Unions

What's in this week's issue? Editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes has a breakdown of what is in this week's issue:

In recent months, we’ve been wondering how journalists are getting any work done, what with all the Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie songs they’ve been singing. In January, workers at Slate and Vox Media—which includes the websites Curbed, Eater, Recode, SB Nation, the Verge, and, yes, Vox—announced…

We Americans are a resilient people, but like resilient people everywhere, we need the occasional interlude of rest and relaxation. Which is why after two weeks of something like a national nervous breakdown over equestrian statues of Robert E. Lee, we welcomed the approach of Labor Day, the…

The latest threat to the American workforce has arrived, and it’s on four hooves.

The latest threat to the American workforce has arrived, and it’s on four hooves.

Over the last quarter-century, America has witnessed a remarkable decline in urban crime—most notably in New York City, where murders dropped from a record high 2,245 in 1990 to 335 in 2016. This drop coincided with a change in police practices, with the NYPD leading the way in more active…

In the heart of Wall Street, a new statue is causing quite a kerfuffle. Sponsored by State Street Global Advisors, one of the world’s largest asset-management firms, the "Fearless Girl" was installed earlier this year to stand in front of the famous "Charging Bull" in Bowling Green Park, just a…

In the heart of Wall Street, a new statue is causing quite a kerfuffle. Sponsored by State Street Global Advisors, one of the world's largest asset-management firms, the "Fearless Girl" was installed earlier this year to stand in front of the famous "Charging Bull" in Bowling Green Park, just a…

There's a lot of important Trump news this week—the SCOTUS pick, his executive order on visas and refugees—but I'm going to deliberately ignore it because these are fast-moving stories.

British prime minister Theresa May has been in office for just five months. It hasn't been smooth sailing. Grappling with the aftermath of Brexit, May has faced anti-Brexit legal challenges, tough negotiations with disaffected European Union leaders, and a parliamentary revolt over plans to expand…

During Barack Obama's tenure in the White House, he has stacked the deck at the National Labor Relations Board with officials sympathetic to unions. (At one point, a unanimous Supreme Court decision ruled that Obama's recess appointments to the board were illegal.) The NLRB has in turn issued all…

The case of a clash between Uber, the city of Seattle, and labor unions has put a new spin on an old saying: If you can't beat 'em, make them join you.

During the White House's Summit On Worker Voice on Wednesday, Joe Biden had a clear message for labor unions—that Hillary Clinton might not be a reliable ally, but he would be. His speech focused on his sympathies for the labor movement, his friendship with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and the…

As inconvenient as it may be, the forces of supply and demand are difficult to counteract—especially in labor markets. The Obama administration has exerted much effort attempting to do so over the last seven years, and it has yet to succeed. 

Two weekends ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City held its annual monetary conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The left flew in hundreds of protesters donning green T-shirts that demanded “Higher Wages for America” and chanting, “We’re Fed Up.” The crowd was an assortment of college kids…

In the president's Labor Day speech today in Boston, Barack Obama used New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady to make the case for unions. 

On July 16, we saw the definitive end to one of the greatest abuses of power in recent memory. After five years, the Wisconsin ­supreme court finally halted the Milwaukee district attorney’s notorious “John Doe” investigation that targeted Governor Scott Walker and political allies trying to reform…

Another Sunday, another New York Times magazine, this one featuring a cover story about “Scott Walker and the dismantling of American unions.” Readers of the Old Grey Lady, a newspaper not without its virtues, are undoubtedly aware of its sympathy for down-trodden workers, especially if they belong…

On Thursday, the House voted to override a rule from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), implemented last year, that allows unions to hold elections to organize a workforce in as little as eight days. (The average length of time for a workplace election is 38 days.) Crucially, the NLRB rule…

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, says that she knew about Hillary Clinton's private email. Weingarten made the comment in Twitter, in response to a question from a Jeb Bush spokesman. Tim Miller, the Bush spokesman, tweeted, "@rweingarten also if not secret -…

The New York Post reports: 

Scott Walker has had a pretty good run as of late. He’s made some new friends and wrong-footed the right enemies and became, in fairly short order, a leader among the pack of Republican politicians running for president.  Perhaps even the leader. 

