9 in 10 Favor Protections for Secret Ballots
February 23, 2009 by FCD Administrator
Filed under Current, Guest Articles
Guest Editorial | Poll Shows Voters Demand State Constitutional Protection of Secret Ballot Elections; Highest Support Among Union Households
Salt Lake City, UT – 9 out of 10 Utah voters want the state constitution to be amended to protect secret ballots, concluded a poll conducted by Wilson Research Strategies. This poll surveyed likely voters to assess attitudes toward the issue of voting by secret ballot and found that overwhelming support for secret ballots was strongest (up to 89%) among Union households.
Chris Wilson of Wilson Research Strategies noted that, “Voters in Utah strongly support any action confirming the right of secret ballot, indicating a firmly held belief by Utahans that democracy through secret ballot should extend from elections for public office to the workplace elections for employee representation. Union members offer even stronger support for the amendment than non-union members. This support demonstrates a deep-rooted favorability for the democratic process among Utahans of all backgrounds.”
“With support above 80%, Utahans take a unified and non-partisan approach as a strong majority of both Republicans and Democrats endorse the amendment. The amendment to guarantee secret ballot rights earns majority support from voters of both genders, all ages, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Support this universal is rare and demands the attention of elected officials,” Wilson concluded.
“We knew that support for the secret ballot was high and that securing the right to a secret ballot in the UT state constitution had widespread support. 89% confirms what we’ve been telling legislators: attempting to take this right away from voters is political suicide. The unions have very clearly misread their membership and their continued for support for eliminating the secret ballot is seen as a crude, transparent power grab. Utah voters, especially union members, see right through it,” said Troy Walker, SOS Ballot’s UT coordinator.
SOS Ballot is a 501c4 organization dedicated to educating the American public on the continued need for a secret ballot wherever state or federal law requires elections. seeks to protect voters from intimidation and harassment by empowering them to vote whether they wish to have the right to a secret ballot guaranteed in their state constitution. SOS Ballot is currently conducting initiative or legislative campaigns in Arizona, Arkansas Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.
The secret ballot was used locally as an act of post-Civil war southern reconstruction, first as a way to impose a literacy requirement on newly freed slaves. The secret ballot also protected mostly black voters who faced physical intimidation, even lynching depending on how their vote was cast. Secret ballots were first used statewide in the Massachusetts governor’s race 1888 and nationally in 1892 to elect President Grover Cleveland.
Contact: Audrey Mullen or Dave Mohel at 703-548-1160
Union’s Expect Obama Payback – Seek to End Secret Ballots
February 23, 2009 by FCD Administrator
Filed under Current, Guest Articles, Principle 03
Updated Guest Editorial | On Tuesday’s Glenn Beck Show, a discouraging statistic was shown. In 1999, all government spending as a portion of our national GNP was 33%. In 2009, that number stands at 39%.
An astonishing number when you consider that the United States produces over $14 trillion in goods and services annually. If that number frightens you and raises red flags about the growth of government, then something is on the horizon which will make that number worse. And that is why we need your leadership today.
Big Labor is expecting a pay back from President Obama. For the hundreds of millions they spent on his election, they expect him to sign an innocent sounding, yet deceptive bill called Employee Free Choice Act – better known as “Card Check.”
Card Check is a cunning device that will make unionizing companies less democratic in the process of union organizing and more prone to intimidation and harassment. Currently, unions must have at least 30% of the employees sign cards voicing their support for a union. In the vast majority of cases the employer will then require a secret ballot election to determine if a union will be formed. If the new “Card Check” federal legislation is passed, unions may contact employees directly, and when they get 51% of the employees to sign a card, the right of the employees to vote by secret ballot is abolished and the workplace is automatically unionized.
Card check will dramatically speed up the unionization of America by harassment and intimidation. As a result, government will grow bigger and mandatory union dues – the main objective to Card Check – will increase Big Labor political donations to Democrats and left wing causes. In 2008 alone, 91% of all union contributions went to Democrats. A staggering number when you realize that Big Labor can simply take dues out of union employees’ paychecks. This is one of the biggest power grabs in recent memory.
It is inconceivable to believe government will not grow bigger and more confiscatory with a larger union presence. Government’s 39% total of our GNP will soon grow to the mid-to-high 40s if card check passes. Do we want that? Will that help or impede innovation, freedom and entrepreneurship?
Big Labor and their allies hope to accomplish this power grab by taking away a working man and woman’s right to a secret ballot. Can you imagine if your elected officials knew how everyone voted in their districts? How many more votes do you think they would receive on Election Day? The same logic applies to union voting. Without the privacy of the secret ballot, people become more acutely aware of the need of their jobs and their unwillingness to go against the pressure of union leaders. That is why Save Our Secret Ballot (www.sosballot.org) was organized – to protect the right of the secret ballot for all Americans.
