With that in mind, 21 labor organizations that collectively represent 300,000 federal workers have joined forces in a new Federal Workers Alliance.
Noticeably absent from the list are the two largest federal unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union. Their absence has a subplot linked to intensifying competition over airport security screeners, a major contingent both groups want to organize.
Corrupt fat-cat union to Bay State A.G.: Go negative
A major national union supporting Democrat Martha Coakley is taking out a massive TV ad buy that slams her Republican rival, Scott Brown, for his positions on abortion and climate change.
The ad taken out by the Service Employees International Union, will begin airing statewide tomorrow. The buy size is $685,000, one of the largest of the election.
“Before you vote for Senate, here’s a few things you should know about Scott Brown,” says a narrator in the 30-second spot. The narrator then says he “has repeatedly opposed a woman’s right to choose” and he “expresses skepticism that climate change is being caused by humans. No wonder Brown’s campaign is being supported by the same extremist group that backs Sarah Palin,” the narrator says. “Martha Coakley for Senate. Massachusetts values.”
The ad shows Brown, in black and white, talking in slow motion before switching at the end to a quicker pace and color photo of Coakley.
It marks another negative ad in a Jan. 19 special election that is garnering widespread national attention. Coakley last night took out an ad that went after Brown along the same line of attack.
Brown’s daughters this afternoon called on her to take it down and run a more positive campaign.
MM rips labor-state SEIU Corruptocrat thug, social-justice fraud
Democrat Martha Coakley is the voice of the “little people” the way Ted Kennedy was the voice of sobriety. If Massachusetts voters want another privileged liberal who talks a good “social justice” game while ignoring public corruption, pocketing gobs of money from Beltway fat cats, and pandering to corporate special interests, Coakley’s the one.
Then there’s Coakley’s relationship with Massachusetts’ corrupt former House Speaker Sal DiMasi. Bay State records show that Coakley sent annual donations to the beleaguered Democrat over the past three years worth just under $1,000. But the obeisance Coakley has paid to the Democrat machine has been priceless. Last June, di Masi was indicted on seven counts of mail and wire fraud related to pay-for-play schemes worth tens of thousands of dollars in monthly payments. “Where’s Martha?” asked Republican lawmakers.
Coakley let the feds take on the powerful di Masi. Only after months of foot-dragging did Coakley’s AG office initiate an investigation into and indictments of one of di Masi’s top cronies, Richard Vitale, on lobbying and campaign finance crimes.
More recently, Coakley’s GOP opponent Scott Brown blew the whistle on campaign finance shenanigans involving her deep-pocketed supporters at the SEIU. The radical labor organization, saddled with nationwide embezzlement scandals and political thuggery, is “pulling out all the stops” for Coakley and has dumped more than $200,000 into her campaign for radio ads (plus another $685,000 on the way for TV ads). In mid-December, SEIU Local 509, which represents public employees, sent two e-mails to 7,500 state government employee at their government e-mail address over public computers endorsing Coakley and urging union members to vote for her. The use of state resources for politicking is forbidden under state ethics laws and subject to both civil and criminal penalties.
Coakley’s office has not responded to the complaint. She’s probably too busy writing thank-you notes to all the fatcat lobbyists and donors who threw her a high-priced fundraiser in Washington, D.C. this week. Host committee members raised $10,000 or more for her coffers. They included representatives from drug companies, health insurers, and hospitals who joined the Demcare protection racket. (And Coakley has the nerve to attack “shadowy out-of-state organizations” for running ads supporting Brown.)
(from michellemalkin.com) Related video: Coakley Thug Roughs Up Reporter
Update from weeklystandard.com: Witnessed by Coakley "A tipster tells me that the man who was pushing me outside of a Capitol Hill fundraiser Tuesday night for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley is Michael Meehan."
Do not expect to hear the term “saved or created job” anymore. The federal government has disposed of the figure that had been used to measure the efficacy of the stimulus.
The memo, first noted by ProPublica, says that those receiving stimulus funds no longer have to say whether a job has been saved or created.
“Instead, recipients will more easily and objectively report on jobs funded with Recovery Act dollars,” Orszag wrote.
In other words, if the project is being funded with stimulus dollars – even if the person worked at that company or organization before and will work the same place afterwards – that’s a stimulus job.
Labor-state SEIU-ACORN unit cheated, fair-and-square
Two Working Families Party bigwigs were subpoenaed for a trial set to begin today on whether the labor-backed party and its corporate arm skirted campaign-finance laws.
WFP Director Dan Cantor and Deputy Director Bill Lipton are set to appear in state Supreme Court on Staten Island in the suit filed by attorney Randy Mastro, on behalf of five voters in the borough, WFP spokesman Dan Levitan said.
Mastro, a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, claims City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-SI) paid a WFP for-profit partner, Data and Field Services, less than fair market value for 2009 primary-election services -- part of a scheme to give unlawful benefits to WFP's preferred candidates.
The WFP endorsed Rose over incumbent Kenny Mitchell. "This junk lawsuit, as pundits are starting to refer to it, is pure political theater," Levitan said, arguing Rose "won her election fair and square."
Federal unions given over to Hoffa, radical leftwingersFederal employee unions may have a friend in the White House, but Barack Obama is still management.
• The membersNoticeably absent from the list are the two largest federal unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union. Their absence has a subplot linked to intensifying competition over airport security screeners, a major contingent both groups want to organize.
The Alliance does, however, include large, powerful unions that have relatively few federal workers among their members, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Teamsters and national teachers unions.
