SEIU

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Jobs - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker

February 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Having trouble making ends meet? Eating your meals from a dog food can? Lost your job, seen your retirement accounts dwindle or disappear, having a hard time getting work? Millions of Americans are facing these problems. Some, however, aren’t. And those some are government workers, apparently. Unionized government workers at that.

Doug Ross has a very startling post at his website that really brings this home in stark and easy to grasp numbers. Under the rubric of “How’s this for an investment” Ross gives us the following:

You pay a total of $124,000 into your pension plan and, upon retiring at age 49, you receive $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits. You receive $3.8 million in total on a $124,000 investment.

You pay a total of $62,000 towards a pension plan and absolutely nothing for health care (medical, dental and vision coverage) over your working career. Upon retirement, you are paid $1.4 million in pension and $215,000 in health care benefits. You receive $1.6 million on a $62,000 investment.

This is what happens when you work for the State of New Jersey as Ross discovered.
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How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Elections - GOP - Jobs - Pensions - President - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yeah, I know… it’s like a broken record around here. But, here is another voice coming to our side to agree with us that public employees unions are antithetical to good government, wholly un-democratic, and, therefore, quite un-American. This time it’s the well-regarded Michael Barone echoing our mantra.

Barone is one of the best political reporters in the country and in his own inimitable way has jumped on the anti-union bandwagon (not that he never has in the past, just that this piece is particularly on par).

Before he gets to government unions, one of his points is that unions aren’t even needed in the private sector anymore because all the evils that employers perpetrated in the days of yore have now been regulated away by governments and laws. Because of an active government unions just aren’t needed to protect workers anymore, says Barone. It is a good point, after all.
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Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Jobs - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Pensions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Politico had a story about Big Labor penned by Jeanne Cummings, the reporter famed for going after Sarah Palin’s Party purchased wardrobe during the 2008 presidential campaign, that was an object lesson in Old Media bias. Her piece headlined “Labor helps kill its own top priority” is a great example of using language to subtly shade the arguments, in this case those of Big Labor, to elicit a positive view of the ideology contained in the issue. Her piece very subtly shades the goals of Big Labor in a positive light easily giving the reader a feeling that Big Labor’s goals are good and noble and is a perfect example of how the media creates emotional appeal for the left’s actions.

Because it is such masterfully crafted example of subtle bias, it deserves to be studied closely.

Cummings Begins her propping up of Big Labor by saying that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts is “bad news for health care” and will mean that Republicans can “block the Employee Free Choice Act,” and so she immediately casts the possible actions of the GOP in a negative light at the outset. “Bad news for health care”? It is said as if the GOP was against “health care.” It isn’t. And of course “block” is certainly a negative action. In any case, she started by shrouding the GOP in negativity right away.
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How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town

February 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s Katie bar the door as the Democrats in the Senate try to push as many liars and Big Labor crooks into positions of power in the Obama Administration as they can before they lose their super majority once Scott Brown of Massachusetts is seated on the 4th of February.

On Monday, the Democrats pushed through the confirmation for Obama’s Solicitor of Labor despite that it has been effectively shown that she lied in her Senate testimony.

Senator Mike Enzi (R, Wyo.) revealed a report that Obama’s appointee as Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith, lied several times during her appearance before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in May of 2009.

Then on Tuesday, the Democrats with their temporary super majority tried to push through Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker is a union-flack and would become the first lawyer employed by unions to take a position that is supposed to investigate and rule for or against unions with an unbiased hand.
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Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Wall Street Journal Echoing The Blog

February 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

That’s right, it’s time to do the happy dance. Our drum beat of unions being antithetical to good government has, today, been echoed by the Wall Street Journal in an editorial board piece titled “The Public-Union Ascendancy.”

OK, OK, I am not silly enough to imagine that the WSJ is hanging on every word we here at the blog say — though I was told by John Fund a few months ago when we met in Chicago that he has read a lot of my work — but it is still good to see that we aren’t the only ones thinking along these lines.

