I am on the road and following multiple big stories. There is so much happening at the moment that it is difficult keep up with breaking news. Those following this blog are aware that Larry Sinclair and I are trying to get some straight answers on the alleged Captain Connie Rhodes letter and apparent deployment to Iraq. Larry & I have both emailed Captain Rhodes. This entire sequence of events beginning with attempts to prevent Rhodes from initially appearing in court to Judge Land attacking the motives of this military officer to this suspicious letter all smell to high heaven. It appears to this observer that forces above in the chain of command are at work. More on this soon, hopefully.
There is a common thread to much of what I have been researching lately and going way back into 2008. That is Patrick Fitzgerald and the US Department of Justice, particularly the Chicago office. The common denominators of this common thread are Obama, Rezko and Acorn. There is so much substance, so much corruption, that before I can finish an article, another ugly head pops up. That has been so true over the past few days. Hopefully, with the attention being focused on Acorn regarding their monetary and moral corruption, the voter fraud that they were so entrenched in will be taken more seriously. After all, as I and many others pointed out in 2008 and years before, Acorn’s many consistent corrupt actions are known to many. Where in the hell was the Main Stream Media? Their inaction is criminal and un American. And where were many of the jackasses in Congress? Two of the facts I presented in 2008 and recently, the well researched Catholic Bishops report from 1997 and the complete cutoff of funds to Acorn in 2008 by the Catholic Church, should have been more than enough for a congressional investigation.
Now back to Patrick Fitzgerald. The Obama camp cleverly or in cahoots with Fitgerald, did not remove Fitzgerald from office when Obama seized control of the White House. What they soon did was give Fitzgerald a “temporary” supervisory assignment. Patrick Fitzgerald and the USDOJ waiting until after the election to arrest Blagojevich, when they clearly could have done so several months earlier, and from what I can discern, not following up on some other corruption, makes the Obama move stink even more.
I am aware of more, but obviously cannot yet write about it. All in due time.
The mainstream media is still not covering Acorn corruption, voter fraud, ties to Obama and recently is ignoring the shocking videos reported on Fox News. Extensive research was done on Acorn many years ago for the Catholic Bishops and real journalists such as Michelle Malkin and Larry Johnson pioneered revealing Obama’s ties to Acorn. The Citizen Wells blog reported the following on October 8, 2008. Catholic Bishops report on community organizing, Acorn
“Introduction: This commentary is submitted to the Catholic Bishops of the United States with respect to their possible consideration of changes in the organization, funding, and structure of the Campaign for Human Development (CHD). It is essential to note, however, the limited purpose and scope of this commentary:”
“COMMUNITY ORGANIZING: During the funding period of 1992-1995, CHD gave significant grants to community organizing efforts that implement many of the organizational techniques recommended by Saul Alinsky.”
“The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) which is also patterned on Alinsky’s organizational recommendations, recruits individual members.”
“To be eligible to receive CHD funds, a program must be run by the poor, benefit the poor, and change social structures that harm the poor.” However, in light of the politically oriented thrust of ACORN’s activities, it is fair to ask whether the CHD subsidies to ACORN are advisable and commensurate with the purposes of CHD.”
“This commentary does not oppose CHD funding of genuine, grassroots community organizations, run and supported by individual members of a parish or diocese. There is potential value and virtue in the collective voice. However, when the CHD funds Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations as in the best interest of the poor and supports organizations which advance other agendas, it divests the poor of their right to an authentic voice. This process tends to treat the poor as exploited units of human capital, rather than as human beings created in the dignity of God’s image.”
“There are alternative, self-determined organizations of the poor, which are supportive of life. Those alternative, grassroots community organizations do not merely serve their constituency but rather they are their constituency. They do not use community organizing to further an additional agenda.”
“It would be reasonable for the bishops to consider:
The immediate cessation of all CHD funding to Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations.
To accomplish its goals, as outlined in the People’s Platform, ACORN has developed a political alliance with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Together with others, ACORN and the DSA have formed a political party, the New Party.
National ACORN president, Maud Hurd, along with Dr. Cornel West (honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America) and a representative from the Reproductive Rights Coalition Fund, are listed as New Party supporters.”
“CCHD ends funding to ACORN over financial irregularities”
“The Catholic Campaign for Human Development suspended funding a nationwide community organizing group after it was disclosed June 2 that nearly $1 million had been embezzled.”
