Primary Weasel -Joe Klein, or Billy Jack Does America!

Joe Klein knows Billy Jack. The real guy who made what is arguably and probably the first PC Movie. It was about an Irish -looking American Indian (Native American) dude who went all martial arts on Rednecks and Bikers in order to save Hippies and the Red Folks. Joe Klein is a Billy Jack Journalist - he kicks everyone he don't like. Hell, Joe hangs out! Picks up kicking tips and protects Hippies and Red Folks. Kick them rednecks!

http://www.billyjack.com/

Remember that idiotic song, One Tin-Soldier? Jesus, my filings hurt every time I hear that! There is a very special place in Hell for every person associated with that song.

Catholics are always good kicking targets:

"I do believe there's something weird a few of our colleagues have [against Clinton]," he said. "They tend to be Roman Catholics, actually. People like Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd. They've had it in for Bill and Hillary Clinton since Monica Lewinsky. They feel that the Clintons are trying to put one over on us all the time."

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/03/03/klein-alter-and-lowry-on-anti-hillary-bias

Well, for elites like Joe Klein, Catholics never belonged here in the first place, unless they were needed to dig ditches, trim-lawns, hump steel and provide political aptitude for Progressive Cupcakes. Nuance.

It seems that after getting out of the elite Hackley School and University of Pennsylvania ( the official school of SEIU Leadership), Joe wrote for Rolling Stone and got close to Tom Laughlin - Billy Jack his own Bad Self.

Joe Klein out-ed the Clinton's with his Roman a clef Primary Colors as self--absorbed power vampires and made a killing by cashing-in trust and professionalism. Get cozy and trusted and betray that trust. Nuance.

The Nuanced are the Elitists who insult people and get rewarded. Joe Klein makes much money. Joe Klein talks down from that pile of dough.

Joe Klein offers all of us, in his Rolling Stoneish -Time piece, his sober Redneck kick on Redneck America in a dutiful slap as part of the Palin Pile On.

I wrote that Palin's America--white folks, small towns, traditional values--was a Republican fantasy, a vestige of Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" hornswoggle in the 1980s.

Yep, you did Joe. Those are the bullies picking on Hippies and Red Folks outside of the feed store and around the Hippie School.

Americans are hornswoggled folks.

Real America is much different from, and more interesting than, that white-bread fantasy, a problem the Republican Party--the party of immigrant bashing--will be wrestling with for the immediate future. And it brings to mind a conversation I overheard, and can't get out of my mind, between two educated Iranians at a North Tehran party last month. Both had attended university in the U.S. One had recently returned from the States, the other hadn't been back here in 15 years. "You wouldn't recognize the place," the recent returnee said. "They don't have any Americans left."

I was in Real America last night and woke up in real America this morning and work ( Leo High School: All Black Male Catholic High School supported by Old White Catholic Guys)at the corner of 79th and Sangamon Streets, when I finish banging this out.

Last night I picked up my daughter Clare, Kara Donleavy, and Maddie Braun from cheerleading at St. Rita High School and got there early as always. I watched the St. Rita Varsity Football for twenty minutes with a white City Worker from St. Dennis Parish ( 83rd & Lawndale) who is required to live in the City limits and has five years left to meet his pension and later chatted with young Mike Crutchley a 36 year old African American CTA bus supervisor, at the barns on Archer Ave. and Pershing Road, who is a Chicago public school graduate and sends his daughters to Catholic Schools so that they will learn something and become successful. He wishes there were more Charter Schools. Catholic Schools cost a lung. The guy from St. Dennis sent three boys to St. Rita and three girls to McAuley -God bless him. Mike the CTA Superviser wondered 'how did he do that?' Mike knows. It was a rhetorical question posed by an American.

Mike's Daughter Casey and my daughter Clare are lifters in the same 'toss the smallest girl' contingent. The girl getting launched is a Mexican beauty named Isabella. All three girls will attend Mother McAuley -Irish American, African American and Mexican American. They work as team.

That is Real America.

Hey, Billy Joe, they pay you for your thoughts?

Ain't this country great?

Klein graduated from the Hackley School and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in American civilization. In 1969, Klein began reporting for the Essex County Newspapers, and The Peabody Times in Massachusetts In 1972, he reported for Boston's WGBH, and until 1974 he was also the news editor for The Real Paper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a contributing editor for Rolling Stone from 1975 to 1980, and Washington bureau chief from 1975 to 1977.[1] He became friends with actor-director Tom Laughlin after interviewing him for Rolling Stone and appeared briefly as a reporter in Laughlin's 1977 film Billy Jack Goes to Washington.

Klein published Woody Guthrie: A Life in 1980 and Payback: Five Marines After Vietnam in 1984. He was a political columnist for New York from 1987 to 1992 where he won the Peter Kihss Award for reporting on the 1989 race for Mayor of New York. In May 1992 he joined Newsweek and wrote the column "Public Lives", which won a National Headliner Award in 1994. Newsweek also won a National Magazine Award for their coverage of Bill Clinton's 1992 victory. From 1992 to 1996 he was also a consultant for CBS News, providing commentary.[1]

'Crazy Legs' Quinn Side Steps Madigan's Tax-Guard and Waltzes into a Hay-Maker!

Governor Pat Quinn is a lovely man. Speaker Mike Madigan is probably a lovely guy as well. Mike Madigan is as easy to pin down, publicly and privately, as it is the very last olive oil coated snow pea on a huge plate with a dinner fork, while thirty formally dressed celebrities ask you questions about quantum mechanics while being taped by the crew of 60 Minutes for their Christmas Special.

The difference being that Pat Quinn has made a career of crafting a public persona as a guy who cuts his own lawn with an ancient Sears Craftsman 18 in. Cut Path Reel Mower, Hand Pushed, like the one he used twenty years ago against George Ryan, who hired guys to cut his lawn; and Mike Madigan, could care less what I, the Sun Times editorial board, PETA, Pope Benedict XVI, Perez Hilton, Rev. James Meeks, Carol Marin, WTTW, or the cast Blue Man Group think of him.

Mike Madigan is the Packey McFarland* of politics. Muhammad Ali once called Chicago welter-weight Packey McFarland the greatest boxer who never one a championship.

Pat Quinn is ballromm dancer in the ring with Packey McFarland, the king of the Stockyards.

Tim Novak, the only real investigative writer at the Sun Times wrote this on July 4th:

The governor spent two hours Friday -- a holiday for most state workers -- discussing the state's $9 billion deficit with state Sen. James Meeks, who backs the tax hike. Their meeting came one day after Quinn met with 27 female legislators.

The governor says he plans to sit down with more lawmakers in the coming days.

"I have a number of other legislators -- Democrat and Republican, House and Senate -- I will be meeting with over the next few days,'' Quinn told reporters. "We believe in consensus-building.''

The Senate approved a tax-hike proposal in May, but it failed in the House.

Madigan won't support Quinn's income-tax increase without support from Republican legislators, leaving the state without a budget, which could force drastic cuts in social service programs across Illinois.

Quinn didn't blame Madigan for the stalemate over the state's budget crisis. But Meeks did.

"I do not think the governor is the problem,'' said Meeks, who is also pastor of Salem Baptist Church, which has one of the biggest congregations in Illinois.

"I ain't scared to call the speaker out -- he ain't my daddy,'' Meeks said. "If the speaker wanted this solved, it would be solved. For whatever reason, he doesn't want to work this out. Pat Quinn is trying to do everything he can to save social services.''

Meeks accused Madigan of playing politics by refusing to pass the income-tax increase without support from Republican legislators.

"That's a political decision, not based on what's right and wrong,'' Meeks said. "I think the Democrats bear the burden here because we're in leadership. We can pass any bill.''

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said "the speaker is attempting to work cooperatively with the governor. The speaker supports a tax increase, but it's going to have to be a bipartisan effort. He [Meeks] ought to focus his efforts on Republicans.''

Political observers say they think Madigan is using the state budget crisis to politically weaken Quinn, who plans to run for election next year. One of Quinn's opponents in the Democratic primary could be Madigan's daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. She is also mulling a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Roland Burris.

Progress Illinois, SEIU's web comic book, uses Tim Novak's piece as a Madigan smear offering; however, it appears that the SEIU goon tactics in Springfield over the last few weeks have become tiresome to legislators as well as tax-payers.

Governor Quinn might try to 'side-step' Mike Madigan, but he will have canvass all over his back, when he hears the end of the Ten Count. Governor Pat Quinn has danced to SEIU's and Rev. James 'Someone Else's Money' Meeks hornpipes and Mike Madigan is a balanced hitter.

The more the media try to explain the motives of Mike Madigan, the more Pat Quinn will step into a Madigan Hay-Maker.

*

During his entire career, Packey engaged in 104 bouts and lost just the one. He never forgot the loss and as he moved up in competition, placed caution first and preferred to outbox his man with shiftiness and speed rather than try to put him out and risk getting caught by a lucky punch. For the remainder of his career, he was floored only twice – by Ray Bronson and “Cyclone” Johnny Thompson.

