SEIU « Healthcare Horserace

Did Obama Seriously Say ‘All Wee-Weed Up’?

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

You would likely be hard-pressed to find a historian of the executive office who would claim that a single president in this nation’s history ever used the phrase ‘wee-weed up’ before. Well, add that to the list of firsts for President Barack Obama. In fact, judging by the amused and hamstrung looks around the web, he may have been the first person EVER to use the phrase. As far as conservatives are concerned, Ronald Reagan’s title as the ‘Great Communicator’ appears to be safe.

On Thursday afternoon, the president held a live online conference call with his personal civilian army, Organizing for America (OFA), and union hit-men, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), in which he laid out the liberal strategy and message within the health care reform debate going forward into September. He was joined by Virginia Governor and Chairman of the DNC Tim Kaine, Representative for the 20^th Congressional District of Florida Debbie Wasserman Schultz, OFA Political Director Addisu Demissie, OFA Deputy Director Jeremy Bird, and OFA Director Mitch Stewart.

In spite of falling poll numbers, including the latest from left-leaning Zogby who places the presidential approval rating at a dismal forty-five percent, the lowest found by any pollster, the president assured his followers that the media was ‘once again’ writing him off too early. “All Washington said ‘Oh, it’s over,’ hand-wringing angst,” he said referring to the first state to hold a 2008 Democratic nominating contest, which saw him capture a come-from-behind win. He later took a swipe at former-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, paralleling the media frenzy over her nomination as Republican opponent John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election to what is going on now. “The media was obsessed with it, cable was 24 hours a day,” said Obama, “’Obama’s lost his mojo,’ you remember all that?” The president said, “There’s something about August going into September where everyone in Washington gets all ‘wee-weed’ up.”

Sorry … umm, what? ‘All wee-weed up,’ you said? What does that even mean? Wow, Obama seriously needs to stick to his security blanket – his script or his beloved teleprompter – because as soon as he is off it, he comes off as a complete rube. Scratch that. There are rubes that make more sense then he did right there. And how naïve or perhaps just plain inane of Obama to compare August last year when he was a relative unknown to August now where everybody in the world knows who he is? McQ at Right Wing News correctly points out that for the first time since … well, ever President Obama can truthfully say that ‘this isn’t about me.’ Yes, Mr. President, you are right. It is far more then just you and the American people know it.

Tags: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC, Florida, OFA, Organizing for America, President Barack Obama, Right Wing News, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, Tim Kaine, Virginia, Zogby
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

‘Dropping’ of Public-Option Draws Ire of Far-Left Blogosphere

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

All of Sunday, the political blogosphere was alight with activity stemming from the titillating rumor circulating around the Washington Beltway that the White House was willing to drop public-option from President Obama’s health care reform proposal. The Drudge Report accompanied the headline with an image of a white flag. Politico led off with the caption, “White House has backedway.” Others, particularly those on the right, aren’t so convinced. Conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin are skeptical, believing this not to be a retreat by the Obama administration, but rather a “trial balloon [in which] to measure the potential nutroots backlash versus the potential Senate pick-ups.”

In terms of a ‘potential nutroots backlash’ from the far-left side of the political blogosphere, the results so far have to be less then encouraging for the White House. Doug Ross @ Journal examined one blog in particular, America Blog, which seemed to suggest the fight over health care reform was either public-option or bust.

Contributor Joe Sudbay had these words to say:

“I don’t understand why Democrats are always so willing and desperate to compromise with themselves. The GOPers don’t want any reform bill. Their base, comprised of the teabaggers, birthers and deathers, won’t let them negotiate. So, Democrats compromise with themselves, again — and sell out their principles, again. Just like they did on the stimulus package - they gave the GOP nearly 40% of the package in tax cuts, and how many votes did it get them in the entire Congress? Three”

Ahem, excuse me? The ‘Democrats’ are the ones who are “always so willing and desperate to compromise with themselves?” Surely he must be joking. No, he isn’t … but you can still call him Shirley if you like. But in all seriousness how could Joe Sudbay have written this statement with a straight face? So far in the health care debate this summer we have seen the White House tell supporters of the president’s health care proposal – in particular ACORN and SEIU – to ‘punch back twice as hard’ against tea party protestors, progressive Democrats threaten a leading moderate Democrat in the health care reform fight with losing his chairmanship if he didn’t stop talking to Congressional Republicans, and the Democratic leadership forcing moderate ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats to submit to their rule. That’s always compromising?

But wait, the comment section for the article is even better. Jimfromthefoothills writes, “Remember, we are going to rebuild every school, bridge and road in the country. We will fix healthcare. We will restore the constitution, end illegal wars [and] reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses.” … and then we shall rule the world! Umm, if people like Joe Sudbay say that we shouldn’t listen to uneducated conservative Southern bumpkins then why should we listen to the same kind only on the left? Jim returns later in the comment section to insult Obama, referring to him as ‘Choco-Bush.’ And to think some people believed racism existed only on the right side of the political spectrum.