“”We’re not funding them at any level,” McCloud told Catholic News Service Oct. 15.
The suspension covers all 40 ACORN affiliates nationwide that had been approved for $1.13 million in grants for the funding cycle that started July 1, 2008.”
“Since revealing its financial troubles, the organization has come under intense scrutiny because of its voter registration practices. In several states voter registration forms have been found to include nonexistent or dead people. Some registrants have told elections officials they completed multiple cards at the urging of ACORN canvassers who claimed they would be fired if they did not meet a daily quota for signing up new voters.”
“As already noted, CCHD still funds several branches of ACORN, known for it’s radical protests against banks that fail to meet ACORN’s quotas for housing loans issued to low-income borrowers. ACORN demands that banks comply with it’s interpretation of fair lending practices and advocates for a higher minimum wage, federally subsidized housing, higher taxes and a repeal of the home mortgage interest tax deduction.”
“November 12, 2008
Auxiliary Bishop Roger Morin of New Orleans, chairman of the US bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) committee, announced yesterday that the campaign would no longer fund the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).”
Bishop Roger Morin memorandum:
“Last June, CCHD cut off funding of grants to ACORN (Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now) groups because of questions that had arisen about financial
management, fiscal transparency and organizational accountability of the national ACORN
structures.”
“Recent widespread reports of alleged ACORN involvement in voter registration
controversies and allegations of fraud raise additional serious concerns.”
“The current halt of ACORN funding means that no CCHD funds are
involved in any of these activities. Nonetheless, the suspension of all ACORN funding will not
be lifted until and unless it is clear that CCHD funds will not go to an organization that has
engaged in unlawful activities or voter registration fraud, even though this does not involve
CCHD funds.”….Bishop Roger Morin memorandum
The following report was prepared for the Catholic Bishops in 1997 and covers the period of time close to when Obama was a community organizer and involved directly with ACORN
“A Commentary on the Campaign for Human Development
Prepared for the Catholic Bishops of the United States
Prepared by the Wanderer Forum Foundation”
“This commentary is intended for the use of the Catholic Bishops of the United States in their consideration of the issues discussed. However, it will also be made available to other persons interested in these issues.”
“A. ACORN
1. ACORN received approximately 5% of the national CHD annual budget between 1992-1995. Between the years of 1992-1995, ACORN received $1,493,000 in national CHD grants.
2. ACORN’s People’s Platform was written in 1978 and ratified in 1979 at ACORN’s national convention in St. Louis. The document was revised and re-approved in 1990 at ACORN’s national 20th Anniversary Convention in Chicago and is in effect at present. Among other things, the ACORN People’s Platform specifies that ACORN demands that the United States :
· “create a national health-care system” in which “all medical costs are covered” and in which doctors are provided a medical “education subsidized by the federal government.” [section on Health Care, # I & II]
· “create more housing” by setting a “goal of a million new units of federally subsidized housing per year.” [section on Housing, #I]
· “charge government and big business with the final responsibility for full employment.” [section on Work and Workers’ Rights, #II]
· “guarantee a minimum annual family income…” [section on Work and Workers’ Rights, #III]
· develop schools that are “available for community needs, like adult education” and “job training that is linked to specific employment,” and which “can provide all support and services that a child cannot receive at home.” [section on Education, #II & IV]
3. To accomplish its goals, as outlined in the People’s Platform, ACORN has developed a political alliance with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Together with others, ACORN and the DSA have formed a political party, the New Party.
a. National ACORN president, Maud Hurd, along with Dr. Cornel West (honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America) and a representative from the Reproductive Rights Coalition Fund, are listed as New Party supporters.
b. Bronx ACORN operates a New Party chapter out of its headquarters.
c. In a drive to identify political allies, the New Party held “extensive discussions” in 1994 with “high ranking officials in labor (teamsters, electrical workers, oil workers, bus drivers, etc.); grassroots environmentalists with Greenpeace, Citizens Clearinghouse on Hazardous Waste and Friends of the Earth; community organizations like ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation; DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] and Sane/Freeze, and scores of important local organizations.”
d. By 1996, New Party alliances with ACORN, the IAF, Sustainable America, and others, promoted “living wage” campaigns around the country. ACORN has also promoted the Income Equity Act of 1997 (H.R. 687, 105th Congress), which would place federal control over executive earnings by “denying tax deductions for executive compensation that exceeds 25 times the company’s lowest paid full-time employee.””
