‘A GUY JUST HIT ME’: FOX NEWS REPORTER ATTACKED AT WIS. PROTEST DURING LIVE BROADCAST
“There is hate in their eyes.”
That’s the eerie description Fox News national reporter Mike Tobin gave of the Wisconsin protesters in Madison on Saturday night. By Sunday afternoon that hate manifested itself in the form of an assault on Tobin, who was hit during a live broadcast from the Capitol amid chants of ‘Fox News lies!”
“A teacher was giving me the business yesterday,” Tobin explained before the attack, “and the teacher told me she hates me because it makes her feel good.” He then found out the extent of that hate just moments later:
California state employees take advantage of pension perk
State allows employees to increase retirement benefits by buying up to five fictitious years — known as ‘air time’ — to add to their public service. Financial advisors call it a great deal for retirees but bad for taxpayers.
Reporting from Sacramento — Tens of thousands of California state workers are taking advantage of a perk that pays them pension benefits for years they don’t actually work, and reformers looking for places to cut have put it at the top of the list.
State law allows the employees to increase their retirement benefits by tacking up to five fictitious years — known as “air time” — onto their public service. Although they pay a fee for the privilege and officials say it is high enough to cover the eventual payouts, critics of air time note that the boost can cost taxpayers millions when the state pension system’s investment income falls short, as it has in recent years.
[...]
“It’s a phenomenal deal for retirees, but it’s an absolute fleecing of the taxpayers,” said Scott Hanson, a principal in Sacramento-based investment firm Hanson McClain.
What you may NOT know about is Solis’ ties to the Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party. That will come after the following item:
===========================
God forbid they have to live by the same rules as the (gasp) private sector.
(Politico) — The final day of the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting turned into an impromptu rally for the public workers of Wisconsin, demonstrating that the standoff over GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget has galvanized labor and liberals.
“The fight is on,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the closing session of the DNC gathering at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel Saturday morning. “We work together. We help those embattled states right now where public employees are under assault.”
Solis, a former congresswoman from California, got cheers and multiple standing ovations for her remarks blasting Walker and other Republican governors who seek to weaken government workers’ collective bargaining rights.
“We know many states are facing tough budget decisions,” she said. “We know there’s room for shared sacrifice — shared sacrifice. We’ve seen our brothers and sisters in public employee unions willingly give up their fair share. . . . The governors of Wisconsin and Ohio aren’t just demanding that they tighten their belts, they’re demanding that they give up their uniquely American rights as workers.”
Top labor officials — from Gerald McEntee, president of the government workers’ union AFSCME, to Anna Burger, former secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union — came to the floor to speak in favor of a resolution supporting workers and collective bargaining.
Hilda L. Solis was appointed by the Obama Administration as Chairperson of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Feb. 2009. The appointment was welcomed by SEIU boss Andy Stern, American Rights at Work Chairperson David Bonior and AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney along with other prominent names in the labor movement. At the time, Sweeny commented that he was “thrilled at the prospect of having Solis as [the] nation’s next Labor Secretary”, adding that the AFL-CIO was looking forward to working with Solis as she chartered new territory for the nation’s working class. Democratic Socialists of Americavice-chair, Harold Meyerson, commented that the former treasurer of union-support organization, American Rights at Work was now in the key position to promote what he termed as the “most contentious issue on Obama’s agenda”, – the Employee Free Choice Act. He added, “But Solis has never been deterred by controversy”. Earlier, in August 2008, the Obama Campaign had formed its National Latino Advisory Council of which Solis was a member. A Latino herself, Solis commented that, “Senator Obama not only understands the struggles and diversity of our community but because of his personal history and background he will stand with us and be a fighter for our issues”.
Solis has a strong working relationship with socialist individuals and groups.
In 2005, Solis was the keynote speaker at the Democratic Socialists of America National Conference, speaking alongside ACORN chief organizer, Wade Rathke, Peter Dreier and other leading socialists. In 2006, Dreier wrote about Los Angeles in the DSA‘s newsletter Democratic Left,“It’s a network of activists that work closely with elected officials, like Congresswoman Hilda Solis…”
In June 1996 she was represented by staffer Antonio Aguilar at a tribute event for unionists Jerry Acosta and Gil Cedillo. The event was hosted by the party’s paper, People’s Weekly World. And in 2000, Solis enjoyed backing from the party for her run for U.S. Congress. Further following her work with communists, the William C. Velásquez Institute sponsored Solis to visit Cuba in 2001, for “unspecified purposes”. She traveled in Cuba again in 2006 with a delegation of nine other congressman including Bill Delahunt, meeting with communist officials. Solis has stated that she receives inspiration from Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers and Dolores Huerta of both UFW and DSA.
While the gathering was a working convention—one that differed from past meetings in that all convention business happened on the plenary floor for maximum delegate participation,two evening public sessions focused on the big picture, too.
