http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/NAWER/14849 The summer that shook the American workplace The new threat and hidden agenda of Labors new Government By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights This summer has been the summer&nbsp;that shook the foundations of the Employee -Employer relationship as no&nbsp;time&nbsp;has in nearly thirty years. While our national security is being defended overseas, our domestic security&nbsp;has&nbsp;become imperiled by governmental transformation at the hands of Labor Union Central Command that has deployed a&nbsp; government it can control. &nbsp;&nbsp;The credibility of Congress is at stake to defend a free workplace.&nbsp; The summer began when our National Security and the American People were the victors&nbsp;in the Senate.&nbsp;Senate Majority Leader&nbsp;Harry Reid and Joseph Lieberman caved into Republican and White House opposition to a provision in S.4. The Homeland Security Bill granting collective bargaining rights to TSA screeners. The Bill, without the provision, moved forward on a unanimous consent agreement. Senate Republicans were on guard against the Labor Unions hidden agenda. For the Pro-labor Democrats the plan was to tie the hands of the Bush Administration through collective bargaining in two ways: (1)&nbsp;-the labor contract would limit the President's&nbsp;flexible response to national emergencies by establishing certain hours and definitions of who could work the emergency contrary to the Presidents assessment and call up of resources for that emergency; (2)-the labor contract above that of the demands of the crises would prevail.&nbsp; What about&nbsp;certain vacation and snack breaks that would happen even in times that potential Terrorists might be getting through our defenses? The snack breaks and vacations would continue and could not be changed. Indeed,&nbsp;collective bargaining is nothing but a dangerous risk in the time of national security crises and war.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The defeat of this provision puts the American people first. Even as the TSA screeners provision defeat was a victory for America's National Security;&nbsp;The House of Representatives votes to imperil states and first responders again. The House voted with&nbsp;98 Republicans in tow&nbsp;to reward those who threatened our domestic security by weakening our defenses&nbsp;through the granting of collective bargaining rights to both Firefighters and Police. The House&nbsp;turned its back on the valiant&nbsp;Senate defense of the American people and&nbsp;passed it&nbsp;its own version of&nbsp;the &quot;Pearl Harbor&quot; Bill to support the Labor Lords H.R. 980&quot;.&nbsp; Does this vote suggest the first responders of public safety, --&nbsp;the Police and Firefighters of America, are unlike the TSA Screeners protectors of our domestic security&nbsp;and not as&nbsp;important to Congress?&nbsp; Let&nbsp;those who voted for H.R. 980 know that more workers who protect us will now serve under&nbsp;the shadow of the Union's coercive will. &nbsp;Nor did the defeat of the TSA screener and Employee Free Choice Act alter the drive&nbsp;of Labor Unions exerting more power to coerce our Government and, through their intimidating version of government, the American People. &nbsp;Unions are transforming themselves into a new form to offset a historic decline. This new form puts&nbsp;the union on a collision course with our Democracy and National-Domestic Security.&nbsp;The recent debate over EFCA reflected&nbsp;the ill-&nbsp;intent&nbsp;of a union- controlled government through the exclusive lens of an&nbsp;EFCA- like world.&nbsp;Like the Orwellian 1984 party slogan &quot;slavery is freedom,&quot;&nbsp;the clear illogic of our government under&nbsp;union's&nbsp;control is both&nbsp;broken&nbsp;and good.&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;method of mind control&nbsp;in&nbsp;Orwell's&nbsp;1984 was never to connect the past with the present day nobody&nbsp;in &quot;1984&quot; could. In fact, the true past was edited everyday so that nobody&nbsp;could&nbsp;tell the difference between truth and falsehood of history.&nbsp; In the present day of &quot;1984&quot;, there is no history at all but the &quot;official&quot; one. The official union history is a long story of&nbsp;how unions&nbsp;&quot;fixed&quot; both a&nbsp;broken and a working government. Since no one can fix&nbsp;both a broken and good government,&nbsp;today's labor battles clearly&nbsp;show the difference between those who really know the past and those who seek&nbsp;&quot;mind control&quot;. Labor Unions have more to loose in their past and far greater desire to control. The greater frequency under this Democratic Congress to improve Labor's position over workers is growing to &quot;1984 proportions by creating an &quot;official&quot;&nbsp;history of those battles that continues to fool even some Republicans into doing the wrong thing. &nbsp; Why would the Union bosses of today, &nbsp;in turn,&nbsp; mention to&nbsp;the &nbsp;rank and &nbsp;file&nbsp;the continuum of their true&nbsp; historical defeats both on EFCA in 1978 and H.R.