Activist Judge Blocks WI Union Bill

Judge Maryann Sumi

From jsonline.com - Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.  Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law. Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits. "It seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting  law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the (law)," she said.  More News New Mexico

Activist Judge Blocks WI Union Bill

Schakowsky Introduces “Tax the Rich” Bill

Jan Schakowsky

From gatewaypundit.com -Jan Schakowsky introduced the “Tax the Rich” bill this week. Schakowsky says the bill would force the nation’s wealthy producers to “pay their share” by increasing their taxes significantly. Her socialist colleagues spoke out in favor of the new taxes. From her website: Income inequality in America is the worst we’ve seen it since 1928. Wages have stagnated for middle and lower income families despite enormous gains in productivity. Where has all the money gone? “In the United States today, the richest 1% owns 34 % of our nation’s wealth – that’s more than the entire bottom 90%, who own just 29% of the country’s wealth,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “And the top one-hundredth of 1% now makes an average of $27 million per household per year. The average income for the bottom 90% of Americans? $31,244. It’s time for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, which is why I introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act.  More News New Mexico

Schakowsky Introduces “Tax the Rich” Bill

Changing the Bible to Make it More "Gender Neutral"

From gatewaypundit.com -Copies of the New International Version Bible is displayed in a book store on Thursday, March 17, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn. It has been criticized by some conservatives who don’t like its use of gender-neutral language. (AP/Mark Humphrey) A group of biblical scholars, the Committee on Bible Translation, has changed the wording in the latest version of the New International Version Bible, or NIV, to make it more gender inclusive. For years the group has been making changes in Bible text mostly in order to avoid using five words with masculine meaning or nuance: father, brother, son, man, and he/him/his. Back in May 2002 over 100 Christian leaders claimed the TNIV version was not trustworthy.  More News New Mexico

Changing the Bible to Make it More "Gender Neutral"

Chavez: Leadership from Kasich

Linda Chavez

Townhall - Once in a blue moon, you find a politician willing to do the right thing even if it means his popularity will plummet. Recently elected Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, has announced a new budget for his cash-strapped state, and voters are none too happy. Polls show his approval rating at 40 percent, less than three months after he assumed office. Ohio's budget is more than $8 billion in the red, thanks to a poor economy, overspending by Kasich's predecessor, and an unfriendly business environment that has pushed jobs out of state. Ohio has lost 400,000 jobs in the last four years alone. And, like other states that received money from the 2009 federal stimulus, that money saved mostly public-sector jobs -- and on a temporary basis only. Now, school districts and other state and local agencies propped up by federal dollars will have to make do on their own.

John Kasich

But what is different about Kasich's approach is that he's doing more than cutting spending -- he's out trying to sell his plan to a skeptical public. He could have simply released his budget, held a press conference, and then got down to the work of twisting legislators' arms. Instead, he took his plan on the road, holding a big public forum in which voters could ask questions in person or on Twitter. And he did it in his characteristic hard-charging, upbeat style. He's shown that he's willing to lead on this issue. Kasich's budget includes both cuts in spending and innovative reform that may make those cuts less painful and more effective. On education, for example, he's capping increases in college tuition at 3.5 percent, a modest hike, but he's also insisting college professors teach one extra class every other year to keep costs down.
Read full column here: News New Mexico

Chavez: Leadership from Kasich

Unions protest governor's firing of labor board

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - by Kate Nash - Labor unions on Wednesday asked the state's highest court to rule that Gov. Susana Martinez overstepped her authority when she dismissed the members of the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board. Without a board in place, grievances are going unheard, a union attorney said. The Martinez administration forced out the board's executive director, Pam Gentry, on Feb. 5. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 18 in late February filed an emergency motion with the labor board, asking that it hire a new director. On March 1, the governor fired the three-member board. The New Mexico Federation of Labor AFL-CIO and affiliates on Wednesday filed a request for a writ of mandamus seeking to have the board reinstated and asking that the governor not meddle in the board's hiring of an executive director. But the Governor's Office said Martinez legally can remove the members and did so as part of an ongoing review of state boards and commissions. Spokesman Scott Darnell said the administration agrees that the board should hire the executive director. NMFL AFL-CIO President Christine Trujillo compared Martinez's decision to actions by another Republican governor: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Read story - News New Mexico

Unions protest governor's firing of labor board

Thoughts from John

(Swickard) Sent by my friend John... don't know where he got it but I hope lots of people get it. No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay.While politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense. Monday on Fox news they learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if other news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop?

