Video's not available yet, but OS was beavering away at his desk when The Dennis strode up to the mic about forty-five minutes ago, looked into the camera, and declared the US's role in the Libyan civil war to be illegal and unconstitutional, and announced he would have an hour's presentation tomorrow.
Listening to him, one would think we were listening to a Tea Partier, not someone on the left side of the Democratic Party.
He had that tone of 'I've had enough. I don't give a shit anymore what Nancy Pelosi does to me for wandering off the plantation.' And the look he gave the camera at the end was essentially to say, 'Go on, Obama, just try to fuck with me. I'm too old to care, and you don't have a leg to stand on'.
As a prelude to his minute of eloquence today, he posted this at HuffPost yesterday.
Last night the President said it took one month to put together a response to the situation in Libya. During that time the President consulted with 28 member nations of NATO, 22 member nations of the Arab league and 15 members of the UN Security Council, ten of whom approved the resolution. There was also time for extensive coordination with France and Great Britain. The President had time to consult with the international community, but had no time to come to the United States Congress?
There is no question that the administration should have followed the Constitution and received the approval of Congress before starting a war. Consulting with a few members is not the same thing as following the Constitutional requirements of Article 1, Section 8.
Further complicating the administration's failure to come to Congress prior to ordering an attack is the fact that our primary partners in the war against Libya, France and Great Britain, had, according to a French military website, planned certain war games which now may have significance.
On November 2, 2010 France and Great Britain signed a mutual defense treaty, which paved the way for joint participation in a military exercise called 'Southern Mistral'. While war games are not uncommon, the similarities between 'Southern Mistral' and 'Operation Odyssey Dawn' highlight just how many unanswered questions remain regarding our own military planning for Libya.
The 'Southern Mistral' war games called for Great Britain-French air strikes against an unnamed dictator of a fictional country, "Southland." The pretend attack was authorized by a pretend United Nations Security Council Resolution. The 'Southern Mistral' war games were set for March 21-25, 2011.
On March 19, 2011, the United States joined France and Great Britain in an air attack against Muammar Gaddafi's Libya pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
Scheduling a joint military exercise that ends up resembling real military action could be seen as remarkable planning by the French and British, but it also highlights questions regarding the United States' role in planning for the war. We don't know how long the attack on Libya has been in preparation, but Congress must find out. We don't know who the rebels really represent and how they became armed, but Congress must find out.
With so many unknowns, Congress' only path to protect both the Constitution and the institution of government of the people is to cut off funds for the war in Libya. A cutoff of funds would require the president to follow the Constitutional process with respect to going to war. He would have to seek Congressional approval.
Otherwise, we will have given our tacit consent to a policy that undercuts Congress' constitutionally-mandated role as a coequal branch of government. Moreover, since the Founders established Congress under Article 1 and the Executive under Article 2, Congress is first among equals, unless we refuse to be.
That is why I will propose an amendment to the next continuing resolution or omnibus appropriations bill that would prevent any U.S. funds from being used for the war in Libya.
This will get interesting, 'cuz the deadline for the gubbermint shutdown looms next week.
Betcha Miz Nancy and Missah Harry wish they had actually passed a budget last year, when they had a majority, and the Constitutional responsibility to do so.
The blackmailing and threatening of Democrat members of both houses is likely underway in earnest. If a significant number of Dems escape the plantation, Obama will find himself in deep deep deep doo-doo.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Murphy's Law, Kelly's Corollary, Part Deux: Irish Banks
OS mentioned this yesterday, and the news is beginning to trickle in.
If you don't believe OS, check out today's Irish Times front page. That unemployment number is pretty chilling. We don't think it can happen here?
(Click to enlarge..)
If you don't believe OS, check out today's Irish Times front page. That unemployment number is pretty chilling. We don't think it can happen here?
(Click to enlarge..)
Sense of Events: "Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans."
Plan? What Plan? There is no Plan A, or B, or C.
Donald Sensing says it best.