&nbsp;980, which in a previous political cycles&nbsp;is a variation on&nbsp; the postal bill battle of the &nbsp;1960's-70's? Postal battles that began with unionizing postal workers at a Federal level now are mandated at the state level with fire-fighters&nbsp;and police being compelled today to join the union ranks. &nbsp;Many times have labor unions failed to turn the American&nbsp;workforce into a Gulag of labor&nbsp;bondage.&nbsp;Does this free telling of labor history and conflict&nbsp;not&nbsp;remind the union&nbsp;rank and file&nbsp;of labor's thousand broken promises to them? And that their Labor Boss leadership knows the&nbsp;land of EFCA-- the prelude of Gulag and Socialist Europe-- so well because they already are there. The Employee Free Choice Act introduced and reiterated the idea that Government ought to perform like&nbsp;an agent&nbsp;for&nbsp;the unions as&nbsp;binding arbitration became synonymous&nbsp;with a&nbsp;rank and&nbsp;file&nbsp;sellout of collective bargaining good faith agreements. If you are a union rank and file member you should be worried that the purpose of binding arbitration and card check is&quot; Big Government&quot;&nbsp; in the form union controlled elections (card check) and special courts (binding arbitration).&nbsp; This form of &quot;Big Government&quot; through third party agents is making decisions at odds with the will of the working man.&nbsp; So why pay dues at all to the unions if the power to make decisions for you are going entirely to the &quot;Big Government&quot; agents themselves? The&nbsp;establishment of collective bargaining rights for first responders under H.R. 980&nbsp;is the first advance to a collective government spreading its wings into our lives. As H.R. 980 distorts the time- honored relationship between the state and federal domains by mandating to the states what level collective bargaining rights they should follow. Unmistakably,&nbsp;Labor Unions are doing this&nbsp;to impose&nbsp;TSA collective bargaining amendments and bills to compel government itself into moving their way. This then is the Union's dream of a new form of government. This is labor unions survival,&nbsp;all right, with our American political system&nbsp;in its own image. If so, what EFCA proved about the new Labor image&nbsp;is that the unions claim the&nbsp;use of &quot;Big Government&quot; in multiple ways with its agents. Their reward for this work, for all of us to see,&nbsp;is paid in forced dues while the government not the unions does for workers what the unions desire. In other words, the unions are getting dues without doing anything for the working man.&nbsp; The government would not&nbsp;split its revenues and taxes with the union: however, through forced dues workers would be paying twice to the government and to the union or they would loose their jobs. None of&nbsp;the union dues money would go to the Government in the end. Yet, despite this Union&nbsp;threat to our American way of life, some House&nbsp;Republicans&nbsp;completed&nbsp;the Senate EFCA defeat with a major Union victory on H.R. 980.&nbsp;Members, including those Republicans,&nbsp;inexplicably&nbsp;swept this legislation through committee by a 42-1 margin and passage in the House of Representatives. Indeed, one could argue that Speaker&nbsp;Nancy Pelosi&nbsp;who brought&nbsp;up H.R. 980&nbsp;under suspension of the rules on 7/17/07&nbsp;did so because of the Republican capitulation in committee. She recognized this collective bargaining bill,&nbsp;with&nbsp;its Republican consent, as&nbsp;no different than all the other non-controversial&nbsp;bills that are normally debated during suspension of the rules. Now we see how Republicans on the committee capitulated to Pro- Labor Democrats&nbsp;handing&nbsp;the unions a victory&nbsp;for&nbsp;their brand of collective&nbsp;government. &quot;I am hopeful that this legislation will be modified during the legislative process to strike a more appropriate balance on behalf of public safety officials and the states and local communities they so ably serve.&nbsp; With that in mind, I do not plan to oppose the measure today, as it is marginally better than the bill introduced earlier in this Congress.&nbsp; And should it continue to be improved along the way, I may be able to provide a more vigorous endorsement.&nbsp; I cannot do so right now, however; but in the interest of moving the process forward and in light of the Chairman's willingness to make thoughtful adjustments to the legislation, I will support the measure advancing for consideration by the full House.