BFF: Obama, Blago & SEIU's Stern

What do you do if you're up to your eyeballs in snot and someone throws a turd at your head?  In Andy Sterns' case, he quits the SEIU and becomes a corporate dude.  This may be why:

John Harris relays a meeting on Nov. 3, 2008 with himself, two union leaders -- Andy Stern and Tom Balanoff -- and the governor.

In a previous call played to jurors, Harris testified he and Blagojevich understood the two were approaching him on behalf of Obama's camp.

The meeting happened one day before the presidential election and the talk was about the senate seat vacancy the major campaign donors expected would happen the next day.

Reproach?  Nah. They're above it.
__________________
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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Obama's Oil Spill: Just get out of the way...

Yeah, British Petroleum may have caused the gusher, but President Obama and his union-controlled federal bureaucracies now own the disaster:

Governor Riley was in Huntsville Wednesday afternoon updating leaders on the state of our state... namely how we're dealing with the oil spill.


He said he believes Alabama leaders could have stopped the oil from lapping onto our shores, if only they had the tools from the start.


"Can we protect our shores?" Governor Riley asked. "Sure you can, but you can't do it with the situation that you have down there today."


Riley says there are about 20 federal agencies that have veto power, and they all have their hand in the decisions to clean up the spill; that creates gridlock, so nothing gets done.


"If this is going to affect a turtle, you can't do it. If this is going to affect a person's ability to work in hot conditions, you can't do it," Riley mimicked the agency officials.


The Governor says there was a boom in Alabama that would have protected the 25 miles of coastline from the oil, but he says government leaders moved it to Louisiana, saying that state needed it worse. Then, the plan was to put up a snare boom across the beach.


"Sounded like a plan to me until Fish and Wildlife said, 'Nope. You can't do that because it'll catch turtles in the net,'" said Riley.


So, then the plan changed, and 400 workers would be hired to clean the beach.


"Sounded great right up until OSHA said, 'Nope. It's too hot for 'em to work.' So, now they're limited to working no more than 20 minutes out of the hour or a maximum of two hours a day," said Riley.

What is perhaps the world's worst environmental disaster in history can now be laid squarely at this President's feet.  He may not have started it, but his government has helped spread it.

Mr. President, please get your bureaucracy out of the way and let real men and women clean up the mess you helped create.

__________________
“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

For more news and views on today’s unions, go to LaborUnionReport.com.

Why so Socialist?

Last year, the mainstream media (un-affectionately known as the MSM) and a number of pundits on the left were caught completely off guard when posters of President Obama began appearing mysteriously in Los Angeles and Atlanta.  It was a brief story, but it made a big splash around the internet.

Well, seemingly unrelated to the "joker poster story" is a Gallup poll released last week that revealed that over a third (36%) of Americans view socialism positively.  Moreover, over half (53%) of Democrats who were polled view socialism positively.

"Socialism" was one of seven terms included in a Jan. 26-27 Gallup poll. Americans were asked to indicate whether their top-of-mind reactions to each were positive or negative. Respondents were not given explanations or descriptions of the terms.


Americans are almost uniformly positive in their reactions to three terms: small business, free enterprise, and entrepreneurs. They are divided on big business and the federal government, with roughly as many Americans saying their view is positive as say it is negative. Americans are more positive than negative on capitalism (61% versus 33%) and more negative than positive on socialism (36% to 58%).

So, overall, only 10% view 'free enterprise' and 'entrepreneurs' negatively and an overwhelming 95% of Americans polled view small business positively.

It seems incongruous that a majority of Democrats could favor socialism and an even larger majority favor free enterprise.  The leads one to wonder, do Democrats really understand socialism?

Definition of socialism:

1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
2. procedure or practice in accordance with this theory. 
3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

If a majority of Democrats favor socialism and, by a wider margin, favor free enterprise too, it seems that either many Democrats don't understand that there can be no 'free enterprise' under a socialist system.

This leads us back to the mysterious joker posters.

Following the erruption over the emergence of the posters, Robert Dougherty wrote a good piece, correctly pointing out that the Obama as the joker comparison is inaccurate:

The Joker was many things, but he was hardly a socialist. In fact, the Joker is the polar opposite of a socialist, and anyone who watched The Dark Knight would know that. Socialism is the result of an all-powerful central government that runs every aspect of life -- but the Joker subscribes to anarchy, one of socialism's polar opposites.


If the Joker was a socialist, he would be destroying Gotham in the name of an all-powerful state. Instead, the self-described "agent of chaos" nearly brought down the state itself, and all of its most cherished institutions, so that nothing could bring order to Gotham.