On Friday evening, a panel consisting of ACORN chief organizer Wade Rathke, Kent Wong of the UCLA Labor Center and Roxana Tynan of the Los Angeles Alliance
for a New Economy looked at the level of struggles nationwide.
Saturday evening delegates recognized the contributions of DSA vice chair and Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson, Occidental College sociologist and longtime DSAer Peter Dreier and insurgent California Congress member Hilda Solis (D) who in turn provided in-depth perspectives of the political scene.
“Insurgent”?
Hilda Solis also has indirect ties to the Socialist International. In June this year the SI Migrations Committee held a Migrations Reform, Integration, Rights forum in Los Angeles
DSA, the SI’s main US affiliate was represented by DSA National Director Frank Llewellyn plus Duane Campbell and Dolores Delgado Campbell of DSA’s Anti Racism network and the Latino networks.
California State Senator Gill Cedillo, was also in attendance.
Hilda Solis was formally represented by Elena Henry, a caseworker from Solis’s East Los Angeles Office.
This was not the first time that Solis had sent a representative to a socialist gathering.
The Southern California Friends of the People’s Weekly World tribute to two of Los Angeles’ finest labor leaders, Jerry Acosta and Gilbert Cedillo, became a dynamic rally of elected officials, activists, labor and community leaders in solidarity with labor struggles and in the fight to defeat the ultra-right in November…
The audience clapped, cheered and sometimes shouted out during the spirited tribute to Jerry Acosta, regional director of the Utility Workers Union, and Gilbert Cedillo, long-time leader of Service Employees International Union Local 660.
“The People’s Weekly World and all of us in this room feel very strongly about who we honor today,” said Evelina Alarcon, chair of the Southern California District and national secretary of the Communist Party USA, one of the emcees of the tribute. “Jerry Acosta and Gilbert Cedillo represent the new fightback vision of the Sweeney, Trumka, Chavez-Thompson leadership in the AFL-CIO. They represent the rank and file that is pushing from the bottom for that new vision!”
Alarcon recounted many of Acosta’s and Cedillo’s achievements, calling them “real live working class heroes in the forefront of struggle” who “take bold initiatives on labor issues” and spearhead mass action in the fight for equality of all people.
If there is any time that we value that kind of leadership, “it is now when we face the greatest electoral challenge of our time,” Alarcon said pointing to the necessity “to vote out the Republican ultra-right in the Congress and in the California State legislature.”
Rep. Esteban Torres, a UAW labor leader in Congress, wearing his union jacket and standing tall, told the crowd, “This event would have made old Sam Kushner proud,” referring to the late World labor reporter.
Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, on behalf of the council which adopted a resolution honoring Acosta and Cedillo, said, “Gil Cedillo and Jerry Acosta have changed the whole dynamic of what it means to be for the working class and what it means to fight for workers rights. Because of them and other labor leaders, we have seen a resurgence of strength of the least empowered in our country…”
Presentations to the honorees were also made by Clara James, chair of the Community Affairs Commission of the Second Baptist Church, on behalf of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, one of the nation’s most distinguished African American leaders; Antonio Aguilar, on behalf of State Senator Hilda Solis, California’s first Latina elected to the State Senate, who, along with labor, led the drive to put a minimum wage increase initiative on the ballot;
State Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigoza sent a message and 17 elected officials and more than 50 labor leaders put their names in the program book honoring Cedillo and Acosta. Victoria Castro, a member of the L.A. City Board of Education, sent certificates recognizing the two labor leaders.
This piece is important because it shows the influence of the CPUSA in Southern Californis Politics. The CPUSA has substantial influence in the Los Angeles labor movement and by directing union money and human resources in the right direction is able to determine who gets elected and where
Obama is desperately trying to keep public employee unions —call it the Collective Brotherhood — in power
By Michael R. Shannon
February 26, 2011
Fresh off his success destabilizing the government in Egypt, President Obama is now taking aim at domestic tyrants — beginning with Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
This time, rather than help the Muslim Brotherhood assume power for the first time, Obama is desperately trying to keep public employee unions —call it the Collective Brotherhood — in power.
Why? Unions spent $400 million dollars electing Obama in 2008, and although Barack does not appear to comprehend the damage crippling deficits do to the nation, he’s well aware of what a $400 million dollar hole will do to his re–election budget.
For his part, Gov. Walker is not exactly holed up in an undisclosed location with a junta of military cronies attempting to cut the power to Al–Jazeera. Last November Wisconsin voters elected Walker in a near landslide and threw Democrats out of power in both the state Senate and House.
Real deal breaker for union honchos is ending the state’s role as enforcer for union dues collection
Now Walker is attempting to implement the program Wisconsin voters approved. This includes balancing the budget by bringing government employee’s benefits in line with those of taxpayers in the private sector and limiting collective bargaining for non–public safety employees. However, the real deal breaker for union honchos is ending the state’s role as enforcer for union dues collection.
