Abe Lincoln vs. The White Man's Sense of Entitlement

by Nomad

I stumbled across this Lincoln quote in the archives and I was stunned that I hadn't heard anything like it before. I have no doubt it is authentic since the source was a book published well over a hundred years ago. I thought it deserved a meme of its own so that it might reach a wider audience. 

Doesn't this seem so very appropriate for our day and age? I just hope that we can take courage and take up the fight that our forefathers began. 

Why the Growth of Temp Worker Industry is a Serious Problem for Millions of Americans

by Nomad

California legislators have finally taken steps to tackle a serious labor problem that has held low income workers back from finding long term employment. The often exploitative practice of hiring outsourced temporary staff in place of employees may now- finally- be coming under closer scrutiny.

For decades now, one closely-held secret by US companies was how often and to what degree temporary workers, or temps, could be used to circumvent federal laws regarding labor rights. For the honest business owners, a temp could be a live saver in an emergency but to the less scrupulous, a temp is a worker primed for exploitation. 

The Perfect Victims?

Temps, by law, are cheaper to employ since they are paid on the lowest legal scale (receiving wages well below the standard for any regular employee that would work in the same position). In addition, temps do not qualify for overtime wages nor do they receive health insurance. Forget accumulated vacation time or even sick days. 

So why would anybody want to be a temp? The main reason is the most obvious one. In a word: Desperation.

Temp staff agencies are always hiring and for the desperate, any job- even a temp job- is better than nothing.

It is no coincidence that temporary work is now an industry unto itself, with an estimated 2.7 million workers—one of the fastest growing sectors in the economic “recovery.” That could be, some might say, only a sign of the level of desperation and an economic recovery based on temporary staffing is an illusionary one.  The temp worker rarely earns enough to boost any economy out of its doldrums.

The Full Time Deception

Another attraction is that temp companies say that temp workers can sometimes find full-time employment from a temporary position. Work hard and you will get a permanent position. This is the pitch (but not the actual promise) of temp agencies.

As journalist Michael Grabell for ProPublica explains:

Temps have worked for the same company for as long as 11 years, never getting hired on full-time. Companies have assigned temps to the most dangerous jobs. In several states, data showed that temps are three times more likely than regular workers to suffer amputations on the job. And even some of the country’s largest companies have relied on immigrant labor brokers and fly-by-night temp agencies that have cheated workers out of their wages.

As the economy slowly improved the number of temp jobs soared at a rate 10 times faster than private-sector employment as a whole.
Meanwhile,  the figures for full-time employment limped and hobbled along. That shouldn't come as a surprise. 

Corporate reliance on temp workers hurts all workers.

Across America, temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy, leading to the proliferation of what researchers have begun to call “temp towns.” They are often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies. Or they are cities where it has become nearly impossible even for whites and African-Americans with vocational training to find factory and warehouse work without first being directed to a temp firm.

In the end, it boils to hard cold business sense: why should an employer pay any more than absolutely necessary unless mandated by law? I

As we have heard so often, companies are not charities. They claim no social responsibilities. Today many employers feel no obligation to the welfare of their employees. And since temps are not actual employees of the firm, then they are even less of a concern.

Tea Party's Ted Cruz Is Confident He Will Be The Answer

by Nomad

Apologies for the deceptive headline. I couldn't resist the temptation. In fact, this quote by Ted Cruz is probably more accurate than he intended it to be.

Out of all the silly things that Senator Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz has said, this is perhaps the only thing I can agree with him on. I sincerely hope that we all won't have to wait twenty years to make this forecast a reality.

I think it will be the hardest trivial pursuit question to answer because absolutely will recall who the hell Ted Cruz was. 

How Texas Gov. Rick Perry is Recruiting for Armed and Unregulated Militias

by Nomad

After an close call at the Texas border between Border Patrol guards and armed militias, isn't time we should start asking who is in charge? When it comes to leadership, Governor Rick Perry has been an excellent recruiter for armed and dangerous vigilante groups.

The Brownsville Incident
"Land's sakes, that's a good way to get your head blown off!" That's what somebody should have warned one lucky militia member with more bullets than brain matter.

According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, a US Border Patrol agent near Brownsville Texas mistook a member of an armed militia for an illegal intruder on Friday.

It was apparently a close call.    

Omar Zamora, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that the agent was chasing several suspects through an area of thick brush near the Rio Grande on Friday afternoon when he came upon a militia member holding a shotgun or rifle.

