Yes, I do believe that a pro-slavery position is on the same moral level as a pro-abortion political platform. One is legalized kidnapping and the other is legalized murder.

Ambassador Keyes’ most recent article is one of the more bracing reminders of how terminally lost America has become after decades of the Bush/Clinton families, both helping to build The Progressive New World Order. Please read former Ambassador Keyes’ article.

The United States has, indeed, already been what Barack Obama predicted that he and he alone would make it: “fundamentally transformed”.

That “transformation” has happened with undeniably bipartisan cooperation. The Bushes put America deeply into both war and debt with their Arab alliances. With many of the same objectives, the Clintons publically instituted their Progressive aims and credentials. With the invaluable assistance of both families and their mutual insistence, The Progressive New World Order had already been instituted.

If the truth be known, American sovereignty ended 38 years ago with the Roe v Wade Decision legalizing murder. America’s “inalienable right to life”, like the same “inalienable right to liberty”, had been denied the newly conceived and most defenseless citizens of Americans. From those points on there were no longer any authentic United States of America.

Pre-Civil War America and Post-Roe v Wade America are not American.

The Progressive New World Order actually began with the Roe v Wade Decision.

This version of a world order and America’s obvious compromises with Communism to make it happen demand increasingly wide licenses for legalized murder.

What did you or could you possibly expect from or for a population that has lived opportunistically in a nation with Roe v Wade?

America didn’t see tyranny coming?!

If Europe and the Orient couldn’t see the handwriting on the wall with Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Mao Zedong running things, why should America shudder at the likes of the Obama Nation?

What did Abraham Lincoln have, in order to become a President, that Alan Keyes didn’t have?

America had already endured 51 more years of legalized slavery than the 38 years that America has been sanctioning the legalized murder contained in the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade Decision. 89 years of American indifference to their black fellow citizens.

Such disregard for the barely visible human beings who are at the mercy of Roe v Wade is even easier and more widespread than the American North’s 89 year-long refusal to intervene against slavery.

Which came first?

The Supreme Court’s sadistically “enlightened sharp practice”, passing both the Dred Scott and Roe v Wade Decisions?

Or the utter moral depravity in the heart of not only Americans but within the conglomerate soul of the entire human race?

If we chalk up these horrors to simple human laziness, then there might be hope.

At least a partial rescue from human depravity, in the end, has always come.

However, must the gestating infants wait another 51 years before anyone or any American institution – private, state or federal – comes to their full and complete rescue from the Death Row of Roe v Wade?

Well, the case against the “do-gooders”, against the “bleeding hearts” among Conservative Americans, those belligerently backward citizens of what otherwise would be known of as a complete and utterly Progressive New World Order? What is the “case” against the likes of Alan Keyes and myself?

Basically, we are ignorant. We’re not “enlightened”. We refuse to recognize a fetus for the meaningless bag of cells and DNA that it is.

Conservatives, as the atheist Bill Maher repeatedly proclaims, are stupid.

An educational system that replaces morality with relativism and with Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism is the basic conduit for a nation’s decay, bottomless corruption and inevitable disintegration. The Soviet Union’s inevitable collapse came with a secret bargain between the Bush/Clinton America and Russia: “This agreement to disband the Soviet Union would only occur if ‘The West’, as the Communists call us, would agree to a mutually agreed upon design for a ‘Progressive New World Order’.”

For my Chicago and Illinois readers, these two vitally important issues of both slavery and abortion were most openly and clearly debated in your hometown and home state. In both cases, you and/or your neighbors voted the wrong way for Senator.

I assume you and/or your neighbor might have voted the wrong way for President in both cases.

All my friends in Chicago are pro-life.

However, they’re mostly Catholic.

I’m no longer a practicing Catholic.

However, I am pro-life.

Roe v Wade actually reads like a Progressive Golden Rule: “Do unto gestating infants what you wouldn’t want done unto your own gestating infancy.”

