Ronald Reagan was a classic. He broke the back of the Evil Empire and started deregulating an overburdened U.S. economy. It was Ronald Reagan in 1964 that told Americans we face a time for choosing — and if you haven’t watched the entire speech, you’re missing out.

Today marks the 101st anniversary of Reagan’s birth. If you miss him and wish for another like Reagan, join The Heritage Foundation in sharing your thoughts in their new Facebook app:

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Uh-O. Obama’s administration has run afoul of words by John F. Kennedy on Big Labor and protecting employees.

You have no doubt been following the fight over the unconstitutional recess appointments by the Obama administration to the National Labor Relations Board and Consumer Financial Protection Board. But fewer are aware the fight over Obama’s efforts to help Big Labor bosses by rigging the rules of union elections so that employees don’t even have enough time to get information about why the union may not be in their best interest.

Right now, employees have an average of 40 days to get both sides of the story—the union sales pitch and the employer’s side. But union bosses need more dues-paying members so they are shortening the election period so employees only hear the sales pitch. It’s clearly wrong—and as some business groups, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and US Chamber of Commerce, progressed with their lawsuit against the government to overturn Obama’s regulatory gift last week, they dug out this historical nugget:

Based on the legislative history of the 1959 amendments to the Act, it is clear Congress believed that an election period of at least 30 days was necessary to adequately assure employees the “fullest freedom” in exercising their right to choose whether they wish to be represented by a union. As explained by then Senator John F. Kennedy Jr., who chaired the Conference Committee, even in the context of eliminating pre-election hearings, a 30-day period before any election was a necessary “safeguard against rushing employees into an election where they are unfamiliar with the issues.” Senator Kennedy stated “there should be at least a 30-day interval between the request for an election and the holding of the election” and he opposed an amendment that failed to provide “at least 30 days in which both parties can present their viewpoints.” [italics mine]

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You may be aware of this week’s NLRB showdown, where two Democratic Members of the National Labor Relations Board will try on Tuesday to overhaul rules governing 6 million workplaces and about 100 million working Americans to make it easier for union bosses to organize new members. The consequences are serious: employees will get less information about what they’re signing up for and employers will have less chance to talk to their workers. The unelected bureaucrats say they’re helping employees, but really it’s just to help the big political spenders from Big Labor. But you can help stop this farce!

While the Obama administration doesn’t seem to want to listen to small business owners, other leaders in D.C. will get the message. So sign a petition to top national leaders via Halt The Assault or contact your Member of Congress to support commonsense legislation to make the playing field fair once again (Americans For Prosperity’s site can help if you wish to support the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act).

Bloggers can do even more by embedding a petition code into their site.

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With Herman Cain grabbing top headlines at The Drudge Report and Gallup reporting that he has statistically tied Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, the question is whether the math-genius-turned-businessman can really become the Godfather of America’s political system. Some smart new research says Cain can win the general — people have an open mind about him — but he needs to close the sale with those uncertain swing voters.

What was once seen as a second-tier candidacy has been catching fire. From 9-9-9 to that Florida straw poll, Mr. Cain has been building momentum. Now, a firm has created a clever experiment to figure out if he can really do well beyond the small purview of committed GOP primary activists. Evolving Strategies allowed respondents to view several key clips and overlaid a behavior game that allowed people to donate or take away money from a candidate. According to the group, it’s the first to have real information on how electable Cain is with the general audience.

Good news for Herman Cain supporters: he’s tested quite well.

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Americans are catching on to the absurdity of the far Left’s “greening” of our economy. In some cases, like the Solyndra scandal, it amounts to the Taxpayer cash being flushed away on economically unsound alternative technologies that we *hope* will someday compete fairly with oil and natural gas. In the case of D.C. this weekend, we received a this picture from a PR event … where a pro-solar sign was literally powered by a gas generator.* How’s that for a metaphor?

* For this story, we have relied on a trusted source. Our tipper says there were several such signs, each powered by gas generator such as the black and yellow box partially obscured by the fence above.

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Someday we’ll all look back at this and laugh. Or cry. These are the dark days for small business and would-be entrepreneurs, who need only to open the newspaper, click on their iPad, or flick on the TV to see another attack on anyone who would have the temerity to start a business and produce something with their own ingenuity, drive, and hard work.

