On a related note, the NLRB (with SEIU attorney Craig Becker recess-appointed onto the catbird’s seat) is set to launch an assault on workers’ rights to a secret ballot to remove an unwanted union. See here. Card check through the back door. Who needs the legislative front door?
And yesterday on Megyn Kelly’s show, I noted that union members can opt out of having their hard-earned dues used for political purposes. Several readers e-mailed that they had never heard of the process by which this was possible and wanted to know how they could do it. Here are your rights as a union worker. Here is a backgrounder on the permissible use of forced dues. Here’s my 1999 column on how public school teachers in Washington state challenged their union over their political dues power grab. Free speech not only means the freedom to voice your political views, but also the freedom from being forced to pay for someone else’s. U.S. Supreme Court precedent established by the D.C.-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation guarantees the right to full financial disclosure from a union and a right to challenge the figures in court if they disagree. Spread the word.
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Big Labor’s legacy of violence
by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
To mark Labor Day 2010, President Obama will join hands with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in Milwaukee and pose as champions of the working class. Bad move. Trumka’s organizing record is a shameful reminder of the union movement’s violent and corrupt foundations.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher waves to a crowd of supporters at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Cleveland on Tuesday, May 4, 2010. Fisher beat Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in a primary election for the Democratic nomination to fill the Senate seat of retiring Republican George Voinovich. (AP Photo/Jason Miller)
In another sign that the electoral environment has become dire for Democrats, Republican Senate candidates in the battleground working class states of Ohio and Pennsylvania have begun to build big leads in the last few weeks over their opponents.
Republican Rob Portman’s polling lead in Ohio over Democratic Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher has grown from an average of 1.8 percent in mid-August to 6.7 percent, as of Thursday evening. Just in the last week, Portman has gained two points in the Real Clear Politics average.
And in Pennsylvania, former Republican Congressman Pat Toomey has gone from just 2 points up on Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak in mid-August to now being 8.5 percentage points ahead. Like Portman, Toomey gained two points just in the last week.
The signs in Ohio and Pennsylvania are in concert with what is happening in more Democrat-leaning states, such as Washington and Wisconsin, where Democratic incumbents Patty Murray and Russell Feingold look increasingly endangered. Murray is actually trailing Republican Dino Rossi by 2.3 points in the RCP average, while Feingold’s lead over businessman Ron Johnson has been whittled down to 1 point.
Republicans would need to pickup 10 Democratic seats, while losing none of their own, to take control of the Senate.
Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, on Thursday moved his prediction of Republican pickups in the Senate from 7 to 8 or even 9, and said a GOP takeover of the Senate is looking more possible by the day.
When SEIU president Andy Stern resigned in April, I noted the jockeying for power between the AFL-CIO and SEIU. I asked:
“Gulp: Are we about to see a re-merger of SEIU and AFL-CIO into a new 21st-century Big Labor Frankenstein?
Question: Are we looking at the death throes of forced unionism — or its resurrection?”
My concerns have been confirmed, via the WSJ today:
“The leaders of the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union have agreed to coordinate spending millions of dollars in the midterm elections to support pro-union candidates, most of them Democrats.
The two labor organizations say they have a combined $88 million or more to deploy in this year’s election cycle. It’s not clear how much of that money they will pool together.
The renewed alliance between the two big labor groups comes as Democrats are battling to retain control of both houses of Congress. The AFL-CIO and SEIU plan to target elections in 26 states, all but five of which they consider battleground territory, including California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.”
In the words of Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
***
In related news, from the Marxist People’s World , comes news of an radical joint get-out-the-vote effort with the AFL-CIO:
The AFL-CIO executive committee voted unanimously this morning to join One Nation, Working Together, a new national coalition of labor and civil rights groups that has as its purpose to “reorder America’s priorities by investing in the nation’s most valuable resource – its people.”
