This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum, much geared towards elementary students.  For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com.

In typical union and socialist propaganda, employers are depicted as cruel and uncaring business owners who never miss an opportunity to cheat and mistreat workers.

Big Labor’s “us versus them” worldview is so entrenched that they can’t recognize the fact that most successful companies value their employees, and do whatever they can to retain their best workers. That reality, of course, undercuts the relevance of unions.

So what’s a union to do?

Like their fellow travelers in the “man-made” global warming community, the unions know they have to indoctrinate the young with their propaganda. But when you’re dealing with kindergartners, you have to insert the concept of unionizing subtly into lessons.  You’ll get blank stares if you talk about the virtues of Jimmy Hoffa or the Service Employees International Union.

The California Federation of Teachers produced the perfect solution with “Trouble in the Hen House: A Puppet Show.” To spare you the unpleasantness of reading this bilge, here’s the basic plot:  a bunch of hens feel “oppressed” by the farmer, so they band together and create Hens United. The angry unionized chickens are too powerful a force for the farmer to handle, so he capitulates to the hens’ demands.  Here’s a key excerpt:

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Republican Rep. Fred Upton is the father of the ban on incandescent light bulbs. (Yeah, there are at least three things wrong with that sentence.) In his campaign to get the gavel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee he promised–way back like 6 months ago–to repeal the ban. Surprise! He has done nothing. All up to you now. His office number is 202-225-3761.

We’re right at the 500-day countdown mark for America to choose the right path … or, as Ronald Reagan called it, “a time for choosing.”

Check out the Gipper’s famous — and eerily relevant — speech nominating Barry Goldwater in 1964.

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Without additional transparency and tighter enforcement of proxy-voting requirements, publicly-held companies could be pressured into accommodating political agendas that are detached from the economic interests of retirement funds, according to a U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General audit released in March.

Since average Americans are reliant upon retirement plans that invest in corporate stock, they are entitled to know whether or not shareholder recommendations are made with an eye toward potential financial gain, or if public policy motives have worked their way into the process.

Proxy advisory firms, which make shareholder recommendations to investors and research proxy issues, are an integral part of this equation and deserve more scrutiny. Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), formerly RiskMetrics, is widely viewed as the most influential of the advisory firms. It also appears to be joining forces with organized labor. That’s bad news for investors and bad news for the economy.

Bradford Campbell, who oversaw EBSA as the Assistant Secretary of Labor during the Bush Administration warns that, “The law protects workers by prohibiting pension plan officials and others in charge of the plan’s assets from using their positions to benefit themselves or to pursue a political agenda. Proxy voting is a fiduciary duty, and the economic interests of the plan cannot be subordinated to the personal, union or corporate interests of the person casting the vote on the plan’s behalf.”

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Remember the big banks? You remember, the ones that took huge risks that went sour, and then used their undue influence with the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to frighten Congress into bailing them out and in the process put the country further into debt? And then didn’t lend out the money?

Well, they’re at it again, this time using their lobbying influence to insert a provision into much-needed patent reform legislation that essentially lets them violate patents with impunity.

It’s an example of one of the more offensive things that happens in our political system: Some interest with big money can’t get what it wants through the legitimate process, then loses repeatedly in court, so finally turns to its friends in Congress for a “favor.”

In this case, a number of small inventors were granted patents on various processes that turn out to be very important to the financial services industry.

Now, as a reminder, this is part of the genius of our innovation system. Small inventors come up with some ingenious invention that turns out to be enormously useful, and they get rich in the process by licensing the technology to those who value it. This is not some distortion of the patent system—it’s the intention of the patent system. And don’t forget that property rights—including intellectual property rights—are specifically designed to protect the little guy against the big guy. Big guys have lots of assets and weapons at their disposal, and tend to run over little guys to get what they want, but a just system respects the property rights of little guys such that big guys can’t just run over them.

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Join Andrew Breitbart and Melanie Morgan for Troopathon 2011, today from 4pm to Midnight EDT!

Troopathon brings together famous celebrities from radio, television, the movie, musicians, journalists, and more to create a one-of-a-kind event with one purpose – to support our troops on the front lines in the war on terror and honor their service and sacrifice for our nation. Guests include: Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Mark Levin, Kelsey Grammer, Former President George H.W. Bush, Gary Sinise, Dennis Miller, Former Ambassador John Bolton, Greg Gutfeld and many more!

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Al Gore’s timing is perfect. We here at The Heartland Institute are just now finishing off the last preparations for our Sixth International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, DC, June 30 and July 1. (It’s still not too late to register, and you can also check out the live-stream).

And, wouldn’t you know it! Al Gore emerges from his palatial, energy-sucking estate for a media blitz (here, here, and here) in which he peddles his usual hokum: ”If you don’t do what I say … we’re all doomed. DOOMED, I say!!! Why won’t you LISTEN TO ME!!! YOU FOOOOOOLS!!!!” (Blah, blah, blah … and paraphrasing)

We couldn’t ask for a more timely example of why we put on these conferences. Thanks, Al. By the way, the invitation for you to speak and/or debate at our climate conference still stands — if you’re up for it. And the offer is real.