The state of Wisconsin doesn’t deduct Netflix fees or health club dues from paychecks, why should it be mandatory that it deduct union dues from every employee paycheck?
If public employee unions are such a great deal for employees, and a real boon to mankind, shouldn’t union members eagerly volunteer to pay dues?
Wisconsin Democrats love for democracy ends when they start losing
Wisconsin Democrats love for democracy ends when they start losing. This is because “progressives” know what’s good for us. As long as elections confirm their benevolent wisdom, we can vote to our heart’s content. But when voters start grasping for God, guns and gasp, the GOP it’s time to reassert “progressive” control.
After the November drubbing, it is obvious Democrats will lose the vote on Gov. Walker’s reform bill. Senate Democrats decided to destabilize the government by fleeing the state and denying a quorum for the vote. Which makes Dems the willful minority, holed up in some dingy hideout, clinging to power in defiance of the voters.
This is typical. Dems in Texas have done it three times, most recently in 2003, and yesterday Indiana Dems copied Wisconsin dead–enders and joined them in Illinois.
My advice to Gov. Walker is to schedule as many senate votes as possible over the next week or so to highlight the “progressive’s” dereliction of duty. Demonstrate conclusively that these Democrats are willfully disrupting the will of the people by preventing the legislature from functioning.
Invoke Article 13, Section 10 of the state Constitution that says the legislature may declare a seat vacant
Then leaders in the Wisconsin Senate should invoke Article 13, Section 10 of the state Constitution that says the legislature may declare a seat vacant. This vote only requires a majority of the Senate for a quorum, which the 19 GOP members more than satisfy.
Threaten the AWOL senators with loss of their seats and privilege and I predict the romance of a life on the lam will lose its attractiveness.
Make no mistake; this confrontation in Wisconsin is Stalingrad for public employee unions and big government–supporting Democrats.
Madison, Wisconsin was the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Wisconsin was the first state to give public employees collective bargaining rights. In 2010 unions as a whole spent $2.5 million in Wisconsin to elect candidates to do their bidding.
If they lose here, public employee unions can lose anywhere and that means a large part of the rent–an–activist and campaign contribution base of the Democrat party will be crippled in 2012.
Obama has expressed his support for protesters occupying the Wisconsin capital. His political operation “Organizing for America” is helping organize the protests that are disrupting the government and closing public schools.
Democrats are road testing “government shutdown” arguments and media massaging techniques in Wisconsin that they plan to use here in DC when Republicans confront the White House over federal budget cuts.
(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Interior Department is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday to officially open the Alaska Climate Science Center — the first of its kind in the nation, the Interior Department says.
Located at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, the center is the first of eight regional climate science centers the federal government plans to establish across the U.S.
The U.S. Geological Survey is taking the lead in establishing the centers.
According to the Fiscal 2012 U.S. Geological Survey budget proposal, “The Climate Science Centers will provide the scientific base for land and water management decisions related to changing climates.” The budget requests $11 million to complete the planned network of eight Climate Science Centers.
The Interior Department says the centers will work closely with government agencies and universities, using “existing science programs to build new capabilities.” The eight regional centers will provide data on the impacts of climate change and help land managers respond.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Alaska as the site of the first regional climate center last March: “With its rapidly melting Arctic sea ice and permafrost, and threats to the survival of Native Alaskan coastal communities, Alaska is ground zero for climate change,” he said at the time. “We must put science to work to help us adjust to the impacts of climate change on Alaska’s resources and peoples.”
Salazar said the climate science centers will “provide science about climate change impacts, help land managers adapt to the impacts, and engage the public through education initiatives.”
Four other climate science centers will be located in at Oregon State University, North Carolina State University, University of Arizona-Tucson, and Colorado State University-Fort Collins. The remaining three centers — to be located in the South Central, Northeastern U.S. and the Pacific Islands — have not yet been announced.
According to the Interior Department, “Climate change is driving rapid and broad changes across the United States and the world,” and the Interior Department “has an obligation to address the impacts that climate change is having on America’s resources by developing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies.”
But when it comes to “climate change science,” the government appears to have overlapping — and duplicative — efforts.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — which falls under the U.S. Commerce Department — also operates Regional Climate Centers (as opposed to the Interior Department’s regional Climate Science Centers).
NOAA’s six centers are “engaged in the timely production and delivery of useful climate data, information and knowledge for decision makers and other users at the local, state, regional and national levels,” the agency says on its Web site.
NOAA’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget request includes a reorganization that brings together NOAA’s existing climate capabilities under a single office — a new Climate Service — which will “more effectively and efficiently respond to America’s increasing demand for climate information.”
Northeastern U.S. (want to bet New York,Vermont or Massachusetts?)
