Even FDR Opposed Public Sector Unions

Don't look now but these public sector unions - along with Obama - would not have won the support of one of Obama's ideological presidential mentors - Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR had no problem with private sector unions doing whatever they thought was necessary to get what they wanted but when it came to the public sector, FDR had proverbial skin in the game. Consequently, he was outwardly and vehemently opposed to exactly what's going on in Wisconsin right now.

Via RCP:

"The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," Roosevelt wrote in 1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Yes, public workers may demand fair treatment, wrote Roosevelt. But, he wrote, "I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place" in the public sector. "A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government."

And if you're the kind of guy who capitalizes "government," woe betide such obstructionists.

Roosevelt wasn't alone. It was orthodoxy among Democrats through the '50s that unions didn't belong in government work. Things began changing when, in 1959, Wisconsin's then-Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed collective bargaining into law for state workers. Other states followed, and gradually, municipal workers and teachers were unionized, too.

Even as that happened, the future was visible. Frank Zeidler, Milwaukee's mayor in the 1950s and the last card-carrying Socialist to head a major U.S. city, supported labor. But in 1969, the progressive icon wrote that rise of unions in government work put a competing power in charge of public business next to elected officials. Government unions "can mean considerable loss of control over the budget, and hence over tax rates," he warned.

One thing is different today. Shutting down government is actually the better of two options when that might not have been the case in the 1950's.

Read it all.

h/t Weasel Zippers

Russian Tourists Killed at Ski Resort by Islamists

This is the same region that was in the news some three years ago when Russia invaded Georgia to its south. The area is home to the Caucasus Mountain range, which recently became home to several ski resorts. This mountain range is also home to important strategic and historic significance. It could be a target of Islamists for both reasons. It's also a region not far from Turkey, which is just a bit to the southwest. Yet another example of victims who thought that acquiescence might save their lives but were wrong.

Via the Telegraph:

"Two people in masks armed with automatic guns in a foreign-made car forced the minibus onto the hard shoulder, asked about passengers, then opened fire on the vehicle and fled from the scene," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

All six people in the vehicle were from the Moscow region. Three died on the spot and two were taken to hospital, it said.

A message on Islamist website Islamdin.com, hosted by the militant group Caucasus Emirate, said the tourists were killed by "mujahideens" because they "came into the zone of war".

On November 28, 1941 Adolf Hitler met with Islam's Grand Mufti of Jerusalem - Hajj Amin al-Husseini - to discuss the terms of their alliance. The minutes from that meeting can be read HERE.

In that meeting, Hitler pledged to Husseini that Germany would publicly align with the Arab Muslim world once it conquered Russia and opened the Caucasus mountain range to the south. That never happened because of weather and Russian resistance.

Here is the relevant portions of those minutes:

Germany was now engaged in very severe battles to force the gateway to the northern Caucasus region. The difficulties were mainly with regard to maintaining the supply, which was most difficult as a result of the destruction of railroads and highways as well as the oncoming winter. If at such a moment, the Fuhrer were to raise the problem of Syria in a declaration, those elements in France which were under de Gaulle's influence would receive new strength. They would interpret the Fuhrer's declaration as an intention to break up France's colonial empire and appeal to their fellow countrymen that they should rather make common cause with the English to try to save what still could be saved. A German declaration regarding Syria would in France be understood to refer to the French colonies in general, and that would at the present time create new troubles in western Europe, which means that a portion of the German armed forces would be immobilized in the west and no longer be available for the campaign in the east.

Then, a little bit later, this:

The moment that Germany's tank divisions and air squadrons had made their appearance south of the Caucasus, the public appeal requested by the Grand Mufti could go out to the Arab world.

Make no mistake, the Islamists are terrorizing the Caucasus mountain range for a reason.

Read the meeting minutes.

Video: Doctor Caught Lying at Protest

This is an interesting angle on the fake doctors notes at the Wisconsin protests. This person has the camera rolling while pretending to be a teacher who missed work. As the doctor is filling out the note, the man recording expresses trepidation about the whole thing. The doctor assures him there is nothing to worry about because his employer cannot question the validity of the note. After all, he's a doctor and it doesn't matter if he's committing fraud.

Also, at the 1:45 mark, a lady with about two reams of new blank forms shows up and makes the Doctor's day because he was beginning to run low.

"Oh, Cool."

"Now we're cookin'."

Via Gateway Pundit