Jersey asks, “Can we convince Howard Dean to run against Obama in 2012?” Jim returns yet again to add, “Dean\Krugman, Reich\Waters, ANYBODY BUT OBAMA.”

Chairman of the progressive Democracy for America, Jim Dean, chimed in with an e-mail sent to supporters on Monday, August 17^th,which told them to “fight any effort to remove a government-run health insurance plan in place of non-profit ‘cooperatives’.” He goes on to suggest that “insider Democrats and the insurance industry are behind the effort to kill a government-run plan.” You mean the same “private insurers and the for-profit health care industry” that donated more to the president and his party “than even Republicans, with the president taking $19 million in the 2008 election cycle alone, more than all his Repubican, Democratic and independent rivals combined?” That same industry?

Tags: ACORN, America Blog, birther, Blue Dog, Blue Dog Democrats, Congress, Congressional Republicans, Democracy for America, Drudge Report, GOP, headline, Howard Dean, Jim Dean, Michelle Malkin, Politico, private insurance, public-option, SEIU, white house
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

Are You, Or Have You Ever Been, a Member of the Tea Party Coalition?

Monday, August 17th, 2009

This past Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC seemed just like a scene taken right out of the height of the McCarthy-era, only this time the Democrats were not targeting Communists – yes, the majority of the Congressional politicians gung-ho about hunting Communists throughout the United States were Democrats, Southern Democrats but Democrats nonetheless – but members of the Tea Party Patriots Coalition.

The video below, provided by Newsbusters, shows far-left wing-nut Rachel Maddow and moderator David Gregory hounding Dick Armey, head of Freedom Works, as to whether or not he and his organization belonged to the Tea Party Coalition, a group Maddow alleges promotes violence.

A transcript of the exchange is also included:

DAVID GREGORY: So you repudiate the Nazi imagery and all of that: you repudiate that?

DICK ARMEY: Absolutely.

GREGORY: That has no place in the debate?

ARMEY: As I said, I repudiated it when MoveOn.org did it to George Bush. Did anybody here at this table repudiate it?

RACHEL MADDOW: You’re a member of the –

ARMEY: We’ve just heard that it’s all right when MoveOn.org did it.

MADDOW: That’s not true.

ARMEY: But it’s not alright when anybody does it.

MADDOW: The Tea Party Patriots is an organization that your organization is a member of a coalition with. It’s called the Tea Party Patriots Health Care Freedom Coalition Partner. That’s what Freedom Works is, that’s what Americans For Prosperity is. Tea Party Patriots, what they’ve got on their front page of their web site, the top item, is a video showing the violence at the town hall in Ybor City, in Tampa, Florida. Essentially promoting that as if that was a good thing that happened, that showed what the Health Care Freedom Coalition wants to happen in that debate. Freedom Works is part of that coalition. You can say that you denounce it but the organization that you head is part of it.

ARMEY: One of the fascinating things about the Tea Party movement is that it is an enormously impressive grassroots uprising across the country, loosely affiliated people. And there’s probably 100, 200 websites by different people.

MADDOW: Are you a member of the Tea Party Patriots Health Care Freedom Coalition?

ARMEY: I’m a member of Freedom Works, and Freedom Works works with many people who fight for and argue on behalf of individual liberty.

Notice how Maddow pressured Armey to repudiate the use of Nazi-imagery at town hall events across the country. And then how he turns it on its head back toward her, only for her to dodge the claim entirely. It’s unfortunate though that Armey didn’t bring up the coincidental fact that Nazi-imagery health care town hall meetings only began to surface and be picked up by the mainstream media AFTER Nancy Pelosi made the outlandish claim that tea party protestors brandished “swastikas and symbols like that.” Not Armey’s fault; the man barely had time to breathe. But Maddow’s a Rhodes scholar, right? Either she can’t make the connections that a two-year-old probably could, or, more likely, she simply refuses to accept the fact that Democrats are behind this ‘sudden’ emergence of Nazi-propaganda at town hall events, as has been extensively covered here at Healthcare Horserace.

And what video taken from the Rep. Castor town hall event in Tampa Bay, Florida is Maddow watching? Did she simply make up on in her head to suit her liberal agenda? If anything, the videos that are available, in addition to interviews with individuals who were at the event, suggest that SEIU, not the tea party protestors, caused the violence.

At least if it ever comes down to hearings, tea party protestors will retain the dignity and not plead the fifth.

