My new favie...

First, thank you to Shepherd Dining Services for providing a much improved coffee bar in the "Fireside Bistro" at the College Center.  While the reasoning for providing new coffee (pressure from PAC and Shepherd Democrats to make sure to only offer Free Trade coffee) isn't of much concern to me, this Green Mountain Coffee is much improved to the crap offered last year.  Please, Shepherd Dining Services, extend this service to the general Dining Hall and the Ram's Den as soon as possible.  On a cool rainy day like this, I am particularly thankful and so I say: Thank you.

Secondly, Spencer Hughes is slowly becoming my new favorite radio personality out there.  I remember the day I first heard Sean Hannity on AM630 WMAL out of DC.  I thought, "now there's a talk radio host I can stand behind."  He offered an alternative to Rush Limbaugh who, even though he is often right, just tries my nerves and my patience.  The same feeling of relief ran through my mind when I heard Spence.  He is a great talk radio personality.  He's conservative, but he tries to be fair and balanced. Let's face it, sometimes politics and political talk can just get old; Spencer knows this.  He shakes his show up sometimes, departing from politics to discuss video games, music, movies and other "pop topics."  And he's basically a "self-made man" which just makes it even better.  Check him out on Sirius radio or at FoxNewsTalk.com between 2 and 5 pm weeknights.

Finally, I saw a great commercial last night for Unionfacts.com which is seeking to uncover and spread the news about just what it is that unions do with members money. The commercial was just fantastic. Since education seems to be where my future lies, I have particular interest in the happenings of the National Education Association (NEA), which seems to be at the center of more and more "union controversy."  Here's some of what they say:

The National Education Association is the largest union in the U.S. and one of the most powerful political forces in the nation.

The NEA largely escapes public perception as a union. The NEA's Oregon affiliate stated in an old publication that "The major purpose of our association is not the education of children, rather it is, or ought to be the extension and/or preservation of our members' rights."...

And last year the NEA-affiliated California Teachers Association used unprecedented tactics to disrupt the effort to place a school initiative on the ballot - including blocking would-be signators' access to the petition in shopping malls, allegedly sabotaging the petition with fake names and offering a signature-collecting firm $400,000 to decline the account.

And the NEA isn't afraid to align itself with shady organizations to achieve its goal of killing reform. It gave a large grant to a group called ACORN, which has been tied to voter fraud in a dozen states, government-grant fraud, and even union busting. The purpose of the money was simply listed as "NCLB" - No Child Left Behind, the legislative bane of the union's existence.

In 2004, the union spent $65.5 million -- nearly 20 percent of its entire budget -- on "contributions, gifts and grants" that largely funded left-wing and non-education-related causes, including drives to raise the minimum wage and campaigns to kill Social Security reform. As a Wall Street Journal editorial noted, its financial disclosure forms "expose the union as a honey pot for left-wing political causes that have nothing to do with teachers, much less students." Recipients of teachers' forced dues supporting left-leaning groups including:

• Human Rights Campaign ($15,000)


• National Women's Law Center ($5,000)


• Rainbow/PUSH Coalition ($5,000)


• Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network ($5,000)


• Democratic Leadership Council ($25,000)


• Congressional Black Caucus Foundation ($40,000)


• Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute ($35,000)


• Economic Policy Institute ($45,000)


• Ballot Initiative Strategy Center ($75,000)


• People for the American Way ($51,000)


• Fund to Protect Social Security ($400,000)


• Rock the Vote Education Fund ($10,000)


• Floridians For All ($249,000)


• Alliance for Nevada's Working Families ($250,000)

As an aspiring teacher, the thought that my fellow teachers could be some how drawn into this is highly disturbing to me.  I don't want my money (or the money of my friends and colleagues) to go towards the "Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network" or the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.  That's just trash.
We certainly are not going to be able to convince folks to give up the outdated Unions, so it seems to me that what we need is a union--of sorts--to stand up to the unions.  After all, isn't that why unions were formed?  To make sure that workers weren't being abused?  Well what happens when those claiming to protect the 'abused' become the abusive?  It seems only logical to me that we must disolve these outdated bodies.  Maybe that's just me...

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