| Obama: Hearts ACORN-SEIU, totalitarian, triggers anger, why ACORN matters, circles the wagons around deadbeat liars. Mismanagement: SEIU scandalized by ACORN, fraud too big to fail, Prog P2P fail, GOP sucks up to union bigs, union goons display rat, news union thug fail, Kansas SEIU thug fail, unions' political power cited. International: LatAm leftwing thugs heart Oliver Stone, Lula conspires with disgraced leftwing thug, DINOs trash rule of law. |
White House in hurried rush to erase its ACORN-SEIU ties ... Why did Labor Secretary Hilda Solis move quickly to change disclosure requirements for unions and their political activities? Don Loos at Big Government connects the dots and discovers the Obama administration’s attempts to get their allies in Big Labor out of the line of ACORN fire. For instance, the education unions NEA and AFT both gave big money to the very office in New York City that offered free advice on hiding child prostitution and tax evasion: (hotair.com)
ACORN scandal taints SEIU political unit ... The Working Families Party (WFP), a political party in New York and Connecticut that was founded in 1998 and is currently expanding into Oregon, South Carolina, and Delaware, most certainly merits immediate attention. Their website (www.workingfamiliesparty.org) boasts that over 1600 politicians were eager for a WFP endorsement in 2009, and much of their rise to fame has emerged from fusion voting, whereby candidates are simultaneously endorsed by multiple parties. The WFP discloses that it was “Formed by a grassroots coalition of community organizations, neighborhood activists, and labor unions” hoping to construct “…a society that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected.” Their stand on the issues? The WFP champions universal health care, diminishing our carbon footprint and combating climate change, relaxing immigrant ID regulations, alleviating penalties for first-time drug offenders, repealing income tax cuts for the wealthy, tax rate increases for those earning over $250,000/year, and a progressive property tax as percentage of income. In addition, the party staunchly supports gay marriage and opposes the death penalty. In other words, the WFP is a far-left, wealth redistribution advocacy conglomerate that is no friend to the free market or ambitious incentive it births, but rather a loyal proponent of big-government’s equalizing wand. These, my friends, are Mark Levin’s Statists at their best. (humanevents.com)
New Prog BOHICA ... If nothing else, the Obama eruption in American politics is steadily revealing the stark reality behind the progressive movement - the totalitarian temptation is always there and, for more than a few, possessing the official power to compel sooner or later becomes irresistible. Still, that this danger is real and growing becomes more obvious as public opposition grows to the president's across-the-board campaign to turn Washington into the all-powerful, centralized behemoth that Woodrow Wilson and FDR could only dream about. Consider: Nowhere does the Constitution grant Congress authority to require every American to buy a particular private service or product on pain of forfeiture of a significant portion of their wealth. Yet, every version of Obamacare currently being discussed in Congress requires just that. (washingtonexaminer.com)
Obama brings out bipartisan Angercrats ... Sixty-six percent (66%) are angry at the policies of the federal government and 60% say that neither Republican nor Democratic leaders understand what’s needed. Most say that people are more angry now than they were during the Bush Administration. (rasmussenreports.com)
Union-backed political fraud group too big to fail ... The embattled community group ACORN, comprising a mind-boggling 94 different affiliates, amounts to "a big shell game," a biting Senate Finance Committee study shows. The study, by the staff of Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, reveals four ACORN charity groups give more than half their revenue to taxable entities that engage in "impermissible lobbying and political activity." Also yesterday, the Treasury Department's top auditor announced it was conducting a review of ACORN -- whose members recently were caught on video offering fake clients advice on how to set up a brothel -- and IRS oversight of nonprofit fraud. The investigation by Treasury's inspector general follows probes undertaken by the Justice Department, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes and ACORN itself. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday passed an ACORN-funding ban as part of a bill to keep government agencies running. (nypost.com)
