Service Employees International Union

ACORN Faces Further Legal Woes

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is facing even more legal troubles. ACORN, a longtime ally of President Obama and an outspoken proponent of his health care agenda, is now under further investigation by Louisiana’s Attorney General Buddy Caldwell for embezzlement totaling $5 million.

Although ACORN originally claimed that they had only fraudulently obtained $1 million, an internal review by the board of directors indicates otherwise, determining that “the amount allegedly embezzeled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the amount previously reported,” according to WWL, New Orleans-based television and radio stations. The prosecutor’s new figure was reported in a subpoena he filed last week.

This is only the latest setback faced by ACORN, who just weeks ago offered legal and tax advice to undercover reporters who pretended to seek counsel on developing a brothel for several underage immigrants. Since this discovery, in addition to reports released that prove the community organizing group owed millions of dollars in backed taxes, the group has halted its operations indefinitely. There were also accusations of voter registration fraud and intimidation by opponents during the 2008 election.

ACORN was undoubtedly an asset to President Obama’s campaign and has remained an integral player in their grassroots mobilization of activists during the health care reform debate. The organization is led by a board that includes far Leftist John Podesta, who runs Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). ACORN, who claims to be a nonprofit, has been the beneficiary of $58 million of taxpayer money in two decades. Congress has since voted to cut off their federal funding and many states, including Louisiana, have followed suit.

Tags: ACORN, Andrew Stern, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Buddy Caldwell, Center for American Progress, John Podesta, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, WWL
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BREAKING NEWS: ACORN Halts Operations

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

According a breaking news report from Andrew Breitbart (via @NewsFifty), whose site originally exposed ACORN’s attempts at providing legal counsel to a “prostitution ring,” ACORN has decided to suspend its operations due to “indefensible” behavior by employees at chapters around the U.S. The group, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is currently under investigation by many states, including Louisiana and New York, for their questionable behavior and according to the Breitbart report, have begun to execute “an independent review to see what happened.”

ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement that she was “ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review.”

Lewis concedes that this sort of illegal activity is only conducted by “a handful of employees,” ignoring the years-long speculation of inappropriate behavior from government watchdog groups and conservative political analysts, such as John Fund and Michelle Malkin.

The U.S. Senate, who since 1989 had been supplying grants to ACORN totaling $53 million, voted 85-7 to end federal funding for the non-profit. The bill, HR 3228, was proposed by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE), with 14 co-sponsors (all Republican). This measure comes after months of pressure from Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) who proposed legislation cutting off ACORN’s access to federal coffers as early as February 3, 2009. ACORN is headquartered nationally in Sen. Vitter’s hometown of New Orleans.

Those who voted against ending federal subsidy for ACORN (six Democrats and one Independent) include:

Sen. Burris (D-IL)
Sen. Casey (D-PA)
Sen. Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen. Leahy (D-VT)
Sen. Sanders (I-VT)
Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI)

Yet another bill passed to permanently end federal funding for ACORN. HR 2996 passed Thursday, September 17, 2009. In the Senate, the vote was 85-11. In the House, the vote was 345-45. Check out how the votes were cast here.

The U.S. Census Bureau, now controlled by the Obama Administration, severed ties to ACORN just in time for their 2010 survey, citing the conduct of ACORN employees as a deterrent for citizens becoming involved in the electoral process and damaging to the credibility of the census. The letter came just days after two young people, acting as a prostitute and pimp, discovered that ACORN was willing to give them advice as to how they could circumvent criminal and tax law to maintain a child prostitution ring. Additionally, ACORN has been under-fire for months now, first for committing voter registration fraud and later, for their refusal to pay millions of dollars in backed taxes.

Americans shouldn’t be too quick to feel relief at the suspension of ACORN activities. Their council, who will establish an independent review board to scrutinize their operations, is made up of liberal allies from special interests deeply invested in the Democratic Party. The most influential of these include John Podesta of the leftist group, Center for American Progress and Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), an organization who has for years partnered with ACORN on political activism.

In addition, she said, “ACORN’s independent Advisory Council will help select an independent auditor/reviewer no later than September 18th to review all of the systems and processes called into question by the videos.”

In early 2009, ACORN set up an independent Advisory Council to help put together a new management team under Lewis. Lewis was appointed to the job in the fall of 2008 after disclosure of a set of improper management decisions by the founder of the organization.