“During the 1990s, ACORN has been openly active in Congressional lobbying. Its leadership operates, “…from inside positions of power. ACORN’s work on the savings and loan bailout provided effective means of developing and applying power…ACORN members won appointment to the Resolution Trust Corporation to help determine the management of the billions of dollars of assets the government seized.”
“ACORN’s educational activism was described by Jennifer Anderson from the CHD-funded NY-ACORN at the 1995 25th CHD Anniversary Conference in Chicago. NY-ACORN is establishing alternative “New Visions Schools” within the New York public school system. During her workshop: “School Reform Sweeping the Nation,” Ms. Anderson identified the reform model which NY-ACORN schools are emulating as the Debbie Meier experimental public school model (the Networks for School Renewal).”
“Academically, the Debbie Meier educational model includes substantive restructuring. Standardized testing is eliminated: “For instance, to put the sort of intense emphasis on standardized testing…meant, in practice, the gearing of curricula specifically to prepare students to pass narrowly focused tests-with little attention to the broader array of skills and critical capacities essential in a real world environment…In contrast…an alternative began to emerge.” Parents and educators must be re-educated to accept this restructuring: “But for democratic school approaches [such as the Deborah Meier model] to work necessitated not only changes in the formal structure of education but also effective, skillful training and some clear public commitment to an alternative understanding of educational purposes themselves.” These “educational purposes” can facilitate the training of new community organizers. In ACORN’s New Visions School in New York, Local 1199 School for Social Change, “…students analyze public health issues, the organization of community groups, the development of public policy and the international labor movement. Students are involved in hands-on activities in order to relate classroom learning to community service. These activities range from participation in labor and community organization movements to service as interns at local health care facilities.””
“The Catholic Bishops of the United States ought to reconsider the structure, funding, and activities of the Campaign for Human Development.
This commentary does not oppose CHD funding of genuine, grassroots community organizations, run and supported by individual members of a parish or diocese. There is potential value and virtue in the collective voice. However, when the CHD funds Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations as in the best interest of the poor and supports organizations which advance other agendas, it divests the poor of their right to an authentic voice. This process tends to treat the poor as exploited units of human capital, rather than as human beings created in the dignity of God’s image.
Nor is there any basis for the CHD to imply by its actions that there are no alternative organizations that it can fund to promote valuable institutional change, uninfluenced by a politicized agenda. There is no necessity for CHD funds to go to organizations which contribute to or participate in any way in the political support of abortion. There is no necessity for CHD to fund Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations. There are alternative, self-determined organizations of the poor, which are supportive of life. Those alternative, grassroots community organizations do not merely serve their constituency but rather they are their constituency. They do not use community organizing to further an additional agenda.
It would be reasonable for the bishops to consider:
The immediate cessation of all CHD funding to Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations.
The immediate cessation of all CHD funding to any organization that directly or indirectly promotes an agenda contrary to the social justice teachings of the Church.”….Catholic Bishops report
Do you remember hearing about any of the above from the mainstream media?
Are your concerns about Obama speaking to school children unfounded?
With the availability of information about ACORN on the internet, with the kind hearted CHD cutting off funding to ACORN in 2008, there is no excuse for Congress taking so long.
I believe that Senator Shelby is requesting an investigation. Let’s make sure it is thorough and let the chips fall where they may.
The Citizen Wells blog began reporting about Acorn corruption, voter fraud, contributions to mortgage meltdown and strong ties to Barack Obama on August 21, 2008. Since then we have produced numerous articles on Acorn and Obama, in fact, more than enough to prevent Obama from winning the presidency if the public or the MSM had been paying attention. Hat’s off to Michelle Malkin, Larry Johnson and other great journalists who paved the way with extensive research on Acorn and their ties to Obama.
Here are what I consider the top 4 articles on Acorn corruption and how Obama fits in:
October 8, 2008 – Straight from the horse’s mouth
“ACORN Report
The ACORN Report is published by ACORN’s National Office and contains up-to-date information. We have ACORN Reports indexed by date and topic available.”
“City Limits February 1999
During its 15 years in New York City, ACORN has helped squatters claim derelict city-owned property, forced bankers to invest in low-income communities, and organized a war against the city’s workfare program.
