Bases Are Loaded!
Filed under: Elections, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
It was the astounding black baseball player Satchel Paige who said “Don’t look back—something might be gaining on you.” Well President Obama, something is and her name is Hillary.
If the biggest problem that Barack Obama will have as he approaches the 2012 presidential election is to convince the American people that he is doing the best possible job he can do as president and therefore they should vote to keep him in office, he’s a shoe in. But that’s not his problem.
You see I live on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. That’s where all the Socialists hang out….and they will crawl on hot coals to vote for the re-election of President Obama. But they will give him up like a soggy bowl of Rice Krispies if Hillary Clinton decides she’s sick and tired of working her tail off for a bunch of armatures. The Middle East crisis and Obama’s indecisive responses seems to have Hillary in a twist. And could it be that the reason Republicans did so well in the 2010 election cycle is that Democrats stayed home dreaming of a Hillary come-back?
We all know President Obama likes basketball better than baseball and his throwing arm is a bit awkward but Satchel Paige said something else which should give him some guidance: “If a man can beat you, walk him.”
Lucky “O”
Filed under: Elections, Health Care, International Reflections, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
In yesterday’s New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, describing the complex issues facing the fires currently burning in the Middle East, prays that President Obama is lucky. The problem with luck is that it usually requires courage and vision.
Barack Obama has never disappointed with respect to his courage. He made choices in his life that took courage and he wouldn’t be President today if he hadn’t. Associating himself with the vanguard of American radical socialists throughout his life, openly and notoriously, took a great deal of courage in spite of the fact that his ambition was so overpowering. He knowingly sat in the church of a radical, hate mongering preacher for 20 years in order to gild the lily of his political aspirations. When it came apparent in the summer of last year that the Health Care Reform Act was floundering and would not pass with Republican support he resolutely inspired the Democratic Congressional leadership encouraging it to garner the needed Democrat votes to accomplish this monumental achievement. He had to know that the result would lead to the most devastating political defeat his party has ever experienced, yet he remained undaunted.
There is little doubt that when it comes to domestic affairs Barack Obama has the necessary courage to attain his vision of a socialist America. It is not his lack of courage that has girded the independents and those on the right for a massive brawl with the socialist left that will inevitably occur in the Presidential and Congressional campaigns of 2012. Rather it is President Obama’s vision of America that compels so many Americans to take to the ramparts to defend freedom and individual liberty.
However, when it comes to matters involving America’s role on the stage of international affairs President Obama lacks a comprehensive vision. His Monday night speech concerning Libya reveals a president who is uncertain or unwilling to move this country into its 21st Century responsibilities and obligations. He believes America must step back from its leadership role in world affairs. He believes that America is not an exceptional country and has no greater international responsibilities or obligations than the countries of Chad or Denmark. Thomas Friedman prays that our President gets lucky. I pray that in the presidential election of 2012 America gets lucky.
When Public Unions Vote For A Pay Decrease
Filed under: Elections, Local Party Politics, National Party Politics, Social Commentary, Unions
The labor movement as we know it began with the passage in 1935 of the National Labor Relations Act and ended 75 years later with Congressional and state elections held on November 4, 2010. How in the world did that happen?
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
When I began practicing labor law in 1973 labor unions had organized nearly 25% of the private sector workforce. Therefore one out of every 4 employees in America were members of a union. Their wages were above average, they had job security and they had health and pension benefits. Getting a union job in America in 1973 meant you were set for life. In 1973 workers in the public sector had just been getting their right to organize and represented only a small fraction of public employees throughout the United States. Americans in 1973 didn’t quite understand that public sector unions were very different from private sector unions in that when a public sector union sits down with their members’ employer, to negotiate terms and conditions of employment, a board of education, the mayor’s office, a state agency, unlike their private sector union brothers and sisters, they were negotiating for a piece of the public fisc, in effect a piece of the tax base.
