by Tina Grazier
The American “can do spirit” has gone missing in America.
Most Americans are hard working people. We enjoy going to work and we enjoy bringing home the bacon. We love to have the means that make our individual ideas about home come to life. Some of us dream of owning a business; others don’t want that responsibility but enjoy putting in a hard days work. Some long to live in a high profile neighborhood; others are content to buy a house and spend the weekend fishing on the lake. A vibrant economy allows all Americans to become the captains of their own fate. On this labor day it is the hope of all Americans that we can honor the incredible legacy left us by our forebears and begin to restore our nation’s prosperity and opportunity.
The President has this very thing on his mind. He was in Detroit today to make a speech at a big labor rally. In his introduction, and before the president came on stage, Jimmy Hoffa Jr. used a few carefully chosen words (see video at link) to fire up the crowd:
…Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. said unions need to fight a “war” against tea partiers and congressional Republicans. “President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa said. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these sons of bitches out and take America back to where America we belong.”
“We gotta keep an eye on the battle that we face, a war on workers, and you see it everywhere in the tea party,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of union supporters. “And, there’s only one way to win that war, the one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know, what, they got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner, it’s going to be the workers up in Michigan and America. We’re going to win that war.”
I guess Hoffa didn’t get the tea party memo demanding smaller government, low taxes and MORE JOBS!
The union’s “us against them” approach is in keeping with progressive democrat principles. Unions have always treated their employers as the enemy. They have always treated their opponents as the enemy. They have treated tax payers as the enemy. Union bosses and their progressive Democrat buddies have always divided America into groups and instead of seeking solutions to problems that would be good for ALL Americans, they demand rules and regulations to control and extort to better themselves. Ultimately, as we have seen in the car industry they crush the very businesses they depend on for jobs. The rhetoric today is from the same old play book and they will use it again and again in this election cycle. Need proof?
Maxine Waters went on Meet the Press today and called for a trillion dollar jobs program.
She obviously suffers under the progressive elitest delusion that the money she spends with such abandon comes out of thin air!
And she’s not alone:
Liberal House Democrats are pressuring President Obama to ignore his conservative critics and take “bold action” to tackle the lingering jobs crisis.
Reps. Ral Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) — the co-chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — want the president to champion sweeping investments in the nation’s crumbling infrastructure as a way to create jobs and jolt the sluggish economy.
“With 14 million Americans still looking for work, this is not the time to tinker around the edges,” the lawmakers wrote to Obama Thursday. “We must take bold action, and that requires federal emergency jobs legislation.”
Hmmm…seems to me the “bold action” they took before now has been devistating enough! Government spending has done nothing but pile up more debt and higher unemployment numbers. Unemployment has gone up under the crushing spending that this administration and the tax and spenders in Congress have done. Last month they reached the pinnacle…zero jobs created in August…ZERO.
Zero jobs! That hasn’t happened in America since right after WWII!
The federal government is not doing what works to put people back to work. Government cannot “create” jobs, it can only hire people, and when government hires people, through big infrastructure programs for intance, it costs the American taxpayers more in taxes or debt without adding overall opportunity and economic growth. Adding more regulations and expense aren’t the best way to encourage business to expand and hire but this administration has set about increasing the number of regulations on businesses anyway: The healthcare law adds layers of new regulations. The EPA is set to enact new punishing regulations (on hold during the election cycle). And as if on cue the National Labor Relations Board has bypassed Congress to create yet another demand on business:
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a Final Rule that will require employers to notify employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act as of November 14, 2011.
Private-sector employers (including labor organizations) whose workplaces fall under the National Labor Relations Act will be required to post the employee rights notice where other workplace notices are typically posted. Also, employers who customarily post notices to employees regarding personnel rules or policies on an internet or intranet site will be required to post the Board’s notice on those sites. Copies of the notice will be available from the Agency’s regional offices, and it may also be downloaded from the NLRB website.
The notice, which is similar to one required by the U.S. Department of Labor for federal contractors, states that employees have the right to act together to improve wages and working conditions, to form, join and assist a union, to bargain collectively with their employer, and to refrain from any of these activities. It provides examples of unlawful employer and union conduct and instructs employees how to contact the NLRB with questions or complaints.
American workers are the hardest working people in the world. It’s time to demand that government get out of the way so we can get back to work.