How long do you think such a Progressive Golden Rule can last before you start adding other, fully formed human beings to the staggeringly long list of aborted gestating infants?

You’re already caving into the so-called “mercy killings” of euthanasia.

It’s no accident that euthanasia and eugenics begin with the same prefix!

Eugenics was the backbone of Hitler’s Final Solution.

In the end it was all about the power of deciding who can live and who must die.

That has nothing to do with human rights.

The Progressives, however, say a “woman’s right to choose” is nothing but human rights.

It’s murder.

Plain and simple.

Murder.

John Wilkes Booth murdered Lincoln with the same cold-blooded righteousness that Obama defends abortion with.

Alan Keyes knows that.

Why isn’t Alan Keyes your Senator?

Because he has the same moral clarity as Abraham Lincoln had.

Obviously Abraham Lincoln never was good enough for Illinois.

He’s still not good enough.

Then again, Lincoln has become not good enough for the entire United States.

Lincoln’s not “cool” enough.

Not cold enough.

May God have mercy on the United States.

**

Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series “Law and Order” from 1990 to 1994

So how did the Chicago incumbent media react?

Op-eds from Dennis Byrne and Steve Huntley, both are against the intrusive HHS ruling and the denial of religious liberty.  Yet, both columns look to be written before the Catholic Bishops letter was published by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

No mention in the Sun-Times; No mention in the Chicago Tribune; No mention on WLS-7 or any other media outlet, as far as I can search.   As Peggy Noonan says, this may be the issue that gets President Obama defeated this fall, but the incumbent Chicago Media has chosen to stifle the opposition to the incumbent President on this one.

Anyone surprised?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on January 20 that
almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees
health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost
all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write.
And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Administration has seemingly ignored the First Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental
freedom, that of religious liberty. As a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics must be
prepared either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and
suffer the penalties for doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give our
institutions one year to comply.

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made
second class citizens because of their religious beliefs. We are already joined by our brothers
and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our
religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build
America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to
have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. All that has been built up over so many
years in our Catholic institutions should not be taken away by the stroke of an administrator’s
pen. This order reduces the Church to a private club, destroying her public mission in society.
In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and
protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of
Catholics to do the same.

Therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit
ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be
restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would
also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision.

A letter similar to this is being sent to their people by diocesan bishops around the
country. I thank you for your consideration of this unprecedented challenge to religious liberty.

You and your families are in my prayers; please keep me in yours.

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.

Archbishop of Chicago

Original Letter

Now it’s 2012, something is happening here again and I think I know what it is: A new energy on the progressive left of American politics that’s outpacing the once potent right-wing drive of the tea partiers in 2010. Republican primary turnout is down.

What’s special? Organized labor—under severe new attack—joined forces with students and other movements on the liberal side in a way we haven’t seen since the 1963 civil rights March on Washington. (Some unions later split on civil rights and Vietnam.)

The first rumblings of renewed energy came a year ago in Wisconsin and continue to pick up strength. When Scott Walker, the new Republican governor, signed draconian, anti-public-union legislation, the state capitol was flooded with protestors from all over the country—led by labor but vigorously supported by others. Then two Republican state senators were recalled—though the voting fell one senator shy of changing the balance of the senate.

That wasn’t the end of it. A few weeks ago activists turned in more than a million signatures on a petition to recall Walker and other legislators. There’s an even chance they will succeed in dethroning a governor for only the third time in American history—despite reported threats of reprisals against people who signed the petition.

Also, last November voters in Ohio turned out in a special referendum to repeal similar antiunion legislation signed by another unpopular new Republican governor, John Kasich. Some 61 percent voted to erase that law—again indicating widespread support, a coalition well beyond union families.

