Forced unionism via Card-Check = Keep Dems in power ... Moreover, the card check bill is aimed at employers like Wal-Mart, Costco and Home Depot, which have large nonunionized work forces. But they also have low prices, which is exactly what people are looking for as their family budgets tighten. Forcing such businesses to unionize will change the economic paradigm. But who will benefit? I doubt that the consumer will. Also, I doubt that forced unionization will create a trove of new jobs. The businesses that oppose card check, along with businesses that will emerge, are the job creators. Passing this bill is not likely to cause them to expand and employ more people. But this is politics, and to be a Democrat and to hold public office is to pay fealty to organized labor. The Service Employees International Union and other unions backing this bill spent lavishly and organized droves of volunteers to elect Democrats from the president on down. This is their bill for getting (and keeping) them elected. (contracostatimes.com)In case you missed it: The Union News weekend
Sunday: Angry unionists pick, freeze, personalize, polarize one of their own
Saturday: A new Declaration of the Free People of the united States of America
Missouri: GOP delays in-home care scam, tries SEIU patience ... Voters approved it overwhelmingly, but Missouri's Republican-led Legislature is refusing to fund a new council created to help coordinate in-home care providers. That means the council likely will be unable to fulfill its mandate to create a statewide registry of personal care attendants, provide training to the workers or offer referrals to families needing someone to care for their relatives. But the lack of state funding is unlikely to stop an effort to unionize personal care providers. Thousands of disabled and elderly residents are able to remain in their homes, instead of moving to nursing homes, because paid personal care attendants help them with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, cooking and cleaning. Those attendants often are subsidized with state money but work through scores of independent entities, making it hard for them to form a collective union bargaining unit. The ballot measure approved by 75 percent of voters last November established the Missouri Quality Homecare Council as an umbrella organization that can be treated as an employer for the sake of a unionized bargaining unit. The Service Employees International Union poured $1.7 million into the campaign. (bnd.com)
Rampant fraud, abuse from state in-home care program enriches SEIU ... Reporting from Sacramento -- Loose oversight and bureaucratic inertia have allowed fraud to fester in a rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar state program that provides personal caregivers to the impoverished elderly and disabled. Hundreds of reports of scams and swindles are going without investigation. Prosecutors and program administrators across the state say they are alarmed by the ease with which people are taking advantage of the program, In Home Supportive Services. The program is one of the fastest-growing in state government. This year it is budgeted at $5.42 billion to provide care for some 440,000 Californians. The aim is to allow low- income and elderly incapacitated people to remain in their homes, saving the state the expense of costly nursing homes. Experts generally consider it a success. But government funds are flowing in so quickly, with such limited oversight, that prosecutors say it is common for the state to send paychecks to scam artists claiming to be caring for someone who is dead. Or claiming to be caring for a relative or friend faking a disability. Or claiming to be providing care during the same hours they are working elsewhere. "This program is very easy to abuse," said Michael Ramsey, the district attorney in Butte County in Northern California, which disbanded its In Home Supportive Services fraud unit in 2007 because of budget cuts. "It invites chicanery and fraud." Some critics of the program say politics has blocked efforts to combat fraud. The program has become a steady source of revenue for the Service Employees International Union, among the most powerful interest groups in the Capitol, as well as a second union, the United Domestic Workers of America. (latimes.com)
Education update: Obama, Congress put union bigs first ... Despite being “a skeptic of vouchers,” candidate Barack Obama promised this would not prevent him from “making sure that our kids can learn.” As he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “You do what works for the kids.” Last January 21, his first full day in office, President Obama declared, “My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.” Just 10 weeks later, Obama has broken both these promises. And poor-but-promising minority kids suffer the consequences. These 1,714 children -- 90 percent black and 9 percent Hispanic -- enjoy the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. They each receive up to $7,500 for private or parochial schools outside Washington, D.C.’s dismal government-education system. Since its 2004 launch, 7,852 students have applied for these grants, or more than four children per voucher. This