As we celebrate the contribution and achievement of these fine men and women today let us vow to go forward as co-producers in the great American dream. Both employees and employers need each other. We can either create a cooperative symbiotic relationship or we can continue to be divided and at odds in the outmoded style of the Hoffa era. It works better for all of us when our government makes policies that are supportive of private savings and investment and both workers and business. Repeats of the same failed policies of the last three years won’t get it done.
Earlier this year, the Prez made a call for “civility” and then turned around and continued his class warfare attacks. Biden called the Tea Party “terrorists,” tried to deny it and yesterday Joe thinks voters are “barbarians.”
Now we have a union bigwig atitating a crowd to “take out” those who disagree with the union’s stand.
You can marginalize Biden as he continually sticks both feet in his mouth. You expect nasty rhetoric from union thugs, but we expect better from our Prez.
Unfortunately, we’re not getting it.
If wishes were horses beggars would ride. The Tea Party claims to care about jobs, but it has spent this entire session blocking jobs creation. Hoffa got the memo. We all did. But when he saw that your actions don’t correlate to what you say you want, he discovered the enemy in our midst.
ERASTOS…why don’t you just say what you mean and quit trying to sound clever…it ain’t workin dude. I doubt anyone understands what you just said.
Are you saying Jimmy Hoffa and his kind are good for America? Are you saying these overpriced jobs protected by union thugs and strikes are what will make America strong?
Here’s a clue: A worker’s wage has a value determine by his contributions to the company’s profit margin. It’s simple math. If a workers pension benefit, health insurance and hourly wage are way ahead of the value to the company then he has a problem and the company has a problem.
Companies must compete, not just here against other companies, but on the world market. Innovation and mass production was the only thing that saved us, but in case you haven’t noticed that time reached it’s limits and for over the last 20 years we’ve been losing jobs to other nations. We’re hemoraging jobs now! Businesses large and small are finding it real tough to compete against cheap foreign labor which also employs mass production and innovation all learned from us! Get a clue union dude, your day is over and if you keep on beating up employers and blaming the Tea Party you’re just an simple minded idiot and we’re all going to be on the unemployment line and this nation as we know it is OVER!!!
“Earlier this year, the Prez made a call for “civility” and then turned around and continued his class warfare attacks. ” J. Soden
I’m thinking we’ve not seen anything yet! The dems and unions are out for blood. It’s total war. When a mobbed up union boss can say to the press, to the media and all his minion-morons who cheer him on…we’re going to take out the Tea Party people, which in my world means kill people…and Obama follows this up by prancing on stage and working up the crowd for Jimmy Hoffa…civility has evolved into a no holds barred fight to the death. Obama better watch out and so should Jimmy, somebody who feels threatened might take them out first. That’s not a veiled threat and I certainly hope it never happens, but it’s a realistic concern when the leftwing rhetoric gets that far out of line.
This really is not a problem. All the Tea Party has to do is hold its meetings on holidays, weekends or after hours. Those union thugs wouldn’t know how to deal with them. Oh and the pledge of allegiance plus a prayer will act on union thugs like sunlight and silver to vampires. Someone needs to tell Hoffa, Giants Stadium has another end zone.
Erastosthenos: “The Tea Party claims to care about jobs, but it has spent this entire session blocking jobs creation.”
Blocking jobs creation? How?
“But when he saw that your actions don’t correlate to what you say you want…”
What actions?
Tea Party people come from all walks of life, employers and employees, democrats, independents and republicans, those with money and those with modest means, young and old, and from all racial backgrounds.
We want responsible government.
We want an end to waste and fraud.
We want to be told the truth about what is fiscally possible and we want an end to promises that can’t be met.
We want reasonable tax policy and we want reasonable regulations that protect ALL of the people without hampering business.
We understand that business is the source of prosperity, opportunity, and revenue. It is the golden goose that makes everything possible…killing it is STUPID!
“… he discovered the enemy in our midst”
He is lying to you because he wants to ride the gravy train that your dues make possible for him and the slugs he feeds in the Democrats Party. Look at Detroit where this bull shoveling event took place…it is a graveyard brought to you by a thoughtless greedy union leadership that promised what it ultimately can’t deliver. Your union leaders are the enemy at your gate.
Is everyone who disagrees with you a simple minded idiot?
Are you 12?
That is rude, ‘dude.’
I am sorry. I will try to put it simply. As Rush just said, speeches don’t cut it anymore, we need to see action.