&quot; Congressman Howard Buck McKeon, Press Release ED &amp;&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;6/20/07 Republicans on the committee should know better than to put their stock in a hope&nbsp;for a better legislative deal with the Unions and Democrats that never came to be. In the end,&nbsp;they should hear and remember these brave words of a&nbsp;man's real struggle than not to make the pernicious deals which shatter hope: &quot;I know what it is like for those firefighters. But, you know, my father never belonged to a firefighters union, and that is what this is. This is basically a union bill and payback to the unions. &nbsp; But, you know, Georgia is a right-to-work State. We have a 10th amendment to our Constitution. I was very disappointed to hear from the chairman that this thing passed out of committee 42-1. That breaks my heart. That really breaks my heart that those Republicans were on that side.&quot; Floor Statement 7/17/07 Congressman Lynn Westmoreland Going into&nbsp;autumn and beyond, the collective bargaining Bill for so- called Public-Safety goes to Senate where again it&nbsp;will be Republicans who will likely lead both the fight for and against it. H.R. 980 political appeal is nothing less than another Big government-labor agent strategy not unlike the Employee Free Choice Act's outside calling upon Judges as union agents to settle Labors binding arbitration disputes.&nbsp; Business organizations and other groups who rightly opposed the Employee Free Choice Act&nbsp;with its&nbsp;attack on&nbsp;collective bargaining in favor of EFCA's binding arbitration&nbsp;must ask themselves this question:&nbsp;&nbsp; Is H.R. 980,&nbsp;if passed upon the public sector,&nbsp;&nbsp; really about collective bargaining for the unions or about a new vehicle and unchecked precedent for further Congressional violations of the 10th amendment in Labor's name? If&nbsp;H.R.&nbsp;980 &nbsp;is an &quot;unchecked agent&quot; for the unions&nbsp;in the states, &nbsp;then &nbsp;the&nbsp;so- called &quot;crises&quot; of &nbsp;collective bargaining and its presumed &nbsp;failure &nbsp;in the private sector&nbsp;might&nbsp; become&nbsp;&nbsp;the next best means &nbsp;for &nbsp;public sector&nbsp;increases&nbsp;in Big Labor's over all appeal to&nbsp;Congress &nbsp;to save the House of Labor &nbsp;from its own demise. &nbsp; Will Fine is Executive Director of the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights The summer that shook the American workplace The new threat and hidden agenda of Labors new Government By Will Fine, Executive Director National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights This summer has been the summer&nbsp;that shook the foundations of the Employee -Employer relationship as no&nbsp;time&nbsp;has in nearly thirty years. While our national security is being defended overseas, our domestic security&nbsp;has&nbsp;become imperiled by governmental transformation at the hands of Labor Union Central Command that has deployed a&nbsp; government it can control. &nbsp;&nbsp;The credibility of Congress is at stake to defend a free workplace.&nbsp; The summer began when our National Security and the American People were the victors&nbsp;in the Senate.&nbsp;Senate Majority Leader&nbsp;Harry Reid and Joseph Lieberman caved into Republican and White House opposition to a provision in S.4. The Homeland Security Bill granting collective bargaining rights to TSA screeners. The Bill, without the provision, moved forward on a unanimous consent agreement. Senate Republicans were on guard against the Labor Unions hidden agenda. For the Pro-labor Democrats the plan was to tie the hands of the Bush Administration through collective bargaining in two ways: (1)&nbsp;-the labor contract would limit the President's&nbsp;flexible response to national emergencies by establishing certain hours and definitions of who could work the emergency contrary to the Presidents assessment and call up of resources for that emergency; (2)-the labor contract above that of the demands of the crises would prevail.&nbsp; What about&nbsp;certain vacation and snack breaks that would happen even in times that potential Terrorists might be getting through our defenses? The snack breaks and vacations would continue and could not be changed. Indeed,&nbsp;collective bargaining is nothing but a dangerous risk in the time of national security crises and war.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The defeat of this provision puts the American people first. Even as the TSA screeners provision defeat was a victory for America's National Security;&nbsp;The House of Representatives votes to imperil states and first responders again. The House voted with&nbsp;98 Republicans in tow&nbsp;to reward those who threatened our domestic security by weakening our defenses&nbsp;through the granting of collective bargaining rights to both Firefighters and Police. The House&nbsp;turned its back on the valiant&nbsp;Senate defense of the American people and&nbsp;passed it&nbsp;its own version of&nbsp;the &quot;Pearl Harbor&quot; Bill to support the Labor Lords H.R. 980&quot;.&nbsp; Does this vote suggest the first responders of public safety, --&nbsp;the Police and Firefighters of America, are unlike the TSA Screeners protectors of our domestic security&nbsp;and not as&nbsp;important to Congress?