FreedomTalks

In keeping with Labor Day traditions the nation over, yesterday many got a day off to reflect on all the wonderous things labor unions have done for America - most notably, getting us a day off at the end of the summer - but also prevailing wage, increased costs, and lower productivity.

With union numbers waning, it’s no surprise that groups like the AFL-CIO are pushing the ironically named “Employee Free Choice Act” - a bill that would eliminate secrect ballots for individuals deciding whether or not they want their workplace to be unionized.  There have also been calls in this election for the repeal of “Right to Work” laws that enable employees to opt out of union representation.

• National Right to Work Committee is an excellent source on the problems with compulsory unionism and the abuses of card check.
• MarketWatch has an essay, “Employee Free Choice Act Puts Workplace Democracy at Risk”
• Ed Feulner at Heritage looks at “Unions: What Works - and What Doesn’t”
• And the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has a collection of compelling stories from individuals detailing their experience fighting for individual rights against union abuses

I’m here in Minneapolis today attending Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty — Rally for the Republic. Tucker Carlson kicked it off and talked about why Ron Paul’s message about liberty and free markets appeals to so many people. The list of speakers for the rest of the day includes Barry Goldwater, Jr., Bruce Kaufman, Jesse Ventura and of course, Ron Paul.

The turnout is good, and the energy is high here. There are quite a few vendors peddling the freedom message. Our booth has handouts on economic issues and individual liberty. We are getting a good response on our online privacy video petition campaign. People are very upset about Senator Chuck Grassley’s efforts to track online transactions and tax eBay power sellers. We will be able to put together a good montage of folks telling the Senator to stop trying to take away our freedom.

The event goes on until after 9:00pm tonite, and concludes with music by country singer Sara Evans. I’ll be posting updates from the Rally throughout the day.

UPDATE: Author Tom Woods is getting a rousing welcome right now. He is talking about the federal reserve, spending and the housing bailout. The crowd is clearly angry about the way the fed has mucked up monetary policy — and they are upset about the Fannie/Freddie disaster. Woods pointed out that both parties have been over-spending and over-regulating.

Please note, this liveblog is simply a recap of the events in progress at the “Rally for the Republic,” these events do not necessarily reflect the views of FreedomWorks.

The last two evenings of the Democratic National Convention have been every bit as full of light, fluff, and glittery prose one would expect at the four day pajama party.  Speakers have grinned through their spot to cover past offenses and dished out the same misty rhetoric over and over again.  It’s all been very big on self-congratulations and very light on actual policy.

One of the most glaring omissions has been social security.  It’s no secret this is a very important issue to FreedomWorks.  In fact, our president, Matt Kibbe, has weighed in on this blog twice before wondering if the presidential candidates will get serious about retirement security.

If two throw-away lines can be considered serious then yes, the social security crisis is finally being addressed.

On Tuesday night, Senator Hillary said,” Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend.  He has served our country with honor and courage … John McCain wants to privatize Social Security,” as if that was a bad thing.

Later, on Wednesday night, Senator Biden expounded Senator Obama’s position on Social Security with stunning clarity and depth saying, “Barack Obama will … put the ’security’ back in Social Security.”

I went to Obama’s website to see what Biden meant by that and found it meant a tax hike, and no mention of stopping the current practice of Congress to use social security like a slush fund.  It would be at least a step in the right direction to say that “Barack Obama will put the ‘trust’ back in Social Security Trust Fund and stop spending your money on pork barrel projects.”

Far from “Renewing America’s Promise” - Tuesday’s theme at the convention - this is repeating the mistakes of the past to continue to ignore the problem and conversely, the very simple steps that could be taken to give people choice and security.

Very interesting article from the Wall Street Journal - “San Fancisco Ponders: Could Bike Lanes Cause Pollution?”

Mr. Anderson disagrees. Cars always will vastly outnumber bikes, he reasons, so allotting more street space to cyclists could cause more traffic jams, more idling and more pollution. Mr. Anderson says the city has been blinded by political correctness. It’s an “attempt by the anti-car fanatics to screw up our traffic on behalf of the bicycle fantasy,” he wrote in his blog this month.

While I’m not sure what the ultimate findings from the environmental impact study will bring, Mr. Anderson does raise some really interesting questions: are the bike/car trade-offs worth it?  will better bike access really mean fewer cars or more gridlock for drivers?  and finally, and perhaps most interestingly, is the biking politically motivated?   Most biking commuters I know simply ride their bikes to work because it saves so much money on gas.  At any rate, it’s a fun read.

And further down the coast, also from the WSJ Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to support offshore drilling. The article admits this doesn’t mean rigs are heading out to CA immediately since state and federal statutes still ban drilling, but it is a strong message from Santa Barbara to the governor.  Their action also illustrates how people are beginning to understand how far we’ve come technologically, making off-shore drilling safer for the environment.