Two years after it was supposed to help revitalize Atlantic City, the $2.4 billion Revel casino—all 57 stories of it—is closed. It’s an expensive eyesore that sums up Atlantic City’s decline.

Politico recently hired Timothy Noah to be the publication’s labor and employment editor. Noah is a former Slate and New Republic columnist known for being liberal. Of course, most reporters on the labor beat are pro-union, so you’re probably wondering what the news is here. Well, that would be…

Last year, the New York Times did a glowing profile of the New York Freelancers Union, focused on how it's providing health insurance for a population of workers that typically don't have affordable coverage options: 

Politico recently hired Timothy Noah to be the publication's Labor & Employment editor. Now Noah is a former Slate and New Republic columnist who's known for being stridently liberal, so if you are an employer or someone who generally just likes reading coverage of labor issues that isn't slanted…

West Allis, Wis.

The National Treasury Employees Union is an independent union representing, according to its own figures, "some 150,000" federal workers from many different agencies. The union claims to fight for the "dignity and respect" of its members, and it maintains a "legislative action center" to keep tabs…

One of the Democratic party’s most loyal and powerful interest groups is, evidently, falling out of love with the Obama administration.  As Peter Sullivan of The Hill reports:

The Department of Veterans Affairs has admitted that 23 deaths are linked to “secret waiting lists” for health care and other malfeasance and mismanagement at the agency, though the actual total is probably significantly higher. So far, dozens of veterans have lost their lives. Not a single VA…

The problems at the VA cannot be laid at the feet of the unions that represent its workers.  A leader of one of those unions says so.  This astonishing news is reported by Charles S. Clark at Government Executive, who writes that:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect Americans from predatory practices by financial institutions. That sounds like a noble goal, but asking a federal agency to police irresponsibility has almost always been a bad idea in practice.…

The Washington Examiner is up with a five part special report on "the rise and current decline of organized labor in America: How unions lost touch with the workplace and their own members." It's authored by Sean Higgins, one of the best reporters on the labor beat. Union politics can be…

The Mackinac Center is reporting that the Michigan SEIU has lost more than 80 percent of its members after Michigan passed a right-to-work law. The hemorrhaging membership is the result of the law ending an appalling extortion racket that siphoned taxpayer money to the union and forced thousands of…

The news that the administration would like kept quiet, and which it therefore announced in the afternoon, on Good Friday is that it has:

Writing in the Tennessean, a man named George Parker writes:

At Slate, Dave Weigel recently reported that the Democrats have been so successful at demonizing the Koch brothers that party fundraising emails mentioning the Kochs can raise three times as much as the emails that don't. However, attacking the Kochs may not be all that motivating to anyone outside…

This snippet from a union leader’s speech to his membership suggests that he might be getting ready to take to the barricades, knock heads, and get nasty:

The Scrapbook has devoted plenty of column inches over the years to detailing the incestuous relationship between public employers and public employee unions. Every election cycle, union dues—paid with taxpayer dollars—go to Democratic politicians, who, when in office, thank their donors with…

Campbell Brown, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

At the corner of First and H Streets in Northwest Washington, the balloons were all set, hanging stories high in the cold morning air. The inflatable Pepsi and Mountain Dew bottles were twisting in the breeze, and a mini-hoop game was set up. There was even a marching band and Chester the Cheetos…

It looks like labor unions might be getting tax relief from Obamacare, according to a report from kaiserhealthnews.org.

Given that mine is the dismal science, it is my role to cool the exuberance of investors at the news that the Fed will continue to print money rather than taper, with a bit of news that should worry them--the possible revival of the trade unions, long a fading force in the private sector.