This was the president's speech in a nutshell: There is no Plan C, no Plan B, and for that matter, there is no Plan A, either. He knows what he wants to happen, but shrinks definitively and certainly away from making it happen. He hopes Qaddafi will play nice and beat feet outta there, and wishes Libya the best in the meantime. Or as Josh Trevino tweeted after the speech,
This is the first time in American history that a President has simultaneously set a war aim and disavowed means to obtain it.
Think the Balkans from 1912-1914, all of Europe in the 1930's, Lyndon Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, our successful efforts to arm the Taliban in the 1980's.
Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans.
Donald Sensing says it best.
This was the president's speech in a nutshell: There is no Plan C, no Plan B, and for that matter, there is no Plan A, either. He knows what he wants to happen, but shrinks definitively and certainly away from making it happen. He hopes Qaddafi will play nice and beat feet outta there, and wishes Libya the best in the meantime. Or as Josh Trevino tweeted after the speech,
This is the first time in American history that a President has simultaneously set a war aim and disavowed means to obtain it.
Think the Balkans from 1912-1914, all of Europe in the 1930's, Lyndon Johnson and his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, our successful efforts to arm the Taliban in the 1980's.
Hope is not a method, and wishes are not plans.
Wow, It's Great To Know No Ground Troops From The US Will Be In Libya
...so that's why the Marines are packing up for a ten-month stint.
To Libya.
Whew, he had me worried there for a bit...
To Libya.
Whew, he had me worried there for a bit...
Kelly's Corollary--Murphy Was An Optimist: The Irish Banks Admit The Extent Of Their Losses
Murphy was Irish, no doubt about it. And, in his honor, that black-humor classic 'Murphy's Law' has attained immortality. There are many versions of it floating about, but it goes like this:
1. If anything can go wrong, it will, at the most inopportune time.
2. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong...first.
3. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
4. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
5. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
6. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
The list stretches on, but OS's hands-down favorite is Kelly's Corollary: Murphy was an optimist.
All this as an introduction to Robert Peston's most recent droll post on the basket case that Ireland has become.
To prevent Irish banks toppling over one after another, the European Central Bank has lent €117bn to them and the Central Bank of Ireland has lent them a further €71bn. So that's €188bn of loans from the eurozone's taxpayers to Ireland's banks - which makes the €67.5bn lent directly by the eurozone and IMF to the Irish government look like peanuts.
And a further €20bn of bank bonds - another form of bank debt - is still guaranteed by the Irish state through the Eligible Guarantee Scheme.
So that is €208bn of taxpayer loans to Ireland's banks - equivalent to a remarkable 154% of GDP.
It gets much worse, in the tradition of Murphy, and OS hopes you take time to read the entire essay.
Today, the banks will have to announce the extent of the damage that has hitherto not been discussed in public. And then, some hard decisions will follow. The illusion spun by The Left that there is no problem, that the massive debts aren't deleterious to a culture's health, that we can just go about business as usual--is just that, and is finally seen for what it is in Eire.
When will our leadership admit the same in the US? Not anytime soon. The story about Chuckie Shumer coaching everyone on the party line within earshot of the press would normally be funny, but the time for laughter has long passed.
Tuesday's effort by the House GOP to wind down the HAMP program, a scandalous failure, in order to save a few billion and protect homeowners from disaster, was met with scorn and vitriol by House Democrats today. It was like watching bad opera, with Barney Frank holding the big spear, wearing the horned helmet.
By noon today in the US, we'll have the news. It will be interesting to see if the markets have any reaction, at all, or even a moment's reflection on what it means.
OS ain't holding his breath, but he sure ain't sitting long on the market either, if yuh know-whudd-I-mean.
1. If anything can go wrong, it will, at the most inopportune time.
2. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong...first.
3. If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
4. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
5. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
6. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
The list stretches on, but OS's hands-down favorite is Kelly's Corollary: Murphy was an optimist.