What you say you want is not born out by what you do. If you want jobs, you cannot oppose the creation of jobs.
Overpriced jobs? Where is there an overpriced union job?
Union wages have declined in the last 4 decades. Union workers make less than at any time in history.
All of the jobs have left for countries that have socialized medicine. We should listen to them and socialize health care here to keep us competitive in a world market. Too much of our country’s GDP is tossed down the rathole of health insurance.
Lowering wages and America’s standard of living cannot work to raise America’s place in the world.
I don’t believe you’re interested in being serious.
Have a nice day.
Jack: “When a mobbed up union boss can say to the press, to the media and all his minion-morons who cheer him on…we’re going to take out the Tea Party people, which in my world means kill people…”
Perhaps if the Daily Caller hadn’t deliberately taken Hoffa’s remarks out of context–or if you had sought out the full quote yourself–you would know that this is not what he meant.
Hoffa’s actual statement was, “Everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong! Thank you very much!”
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109050003
The most rational interpretation of this statement is that Hoffa is advocating “taking these son of a bitches out” by voting them out of office.
But the Daily Caller leaves out the crucial sentence, “Everybody here’s got to vote,” which comes immediately before the “take these sons of bitches out” portion. Instead, the Caller moves around some sentences, making it seem like Hoffa said “take these sons of bitches out” immediately after saying “We are ready to march.” Had the Caller used the standard practice of placing ellipses between the two sentences, this would be slightly less egregious. As it stands, the report is entirely dishonest.
Tea Partiers and Republicans have been accused of using violent rhetoric in the past, and at times you have complained that the offending remarks were taken out of context. At times I’ve even agreed that the uproar over certain phrases such as “reload,” or Sarah Palin’s target map, was overblown and that no violent messages were intended. Yet here you are using the same tactic that you’ve decried in the past.
I don’t think Hoffa’s remarks were appropriate, especially given that they were part of the introduction for the President of the United States. But they were not a call to violence, they were a call to voting.
Erastosthenes, another drive by moron.
Re: “The Tea Party claims to care about jobs, but it has spent this entire session blocking jobs creation.”
Oh really? Please expound. Who blocked what and how?
Re: “Hoffa got the memo. We all did.”
Oh really? What memo was that? The one from Maxine Waters and Andre Carson? Or did it come from Obama? Can you provide us a copy of the memo?
Re: “But when he saw that your actions don’t correlate to what you say you want, he discovered the enemy in our midst.”
Oh really? What actions do not correlate to what was said and by whom?
Don’t expect any details to be forthcoming from Erastosthenes, he (or she) is just another mindless stooge sputtering brain-dead left-wing rhetorical hogwash.
Palin Answers Hoffa —
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150285058673435
From Lynching Racists to Sons Of Bitches to Barbarians. What next?
Democrats are famous for this sort of extreme rhetoric.
How do you spell “Desperation”. Extreme desperation. I think this crap from the Rats will backfire. Backfire big time. What do you think?
Biden: “You Are The Only Folks Keeping The Barbarians From the Gates”
http://www.hapblog.com/2011/09/biden-at-afl-cio-rally-you-are-only.html
Erastosthenes: “If you want jobs, you cannot oppose the creation of jobs.”
We can disagree about how jobs are created and we do! Opposing those things we see as job killing, like high taxes, onerous regulation, and useless stimulus spending (code for redistribution to targeted groups like teachers) is our constitutionally guaranteed right and responsibility!
Overpriced jobs? Where is there an overpriced union job?
Union car company jobs are overpriced because the pension and healthcare benefits you receive cannot be adequately funded if the companies are to stay in business. Taxpayers are being asked to bail them out.
Teachers union jobs are overpriced for the same reason…in this case the people responsible for revenue to pay are taxpayers and they don’t get a place at the bargaining table.
“Union wages have declined in the last 4 decades.”
Not if you include benefits.
“All of the jobs have left for countries that have socialized medicine. We should listen to them and socialize health care here to keep us competitive in a world market.”
BRILLIANT! Have you taken a good look at those countries? Most of them are in worse fiscal shape than we are! englands socialized medicine is nearly bancrupt…they are privatizing hospitals in an effort to turn it around. Also, none of those countries can hold a candle to America in terms of innovation…innovation leads to job more opportunities. Most of the people are becoming useless and dependent.
The emerging market countries are rushing toward capitalism and freedom!
