News-Press Op-Ed Compares Teamsters to Nazis

For many years people have been hiding behind certain immutable charecteristics to justify their positions.

People say "As a parent, I want to express my concern about ...(Fill in the blank) or "As a Black woman..." or "As an Englishman..."....you get the drift. How about "As a member of the human race"?

I remember about ten years ago attending a school board meeting where a local teacher compared ending bilingual education to "Hitler's Final Solution". Of course the P.C. school adminstrators didn't say a word against him. Any surprise it's come to this?

Invoking Hitler and Nazism is a favorite approach of those who have run out of arguments.

While Norman Jaffe may not have been responsible for the horrors visited upon him as a child, he IS responsible for how he behaves as an adult. It is time he starts acting like one.

As for the News-Press, I think of the Latin term Res ipsa loquitur which loosly translates to "The thing speaks for itself".

May I be the first to make a citizen's arrest of the News-Press editorial section for a flagrant violation of Godwin's Law?

"May I be the first to make a citizen's arrest of the News-Press editorial section for a flagrant violation of Godwin's Law?"

Yes you may, and if they resist arrest I'll be glad to help you detain them until the sanity police come to haul them off.

Coincidentally, as I wrote my comments to this I couldn't remember that the theory was "Godwin's Law" or who it was that pointed that out so I'm glad you posted.

The News-Press has been Binked.

Binky: (n): A brand name of pacifier. It's a registered trade mark of Playtex, but much to the annoyance of their lawyers, it's often used as a generic term for any pacifier.
"If the baby cries, give him his binky. "

Binky: (n) screen name of blogger whose comments frequently appear in the SB Independent. Origin of name; matter of dispute. Possibly originating from said blogger's desire to pacify the aggressions existing in the oft-volatile blogosphere, as in "peacemaker".

Binked: (vt): to have one's shameful actions exposed in the Santa Barbara Independent Blogosphere.
A term originated by blogger billclausen who periodically would observe fellow blogger "Binky" pointing out the foolish actions of other individuals.
"You've been Binked"

Found in my neighbor's paper recycling, here manually typed below are text excerpts from the subject guest commentary.

This reads clearly that the author never even has seen any Teamsters members in any local stores and he bases his whole view of truth and reality entirely on what was written by "editor" Scott "extreme embellishment" Steepleton.

quoted excerpts:

Opinion: Teamsters' tactics against small businesses rekindle memories of Nazi oppression
by Norman Jaffe

August 3, 2008

A disturbing article, "Small businesses target of Teamsters action," outstandingly written by Associate Editor Scott Steepleton, affected me personally and deeply.

The article (July 12) brought back memories of my youth, opening old wounds, as a German-Jewish youngster living under the yoke of the Third Reich and its anti-Semitic laws.
Gestapo agents came to the store unannounced and warned my father that the store was no longer allowed to advertise in any of Dresden's newspapers.
Uniformed storm troopers stood in front of my father's store asking potential customers to boycott the store, blocking the entrance because it was a non-Aryan/Jewish establishment.
When loyal customers ignored the storm troopers' warnings and defiantly entered the store, they were harassed and beaten when exiting to the street. My father's long established business slowly went bankrupt.
The rightist members of National Socialist German Labor Party, told customers to boycott his sales and no longer purchase his farm products. J-E-W written on his office door, barns and farm buildings scared customers away. He slowly went bankrupt.
Members of the Teamsters Union, according to the article in the News-Press, intend to persuade others to boycott our Santa Barbara paper.
These boycott tactics -- dressed in union garb, standing outside stores handing out yellow leaflets or leaving them in shopping carts, and asking shop owners to no longer advertise in the News-Press-- do not belong in our town or anywhere else.

Oh, come on now. That piece is NOT an op-ed submitted by a journalist with professional credentials. It's just one uninformed resident's submission to the News-Press and no more interesting than other residents' frequent submissions of recipes and book reviews which fill the paper these days in lieu of actual reports filed by actual reporters.

I am "personally and deeply affected" by Norman Jaffe's reference to a boycott: "I could not believe that such an occurrence could take place in our country and especially in our town."

Here's a little American history review. The first recorded boycott on American soil occurred in 1767 after the British Parliament passed the Townshend Acts taxing the American colonists on imports of paper, glass and tea. The American patriots responded by boycotting the purchase of those items and learning to produce them independently. The first boycott was an instrument of public protest and a way of seeking social justice. It's as true and necessary today as it was in 1767.

So if he wants to imply that the Teamsters are acting like the Nazis, I'll go on record to point out that they have more in common with the brave patriots who founded the United States of America.

The right to spout irrelevant nonsense in a public forum is protected by the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution and practiced by the SB News-Press on a daily basis.

Note to any billionaire boneheads who might be reading: You will run out of money before you will be able to buy goodwill in this town.

The News Press continues it's desire to remain a second rate newspaper!

Well a boycott is probably a wiser choice than tar and feathering, which is actually called for in this instance.