Does ACORN-SEIU political fraud matter? ... Congress is running for the hills realizing the ACORN cesspool might be associated with their 2010 election. Now comes the real significant aspect of ACORN as it pertains to its relationship to our country’s President Barack Hussein Obama. It is below our president’s dignity to comment on his relationship to ACORN, but his close associates assure us he has had no more than a passing, oblique association with this thuggery group. Let’s check the record. First, Obama ran a voter registration program for an ACORN affiliate. Could this be where the workers were educated in all their recorded fraudulent methods? Next he worked as an advocate and an attorney on key legal cases for ACORN. He then proceeded to conduct training programs for ACORN’s staff and workers. In the presidential campaign he spoke to a number of ACORN gatherings and promised them they would have a significant input in his new administration (all on video). During the 2008 presidential campaign, ACORN received 800 thousand dollars from the Obama organization to help in getting out the vote. Does all this sound like an insignificant, oblique association? You decide. (thesuntimes.com)
Union bigs: Shut down ACORN probes ... Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark. Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com. Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts. That’s right; union bosses gave teachers’ forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution. No wonder Solis’ Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure! In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers. But, the days of disclosure are numbered. Big Labor has commanded Labor Secretary Solis to shut it all down. (biggovernment.com)
ACORN: Typical leftwing shell game ... Documents released by a Senate Republican on Thursday show that leaders of the ACORN community organizing network transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money meant for the poor to arms of the group that have political and sometimes profit-making missions. ACORN's tax-exempt groups and allied organizations, long a target of conservative ire, used more than half their charitable and public money in 2006 to pay other ACORN affiliates, according to an analysis by the tax staff of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). On Thursday, Grassley called the transactions a "big shell game" and said ACORN donors may be surprised by how the liberal group known for helping the poor obtain housing and health care was spending their money. He urged the Internal Revenue Service to take a closer look. (washingtonpost.com)
ACORN: Deadbeat liars ... ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News Sunday on Sept. 20 that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." But her claim crumbles before the $548,213.25 federal tax lien that the Internal Revenue Service filed against the embattled New Orleans-based activist organization. Louisiana state tax officials also have slapped $334,121.43 in tax liens on ACORN since last October 29. (indystar.com)
Progressive politics: Global corruption exposed ... The statement alleged the group laundered $900,000 through a bank account that Cambridge opened at FirstCaribbean International Bank, and the money was later routed to an FBI-controlled account in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Cambridge, who faces charges including conspiracy to commit money laundering, did not return a message seeking comment. He is an attorney and partner at Callenders & Co. and has served as vice chairman of the Bahamas’ opposition Progressive Liberal Party, according to The Tribune newspaper. Also charged in the case is Broward County Commissioner and Vice Mayor Josephus Eggelletion, who was suspended Wednesday pending the outcome of the case. (blog.taragana.com)Related video: Typical pols never get enough
Union bigs monkey with GOP ... But even if EFCA dies -- as it should -- 28 states will still permit unions to force all of a company's workers, including nonunion ones, to pay dues. Resurgent Republicans would have much to gain by enacting "right-to-work" legislation outlawing this practice. One problem though: Many Republicans support forced unionism. Some of them represent heavily unionized districts and fear that antagonizing Big Labor will jeopardize their seats. They may not share the union bosses' partiality to socialized medicine and high taxes, but they're partial enough to getting re-elected. However, supporting a policy that forces workers to pay union dues doesn't expand the Republican big tent; it shrinks it. You'd think this would be obvious. (spectator.org)
Notoriously corrupt union hauls out the rat ... Thirty labor union members and two 15-foot, inflatable rats waved at passing traffic in front of the construction site of the Buchanan Towers expansion Wednesday morning as part of a public demonstration. From 8 a.m. to noon, Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 276 members handed out flyers alleging that Ebenal General Construction Co.—the contractor Western hired for the expansion of Buchanan Towers—had poor business practices and lawsuits filed against them within the past eight years. (westernfrontonline.net)