Save Our Secret Ballot is doing this by placing on the ballot in 15-20 states a state constitutional amendment (not federal) to protect the right to a secret ballot (for exact language go to www.sosballot.org). We want voters to know exactly what is at stake and what unions want to accomplish. Holding a public debate is the last thing unions want. House Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid are ready to take away your right to a secret ballot and President Obama is ready to sign it. All that stands in its way is you!
Where you and I want public discourse and debate like the famous Lincoln – Douglas debates over 150 years ago, unions want to treat this issue like a Venezuelan policy debate – the less discussion the better.
Unions want to pass this without the American public knowing about it. Like a thief, they want to do this in the darkness of night without the glare of daylight. Unlike a thief who steals material goods which can be replaced, they want to steal freedoms that cannot be replaced.
We need your help today – not tomorrow. Today, Monday, this freedom protecting legislation will be up for a vote in the Utah House of Representatives. We have some Republicans still frightened of the unions. Please help today by getting your family, friends, business associates and YOU to call your Utah State Legislator and State Senator and ask them to vote YES for HJR-8 (Save Our Secret Ballot).
You can call them at the Capitol Hill
Utah State Senate 801-538-1035
Utah House of Representatives 801-538-1029
Without your help and leadership, unions will take away a fundamental freedom. For more information, go to www.sosballot.org and help stop this power grab today!
Chuck Warren is a partner at Silver Bullet, LLC (www.silverbulletllc.org).
Hillary’s Credentials, Obama Hipocracy?
December 9, 2008 by Stephen Anderson
Filed under Current, Guest Articles, Principle 04
By Matthew Coper – CNSNews.com | (CNSNews.com) – President-elect Barack Obama designated Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to be his next secretary of state Monday, despite having spent much of the previous two years questioning her foreign-policy credentials.
During the campaign for the Democratic nomination, Obama mocked Clinton’s primary claim that she possessed the necessary foreign policy experience to be president.
“What exactly is this foreign policy expertise?” Obama said to reporters in March, while flying from a campaign event in Texas. “Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no.”
In spite of these doubts, Obama praised Clinton’s credentials Monday, saying she would be able to advance America’s interests due to her knowledge of world affairs and familiarity with world leaders.
“She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world’s leaders, who will command respect in every capital, and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world,” he said.
Obama said that his new foreign policy team, which will be led by Clinton, would change America’s foreign policy for the better.
“I am confident that this is the team that we need to make a new beginning for American national security,” he told reporters at the announcement.
However, Obama had expressed exactly the opposite view of Clinton during the primary campaign.
“It’s what’s wrong with politics today. Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected,” Obama said in a January radio ad. “Hillary Clinton. She’ll say anything and change nothing.”
Obama also said Monday that he>>>>Read the Full Article
Schwarzenegger declares fiscal emergency
December 8, 2008 by Stephen Anderson
Filed under Current, Guest Articles, Money & Economics
By Juliet Williams – Associated Press Writer | SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency Monday and called lawmakers into a special session to address California’s $11.2 billion deficit.
The state’s revenue gap is expected to hit $28 billion over the next 19 months without bold action. The emergency declaration authorizes the governor and lawmakers to change the existing budget within the next 45 days.
Without quick action, the state is likely to run out of cash in February.
Schwarzenegger and Democrats have proposed a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, but Republican lawmakers are steadfast in their refusal to raise taxes.
Lawmakers failed to reach a compromise during the special session Schwarzenegger declared last month, pushing the problem to a new Legislature that was being sworn in Monday.
The crisis worsens each week, so the Republican governor did not want to waste any time in declaring a special session, said his spokesman, Aaron McLear.
“It’s important that we start on Day One so the new Legislature can start immediately to solve our fiscal crisis,” he said.
There appeared to be little reason to believe that Republican lawmakers would budge on their opposition to tax increase.
“If anything, I think our resolve (against raising taxes) is deeper than it has ever been because of the economic realities,” Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill said Monday.
Democrats don’t have the two-thirds majority in either the Assembly or Senate that is required to pass tax increases or a state budget.>>>>Read the Full Article
The Consequence of a Liberal Supermajority
November 15, 2008 by Stephen Anderson
Filed under Featured, Guest Articles, Principle 13
The Wall Street Journal | If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.
Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven’t since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s. If the U.S. really is entering a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy, Americans at least ought to understand what they will be getting, especially with the media cheering it all on.
The nearby table shows the major bills that passed the House this year or last before being stopped by the Senate minority. Keep in mind>>>>Read the Full Article


