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I have just seen The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Keanu Reeves and some skinny chick. Three warnings before we continue: 1) I never saw the original, so this isn't going to be a comparative essay. 2) I will forgive Keanu anything (it's a female thing). and 3) I'm writing this for those of you who wouldn't go see this at gunpoint, so that you can still make fun of it anyway. In other words, there will be spoilers. If there's any chance you're going to see this and want some tiny iota of suspense left (ha) then run...

Abstract: Partisan Environmental Groups: Beware of Wolves Dressed in Sheep’s Clothing. These wolves should be seen for what they really are: massive democratic political machines, disguised as environmental causes. These wolves disguised in sheep's clothing are deceiving the America people. When an individual gives their hard-earned money to one of these organizations, most expect it to be used for the environmental cause they support, not political campaigning. It seems that it is more important to these groups to turn their once laudable movement into a political machine misleading the American public regarding their purely politically partisan agenda under the guise...

Re: Many environmental groups are using their tax-exempt IRS registered 501(c)(3) charitable organizations as fraudulent front operations for the Democrats-Soros Shadow Party~FlA. Environmental groups are simply Democrat political machines with millions of dollars in contributions and expenditures each year for the purpose of raising more money to pursue their agenda. ~ Sen. James Inhofe Mr./Madam President, I rise today to shed some light on a subject that is very important to me in my oversight duties as Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Earlier this year, the Environment and Public Works Committee held an oversight hearing where the...

TAOS — Living off the grid doesn't necessarily mean you want to live next to a wind farm, even if it is designed to generate electrical power from a renewable energy source. A well-known Taos attorney's proposal to develop a wind farm has angered some residents near the site, including people in the Cielito Lindo subdivision, where homes rely primarily on solar energy. Eliu Romero is scheduled to ask Taos County commissioners Tuesday to approve land-use code variances to allow a 40-turbine wind farm on private land west of Taos owned by his sons. Romero said he and his partner...

Organized labor helped elect Barack Obama and now eagerly awaits his promised support for its top priority—a bill that would make it easier to set up union locals. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to create local bargaining units without winning the vote of a majority of workers in a secret ballot. The local unit would be certified if a majority of workers endorsed it by signing an authorization card handed out by union organizers. Fair enough? Not really. The so-called card-check bill would not protect workers and it would not be "free choice." It would strip away...

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the fourth largest coal company in the country, blasted politics and the press, comparing Charleston Gazette Editor James. A. Haught to Osama Bin Laden Thursday evening when he addressed the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson. “It is as great a pleasure for me to be criticized by the communists and the atheists of the Charleston Gazette as to be applauded by my best friends,” he said. “Because I know they are wrong. People are cowering away from being criticized by people that are our enemies. Would we be upset if Osama Bin Laden...

Regarding Dr. John David's commentary, "Make it Easier to Unionize Workplace": Labor unions certainly have their place in a contemporary American economy, but not at the expense of employee free choice and economic security. Indeed, the Employee Free Choice Act would severely erode the freedom enjoyed by employees for nearly 75 years to make a private, fully-informed decision about whether or not they want a union to represent them. Too often, the losing party in a union election - the company or the union - blames its loss on the opposing party's "coercive and underhanded" tactics. In reality though, the...

Alright so this auto bailout bill is in a holding pattern. But just remember that it doesn't mean it is dead. So here are some facts that should keep you seething ... The Big Three currently pay 85% of union benefits to UAW members ... who aren't even working. Yep. Remember how I told you about the Job Banks for union workers? If a union worker is employed at a plant that closes, the auto makers still pay 85% of their union benefits. Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, says that his company must reduce operating costs ... but his...

“You just sit and you worry,” said Pat Weber, a construction administrator in Fennville who was laid off more than a year ago. “In the last year, I’ve put in for more than 100 jobs. I stopped counting after 110. It’s just so defeating.” All around Fennville and its neighbors here in southwest Michigan, front lawns are peppered with for-sale signs and merchants complain about slow days. But while this remains a beautiful place with none of the obvious blight of Detroit on the other side of the state, residents say the hardship beneath the surface is very real. It...

The New Plan? Cripple Honda! Save Detroit with Card Check! Eliminating the secret ballot and making it easier to organize U.S. Honda and Toyota workers (and imposing contract terms via binding arbitration) would "level the playing field," says Dem. Congressman Tim Ryan. ... Then when Honda and Toyota responded by importing more cars from abroad, we could have import quotas! Eventually the whole automotive sector could be planned by Congress in conjunction with existing business and labor interest groups. Red State has seen the future and it is corporatist. ...12:21 P.M.