I would like to thank all the good people that have emailed and phoned me, including Barney, and for the posted comments on this subject for their kind words and support.

Both the Teamsters Union and the News-Press have the right to contest each other both in court and in the arena of public opinion.

Printing an op-ed piece by Norman Jaffe, equating the Teamsters Union with the Nazis is an injustice to the millions of Jews and non-Jews murdered by the Germans under Nazi rule and an insult to all Americans, especially those who fought and died fighting Hitler's
perversion.

It would show good faith by the News-Press if the paper would print letters with opposing views on its ongoing battle with the Teamsters Union.

In fact, it would be a great surprise to me to see the News-Press print more letters opposed to its positions on any subject.

Article 1 of the Constitution is alive and well, but it seems to be on life support at the News-Press.

Santa Barbara should boycott the news-suppress. We should all stand up and fight that rag of a paper. I am calling all Santa Barbarians to Boycott the news-press. and maybe we should all start helping out with the teamsters led boycott. I don't know how to reach the union guys. but I'm sure Barney, Graig Smith can we should all help end this by helping the reporters and the union fight. it's been a long two years. let's all help end this. please let's all help...I am a young American and I get all my news online like many others but I understand the need of a good quality news paper in our town. I had never heard of T.M Stork until the melt down. but I do feel bad for his beloved paper. let's restore to it's glory S.B

Laborboy, if you're going to call for people to stand up and boycott the NP, at least have the courage to stand up yourself, i.e. put your name on your call to action. The NP needs new ownership and maybe even more needs a new editorial page editor. Armstrong is a disgrace. Never seen anyone who is so mean-spirited and so consistently refuses to print views that oppose his own. Seen any letters/articles in favor of the Caruso Miramar project in the NP? No. What percent of speakers at the MPC were in favor of the project? 80%. Does this have any impact on Armstrong's selection of what to print? No. Do you really think the only letters to the NP were against the project? Is Armstrong just a dupe for certain wealthy locals? Ya think? And what was this nonsense about Mayor Blum resigning? Does TA (think about those initials for a sec) believe that if he prints it he can make it true?? But, yes, McCaw has every legal right to run her privately held paper as she wants, which is apparently right into the ground.

So handing out union leaflets is worse than being accosted by people peddling the NP or trying to get you to register to vote or sign a petition? Don't forget the do gooders like the Salvation Army at Christmas and the other groups asking for donations. As long as the NP people do not block doorways or accost shoppers, they have the right to distribute literature regarding their cause. It is ethical to distribute information regarding the issues and ask people for support as long as you leave it at that, and allow people to make up their own minds based on the information they receive. The NP is doing the same thing with their inserts, they are just using a different means of distribution. The Teamsters tactics are in no way related to Nazi's, and that is a very poor choice of comparisons. Just ask those who were subjected to their tyranny in Europe. Considering the fact that the NP refuses to negotiate in good faith with the union justifies the union putting pressure on the NP. It is the NP's choice to prolong this situation, not the union's.

Gee, the Independent was completely silent a few years ago when Helene Schneider compared a proposed differently marked driver's license for illegal immigrants to the yellow star worn by Jews during the Shoah. There is a big difference between being humanely repatriated to your own country by ICE and being deported from your homeland to a gas chamber by the Gestapo.

The alternative press has similarly been absolutely silent on the over-the-top comparisons of ICE to the Gestapo by Democrat Rep. Sam Farr, Santa Cruz Mayor Ryan Connerty and most recently Rep. Luis Gutierrez. As Bill Clausen pointed out above, the vile comparison of English immersion education to the final solution, made by a Santa Barbara schoolteacher equally went unnoticed. I remember her rant during the public hearings on bilingual education very well, and it has forever colored my attitutude towards educators and the local "progressive" community.

Thank you Ernie for once again telling it like it is, and calling out Von Cheesenberger on the crap he prints in the N.P. Never stop fighting Mr. Salomon. Although we dissagree on many issues, I am proud to see you standing up to the N.P. noise machine.

Yes, Goletasue, it's correct to point out that Jaffe's contribution to the News-Press was "NOT an op-ed submitted by a journalist with professional credentials". But that then begs a comparison with the front page story today written by Scott Steepleton--who may or may not be a journalist with professional credentials.

His story today about the News-Press being victimized by fraudelent checks opens thusly:

"At the same time the union representing newsroom employees at the Santa Barbara News-Press has ratcheted up its economic assault on the paper, urging businesses to stop advertising over what it calls bad faith bargaining on the part of parent company Ampersand Publishing LLC, the paper finds itself the target of another attack intended to bleed its coffers, this time involving fraudulent checks. "

Although he repeats this sentence almost verbatim later in the story, there is absolutely no connection made between any union and the fraudulent check scheme. How's that for front-page journalism by an associate editor of the News-Press? If there's no connection, they can still try for guilt by association or perhaps guilt by adjacency of words. Does the concept of "journalism" have any meaning whatsoever at de la Guerra Plaza?