The Journal has some interesting states to report on the increase in public sector leeches… um, I mean unions… and makes the salient point that it isn’t good.

The money paragraph sounds like something I’ve written a dozen times:
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Wall Street Journal Echoing The Blog”

Andy Stern - Capitalism - Jobs - SEIU - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Chief: Senators Are ‘Terrorists’ For Not Voting With Big Labor

February 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern said that Senators that vote against his ideas are “terrorists.” That’s right, folks, this union chief is saying that any politician that votes against the politically motivated ideas of Big Labor should be branded a “terrorist.”

This is the sort of gutter rhetoric that union thugs specialize in but regardless Stern should be ashamed of himself for bringing the political debate down into that gutter. Scum. Andy Stern is simply scum for using such idiotic and demagogic rhetoric.
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Union Chief: Senators Are ‘Terrorists’ For Not Voting With Big Labor”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Rights - SEIU - Senate - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise

January 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Sherk has a very good post over at the Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry blog about how unions have hurt us all by fighting for tax increases.

Unions almost never go on strike anymore. Instead, they fight to get more for their members by lobbying for tax increases. Unions spent tens of millions of dollars last year campaigning for higher taxes across the country: Illinois. California. Minnesota. Washington State. Arizona. In many cases they have succeeded.

Nearly every day now we are visited with more proof of how public employees unions are a danger to this country and Sherk has shown us yet another example.

Sherk reports that in Oregon the public employees unions spent $700 million dollars to increase taxes on the people of Oregon. The unions wanted higher taxes to protect their undeservedly high salaries and rich benefits while the regular folks of the Beaver State lost jobs, had their pay cut, and were generally finding hard times — like the rest of normal, non-government worker America.

Not only are unions working against the best interests of the voters, but they are also working to allow out-of-control spending and irresponsibility in government to grow.

Unions are not only antithetical to good government, they are dangerous to our individual prosperity.
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Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise”

Barack Obama - Chicago - Cook County - Elections - GOP - Illinois - Jobs - Republicans - SEIU - Tea Party - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Hiding Behind Anti-Tea Party Website

January 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Video king Lee Doren has done some great sleuthing to find out who is behind the newest attack on patriotic America by the left. A site called TheTeaPartyIsOver.org has popped up just as the primaries in Illinois get going. Its goal? To destroy the influence that Tea Party groups might have on the political process.

Turns out the biggest contributor to the group that created the site is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of Obama’s biggest supporters and the union that controls a large number of government employees unions.
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SEIU Hiding Behind Anti-Tea Party Website”

Budget - California - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Pensions - SEIU - State Government - States - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California, Part 2

January 27, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Editor’s note: Some of this I posted earlier this month, but this is an expanded version that was just posted by BigJournalism.com, so I thought I’d go ahead and post it here, too.)

Steven Greenhut has an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California’s budget and economy.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public employees unions that, “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.

Approximately 85% of the state’s 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during his $83 billion budget roll-out, over the past decade pension costs for public employees increased 2,000%. State revenues increased only 24% over the same period. A Schwarzenegger adviser wrote in the San Jose Mercury News in the past few days that, “This year alone, $3 billion was diverted to pension costs from other programs.” There are now more than 15,000 government retirees statewide who receive pensions that exceed $100,000 a year, according to the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.

That is an absurd reality!
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California, Part 2″

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Family - Free Trade - Illinois - Liberals - Oregon - Rights - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike

January 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you Tea Party goers in the western U.S. want a specific battle to fight there is none better than ballot measures 66 and 67 in the State of Oregon. The venerable Beaver State is preparing to chase out even more jobs and intends to tax its industry and small businesses to death with these badly timed measures but Oregonians have a chance to stop them by voting “no” on both 66 and 67.