The news that union leaders were pushing the White House for a unilateral Obamacare “fix” should have come as no surprise, given President Obama’s repeated disregard for the rule of law.  However, single-handedly extending premium subsidies to union members who already have generous, tax-exempt…

The celebration of work and the working man and woman feels a little forced this year.  Union have, as Kevin Bogardus of The Hill reports:

The administration has plans to spend $700 million persuading citizens to sign up for Obamacare.  Early signs are that it will be a tough sell.  As Joel Gehrke reports in the Washington Examiner:

A century and a half later, the battle of Gettysburg’s place in the national consciousness is so secure that you think of it as inevitable: the great contest of arms toward which all the previous battles of the Civil War had been leading. Thus, all that came before the breaking of Pickett’s Charge…

While Robert E. Lee was whipping Joe Hooker at Chancellorsville in May 1863, there were ominous developments for the Confederacy in Mississippi. During that month, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg and then executed a lightning…

The designated moderate in the Republican presidential field, Chris Christie, will have to run on a little more than his famous bellicosity.  There is the matter of his record as governor of New Jersey and his success in dealing with that famously Republican constituency: organized labor.  In that…

Last month, I reported that Obamacare had stirred up serious buyers remorse among unions who were discovering the law was driving up insurance costs, wreaking havoc with contractual negotiations, and making union jobs less competitive. While Big Labor is lobbying for special Obamacare subsidies and…

"With Obama-care entrenched, Democrats feel free to gripe,” read the headline in Politico. And gripe is the word. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington gripes that the administration won’t subsidize Americans “just above the poverty level.” Senator Bill Nelson of Florida gripes that the…

"I heard [Obama] say, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep it,’ ” John Wilhelm, chairman of Unite Here Health, representing 260,000 union workers, recently told the Wall Street Journal. “If I’m wrong, and the president does not intend to keep his word, I would have severe second thoughts…

On February 17, some 35,000 people showed up for a march outside the White House to protest construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The environmental lobby is going all out to stop the pipeline, which will transport oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries near Houston. In its ongoing…

As Republicans discuss the future of the party, abandoning conservative values need not be part of the conversation. The party can appeal to larger segments of the electorate without forsaking core principles. One case in point is a group the party has long written off: public school teachers.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced today that "it will use Amalgamated Bank’s cash management services to handle most of its day-to-day banking needs for the 2013 Inaugural activities," according to a press release.

If there are two things The Scrapbook has learned during the past two years, it’s that when the privileges of labor unions are addressed by democratically elected legislatures—usually during harsh economic times—you can be sure that the unions will descend on state capitals with marches, epithets,…

There have been a lot of ill considered articles following the heinous grade school shooting in Connecticut, and I'm afraid this article in the Huffington Post is no exception. The headline, "The Gun Lobby: Why The NRA Is The Baddest Force In Politics," more or less sets the tone. Here's how the…

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has accepted the endorsement of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), according to an announcement from the Republican's reelection campaign. The organization "is one of the largest unions in the state, representing over 20,000 laborers across…

A speaker at a protest against Michigan's right-to-work legislation said that Republican governor Rick Snyder will "get no rest" from pro-union activists if Snyder signs the bill into law.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, encouraged folks to "keep fighting!" after her side lost the labor dispute that will now give union members the right-to-work.

If you’re headed to the airport for the holidays, here are some tips to keep you off the Transportation Security Administration’s “naughty list”: Holiday puddings (even the figgy kind) are considered “gel-like” substances and must be carried in clear plastic containers of no more than 3.4 ounces.…

Hostess Brands has been driven into bankruptcy. The company, according to the Wall Street Journal, was done in by:

Yesterday, Hostess announced that it would be forced to liquidate if it could not get striking employees to return to full production as of today. Among many pro-labor types, this was dismissed as yet another negotiating ploy by management. It wasn't. Hostess is laying off 18,500 workers and…

‘California is a wonderful state mismanaged by lunatics,” declares Steven Greenhut, vice president of journalism for the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Anyone who examines California’s economy ought to agree.

The Florida chapter of the AFL-CIO appears to be encouraging folks to break the law. In a message on the homepage of their website, the union writes, "There is a mantra that we --at the Florida AFL-CIO-- like to live by, 'Vote Early, Vote Often'."

Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat challenging Republican Scott Brown for the U.S. Senate, dodged questions about claims that a local union was fining its members for not publicly supporting her campaign. This week, Warren repeatedly told Boston's local FOX TV affiliate, "I don't know…

Supporters of Democrat Elizabeth Warren's Senate campaign in Massachusetts have been accused of mocking a staffer of Republican Scott Brown outside a recent debate in Springfield.