As America’s big-government “leaders” take us down the tubes, here’s what the future will record for the last couple days:

• A bill in the California legislature would force parents to pay state-level minimum wage to babysitters, as well as provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck
• President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board has issued two more rulings that will carpet-bomb employers with “micro-union” organizing drives and repeal one of the last protections employees had if they wanted to choose a union by secret ballot election

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When one is embarrassed by their own words, an oft-used option (at least in DC) is to retreat into claims of being misrepresented. So it goes after we recently brought you the troubled Tweets of former HuffPo writer, labor activist, and self-described 3rd-generation union organizer Mike Elk, who broadcast: “We need to find those scabs and kick their ass.”

Mr. Elk feels, apparently, treated unfairly by us directly quoting him, so we’re airing his grievance and letting you decide. He claims that listing his Tweets out of order (to improve readability) was “unethical journalism.” We are greatly amused at such talk from a guy who was seemingly, allegedly bounced from his unpaid gig writing at Huffing Post because he used the guise of journalism to support highly aggressive union organizing actions. But check out his Twitter stream for yourself (see Wednesday, July 20, 2011) and you be the judge if his direct quotes misrepresent him.

More importantly, the Elk’s Dodge was “I dont promote physical violence of any kind against scabs, just verbally heat exchanges w/ scabs, u misinterpted plz correct”. Unfortunately for that flimsy claim, he’d already added that “I dont support physically violent attacks on scabs just verbally violently attacks on scabs which I was referring to there”. Verbal violence? When does verbal violence turn into physical violence?

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Like many, you may know that union bosses put up inflatable rats outside businesses they are trying to intimidate into handing over their workers. But this week — in true turnabout-is-fair-play style — someone put up an inflatable rat outside the National Labor Relations Board hearing where Obama appointees are attempting to neuter real union organizing elections.

Well, that set off union activist and writer Mike Elk. He’s getting angry, and you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. He views those who differ with him as “scabs” and says:

I am very non violent person, but theres something about my background that gets me so upset about scabs

… and …

like I remember being at Ravenswood as a kid and those guys would just go slash tires of scabs basically all day

… and …

its a weird violent streak I have in me, like a very non violent guy but u bring up scabs and i just become a differnt guy

… which leads to …

BIGGER QUESTION – who the fuck let union busters rent a giant rat? We need to find those scabs and kick their ass

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Remember that time the Department FOR Labor spent taxpayer money for a broken mobile app that actually could have shortchanged some workers? Well, their latest foray into mobile apps ought to be just as embarrassing.

This week the DOL, busy working to ensure small businesses can’t fight off union organizing drives, has shown off its flare for helping mobile developers create apps based on DOL data—as long as that data can be used to smear business but NOT Big Labor. (In fact, the Department is even putting $35,000 more in taxpayer money into prizes to spur more creation of anti-business, pro-union apps.)

But …. the data sets released by DOL so far have mysteriously failed to include anything from the Office of Labor-Management Standards, which gathers up information on union-boss pay and perks, political cash thrown to lefty groups like ACORN and anti-corporate campaigns, and tracks investigations into union-boss corruption and abuse of members.

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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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Hey, remember that one time — like a couple days ago — that we recapped some of the craziest things the National Labor Relations Board wants to do? Well, today, it announced a massive campaign to rewrite the rules on how union bosses can try to organize employees.

The rule changes would include: electronic voting, which may open up fraud, as well as coercion and intimidation of voters who no longer have the protection of private ballots; rushed elections so employees don’t have time to inform themselves about having to pay union dues, live and work by union rules, and support a vast leftwing political machine; the inability for employers to challenge the validity of voting employees until it’s too late; and giving digital readouts of the home address and contact information for all the employees the union is targeting.

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Andrew Breitbart, proprietor of this here outlet, is already getting plaudits for his presentation at this year’s RightOnline convention (you can see his speech here). But the weekend event also held lots of policy and digital advocacy conversations, including one on the issue of union thugs trying to kill American companies and jobs.

A hot topic, of course, is the NLRB’s threat to kill jobs at a Boeing plant in South Carolina (because of which legislators are considering the Job Protection Act). But, sadly, there are many other concerns on the horizon, including “project labor agreements” that shut out the vast majority of the construction workforce and a host below-the-radar issues before the Big Labor-stacked National Labor Relations Board that threaten to kill jobs and slow our economy in the name of helping President Obama’s biggest political backer. For the latter, take a brief gander at a cleaned-up version of my presentation, which includes case citations for those who are interested in digging further.

Or you can check out the video in this post, which includes fellow panelists Brett McMahon of Miller & Long Concrete Construction and Halt The Assault and Don Loos of National Right To Work and my fellow blogger at Big Government.

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Good news! We’re all one step closer to being able to call socialism by its name! According to a Bloomberg report, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka “said he’d like to see the U.S. become more like a European nation that provides pensions and health care for all its citizens. He said he is accustomed to criticism and doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism.”