During the worst national and state-wide economy since The Great Depression, with Oregon families losing jobs in every corner of the state, with businesses going out of business everywhere, the high-minded, left-wing state government has decided in its inestimable wisdom to launch the largest tax hike on the business community and the so-called rich in Oregon’s history. In 2009 over 1$ billion in permanent tax hikes was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski, the drunken sailor that sits in the State House in Salem.
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In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike”

Business - California - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding

January 5, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another example of why unions are antithetical to good government, a pliant, left-wing judge in California has ruled that the Schwarzenegger Administration cannot furlough state workers that belong to three powerful public employees unions.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been battling to cut his over spent state budget for several years now and one of the solutions to the problem that he lit upon was the idea that he might furlough his workforce. He would give these workers a few days a month off without pay and this would save the taxpayer’s millions. It is a good idea and one that real-world businesses are forced to employ all the time when things get tough.

But here come the state unions to prevent this simple cost saving measure even though it is common as dirt in the real-world sector.
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Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Fugedaboutit: Healthcare Bill Not Socialist Enough for This Union

December 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is momentous news, harrowing news if you are a Democrat that wants Obamacare passed at all costs. The powerful and very rich Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is wavering in its until now stated support of Obamacare.

The Hill is reporting that the SEIU just backed out of an event promoting the Senate’s healthcare bill over “concerns” about the changes that have recently been made to get the support of Joe Lieberman and centrist Democrats.

Apparently the SEIU was going to attend a rah-rah session with the AARP, the liberal advocacy group Families USA, Consumers Union and the American Cancer Society Action Network but unexpectedly dumped out of the event on Wednesday.
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Fugedaboutit: Healthcare Bill Not Socialist Enough for This Union”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax

December 12, 2009 by

By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press reports the words of Lily Eskelsen, vice president of the National Education Association, who went to Washington D.C. to protest the so-called Cadillac healthcare plan tax currently in the Senate’s healthcare bill. “We should tax the millionaires, not teachers and bus drivers,” she told reporters.

This has been the constant refrain from Big Unions since Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) included the taxing plan into his Senate version of Obamacare earlier this year. This 40 percent tax plan would kick in for any employee whose healthcare plan reaches $8,500 per year for individuals or $23,000 for families.

Of course, there is a fatal flaw in the Democrat’s assumptions of what this tax will do. As the AP reports, “The tax would raise some $150 billion over 10 years to help pay for the Democrats’ nearly $1 trillion health care bill.”
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Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU’s Calif. Vote Fraud

December 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over the last few months we’ve talked about several instances of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) committing vote fraud in elections for in-home helathcare workers to chose a union. We have also reported on the shaky UHW election in Dec. of 2008. (Here, here, and here) Even with those instances extant we have more SEIU vote fraud to report.

The SEIU is still perpetrating fraudulent elections, intimidating union voters, and trying to strong-arm members into accepting SEIU dominance despite what they may want. Recently the Wall Street Journal had another story detailing the SEIU’s un-democratic actions.

Among other things, the Journal is reporting that SEIU officials working with its sister union, California’s UHW, have been threatening deportation to Hispanic union members that were considering a vote for a new union going by the name National Union of Health Workers (NUHW).
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SEIU’s Calif. Vote Fraud”

Barack Obama - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Speech - Jobs - Liberals - President - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Abusing Members to Force Them to Toe the Line

November 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s called “pink sheeting,” a practice employed by union bosses to bully their membership to vote the “right” way. The practice consists of forcing employees to reveal deeply personal information about themselves — such as abusive relationships, addictions, or legal trouble — so that these items can be used against the employees at a later date to elicit cooperative behavior.

Union members are denouncing the practice of pink sheeting while union chiefs, particularly those of the hotel employees union UNITE HERE, are either denying that they use the method or saying that the practice has been stopped.

More than a dozen organizers said in interviews that they had often been pressured to detail such personal anguish — sometimes under the threat of dismissal from their union positions — and that their supervisors later used the information to press them to comply with their orders.