A GOP source sends along this video, shot by a Republican tracker, of a union member supporting Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren outside of a debate Wednesday night in Springfield, Massachusetts. The cameraman asks the union member if he was at an earlier debate between Warren and her…

President Obama is prepping for Wednesday's presidential debate in Henderson, Nevada. It's a city, like so many others across America, that will be hit hard by Obamacare. How hard?

Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won his special election to the U.S. Senate in 2010 by campaigning around the state in his pickup truck. The truck became integral in Brown's popular image, helping the Republican win over traditional Democratic voters to win the seat once held by Ted Kennedy.…

The courts are moving with customary alacrity in ruling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's request for an injunction that would have compelled teachers to return to the classroom this morning. Not so fast, the judge said, Wednesday would be soon enough, although “by then, the legal matter could be irrelevant.…

The Chicago Tribune has refused to print an anti-teachers union ad, according to the Center for Union Facts, the group whose ad was rejected by the paper. The Tribune rejected the ad by saying it had "racial undertones."

As the Chicago Teachers Union strike heads into day three, perhaps you should get to know the the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis. She's the one currently demanding the nation's highest paid teachers get a 19 percent pay increase. I should mention that despite Lewis being an…

White House spokesman Jay Carney says President Barack Obama has no comment on the teacher strike in Chicago:

The public school teachers are going on strike in Chicago and the first worry of the people who run the city is for the safety of the children—where violence is already sky-high. The political class in Chicago has already failed in its duty to provide for the public safety. Failing to keep the…

Philadelphia

Earlier today, Democrats announced that Costco CEO Jim Sinegal will be speaking at their convention in September. But while Sinegal has been a faithful supporter of President Obama, even holding a fundraiser for the president at his Washington state home recently, the choice of him as a speaker in…

Philadelphia

A new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds that, when it comes to “threatening or disruptive behavior,” union members have far more rights—or, at least, far more license—than their fellow Americans. The Chamber's study, “Sabotage, Stalking, and Stealth Exemptions: Special State Laws for…

Three weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, union leaders are investing a significant amount of time and money on a “shadow convention” for organized workers, which will be held August 11 in Philadelphia, and called the Workers Stand for America rally. The International…

Campbell Brown, writing for the Wall Street Journal: 

Just when you thought the state of California couldn't possibly receive any more bad economic news:

The Wall Street Journal published a stunning story this morning, reporting that new analysis shows union political spending is about four times higher than previously thought. Moreover, union political spending now exceeds direct donations: 

Michael Barone writes:

The Republican presidential candidates have spent the past year saying little about education. When they have addressed the issue, it has often been in terse calls to “turn off the lights” at the U.S. Department of Education. After a decade of runaway spending and regulations on education by both…

The Fox News Sunday Internet-only after show Panel Plus, with Bill Kristol, Charles Lane, Liz Cheney, and Mara Liasson, on the Wisconsin recall election:

Mark Hemingway notes that, "While all eyes were on Wisconsin last night, few people noticed that...residents of both San Diego and San Jose voted to rein in exorbitant public employee retirement packages by huge margins. ... Also worth noting is that these measures had support from key Democrats at…

Today is the Wisconsin recall election. If Republican governor Scott Walker prevails, so will conservatives, since his reforms of collective bargaining will survive, and he shall have curbed some of the worst excesses of the American labor movement.

The United Auto Workers union is sending out a letter from its legislative director, Josh Nassar, urging senators to vote against several budgets pending in the Senate. One of the budgets UAW apparently opposes is President Obama's own budget. 