Tags: Americans for Prosperity, David Gregory, Dick Armey, Florida, Freedomworks, Meet the Press, Nancy Pelosi, Nazi, NBC, newsbusters, Rachel Maddow, SEIU, swastika, Tea Party Patriots, Town hall, town hall meetings
Posted in Eye on the Media | 1 Comment »

Town Hall Diaries Part 7: The Obama Plants Need Watering

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Political opportunist Senator Arlen Specter held a town hall event in the rural western Pennsylvania town of Kittanning on Thursday, August 13th. This was the now-Democratic senator’s fourth town hall meeting in three days.

Griff Jenkins, a FOX News correspondent who was covering the health care forum for On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, said that about a thousand people filled the parking lot where the event was being held, but only two hundred were actually able to make it inside.

Still, passions on both sides of the debate clashed – not violently, but quite loudly – out in the parking lot before the meeting began. Flopping Aces pointed out a woman who was in favor of the president’s public-option health care proposal holding a sign that said, “Yelling is Counter Productive!” And yet, if you watch the video below, you will notice the woman shouting several times, including chants of “Health care now!” Hmm, hypocrites? Nah!

That woman was just one individual out of three busloads of ACORN/Union drones brought in from the inner city to intimidate local residents and create the faux appearance of support for President Obama’s health care legislation in rural America. Healthcare for America Now, a front organization for rich liberal like George Soros, organized and paid for the thugs to be bused in.

Thankfully, very few of them, if any at all, were able to actually make it into the location of the town hall meeting. A commenter named Judy over at Greta Wire had this to say:

“Acorn supplied 2 bus full of protestors but they arrived too late to be admitted into the meeting. Many of us here in Western PA were privy to the automated calls and emails telling supporters to arrive at 1pm (for a 3pm town hall!!) We all showed up at 11-noon and beat them to the punch. BTW the acorn buses pulled into the lot precisely at 1pm.”

And here is a video of the crowd in the parking lot shouting “Don’t Come Back!” as the buses full of the ACORN drones leave:

In St. Louis, the local Missouri ACORN organization held a ‘massive’ rally on Friday, August 14th, in the University City Loop, which is conveniently located near both Senator Claire McCaskill’s office and the St. Louis HQ for SEIU. But, despite the proximity to both Democratic-based locations, the turnout was (to say the least) underwhelming. Sharp Elbows StL has provided the video clip below as well as bit more extensive coverage of the event on their website.

President Obama’s own personal civilian army – volunteers for Organizing for America – were outside a town hall event in Ohio for Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. An interviewer asked these volunteers, mainly college students or recent graduates, direct questions about the president’s public option health care proposal. Their responses are vastly disappointing in that it demonstrates how little these paid volunteers (there’s an oxymoron if you ever heard one) know about the legislation they are advocating for.

Tags: ACORN, Arlen Specter, Fox News, George Soros, Greta Van Susteren, HCAN, Healthcare for America Now, Missouri, Ohio, On the Record, Organizing for America, Pennsylvania, SEIU, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Sherrod Brown, St. Louis, Town hall
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

Obamacare Supporters Align to Combat Conservative Coalition-Building

Friday, August 14th, 2009

According to a post this week in Politico, supporters of President Obama’s plans to create a government overhaul of the health care industry have joined to fight the media and grassroots success of conservative coalitions in efforts to redirect public opinion of liberal reform proposals.

The group, known as Americans for Stable Quality Care, plans to drop more than $12 million in media buys during the remainder of August recess. The advertising campaign began Thursday at 11 a.m., with targeted states that include Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Virginia.

Americans for Stable Quality Care attempts to counter the Health Care Freedom Coalition, a free market-inspired group of powerful conservative organizations, including Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Prosperity, American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, 60 Plus, Medical Society of the District of Columbia, among more than 60 others.

Americans for Stable Quality Care is funded largely by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a group that vowed to spend $150 million from their own coffers to promote Obamacare. It is no surprise that PhRMA serves as the head of this coalition, as the successful passage of sweeping health care legislation would mean their monopoly on the pharmaceutical market in America.

Some of the other member organizations are:

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- The SEIU is the only labor union given a coveted seat at the bargaining table in the health care reform debate. With liabilities in excess of $1.5 billion and a dwindling account of only $1 billion assets, the SEIU desperately needs Obamacare to pass to ease up their financial concerns and retain members. They have been one of the most powerful voices on the Left in advocating health care reform, conducting rallies, crashing conservative events, blogging, etc.
American Medical Association (AMA)
- Despite their early, vocal disapproval of President Obama’s health care reform proposals, the AMA submitted to the White House and Congressional Democrats and began supporting their proposals. According to Kathryn Serkes of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), it was in exchange for a few extra dollars in Medicare reimbursements, even though President Obama ignored their calls for tort reform as a part of health care legislation. The AMA represents a small, diminishing number of doctors, with many leaving the professional organization due to their positions on political issues.
FamiliesUSA
- FamiliesUSA is a self-described “progressive American non-profit consumer health-care advocacy organization” that focuses on grassroots activism, lobbying the Hill and financial development to promote liberal health care agenda. Their new Web site, Stand up for Health Care, includes a blog and activist mobilization page, recruiting new supporters for their cause. FamiliesUSA is certainly an arm of the liberal movement, touting affiliations with powerful Democrats in Congress, including Sen. Chris Dodd, who just so happens to act as ranking member of the Senate’s HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee and who has been instrumental in the development of health care reform legislation.