After the patrol agent fired several rounds, the militia member, reportedly, threw down his weapon immediately (no doubt wetting himself about that time). Fortunately nobody on either side was injured. 

Somebody nearly learned the limits of his Second Amendment rights the hard way.

The identity of the man was not released to the public and it isn't clear whether the Cameron County Sheriff will press criminal charges.  

Zamora did not identify the patrol agent and said it was not clear what organization the militia member belonged to. He was standing on private property at the time of the incident.

Clearly  it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. And the next time state and federal border patrol encounter armed groups, things could easily be tragic.

Border Vigilantes On Call

Indeed, there were unheeded warnings.

Last July, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)  declared that the agency does not "endorse or support any private group or organization from taking matters into their own hands as it could have disastrous personal and public safety consequences."

According to a Houston Chronicle article, armed militia groups along the Texas border have grown to more than 10 active "teams" from El Paso to the Rio Grande Valley,

These groups which included Oathkeepers, Three Percenters and Patriots, began organizing and recruiting as the hysteria began over the influx of immigrant children crossing the border.

Other groups may include

• Bolinas Border Patrol, 
• Central Valley Militia,
• Independent Citizens Militia, 
• Alpha Team, 
• Bravo Team, 
• FOB Harmony, 
• Operation Secure Our Border: 
• Laredo Sector, 
• O'Shanessy's Team, 
• the 77's and 
• Camp Geronimo

Clearly this is a problem Governor Rick Perry has not addressed. (Perhaps he is afraid to cross them?)

Barbie Rogers is the founder of the Patriots Information Hotline which has been instrumental in organizing  and finding new members for the militias. According to Rogers, many of the groups are stationed on ranch land with permission from the owners.  

She has called upon the Governor to send even more Texas National guard personnel to defend the border. She also says to Rick Perry that "if cost is an issue" to "call the militia. They will come if you call them."

As one militia leader said:

“We have patriots all across this country who are willing to sacrifice their time, money even quit their jobs to come down and fight for freedom, liberty and national sovereignty.”

Whether Perry knows it or not, he has already called up the armed gangs.

Kentucky Kickback: How the Olmsted Dam Project Exposed Mitch McConnell's Hypocrisy on Government Spending

by Nomad

Though McConnell now says he is dead set against any more government shutdowns, Kentucky voters have every reason to be a little dubious.

After all, in the last shutdown, Senator McConnell was able to parlay the last one into what one conservative group called a "boondoggle" sticking with an eye-watering $3 billion bill for taxpayers.

Back in October 2013 U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were pitted against each other at the negotiation table, in an attempt to work out some kind of compromise to end the 16-day-long government shutdown. The Republicans had refused to increase the debt ceiling in an attempt to roll back Obamacare- or Affordable Care.

Despite the usual talk about limiting Big Government spending, McConnell managed to slip a provision into the debt ceiling bill on the sly that included nearly $3 billion for a dam project.

A provision in the funding bill includes $2.918 billion in funding to the Army Corps of Engineers to install locks as part of the Olmsted Dam and Lock Authority Project on the Ohio River.

That was in fact an increase in the $1.5 billion funding that Congress had authorized several years earlier.

The Dam that Ran Away

According to an investigation by the St. Louis Post Dospatch, the Olmsted dam project has run way over budget since it was first proposed back in 1988. 

A Post-Dispatch review of thousands of pages of documents and more than two dozen interviews reveal a project plagued by cost overruns, delays and engineering challenges stemming largely from the corps’ stubborn insistence on an innovative construction method that met its match in the unruly Ohio River.

It was originally given a budget of $775 million (that's not accounting for inflation). According to the builders, the price tag has soared to an estimated $ 3.1 billion dollars. (So the McConnell deal in effect doubled the funding.)

This project- if it is ever finished- will be the largest and most expensive inland water navigation installation ever built in the United States. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has called the whole project a "boondoggle’ and in an unusually clever turn of phrase said that it was a case of "one of these things where we're damned if we do, damned if we don't." According to Paul, as expensive as it has become, we have no choice but to plow ahead. 

With cost soaring for Olmsted project, Rep. Ed Whitfeld, a Republican from Kentucky, who had ushered through the House of Representatives critical funding for project in 2009, was even more blunt back. By 2011, he was calling the project "a complete failure."