Pacific Islands (Hawaii? American Samoa?)
“The Climate Science Centers will provide the scientific base for land and water management decisions related to changing climates.”
*** Did YOU notice NONE of the “fly-over states were included? ****
Does this bother YOU? Land and water MANAGEMENT DECISIONS…….
2. NOAA is already in place, WHY duplicate to have MORE “climate change” centers?
3. With the current Recession affecting and increasing gas prices, reverberating to food, clothing, etc. prices, WHY even THINK that a “Climate Science Center” would be a good thing? Oh, it probably “saved or created” a few jobs……
Protesters at the Wisconsin Capitol disrespectfully have taped signs on and piled junk against the Veterans Memorial.
By Ann Althouse
February 25, 2011
Meade and I confront them, and we’re told we’re the first people who’ve had a problem with it. I try to explain how that attempted defense of the behavior is only going to make it look worse. It means that of all these crowds of people in the Capitol, no one else has noticed or cared enough to say anything.
***PAY ATTENTION to the young woman talking and her explanation about the signs/posters on the War Memorial.***
AND: Here’s a video made by Democracy Now! that features the young woman Meade talks to in the end of our video.
**Pay Attention to the background while the young woman speaks at 4:56 to 5:00, from 5:07 to 5:17 AND from 5:25 to 5:35.*** HINT: the War Memorial
IF this young woman (Harriet) is knowledgeable enough to give Democracy Now! and guided tour of the Capital Building and seems to know about signs/letters, etc. how did SHE NOT KNOW the the War Memorial was being papered and defaced (description by Harriet of “information center”)?
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Wis. Capitol to Close Sunday Afternoon
February 26, 2011
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — Protesters will have to clear out of the state Capitol by the end of the weekend so custodians can clean the building after days of nonstop demonstrations, officials announced Friday.
It was unclear whether the move could spell the end of demonstrations that have consumed the Capitol for nearly two weeks. Protesters said they would not give up. Some said they would not leave the building.
“Until this issue is resolved, we’ll remain here,” said Madison resident Amanda Postel. “You know what they say, ‘The longer the fight, the longer your chapter in the history books.”‘
The state Department of Administration issued a statement Friday saying the building will close at 4 p.m. Sunday and protesters must be out by then. The building will reopen on Monday at 8 a.m.
Capitol Police will allow protesters to sleep on the building’s ground and first floors overnight Saturday into Sunday, but have asked that they not bring any blankets or sleeping bags into the building beginning Saturday.
The state Capitol building in Madison has been occupied round-the-clock by protesters for nearly two weeks. Fourteen Democratic state senators are still on the lam, refusing to allow a vote on a budget-repair bill. And Gov. Scott Walker has been called everything from a new Hitler to rotting cheese.
Yet the governor sounds unflappable. “I just finished eight years as county executive in Milwaukee last December,” he told me during a telephone interview. “I’ve dealt with unions and angry legislators. I know anytime you challenge the status quo you have to be bold—and take the heat.”
Mr. Walker’s challenge to the status quo is nothing if not bold. Wisconsin, he says, faces an immediate $137 million budget shortfall and a $3.6 billion deficit over the next two years. Part of his plan for putting the state on a sustainable fiscal path is to have state workers contribute more to their pensions and health-insurance plans, although they would still pay less than the national average for government workers.
But what’s made him a national target of rage—or a hero, depending on your point of view—are his proposals to limit the power of public-employee unions. “We have to cut money the state sends counties and cities,” he says, and “the collective bargaining changes I propose will save them more than those cuts by giving them the flexibility private employers have to control costs.”
He’s confident his plan will become law. The state assembly passed it in the wee morning hours of Friday, and pressure is building on the state Senate Democrats who have fled the state to prevent a vote. If the state doesn’t pass a budget and refinance $165 million in debt by Tuesday, Mr. Walker will have to send out 1,500 layoff-at-risk notices to state employees. Ultimately, 5,000 state workers and an equal number of local employees could lose their jobs.
“I very much want to avoid laying people off,” Mr. Walker says. But his experience as county executive taught him that “not everyone feels that way. During budget crises I would push for a couple of weeks where workers would only put in 35 hours so we didn’t have to cut jobs, but union leaders would say no. It’s reactionary.” He says there’s a gulf between the interests of union leaders and those of their members. “When they say it’s about worker rights, it’s really about big union bosses running their own political dynasties.” That’s why the parts of his plan that most stick in the craw of union leaders are the ones that would limit their power.
For one, the proposal would require that public-employee unions be recertified annually by a majority vote of all their members, not merely by a majority of those who cast ballots. The bill would also end the government’s practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks. “If workers have freedom of choice on their own dues money and a real voice in their union,” the governor says, “they may get better representation.” [Emphasis added]
It is deeply symbolic that this epic battle over the direction of government is taking place in the Badger State. Wisconsin was the birthplace of the modern progressive state in the early 20th century under Gov. Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette, who championed progressive taxation and the nation’s first worker’s-compensation system. In 1959, Gov. Gaylord Nelson made Wisconsin the first state to grant public employees collective-bargaining rights.