Packey grew up in a tough section of Chicago (“back of the stock yards”) and learned early on to use his fists to take care of himself in fights on the street and in the handball courts. During his first year in the ring (1904), at fifteen years of age, Packey lost the only fights he would ever lose. Harry Gilmore Jr. noticed him in 1906 and guided him to some impressive wins over Billy Finucane, Fred Gilmore, Young Morris, and Jack Fox and, in 1907, wins over Steve Kinsey, Joe Galligan, Kid Goodman, Maurice Sayers, Charlie Neary, and Benny Yanger. Another win over Goodman and victories over Kid Herman (newspaper) and Bert Keyes earned him a match with Freddie Welsh, the unbeaten Britisher.

Packey gained a decision over Welsh in ten rounds at Milwaukee on February 21, 1908 and followed this great win by defeating Jimmy Britt in six rounds at Colma on April 11, 1908.

When accusations of favoritism surfaced after the first McFarland-Welsh bout, fans clamoured for a rematch. A second bout with Welsh was held on July 4, 1908 at Los Angeles. It ended in a draw after twenty-five rounds. Welsh showed himself very clever and skillful at close quarters while McFarland was better at a distance.

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Lodge/6525/Article-PackeyMcFarland.htm

Governor Palin - Tosses the Clowns Back into Their Volkswagon

Palin Haters on Vacation! For now.

As a Regular Democrat (one not given to the allure of free Purple T-Shirts or having MSNBC think well of you), Sarah Palin represented all that is good in public service - Gov. Palin reminds me of all the great women in my neighborhood.

Moreover, Gov. Palin drew fire for John McCain*, for whom I had great hope and more admiration, until the economy tanked and McCain limped through the end of Campaign, and did so cheerfully and heroically.

Gov. Palin exuded the qualities detested by the Progressive robot-army of academics, media mopes, lard-padded politicians like Dick Durbin. ( click my post title for those)

Gov. Palin is feared, because she is genuine.

When the clowns gang up on one genuine American, it seems to me, time to pull the clowns off and toss them back into the Volkswagon.


* I was a very early McCain partisan in the last go-around, my daughter Nora was elected to be a McCain Delegate, and was sad to see John McCain give up the fight after September 19, 2008.

Who Should Challenge Dan Lipinski in the 3rd District?

Illinois - Third Congressional District

Area 124.5 mi² (322.45 km²)
Distribution 100% urban, 0% rural
Population (2000) 653,647
Median income $48,048
Ethnicity 77.9% White, 5.9% Black, 2.9% Asian, 21.3% Hispanic, 0.3% Native American, 2.7% other
Occupation 27.6% blue collar, 58.1% white collar, 14.3% gray collar
Cook PVI D + 11

Dan Lipinski -Congressman 3rd District:

Since taking office, Dan Lipinski has continued his father's pro-life stance, voting with Republicans to give federal courts jurisdiction in the Terri Schiavo case, and to maintain restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.[25] Among the legislation he has sponsored is the Family and Consumer Choice Act (HR 2738 IH), which would require cable television companies to either provide subscribers with increased options of channel selection or comply with the same FCC decency standards that apply to broadcasters.[26] He has voted to strengthen border security, with no provisions for citizenship for illegal immigrants, and to build a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border. In December 2005 he voted to make the Patriot Act permanent. In June 2006 he joined Republicans in opposing a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq and declaring the Iraq War to be a part of the War on Terrorism. Although in March 2007 he voted with Democrats in supporting a war spending bill which would establish a timetable, in May he voted for a spending bill which favored benchmarks rather than a timetable.[25][27]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois's_3rd_congressional_district
Although marks a change in direction by Rep. Dan Lipinski that has shouted out with his vote for the Cap and Trade Bill ( in my opinion, the single most thoughtless and dangerous Bill since Prohibition) and now his support for a government controlled Health Care Reform measure that will add a trillion dollars to our tax-burdens and only cover one-third of the forty-five million Americans it trumpets to cover. Click my post title for that vote (219 for Cap & Trade-212 Against the worst Bill since Prohibition)
The squeaks in this set of brogans will be heard around the world.

The 3rd Congressional District is fiscally and socially Conservative and comprised of the very people who bear America's tax burdens - blue collar and white collar workers. The 3rd Congressional District is largely Catholic and anti-Abortion.

It seems to me that Dan Lipinski wanted to stay in his Congressional seat more than he cared to represent the people of this District. Progress Illinois the propaganda arm of the Leftist SEIU Illinois which represents unskilled and no skill workers who are tax-salaried as janitors, security guard and State funded nursing home workers, has embraced Dan Lipinski. SEIU targeted Real Democrats in the Illinois House Kevin McCarthy, Jim Brosnahan, and especially Kevin Joyce who fought run-away waste in revenue for SEIU pet programs. Congressman Dan Lipinski is snuggling up to SEIU - whose Andy Stern remains determined to kill Trades Union Apprenticeship Programs in every State and gain control of Trades requirements, examinations and ability to license. Nice friends, Dan.

http://progressillinois.com/2009/7/1/lipinski-public-plan

Dan Lipinski played ball on Cap and Trade and will vote for government Health Care.

Dan Lipinski gave the vote needed to bring the number necessary for passage to 218 votes in House of Representatives and Illinois Republican Mark Kirk tossed the leg over that fence for 219 for Cap and Trade.

Cap and Trade was rushed. It was not studied, nor was it debated. Cap and Trade will kill the Illinois Coal Industry. Cap and Trade will make 3rd District residents - most making enough in salary to meet their mortgage obligations and run-away Cook County and Illinois Taxes - confined to the home that they own.

Cap and Trade will make it nearly impossible for Middle Class home owners to sell their homes, without going into greater debt by meeting the new Federally mandated Green Energy Standards for heating, insulation, lighting and windows.

Dan Lipinski sold out the 3rd District in order to find cover with the Progressives.

SEIU will stay off Dan's back. Democratic Legislative Strategist Chuck Schumer reached out to Dan Lipinski. Schumer needs his ducks in a row and Dan Lipinski already quacked on Cap and Trade.

A Democrat is needed to challenege Dan Lipinski

Democrat who will stand up to Planned Parenthood and the Abortion Industry; a Democrat who wants to secure America's borders, but, unlike Dan Lipinksi, respects the Mexican Americans and their relatives who want to find a path to citizenship; a Democrat who recognizes Real Labor ( American Trades Unions) and not the bullying Stalinists who frighten gutless politicians and dandified editorial boards and arm-chair Menckens who write columns for Chicago's media; a Democrat who wants America's military supported and our foreign policy proud; A Democrat who is a fiscal Conservative, unwilling to cave-in to political expediency; a Democrat who will not be a Progressive stooge, but represent this District with Faith, Family and Freedom in mind at all times.

This is America's Independence Day Celebration weekend.

What better way to celebrate than have a Real Democrat challenge Dan Lipinski.

Dan The Lip - Got Hip With Help! Patsy Square for Health Care? One Payer? Get Outta There!

Dan Lipinski has been as exciting as Melba Toast. All of a sudden the 3rd Congressional District Wall-Flower has Progressive Star Power!

Man Alive! This Cat is Gone! He's Knocked Out! The Purple Tax-Players of SEIU embrace this Reed! He's Cap'nTrade! He's Health Muscle!

In one week Dan Lipinski's political acne has gone all Clear A Sell!

Dig what this cat's Sayin' Here!

About 300 people turned out for the packed event, which featured eight speakers from organizations with a large stake in health reform, such as businesses, doctors, unions, nurses, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals. Rep. Lipinski wasted no time drawing a line in the sand, telling the 3rd Congressional District crowd that, in order to limit the cost of health care for individuals, small businesses, and the federal government, a public plan is a must.
But his support comes with a few caveats. Lipinski admits that employers may stop offering private insurance to workers if a government plan exists. "It all depends on how the public option is implemented," he said. And Lipinski prefers the "level-playing field option" championed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in which the government-run plan would be granted no special advantages over private insurers, such as the ability to use Medicare's low rates or to access taxpayer subsidies.

Dan, You Send Me -straight for the Loudmouth Soup! This Reed needs some steel, Son!
SEIU is providing the Lighweight - the right mates. Purple Shouters! Go Cat,Go!!!


http://www.lipinski.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=914&Itemid=1

Yip,Yip, Yip! Let;s Sing it to the Lip! Click my post title and listen to Keely Smith and Louie Prima!