The Advisory Council includes John Podesta, president of the liberal Center for American Progress; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland; Andrew Stern, international president of Service Employees International Union; Henry Cisneros, a former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; John Banks, vice president of Government Relations Con Ed; and Eric Eve, senior vice president of Global Consumer Group, Community Relations, of Citigroup.

Tags: ACORN, Add new tag, Andrew Breitbart, Andrew Stern, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Bertha Lewis, Census Bureau, Center for American Progress, David Vitter, Ellen Carmichael, John Fund, John Podesta, Michelle Malkin, Mike Johanns, Service Employees International Union
Posted in The Players | Start the Discussion

Oh, How Sweet It Is… to be David Axelrod

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

In the cruel world of American politics, a dutiful staffer will toil long into the night mulling over phone banking lists and reviewing profiles of high-power donors. He exchanges his personal life for 6 a.m. conference calls and his car becomes a billboard in transit. His diet consists of stale coffee and an endless supply of nicotine. An unenviable existence, to say the least, but one that is endured in hopes of seeing his boss declared victorious on election night and of seizing the resulting opportunities that lay ahead.

For David Axelrod, those opportunities were beyond imagine. As Barack Obama’s top campaign adviser, Axelrod carefully formulated the strategy and framing that ultimately earned the far Left U.S. Senator from Illinois the Democratic Party’s nomination and eventually, the White House. Such a feat was to be rewarded even more handsomely than previous campaign managers, who typically cram themselves into strategic, though often unwelcome, roles in the new administration.

President Obama bestowed upon Axelrod the title of “Senior Adviser” for his fledgling administration. After all, the president certainly made no secret of his plans to fill the White House with his Chicago-based allies. Axelrod joined the ranks of Windy City natives, such as then-Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who later became the White House Chief of Staff, and his brother, Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel, who was tasked with crafting health care reform legislation for the Administration. As if hanging out with his hometown buddies wasn’t enough of an incentive, Axelrod was encouraged by his national agenda-setting role and a $200,000 annual salary.

Despite all the perks of living a politico’s dream of further expanding his sphere of influence, Axelrod appeared dissatisfied by the substantial pay cut of shifting from the private to public service sector. According to a November 2008 Politico report, the political strategist’s firm collected more than $35 million in profits since 1998 for their extensive lobbying and consulting work, $2.5 million of which came from Obama’s presidential campaign, and Axelrod would be forced to decide whether to take a leadership role in the most liberal White House in American history, or to stick with his firm in Chicago.

Luckily for David Axelrod, he never actually had to make that choice. Axelrod began his work in the White House, but did not entirely abandon his booming consulting company. Certainly, this seems like a bit of a dilemma of ethics, with one man receiving a taxpayer-funded salary, while also maintaining private sector-based income in the same field. But in typical Obama Administration fashion, this sort of moral conundrum would not deter the President’s senior adviser, who sought to capitalize on the country’s current hot button issue: health care reform.

While Axelrod worked behind the scenes to craft policy that would lead to a government overhaul of the medical industry, his firm in Chicago lobbied special interest groups to earn massive media contracts that would help dictate political discourse during the debate. According to an August 19, 2009 Associated Press report, President Obama’s efforts to push his health care reform agenda have created a “financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected” to the President and Axelrod.

These coalition groups are currently running “at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads” with the help of GMMB, a consulting group led by a “top Obama campaign strategist” and AKPD Message and Media, the firm owned by none other than David Axelrod. Michael Axelrod, David’s son, now manages the day-to-day affairs of his father’s AKPD Message and Media, aided in part by his employee, David Plouffe, Obama’s presidential campaign manager.

One of their biggest clients, Americans for Stable Quality Care, is comprised of political and financial heavyweights like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Medical Association (AMA), FamiliesUSA and PhRMA, the last promising to pony up $150 million to promote the President’s health care reform agenda.

While the Associated Press concedes that there is “no evidence that Axelrod directly profited from the group’s ads,” they also admit that he will draw $2 million from the firm over the next four years. The larger issue, Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, contends, is a “network of relationships and overlapping interests” that could become a “problem as Obama tries to win the public over on health care and fulfill his promise to change the way Washington works.”

Indeed, candidate Obama repeatedly condemned such “inside baseball” dealings, lamenting that this sort of behavior leads to the American people distrusting lawmakers to govern responsibly. Even if Axelrod is not, as he claims, directly profiting from these contracts, is it not political patronage for his firm, and really, his son, to enjoy profitable deals with longtime Obama cohorts, like the SEIU?

