Union workers can’t be bothered to pick up crap: stinky symptom of larger problem

I used to frequent this Metro station:

A Metro rider found an unpleasant surprise on his daily commute at the Franconia-Springfield station on Monday: human feces smeared on the pedestrian bridge into the station.And making matters worse, it was still there Tuesday and Wednesday. No one had cleaned it up.Austin Lasseter said he spoke to the Metro station manager on Monday, then each day thereafter. But she told Lasseter it wasn’t Metro’s problem. The stairs belong to Virginia Railway Express even though it was on the Metro side of the bridge.

“Everyone walks past it on their way into the station, and it stinks,” Lasseter said. “The station manager’s attitude is a perfect example of what’s wrong with Metro. They just don’t care about anything, even crap in their stations.”

Why should union workers have to care about anything? Jobs and bennies guaranteed, no effort needed. Just keep lining the pockets of Democrat benefactors and all will be well.

Speaking of Democrats, unions and crap, the President spoke yesterday, spewing lots of the latter. Pundette has it all:

Obama press conference live; Update: Corporate jet owners ruining America

Obama transcript and video lowlight

Almost done with the king’s speech

The best example of Dear  Leader’s excellent oratory: “Doing Afghanistan.” Pundette points to VDH who argues Obama’s best Huey Long impersonation falls flat. Well, Huey Long didn’t have a ‘prompter…

Advertisement

“I like to say that for the black community, nothing will change until we learn to love our children more than we love the Democratic party”

So argues “Unlikely Supporter” Sonnie Johnson, a 30 year-old wife and mom.

Why so “unlikely” according to ABC News?

Oh, yeah, she’s black. Whoopsie, your liberal slip is showing:

The 30-year-old African-American mother and wife is featured in “The Undefeated” as one of the many people Palin captivated when John McCain thrust her onto the national stage as his vice presidential running mate in 2008. In Pella, Iowa today for the premiere of the film, Johnson said she latched on to Palin when the former Alaska governor took the stage at the Republican National Convention.

“We were watching it on TV and my daughter was like, ‘A girl can be president?,’” Johnson recalled. “And I said, ‘Yes, baby, girls can do anything.’ That was the moment — I saw that look in my daughter’s eye, that anything in possible. The next week, I went to my very first political event, and that was to see Sarah Palin. John McCain and Sarah Palin.”

Johnson has become increasingly involved in the tea party since then, speaking at tea party events around her native Virginia. She’ll give the keynote address at an event held by the Charlottesville, VA. tea party on the Fourth of July with her young daughter by her side.

Amazing, isn’t it, how our children can inspire pursuits never imagined?

The Lonely Conservative chimes in:

Good for her, for looking at the issues, rather than the party. Bad on ABC News for finding it so “unlikely” that Americans whose skin happens to be dark would support Sarah Palin, or other Tea Party candidates. But hey, at least they didn’t mock or belittle her as so many liberals do to those who step outside of their stereotypical boxes. And in all fairness, at least they told her story. I’m sure those who aren’t mocking Mrs. Johnson would rather just ignore her.

Ignore her, malign her. But Sonnie Johnson and the millions of other mothers–black, white and in-between–are a forced to behold.

UPDATE: linked as a Recommended Read by Pundette. Thanks!

Alec Baldwin speaks truth to power

Via Fox Nation, Alec Baldwin on twitter:

Fear Bachman bc she is raising so much money. Anyone that inarticulate and full of *&$#% who is raising money that fast..

See the Tweet here(warning foul language)

..is beholden to some mighty thuggish interests

Funny he should say that given Obama’s fundraising prowess among unions, the dead, illegal overseas donors and cartoon characters. Not to mention “inarticulate and full of *&$#” moments off ‘promter.

Shake it, Michelle. Liberals will foam and froth. Dismiss it rather than complain, and let the loons make fools of themselves in the process once the One starts speaking off ‘promter. 57 states, anyone?

Earlier this week: Remember when they were afraid of Sarah?

UPDATE: linked as a Recommended Read by Pundette. Thanks!