Down on the Cal-Sag River in a knockdo* dive
I met a politico playin' character and Man alive!
When he began to rip, he really played it from the hip
And when I asked about his name, they told me, "That's 'The Lip'."
Yip yip yip yip
No one plays high notes like The Lip.
He's got a tone that's reminiscent of a boy named Bix
He plays so high that only dogs can hear him, just for kicks.
And when I asked him does he read
He says, "I'll tell you, hon, I read a little bit but not enough to hurt me none."
Yip yip yip yip.
No one plays high notes like The Lip.
I said The Lip.
She must mean Ray Anthony, huh?
I said The Lip.
No, man, she means Harry James.
I said The Lip.
You mean Louis Prima.
I said The Lip.
Noo, LIP-er-ace.
Yip yip yip yip
No one plays high notes like The Lip.
I never heard a trumpet player play a note so high
And I had to coax a lot before The Lip would tell me why
Then he took out a little jar that's labeled 'High-note Grease'
And he rubs a little every night on his mouthpiece
Yip yip yip yip
No one plays high notes like The Lip.
Listen here gal, are you kiddin' about all that 'high-note grease'?
No, man, I swear, he had ten in his valise.
Wha', you mean he goes to the drugstore and gets them from the medecine shelf?
No, some cat's told me he makes it himself.
Yip yip yip yip
Tell us the secret of The Lip.
Well..you take a buketful of steam
And a dozen rooster eggs
And you mix 'em up gently with a bushel full of goldfish legs
And ya hang 'em on a sky hook in the midnight sun
Mmm and then you fry them until they're done.
Yip yip yip yip
That's the secret of The Lip


Get hip and give the Lip the Slip! That Big Pink One!

Norman Thomas' - Blue-Print to Catastrophe

Democrats used to give elites like Norman Thomas the chair in the corner. Remember, at one time Organized Labor and the Democratic Party helped make the American Middle Class and raise the American Standard of Living that was marvel of history.

Boiled Beet Progressives like Roger Baldwin, Jane Addams and Norman Thomas were generally 'praised' but largely ignored and well they should be. They are fit subjects for the salon set - who generally do not work for a living - much less for anyone else; but as far as impacting on American life -they offer bupkis.

Noramn Thomas ran for President of the United States six times and just before his death remarked -" I have not come to burn the American Flag; I have come to cleanse it!"

Really? Nope Norm, Roger, Jane, W.E.B. and their heirs have succeeded in smothering debate, controlling the weak-kitten Media, Academia and Stalinist labor. Acronyms with bags of gelt -ACLU, SEIU, ACORN - have replaced personalities like the old timey radicals.

SEIU's Stalin Andy Stern was able to blackmail WAl-Mart and squeeze a letter out of the corporation that killed main street:

Wal-Mart -- which provides insurance to employees and wants to level the playing field with companies that don't -- on Tuesday delivered a letter to President Obama taking a different stance.

"We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage," said the letter, signed by Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke. Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, also signed the letter, along with John Podesta, who led President Obama's transition team and is chief executive of the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank.

The National Retail Federation, the industry's main lobby, said it was "flabbergasted" by Wal-Mart's move. "We have been one of the foremost opponents to employer mandate," said Neil Trautwein, vice president with the Washington-based trade group. "We are surprised and disappointed by Wal-Mart's choice to embrace an employer mandate in exchange for a promise of cost savings."

Old Norma Thomas came to clean the American Flag - his children, like Andy Stern have come to polish off the American Middle Class.

Ralph Martire's Monster Budget - Ralph, Illinois Policy Institute Trims the Budget Blubber . . .And No One Dies

Rock-Solid By Gummy Illinois Son of the Soil -"Mrs. Illinois, not to be rude but Ralphie Rod Blag-Budget has gotten just a tad past chubby; now, I suppose that it's none of my business, but perhaps . . . maybe . . . Ralphie Rod might like a nice Soy Snack - 'stead a that thar Hershey's Dipped Deep Fried Oreo Wheel?"

SEIU Human Activists - "Coward! Ralphie Rod Has Feelings and Will Die Without Those Empty Calories! Call the Coalition! We are marching on this man . . . what's that? Oh, Woman. Sorry. Are you Gay? That would make a huge difference, . . .Oh, you were laughing at us! Youare a Man a Breeder! No Doubt against Womens Reproductive Health and a Theocrat. Nice. but the child needs his snack!"

John Tillman's Illinois Policy Intitute's Report and Recommendations shows legislators how to trim the lard from the State Budget without raising taxes.

In fact it gives very specific recommendations of just where to slice and dice wasteful spending - Chicago State University* for example, where its former President went on a taxpayer funded personal spending junket for years, is given only a modest cut in appropriated spending dollars.

No blood. No Fire. No Nothing. Just a reasonable taxpayer cash diet.

The report concludes:

If Illinois had enacted an expenditure limit in 2004 that limited spending growth to population plus inflation, the state could have cumulatively
saved $13.7 billion over the past six years. That’s money that could have
been put in a rainy day fund, applied toward the unfunded public employee
pension liabilities, or even refunded to taxpayers. Budget Savings from
Establishing a Spending Limit in 2004 An expenditure limit could have helped to
prevent the $11.606 billion budget deficit . . . state faces today. If Illinois had adopted an expenditure limit in 2004, the budget for fiscal year 2010 would be $29.1 billion. Given that the state is expected to bring in $26.9 billion
in revenue in 2010, the “diet” budget of $29.1 billion is much more in tune with reality than the actual 2010 base budget of $34.2 billion. Illinois has a good opportunity to prevent future runaway spending growth by immediately passing an expenditure limit based on inflation and population growth.

Purple T -Shirt give-aways are a nice way to get folks passionate about shouting at lawmakers and marching under the Capital Dome, but real solution to Budget Bloat is Fiscal and Fiduciary Fearlessness.

Legislators who voted down the tax-increase showed just that - Courage.

Ralph Martire sold Tax Bloat to Blago and others before him. Sensible Law makers said no. People like Patti Bellock, John Fritchey, Jim Watson, Debbie Mell - Yep Deb Mell, Kevin Joyce, Kevin McCarthy, and Jim Brosnahan are the only people telling Illinois Budget Blubber Boy, Ralphie-Rod, 'Drop that Elephant Ear, Son! My God it's the size of a Harvester!'

Ralph is still hawking the lard. It's getting pretty tough to squeeze into those purple T-shirts - metaphorically speaking.


Cut the Bloat! Say No to Taxes!

Feel like Marching!



* Click ,y post title for the full report! Nice work John Tillman!
Check out Table # 3 on page 2 of the Illinois policy Institute Report
TABLE 3: Eliminating Governor Quinn’s
FY 2010 Spending Increases (general funds)

Voting Against Illinois Tax Monster is Not Cowardly, Ralph Martire - It is Your Monster, Ralph, You and Your Pal Blago. Get a Leash

"Avoiding a tax increase vote because you are concerned about your political career. That is cowardly," said the Center on Tax and Budget Accountability's Ralph Martire. SEIU Graphic Novel -Progress Illinois

Graphic Novels are what the Hep Cats call Comic Books these days. Ralph Martire is a career Academic Appointee who helped Gov. Rod Blagojevich buy fleets of PACE SUVs to help 'seniors' get around. That was nice. Grandma Donahue lived at 63rd & Kilpatrick near Midway and got around just fine on CTA. Seniors now ride free.

Old Lawyers from DuPage ride free. Blago sent his wife to Costa Rica and awaits more paper from Fitzy. Ralph Martire is still getting a handsome salary from one or more of the many Coalitions, that he handsomely manages to get appointed to, and shouts out scripted screams that tax-payers need to pay more.

Ralph, we're Tap City, Son.

My legislators voted against the Swelled-Like-A-Tick Budget that Ralph Martire helped Blago bloat. Ralph was Blago's Budget Big-shot ( Ralph has been Illinois' Mr. Programs since Dawn Clark Netsch first appointed Ralph to do some Coalition building).

Ralph is going around with Progressive, Fair and Efficient Charts and Numbers to make sure folks that who do not understand how a balance a check book can get all worked up over money that other people have earned.

http://www.kankakee.lib.il.us/podcasts/images/tax.pdf

Ralph is good for SEIU, Good for People who benefit from other people's tax burdens.

Ralph is not really good for people with mortgage payments, tuition burdens, and jobs ( for the moment) in Illinois. Ralph is good to people who appoint him to swell paying jobs and positions on boards. Ralph has not held elected office.

SEIU is going after Representatives voting the way the people (tax-payers) demand that they vote -

Up first was a trio of south suburban Democratic Reps. -- Kevin McCarthy, Jim Brosnahan, and Mike Zalewski -- who all voted against a temporary tax increase last month. They were paid a visit by dozens of state workers, including home health care aide Gwendolyn Vaughe, who asked the Representatives how they could justify the life-or-death cuts. "What does this mean for our seniors?" Vaughe asked. "Are they going to be left to die?"

When we caught up with Rep. McCarthy in his Orland Park office, he told us that he's yet to see exactly what programs are at stake (department heads are still pulling together the specifics), but acknowledged "dire circumstances" are ahead. "None of my colleagues have blinders on," he tells us. "They see how important these cuts are." But do they?

They do, Sweetheart. People who stand for election have a Coalition - the voters. Let the Legislature and its Leadership cut through the Fat on Ralph & Blago's Monster. Save the SOB stories.

Ralph, you made the Monster Budget. You feed him.

SEIU Lobbyists Stuff The Lobby of Illinois Capitol

I was in Springfield on school business and took a stroll over to the State Capitol. The joint was jumping!!!

