Schultz began his obsessive assault on Walker when he opened his February 14, 2011 program by warning his audience that “There is a war brewing, folks…American wage earners are under a ruthless attack by a new group of cold- hearted Republican governors around the country. In the state of Wisconsin, newly-elected Republican Governor Scott Walker is trying to balance the budget on the backs of school teachers, prison guards, and snowplow drivers…Walker is also on a mission to destroy basic human rights, union rights that is, for public employees.”

The next day Schultz brought on the lone voice of support for Walker, GOP state senator Glenn Grothman, but from then on it was a steady stream of union activists, liberal journalists and Democratic officeholders as Schultz operated more like the Wisconsin Democratic State party chair than just your average cable news talk show host.

Democratic Solidarity Now!

When a group of “brave” and “patriotic” Democratic state senators – or as Schultz “affectionately” called them the “Wisconsin 14” – went into hiding, in order to stall Walker’s legislation, Schultz managed to track them down when he took his show on the road to Madison, Wisconsin. On his February 17, 2011 show Schultz absurdly portrayed members of the Wisconsin 14 as heroic resistance fighters: “Joining me now from an undisclosed location is Wisconsin State Senators Frank Risser and Mark Miller and nine other Democratic state senators who are standing up in solidarity for the workers of Wisconsin.”

MRC VIDEO

Look for the Union Label

Schultz liked to invite union activists to The Ed Show as well. Rick Badger from AFSCME Wisconsin, AFL-CIO Wisconsin president Phil Neuenfeldt and Professional Firefighter of Wisconsin president Mahlon Mitchell, who defiantly proclaimed on the August 8, 2011 show: “We didn’t ask for this fight, but I guarantee we will finish this fight,” were treated to warm receptions from Schultz. This isn’t surprising given that, according to the Labor Department, Schultz’s broadcast company received nearly $200,000 from unions.

Walker’s ‘Racist’ Agenda Against Kids

Schultz also brought on his brothers-in-arms in the media. On the February 16, 2011 Ed Show, Sirius/XM liberal talk radio host Joe Madison said the fight against Walker reminded him of “Martin Luther King and the reason he went to Memphis, Tennessee” and compared the pro-Walker forces to “Dixiecrats.” On the March 3, 2011 Ed Show, Schultz railed that Walker’s budget was “racist” because it was “picking on inner city kids.” Fellow MSNBC talker Al Sharpton then came on to agree that the proposal would “pick on” children, “take collective bargaining away” from their parents and “give a tax break to the rich.” John Nichols of the ultra-leftist magazine The Nation was a regular who, on the June 8, 2011 program, joined Schultz in a cartoonish portrayal of the governor as a kid hater:

SCHULTZ: I want to get your take on Governor Scott Walker. He reportedly has removed a portrait of low- income children from the governor’s mansion. And he`s replaced it with a picture of a Bald Eagle. What details do you have on this? Why did he do this?

NICHOLS: Well, as I understand it — and this is something that’s been reported a good deal — when the Walkers came into the governor’s mansion, they made it quite clear to the staff that they didn’t want this picture of these kids from Milwaukee in a prominent place in the mansion.

And so they asked that it be removed and taken over and put in a public space in Milwaukee, so that they could put up other pictures. It’s caused a real stir in Wisconsin. The artist who did the painting has expressed a lot of concern.

And frankly, a lot of other folks have asked why doesn’t this governor want to have pictures of low-income kids in the governor’s mansion? Is it because his budget and his policies are doing so much damage to kids like that?

Defending the Little Big Labor Guy

The day before Wisconsin voters were to vote on whether to have a recall GOP state senators, Schultz brought his act back to Madison, which gave him an excuse to spout anti-Walker rhetoric while adoring fans cheered on. On the August 8, 2011 Ed Show, Schultz proclaimed: “This is the eye of the storm for the fight for the middle class in this country…For eight months, Wisconsinites have been under attack by the anti-worker policies of Republican rookie governor Scott Walker, and his minions in the State Senate. Ten hours from now, Wisconsin voters will have a chance to go to the polls and recall six Republican state senators who voted to strip collective bargaining and take money out of the pockets of hundreds of thousands of middle class state workers” and “send shock waves into every Republican state house and congressional office in the country.” Schultz then proceeded to introduce, to applause from his live audience, two Democratic state candidates (State Representatives Fred Clark and Sandy Pasch) challenging the incumbent Republicans.

