Monthly Archives: April 2011

Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed controversial Senate Bill 5, which restricted the much-abused collective bargaining power of public sector unions. The bill, similar to what passed in Wisconsin, inspired a similar level of vitriol from the unions and supporters.

Obama jumped into the conversation earlier this week saying “public employees should not be blamed for a financial crisis they had nothing to do with and sacrifices should be shared in tough economic times.”

Shared by who, President Obama? Because in Ohio, the average government worker makes 24.6 percent more than their private-sector counterparts. In addition, Ohio has lost more than 600,000 private sector jobs in the last 10 years, while public sector employees are still getting pay increases.

What SB5 does is remove automatic pay increases and introduce a merit-based system. At a time when Ohioans are struggling to find a job, those that are being paid with taxpayer money should at least be paid based on how well they’re doing their jobs. This is not a unique or unfair concept, and is in fact much more indicative of “shared sacrifice” than putting public sector employees into overpaid positions with bankrupt pensions while their private sector counterparts struggle.

When Kasich was asked about his thoughts on the President weighing in on what’s happening in Ohio, he didn’t mince words.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgOrPc_TWQQ[/youtube]

“We have balanced our budget, under this budget that we’ve presented, along with preserving the tax cut. The President of the United States has, I think a $3 trillion debt. Why doesn’t he do his job? When he does his job and gets our budget balanced and starts to prepare a future budget for our children, then maybe he can have an opinion on what’s going on in Ohio.”

Thanks, Governor Kasich.

The south is still realizing the full extent of the damage caused by this week’s storms. Nearly 300 people are dead. The country is rallying in support of the devatated areas, and President Obama (who must have learned something from ignoring Nashville’s flood last year) is set break character to visit the very red state today.

Anyone with a soul feels pain for those affected. Thousands have lost everything. Lives were destroyed. Think Progress (via Da Tech Guy) has instead chosen to adopt the Pat Robertson model and claim Divine Justice for those redneck Republican climate change deniers in the south.

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”

The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

You’re reading that right. To paraphrase Brad Johnson’s post: Since the south has rejected the climate change hysteria, clearly they’re just asking for the wrath of Gaia, and should expect to be demolished.

If, unlike Johnson, you are interested in assisting those impacted by this disaster, you can help in the following ways:

• Red Cross, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to relief efforts
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Text “Give” to 80888 to give $10 to Salvation Army relief efforts.

President Obama enjoys presenting himself as a shining example of maturity, wisdom, and levelheaded leadership. Indeed, at yesterday’s birth certificate press conference, he told the pesky “carnival barkers” that it was time to “get serious.” Then, he boarded a plane to Chicago to film Oprah. To talk some more about getting serious, I imagine. He later put the birth certificate issue to rest once and for all by mentioning it at three fundraisers last night.

Today, he’s chosen to prove that he’s serious about reforming immigration by inviting renowned immigration policy experts Eva Longoria, Rosario Dawson and friends to the White House to talk about immigration reform. Yes, that Eva Longoria. Via The Hill:

The White House said Obama would meet with “influential Hispanics from across the country to discuss the importance of fixing the broken immigration system.” It said the discussion would focus on fostering “a constructive national conversation on this important issue as we work to build a bipartisan consensus in Congress.”

Besides Longoria, the star of “Desperate Housewives,” others invited to the gathering include actresses Rosario Dawson and America Ferrera, Univision hosts Don Francisco and Maria Elena Salinas and Telemundo anchors Vanessa Hauc and Jose Diaz-Balart. Continue reading →