Parteibuch Aggregator Feed - Items from date 2010-09-06

John Ratzenberger: We Need More Skilled Workers

John Ratzenberger — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:13:57 +0000

When America gave up its position as the producer-in-chief and became the consumer-in-chief, “essential skilled workers” became dirty words in our lexicon.

The cultural shift is fast producing an “industrial tsunami” that threatens our economy and way of life. Ironically enough, we’re facing a crisis shortage of skilled workers at a time of dramatically high unemployment.

We must re-connect this disconnect or face the consequences. America works when Americans are working.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 25 percent of the working population will reach retirement age by 2012, resulting in a potential shortage of nearly 10 million skilled workers. This heightens the price our nation is paying for dismantling so many in-school vocational training programs during the past few decades.

The current shortage already sharply reduces the growth of U.S. gross domestic product, contributing to our overall economic problem. America’s infrastructure is falling apart before our eyes. Municipal water and sewer systems are failing, and more bridges are unsafe to cross. Yet the nationwide shortfall of more than 500,000 welders is causing already-funded repair projects to be canceled or delayed.

Essential skilled workers are heroes. Without them, America grinds to a halt. But there are national security implications to this skilled worker gap, too. The ongoing demand for U.S.-manufactured military parts and hardware — from boots to mother boards — require domestic manufacturing operations. Even now, critical manufacturing has been moved off-shore as a stop-gap measure.

We simply can’t “outsource” our national defense!

Along with Emmy Award-winning producer Craig Haffner and the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice, I am currently in pre-production with a new documentary, “Industrial Tsunami,” whose purpose is to wake up Americans to the shortage of skilled workers that threatens the existence of companies and entire industries.

We must develop short- and long-range solutions to this crisis, starting with expanding vocational training opportunities and restoring dignity and pride in America’s skilled workers.

We will explore the negative media images of skilled workers, as well as current initiatives at the national and local levels to address this crisis.

Equally important, we will promote the concept that essential skilled work is noble, is useful and creates the independent mindset and self-confidence in the individual that has resonated throughout our nation’s history — and can rebuild America with a solid foundation once again.

Jeff Dunetz: The Jewish Holidays, Personal Responsibility, and Progressivism

Jeff Dunetz — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:26:36 +0000

With the setting of the sun this Wednesday night, Jews across the world will begin the observance of the Yomim Noraim Days of Awe , a ten day period book-ended by the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This year’s High Holiday period comes at an interesting time for America as the first night of Rosh Hashanah comes a mere fifty-four days before the United States goes to the polls to between two radically different directions, one which emphasizes personal responsibility, the other emphasizes a reliance on government. Only one of those directions is compatible with the true meaning of the High Holidays.

The popular view is the two holidays are observed by going to Synagogue saying a few prayers and begging God for forgiveness. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The High Holiday period is all about personal responsibility. All the prayers and readings are just tools to help us look inward and formulate a personal accounting of our deeds over the past year, good and bad, and to understand what we have learned, or need to learn to correct our deeds. As for forgiveness, we are taught that our maker is not like a big massive government who will fix everything. For earthly-type mistakes, we must approach the people we may have harmed for forgiveness and if necessary make restitution to them, then we must discover what within ourselves led us to err and correct them. Only then can we approach God for absolution.

It’s not that God couldn’t fix everything, but his direct involvement would destroy the delicate balance he set up during creation.

The creation narrative in Genesis explains that man is created in God’s image. The Torah is not teaching us that we are all dead ringers for the “big guy upstairs.” If that was the case everyone’s driver’s license would have the same picture, the Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit Issue would seem a bit creepy, and no one would be able to solve crimes as eye witness testimony would be useless and everyone would have the same DNA.

“Created in God’s image” is supposed to teach us that just as God acts as a free being, without prior restraint to do right and wrong, so does man. God does good deeds as a matter of his own free choice. Because we are created in his image, man does the right thing as a matter of free choice also. Only through free choice, can man truly be “in the image of God”. That is why God created a world where both good and evil can operate freely. The Rabbis explain this when they said, “All is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven” Talmud, Berachot 33b . God controls all the options we have, but it is up to man to pick between the correct or incorrect option.

Free will is the divine version of limited government. God picks the winning direction, but does not pick winners and losers, nor does he interfere with the process of learning through repentance and understanding ones actions. We are not divinely perfect, nor are we meant to be. We are only supposed to be closer to that divineness when we leave this world, than when we entered it.

