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How many times will Americans hear the Union contracts,pensions and healthcare provisions have bankrupted a company?

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From the Communist Party USA’s newsier People’s World:

Unions scramble to protect pensions in Hostess bankruptcy

By Mark Gruenberg

January 16, 2012

KENSINGTON, Md. - The Bakery Workers (BCTGM), the Teamsters, and other unions representing Hostess Foods employees scrambled to protect their members as the snack food company filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 11 for the second time this century.

The 2011 filing, like that of ’04, could affect some 5,500 BCTGM workers at Hostess plants nationwide, union President Frank Hurt told Press Associates Union News Service. The Teamsters report that they represent 7,500 Hostess drivers and merchandisers. Several other unions have smaller contingents at Hostess.

Regardless of the final details, Hurt predicted his members would be harmed by whatever the federal bankruptcy judge in New York City permits the firm’s owners – mostly a group of venture capitalists – to do.

“Those with the gold make the rules,” he said, including the company’s lawyers in that group. “And hourly workers are left holding the bag.”

The big question, Hurt said, will be if the bankruptcy court gives the reorganizers of Hostess so much leeway in cutting workers’ pay, pensions, and benefits and tearing up union contracts that it doesn’t make sense to continue the effort to save Hostess.

“I haven’t heard from our attorneys to what extent the law will let them” – the company’s bankruptcy overseers – “gut our contracts,” he added. “I’m telling our members we want to keep the company in business.”

Hurt instructed his union’s attorneys, appearing at the Jan. 11 hearing, to get the court to order company officials “to tell us the bottom line you need to keep it in business – and let us decide whether we will work under those conditions or not.”

Hostess first flagged the unions that it was headed for the financial rocks last summer[2011], Hurt explained. It approached the unions and told them it would stop paying the firm’s share of pension plan contributions. It also wanted to cut costs by proposing “a lousy-ass” health insurance plan for the workers, he added.

In a formal statement, Hurt said Hostess’ financial problems – which have prompted the firm to stop its payment into the jointly run union-management Taft-Hartley multi-employer plan covering the industry – were the result of mismanagement. Hostess claims its pension obligation of $1 billion is too much.

“I find it deeply offensive and highly disingenuous for the company to claim [that] its financial woes are the result of its union contracts and pension and health benefits obligations,” Hurt’s statement said. “We contend the company is in dire financial shape because of a string of failed business decisions made by a series of ineffective executives who have been running this company for the past decade.

“BCTGM has contracts with dozens of baking companies across the country, including Bimbo Bakeries USA, the nation’s largest and most successful. The vast majority of those companies are doing just fine because they have experienced baking industry professionals managing them,” he added.

BCTGM called Hostess “a longstanding participant” in the Taft-Hartley pension fund. It said $1 billion is the Hostess’ “withdrawal liability”-the cumulative amount it would have to pay present retirees and workers when they retire if Hostess dropped out of the multi-employer plan.

“Contributions Hostess paid into the fund were negotiated through the collective bargaining process and are part of an overall economic compensation package. Pension benefits that retirees receive each month are paid by the fund and not the individual companies,” BCTGM noted.

More here………..

***Emphasis added***

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Taft-Hartley pension fund.

It said $1 billion is the Hostess’ “withdrawal liability”-the cumulative amount it would have to pay present retirees and workers when they retire if Hostess dropped out of the multi-employer plan.

Let’s REPEAT the above:  $1 BILLION is the Hostess Foods “withdrawal liability”  from the Taft-Hartley pension fund.

Unions find this offensive:  Hostess Foods state its financial woes are the result of its union contracts and pension and health benefits obligations.”

Nope it is NEVER the fault of the UNIONS; just the “evil” Capitalists.

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The Taft-Hartley Act (also known as the Labor-Management Relations Act) was passed over the veto of Harry S. Truman on 23rd June, 1947. When it was passed by Congress Truman denounced it as a “slave-labor bill”.