By November last year the world had changed. Private sector unions represented only 7% of the work force while public sector unions represented nearly 40% of all public sector employees. Moreover public sector unions gained a stranglehold on municipal and state treasuries throughout America. Americans were being told by their mayors and governors that their cities and states were going bankrupt and that the direct cause for this was the corrupt relationship between public sector unions money going into the pockets of their state and local politicians. Therefore when the American people went to the polls last year they were determined to stop this deal with devil and voted for the political representatives that promised to put an end to it.
The howling, the screaming, the yelling by public sector employees in state capitals throughout the Midwest and which the American people are viewing on their television screens is the result of 37 years of public sector unions, with the assistance of corrupt politicians, having grabbed large junks of taxpayer money with no concern for the consequences of the American people. What we are now observing is the American taxpayer in revolt the consequences of which will not fully be known for another decade. But what is certain the labor movement in America has changed forever.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Public And Private Union Effects On Elections
Filed under: Local Party Politics, National Party Politics, Social Commentary, State Politics
State governments in their attempt to deal with their massive debt are beginning to grapple with the fact that public sector unions are its main cause. The conflict between state taxpayers and public sector unions is therefore shaping up to be the battle of the coming decade. Private sector unions, beware.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
If there was anything that brought to the American public’s attention, especially those taxpayers who have been paying for the high wages and high pensions of state and municipal public sector employees, it was the hundreds of millions of dollars paid by public sector unions into the campaign chests of Democrat politicians during the election last November. If you want to understand the dynamics between state and local politicians and public sector unions, follow the money. Dues paid by members of public sector unions is used to fill the campaign chests of sympathetic politicians who when they get elected, with no little help due to those public sector political contributions, return the favor by passing legislation which raises union wages and union pension benefits. To top it off, notwithstanding that the country is experiencing high unemployment public sector employees are unique in effectively resisting this personal economic calamity.
Taxpayers are furious and throughout the country have thrown out of office those politicians who have been on the receiving end of public sector unions’ largesse. What is fascinating however is now that public sector unions know they have a target on their back and they are attempting to drag into the fray union members in the private sector seeking help to fend off the attacks. Further, newly elected state officials are overreaching by also going after private sector unions which have been completely innocent in this corrupt relationship between organized labor in the public sector and elected state officials.
Here’s my advice: State and local elected officials keep your eye on the real culprit, public sector unions. And as for private sector unions, keep in mind that your membership is made up of taxpayers many of whom are currently unemployed and they are in no mood to help their fat and happy brethren.
This is Roger Macon and that’s what I think.
Obama Sinks His Own Ship
Filed under: National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
In the last two years President Obama destroyed the support of the center that placed him in office by signing into legislation laws that pauperized our grandchildren. Last week President Obama destroyed the support of his base by insulting and denigrating those who refused to go along with the compromise he reached with Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
After the results of the mid-term election of 1994 placing Congress in the hands of the Republicans President Clinton realized the jig was up and either he would be a one term president or he had better start figuring out how to maintain his base while growing the center. The result was the genius of Dick Morris and the term “triangulation” was born. The rest is history. Notwithstanding his impeachment and subsequent trial in the Senate President Clinton left office as one of the most popular presidents in the 20th century and is still loved and adored by those that supported him from the beginning.
At last week’s press conference President Obama attacked Republicans without grace or forethought for being “hostage takers” who worship a “holy grail” of “tax cuts for the wealthy” which he described as their “central economic doctrine.” It seemed that he was angry at himself for having cut the deal in the first place and he then proceeded to take it out on those who had the temerity to criticize the compromise, namely the liberal and socialist Democrats who he attacked for being “sanctimonious,” “purist” unwilling to recognize that governing means more than just taking “ideal positions” and “feeling good about” yourself. My dear mother would say, “If you are going to do something already, do it graciously.” But in one stroke, in the course of just a few minutes President Obama showed a petulant, almost puerile side of his character.