program’s popularity notwithstanding, Obama stayed silent as Congress scheduled this initiative’s demise after the 2009 -- 2010 academic year. Both a Democratic Congress and DC authorities must reauthorize the program -- not likely. Now it emerges that Obama’s Department of Education (DOE) possessed peer-reviewed, Congressionally mandated, research proving this program’s success. Though it demonstrates “what works for the kids,” DOE hid this study until Congress squelched these children’s dreams. This analysis compared voucher users’ test scores to those of students who requested vouchers but lost the award lottery. Among DOE’s results: * While they were no better at math, voucher recipients read 3.7 months ahead of non-voucher students. * Student subgroups -- including high achievers, those from functional schools, and applicants between Kindergarten and grade 8 -- showed “1/3 to 2 years of additional learning growth.” * While 63 percent of non-voucher parents gave their kids’ schools As or Bs, 74 percent of voucher parents so rated their children’s campuses. (humanevents.com)Related video: Dear President Obama
Union bigs pick, freeze, personalize, polarize defender of private balloting ... “Nobody is opposed to a secret ballot.” said labor law attorney Mark Floyd. And it’s a farce” for Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach) to suggest otherwise, added Patricia Emmert. Emmert is President of the Palm Beach/Treasure Coast AFL-CIO. “If Hasner is so worried about a secret ballot,” why wasn’t he shouting about it for the past eight years in the Kravis Center’s eight-year old battle with union stage hands, queried labor lawyer Matt Mierzwa? (The union wants the Kravis to negotiate a contract; the Kravis claims it doesn't have to negotiate because the stage hands never voted to be represented by a union.) And after all was said and done this week, union reps told the Boca Raton News that House Majority Leader Hasner’s Save Our Secret Ballot initiative is really about two things which have nothing to do with a secret ballot – or the merits of the Employee Free Choice Act. (bocanews.com)Bonus links:
• Summary of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'
• More Saul Alinsky stories: here
• 'Rules for Radicals' at amazon.com
Sen. Tom Harkin placed on Dirty Money Watch ... WHO: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check). WHAT: Harkin received the following dirty money: Communication Workers of America (PAC) $10,000 in 2008 election cycle. Boilermakers Union (PAC) $2,000 in 2008 election cycle. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (PAC) $8,750 in 2006 election cycle. American Federation of Government Employees (PAC) $3,000 in 2008; PMA Group (PAC) $1,000 in 2008 election cycle. WHY IT’S DIRTY: Multiple members of these unions including several division presidents, secretary-treasurers and business managers, have been convicted since 2001 of felonies ranging from embezzlement, falsifying official reports to government, mail fraud and conspiracy. Those convicted include at least 10 members of the Boilermakers, and 14 members of the IBEW. Amounts embezzled ranged from over $5,000 to over $100,000. PMA Group (Paul Magliocchetti and Associates) was primarily a defense lobbying group based in Washington D.C. and closely linked to Rep. John Murtha, D-PA. PMA’ s offices were raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last year. In total, PMA Group's employees and its political action committee have given current members of Congress $3.4 million since 1989, with 79 percent of that going to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org. WILL HARKIN GIVE IT BACK? Harkin did not respond to a Washington Examiner request for comment. (washingtonexaminer.com)Lame Leftists pre-empt Tea Party Events
Communist survivor gives back, pays it forward ... Drawing on her experiences under a communist regime, Dr. Orly Taitz told WND she is determined to do her part to stop America from following in the all-too-familiar footsteps of her former homeland. She described her life in a communist nation: Markets were bare, people had no desire to work and the government forced young children into slave labor. "We'd stop at the store, and the food stores were empty," she said. "I remember we had to stand in lines for hours in the cold. We were in a bus, going home and suddenly we'd see a line. We wouldn't even know what they were selling, but we knew something would be there – some food. We'd stand for two hours to buy maybe a pound of salami or a half a pound of butter." As a young child, Taitz asked her father why the market shelves were empty. "In America, they have everything," he would tell her. "The stores are full." Her father explained that Americans were interested in working and received paychecks based on their productivity. However, in the Soviet Union, farmers were part of a socialist system of collective farming and were compensated equally – regardless of output. He told her, "If a farmer is bright and hard working, at the end of the month, he will get 100 rubles. And if the farmer is a lazy bum and he does nothing, he gets the same 100 rubles." Taitz said mainstream media in the United States are becoming much like the Soviet