Oh, Barney

From a WaPo article detailing the need for defense cuts to balance the budget and the GOP’s willingness to play ball:

“Defense spending is damaging spending. Many of us believe it does more harm than good to our people and to our reputation in the world,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). “If we can get $100 billion from reducing unneeded military spending, that’s better than $100 billion in taxation.”

Hey, Barney, I feel the same way about entitlement spending.

Allahpundit explains:

This is a biggish concession that Republicans are dressing up as a huge concession in hopes that agreeing to it will placate liberals and thereby give Obama enough political cover to drop his demand for tax hikes. Tea partiers will tolerate cuts to defense, especially now that O’s short-circuited the Afghanistan surge just in term for his reelection campaign. (The Ron Paul wing of the tea party will welcome the cuts, of course.) What they won’t tolerate is tax increases, so the GOP’s going to try to leverage the left’s stereotype of the right as adamantly and uniformly hawkish, even though it doesn’t really apply anymore (as last week’s Libya vote proved). If we concede on the top Republican issue circa 2006, i.e. defense spending, will you concede on the top Republican issue right now, i.e. trillion-dollar budget cuts?

Read the rest.

What say you? Defense cuts before entitlement? Fire military personnel before DC bureaucrat rank and file?

 

Remember when they were afraid of Sarah?

This is entertaining. Meet William Browning, who sees Michele Bachmann as DOOMING the GOP:

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

At least we know which side of the bread he butters, no?

Browning sees Michele as SO DANGEROUS for GOP voters:

No matter how well Bachmann does in Iowa it will not work out well for Republicans against President Barack Obama in the general election.

Iowa can be a place where candidates get momentum going into the main primary season. Yet in 2008, Mike Huckabee won almost three times the support of Sen. John McCain and then faltered. Bachmann may do well near her home state, but New Hampshire will be a different story.

It’s not her fault, really. Bachmann is simply being herself. She’s controversial, wants to get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency to produce more jobs and often dodges questions by the mainstream media. Fiscal conservatives love her hard-nosed nature but mainstream voters with more intelligence will see through her attitude. What comes across as being rough and antagonistic against the current administration is simply a mask of someone who doesn’t want to deal with real issues.

Getting rid of an entire government agency doesn’t solve anything. If 2008 is any indication, neither will winning the Iowa caucus. Bachmann needs to enjoy her time in the spotlight now because it will fade after Iowa’s results.

At worst, Bachmann’s presence will split the GOP. If, by some miracle, she does well enough after Iowa but can’t defeat Romney, then she may decide to run as a third-party candidate. In that scenario, the GOP pledge to keep Obama a one-term president will fail when Bachmann takes votes away from mainstream Republicans.

Should Bachmann become the GOP’s choice for president, her lack of true policy experience will lead to a steamroll victory by Obama in November.

Hey, William: unless you’re renouncing your last Obama vote and campaign work, wouldn’t you want the GOP candidate you thought ol’ Barack would steamroll? Funny, that. You wouldn’t warn Republicans of the dangerous femme fatale who would lose the general election. You’d say, bring on the biggest loser! Easy peasy election!

Unless, of course, you were deathly afraid and your bony liberal knees were shaking in your perfectly creased pant leg that that smart, savvy woman could whip your man Barack.

Just sayin’.

Related: Pundette’s “Are you a flake?” roundup

UPDATE: linked by Pundette as a “Recommended Read.” Thanks!

Repeat after me: gender is not a construct

First, the genderless child. And now, the genderless preschool. Via Yahoo News in Stockhom, Sweden:

At the “Egalia” preschool, staff avoid using words like “him” or “her” and address the 33 kids as “friends” rather than girls and boys.

From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don’t fall into gender stereotypes.

“Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” says Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher. “Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”

The taxpayer-funded preschool which opened last year in the liberal Sodermalm district of Stockholm for kids aged 1 to 6 is among the most radical examples of Sweden’s efforts to engineer equality between the sexes from childhood onward.

That sounds strangely similar to genderless baby Storm’s mother:

Stocker and Witterick say the decision gives Storm the freedom to choose who he or she wants to be. “What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” adds Stocker, a teacher at an alternative school.