It’s also developed a reputation for no-holds-barred tactics—getting results through adversarial campaigns against bankers, politicians and bureaucrats using confrontation and concession rather than consensus. ACORN, unlike most social service non-profits, scorns charity. Their goal is to help poor people seize power.”
This comes straight from the Acorn national office.
Note the following:
“Their goal is to help poor people seize power”
It does not say, as John Mccain or Ronald Reagan would say, help poor
people to better themselves and their economic condition, but rather
“seize power.”
October 8, 2008 – Catholic Bishops report on Acorn, Democratic Socialists of America, New Party. Obama’s ties
“Barack Obama attended and participated in meetings of the Chicago New Party and the Chicago DSA, the local affiliate of the Democratic Socialists of America.”
“Most New Party members hailed from the Democratic Socialists of America and the militant organization ACORN. The party’s Chicago chapter also included a large contingent from the Committees of Correspondence, a Marxist coalition of former Maoists, Trotskyists, and Communist Party USA members.”
Catholic Bishops report on community organizing, Acorn
“Introduction: This commentary is submitted to the Catholic Bishops of the United States with respect to their possible consideration of changes in the organization, funding, and structure of the Campaign for Human Development (CHD). It is essential to note, however, the limited purpose and scope of this commentary:”
“COMMUNITY ORGANIZING: During the funding period of 1992-1995, CHD gave significant grants to community organizing efforts that implement many of the organizational techniques recommended by Saul Alinsky.”
“The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) which is also patterned on Alinsky’s organizational recommendations, recruits individual members.”
“To be eligible to receive CHD funds, a program must be run by the poor, benefit the poor, and change social structures that harm the poor.” However, in light of the politically oriented thrust of ACORN’s activities, it is fair to ask whether the CHD subsidies to ACORN are advisable and commensurate with the purposes of CHD.”
“This commentary does not oppose CHD funding of genuine, grassroots community organizations, run and supported by individual members of a parish or diocese. There is potential value and virtue in the collective voice. However, when the CHD funds Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations as in the best interest of the poor and supports organizations which advance other agendas, it divests the poor of their right to an authentic voice. This process tends to treat the poor as exploited units of human capital, rather than as human beings created in the dignity of God’s image.”
“There are alternative, self-determined organizations of the poor, which are supportive of life. Those alternative, grassroots community organizations do not merely serve their constituency but rather they are their constituency. They do not use community organizing to further an additional agenda.”
“It would be reasonable for the bishops to consider:
The immediate cessation of all CHD funding to Alinsky-style, church-based community organizations.
To accomplish its goals, as outlined in the People’s Platform, ACORN has developed a political alliance with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Together with others, ACORN and the DSA have formed a political party, the New Party.
National ACORN president, Maud Hurd, along with Dr. Cornel West (honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America) and a representative from the Reproductive Rights Coalition Fund, are listed as New Party supporters.”
October 13, 2008 – Acorn contribution to mortgage crisis
“FOR years, ACORN had combined manipulation of the CRA with intimidation-protest tactics to force banks to lower credit standards. Its crusade, with help from Democrats in Congress, to push these high-risk “subprime” loans on banks is at the root of today’s economic meltdown.””
““Instead, Democrats like Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Reps. Kennedy and Waters allied with the Clinton administration to broaden the acceptability of risky subprime loans throughout the financial system, thus precipitating our current crisis.
ACORN had come to Congress not only to protect the CRA from GOP reforms but also to expand the reach of quota-based lending to Fannie, Freddie and beyond. By steamrolling the GOP that March, it had crushed the last potential barrier to “change.”””
““ACORN’s alliance with the Democratic Party is at the root of the current financial meltdown. And Barack Obama has stayed true to ACORN’s ways.””
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) suspended funding for Acorn in October 2008. This is hardly a right wing organization. Where was the media? Where was Congress?
We will provide more details about research done for the Catholic Bishops, much of it done and reported by 1997, and certainly mountains of evidence available in 2008. This is criminal that Obama was given a free ride on this by the main stream media and allowed to continue his pattern of lies and deception.
Barack Obama is a liar. There is a long pattern of Obama lies. Representative Joe Wilson was right when he yelled out “lie” when Obama was speaking to Congress and the American people.
We need more Joe Wilsons in Congress.