I ran into Terry Peterson, my old Alderman and the guy who managed Mayor Daley's last landslide and my State Representative Kevin Joyce both grinding the stone in the People's Interest! These two gents are what public service should be all about!

Stuffing the halls were the heavyweights of the SEIU Purple Gang!

I saw Progress Illinois poster boy Keith Kelleher, looking svelt in SEIU ppppp-purple! But the rest of SEIU crowd? Man! Eat a salad at Augie's Front Burner folks!

I gotta ask. Who has the concession for the Triple X and Up -Purple T-Shirts?

That Dude could buy a Kennedy.

Interesting to note that SEIU leadership tends to be Imperially thin almost emaciated and dues paying folks seem to fill out the Purple T's hugely. Keith and the Council must spring for some heavy lunch-boxes on Lobby Day.

Andy Stern's Payout of SEIU Dues for Political Clout

We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we're proud of it.

Andy Stern SEIU


John Rubery, Illinois' own Marathon Pundit has been monitoring Andy Stern's moving and shaking of dues taken from SEIU members.

Remember SEIU's dues do not go to benefit the membership but to seed Amdy's harvest of more members through political blackmail and intimidation of gutless politicians.

Members of SEIU remain low-skill and no skill workers*.

Unlike the Trades Unions -Real Labor - there is no intention on the part of SEIU to move workers into the American Middle Class. Andy Stern's efforts will eliminate the American Middle Class.

The target of SEIU, it seems to me , is take over of Trades Unions Apprenticeship Control, through the elimination of Bureau of Apprenticeship Programs(BAP), like here in Illinois which determines membership qualifications, examinations and schools, in each State.

Andy wants each State to adopt a State Apprenticeship Council (SAC) which will eliminate drug testing, residency requirements, and standards for skills, as well as control over all Apprenticeship Programs.

The Race Card is the Trump Card. Emil Jones attempted such a move, while President Obama was in the Illinois Senate - it failed. Andy Stern pumped millions into SEIU's effort ensure an Obama Presidency - beholden to Planned Parenthood,ACORN, ACLU and SEIU.

If you are a Union Woman or Man, get over to Marathon Pundit. Get wise to SEIU - the Media is in Andy's vest pocket.


*SEIU is a leftist troika that poses as a labor union. SEIU is run by a Leftist Social Worker whose 1960's radicalism found a profitable and powerful home in a labor union that expands membership numbers, intimidates gutless politicians, and operates the most massive redistribution of wealth scam in America. 1-2-3- that's how you dance to a troika -1. Expand 2.Intimidate 3. Redistribute Wealth!

Taking over the weak and corrupt janitors union in Chicago in the 1970's, Andy Stern and fellow University of Pennsylvania School Social Work colleague Anna Burger help radicalize and consolidate locals of building janitors, bringing thousands of unskilled to low skilled health care industry workers, security guard locals, menial office task workers and others into a political intimidation political action force.

Using a very complicit and lazy news media, Andy Stern deftly crafted a cult of personality unparalleled since Mao. The Purple Gang of hundreds of thousands of low-skill to no skill workers intimidated their way into public service employees and nearly match AFCME in tax-payer salaried workers. If you are somewhat taken aback by my analysis of the threat that I see from SEIU, please do take a look at Andy Stern's frequent trips to Red China and read Newsweeks's glwoing accounts of Stern's agenda to help one of the most oppresive regimes on the planet 'control their workers.' Take a look at Andy Stern's similar control that he exercises over local SEIU 'thought criminals.' Andy gets great PR from the press and the other mediums, but occasionally the real story gets out.

Like this one:

Sal Rosselli had been hardened by nearly three decades of front-line unionism. Time and again he staged insurgent organizing drives and do-or-die strikes, staring down major corporations. Now he blinked away tears as he huddled with supporters in his Oakland headquarters, a sooty-windowed, bunker-like building strewn with leaflets and picket signs, a place suddenly under siege.

Rosselli was describing his latest battle, his toughest ever: a face-off against a comrade in struggle, Andrew Stern, whom many view as the most powerful labor leader in America.

The two are locked in a nasty, often personal fight over how to make the nation's fastest-growing union -- 1.9 million members -- even bigger. Stern, its president, has sought more common ground with employers as a means to unionize entire industries. Rosselli believes building membership first requires getting the best deal for workers already under labor's tent.

"If you stick your head up, if you question what he's doing, you'll get whacked," said Rosselli, 58, head of the second-largest California chapter of Stern's union.

Wiping his eyes, he insisted that Stern, through a trusteeship, is determined to oust him from his elected post as part of a long push to centralize authority.

Stern and his allies in the Service Employees International Union dismiss the allegations and downplay the significance of the rift.

"It's not open warfare, it's a debate," said Pennsylvania union official Thomas De Bruin.

"It's David and Goliath," Rosselli said.


http://theunionnews.blogspot.com/2008/06/seiu-andy-stern-is-issue.html

SEIU was solidly behind John Edwards. Edwards tanked. SEIU is solidly behind Obama.

Anna Burger sits on Obama's Economic Advisory Board. A radical Marxist is telling Obam how to shape America's economic path.

Obama like Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick from whom Obama crafts many of his rhetorical hits in the media, depends upon Andy and SEIU.

Andy Stern is making sure that Race is the pivot point of Obama's Campaign.


Leaders of the AFL-CIO met this week in Chicago to decide how to deploy some 250,000 volunteers and more than $250 million for its grass-roots campaign on behalf of Obama and 500 Democratic candidates vying for other posts.

The fast-growing Service Employees International Union, which has successfully organized lower-wage workers, has $85 million to spend. The AFL-CIO said it has set aside its rivalry with the SEIU and other unions that left to form their own labor federation in 2005.

CONFRONT RACISM

Unions pride themselves on their racial diversity and plan to confront members about any biases they have.

"You go straight at our people and talk about the difference between McCain and Obama and the fact that race could be an issue -- you go straight at it," said Gerald McEntee, head of the AFL-CIO's political committee.

"Once people get in the booth, if they won't vote for a black man ...," he said with a shrug. Continued...



If you do not vote for Obama, You are a racist. Stalinist and simple. That's Andy Stern and all who do his bidding.

American Labor was built upon the principles of the right to work, the right to organize, the right to engage in collective bargaining and the right to strike for wages and benefits. American Labor made the American Standard of Living and the Middle Class. Unions taught the unskilled skills - moved the poor into the middle class. SEIU uses the poor and the unskilled to eliminate the American Middle Class.

The more unskilled and impoverished Americans, the more powerful Andy Stern's SEIU becomes.

Andy Stern's SEIU is for redistribution of wealth, global identification over American values, salaries mandated by legislation and the elimination of the American Middle Class.

Obama swims in Andy Stern's Tank.

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/search?q=SEIU+-China

Governor Lisa Madigan - and not because of her Dad. Read Tom Roeser and Steve Rhodes

Even The Hoods like Lisa Madigan.

Mr. Tom Roeser and Master ( He's Way Younger than Tom and much younger than me) Steve Rhodes are two very sharp Chicago political observers and clear political journalists.

They are poles apart politically and pols mean very little to them personally.

Today both gents treated the discerning reader to the expected arrival of Governor Lisa Madigan (D.IL).

First the insight and judgment of Tom Roeser. After giving Rep. Mark Kirk (R.) a tune-up over his Pro-Choice on Abortion -a Woman's Right to Kill Her Kid - Tom Roeser nails it:

At this writing no one has heard from Kirk about his plans. But this is just to say to the party’s financial leaders who are planning that double-digit budget: it will all go to waste and be lost in the election of Lisa Madigan (likely to be the Dem gubernatorial nominee) if you don’t consider conservative grassroots people in the gubernatorial selection. Madigan is a veritable pinwheel of grassroots movement support: pro-aborts, feminists, labor, gay rights. You name a nice little guy with a cute button nose and smile but no grassroots and you’ll once again have to relearn what you should have learned when you nominated Judy Baar Topinka: a Republican nominee for governor with no grassroots conservative support can’t make it.

http://www.tomroeser.com/

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has performed as a solid Attorney General for Illinois and has made that Office her own and no adjunct to her Dad, Speaker Michael Madigan's adult direction of Springfield. Governor Pat Quinn is a lovely guy, who made a career as the earnest clean-government hobby-horse rider in the sky. He's is Governor of Illinois because Illinois wanted Rod Blagojevich and gave that goof enough gas in his Mo-Ped to ride all over that desire. Why to go Land O' Lincoln!

Governor Pat Quinn wants to shoot Illinois' feet off with a tax from hell. Alpha Mike Foxtrot, as Marty Tully would say. Marty did a bunch of tours in Vietnam before becoming one of the two best homicide cops in Chicago.

Mr. Roeser, the Illinois Samuel Johnson, picks up the Governor Madigan specimen with the delicacy of a Loyola University Medical Center Neurosurgeon. This Butterfly Lives! Lisa Madigan flies on gossamer-like wings made of a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it -dollar bills miles of them.
Those dollars come from real Labor Unions and also PACS -ACORN/SEIU/Planned Parenthood & etc.the Democratic Party Astro-turf. The GOP tends to draw dough from businesses and rich guys.

