CELEBRATING AMERICAN LABOR
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that political campaigns, especially presidential campaigns, have a distinct habit of warping statistical calculations to benefit whichever side is using them to prop up their arguments and the 2012 presidential campaign season is already shaping up to be the number one textbook example of fabricated statistical information in the political history of the United States.
The official unemployment rate that is regularly disseminated by the U.S. Labor Department has a built-in political fudge-factor to reduce the actual percentage number of unemployed Americans by as much as 50% or more. In fact, the federal government has thrown so many questionable factors into the calculation process that it is impossible to do anything more than make an educated guess at what the actual unemployment rate might be. Currently the officially reported rate, sanctioned by the U.S. Labor Department, was at 9.1% in August, however the U-6 Unemployment Rate tracked by U.S. Labor Statistics put the figure at 16.2% for August, and many credible critics, including many congressional representatives affiliated with both the Democratic and Republican Parties are now claiming that the actual number of unemployed American citizens now exceeds 22% of the total American workforce. With an unemployment rate above 20% there is no question why any incumbent Washington politician would want to obscure the truth. For the sake of information, the U-6 rate for April, 2011 was 15.9% and four months later, in August it was up to 16.2%. Does anyone really need a politician from Washington to explain in which direction this problem is headed? Ironically, the more accurate statistics available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that the demographic groups hardest hit by the steadily escalating unemployment rate are the very same groups that turned out in mass during the 2008 presidential election to support Barack Obama. Among the native born Black Americans the U-6 unemployment rate is as high as 42%, and native born Hispanic Americans are not doing much better with a reported U-6 unemployment rate as high as 36.5% while the uncategorized native-born Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 years of age, the crowd that turned out in droves to support Obama’s campaign for change in 2008 have a reported U-6 unemployment rate of 27.1% which is identical to the U-6 rate reported for the nation’s burgeoning population of immigrants both legal and illegal.
With the 2012 presidential election looming just over the horizon, Obama’s approval rating sinking faster than the Titanic, and nearly one quarter of the nation’s willing and available workforce unemployed and frantically seeking any sort of employment, you might think that our illustrious president, the beacon of hope in a floundering economy, would take whatever steps were necessary to ensure the creation of jobs that American workers could fill. The basic truth is that unemployed workers are not happy and if they are not happy when Election Day rolls around they are going to vote for a different administration regardless of who is responsible for their situation or what lies they are told. Without any doubt this is a serious problem for the incumbent president and one that he would certainly like to see go away, but the fact is this problem is not going to disappear and it will probably get a lot worse due to some of the more recent changes Obama has encouraged if not implemented himself.
Obama’s presidential directive regarding the deportation of illegal aliens effectively guts the American immigration laws by making it nearly impossible for American immigration authorities to effectively do what the American taxpayers are paying them to do. There are already an estimated 20 to 40 million illegal aliens in the U.S. and there are more than 8,000 new illegal aliens entering the country every day. Illegal aliens comprise more than half of all construction company employees. They have literally taken over many of the building trades forcing American workers onto unemployment. New home construction and the skilled building trades have been the foundation of middle-class prosperity since the end of World War II. Even if 27.1% of the nation’s estimated 20 to 40 million illegal aliens are unemployed as the Labor Department’s statistics indicate that still leaves 72.9% of the working age illegal aliens employed in positions that American citizens are desperate to fill. Inasmuch as the federal government could care less how many illegal aliens are taking American jobs and the exact number is not tracked the best possible guess is that anywhere from 15 to 29 million illegal aliens are working in the U.S. and that is pretty close to the number of unemployed American citizens who are actively, but unsuccessfully looking for jobs. It seems like such an easy problem to fix, but since the government won’t implement E-Verify or deport any of the illegal aliens they catch the solution to the problem remains a long ways off.
Another major obstacle in the path of widespread job creation is Barack Obama’s completely over-the-top willingness to do the bidding of this nation’s over-bloated national labor organizations. Admittedly, since they were a major force behind getting him elected he feels indebted to them and without the campaign contributions provided to the Democratic Party from the union dues of their members, the DNC would have a tough time getting anyone elected to office, especially if they had to stand on merit alone. Be that as it may, companies that would otherwise be hiring new employees are holding off until they see which way the wind blows as far as some of the labor union proposed legislative acts are concerned. Primary among the labor union’s proposed legislative acts is the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” which is designed to eliminate the requirement of secret ballot elections from union organizing attempts. Secret ballot elections have been protecting American workers from being intimidated into voting for union representation for many decades and there is no sound or logical justification for eliminating this protection other than compensating the unions for past favors done. It certainly adds no benefit to American workers but it does put all American companies at the mercy of labor unions that can come in at any time and wreak havoc on even the best of employment situations. As long as the threat of this legislative atrocity remains dangling over the heads of American business companies will lean to the side of caution in their hiring practices, and in the event that this atrocious piece of legislative garbage is actually passed into law we can count on seeing explosive growth in the number of companies that are outsourcing work overseas or moving their entire operation out of the country. To implement something like the “Employee Free Choice Act” during a time of economic instability and high unemployment would be sheer lunacy and a good indication that neither our elected representatives nor our president has a handle on the basic law of cause and effect.