Federation of American Hospitals

The Federation of American Hospitals, representing 1,700 medical institutions in the U.S., spent 71 percent of its campaign contributions in 2008 to support Democrats. Strangely enough, the group is headed by Chip Kahn, one of the masterminds behind the defeat of Hillarycare in 1993.

Politico reports that member organizations understand the necessity of working together to fight the conservative push:

The official provides a little more backstory: ‘These groups were part of a looser coalition that started back in January that focused on the links between health reform and the economy. Now that the debate is turning on what health reform means for the individual, they felt the need to launch a new front that addresses some of those particulars while debunking some of the myths that are floating around. Plus, these groups recognize that their collective voice packs more punch than if they were to just speak out individually.’

Here is the advertisement with which they will blitz the airwaves:

Tags: AMA, American Medical Association, Americans for Stable Quality Care, Americans for Tax Reform, Chip Kahn, Ellen Carmichael, FamiliesUSA, Health Care Freedom Coalition, PhRMA, SEIU, Service Employees International Union
Posted in The Players | Start the Discussion

Desperate Democratic Senator in Maryland: Still Trying to get His Party to His Rally

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) is holding a rally in Maryland, and the greatest fear? There will be more Tea Party Patriots there trying to make a point then his own Democrats. As last ditch efforts, e-mail blasts have been sent through. ACORN and SEIU are sponsoring this rally tonight, August 10, 2009. Desperation to get people out in Maryland, a blue state, in support of Obamacare is a sure sign that things are going down hill for the bill. Violence breaking out all over the nation from Louisville to Florida, also tells us that things are not looking good. Desperation is getting heavy in the air. Below is a copy of the Original Emails from the orginial one to the email blasts.

—– Original Message —–
From: Penny McCrimmon
To: Penny McCrimmon
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 9:56 AM
Subject: FW: More Info: Senator Cardin’s Health Care Town Hall Meeting- Tea Baggers

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew I could count on my fabulous Obama volunteers. Here is the information you requested. Also, from the most influential Political Club in the State, the Central Baltimore County Democratic Club (CBCDC), they’ve stepped up to the challenge and are sponsoring a pre-meeting rally.

A Republican Friend (who says the Republicans just don’t get it) told me that the few Republican Legislators that we have in the State are sponsoring the “Tea-Baggers” by paying for their transportation to this event. I’m resending my initial email. Click the link below to RSVP to Senator Cardin’s Office. They need to know how many will attend. Also, first come, first seated.

Senator Benjamin Cardin’s Town Hall Meeting on Health Care
Monday, August 10, 2009, 7 pm
Harold Kaplan Concert Hall
Cross Campus and Osler Drives
Towson, MD

The Central Baltimore County Democratic Club will hold a pre meeting Rally at 5:30 pm
Harold Kaplan Concert Hall
Co-sponsors are the following Unions: SEIU, AFL-CIO, MSTA, UFCW. Progressive Maryland and ACORN are also sponsors.

Penny McCrimmon

————–

From: Penny McCrimmon?Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 12:16 PM?To: Penny McCrimmon ?Subject: FW: Senator Cardin’s Health Care Town Hall Meeting- Tea Baggers

We need to get the Obama volunteers to attend Senator Cardin’s Health Care Town Hall Meeting. If you’ve been watching the news, you’re aware that the “Tea Baggers” have been sabotaging Democratic Congressional Town Hall Meetings on President Obama’s Health Care reform meetings. We need to be a visible presence at this event to support the President’s agenda in the same manner that we worked to get him elected. All of the necessary contact info is provided herein.

Penny McCrimmon

From: Ward?Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:27 AM?To: Penny McCrimmon?Subject: Fwd: Health Care Town Hall Meeting with U S Senator Ben Cardin

I would not miss this! How about you? The YD’s might want to be there too??Ward
??—–Original Message—–?From: Kim Tucker, AFL-CIO?To: Kim Tucker, AFL-CIO?Sent: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 2:53 pm?Subject: Health Care Town Hall Meeting with U S Senator Ben Cardin

Below is the information for Sen. Ben Cardin’s Town Hall Meeting on Health Care,
this Monday, August 10th in Towson.