&nbsp; Let&nbsp;those who voted for H.R. 980 know that more workers who protect us will now serve under&nbsp;the shadow of the Union's coercive will. &nbsp;Nor did the defeat of the TSA screener and Employee Free Choice Act alter the drive&nbsp;of Labor Unions exerting more power to coerce our Government and, through their intimidating version of government, the American People. &nbsp;Unions are transforming themselves into a new form to offset a historic decline. This new form puts&nbsp;the union on a collision course with our Democracy and National-Domestic Security.&nbsp;The recent debate over EFCA reflected&nbsp;the ill-&nbsp;intent&nbsp;of a union- controlled government through the exclusive lens of an&nbsp;EFCA- like world.&nbsp;Like the Orwellian 1984 party slogan &quot;slavery is freedom,&quot;&nbsp;the clear illogic of our government under&nbsp;union's&nbsp;control is both&nbsp;broken&nbsp;and good.&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;method of mind control&nbsp;in&nbsp;Orwell's&nbsp;1984 was never to connect the past with the present day nobody&nbsp;in &quot;1984&quot; could. In fact, the true past was edited everyday so that nobody&nbsp;could&nbsp;tell the difference between truth and falsehood of history.&nbsp; In the present day of &quot;1984&quot;, there is no history at all but the &quot;official&quot; one. The official union history is a long story of&nbsp;how unions&nbsp;&quot;fixed&quot; both a&nbsp;broken and a working government. Since no one can fix&nbsp;both a broken and good government,&nbsp;today's labor battles clearly&nbsp;show the difference between those who really know the past and those who seek&nbsp;&quot;mind control&quot;. Labor Unions have more to loose in their past and far greater desire to control. The greater frequency under this Democratic Congress to improve Labor's position over workers is growing to &quot;1984 proportions by creating an &quot;official&quot;&nbsp;history of those battles that continues to fool even some Republicans into doing the wrong thing. &nbsp; Why would the Union bosses of today, &nbsp;in turn,&nbsp; mention to&nbsp;the &nbsp;rank and &nbsp;file&nbsp;the continuum of their true&nbsp; historical defeats both on EFCA in 1978 and H.R.&nbsp;980, which in a previous political cycles&nbsp;is a variation on&nbsp; the postal bill battle of the &nbsp;1960's-70's? Postal battles that began with unionizing postal workers at a Federal level now are mandated at the state level with fire-fighters&nbsp;and police being compelled today to join the union ranks. &nbsp;Many times have labor unions failed to turn the American&nbsp;workforce into a Gulag of labor&nbsp;bondage.&nbsp;Does this free telling of labor history and conflict&nbsp;not&nbsp;remind the union&nbsp;rank and file&nbsp;of labor's thousand broken promises to them? And that their Labor Boss leadership knows the&nbsp;land of EFCA-- the prelude of Gulag and Socialist Europe-- so well because they already are there. The Employee Free Choice Act introduced and reiterated the idea that Government ought to perform like&nbsp;an agent&nbsp;for&nbsp;the unions as&nbsp;binding arbitration became synonymous&nbsp;with a&nbsp;rank and&nbsp;file&nbsp;sellout of collective bargaining good faith agreements. If you are a union rank and file member you should be worried that the purpose of binding arbitration and card check is&quot; Big Government&quot;&nbsp; in the form union controlled elections (card check) and special courts (binding arbitration).&nbsp; This form of &quot;Big Government&quot; through third party agents is making decisions at odds with the will of the working man.&nbsp; So why pay dues at all to the unions if the power to make decisions for you are going entirely to the &quot;Big Government&quot; agents themselves? The&nbsp;establishment of collective bargaining rights for first responders under H.R. 980&nbsp;is the first advance to a collective government spreading its wings into our lives. As H.R. 980 distorts the time- honored relationship between the state and federal domains by mandating to the states what level collective bargaining rights they should follow. Unmistakably,&nbsp;Labor Unions are doing this&nbsp;to impose&nbsp;TSA collective bargaining amendments and bills to compel government itself into moving their way. This then is the Union's dream of a new form of government. This is labor unions survival,&nbsp;all right, with our American political system&nbsp;in its own image. If so, what EFCA proved about the new Labor image&nbsp;is that the unions claim the&nbsp;use of &quot;Big Government&quot; in multiple ways with its agents. Their reward for this work, for all of us to see,&nbsp;is paid in forced dues while the government not the unions does for workers what the unions desire. In other words, the unions are getting dues without doing anything for the working man.&nbsp; The government would not&nbsp;split its revenues and taxes with the union: however, through forced dues workers would be paying twice to the government and to the union or they would loose their jobs. None of&nbsp;the union dues money would go to the Government in the end. Yet, despite this Union&nbsp;threat to our American way of life, some House&nbsp;Republicans&nbsp;completed&nbsp;the Senate EFCA defeat with a major Union victory on H.R. 980.