Need I remind you that last fall in New York, labor quickly joined with numerous progressive forces to support the Occupy Wall Street coalition? The movement spread rapidly across the country and dramatically changed the American political dialog from deficits to income inequality and began holding bankers’ feet to the fire. Despite winter weather, police attacks and some self-inflicted miscues, the movement has not gone away—though questions remain about its ultimate direction and potential political goals.

When Indiana last week became the 23rd “right-to-work” state, the labor protestors even included the NFL players union on the eve of the Super Bowl, which coincidentally took place in Indianapolis.

Something is happening here. Look at the immediate uprising that forced the Komen foundation to reverse its plan to defund Planned Parenthood. Another sign of significant rebellion against the right-wing agenda.

In general, these are all positive indicators for Barack Obama’s re-election, but the movement is larger than that. Many in Occupy and other groups may not even vote for him as they reprise the eternal left debate over the “lesser of two evils.”

Pew research finds 43 percent of people under 30 have an equally positive reaction to the word “socialism” as they do “capitalism.”

Add it all up. Connect the dots. The energy is clearly on the left and growing. That’s what’s happening Mr. Jones.

**
Don Rose is a regular columnist for the Chicago Daily Observer

Image American Spring circa 1972

They are strong words that he does not use lightly. Here is a list of ways Catholics feel backed into a corner by the Obama administration.

1. Abortion Extremism. Most Americans call themselves pro-life when it comes to abortion. In this regard, the Obama administration is not at all like most Americans. As I documented at the National Catholic Register, Obama’s administration made attacks on the right to life priority No. 1 in its administration.

2. Forced Contraception Coverage. If the administration forced Jewish delicatessens to serve pork that would rightly be denounced as an attack on religious liberty, both by those who “keep kosher,” those who don’t, and those who aren’t Jewish at all. By forcing Catholic institutions to pay for contraception and sterilization, the White House is doing exactly the same thing.

3. Forced Funding of Abortifacients. By forcing Catholics to pay for birth control pills, Obama has inadvertently forced into the light a medical fact that contraception’s supporters would like to forget: Contraceptive pills work in several ways. The Mayo Clinic lists them here.  Among them: “Alter the lining of the uterus so a fertilized egg doesn’t attach to it.” A “fertilized egg,” in layman’s terms, is a newly conceived human being who is already male or female and with all the genetic information that will determine whether or not she is tall, short, good at singing or excellent at softball. And preventing implantation kills that new boy or girl.

4. Breaking Notre Dame Promise. When he spoke at Notre Dame, Obama assured Catholics that his still-new administration would “draft a sensible conscience clause” for Catholics. Forcing Jewish delicatessens to sell pork would not be a “sensible conscience clause.” Forcing Catholics to fund contraceptives is not a “sensible conscience clause.”

5. Anti-War Catholics Disappointed. Some Catholics who supported Obama said they did so because he was anti-war, compared to Bush. But Obama has not deviated from the Bush administration’s Iraq timetable, Afghanistan strategy or Guantanamo Bay policy. After he added a Libyan conflict to his record and spent a third of his 2012 State of the Union promoting his military record, the Nobel Peace Prize committee came under investigation for awarding him its prize.

6. Hushing Army Chaplains. At the same time, under the Obama administration, the Army has silenced chaplains who were instructed by their Archbishop to read a letter about the Obama administration’s forced contraception coverage. Kathryn Jean Lopez reports.

7. Government Regulating Ministers. If the Supreme Court had not stopped him, the Obama administration would have inserted the federal government in the hiring and firing of civilian ministers. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the unanimous January 2012 decision that the court was protecting “the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission.”

8. Catholics Officially Bigots. Obama campaigned claiming he was for protecting traditional marriage and against same-sex “marriage.” But as Bishop William Lori testified in the U.S. Senate, “The Federal Department of Justice has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act by mischaracterizing it as an act of bigotry.” He cited several examples, including Catholics being driven out of adoption services because they will not assist homosexual couples in adoptions.