But in more recent years Wisconsin has also been an incubator of the conservative counterargument to the welfare state. In the 1990s, Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson helped push through welfare reform and school-choice programs that have been emulated across the country. By modernizing the relationship between state employees and the government, Mr. Walker, like Mr. Thompson before him, hopes to contain the excesses of the past—to enable the modern welfare state to live within its means.
Mr. Walker says that the employee rights that people care about are protected by civil-service rules, not collective bargaining. “We have the strongest protections in the country on grievance procedures, merit hiring, and just cause for disciplining and terminating employees,” he says. “None of that changes under my plan.” Mr. Walker notes that the single largest group affected by his proposal are the 30,000 workers at the University of Wisconsin who were only granted collective-bargaining rights in 2009. “If they only got them two years ago, how can you say they’re set in stone?” [Emphasis added]
Are the Unions really concerned about worker’s rights? Or are the Union’s hierarchy worried about losing their power and $$$?
Quote from Gov. Scott Walker:
Mr. Walker says that the employee rights that people care about are protected by civil-service rules, not collective bargaining. “We have the strongest protections in the country on grievance procedures, merit hiring, and just cause for disciplining and terminating employees,” he says. “None of that changes under my plan.”
Yesterday, I blogged that Cathy Zoi, acting undersecretary of Energy at the Department of Energy, was leaving office to go to work for private industry. The New York Times article that mentioned the transition failed to note where exactly she would be working.
Timothy Carney at the Washington Examiner found out today. The answer is George Soros.
George Soros — whom we’re always told is not serving his own economic interests at all by promoting liberal politicians and big-government policies — is launching a new investment fund, that plans to profit off of the “green energy” boom, which is entirely dependent on government subsidies.
As the press release puts it, this fund will “leverage technology and business model innovation to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, harness renewable energy, and more efficiently use natural resources, among other applications.” As Soros puts it in the same release: “Developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency is both a significant global investment opportunity and an environmental imperative.” Cadie Thompson at CNBC’s NetNet flagged this.
So, yeah. The big-government policies advanced by the liberal outfits he funds — like Center for American Progress — will enrich the companies in which Soros is investing.
But this story gets better.
The press release casually mentions whom Soros is hiring to run this new fund: Cathy Zoi. As Cadie Thompson at CNBC’s NetNet (edited by my brother John Carney), puts it,
Zoi was Barack Obama’s “Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.” An Al Gore acolyte, Zoi was Obama’s point-woman on subsidizing green tech. Now she’s going to work for George Soros to profit off of subsidized green tech.
As I pointed out in my blog yesterday, Zoi has had a checkered career during which she appeared to take actions in her official capacity that benefited her and her husband’s investments in “green energy.” For example, Serious Materials, a “green buildings material” company benefited from federal stimulus dollars. But as I noted in my blog the extent of what appears to be crony capitalism extended beyond that instance.
George Soros was an early and prominent supporter of Senator Barack Obama. He is a legendary investor who looks for promising early-stage investments and who uses leverage (including the political kind) to the hilt to maximize returns. He is also an arch crony capitalist who knows his way around Washington, where so much of our money seems to wash up.
The think-tank that he funds, the Center for American Progress, has been depicted as Obama’s ” Ideas Factory.” The CAP is headed by John Podesta who headed the transition team for President-elect Obama and the Center has provided many key officials that have staffed Obama’s administration. The Center has also been in the forefront of promoting green and renewable energy.
I wrote last year in my column“Cheap Natural Gas and its Democratic Enemies” that George Soros was perfectly placed to capitalize on his friends in high places strategy to reap financial benefits from the green energy push by the Democrats he has so carefully and generously cultivated over the years. He had already announced that he planned to invest $1 billion dollars in this sector.
Now his investments in Barack Obama and the Democratic Party seem that much closer to reaching fruition. As I have pointed out before, journalists and others who condemn the Koch brothers but give a pass to George Soros because his activism and money supposedly do not benefit him financially have been very wrong. They have been covering upfor George Soros .
Cathy Zoi, who was the Acting Under Secretary for Energy and Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is going to work for a new cleantech private equity fund sponsored by George Soros and a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
The new fund will invest in…wait for it…”the energy and resource sectors.”
The new fund is called Silver Lake Kraftwerk (the press release refers to it as “SLKW”) and will be led by Adam Grosser, who spent a decade as general partner at Foundation Capital, where he worked on major cleantech investments like Silver Spring Networks and Enernoc. He also previously worked at Apple, Sony and Lucasfilms. Cathy Zoi will also join the fund in April; she recently left her job as the Department of Energy’s undersecretary for energy and assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
In other words, the revolving door keeps on spinning. Thanks for all that transparency Obama.