Unions are to blame for the Big Three automakers’ problems, according to a television ad meant to stoke public opposition to organized labor’s number one legislative priority. “Steel, auto, airlines. What do these industries all have in common?” asks the ad sponsored by the business-backed Employee Freedom Action Committee, which was active in several hotly contested Senate races this year. “Hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and union bosses that helped put them out of business.” The advertisement urges people to fight the Employee Free Choice Act, which unions hope will be taken up quickly by the Democratic Congress and...

President-elect Barack Obama, who co-sponsored the misleadingly titled Employee Free Choice Act in the Senate in 2007, has vowed that the measure, called “Card Check,” will be the law of the land once he’s in office. Given the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, if Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss loses Georgia’s runoff election on Dec. 2, Card Check probably will become law—and that would be terrible news for Americans who want to keep their jobs. Card Check would do away with the present secret ballot process used by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) when employees vote on whether to...

There is a curiously dated logic in unions insisting that Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which belies the back and forth accusatory rhetoric of intimidation between business and big labor. There are two principal methods for employees to join and command employers to recognize their union's collective bargaining request. First: Company workers can get at least 30 percent of their colleagues to sign petition cards requesting representation, send the cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and have them oversee a secret ballot election. Second: If more than half of the workers sign up for representation, a...

Who killed the U.S. auto industry? To hear the media tell it, arrogant corporate chiefs failed to foresee the demand for small, fuel-efficient cars and made gas-guzzling road-hog SUVs no one wanted, while the clever, far-sighted Japanese, Germans and Koreans prepared and built for the future. I dissent. What killed Detroit was Washington, the government of the United States, politicians, journalists and muckrakers who have long harbored a deep animus against the manufacturing class that ran the smokestack industries that won World War II. As far back as the 1950s, an intellectual elite that produces mostly methane had its knives...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic leaders in Congress sidetracked legislation to bail out the auto industry Thursday and demanded the Big Three develop a plan assuring the money would make them economically viable. "Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a hastily called news conference in the Capitol. She and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Congress would return to work in early December to vote on legislation if General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC produce an acceptable plan. The decision averted a likely defeat of...

House Republican Leader John A. Boehner said Democrats' use of secret ballots to chose its leadership was ironic because the party wants to nix workers' rights to a secret voting in deciding whether to unionize. "The secret ballot election is a cornerstone of our American democracy," Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said Thursday. "If it is good enough for House Democrats to rely on during today's high-stakes vote, shouldn't it be good enough for millions of American workers across America who value their workplace privacy?" He vowed Republicans would stand firmly against the Democrat's "card-check" legislation - dubbed the Employee Free...

DETROIT, Nov 20 (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said on Thursday that lawmakers need to take immediate action on a $25 billion bridge loan bill to support the U.S. automakers or one or more could fail. Gettelfinger, who testified on Tuesday and Wednesday to U.S. congressional committees in support of the loans, said he would not comment on a possible compromise bill reached by Democratic and Republican senators until details were known. When told that one detail might be that the automakers would have to provide a strategic plan to get access to the money, Gettelfinger said...

TALEGAON, India: General Motors Corp. opened a second plant in India on Tuesday, boosting its production capacity from 85,000 to 225,000 vehicles a year. The factory is part of GM's aggressive push into emerging markets, which have helped cushion the beleaguered auto giant from falling sales in the developed world. It also furthers the Indian government's ambition to turn the country into a manufacturing hub for small vehicles. "We believe India in three to four years will be a significant source of profit for us," said GM Asia Pacific President Nick Reilly. The first car — a pint-sized red Chevrolet...

The United Auto Workers union called on Congress and the Bush administration to get a loan to U.S. automakers to prevent their collapse before the legislature adjourns Friday. "Congress must not adjourn with the Bush administration in place without an agreement," said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. "If there's no action, we could see the collapse of one or more domestic auto companies by the end of year." Gettelfinger said the cost of not acting would be devastating for the industry's employees and the U.S. economy. "The current recession that we're in would be made much worse," he added, saying states...