Let Go of the Past and Allow Offshore Drilling - George Skelton writes in the LA Times (h/t The Foundry)

So there’s a gusher of hypocrisy here: The state that is the biggest consumer of gasoline in the nation — but produces less than 40% of what it uses — is opposed to drilling for more oil off its shores. We’re slackers not pulling our weight.

Who Often Blocks Alternative Energy Projects? Radical Greens - Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial

They represented the handful of environmental extremist groups that are all for a renewable revolution, as long as it doesn’t involve the construction of wind turbines (they might kill birds), solar power arrays (they take up too much land and displace threatened bugs and rodents) or transmissions lines (they ruin scenic views), and as long as it doesn’t allow this country’s metropolitan areas to grow larger.

Don’t believe it?  Head over to www.lightsonOregon.com to see more radical opposition to alternative energy sources.

The Foundry has a great update on the state of card check and unions.

The president of California’s largest union local, the 160,000-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Los Angeles, yesterday announced he would take a leave of absence and the local would be placed in a temporary trusteeship. Tyrone Freeman’s departure comes after an in-depth series of Los Angeles Times articles detailing how Freeman fleeced union members —  who make about $9 an hour caring for the infirm and disabled — of over $1 million in 2006 and 2007 alone.

And it gets worse from there.  The LA Times articles the blog mentioned are well worth a read to get caught up on what will definitely be an important issue next year.

Readers interested in checking into union activities on their own can go to www.unionreports.gov and read up on things like the non-salaried dispersements and perks union bosses get.

Steven Malanga takes on the “free-ride for business” myth at RealClearMarkets. Check it.

Many businesses we regard as successful operate on small profit margins. After paying $5.8 billion in taxes in 2005, Wal-Mart earned $11.7 billion—a nice chunk of change. But those earnings were on revenues of $312 billion, a mere 3.4 percent net profit margin. Exxon Mobil earned $36 billion in 2005 after paying $23.3 billion in taxes on revenues of $371 billion. Looking at that result you realize that in America today, a ‘windfall’ profit is one that amounts to less than 10 percent of revenues.

With profit earning companies vilified so much in the media, and threats of increased rates always on the horizon, it’s easy to forget that we have the second highest corporate tax rate among OECD nations.

On their way out the door for August vacation, Congressional leadership threatened all kinds of windfall profit taxes aimed at oil companies - as if taking more money from a business would result in lower prices, especially ones who are already paying record taxes in keeping with their profits.

This Wall Street Journal article also sheds some light on “windfall profits,” pointing out that compared to other industries, oil has one of the lowest profit margins.

Maybe they have in mind profit margins as a percentage of sales. Yet by that standard Exxon’s profits don’t seem so large. Exxon’s profit margin stood at 10% for 2007, which is hardly out of line with the oil and gas industry average of 8.3%, or the 8.9% for U.S. manufacturing (excluding the sputtering auto makers).

If that’s what constitutes windfall profits, most of corporate America would qualify. Take aerospace or machinery — both 8.2% in 2007. Chemicals had an average margin of 12.7%. Computers: 13.7%. Electronics and appliances: 14.5%. Pharmaceuticals (18.4%) and beverages and tobacco (19.1%) round out the Census Bureau’s industry rankings.

Reason is up to their usual brilliance with their latest on ethanol.

Says gentleman at a gas station in Texas in this video. Congressman Jeb Hensarling (TX) went home to collect signatures from constituents asking for a vote on energy.

Colorado Congressman Mark Udall has apparently seen the light of elections and  reversed his opposition to off shore drilling, The Denver Post has the story.

Battered on the energy issue for weeks, Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Mark Udall moved Wednesday to close the distance with his Republican opponent on the issue, calling for more domestic drilling and reversing his long-standing opposition to drilling off America’s shores.

Still no word if Udall will come around on the vast reserves of oil shale in his own state.

Here’s an interesting article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about oil off the New Jersey shore.  The article talks about the new technology we have to pinpoint oil, making it a more exact science than ever and about the billions of barrels just off our own coasts.

One of things that stood out to me most was the fact that New Jersey’s Governor and Senator Lautenberg both oppose off shore drilling  (and Rep. Zimmerman, a Republican senatorial candidate was opposed as well but tempered his stance by saying states should get to choose which is true) despite the fact that a majority of the people they supposedly represent disagree.

A 62 percent majority of likely New Jersey voters polled this month by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said they favored drilling in protected offshore areas.

An even higher percentage of Jersey Shore voters - 70 percent - supported lifting the ban, polling spokesman Pat Smith said.

It’s pretty clear this is a national message leaders are ignoring.