All this as an introduction to Robert Peston's most recent droll post on the basket case that Ireland has become.
To prevent Irish banks toppling over one after another, the European Central Bank has lent €117bn to them and the Central Bank of Ireland has lent them a further €71bn. So that's €188bn of loans from the eurozone's taxpayers to Ireland's banks - which makes the €67.5bn lent directly by the eurozone and IMF to the Irish government look like peanuts.
And a further €20bn of bank bonds - another form of bank debt - is still guaranteed by the Irish state through the Eligible Guarantee Scheme.
So that is €208bn of taxpayer loans to Ireland's banks - equivalent to a remarkable 154% of GDP.
It gets much worse, in the tradition of Murphy, and OS hopes you take time to read the entire essay.
Today, the banks will have to announce the extent of the damage that has hitherto not been discussed in public. And then, some hard decisions will follow. The illusion spun by The Left that there is no problem, that the massive debts aren't deleterious to a culture's health, that we can just go about business as usual--is just that, and is finally seen for what it is in Eire.
When will our leadership admit the same in the US? Not anytime soon. The story about Chuckie Shumer coaching everyone on the party line within earshot of the press would normally be funny, but the time for laughter has long passed.
Tuesday's effort by the House GOP to wind down the HAMP program, a scandalous failure, in order to save a few billion and protect homeowners from disaster, was met with scorn and vitriol by House Democrats today. It was like watching bad opera, with Barney Frank holding the big spear, wearing the horned helmet.
By noon today in the US, we'll have the news. It will be interesting to see if the markets have any reaction, at all, or even a moment's reflection on what it means.
OS ain't holding his breath, but he sure ain't sitting long on the market either, if yuh know-whudd-I-mean.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Claims Don't Fit The Facts: What The Brits Know That Obama Assumes Americans Don't Know
It is breathaking to listen to Barack Obama, as OS did yesterday, in the parking lot of the grocery in his old pick-em-up truck. He didn't mean to, but as he was doing his Honey-Do errand after golf, here came the speech. OS just could not garner the moral courage to just dismiss it, and go buy milk and juice.
He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.
That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.
Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.
Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.
From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.
Just a sample:
OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.
If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.
Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.
He kept listening for one word or phrase, which Himself (as President of The United States) never bothered to utter: The Constitution, or Constitutional Authority, or Congressional Approval Under The Law, or...well, you get the drift.
That's becuz, as the person who placed his hand upon the Bible and swore to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States', he has no-zero-nil-nada-nichts authority under the Constitution (that he swore on the Bible to 'preserve, protect and defend, against all enemies, foreign and domestic'). It is of no consequence to him. He himself is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, as he has demonstrated again and again and again--from the illegal bailouts of car companies, to the unconstitutional health care 'reform' (so ruled by a Federal court, whose ruling he ignores and refuses to appeal), to the shutdown of the oil industry along the Gulf Coast (again, ignoring a Federal court order). On and on it goes, the slow creep of rule by diktat.
Only this time, ya'll, he has led the United States into war, against someone who is not an imminent threat to our shores or interests, without a shred of legal authority.
Tom McClintock's letter to the President states the problem clearly, and remains unanswered.
From the other side of the pond, and much more within reach of any mayhem Gadhafi may wish to create, the Brits know better. Little wonder they are so cynical about their American cousins.
Just a sample:
OBAMA: "Our most effective alliance, Nato, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and no-fly zone. ... In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role."
THE FACTS: The US is, and always has been, the pre-eminent player in Nato. The United States supplies 22 per cent of NATO'S budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all Nato operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO'S Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral's boss is the supreme allied Commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
They know, and they know that he knows he is deliberately obscuring the truth of the situation, confident that he can fool enough of his own electorate, focused as they are on survival in The New Normal, and otherwise preoccupied with American Idol, The Final Four and the NFL labor lockout.
If he gets away with it, this will be the first of many more. How long does the laundry list of places to invade run? On what pretext? By what legal right? It is a slippery slope, a bloody and ghastly slippery slope.