9. Federal “Catholics Need Not Apply” Policies. It was bad enough when local businesses barred Catholics from certain jobs in the early 20th century. Now the White House has put “Catholics Need Not Apply” signs up in two key places:

Last Spring, Health and Human Services issued a rule that bars the Church from helping refugee and human trafficking victims who are kids separated from their parents. The regulation says to work with them you have to be willing to perform abortions on them.

The State Department’s USAID bars groups from feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the sick overseas unless they promise to give them condoms, too. This makes it impossible for Catholics to participate.

10. Anti-Immigrant Policies. President Obama’s unprecedentedly harsh deportation policy has drawn the ire of Latinos. Catholic bishops as recently as August had hoped for a change that would be more in line withChurch teaching on welcoming immigrants.

Read more at Catholic Vote Action

The lawsuit comes almost three years after a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, Robert Vanecko, quit as a general partner of the Davis fund, which had become the subject of federal and city probes examining how it got the pension money.

The complaint alleges that the five pension plans, which invest money on behalf of city employees, wrongfully terminated DV Realty Advisors LLC as the general partner of a real estate fund that owns properties in the Chicago area. Mr. Davis and his son, Jared Davis, control DV Realty.
Read more in Crains

From the Financial Times

In the grey line, Nomura economists have adjusted the unemployment rate for the number of discouraged workers who have left the labor force and therefore count as unemployed in this alternative measure. (And yes, they do take into account demographic trends by age group that would influence those leaving, the largest of which is retiring baby boomers. So the right way to understand the alternative 10.3 per cent rate is that it includes those who have left the labor force but not those who, for structural reasons, would have left it anyways.)

And directly to the point

For those who wonder how today’s BLS job numbers of 243K could be enough to make the unemployment rate fall to 8.3%, we must always look for the seconday fact, ie… the one that the media rarely mentions, and that is, the number of people out of work who fell off the benefit rolls.

Government reports are written to make politcians look good, not to let the public know the actual amount of people unemployed, so when today’s jobs report sent jubulence to the markets, few had time initially to see why the rate fell to 8.3%.

It was because 1.2 million people were no longer being counted as looking for work because their unemployment benefits had dried up.

Catalyzed by the city council’s ward redraw, which passed with 41 votes on Jan. 19, aldermanic contests are underway in many wards, and one displaced alderman is poised to run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

In the 38th Ward, Alderman Tim Cullerton (38th) will face a tough 2015 challenge from Alderman Nick Sposato (36th). Sposato’s ward was cannibalized, split three ways, and he now lives in the black-majority 29th Ward. However, 27 of the current 36th Ward’s 51 precincts are in the new 38th Ward. Sposato, who is younger and more energetic than Cullerton, will have three years to build a base.

In the 45th Ward, 2011 runoff loser John Garrido expected that his Elston-Austin precinct would be drawn out of the ward. It wasn’t. He’s still inside the ward by two blocks. That sets up a 2015 rematch with Alderman John Arena (45th), who topped Garrido by 30 votes. The ward lost some precincts around Devon-Nagle, and in Mayfair. The remap slightly aids Arena, but does not seriously damage Garrido.

In the new Hispanic-majority 36th Ward, which has a 66.7 percent Hispanic population, but barely a Hispanic majority voting population, the leading contender for 2015 is state Representative Luis Arroyo (D-3), whose residence on Nordica was carefully drawn into the ward. It consists of Hispanic territory from the old 29th, 31st, 38th and 36th wards. Arroyo is seen as the choice of Joe Berrios, the county assessor and county party chairman, who is committeeman in the adjacent 31st Ward.