Cathy Zoi, the assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy, owns between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of stock in Landis+Gyr, a Swiss-based manufacturer of special electric meters that are used to create an efficient “smart” grid of electricity use.
Her husband, Robin Roy, owns options on at least 120,000 shares of Serious Materials, a leading manufacturer of energy-efficient windows that’s been singled out for praise by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. As an officer of the company, Roy receives options on an additional 2,500 shares every month and will continue to do so until October 2012.
Did I mention that Obama gave a shout out to Serious materials in a speech in March 2009?
“Serious Materials, just reopened a manufacturing plant outside of Pittsburgh. Last year, that factory was shuttered and more than one hundred jobs were lost. The town was devastated. Today, that factory is whirring back to life, and Serious Materials is rehiring the folks who lost their jobs. And these workers will now have a new mission: producing some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world.”
But we can put all that behind us, because now Zoi has left the Obama Administration and will go back to work making an honest living in the private sector, where she can put all the knowledge she gained from working for the Department of Energy to work for the private equity firms. Thata girl Zoi!
Oh, did we mention that Zoi also has knowledge of Pacific Gas & Electric’s short-and long-term planning for electricity and natural gas?
(CNSNews.com) – The chairman of the new President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness has presided over a corporation that has seen a steady U.S. job decline since 2005.
President Barack Obama named Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive officer of General Electric since 2001, as chairman of the jobs council last month. GE faced hefty fines from the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2009 and 2010.
According to GE’s own Web site, in 2005, GE employed 160,000 U.S. workers. By 2009 that fell to 138,000. Meanwhile non-U.S. jobs gradually increased from below 160,000 in 2005 to about 170,000 in 2008. But in 2009, the figures dropped below 160,000 jobs again.
The jobs council met Thursday at the White House to discuss how to grow jobs in the United States.
During the meeting, Immelt said the council is focused on job growth, and it will likely have future meetings outside of Washington to get an understanding about the jobs picture in the United States.
“You’ve given us some things to focus on. What we’re going to try to look to is short and long-term growth. We’re going to really focus on jobs and competitiveness,” Immelt told the council members. “Maybe the next meeting can be out in the field.”
Obama told the council he believes they were off to a good start, but said that Americans will want to see progress before they are comfortable about the direction of the economy.
“Our focus has to be on jobs here in the United States,” Obama said. “The reason is because our ability to sustain long-term things like, an aggressive trade agenda, or investments in R and D [research and development] or investments in education will depend on the degree to which the American people feel a stake in your success.”
When announcing Immelt as chairman on Jan. 21, Obama said, “Jeff is somebody who brings a wealth of experience to the table. He is one of the nation’s most respected and admired business leaders, and that’s a reputation he earned over 10 years at the helm of this company.”
But Tom Borelli, director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, believes Immelt was a horrible choice to be a presidential adviser on job growth.
“You couldn’t find a worse CEO to put on a jobs and economics panel, in terms of jobs and ethics – two SEC fines in the last two years,” Borelli told CNSNews.com. “He is the poster child for a failed CEO, and the GE board is the poster child of a failed board for keeping him around.”
A GE press spokesperson did not return phone or e-mail messages from CNSNews.com Thursday.
In 2009 and 2010, GE paid millions in SEC fines, but did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The SEC finedGE $50 million in August 2009, alleging the company used improper accounting on four separate occasions in 2002 and 2003 to “increase its reported earnings or revenue and avoid reporting negative financial results.”
“Beginning in January 2003, an improper application of the accounting standards to GE’s commercial paper funding program to avoid unfavorable disclosures and an estimated approximately $200 million pre-tax charge to earnings,” an Aug. 4, 2009 SEC news release highlighting the four offenses said.
“A 2003 failure to correct a misapplication of financial accounting standards to certain GE interest-rate swaps. In 2002 and 2003, reported end-of-year sales of locomotives that had not yet occurred in order to accelerate more than $370 million in revenue. In 2002, an improper change to GE’s accounting for sales of commercial aircraft engines’ spare parts that increased GE’s 2002 net earnings by $585 million,” it added.
In July 2010, theSEC slapped GE with a $23.4 million penalty for its involvement in the oil-for-food scandal. GE agreed to pay the fine, but again did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The SEC, in a July 27, 2010 news release, said four GE subsidiaries “made illegal kickback payments in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services to the Iraq Health Ministry or the Iraqi Oil Ministry in order to obtain valuable contracts under the [United Nations] Oil-for-Food program” from 2000 to 2003.
The U.N. Oil-for-Food program instituted in 1996 was designed to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian aid and medical supplies to go to Iraqis despite the sanctions that were imposed on the country then under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. But, the SEC found that Iraqi ministries demanded kickbacks on contracts. Several other U.S. and foreign corporations were also implicated in the scandal.