&nbsp;Members, including those Republicans,&nbsp;inexplicably&nbsp;swept this legislation through committee by a 42-1 margin and passage in the House of Representatives. Indeed, one could argue that Speaker&nbsp;Nancy Pelosi&nbsp;who brought&nbsp;up H.R. 980&nbsp;under suspension of the rules on 7/17/07&nbsp;did so because of the Republican capitulation in committee. She recognized this collective bargaining bill,&nbsp;with&nbsp;its Republican consent, as&nbsp;no different than all the other non-controversial&nbsp;bills that are normally debated during suspension of the rules. Now we see how Republicans on the committee capitulated to Pro- Labor Democrats&nbsp;handing&nbsp;the unions a victory&nbsp;for&nbsp;their brand of collective&nbsp;government. &quot;I am hopeful that this legislation will be modified during the legislative process to strike a more appropriate balance on behalf of public safety officials and the states and local communities they so ably serve.&nbsp; With that in mind, I do not plan to oppose the measure today, as it is marginally better than the bill introduced earlier in this Congress.&nbsp; And should it continue to be improved along the way, I may be able to provide a more vigorous endorsement.&nbsp; I cannot do so right now, however; but in the interest of moving the process forward and in light of the Chairman's willingness to make thoughtful adjustments to the legislation, I will support the measure advancing for consideration by the full House.&quot; Congressman Howard Buck McKeon, Press Release ED &amp;&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;6/20/07 Republicans on the committee should know better than to put their stock in a hope&nbsp;for a better legislative deal with the Unions and Democrats that never came to be. In the end,&nbsp;they should hear and remember these brave words of a&nbsp;man's real struggle than not to make the pernicious deals which shatter hope: &quot;I know what it is like for those firefighters. But, you know, my father never belonged to a firefighters union, and that is what this is. This is basically a union bill and payback to the unions. &nbsp; But, you know, Georgia is a right-to-work State. We have a 10th amendment to our Constitution. I was very disappointed to hear from the chairman that this thing passed out of committee 42-1. That breaks my heart. That really breaks my heart that those Republicans were on that side.&quot; Floor Statement 7/17/07 Congressman Lynn Westmoreland Going into&nbsp;autumn and beyond, the collective bargaining Bill for so- called Public-Safety goes to Senate where again it&nbsp;will be Republicans who will likely lead both the fight for and against it. H.R. 980 political appeal is nothing less than another Big government-labor agent strategy not unlike the Employee Free Choice Act's outside calling upon Judges as union agents to settle Labors binding arbitration disputes.&nbsp; Business organizations and other groups who rightly opposed the Employee Free Choice Act&nbsp;with its&nbsp;attack on&nbsp;collective bargaining in favor of EFCA's binding arbitration&nbsp;must ask themselves this question:&nbsp;&nbsp; Is H.R. 980,&nbsp;if passed upon the public sector,&nbsp;&nbsp; really about collective bargaining for the unions or about a new vehicle and unchecked precedent for further Congressional violations of the 10th amendment in Labor's name? If&nbsp;H.R.&nbsp;980 &nbsp;is an &quot;unchecked agent&quot; for the unions&nbsp;in the states, &nbsp;then &nbsp;the&nbsp;so- called &quot;crises&quot; of &nbsp;collective bargaining and its presumed &nbsp;failure &nbsp;in the private sector&nbsp;might&nbsp; become&nbsp;&nbsp;the next best means &nbsp;for &nbsp;public sector&nbsp;increases&nbsp;in Big Labor's over all appeal to&nbsp;Congress &nbsp;to save the House of Labor &nbsp;from its own demise. &nbsp; Will Fine is Executive Director of the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights en-us Polls are useful tools to determine how a majority of people polled feel as of a particular moment such as last week when asked questions that likely are better answered with a yes or no than an explanation. I believe history is the best best poll while also admittedly hindsight is 20/20. I think this President will do well historically, especially if the majority of Congress is successful in electing a President who will go along with their nonsense. American's have had the LUXURY of being safe since September 11, 2001. Our current President has already destroyed his own political party by betraying the ideals and principles with which it believed in when he was elected. Imagine how much damage could be done by this Congress with todays 11% approval rating, much less than the Presidents, with a President who is aligned with their principles. The new Democratic majority has been a total failure at even getting any significant legislation to