Wednesday, September 7, 2011

BloggeRhythms 9/7/2011

Lot's of folks are upset with James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union, for saying "take these son-of-a-bitches out," regarding Tea Party politicians. But, instead, I think he should be thanked. Because he finally brought some national attention to what unions, and especially their leaders, are all about. These neanderthal slugs have done nothing but raise employer's costs and liability for years while diminishing the value of products and services everywhere they're involved.

And it's really no surprise that he used the words he did in trying to make his point, because he was likely educated by teachers who are products of union protection themselves and therefore don't do their jobs too well. Because if they had, they'd have taught him to be a bit more professional in his verbiage instead of sounding like the street thug he actually is. However, today that's what most teachers sound like themselves.

James Hoffa's father, Jimmy, was president of the Teamsters Union himself from 1958 to 1971. He played a major role in the growth and development of the union, which eventually became the largest single union in the United States, with over 1.5 million members during his terms as its leader.

In 1964, he was convicted in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of attempted bribery of a grand juror, jury tampering, and fraud and sentenced to 13 years. That case resulted from an earlier one, the Test Fleet case, which had been held in Nashville, Tennessee. He was implicated by one of his close associates, Edward Grady Partin, a Louisiana teamster, who went to the FBI with the information that led to Hoffa's conviction. Hoffa was also convicted of fraud later that same year for improper use of the Teamsters' pension fund, for lending to organized crime, in a trial held in Chicago. He received a five-year sentence to run consecutively to his bribery sentence.

In 1971 he officially resigned the Teamsters' presidency, as part of a pardon agreement with U.S. president Richard Nixon, in order to facilitate his release later that year. It was also Nixon who blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980 when Hoffa attempted to overturn the order and to regain support.

I mention all of this to illustrate that it's really true that apples don't fall far from trees and although over time some folks become slicker at what they do, basic instincts don't change. And that's why after all these years the leader of an organization that has no true worth at all resorts back to examples he grew up with. When push came to shove he went back to his roots and exposed himself as an ignorant thug.

But then again, if history really does repeat itself, maybe junior will mysteriously wind up encased in concrete in a highway bridge abutment just like his dear old dad did.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

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