC. I am sure there is no connection between the two actions. You can read the story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post_now/post/internet-gambling-is-coming-to-dc/2011/04/13/AF62F4UD_blog.html 3. Dearbornistan. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor that enjoys rattling Islamist cages took his act to Dearbornistan last week with an attempt to protest outside the Islamic Center in Dearborn. The Muslims in charge of local law enforcement and running the city took exception to this act of blasphemy and denied a permit to protest unless Jones came up with a $46,000 safety bond. Not having that money, Jones took the complaint to court. The presiding judge reset the amount to $1 dollar, which Jones also refused to pay, leading to a trial in front of a jury. Prosecutors made the case that protesting outside an Islamic Center would be unnecessarily inflammatory to the tender sensibilities of the Muslims who do whatever they do there and would thus pose a safety risk to the community and therefore could not be allowed. The Police Chief, one Ronald Haddad testified that there had been at least four threats of violence made against Jones by Dearbornistan residents and rather than going after those that make death threats, he would rather abridge Jones’ freedom of speech all in the interest of public safety. The jury agreed, and Jones permission to conduct a protest was denied. We have yet to see what the judge does about this verdict. If he is smart, he will set aside the verdict as unconstitutional on its face. If he does not, Jones is going to cost Dearbornistan and the Muslims in charge of it an awful lot of money in lawyers’ fees and in damages after this case makes its way to the federal judiciary. Hot Air, Sat. Ed note:another example of life in post-constitutional America. Rich Martin 4. Vehicle Fee. The democrats in Washington State are preparing to hose drivers once again with a new tax on electric and hybrid vehicles. For years, they have been forcing people into high efficiency vehicles via a combination of high taxes on gasoline, diesel, and other forms of harassment. At some level, it has worked pretty well, as they are now having trouble coming up with sufficient money out of vehicle use to pay for road maintenance in the state. Solution: A new tax on electric cars. Hot Air’s report of this Saturday had a video clip from Animal House where Belushi tells Flounder (Steven Furst) “You f---ed us. You trusted us.” Such are the wages of environmental sensitivity and electing democrats. Congratulations. 5. Birther. I have stayed as far away from the Birther discussion as humanly possible, as it is a way to spin off into NaNa Land very quickly. But because we now have Trump and Hawaiian Governor Abercrombie running around pouring gasoline on that fire, a couple comments are in order. Based on what I have read about Obama and what he has written and done, I do believe he is hiding something. It is not an accident that nobody has seen his long form birth certificate. It is not an accident that he has spent millions of dollars and expended political capital keeping it hidden. But I do not think the reason has anything to do about where he was born. Rather, I believe that there is a discrepancy between that birth certificate and his personal narrative, and that the person listed (and there may not be one listed) as his father in the certificate is not who he says his father is in Dreams of My Father. To me, it is not a particularly big deal. We are not going to be able to get rid of him via proving he is Kenyan. We will have to do it the hard way, the old fashioned way, by defeating his sorry carcass at the ballot box next year. So let’s get to it. 6. Syria. The revolution in Syria continued last week. The Baathist response has been as expected, with hundreds and perhaps thousands of dead people so far. Assad has been bringing in Hezbollah and Iranian Special Forces to fire on the protesters, which apparently has not worked all that well. The Obama administration response has been almost completely hands off, with the occasional tut-tutting the violence against the populace. Like the aftermath of the Iranian elections two years ago, we are missing a real opportunity not speaking in strong support of the protesters. Syria is Iran’s Evil Twin Skippy in the Middle East, a proxy by which the Mullahs can build anti-Israeli armies in Lebanon, the West Bank and in Gaza. So far, it has worked out pretty well. But if Assad’s government falls like Mubaruk’s did, Iran stands to lose substantially more than we lost in Egypt (and Egypt ultimate fate is still up in the air), as Syria can’t get any more unfriendly to our national interests than they have been over the last 40 years. We will hope that the Israelis are doing everything possible to make sure the revolution is successful. 7. Medicare. Obama wants to make the discussion next year about Republican cutting Medicare, throwing out the elderly and disabled into the streets. Dick Morris believes that Republicans at all levels ought to embrace the argument and point out that it was Obama and the democrats in congress that cut a half trillion dollars from Medicare over the next decade to fund ObamaCare. And that the rationing is here and now, with the Independent Physicians Advisory Board (IPAB) now empowered to make Death Panel rationing decisions on what sorts of care to give and not to give to the elderly and infirm. This is not down the road several years like the changes in Ryan’s proposed budget. It is here. It is now. And they were the ones that did it. Conservatives ought to run on that fact and do it gladly, loudly and unabashedly. They will win. And they will be telling the truth. More later - - AG "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. Interesting Items can be found at the following locations: Our Home Page http://interestingitems.org/ Archives can be found at http://home.gci.net/~agimarc The Alaska Standard http://thealaskastandard.com/ MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com Subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/ Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column: http://www.thevanguard.org/ -- To join RichsRants, send email to: [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/richsrants?hl=en