Funny, isn’t it, how they don’t see that they are making a choice–a very big one–for these kids? “Genderlessness” is as much of a construct as gender. Some have just decided that it’s a better one. More:

Director Lotta Rajalin notes that Egalia places a special emphasis on fostering an environment tolerant of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. From a bookcase, she pulls out a story about two male giraffes who are sad to be childless — until they come across an abandoned crocodile egg.

Nearly all the children’s books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no “Snow White,” “Cinderella” or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.

Rajalin, 52, says the staff also try to help the children discover new ideas when they play.

“A concrete example could be when they’re playing ‘house’ and the role of the mom already is taken and they start to squabble,” she says. “Then we suggest two moms or three moms and so on.”

Ignore societal norms to focus on the less-than-one-percent. Confusing, isn’t it, when kids start asking why they have opposite-sex parents.

More:  Backyard Conservative asks if one crocodile is equal to two giraffes.

It is, but only after eating both.

UPDATE: linked by Pundette as a “Recommended Read.” Thanks!

You know medical care in your country really must stink…

When the head of state flees to Cuba for treatment.

Hugo Chavez on the rocks, socialists everywhere fear-fraught.

Reading between the lines of one percent

We’re repeatedly told about America’s “changing families” who demand “rights” in the name of equality. The Census data rolling out this summer details “living arrangements” in American communities. A sampling of the media, from the San Jose Mercury News:

Census statistics show quarter of California same-sex couples raising kids

Wow, with a headline like tha–a quarter!–you’d think California a mecca of same-sex couples with kids. In the weeds:

The family of four is among nearly 1 percent of California households — about 126,000 homes — headed by same-sex couples, according to statistics from the 2010 census being released Thursday. The numbers, if they are accurate, show nearly a quarter of California’s same-sex couples are raising children.

Nearly one percent. Same-sex couples account for less than a percent of households in California. Moving along, another article from Delaware:

Same sex couples find a home in Delaware

The lede:

In some Lewes and Rehoboth Beach neighborhoods, same-sex couples like Keith and John Riley-Spillane make up nearly one out of every 10 households.

An area known for its gay population only has one in ten same-sex households. More:

The 2010 census found 3,352 same-sex couples living together, up 80 percent from 1,868 in 2000. Almost a third of them lived in the Lewes and Rehoboth Beach area last year.

Still, same-sex couples make up just 1 percent of the state’s 342,297 households.

80% growth! Yet–what’s that–one percent again. Gee.

One percent in California. One percent in Delaware. States with significant and well-known gay communities. Meanwhile, we’re told of the quarter of households with children. And the explosive growth in population. Of one percent.

“Too bad your girlfriend isn’t a man — it would be so much easier!”

So relates Kathryn M. Franke of a male graduate student she knew who tried to get benefits for his girlfriend:

They ended up marrying, though they were politically and personally uninterested in doing so. I, by contrast, only had to fill out a form saying that my partner and I lived in the same household, to add her to my policy. An institution like Columbia (which is secular, I might add) should not be in the marriage-promotion business for either straight or gay employees, particularly when domestic partnerships can do the gate-keeping job just as effectively as marriage does.

Funny that I agree with her on “marriage for benefits” even though we disagree so fully about marriage.

Shared burden

Via CNBC:

U.S. state and local governments will need to raise taxes by $1,398 per household every year for the next 30 years if they are to fully fund their pension systems, a study released on Wednesday said.

The study, co-authored by Joshua Rauh of Northwestern University and Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Rochester, both of whom are finance professors, argues that states will have to cut services or raise taxes to make up funding gaps if promises made to municipal employees are to be honored.

Pension funding in U.S. cities and states has deteriorated in the wake of the 2007-2009 economic recession as investment earnings dropped, and some states, such as New Jersey and Illinois, skipped or reduced required payments.

This is just to fund current retirees. How much more to cover current and future employees? And why should we all be on the hook for states like Illinois, where liberals have squandered money and spent what they don’t have for generations?  Aha:

New Jersey will need to increase its revenue by the largest margin, requiring $2,475 more from each household per year, according to the study.

The contribution requirements may be higher for states that already have a significant amount of debt on their books and “cannot tap municipal bond markets as easily for large contributions,” the report said.

Hello, California. This debt debacle won’t end any time soon, especially with such a dismal employment market or the current administration in office.