Union press, because they do not provide truthful information about Obama and have pushed for his socialist society. She offered a suggestion for dealing with "detached" and "ignorant" reporters who advocate such a system. "I would put all of them in one airplane – Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, all of them. I would load a plane with 500 reporters and send them to some village in Siberia or some village in China or Mongolia or Korea or Cuba, and tell them, 'Why don't you survive there for a year,'" she said. "I guarantee you, after a year they will come here and they'll be to the right of Rush Limbaugh. They'll think Rush Limbaugh is a communist." Taitz said if Obama is found to be ineligible, he must be unseated and tried for crimes he committed against citizens of the United States. "The whole election would be annulled, and all of the laws signed by Obama would be null and void," she said with conviction. "In that case, somebody like Vice President Joe Biden must become president pro tempore for two or three months until we are able to organize a new election." In Hebrew, "Orly" means "light" – and that's just what Taitz hopes to be for others who are willing to demand proof of Obama's eligibility and take a stand against his socialist plans for the nation. Drawing on her early life experiences, Taitz issued a word of warning for Americans: "The worst thing you can ever do is be scared in the face of evil," she said. "Never be too scared to stand tall and speak up." (wnd.com)
Conservative community organizers seek social justice ... It hasn’t taken long for Democrats to succumb to the same arrogance that helped tank Republicans last year. Just as conservatives once mocked the online wave that helped Barack Obama surf into the White House, liberals are now heaping scorn on the tea party movement. This Web phenomenon may bring tens of thousands of small-government conservatives to tax day rallies across the country Wednesday. They Twitter. They Facebook. They blog. They mail tea bags to Congress. It’s an outgrowth of the tax-revolt movement that has been simmering on the libertarian right for years. But the idea got new life as conservatives, upset at the scope of the Obama agenda. Eric Odom, the administrator of TaxDayTeaParty.com, is organizing the event in Chicago and helping coordinate the national effort. He expects almost 600 rallies around the country with as many as 10,000 attendees at the events in Atlanta and San Antonio. CNBC and Santelli backed away from the idea, but top-rated Fox News jumped in and has been trumpeting the tea party movement for weeks. And it all happened without any traditional political organization. Odom says he turned down an offer from Republican National Convention Chairman Michael Steele to speak in Chicago. Steele’s office denies the offer was made, but Odom says it happened and was adamant about why he said no. “This isn’t about either party,” he said. “This is about Middle America being ready to come together and say to both parties: ‘Enough is enough.’” Despite the apparent success of the tea partiers, the erstwhile political insurgents of the Left are blowing the whole thing off as either fake or crazy. (washingtonexaminer.com)New Declaration
Mayor triggers downtown resurgence ... Cincinnati's Fountain Square will be among 550 sites in the country Wednesday to host a Tax Day Tea Party protesting President Barack Obama's federal stimulus package. The event begins at 11:30 a.m. with speeches, followed by a march to City Hall to deliver petitions containing 1,700 signatures asking City Council to reject federal stimulus money. Mayor Mark Mallory is asking for more than $150 million in stimulus money for projects including the streetcar, a West Side police and fire headquarters and a riverfront park. The city already has received some stimulus commitments for transportation-related projects such as The Banks development and the Eastern Corridor study. It is unlikely the city will refuse the money. Council members already are discussing how it should be spent, and the mayor has said on numerous occasions that he's excited that the city is receiving the money. Mallory traveled to Washington, D.C, earlier this year to lobby for stimulus money and at a recent press conference said the governor's decision to allot stimulus money to The Banks was "a wonderful thing." (news.cincinnati.com)
Protest tips available at Taxdayteaparty.com ... Activists are brewing more than 500 rallies nationwide to protest "runaway government spending" as part of the Tax Day Tea Party movement. Crowds of up to 10,000 -- many of whom are believed to be participating in political protest for the first time -- are expected at major events from Atlanta to San Antonio to Sacramento on Wednesday. Smaller movements are scheduled in all 50 states. Organizers say up to 20,000 could flood City Hall Park in New York City, where Newt Gingrich is scheduled to speak. As an inherently decentralized movement, there's no "right" or "wrong" way to hold a Tea Party protest. But there are a few tricks to maximize the effect of your message, organizers tell FOXNews.com. "I recommend getting some kind of organizing committee together," said Amy Kremer, national event coordinator for TaxDayTeaParty.com. "You definitely can't do it alone." Using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Kremer suggested would-be Tea Party organizers contact friends, relatives and colleagues to spread the word while simultaneously setting up a Web site for the cause. Once that happens, "people start coming out of the woodwork to volunteer," said Kremer, adding that local radio stations and newspapers are also a good way to disseminate event details. (foxnews.com)