Lisa Madigan will be the governor of Illinois.

Then, at the NBC website, the brilliant and witty Steve Rhodes with more pithy prose and Progressive sympathies states the glaringly obvious -

Madigan can always change her mind, or opt to run for another office, but right now she - or somebody on her behalf - is raising money in preparation for something, and seeing as how the e-mail references a poll that looked at a match-up with Quinn, there is no other conclusion to draw at the moment.

That poll, sponsored by the Service Employees International Union, showed Madigan with a 48-24 lead over Quinn in the city of Chicago, with 28 percent undecided. An early poll like this has limited value, but its portentous that Madigan is raising money off it.

The path to Springfield is paved with dough - that is nothing new, nor is something to pull your skirts up and shriek like a fair, fat and fifty something Maiden Aunt.
There is a right way to raise money and the Blagojevich way - 'Hey, I'm gonna be Governor . . . know what I mean? That's some wallet you got there. Gimme it!'

All the Campaign Reform nonsense comes from losers who could not get anyone with the pilot light going to drop them a nickel. That is why SEIU and Planned Parenthood shower dough on Forty Watt Howlers like Jan Schakowsky. I could care less if anyone financed his own campaign or had the backing of Uncle Moneybags. The smart money goes on the horse with the best blood, feed, trainer and record.

Lisa Madigan is the Class of Field. The Oat-blowers of the Democratic Party and the Glue Bottle-Aspirants of the GOP should be aware of the very sound drubbing they will get from Lisa Madigan.

Andy Stern's SEIU Murders School Reform and Buys A Lotto!

Here's Andy looking down on his membership! They can Blackmail a Bank, Buy a Lotto and Kill School Reform with their Dues! Now, That's Collectivist Bargaining!

Andy Stern is busier than a dog gifted by nature with a surplus of male reproductive appendages!

1. Stern is out to Destroy Charter Schools and Murder School Reform in Chicago

2. Andy Stern's SEIU is blackmailing Bank of America CEO into backing Card Check Legislation

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/26649c82-2d44-11de-8710-00144feabdc0.html

3. Andy Stern and Ivy League Commies of the SEIU Leadership are Buying the California Lottery

SEIU donates to lottery ballot measure
By Anthony York | 04/17/09 12:00 AM PST

The state’s largest public employee union has given $300,000 to the campaign for Proposition 1C, the lottery modernization measure that would allow the state to borrow up to $5 billion from lottery proceeds.

The money comes as deep divisions swirl among the Service Employees International Union over how to play in the May 19 special election. SEIU’s state council has opposed Proposition 1A, the state spending limit measure, and opened an account earlier this week to launch a formal campaign against 1A.

But SEIU has endorsed Proposition 1C, and a spokesman for Local 1000 said it makes sense for the union to support the measure.

“Our position on Prop 1C is consistent with our position that the state of California could be generating more money out of the lottery if it had a different managerial structure,” said Local 1000 spokesman Jim Zamora.

SEIU’s contribution did not go to the committee controlled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political team, which is pushing for passage of all of the May 19 measures. Instead, the money went to a committee sponsored by GTECH, a Rhode Island-based company that contracts to supply lottery equipment to the state.

Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the Yes on 1C committee, welcomed news of the contribution. “One thing we all agree on is that if we can generate additional state revenues without tax increases, it makes sense for everyone,” Salazar said.

But the big question remains the extent to which the state council will fund the No on Proposition 1A campaign.

Stay tuned.
« Done

SEIU and CTU Have Been Murdering School Reform!

Andy Stern's Purple Finger prints are all over Marilyn Stewart's CTU work to murder School Reform in Chicago. Stern and radical activist Mike Klonsky are old hands at this stuff. Work within the system and you really get to blow things up!

From Dist 299 -

SEIU Organizing Charter School Teachers
A couple of posts down, Mike Klonsky highlights the fact that some charter schools in other places -- NYC, LA -- have organized teachers, and that it hasn't always been via the teachers local. (I know that substitutes sometimes end up being organized by nonteacher locals, too.) In LA it was SEIU, for example. What I'm wondering is whether SEIU does any better than CTU would do, what folks think about the idea of charters under union agreements, and...well, mostly those two things.

Here is the concern of a Charter teacher on that same site.

I think one issue is whether SEIU would do any better. As someone in a charter school I have no interest in belonging to CTU (and by law, I actually can't).

Unionizing charters will be hard for a number of reasons. Each charter school would have to have their own contract with their teachers, or suddenly every charter school would have to have the same hours, prep periods, class sizes, school years, etc., and then the point of charters being able to decide these things independent of the school district would be lost.

I think you'll also see a lot of resistance from some of the larger national charter school funders, many of whom aren't the most union friendly groups in the world.

I don't see any need for a union at my school right now, I was given a fair review and a chance to negotiate my own contract, and when it comes down to it, I'd rather be the one at the bargaining table. The only people I know who wouldn't are those teachers who don't deserve a raise anyway.

That being said I'm sure there are other charters where teachers probably aren't treated with the same level of respect, and I'm sure if charters start to unionize, they'll be the first to go. Either way, it will be interesting to watch what happens. It would definitely be a blow to the neo-cons.

Posted by: Charlie | July 26, 2007 at 01:45 PM

Not to Neo-Cons, Charlie. To School Reform. You sound like a professional and that is what education needs.

Real Unions in Danger = Stern's SEIU

Andy Stern and Anna Burger are destroying the American Labor Movement - Labor Leaders who have anything to do with these two career Lefty sneaks help them destroy Labor.

Here in Chicago, CTU lead by the oafish Marilyn Stewart want Charter School teachers to turn their backs on the contracts that each one of them signed in good faith and seek cover in Chicago Teachers Union. School Reform means nothing to CTU. Charter teachers who signed to join CTU are breakers of oaths, they want to be treated as professionals and act like whiny fools. The work loads that they contracted to do - agreed to do, for the pay and position with International Charter Schools are now too much of a burden on them.

Quit.

Join CTU and Chicago Public School System and all that goes with that shameful and corrupt, incompetent, lazy and greedy system. I know many heroically dedicated Public School teachers and they too are ashamed and disgusted by the stupidity and cant of CTU leadership and that comes from it.

SEIU needs an unskilled workforce to add greater numbers to its sad and 'going-nowhere' membership.

SEIU need to bring down the trades as well as the Schools.

Here's one of the Stern Gang writing about his covert work to undermine the Carpenters Union.

Labor’s New Deal – Douglas McCarron’s Raw Deal for the UBCJA
By Chris the Abducted Alien
Rated "G" by the Author.
Last edited: Sunday, April 27, 2008
Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2008



The article written by Andy Stern outlines the history of the beginnings of our labor in America starting with Calvin Coolidge who once famously declared, “The chief business of the American people is business.” Coolidge’s heirs today are corporatists who have succeeded in rolling back many elements of the New Deal and the subsequent reforms that helped create a great American middle class.

Franklin D. Roosevelt understood that in addition to government programs, a balanced economy requires strong labor unions. Then, as now, increased unionization created higher wages and benefits for both union members and unorganized workers. As unionization increased, the middle class grew. And as the percentage of workers represented by a union has declined in the past three decades, the disparity of wealth has increased in the corporate world.

We need to take into account the vast changes that have occurred since the New Deal, and we must continually adjust as new changes take place. America still needs strong unions--as well as a government on the side of working people--as part of the solution to rebalance power, provide greater fairness, make work pay and ensure that the dreams of all American children can still come true.1

Let’s fast forward to the present...



The plan by the wealthy leaders in our world, including Bush & Company and the representatives in his current regime, has been to steamroll and eliminate the middle class at warp speed. Let’s see what part the UBCJA under General President Douglas McCarron has had in this plan...


General President McCarron tightened his control of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners at the union’s convention in Las Vegas on August 25, 2005, when delegates voted to give him a third five-year term. The pro-democratic opposition slate, “Restore the Vote” team, did not have a chance...

Since then, he has run our union like it is his personal property. He has given himself dictatorial powers in our Constitution; he has amassed delegates, most of whom are beholden to him for jobs. Just like some of our individual carpenter locals continue to do today to most of our members.
………………………………………………………....................


Note: Articles, sources, and citations are given at the end of my article.
………………………………………………………....................



McCarron basically has been running our carpenters union like a corporation. He even boasts that centralized leadership is more efficient and attractive to employers and would produce more jobs for working carpenters. What he does not tell us is that his plan was to replace us, the professional carpenter with people that the corporate contractor will train to be uneducated and unthinking, just a robot, to service the employer in our trade, kept ignorant to our bargaining agreement, and happy to make less than our current union scale. This person is less likely to give our corporate unions any problems and our Regional Councils can make as many concessions with our bargaining agreements as needed to keep our coffers full at our corporate Regional Councils, thus letting America know we still have strong unions.