This article will not address Obama’s long pattern of ties to crime and corruption in Chicago and Illinois, but of course lying and corruption go hand in hand. When I first began investigating Obama early in 2008, it was rapidly clear that Obama was steeped in lies and corruption. Here are some of the more prominent documented lies from Obama:
Obama lied on his IL bar application when he failed to list numerous traffic tickets.
Obama lied about his contact with Tony Rezko. FBI mole John Thomas revealed this during the Tony Rezko trial.
Obama lied about his ties to William Ayers.
Obama lied about his involvement with Acorn.
Obama lied about his unawareness of Jeremiah Wright’s racist, un American speeches.
In an article dated July 2, 2009, Forbes magazine exposes Obama as a liar.
“But when it comes to health care reform, with every passing day, Obama seems less God and more demagogue, uttering not transcendental truths, but bald-faced lies. Here are the top five lies that His Awesomeness has told–the first two for no reason other than to get elected and the next three to sell socialized medicine to a wary nation.”
“Lie One: No one will be compelled to buy coverage.
During the campaign, Obama insisted that he would not resort to an individual mandate to achieve universal coverage. In fact, he repeatedly ripped Hillary Clinton’s plan for proposing one. “To force people to buy coverage,” he insisted, “you’ve got to have a very harsh penalty.” What will this penalty be, he demanded? “Are you going to garnish their wages?” he asked Hillary in one debate.
Yet now, Obama is behaving as if he said never a hostile word about the mandate. Earlier this month, in a letter to Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., he blithely declared that he was all for “making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and making employers share in the cost.””
“Lie Two: No new taxes on employer benefits.
Obama took his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, to the mat for suggesting that it might be better to remove the existing health care tax break that individuals get on their employer-sponsored coverage,”
“Yet now Obama is signaling his willingness to go along with a far worse scheme to tax employer-sponsored benefits to fund the $1.6 trillion or so it will cost to provide universal coverage. Contrary to Obama’s allegations, McCain’s plan did not ultimately entail a net tax increase because he intended to return to individuals whatever money was raised by scrapping the tax deduction. Not so with Obama. He apparently told Sen. Baucus that he would consider the senator’s plan for rolling back the tax exclusion that expensive, Cadillac-style employer-sponsored plans enjoy, in order to pay for universal coverage. But, unlike McCain, he has said nothing about putting offsetting deductions or credits in the hands of individuals.”
“Lie Three: Government can control rising health care costs better than the private sector.”
“But lower administrative costs do not necessarily mean greater efficiency. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office analysis last year chastised Medicare’s lax attitude on this front. “The traditional fee-for-service Medicare program does relatively little to manage benefits, which tends to reduce its administrative costs but may raise its overall spending relative to a more tightly managed approach,” it noted on page 93.”
“Lie Four: A public plan won’t be a Trojan horse for a single-payer monopoly.
Obama has repeatedly claimed that forcing private plans to compete with a public plan will simply “keep them honest” and give patients more options–not lead to a full-blown, Canadian-style, single-payer monopoly. As I argued in my previous column, this is wishful thinking given that government programs such as Medicare have a history of controlling costs by underpaying providers, who make up the losses by charging private plans more.”
“But, as it turns out, it very much is his intention. Before he decided to run for office–and even during the initial days of his campaign–Obama repeatedly said that he was in favor of a single-payer system. What’s more, University of California, Berkeley Professor Jacob Hacker, who is a key influence on the Obama administration, is on tape explicitly boasting that a public plan is a means for creating a single-payer system. “It’s not a Trojan horse,” he quips, “it’s just right there.””
“Lie Five: Patients don’t have to fear rationing.
Obama has been insisting, including during his ABC Town Hall event last week, that the rationing patients would face under a government-run system wouldn’t be any more draconian than what they currently confront under private plans. This is complete nonsense.”
“By that token, Obama’s stimulus bill has set in motion rationing on a scale unimaginable in the land of the free. Indeed, the bill commits over $1 billion to conduct comparative effectiveness research that will evaluate the relative merits of various treatments. That in itself wouldn’t be so objectionable–if it weren’t for the fact that a board will then “direct financing” toward approved, standardized treatments. In short, doctors will find it much harder to prescribe newer or non-standard treatments not yet deemed effective by health care bureaucrats. This is exactly along the lines of the British system, where breast cancer patients were denied Herceptin, a new miracle drug, until enraged women fought back. Even the much-vilified managed care plans would appear to be a paragon of generosity in comparison with this.”
