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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: joseffy who wrote (58294)	11/4/2012 9:04:09 AM
From: greatplains_guy	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

House panel wants answers on costly White House dinners Richard Pollock November 2, 2012 \| 12:02 pm House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today demanded that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turn over documents concerning what he called "excessively lavish" spending for official White House state dinners. Issa also released a video titled "All the President's Parties" comparing President Obama's promises to cut wasteful federal spending with examples of extravagance drawn from the dinners for foreign dignitaries. "During these tough economic times, Americans are reining in their spending wherever possible," Issa said in the Nov. 1 letter to Clinton, citing recent reporting by The Washington Examiner. "The executive branch should be mindful of this. Reports of excessively lavish events, however, indicate the opposite." (See the complete letter in the embedded viewer beneath this story.) The Examiner reported on Oct. 26 that a May 2010 Obama state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderón cost nearly $1 million, or $4,700 per attendee. Three other Obama state dinners since 2009 cost half a million or more, according to official documents cited by the newspaper. A special concert stage was erected in a massive walled tent on the South Lawn where singer Beyoncé entertained guests for the Calderon dinner. Private trolleys ferried guests from the White House to the tent, and a celebrity chef was brought in from Chicago to prepare a special menu for the event. Such spending "creates the appearance that the White House and State Department are not planning and executing state dinners responsibly," Issa said in the letter. The House panel began investigating wasteful federal spending earlier this year when it was learned that General Services Administration employees partied for five days at a Las Vegas conference that cost $823,000. Issa also questioned the role of celebrity event planner Bryan Rafanelli, whose Boston-based firm, Rafanelli Events Management, was retained by the Obama administration for the Calderon and other official dinners. Issa described what he termed "an improper relationship" between Rafanelli and Mark Walsh, the U.S. State Department's deputy chief of protocol. The Office of Protocol works with the White House to plan state dinners and processes payments connected to the events. The use of outside event planners appeared to be a "departure from the practice of previous administrations, which relied on in-house planners for state dinners," Issa told Clinton. Issa asked Clinton for itemized costs connected with the last six official state dinners, including contracts and payments to event planners, entertainers and chefs. He also requested copies of all communication between the White House and State Department staff concerning the dinners and of department guidelines for planning the events. Earlier this year, Issa sent a similar request to Clinton concerning an overnight conference attended by State Department employees. Clinton has not yet responded to the April inquiry. In the video released today by the House panel, Obama is seen during a May 2009 speech in which he said "all across this country Americans are responding to difficult times by tightening their belt. The question the American people is asking is whether Washington is prepared to act with the same sense of responsibility." A photo is then displayed of Obama and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the India dinner, along with a chart showing costs and a voice-over asks "is this responsible spending?" At another point in the video, Obama is seen addressing a dinner and saying "we've got men in tuxes, women in gowns, fine wine, first-class entertainment. I'm just relieved to learn this was not a GSA conference." Then, as the infamous photo of a GSA official drinking red wine in a Las Vegas hotel bathtub appears, the video's voice-over says spending on the state dinners "was worse than GSA." Richard Pollock is a member of The Washington Examiner's special reporting team. Contact him at rpollock@washingtonexaminer.com. Follow all the work of the Washington Examiner's Watchdog team -- now on Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter (@WshExWatchdog). washingtonexaminer.com

To: joseffy who wrote (58294)	11/25/2012 7:29:49 AM
From: greatplains_guy	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Failure Of Walmart Walkout Underscores Union Decline Posted 11/23/2012 06:51 PM ET Organized Labor: Despite gaining a stranglehold over the public sector, unions are losing ground in the private sector. This was seen again in the failed union walkouts against retail giant Wal-Mart. The idea was simple: Take a day of little news, create a big stink, and watch a gullible media swallow it hook, line and sinker. That's what the United Food & Commercial Workers union did, in asking non-unionized Walmart workers to leave their jobs on the busiest day of the year in protest. Unfortunately for the union, the tactic appears to have been an epic bust. The tone was set early at the St. Cloud, Fla., Walmart where one — yes, just one — employee walked off the job. The union had a bit more luck elsewhere, but it appears to have been a massive failure at creating anything like a problem for Walmart — which was the union's real goal, not "organizing" workers, as claimed. Indeed, as of early afternoon on Black Friday, Walmart said it had sold 1.8 million towels, 1.3 million TVs, 1.3 million dolls and 250,000 bicycles. "We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the (union) protest nationwide," said Walmart CEO Bill Simon. "In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year." It's not hard to see why the union's tactic failed. Wasn't it just two weeks ago that Americans got an object lesson in organized labor's destructiveness, when the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union showed it would rather close down Hostess, maker of Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Ding-Dongs and other sugary treats, than compromise. Today, as a result of that union's militant intransigence, 18,500 workers have lost their jobs. Whatever you might think of Walmart workers, they're not fools. They have no desire to be jobless for the holidays, as Hostess' workers will be. In their so-called "campaign" — really, economic blackmail of the crudest sort — the unions have engaged in a poisonous propaganda attack on Walmart. What they never say is that the world's biggest retail chain is in fact a major force for good in the U.S. economy. As numerous studies show, Walmart provides jobs, cuts prices and makes goods available in communities where they once were scarce. It is a major reason for the U.S. productivity boom of the last 30 years. No surprise, then, that when given a real choice, workers avoid unions like the plague. Virtually all unionized industries in America are in steep decline — mostly because they impose unnecessary costs on businesses. Even as recently as 1980, private-sector unions represented more than 20% of U.S. workers. Today, that has shriveled to just 7%, lowest since at least 1930. Workers at thriving companies like Walmart see unions as bad for them — and bad for the economy. news.investors.com