And even despite attempts of both David Axelrod and AKPD to distance themselves from each other, AKDP and GMBB, a partner firm in the health care reform media blitz, both “proudly proclaim their connections to Obama on their Web sites.”

AKPD has a full page on Axelrod that includes pictures of Obama. In one photo, Obama hugs Plouffe on election night.

“We are deeply honored to have been part of Barack Obama’s historic campaign to change America and the world,” GMMB says on its Web site. GMMB’s partners include Jim Margolis, a senior strategist for Obama’s presidential campaign.

Fox News reports that leading lobbying law expert Kenneth Gross is not at all shocked by this relationship, finding it to be only natural for such a profitable favor to be given to AKPD and GMMB.

“To victor go the spoils. The health care message is very much like a campaign message and it’s not surprising they would use the same vendor that knows the substance of the administration’s issues,” Gross said.

It seems that the two consulting groups have even more explaining to do, as it is apparent they have profited tremendously from David Axelrod’s political affiliations on a national level (Associated Press).

Both GMMB and AKPD also have worked for Democrats this year. The Democratic National Committee paid AKPD at least $106,000 for polling, media production, communication consulting and travel costs from February through April. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid GMMB roughly $75,000 from February through June for ads. And GMMB took in at least $9,000 this year from Senate leader Reid’s political action committee for communications consulting.

Republicans argue that such patronage is deplorable and should serve as a cause for alarm for the American people (Fox News).

But House Republicans insist PhRMA had a hand in hiring the firms — and continue to question the motives of both the drug lobby and the White House.

“Out of all the firms Pharma could choose to do their media work, they chose David Axelrod’s firm, which still maintains Axelrod’s son on the payroll and owes Axelrod himself $2 million,” House Republican Conference spokesman Mike Lloyd wrote in an e-mail.

“It’s hard to believe the public can be assured that David Axelrod isn’t influenced by any of this in the course of the health care debate. For an administration that promised ‘change’ and to be above even an appearance of impropriety this does not even come close to passing the smell test,” Lloyd wrote.

When President Obama proclaimed that he wanted to bring about “change,” what he really meant was that he wanted more of the same, just with liberals at the helm. He got his wish with David Axelrod.

Tags: AKDP, AMA, American Medical Association, Americans for Stable Quality Care, Associated Press, David Axelrod, Ellen Carmichael, FamiliesUSA, Fox News, GMMB, health care reform, House Republicans, Kenneth Gross, lobbying, Michael Lloyd, PhRMA, Politico, Rahm Emanuel, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, Sheila Krumholz
Posted in The Players | 1 Comment »

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

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
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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
Posted in The Players | 5 Comments »

Money Race: What Stalling a Vote Means for Special Interests in the Health Care Debate

Friday, July 24th, 2009

It is no secret that the political engine is fueled by money. Special interests range from corporations to professional organizations to activism groups to unions to wealthy individuals, all desiring to use their financial prowess to leave a lasting impact on American public policy.

And according to an article in today’s Washington Post, the ongoing health care debate is no different. Kick-started by President Obama’s recent push to pass his proposed legislation through as quickly as possible, the horse race heated up. But not long after, it came to a screeching halt when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced Thursday that he would not seek to fulfill President Obama’s request to have sweeping health care reform legislation passed by Congress’s August recess, but instead, stall until after their vacation.

What does that mean for special interests? Well, it’s time for them to pull out their pocketbooks and pony up. On both the Left and the Right, power players have come forward to dole out millions in contributions to their side of the debate. Here are just a few of the groups we at HCHR believe have made their mark on the health care debate in their respective political communities:

On the Left

Organizing for America (a project of the Democratic National Committee [DNC])
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Health Care for America Now (HCAN)

On the Right

Americans for Prosperity
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

While Congress is in recess, Americans can be sure that special interests will just be gearing up in the form of heavy media saturation, grassroots activism and round-the-clock policy research. While a Congressional recess means an opportunity for elected officials to meet with their constituencies, it also means an opportunity for special interests to meet with them, too, and ultimately, to persuade them to vote the way they believe America’s health care system should run.

