Archive for August 1st, 2008

Published today in the WSJ

The Online Wall Street Journal describes meetings where retailer Wal-Mart tells managers that a Democrat president and increased Democrat majority in the US Senate could lead to “card check” being passed for workers’ “representation” by the mob labor unions. Presently companies can demand union votes held by secret ballot in an election. Under card check, mob union bosses can pressure employees with horse heads left in beds - by fitting non-complying employees with concrete shoes - through persuasion with a baseball bat to simply sign membership cards and once 50% of the employees in a company sign, the company is considered unionized.

“Unions consider the Employee Free Choice Act as vital to the survival of the labor movement, which currently represents 7.5% of private-sector workers, half the percentage it did 25 years ago. The Service Employees International Union said the legislation would enable it to organize a million workers a year, up from its current pace of 100,000 workers a year.”

Of course. When you can have employees simply fill out membership cards or, in the case of SEIU many of its targeted members either are minimally literate or cannot read English, have a organizer fill out the cards for the employee. Its just like the Democrats stuffing ballot boxes in Center Township (Marion County).

 ”The business-backed lobbying groups are running ads in states where a win by a Democratic Senate candidate would boost support for the legislation in the Senate, saying the loss of secret ballots exposes workers to bullying labor bosses. In one, they use an actor from the “Sopranos” TV series about mob life to hammer home their point.”

In states like Indiana with “closed shop” laws, employees could be forced to pay significant fees for little representation and contributions to political candidates the employee may not support, such as candidates that are anti-life and anti-freedom. Also, the employee can be without work with very little compensation if the union bosses call for a strike.

Which is why Indiana should step up and pass a Right To Work law. Nationally we must make sure laws like card check don’t pass. If you think jobs are hard to come by now, just wait until this passes and that’ll finish off what is left of US industry.

As reported here and via Twitter, a number of GOP congresspersons remained on the floor after General Secretary Pelosi and her Politburo adjourned the House to avoid a vote on energy policy.

The MSM of course is ignoring the Speaker’s obvious snubbing of the American people in favor of the Haight & Ashbury dope smoking hippie crowd that votes for her consistently home in her district. This means WE need to regain control of Congress, or we’ll see more of the Democrat shenanigans fostered by the MSM.

EDIT TO ADD: The first second or so of the clip is cut off. I didn’t hit “Record” quite fast enough and missed Brian Williams saying “House Democrats and”.

Former Congressman Mike Sodrel responded today’s early withdrawal from Congress by Nancy Pelosi and the rest of her Democrat co-horts.

SODREL SAYS CONGRESS SHOULD COME BACK TO DEAL WITH THE ENERGY CRISIS

(Jeffersonville, IN) – Congressional Candidate Mike Sodrel today urged Congress to come back and vote on legislation to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

“When I was running my business, I never took a vacation while there was critical work to be done,” said Sodrel. “Congressman Hill voted twice to adjourn and take a 5-week long break while Hoosiers are suffering with high gas prices. I urge Speaker Pelosi to call an emergency session of Congress and schedule a vote on expanding America’s energy supply.” (emphasis his)

                                                                                                            Republican Candidate for Attorney General Greg Zoeller was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal today. You can view the editorial here or read below.

Challenging Spitzerism at the Polls
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
August 1, 2008
wsj

Take one part ego, one part ambition and one part lawyer, mix it with an office that has few restraints on power, and you’ll end up with the worst sort of state attorney general. Take Dan Greear, and you’ll have a man at the front of a nascent electoral movement to change the formula.

Mr. Greear is the 40-year-old Republican lawyer working to unseat West Virginia’s entrenched top prosecutor, Darrell McGraw. His quest has become a case study in the opportunities, and pitfalls, of an upstart reformer challenging an incumbent attorney general who, like New York’s Eliot Spitzer, has cemented his position through populism and political patronage.

It’s also an insight into a new wave of reformist candidates across the country. As state attorneys general have become more brazen with their power, and as outside groups have started shining a light on their backroom practices, voters have become uneasy. It’s this sense of disquiet that candidates like Mr. Greear are tapping into as they promise to refocus lawsuits, rein in the tort bar and restore a sense of justice to prosecutorial office.

In Indiana, Greg Zoeller, the chief deputy for the current attorney general, is running for the top slot and touting the fact his office has never been close to trial lawyers. His opponent, Democrat Linda Pence, is a trial attorney. In Missouri, GOP state Sen. Michael Gibbons is fighting for an open seat and promising transparency in office. In North Carolina, in a strange twist, a pro-business Democrat is defending his seat against a trial-lawyer Republican. Ethics is also figuring in attorney general races in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

(more…)

Posted in Attorney General Race, Greg Zoeller, Linda Pence | No Comments » | Read more..

You can find his Qik feed HERE.

The Internet, blogs, and social networking - bringing you what C-SPAN cannot!