35 States file lawsuit against the Federal Government, Governors of 35 states have filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention. For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. This is one proposal that really should be passed around. Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

Thoughts from John

SEIU Blasts Obama Admin for Immigration Enforcement

From politico.com -Impatient immigration advocates typically view the Obama Administration as an ally, but a key force in the debate, the Service Employees International Union, is openly criticizing the Department of Homeland Security's shift in enforcement efforts for the first time. The Obama Administration has shifted the emphasis of enforcement away from workplace raids -- which immigrant advocates had long described as punishing immigrant workers instead of their employers -- and toward so-called "I-9 audits," in which federal agents ask companies to verify their employees' legal status. Groups pushing to legalize most immigrant workers are broadly uncomfortable with the audits, which often cost workers their jobs, but have largely avoided criticizing the Administration publicly. But SEIU has seen hundreds of members lose their jobs after I-9 audits: According to the union, 1,200 SEIU janitors in Minneapolis were fired following an I-9 audit last December, and just this week, 250 SEIU janitors in Minneapolis were fired after an I-9 audit, adding to 500 in the area who were fired from Chipotle after the company was examined by the feds.  More News New Mexico

SEIU Blasts Obama Admin for Immigration Enforcement

With Stroke of a Pen, Obama Gives Terrorists an Edge

From usatoday.com -Under the guise of "reaffirming America's commitment to humane treatment of detainees," the Obama administration announced last week a revolution in the rules governing how the United States protects itself from al-Qaeda and other terrorists.  From now on, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. will comply with part of a treaty known as Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions "out of a sense of legal obligation." These are code words, which mean that the U.S. acknowledges this particular provision, Article 75, which extends "fundamental guarantees" to any detainee, as a binding form of international law — even though the Senate has never consented to its formal ratification. Today, the Geneva Conventions include four treaties: governing the treatment of wounded soldiers on land, those wounded or shipwrecked at sea, prisoners of war and civilians in occupied territory. These agreements date to 1949 and have been ratified by more than 190 countries, including the United States.  More News New Mexico

With Stroke of a Pen, Obama Gives Terrorists an Edge

2 Dems Forged Paperwork to Get Fake Tea Partiers on Ballot

From gatewaypundit.com -Two former leaders of the Oakland County Democratic Party are facing a total of nine felonies for allegedly forging election paperwork to get fake Tea Party candidates on November’s ballot. “It is not a partisan statement, and we need to make that very clear,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. Former Oakland County Democratic Chair Mike McGuinness and former Democratic Operations Director Jason Bauer face up to 14 years in prison if convicted. “Some of the people didn’t even know they were on the ballot till they began receiving delinquency notices of filings that were required as a candidate,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.  The sheriff says 23 statewide races had questionable Tea Party candidates on the ballot and the investigation may go beyond Oakland County.  More News New Mexico

2 Dems Forged Paperwork to Get Fake Tea Partiers on Ballot

8 Out of 10 Illegals Apprehended in 2010 Not Prosecuted

From cnsnews.com -An illegal alien apprehended by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency during the last fiscal year had an estimated 84 percent chance of never being prosecuted, according to figures compiled by the office of Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas).  Culberson submitted the figures for the record during a hearing Wednesday of the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security. Of 447,731 illegal aliens apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol during fiscal year 2010 (which ended last September), only 73,263 (16.4 percent) were prosecuted, according to the submitted data. That means that 374,468 illegal aliens that were taken into custody (83.6 percent) were never prosecuted.  More News New Mexico

8 Out of 10 Illegals Apprehended in 2010 Not Prosecuted