It;s Official, Government Workers Are Not Overpaid

You've seen the articles in the New Jersey papers many times that claim we are overpaid because the average state employee, federal employee, whatever makes more on the average than the average wage for private sector employees.  This fact is normally used to show that we are overpaid and is used as an argument for everything from giving us a 40-hour week to watering down our health and pension benefits to decertifying our unions.

No less a source than the New York Times has an article that explains this.  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/06/us/public-private-employees.html?ref=us

Basically, the fact that we make more than private-sector employees is something that you could place into the "No shit Sherlock" folder.  A little arrogant, you may say.  Not exactly.  See, we're basically missing workers from the hotel and restaurant industry and from retail trade, two on the lowest=paid sectors in the economy.  Ditto for landscapers and janitors too.  The state contracts out for all these services.  Private landscapers get to cut the grass at the Labor Building.  Private workers work in the cafeteria.  We have mentally handicapped people from a sheltered workshop cleaning our building.

So what are we long on?  Well, the Division of Workers Compensation hires a lot of attorneys, both as council and as judges.  The division of Labor Planning and Analysis hires a lot of economists and statisticians.  And unemployment, disability and workers compensation all hire their share of investigators.  Add to this layers of senior and middle management to supervise everybody, and you got one highly educated workforce.  It also happens to be highly paid, and rightly so, with those occupations.

When one is looking at clerical workers, perhaps they are paid more than average, but not more for a large organization such as Bristol Meyers or Lockheed of Boeing.  Once you start moving up the ranks, the pay differential goes the other way.  For professionals such as economists and attorneys, wages are about 20 percent lower in the public sector than in the private.  True, we don't work as many hours, so it is not such a bad deal, but you still have to pay to get qualified people.

When you are talking about executives responsible for several hundred people, the pay differential is even less.  Our Director, for instance makes about $130,000.  Find a general manager of a factory employing 300 or 400 people and I bet you they make a lot more than that.

Thank God for the Times, I couldn't have written it as well.

'Tis The Season

Now let's see....April 12 was the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.  They celebrated in Charleston, SC and across the South.  April 15 is traditionally the end of tax season, but because April 16 is Emancipation Day in Washington DC, the deadline has been extended to Monday April 18, which happens to be Passover.  April 17 is Palm Sunday. 

As you might guess, this is a festive time of the year.  The weather is mild and the Robins are out there chirping, so who needs more than a thin excuse to get out and make a day of it.  Here in Trenton, it was no different.  We had our own town party on Saturday, April 16th, which was a rainy, dreary day, and no it wasn't to celebrate the first day of freedom for the slaves in Washington, D.C.  No, up here in the north, we has the National Socialist Movement come to our fine city to treat us to a genuine Nazi rally.

The National Socialist Movement (NSM), from out of Detroit. is America.s largest Neo-Nazi party.   Here is a link to their website.  http://www.nsm88.org/   Here is a link to an NSM video:    http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=qXFSiZ4UW4Q  Here is another video from the Nazi's close relative, the Ku Klux Klan:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVQBZJnAVsU   They said in a speech at the rally that they picked Trenton because it was the place that George Washington helped keep a dying revolution alive by defeating the British on Christmas Day, 1776.  They say they admire Washington.  So did the German-American Bund.  I recall they once held a Rally at Madison Square Garden just before the start of World War II.  It featured a huge portrait of Washington on the stage.  It began with a procession of snare-drumming American Hitler Youths walking down the center aisle.  It ended shortly thereafter when the first speaker took the podium.  It seems the crowd was infiltrated by Jewish toughs who came to break up the event.  It ended in a massive riot.  Here is some footage of the German American Bund including shots of the Madison Square Garden rally:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw4_xmUgo3w

This time in Trenton, Washington's freedom helped protect the Nazis, as did hordes of police officers.
Our event had counter protesters from several groups including our very own New Black Panther Party led by former city council candidate Divine Allah.  In this race Marge Caldwell Wilson became the first white person to win the North Ward council seat in over 30 years in a runoff against Allah.  This might be because Allah admitted burning an American flag and said he didn't believe in what our country stands for.   Here is a link to a counter-protester video from the Trenton Rally:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQV82MGncnc.  Here is a link to the New Black Panther Party website:   http://www.newblackpanther.com/

Perhaps that's because the New Black Panther website says they want to establish a black man's homeland somewhere in the United States.  Yup, they're black supremacists, lust like the Klan and the Nazis are white supremacists.  The two groups are so much alike, perhaps they should join forces.  They both march around in military uniforms and believe in racial exclusion and supremacy of their respective races.

The NSM in Wednesday paper said they will allow people of any race to live in their homeland if they took over and that they hate nobody.  I guess they're just a bunch of wonderful choir boys that like carrying swastikas and wearing brown shirts and jackboots.  Then the cat came out of the bag in Thursday's paper.  Yes, they will let anyone live here, but only whites can be citizens and only whites can be party members. (This also means that Jews and gays can't be citizens either, even if they are also white.)  Everybody else besides whites will have to register as foreigners and live under the laws for foreigners.

Remember the NSDAP.  You know, the original German Nazis that ran their country from 1933 to 1945.  They had a group of laws called the Nuremberg laws, so named because they were announced at their September annual party rally in Nuremberg.  They said pretty much the same thing.  Well they eventually led to the extermination of the Jews.  The Slavs would have been next if Germany won the war.

See the idea of racial superiority is a slippery slope.  Over time, the definition of a "pure" person gets narrower once the group takes power.  Remember George Rockwell.  No, not the painter, but Commander George Rockwell who wrote the book "White Power" and founded the American Nazi Party.  He wound up with a bullet in the head back in 1966 as a result of a dispute over whether blonde Nazis were superior to brunette Nazis.

As an interesting sidebar, after his death, his group sued and wanted him buried in Arlington National Cemetery with an SS funeral with an SS honor guard.  The Nazis lost their case.  Decorated WWII pilot Rockwell who fought in the Japanese theater is now in Arlington, but never got his Nazi funeral.  (Boo Hoo).

Besides Divine Allah, we had another local political wackjob weigh in on the rally.  Juan Martinez said they shouldn't rally here because they are racist.  Look, it's the pot calling the kettle black!  For it's Martinez who is always calling for hiring preferences for Latinos in city government and he has said Latinos have a duty to vote for Latino candidates.  Doesn't sound too much different from what the Klan and Nazis say (White people should only vote for whites regardless of political party).

Thank god for the cops.  Everyone went home OK from Trenton on Saturday.  Not so at the Nazi meeting in Pemberton Friday night.  There was a fight at the meeting hall between the blacks and Nazis.  The police had to come to break it up and several people got injured.

So ;ong as we are on the subject of dates in April, did you know that the NSM is planning to rally in Washington, D.C. on April 19.  That explainms why they came to Trenton.  These guys are riding around in buses and they are kind ol like Grateful Dead fans.  Just like the Deadheads, they ride from place to place and really don't have a life.  So if you are going to Washington on 4/19, why not stop in Pemberton on 4/15 and Trenton on 4/16.  After all, they are on the way.

Do you know what Aprl 20 is?  Yes it is Colombine day.  It is also the stoner's national holiday.  But originally it was Hitler's birthday.  He was born April 20, 1889.