Sen. Cardin’s office has been notified that the “teabaggers” and “birthers” will
be holding a rally outside the concert hall at 5:30 PM. They will then file
into the Town Hall Meeting.

They have asked us to send people that support health care reform to counter the
ones who will try to disrupt the meeting. Please let your staff, members,
friends, family all know and encourage them to attend. They can RSVP to:

RSVP - sean_mckew@cardin.senate.gov

Thank you!

Denise

Denise Riley
Political Director
Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO

________________________________________

From: Jerome_Stephens@cardin.senate.gov
To: Denise Riley
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2009 12:30:48 -0400
Subject: Health Care Town Hall Meeting with U S Senator Ben Cardin

Please share with your network

As Congress considers health care reform, Senator Cardin has been traveling
around the state speaking to Marylanders about the legislation. In August, he
will hold town hall meetings in Towson. If you plan to attend, please RSVP.
Space is limited at the venue. In accordance with fire regulations, when the
venue is full, there will be no standing room available.

Monday, August 10th - 7 p.m.
Towson University Center for the Arts
Harold J. Kaplan Concert Hall
Corner of Cross Campus and Osler Drives
Towson, MD 21204

Parking is available across the street from the Center for the Arts
on Auburn Drive off Osler Drive on Lot 13.

RSVP - sean_mckew@cardin.senate.gov

Rev. Jerome Stephens
Statewide Field Representative
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin
http://cardin.senate.gov

=0
D

Message Sent By:
Kim Tucker, Administrative Assistant
Maryland State & D.C. AFL-CIO
opeiu2,aflcio

Tags: ACORN, Ben Cardin, Maryland, Obamacare, SEIU, Tea Party Patriots
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

Exclusive Interview with Injured Tampa Town Hall Protestor, Randy Arthur

Monday, August 10th, 2009

As was reported late Thursday evening, Representative for the 11^th Congressional District of Florida Kathy Castor (Democrat) hastily attached herself to a town hall event conducted – in conjunction with the local SEIU organization, of course – by Florida House of Representative member, Betty Reed. This was done so as to reduce opposition voices. However, even with the eleventh house nature of the announcement, at least a thousand people managed to show up to the meeting held at the Children’s Board of Hillsbourough County in downtown Tampa Bay, Florida.

Two of those individuals were Randy and Kathy Arthur from Oldsmar, a city in Pinellas County, Florida. “I am not an activist,” Mr. Arthur assured Healthcare Horserace. He is merely an American business owner who, like so many others like him across the country, did not want the federal government encroaching on another aspect of American life. He had heard about these organized protests against ObamaCare in the news, but beyond that he hadn’t given them much thought. After tuning into a local AM radio station that made mention of the town hall event, he and his wife drove to Tampa “simply to see what these organized protests were about,” having never participated in one before. Contrary to what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said about these ‘tea party’ protests being fake, orchestrated by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, Mr. Arthur said as far as he could tell when he arrived these were “strictly people who cared about what was going on.” They were not plants or zombies.

Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur, in addition to several hundred other Floridians, would not be able to get into the room where the meeting was being held. As a precaution just in case news of the town hall meeting did manage to get around to enough opponents of the president’s health care proposal, SEIU organizers staged the event at a location with limited seating – 250 seats to be exact. As Frank Derfler reported, when the doors to the town hall meeting opened at 5:55pm Eastern Standard Time, those who had actually stood waiting in line to get in discovered that the “first three rows of seating [were] ALREADY filled with pro-government Healthcare pro-Obama supporters.”

Mr. Arthur, a newspaper rolled up in his right hand, having read it while he waited, was just ten feet away from the doors that led right into the room where the town hall event was to be conducted. It was expected that the doors would be left open so those caught in the no-man’s land of the atrium could hear the speakers. People in the entry way began to chant, “Hear our voice” and “You work for us!” Suddenly, Mr. Arthur said, several individuals – men who wore plain clothes and were clearly not police or security – started to push people back in order to shut the doors.

The crowd quickly noticed that the men were moving to close the doors and so they stood in the archway to prevent this. Mr. Arthur was one of these individuals, covering the left door. After people had been pushed back and the right door was successfully shit, three men made their way to the other. Mr. Arthur, having said and done nothing other then keep the door open, was pushed against the wall and called names by the three men. He noticed that on the man who had torn his knit shirt and left scratch marks on his upper chest an identification badge with the individual’s name and the SEIU logo.

When later Mr. Arthur talked with the local police about filing a report on the incident, he was informed by the police officer that if he did so then he would be arrested. He filed the reported anyway, but was never arrested.