The labor, civil rights, environmental, faith and other organizations that have formed the new coalition intend to replace unemployment and economic crisis faced by the country’s majority with “nothing less than a future of shared prosperity for all our people,” the AFL-CIO said in a statement after it voted to join One Nation.
“None of us alone have been able to achieve our priorities,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.
It is increasingly obvious that the Obama administration is more interested in protecting Mexicans than Americans.
Case in point; Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has eleven suspects accused of murdering law enforcement officers in his maximum security county jail in downtown Phoenix. As reported in the August 18 Washington Post, “Justice Department officials in Washington have issued a rare threat to sue (Arpaio) if he does not cooperate with their investigation of whether he discriminates against Hispanics.”
“The standoff comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer because of the state’s new immigration law,” the Post noted. The latest word from Americans for Legal Immigration is that twenty-two States now have lawmakers developing versions of Arizona’s illegal immigration crackdown bill SB 1070.
So nearly half the States are aligning themselves with Arizona. Why?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, according to Mexican figures released recently, the toll of the drug wars was said to be 28,000. It includes growing numbers of “civilian victims” ranging from toddlers caught in the cross fire to students massacred at parties. Mexico’s disintegration as a civil society is so severe its government is considering legalizing drugs to reduce the intercine battles between the cartels.
Little wonder that Mexicans are fleeing their war-torn nation to the safety of the United States. Earlier this year at least thirty residents of El Porvenir, located about four miles from the Texas border town of Fort Hancock, crossed into the U.S. and asked for political asylum, telling authorities they fear for their lives. The chief deputy sheriff of Hudspeth County reported that a cartel had threatened to kill children in schools across the border unless the parents paid $5,000 pesos.
Mexico has a slim hold on anything resembling a civil society where the law enforcement authorities can stem the violence or journalists can report it.
Here’s the eye-roller of the day from President Obama’s Saturday radio address. This was recorded Thursday at the White House due to a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, which is the perfect command center from where to monitor the Iranians firing up their nuclear reactor (which is being overseen for safety by the people who brought the world Chernobyl — whew!).
As the political season heats up, Americans are already being inundated with the usual phone calls, mailings, and TV ads from campaigns all across the country. But this summer, they’re also seeing a flood of attack ads run by shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names. We don’t know who’s behind these ads and we don’t know who’s paying for them [the only time we shouldn't care who's paying for something is if that something is a mosque near ground zero -- DP].
The reason this is happening is because of a decision by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case – a decision that now allows big corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections. They can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads – and worst of all, they don’t even have to reveal who is actually paying for them. You don’t know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation. You don’t know if it’s BP. You don’t know if it’s a big insurance company or a Wall Street Bank. A group can hide behind a phony name like “Citizens for a Better Future,” even if a more accurate name would be “Corporations for Weaker Oversight.”
[...]
Well, we cannot allow the corporate takeover of our democracy. So we’re going to continue to fight for reform and transparency. And I urge all of you to take up the same fight. Let’s challenge every elected official who benefits from these ads to defend this practice or join us in stopping it.
This is a Republic and not a Democracy, but that’s of little importance at this point because we’re getting bilked out of both just so they can be sure.
Naturally, labor unions don’t fall under the “corporations” umbrella, but they do their share of advertising — it’s just that most of it goes toward helping Democrats:
Since 1990, labor unions have contributed over $667 million in election campaigns in the United States, of which $614 million or 92 percent went to support Democratic candidates. In 2008, unions spent $74.5 million in campaign contributions, with $68.3 million going to the Democratic Party. Already, unions have contributed $6.5 million to the 2010 elections, and $6 million has gone to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C.
In ads sponsored by labor unions it isn’t always obvious that the ad is paid for at least in part by unions either. “Health Care for America Now” is just one example. Watch this ad from the 2008 campaign and see if it’s obvious that it’s paid for in part by the SEIU, AFSCME, NEA and UFCW.