The many younger members, and all the new journeyman carpenters who are allowed to buy their union cards when they come along with a newly signed non-union contractor, do not know the carpenters history behind our bargaining agreement and how it came to be. They do not know how the carpenters in the late 1800s and early 1900s fought and died for the rights and wages we have enjoyed up till now...it is the members in all unions that are the ones who make up a good portion of the middle class in America...


I would like to make it very clear right now, that what I am getting ready to talk about does not involve every Regional Council, Executive Officer, or Officer at a local. We have been infiltrated with McCarron representatives at every level. These are men and women who believe and work towards McCarron’s plan and takeover of the UBCJA. Some of our representatives and members are still passionately unaware of the New Global Union plan for our UBCJA by McCarron.


Opposition from union carpenters continues to grow across America for UBCJA General President Douglas McCarron. He has taken the vote away from the rank and file carpenters and given it to himself and transferred that ability to all the Regional Councils left in our UBC. McCarron has even stepped over the border with his bullying in Canada.


Some of the men and women that now run the various Regional Councils across America and Canada are acutely aware of what is really happening but have been placed between a rock and a hard place because of the bullying with threats of losing their jobs and dictatorship policies made by McCarron. But many others are falling in line with the McCarron republican corporate labor union plan.


If we do not stand up and fight, we the rank and file, the working carpenters and our children that come after us are all going to lose...but our union administrators will continue to get their fat salaries and double pensions!


Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and UNITE-HERE are thought of as the reformers of anti-democratic behavior within our various unions. So why did the newly formed federation Change to Win Coalition invite General President McCarron to become part of the seven partner unions?


Andy Stern, who is the president of the SEIU, has always criticized President George W. Bush’s domestic and foreign policies. I wonder how Stern is dealing with McCarron today, knowing that McCarron is Bush’s darling Republican labor leader who gets to ride on Air Force One? McCarron has been meeting with Bush since his election as General President of the UBCJA in 1995...


There is no longer any mention of the UBCJA being part of the Change to Win Coalition in 2008.

The following is a statement by Anna Burger, Chair of Change to Win Coalition:

WASHINGTON DC, May 11, 2007 -- “On behalf of the six million members of Change to Win unions and its Leadership Council, we are disappointed that House Democratic leaders joined with the Bush Administration yesterday to announce a trade deal that is more free than fair.

The agreement does not represent the basis for the type of new U.S. trade policy that this nation desperately needs. Despite improvements in labor and environmental standards, workers remain at risk because the proposal fails to address how to protect U.S. jobs or create new ones. It undermines our prevailing wage and Buy America laws. And it hands foreign firms operating here more privileges over U.S. companies. For working America, that is not a deal.

Quick policy fixes won’t help workers achieve the American Dream in the 21st century– they need a whole new trade model equipped to meet the realities of today’s global economy.

Without significant changes, this agreement opens the door for subsequent harmful trade policies that resemble NAFTA/CAFTA – trade deals that have led to the loss of millions of good jobs at home, a surge in undocumented immigration, the soaring trade deficit, declining wages, and a deterioration of labor standards.

Change to Win stands for fair trade that promotes prosperity at home and abroad so that workers can achieve the American Dream in an era of globalization. Fair trade helps create standards that will stimulate development, protect and create new U.S. jobs, and maintain high wage standards around the globe – the Peru/Panama trade agreement falls far short of this.

It’s time for an alternative approach to this current failed model. We call on Congress to get back to work craft meaningful policies in current and future trade negotiations. We need to ensure that workers, not just corporations and CEOs, fairly share in the benefits of today’s global economy.”

Story by Steven Greenhouse on February 21, 2008 -- Change to Win gets behind Obama. In a conference call this morning, four of the coalition’s unions — the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers and Unite Here — voted to back Mr. Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. With their votes, they ensured that unions representing two-thirds of the coalition’s members were backing a candidate, triggering the group’s endorsement.

The three other unions in the coalition — the Laborers, the UBCJA and the United Farm Workers — abstained. The carpenters union had initially endorsed Senator John Edwards, while the farm workers, easily the smallest union in the coalition, have endorsed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters had this charade late last year in the Chicago area, actually in Iowa, with the current Presidential primary, and the UBCJA giving $500,000 of our money to an unknown person, Senator John Edwards to run in the primary for President. We had two perfectly good Democratic candidates already running in the primary...why was the UBCJA backing Edwards? Why did our Regional Councils go along with it? Why did none of our members (working carpenters) know about this? And why have we not heard any more about it? McCarron again did this without the permission or vote of the members...


All 50,000 of our members here in the Chicago area received a letter announcing the UBCJA backing John Edwards the same day he, John Edwards, dropped out of the Presidential primary. That was the first time many of the carpenters heard of John Edwards!


Again, carpenters here do not know what our Regional Council was thinking; they are not talking and continue to have meetings in secret and without all members knowing what their plan is. I personally feel this was one of the biggest mistakes our union in Chicago could have done...not allowing the rank and file (working carpenters) in on what has been happening with our Labor union(s). Now, all of the deceit and manipulation that is occurring in the UBC is on our shoulders. Many carpenters here in the Chicago area are continuing to talk about them and are starting to think they are part of McCarron’s Republican plan.


I attended the International Convention in Las Vegas in 2004 and heard Douglas McCarron speak. I have been giving him the benefit of a doubt as to what I heard him say at the convention and have been continually questioning his speech and the statements made by him...was this guy for real? He was talking about opening up diversity to people of color and women in our union so we could help to keep it strong. And then going on to say, also allowing the women who were and are part of this union to organize and now help to work to be part of the century old union. I never thought I would hear something like that from a union guy in my lifetime! It was just too good to be true , I was dumbfounded!


But now, in 2008, my take on this is McCarron is just another carpenter talking out the side of his mouth. “Doublespeak” has been practiced by politicians for decades. It is also now known as the ultimate betrayal by our union administrators who have learned the practice well! In society today nothing has been more widely accepted, used and promoted then the art of “Doublespeak.” McCarron continues to tell the union members what we want to hear, so he and his administration can complete the republican plan. He has been trained to complete this plan well from Bush and Company...as to what has to be done with middle class Americans in order for the Unions to survive in America...


We have seen no labor unity between UBCJA and the other Change to Win Coalition and AFL-CIO affiliate unions in the current race for the presidential primary. All the other unions are either backing Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. This tells me we have a few defectors to democracy in our unions, and one of them is our UBCJA...


The working carpenters here in the Chicago Regional Area are getting ready to get into serious difficulties with concessions being given to contractors with our Bargaining Agreements for several of the counties that are coming up this year 2008. The “Raw Deal” is already happening across America in the Carpenters and other unions. I predict concessions will be given to the employer’s big time this contract year...all in the name of our failing ECONOMY precipitated and planned by Bush and company and advantageously completed by McCarron in the carpenters union and by others in the other unions...


Here is an overview of what is happening in our Carpenters unions and our agreements across America and Canada:


First, millions of Americans are starting to become aware of what the Republicans have been planning over the past two decades. This is to eliminate the middle class by busting the unions to destroy our economy, our education system, and turn all of us against each other over hate for one reason or another, and now by allowing the immigrants to take over jobs in the United States for less pay.


McCarron’s plan has been no different; it has become the Corporate UBCJA. Get the undocumented workers who are mostly already uneducated, who know nothing about our bargaining agreements or our laws and are willing to work for less money than union scale carpenters are making under our current agreements. The immigrant’s loyalty is to the Regional Council and the puppets that run some of the locals. Some of our Regional Councils and locals are assisting the illegal immigrants to get Department of Homeland Security working cards in the United States, even though they are still not registered as legal residents in the United States. And there has been very little talk about the immigrants being dual citizens of both the United States and the other countries (where they were born).


McCarron and his kingdom of Regional Councils have been pandering to the contractors union and non-union (big business) and destroying our current bargaining agreements within our union across America and Canada. The Brotherhood of Carpenters is going to “hell in a hand basket,” and they are selling the rank and file working carpenters down the river...

November 7, 2005 – “UBCJA President McCarron in Washington DC is threatening American-style bully tactics to conduct a hostile takeover of the autonomous BC Carpenters Union.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBCJA) sent a letter last Friday to the BC Provincial Council of Carpenters elected President, Len Embree, threatening to impose immediate "supervision" over the independent BC Carpenters Union, its 7000 members, and their union's assets.”

This story by EDMONTON/630 CHED, September 20, 2007 - - The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and the Alberta Building Trades Council have taken out ads warning carpenters they could face criminal charges or civil action if they don't return to work.

Headline News: “Threats of criminal charges for striking workers in Alberta, Canada. Federation Labor laws are being fought by over thousands working carpenters at a rally in Alberta, Canada. The Alberta Labor Code is dead!

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has dealt a fatal blow to these oppressive Labor Laws and the future for Canadians in Alberta is beginning to have promise.

Saturday, September 22, 2007 the funeral for the Alberta Labor Code will be held at the Alberta Labor Relations Board - 10808 - 99 Avenue at 12 noon and a Funeral parade will head to the Alberta Legislative building where the Alberta Labor Code will be put to rest.