GOP has no appetite for Union-Dem P2P pork ... In the pay-to-play, opaque culture of New York state politics, the occasional reach across the aisle dividing Democrats and Republicans can be viewed with suspicion. In what Democrat Sen. David Valesky, of Syracuse, says was an attempt inject bipartisanship into Albany politics, he offered $250,000 in pork-barrel funds each to Republican Sens. John DeFrancisco, Michael Nozzolio and Joseph Griffo. They turned him down. In New York the majority party gets extra funds for staff and resources, and bigger chunks of so-called member item money for pet projects in politicians' home districts. Valesky was awarded $4.5 million for his district this year, compared with $300,000 the year before when he was in the minority. The dramatic increase was partially because of his leadership post _ he's vice president pro tempore of the Senate. He wanted to share it with the three Republicans whose districts shared counties with his district. "It seemed like the right thing to do," Valesky said. (newsday.com)
IBEW-AFSCME tag teams sleepy labor-state town managers ... A slim majority of the public works and electric department workers backed joining AFSCME. Perkasie (PA) officials were left reeling this week after 13 borough employees voted to unionize. Public works and electric department workers voted, 7-6, to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The move came as a shock to administrators, who said they thought they had been very fair to employees. "We had no reason to think they were unhappy," said Dan Olpere, borough manager. "Nobody's marched through the door and said we need a bigger wage." District representatives from AFSCME did not respond to calls for comment on the recent unionization. "They were scared to death that they might get fired," said council member Jim Purcell, adding that's what a number of borough workers told him when he was running for office two years ago. Purcell himself is a longtime union member. He has been paying dues to the Philadelphia chapter of the International Bureau of Electrical Workers for 37 years. Some members of council have intimated that his union's $2,500 donation to Perkasie Pride - the local group that endorsed Purcell and others two years ago - was directly related to the current unionization efforts. (phillyburbs.com)
Mob rule regains popularity as constitutional republic is relegated to dustbin of history ... Barack Obama is ignoring the words of the Democratic Party's founder, Thomas Jefferson, who warned, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." The mob is in the form of nightly polls taken by President Barack Obama's political advisers. According Ben Smith of Politico.com, "Data from pollsters Joel Benenson and Paul Harstad has become increasingly important to shaping the White House's message as the crucial battle over the president's budget intensifies." Smith quotes one source familiar with White House efforts as saying, "The pace (of polling) is picking up." The clearest reaction to the mob has been Obama's rush to can CEOs who are unpopular. Liberal movie maker Michael Moore, giddy about Obama's recent decisions, wrote, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? Can he do that? ... Obama has issued this edict: The government of, by, and for the people is in charge here, not big business He has the massive will of the American people behind him — and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit." Jefferson and his fellow Founding Fathers held a deep rooted fear of what they called "mob rule." If the people's passions rule there will be no rule of law. Protecting individuals and their personal property, their labor, and their plans for the future is a primary function of government. They believed the government should never steal from the unpopular few and redistribute to the masses. The Founders embedded these rights in the Constitution. They believed the rights of life, liberty and property were given by God and should be protected from the power of government. (benningtonbanner.com)