The act declared the closed shop illegal and permitted the union shop only after a vote of a majority of the employees. It also forbade jurisdictional strikes and secondary boycotts. Other aspects of the legislation included the right of employers to be exempted from bargaining with unions unless they wished to.

The act forbade unions from contributing to political campaigns and required union leaders to affirm they were not supporters of the Communist Party. This aspect of the act was upheld by the Supreme Court on 8th May, 1950.

The Taft-Hartley Act also gave the United States Attorney General the power to obtain an 80 day injunction when a threatened or actual strike that he/she believed “imperiled the national health or safety”.

LINK

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By Josh Peterson – The Daily Caller

January 27, 2012

President Barack Obama, at a Las Vegas UPS facility Thursday, pitched a plan to boost the American use of natural gas, a plan that would not only benefit long-time natural gas proponent billionaire T. Boone Pickens, but also long-time Obama supporter, billionaire investor and progressive philanthropist George Soros.

Westport Innovations, a recent purchase by Soros, would benefit from the windfall of policies that pursue the use of natural gas for transportation. The company, whose shares have been projected to explode if Congress were to approve the Natural Gas Act, makes natural gas engines for heavy-duty trucks.

“Soros’s investment funds have pumped about $122 million into WPST, and he’s added to his control as recently as December and March, when he picked up over a million shares, bringing his total to 5.5 million shares,” reported BigGovernment.

“If Westport reaps the predicted windfall, one of the chief beneficiaries will be George Soros, a major Obama donor and supporter. Soros’s hedge fund holds 3,160,063 company shares (as of its last SEC filing),” reported the Heritage Foundation.

As of September 30, 2011, the oil and gas sector ranked third in his portfolio after consumer goods and technology, according to investment strategy site, GuruFocus.com.

Obama’s recent rejection of TransCanada Corp’s Keystone Pipeline oil permit also benefited another one of the president’s men, billionaire Warren Buffett. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is the nation’s largest rail transporter of coal.

LINK

***Emphasis added****

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Has Obama’s Energy Policy been ONLY about his heavy hitting donors and NOT the American people?

Has Obama’s Energy Policy been a BIG failure?

YOU DECIDE.

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From The Blaze

By Becket Adams

January 27, 2012

Peter Schaumber appeared on Fox’s Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss a troubling new development within the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Board Chair Mark Pearce is introducing a series of new regulations. One of these regulations, if passed, would require businesses to surrender their employee’s personal contact information to campaigning union heads.

“If the National Labor Relations Board gets its way, companies could be forced to hand over your contact information, whether you like it or not, to union leaders,” Fox host Neil Cavuto said. “Union leaders having access to your phone number, your email address?”

Schaumber, himself a former NLRB chairman, joined Cavuto to discuss his great fear: that unions will use that information to harass people not in a union.

“I think it’s terrible. Workers have a right to be left alone,” Schaumber said.

“They have a right not to be harassed during a union organizing campaign. If a worker has given his or her employer their home phone, their personal email address, their cell phone, it was in the expectation that it wasn’t going to be given to third parties but was going to be used by the employer for the purposes of what it was intended to be given for. And in most instances that’s to contact the employee under emergency situations.”

Read more here and inclusion of Video

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As a worker, would YOU like your boss giving away YOUR personal information?

Once the UNION gets your information, you may experience what these workers experienced when a Union tried to Unionize a business:

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Workers Experience Card Check, Warn About Lies, Harassment and Intimidation

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Union Organizing Victims Speak Out

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President Barack Obama & President of the AFL-CIO Richard Trumka

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Someone should ask Obama’s bud Richard Trumka about Eddie York:

Trumka — The Eddie York Slaying

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Energy Independence Obama?

Obama’s plan to destroy the coal industry advances

January 26, 2012

FirstEnergy Corp. will close 6 coal power plants. They cite new government regulation as the reason. President Obama promised to destroy the coal industry. This looks like one campaign promis he is keeping.