The SEC took 15 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement actions against companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal, collecting $204 million in penalties, the agency said.
GE owned two of the subsidiaries involved in the scandal before the U.S.-Iraq war began in 2003, and acquired two other companies after Saddam’s regime was toppled.
“What kind of perception does that create if the president of the United States would appoint someone with two SEC fines that happened during his term in office?” Borelli said. “Doesn’t he do background checks?”
Borelli said GE’s highest corporate interest is pushing renewable energy projects, and he expected Immelt would use this position to do that.
“GE has been screaming for a carbon tax,” Borelli said. “To do that would raise the cost of fossil fuels. That would not make America more competitive.”
GE has invested heavily in green energy and lobbied heavily for legislation to regulate carbon emissions.
Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, says clean-tech innovations will boost his company as he announces a new $200 million fund for new eco-friendly technologies.
Obama’s ‘Organizing v. America’ thugs H8 everybody else
As the Wisconsin Legislature reconvened this morning, a key federation of nearly 100 labor unions in the state is calling for a general strike for about 45,000 people if Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill is signed into law.
The South Central Federation of Labor is calling for a general strike if the bill becomes law, according to a report by The Cap Times in Madison.
The SCFL represents workers in 97 unions in Dane, Sauk, Columbia, Jefferson and Iowa Counties.
The SCFL website calls for rallies at the Capitol at noon and 5 p.m. today, and for rallies to continue through the week outside and a “constant vigil” inside the Capitol.
Sources told BizTimes that other labor unions that would be affected by Walker’s bill also are pondering going out on strike if the proposal is approved.
Republicans in the state Assembly are introducing Walker’s bill today. Assembly Democrats are expected to introduce several amendments in an attempt to change the bill or at least delay its passage.
The state Senate also reconvened, but Republicans cannot achieve a quorum because the 14 Democrats in the Senate fled the state. Still, the GOP Senators plan to vote on non-fiscal items, such as a voter ID bill.
How’s that (full of air) speech by Obama for “Civility” in America working out for you?
**Warning/Caution for language in the following videos***
Union Intimidation in Ohio (S.B.5)
Assault on Innocent Cameraman
SEIU Protester to Black Tea Partyer: Do You Have Any Children That You Claim?
A digression:
SEIU assaults union supporter in hospital cafeteria
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Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO) — The Eddie York Slaying
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Thug may refer to:
People
Thug, a common criminal, who treats others violently and roughly, often for hire. Often a member of a gang, as an enforcer in organized crime, and misdemeanor.
A gang is a group of people, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity.[2]
The word gang often carries a negative connotation; however, within a gang which defines itself in opposition to mainstream norms, members may adopt the phrase as a statement of identity or defiance.
Red Reps. 1 Kyrsten Sinema – Communist Party and Soros Connections
Kyrsten Sinema
Kyrsten Sinema is a State Representative from Arizona. She serves as the Assistant Leader to the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives and represents central Phoenix in the Arizona Legislature District 15. Now in her third term, she is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Regarded as an high flyer, Sinema will almost run for national office at some point in the future.
Sinema is an Arizona native, born and raised in a border region. She graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work at the age of 18. While advocating for “marginalized and oppressed communities in the state”, she earned her master’s degree in Social Work and later went on to graduate cum laude with her juris doctorate from Arizona State University. In addition, she was hired as an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at ASU at the age of 26 to teach master’s level courses in fundraising and political and social policy. Kyrsten Sinema was elected to the House of Representatives in 2004, after nearly a decade of professional practice as a social worker and “social justice” advocate.
The Communist Party USA, plays a major role in Arizona’s “progressive community” and has in the past counted Sinema among its affiliates.
Kyrsten Sinema was a signatory to an advertisement “May Day and Cinco de Mayo greetings” placed in the Communist Party paper People’s Weekly World May 4, 2002. Such ads were traditionally placed in the Communist Party paper every May Day, sponsored by local party clubs, members or supporters.
Arizona’s progressive community extends May Day and Cinco de Mayo greetings to all our friends across the country. We commit ourselves to resist the Bush Administration’s drive for ever increasing military spending and a neverending state of war. We must redouble our efforts to build a people’s coalition that will drive the ultra right out of Congress next November
Shortly after her election in 2004, Kyrsten Sinema and former State Representative Steve May formed Arizona Together, the statewide coalition to defeat Arizona’s same-sex marriage ban. During the course of the two years leading up to the 2006 election, Sinema led the campaign’s effort to raise nearly $3 million, research, craft, and deliver a winning message, and build a broad-based, statewide coalition of community leaders, organizations, and businesses.
Arizona made history Nov. 7 2006, when its voters became the first in the nation to reject a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Wrote Arizona Communist Party leader and Arizona Together activist Joe Bernick
So how did we do it?