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From the Associated Press:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pulled out of talks with Vice President Joe Biden on a deficit reduction-debt ceiling deal, saying they had reached an impasse over Democratic demands for tax increases to be paired with spending cuts wanted by the GOP.

The Virginia Republican said in a statement that the Republican-dominated House simply won’t support tax increases, and that he wouldn’t participate in the budget meeting scheduled for Thursday. Cantor said that it’s time for President Barack Obama to weigh in directly on the budget because Democrats insist on negotiating some tax increases.

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News today that the FTC is preparing to issue civil subpoenas as part of a broad anti-trust inquiry into Google’s business practices comes on the heels of a similar—and perhaps more in depth– threat from Congress.

In a letter sent to Google on June 10, the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT) requested the company provide one of their top two executives to testify at an oversight hearing exploring Google’s business practices.

But so far Google has refused and offered to send their legal counsel instead prompting the Senate subcommittee to threaten subpoenas to compel either Larry Page or Eric Schmidt to appear.

It will be interesting to see how Google responds to the FTC subpoenas. But in the case of Congress, Google’s sudden interest in privacy is irony at its best.

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The judges in the Court of Amsterdam delivered their verdict Thursday morning in the heresy trial of Dutch Freedom Party politician Geert Wilders. Wilders has been found not guilty of all charges of inciting hatred against Muslims. The judge, Marcel van Oosten, and the other Dutch authorities ended up doing the right thing, no matter how cowardly and compromised they may have been. They must have known how history would view them if Wilders had been found guilty: as troglodytes who ushered in the return of the Dark Ages.

When do the Islamic supremacists go on trial for inciting hatred against non-Muslims?

“I am delighted with this ruling,” Wilders said. “It is a victory, not only for me but for all the Dutch people. Today is a victory for freedom of speech. The Dutch are still allowed to speak critically about islam, and resistance against islamisation is not a crime. I have spoken, I speak and I shall continue to speak.”

The charges against Geert Wilders were that he had made statements that were intentionally offensive to Muslims; incited hatred against Muslims; incited discrimination against Muslims; and incited hatred of non-Western immigrants.

The Islamic supremacists who initiated the case told the Dutch dhimmi judges that the things Wilders said had led to a rise in discrimination and violence against Muslims. They had no proof, of course, of anyone committing any act of violence against any Muslim, or discriminating against any Muslim, because of anything Geert Wilders said. They just wanted to compel the Netherlands to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Mario Loyola to discuss the court challenge of Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, how the Tenth Amendment plays a role in that argument and the growing overreach of the federal government.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

ObamaCare’s Next Constitutional Challenge
Renowned legal scholar Richard Epstein co-authors Wall Street Journal column with Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Mario Loyola
The Texas Public Policy Foundation amicus brief submitted to the 11th Circuit
Mario Loyola at Texas Public Policy Foundation

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In 2000, when Al Gore out polled George W. Bush in the popular vote but was bested by Bush in the Electoral College to become President, it became clear we need Electoral College reform. In Adams vs.Jackson in 1824, Hayes over Tilden in 1876 and Harrison over Cleveland in 1888, the loser of the Electoral College won more popular votes than the candidate who became President.

The answer is not in direct popular election, which puts a premium on ACORN- style voter fraud and vote buying – staples of big city Democrat machines. I propose we scrap the Electoral College and preserve the electoral count and apportion it based on the popular vote in each state.

The proponents of a constitutional amendment that would mandate a direct popular election would hand our elections over to union-funded operatives who engage in voter fraud and vote stealing. Andrew Breitbart has accurately highlighted the incredible electoral frauds perpetrated by ACORN and I have written extensively about the shady and illegal voter fraud activities of New York’s left-wing Working Families Party (WFP).

Well-meaning reformers who propose a direct popular election will inadvertently put a premium on voter fraud and corruption. There is a better way: the Stone Electoral College Reform Plan which Congress could put on the ballot with a two-thirds vote. Under my electoral reform proposal, each state is first apportioned two votes, one for each Senator – the Federal principle of balancing the rights of big and small states – and then one vote each for each House member, reflecting population size and majority rule. Each state’s total number is divided proportionally in the tally based on percent of the votes received by each candidate.

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This week I filed a lawsuit against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in federal district court in the District of Columbia on behalf of The American Tradition Institute’s Environmental Law Center. On the heels of obtaining a court order last month compelling the University of Virginia to produce the long-sought ‘Hockey Stick’-related records, ATI’s transparency project now seeks to force NASA to release ethics records for taxpayer-funded global warming activist Dr. James Hansen, specifically those pertaining to his outside employment, revenue generation, and advocacy activities.

What we are trying to determine is whether NASA approved Hansen’s widespread, well-documented, high-profile and, it turns out, extremely lucrative “outside employment and other activities”, permission for which must be obtained in writing, in advance. Public financial disclosures and other documents reveal that he has received at least $1.2 million in the past four years, more than doubling his taxpayer-financed salary.