Like the inaccuracy of confusing the Joker's anarchism with socialism, so too it seems are people confusing socialism with freedom.  You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

This raises a very concerning question:  We know that many Democrats favor big government.  We know that many of the policies of a big government tend to lead to the state control of commerce (aka socialism).  The questions is, do those who support socialism realize that, in doing so, they are eliminating their freedom?

Read the entire Gallup poll article here.

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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776


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No Wonder There are No Jobs...

From Bloomberg:

Obama Seen as Anti-Business by 77% of U.S. Investors

U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.

This, unfortunately, says a lot about why unemployment remains at 10+%.
---------------------------
"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine December 23, 1776

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The Smoking Gun? Former IL Gov Defense Team Wants FBI Data on Obama, His Surrogates & SEIU Bosses

Not having been in the news of late is last year's post presidential election scandal of now-ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and his alleged attempt to sell then-Senator Barack Obama's Senate seat in exchange for...something.

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting this morning that:

Rod Blagojevich's lawyers want the FBI to give up details of interviews conducted last year of President Obama, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and others as part of the investigation into the former governor.
....

Then-President-elect Obama, Emanuel and Jarrett sat down with the FBI about a year ago --just after Blagojevich was arrested on charges of trying to sell Obama's recently vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Obama revealed he was interviewed in a report he made public last December.

The defense request, filed in federal court, asks for "notes, transcripts and reports" of interviews with the Obamas, Emanuel, Jarrett and union chiefs Thomas Balanoff and Andy Stern.

While this may just be subterfuge by the governor, is it possible there is a smoking gun linking the SEIU bosses to the sale of Obama's Senate seat lying somewhere in the FBI's files?

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Will Unions Use Obama's Job Summit to Push Job-Destroying Legislation?

With unemployment reaching 10.2% and likely to rise over the coming year, the Obama administration is getting desperate to show that it can reverse the rising unemployment and the President's falling poll numbers.

As Politico notes:

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the presidential playbook: when you want to focus attention on an issue, hold a meeting and call it a “summit.”

President Barack Obama’s already done a “Fiscal Responsibility Summit,” a “Health Care Summit,” an “H1N1 Flu Preparedness Summit,” and even a “Distracted Driving Summit.”

Next up: a “Jobs Summit” Thursday, and if Obama thought fighting the flu or getting health reform done was tough, wait until he faces the hard truth that presidents ultimately face when they need an economic quick-fix.

There isn’t one.

Nevertheless, with much fanfare and photo ops, the President will be holding a jobs summit where he's invited "business executives, labor leaders, community activists, economists and others to the White House to spur ideas." [See partial guest list here.]

Interestingly, Bill Clinton's former secretary of labor and ultra-liberal Robert Reich states: “Most presidents don’t have all that much control over creating jobs. They can affect things at the margin.”

While Mr. Reich is half-correct (Presidents cannot create jobs, nor can government-at-large), he misses a larger point: Presidents and government, with ill-conceived policies, can and do kill jobs.

A near-bankrupt treasury, higher taxes, excessive regulation and uncertainty over big government proposals like health care nationalization and 'cap and trade' all have a strangulating on the creators of jobs.

Another piece of legislation that is creating great uncertainty and, therefore, a reluctance to create jobs is the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act (or EFCA).

Even though the President, according to AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka, has pledged to advance EFCA after the health care debate is over, Thomas Kochran suggests in the Huffington Post that the President's "jobs summit" should be used to push for EFCA.

The president needs to use this historic opportunity to break this impasse and launch an era of productive and innovative labor management relations needed
to foster and sustain the new pact.

To do so, the president should announce his intention to work for speedy passage of a reframed and expanded Employee Free Choice Act, a labor law reform bill currently stalled in Congress.

The problem is, EFCA (which, as written, replaces secret-ballot elections on the question of unionization with majority 'card-check' and gives government-imposed arbitrators the power to dictate wages and benefits) is a job destroyer.

As renowned Professor Richard Epstein wrote earlier this year:

The likely consequence of EFCA will be to retard the formation of small businesses, as fledgling entrepreneurs will reassess their prospects of success to take into account the danger of derailment at an early stage in the process. In the long‐term the EFCA will reduce the rate of firm formation, and thus deprive the economy of a central driver of new job creation and technology growth.

And for larger firms?

Faced with these constraints, a firm’s ability to shift and meet the rising competition from new firms could easily result in the loss of jobs from the failure of certain business lines, or the conscious redeployment by management of assets and new investment to locations that have lower costs and greater flexibility –traits most often associated with nonunion operations. The decision to send more activities offshore is also a distinct likelihood.

In 2005, even Andy Stern of the now-infamous Service Employees International Union seemed to implicitly acknowledge that unions hurt jobs when he presented statistics on a PowerPoint slide (at right) indicating that manufacturing jobs that were unionized suffered a much higher loss than did overall manufacturing jobs.