And just in case you don’t think people do this…

(H/T - Tech Republican)

From Congressman Peter Hoekstra’s twitter feed:

petehoekstra Shame! Shame! Capital Hill police working under strict orders to shut Capital down at 430 pm today. Speaker Pelosi wants this shut down now

[Update by Mike] - The latest tweet from our friend Pete Hoekstra (cleaned up for punctuation): “D Achievements: Commending UC soccer, Houston Dynamo, Monkey Safety Act, and Int’l Year of Sanitation.” Heh. Oh and of course the never ending list of renamed post offices. In case you were wondering the Houston Dynamo is their MLS team.

Hardest Working Congress Ever, huh?

The Puckett for Congress campaign issued the below press release today as the Democrat do-nothing Congress heads home for the August recess.

South Bend, IN-Congress is slated to begin its summer recess at the conclusion of work today. During the recess Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) will be conducting a book tour for her new book titled “Know Your Power, A Message to America’s Daughters.”

Since its release on Tuesday, the book has been anything but a best seller with Amazon.com ranking its position in overall sales at 1,457 as of Friday morning. The book’s price on Amazon.com is $16.29.

“While I’m glad to see that Speaker Pelosi has written a book about some of her observations and experiences, it is unfortunate that she has presided over a do-nothing Congress that has earned the lowest approval rating in history,” declared Luke Puckett, the Republican candidate for Congress in Indiana’s 2nd District.

“It may be,” continued Puckett, “that the low initial books sales are the result of a desire on the part of the American people to use the money from the $16.29 price of the book to buy four gallons of gas so they can drive to work or go to the grocery store.”

Note: Some highly determined House Republicansare executing a dramatic-and potentially historic-maneuver this afternoon by staying on the House floor even after the recess to protest the Democrat’s failure to pass energy reform legislation that allows us to drill for our own oil.

Anyone care to explain to me why Nancy Pelosi and her cadre of Democrat misfits (who we, unfortunately have to refer to as the majority in the House) would leave Congress for a paid five week vacation without doing anything regarding the energy crisis? But wait! Nancy and misfits may have left, the Republicans have stayed behind even though Nancy turned out the lights.

Jeff Emanuel reports from Red State:

Hoping that the nation’s energy problem will go away if they just go home and ignore it for a few weeks, the Democrats have voted to adjourn early, turned off the lights in the lower chamber, and are trying to lock the doors to make sure no business can be done until September.

The fly in the ointment? Fifteen or so House Republicans, led by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), refused to leave the floor, where — after the Democrats turned off the lights and the microphones — they continuied talking gas prices and energy solutions, which the House was scheduled to do this afternoon already before Pelosi, et al declared an early adjournment..

Pelosi is currently trying to have the press gallery cleared and the doors locked, but Rep. Bunt, Shadegg, and Hoekstra have been taking turns remaining with media in the gallery in order to keep it open.

At one point, Shadegg “figured out how to get the lights and microphones back on,” a House insider tells me — but they have since been shut off once again.

It seems as if Republicans are the only ones taking this issue seriously and Hoosiers have been up front and center at working towards solutions.  Congressmen Buyer and Burton have legislation working towards drilling and other methods of energy independence and relief, Congressman Pence is urging a special session to deal with the mess Democrats have left behind to ignore while on a taxpayer funded vacation and Republican candidates for Congress Luke Puckett, Mike Sodrel and Greg Goode have actually gone to ANWR to see for themselves the truth behind domestic drilling.   What are the Democrats doing?

Taking a vacation.

[More Pelosi "Truth is Propaganda" Below The Fold] (more…)

Mike Pence came to the floor of the House this morning to deliver this one minute speech calling for a special session of congress to deal the energy crisis.

Read the text of Congressman Pence’s one minute speech on a special session.

How cool is this? Congressman John Culberson of Texas is on the front end of the interactive congress. Here he interviews fellow congressman Mike Pence outside the House Chamber with his camera phone via qik.com! How long before we see other congressmen doing the same. Social networking has completely changed the way we view congress.

View it here.

Can you believe it?! Hoosier Access launched one year ago today and we’re celebrating HA’s first birthday today. We’ve covered a lot in our first year, from the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference last August (remember when all the hubbub was about Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson?), to the election of Greg Ballard, the special election caucus, and the State GOP Convnetion, we’ve been covering major events in Republican and state politics.

Thank you for making us the #1 blog after only one year. We couldn’t have done it without your support. We’re continually working on bettering our product and we hope to role out some more changes to that effect in the coming months.

Make sure to catch our Hoosier Access Radio birthday podcast tomorrow starting at 3:00. We’ll be broadcasting live, right here, via webcam as well as live blogging. Our guests, so far, include State Superintendent Candidate Tony Bennett, and HD 94 Candidate Chad Miller. We’ll bring you updates with more guests as they come.

*Update* - We will also have Congressman Burton on as a guest. Should be interesting what he has to say. Just before lunch Nancy Pelosi literally shut down Congress for recess refusing to let Congress vote on drilling.

*Update #2* - We have two new confirmed guests in candidates for Congress Luke Puckett and Gabrielle Campo.