And forget the “corporate takeover” nonsense. Ever since the Supreme Court ruling freed up corporate political spending, labor unions are stillout-spending corporations:
Labor unions have dominated spending on independent campaign ads so far this election season, despite a recent Supreme Court decision that freed spending by corporations, a Washington Post analysis shows.
The findings are an indication that corporate money is not flooding into campaigns as many predicted would happen after the landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Today’s column targets SEIU consigliere Craig Becker and the latest White House gift to Big Labor. So far this summer, Team Obama is fronting the SEIU-backed $8 billion Child Nutrition Act expansion and forked over the union-stamped $26 billion BigGovJobs bailout. And as I noted yesterday, the next big government/labor payoff is on the way in the form of the PBGC bailout. How many more union payoffs can we afford?!
Obama’s Big Labor ethics loophole
by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
Everything you need to know about President Obama’s fraudulent ethics pledge can be summed up in four words: SEIU lawyer Craig Becker.
Becker is the left-wing lawyer Obama sneakily installed on the National Labor Relations Board. The U.S. Senate rejected Becker’s nomination on a 52-33 cloture vote in February. Obama responded by flipping the bird and ramming through his recess appointment during the congressional spring break. (The New York Times approvingly dubbed it a “muscular show of his executive authority.” When that authority was exercised by GOP President George W. Bush, of course, the Times editorial board called it a “constitutional gimmick.”)
Despite the White House’s much-heralded policy of binding every executive appointee to strict conflict-of-interest guidelines, a defiant Becker now remains free to rule on cases involving his former Big Labor bosses. And the most ethical administration in U.S. history isn’t doing a thing to stop him.
While serving as an associate general counsel for both the SEIU and AFL-CIO in 2009, Becker generously lent his legal expertise to the White House. He served as an Obama transition team member for labor issues and helped draft several union-backed executive orders.
This list may resemble all the others about the DSA members …. but it is unlike any other list on the internet. I have included links from each members name to a story that shows how they stand see or say things that rebut the fact they are Socialist if not full blown Marxist looking to devolve capitalism into a history they can then remove it from as well with revisionist teachings from the elitist schools.
The following FAQ will help clarify a few facts:
Q: What is the Socialist International?
A: It is the worldwide organization of socialist, social democratic and labor parties. It currently brings together 131 political parties and organizations from all continents. Its origins go back to the early international organizations of the labor movement of the last century.* It has existed in its present form since 1951, when it was re-established at the Frankfurt Congress. They are now headquartered in London, England.
* In 1864, representatives of English and French industrial workers founded the International Workingmen’s Association in London. Karl Marx, who was living in London at the time, became the First International’s dominant figure. Marx’s doctrines were revived in the 20th century by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilich Lenin, who developed and applied them – and we all know that what was started as a labor movement ended up as the biggest totalitarian/communist state, i.e., the USSR.
Q: What is the Democratic Socialists of America [DSA]?
I suppose you thought the idea of American slavery ended in 1865. A United States Congressman wants to reinstate it.
Ethically-challenged Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y) last week introduced in the Armed Services Committee H.R. 5741, also known as the National Service Act. The bill would require two-years of mandatory government service—either in the military or some as-yet undefined civilian service that promotes national or homeland security—to everyone between the ages of 18 and 42 if the President declares a national emergency.
No choice. No way out. You’ve got to do it if the President declares a national emergency.
Rangel, who opposes the excursions in Afghanistan and Iraq because he believes blacks and the poor are doing the majority of the fighting and dying, has long sought to institute a draft. In the past he has stated, in effect, that by instituting a draft Americans would be less likely to support wars.
That may be. But forced labor at the point of a gun is no different from what blacks suffered under the hands of slave masters for most of a couple of hundred years in America.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the Federal government or a plantation owner, forced labor is slavery. Giving it a fancy name doesn’t change that.
And one other thing: with growing disenchantment over the fascist bent of the current administration and its assault on the rule of law, this country is likely to soon see a popular uprising. That would be the perfect excuse for the President to make his emergency declaration.
