For decades, the UFCW has been a staunch advocate for fixing a flawed immigration system that punishes working men and women, tears families apart, and fails workers, families, communities and businesses alike.
If it costs American jobs, so what? The illegals will join their union, they figure, and pony up "dues" each month to keep the union bosses fat and happy.
In another classic example of governmental intrusion, attempts to regulate nutritional content in skulez is a demonstrable - and costly - failure:
Food waste is up and the number of students buying school lunches is down, witnesses told a congressional panel on Thursday.
What a surprise! Who'd ever have thought it? Students are required to place certain items on their cafeteria trays, but as the old saying goes about leading a horse to water - they can't be required to eat it.
In his opening statement, Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), the subcommittee chair, said the purpose of the hearing was to look at "burdensome regulations."
"Providing students healthier meals is a laudable goal we all share, but the stringent rules are creating serious headaches for schools and students," Rokita said.
"Because the law requires students to take fruits and vegetables for lunch, even if they have no intention of eating them, schools are struggling with increased waste.” He noted that one Florida school district estimated students threw out $75,000 worth of food, and at Dedham High School in Massachusetts, administrators report many students throw away the required fresh vegetables that cost the district about $111 a day to provide.
Maybe they can use that as a "learning experience", wherein the teach the kids all about the joys and social responsibility derived from composting. But over the next five years, nationwide, the cost of compliance with the federal regulations on food in skulez is expected to run to about $3.2 billion. Gosh, that'd pay for a few teachers, and maybe some textbooks.
As mentioned here yesterday, the prosecution's "star" witness in the Zimmerman trial claimed that the term "cracker" has no racial connotations, yet inputting the term into any search engine brings up many notations ascribing precisely that to the word that is "commonly used in her community". And she gets a pass.
Meanwhile a cook by the name of Paula Deen has been raked over the coals for a week in the media for using the term, "nigger". Apparently, there's no double standard at play - or so they'd have us believe. Sorry, folks - it's quite obvious that there is. No amount of protesting to the contrary will make the spin true.
Finally, someone has rather succinctly described what passes for a mindset among the Left:
“Stupid, bigoted, phobic, evil and greedy are, of course, the only explanations that the Modern Liberal can or does offer to explain why Right-Thinking people don’t join him in support of his latest godless, anti-scientific, utterly infantile and invariably failed schemes. In fact, take a second and try to think of a single argument that the Modern Liberal offers regarding any issue that doesn’t consist in its entirety of ‘we’re right because (our grandiose self-esteem tells us) we’re morally and intellectually superior, and anyone who disagrees with us is (1) stupid, (2) bigoted, (3) phobic, (4) greedy, or (5) evil.’ The truth is you can’t name one. Not one. Seriously, try it.”
It's been noted on occasion that they're legends in their own minds, and that's self-evident. But this is a more complete analysis of what their programming ultimately yields.
Around 40 people were watching the White-throated Needletail, the world's fastest flying bird, on the Isles of Harris when the tragedy happened.
Sightings of the bird have only been recorded eight times in the UK in nearly 170 years, most recently in 1991, prompting around 80 ornithologists to visit the island in the hope of catching a glimpse.
Oh, and the tragedy? It was killed by a wind turbine. You know - that green&sustainable™, environmentally-friendly energy source.
19 years old. Refers to white people as "crackers".
Jeantel, a key prosecution witness in the racially charged trial, testified that she was talking on the phone with Martin when he told her a "creepy ass cracker" was following him. She told defense lawyer Don West that "cracker" is how she referred to white people in her community.
Now don't you dare be callin' her a negro! That'd be disrespectful&racist. It's perfectly fine in "her community" to be disrespectful&racist toward white folks, but don't you be tryin' to go all tit-for-tat; that ain't how the game's played. But she gets better:
In a painfully embarrassing moment, Jeantel was forced to admit that she did not write a letter that was sent to Martin's mother describing what she allegedly heard on a phone call with Martin moments before he was shot. It came when West asked her to read the letter aloud in court.
"Are you able to read that at all?" West asked.
Jeantel, head bowed, eyes averted whispered into the court microphone, "Some but not all. I don't read cursive."
It sent a hush through the packed courtroom.
She was unable to read any of the letter save for her name, date and the words "thank you."
That's what she has to show for twelve years or more of public school vegetation. She also defended withholding information and lying under oath.
Now, whether Martin was murdered or whether things happened as Zimmerman claims is the whole reason underlying the trial. But given this woman's displays of respect and her blatant racism, it seems that if that's what they trot out as a "star witness", they'd have done better to keep her off the stand.
A new Rasmussen survey is out, as reported in the Telegraph:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters consider radical Muslims to be the bigger threat to the United States today. Thirteen percent (13%) view the Tea Party that way, and another 13% consider other political and religious extremists to be the larger danger. Six percent (6%) point to local militia groups. Two percent (2%) see the Occupy Wall Street movement as the bigger terrorist threat.
However, among those who approve of the president’s job performance, just 29% see radical Muslims as the bigger threat. Twenty-six percent (26%) say it’s the Tea Party that concerns them most. Among those who Strongly Approve of the president, more fear the Tea Party than radical Muslims.
As well, 20% of government workers consider the TEA Party to be the nation's biggest terror threat. That there have been zero incidents of violence at TEA Party events (as a rule, they tend to leave the sites cleaner than when they arrived) is of no consequence. That vandalism, other acts of violence, and filth have been endemic among Occutards is irrelevant.
That the TEA Party associates are their greatest fear indicates how complete their separation from reality has become. TEA Party associates should rejoice at the lies and epithets hurled at them by the Left, for that is the Left's innate response to fear.
Columbia River Crossing concept drawing of "deck truss" bridge 25 February 2011
The "Columbia River Crossing" has funding from some mystical source in Oregon, but they made that contingent upon Washington state coming up with matching funds. Their House voted down a transportation package that would have included funding for "their share" of the CRC yesterday. The plan includes a 10.5-cent-a-gallon increase in gas taxes, and lobbyists are doing some arm-twisting in hopes of getting a couple more House members to go along.
If they succeed, it still has to go past the Senate. Since that's controlled by a coalition of Republicans and more or less conservative Democratics, passage there seems unlikely. Of course, they could shave around $1.4 billion from the project by discarding their push to ram light rail from Portland Expo Center into downtown Vancouver, but that would negate the entire purpose of the project - it's basically a light rail project with a car, bus, and truck component.
Clark County voters have made it abundantly clear that they don't want a light rail extension into downtown Vancouver, but Porkland and TriMet have been pushing it for over a decade, and they're determined to shove it through by any means necessary. But unfortunately for them and for the Democrat governors in Washington and Oregon, it seems unlikely to pass the Washington legislature. They may just grant Oregon taxpayers a reprieve.
You may recall that last week some 25,000 bumblebees, honey bees, and various other insect species were found dead in the parking lot of a Target store in Wilsonville. It turned out that a landscaper had sprayed a large number of linden trees around the store with Safari, a pesticide that's banned in Europe.
Well, you'll be pleased to know that a Portland resident has stepped up and is organizing a memorial service for the bees; it'll be held this Sunday at the Wilsonville Target. June 30, 2:00 p.m.
BLM's been ordered by a federal judge to start selling more trees in southern Oregon because they haven't been living up to the terms established in the 1995 forest management plan. Undoubtedly, the usual suspects will litigate some more; they don't mind windmill farms slaughtering eagles and bats, but Spotted Owl!
Anne Forest Burns, of American Forest Resource Council, is optimistic, calling the ruling a victory for both timber-dependent communities and for the forests themselves.