Because we all are created in God’s image, Jews believe that ”All men are created equal,” This does not mean, as many in the progressive establishment will tell you, that when it comes to talents, looks, preferences, or natural abilities we are all equal. Nor does it mean we all should have the same big screen TV, wireless internet, or savings account balance. Jewish tradition respects economic success, so long, as it is obtained honestly, and proper respect is shown for the social responsibility that comes with it. That social responsibility is a personal duty and a job for the community led by its religious leaders, but not for the government. The Hebrew word for charity, tzedaka, has in its root the word tzedek which means righteous, because we are taught that personally giving charity is one of the keys to righteousness.

What is actually meant by all men are created equal is we all have the same ability to be infinitely good or wicked, we all have the same ability to forge a relationship with God regardless of our intellectual capability, social background, physical strength, wealth, etc. During the high holidays, we evaluate how well we have used the “lot we have been given” for good deeds and to forging that heavenly relationship.

Some of the Sages have suggested that when God created the world, sparks of his holiness were spread across the earth. Every time that a person makes the choice of performing a righteous act, one of those sparks is purified and sent back to heaven. Through that process we become closer to God.

A Liberal/Progressive government takes away that choice. They believe that if it was left up to the individual, they would do the wrong thing. Therefore government needs to take an omnipotent role and control our decisions. By taking away our free will and giving it to the government, liberals retard our spiritual development and remove our opportunity to get closer to God. In a progressive society, the ten “Days of Awe” are not necessary because the government makes our choices.

In a dictionary the word sin is defined as any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle. There is no word in Hebrew matching that definition. Instead Jews talk about “Chet” missing the mark. It is an archery term referring to an arrow which “missed the target.” The person who missed the mark is considered to have made the mistake due to a lack of focus, concentration or skill. Through personal reflection during the High Holidays Jews can determine why they missed the mark. The answer cannot be someone else made me. We are told to look for what is in ourselves that made us miss.

In the same vein the word for repentance is “Teshuvah” which means return. In other words we have returned to the correct path to once again hit the target. Repentance implies simply feeling bad for what you have done; Teshuvah involves changing what it is inside you that led you to go off course. And, as the Rabbis tell us, the only way to do that is personal reflection. God may give us a road-map in the Torah, Prophets, Psalms and other sacred texts, but to truly change ourselves and ultimately to truly change the world, we have to discover for ourselves the best way to read the road map.

In its purest essence the Jewish High Holiday period is the antithesis of the various forms of Liberal and Progressive government. We learn from those “Ten Days of Awe” that we must be honest with ourselves and rely on our own introspection to find the right path. We learn that while God may be evaluating the path we take and how we correct the times we’ve missed the mark; he gives us the free will to find the right way.

Progressive and Liberal governments take that free will away from you, they determine the path, eliminate the need for introspection and your opportunity to find those sparks of God in the world. In the end what those governments take from its citizens is the greatest joy of all, finding a path that will draw one closer to God.

To all my friends both Jew and Gentile,

Le-shana tova Tikatevu ve-Techatemu

May God Write And Seal You In The Book Of Life For A Good Year.

Kyle Olson: Congress Should Abolish ‘Labor’ Day

Kyle Olson — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:44:13 +0000

When Congress created Labor Day in the late 1800s, it was to placate an increasingly hostile labor movement. At a time when American workers needed protection from heavy-handed industrial bosses, labor unions made sense.

But with the growing effort by Big Labor to unionize public employees, it’s left its mission of worker protection from dangerous conditions and now has increasingly become a leech on the taxpayers. Public employees hardly need protection from their employer, the government.

If there’s any segment of society that needs protection from the government it’s taxpayers, not their employees.

Big Labor’s legacy today is that of creating pension systems that are continuing to plunge deeper into the red. Some reports indicate the collective debt, just of school employee pensions, is around $1 trillion.

Public employee unions have also created scenarios where the health benefits of their members now cost school districts nearly $24,000 in places like Milwaukee.

And they’ve instituted schemes where teachers receive raises for not dying over the summer. With negotiated “step raises,” increases are based on years of service, not value added to the “company.”

Big Labor is bankrupting government – and we should continue honoring that?

Perhaps even worse, today’s labor leaders are downright hostile to America’s exceptionalism and worse yet, embrace socialist ideals.

AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka is calling for a global financial tax – driving us down the path of one world government.

Former SEIU heavy Andy Stern was fond of invoking Karl Marx’ calling for “workers of the world” to “unite.”

These are not out fathers’ and grandfathers’ labor unions and they do not deserve our admiration.

“Labor Day” ought to be abolished and replaced with a celebration of the American Worker – not just those that are funding the likes of Rich Trumka, Randi Weingarten and Andy Stern, but everyone that is gainfully employed and contributing to society.

The reality is, unionized workers are no longer the ones driving America’s prosperity. Big Labor’s share of the American workforce is the lowest its ever been. And its push to increase government employees – and thus its dues-paying ranks – is only making the problem worse.

