Not just Keystone...Obama's war on oil in Alaska

President Obama's war on oil isn't just limited to blocking the Keystone XL pipeline.

From an op-ed by David Holt in the Washington Examiner:

Indeed, we could have easily telegraphed Obama's decision by looking to Alaska where similar decisions have stymied efforts to develop resources in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

There, Obama sacrificed the ability to produce safely nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil a day to appease special interest groups that have misused the federal administrative process to stop exploration of the Arctic at every turn.

In spite of nearly four years of review confirming the project's safety, Obama imposed an arbitrary, and highly political, stoppage time in Shell's conditional permit.

The"approval" advanced by Obama ignores both science and the safety equipment Shell will bring to the region and amounts to a 40 percent reduction in time allowed for exploration work.

Technorati tags: politics economy Drill here, drill now government energy news

Report from the bloggers' call with Sen, Johnny Isakson on privatizing Fannie and Freddie

Isakson

Four years after the housing crash showed us that this sector of our economy was made of straw--well, it still is. One of the villains of this disaster was government-chartered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now under federal conservatorship.

In President Bush's Decision Points, he said that one of his justifications for bailing Fannie and Freddie out is that some foreign investors assumed that the pair were insured by the feds.

Stupidity should not be a protected behavior.

For now we are stuck with them. But Johnny Isakson (R-GA), who held a bloggers' conference call this afternoon, wants to divest ourselves of Fannie and Freddie by first transitioning them into a new entity that would have a 10-year life, called the Mortgage Finance Agency. Board members of this panel would be appointed by the president--and yes, the Senate would have to confirm them.

How is that bailout going? Our losses "approach $171 billion and climbing."

A natural criticism of the Georgian's bill, which is formally called the Mortgage Finance Act of 2011, is that the federal government won't be immediately out of the mortgage business when the bill is put into law. But things aren't that simple, Isakson warns, because Fannie and Freddie are dealing with 30-year mortgages.

"It's a bridge from where we are to where we want to be," Isakson summarized.

Foreclosed Fannie Mae home,
Morton Grove, IL

His bill will set up tough lending standards and establish a sinking fund to retired the debt.

A few hours earlier, President Obama offered his plan, not his first, to assist underwater homeowners. Curiously, Fannie and Freddie were not mentioned by the president. While the bailout is a Bush-holdover--or is it hangover?--the firms have long been cozy with Democratic politicians. They were practicing crony capitalism before most people had heard of it.

I asked Isakson a question about Obama's speech. While he is awaiting the details of the president's proposal, he favors the refinancing of underwater loans for those Americans who are making payments and are current on their loans, which was the central point of Obama's address. But he was disappointed Fannie and Freddie were omitted. "I think the president continues to miss the mark," Isakson bemoaned, "because as everyone really knows that's the 800 pound gorilla in the living room that we've got to deal with."

There are other bills that also lay out a roadmap for privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--and Isakson is willing to take the best of all of them to remove that gorilla from the living room.

Technorati tags: politics gop economy business isakson johnny isakson georgia georgia politics real estate cronyism crony capitalism

Higher ed bubble update: 3 recent grads of law school suing over allegation of post-grad employment rate figures fibbing

Another update on the higher education bubble.

At least these three plaintiffs have a working understanding of the legal system.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Three graduates of John Marshall Law School in Chicago sued the university Wednesday over claims that it inflated its post-graduate employment information to attract students.

"By publishing false and misleading employment data, John Marshall creates an impression of bountiful employment opportunity that in reality does not exist, and convinces plaintiffs and the putative class members to take on substantial debt to finance their JMLS education," the lawsuit said.

Joseph Reyes, one of the plaintiffs, graduated in May and has still not found permanent legal employment, according to the suit. He has been making ends meet by taking temporary, contract assignments reviewing documents, the suit said.

I'm very interested to view the lawsuit--did these three pass the bar exam?

If the suit fails, they can always enroll at Roosevelt University, which is a few blocks away from Marshall, so they can learn how to protest.

Related post:

Chicago's Roosevelt University offers "Occupy Everywhere" course

Technorati tags: law legal college Chicago Illinois illinois politics

NLRB overreach: Rand Paul edition

Middlesboro, Kentucky

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) wants to challenge President Obama's illegal recess appointments.