Akron, Ohio, January 26, 2012 — FirstEnergy Corp. generation subsidiaries will retire six older coal-fired power plants located in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by September 1, 2012.

The decision to close the power plants is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations.

The total capacity of the competitive plants that will be retired is 2,689 MW. Recently, these plants served mostly as peaking or intermediate facilities, generating, on average, about 10 percent of the electricity produced by the company over the past three years.

The following plants will be retired: Bay Shore Plant, Units 2-4, Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Plant, Eastlake, Ohio; Ashtabula Plant, Ashtabula, Ohio; Lake Shore Plant, Cleveland, Ohio; Armstrong Power Station, Adrian, Pa.; and R. Paul Smith Power Station, Williamsport, Md.

In total, 529 employees will be directly affected. Existing severance benefits will apply to eligible, affected employees. However, the final number of affected employees could be less as some are considered for open positions at other FirstEnergy facilities and work locations, and eligible employees take advantage of a retirement benefit being offered to those 55 years and older.

President Obama ‘s original plan was to bankrupt the coal industry by charging power plants for CO2 emissions under a Cap-and-Trade bill. That bill failed to get past the Senate. Plan B is to regulate them out of business by ratcheting up other regulations that don’t require new laws.

RELATED LINK:

Hypocrisy Alert: Obama Says he is Protecting Our Children From Mercury Poisoning, yet Mandates it for Our Homes?

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Failed “Green Projects”:  Solyndra, Lightsource, Tennessee Truck Charging Station, Tonopah tied to Nancy Pelosi, US Navy paying $15 per galloon for jet fuel (Obama Crony involved),then today we hear about the parent company of electric car batteries, supplied with Obama cash has filed for bankruptcy.

No Keystone Pipeline with TransCanada to ship oil from Canada to US.

Obama Vetos Keystone Pipeline; What Does He Have Against Jobs and Freedom to Have our Own Oil Production? Crony Capitalism, Donor Repayment, and Political Idealism……

Remember this?

Obama Supports Offshore Drilling… in Brazil

AND THIS?

U.S. Backs $1B Loan to Mexico for Oil Drilling Despite Obama Moratorium. Another Foreign Oil Company? What About American Oil Rig Workers?

NOW THE HEADLINES TODAY FROM THE BBC:

Cuba oil project drilling to start

January 27, 2012

By Sarah Rainsford

Cuba will begin exploratory drilling in search of oil this weekend, when drilling will start on a rig just 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Florida.

The operation is raising concerns over what happens under the terms of the US embargo, in the event of an incident at sea.

The embargo states that neither American firms nor the coast guard could come to Cuba’s assistance or provide equipment to help contain or clean up any oil spills.

VIDEO HERE.

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Even after Obama loans to “Green Companies” have ended in bankruptcy, Obama shells out more taxpayer money/loans for “Green Jobs.”

Idiocracy:  Repeating something over and over and expecting a different result.

Failed Obama Energy policies?

YOU DECIDE.

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From CNS News:

Obama Says He’s ‘Protecting Our Kids From Mercury’ – While Mandating It In Their Homes

By Craig Bannister

January 25, 2012

Last night, Pres. Obama reaffirmed his determination to protect our country’s children from the dangers of mercury, despite his vigorous defense of a mandate that all Americans put more of it into their homes.

“I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury poisoning,” Obama promised in last night’s State Of The Union address.

But, Pres. Obama, apparently, isn’t concerned with the health risk he’s subjecting Americans to by requiring them to put mercury light bulbs in their homes – a risk his own EPA even warns about on its Web site.

When the mercury light bulb breaks in a home, “some of the mercury is released as vapor and may pose potential health risks,” the EPA says. [Emphasis added]

And, in December, Obama touted new regulations to protect coal power plant workers from the evil stuff:

“Just a few weeks ago, thanks to the hard work of so many of you, Lisa and I were able to announce new common-sense standards to better protect the air we breathe from mercury and other harmful air pollution.”