Trumka added that “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.”*

Glad we’ve cleared that up!

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You may have seen news that Wisconsin’s AFSCME public-sector union is threatening businesses with possible boycott if they refuse to voice support for the union position. Obviously, it’s pretty galling — and potentially illegal.

The Journal-Sentinel reported that AFSCME Council 24 has informed local business that they must put a sign in their window showing their public support for the union’s position or “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

Translation: That’s a nice business you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.

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By now you’ve probably heard that the president has gotten religion on the economically damaging effects of the regulatory state. Today, I argue wait and see is still the rule with this government as there are major rolls of red tape that President Obama would need to address coming from his own administration.

Specifically, consider the cases of how regulation impacts the ability and cost of hiring people. I point to OSHA overreach, the Davis-Bacon Act, new requirements that will have Americans chopping down entire forests to print 1099 tax forms, EPA regulation of carbon dioxide, and FCC regulation of the Internet.

And as they say in infomercials, “But wait, there’s more!” There’s oh-so-much-painfully-more regulation threatening jobs and the economy. Several groups track this sort of stuff, but take for example: Associated Builders and Contractors has offered a list of regulations that threaten the beleaguered and job-shedding construction industry. Take a look; it’s an eye-opener!

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The same sort of deception and unfairness by Big Labor that would have allowed union organizers to replace workplace elections with coercion-prone “card check” is rearing its ugly head, and this time it may be Girl Scouts who pay the highest price.

President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board is currently considering Roundy’s v Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades, AFL-CIO. The union is hoping to persuade the NLRB that if an employer lets one outside party onto their premises, they have to let everybody in. Since, you know, there’s no real difference between allowing a charity to collect a few bucks and inviting in a union organizer who’s trying to get your customers to boycott your store …

Should the federal government force employers to treat all outside organizations alike, the clear answer for anyone with half a brain is to deny access to everyone equally. One business owner, Brett McMahon, writes at Halt The Assault:

If this new request by union leaders is allowed to become law, its effect will be for many business operators like myself to have no choice but to close doors to any outside groups. The impact to charities ability to operate and reach support would be devastating. Ultimately, unions are trying to make sure that no one wins.

Sorry, Girl Scouts. Sorry, Boy Scouts. Sorry, Red Cross. And the local soup kitchen. This is not hyperbole. This is a direct threat to the ability for small business to say who comes onto their property and how they affect their business.

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The New York Post is reporting that unionized public employees were encouraged to slow the process of digging out of the recent snowstorm to demonstrate their labor leverage in hopes of grabbing more taxpayer largess.

Think that’s shocking? Just wait til taxpayers finally start paying attention to the power public employees have over local, state, and federal budgets. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown have already warned that 80 cents of every state dollar goes to public employee pay and benefits. Other states face similar figures. Shocking figures have shown public employee pensions twice as high in New York compared to their private-sector counterparts. Heck, even 60 Minutes is starting to take notice.

With all the political payoffs, scandals, and bailouts, the issue seems as mundane as the figures are mind-boggling, but the bill for lavish public employee pay is coming due in the form of a pension tsunami — or, if you prefer, a blizzard that will have union bosses calling for a bailout.

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It’s pretty clear the administration owes union bosses big, and the payoffs may take many forms. There was the failed attempt to push card check by legislation and now through the National Labor Relations Board. In the meantime, though, the administration is shelling out on smaller projects — such as today’s news of a $3.3 million gift to Big Labor to make a DC construction project union-only.

The story is a bit tough to follow because of federal contracting rules (click here for more details from The Truth About PLAs), but one thing is clear: taxpayers were forced to pay an extra $3.3 million after a project was already awarded just so it would carry a “project labor agreement.” That means no additional services, no higher quality, just the “value” of using union-only labor.

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A picture’s worth a thousand opinions as Gallup compiles Americans’ view of the federal government thusly:

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An American businessman who has been the target of a relentless attack by SEIU union thugs wrote today about the lessons we should all take from Breitbart’s recent run-in:

On Saturday, September 18th, Andrew Breitbart faced a situation similar to that endured by EMS for over three years during the SEIU’s corporate campaign to force unionization on its employees (See Andrew Breitbart Forces President Obama’s Protesters to Fold Up Shop).

He and Glenn Beck faced an unruly crowd chanting “Hey, Ho, Breitbart and Beck Must Go,” a scene that my employees and I faced constantly during the ordeal. The chant then was “Dave Bego and EMS must go!” From an originality perspective, the SEIU has not progressed much in the five years since the campaign against EMS!

Bego concludes:

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