Bloggers This Grump Likes..

Profiles and links to my favorite Websites, some I try and visit every day, some when I have a chance to relax, and most because they are very likely to have information I'm looking for, and I know they source what they post very carefully
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Americans Stand with Israel

Be Sure You're RIGHT, Then Go Ahead

Blue bird of bitterness

Boudica BPI Weblog

Bud's

Cagle Blogs

Conservatives on Fire

Creeping Sharia

Dennis Prager

Discover the Networks

My Blog | Just another WordPress.com site

Perfection Under A Red Umbrella

Practical State

Practical State

Randy's Right

rich swier | Red County

Ringo’s Pictures

Scathing Purple Musings

secularstupidest

Space Coast Conservative

The Two Minute Conservative

Truth in American Education

Unified Patriots

United States National Blog

What Would The Founders Think?

Woman Honor Thyself

You Decide

YourDaddy's Politics

Today I'm Grumpy About's Archives

From here on you can find all of Today I'm Grumpy About's  blogs with, comments, from July 2010 until September 2011

The (Not So) Great Grain Robbery!

President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong!" - Jimmy Hoffa, President - Teamsters

Gosh, it seems like such a long time ago that Jimmy Hoffa delivered his uplifting speech designed to whip the crowd into an Organized Obama frenzy in the Motor City on Labor Day. 

Ah, the good old days.

Events from earlier today make me look wistfully back the Union-sponsored Love Fest for the Organizer in Chief, President Barack Obama. 

Yeah, I know, you’re asking, “Dude, are you serious, you thought that speech was a GOOD thing???”

Well, since you asked, I believe that talking about threatening to ‘take these sons of bitches out’ is a BETTER option than actually acting upon the thing itself. 

This evening we’ll hear from President Obama about how HE (and he alone) wants to fix the Economy. 

Tomorrow we’ll hear about how Republicans won’t even try to fix the Economy and put people back to work by following the widely accepted: ‘President Obama’s Patented Practices for Creating or Saving Jobs’.  (US Patent #: $1600000000000)

But for now, let’s talk about today. 

Tonight will take care of itself and President Obama will take care of his Organized Family… 

Longshoremen storm Wash. state port, damage RR
From the story linked above:  LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.
…
[IRONY ALERT IN 3, 2, 1:]  The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that’s staffing a workforce of other union laborers.  [IRONY ALERT ENDS]
…
“We’re not surprised,” Duscha said. “A lot of the protesters were telling us this in only the start.”
…
One sergeant was threatened with baseball bats and retreated, Duscha said. “One officer with hundreds of Longshoremen? He used the better part of discretion.”

The train was the first grain shipment to arrive at Longview. It arrived Wednesday night after police arrested 19 demonstrators who tried to block the tracks. They were led by ILWU International President Robert McEllrath, who said they would return

READ THE REST 

AT GRUMPY'S NEW HOME

Data Mining our kids– with a added twist, part I

For the most part this is going to be a repost of Sandra in Brevard’s Grumpy Educator Post Data Mining: An Education Reform Strategy with me sticking my two or three cents worth into her report. The short version is the Federal Government is going to start compiling an electronic dossier on every child in the country, starting the second they enroll in school. There are some at the department of education that believe it should start at birth. This is part of Obama’s idea of Education Reform..


 I’m reposting it now because I got a pleasant letter from my grandsons schools. The program is more extensive than I thought when I read this.. and this didn’t make me happy. Tomorrow I’ll tell you what the letter said, and what I discovered with just a little bit of research. For now some back ground from Sandra..


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 Data Mining: An Education Reform Strategy If you got mad a few years ago when you found out Moter Vehicles was selling your personal data, this will really piss you off–Grumpy


 If you buy a book through Amazon, rent a movie through Netflix, or have a Facebook account, your information and choices are “mined” to market new products catered to what the data reveals about you. In these large databases, your choices are compared with others and a book you liked might be offered to others who seem to have similar tastes or interests. Specialized algorithms are developed that “mine” in an effective process to sell products.

Wikipedia defines algorithms in part this way: “Algorithms are essential to the way computers process information. Many computer programs contain algorithms that specify the specific instructions a computer should perform (in a specific order) to carry out a specified task, such as calculating employees’ paychecks or printing students’ report cards.” NY Times contributor Seth Freeman wrote this week a clever article this week titled “Me and My Algorithm” of which he said:

READ THE REST HERE

While you're there take a look at our new home, Grumpy Opinion

September 11, 2001: America Will Remember

 

9/11 Video 2nd Tower Collapses Live On FOX

Note:  

During the live reporting of the 911 attacks, you will hear the journalist half-way through the video say: "America, offer a prayer" ... and again, a short time later, another journalist reminds everyone to "Say a prayer".