More relevant to Thursday's "jobs summit" is President Obama's own Larry Summers. Prior to his joining the Obama administration, Mr. Summers seemed to get it.

Just a few years ago, Mr. Obama's Director of the National Economic Council wrote that unionization is a cause of long term unemployment.

Another cause of long-term unemployment is unionization. High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy. Also, those who lose high-wage union jobs are often reluctant to accept alternative low-wage employment....

There is no question that some long-term unemployment is caused by government intervention and unions that interfere with the supply of labor....

As the meeting of the minds come together on Thursday to hold a photo op and give the appearance they are doing something to try to curb unemployment, perhaps they will get a sudden revelation that they, in fact, may be partly to blame for the high unemployment.

But, then again, the expectation that common sense economics would prevail from an administration that was paid for by union bosses may be asking too much.

__________________________

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

__________________________

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Will Unions’ Billion Dollars Buy Exemption from Obama’s Crackdown on Lobbyists?

The Obama administration is giving lobbyists the boot, according to the Washington Post, in an effort to reduce their influence in Washington.

No, really. It's not a joke. The Washington Post says it's the case.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists are likely to be ejected from federal advisory panels as part of a little-noticed initiative by the Obama administration to curb K Street's influence in Washington, according to White House officials and lobbying experts.

The new policy -- issued with little fanfare this fall by the White House ethics counsel -- may turn out to be the most far-reaching lobbying rule change so far from President Obama, who also has sought to restrict the ability of lobbyists to get jobs in his administration and to negotiate over stimulus contracts. [Emphasis added.]

The Heritage Foundation notes that "[u]nions as a whole spent more than $1 billion of their members' dues to elect Obama and the current Congress."

Apparently, however, the Administration has forgotten all the union appointees like Patrick Gaspard (White House Communications Dir.), Ellen Moran (Commerce Department), Mary Beth Maxwell (Dept. of Labor), Jordan Barab (OSHA), Craig Becker (NLRB nominee) or John Sullivan (Federal Elections Commission) that have been handed plum jobs due to their special interest advocacy.

The initiative is aimed at a system of advisory committees so vast that federal officials don't have exact numbers for its size; the most recent estimates tally nearly 1,000 panels with total membership exceeding 60,000 people.

Under the policy, which is being phased in over the coming months, none of the more than 13,000 lobbyists in Washington would be able to hold seats on the committees, which advise agencies on trade rules, troop levels, environmental regulations, consumer protections and thousands of other government policies.

"Some folks have developed a comfortable Beltway perch sitting on these boards while at the same time working as lobbyists to influence the government," said White House ethics counsel Norm Eisen, who disclosed the policy in a September blog posting on the White House Web site. "That is just the kind of special interest access that the president objects to." [Emphasis added.]

There is little doubt that the "special interests" the White House is aiming at do not include union bosses like SEIU's Andy Stern (who seems to have his own key to the Lincoln Bedroom) and Anna Burger, or the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka, all of whom enjoyed a seat at the White House state dinner last week and spent hundreds of millions of dollars putting Obama into office.

[Of course, perhaps the White House is only targeting registered lobbyists. If that's the case, unregistered Andy Stern may be off the hook and the hypocrisy can continue.]

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Cross-posted on RedState.

AFL-CIO Top Boss and SEIU's King & Queen Dine at the White House

Described as the 'hottest ticket in town,' an impressive, star-studded list attended President Obama's first state dinner at the White House.

According to ABC News, "fewer than 400 lucky guests received the official invitation."

Among the guest list of dignitaries, luminaries and Hollywood bigwigs were a trio that, under ordinary circumstances, might go unnoticed were it not for their nefarious influence on this Administration.

The "exclusive" list included:

From Hollywood: David Geffen (who stepped into the middle of the Obama/Hillary Clinton primary fight in Feb. 2007 when he told the New York Times Clinton was the “easiest to beat” in the Democratic field and that nobody believes that since leaving office, “all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person”).
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Alfre Woodard
Blair E Underwood
Steven Spielberg

Prominent Indian-Americans:
Mr. Deepak Chopra
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R)
Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN (and once the subject of much speculation for the position of Surgeon General)

From the world of politics:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
General Colin Powell (who endorsed Obama during last year’s presidential election)

From television media:
ABC’s Robin Roberts
NBC’s Brian Williams
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria
CBS’ Katie Couric
Oprah pal Gayle King
(Not on the list – anyone from FOX News)

From organized labor:
Andy Stern (SEIU)
Anna Burger (SEIU)
Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO)

And Obama family and friends:
Maya Soetoro-Ng (Obama’s sister)
Konrad Ng (Maya’s husband)
Dr. Eric E. Whitaker
Martin Nesbitt
Anita Blanchard (Nesbitt’s wife)
Penny Pritzker

Since the SEIU's union-busting boss Andy Stern seems to have his own key to the White House and is considered the hand in Barack Obama's puppet, it should come as no surprise that he and his fellow union accomplices were served a full-course meal at tax-payer expense.