From Politico:

Sen. Rand Paul is joining a legal challenge to President Barack Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.

The Kentucky Republican appears to be the first sitting senator to legally object to the Jan. 4 appointments that drew fire from congressional Republicans, who say the president overstepped constitutional boundaries by installing three members to the labor board and Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"With the recent recess appointments, President Obama has circumvented our Constitution and showed complete disregard for the separation of powers," Paul said in a statement Tuesday. "He has demonstrated once again that he is willing to treat the office of the presidency like a dictatorship."

Paul said he plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief backing legal action by the National Federation for Independent Business and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The groups filed court claims on Jan. 13 arguing that the NLRB appointments are unconstitutional.

Writing for The Hill, the Workforce Fairness Institutes's Fred Wszolek:

Over the course of the last three years, President Obama has waged a rhetorical campaign against special interests and their influence in Washington DC, while at the same time spearheading an effort to deliver unprecedented giveaways to his largest and most influential campaign contributor, labor bosses.

The heads of unions have been the most frequent visitors to the White House and they have openly bragged about having access to administration officials every day of the week, including weekends. They have also candidly spoken about using administrative agencies full of unelected bureaucrats to create policies that they have been unable to move forward in the Congress due to their lack of popularity with workers and business owners.

At every step of the way, this president has ceded to big labor's demands and sacrificed the interests of employees and employers as he travels the country extoling the importance of job creation and economic growth. For those who feel deep uncertainty about the state of the nation’s economy or threatened by the edicts handed down by the National Labor Relations Board, the administration's conduct has been breathtaking from two perspectives, the breadth of its hypocrisy and outright resentment for the business sector.

That ultimately leaves job creators with few places to turn outside Congress and the courts. With respect to the latter, business groups such as the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and National Federation of Independent Businesses have already sought to challenge the legality of the recent non-recess appointments of Richard Griffin and Sharon Block to the National Labor Relations Board made by President Obama while the Congress was still convening regularly and even though the nominees had only been named weeks prior. Secondly, as Obama's labor board issues decisions on matters, there will be additional legal challenges questioning the constitutional authority of board members who were placed on the National Labor Relations Board despite the fact the Congress had not recessed.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

Piling outrage upon outrage, the National Labor Relations Board is operating with new members appointed unconstitutionally -- and trying to tilt the playing field even further in Big Labor's favor.

President Obama flouted separation of powers by making "recess" appointments to the NLRB while the Senate -- where Republicans had vowed to block new NLRB appointees -- was not in recess.

"We presume the constitutionality of the president's appointments, and we go forward based on that understanding," says Mark Pearce, NLRB chairman and -- surprise! -- union lawyer.

The NLRB's already hastened workplace elections, denying employers sufficient time to educate employees. Now, Mr. Pearce wants employers facing workplace elections to give unions not just employees' names and addresses -- as has long been required -- but their home phone numbers and e-mail addresses, too.

Later today Indiana will become the nation's 23rd right-to-work state. Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe writes about RTW:

Most Americans regard compulsory unionism as unconscionable. In a new Rasmussen survey, 74 percent of likely voters say non-union workers should not have to pay dues against their will. Once upon a time, labor movement giants like Samuel Gompers, a founder of the American Federation of Labor, agreed. "I want to urge devotion to the fundamentals of human liberty - the principles of voluntarism," declared Gompers in his last speech to the AFL in 1924. "No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion."

But far from rejecting compulsion, Big Labor now fights tooth and nail to defend it. And no wonder: Unions have long since squandered the affection of the American public. In the years right after World War II, more than one-third of the US workforce was unionized; now the union membership rate is just 11.8 percent, and most of those members are government employees. In the productive economy, Americans continue to flee from organized labor. Last year only 6.9 percent of workers at private companies belonged to unions.

So as a matter of by-any-means-necessary expediency, it is easy to understand why Big Labor long ago embraced what liberal scholar Robert Reich (later Bill Clinton's secretary of labor) dubbed "the necessity for coercion." In order “to maintain themselves," Reich said in 1985, “unions have got to have some ability to strap their members to the mast." Or, as Don Corleone might have put it, to make them an offer they can't refuse.

But is there any ethical reason - any honorable basis - for the union shop?

After decades of domination by Big Labor, Michigan is taking a new path.