You may have seen Monday’s Washington Post front page article, titled in the print edition “Deliver the sound bite, watch donors eat it up: incendiary comments can light a fire under candidates’ fundraising”. As we demonstrate in our complaint, the connection seems to exist elsewhere in government, too.

That is, although we removed from the final version a reminder of Hansen’s escalation to knee-jerk invocation of Nazi analogies, this remains a key point about this gusher of outside income. All of which comes on top of — and, more troubling, is all “related to” and is sometimes even according to his benefactors expressly for — his taxpayer-funded employment.

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Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne sued the Wisconsin legislature over the passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, citing government transparency issues. He argued that a legislative committee did not post proper notice of its meeting before voting on the legislation.

“Transparency in government is of the utmost importance. It’s the foundation that builds communities trust in representatives and government,” Ozanne was quoted as saying at the time.

But Ozanne does not operate his own office by those same standards.

Several weeks ago, Education Action Group submitted two Open Records requests – to Ozanne and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk – seeking copies of their email communications that pertained to their efforts to block the budget repair bill.
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Most Americans Agree with Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) that citizen’s right to travel is being violated by the federal government every day.  Searching of toddlers, infants and the elderly is a waste of resources and a concrete example of the federal government harassing American travellers.  Sen. Paul questioned Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) John Pistole in a Senate hearing of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.  Pistole’s answers to Sen. Paul’s questions should be of concern to those who love freedom and want reasonable policies implemented by the federal government to thwart aviation terrorism.

Paul said to Pistole:

You’re missing the boat on terrorism because you’re doing these invasive searches on six-year old girls. Same week that this happened I got a call from another neighbor of mine in Bowling Green, a little boy had a broken foot and crutches. They didn’t want to go through all the screenings, so they took the crutches off and the cast and he wanted to hobble through on his broken foot. His dad was helping him. TSA said “back away, back away.” Then he had to go through the special search because he previously had a cast on, even though the cast went through the belt. When the dad comes close they say “back away, back away.” “If you don’t back away you won’t fly.” This kind of gets back to this whole idea of what are willing to do, what are we willing to give up as a country. In your interview with ABC News, you said “I see flying as a privilege.” There are those of us who see otherwise. The Supreme Court concluded in Saenz vs. Roe in 1999 says that although the word travel is not found in the text in the constitution, yet the constitutional right to travel from one state to another is firmly embedded in our jurisprudence. Justice Stewart went on to say in Shapiro vs. Thompson that the right to travel is so important that it is assertable against private interference as well as governmental action. A virtually unconditional constitutional right guaranteed by the Constitution to us all. This isn’t to say we don’t believe in safety procedures. But I think I feel less safe when you’re doing these invasive exams on a six-year old.

The stories of average Americans being harassed with unreasonable searches has expanded over the past few years and it does not seem as if the TSA is getting the message that they are wasting resources when they search people who clearly do not pose a threat to the flying public.

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Left-wing pseudojournalist Brad Friedman thinks everything reported about ACORN is overblown. It’s all a scheme concocted by a vast right-wing conspiracy. Clearly he hasn’t read my book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

Friedman, who routinely chokes on his own robust self-esteem, is often a substitute host on the “Mike Malloy Show.” Malloy has serious, shall we say, psychiatric issues. He has called for the murder of former President George W. Bush, described Fox News as a “terrorist organization” that “wants to burn the country down,” and characterized Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) as a “whore,” “streetwalker,” and a “crazy bitch.”

Filling in for his straitjacket-worthy buddy Malloy a few days ago, Friedman, who is also a business partner of convicted “Speedway Bomber” Brett Kimberlin (see mugshot below), unloaded everything that has been bugging him about the alleged persecution of the ACORN crime syndicate. (The audio clip is available at Friedman’s blog. Click on “HOUR 1.”)

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Today, in 1948, Justice Clarence Thomas was born. If you have never read one of his opinions, you are missing out. Happy Birthday, Justice Thomas!

Tim Wise posted a bewildering response to Breitbart’s tweets regarding the cross-burning libel. The most embarrassing thing about Wise’s response was that it was written as if Breitbart said Wise was accusing him of burning the cross in front of his Tulane frat house. Wise spends the majority of his piece dismantling an argument that was never made.

But importantly, Wise did manage to work in an apology to Breitbart:

I said some unkind things, about wanting to see him destroyed (politically of course), and lose credibility to such an extent that he was reduced to begging on the street. Was that nice of me? No, and truthfully, I don’t really want to see anyone homeless and starving, as I intemperately suggested; so for the tone of those suggestions, and their content, I actually am sorry.

A touching apology, but why did he leave out the statement that most irritated Breitbart: that he wants his family to suffer? Probably because you can’t say “only kidding” for comments like that. It takes a deranged person to say such a thing, and Wise had no excuse for it, so he left it out.

In regard to the cross-burning accusations, Wise takes the line of reasoning that he was only making a comment about Breitbart’s low standard of proof:

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