Then again, we already have a good indication of how far Obama will go to pay back the labor unions for funneling so many millions of their member’s dues money into his campaign and that indication was made extremely clear by his recess appointments of Lafe Solomon and former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) general counsel Craig Becker to positions of authority on the National Labor Relations Board. The thought that either of these two union fanatics would be sitting in positions of importance overseeing the rights of American workers and their employers was too much even for quite a few liberal Democrats and Obama’s earlier attempt to nominate Craig Becker to the NLRB was blown out of the water by bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Senate. With the knowledge that an attempt to appoint Lafe Solomon to the position of general counsel for the NLRB would fare no better in the Senate Obama decided to do an end run and appointed both me to the Labor Board during a congressional recess when he could do so without opposition from either party. The fact that even many of the Senate Democrats opposed these nominations speaks volumes to the fanaticism of these two die-hard labor activists. Craig Becker has long favored the position that labor unions should be given carte blanche to do whatever they feel necessary in the face of company opposition and Lafe Solomon has publicly stated that company need to be restrained from taking any action in their own defense against union organizers.
Currently, Lafe Solomon has become very active in the NLRB’s case against Boeing and in April he accused them of violating federal law by deciding to build a new 787 Dreamliner assembly plant in Charleston, South Carolina. At a time when most companies are cutting costs and reducing their workforce Boeing built a $750 million dollar manufacturing facility in South Carolina, hired thousands of workers to and invested heavily in their training so they could staff it rather than follow the example of so many others and send the work overseas where it could be done so much cheaper. Boeing officials unwittingly admitted that the decision to base the plant in South Carolina was made in part on the fact that it is a right to work state. Boeing’s admission provoked the ire of the NLRB and Solomon expressed the opinion that Boeing’s actions constituted an unfair attempt to deprive the company’s union represented employees of their death grip on every plane the company produced. Furthermore, Solomon argued, Boeings decision to locate their new manufacturing facility in South Carolina was an act of intentional retaliation against the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union representatives of Boeing’s manufacturing facility in Washington State. As it now stands Boeing is three years behind schedule on their 787 Dreamliner contract and if Solomon gets his way they will be stuck with a 750 million dollar manufacturing facility in South Carolina that they can’t run and thousands of newly hired and trained employees that the company will be forced to terminate. If the NLRB succeeds in closing down the South Carolina facility there is no guarantee that the work on the 787 Dreamliner will be done at the company’s union represented plant in Washington State. It is much more likely that Boeing will lose the contract altogether and the work will end up being done in France by Airbus, Boeing’s chief European rival. The National Labor Relations Board’s heavy-handed persecution of Boeing is entirely unprecedented in light of the fact that the company has done nothing illegal and thousands of other companies have taken similar cost-saving actions like this in the past, however, the fanatical labor advocacy demonstrated by the NLRB in this case has sent a clear message to all American companies. The current presidential administration is willing to give the labor organizations the upper hand in legal disputes with American companies regardless of the consequences to the nation’s economy or to the American workers, and it will be a cold day in hell before another American company the size of Boeing offers a helping hand to this country’s growing population of unemployed. Incidentally, while the fanatics at the NLRB are working to close down the South Carolina Boeing plant, Hilda Solis, President Obama’s labor secretary has been bragging about Obama’s masterful ability to create jobs, and in one press release she stated, “In the Charleston area alone, more than 900 manufacturing jobs have been added since July 2010 — an increase of 4.3 percent.”
The United States of America is standing on the brink of an economic disaster of immense proportions, millions of American citizens are unemployed, many have totally exhausted their unemployment benefits and maxed out their credit cards trying to stay afloat, mortgage foreclosures are at a historic high and contrary to what the government is saying, there is no recourse available to stave off the demanding creditors that would rather force you into the street and take your home than listen to your problems; the politicians in Washington D.C. respond to the desperate needs of the American people by currying favor with friendly special interest groups and labor unions interested only in their accumulation of political power, and trading legislative action for campaign contributions and pledges of support when they next come up for election while entirely credible solutions to every problem this nation is currently facing are either kicked to the back burner or are thrown completely out of the kitchen.
An AP Newswire poll released this morning indicates that 63% of the polls respondents are more than willing to give up their personal freedoms so the government can effectively fight the terrorists that nearly all of these individuals believe are coming from outside the United States, however, the Department of Homeland Security stated quite some time ago that foreign terrorists are the least of our concerns and domestic terrorism is the biggest threat to the stability of the present government. As the sewage of government corruption, outright lies and the empty promises of self-centered professional politicians floods in around us and we stare into the hollow eyes of what the United States government has become, those of us who have not sold off every weapon in our possession in the effort to pay the bills should count their lucky stars because the day is quickly approaching when your continued existence will depend on them.
There is no longer any question of whether or not we are going down, the only question worth asking anymore is how the liberal, the concerned, the caring, the politically correct and socially conscious people of this nation will taste when they are barbecued for dinner.
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illegal aliens, 
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NLRB, 
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Barack Obama