In case some of you believe that the propensity to lie on Obama’s part is a recent trend, let’s revisit the lie list from 2008:
3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter – LIAR, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had
4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom – LIAR, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya. It is the first widespread violence in decades.
5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian – LIAR, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn’t allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
6.) My Name is African Swahili – LIAR, your name is Arabic and ‘Baraka’ (from which Barack came) means ‘blessed’ in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
7.) I Never Practiced Islam – LIAR, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years,until your wife made you change, so you could run for office.
8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian – LIAR, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book).
9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian – LIAR, not one teacher says you could speak the language.
10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign Experience – LIAR, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, and couldn’t even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons.
11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs – LIAR, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.
12.) I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion – LIAR, you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify – your classmates said you were just fine.
13.)An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office – LIAR, Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t, and never did, exist.
14.) A Life Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life – LIAR, Life has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t, and never did, exist.
15.) I Won’t Run On A National Ticket In ‘08 – LIAR, here you are, despite saying, live on TV, that you would not have enough experience by then, and you are all about having experience first.
16.) Present Votes Are Common In Illinois – LIAR, they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.
And of course the biggest lie, many of us believe, is Obama being eligible to be POTUS based on being a natural born citizen. Obama signed a certification on the Arizona Presidential Preference Election Candidate Nomination Paper, form A.R.S. 16-242, that he is a natural born citizen. God willing, we will get a definitive answer on this soon.
The Citizen Wells blog covered the Senator Bernie Sanders Labor Day speech in Burlington, VT, today, Monday, September 7, 2009. The event was hosted by the Vermont Workers’ Center. Here is the announcement:
“Burlington Labor Day Celebration & Benefit Concert
September 7, 2009 – 12:00pm – 3:00pm
WHEN: 12 noon – 3pm, Monday, September 7
WHERE: Battery Park, Burlington
WHAT: Senator Bernie Sanders will join hundreds of working families for the 8th Annual Burlington Labor Day Celebration sharing in a community potluck, music, street theater and ice cream. This year’s celebration is being sponsored by the Vermont Workers’ Center, a community-based workers’ rights organization who has been building a statewide grassroots organizing campaign called the “Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign” that over that past couple of years has been redefine healthcare as a public good. There will also be a special tribute to the contributions and struggles of working families from Jennifer Henry, the President of the Fletcher Allen nurses union and United Professions of Vermont/AFT. Music will be performed local Burlington busker John Holland and Rik & Bec, a new local duo of Rik Palieri and Rebecca Padula.
“Labor Day is a day to celebrate and remember both the work we all do day in and day out and the long struggles of working people who fought hard for the eight hour day, for Social Security, the end of child labor and even the weekend,” said James Haslam, Director of the Vermont Workers’ Center. “But more than ever, use should use Labor Day as a reminder that we need to be carrying on this tradition by organizing in our workplaces and our communities. This is a time re-commit to the current struggles for more livable wage jobs, fair retirement, strong and healthy communities, and re-defining quality healthcare as a fundamental human right for everyone.”
BACKGROUND: The Vermont Workers’ Center was started in 1998 as a workers’ rights and social justice organization, and have been involved in campaigns to improve working conditions and win livable wages in hundreds of Vermont workplaces across the state. In 2008, they launched the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign to build a statewide grassroots network of Vermonters committed to redefining healthcare policy to establish healthcare as a basic public good for all.
MORE INFO: www.workerscenter.org www.workerscenter.org/healthcare
802-861-4892″
The speech is presented here unedited and without commentary. A followup article will be presented with commentary and analysis. The only comment I will make at this time is that they appeared a little surprised that I was there and that the event had the appearance of being staged. I will also state that I was treated with courtesy for the most part.
Today, Labor Day, September 7, 2009, the Citizen Wells blog will attempt to cover live, a Labor Day celebration in Burlington, Vermont. There are two major reasons that I chose to cover this event. First, Senator Bernie Sanders will be there and I hope to catch his comments on health care reform. Second, Vermont Workers’ Center, a community-based workers’ rights organization will be there to promote their stance regarding health care as a human right. I hope to clarify what they mean by human right.
To watch the Citizen Wells coverage, go to this link. When I am not broadcasting live, a video will play. Remember, this is my first attempt at this and I will be flying by the seat of my pants. A right click on the screen will allow you to zoom in for a larger viewing area.
