In a complete non-surprise given their officials’ reactions last week, the United Auto Workers union has filed an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board of the election they lost at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant.

As would be expected for an organization whose journalists are members of the News Media Guild, a Friday evening report by Associated Press reporters Tom Raum and Erik Schelzig emphasized the “outside intervention” of First Amendment-protected statements made by Volunteer State politicians, including Senator Bob Corker, in the runup to the balloting, while ignoring and minimizing thuggish behavior and statements by UAW supporters and sympathizers. They also saved assessments that the effort is a long-shot at best, at least on the merits, for much later paragraphs — but with President Barack Obama’s NLRB, you never know. Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine throughout this post):

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An early-morning report by Julie Pace at the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, definitely deserves space in the “You Can’t Make This Up” file.

The AP’s White House correspondent, surely at the suggestion of the group she is supposed to be covering objectively, writes that President Barack Obama’s forays into unilateral executive action have been good for his soul. The President’s authoritarian moves have apparently also been “cathartic” for the White House staff, now reportedly “buoyed by a new sense of purpose.” Isn’t that sweet? Excerpts from this piece of journalistic junk follow the jump (bolds are mine):

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On February 10, in a rare moment of candor which was quickly edited away in subsequent revisions, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar at the Associated Press, aka the Administration’s Press, wrote that President Obama had unilaterally instituted delays and revisions in Obamacare’s employer mandate because he was “angling to avoid political peril.”

Of course he was. Postponing and revising the requirement that firms cover their employees “or face a $2000 fine per employee, after the first 30,” delays the decidedly negative impact of the statist healthcare scheme until after November’s elections. But in a Friday evening report, Politico’s David Nather essentially tried to claim that Obama really acted against his own best interest (links are in original; bolds and numbered tags are mine):

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This open thread will stay at or near the top today. Rules are here. Possible comment fodder may follow. Other topics are also fair game.

This post is a Washington’s Birthday BizzyBlog tradition.

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Few know that George Washington singlehandedly prevented a soldiers’ revolt in 1783.

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(from historyplace.com)

At the close of the Revolutionary War in America, a perilous moment in the life of the fledgling American democracy occurred as officers of the Continental Army met in Newburgh, New York, to discuss grievances and consider a possible insurrection against the rule of Congress.

They were angry over the failure of Congress to honor its promises to the army regarding salary, bounties and life pensions. The officers had heard from Philadelphia that the American government was going broke and that they might not be compensated at all.

On March 10, 1783, an anonymous letter was circulated among the officers of General Washington’s main camp at Newburgh. It addressed those complaints and called for an unauthorized meeting of officers to be held the next day to consider possible military solutions to the problems of the civilian government and its financial woes.

General Washington stopped that meeting from happening by forbidding the officers to meet at the unauthorized meeting. Instead, he suggested they meet a few days later, on March 15th, at the regular meeting of his officers.

Meanwhile, another anonymous letter was circulated, this time suggesting Washington himself was sympathetic to the claims of the malcontent officers.

And so on March 15, 1783, Washington’s officers gathered in a church building in Newburgh, effectively holding the fate of democracy in America in their hands.

Unexpectedly, General Washington himself showed up. He was not entirely welcomed by his men, but nevertheless, personally addressed them…
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