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White House Vs. Chamber of Commerce: SEIU's Andy Stern Appears to be Driving the White House's Bus

He's been called, rightly or wrongly, the hand inside Barack Obama's puppet. One thing is certain, however, Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern has a lot of sway with Barack Obama's White House.

In fact, even as President Obama was nominating SEIU-radical lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, the Wall Street Journal reports that SEIU's Stern visited the White House some 22 times from January to July, more than anyone else on the White House visitors log.

The list [of visitors also] includes William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Moore, Robert Kelly (R. Kelly), Malik Shabazz, and Michael Jordan.

But the White House said those aren’t the guys you’re thinking of. Nor is the log complete.

[Yeah...okay.]

So, how much pull does Mr. Stern and his purple-clad comrades have in the White House?

Consider this:

Last June (and perhaps before), the SEIU launched its campaign against the US Chamber of Commerce, largely due to its opposition to the job-destroying and delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act.

As its anti-corporate corporate campaign against the Chamber has progressed over the summer, it has included such Alinsky-like campaign slogans as "Turn off the Lights at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

Enter the White House...

It is well known that the SEIU has put high-ranking union leader Dennis Rivera has been working hand-in-glove on President Obama's plan to nationalize health care through the so-called "public option." However, it is still rather disturbing how closely the Whte House follows the SEIU's lead.

Earlier this month, in what many view as a 'war on free speech,' the White House entered the fray, joining the SEIU in attacking the Chamber of Commerce before giving the appearance of easing up when it drew criticism for creating an 'enemies list.'

While it is one thing for a candidate running for president to pledge allegiance to a particular group (as then-candidate Obama did to the SEIU), it is quite another for the President of the United States to let someone else drive the bus, as the rest of America is shoved to the back.




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EXPOSED: Obama Pledging Allegiance to SEIU

It has long been argued that the King-Maker is more powerful than the King as America is just beginning to see.

Indeed, the Union Label Blog has even questioned whether the SEIU's Lavender-Lapeled Lord of Labor Andy Stern is, in fact, the hand in President Barack Obama's puppet, citing a LA Times article that reported:

When the president met privately with the health industry leaders that day, Stern and a second Service Employees International Union official were the only labor representatives in the room.

And this...

Stern can boast that union officials are scattered throughout the Obama administration. White House political director Patrick Gaspard is a former executive at an SEIU local based in New York. No other union has placed anyone at such a high level in the White House.

Anna Burger, SEIU secretary-treasurer, was appointed to Obama's economic recovery board. And union associate counsel John Sullivan was named to the six-member Federal Election Commission.

Moreover, Stern has enjoyed considerable entree to the new administration -- starting on Inauguration Day, when he joined Obama and the new president's family on the reviewing stand outside the White House to watch the inaugural parade.

Plus this...

Stern's access is envied by some fellow union leaders. John Wilhelm, head of Unite Here, the apparel, hotel and food service union, said his perception is that Stern gets a steady stream of invitations to the White House that other union executives do not.

Well, those upstarts at Breitbart have uncovered a video that provides even more evidence that the Organizer-in-Chief gives his allegiance to the SEIU.

In this video, then-candidate Barack Obama pledges allegiance to the SEIU, stating, “I’ve been working with the SEIU before I was elected to anything” and boasting he was organizing with the Purple People Eater, the SEIU.

Watch as he finishes up by saying: "SEIU, I'm glad you're with me. Together let's change the country."



For more on the SEIU, go here.

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Absence of Erroneously-Named Employee Free Choice Act Has Some Union Bosses Getting Antsy

Union bosses have the federal government all sewn up. They've got a lock on the White House, they've got a lock on the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives. So, what's the problem?

Immediately following the election, the President-Elect appointed the AFL-CIO's Ellen Moran to be White House Communications Director (she has since moved on to the census-controlling Commerce Department), SEIU's Patrick Gaspard to be White House Director of Political Affairs, SEIU's Anna Burger and AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka to his "Economic Recovery Advisory Board," and SEIU's Dennis Rivera is currently running the White House's war on health care. On the day of Barack Obama's inauguration, the newly-annointed President appointed hard-core union radical Wilma Liebman to the Chairmanship of the National Labor Relations Board. Since then, the Administration has appointed dozens (or more) of hard core unionists to various posts in the government and given union bosses some key wins early on like the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and union-only Project Labor Agreements. [For a broader list of union wishes fulfilled go here.]