Randy Arthur left the building, the rolled up newspaper he was carrying still in his right hand. A bit sore and down a shirt, but overall content with himself. The next day he went about running his air condition business as if it were any other day.

Tags: Betty Reed, Democrat, Florida, Frank Derfler, Harry Reid, headline, healthcare, Obamacare, Oldsmar, Randy Arthur, Representative Kathy Castor, SEIU, Tampa Bay, Tea Party, Town hall
Posted in Horserace | Start the Discussion

White House Forced to Play Defense, Vow to “Punch Back Twice as Hard”

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Two anonymous Obama Administration (Emanuel Bros. & Co.) insiders reported to FOX News today that Democratic lawmakers on the Hill attended a closed-door meeting with top White House officials this week to ingrain on-point messaging and teach them how to respond to opposition at ever-controversial town hall meetings.

White House officials told those present that if there were any efforts to oppose Democratic leaders for their support of President Obama’s health care reform proposals, which would create a sweeping government overhaul of the health care industry, the Administration would retaliate.

White House aides David Axelrod and Jim Messina traveled to the Capitol for their presentation to Democratic senators. Senators saw videos of disruptions at events held by House members, and were told to organize their events more carefully as well as work with labor unions and other friendly groups to generate enthusiasm.

They also were urged to use these events to stress insurance reforms such as a limit on out-of-pocket expenses for those covered by insurance, a ban on coverage cancellation for the seriously ill and protections for small businesses.

Messina, the deputy White House chief of staff, also said any advertising attack would be met with a bigger response, these officials said.

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,” Messina told senators, according to two people in the room.

One can only wonder how they plan to “punch back twice as hard.” The Obama Administration has made it clear that they have no problem using taxpayer-funded resources to persuade, rather than inform, the public of his agenda. After all, an advisory was released straight from whitehouse.gov, the official website of the American presidency, that urged supporters to submit any “fishy” “disinformation” disseminated by those who oppose the President’s agenda.

It is apparent that the White House is aware their numbers are sinking. Here are a few Rasmussen Reports that offer a whole lot of bad news for Emanuel Bros. & Co.:

71 percent of Americans believe that President Obama’s policies have added to the deficit, while only 5 percent say the deficit is down due to President Obama’s policies.
54 percent of Americans favor a middle class tax cut over new spending for health care reform (34 percent would prefer health care reforms).
48 percent (up from 29 percent a year ago) rate private American health care systems as “excellent” or “good,” while only 19 percent rate it as “poor.”

With their numbers plummeting and town hall meetings overflowing with opposition to Democratic proposals, it is wise for the Administration to do a bit of framing and messaging:

White House aides distributed briefing materials explaining to senators the points Obama is stressing, as well as how to answer commonly asked questions.

Democrats are also trying to attack their opposition from the outside, with the AFL-CIO (yet another union) to join the ranks of moveon.org, SEIU and Organizing for America to mobilize their supporters to crash meetings and counter anti-Obamacare groups.

Tags: AFL CIO, Barack Obama, fishy email, Fox News, MoveOn.org, Obamacare, Organizing for America, public-option, Rahm Emanuel, Rasmussen, SEIU, socialized medicine, Town hall, universal health care, universal healthcare, white house
Posted in The Players | Start the Discussion

Breaking News: SEIU, Rep. Castor Call Last Minute Town Hall, Protestors Clash

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Hundreds of agitated Floridian citizens opposed to President Obama’s plan to have the federal government take over the health care industry in the United States clashed with SEIU and ACORN drones at a town hall event announced at the last minute by Florida State Representative Betty Reed and Representative for the 11^th Congressional District of Florida Kathy Castor; both of them Democrats.

Doors to the event, held at the Children’s Board of Hillsbourough County in downtown Tampa, opened a little before 6pm Eastern Standard Time. Frank’s Posterous, which was live-blogging the town hall meeting, posted at 5:55pm EST that the “first three rows of seating ALREADY filled with pro-government Healthcare pro-Obama supporters. Also, signs posted in support of Govt Healthcare. Chant of ‘Not Fair’ fill the lobby. Lots of anger.”

This of course contradicts the accusations of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic leadership in Washington that those opposed to the president’s legislation are the one ‘astro-turfing’ the tea party protests at these town hall meetings. Hello, Pot, I’d like you to meet Kettle!

If knowing that pro-Obamacare drones were given front-row seats in advance of the hundreds of people who actually stood in line for the event was enough to convince you this whole meeting was sham, Frank’s Posterous blogged at 6:05pm, “The attendees see that the ‘Program’ for the meeting is clearly labeled as sponsored by SEIU.” To view the leaflet handed out to promote the event, click the image in the upper left hand corner of this article.