The answer is: educating, organizing and mobilizing.As soon as proponents started circulating petitions to put 107 on the ballot, opponents brought out their own clipboards, signing up thousands of volunteers. Arizona Together emerged as the campaign committee, chaired by progressive state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.
Circa 2008, four members of the Arizona state legislature, including Sinema, joined together to form a “Progressive Caucus” in the House of Representatives of the Arizona State Legislature.
In 2010, Kyrsten Sinema served on the Board of Directors for the Progressive States Network, an organization which seeks to “transform the political landscape by sparking progressive actions at the state level”. This organization is funded by George Soros‘ Open Society Institute.
Sinema serves on numerous community and national boards, including as Board President of Community Outreach and Advocacy for Refugees, the YWCA of Maricopa County, the influential Center for Progressive Leadership, and the Young Elected Officials’ Network. She is the recipient of awards for her political leadership, including the NAACP Civil Rights Award, AZ Hispanic Community Forum Friend of the Year, Planned Parenthood Legislative CHOICE Award, Sierra Club’s Most Valuable Player, and the AZ Public Health Association Legislator of the Year.
To whom does Kyrsten Sinema owe her primary allegiance – the progressive Soros agenda, her old friends in the Arizona Communist Party, or to the “mom and pop” voters of Arizona?
While several unions and a multitude of Marxist groups are involved in the Wisconsin and other state capitol protests, the lead organization is undoubtedly America’s huge public sector union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
AFCSME website
While ostensibly about preserving public sector union collective bargaining ‘rights’, the protests are really a confrontation of values.
AFSCME wants to preserve and expand union power in an increasingly government dominated economy.
AFSCME is confronting several, mainly ‘Tea Party’ backed state governors who want to roll back the power of the unions, in order to save their states from bankruptcy, strengthen the private sector and restore free enterprise and economic growth
This essentially a battle between certain socialism and the possibility of freedom.
Am I exaggerating? Where is my proof that AFSCME has a socialist agenda?
The proof lies in AFCSME’s leadership – much of which is allied to the U.S.’s largest Marxist organization Democratic Socialists of America.
Gerald McEntee
Gerald W. McEntee – Long time AFCSME International President was part of the movement which made D.S.A. member John Sweeney President of the AFL-CIO in 1995 – which marked the beginning of the socialist/communist re-conquest of the U.S. labor movement.
While not publicly known as a a D.S.A. member, McEntee was named as such in a 1999 email from then San Francisco DSAer Michael Pugliese;
BTW, for what it’s worth McEntee, is one of the DSA notables in the labor bureaucrat column. As is John Sweeney.
McEntee and Lucy, on behalf of AFCSE, placed an advertisement in D.S.A.‘s Democratic Left, Issue #4 1998, page 10, “AFSCME proudly salutes Democratic Socialists of America”.
Click to enlarge
Lee A. Saunders
Lee A. Saunders- William Lucy’s replacement as AFL-CIO Secretary/Treasurer is a very well connected activist.
Saunders serves as a vice president of the AFL-CIOExecutive Council, which guides the daily work of the labor federation. He is an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee, treasurer of the leftist Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and a member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Black CaucusInstitute’s 21st Century Committee.
In addition, Saunders serves on the board of the George Soros funded Progressive States Network, which supports “progressive state legislators with research, policy, communication and strategic resources”.
Paul Booth
Paul Booth - A real power in AFSCME, Booth serves as Executive Assistant to Gerald McEntee, and is regarded by many as the ‘brains’ of the organization.
In 1986 and 1990, Booth was named in D.S.A. publications as a member of that organization.
Paul Booth is married to prominent Democratic Party activist and D.S.A. ‘friend’ Heather Booth, founder of the infamous Alinskyite radical training center, the Midwest Academy.
There is no doubt that D.S.A. sees labor ‘struggles’ in socialist terms.
In an article in D.S.A.’s Democratic Left , Spring 2007, D.S.A. National political Committee member David Green of Detroit wrote in support of the Employee Free Choice Act, often known as “card check”.
What distinguishes socialists from other progressives is the theory of surplus value. According to Marx, the secret of surplus value is that workers are a source of more value than they receive in wages…
Our goal as socialists is to abolish private ownership of the means of production. Our immediate task is to limit the capitalist class’s prerogatives in the workplace…
We can accomplish this by promoting full employment policies, passing local living wage laws, but most of all by increasing the union movement’s power…
That is the real issue here. AFSCME and their D.S.A. comrades understand that this is a ‘class’ battle, a ‘struggle’ to advance socialism. They understand that the winner of this battle gets to decide America’s future.
While very few of the firemen and teachers putting their bodies on the line for AFSCME would realize this, they are merely pawns in their leadership’s Marxist agenda.