So, why are union bosses getting antsy and feeling that they're being shoved to the side?

Perhaps it is because the unions' hand-picked president is not performing to their expectations?

As the Boston Globe reports this morning:

[L]abor’s agenda has been pushed down on the priority list by the very lawmakers they helped elect, leaving some union backers frustrated.

Labor is eager to win passage of a “card check’’ bill, a measure that would make it easier for workers to form unions, but the White House and Congress took up a Wall Street bailout plan first.

In the health care debate, labor is seeking to avoid a tax on expensive health care benefits. But President Obama, who slammed the idea during the campaign, this summer indicated he might be open to such an idea.
....

“It’s beyond belief to me,’’ said Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. While Obama and Congress inherited “a big mess’’ from Bush, Haynes said, “there aren’t any excuses anymore. If you can’t deliver health care, and you can’t deliver jobs, and if you can’t deliver [card check legislation], and you can’t figure out how to take care of the working people of this great city and country, you don’t deserve to stay in office.’’

The poor economy and the attention demanded by such issues as health care, Afghanistan, climate change, and the pending closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison have put labor unions’ concerns far down on the list in Washington, analysts and lawmakers say.

Many labor union leaders say they still have faith that Obama will push for their legislative wish list, especially the so-called card check bill to allow workers to organize unions without a secret ballot, once he gets a health care bill signed. And while unions are anxious about provisions in the health care bill that might affect union members, leaders say the larger goal of getting closer to universal health care is most important. [Emphasis added.]

When union bosses pushed their guy into the Oval Office, like a Tsunami from the Left, many had assumed that he would flood the American landscape with labor's wish list. While he has in part, some some of the biggest ticket items on labor's laundry list have been stalled.

Following the most expensive union campaign in history, despite the other "inherited" issues, the union agenda was also held back by some moderate Democrats, as well as the absence of Al Franken then, later, Ted Kennedy and, now, Robert Byrd.

Nevertheless, unions seem to be getting cranky that their man in the White House may let their agenda slip through the cracks before 2010 and, once the mid-terms get into full swing, the union agenda may get passed over entirely

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LABOR SHORTS #3: Exposing Today's Union Bosses One Skid Mark at a Time

Vol. 1, Issue 3

Dear Readers:

As the week's end fast approaches, we offer you our third installment of LUR's Labor Shorts, where we expose today's union bosses one skid mark at a time.

Here is this week's list of the most relevant union happenings across the country (and beyond), brought to you in short and "tweet" form (that is 140 characters, more or less):

• EFCA's Evil Twin. Airlines are under siege as unions want to change the 75-year old process for unionizing airline workers to that of "minority rule."
• Desperate Steelworkers. On strike for 14 months, Canadian USW threatens to target replacement workers.
• Duking it out. Pratt & Whitney and the Machinists are heading to court over company plans to relocate.
• Rejects? UFCW rejects Safeway and Kroger Colorado contract offers.
• Labor's Lackey. LA Times looks into President Obama's special special interest.
• The King & Queen's Communist Love Affair. Romantic Poet waxes on SEIU's Stern and Burger and their special relationship with China's Communist-run trade union.
• UAW & the Downfall of Detroit. Motor City looked at through Time.
• The Cookie Crumbles in the Bronx. Stella D' Oro workers cling to the last crumb of hope, as the Company calls the union to task.
• Brotherly Love? Andy Says: Say Uncle! as the SEIU takes aim at UNITE-HERE in Philly.
• Purple People Beaters. SEIU's chronicles of violence, while others are eaten by...
• Purple People Eaters. Illinois governor offers SEIU more bodies to feed their dues habit on.
• Mock Doc Smocks. As some docs came unprepared, SEIU boasts of astroturfer, RedState exposes the 'disinterested' docs' donations and staged photo-op.
• Public Option Pushers. As unions push for the "public option" (aka nationalized health care), pols fight to keep the health care bill a secret.
• Shrinkage: ACORN's Nuts in the Cold. Congress cuts as Chief-Nutjob Bertha Lewis fires back, continuing her 'apology tour,' while ACORN's nuts are brilliantly laid bare and the $1 million embezzlement multiplies itself fivefold.
• The Money Pit, a 2010 Trap? Bam Slam: Dollar drop could be Democrats mid-term dream.
• Obama's SEIU Man. White House political director Patrick Gaspard gets exposed down under.
• No Union Site Turns 30. Visitors of 1-888-No-Union.com hit 30,000 this week.
• None Dare Call it a Strike. SEIU wants state workers to take Monday off (en masse) in the broke state of California.
• Lost at Sea, Ye Mutinous Bilge Rats! Someone pass the rum! Unionized seamen have been floating around on strike for three weeks. Aargh!

