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How Desperate They Are For Members…

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It is no hidden fact that I hate unions with a dead level passion.  At one time they had a purpose but honestly if you dislike your working conditions, quit and go work some place else.  No one is holding a gun to your head to work there.

Well it seems that some union shops, in an effort to gain more members, are using the fallout and suffering from hurricane Sandy to intimidate others into either joining or no helping.  You think I’m lying?

The hurricane-ravaged east coast has been receiving north Alabama help, but crews learned they could not help out in New Jersey unless they affiliated with a union.

These guys drove up from Alabama to help and were greeted with a join our club or !@#$ off.  But people are without power, power that many need to survive.  In the end though their own neighbors don’t care.  If the outside assistance doesn’t want to join their coercive club to funnel money to a political party the group offering help might disagree with the locals would rather their neighbors freeze and starve.

You know what, I’d drive my ass back home too.  Screw ’em, if that’s the attitude you have towards helping in a time of an emergency I say let Darwin weed out a few more of you bastards.  Maybe the people will find out exactly what you did and they’ll run you and your union out of town on a rail.  I would like to point out I spend a lot of my own time and money volunteering to help, but by god I don’t need to be treated like that when I volunteer to help.

Now my coworker said they should just shoot the bastards who are telling help to turn around and leave over not being unionized.  My only issue with that is that it shouldn’t be the people trying to help getting their hands dirty, it should be the people who’s suffering is being used for political leverage.  Seriously, those who are without power need to be beating the hell out of these men who are prolonging the emergency unnecessarily.

Unsurprisingly you didn’t hear about any government officials telling the unions to STFU and do what’s necessary to get the job done.  This isn’t the first time unions have used tragedy to further their position.  My suggestion is if you live in New Jersey, start yelling at utility workers for refusing help.  Even if it isn’t the same utility, put the pressure back on them for not keeping their brothers in check.

h/t Bitter.

Romney and The Lesser of Two Evils Argument…

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Bill Whittle on the problem of principles and wanting to vote 3rd party and the upcoming election.  It is definitely worth a watch.

Sadly he’s right.  I would rather vote third-party, except as Bill Whittle says doing so enables the greater evil.

The closing comment from Bill Whittle is right:

The fundamental difference between these two men is Mitt Romney loves America and Barack Obama is determined to destroy America.

No matter what we’re not reversing the slope this election.  The best we can do is lessen it to try to pull back.  I am principled enough that I cannot fool myself into thinking that voting for a third-party exempts me from my responsibility regarding the health and well-being of this country.

TSA Tab Clearing

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There’s been a bunch of incidents in the news lately and many of them worthy of serious note.  My being busy with other more pressing items, my photo gallery needs to get moved post haste, I haven’t had the time to write up everything I would.

So I want to at least clear out a few browser tabs since these are becoming “old news”.

Capping a year-long investigation prompted by reports of theft in a baggage room at Newark Liberty International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration said it it was moving to fire 25 employees and suspend 19 others for failing to ensure that checked bags were being screened adequately.

So they’re not adequately searching bags but I’m sure that agent made sure to feel up Tiffany’s boobs, in a random pat down I’m sure.

One airport TSA worker learned the hard way this week that if you see something, you should probably say something — instead of stealing it.

Andy Ramirez was the only officer caught in a national sting operation aimed at gauging how bad TSA theft actually is in light of recent data showing that 381 officers were fired for theft between 2003 and 2012.

I am surprised that the laptops didn’t go 10 for 10 on being stolen.  However this is worthy of note:

Pythias Brown, a former TSA employee at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, who spoke to ABC News recently in his first public comments after being released from prison, said he was part of a “culture” of apathy within the agency that permitted corrupt employees – and there are a lot of them, apparently – to prey on passengers’ luggage and personal items with abandon, thanks in large part to nonexistent oversight and tips from fellow TSA workers.

“It was very commonplace, very,” said Brown, who admitted lifting in excess of $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year span. “It was very convenient to steal.”

Imagine that, a culture of stealing.  What that test did show is many are wary of “easy prey”.  When something seems way to easy, odds are it’s a trap.  One agent failed that test.