And, let’s not forget the extravagant clean-up requirements and potential costs associated with getting rid of this hazardous substance if you break one of these mercury bulbs.

So, exactly how is Obama “protecting our kids from mercury poisoning?”

LINK

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From Investor’s Business Daily:

By Andrew Malcolm

How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their “fair share” of taxes.

Because how unfair — indeed, un-American — it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet’s secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.

Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven’t paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama’s White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That’s up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration’s last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama’s aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS’ 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees’ tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

The report finds that thousands of federal employees owe the country more than $3.4 billion in back taxes. That’s up 3% in the past year. [Emphasis added]

That scale of delinquency could annoy voters, hard-pressed by their own costs, fears and stubbornly high unemployment despite Joe Biden’s many promises.

The tax offenders include employees of the U.S. Senate who help write the laws imposed on everyone else. They owe $2.1 million. Workers in the House of Representatives owe $8.5 million, Department of Education employees owe $4.3 million and over at Homeland Security, 4,697 workers owe about $37 million. Active duty military members owe more than $100 million.

The Treasury Department, where Obama nominee Tim Geithner had to pay up $42,000 in his own back taxes before being confirmed as secretary, has 1,181 other employees with delinquent taxes totaling $9.3 million.

As usual, the Postal Service, with more than 600,000 workers, has the most offenders (25,640), who also owe the most — almost $270 million. Veterans Affairs has 11,659 workers owing the IRS $151 million while the Energy Department that was so quick to dish out more than $500 million to the Solyndra folks has 322 employees owing $5 million.

The country’s chief law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, has 2,069 employees who are nearly $17 million behind in taxes. Like Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently missed them too.

LINK

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What would happen if everyday Americans said to the Federal Employees…..   “I’ll pay mine if YOU pay  yours?”

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Obama used Warren Buffett’s secretary as a “Prop” at his SOTU address about taxation in America.  What Obama FAILED to mention is THIS.

From the Daily Caller:

Warren Buffett’s secretary pays so much in taxes, she can’t afford a third home.

By Jim Treacher

January 26, 2012

America has a brand-new sweetheart: Debra Bosanek, Warren Buffett’s executive assistant secretary. She sat next to Michelle at the State of the Union address, so Barry could use her as a prop in his latest lecture on how your taxes aren’t high enough.

Then she went home. But which home?

The Smoking Gun reports:

Despite a heavy tax burden, Warren Buffett’s secretary last year was able to purchase a second home in Arizona, a residence complete with a swimming pool and a “professional PGA putting green,” according to real estate records.

Debra Bosanek, 55, and her husband Gerald bought the 2100-square-foot home in Surprise, a city outside Phoenix. The Bosaneks paid $144,000 for the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath property (the purchase was financed, in part, by a $115,200 mortgage).

The principal Bosanek residence is in Bellevue, Nebraska, several miles from Buffett’s corporate headquarters in Omaha. The couple’s 2568-square-foot home, built in 2000, also has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. But the modest property, which Sarpy County assessors last year valued at $217,716, offers no outdoor amenities for swimmers or golfers.

Surprise! And you thought you had it bad? She! Is! The 99%! She! Is! The 99%! (Come on, chant.) She! Is! The 99%! (Why aren’t you chanting?) She! Is… oh, forget it.

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Related Links:

Warren Buffett’s Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year

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Mr. Buffett’s Secretary is One of “Them”

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WHAT OBAMA FAILED to MENTION in his SOTU Address………

Pssst……Hey Obama!  WHY didn’t you bring up the fact Buffett stands to make even MORE $$$ if Buffett’s Bershire Hathaway gets a contract to use his railroad for hauling TransCanada oil instead of “Investing in the Middle Class of America building the Keystone Pipeline?

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Buffett would profit from Keystone cancellation

By Dave Boyer

January 24, 2012

The Washington Times

Warren Buffett, whom President Obama likes to cite as a fair-minded billionaire while arguing for higher taxes on the wealthy, stands to benefit from the president’s decision to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.

Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ownsBurlington Northern Santa Fe LLC, which is among the railroads that would transport oil produced in western Canada if the pipeline isn’t built. [Emphasis added]

“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of  Buffett’s Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.,told Bloomberg News. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul,” she said.

The Obama Administration rejected TransCanada’s request for a permit on Jan. 18, saying there was not enough time to review the proposal by Feb. 21, the deadline imposed by congressional Republicans eager to see the pipeline built. The decision came from the State Department, although Mr. Obama said he agreed with it.

TransCanada said it plans to submit another proposal that would avoid an environmentally sensitive route through Nebraska. The State Department had been reviewing the pipeline project for three years when it rejected the permit.

If completed, the $7 billion Keystone XL would deliver 700,000 barrels a day of crude from oil sands in Canada to Texas refineries on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It would traverse about 1,600 miles.

The State Department’s review of the project said shipping oil via rail is more costly than delivering it to refineries by pipeline.

Republicans, labor unions and even some Democrats have criticized the administration’s rejection of the pipeline permit, saying it would create up to 20,000 jobs.

LINK

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A History Lesson in case YOU forgot:

Suggest you click the links below and READ.

**Make sure you read ENITRE post, especially information linking Warren Buffett to Canadian oil (toward end of post)**

Remember Petrobras? George Soros’ New Investment? Obama Puts Moratorium on US Drilling, Yet…..

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U.S. Backs $1B Loan to Mexico for Oil Drilling Despite Obama Moratorium. Another Foreign Oil Company? What About American Oil Rig Workers?

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Soros….Obama…..and Shale Gas

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A 2008 Campaign Promise Obama Actually Followed Through With

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PETROBRAS:

Obama Supports Offshore Drilling… in Brazil

The Obama administration is financing offshore drilling off the coast of Brazil.  According to the Wall Street Journal, 

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The oil reserves in Brazil’s Tupi oil field are likely to make Brazil one of the world’s top oil exporters.  In the U.S., however, domestic companies are denied access to rich oil reserves in Alaska and off the East and West Coasts.  This leaves us all to wonder: why is Obama in favor of drilling off Brazil’s coast, but not our own?  And if drilling is so wrong, why in the world are we paying for it?

UPDATE: Bloomberg is reporting an interesting link between Obama’s Petrobras deal and billionaire George Soros:

His New York-based hedge-fund firm, Soros Fund Management LLC, sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras, as the Brazilian oil company is known, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros bought 5.8 million of the company’s U.S.-traded preferred shares.

Soros is taking advantage of the spread between the two types of U.S.-listed Petrobras shares, said Luis Maizel, president of LM Capital Group LLC, which manages about $4 billion. The common shares were 21 percent more expensive than preferred today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. …

Petrobras preferred shares have also a 10 percent additional dividend, said William Landers, a senior portfolio manager for Latin America at Blackrock Inc.

“Given that there will most likely never be a change in control in the company, I see no reason to pay a higher price for the common shares.” Brazil’s government controls Petrobras and has a majority stake of voting shares.

Hmm.  Isn’t it a strange coincidence that Obama-supporter Soros would reposition himself within Petrobras to receive dividends just days before Obama’s $2 billion in loans and guarantees for the country’s offshore drilling operations?

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***After “investing” TWO BILLION dollars of taxpayer funds, this is the “THANK YOU” Brazil gives the U.S.****

From the Washington Times:

China gets jump on U.S. for Brazil’s oil

Two export pacts a coup for Beijing

By Kelly Hearn – Special to The Washington Times

January 19, 2012

BUENOS AIRES — Off the coast of Rio de Janeiro — below a mile of water and two miles of shifting rock, sand and salt — is an ultradeep sea of oil that could turn Brazil into the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, behind Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The country’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, expects to pump 4.9 million barrels a day from the country’s oil fields by 2020, with 40 percent of that coming from the seabed. One and a half million barrels will be bound for export markets.

The United States wants it, but China is getting it.

