Free kibbles

SOCIALISM:

Unions hire non-union workers to walk picket lines for them.

"Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.

Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it. "I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Protest organizers and advocacy groups are reaping an unexpected benefit from continued high joblessness. With the national unemployment rate currently at 9.5%, an "endless supply" of the out-of-work, as well as retirees seeking extra income, are lining up to be paid demonstrators, says George Eisner, the union's director of organization. Extra feet help the union staff about 150 picket lines in the District of Columbia and Baltimore each day."

You can't make this stuff up. Talk about astroturf.

Cuba to lay off workers. Apparently communists can't keep people employed either.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Prediction the Fed will start printing money in earnest again as we slide deeper into the double-dip depression.

HEALTH CARE:

In a stark reminder that government is violence and every law it passes it forces on the people at the point of gun, the Obama administration is suing doctors in Idaho because the refuse to provide services at the prices mandated by bureaucrats. Freedom and individual choice will not be tolerated.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Yes, CO2 makes poison ivy and every other plant grow,  but only poison ivy is singled out to brainwash children.

US government temporarily suspends funding of CRU in wake of climategate. This won't last long.

WAR:

I doubt the Harry S. Truman has been positioned to invite attack that would start a war with Iran. Arrogance is more likely. A display of invulnerability.

Afghanistan watchdog reports that the NATO buildup in Kandahar is strengthening the Taliban's hold on the region.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Did the US rendition that Iranian nuclear scientist, or did he defect?

Verification that the US spends $1 trillion annually on foreign policy. That's nuts. Our foreign attachments look a lot like the British Empire before it collapsed, and ours may collapse quite suddenly.

MISC:

Survival book recommendations.