Lastly we have an incident out of my backyard:

The TSA is denying any wrongdoing involving the recent pat down of leukemia patientMichelle Dunaj. Dunaj says the screeners at Sea-Tac Airport made her lift up her shirt to check under bandages after refusing to give her a private search.

She also claims a TSA agent forced open one of her saline bags, contaminating the important fluid she relies on to survive. Agents also made her lift up her shirt and pull back bandages holding in feeding tubes.

Given their treatment of someone with an insulin pump, do we want to guess who’s story is worth believing and who’s probably telling the fib?

The TSA is merely a job program for idiots and the lazy so the training is remedial at best so most don’t even know the actual policies.  Show up with a copy of the policies in hand and they don’t care.  How bad can it be?  A GBR one of the attendees relayed a story about a TSA agent insisting that he hand over the key to his firearm case and allow him to inspect it without the owner being present.  That’s right, the agent wanted the owner to hand over the key that is NOT supposed to leave his possession  because that case is NOT to be opened without him being present.  Ultimately for fear of not being allowed on the plane he handed over the key.  See how this works, policies don’t matter at the national level, each local can do as the please because they put the passenger between a rock and hard place.

This is what happens when you give someone with less intelligence than a monkey the power to tell others what to do.

Adventures in Venture Capitalism

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It’s been known for a while that green-energy is suspect and has serious issues.  Yet our fearless leader has shoved more money at failed projects that most could comprehend.  If this man ran a venture capitalist firm his clients would have left long ago because he was driving them to be broke.

What exactly am I talking about, well here’s a list of companies that have failed that received funding from Obama.

  1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
  2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
  3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
  4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
  5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
  6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
  7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
  8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
  9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
  10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
  11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
  12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
  13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
  14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
  15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
  16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
  17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
  18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
  19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
  20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
  21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
  22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
  23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
  24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
  25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
  26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
  27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
  28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
  29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
  30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
  31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
  32. Vestas ($50 million)
  33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
  34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
  35. Navistar ($10 million)
  36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Total waste?  $8.108 Billion dollars.  Yes that’s billion with a B.  People keep insisting that to fix the budget problem we need to make massive cuts to the big pieces of the pie.  What people don’t seem to understand is that the biggest pieces are all the small tiny pieces added together.

Look at all that money that’s been wasted.  Debt that has now been laid upon our children and working class.  For what?  So that some donors to the Obama administration can go buy a new vacation house?  So that some leftist can feel good about his view on the environment and forcing others to pay for his moral views?

Seriously, why is anyone even thinking about continuing to vote for a man who so willingly and blatantly has been robbing the American public blind.  Not only is he robbing them but selling your children into slavery.  There is no such thing as a free lunch yet everyone seems to think they’re getting one.

That stimulus so heavily lobbied for has $80 billion in politically tied energy projects.  Yet we see how those projects actually worked, not to mention how it actually delayed existing projects.  Over 1900 investigations have begun to look into waste, further costs to the American tax payer.

To put this into even greater perspective, 10% of the funding for energy projects provided by the stimulus is nothing but waste.  That’s to a cost $25.82 per every man, woman and child, just in waste.  If you just count the tax payers, it’s an extra $70.81 in cost.  If you don’t believe me, do the math yourself.  Here’s where I got the numbers for population and taxpayers.  To take it further we have another 6 trillion in debt overall, that comes out to be another $51,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child.  The overall debt burden in this country is enough for most people to buy a house, again, every man, woman, and child, even babies.

Lets look at the issue in another way focusing on spending during 2012 overall:

Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95).  That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.

Joe also put it really well a while ago before we ended up even further in this hole:

If your family income were $50,000 then:

Now that has brought the spending problem into a better perspective, let me ask, why is the out of control spending and economy not at the fore front of the presidential race?  I hope all of you who continue to not see a problem with this reckless spending and endless growth of government are happy selling your soul and children’s soul into slavery.  Because you honestly have no business writing checks your ass can’t cash and putting your kids name or my name on it.  Period.