For two days, beginning September 6, Alberta carpenters rallied in front of the Alberta Labor Relations Board to affirm their right to take collective action to defend their interests. On Thursday, September 6 more than 200 carpenters rallied outside the Alberta Labor Relations Board (ALRB) in downtown Edmonton where yet another employer complaint was being heard. On Friday, their numbers grew to more than 600 and the carpenters were joined by members of other unions. They filled the room where the hearings were taking place and closed the entire street in front of the ARLB offices.”


Corruption continues to run rampant in the Chicago and across America and Canada. From what I remember on the history of labor I read...it was the Canadians that started the rank and file working carpenters labor movement. Peter J. McGuire’s movement in 1881 started for the carpenters here in the United States after the Canadians fought and won for their rights in Canada. McGuire’s plan was taken from the Canadians...


Sheet rockers in Baltimore and Vancouver got the raw end of the deal along with Southern California style drywall piece rates in union contracts. The Southern California Nevada Regional Council of Carpenters continue making concessions to the contractors, it has become a way of life out there. It does not seem to bother the Business Representatives that concessions are “okay” and that the fact is the UBC gave up piece work 120 years ago...this drywall clause was clearly a travesty of justice under our current union contracts.


Clearly three-fourths of the members are currently deprived of the right to vote through the manipulation of our locals to keep members away from meetings. And the apathy and lack of education to our bargaining agreements by our members to get involved has not helped. It clearly places a minority in control of our unions.


The piece work clause is still in our By-Laws and Working Rules currently here in the Chicago area...but Immigrant drywaller’s are allowed to get their money by piece work right now. And again, some of our union business agents and organizers look the other way. Similar issues arise with the siders, roofers, and insulators. When carpenters are asked to bring a manual or power tool on the employer’s jobsites and our union allows it. Our union here even allows the transportation of the employer’s tools in the carpenter’s vehicles, and again the business agents and organizers look the other way.


New York also has many concessionary agreements of its own that are now part of its bargaining agreement. Fred Devine, the former administration President for the New York District Council of Carpenters and now convicted felon, started the ball rolling in 1993.


In the 1993 agreements with the associations, Devine gave up double time for overtime, and now all carpenters will only get time and a half for work after seven hours, except on Sundays and legal holidays. The District Council (now called Regional Councils) also agreed to allow contractors to use only apprentices for the unloading and distribution of carpenter materials on jobsites, turning the apprentices into cheap delivery labor and denying journeymen opportunities for overtime.

This story by Gregory A. Butler, carpenter in New York:

“Union carpenters in New York City in 1999 are at a crossroads. For the first time since 1915, we have a District Council leadership that does not have ties to La Costa Nostra, but we are actually worse off than we were under the wise guys.

There is a building boom, and only 1,300 or so brothers and sisters on the list out of 20,000, but there are also about 20,000 non-union brothers and sisters out there in our trade.

Not only are the non represented carpenters doing virtually all the new houses in Staten Island, and all the apartment renovations in Harlem, the South Bronx, South Jamaica, Bedford Stuyvessant and East New York, but much of the storefront work in the Financial District, Midtown, the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side and even high-rises on W 40th Street and that big MTA command center on 54th Street. And, even the sidewalk bridges around a lot of sites are non union, and we owned that work just 4 years ago.

In New York, McCarron’s organizers have been attempting to set up multiple scales, to attract the rat contractors. With the scaffold contractors, Rockledge and Colgate, who used to be union until former District Council President Fred Devine gave them a contract that exempted them from 50/50 hiring from the hall, enabling them to go 100% non union, McCarron's organizers, is rewarding them for going scab.”

Our unions continue to hire people off the street, even though the indentured apprentices and journeyman continue to be without jobs. Unions pay people living in the street and wives or girlfriends of carpenters to walk pickets, instead of asking for volunteers from the carpenters out of work. This brings up another matter...our carpenter trade union in the Chicago jurisdiction still will not appoint woman carpenters as organizers, but continue to allow the wives and girlfriends of carpenters to walk the pickets and pay them. This has been going on forever...now if that is not discrimination I do not know what is?


The council will close down the permit office every once in a while to pacify the other out of work carpenters, but the process continues. This concession was to allow contractors to hire diversity, but it has given these contractors the ability to pay less than scale to these people hired off the street. They know only what their union employer is telling them, they are being manipulated and lied too about what they should receive as union scale and benefits. These people are mostly people of color, women and easily manipulated uneducated white men. Our union does support discrimination by our union contractors. Because the business agents and organizers are to busy getting more jobs for us to work on, but does not have the time to support our rank and file members unless it benefits their plan.


At this point, I also have to include the apprenticeship programs...I am sure this occurs at many of the apprenticeship schools across union America. Bring the new people in by the thousands and let them run wild with no support from our Trustees or our Apprenticeship Administration. If it were not for the marvelous Instructors that work at the schools, the apprentices would get no support at all. This is of course unless they are favorites or in a union family. Fairness is not practiced here either…


Most of the new apprentices are left to fend for themselves. If our apprentice coordinators can find them leads on jobs, and if they can find a union contractor to hire a person of color or a woman, then they might work for a few months. More money goes into our coffers...and that is more money for the Executive and local administrators to provide salary increases and to make their wages secure and some of their double pensions fatter...and unions get stronger.


Some of the people in my union have been stonewalling my efforts to develop an evening class to educate all union carpenters to our Area Agreements, our UBCJA Constitution, and our union member rights for over ten years. Instead they make a video and leave it up to the individual member to watch and understand. Most of the members do not even watch it. Good job guys, keep the plan rolling along...keep doing it your way!


The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters Apprentice & Training Program has a Labor Management Relations class for first year apprentices. None of the other Instructor’s were ever trained to teach this class…I had to educate myself about the bargaining agreements, By-Laws & Working Rules, and our UBCJA Constitution so I felt comfortable teaching it to the apprentices. Some of the business agents, stewards on job sites, and organizers are still clueless to our area agreements or UBC Constitution.


The comments I have received from the working apprentices in the field are horror stories about what the union contractors are making them do in violation of our contracts…this has been occurring for the past fifteen years and is continuing to get worse. Our business agents and the hundreds of male organizers we pay continue to look the other way.


We are currently bringing in 3000 to 4000 apprentices for training in our program every year, but only 700 to 800 graduate...what does it matter; right? Most of them did work for an hour or more, or maybe a year or two before they disappeared. Our coffers are getting fatter because of these people...


Story from a sister Carpenter in another state:

“We have a local here that I say is about 70% African American. It happens to be a local that is paid a lesser rate because it is a housing local not commercial. Almost ALL of the women and men of color that come in through the pre-apprentice programs are assigned to that local. They don't get the same elective of being assigned to the local in their area like most of the white apprentices. The leadership of that local is 100% white. Go figure. This, in one the largest unionized cities on the east coast. Most members are just glad to be working.”


TEAMSTERS (IBT) - Chicago Local in Turmoil over Officer Elections

“Dissident members of a Chicago Teamsters union have charged the hierarchy with subverting the victory of their candidate for president in elections conducted Oct. 17, amid allegations of corruption linked with mob influence, kick-backs, and underhanded job-shifting schemes against the current hierarchy, led by Robert Walston. Local 743 represents more than 12,000 health care, manufacturing, insurance and university workers in the Chicago area.


An opposition slate led by Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) activist Richard Berg was ahead in the ballot count 788 to 781. About 200 ballots -- most from a shop that supported Berg -- remained to be counted when those votes were challenged. Local 743 bosses initially said that they would recognize the votes that had been challenged, but after checking the current tally changed their minds and decided to hold a new election entirely.


Local 743 attorney Bill Widmer said Berg himself asked for the election to be voided because voters had supposedly been disenfranchised. But Berg said the union dismissed numerous other protests he had filed, and than decided to grant one and ordered a new election when his win looked likely.” [Chicago Maroon, 10/28/04: Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/22/04]


Story by two sister Teamsters from the Chicago area:

“We are in a local on the southern area of Chicago that consists of all women, only the two of us are citizens of the U.S. All the other women are Hispanic and have U.S. Department of Homeland Security working cards. But they are not residents of the U.S. All of the officers in our local are white men who put fear into the women when we have anything to say about our employers not giving us our contracted scale or working more than eight hours and still getting paid the same as an eight hour day. The officers will not give us information as to our bargaining agreement and continue to threaten us with our jobs if we do not shut-up.”


Our Chicago area administration signed an agreement with what is called, Furniture Contractors. The concessions given to this type of contractor allows them to hire twenty apprentices to one journeyman carpenter on every one of their union jobs. Business agents have been placing mostly people of color and women with these contractors. These apprentices have no possibility of becoming journeyman carpenters. These type of contractors do not train people in the carpentry skills needed to gain journeyman status...so, near the end of their four year apprenticeship they only have two options left...start the apprentice program all over again or quit the carpenters union for another type of job.


You see, if they start all over again, they will continue to put money into our corporate Regional Councils coffers for all vested carpenters in our unions and they will again have a steady job for another almost four years at the apprentice rate. Good deal huh?


Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters administration gave up overtime on Saturdays for Residential Carpenters in our area...they raised the union dues fifteen dollars more for first and second year apprentices because they know most will not be in our union after the second year. Journeymen only received a three dollar increase...

In various other unions across America, and in some instances here in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa immigrant workers, people of color, and women are being placed into separate locals to allow the men that run that local to control and manipulate them. These people are not given their By-Laws and Constitution booklets, nor are the officers at those locals educating them to their rights under our bargaining agreement. In some of the more depressed areas of our three state county regions, locals are bullying their members and manipulating them into believing that they will not be able to get a job or ever work as a carpenter again. And again, these are mostly people of color, women or uneducated white men. People of color and women are constantly intimidated into not participating at their local meetings. Some of the apprentices that want to speak up at a meeting are still told to “shut your fucking month and sit down,” when it is a concern that the officers do not want to address. They also allow their members to bully the new members coming in, especially if that new member is a woman.


The immigrants only have employment cards from the Department of Homeland Security to work in the United States, and these people are constantly fearful of doing anything that could have them deported back to their countries. So they work for their union employers, accepting anything given to them. The Regional councils and the business agents again look the other way...


Any time a person of color or a female carpenter fights for their rights under our union contract they are blackballed and not able to work for that contractor again...


In September 2004, Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin reported that Andy Ryan, 19, son of Tom Ryan, Business Representative/Secretary Treasurer out of Carpenter Local 13, was hired as a building inspector even though the city requires all inspectors to have completed a four-year apprenticeship and have two years work experience. The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters was Mayor Daley’s largest campaign contributor in 2003. After more investigation it was found that another son of a Business Representative was also hired by the Chicago Building Department a year prior. Carpenter Local 13 was credited with being one of the prominent locals to negotiate a bargaining agreement with the City of Chicago, Building Inspection Department a year earlier...


I did not see young Ryan or any of his brothers in the Apprenticeship school until after the corruption charges were filed with the Chicago Building Department…then several of the brothers started in the apprenticeship. I heard one has since been appointed as a Business Representative in our CRCC union.


We have Executive Business Agent/Directors in charge of certain committees in our area; one is the called Mentorship Committee in which the President of a Carpenters Local and also an Executive Business Representative is in charge and has the title of Mentorship Director. There has not been a mentorship committee in this or other locals since the Las Vegas Convention in 2004. Yet I was told that it existed before 2004. It’s a big joke to this guy...if there is or was a mentorship committee in any carpenter local, it was because of the men and women carpenters in those locals made it happen, not because of this so-called Business Representative/Mentorship Director. Word is he received this position because it was the worse committee to be on, and they had to put him somewhere...


What our Unions have done over the past decade is to pander to the Corporations leaving the working carpenters to fend for themselves. As long as the union Corporations pay into the benefits fund, our unions will continue to be a strong hold in America, but this time at the cost to the uneducated workers, the immigrant workers or the uncaring and ignorant uneducated indentured apprentices and journeymen that continue to look the other way...


The same concessions have been happening here in the jurisdictional counties in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa and it is getting worse...and the excuse we, the working carpenters will be given is we are in a recession, and there is nothing that the Regional Council can do...


This same plan has been in effect in other unions across America and Canada as well. Part of the plan is to lower the wages of all union carpenters. The Corporate UBC and the Regional Councils however will continue to get there money to keep the union strong because the corporate contractors continue to pay into the benefits at higher amounts, possibly with the promise of better health care for union workers. Even though wages will be down and immigrants are always willing to work hard and receive lower wages. History repeats itself again...


UBCJA General President Douglas McCarron has been part of the RAT BRIGADE (Corporate Contractors) all along!


McCarron has been in on this plan since his first election in 1995 and started negotiations in 2000 with Bush and the Republican Party, his administrations goals have been to continue making the unions strong at the expense of the working carpenters and undocumented immigrant workers. These unions were once run by the working carpenters, now it is a Labor Union Corporation and the UBC and the Regional Councils have taken control. The union workers' rights under our agreements have been violated continuously over the past decade, and no one in our administration has been supporting the union workers rights. The Equal Rights amendment and all of the other laws are not enforced. It is like they have been put in place by our government and our unions but were written with disappearing ink...they are no more, nor have they really been!


The only right that our unions have been supporting with their millions of dollars a year attorney firms, which we pay for, is for the corporate labor unions, their administrations and contractor corporations’ rights.


We no longer have a voice or vote in our unions, and pretty soon we will no longer have a voice or vote in America! Corruption, deceit, and manipulation are alive and well in our unions…

“We, as carpenters, both union and non-union, have to build a new type of unionism. Our goal is and has always been for a better life and a higher standard of living for EVERY carpenter, White, Black, Latino, Polish, Asian, man or woman. We should not be on the same side with ANY contractor, rat or union. And, we do not have much use for leaders like Doug McCarron.” – Gregory A. Butler, union carpenter Blog

I second that notion...Wake up people, fight back!

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People really need to educate themselves to what is happening on in our Nation...

READ, THINK...EDUCATE

If you are just a passionately unaware American, please evaluate your thinking as to who is the best candidate to be our leader...the next President of the United States...

SWAY THE OBAMA WAY!

Time for Illinois Labor Leaders - the Real Ones - to get wise and give Andy Stern the tune-up he needs.

Trades Unions! Watch. When CTU Murders Charter Schools, Apprenticeship Programs Will Be Next. SEIU and Andy Stern Want it So!

SEIU wants to Kill School Reform and they have the money and muscle to do it. Killing School Reform, which actually means the advent and genuine success of Charter Schools in America, is a means of killing the Bureau of Apprenticeship Programs in Illinois and other States in favor of a State run Apprentice Program - run by a local politician like James Meeks, as Emil Jones will be at an undisclosed off-shore paradise.

Card check will be the key and Teachers Unions are already thugging it up.

appeasement on vouchers only whets unions appetites for eliminating all meaningful types of choice. With voucher programs facing termination in Washington, D.C., and heavy regulation in Milwaukee, the teachers unions have now set their sights on charter schools. Despite their proclamations about supporting charters, the actions of unions and their allies in state and national politics belie their rhetoric.

In New York, for example, the unions have backed a new budget that effectively cuts $51.5 million from charter-school funding, even as district-school spending can continue to increase thanks to local taxes and stimulus money that the charters lack. New York charters already receive less money per pupil than their district school counterparts; now they will receive even less.

Unions are also seeking to strangle charter schools with red tape. New York already has the "card check" unionization procedure for teachers that replaces secret ballots with public arm-twisting. And the teachers unions appear to have collected enough cards to unionize the teachers at two highly successful charter schools in New York City. If unions force charters to enter into collective bargaining, one can only imagine how those schools will be able to maintain the flexible work rules that allow them to succeed.

Good schools and solid Trades Programs are paths to success. Andy Stern can not and will not have that. SEIU sucks up unskilled and no skilled members, who are not and will not have an opportunity to train and study for a path into the American Middle Class. That was the Old Way - This is Change America, Sweetheart!

In Change America, group think and group wage will be based upon what the Tax-levying bodies in each State ( soviet) dole out to the rank and file.

Andy Stern wants an end to all Trades Apprenticeship Programs - no longer will the Pipefitters, Carpenters, Electricians, Plumbers, Sprinkler-fitters, of Engineers set standards for application to Apprenticeship Programs, nor will they run training schools.

SEIU will determine who does and gets what through each State's James Meeks, or some other Purple Approved Legislator.

Play ball with Andy Stern and you will get a knife in kidneys for your troubles.

SEIU is ACORN with an Advanced Degree ( Social Work @ University of Pennsylvania usually) and they need millions more members to feed the PAC. There are many more spineless politicians to buffalo and millions more children that Andy Stern needs for future harvests of no skill and unskilled members. That harvest is threatened by School Choice - Catholic Schools, Private Schools and especially Charter Schools.

Progress Illinois Andy Stern's graphic novel ( comic book)of propaganda is going flat out to help the oafish Marilyn Stewart's Chicago Teachers Union geld Charter Schools.

The Wall Street journal offers this roadmap:

When charter schools unionize, they become identical to traditional public schools in performance. Unions may say they support charter schools, but they only support charters after they have stripped them of everything that makes charters different from district schools.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have given speeches promoting charter schools. Despite their talk, charter spending constituted less than one-quarter of 1% of education spending in the stimulus package. And the Obama administration has done union bidding by killing the D.C. voucher program. They did this in the face of solid evidence of academic progress for the voucher students, and despite their stated commitment to do "what works for kids" regardless of ideology.

Vouchers made the world safe for charters by drawing union fire. But now that the unions have the voucher threat under control, charters are in trouble. It's time for reformers to increase pressure on politicians bending to the will of the unions and close the new education gap -- the one between what Mr. Obama and Mr. Duncan say about education and what they do.

Killing School Reform through unionizing Charter Schools is a step to killing Trades Programs. Kill competency and grow fat on millions of locked-in, impoverished and no skill members is the goal of Andy Stern, SEIU, Card Check,and Chicago Teachers Union.