First off, I was a member of a public employees union that went on strike. I was a strike captain for my unit, and after the strike I was elected Treasurer of the local chapter.

Now, let’s see about correcting some of the lies being propagated by the M$M.

The basic fact that people need to understand is that no public employees union has ever gone out on strike for a pay raise. People know going in that the pay is lousy compared to the private sector, so they aren’t going through the aggravation and penalties of a strike over pay. The local governments always say that it is about pay and the workers are greedy, but that is to deflect scrutiny from what they are really doing.

The M$M always runs with the lie because the negotiators aren’t allowed to talk to the press about the issues, and all of the major officials of the union are involved in the negotiations. The government has separate people to do their negotiating, so government officials are available to comment about things they are technically not supposed to know until the negotiations are over and there is an agreement to be ratified by both sides.

I have seen ignorant journalists saying that the teachers don’t care about taxpayers. Excuse me, but there is no ’employee discount’ when you work for the government – teachers and all other government workers pay the same taxes at the same rate as everyone else. When someone says “I pay your salary” to a government worker the proper response is “Well, we have that in common.”

[Read more →]

Position: 20.7N 50.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [305°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph [135 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 125 Miles [205 km].
Minimum central pressure: 990 mb ↓.

Currently about 820 miles [1320 km] East-Northeast of the Lesser Antilles.

The current forecast has Nadine becoming a hurricane, but staying in the central Atlantic for the next few days. After that it may recurve and head for the Azores.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]