Ten years later, we have politicians announce that there is no time to say a prayer during America's Tenth Anniversary memorial on Sunday, September 11th.  No time to give a moment of silence by the clergy/rabbi/ministers and therefore, no clergy are invited to speak at the memorial.

Ten years later, and there is no room to invite the First Responders of 911 - and yet, there was plenty of room for these surviving heroes immediately following the attack on America by 15 Arab Muslims from Saudi and 4 other Islamic extremists (not to mentions those terrorists who were not caught, or are still awaiting trial).

Ten years later, and Americans attacked by Islam are hammered with propaganda by those who would have us believe that Islam is a "Religion of Peace" - when America still awaits to hear a condemnation from those who profess to be "moderate" Muslims!  Still waiting to hear those 22 Arab nations apologize for their Muslim brothers attacking the United States - and yet, how quickly this administration expects Israel, an ally, to bow at every whim presented by the Arab Palestinians.

Ten years later, and this administration is bringing in hundreds of thousands of Muslim "refugees" escaping from Muslim nations ... isn't this a little suspicious and ironic?!  They are seeking asylum in the very country they spit upon, while demonstrating, burning our flag and mocking the values of the West throughout the Islamic world.  

Ten years later, and the United States continues to pay out billions of dollars to the Arab Palestinians and those in Gaza, while Americans remember the Arabs in Gaza passing out candy and celebrating the attack upon the United States by Muslims.

Ten years later, and it is with the deepest of sadness that Americans are told a Muslim Mosque will be built just two blocks away from Ground Zero, with the blessing of American politicians ... and one wonders, what next?!  What must Americans endure at the hands of Islam before those in Washington and NYC wake up to the fact that it was Islam that proclaimed war on America - and it is Islam that is still at war with our civilization?

Ten years later, and my heart sinks every time I hear that more of our troops have been murdered, at the hands of Muslim/Islamic terrorists.

and lastly,

As an American, I will never forget what to some in the political arena is merely a date on the calender. Americans will continue to pray, as we continue to watch and listen to politicians who, like those in Gaza, make a mockery out of America's Day of Remembrance with each passing year. These same politicians who refuse to acknowledge exactly who are responsible for the attacks and who are the enemies of the United States.

Ten years later, and I remember President Bush standing on a destroyed fire engine at Ground Zero on Sept. 12th and announcing to the crowd of NYC firemen and First Responders, "America will never forget" - he was right: America Will Remember!

Bee Sting

This was posted courtesy of Bee Sting, Visit her website Real Americans Defend Israel

Not to be outdone, Arne Duncan

Embarks on his own Magical Mystery Bus Tour
(At Taxpayers expense)

With Permission from the

 Missouri Education Watchdog  


By WTLGretchen

This is from the Department of Education's Twitter Feed on Friday, September 2: 

Arne Duncan (@arneduncan)
9/2/11 2:53 PM
Fir-School Bus Tour#EDTour11 http://t.co/cGUgTWm st look at the bus for next week's Great Lakes Back-to




Obviously Duncan won't be traveling on this wrecked bus. This bus is a visual metaphor for the reforms Duncan has offered. (For the sleek looking bus he uses, click the link on the twitter feed).

I wondered if Duncan recycled one of President Obama's buses from his recent Mid-Western tour (being "green" and recycling is an important DOE goal and the path to prosperity for students) but I discovered Duncan has made a bus tour before. He may very well be recycling last year's bus. What is that "important DOE goal"? It comes from a Philadelphia meeting with Joe Biden and federal agency heads in a "Middle Class Task Force" meeting:

"Vice President Biden's focus on the middle class is directly aligned with our focus on improving education and college access. This is about the American Dream and it starts with education. The green jobs of tomorrow demand a quality education today," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. (February 2009). With the closing of Solyndra and half of billion dollars of taxpayer money gone, should the Education Secretary be focusing on different sectors in which to steer educational goals for American students?

Duncan's first bus tour was in August 2010. What was the purpose of the tour?

