What is being Said

Michelle Malkin

Reports: Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson to oppose radical SEIU appointee; Update: SEIU e-mail coordination

I filled you in last October on Craig Becker, the radical SEIU lawyer whom President Obama nominated for a slot on the National Labor Relations Board.

Well, in the wake of his abominable health care takeover sellout, beleaguered Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson is reportedly joining the GOP opposition to Becker. The Massachusetts Miracle increases the chances of torpedoing Becker's nomination.

Via The Hill:

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson (D) on Monday announced he would oppose Craig Becker's nomination to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) -- a move that could ultimately scuttle Becker's confirmation indefinitely.

Senate Democratic leaders needed the help of their entire 59-vote caucus, plus one Republican defector, to invoke cloture this Tuesday on Becker's nomination, which has awaited a full Senate vote since the summer of 2009. But Nelson's decision to oppose the White House's top candidate for the job seriously threatens those plans, as it now appears Democrats will not have the votes they need to proceed as intended this week.

Nelson outlined his objections to Becker's nomination in a statement issued late Monday, stressing he felt the former AFL-CIO lawyer would "take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the Administration."

"This is of great concern, considering that the Board's main responsibility is to resolve labor disputes with an even and impartial hand," Nelson added. "In addition, the nominee's statements fly in the face of Nebraska's Right to Work laws, which have been credited in part with our excellent business climate that has attracted employers and many good jobs to Nebraska. Considering these matters, I will oppose the upcoming cloture motion and the nomination." ...

... Continue commentary ...

Stop The ACLU

SEIU's Calif. Vote Fraud

Excerpt

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.

http://www.publiusforum.com/2009/11/06/union-violates-free-speech-the-right-to-vote-and-smashes-common-american-democracy/

http://www.publiusforum.com/2009/11/21/seiu-fixing-the-vote-in-fresno-too/

http://www.publiusforum.com/2008/12/17/seiu-again-accused-of-fixing-vote/

...

Hot Air

HCAN: Insurance offices now "crime scenes"

If anyone doubted that the pressure to pass ObamaCare comes from people openly hostile to insurers and who want to use a public option to put them out of business, look no further than the activists at Health Care for America Now (HCAN). The lobbyist-funded Astroturfers took their protests to the headquarters of health insurers Monday, including UnitedHealth Group of Minnetonka, MN, where they declared insurance offices to be "crime scenes" and blocked the doors. The numbers may be small, but the insurers are backpedaling nonetheless:

" ... The six people in Monday's protest were blocking the doors to the Minnetonka headquarters of insurer UnitedHealth Group.

On Tuesday, thousands rallied in California in front of Anthem Blue Cross offices in cities from San Francisco down the coast to San Diego.

The Health Care for America Now group is organizing similar protests in front of offices of major private health insurance companies to officially declare them a crime scene.

Health Care for America Now is making a strong push for federal healthcare reform legislation to include the so-called public option, which would add government-supported medical insurance into the mix available for the currently uninsured. ..."

Six people? That would be six whole people, right? Actually, those were just the demonstrators who got arrested, but it still only drew 110 people:

...

[...]

Hyscience

Obama payoff to unions: Puts union strings on federal jobs

Obama's blatant payoff for the millions of campaign cash they gave him:

Delivering on President Obama's promise to boost the labor movement, the administration has announced a $35 million federal construction project in New Hampshire that requires union representation for the workers and forces nonunion employees to pay dues and contribute to a union pension fund.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/07/obama-puts-union-strings-on-job-center/

[...]

Stop The ACLU

Obama's Stimulus for Unions

Stimulating the economy isn't nearly as important to President Obama as putting federal dollars into the pockets of his union cronies. Because of Obama's PLA Executive Order, thousands of jobs are going to unions in states that have few union members.

The Washington Times, for instance, reports that Obama has grandiosely given a $35 million federal construction project to New Hampshire. But there are strings attached, strings that pull federal pay levers for the exclusive benefit of unions.

In February Obama signed Executive Order 13202 that demanded that project labor agreements be forced on every federal construction project. ...

[...]

Big Government

Labor Union Executive Arrested on Bribery Charges

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Edward W. Rodzwicz, President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, was arrested on a federal complaint charging him with bribery, Acting U.S. Attorney Michael W. Reap announced today.

Rodzwicz is the sitting President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a national labor union with over 55,000 members consisting of railroad employees throughout the United States. It is a division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).