Yes, Gadhafi's a blood-soaked tyrant, and needs to be killed, ASAP. Let's do that, without killing off our rule of law in the process, and killing millions more as an unintended consequence.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Another NEA Moment To Remember: Congressman John Tierney Addresses The NEA Higher Education Conference
Ahhh, the National Education Association!
Sometimes, they just make it so easy...
The Left, wherever it is encountered, be it occupying the capitol rotunda in Madison (celebrating their state senators who skipped the state during the legislative session), or in central London (vandalizing shops, starting fires, assaulting police, defacing war monuments), or Athens (damn near taking it apart brick by brick), or...
Well, wherever they are, they share the Essentials of The Faith:
1. The citizens exist to support the state, and the employees of the state, and there is no limit to what should be extracted from them. Cuts in spending are, by definition, unthinkable because they are immoral.
2. There is no shortfall between receipts and expenditures that are already hard-wired into the state's obligations. That is a fiction created by those Wascawy Wepubwikans.
3. The debt incurred over the past 70 years or so is really not a problem. 14 trillion, 14 schmillion.
4. If more cash is needed, it should simply be confiscated from 'the rich', or 'the corporations'.
5. If anyone disagrees with us, we get to shut down the government, call wildcat strikes, harass people we don't like at their homes, and smash the windows of businesses we don't like. Because we're right.
And...
6. Ethics is for other fools, and Repubwikans. We are exempt from such minor details, because we serve TheGreaterGood, tirelessly working for the triumph of the state over the culture.
So, class, with those points reviewed, let's move to a recent Higher Education Conference staged by the NEA. One keynote speaker, who enthusiastically tells them all what they wish to hear:
By Mary Ellen Flannery
What’s your tax rate, U.S. Congressman John Tierney asked higher education employees at the NEA Higher Education Conference on Saturday. Is it a mere 2.4 percent – like the tech giant Google? Or is it zero — like Boeing or pharmaceutical king Pfizer?
Maybe you received an enormous refund like General Electric?
Probably not.
“We need a fair, progressive tax rate in this country where everybody pays their fair share,” said Tierney, a Democrat from Massachusetts. But we’re not getting it — instead, right-wing politicians are pushing for tax cuts for the very wealthiest, which would be financed through cuts in education at all levels.
“They’ve already started nibbling away at Pell Grants. They’ve already started to nibble away at regulation. Last week, they met in hearings to figure out how to help their friends in for-profit education… They’re more interested in making money for their pals than anything else.”
Let's look at that last sentence more closely: They’re more interested in making money for their pals than anything else.” Hmmm...that's a pretty serious thing to say about someone. That's saying they're ethically challenged, dishonest, ought to know better, behave better, and insist on the same from their colleagues. Hmmm...
John's been lonely of late, since his wife has been in Federal prison, for abetting a tax evasion scheme on behalf of her brother.
Wakefield — March 25, 2011
Patrice Tierney, wife of U.S. Congressman John Tierney, was released from prison last week.
Tierney, 60, was serving a 30-day sentence at a federal women’s prison in Connecticut for tax fraud charges. The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed she was released on last Tuesday, March 15.
“Certainly she is happy to be home,” said Jennifer Flagg, a spokeswoman for Patrice Tierney.
The congressman’s wife will soon begin a five-month home confinement, which was part of her deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and will be on probation for two years.
Patrice Tierney, of Salem, pleaded guilty last October to aiding her brother, Robert Eremian, in filing false federal income tax returns. She was sentenced in January by U.S. District Court Judge William Young.
Prosecutors said she was handling her brother’s finances while he was living and doing business in Antigua, where they say Eremian was operating an illegal Internet gambling business. Eremian faces numerous charges, including racketeering and money laundering. Also charged in that racketeering indictment were co-defendants Richard Sullivan of St. John’s, Antigua and Marblehead and Todd Lyons of Beverly.