the Presidents desk during their self proclaimed "first hundred days of reform". It's rather obvious to even the most casual observer that their Congress has sold out to big labor and special interests. My daughter told me this week that her fellow employees represented under a collective bargaining agreement may go on strike this next week. She has been told that if it happens, she will be required to work an eight hour day carrying a picket sign in front of her employers place of business on days that are typically in the high 90 to 103 degree area. She has been elected by her peers as a shop steward. I questioned whether the Union Rep making substantially more than her will picket with her eight hours a day, or sit in his office enjoying his weekly paychecks which are in excess of six figures per annum? She sounded puzzled, and said, of course not, we will be out here by ourselves in this heat. I further questioned why nobody is talking decertification of the current Union and it's representation. Her answer was, You know, they are all the same. Nobody cares, nobody votes, and people are afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation. Nobody want to risk tipping over the canoe while going down the rapids. This sounds like a Crime Family from New York, or Al Capone during the 1920's and 30's. Really frightening is the thought that these unions collectively have purchased our Government and elected officials. http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/NAWER/14849/#c_140629 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/NAWER/14849/#c_140629 Polls are useful tools to determine how a majority of people polled feel as of a particular moment such as last week when asked questions that likely are better answered with a yes or no than an explanation. I believe history is the best best poll while also admittedly hindsight is 20/20. I think this President will do well historically, especially if the majority of Congress is successful in electing a President who will go along with their nonsense. American's have had the LUXURY of being safe since September 11, 2001. Our current President has already destroyed his own political party by betraying the ideals and principles with which it believed in when he was elected. Imagine how much damage could be done by this Congress with todays 11% approval rating, much less than the Presidents, with a President who is aligned with their principles. The new Democratic majority has been a total failure at even getting any significant legislation to the Presidents desk during their self proclaimed "first hundred days of reform". It's rather obvious to even the most casual observer that their Congress has sold out to big labor and special interests. My daughter told me this week that her fellow employees represented under a collective bargaining agreement may go on strike this next week. She has been told that if it happens, she will be required to work an eight hour day carrying a picket sign in front of her employers place of business on days that are typically in the high 90 to 103 degree area. She has been elected by her peers as a shop steward. I questioned whether the Union Rep making substantially more than her will picket with her eight hours a day, or sit in his office enjoying his weekly paychecks which are in excess of six figures per annum? She sounded puzzled, and said, of course not, we will be out here by ourselves in this heat. I further questioned why nobody is talking decertification of the current Union and it's representation. Her answer was, You know, they are all the same. Nobody cares, nobody votes, and people are afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation. Nobody want to risk tipping over the canoe while going down the rapids. This sounds like a Crime Family from New York, or Al Capone during the 1920's and 30's. Really frightening is the thought that these unions collectively have purchased our Government and elected officials. <p>Polls may be useful and they may not.&nbsp; Polls can be manipulated by the phrasing of the questions and by the choice of demographics. I once saw a study done. Two polls covering the same subjects but with the questions slanted differently were given to two specifically chosen demographics. The results were completely opposite when the polls were read and tabulated.&nbsp; Often polls are taken to&nbsp;further a specific agenda and designed to do just that.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/NAWER/14849/#c_140670 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/NAWER/14849/#c_140670 <p>Polls may be useful and they may not.&nbsp; Polls can be manipulated by the phrasing of the questions and by the choice of demographics. I once saw a study done. Two polls covering the same subjects but with the questions slanted differently were given to two specifically chosen demographics. The results were completely opposite when the polls were read and tabulated.&nbsp; Often polls are taken to&nbsp;further a specific agenda and designed to do just that.</p>