HISPANIC WARD WITH
NON-HISPANIC
ALDERMEN
ALDERMAN WARD RACE HISPANIC
POPULATION
Ed Burke 14th White 79.9%
Mike Zalewski 23rd White 66.7%
Marty Quinn 13th White 63.8%
John Pope 10th White 63.3%
Nick Sposato 36th White 66.7%
Dick Mell 33rd White 52.9%
Toni Foulkes 15th Black 71.6%

And the South Loop 2nd Ward, a once-black area now represented by white Alderman Bob Fioretti, was vaporized. The council’s Black Caucus grumbled about losing a pair of aldermen due to black population loss. That was solved by taking all the blacks out of the 2nd Ward, shifting the whites into the 42nd Ward, and appending Fioretti’s home into the 76 percent black 28th Ward. According to city sources, Fioretti plans to run for mayor in 2015.

At present, the council has 21 white, 19 black, eight Hispanic and one Asian aldermen, who were elected in 2011 for terms which expire in May 2015. Of the whites, Aldermen Ed Burke (14th), John Pope (10th) and Dick Mell (33rd) represent wards with a majority Hispanic population. Under the new map, they still do, as will three more white aldermen: Marty Quinn (13th), Mike Zalewski (23rd) and Sposato (36th). Black Alderman Toni Foulkes’ Southwest Side 15th Ward, just to the south of Burke’s and to the east of Quinn’s wards, is 72 percent Hispanic.

The new map should insure the election of 15 Hispanic, 18 black, and 17 white/Asian aldermen. In all likelihood, it will be, respectively, 10, 18 and 22. Burke and Mell have iron grips on their wards, control their Democratic organizations as committeemen, and have the money to co-opt and/or neutralize any Hispanic opposition. Likewise in Quinn’s 13th Ward, where Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan is Democratic committeeman, and in Zalewski’s 23rd Ward, where former congressman Bill Lipinski is Democratic committeeman.

Like Burke and Mell, both committeemen, despite Hispanic populations of 63.8 percent in the 13th and 66.7 percent in the 23rd Ward, have the clout to squash viable Hispanic opposition, at least in 2015. Pope’s ward is 63.3 percent Hispanic, but he won with 59.3 percent in 2011. Hence, the number of Hispanic aldermen will increase by only two in 2015.

The council’s insider mapmakers – Mell and Pat O’Connor (40th) – stuck it to Fioretti while creating two Loop-area white-majority wards. They could easily have moved Fioretti, who resides in the booming South Loop area, which is upscale and white, into the Loop, and moved Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose over-populated ward stretches from Jackson to State Street and North Avenue., along the Gold Coast, westward toward Wicker Park. But they chose to create a new, meandering North Loop/Ukrainian Village/Lincoln Park white-majority ward, and gave Reilly most of the 2nd Ward’s white precincts.

“It’s way too soon to make a decision” regarding 2015, said Fioretti.

Here’s a demographic, geographic and political analysis of the Northwest Side’s newly configured wards:

38th Ward: The putative Cullerton-Sposato clash will pit a wholesale politician against a retail politician. In 2011, Cullerton, appointed in 2010 to the vacancy of Tom Allen, who was named a judge, spent $375,000, and won the runoff with 60.4 percent. At age 62, and the scion of the famed Cullerton Dynasty, Tim Cullerton relied on union money, union workers, and residual surname recognition to win a full term. He is not inclined to work precincts. His idea of “service” is to let his staff do the work, sit in his office, and let his constituents come to him. That’s a “wholesale” politician – winning the job with money and manpower.

By contrast, Sposato is a “retail” politician. He is ubiquitous, visible, and attempts to attend every community, service organization and religious function. “He’s everywhere,” said Mike Nardello, his longtime ally, who is running for state representative. In 2011, Sposato spent $72,952, to Alderman John Rice’s $121,711, but walloped him in the runoff by 5,851-4,423 (56.1 percent).

The old 38th Ward extended from Keeler in Old Irving Park through the west half of Portage Park (west of Laramie) to Octavia, between Gunnison and Belmont, with a large Hispanic population south of Addison. The new 38th Ward now extends from Laramie to the city limits at Belmont-Cumberland, and then northward to Lawrence, absorbing the entire Cumberland Corridor previously in the 36th Ward. Cullerton’s Hispanic precincts are in the new 36th Ward, and his east end is now gone. Overall, of the anticipated 55 precincts in the new ward, roughly half come from each of the old wards. That makes it a “fair fight” in 2015.