Sometimes, they just make it so easy...
The Left, wherever it is encountered, be it occupying the capitol rotunda in Madison (celebrating their state senators who skipped the state during the legislative session), or in central London (vandalizing shops, starting fires, assaulting police, defacing war monuments), or Athens (damn near taking it apart brick by brick), or...
Well, wherever they are, they share the Essentials of The Faith:
1. The citizens exist to support the state, and the employees of the state, and there is no limit to what should be extracted from them. Cuts in spending are, by definition, unthinkable because they are immoral.
2. There is no shortfall between receipts and expenditures that are already hard-wired into the state's obligations. That is a fiction created by those Wascawy Wepubwikans.
3. The debt incurred over the past 70 years or so is really not a problem. 14 trillion, 14 schmillion.
4. If more cash is needed, it should simply be confiscated from 'the rich', or 'the corporations'.
5. If anyone disagrees with us, we get to shut down the government, call wildcat strikes, harass people we don't like at their homes, and smash the windows of businesses we don't like. Because we're right.
And...
6. Ethics is for other fools, and Repubwikans. We are exempt from such minor details, because we serve TheGreaterGood, tirelessly working for the triumph of the state over the culture.
So, class, with those points reviewed, let's move to a recent Higher Education Conference staged by the NEA. One keynote speaker, who enthusiastically tells them all what they wish to hear:
By Mary Ellen Flannery
What’s your tax rate, U.S. Congressman John Tierney asked higher education employees at the NEA Higher Education Conference on Saturday. Is it a mere 2.4 percent – like the tech giant Google? Or is it zero — like Boeing or pharmaceutical king Pfizer?
Maybe you received an enormous refund like General Electric?
Probably not.
“We need a fair, progressive tax rate in this country where everybody pays their fair share,” said Tierney, a Democrat from Massachusetts. But we’re not getting it — instead, right-wing politicians are pushing for tax cuts for the very wealthiest, which would be financed through cuts in education at all levels.
“They’ve already started nibbling away at Pell Grants. They’ve already started to nibble away at regulation. Last week, they met in hearings to figure out how to help their friends in for-profit education… They’re more interested in making money for their pals than anything else.”
Let's look at that last sentence more closely: They’re more interested in making money for their pals than anything else.” Hmmm...that's a pretty serious thing to say about someone. That's saying they're ethically challenged, dishonest, ought to know better, behave better, and insist on the same from their colleagues. Hmmm...
John's been lonely of late, since his wife has been in Federal prison, for abetting a tax evasion scheme on behalf of her brother.
Wakefield — March 25, 2011
Patrice Tierney, wife of U.S. Congressman John Tierney, was released from prison last week.
Tierney, 60, was serving a 30-day sentence at a federal women’s prison in Connecticut for tax fraud charges. The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed she was released on last Tuesday, March 15.
“Certainly she is happy to be home,” said Jennifer Flagg, a spokeswoman for Patrice Tierney.
The congressman’s wife will soon begin a five-month home confinement, which was part of her deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and will be on probation for two years.
Patrice Tierney, of Salem, pleaded guilty last October to aiding her brother, Robert Eremian, in filing false federal income tax returns. She was sentenced in January by U.S. District Court Judge William Young.
Prosecutors said she was handling her brother’s finances while he was living and doing business in Antigua, where they say Eremian was operating an illegal Internet gambling business. Eremian faces numerous charges, including racketeering and money laundering. Also charged in that racketeering indictment were co-defendants Richard Sullivan of St. John’s, Antigua and Marblehead and Todd Lyons of Beverly.