From the Detroit News:

A House committee on Tuesday passed a package of labor reform bills blasted by critics as anti-union measures.

The legislation would add county and municipal employees to the law that prohibits public school teachers from striking and set steep fines for public sector strikes and lockouts.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula

The bills also would make it easier for employers to get an injunction to stop picketing and require employers to get annual permission from employees to deduct union dues from their paychecks.

The package approved by the House Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee, chaired by Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, would have to be passed by the full House and Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Here's a rarity--a victory over red tape at the federal level.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture withdrew a proposal to change its procurement contracts after business groups raised concerns it would increase their labor headaches.

The groups said the proposed change would have unfairly required businesses with USDA contracts to certify that their subcontractors and suppliers are in compliance with labor laws, a mandate they called a burdensome and impossible task that runs counter to President Barack Obama's vow to curb excess regulation.

A spokesman for the USDA, which spends billions of dollars annually to procure such things as commodities for its school lunch and international food aid programs, said Tuesday that the agency has decided against making the new rule effective on Feb. 29 as originally proposed.

Instead, the USDA said it is reviewing complaints received about its idea from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, among other trade groups. The USDA didn't rule out resubmitting a revised version of the proposal at a later date.

Good tidings from Virginia via the Washington Times:

The Virginia House and Senate on Tuesday voted to ban mandatory project labor agreements on state-funded construction projects, a move proponents argue will help protect the state’s right-to-work laws and create a level playing field in contract bidding.

The Republican-led House approved its version of the bill on a 69-27 vote, and the Senate deadlocked on the measure 20-20.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, cast the tiebreaking vote in favor of the legislation — his first tiebreaking vote on legislation this session. He also cast a tiebreaking vote to organize the Senate last month.

"Public dollars should not be diverted to projects involving Project Labor Agreements that favor union shops over merit shops," Mr. Bolling said in a statement. "This critical legislation protects our right-to-work law and continues to promote a pro-business environment."

The NLRB had a double dipper. But now he's headed to prison.

The Washington Post:

At a time when people are having trouble finding even one job, Jeffrey K. Armstrong of South Riding, Va. was able to find two full-time jobs — one at the United Nations in New York and another at the National Labor Relations Board here in Washington.

Armstrong, sentenced Friday to 18 months in federal prison for his fraudulent endeavors, managed to snag a job in 2008 as the U.N. assistant chief of the Security and Safety Service, “responsible for all physical security at U.N. facilities,” the Justice Department said. That paid about $160,000 a year.

Then in February 2009, after almost a year at the United Nations, he got a second job here at the NLRB as a chief of security within the division of administration. That paid about $121,000. (That’s some serious double-dipping.)

Armstrong somehow "dissuaded" NLRB officials from contacting his U.N. supervisor and filed for medical leave at the United Nations even though he was working at the NLRB, the Justice Department said.

More:

NetRightDaily: Senate Should Block All Nominations Until Fake 'Recess' Appointments Resign

Big Government: Big Labor Fail: Forced-Dues Coming to an End in Indiana

Big Government: Disgust with Local Teachers Union Drives One New York Parent to Run for School Board

Illinois Review: Emanuel Sets Off Chicago Teachers Union Over Education Video Comments

Free Enterprise: Recess Appointments Actually Weaken CFPB and NLRB

Related posts:

Video: Chicago Teachers Union organizer welcomes Occupy Chicago to new home

New film narrated by Juan Williams rips Chicago Teachers Union

Indiana legislature passes right-to-work, governor to sign into law today

Technorati tags: education labor unions politics news Illinois chicago democrat illinois politics chicago politicsdemocrats chicago teachers union left wing extremists current events michigan michigan politics organized labor Obama Barack Obama gop Congress

Indiana legislature passes right-to-work, governor to sign into law today

There is good news this afternoon for Indiana job creators. The state Senate there passed a right-to-work bill moments ago, which Governor Mitch Daniels will sign into law later today.

Meanwhile, my state, Illinois, continues to kowtow to Big Labor and imagine that we are living in the 1930s.

The trickle of jobs from Illinois to the Hoosier State will soon become a flood.

UPDATE 2:20pm CST: Daniels just signed the bill into law.

Technorati tags: Illinois illinois politics Patrick Quinn pat quinn taxes business right to work unions news jobs economy organized labor indiana gop Republican indiana politics Indiana