And if you’re thinking that you might resist the “draft” remember, President Barack Obama fancies himself as another Lincoln. Well, just look at what Lincoln did during the draft riots in New York.
He ordered five regiments of troops fresh from the battlefield at Gettysburg to quell the riots. The troops shot somewhere between 300 and 1,000 civilians.
Hide-and-seek hypocrites on the Hill
by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
You know when a politician starts a sentence with “frankly,” he’s about to lie to your face. The same principle applies to campaign finance legislation dubbed the “DISCLOSE Act.” The voter’s instinctive reaction should be: What are they trying to hide now? Drafted out of public view with left-wing lobbyists and rammed through Congress after bypassing committee hearings, this bum bill would have been better named the CLOSEDDOOR Act.
At a Rose Garden press conference on Monday, President Obama decried the influence of “shadow groups” on elections and urged the Senate to pass the “reform” sponsored by N.Y. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer. But the loophole-ridden package exempts large nonprofits with 500,000 or more members. Behemoth labor unions get preferential treatment. Bradley Smith, former Federal Elections Commission chairman, noted that the law places radical speech-squelching restrictions on companies’ ability to run independent political ads: “(I)f you’re a company with a government contract of over $10 million (like more than half of the top 50 U.S. companies) or if you’re a company with more than 20 percent foreign shareholders, you can’t even mention a candidate in an ad for up to a full year before the election. … There are no similar prohibitions for unions representing government contractors or unions with foreign membership.”
GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell put it more starkly during Tuesday’s debate before the Senate cloture vote on the bill: The DISCLOSE Act, he said, is a “transparent attempt to rig the fall elections.” At bottom, McConnell diagnosed correctly, this is a jobs-protection bill for entrenched incumbents more interested in protecting their hides than protecting the Constitution. While the cloture vote fell three votes short of the needed 60 on Tuesday, Schumer vowed to resurrect the issue “again and again and again until we pass it.”
How about “Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity”? That’s the front group White House senior adviser David Axelrod formed to shill for a massive utility tax hike championed by Commonwealth Edison in Chicago.
How often in recent times have you heard of a group of Muslims filing a formal protest over some action, be it large or tiny, done or said by our Christian citizens for whom this country was founded? Plenty, I’d bet; as I know it seems that way to me.
Any action, no matter how small or paltry it may be that does not follow Islamic sensibilities or beliefs is immediately and loudly proclaimed to be “offensive” to these of the strange faith of Islam that promotes killings sometimes seemingly just for the sake of killing.
Christians, and Jews (even more so) are pummeled with the indignant and contentious backlash of Islam/Muslim petulance and demands that the actions must cease and be outlawed forever after.
Just who in the hell died and made these VERY unwelcome strangers our new counselors? Why is it that we have to cater to each little whim and whatever dubiousness from these terrorizing people who have made their way into our society with the obvious intention of changing things to THEIR way?
It’s bad enough that our liberal jackass Democrats have put 85 percent of our country’s citizens (Christians and Jews) on the hook and in meek compliance with any demands (they do not request, just demand) the illegal aliens present in our lands make on a constant basis daily.
And the corrupt and anti-American liberal Democrats so entrenched in our Congress and Administration kowtow and pay out our tax dollars just to ensure getting their votes. There’s something terribly wrong with that picture and we have to change it come November. We must get rid of these corrupted elected enemies of America’s real citizens and rid our country of those who will not co-exist with our long-established traditions and values.
Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs recently told of New York City Muslims and their highly suspect motives for building a mosque on the site of the 9/11 massacre that their people inflicted on nearly 3,000 Americans. She provided photos of a large group of Muslims disrupting New York City traffic on Madison Avenue, an extremely busy street, by stopping vehicles that were trying to conduct their daily business rounds.
You know when a politician starts a sentence with “frankly,” he’s about to lie to your face. The same principle applies to campaign finance legislation dubbed the “DISCLOSE Act.” The voter’s instinctive reaction should be: What are they trying to hide now? Drafted 