Peter Hitchens Speaks To Our Present Day: The Rage Against God
OldSouth, when he does pass over Jordan to his promised rest, has a short list of saints and heroes he wishes to look up, assuming of course, it's OK with The Owner Of The Establishment. There's a grandfather he never met, a grandmother who died in OS's infancy, another grandfather he remembers only slightly (but is the proud owner of the Shaker-style desk he worked from, and a Bible the old gent bought for him, with a prayer lovingly inscribed in his shaky hand). Bach (probably a long line outside his mansion), Handel (ditto), Luther, the Wesley Brothers, the Penitent Thief, Henry Ward Beecher (So, did he sleep with his best friend's adoring wife or no?); and near the top of the list, Malcolm Muggeridge, 1903-1990. When the old sage passed to his glorious reward, OS keenly felt that a hole had been left behind, that perhaps no one would fill those shoes, or ever again bring that keen wit and utter command of language to the defense of Christendom.
But, as an old mountain Presbyterian preacher once reminded his flock, 'God never leaves Himself without a witness'. As Muggeridge was passing, Peter Hitchens was well on his pilgrimage from atheism and Marxism to lively Christian faith. And, like Muggeridge, a close encounter with the life of despair in the Soviet Union propelled him on his way, shaping and illuminating both his conscience and considerable craft as a writer. He even shares, like Muggeridge, kinship with a luminary of the Atheist Left, his brother Christopher, which make his work all that more poignant.
OS just spent his weekend off reading The Rage Against God, and rejoiced to find that, indeed, Muggeridge's witness carries forward.
OS urges his readers to read it for themselves. The stakes for the culture have never been higher in our generation, and Peter Hitchens gives voice and shape to the challenges Christendom now faces. It is not a pleasant read, but it is vitally important.
Only one reliable force stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak. Only one reliable force forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law. Only one reliable force restrains the hand of the man of power. And, in an age of power-worship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power.
Peter Hitchens, The Rage Against God, p. 113
But, as an old mountain Presbyterian preacher once reminded his flock, 'God never leaves Himself without a witness'. As Muggeridge was passing, Peter Hitchens was well on his pilgrimage from atheism and Marxism to lively Christian faith. And, like Muggeridge, a close encounter with the life of despair in the Soviet Union propelled him on his way, shaping and illuminating both his conscience and considerable craft as a writer. He even shares, like Muggeridge, kinship with a luminary of the Atheist Left, his brother Christopher, which make his work all that more poignant.
OS just spent his weekend off reading The Rage Against God, and rejoiced to find that, indeed, Muggeridge's witness carries forward.
OS urges his readers to read it for themselves. The stakes for the culture have never been higher in our generation, and Peter Hitchens gives voice and shape to the challenges Christendom now faces. It is not a pleasant read, but it is vitally important.
Only one reliable force stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak. Only one reliable force forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law. Only one reliable force restrains the hand of the man of power. And, in an age of power-worship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power.
Peter Hitchens, The Rage Against God, p. 113
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Publix Refuses To Submit To A Shakedown: 'A Penny A Pound'
The local CBS affiliate for Nashville, NewsChannel 5, was on progressive overdrive tonight...crews covering groups of 10-12 ardent Marxists, each gathered for their pet cause. After the fifth story or so, it became a bit comical...
But this one was actually a bit chilling, as it detailed the efforts of one group to shake down a supermarket chain. The truly relevant bit is in the final paragraph of the quote.
It's a protest calling attention to what some say is support of demeaning and unfair working pay for Florida tomato working.
With the help of a translator, Oscar Otzoy, one of those farm workers describes what things are like.
"It's very difficult to be a farm worker. You might work 10 to 12 hours in a day and only come home with fifty dollars," said Otzoy.
He says the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, CIW, is targeting one of the largest Southeastern Grocer Publix, whose headquarters is in Florida.
Otzoy adds with the help of his interrupter, "And we are calling on Publix and other super markets to join in these agreements to help raise farmer worker wages and eliminate the abuses that make possible the extreme of modern day slavery."
The protest is calling for stores like Publix to pay an extra one cent per pound of tomatoes purchased, with the penny going not to the farmers, but directly to the workers.