Naturally, UNITE HERE officials claim this practice doesn’t happen.
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Unions Abusing Members to Force Them to Toe the Line”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Fixing the Vote in Fresno, Too

November 21, 2009 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few weeks ago we reported on how the Services Employees International Union was attempting to fix the vote in Sonoma County, California so that Sonoma’s in-home healthcare workers would end up with SEIU representation instead of NUHW representation.

Well, Sonoma wasn’t an isolated case. The SEIU used the same vote fixing tactics in Fresno County.

Andy Stern’s SEIU is playing hardball, using techniques that harken back to the mob-infested old days in order to win the game of representation. And THIS is the guy that President Obama is taking close counsel from? A goon. A thug. A mob-like hitman.

Its the Chicago Way, alright. From Chicago to Fresno and Sonoma Counties all the way to the White House. This president and his cronies are instituting mob action everywhere they go.
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SEIU Fixing the Vote in Fresno, Too”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thug Attacks Young Boy Scout

November 17, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

**UPDATE** 11/20/09

17-year-old Kevin Anderson wanted to add another Eagle Scout badge to his well-earned collection and so spent some 200 hours over several weeks to clear a walking path along the river in east Allentown park in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Little did young Mr. Anderson know it but he was about to prove once again that unions have a pernicious influence on governments everywhere. After Kevin’s good deed the city’s public employees union went gunning for the poor kid with threats and gyrations meant to shake down the city and scare off any citizen that might dare to imagine that they could perform any act of charity or community service for their fellows without the union getting its piece of the action.

In his best Sopranos impression, the thug president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Nicky Balzano began to issue his threats.

“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano ominously warned the City Council.
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Union Thug Attacks Young Boy Scout”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - California - Chicago - Communism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Speech - Health - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Video - Warner Todd Huston

Union Violates Free Speech, the Right to Vote and Smashes Common American Democracy

November 6, 2009 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There’s not much that union supporters and I can agree upon. But here is one incident where I can wholeheartedly support the aggrieved members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) who have found themselves victims of their own union.

The SEIU wanted to renegotiate a contract with officials of Sonoma County, California for its in-home healthcare workers supported by county funds. SEIU representatives met with and crafted a new contract with the assistance of County officials. This was all done behind closed doors without the general knowledge of or the assistance of the workers themselves.

But that isn’t the main problem here. It’s how the contract was approved that shows how little the SEIU cares for democracy, member’s rights, and the American way.
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Union Violates Free Speech, the Right to Vote and Smashes Common American Democracy”

ACORN - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

ACORN’s Defenders Not Remaining Silent

October 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As we at SayNoToACORN.com are fighting to help inform you about what you can do to impress upon our local and federal officials to distance themselves from ACORN, the other side — those that support the actions of ACORN — are also organizing. This fact proves that we cannot just sit idly by and hope that things go our way. We must act to make sure our politicians listen to us and defund this criminal organization. We must speak because our opponents definitely are.

Once again, Byron York reports on this story and he finds a webpage trying to cajole our lawmakers into increasing ACORN’s federal funding instead of eliminating it. York finds a site called defoxamerica.com that serves to both attack Fox News and advocate for increased funding for ACORN.

With Congress getting ready to pass a continuing resolution that might — or might not — extend the ban on federal funds for ACORN, there’s a new campaign urging lawmakers to restore federal funding for the community organizing group. The website DeFOX America, which is devoted both to attacking Fox News and defending ACORN, is asking readers to sign a petition urging Congress “to stand up to [Fox’s] McCarthyite tactics by voting against any unconstitutional legislation that singles out specific organizations. This includes the continuing resolution that cuts off Federal support to the national anti-poverty group ACORN.”

This webpage is being funded by an extremist, left-wing Hollywood filmmaker named Robert Greenwald.
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ACORN’s Defenders Not Remaining Silent”

ACORN - Barack Obama - Budget - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Any Minute Congress Could Re-Fund ACORN

October 29, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier I noted that we need your voice to keep the pressure on our representatives to keep government funds out of the hands of the criminal organization ACORN. Today Byron York posted another reminder of this salient fact in his headlined, “Will Congress’ Defunding of ACORN Expire Saturday?”

