DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Let me preface this by saying that BART San Francisco employees are generally considered a tad less customer-friendly than the staff of a Zimbabwean DMV.IT GETS WORSE! RTWT!What -- you expected something different from yet another Rathke-SEIU™ enterprise?
As suggested, I did a quick perusal of BART Salaries.
Mayor Gavin Newsom may be San Francisco's leader, but he's only 29th on the list of highest-paid city employees, more than a third of whose earnings topped $100,000 last year.Newsom, whose salary is $250,903, is one of 9,487 workers who grossed more than $100,000 last year, including overtime.
Top earner Charles Keohane, a former deputy police chief who earned $516,118, retired last year, cashing out stored-up vacation, sick days and comp time.
The highest salary among the city's nearly 27,000 workers is $332,489, earned by Nathaniel Ford, head of the agency that runs the city's light rail and bus systems.
Steve Falk, city Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, says state employment data show city workers average 20 percent more pay than the private sector. The city's Department of Human Resources found that San Francisco pays similar salaries as other locales in the region for some jobs and slightly more for others.
Deputy City Controller Monique Zmuda said city worker salaries averaged $93,000 before benefits. Almost 100 city employees made $200,000 or more in 2009. Six topped $300,000, including overtime and cash-outs.
Salaries accounted for $2.5 billion of the city's $6.6 billion budget for the fiscal year ending in June 2009. That does not include the costs of benefits.
GOVERNOR CHRISTIE IS A CHAMPION OF THE TAX-PAYERS WHO IS WILLING TO TAKE ON THE TAX-GETTERS:
George Will writes about how Gov. Christie is Bringing Thunder-ous change to New Jersey
He inherited a $2.2 billion deficit, and next year’s projected deficit of $10.7 billion is, relative to the state’s $29.3 billion budget, the nation’s worst. Democrats, with the verbal tic — "Tax the rich!" — that passes for progressive thinking, demanded that he reinstate the "millionaire’s tax," which hit "millionaires" earning $400,000 until it expired Dec. 31. Instead, Christie noted that between 2004 and 2008 there was a net outflow of $70 billion in wealth as "the rich," including small businesses, fled. And he said previous administrations had "raised taxes 115 times in the last eight years alone."So he closed the $2.2 billion gap by accepting 375 of 378 suggested spending freezes and cuts. In two weeks. By executive actions. In eight weeks he cut $13 billion — $232 million a day, $9 million an hour. Now comes the hard part.
Government employees’ health benefits are, he says, "41 percent more expensive" than those of the average Fortune 500 company. Without changes in current law, "spending will have increased 322 percent in 20 years — over 16 percent a year." There is, he says, a connection between the state’s being No. 1 in total tax burden and being No. 1 in the proportion of college students who, after graduating, leave the state.
A MAJOR PART OF THE GREAT REBELLION SHAPING UP IN THE USA IS A TAX REVOLT - HENCE THE RELEVANCE OF THE TEA PARTY APPELLATION.
A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WANT CHEAPER SMALLER GOVERNMENT, NOT BIGGER GOVERNMENT. WE WANT CHEAPER HEALTH INSURANCE, NOT MORE GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE REGULATIONS.
WHY ARE WE GETTING MORE GOVERNMENT WHEN WE WANT SMALLER GOVERNMENT?
IT'S SIMPLE: IT'S BECAUSE OF THE MACHINE, THE AXIS OF TAXES, THE "CONGRESSIONAL-GOVERNMENT UNION COMPLEX".
THERE'S A BIGGER PROBLEM TODAY: THE "CONGRESSIONAL-GOVERNMENT UNION COMPLEX".
THIS IS THE COMPLEX BETWEEN CONGRESSMEN AND THE GOVERNMENT UNIONS LIKE THE SEIU AND AFSCME AND THE NEA.
IT'S THE AXIS OF TAXES.
HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:
THE UNIONS GIVE MONEY TO POLITICIANS AND CONGRESSMEN IN RETURN THEY GET RAISES AND BIGGER EMPLOYEE/UNION ROLLS WITH BIGGER GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.
CONGRESSMEN DON'T GIVE A CRAP BECAUSE THEY PAYBACK THE UNIONS WITH TAXPAYER MONEY.
OUR MONEY. NOT THEIRS.