* The outlook: Under city law, an alderman must reside in his ward one year prior to filing. That means Sposato must move by November 2013, and has three years to “be everywhere.” In 2011, Cullerton beat 7 underfunded, unknown opponents. If Sposato campaigns like a maniac for the next 32 months, don’t be surprised if Cullerton retires.

39th Ward: Alderman Marge Laurino is ecstatic. “We got a lot of the things that we wanted,” said her husband, Randy Barnette, who is the ward’s Democratic committeeman. Almost all of Albany Park’s Hispanics and renters were exiled, with most going to Alderman Rey Colon (35th), and some to Mell (33rd), and Old Irving Park went to the 45th Ward. Laurino gained three precincts in Mayfair around Old St. Edward’s parish, all of Forest Glen, plus north Gladstone Park (extending west to Devon-Nagle), and Edgebrook – all from the 45th Ward.

“In federal and state contests, the ward is more Republican,” acknowledged Barnette. But Laurino is utterly secure. A note of interest: State Representative John D’Amico (D-15), the alderman’s nephew, who resided in the 45th Ward’s Edgebrook area, was mapped into the 39th Ward. If and when Marge Laurino retires, D’Amico is the next alderman.

45th Ward: Rumors were rife that Chicago’s public sector and trades unions, who dumped over $500,000 into the ward in 2011 to beat Garrido, were insistent that Mell map Garrido into the 39th or 41st Ward. It didn’t happen. The new map removes at least nine precincts in Garrido’s areas of strength (Forest Glen, Edgebrook, Gladstone Park), and three pro-Arena precincts (Mayfair), replacing them with Old Irving Park. Also, the ward’s Hispanic population increased from roughly one-sixth to one-quarter.

In 2011, Arena’s mailers excoriated Garrido for being a Republican, and accused him of getting contributions from those connected to the city parking meter deal – which Garrido denied. His post-election defamation lawsuitwas dismissed under the Citizens Protection Act, which guarantees campaign “free speech.” A recent Illinois Supreme Court decision in the Sandhome case now makes palpable falsehoods actionable. Garrido has filed to reinstate his case. “I want to make sure they (the unions) can’t tell outright lies about me” in 2015, said Garrido.

The outlook: The ward remains divided geographically and ideologically, with Arena’s strength in the liberal south (Portage Park) slightly eclipsing Garrido’s base in the more conservative north (Jefferson Park, Gladstone Park). The 2011 race has never ended, and a 2015 rematch is certain.

41st Ward: For 20 years, Brian Doherty was seen but not heard, rarely stirring controversy or injecting his thoughts into council debate. Mary O’Connor carries on that tradition. Elected in 2011, O’Connor is a loyal cog in the Emanuel Machine. The ward lost a few Nagle-Lawrence precincts to the 45th Ward. O’Connor’s runoff foe, Maurita Gavin, is now on Sposato’s staff, and unlikely to try again in 2015.

29th Ward: Alderman Deborah Graham, not renowned as either modest or soft-spoken, has problems. The remap excised Hispanic areas around Riis Park, but added white precincts in Galewood and Montclare. Sposato, former Alderman Bill Banks, and 36th Ward committeeman candidate Larry Andolino (who is facing Sposato) all live in the ward. U.S. Representative Danny Davis (D-7), a former alderman and county commissioner, is challenging her for ward committeeman. If Davis wins, as is likely, Graham is toast in 2015.