According to the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, the BLET maintains a list of designated legal counsel (DLC), who are recommended to their membership to handle injury cases under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). Designation as a DLC generates very lucrative business for designated attorneys. The National President of the BLET has final authority over the designation of FELA attorneys. In February 2009, an internal compliance committee recommended that a particular DLC attorney for the BLET should lose his designation, due to alleged violations of DLC Rules of Conduct. On March 10, 2009, Rodzwicz approached that attorney in Little Rock, Ark., and solicited a payment from that attorney in exchange for allowing him to retain his DLC designation. The DLC attorney contacted the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General. In subsequent meetings at the attorney's office in St. Louis, and at Harrah's Casino, Las Vegas, Rodzwicz solicited and agreed to accept a cash payment of $10,000 from the attorney, plus the promise of an additional cash payment of $10,000 after Rodzwicz allowed him to retain his designation. Rodzwicz accepted a cash payment from the attorney on April 28, 2009, in Las Vegas, and he sent a letter allowing the attorney to retain his designation on May 1, 2009. He accepted a second cash payment of $10,000 from the attorney on Sept. 16, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo.

The complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Missouri last week and remained suppressed until the arrest of Mr. Rodzwicz this morning by agents with the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, at his home in Avon, Ohio.

Daniel R. Petrole, Acting Inspector General, U.S. Department of Labor, stated: "Union members expect that their officials will do what is right on their behalf. If these allegations are proven, there has been a serious breach of the union members' trust. My agency will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate this type of crime."

Rodzwicz, 63, was charged with one violation of 18 U.S.C. section 666, bribery in connection with a federally funded program; and one violation of 18 U.S.C. section 1952, interstate travel to carry on unlawful activity. He made his initial appearance this afternoon in Cleveland.

If convicted, 18 U.S.C. section 666 carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000; 18 U.S.C. section 1952 carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000.

The charges set forth in a complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

YID With LID

Obama's Brown Shirts Continue To Attack Dissent

"Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. If the means achieves the end then the means is good.........the new Ministry has no other aim than to unite the nation behind the ideal of the national revolution." Joseph Goebbels

President Obama is a bully, he doesn't like being questioned or crossed. Like most of the bullying kind, if you disagree with him he will go after you with personal attacks full guns blaring. Just look at some examples of the people who have crossed the President and got smack down by the Bully-in-Chief or his agents:

* Sean Hannity

* Joe the Plumber

* Rush Limbaugh

* Bob Basso, the guy who made those Tom Paine videos.

* All Talk Radio

* Gay bloggers

* Right wing bloggers

* Glen Beck

* Insurance Companies

* Fox News

Michelle Malkin

Radical SEIU lawyer's NLRB nomination clears Senate committee

In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, he explained that traditional notions of democracy should not apply in union elections. He wrote that employers should be barred from attending NLRB hearings about elections, and from challenging election results even amid evidence of union misconduct. He believes elections should be removed from work sites and held on "neutral grounds," or via mail ballots. Employers should also be barred from "placing observers at the polls to challenge ballots."

More extraordinary, Mr. Becker advocated a new "body of campaign rules" that would severely limit the ability of employers to argue against unionization. He argued that any meeting a company holds that involves a "captive audience" ought to be grounds for overturning an election. If a company wants to distribute leaflets that oppose the union, for example, Mr. Becker said it must allow union access to its private property to do the same.

Mr. Becker isn't clear about which of these rules can be implemented by NLRB fiat, and which would require an act of Congress, but his mindset is clear enough. He's willing to push NLRB discretion as far as possible to tilt today's labor rules in favor of easier unionization.

Union leaders argue that they need these rule changes because they are at a disadvantage during elections. But a new report from the Bureau of National Affairs shows unions winning 67% of private ballot representation elections conducted by the NLRB in 2008, the highest rate since BNA began analyzing data in 1984. Meanwhile, 95% of all elections are conducted within 56 days of a union petition filing, with a median of 38 days. This suggests that the real union problem is that most workers don't want a union election in the first place. Employees are well aware of what has happened to the steel, auto and other heavily unionized industries.

Soucre Watch

The following major advocacy and union groups are among HCAN's members

* ACORN

* AFSCME, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees

* American Nurses Association

* Americans United for Change

* Brave New Films

* Campaign for America's Future

* Campus Progress Action

* Center for American Progress Action Fund

* Center for Community Change

* Center for Science in the Public Interest

* Children's Defense Fund Action Council

* Commonweal Institute

* CREDO Mobile, formerly Working Assets

* Healthcare United

* Human Rights Campaign

* Jobs With Justice

* MoveOn

* NAACP

* National Alliance on Mental Illness

* National Consumers League

* National Council of La Raza

* National Education Association

* National Women's Law Center

* Planned Parenthood Federation of America

* Progressive Action Network

* Progressive States Network

* Service Employees International Union, SEIU

* True Majority

* United Food and Commercial Workers, UFCW

* USAction

* USPIRG