As for the actual meeting itself, Frank Derfler, who also operates Frank’s Posterous, had this to say on 10 Connects.com, a website for a Tampa Bay News station:

“The bottom line is that Rep Castor did NOT want to have an interaction with the community.. I was there inside the room.. I listened… IF she had started with some reason and logic, she would have had respectful silence. But, she was there to deliver the administration’s talking points so people from row 4 on back.. (the 1st 3 rows being loaded with union members and supporters) almost immediately tuned her out and began to protest the poor weak message she carried. If you want respect, you need to earn respect. People wanted to be heard, not receive a “talking points” lecture”

Representative Castor apparently left the meeting without ever taking a single question from the crowd. So much for promoting open dialogue!

Be sure to check out the video below that was taken in the parking lot at the location for the event. It stars the ever so courteous SEIU thugs telling opponents to Obama’s health care proposal that they “can’t even read” – because they are backwoods Southern hicks.

Tags: ACORN, Betty Reed, Florida, Frank Derfler, Harry Reid, headline, health care, healthcare, Obamacare, Representative Kathy Castor, SEIU, Tampa Bay, Town hall
Posted in Horserace | 1 Comment »

Noisy Desperation: A Panicked SEIU Clings to Failing Health Care Platform

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Members of ACORN and SEIU rally in Baton Rouge, La. to support President Obama's health care reforms, but are interrupted by counter-protestors from local Tea Party organizations.

Henry David Thoreau once claimed that most men lead lives of “quiet desperation.” James Thurber, an American writer many years after Thoreau, countered his sentiment by explaining, “Nowadays, men lead lives of noisy desperation.”

If either statement could accurately characterize the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), it must be the latter. While America’s policy-makers and interests groups gather inside the Beltway to shape health care reform legislation, the SEIU gears up its muscle and influence to cling to their only remaining hope- a government overhaul of health care.

Clinging Desperately to Universal Health Care

Why is the SEIU in favor of President Obama’s health care reform proposals, if other allies in the labor community, such as the United Autoworkers (UAW), oppose it? Why would the SEIU favor the public option, if their biggest membership driver is the ability of union bosses to “negotiate” benefits packages, including health care and pensions, for its workers?

Brian Johnson, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Worker Freedom, has the answer: desperation.

“The SEIU, unlike other organized labor, did not develop carefully-negotiated pension arrangements for their members,” Johnson said. “They’re dealing with the inability to pay out their pensions, since they’ve got liabilities of $1.5 billion and they only have around $1 billion in the bank. This means they’re $500 million in the hole.”

If they can’t get the public option passed, Johnson argues, they will have nothing to keep their members on the rolls. After all, the SEIU has spent millions to encourage the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or Card Check, a measure that would require a public vote on the unionization of a work place. The result? Nothing.

After the waste of millions of dollars of members’ dues on the failed Card Check push, it is becoming increasingly difficult for leadership of the SEIU to justify spending more money on political action without any results for the people who pay them. That’s why, Johnson says, they need universal health care.

“This is their absolute last chance to bring something to their members,” he explained. “After they’ve spent so much time and money putting President Obama into office, it makes sense that they’d want something in return. And if they don’t get it, their members will be fed up and will start to leave organized labor.”

The American Thinker points out that in addition to needing a substantial credibility boost, the SEIU benefits from having a partnership with the White House on health care reform for the purposes of sheer numbers.

Eighty-three percent of the hospital workforce is yet to be unionized. Going state by state, hospital by hospital, or politician by politician is time-consuming and expensive. It’s easier to call on your partner, President Obama, to pass health care reform. Once the federal government is paying all the bills, one of the new reforms could easily be that all health care workers will now be represented by a service employees union.

Obviously, as the SEIU fights to keep its head above water financially, drawing in new members would, in the short run at least, alleviate some of the financial headaches they face. Pair their diminishing sphere of influence of unions overall, with a mere 8 percent of private employees unionized and 33 percent in the public sector, with the necessity of delivering results to their members, and you’ve got a recipe for an utter dependency on a public option passing.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures (and a Lot of Them)

As the SEIU struggles to formulate an explanation for its members as to what they’ve been up to with all their money all these years, they are busy covering their tracks with some clever maneuvering on both policy and grassroots levels. Indeed, it is apparent that the SEIU is unsure as to how to direct their dwindling cash supply, but they’ve managed to sneak in behind the scenes to shape policy and rile up members to protest (as usual) in the streets of towns across America.

Inside the Beltway, one man is guaranteeing the SEIU will be allowed an unflinching place at the policy table. That man is Dennis Rivera, the 17-year leader of New York City’s 1199 SEIU and the chairman of the union’s national health care division. According to an article published in Crain’s New York, Rivera has been hard at work mobilizing activists on the ground and inserting union influence legislatively on behalf of the SEIU.