By allowing Ed Schultz to pay back his union buddies with hours of programming to attack Scott Walker MSNBC has demonstrated its willingness to move just beyond opinion journalism into outright campaigning for Democrats and their causes.

– Geoffrey Dickens is the Deputy Research Director at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Geoffrey Dickens on Twitter.

• Publication: Media Reality Check

• Division: News Analysis Division

• Tags: Wisconsin, Unions, Scott Walker, Ed Schultz

Police were called in today after a human foot was sent to the Conservative Party Headquarters in Ottawa.
The CBC reported:

Ottawa police say they are investigating after what appeared to be a human foot was found in a suspicious package sent to the Conservative Party of Canada headquarters in Ottawa.

Hazerdous materials handlers were called to the 12th floor of 130 Albert Street after the package was found. The coroner is now en route to assist with the indentification.

[Editor: Is this not typical of the LEFT? Their tactics are from the pit of hell.  What did Sal Alinsky bring to our modern societies? No, the ENDS does not JUSTIFY the MEANS!  God have mercy on this wicked generation.]

By Dominic Di-Natale

Published May 29, 2012

The Pakistani doctor sentenced last week to 33 years in prison for helping track Usama bin Laden suffered torture, isolation and starvation during his interrogation, his brother told Fox News — as he made an appeal from the family for the U.S. Embassy to help fight his legal case.

Jamil Afridi told Fox News in an interview that the Embassy so far has not reached out to the family of Dr. Shakil Afridi.

The brother said the family wants the U.S. to provide lawyers as well as pay the legal bills — as questions surround the dubious legal process used to convict Afridi and hand down what amounted to a life sentence. He also said the broader family of roughly 30 people wants asylum in America.

“The blame has been placed on my brother because of America. We are facing a tough time and they should now support us. We should get justice and protection,” he told Fox News. “Me, my brother, my family don’t have any protection here. When I leave from this place, I don’t know what might happen to me. I don’t know in which guise someone might come for us. I am afraid of the government agencies, the Taliban and terrorists.”

Jamil Afridi said security forces insiders told him his brother was tortured during the interrogation. Afridi was so emaciated when he arrived at prison after last week’s conviction that he has put on five pounds just from being fed properly, his brother said.

The interrogation apparently is over. The brother said that based on what he was told by security forces, Dr. Afridi’s conditions are “paradise” in comparison to what he experienced before.

But even after that ordeal, one Pakistani security official told Fox News that Afridi continues to be kept in isolation in a six-foot-by-four-foot cell.

According to the brother, the family is still being denied visits to him in jail. During the year prior to his sentencing, Afridi did not see sunlight while held by his interrogators, his brother said.

“For one year after he was taken in, we didn’t know if he was alive or dead, which agency had him or what his whereabouts where,” he said, adding that his two sisters were recently turned away when they tried to visit.

Further, he said authorities are “willfully avoiding and stalling” in providing verdict papers, so the family is unable to lodge an appeal. Shakil Afridi has three children — two sons and a daughter.

The details provided by Jamil Afridi likely will add to the pressure on Washington to do more to help the jailed doctor, considering the role he played in helping the CIA track bin Laden before the U.S. raid on his Abbottabad compound.

The Obama administration has condemned the Pakistani government’s decision to imprison Afridi, and claims to be pressing his case with Islamabad. Members of Congress meanwhile have called on the administration to step up their efforts on Afridi’s behalf. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told FoxNews.com last week that he thinks “the administration hasn’t done anything to indicate they are serious about the demand for this man’s release.”

On the Senate side, a committee last week lodged a protest against the prison sentence by voting to cut Pakistan’s aid by $33 million.

In Pakistan, government officials last Friday described the sentence as payback for how the U.S. went about getting the Al Qaeda leader and shrugged off criticism by American officials — telling the U.S. to stop “over-reacting.”

Rohrabacher, in response, accused the government of being “blinded by their radical Islamic ideology.”