The compromise was hatched in the White House as the first step toward righting the sinking ship of the Obama Administration and getting the sails up and full ready to start the journey into the 2012 presidential election. Instead at the press conference Captain Ahab (oops) Obama caused the ship to be three sheets to the wind, in irons and bobbing up and down in a roiling sea. Republicans, all hands on deck!
This Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
The Effects Of A Socialist Union Rule
We are constantly warned that if we don’t stop the taxing and spending of the last 4 years we are going to turn into France. However if you truly want to see what a progressive-socialist America will look like look to Argentina.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
It has been over a 100 years that the progressive-socialist movement has attempted to capture the American psyche. That attempt can be traced from the Sixteenth Amendment wherein Congress was given the power to tax income, to the Great Depression, to the Great Society. We are now eating the bitter fruit of this monstrous tree. But what has been recently revealed as the true nature of this poisonous economic and social philosophy is something that even those who promoted its adoption never quite anticipated. And that is the cancerous growth of public employee unions and their deleterious effect on the public fisc. Throughout the country our state budgets are breaking the back of the middle class taxpayer due to the increase in the number of our public employees and the extraordinary growth of their pensions and wages. Recently government obligations are exceeding 40% of GNP. What happens to a government when vast numbers of organized citizens rely upon it for their wages and pensions. We are seeing that now in Argentina.
Argentina is a country subject to one party rule, the party of Juan Peron which is controlled by, you guessed it, a public employee national union. This union provides the goons that when new taxes are considered to be legislated and then paid by those in the private sector…they get legislated and they get paid. America hasn’t gotten their yet but when public sector unions in this country are able to tax their members and use this money to make contributions to politicians who then pass laws to increase the wages and pensions of those very public employees we are not too far behind.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
God Bless America
Filed under: Elections, Immigration, National Party Politics, Social Commentary
Every American has a story has to how it happened that their family floated up upon these shores and became Americans. It seems after every election winning candidates are impelled to tell their story and last Tuesday, election night, was no different, except that we witnessed two grown men weep in the telling.
This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.
Last election night John Boehner and Marco Rubio, before a group of each of their supporters gave their acceptance speech for their well-earned victory. For John Boehner it was his re-election to the House of Representatives and due to the results of the election nationwide it was his ascension to Speaker of the House. For Marco Rubio it was his election to the U.S. Senate. Each began with the perfunctory “thank you” to their supporters, described the ideology as why they felt compelled to run for public office but then, as is so often the case, began to describe their family history and how that history had such a profound affect upon their ideology and what it meant to being an American to them and their families.
As John Boehner began to recite his family story of his father being a bartender he began to weep and couldn’t continue. He couldn’t tell us why because while in the telling he probably didn’t quite understand it himself. But we did. Here he was, addressing the nation on national television, Speaker of the House, elect, third most powerful person in America and his father was a bartender. It’s just another American story….but it was his.
Marco Rubio’s voice began to crack when he began to tell how his family left Cuba after the Castro takeover. He told the story of how his father’s aspirations were all but destroyed by coming here but that his father resolved to make certain that his children would take full advantage of the opportunities that America offered to those who were willing to work for them.
Each of us have heard these stories so very often at different times and different circumstances but we as Americans never tire of them. In fact we relish their telling and demand to hear them over and over again. And the reason is simple: Each of those stories, no matter how different they are in nationality, or race or religion is related to our own story of how we also became Americans. God bless America.
This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.
Obama’s issues with Honduras
Obama is running into political troubles in Latin America. Click the play button above to tune in.
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Iraq Elections and the Triumph of Democracy
Filed under: International Reflections, National Party Politics, United States at War
Tune in as Roger outlines the success of democracy in Iraq and how it relates to the American Conservative cause.
Here are some highlights:
- Iraq’s close democratic election had almost 65% participation at 19 million voters.
- 50,000 polling places secured by Iraqi security forces.
- Over 6,000 candidates
- 86 political parties
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