Non-unionized small businesses and other segments of society are what stimulate America’s economy – not organized labor.

We should stop honoring a system that is jeopardizing America’s future and begin to embrace what will revive America’s fortunes again: all American workers.

But don’t expect that any time soon. Consider what President Obama said recently:

“We’ve reversed the executive orders of the last administration that were designed to undermine organized labor. And we are going to keep on fighting to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. I don’t give up. I don’t quit. The AFL-CIO does not give up. It does not quit. That is a commitment that I am making to you. Thank you for the commitment that you’ve made to me.”

Bob McCarty: Government Transparency Causes ‘Blindness’

Bob McCarty — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:17:28 +0000

If my experience with one U.S. Department of Justice agency is indicative of how the federal government operates in this new era of transparency, then I must conclude that transparency causes “blindness.”

Several times during the past 18 months, I’ve contacted people at the National Institute of Justice — the research, development and evaluation arm of the DoJ in Washington, D.C. — with seemingly-innocuous questions about a grant the agency awarded to a state mental health agency in Oklahoma almost five years ago. NIJ’s answers would better equip me to explain to my readers how NIJ works. Unfortunately, it seems NIJ officials prefer I remain “blind” to what’s going on inside the agency.

Some background: Curious to learn details about NIJ’s criteria for granting non-competitive awards, I forwarded several questions to Jolene Hernon July 28. After pointing out to my contact in the NIJ Office of Communications that less than one percent of the total amount of NIJ’s annual awards in 2009 was non-competitive, according to the Guidelines Regarding Non-Competitive Awards published on the NIJ web site, I asked several questions as follows:

I asked Hernon to explain whether or not the guidelines used in granting non-competitive awards have changed since Jan. 1, 2005, and, if they have changed, asked her to explain those changes;

Prefacing my request with “If the guidelines have not changed,” I asked her to explain the basis upon which a particular non-competitive award was granted; and

Finally, I asked for a copy of the NIJ director’s “determination in writing,” as called for in the current guidelines, that the award in question was worthy of non-competitive status.

I asked the final question above after reading on the NIJ web site that the agency’s policy is to make non-competitive awards only under the following circumstances:

Only one reasonable source — instances where only one responsible applicant can perform the work of the proposed award. Circumstances under which this may occur include when the NIJ Director has determined in writing that:

~ The applicant has proprietary information or proposes a project involving a unique idea, method, or approach toward advancing criminal justice, policy, and practice in the United States.

~ The applicant has made a substantial investment in an activity that would advance criminal justice policy and practice in the United States. The majority of NIJ’s non-competitive awards to other Federal agencies fall into this category. These agreements are developed to leverage the investment or infrastructure of these agencies to criminal justice application.

~ The applicant is the only entity known to possess the capability to perform the work.

Compelling public interest — instances where the NIJ Director has determined in writing that exigent, urgent, or other compelling circumstances exist that make it in the public interest to make an award non-competitively. One example of such an instance might be an unusual and compelling urgency to execute a pilot project within a short window of opportunity to affect a public policy decision.

Statutory requirements — instances where a funding recipient is specified by an appropriations act or other applicable law.

Recommendations in Congressional reports, when a non-competitive award would be consistent with applicable law — instances where a House, Senate, or Conference Report accompanying an appropriations act or other law recommends an award to a particular recipient, and an award may be made consistent with applicable law, including any applicable executive orders.

I closed my request by asking Hernon to “Please let me know if you plan to respond to this as a media inquiry or whether I must submit the questions above via the Freedom of Information Act FOIA .”

Make no mistake, I have received several short e-mail bursts from Hernon since July 28, but none qualify as answers. For instance:

On July 28, she wrote, “I will respond. But it will take me a day or two to find out the answers to your questions.”

On July 30, she assured me, “I am still working on getting answers to your questions.”

On Aug. 12, she explained, “As I am not a grant manager, I do not know the system very well. So I have been coordinating with others here at our agency.”

On Aug. 20, she told me, “The people who can help answer your questions have scheduled a meeting for next week. I will be back in touch.”

On Wednesday, after going 34 days without an answer, I sent this message to Hernon:

“I think you would agree that 34 days should be plenty of time for any government agency to answer my questions — unless, that is, they’re trying to cover things up or rewrite history. Should I expect answers anytime soon? Please advise.”

What happened to the citizen’s right to know? Right now, I feel blind.

Monday Open Thread: Labor Day Edition

Monday Open Thread — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:04:08 +0000

Today is Labor Day. We will commemorate it by working. This is the traditional start of the election season and there is much to do between now and November.