And that, mates, is our Labor Shorts #3!

With best wishes for a great week's end!

LaborUnionReport

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"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." -- Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

SHOCKING: SEIU-Backed ACORN Officials Caught Telling 'Pimp' & 'Prostitute' How to Lie to IRS, Claim Child Prostitutes as 'Dependents'

While new revelations about SEIU-funded ACORN may not be that shocking anymore, the most recent allegations do seem to stretch the senses of even the most cynical.

A video tape made public today by Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com shows ACORN officials allegedly telling a woman posing as a prostitute how to lie to the IRS, as well as how to claim "child prostitutes" as 'dependents.'

View video (in two parts) below:





According to NPR.com:

ACORN's biggest union backer, the Service Employees International Union, gave more than $4 million to the community organization and its affiliates from 2006-07, according to Dept. of Labor filings. One SEIU local union, the Illinois Homecare Workers and Home Childcare Providers, sprouted from ACORN's organizing efforts and pays rent to ACORN.

ACORN's affiliates also pick up money from the Change to Win labor federation, the Food and Commercial Workers Union and the United Federation of Teachers, among others.

The question will be: Will President Obama's Justice Department investigate this? Or, will it be swept under the union-made rug?

Hat-tip to LaborUnionReport reader "Jill"

A SNEAK PEEK ON WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE AFL-CIO CONVENTION

In ten days' time, the AFL-CIO's bigwigs (the neo-union bosses of today) will be swarming Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to attend what will be billed as their most important convention in a generation.

As with any union convention there will be the usualy demonization of "corporate greed," "union-busting," and need for "leveling the playing field." There will be much cheers when talking about the working class and more jeers when it comes to anything other than the working class. The rhetoric will be laced with Marxist appeals, without specifically calling it Marxist.

Much fanfare will be heaped on outgoing AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney (and DSA member) and incoming boss Richard Trumka. The neo-union bosses, posing as champions of the underclass, will be crowing about their new-found takeover of the Washington official appartchik.

There will likely be some astro-turfing rally or other event for union leaders to go out and hold a press conference in front of.

There will be much fiery rhetoric from all micro-phonies, but none more so than from Trumka.

So, to give you an advance sneak peek inside the halls and to break it all down for you, here's what you will (and, more importantly, will not) see in the news:

What you WILL hear about the AFL-CIO's new leader:

• Richard Trumka will be confirmed as the new president of the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO's PR hacks will claim he was "elected."

What you will NOT hear:

• Trumka is running unopposed and lobbied hard to garner endorsements from union bosses who were not so enamored with him.

What you WILL hear about outgoing AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney:

• Accolade upon accolade heaped upon outgoing AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney

What you will NOT hear:

• Under John Sweeney's reign, due to infighting, the AFL-CIO lost approximately 40% of its membership due to a nasty break-up in 2005;


• Under John Sweeney's reign, unions have continued an overall decline as a percentage of the workforce due to unionized companies closing and outsourcing unionized jobs;


• Under John Sweeney's reign, the AFL-CIO has moved toward a total embrace of the tenets of socialism.

What you WILL hear from the AFL-CIO's Organizer-in-Chief:

• President Barack Obama (scheduled to speak on September 15th) will be speaking to convention delegates on Sept 15th and will:


• Reconfirm his commitment and devotion to unions


• Reconfirm the "principle" of the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act and will state that he will sign it if it reaches his desk


• Challenge delegates not to give up fighting for Universal Health Coverage (aka socialized medicine)


• Pledge to help advance the cause of "social justice" through immigration reform (amnesty)


• Heap more blame on the Bush Administration, the GOP, and "Wall Street" for all that has befallen America in the last thirty years

What you will NOT hear from the Organizer-in-Chief:

• Unions have spent an estimated $1.4 billion of their members' money in 2006 and 2008 to become the de facto Labor Party in the United States


• Obama's poll numbers are tanking due to Americans getting over the Obama hype and realizing that America is facing a $9 TRILLION debt


• The $787 billion (so-called) "stimulus package" has not saved or created jobs and, in fact, may have made it worse


• That terrorists are now being treated like common criminals


• Amnesty ("immigration reform") will ensure another 11 million + voters for Democrats


• The Employee Free Choice Act is a bad bill that will destroy jobs, BUT it will ensure Democrat majorities for the next 40 years

The above is just a synopsis of what you will hear and not hear coming out of the AFL-CIO's convention, but stay tuned.