Typical news union big exposed ... The executive committee of The Boston Globe’s largest union said it is conducting an audit and preparing charges against its president, Daniel Totten, and has both canceled his credit card and suspended his check-signing authority. In a letter e-mailed to members yesterday, the Boston Newspaper Guild’s executive committee said Totten appears to have violated the union’s constitution “regarding financial matters involving local funds.’’ The letter was not more specific, and union officials declined to comment on the precise nature of the allegations. (boston.com)Kansans plagued by typical state gov't-union goon squads ... Two Kansas state agencies were working on behalf of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to identify potential new union members among the state’s in-home health care workers. The Kansas City Star reports that “the state’s Department of Aging and Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services sent more than 1,000 letters last month to the payroll agents of in-home health workers seeking workers’ names, addresses and phone numbers. The workers are not state employees, but they receive state funds to provide in-home care to the elderly and disabled. The agencies were responding to an open records request by the SEIU, a union that represents health care and government workers.” (nrtwc.org)
Blame term limits, not union political power ... As Michigan faces the potential for yet another budget debacle, frustrated citizens and pundits wonder if there aren't institutional reforms that might mitigate the apparent inability of our state's government establishment to solve long-festering dysfunctions. Things like a part time or unicameral legislature, biannual budgeting, etc. Unfortunately, there appears to be no correlation between these different institutional arrangements and the level of dysfunction in a state's political/government establishment. However, the inability to solve problems - and the depth of those problems - does appear to be correlated with another factor: States with strong, politically-active unions - in particular public employee unions - tend to be the ones that have fallen and can't get up. Where unions are much less powerful and influential the worst dysfunctions have been avoided, both economic and governmental. In short, at the root of Michigan's budget debacle and almost all its other major problems one will find a union, which helped the problem grow and now is stopping it from being fixed. (mackinac.org)International Collectivism
LatAm leftwing thugs heart Oliver Stone ... Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) and Evo Morales (Bolivia) attended the premiere of South of the Border documentary, by US filmmaker Oliver Stone. The documentary was screened on Wednesday night at the Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center, New York, where the presidents are attending the general debate of the UN assembly. (radionuevitas.co.cu)
Trotskyite Lula conspires with disgraced leftwing thug ... Brazilian president's spokesman Marcelo Baumbach told reporters this Thursday, September 24, that Manuel Zelaya, Honduras' deposed president, may stay in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa as long as he wishes. "It's obvious that president Zelaya will stay in the Brazilian embassy as long as necessary to solve the situation. Brazil gave shelter to president Zelaya, he runs the risk of being arrested if he leaves the embassy," said Baumbach. Reports by Brazilian journalists reveal that those sheltered by Brazil can't shave or brush their teeth, they also haven't taken a bath in three days, since they don't have enough water or soap. Baumbach let it be known, however, that president of Brazil is against the use of the embassy for any secret plan or plot. "President Lula does not authorize the embassy to be used for political conspiracies. We believe that there is a possibility for a negotiated solution for this problem. Brazil believes that the negotiated solution is already on its way." (brazzilmag.com)
Typical leftwing democrats throw rule of law under the bus ... What is the Obama administration thinking? A close ally of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez sits barricaded in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, having been lawfully convicted of attempting a slow-motion coup in Honduras. Paid bands of his rent-a-thugs are terrorizing and looting the city. And the Obama administration is effectively cheering them on. It all began this summer, when Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deposed and deported following his attempt to subvert the Honduran Constitution. In a part of the world where strongmen - or caudillos - too often use democratic means to gain power but then refuse to relinquish it, the Honduran Constitution strictly prohibits changing its presidential term-limit provision. In blatant defiance of this, early this summer Zelaya orchestrated street protests in support of a referendum to rewrite the constitution to allow him to retain power beyond the end of his term in January. (washingtonexaminer.com)