WE CAN END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL BY OUTLAWING ALL UNIONS FOR ALL FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, MUNICIPAL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT WORKERS.
I'D LIKE TO SEE THIS AS PART OF THE NEXT CONTRACT WITH AMERICA.
IN THE MEANTIME: VOTE GOP THIS NOVEMBER.
For the first time in American history, a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.
In its annual report on union membership, the bureau undercut the longstanding notion that union members are overwhelmingly blue-collar factory workers. It found that membership fell so fast in the private sector in 2009 that the 7.9 million unionized public-sector workers easily outnumbered those in the private sector, where labor’s ranks shrank to 7.4 million, from 8.2 million in 2008.
“There has been steady growth among union members in the public sector, but I’m a little bit shocked to see that the lines have actually crossed,” said Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for labor at the United States Chamber of Commerce.
According to the labor bureau, 7.2 percent of private-sector workers were union members last year, down from 7.6 percent the previous year. That, labor historians said, was the lowest percentage of private-sector workers in unions since 1900.
Among government workers, union membership grew to 37.4 percent last year, from 36.8 percent in 2008.
GOVERNMENT WORKERS ARE 7 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE IN A UNION - A UNION THAT LOBBIES FOR MORE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS - PROGRAMS THAT COME AT TAX-PAYER EXPENSE.
AND THESE UNIONS - THE SEIU AND AFSCME AND THE NEA - ARE IN INTEGRAL PART OF THE DEMOCRAT MACHINE. (WHOSE OTHER KEY PARTISAN COMPONENTS ARE THE TRIAL LAWYERS AND THE "EDUCATED CLASS"/SOCIALIST ELITES.
SEVERAL PREVIOUS POSTS ON THE TAX-GETTERS HERE.
NOBODY HAS SEEN OBAMA IN THE OVAL OFFICE MORE THAN ANDY STERN - THE RADICAL LEFT-WING SOCIALIST BOSS OF THE SEIU - AND A FOUNDER OF THE NEW PARTY AND THE WORKING FAMILIES PARTY.
You are my sunshine - After overcoming a lawsuit, the Department of Labor forced unions to reveal where their member dues are going. As Opinion Journal reported today, the National Education Association gave $65 million to left-liberal groups to defeat voucher programs, charter schools, and Social Security reform.
[Sager] noted this morning, the strike opened up a class war -- just not the one the union was expecting. "[T]here is a class confrontation of a kind going on — but it's not between rich and poor. It's between the working class and what might be called the government-worker class. The gap between the two groups has been growing for a while."
Fast-rising pension costs for government employees - the issue that helped set off this week's transit strike in New York City - are a problem confronting cities, counties and states nationwide, causing many budgetary experts to predict a wave of painful fights over efforts to scale back government retirement programs.This is a ticking time-bomb - fiscally AND politically. The LOUSY and CORRUPT labor deals which politicians running governments made is coming back to haunt us all.
the [CALIFORNIA] teachers' unions want higher taxes for a state ranked the third worst tax climate for business in the nation.RTWT.
Its corporate income tax rate is already the highest in the West.
Far be it from me to suggest some cost savings strategies, but perhaps crushing the public union oligarchies would be a real nice start. After all, the Los Angeles School Superintendent has identified 1,000 "horrendous" teachers, but not a single one of them can be fired thanks to the teachers' union.
...I think it's too late for California. It's just another Democrat Utopia that's circling the drain, along with Illinois, Michigan, New York and New Jersey.
Hopefully, we can crush the Democrat majority in Congress this November before the infection fatally sickens the entire U.S.
* Liberals are more self-centered than conservatives.Listen to him be interviewed here - at POWER LINE.
* Conservatives are more generous and charitable than liberals.
* Liberals are more envious and less hardworking than conservatives.
* Conservatives value truth more than liberals, and are less prone to cheating and lying.
* Liberals are more angry than conservatives.
* Conservatives are actually more knowledgeable than liberals.
* Liberals are more dissatisfied and unhappy than conservatives.
Two labor sources tell Politico that the giant Service Employees International Union, which has been neutral through the primary, is on the verge of throwing its support to Sen. Barack Obama.SEIU WEBSITE:
"It's done," said one person close to the union.
SEIU spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller confirmed that union leaders are set to discuss a potential endorsement today.