“Too much of our country’s GDP is tossed down the rathole of health insurance.”
And you think tossing it down a bigger rathole, government, would be an improvement? You are sadly ill-informed my friend.
“Lowering wages and America’s standard of living cannot work to raise America’s place in the world.”
I have never heard a single conservative, tea party member, or republican ever suggesat such a thing. We have asked union members to pay a little more of their pension and healthcare premiums. You were lied to about the ability of companies to sustain pension payments as negotiated. it can’t be done. Non union workers have to pay into their plans so we aren’t asking you to do anything we don’t do ourselves.
“I don’t believe you’re interested in being serious.”
Believe it! We are serious. We know it is for the benefit of ALL Americans that we hold the positions we do. We would appreciate it if you would ask us instead of blindly believing what your union bosses tell you.
You have a nice day too!
Sorry Chris, but even in context its way over the line of civility.
Tina: “Unions have always treated their employers as the enemy. They have always treated their opponents as the enemy. They have treated tax payers as the enemy. Union bosses and their progressive Democrat buddies have always divided America into groups and instead of seeking solutions to problems that would be good for ALL Americans, they demand rules and regulations to control and extort to better themselves.”
Tina, I could have sworn you’ve said before that unions started out noble enough, and that they were needed at one point in history, but that over time they became bloated and corrupt. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but it’s a position worth discussing.
But now you’re saying that unions have “always” been greedy, divisive, and hateful. By saying this you put yourself in the same position as those who initially opposed unions back at the beginning of the previous century, and that’s…a pretty extreme and regressive place to be. If you acknowledge the fact that unions were a positive force in America, at least in the beginning, then it makes it easier to take your arguments seriously. But when you state that unions have “always” been bad…that’s just not true, and it’s not going to get you very far in a debate, especially on Labor Day.
“I have never heard a single conservative, tea party member, or republican ever suggesat such a thing.”
You haven’t heard conservatives suggest that we lower, or even abolish, the minimum wage? Hm. Maybe you didn’t hear anybody else saying this because you were too busy advocating it yourself, on this very blog, not too long ago?
As for your insistence that socialized medicine and government regulation can never lead to job creation…Massachusetts is experiencing massive growth, some of it due to the success of “RomneyCare.” Job creation there is going much better than that mirage in Texas, where the jobs that are being added mostly pay minimum wage or less.
Erasto….how serious can I get? I said, “A worker’s wage has a value determine by his contributions to the company’s profit margin. It’s simple math. If a workers pension benefit, health insurance and hourly wage are way ahead of the value to the company then he has a problem and the company has a problem. Companies must compete, not just here against other companies, but on the world market. Innovation and mass production was the only thing that saved us, but in case you haven’t noticed that time reached it’s limits and for over the last 20 years we’ve been losing jobs to other nations. We’re hemoraging jobs now! Businesses large and small are finding it real tough to compete against cheap foreign labor which also employs mass production and innovation all learned from us! ”
This is deadly serious. The country is at risk, our income is at risk, it doesn’t get any more serious, life as we know it is AT risk!.
Who are you and what is your function?
Comic relief?
I have taken a good look at China and its economy will trounce ours in 5 years.
You’re funny!
Can you show where the union compensation has bankrupted those car companies?
Do you have the actual numbers?
Including benefits, compensation has gone down in the last 40 years.
I guess you too, are just clowning.
Have a nice day.
Few to none of the TEA party membership (at least that I know of) has ever engaged in this sort of concentrated and sustained rhetorical violence although Bachmann on one occasion used similar language.
Who has the well documented history rhetorical and real violence? Democrats and other assorted progressives.
For example, days after Barak Obama gave his marching orders —
“I want you to argue with them and get in their face.”
— SEIU thugs mercilessly beat Kenneth Gladney to a pulp.
Of course, the George Soros funded left wing propaganda rag Media Matters called the savage beating Gladney took a charade.
Progressives have no shame.
Well, here I am replying to my own comment. That is a first!
😀
Re: “I think this crap from the Rats will backfire. Backfire big time. What do you think?”
It already has —
Obama hits all-time lows, according to NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44401295/ns/politics/
This poll was conducted just before Jimmy “The Toilet” Hoffa formulated his Labor Day excrement. It will be a few weeks before his and Joe Biden’s “Barbarians” speech sinks Obama even lower.
Of course, Obama’s up coming “jobs” speech will likely have an even more significant effect than the execrable rhetoric coming from his surrogates.