Less than a month after President Obama visited Brazil in March to make a pitch for oil, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was off to Beijing to sign oil contracts with two huge state-owned Chinese companies.

The deals are part of a growing oil relationship between the two countries that, thanks to a series of billion-dollar agreements, is giving China greater influence over Brazil’s oil frontier.

Chinese oil companies are pushing to meet mandatory expansion targets by inking deals across Africa and Latin America, but they are especially interested in Brazil.

“With the Lula and Carioca discoveries alone, Brazil added a possible 38 billion barrels of estimated recoverable oil,” said Luis Giusti, a former president of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, referring to the new Brazilian oil fields.

“That immediately changed the picture,” he said, adding that Brazil is on track to become “an oil giant.”

During Mrs. Rousseff’s visit to China, Brazil’s Petrobras signed a technology cooperation deal with the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec.

Petrobras also signed a memorandum of understanding with Sinochem, a massive state-owned company with interests in energy, real estate and agrichemicals.

The Sinochem deal aims to identify and build “business opportunities in the fields of exploration and production, oil commercialization and mature oil-field recovery,” according to Petrobras.

The relationship with China goes back to at least two years before Mr. Obama came to Brazil to applaud the oil discovery and tell Mrs. Rouseff:

“We want to work with you. We want to help with technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and, when you’re ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers.”

China rescued Petrobras in 2009, when the oil company was looking at tight credit markets to finance a record-setting $224 billion investment plan. China’s national development bank offered a $10 billion loan on the condition that Petrobras ship oil to China for 10 years.

A chunk of Brazil’s oil real estate appeared on China’s portfolio in 2010, when Sinopec agreed to pay $7.1 billion for 40 percent of Repsol-YPF of Brazil, which has stakes in the now internationally famous Santos Basin, and the Sapinhoa field, which has an estimated recoverable volume of 2.1 billion barrels. Statoil of Norway also agreed that year to sell 40 percent of the offshore Peregrino field to Sinochem.

Story Continues →

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One could argue Obama just wants to promote “Green Energy Jobs”

How has that been working out?

SOLYNDRA

LIGHTSOURCE

CHEVY VOLT

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Washington Post: Obama Green Jobs Cost $5 Million Each

Will networks report massive cost for failed program?

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A short, but POWERFUL message:

January 25, 2012

I believe I have seen the future of Maryland politics and his name is Dan Bongino. He is a former Secret Service agent and New York City police officer, husband to a wife who legally emigrated from Colombia, and he’s running for the United States Senate seat currently held by Ben Cardin.

My friend Jim is working with Bongino’s campaign and filmed a brief snippet of a speech he gave at a Tea Party rally this past October. The speech is short, but quite powerful. Take a look. I think you’re going to like him quite a lot.

U.S. Senate Candidate Dan Bongino speaking at the Tea Party Caucus rally in Annapolis Maryland on October 18, 2011

If you’re so inclined, he could use your help. Whether you kick him a few bucks or sign up to volunteer to help him beat Senator Cardin, I’m sure he’ll put what you give to very good use. He doesn’t seem like a man who wastes what he’s given.

LINK

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First this from Trevor Loudon of Keywiki:

RE: Diane Savino  [A New York State Senator]

DSA support

In 2004 Democratic Socialists of America targeted local races where control of state houses were up for grabs and where statewide electoral-vote outcomes hinged on successful local district turnouts.^[3]

In a companion two-borough state Senate race, social workers union leader Diane Savino is posed to win an open seat, potentially threatening Republican control of the legislative chamber. NYDSA activists are also backing David McReynolds in what the local views as a spirited and needed educational campaign for U.S. Senate.”

In Democratic Socialists of America‘s Democratic Left Winter 2004/2005, Theresa Alt wrote;^[4]

We reported on the candidates that DSAers were supporting in the last issue of Democratic Left. How did they do?

