Quickies

A round-up of articles, news items, columns and blog posts that caught our eye over the past week or so.





So, unemployment here in San Diego county is at 10.5%. Sounds like a terrific time to go on strike, right? Well, that's precisely what the grocery workers here are considering just as they did 8 years ago.

Here's B-Daddy with his thoughts on the matter:

I personally crossed the picket line and was interviewed on local TV about why I did so. The answer was simple, we needed groceries for a party and didn't feel excessive sympathy for the worker's position. At the time, Walmart was starting to move into the grocery business and the big grocery chains needed to contain costs in order to compete. I think the problem for the grocery store workers is that it doesn't appear that high levels of education or training are necessary to perform their work. As a result, they will constantly be under competitive pressure. This is not meant as disparagement, I am on friendly terms with many unionized grocery workers and they treat me very well. They work in a field where economists would say there are low barriers to entry into that workforce, unlike health care, for instance. Ultimately, the price I pay for my groceries is a good part of the consideration of where I decide to shop. Regardless of their helpfulness, prices that are too high will send me elsewhere.

I sincerely hope the strike ends soon, but I don't see how the workers are in any better position to win concessions than they were eight years ago. Further, I wonder how they will explain to their unemployed neighbors that they went on strike because their health care costs went up. Isn't that true for almost everyone?

Shane Atwell's totally excellent Regulation Watch round-up, here.





Here's some more of that "new civility" we keep hearing about:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) came out swinging against Republicans in Congress on Saturday as she addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood.

The event occurred a day after new statistics were released showing that California's jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%. California now has the second-highest rate of unemployment in the nation, trailing only Nevada at 12.9%, and its jobless rate is well above the U.S. average of 9.1%.

Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs. "I'm not afraid of anybody," said Waters. "This is a tough game. You can't be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I'm concerned, the 'tea party' can go straight to hell."

More than 1,000 people attended "Kitchen Table Summit," which was designed to give the jobless an opportunity to vent to elected officials and share their struggles about finding a job.

KABC-TV quoted speakers talking about living without medical insurance and surviving paycheck to paycheck.

"Thank God I am healthy because a medical illness would bankrupt me," said Regina Davis of Inglewood.

Congresswomen Laura Richardson and Karen Bass also attended. Several people urged the representatives to push for a national jobs program.

(italics, ours)

There you have it: the template has been set. The Democrats are going to demand of the President yet another worthless "stimulus" plan, one that this President of such shallow economic intellect will reflexively grant.

And wasn't ObamaCare supposed to ease the medical cost burden? That doesn't seem to be the case now, does it?





Here's Eric Cantor (R-MD) in today's Washington Post:

In fact, the Obama administration’s anti-business, hyper-regulatory, pro-tax agenda has fueled economic uncertainty and sent the message from the administration that “we want to make it harder to create jobs.” There is no other conclusion for policies such as the new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, including the “Transport Rule,” which could eliminate thousands of jobs, or the ozone regulation that would cost upward of $1 trillion and millions of jobs in the construction industry over the next decade. The administration’s new maximum achievable control technology standards for cement are expected to affect nearly 100 cement plants, setting over-the-top requirements resulting in increased costs and possibly thousands of jobs being offshored. There is the president’s silence as the National Labor Relations Board seeks to prevent Boeing from opening a plant in South Carolina that would create thousands of jobs. Such behavior, coupled with the president’s insistence on raising the top tax rate paid by individuals and small businesses, has resulted in a lag in growth that has added to the debt crisis, contributing to our nation’s credit downgrade.

It should be noted that so thorough and comprehensive is Obama's war on jobs, Boeing wasn't relocating a plant from heavily-unionized Washington state, they were merely opening a completely new one in right-to-work South Carolina.




A pretty rough week, last week, for the President optics-wise. You had the two, million dollar-a-piece Canadian-built buses for the Midwest jobs tour that didn't include any jobs plan before zooming off to the toney confines of Martha's Vineyard for vacation. Here is another optic, though, we felt completely lacking.

Because nothing says economic prosperity and dynanism like speaking in front of stacks upon stacks of empty pallets. Barren, idle, empty pallets.





Oh, dear lord, say it ain't so...

Favre to the Colts?

Steyn smack:

Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes, but he’s already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign:

“I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”

This will be grand news to Schylar Capo, eleven years old, of Virginia, who made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days, and for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535 fine. If the federal child-abuser has that much time on his hands, he should have charged the cat, who was illegally transporting the protected species from his gullet to his intestine.

So eleven-year-old Schylar and other middle-schoolers targeted by the micro-regulatory superstate might well appreciate Governor Perry’s pledge. But you never know, it might just catch on with the broader population, too.

Oh, and here's even more of that "new civility" we've been hearing so much of lately:

The Monroe County Sheriff's Department is working to solve a case of vandalism that turned life-threatening.

John King was shot in the arm last week when he surprised a man trying to slash the tires on the truck at his Lambertville home.The word "scab" was also scrawled on the side.

King says he became suspicious when he saw an outside security light outside go on.

When he stepped out of his front door, the man fired one shot and ran off.

King is the owner of the largest non-union electrical contracting company in the area.

Is 'The Help' Hollywood's latest liberal civil rights fantasy?

I can only imagine the emotional roller coaster Viola Davis must have experienced when her agent called to say she'd been offered a juicy part in “The Help,” DreamWorks' adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel. Even though parts for African American women are extremely few and far between, she would be costarring in the movie, enjoying more time on screen than she'd ever had in a major studio film.

Of course, there was an uncomfortable reality: She would be playing a part that many African Americans see as a cobwebby stereotype — Aibileen, a maid in 1960s Mississippi who cleans house for and raises the children of white segregationists, tots who beam at her and exclaim, “You're my real mama, Aibi!”

If civil rights activists want a big, fat target, perhaps they should set their sights on the ranks of Hollywood execs.





OK, that's it for now. May possibly be back later this evening but definiteley tomorrow.