The Big Three automakers’ chief executives testified before Congress today, blaming the credit crisis for their downfall. But Richard Wagoner, CEO of General Motors (GM: 2.11, -0.68, -24.37%) did not use the credit crisis as an excuse for the company’s poor profits when he wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal in December 2005. In his opinion piece, which came amidst record sales, he blamed not the credit crisis, but a kaleidoscope of other reasons, including “intense” foreign competition, soaring gas prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and high benefit costs for the automakers’ downfall. And in his...

WASHINGTON -- A full-court effort by U.S. auto makers to secure federal aid appeared to be on the rocks after the companies failed to convince lawmakers of the urgent need for a rescue. Michigan Rep. Dale Kildee, Chrysler Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli, GM Chairman and CEO Richard Wagoner, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Michigan Rep. Sandy Levin (left to right) prior to a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill at which the auto makers made their case for federal assistance. Late Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid backed away from efforts to force a vote this week on a Democratic-backed...

The chances of the US Congress quickly approving a bill to save the "Big Three" car manufacturers are said to be "remote" but one economist warned that their collapse could shave 4pc off America's gross domestic product next year. Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, who chairs the influential Senate banking committee, believes that the chances of Congress approving a new bill this week to advance up to $25bn in lifeline funding to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are slim. "I'm anxious to see something happen," said Mr Dodd, who on Tuesday heard pleas for the money from the leaders of the...

Barney Frank favors bailing out the Detroit automakers over letting them go into bankruptcy. Chief among his concerns is that bankruptcy might "bust" the unions. You know, those organizations whose contract demands have put Detroit on the brink of extinction. The Massachusetts Dem, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was interviewed by Maggie Rodriguez on today's Early Show. He appeared alongside Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Al.), ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, who favors letting the automakers reorganize under Chapter 11. View video here.

A New York City contractor was sentenced to three years in state prison Friday for releasing hazardous asbestos dust and debris in a Paterson church when removing insulation without a license. Tyrone Maple, 51, of the Bronx was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Marilyn Clark in Paterson for illegally removing the asbestos at Friendship Baptist Church. The church also hosts A Whole New World Daycare. Maple, a church member who works as a boiler repairman in New York, was hired to remove the insulation last December so that plumbers could repair leaky steam pipes leading from the basement boiler. As...

There’s a big push on in Washington to bail out the Big Three automobile companies. It’s the usual “crisis” scenario where scare headlines predict woe and economic gloom if something isn’t done NOW!But would a bailout of the Big Three actually solve their problems? No. But it would make sure unions which have held these companies hostage to a failing business model don’t get hurt.Consider this: GM also famously spends over $1,600 per vehicle on the healthcare costs of current and retired U.S. workers while Toyota pays about $200 per vehicle. Although GM also pays about another $1,000 per vehicle...

DETROIT: When Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Automobile Workers union, appears this week at congressional hearings to help make the case for the Detroit automakers getting emergency U.S. government aid, he wants lawmakers to know what he believes is at stake. "It wouldn't be just one company failing here," Gettelfinger said in an interview. "It would be all three going down." He might as well add the UAW. The union's membership at General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler has been nearly halved to 139,000 workers in the past three years, and it continues to shrink with every new plant...

WASHINGTON: As top Detroit auto executives prepared to make their most intense plea for aid to Congress on Tuesday, General Motors also pleaded Monday for a billion-euro credit guarantee from the German government to help its Opel subsidiary. The request, greeted with some skepticism in Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel promised a reply by Christmas - demonstrated how what had been building as a Washington drama involving efforts to save the venerable Detroit auto industry was fast becoming a story about how the international industry might be transformed by the spreading financial crisis. Governments around the world, from Tokyo to...

A card-check law would give union bosses an unfair advantage in organizing the workplaceTHE ISSUE: A card-check law would give union bosses an unfair advantage in turning workplaces into union shops. Probably no group celebrated the election of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama as president more than organized labor. For decades, labor unions have watched membership rolls dwindle. In 1983, union members made up 20.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Today, the union membership rate is down to about 12 percent. In Alabama, union membership is even lower, about 9.5 percent. The...

- - Says Taxpayers Demand Real Reforms & Accountability From Washington WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement regarding today’s announcement by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid that he will seek Senate passage next week of a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. auto industry. Senator Reid’s support for this latest government bailout comes on the heels of yesterday’s announcement from the Treasury Department that the federal government has a record deficit of $237.2 billion for the first month of the fiscal year. This represents the highest monthly imbalance on record....