The blue charter bus emblazoned with a federal logo, images of smiling teachers and slogans such as "Courage in the Classroom" pulls up to school after school. 

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is on a campaign to cheer on America's teachers at a time when a sizable number are skeptical of President Obama's education agenda. Duncan faces a curious situation. In the past year and a half, he has dispensed tens of billions of dollars to sustain schools through fiscal crises and to fund ideas to improve. On Tuesday, he awarded nine states and the District $3 billion for education innovation. As the school year starts, he will unload another $10 billion for education jobs.

The first tour was to mollify teachers and what is the current bus tour focus?

The “Education and the Economy” Back-to-School Bus Tour takes Secretary Arne Duncan and senior ED staff to more than 50 events throughout the Midwest. During the tour, Duncan and staff will promote the valuable work teachers, parents, and administrators do every day to change students’ lives and, ultimately, invest in our nation’s future. Arne will be meeting with educators and talking with students, parents, administrators, and community stakeholders. Among the topics that Secretary Duncan and senior staff will discuss include the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, K-12 reform, transforming the teaching profession, civil rights enforcement, efforts to better serve students with disabilities and English Language Learners, Promise Neighborhoods, the Investing in Innovation (i3) fund, STEM education, increasing college access and attainment as well as vocational and adult education. 

How much carbon footprint will Secretary Duncan be using on this tour? Do you think he will be successful rallying support fornationalized curriculum, unfunded debt to states, turning schools into social service agencies and saddling students with college debt they can't afford to pay back because there are no jobs available for those college educated students America so desperately needs? Where is the idea of personal responsibility of parents and students in his message?

Here is a pre-tour analysis of President Obama's bus trip from aPittsburgh newspaper: 

It's important to projecting an image that the president empathizes with people's needs, and to show leadership, political analysts say -- and that's one reason presidents choose bus tours or use factories as backdrops for speeches. Yet, sometimes utilizing such props fails. 

Just insert Arne Duncan's name in place of the word "president" and you've got the gist of Duncan's bus tour. It's difficult to believe Duncan's tour will be successful when none of these educational reforms are from local districts or taxpayers. It's difficult to behave empathetically when it is your federal agency that is mandating reforms on the taxpayers who have no choice!

If Secretary Duncan was truly empathetic to people's needs, the Federal government would step down and let local communities dictate their educational services and direction. If he would do that, the DOE wouldn't have to be spending money on gasoline driving a bus preaching an empty message. That would certainly be a "green" move in the right direction.

************

Grumpy Note


I hope Duncan's bus trip at taxpayer expense works out just as well as the one his boss took.  People are still making  fun of the President, and his Magical Mystery Bus-  It may be one of the most poorly thought out and executed bit of presidential campaign shenanigans in recent memory.  Doesn't anyone at the White House read the newspapers?  


 The Missouri Education Watchdog always does a nice job, pay them a visit at


http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/

Labor Day! Wha???

Hey?  What are YOU doing here?  Shouldn't you be at work?  Oh, that's right, today is Labor Day! 

Today is the National Holiday President Grover Cleveland set aside to celebrate the existence of Unionized American Workers, Labor Unions, and Political Cronies!  

But let me ask you this:  Do you know WHY you're home from work today?  Do you know the reason for Labor Day, and why it's celebrated in September? 

Did you ever think about those questions?  Hmm, did ya, did ya???

If, however, you are at work today, or this evening, please accept my sincere apologies.  My wife is a Nurse, and since she has a 'real job' (defined here as 'Saving Lives, Administering care to the sick, to the well, to the dying, Counseling Families, and giving sponge baths to 'large, and sometimes stinky people') she often works Labor Day, Fourth of July, Christmas, Ground Hog Day, Thanksgiving, Arbor Day and other MAJOR national holidays.

As for the rest of us?  Oh yes, Labor Day is a day of 'leisure'.  It is a day in which Americans celebrate "stickin' it to the man" one last time by NOT showing up for work during the waning moments of summer.

So let's take a moment to do an EXCLUSIVE Moos Room Investigation of:

"THE ORIGIN OF LABOR DAY"! 
(Feel free to add your own 'Echo' as you read the prior CAPs section (above) in your mind)

And what better place to start than the Department of Labor?!  After all, it's a Department with 'Labor' in its title, right?

Okay, we're going in...

Q.:  Who was the 'Founder of Labor Day'?

A.:  Great question, please ask another!

SERIOUSLY!  FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WEBSITE:  "More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic."