York concludes that it is unlikely that ACORN funding will be restored on Saturday, but the simple fact of the matter is that it could be. Either this Saturday or during the very next budgeting process, ACORN funding can be easily slipped right back into a budget any time Congress feels like it’s safe to do so.

You see, Congress works by writing continuing budget resolutions — or CRs — several times a year. These CRs delineate Congress’ budget and can be added to or subtracted from at each and every session. Currently the defunding of ACORN is an idea whose time has come. But there can easily come a day when Democrats think no one is watching any longer and slip the ACORN funding right back in to any future CR.
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Any Minute Congress Could Re-Fund ACORN”

ACORN - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Why do We Need YOUR Voice Against ACORN? Because Gov’t Cannot Be Trusted!

October 28, 2009 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago I posted a piece with news that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had decided to cut off its association with the Association for Community Activists for Reform Now (ACORN). I also reported that the RIS and several other Federal agencies had stopped their dealings with ACORN, essentially defunding them of federal dollars.

But that was then…

On October 22 Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D, Calif) was sadly successful in getting an amendment passed in the House Financial Services Committee that would allow ACORN to become an official government actor in setting regulations for financial institutions.

You read that right. Rep. Waters thought it would be a great idea to give federal power to an organization that has repeatedly broken multiple state election laws in nearly every state in the union and an organization that has been guilty of covering up the embezzlement nearly five million dollars of its own funds by one of its highest ranking members.
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Why do We Need YOUR Voice Against ACORN? Because Gov’t Cannot Be Trusted!”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Rep. Biggert Introduces Defund ACORN Bill

October 20, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. Representative Judy Biggert (R, Hinsdale, IL) introduced legislation last week intended to prevent misuse of federal housing counseling funds.

“It’s abundantly clear that ACORN and its affiliates cannot be trusted as a federally certified entity,” said Biggert, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. “Given the group’s clear links to illegal and inappropriate activities, how can we knowingly give them federal certification to divert precious resources from legitimate housing counselors working overtime to help struggling homeowners?”

For years federal funds have flowed into ACORN’s coffers for services given to low-income home buyers across the country. These services are intended to counsel low-income buyers on how to go about the mortgage process, to inform them of subsides and government services, and to assist the purchase.
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Illinois Rep. Biggert Introduces Defund ACORN Bill”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Even SEIU Says ACORN is Toxic

October 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In an amusing case of the pot calling the kettle, Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Representative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that the SEIU had dumped ACORN during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee. Apparently Mrs. Burger felt that ACORN was too toxic for the SEIU to associate with.

Certainly it is quite amazing that the SEIU has taken the step to dump ACORN as a vendor. Groups such as SEIU rarely reassess associations preferring to stubbornly stick to their guns in most cases.

During the hearing, Rep. McHenry mentioned to Mrs. Burger that the U.S. Census Bureau, the IRS, and even Bank of America had cut ties with ACORN because of the community organizer’s declining credibility and apparent criminal activities. Burger replied, “SEIU has also cut all ties to ACORN.”
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Even SEIU Says ACORN is Toxic”

ACORN - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Communism - Cook County - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Big Score: Springfield’s Subsidies to ACORN

October 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For a little further information on the cozy relationship between the Illinois State government in Springfield and the troubled Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the sort of corrupt bargain to which we are attempting to bring sunlight, we’ve done a little research into some of the funding distributed from our tax dollars to ACORN. In this case, we have some documents on funds given to ACORN for the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Predatory Lending Database Program (PLD) and related programs.

It isn’t just the taxpayer’s money given to ACORN that is at issue, to be sure. Not only do we see our tax dollars going to this organization that has so often been caught up in instances of criminal voter fraud across the country as well as a $5 million embezzlement controversy, but our state government has allowed this group to help it create government programs and policies, as well.

Why would the state turn to this often times criminal organization to help it create the PLD program? For the answer to that we turn to the 2008 Annual Comprehensive Housing Plan progress report.