After the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) sparked national outrage by telling Boeing that it could not open a factory in a right-to-work state, there's little evidence that the board has been chastened. The latest news is that a recent decision to allow unions to hold "quickie" elections to…

An interesting thing happened in the Wisconsin recall primary yesterday: Governor Scott Walker received more votes than Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk combined, the two leading Democrats fighting to challeng him on June 5. Walker won the votes of 626,538 Wisconsinites, despite the fact that he had…

Talks between the Newspaper Guild of New York and the New York Times have been heated. In late March, the union forced the paper to drop its proposal to extend the workweek at the Times to 40 hours​—​any work over 35 hours and the paper has to pay overtime. The Times’s management bitterly noted…

Last year, in an article for THE WEEKLY STANDARD I discussed the growing number of existential threats to unions. One of the major challenges facing unions is that their multi-employer pension plans are deep in the hole, and the problems were being masked by accounting standards that allowed them…

Last year, in an article for THE WEEKLY STANDARD I discussed the growing number of existential threats to unions. One of the major challenges facing unions is that their multi-employer pension plans are deep in the hole, and the problems were being masked by accounting standards that allowed them…

Governor Bobby Jindal brings hope and change to the education system in Louisiana. The AP reports: 

A final get out the vote call from Mitt Romney's campaign in Wisconsin suggests an unholy alliance of the Santorum campaign, "union bosses," Democrats, and Santorum's "cronies" might be conspiring to extend the GOP contest, and urges Wisconsin voters to stop those efforts by voting for Romney. The…

Last week, the New York Times reported that “labor leaders say they will mount their biggest campaign effort, with far more union members than ever before—at least 400,000, they say—knocking on voters’ doors to counter the well-endowed ‘super-PACs’ backing Republicans.”

Jonathan Collegio: "Who’s the Biggest ‘Outside Group’ in the 2012 Elections? Big Labor"

By now the Chrysler Super Bowl advertisement has become well known. And not surprisingly it’s gotten political. “Powerful spot,” said David Axelrod. “Extremely well-done,” said Karl Rove, adding:

I've already written at length on the major media's "fact checkers" and, alas, it's a never ending game of whack-a-mole to point out the absurdity of the arguments employed by these self-appointed guardians of veracity.

Byron York: "Santorum good day could scramble race again"

Here's one of the commercials played during last night's Super Bowl, from the Center for Union Facts:

For the first time in decades, union power is under serious threat. Indiana is on the verge of becoming the 23rd state to enact a right-to-work law, liberating workers from being forced to join a union. New Hampshire may also adopt some form of right-to-work. Murmurs about a national right-to-work…

According to the Associated Press, Governor Mitch Daniels just signed legislation making Indiana a right-to-work state:

A reporter for the Arizona Republic notes that the state's Republican legislature is set to outdo Wisconsin with their attempt to curb public employee unions. According to the report, the bill would:

Associated Press: "Romney sweeps NH to cement top status; Paul second"

Fox News: "Panetta Warns of Smallest Air Force Ever if Deep Defense Cuts Made"

There are a number of bizarre schemes unions have used to coerce dues out of public funds. For a long time, I thought the most appalling example was a Michigan scheme where the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees held a sham vote-by-mail…

Politico: "Cain emails his list: 'Media obsessed' with harassment story"

Although the polls show Ohio's collective bargaining reform headed for repeal in a referendum Tuesday, Governor John Kasich has no regrets he signed the legislation last March. “Everybody’s got to face this sooner or later,” Kasich told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in a phone interview. "This is part of an…

New York Times: "As Regulators Pressed Changes, Corzine Pushed Back, and Won"

Though the Obama administration labor department had already stopped enforcing the requirement that union bosses fill out LM-30 forms listing potential conflict of interests, now we get word that the Obama administration is rolling back the relevant regulations altogether. However, the announcement…

Those on the left are wont to complain that government employees are under assualt these days because GOP politicians are going after public sector unions and generous deals they've leveraged through collective bargaining. The standard defense of civil service workers is, yes, they might have good…

The Hill: "Boehner: 'Great concerns' Obama is exceeding Constitution"

The New Republic: "Protests and Power: Should liberals support Occupy Wall Street?"

Nashua, New Hampshire

In a column titled "Democrats Plagued By Ingratitude," Byron York poses these questions:

Washington Post: "U.N. showdown over Palestinian statehood tests limits of U.S. influence"

CNN: "Officials confirm 'credible but unconfirmed' 9/11 threat"

Yesterday, over at the Washington Post, Greg Sargent accused "Tea Party conservatives" of having a "ridiculous hissy fit over Jimmy Hoffa:"

For a while now, Obama's been mentioning in speeches that there are free-trade agreements that need to be ratified as away to create jobs and spur growth... while blaming Republicans for the hold up. Today, Mitch McConnell blasts Obama in the Washington Post for his blatant dishonesty on the issue:

Associated Press: "Libyan rebels round up black Africans"

Washington Post: "Coincidences don’t happen in presidential politics. Ever."

