| Obama: Stupid on deficit, arouses suspicions, rules with Alinsky, Veep fail, goes over voters' heads, shrugs off VA and NJ, bullies the weakest. Mismanagement: Wade Rathke fail, Obamanomics fail, AARP fail, union political fraud, union voting fraud, for-profit union politics, David-Bacon shame, rat fail, labor-state agonistes, Dem P2P. International: Workers oppose Chávez, Oliver Stone hearts thugs, Uribe thug, trouble in Prog thug paradise. |
How Obamalosi Dems wrecked the U.S. economy ... It's easy to see how America has been fiscally surprised. In 2008, federal spending was 21% of GDP and the deficit was 3.2%. Now, a year later, federal spending is projected to be 26.1% of GDP and the deficit 11.2%. Neither percentage has been so high since during World War II. But before conservatives can address the deficit problem, they must understand it. Put simply, the deficit is the creation of federal spending. As the nearby table shows, federal revenues have fallen 21% as a percentage of GDP from 2007 to 2009, but much less than the 31% that federal spending has risen. And if the present is not persuasive enough, then try the future. (ibdeditorials.com)
Obamaganda arouses suspicions ... A planned televised speech by President Obama to students next week is sparking opposition in Arizona and across the nation from those who say he's using his platform to brainwash kids. Flowing Wells Unified School District Superintendent Nicholas Clement opened his inbox Thursday to an e-mail from a parent saying Obama's address "is an inappropriate attempt to campaign to our nation's youth under the guise of an educational message." Clement received another note from a pastor, saying he was recommending that members of his congregation keep their children home on Tuesday. Acknowledging other presidents have made similar speeches encouraging youths to succeed in school, the man said he finds the speech "highly suspicious given the timing and the battle for health-care reform." (azstarnet.com)
Alinsky rules cover ObamaCare ... With only a little more than a month to counter growing public sentiment against federal health care plans, many of the key players of the We Believe Together - Health Care for All coalition – PICO National Network, Sojourners, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Gamaliel among them – have begun a special campaign, 40 Days for Health Reform. To understand the work of We Believe Together - Health Care for All and 40 Days for Health Reform, one must understand that PICO and Gamaliel are community-organizing networks built on the theories of Saul Alinsky. They organize primarily among religious institutions – particularly Christian and Jewish congregations – ostensibly for neighborhood-enhancement projects, such as after-school programs or improved infrastructure. Local projects, however, are only a means to an end. PICO, Gamaliel and their ilk are after bigger game, building a base of people around the country to support progressive policies on a national scale. [See, for example, Wendy Cadge, “Mobilizing Religious Progressives on Health Care,” Religious Dispatches, 9-1-09]. Religious institutions, as opposed to organized schools or unions, are particularly useful to Alinskyian organizing networks, as it is a prime Alinskyian strategy is to “do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. ....Moral rationalization is indispensable at all times of action whether to justify the selection or the use of ends or means.” [Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 10th Rule, p 43.] (speroforum.com)Bonus links:
• Summary of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'
• More Saul Alinsky stories: here
• 'Rules for Radicals' at amazon.com
Biden, pimping Stimulus, fails fact-check ... Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed success beyond expectations Thursday for the $787 billion economic stimulus, but his glowing assessment overlooks many of the program's problems, including delays in releasing money, questionable spending priorities and project picks that are under investigation. In a speech aimed squarely at Republican criticism and public skepticism over the costly program's effectiveness, Biden said accomplishments over the past 100 days provide proof of promises kept when he and President Barack Obama began rolling out the plan earlier this year. (newsmax.com)
Wade Rathke: ACORN-SEIU fail ... Where were the crowds Tuesday evening? Where were the fans camping overnight to shake the hand of their rock star? That's when Wade Rathke, founder of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, came to West Baltimore to promote his book, "Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign to Save Working Families." President Obama was a leadership trainer for ACORN, which champions "living wage" laws and unionizing Wal-Mart employees. Prosecutors around the country recently charged the group and its employees with wide-scale voter fraud in the 2008 election. When even the Bono of the community organizing world can only draw 30 people to the basement of SEIU 1199, something is wrong. (washingtonexaminer.com)