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The Big Score: Springfield’s Subsidies to ACORN”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Pledge to Help SEIU ‘Turn The Nation Purple’

October 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want to know how “connected” the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is to the White House, a video of then candidate Obama’s appearance at an SEIU campaign rally event is revealing. Obama revealed his intimate connection to the SEIU (from even before he ran for office) and promised to “turn the nation purple,” in an allusion to the SEIU’s corporate color scheme.

This is how close President Obama is to the SEIU and how engaged SEIU Local 880 is in politics in Illinois.

Join us and Say NO to ACORN.

Sign the petition and tell Governor Quinn that you want a real investigation to end corruption for good.
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Obama’s Pledge to Help SEIU ‘Turn The Nation Purple’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Chicago - Congress - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - President - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Economic Freedom Alliance Targets EFCA

October 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A rather new group called the Economic Freedom Alliance (economicfreedomalliance.org) is now taking on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) by erecting billboards to target five key Democrat congressmen in hopes of getting their constituents to urge them to drop support of the EFCA.

In one section of Illinois, for instance, the billboards say simply “DoNotLetBillFosterKillJobs.com.” Bill Foster is a Democratic Representative from south west of Chicago who now holds the seat that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert once occupied.

Other Democrats that the billboards are targeting elsewhere in the country are Democrat Representatives Debbie Halvorson (Ill.) and Ike Skelton (Missouri), as well as Democratic Senators Evan Bayh (Indiana) and Claire McCaskill (Missouri).
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Economic Freedom Alliance Targets EFCA”

ACORN - Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Illinois - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - SEIU - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Families Forced Into Unions Courtesy of Gov. Quinn

October 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Governor Pat Quinn signed Executive Order number 09-15 earlier in the year. This order gave the state government the OK to hand over the private information — the addresses, names, and telephone numbers — of hundreds of families that have developmentally disabled children and other family members with chronic medical problems in their homes. Many of these people are considered home-based healthcare workers by the state and they receive state aid to help them take care of their disabled family members.

Unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) are salivating to take some of this money out of the pockets of these needy Illinois citizens that only want a little help to take care of family members with major and costly medical problems.

Now, with the signing of EO 09-15, Governor Pat Quinn has given these unions the “in” they need to accost these citizens in their homes or on the phone in order to cajole them into joining their unions. Once these unions get done bothering Illinois citizens in their homes, thanks to being given private addresses by Quinn, they will then begin to reap the reward of millions of dollars in forced dues remittances.

Quinn has also agreed that these unions will get a portion of these citizen’s state aid whether they join a union or not.
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Illinois Families Forced Into Unions Courtesy of Gov. Quinn”

ACORN - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Capitol Fax Smacks Candidate Kelly Around

October 4, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax politics blog is one of the best Illinois political blogs out there… so, there, I said that right upfront. But I found Miller’s recent posting on the admittedly quixotic candidacy of William Kelly, well, a bit quixotic in itself, if only on one small point.

Last Wednesday, Capitol Fax found itself a bit confused by Mr. Kelly’s tactics for his campaign for Illinois Comptroller. Kelly, you see, has made a point to repeatedly go after current State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias as a way to gain public attention for his own race for Comptroller.

Mr. Kelly did an ambush styled video where he was following Giannoulias, a current Democratic Party candidate for Senate, down a hallway asking the State Treasurer why he’d be seeking and accepting an endorsement from the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU), a group that is hip-deep with the criminal organization ACORN.
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Capitol Fax Smacks Candidate Kelly Around”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Health - Illinois - Liberals - President - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Join Me, Illinois, to SAY NO to ACORN!

October 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

Illinois is a bankrupt state, yet our accidental Governor Pat Quinn is handing over millions of state dollars to ACORN/SEIU and any other union that wants to put its hand out. Join me and Americans For Prosperity to Say NO to ACORN.com.
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Join Me, Illinois, to SAY NO to ACORN!”