The MacIver Insitute in Wisconsin put together this video about a union protest of a school in Wisconsin where Governor Scott Walker recently made an appearence. The building was vandalized, and the head of the exemplary school understandably worries about what example this protest sets for the…

New York Times: "C.I.A. Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight"

Ace of Spades: "Bill Keller Of The NY Times Wants His Readers To Know Most Of The GOP Candidates Are Crazy Religious Nuts"

Big Labor is finally getting tired of being led on by Democrats. Politico reports:

Guy Benson: "BREAKING: Obama Administratrion Clarifies Biden Remarks, 'Strongly Opposes' China's One-Child Policy"

New Hampshire Journal: "Poll: Romney rocks, Perry pops, Bachmann doesn’t bounce"

Wall Street Journal: "Two Democrats Survive Recall in Wisconsin"

Michael Barone: "How Iowa's Straw Poll Can Lead to the Presidency"

Bloomberg: "Democrats Balk at Possible Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"

Bloomberg: "Obama Aide, Boehner Say No Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"

No, Rupert Murdoch does not pay negative income taxes: "Oh David Cay Johnston, You’ve Done It Again! Reuters Nixes Serial Misreporter’s Debut Column"

Maybe it's the TSA agents, not the passengers, that need to have their crotches patted down:

While President Obama and other Democrats frequently talk about the need for "shared sacrifice" and a "balanced" approach to deficit reduction, their proposal to raise taxes $418 billion is a grab bag of liberal favorites: ending tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet companies, as well as…

"Senate confirms Petraeus as next CIA director with 94-0 vote"

"S&P to deeply cut U.S. ratings if debt payment missed"

Contrary to what you're hearing out of Detroit, the auto manufacturing business in the U.S. isn't so bad. That's because foreign auto company plants, mostly in the South, are thriving. This is largely because such plants are free from the union albatross that hangs around the neck of the big three…

"Reid Nixes 'Gang of Six' - Members Stunned"

Jennifer Rubin: "For Obama, it’s all about getting out of Afghanistan"

It's really quite remarkable that the problems of public pensions were even allowed to get this bad:

"Panetta Confirmed as Defense Secretary"

"NLRB tried to save America from dumb, unskilled Southern workers"

Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post: 

Ugh: "Evidence That Weiner Was Talking Dirty to Underage Girls? Part 2"

It’s the year for revisiting the Civil War, and also, alas, for “revisioning”—according to current sensibilities—how the war should be remembered. A recent casualty of the blogosphere skirmishes is the famous letter from Union major Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah, written a week before his death…

"Oh my: Paul Ryan opens the door slightly to running for president?"

Uh oh:

Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., sat down for an interview with Coffee and Markets, a podcast hosted by Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech. When asked about the National Labor Relations Board's attempt to keep Boeing from building a factory in his state, DeMint had some exceptionally harsh words for the NLRB:

Organized labor makes up 12 of the top 20 political donors in the last 20 years and nearly all of that money has gone to Democrats. Labor leaders have also been less than subtle in their criticisms of Republicans over the years. However, with public sector unions the target of voter outrage and the…

I've pounded this drum good and hard, but here's another stark reminder that, thanks to hundreds of millions in campaign cash, the Democratic party is basically a subsidiary of organized labor. After the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided to turn Atlas Shrugged into a documentary and…

"Schumer: You’re damn right we’ll use Gingrich’s criticism of Ryan against the GOP"

Matt Welch on why Bernard Henri-Levy is "France's National Disgrace." And a bonus reminder from Jonah Goldberg on BHL's amazing self-regard.

“If we don’t succeed, I probably won’t be re-elected. If I’m not re-elected, you’re not gonna have somebody who does the kinds of things I do, who actually believes in government, and believes in unions at the same time.” — Gov. Dannel Malloy to union leaders on March 4. 