Disgraced Dem fundraiser practiced typical Obamanomics ... Top Democratic fund-raiser Hassan Nemazee, who's already charged with swindling Citibank out of $74 million, repaid the financial institution with $74 million that he scammed from another bank, and defrauded a third lender of more than $100 million, prosecutors claim in new court documents. The latest allegations could bolster an already serious case against Nemazee, an investment banker who raised big bucks for both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton when they ran for president last year. In all three alleged swindles, the feds claim, Nemazee used fake documents that purported he held large amounts of US Treasury securities that would act as collateral for loans. (nypost.com)
AARP disgrace, fail ... While addressing the audience of about 300, Bill Kallio, the Virginia director of the AARP, said several times that the AARP has not endorsed a particular health care bill. He even went so far as to say there isn’t yet a bill to endorse. For an organization that hasn’t “endorsed a bill,” literally all of the material AARP handed out amplified the Democrat talking point. One handout in particular, “Don’t Be Scared by Myths About Health Care Reform, Get the Facts,” could easily have been written by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. (humanevents.com)
Risky business: Troubled Obama goes over voters' heads ... His speech next Wednesday to a joint session of Congress on health care reform may not be the most significant address President Obama delivers next week. Using the full resources of the federal government to go over the heads of parents and advise millions of public school children on how to conduct their lives is without precedent in American history. That is why thousands of parents are telling Talk Radio hosts and Internet web sites that they will be keeping their kids home next Tuesday. Such reactions caused the White House to back-pedal from the original plan to encourage kids to write essays on how they could help the president achieve his goals for America. Even better would be cancelling this speech entirely. (washingtonexaminer.com)
Obamunists shrug off VA, NJ woes ... President Obama won’t be on the ballot in New Jersey and Virginia when those states hold the nation’s only governor’s races in November. His policies likely will be. “The political bounce on everything that’s happened this summer has made people much more cautious, much more conservative and fearful of change,” said Ross Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Support for Obama and his policies has eroded over the summer. The percentage of Americans who disapprove of his handling of health care has jumped to 50 percent from 29 percent in April, an ABC News/Washington Post found. In New Jersey, Corzine’s woes owe largely to state-specific issues like higher property taxes, failing schools, crumbling roads and corruption, said Baker. (washingtonexaminer.com)
Obama's typical U.S. bullying in Latin America exposed ... Roughly a week after it suspended “non-emergency, non-immigrant” visa services at the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, the State Department has formally suspended non-humanitarian U.S. aid to Honduras. Furthermore, Foggy Bottom has made clear that it will not support the outcome of the upcoming Honduran elections (scheduled for November) unless the country’s recently deposed and exiled leader, Manuel Zelaya, is first reinstalled as president. Let’s see if we understand this: In order to be considered “legitimate,” the Honduran elections must be overseen by a Hugo Chávez disciple who was ousted from the presidency for (as Honduran supreme court chairman José Tomás Arita wrote in the arrest order) “acting against the established form of government, treason against the country, abuse of authority, and usurpation of power.” The Obama administration has effectively turned Zelaya into a symbol of democracy. He is exactly the opposite. (article.nationalreview.com)
What's the big deal about typical union political fraud? ... Imagine the outcry were the following to take place: A cabal of landlords forms a political action committee to exercise their First Amendment rights to support candidates who will advance their agenda. Although the cabal has cash galore, the landlords can't give the money away because candidates are barred from accepting large donations. So the cabal sets up a "political consulting business" and provides the candidates with all the services they can use for free or at cut rates. City Hall would echo with outrage that the nefarious cabal had conspired to steal elections by trashing New York's stringent public campaign financing rules. So how come no one seems particularly upset that such a plot has just been uncovered? Perhaps because the actors were not evil landlords but the leadership of the Working Families Party, a union-backed organization whose endorsements are