"Our board is going to be talking this evening," she said. "This will be a topic of their conversation."
An endorsement will be particularly important in beefing up his organization in Texas, where the union has a major presence among Latinos. (The Wisconsin SEIU has already endorsed Obama, and his Chicago allies are active there.)
Many SEIU leaders had backed Edwards before he dropped out, but giant New York- and Chicago-based locals blocked an endorsement. Now, with Chicago pushing hard for Obama and joined by much of the rest of the union's national organization, insiders said a tipping point appears to have been reached.
SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. Focused on uniting workers in three sectors to improve their lives and the services they provide, SEIU is:
» The largest health care union, with 900,000 members in the field, including nurses, LPNs, doctors, lab technicians, nursing home workers, home care workers
» The largest property services union, with 225,000 members in the building cleaning and security industries, including janitors, door men and women
» The second largest public services union, with 850,000 local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and child care providers.
We must stop them.
- THE OBAMA-REZKO RELATIONSHIP SPEAKS VOLUMES - ABOUT OBAMA.
- AND IT EXPLAINS WHY AND HOW OBAMA ROSE SO QUICKLY THROUGH CITY AND THEN STATE POLITICS AND INTO THE SENATE.
- AND IT EXPLAINS WHY TED KENNEDY IS SO ENTHUSIASTICALLY SUPPORTING HIM
- IT'S NOT JUST CLINTON-FATIGUE, OR CLINTON HATRED.
- IT'S THE OL'TIME CORRUPT, ELECTION-STEALING, PATRONAGE JOB-GIVING CHICAGO DEMOCRAT PARTY MACHINE, FEELING YOUNG AGAIN - FEELING WELL-OILED, AND EAGER TO GET CONTROL OF THE WHITE HOUSE SO THEY CAN:
Can you imagine what will happen if PRESIDENT OBAMA signs a nationalized healthcare plan bill passed by HARRY REID and NANCY PELOSI!?!?
- GET CONTROL OF FEDERAL PATRONAGE,
- GET CONTROL OF THE POWER TO INCREASE FEDERAL UNION WAGES,
- AND - AS TEDDY BELLOWED SO LOUDLY DURING HIS ENDORSEMENT SPEECH -
- GET THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO CREATE THE GREAT-GRANDMOTHER OF ALL FEDERAL TEAT-SUCKING PATRONAGE PROGRAMS OF ALL TIMES: NATIONAL HEALTHCARE.
It'll probably be run by a Kennedy and a Daley - for their benefit and the benefit of and their SEIU/AFSCME cronies.
The American Federation of Government Employees endorsed Barack Obama Friday, giving the Illinois senator fresh momentum toward capturing the Democratic nomination for president.
"Our people, I think, recognize the enthusiasm and vitality behind Senator Obama's campaign," AFGE President John Gage said.
Gage, a previously uncommitted superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, said he is also personally endorsing Obama.
Obama, the Democratic front-runner, is vying with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the party's presidential nomination. His candidacy has been picking up momentum since Tuesday, when he handily won the North Carolina primary and held Clinton to a narrow victory in Indiana.
While calling Clinton a friend and saying she has worked hard for federal employees, Gage said some members of AFGE's board also think having Obama as the Democratic nominee would help the Democratic slate as a whole. Obama will do better in "bringing along some of the downticket races," Gage said.
AFGE is the largest federal employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.
The era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history.
The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over" and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force.
Most of the increases are on the civilian side, which will grow by 153,000 workers, to 1.43 million people, in fiscal 2010.
ENLARGING THE FEDERAL PAYROLL ISN'T JUST WHAT THE MACHINE WANTS, IT'S JOB NUMBER ONE!
TO ENLARGE THE TAX-GETTERS TAKE AND ENRICH THEIR COMRADES IN AFSCME AND THE NEA AND THE SEIU.
THESE GOVERNMENT WORKERS' UNIONS AND THE CHICAGO MACHINE AND THE ALINSKY-INDOCTRINATED AND SOROS-FUNDED LEFT COMPRISE "THE AXIS OF TAXES".
AND THEY WILL DESTROY THE USA IF WE LET THEM.
WE CAN STOP THEM IN THEIR TRACKS THIS NOVEMBER.