“Burlington Labor Day Celebration & Benefit Concert
September 7, 2009 – 12:00pm – 3:00pm
WHEN: 12 noon – 3pm, Monday, September 7
WHERE: Battery Park, Burlington
WHAT: Senator Bernie Sanders will join hundreds of working families for the 8th Annual Burlington Labor Day Celebration sharing in a community potluck, music, street theater and ice cream. This year’s celebration is being sponsored by the Vermont Workers’ Center, a community-based workers’ rights organization who has been building a statewide grassroots organizing campaign called the “Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign” that over that past couple of years has been redefine healthcare as a public good. There will also be a special tribute to the contributions and struggles of working families from Jennifer Henry, the President of the Fletcher Allen nurses union and United Professions of Vermont/AFT. Music will be performed local Burlington busker John Holland and Rik & Bec, a new local duo of Rik Palieri and Rebecca Padula.
“Labor Day is a day to celebrate and remember both the work we all do day in and day out and the long struggles of working people who fought hard for the eight hour day, for Social Security, the end of child labor and even the weekend,” said James Haslam, Director of the Vermont Workers’ Center. “But more than ever, use should use Labor Day as a reminder that we need to be carrying on this tradition by organizing in our workplaces and our communities. This is a time re-commit to the current struggles for more livable wage jobs, fair retirement, strong and healthy communities, and re-defining quality healthcare as a fundamental human right for everyone.”
BACKGROUND: The Vermont Workers’ Center was started in 1998 as a workers’ rights and social justice organization, and have been involved in campaigns to improve working conditions and win livable wages in hundreds of Vermont workplaces across the state. In 2008, they launched the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign to build a statewide grassroots network of Vermonters committed to redefining healthcare policy to establish healthcare as a basic public good for all.
MORE INFO: www.workerscenter.org www.workerscenter.org/healthcare
802-861-4892″
From their website:
“Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign
The Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign, a project of the Vermont Workers’ Center (VWC), aims to change what is “politically possible” in the healthcare debate through grassroots organizing and a strategic reframing of healthcare as a basic human right and the healthcare crisis as a human rights emergency.
Our Goals
Our long-term goal is a universal system in which health care is recognized as a public good and provided collectively, rather than as a commodity sold in a marketplace, and where the human right to health of all residents of the state is fully recognized, regardless of race, gender or gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, nationality or immigration status. Financing must be based on principles of universality, equity, and social solidarity, such as a single-payer system. The only legislation that has been introduced into the Vermont State Legislature for the 2009-2010 session that meets these standards are H.100 and S.88.
What It Will Take
This will not be an easy struggle. In order to win such fundamental reform, we need a strong, statewide grassroots network that will be able to put enough pressure on the legislature and governor to force them to stand up to the insurance industry, those employers who will oppose such a system on ideological grounds, and other powerful interests vested in the status quo. This effort requires:
strong organizing committees throughout the state
diverse leadership
a mass base
What We’ve Done
Since the launch of this campaign in April 2008, the Workers’ Center has conducted a Human Rights Healthcare Survey of over 1400 Vermonters, over 95% of whom recognized that healthcare is a human right. We have held seven Human Rights Hearings around the state, in which hundreds of Vermonters have told their healthcare stories to panels of community and faith leaders. Based on the surveys and hearings, we have put together a report and video Voices of the Vermont Healthcare Crisis: The Human Right to Healthcare. And we organized one of the largest rallies for fundamental healthcare reform in Vermont history in Montpelier on May 1st, 2009.
Where To Go
Since May 1st, we have been working to:
consolidate our local organizing committees in major population centers throughout the state
deepen the understanding of human rights principles for healthcare throughout our base
strategize with local organizing committees about the best way to hold elected officials accountable to human rights principles.
If you would like to learn more or get involved in this grassroots movement contact us at info@workerscenter.org, or (802) 861-2877.
Parents and citizens across the US are outraged that Obama will speak to many of the American students on September 8, 2009. The Citizen Wells blog is urging everyone to contact their state and local school officials to voice your concern about Obama imposing his agenda on our students. Adolf Hitler brainwashed the German students by indoctrinating them in the Hitler Youth. When you contact your school officials ask them 2 questions.