JERUSALEM – The enactment of a "single payer" socialist health care system; passing laws to make joining a labor union easier; raising the minimum wage and increasing labor union support – all these are just some of the policies the Community Party USA has mapped out as crucial for Obama to push through during his term of office. Just days after the party's official newspaper lauded the role of labor unions in Obama's election victory, another article in the Communist Party's Political Affairs magazine by leading party member and Rutgers University history professor Norman Markowitz outlined the kind of "change"...

Chapter 11 would better preserve the valuable parts of the company than an ad hoc bailout. General Motors is a once-great company caught in a web of relationships designed for another era. It should not be fed while still caught, because that will leave it trapped until we get tired of feeding it. Then it will die. The only possibility of saving it is to take the risk of cutting it free. In other words, GM should be allowed to go bankrupt. AP Consider the costs of tackling GM's problems with some kind of bailout plan. After 42 years...

The failure of one or more of Detroit’s Big Three automakers would put a huge initial dent in American manufacturing, but in time foreign car companies would pick up the slack by stepping up production in their plants here, many industry experts and economists say. Whether Washington should let that play out — risking hundreds of thousands of jobs — is a central question Congress will weigh this week as it hears testimony from Detroit leaders who are pushing for immediate federal intervention, before the next administration takes over in January. “Barack Obama has made it clear he understands the...

DETROIT -- The president of the United Auto Workers union said the dire financial troubles of the three U.S. auto makers is the result this year's spike in gasoline prices and the meltdown on Wall Street, not missteps by management or high labor costs. "This industry is in a crisis situation not of its own making," Ron Gettelfinger said in an interview Saturday afternoon with The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Gettelfinger also urged Congress to provide financial help to prevent General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. or Chrysler LLC from sliding into bankruptcy protection. Bankruptcy is "the worst possible route...

One of the best reasons why Detroit automakers should not receive a bailout can be found in a General Motors "Jobs Bank" program that, bizarrely, pays employees not to work. A beneficiary of that program was someone named Jerry Mellon, who worked for GM until his division merged with another in 2000 and he was no longer needed. Except for a brief period in 2001, Mellon received his full salary for not working, which reached $64,500 a year by 2006. Include benefits, and the annual cost to GM exceeds $100,000. To earn his pay, Mellon was given the formidable task...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said Sunday he would not object to firing executives of U.S. automakers that get proposed federal bailout money. The Democrat said in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" program that senior management at General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) and Chrysler Corp. should consider resigning their posts if it means their respective firms can get federal assistance. Congressional lawmakers are considering $25 billion in emergency loans for the struggling car makers. The Senate reportedly will take up a bailout proposal Monday. "If it was the difference...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a ''dinosaur'' whose ''day of reckoning'' is coming. Their opposition raises serious doubts about whether the plan will pass in this week's postelection session. Democratic leaders want to use $25 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to help General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said it would be a mistake to use any of the Wall Street rescue money to prop up...

That beeping sound you hear this week is the semi-truck being backed up to the Federal Treasury in Washington. After being filled with taxpayer billions, it's on its way to Detroit. A heaping bailout for the Big Three automakers - currently losing millions every day theyproduce cars no one wants to buy - feels like it's being gift-wrapped for the holidays.But the beeping sound you should be hearing is the heart monitor of the Big Three, slowing downto flatline. General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are such horrific financial wrecks that not even the Jaws of Life - and certainly not...

Even as Detroit's Big Three teeter on collapse, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Saturday that workers will not make any more concessions and that getting the automakers back on their feet means figuring out a way to turn around the slumping economy. "The focus has to be on the economy as a whole as opposed to a UAW contract," Gettelfinger told reporters on a conference call, noting the labor costs now make up 8 percent to 10 percent of the cost of a vehicle. "We have made dramatic, dramatic changes and the UAW was applauded for that," he...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Even as Detroit's Big Three teeter on collapse, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger says workers will not make any more concessions and that getting the automakers back on their feet means figuring out a way to turn around the slumping economy.

Labor unions are poised to go after Hispanic workers in states like Arizona and sectors such as services and health care if new union rules are put in place by the Barack Obama administration and Democratic Congress next year. Unions and pro-union Democrats want Congress and Obama to pass card-check legislation. The plan would allow unions to organize in workplaces if they get a majority of workers to sign cards supporting unionization. It would scrap 73-year-old unionization laws that require secret ballots for workers to decide whether they want their work forces represented by a trade union. Card-check legislation is...