Tags: Americans for Prosperity, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Congress, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, Democratic National Committee, DNC, Ellen Carmichael, HCAN, Health Care for America Now, Obama, Obamacare, Organizing for America, President Obama, public-option, recess, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, socialized medicine, universal health care, universal healthcare, Washington Post
Posted in Miscellaneous, The Players | Start the Discussion

America’s Playground Bully Who Never Grew Up: SEIU Launches “HAARM” Parody Campaign

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

The forever-Left Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recently launched its HAARM parody campaign in efforts to combat the increasing success of the center-right movement in educating and mobilizing Americans to take a stand against socialized medicine.

HAARM, which stands for “Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine,” is a web site devoted entirely to mocking conservative allies representing policy, citizen activism and elected leadership who have joined forces to block Obamacare and offer their own free market solutions for reform. No conservative is safe from their wrath. In a single site, the bullies over at the SEIU attempt to belittle the opinions of those with whom they disagree, whether they are radio show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, policy giants like Rick Scott or any of the hundreds of thousands of Tea Party participants. The last is the most ironic, as the SEIU mobilizes through protests, though considerably smaller, similar to those of the Tea Party Patriots. Also different: the Tea Party Patriots have never been accused of getting violent, unlike the Service Employees International Union.

The site features several staged performances of what they believe occurs inside the center-right movement, indicating that the folks at the SEIU believe themselves to be more clever than they actually are. It is apparent that the labor union feels that they’ve forced the Right into a political and intellectual checkmate by ridiculing those who oppose them. Instead of having an open and honest debate about the premises of and consequences of Obamacare, the SEIU portrays their opponents in the most typical of GOP stereotypes- either ignorant and simple or evil and heartless.

And like any good storybook bully, the SEIU’s behavior says more about them than about their victims, as they attempt to mask their own failures and inadequacies that render them unable to “play nice” with others.

The only ally of the unions is other unions (and Democrats indebted to them for their financial support and man power). And to make matters worse for organized labor, their numbers are dropping, ultimately diminishing their sphere of influence and resulting in their apparent financial struggles that put the pensions of their members in peril (which makes one wonder why they likely paid actors for several produced videos for HAARM).

And on top of that, the SEIU is probably realizing that the Left is losing steam in the fight for socialized medicine. They know that most people consider organizations like theirs and the proposed Obamacare as too radical for the everyday American.

If anything, HAARM should prove to liberty and free market-minded individuals that the successes of the center-right are steadily mounting and their efforts are working. While the Right is busy forming its coalitions of policy experts, elected officials and citizen activism groups, the Left is scrambling to throw together enough half-truths and platitudes to solidify their movement.

According to Brian Johnson, MPA, the Executive Director of the Alliance for Worker Freedom, this is a typical trick of the SEIU- shift the focus to no longer be about issues, but instead, about pettiness.

“SEIU’s launch of HAARM is not at all surprising for those of us who understand how they operate,” Johnson explained. “Instead of relying upon the facts to promote an honest and open debate, they have resorted to personal attacks in attempts to distract from the weakness of their argument.”

Jessica Kutch of the SEIU asserts that even though the HAARM videos are staged, the SEIU understands fully what goes on in the “anti-health care reform” movement.

Take opponents of health care reform; they’re spending millions of dollars on TV ads that call the President’s plan “socialism,” “rationing,” and “a government takeover.” It sort of makes you wonder - where do these people come up with this stuff?

The SEIU attempts to portray any opposition as intellectual dwarfs enjoying their romps with delusion. And HAARM is nothing more than America’s bully taking it to the World Wide Web. Their pathetic attempt at comedy signals that they are, in fact, wrong on the issues, failing at the art of persuasion and finally are starting to realize that Americans just aren’t buying it.

Update (7/5/09): The SEIU’s HAARM program (@haarm_org) has decided to start following Healthcare Horserace on Twitter (@hc_horserace). Their first “Tweet” about us? They linked to this article with the words “These ppl sound AWFUL!” in front. We look forward to communicating with them via Twitter and hope they continue to repost our articles. Perhaps their members will enjoy hearing the truth.

Tags: Alliance for Worker Freedom, Brian Johnson, Democrats, Ellen Carmichael, HAARM, Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine, Jessica Kutch, labor unions, left, Obamacare, organized labor, public-option, SEIU, Service Employees International Union, Tea Party Patriots, universal health care
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Articles Tagged ‘Service Employees International Union’