As for Afridi’s current status, a senior security official working inside Peshawar’s penal system with close knowledge of the Afridi case said the inmate is “confident about his future and an appeal.”

“He has become an American hero,” the official said. The official said Afridi is being kept in isolation in his tiny cell, though stressed the conditions were not meant to be a form of solitary confinement punishment.

The official also said the jail is facing a potential riot among its 2,000 inmates because militants among them have gotten word that Afridi is being held there. The wardens have also received death threats from militants, the official said.

FoxNews.com’s Judson Berger contributed to this report. 

The solemn act of honoring those who have fallen in battle is a custom that seems to have faded in importance to our nation over time.

Nowadays, many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country, the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored, and worse, neglected.

While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died, not just those fallen in service to our country.

Perhaps they do not know how deeply our nation once appreciated those who sacrificed their lives in defense of the principles we hold most dear. Perhaps those very principles of individual sovereignty, freedom and liberty are no longer so important.

It was not always so.

In 1868, on May 5th, Memorial Day, originally called “Decoration Day,” was officially proclaimed by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11.

General Logan asked that we cherish “tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes. Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders.”

But times change. In the 1960s our warriors were not welcomed back from battle with parades and cheers, and the fallen were not honored as they had been in the past.

Perhaps reflecting those times, the Uniform Holidays Bill was passed in 1968 as part of a move to use federal holidays to create three-day weekends – time for fun and recreation, rather than remembrance and reflection.

Thus, from 1971 onwards, the Memorial Day holiday was officially observed on the last Monday in May and became the unofficial start of the summer, with barbecues, blockbuster movie openings and mattress sales.

No less than the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization was later moved to say “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”

It was around that time as well that defense spending began a steep decline, and in 1976, for the first time, entitlement spending exceeded defense spending. It is a trend that has rapidly accelerated, with spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid more than double that of national defense, a core constitutional function of government.

Nonetheless, the United States of America still possesses the greatest military force the world has ever known. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen volunteer to protect and defend this country and all its citizens, and do so with honor, integrity and excellence. Our nation continually asks them to do more and more, with less and less.

We must never forget why we have, and why we need our military. Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have “guardians at the gate.”

Those who serve today deserve our gratitude, those who are returning from the battlefield deserve our open arms, and those who will never return deserve our thoughts, tributes and remembrance.

In 2000, President Clinton passed a resolution asking all Americans to observe a “National Moment of Remembrance” at 3 p.m. on each Memorial Day “to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to provide freedom for all.” I know what I will be doing at 3 p.m. this Memorial Day. I hope I will not be alone.

For as General Logan proclaimed, “Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

They were steadfast and loyal.

Published May 26, 2012

The U.S. Postal Service announced late Friday it would offer thousands of mail-handlers a $15,000 incentive to retire early, the most recent attempt by the financially-strapped agency to cut costs and stay open for business.

The voluntary offer was extended to roughly 45,000 full-time union employees. It is part of the agency’s larger plan to cut its workforce by 150,000 over the next three years and close hundreds of mail-procession centers.

Postal officials said such changes are necessary as a result of the recession and because Americans continue to pay bills and perform other, similar tasks online, instead of doing them through the mail.

Officials said 60 percent of Americans now pay their bills online, compared to just 5 percent in 2000. They also said mail volume peaked at 213 billion in 2006, but has since plummeted by more than 25 percent.

Official also have said the congressional mandate to pre-fund retirement health care benefits has contributed to financial problems.

The agency reportedly lost more than $6 billion in the first two quarters of fiscal 2012.
Eligible employees must decide by July and leave in August. Those who accept the offer will receive the money in two installments – December 2012 and December 2013.

A similar, pro-rated deal is being offered to many part-time employees. Handlers perform such tasks as sorting mail in processing centers as well as loading and unloading trucks.

The National Postal Mail Handlers Union said the deal is “intended to provide a financial cushion and added peace of mind for mail handlers who might be prepared to move on to the next chapter of their lives.”

The agency also wanted to close some low-volume rural post offices to save money, but announced earlier this month, amid public outcry, to instead reduce hours of operation.