Sunday, March 31, 2013

Google honors secular-progessive saint Cesar Chavez instead of Easter

St. Mary's Catholic Church,
Tampico, IL
Rather than honor Christianity's holiest day, Easter, today, Google chose to salute a secular-progressive saint, migrant worker activist Cesar Chavez on the 80th anniversary of his birth with a main page graphic it calls doodles.

Ironically, Chavez was a devout Catholic.

But oh do the libs love Chavez. For instance, San Francisco changed the name of Army Street to Cesar Chavez Street.

Google's headquarters are in Mountain View, California--forty miles from San Francisco.

These are people not like us, my friends.

Related post:

California Collision: San Francisco and the military

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(Video) Ronald Reagan's 1983 Easter and Passover message

One of Ronald Reagan's greatest speeches--and he had many--was his April 2, 1983 Easter and Passover message, which was one of his weekly radio addresses during his magnificent presidency.

I posted this video two years ago---it deserves many viewings. The Cold War was particularly intense in 1983, as we are reminded when Reagan notes the desire for freedom in Poland and East Germany.
As we look around us today, we still find human pain and suffering, but we also see it answered with individual courage and spirit, strengthened by faith. For example, the brave Polish people, despite the oppression of a godless tyranny, still cling to their faith and their belief in freedom. Shortly after Palm Sunday Mass this week, Lech Walesa faced a cheering crowd of workers outside a Gdansk church. He held his hand up in a sign of victory and predicted, "The time will come when we will win."
Reagan's church in Tampico, IL
Recently, an East German professor, his wife, and two daughters climbed into a 7-foot rowboat and crossed the freezing, wind-whipped Baltic to escape from tyranny. Arriving in West Germany after a harrowing 7-hour, 31-mile journey past East German border patrols, the man said he and his family had risked everything so that the children would have the chance to grow up in freedom.
He concludes with reflections on faith.
Nearly 2,000 years after the coming of the Prince of Peace, such simple wishes may still seem far from fulfillment. But we can achieve them. We must never stop trying. The generation of Americans now growing up in schools across our country can make sure the United States will remain a force for good, the champion of peace and freedom, as their parents and grandparents before them have done. If we live our lives and dedicate our country to truth, to love, and to God, we will be a part of something much stronger and much more enduring than any negative power here on Earth. That's why this weekend is a celebration and why there is hope for us all. Thanks for listening, and God bless you.
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Saturday, March 30, 2013

ILL-inois crony capitalism: $98 million Chicago charter school grant under investigation

UNO's CEO, Juan Rangel, was a co-chair of Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign. This is how Chicago doesn't work. 

 From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Gov. Pat Quinn’s executive inspector general has opened an investigation into the politically influential United Neighborhood Organization’s use of a $98 million state grant for new charter schools, after a report in the Chicago Sun-Times that UNO gave millions of dollars in contracts for the schools to companies with ties to the organization’s top officials.

Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza's office asked the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in a letter Feb. 14 to turn over all records regarding the grant, state officials disclosed Friday.

Meza's office has opened "an official investigation" into the UNO grant, according to a copy of the one-page letter that the Quinn administration released Friday.

The inspector general asked to get copies of UNO’s state grant contracts and "any and all corresponding documentation," including anything involving subcontractors, by Feb. 28.
Related posts:

ILL-inois: Crony capitalism charter school operator holds fundraiser for state house speaker

Illinois crony capitalism: Charter school grants go to politically-connected relatives

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Friday, March 29, 2013

(Video) White House can't answer why ObamaCare is raising insurance premiums

A couple of days ago a White House spokesperson couldn't answer a question about why ObamaCare is raising insurance premiums. Obama's own Health and Human Services Secretary said the boondoggle is the culprit.


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Michigan is officially a right-to-work state

Yesterday it was official. The Great Lakes State became a right-to-work state.

From the Detroit News:
Today – March 28, 2013 – marks a new day for labor freedom in Michigan as landmark legislation making Michigan a right to work state goes into effect.

Starting today, workers will have a choice in union membership and labor unions will have to do what every other voluntary organization has to do: Earn their membership by service and not outdated work rules that force membership. Because the legislation was passed last year without immediate effect, it becomes law today on the 91st day after the 2012 Legislature adjourned. The final vote came after a day of demonstrations and violence by labor unions and activists opposed to ending decades of coercive, compulsory union membership in Michigan.

There are exemptions – and the law will not apply to all workers. Firefighters, local and state law enforcement officers, those represented by federal unions, employees protected under federal laws (such as the Railway Labor Act) and some other transportation workers, agricultural workers and domestic workers are not covered by the law. Right to work will not immediately apply to businesses that have existing collective bargaining agreements. Therefore, if a current labor agreement extends beyond the effective date of the law (March 28, 2013), membership – and payment of union dues – will remain mandatory until that labor agreement expires.

The reaction to right to work by Big Labor and state bureaucrats wedded to the old monopoly system reveals their true motives in dealing with their “members.” The Civil Service Commission claims that state employees are not covered by the law. Labor unions, primarily in the public sector, have been trying to renegotiate contracts as far out as possible before the law’s effective date in order to deny their members choice for years. Labor unions and supporters of the old, forced membership system can be expected to turn to the courts in an effort to avoid the law.
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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Rahm: Full speed ahead on red-light cameras despite scandal

It figures that Chicago even scandalizes red-light cameras. But that's not a big problem for Rahm.

From the Chicago Tribune:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he believes his administration does not need to halt implementation of a speed camera program in light of a federal bribery investigation centering on a former city employee who went on to work for an organization that lobbied for speed cameras in Illinois.

Federal authorities are probing the personal finances of John Bills, the former managing deputy commissioner of transportation, following an internal investigation by city red-light camera vendor Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. that found evidence that its Chicago program was likely built on a $2 million bribery scheme involving Bills and a longtime friend hired as the company’s Chicago consultant.

After leaving his city job in 2011, Bills was hired by Emanuel political consultant Greg Goldner, working for the Redflex-funded Traffic Safety Coalition.
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Bad examples: Over 120 arrested at Chicago Teachers Union-led rally

I predicted that yesterday's Chicago Teachers Union protest march--with many SEIU members in attendance, by the way--would ruin the downtown afternoon rush hour. What I didn't expect was the in-your-face sit-on-the-street action that led to over 120 arrests.

What if an ambulance needed to pass through?

When I was in school many years ago I was taught that getting arrested was a bad thing.

Chicago's population is declining--to the Board of Education is closing dozens of schools. That means teachers will be laid off--which is the real reason the teachers and their public-sector union allies are protesting.

Among those arrested was SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff, who was a go-between in the tawdry negotiations between now-imprisoned Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Barack Obama camp over who would replace Obama when he resigned his Senate seat in 2008.

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