We'll be updating you as the convention commences. Be sure to stay tuned to LaborUnionReport.com for the latest.

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

SENATE BILL WOULD GIVE OBAMA 'EMERGENCY' CONTROL OF THE INTERNET

From the Right to the Left, government is on the march to take freedom. This from CNET.com:

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

Read the entire story here.

STAY INFORMED, JOIN LABORUNIONREPORT'S GROUP ON LINKEDIN.COM.

AN INSIDE LOOK AT OBAMA'S 'ORGANIZING AGAINST AMERICA'

Grass roots organizing--it's been the subject of ridicule, fear and loathing from the Right for having taken President Barack Obama from relative obscurity to the White House.

Now that President Obama's campaign machine has been converted to an ongoing war machine for the Left, the White House and the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America has been dispatched by its Commander in Chief to take on the fight to nationalize America's health care.

To understand the war machine that brought America "change," "hope." and a huge (as in $9 trillion) deficit, it helps to know what it's like at the ground level.

Like a look from behind enemy lines on the Eastern Front, Sunday's Washington Post ran a story following one of Organizing Against America's generals which provides a good account life on the ground. Here are some excerpts:

The last three years had unfolded in an unrelenting series of what Jeremy Bird called Big Moments, and here began the latest on a sweltering afternoon earlier this month. Another rental car, another unfamiliar highway, another string of e-mails sent from his BlackBerry while driving 70 mph. Bird took a sip from his coffee and looked over at Dan Grandone, a co-worker riding in the passenger seat.

"I don't know about you, but I'm running on adrenaline right now," Bird said. "I love this feeling that we're on the verge of something crucial." ...

As deputy director of Organizing for America, a national network of Obama supporters, Bird was scheduled to speak with a group of volunteers who had been threatened at town halls, outshouted at local rallies and weakened by a general sense of post-campaign fatigue. With one 90-minute visit, Bird hoped to leave them confident, empowered and reenergized.

"We want these people to feel like they can control almost anything that happens in government," said Bird, who had traveled from his office at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington to spend two days visiting volunteers across Wisconsin. "They should feel like there's no barrier between the regular people out in the states and the power players in D.C."

When Bird was named deputy director of OFA last year, he became the vanguard of much more than 13 million e-mail addresses collected from supporters during Obama's campaign. He became one of the people most responsible for validating Obama's campaign ethos: that grass-roots support can power government and shape legislation.

Since the organization sent an e-mail to its members asking for help on health care in May, more than 1.3 million have visited a phone bank, shared their personal health-care stories on the Internet or attended one of 12,000 local rallies. More than 150,000 people have given an average of $38 to OFA's health-care campaign. This month, Obama spent an hour providing OFA members with "bullet points" for the debate during an Internet video.

"Usually, when a campaign ends, everybody is exhausted and people just go their separate ways," Bird told the volunteers assembled in Racine. "But we knew from the beginning that this could be different."

Bird and other top Obama operatives had decided as much during the first days after the election, when they began conceptualizing OFA at a conference held in Chicago. They polled thousands of Obama volunteers through a sequence of surveys and conference calls and sought advice from David
Plouffe, the architect of Obama's campaign. By the time of Obama's inauguration, Bird and OFA Director Mitch Stewart had settled on a basic vision: OFA would get by with limited staff by relying on volunteers who would work as many as 30 hours a week to ensure grass-roots activity in each U.S. voting precinct.

Read entire article here

'GREEDY' BROADBAND COMPANIES ARE DENYING A BASIC AMERICAN RIGHT BY REJECTING OBAMA'S MONEY

"High-speed internet in every American home!"

Afterall, high-speed internet is an American Right, is it not, comrades? At least, this is what many were led to believe during last year's election campaign.

Now that Candidate Obama has become President Obama, it seems some greedy corporations are rejecting the President's offer of $4.7 billion in stimulus money to give every American home high-speed internet.

Perhaps it is, as the Seattle Times says, because companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast don't need a government handout to expand their networks.

Or, perhaps, it is because the companies don't wish to be pilloried and demonized for having taken government money, like the auto companies and the banks.

Or, perhaps, it is because they don't like the strings (read rope) that are attached with having taken government money.

In any case, comrades, we expect to see the White House, its union allies at the CWA and IBEW, as well as the main stream media to begin an attack on these greedy capitalistic companies and their evil executives for their concerted denial of a basic American Right...high speed internet in every home.

Just remember: When we predict it, they will do it, because the Left is so very predictable.

LaborUnionReport.com

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

NOTHING FISHY HERE: OBAMA'S PLAN WILL LEAD TO SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

We have been saying since last October that then-candidate Barack Obama's plan would lead to full-blown socialized medicine. In fact, in a blog post on October 15th, we stated:

Here's a prediction: Within five years (if not sooner), the U.S. will have full-blown socialized medicine under President Barack Obama.