I find one of the more amusing although important questions is how will President-elect Barack Obama govern? As a moderate and centrist, or as an extremist, radical and liberal? I can answer such questions with another question: When your whole career and resume shows you are a leftist, an extremist, a radical, a liberal, and a 96 percent pure party line Democrat, are you are likely to be just that no matter what you say in the campaign? Mr. Obama ran far-left to win the primaries and then veered quickly to the center to win the general election. And now...

An architect of the original bailout bill said today Democrats lack the votes to pass bill giving auto companies a piece of the $700 billion bailout pie next week. Sen. Chris Dodd to ABC News: "I want to help them if we can, but I'm not going to give anyone a blank check, so we're going to try and do something if we can next week. I don't think the votes are there. Candidly, I don't think we have the votes to get that done. With no big change between now and next Wednesday, I'm skeptical." Even after January, Democrats...

Union Voters Overwhelmingly Want to Protect Right to Cast Vote in Private The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today released a comprehensive analysis of data of union household attitudes from six statewide polls. The combined findings from the key states of Colorado, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire and New Mexico suggest that President-elect Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress may have trouble convincing voters from union households that support for the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is a pro-worker position. Notably, the surveys found widespread opposition among union household voters (69%) to the EFCA, which would replace a federally...

TPM reports that American labor leaders are coming to Washington to meet and spell out their priorities for the incoming Obama administration: According to a senior AFL-CIO official, the labor leaders -- who could include AFL-CIO head John Sweeney, AFSCME chief Gerald McEntee, and others -- will be putting the finishing touches on plans for a national campaign, including possible TV ads, to press members of Congress for quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, one of labor's major agenda items. The measure, which would give workers the right to join a union as soon as a majority of...

Rick Wagoner's future as chief executive of General Motors Corp. may hinge in large part on what kind of bailout the ailing auto maker gets from the U.S. government. Momentum is building in Washington to provide financial help for the auto industry and Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, plans to push for legislation next week to give "emergency assistance" to auto makers in a lame-duck session of Congress. Three big financial institutions that got federal bailouts -- including insurer American International Group Inc. and home-lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- had to replace their top executives...

So the Big Three are asking for a government handout... You should write your representatives and ask them this question: Why are the Big Three going broke and asking for taxpayer money while Toyota USA is expanding?Ford, GM and Chrysler have become as sclerotic as the liberal states that host them. Like the failed state of Michigan, the Big Three promised goodies to the masses and now they have the gall to ask the American taxpayer to fund their generosity. Note to nanny-state liberals (in government and on corporate boards): It's not generosity when you do it with other people's...

Rivalry breaks out over Congress' top energy spot WASHINGTON -- In the first big post-election clash on Capitol Hill, two House heavyweights are battling to lead an influential committee that will have jurisdiction over global warming in the new Congress. The fight pits California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, a key ally of environmentalists, against Democratic Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, who has ties to the auto industry. Waxman is trying to oust Dingell as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While Waxman supporters say they think they've got enough votes to prevail, Dingell is fighting hard to keep...

Democratic Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they were ready to push emergency legislation to aid the imperiled auto industry when lawmakers return to Washington next week, setting the stage for one last showdown with President Bush. “Next week, during the lame-duck session of Congress, we are determined to pass legislation that will save the jobs of millions of workers whose livelihoods are on the line,” the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said in a statement. His call for the session, the first since the election, came shortly after the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Congress and the administration “must...

Remember when Democrats lamented the growing budget deficit and spoke of the burden our children and grandchildren would face if we didn't put our fiscal house in order? That was when Republicans ran the federal government and Democrats opposed tax cuts. Now that Democrats are about to be in charge, concern about the deficit has disappeared and spending plans proliferate, even though the national debt passed $10 trillion in September and we added another $500 billion last month. The latest, but by no means the last supplicant at the public trough, is the auto industry, which wants a bailout to...

OTTAWA–Faced with a darkening economic outlook, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premiers are pledging to speed up infrastructure spending, look at easing rules for retirement savings and consider ways to boost Ontario's hard-hit automotive sector. With an eye on the massive rescue package offered by the U.S. government for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, Harper yesterday dangled the possibility of a government bailout package to help the auto industry, but fell short of promising concrete action. And in a major development for Toronto and other urban centres, Harper and the premiers emerged from a meeting about the economy agreeing...