Charlotte Observer Endorses Larry Kissell

The Charlotte Observer (to no one’s surprise) endorsed Larry Kissell for North Carolina’s 8th Congressional district. Here are the reasons cited by that rag:


8th District: Larry Kissell


Freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell faces Republican Harold Johnson and Libertarian Thomas Hill in the district that stretches from Charlotte to Fayetteville.


The 8th District includes Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Hoke, Montgomery and Stanly counties as well as portions of Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Union and Cumberland counties. It takes in affluent areas near Charlotte, and battered manufacturing areas in the region. Fayetteville's Fort Bragg is located in the district, so there are strong military interests. But many parts of the district are rural, with high levels of joblessness and poverty.


We recommend Larry Kissell. Kissell's background gives him insight into the multi-level needs of this district. A former textile worker, he became a classroom teacher after the plant he worked at closed.


Kissell's votes his first term have put him in the ideological middle of the House, according to a National Journal analysis. Testament to that? He's been endorsed by the National Rifle Association and the N.C. AFL-CIO. He's independent-minded and doesn't always stick with party-backed legislation. He voted against the health-care reform bill because of his concerns about the effect on Medicare.


Libertarian Thomas Hill has been barely visible so the matchup is essentially between Kissell and former sports broadcaster Harold Johnson. Johnson doesn't have a depth of knowledge about the issues or the district. His campaign has mostly parroted GOP talking points.


Kissell's campaign mantra has been "the best way to get re-elected is to do a good job." He has done a good job and deserves a second term.

So the Charlotte Observer is endorsing Kissell based on his independent thinking, coupled with the endorsement of the NRA and the AFL-CIO. Well, let’s take a look at the independence of Mr. Kissell. Had Nancy Pelosi needed his vote, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have bent over and grabbed his ankles. The 8th is a fairly conservative district and Speaker Pelosi didn’t want to needlessly alienate a blue dog if unnecessary; retaining power is first and foremost important to these statist scumbags.

The National Rifle Association along with other organizations usually back incumbents. The VFW just dropped their PAC because of their outrageous endorsements of politicians like Barbara Boxer who are hostile the military. The NRA knows that the chances of defeating an entrenched politician are difficult and there is no reason to incur their wrath.

The endorsement of the AFL-CIO is nothing to brag about. Their president is a known communist. I would be ashamed to have that organization back me.

When Larry Kissell voted against Obamacare and the cap and trade bill, I called and congratulated him. I even went to his office in D.C. and wrote a note of thanks; but what is not mentioned are the procedural votes that allowed those bills to come to the floor; and Kissell is guilty for allowing that to happen.

What is even more disturbing is Larry Kissells spendthrift mindset. He seems to think that the best way to represent a district is raiding the U. S. Treasury. The country can’t afford politicians with this mentality. The country can’t afford Larry Kissell.


Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/27/1788751/for-congress-kissell-myrick-watt.html#ixzz13nQFmEML

AFL-CIO President Uses Depression Era Rhetoric

AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka gave a speech today in Columbus, Ohio at the union’s annual convention. He delivered a hate filled rant blaming Republicans, businesses, insurance companies, banks, and just about anyone who is not a socialist like him:


“Some of our politicians and some of America’s biggest corporations have given up on America. Companies are sitting on $837 billion without creating jobs,” Trumka will say. “Banks are clutching a trillion dollars in profits without lending to small businesses and consumers. Too many companies aren’t investing in the future, or in the country that made them great. All they want to do is scrape every ounce of flesh from our hides — for their profit.”


“Well I say that is economic treason!” Trumka says.


“The big health insurance companies — the same ones that racked up tens of billions in profits last year and paid their CEOs megabucks — they say they need premium increases of 20 percent or more for no reason at all – except guess what? Greed,” Trumka will continue. “That’s economic treason!”

The barking by Obama’s ankle biter reminds me a lot of the attitude and rhetoric of progressive politicians in the 1930’s. Herbert Hoover felt the same way as Trumka. When federal, state and local taxes rose sharply, the pain was hard to bear for both businesses and families. No one was willing to invest.  Jim Powell’s book FDR’s Folly describes Hoover’s attitude:

To protect themselves, people increasingly held on to whatever money they had, and Hoover thought that was unpatriotic. He denounced “hoarders” for threatening America’s credit system.

Jim Powell then goes on to describe the hostility by FDR and Congress and the consequences that had on businesses:

Employers were wary of long term risks, one of which was a president and congress threatening those with “idle” capital to invest. Many economists then and now recognize how bashing employers can destroy jobs. Joseph Schumpeter wrote in his 1939 book Business Cycles that employers felt threatened: “They realize that they are on trial before judges who have the verdict in their pocket beforehand, that an increasing part of public opinion is impervious to their point of view, and that any particular indictment will, if successfully met, at once be replaced by another. Again, we may differ in our estimates of the importance of both of this factor and the functions it tends to paralyze, but is should not be overlooked.

Many began to think that FDR had become a Keynesian:

Naturally, all this further alarmed the business community, undermining the confidence of anybody who might have contemplated making long-term investments. As bad news continued to come in, increasing numbers of people demanded that the government get off their backs, starting with tax cuts. FDR would hear none of it, since he fought hard to raise taxes during the depression.

And with Obama, so it was with FDR:

Apparently people were becoming weary of FDR’s class-warfare rhetoric and his attacks on “economic royalists”; in addition, there was increasing support for tax relief.

Barack Obama, Richard Trumka and all the other socialist are reading from the same old and tired playbook. It’s too bad that they haven’t learned from their demigod’s mistakes.


Source: http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/14/union-boss-richard-trumka-to-accuse-republicans-businesses-and-insurers-of-economic-treason/#ixzz0zYLCiQq1

Jim Powell's FDR's Folly

Self-Loathing Americans to Hold Washington D.C. Rally

Liberal leaders, union thugs, and leftist media mouthpieces are jealous of Glenn Beck's "Restoring America" rally and are determined to show that they too have the drawing power of a Fox News commentator and radio personality. A Washington D.C. rally is scheduled on October 2
.
“The AFL-CIO is determined that the Tea Party and its corporate backers are not going to get the final word,” said AFL-CIO executive vice president Arlene Holt Baker. “We will expect tens of thousands of union families to come.”

I didn't know that I had a corporate sponsor. Maybe Arlene Holt Baker can direct me to my generous benefactor. It would be nice to get reimbursed for my traveling expenses.

The AFL-CIO vice president EXPECTS tens of thousands of union families to show up.  That sounds like a threat.  

I wonder if they're going to pay their members to make that long trip; or possibly some unemployed stand-ins? The unions are notorious for using non-union personal to protest on their behalf. See below video:



The rally is supposed to be non-political.  The Daily Caller reported the following groups that will be attending:

Besides the NAACP, the Oct. 2 rally will be supported and organized by other labor organizations such as the SEIU and the American Federation of Teachers.

And Jim Wallis, a liberal evangelical leader who is CEO of Sojourners, will lend a religious flavor to the event.

“As people of all faiths, backgrounds, beliefs, orientations and heritages, we must move this country forward beyond divisiveness and hate, to rebuild and reclaim our destiny,” Wallis said in a press release put out by the group formed to promote the rally, One Nation Working Together.

I just can't imagine this group of Marxist, self-loathing Americans, and race haters can be non-political.  I just can't see that happening.

H/T:  Weazel Zippers

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/01/labor-and-liberal-groups-to-hold-oct-2-rally-on-mall-to-counter-beck-tea-party/#ixzz0yKHGA1RU

AFL-CIO President Says We Don't Have a Deficit Problem

We don't have a deficit problem? What country is this guy living in?