Moos Translation:  Unions adopted the Labor Day 'concept' to prove that they were united, they could get together to drink beer, eat chicken, and get disorderly WHENEVER they wanted to and there was 'nothing' that their employer could do about it. 

In 1883, a union member was quoted as saying, "BRRRRAAAAPPPP...  Oh yeah, AND we're gonna work on getting FREE health care so we don't have to pay for nothin'!"  (Sorry, I made that part up - but you know one of them was thinking it...)

Q.:  Can you tell me about the First Labor Day?

A.:  I could, but then I'd have to kill you.  

OKAY,  SINCE YOU ASKED:   "The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Moos Translation:  "Hey, how come THOSE guys got off for the day and WE didn't?  We're in a UNION too, darn it, and we want a day off!  We WANT a day off, we WANT a day OOOOFFFFFFFFF! 

Oh, and one more thing, we want FREE health care for us, I mean, errr, for all Americans!  Yeah, for ALL American Union members!

Q.:  When did 'Labor Day' become a national holiday?

A.:  On June 28th, 1894
WHAT, NO WISECRACK?  Come on people, it's a 'date'!  'Dates' are not funny things. 

Unless, of course, it's about night I first met my wife in a bar, but that is Waaaayyy out of line for a post on Labor Day.  Plus, as everyone KNOWS, it's been a LABOR OF LOVE ever since.

Q.:  Hey, how come so many other countries celebrate their 'International Worker's Day' in May (a.k.a.:  May Day), and we're stuck with the first Monday of September?

A.:  President Grover Cleveland didn't want blood in the streets of major U.S. cities while he was in office... 

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?  According to Wikipedia:  "In countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday and their efforts largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various communist and socialist parties." 

Now does sound like a party!!!  Communist / Socialist Parties!!!

CONTINUING FROM WIKIPEDIA:  "The first Labor Day celebration was held on September 5, 1882, and was organized by the Knights of Labor. The Knights began holding it every year and called for it to be a national holiday, but this was opposed by other labor unions who wanted it held on May Day (as it is everywhere else in the world).

After the Haymarket Square riot in May, 1886, President Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the riots.

Thus he moved in 1887 to support the Labor Day that the Knights supported."
Moos Translation:  To quote Jim Morrison and the Doors, President Cleveland was trying to avoid the following (which he feared would arise if US Labor Unions celebrated the May 1st date):

"Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven
Blood stains the roofs and the palm trees of Venice
Blood in my love in the terrible summer
Bloody red sun of fantastic L.A.

Blood screams the pain as they chop off her fingers
Blood will be born in the birth of a nation
Blood is the rose of mysterious union

There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles
Blood in the streets, it's up to my knee
Blood in the streets in the town of Chicago
Blood on the rise, it's following me"

As an aside, I found the 'Official DOL Labor Day 2009 Poster' online.  You can view it by clicking HERE.  I mention it because I'm sure you'll want to print out a copy and stick it up on your wall today (make sure you have a few darts handy)! 

I couldn't find the 2010 or 2011 DOL Labor Day Poster, perhaps the guy who drew 2009's was laid off? 

Whoa, can you SMELL the irony???

In conclusion:

If you have a good day today, hug a Teamster!

If you have a bad day today, keep it to yourself!

If you are a Union Member, THANKS for the day off Comrade Worker!

If you are a Non-Unionized Employee, thanks for doing your job every day and not whining about it!

If you work in a mixed work environment (in a Management AND Craft (a.k.a.:  Union shop)) like I used too, well, you have my sympathies!  Don't get a grievance filed on you!  Smile ,and just say 'thanks' to the Shop Steward!

If are an SEIU Member planning on attending a Town Hall Meeting, I found a sign for you!


If you are Jim Morrison, I'm sorry that you're not with us any more, although those lyrics dude, what was up with those lyrics? 

If you are looking for someone to thank for all the "Hope" and "Change" which you've been living through lately? 

Just look below, look for the Union Label!

And while I'm thinking about the Union Label, how could I possibly leave out 'The Ladies International Garment Workers Union'?  (Although, isn't MOST of the clothing we buy today manufactured off-shore in third-world countries?  Huh, I wonder why that is?)

Maybe the 'Union Label' just cost too much?  Boy am I GLAD that the most successful Unions remaining are building our cars (for the government) and teaching our kids! 

There's some peace of mind for you!!!