New York State looks like politics as usual on the surface… David Soares, backed by both Democrats and the Working Families Party, won his race for District Attorney in Albany County, a victory that is seen as a blow against the punitive Rockefeller drug laws as well as against the Democratic establishment. Moreover, several seats in the State Senate shifted from Republicans to Democrats, with one race still too close to call. (One of these new winners, Diane Savino, was featured in the earlier DL article.).

“Progressive Democrat”

Communist Party USA members Elena Mora and Gabe Falsetta wrote a report for the People’s World, of November 19 2004 “Many positives in N.Y. elections,” commenting on the gains made by “progressive” candidates.^[5]

The big gains were at the state level. State Senate seats were won by some progressive Democrats:

Democrat Diane Savino won the Brooklyn-Staten Island seat of a retiring Democrat, and her victory was important given the strong grassroots labor component to her campaign. Savino is vice president for political action of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 37, the largest in the country.

LINK

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NOW READ THIS:

A Marxist Democrat Cringes as RUSSIAN Immigrants Compare Communism to…..Democrats!

Posted by LaborUnionReport 

January 16, 2012

There is just no way to describe this without a smirk and a chuckle. When you read how some of New York’s Russian immigrants (who know Soviet-style Communism all-too-well) are aligning with Republicans—because they view Democrats’ policies to be too similar to the failed policies of their homeland—there is just something richly ironic there. However, when you read how their never-met-a-Marxist-she-didn’t-love Democrat legislator reacts to be having her party compared to Soviet Russia, now that is just over-the-top funny:

Businessman Arkadiy Fridman said that the newly formed Citizens Magazine Business Club, a confederation of more than 50 Russian-owned businesses here and in Brooklyn, has aligned itself with the Molinari Republican Club (MRC) in an effort to increase the Russian community’s political and economic clout.

CLOSE TO OWN VISION

“We decided we had to support this club,” said Fridman, a former Soviet Army officer who came to the United States in 1992. “They are very close to our political and business vision.”

[snip]

Fridman said that the Democrats “are going in an absolutely different direction,” focusing on “income redistribution” and rich-versus-poor “class war.”

“It’s too socialistic,” said Fridman, head of the non-profit Staten Island Community Center and president of Citizens Magazine, a public affairs publication. “It’s very painful for us to see.”

And, if that weren’t bad enough, the Democrats’ are reminding the Russian immigrants of something they thought they left behind:

The Big Brother approach reminds Fridman too much of what he left behind in the former Soviet Union.

“It’s the same rule like it was there,” said Fridman, who estimates there are around 55,000 Russian immigrants here.

Michael Petrov of the Digital Edge data management firm in Bloomfield, said that he objects to the “micro-managing of the economy” he’s seen from city as well as federal officials.

“Government is affecting small business more and more,” said Petrov, who came to the United States in 1994. “It’s the same as what’s happening in Russia.”

The Russian immigrants seem to know the path the Democratic Party is leading the nation down far better than many Democrats, which is why it seems the GOP is a better fit for the Russians.

Of course, the danger of being exposed is not lost on their Marxist legislator, union-boss-turned-Democrat-politician, State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn), who just seems to cringe at the thought of being exposed and being labeled either a Socialist or a Communist:

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) said she understands the Russian aversion to anything that looks like big government, but thinks the criticism of the Democratic Party is off-base.

“You can’t ignore the fact that the Russian population here came of age during the Soviet era,” said Ms. Savino, who counts many Russians among her Brooklyn constituents.

“They have different thoughts on what communism and socialism mean. They are a little more sensitive to it.

“But, that being said,” she added, “you can’t compare the policies of the Democratic Party with communism. It’s absurd.”

Ummm. Does Yes We Can! fit here?

via SILive.com.

[Emphasis added throughout.]

LINK

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Andy Stern of SEIU:  “Workers of the world unite!”

Richard Trumka:  Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO spoke to progressive bloggers during the unrest in Madison over labor bargaining rights.

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Absurd Sen. Savino?

May Day with Socialists, Marxists, Trumka and the Mayor  (Video here)

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