In other words, fork over a penny per pound of tomatoes sold to us (We'll make sure those oppressed workers get all of it, honest!) and we'll stop harassing you and your shoppers. Until next time, when we decide the poor cucumber pickers need a nickel a pound. There's the cherry pickers in Chile, and the meatpackers in Iowa to think about, too. And, next year, that penny per pound might not be enough, you know.
Nice little grocery business ya got here, Publix! It'd be a shame (wouldn't it, Vito) if all those plate glass windows were to be smashed, or customer's tires were slashed, or a flash mob invaded with cans of spray paint. Right, Gino? Right, Vito?
Yeah, boss, it would be a cryin' shame!! It'd be like what's going on in London. What a shame, boss, what a shame!
What a business model! Damn! Why didn't someone think of that earlier!!! Well, actually, guys like Al Capone did, to great effect. It's why Chicago is, so, well, Chicago.
Publix, for their part, and wisely so, aren't having anything to do with this.
"For us, it is a labor dispute between the growers and the pickers, so we encourage them to get together and resolve the problem, and then charge a fair price for tomatoes and we will pay a fair price," said Brenda Reid, with the regional media and communications department for Publix.
Here's the link to the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Hmmm....this stuff costs money. Where do they get it? Not from the impoverished pickers, to be sure. Hmmm....
Ms. Reid's statement is proper--it's between labor and management in that industry. The SFA's tactic of triangulating against retailers, who buy produce for their restaurants and stores, is thinly-veiled extortion. Some firms seem to have succumbed.
Three cheers for Publix, for standing tall. For doing the right thing.
But this one was actually a bit chilling, as it detailed the efforts of one group to shake down a supermarket chain. The truly relevant bit is in the final paragraph of the quote.
It's a protest calling attention to what some say is support of demeaning and unfair working pay for Florida tomato working.
With the help of a translator, Oscar Otzoy, one of those farm workers describes what things are like.
"It's very difficult to be a farm worker. You might work 10 to 12 hours in a day and only come home with fifty dollars," said Otzoy.
He says the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, CIW, is targeting one of the largest Southeastern Grocer Publix, whose headquarters is in Florida.
Otzoy adds with the help of his interrupter, "And we are calling on Publix and other super markets to join in these agreements to help raise farmer worker wages and eliminate the abuses that make possible the extreme of modern day slavery."
The protest is calling for stores like Publix to pay an extra one cent per pound of tomatoes purchased, with the penny going not to the farmers, but directly to the workers.
In other words, fork over a penny per pound of tomatoes sold to us (We'll make sure those oppressed workers get all of it, honest!) and we'll stop harassing you and your shoppers. Until next time, when we decide the poor cucumber pickers need a nickel a pound. There's the cherry pickers in Chile, and the meatpackers in Iowa to think about, too. And, next year, that penny per pound might not be enough, you know.
Nice little grocery business ya got here, Publix! It'd be a shame (wouldn't it, Vito) if all those plate glass windows were to be smashed, or customer's tires were slashed, or a flash mob invaded with cans of spray paint. Right, Gino? Right, Vito?
Yeah, boss, it would be a cryin' shame!! It'd be like what's going on in London. What a shame, boss, what a shame!
What a business model! Damn! Why didn't someone think of that earlier!!! Well, actually, guys like Al Capone did, to great effect. It's why Chicago is, so, well, Chicago.
Publix, for their part, and wisely so, aren't having anything to do with this.
"For us, it is a labor dispute between the growers and the pickers, so we encourage them to get together and resolve the problem, and then charge a fair price for tomatoes and we will pay a fair price," said Brenda Reid, with the regional media and communications department for Publix.
Here's the link to the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Hmmm....this stuff costs money. Where do they get it? Not from the impoverished pickers, to be sure. Hmmm....
Ms. Reid's statement is proper--it's between labor and management in that industry. The SFA's tactic of triangulating against retailers, who buy produce for their restaurants and stores, is thinly-veiled extortion. Some firms seem to have succumbed.
Three cheers for Publix, for standing tall. For doing the right thing.
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