SSCC #433 – Utah Highway Patrol

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A supervisor warned in 2010 that Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Lisa Steed, who is under investigation by her own agency, was frequently arresting people for driving under the influence of drugs who had no drugs in their systems.

The response of the Utah Highway Patrol, bury it so defense attorneys don’t find out.  This wasn’t just a minor screw up either, blood tests confirm the officer was lying.

In seven of those [20 reviewed] cases, toxicology tests showed the driver had only metabolite, Nixon wrote. Metabolite is the remnants of drugs or pharmaceuticals in the bloodstream, though not necessarily the illegal kind.

Four other drivers had no drugs in their system, according to Nixon’s memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

The UHP continued to allow the officer to retain the same position and took no corrective action.  The memo and findings were also with held from defense attorneys   How heavily was it buried?

The memo is “extraordinary,” said Joseph Jardine, a Salt Lake City defense attorney who earlier this year successfully petitioned a judge to gain access to Steed’s discipline record. Jardine said the memo was not included in the records he viewed. The Salt Lake Tribune showed Jardine and Skordas the memo Tuesday.

When the light was finally shined on the mold, the UHP finally removed her from road duty and began an investigation which is obviously at this point almost 3 years over due.

It gets even better though because in 2007:

Utah Highway Patrol Officer Lisa Steed is the Utah Highway Patrol’s new Trooper of the Year. The Utah Department of Public Safety made the announcement after Steed made more than 200 DUI arrests this year.

Looks like we all know how she made that accomplishment now don’t we.

State Sponsored Criminal #433: Cpl. Lisa Steed

Because when you want to come in first, arrest anyone and every one you can as long as you can trump up an excuse.  Their lives don’t matter, only your career matters!

via Tango

SSCC #429 – Lafayette

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The former police chief for Lafayette has been arrested after an investigation into allegations that he assaulted a prisoner.

He was arrested though, so why put him on the count?  Well he’s an example of why departments drag their feet for the benefit of those who should really be expelled from service.

The TBI began investigating in July at the request of District Attorney General Tommy Thompson.

Amalfitano resigned his position effective Sept. 21 but has since started working as a police officer with the City of Westmoreland.

Obviously the departments involved have the welfare of their citizens in their best interests… right?

State Sponsored Criminal #429: Ray Amalfitano

Because if you get caught breaking the rules, don’t worry, your department won’t fire you, just resign and get a job some place else.

SSCC #425–NYPD

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There’s a reason this happened in NYC.

An unarmed Army National Guardsman was pulled over on a Queens highway and shot to death by an NYPD officer from an elite unit today — and the DA now is probing the incident that the victim’s friend is calling a case of police “road rage.”

Noel Polanco, 22, had his hands on the steering wheel of his 2012 Honda Fit moments before Detective Hassan Hamdy shot him once in the torso, a woman sitting in the front passenger seat told police, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Reading the article it appears the officer had no reason to treat the stop as a felony stop.  He then broke two rules obviously and put a round into the driver.  Yup, still think the cops are out to protect and serve.  They’re out to merely protect their own ass if they’re protecting anyone.

Odds are the officer won’t be fired and if anything will receive “training”.  I have a feeling the training is really, “How to frame the situation better in your favor.”

The reason I say it happened in NYC, is here in free America they would be afraid of people in the car being armed and shooting back after the first shot.

State Sponsored Criminal #425:  Hassan Hamdy

Because if you’re a cop and someone cuts you off, pull him over and shoot him.  If anyone asks what happened say he shot himself!*

*Yes, read the article, the officer told his friends that the driver shot himself…

SSCC #418 – New Orleans

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Former New Orleans police officer, Roger Jones, 38, has resigned after being arrested — again — on hit-and-run charges. The 15-year veteran, who was already on desk duty pending investigation of a 2011 hit-and-run, confessed to hitting a car, leaving the scene of the accident, parking his police cruiser at another location, then reporting it stolen.

Emphasis mine.  Note he was arrested for the same thing.  As usual he was left to resign instead of being fired less that black mark follow him where ever he goes.

State Sponsored Criminal #418: Roger Jones

Because hit and run is perfectly acceptable when you’re a cop.  They’re anointed so it’s cool.