sought after by mainstream Democrats. Let them not bite the hand that feeds them. (nydailynews.com)Union-front group smacked down over for-profit politics ... The city Campaign Finance Board sent a warning yesterday to the Working Families Party and candidates who use its for-profit arm, saying they're the same entity and all expenditures must be accounted for. The move by the CFB came in the wake of reports, first published in The Post, looking at the relationship between the Working Families Party and a for-profit company it established, Data and Field Services. The for-profit firm helps candidate campaigns in order for them to meet strict campaign-finance requirements. The warning was seen as having the biggest potential impact on City Councilman Bill de Blasio, a candidate for public advocate. He has been endorsed by the party and come under scrutiny over whether he's getting discount rates from DFS that are letting him avoid strict spending caps laid out for people who get taxpayer matching funds. (nypost.com)
Competition exposes typical union election fraud ... A new election is scheduled at MeadWestvaco to determine which of 2 rival unions will represent about 900 hourly workers at the Covington paper mill. The National Labor Relations Board has set a Sept. 30 date for workers to choose between the United Steelworkers Local 8-675 and the Covington Paperworkers Union Local 675. CPU was formed in October 2007 and won an election in 2008 to represent the plant's workers. But an administrative law judge later ordered a new election. (wric.com)
Labor-state union militants picket in defense of Depression Era racial discrimination rule ... About 30 unionized fire fighters from Johnston, Cranston and North Providence joined members of the state carpenters' union Thursday in picketing the construction site of the town's new firehouse on Hartford Avenue Thursday, contending the work is being performed by non-union workers at less than the prevailing wage. (newsblog.projo.com)
Union militants display chutzpah ... First a church, now a synagogue. It ain't kosher. A union has placed a huge 12-foot inflatable rat outside the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale to protest the synagogue's use of non-union workers to install windows at its new extension. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 9, is staging the protest. The union is targeting Diversified Glass, a Bronx company that declined to comment. (nypost.com)
Labor-state AAUP militants teach students a lesson in collective bargaining ... About 150 students and faculty showed up for a rally on Oakland University's campus this afternoon in support of professors who walked off the job today. The mixed crowd of pickets gathered outside Wilson Hall in the hot afternoon sun, holding signs that read "Don't outsource our faculty," "I love my professors" and "Administrator Raises: Your Tuition at Work." The American Association of University Professors, which represents about 600 full-time and part-time professors at Oakland, authorized the strike because members are upset that the university has proposed cuts to summer pay and health care, seeks a pay freeze and wants to hire non tenure-track professors. (detnews.com)
Gov't-union thugs back tiny labor-state into corner ... The governor threatened layoffs shortly after Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg stopped him from forcing about 80 percent of the roughly 13,500-member state work force to stay home without pay Friday. It was supposed to be the first of a dozen shutdown days before July designed to partially close a $68 million shortfall in a state budget hammered by surging unemployment and dwindling tax revenue. Carcieri earlier described the ruling as "the straw that broke the camel's back," but he softened his tone after meeting with his legal team at the Statehouse. "That's my preference, to negotiate this and come to an agreement..." Carcieri said. "But we're running out of time." (washingtonexaminer.com)Union bigs shamed into another revote ... Television crews lined the street outside the Labor Center in Fond du Lac on Thursday afternoon as hundreds of Mercury Marine union workers stopped in to vote for a third time on a contract offered by the company. Mercury granted the more than 800 manufacturing workers another chance to ratify or vote down the contract after hundreds of members signed a petition asking for a revote. Union members on Aug. 23 rejected the contract in the first vote. Company officials have stated acceptance of the contract would keep the marine engine company in Fond du Lac. Rejection would eventually send the manufacturing jobs to Stillwater, Okla. Mark Breister of Fond du Lac, a 38-year Mercury Marine employee, said the company has treated him well, and that’s why he voted yes. (fdlreporter.com)We don't need no stinkin' Judge Darvas ... Striking Kent teachers said they will decide on Monday whether to comply with a judge's order that they go back to work on Tuesday. King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas ruled on Friday that strikes by public teachers are unlawful in Washington, citing other cases and state legislation, and she said the work stoppage is a violation of contract. (kirotv.com)Shame: Rep. Susan Davis placed on Dirty Money Watch ... WHO: Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, a co-sponsor of The Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check). WHAT: Davis received the following dirty money: Boilermakers Union (PAC), $1,000 in 2006 election cycle; American Federation of Government Employees (PAC), $1,000 in 2010 election cycle, $1,000 in 2008 election cycle and $1,000 in 2006 election cycle; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (PAC), $5,000 in 2008 election cycle; Service Employees International Union (SEIU), $3,000 in 2008 election cycle. WHY IT’S DIRTY: Multiple officers and members of these unions, including 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. AFGE has had eight members convicted; SEIU has had nine; the Boilermakers has had 10; and IBEW has had 14. The amounts of embezzled funds range from more than $5,000 to more than $100,000. WHAT: Davis received the following dirty money: PMA Group (PAC), $2,000 in 2008 election cycle and $1,000 in 2006 election cycle. WHY IT’S DIRTY: PMA Group (Paul Magliocchetti and Associates) was a defense lobbying group that’s now the focus of multiple federal investigations concerning allegations of influence peddling and other corrupt activities, mostly associated with earmarks. Before it was disbanded earlier this year, PMA Group’s employees and its political action committee gave current members of Congress $3.4 million between 1989 and 2008, with 79 percent of that going to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.org. WILL DAVIS GIVE IT BACK? Davis did not respond to The Examiner’s request for comment. THE SCORE: Number of Democrats who have given it back: 0. Number of Republicans who have given it back: 0. (sfexaminer.com)International Collectivism
Workers protest against Hugo Chávez today ... People taking part in the global march "No More Chávez" to be staged in Caracas next Friday, September 4, at noon are to gather in Brión Square in Chacaíto, north Caracas, and the entrance of the Parque Cristal building, in Los Palos Grandes, east Caracas. Otto Hersen, who is one of the organizers of the activity in Venezuela, said that demonstrators will submit a document in Caracas at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS). The document sheds light on the violation of human rights by the government of President Hugo Chávez, in Venezuela and other countries. Organizers said that the march convened on the social networks Facebook and Twitter will be held in 144 countries; in Venezuela, there will be rallies in the capital cities of the states of Miranda, Zulia, Táchira, Nueva Esparta, Mérida, Falcón, Aragua, Carabobo, Monagas, Cojedes, Yaracuy, Trujillo and Anzoátegui. (english.eluniversal.com)
Leftwing filmmaker salutes LatAm thugs ... As is often the case, the man I met was not the man I'd read and heard about in the US media. I was able to return in January 2009 to interview President Chávez in more depth. Was Hugo Chávez really the anti–American force we've been told he is? Once we began our journey, we found ourselves going beyond Venezuela to several other countries, and interviewing seven presidents in the region, telling a larger and even more compelling story, which has now become South of the Border. Leader after leader seemed to be saying the same thing. (guardian.co.u)
Uribe demonstrates his Progressive cred ... Despite being holed up with swine flu, Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe had reason to celebrate this week. After weeks of manoeuvring, the lower house of Congress approved the final text of a law to call a referendum on changing the constitution to allow Mr Uribe to run for a third consecutive term—an unprecedented abandonment of term limits in a country that until recently was zealously mistrustful of executive power. (economist.com)
Venezuela: Progressive thug paradise ... Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is using revenues from the energy sector to bankroll what he calls his "socialism for the 21st century." The charismatic autocrat is trying to cement his hold on power in a bid to silence a growing political opposition. A poster proclaiming "fatherland, socialism or death" adorns the military prison in Los Teques, a suburb of the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Relatives of the prisoners throng the stairs that lead to the cell wing. The soldiers poke holes in meat pies, cakes and other small presents, looking for cell phones and weapons. The most famous prisoner in the country is held in a spacious cell on the third floor. General Raul Isaias Baduel, 54, used to be defense minister and commander-in-chief of the army. Now he eagerly accepts a couple of newspapers that his guards have allowed through. He has no access to telephones or the Internet. (spiegel.de)