In what is fast becoming a weekly event, the Obama administration granted 200 more companies waivers from the Democrats' sweeping health care law in the Friday night news dump. That brings the number of companies receiving waivers to 1,372. (You can get a full list of the companies exempted here.)

Well, this is an interesting development:

Now that Scott Walker has triumphed, even Democrats are trying to take advantage of the moment to rein in public unions:

"Obamaflation has arrived, and this is what it looks like."

Mitch Daniels is still toying with our hopes.

Ron Paul's in.

One of the most widely circulated photographs during the Wisconsin union battle was of a protester in Madison holding up a sign that read: “Dear Barack, Please put on your comfortable shoes. Love, America.”

A proposed draft of an executive order that would require disclosure of political contributions by federal contractors has been circulating in Washington, D.C.:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has been running amok to do favors for organized labor under Obama, is now trying to tell Boeing where it can manufacture planes:

All it took was 50 years and tens of thousands of dead people: "Cuba's party congress agrees to allow private property."

More of that vaunted "new tone": "Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress 'to kill women.'"

Debbie Wasserman Schultz to head the DNC.

Maybe Time magazine should run a cover story accusing Afghanis of being freedom-phobic.

Well, I hope you have an air-sickness bag handy. Here we have Indiana State Representative Dave Cheatham -- one of a number of Indiana Democrats that fled to Illinois to stop legislation aimed at reining in public sector unions -- comparing his total dereliction of public responsibility in order to…

A senior official at the United Steeleworkers union defends Koch Industries from the onslaught of attacks from the left. His reasoning? Boycotting Koch, as some on the left have been advocating, would hurt the people who work for Koch.

Ohio passes bill restraining public sector unions.

Want another example of how unions--even public sector ones--are on the decline? According to Inside Higher Ed, the university faculty union in Florida is scrambling to recruit more members:

Here's your eye-popping statistic of the day, courtesy Stephen Losey at Federal Times:

"No Country Leans on Upper-Income Households as Much as U.S."

Giuliani: "We Cannot Create Another Iraq"

"The Arab League wanted our help. Until they got it."

Scott Walker was finished. 

"How Obama turned on a dime toward war"

Of course, the answer to that particular rhetorical question is obvious: Economic reality. Still, the brazen hypocrisy here is, well, delicious. The Newspaper Guild is calling for unpaid Huffington Post writers to strike:

Boy, those Tea Baggers sure are violent. Wait, did I say Tea Baggers? I meant to say Wisconsin unions.

Ann Althouse has some big fans in the Wisconsin union movement.

The New York Times had an eye-opening story about abuses in state-run homes for the elderly and disabled in New York this weekend. In particular, the article highlights how unions are aggressively defending those workers accused of very serious crimes:

Sometimes the New York Times is hard to believe--on March 12, for instance.

In recent months, in response to a series of austerity measures, we have seen civic unrest in the streets of London, Athens, and other European capitals. Some of the cuts that sparked the chaos are quite moderate. In France, for example, violence broke out over the government’s proposal to raise…

ROTC Returns to Harvard

There’s some light at the end of the tunnel. Just a thin ray, and at the end of a very long tunnel littered with government and private debt.

And the top five suggestions for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's new bumper sticker are:

Send your prayers across the Pacific.

You know, for all the Soros money shoveled at Media Matters for America, it's really quite a monument to what a bunch of hapless ideologues run the place that they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Wisconsin Fleebaggers give up

Hmm. A big Rory Reid (as in son of Harry) campaign scandal.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Hmm. "President signals he is weighing rebels' request for no-fly zone"

Has England lost its nerve?

Regarding the battle over the budget and public employee unions in Wisconsin, the state's voters support the Democrats over Republican governor Scott Walker by eight points, according to a new Rasmussen poll:

This story got a bit lost in the shuffle yesterday, but unions just suffered a big blow in Michigan. Now that the state is controlled by a Republican governor, they just put a stop to one of the most egregious examples of union overreach in the country.

Libyan rebels calling for international help.

A New York Times/CBS News poll never lets you down.  Today’s survey features a skewed sample (36 percent Democratic, 26 percent Republican), tricky questions, and an emphasis on results likely to thrill liberals and Democrats.