New Jersey: Union bigs taking names ... GOP candidates have not only criticized state workers, but included private-sector unions as well. Both have agreed they'd like to end labor agreements that guarantee union wages on public-works projects. Christie called them an "inexcusable waste on public construction projects," while Lonegan said they were to blame for high property taxes. In contrast, Corzine let stand Gov. Jim McGreevey's executive order requiring union-level wages on state projects. And he has backed other union causes, including paid family leave, which is funded by paycheck deductions, and a law that lets unions represent workers once they have a simple majority of the workers signed up. Lonegan and Christie oppose all those measures. "In difficult economic times like this, we don't need to be adding more costs to business," said Christie. "I think my job is to get New Jersey working again." Both Republicans are playing to the more-conservative voters who tend to come out in a GOP primary. But New Jersey AFL-CIO president Charles Wowkanech said their stands on labor issues in the June 2 primary could haunt them in the general election. After the AFL-CIO's June endorsement meeting, Wowkanech plans to tune up the state's one million union members with mailings and phone calls and to enlist them to work for endorsed candidates on Election Day. "Once the primary's over," he said, "our people are not going to forget." (philly.com)
FBI closes in on union-backed Dem over Blago P2P ... Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's camp was told last year that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) would raise up to $5 million in campaign cash for the ex-governor if he was appointed to President Obama's U.S. Senate seat, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. The overture came from at least two members of the local Indian community who approached the Blagojevich fund-raising team last fall, sources say. Besides the $5 million to be raised by Jackson, the proposal also included another $1 million for Blagojevich's campaign fund that would come from Indian donors, sources say. This is the first revelation that a proposal for the Jackson appointment involved an alleged promise that he'd raise campaign cash for the ex-governor. Also, the amount of money allegedly offered to Blagojevich is significantly higher than what's been reported so far. Sources did not disclose what role, if any, Jackson played in authorizing the offers to Blagojevich. Jackson has denied allowing anyone to make pay-to-play offers to the governor on his behalf. The congressman has been interviewed by authorities but has not been accused of wrongdoing. (suntimes.com)
Kal Penn earns critical praise ... But Mr. Stewart is now actively fighting for an administration and a party he believes in. He is treading lightly with Barney Frank. Chris Dodd may become a fall guy, but only if it serves the master's needs. And the Republicans are public enemy number one. Mr. Stewart's defining moment — and a media low point — was when he went on CNN's "Crossfire" in 2004 and honed in on Tucker Carlson for attack. Mr. Carlson is many things, but he is not a "hack." He is also one the GOP's most palatable voices to liberal ears. He is always affable and gives the other side a chance to have a say. The truth behind Mr. Stewart's attack on Mr. Carlson: It wasn't about the crassness of cable TV dialogue — it was the fact that liberals actually have to share airtime with conservatives. And Mr. Stewart can't stand anyone having a different opinion than his own. He's as fearful of an opposing voice as he is his own last name. "The Daily Show" is part and parcel of an industry hardwired, with only a few notable exceptions, to destroy Republicans. Kal Penn — best-known as the stoner in the "Harold and Kumar" comedy franchise — is taking a job in the White House Office of Public Liaison. He deserves praise for being up front about his allegiance to the president and for leaving the entertainment business for a while to serve him. Anyone with the slightest clue and the vaguest sense of reality knows that Mr. Stewart is likewise carrying presidential water, but does so slyly, less honestly and under the comedian's cloak of having no sacred cows. If only that were the case. (washingtontimes.com)
New Obama appointee takes U.S. by STORM ... The man appointed as a special environmental adviser to the White House recently was as an admitted radical communist and black nationalist leader. Van Jones, president and founder of Green For All, a nonprofit organization that advocates for building a so-called inclusive green economy, has been tapped to serve as the special adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. According to the White House blog, Jones' duties will include helping to craft job-generating climate policy and ensuring equal opportunity in the administration's energy proposals. Jones was a founder and leader of the communist revolutionary organization Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM. That organization had its roots in a grouping of black people organizing to protest the first Gulf War. STORM was formally founded in 1994, becoming one of the most influential and active radical groups in the San Francisco Bay area. STORM worked with known communist leaders. It led the charge in black protests against various issues, including a local attempt to pass Proposition 21, a ballot initiative that sought to increase the penalties for violent crimes and require more juvenile offenders to be tried as adults. The leftist blog Machete 48 identifies STORM's influences as "third-worldist Marxism (and an often vulgar Maoism)." (wnd.com)