Give it three weeks and correct me if I am wrong.
Pie, I think you’re right. America is more in support of fiscal responsibility than they are union jugheads wanting to strike a blow for labor. It’s funny how the Tea Party has become the lightening rod for everything gone wrong with jobs and wages and how they are so hated by the mobbed up unions.
Chris: “I could have sworn you’ve said before that unions started out noble enough, and that they were needed at one point in history, but that over time they became bloated and corrupt.”
You’re right, I have said their purposes were noble in the beginning. I would also add that some companies were treating their employees deplorably. Had they been more generous, as many companies have been, we might not have seen the rise unions. Americans were an independent lot from the start…rugged individualists. Union leadership was influenced heavily by Marxist thought and, in later years, also by the mob.
“But when you state that unions have “always” been bad…”
You’re right once again. Sometimes in the heat of an argument I refer to my memory of evewnts rather than full history. In my memory they have always been greedy and demanding, pushy and unreasonable…and time has born out the inevitable outcome of such practices.
“You haven’t heard conservatives suggest that we lower, or even abolish, the minimum wage? ”
That wasn’t the subject. Erastosthenus suggested that the TP wanted unions workers to get lower wages…I’ve never heard that suggested by anyone.
Minimum wage is an entry level wage and yes, I think a lot more teens and students would be able to get work if the minimum wage was eliminated. People can negotiate for wages. People who hire know they can’t keep an employee for long if they don’t pay him fairly. Some jobs are not worth minimum wage so instead of hiring a teen part time to do them an employer will just tack the work on to another employees job description or, more often, do the work himself. Don’t forget employers have to compete for employees too. (the current market is an exception) A guy that is unreasonable will be the least likely to find an employee that stays with him for long. Retraining is a pain in the butt and it’s expensive.
“Massachusetts is experiencing massive growth, some of it due to the success of ‘RomneyCare.'”
Success, huh? How are the taxes…better yet, how will they be in another ten to twenty years? Jobs…yes; wealth creating jobs…no. Economy building jobs…NO! These are service jobs and they are needed, but if you don’t have the wealth and economy to support them guess what happens? (We’re living it right now)
Massachusetts isn’t “growing” because of Romneycare, I guarantee it. Please see Romneycare is bankrupting Massachusetts:
http://daytontribune.com/romneycare-is-bankrupting-massachusetts-%E2%80%93-obamacare-will-bankrupt-the-country/75912/
And this evaluation from CATO:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v30n1/cpr30n1-1.html
“Job creation there is going much better than that mirage in Texas, where the jobs that are being added mostly pay minimum wage or less.”
The “mirage in Texas” meme is a left wing lie. I already posted the numbers (from the Bureau of Labor statistics) somehwre on this blog so I won’t do it again. Texas is a farm state so of course some jobs there will be minimum wage jobs. But it is also a big state and there have been plenty of good paying jobs created as well…not to mention it’s one of the few states where there’s any building going on.
Obamas spending is all about government jobs, service jobs, and saving auto union pensions. None of that spending is wealth/economy building. If the auto company makes it it will be a wealth builder once again but it’s shaky in this economy. All of the spending is red ink inducing and costing future taxpayers and current taxpayers, many of whom no longer pay taxes ’cause they can’t find a job, a freakin bundle!
Tina, did you know that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured of any state in the nation?
Massachusetts, of course, has the lowest rate of uninsured.
Workers are clearly better off in Massachusetts than they are in Texas.
This is why the Tea Party’s love for Perry over Romney is baffling. It’s clear that The Tea Party is not interested in which candidate can govern better, but rather which candidate most confirms their biases.
Chris I never thought you were a one issue voter; I know Tea Partiers aren’t.
Right now the economy (jobs) is more important than anything else. Obamacare mandates that people buy insurance…several million people are without jobs or job prospects…I’m asking, with what?
I think at this point in the campaign assuming anything about the Tea Party is pretty silly…we are individuals, we are watching and evaluating all candidates…we like what a number of candidates have said…depite polling, which can be fairly arbitrary and slanted, few have made up their minds. In short, nothing is clear and such generalities don’t make any sense at all.
The Tea Party isn’t running for President. The problem for you is that you can’t easily defend Obamas failed record and his health care legislation is looking more and more like an expensive, ineffective mistake…so attacking tea party voters is all you’ve got.