Now, like many, you might say: Obama's plan doesn't call for socialized medicine.

Well, in response, we'd like to reply: It doesn't need to. However, here's how Obama's plan will result in total and complete socialized medicine.

Obama has a plan that he likes to brag about. You can check it out here on his website. At first glance, the plan sounds too good to be true. Well, that's because it
is.

Simply put, here's how the plan will work:

Develop the government plan to cover the uninsured. Companies (and individuals), as Obama like to say, will be able to keep their own insurance plan if they choose.

Obama's Plan: Bleed 'Em Until They Change Their Minds

However--and here's the catch--Companies will have to pick up 100% of the tab for their employee's insurance. Now since most companies today have their employees pick up some portion of their health care costs (usually ranging from 10 to 30%), the cost increases to employers will be astronomical......Or, employers can pay 6% of their payroll to "opt in" to the government plan.

Since smaller employers are having a harder and harder time today paying the health care costs for their employees, they'll be the first to opt in to the government plan. Then you'll see larger ones to the same as those larger employers will find the government's plan to be a cheaper alternative (at first), causing them to dump their employees into the government plan.

It really is a simple (and devilish) plan that requires no more reasoning than a child can deduce using simple logic.

Now, Erick at Red State writes that You Won’t Be Able to Keep Your Insurance:

The Heritage Foundation (where I work) last month asked The Lewin Group, a highly respected health care policy and management consulting firm, to examine the impact of H.R. 3200 on private insurance. Lewin reported 88.1 million Americans could be transitioned out of their current plan as employers opt out of continuing their existing coverage. The chart below reveals the consequences for people living in Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

If people had listened (and thought) about what the candidates were stating during last year's campaigns, all of the fiesty town hall meetings might have been a moot point.

JOKER POSTERS & THE POLITICS OF HYPOCRISY: (Order a Poster, or a T-Shirt, or a Coffee Mug Here)

You've just got to love the enduring sense of American Capitalism. While it may be down it has not given up.

Yesterday, we posted on the POTUS as the Joker poster controversy (as reported by newsbusters). The controversy is based on some posters that have mysteriously begun appearing in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

KTLA in Los Angeles, however, is reporting on one pro-Obama group that is apparently upset by the depiction of President Obama as a Socialist Joker:

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous.

Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves.

"Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous."

"We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

However disturbed Hutchinson is by an anonymous citizen (or group of citizens) exercising their constitutional right to free speech, the hypocrisy of this apparent Obama supporter is all too transparent. In fact, it is so transparent it is a joke.

A History of Political Posters & Cartoons

Portraying elected leaders as cartoonish is as old as the Republic itself. That the internet has made the spreading of these depictions all too easy is something that will not change as long as the First Amendment still exists.

What has changed, however, is that the tactic that the Left has seemingly owned over these last eight years has been adopted by those (presumably) on the Right.

Moreoever, Joker posters of presidents is really nothing new either.

After eight years of the Left portraying former president George W. Bush in a variety of cartoonish depictions as Adolf Hitler, Howdy Doody, Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman, and, more recently, even as the Joker (as Vanity Fair did last year), the Left, it seems, is in a collectivist tizzy over The One being portrayed as the "agent of chaos."

Surprisingly, however, it appears that this is not the first time the concept of Barack Obama, the Joker, has been depicted.

Although the first Obama-as-the-Joker concept wasn't a picture of Obama, the inference was certainly there.

Indeed, the first Obama-related Joker poster was a painting of the late actor Heath Ledger (the one who play the Joker in the Dark Knight movie) imposed on the now famous Obama campaign "Hope" painting.

Going Viral

Over the last 24 hours, the President as the Joker poster controversary has gone viral as noted by the Christian Science Monitor.

In fact, the poster has morphed into a whole line of t-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers and, of course "the poster." You can check it out and order a whole host of Obama as the Joker poster paraphenalia here.

So, while Leftists like Hutchinson can clamor all they want that the Joker poster is an "offensive depiction used ridicule President Obama," perhaps they should look in their collective mirror first. In doing so, however, they may find that the joke is really them.

IBD: Congress' New Health Plan Makes Private Insurance Illegal

We have been warning for quite some time that then-candidate Barack Obama's plan to re-engineer Amierca's health care system would lead us into full-blown socialized medicine. Well, we hate to say 'we told you so', but we were right.

Investor's Business Daily has found the page within the 1,018-page Congressional bill that outlaws you from buying private health insurance--and it's right on page 16.

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

To read the entire piece, go here.

As we've said all along, like it or not, socialized medicine is in the works.