Dennis Rivera, the indomitable labor leader, was on Capitol Hill in late June to persuade members of a powerful House committee to include a public insurance option in its massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system

Crain’s New York explains that Rivera’s unique ability to build bridges between workers and those they normally oppose, such as corporations, has made him an invaluable resource for both the Obama Administration and the union he represents.

One part of Mr. Rivera’s considerable influence derives from the close ties that he and the SEIU have with the White House. SEIU’s February 2008 endorsement of the president is viewed as one of the turning points in his primary battle against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and Mr. Rivera’s former political director at 1199, Patrick Gaspard, now heads Mr. Obama’s political operation.

“To some degree, Dennis is an independent actor, and to some degree, he’s working for the White House,” says David Nexon, senior executive vice president of the medical technology association. “That played into making the process a success and people wanting to get involved. It’s not too great to be on the wrong side.

Rivera previously served as a union organizer in his home country of Puerto Rico. He brought his techniques to America, according to Johnson, and was able to turn out 30,000 SEIU supporters in the streets of New York City. Now, Rivera enjoys a $10 million budget and a war room with a staff of more than 400, all courtesy of union members’ dues, to target lawmakers in the health care reform debate. Johnson considers Rivera to be “another union goon” who has used bully tactics, and millions of dollars from membership coffers, to advance a political agenda.

President Obama asked America to judge him based on those with whom he surrounds himself. Clearly, he is working with Rivera to advance health care policy that is quite friendly to his allies at the SEIU. Johnson believes that this sort of partnership helps to disguise the fact that the SEIU’s pensions are extremely underfunded, with 1 out of every 160 retired union members unable to cash out what is owed to them in their pension.

The SEIU continues to use their favorite method of persuasion- public protesting- to make their members feel as though they are part of a team effort. During Organizing for America events, created as an offshoot of the Obama campaign and funded by the Democratic National Committee to promote the President’s agenda, the SEIU and ACORN rally side-by-side, decked in their famous purple shirts and displaying the hostility they are known to exhibit. Moreover, they have begun hosting meetings in members’ homes to plan activism and view Obama’s speeches on health care reform.

Then, there’s all the new media activity that only a month ago seemed to transmit virally through the Internet, and now, remains a faint murmur in online buzz. HAARM, or Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine, was an attempt by the SEIU to parody the Right for their opposition to health care reform. They even went as far as to criticize healthcarehorserace.com, as well as groups like Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party Patriots. The site, along with the accompanying Twitter page, has been rather quiet lately, which causes many to wonder if their attempt at modernizing their approach for mainstream appeal proved fruitless.

And of course, they didn’t throw out their favorite tried-and-true “event crashing” tricks, as Brian Johnson can attest. At a meeting he scheduled on the Hill on behalf of the Alliance for Worker Freedom with around 100 elected officials, their staffs and representatives from business organizations, Johnson was interrupted by three uninvited guests from the SEIU.

When Johnson told them calmly that the meeting was an invitation-only event, they told him that they had received the invitation… from their (union) boss at the SEIU. Apparently, someone leaked the invitation to SEIU leadership and they sent out three members to watch over and participate in the meeting.

After Johnson told the SEIU members again they were not invited and should leave, they proceeded to sit down anyway. Johnson gave them one final warning and they didn’t budge. He called Capitol Hill Police, who then escorted them out of the building.

It is important to note that Johnson appeared the day before on the Glenn Beck Show (FOX News Channel) discussing Rivera and the SEIU’s role in the health care debate. It is unsurprising that they chose to force themselves into his meeting the next day after he spent the segment discussing the utter neglect of the SEIU to provide for their members and their re-prioritizing based on political expediency.

Today, the SEIU released a statement on their blog, lamenting they deserved to be at the meeting as it concerned labor relations and they were members of organized labor. The blog does not admit, however, that it was an invitation-only meeting and the SEIU was not on the guest list. If the roles were reversed, it is hard to believe that the SEIU would be even the least bit sympathetic to someone like Johnson if he decided to offer his professional input in their discussions on labor policy.

After the Noise

If President Obama’s attempt at liberal health care reform fails, what will be next for the SEIU? Will they return to pushing Card Check again, or will they take a back seat to other large, better organized unions? Will the 2 million members of SEIU revolt and demand their dues be returned to them for the failure of leadership to deliver upon any of the promises they made and the diminishing of their pensions? If this legislation fails, it might just not be President Obama’s Waterloo. It might be the SEIU’s, too.

Tags: Alliance for Worker Freedom, American Thinker, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Brian Johnson, Dennis Rivera, Ellen Carmichael, HAARM, headline, hospitals, Obamacare, public-option, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, socialized medicine, Tea Party Patriots, universal health care, universal healthcare, Waterloo
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