**
Russ Stewart is a political analyst for the Chicago Daily Observer

Based on the lifestyle of Davis’s grandmother — the wife of a Mississippi sharecropper — Grannynomics teaches adherents to grow their own food and generate the energy for their homes. It’s a localist movement designed to appeal to a community that is suffering due to an educational system that doesn’t serve them, anti-drug policies that incentivize crime, and a shortage of suitable jobs.

Read more at the Daily Caller

President Obama recently gave the GOP an opportunity to begin putting a wedge into the Democrats and their relationship with the Building Trades by vetoing the Keystone pipeline. These workers are the skilled labor that build our cities and infrastructure, the Democrat party is totally against all the policies they need to be successful, industry, progress and innovation. It’s time Republicans reach out and explain to these people that their interests lie in the policies of the GOP; Showing them there is an alternative and stopping millions of dollars from going into Democrat coffers.

President Obama showed who the Democrats will ultimately side with, and it’s not working families! What Obama did by vetoing the Keystone pipeline is to say to thousands of out of work construction workers and tradesmen, “up yours!” This is why I have been writing for years that the Trades need to break away from non-skilled labor and look out for their members and their families.

But the GOP is decidedly anti-union aren’t they? They are now. The SEIU, teachers unions and the ACLU have brought the Trades into their war with the GOP. I understand the Building Trades are in support of “workers rights” but do they have to put someone else’s interests ahead of their own? When the Mayor of Chicago and the IL Governor tried to force the trade unions to change their contracts or be replaced by other unions at McCormick place; I didn’t see the teachers and firemen out in the streets to show their solidarity. This has happened not once, but twice in the last 10 years. But ask some teachers to pay something for their healthcare and everything hits the fan? Every Trade has had to adjust their health care rules and pay more or put in a co-pay.

Why would an Ironworker or Heavy Machine operator join with groups that want to stop businesses or industries that put their members to work? The SEIU and the United Auto Workers have sided with the President and against tens of thousands of jobs that go with the pipeline. They want to force industries into “New energy” whatever that is. The environmental groups that are also supporting the veto of the pipeline say that the opening of the pipeline would stop the United States from moving on to other energy, but they don’t say what that energy might be.

There is no alternative to oil yet, to pretend otherwise is to put America ’s future at risk. Working families are dependent on energy not only to expand our economy but for their personal use as well. The cost of gas has doubled since President Obama has taken office. It was reported in the Washington Times that the coast of electric has risen over $300 dollars a year to $1420.00 for the average family, that same family spent over $4100 last year for gasoline! That’s a tremendous amount of their yearly income, the highest level ever. These things are a product of the policies of the Democrat party, because we refuse to explore and produce our own energy supplies here at home. President Obama said himself that his plan for cap and trade would make electricity rates skyrocket! The Democrats are forcing working families to struggle needlessly because far left wing groups in their coalition want to force the American people to change their lifestyles? Who do they think they are?

How is it good for working families to have fewer payroll jobs than there were 12 years ago? The real unemployment rate is hovering around 11% if the same number of people were looking for work today as in 2007. 48% of Americans today are considered by the Census Bureau as low income or living in poverty over 50% of Americas children live in these homes. The numbers are horrible and yet the President vetoes a project that all sides say would bring tens of thousands of good jobs to our country?

We all want to eliminate our dependency on forigen oil but not by taking the country backwards. There are estimates that the price of a gallon of gas will rise to $4.50 to $5.00 this summer that will kill working families and small businesses. We have to demand that the Federal Government open up more areas for oil exploration and production. We have to announce to the world we are going to produce our own energy and watch the prices come back to normal levels. We have to show working families and members of the building trades it is the GOP that has their best interest at heart. The GOP has to point out the Democrat party will allow thir lifestyles to continue to decline and add more pressure on to already uncertain economy. This is the America we grew up in? This is what we want to leave to our children? That’s the message the GOP has to get out to skilled labor and working families but it has to be a concentrated effort, they have to show them there is a party that still believes in the American dream.

**
Jim Leahy is a GOP Activist and Labor Union Member.