U.S. Communists expected to crash Boulder ... It’s a cherished tradition in this Rocky Mountain town. Some 80,000 people are expected to attend 200 panels, plenary sessions, performances, a spectacular jazz concert and “Cinema Interruptus,” an annual event with Ebert. But one thing this year that won’t be traditional. Communist Party USA Chair Sam Webb is one among the 100-plus panelists. This will be the first time a Communist Party leader is participating in the grand Boulder 61-year tradition. Webb will be part of nine panels, “ATTENTION: Deficit Disorder!”; “Family Values: Casualties of the Culture War”; “Ethics in Government: LOL”; “Political Candidates: No Room for Non-believers”; “Are We Stimulated Yet?”; “Libertarians, Progressives, Communists: Political Outliers”; “What Makes a Leader” and “We Are All Socialists Now.” Palmer says he believes the increasing audiences are a reaction to today’s easy access to information. “In an age when facts and figures are available almost instantaneously via the Internet, people are craving context, background, experience; they want texture and substance, face-to-face encounters and exchanges, to help them interpret all the detailed information we now have so readily at hand. This is one of the things the conference does best. Also, it is moving, wild, unpredictable, and fun.” (independentpoliticalreport.com)
Communism goes mainsteam, again ... Whether as a philosopher, economist, and anthropologist, the author of ‘Capital’ and the persistent relevance of his analyses are justified by the major crisis which now defies the premises of global capitalism. “If Marx imposes himself as one of the ‘unsurpassable’ thinkers of our time, the reason is also, and mostly, that he was the first to detect the dynamics intrinsic to capitalism.” These are not the words of some obscure, antediluvian follower of Marx, but the pronouncement of Alain Minc, the businessman, essayist and counsellor who has the ear of the French President, in an interview recently published in Le Magazine Littaraire. The review, which made so bold as to devote thirty pages to Marx’s works, wonders about what it calls “the reasons for a rebirth”. As the British historian Eric Hobsbawn himself humorously observes, “It is the capitalists, more than the others, who are re-discovering Marx”—like George Soros, another financier and pro-market politician who recently confided to him: “I am reading Marx just now; there are quite a few interesting things in what he said!” (mainstreamweekly.net)International Collectivism
Union-led hunger strike postpones Morales' meeting with Obama ... President Evo Morales said on Sunday that he had cancelled his trips to the ALBA summit and the Summit of the Americas because of Bolivia’s internal problems caused by the conflict with the opposition over a law regarding the Dec. 6 elections. Morales made the announcement during a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, who called a Bolivian state television program where the hosts were interviewing the Bolivian president. Chávez expressed his support for Morales, who has been on a hunger strike for four days. Morales had been scheduled to participate on Wednesday in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, summit, which will be held in Caracas, and had planned to travel the next day to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. “I decided not to travel to either the ALBA summit or to the Summit of the Americas. We’re going to fight this battle, which in any case is ... (between) the oppressed peoples and the oligarchic groups,” Morales told Chávez, referring to the internal conflict in Bolivia. Morales began a hunger strike last Thursday at the government palace in La Paz along with 14 union leaders to pressure the opposition to approve an electoral law that will allow the Dec. 6 elections. (laht.com)
Slovakia nationalist-collectivists offer partisan roadmap for emerging nations ... The citizens of all 27 member states of the European Union will have the chance to elect their representatives to the European Parliament (EP) between June 4 and 7, 2009; the MEPs selected will then serve five-year terms from 2009 to 2014. In Slovakia, the elections will take place on June 6, with political parties competing for the 13 seats allotted to Slovakia in the EP. Slovakia forms a single electoral constituency for the purposes of the EP elections, from which all 13 MEPs are elected proportionally based on the total number of votes recorded for each political party or grouping. The Central Election Committee has registered 17 parties to run in the EP elections: all three parties of the ruling coalition - (Smer, the Slovak National Party (SNS), and the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) – the parliamentary opposition parties – the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ); the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK); the Christian-Democrat Movement (KDH); and the Conservative Democrats of Slovakia (KDS), who have submitted a joint candidate list with the non-parliamentary Civic Conservative Party (OKS) - and other non-parliamentary parties including the Green Party, Democratic Party (DS), Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS), Liga, Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ), Free Forum (SF), Roma Initiative of Slovakia (RIS), Misia 21, and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS). (spectator.sk)