1. Do you plan to take part in the Obama speech presented to your students?
2. Are you going to allow opposing views?
Most citizens of the US that were not already aware of the real Obama and his past associations and agendas are awakening to the spectre of extremely radical appointments to Obama’s cabinet and especially as Obama Czars. Many are also shocked and incensed that Obama is trying to ramrod government health care down our throats in a non transparent, non partisan manner. So, why should parents be so concerned about their children listening to an Obama speech. Sounds innocent enough, right? Dead wrong.
If you are not awakening to how Obama conducts his agendas or what he is really about, consider the following. As you read below weigh rhetoric versus past performance and actions. Adolf Hitler used flowery words to seduce the German people, but his actions betrayed his motives.
Announcement of plans to speak to students
From ServiceWire.org, August 21, 2009:
“OBAMA TO DELIVER NATIONALLY BROADCAST ADDRESS TO STUDENTS ON SEPT. 8”
“The President will deliver a speech about the importance of persisting and succeeding in school on Sept. 8, the first day of school for many children across America. The Department of Education is encouraging educators, students and parents to use this opportunity to help students get focused and begin the school year strong. The speech will be broadcast live on www.whitehouse.gov at 1 p.m. EDT.”…Read more
Announcement from US Dept of Education August 26, 2009
“LEAD & MANAGE MY SCHOOL
Letter From Secretary Arne Duncan to School Principals
August 26, 2009
Please note that the time of this speech has changed to 12:00 noon eastern standard time.
Dear Principal:
In a recent interview with student reporter, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 — the first day of school for many children across America — he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.
Since taking office, the President has repeatedly focused on education, even as the country faces two wars, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and major challenges on issues like energy and health care. The President believes that education is a critical part of building a new foundation for the American economy. Educated people are more active civically and better informed on issues affecting their lives, their families and their futures.
This is the first time an American president has spoken directly to the nation’s school children about persisting and succeeding in school. We encourage you to use this historic moment to help your students get focused and begin the school year strong. I encourage you, your teachers, and students to join me in watching the President deliver this address on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. It will be broadcast live on the White House website www.whitehouse.gov 12:00 noon eastern standard time.
In advance of this address, we would like to share the following resources: a menu of classroom activities for students in grades preK-6 and for students in grades 7-12. These are ideas developed by and for teachers to help engage students and stimulate discussion on the importance of education in their lives. We are also staging a student video contest on education. Details of the video contest will be available on our website www.ed.gov in the coming weeks.
On behalf of all Americans, I want to thank our educators who do society’s most important work by preparing our children for work and for life. No other task is more critical to our economic future and our social progress. I look forward to working with you in the months and years ahead to continue improving the quality of public education we provide all of our children.
Sooner or later the real agenda emerges. Revisit the following paragraph. Notice the mention of health care and “Educated people are more active civically and better informed on issues affecting their lives, their families and their futures.” This means, in everyday, non Orwellian doublespeak, that Obama and his radical associates know what is best for you and they will it explain it.
“Since taking office, the President has repeatedly focused on education, even as the country faces two wars, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and major challenges on issues like energy and health care. The President believes that education is a critical part of building a new foundation for the American economy. Educated people are more active civically and better informed on issues affecting their lives, their families and their futures.”
Obama and his radical associates’ actions speak far louder than their words.
Citizen Wells article of September 6, 2009:
“Michelle’s Boot Camps For Radicals
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY”
“Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993. Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, “Universal Voluntary Public Service.”
Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they’ll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of “social change.””
“But its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about “social change” through threats, pressure, tension and confrontation — the tactics used by the father of community organizing, Saul “The Red” Alinsky.”
“”It’s a lot of talk about race, a lot of talk about sexism, a lot of talk about homophobia, talk about -isms and phobias.”
One of those -isms is “heterosexism,” which a Public Allies training seminar in Chicago describes as a negative byproduct of “capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and male-dominated privilege.””
“The gall of it: The Obamas want to create a boot camp for radicals who hate the military — and stick American taxpayers with the bill.””…Read more
Glenn Beck, “Obama’s radical followers”
“Obama said, quote: We have got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the military. Public Allies, Chicago chapter. Founding, founding member, Barack Obama. Executive director, Michelle Obama. Listen to the words in their speeches. It is all code language. It is all the language of the 1960s radicals. They have their they have their tentacles into an organization that does good things but also teaches that heterosexism is a byproduct of capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and male dominated privilege. Heterosexism!”…Read more
Wall Street Journal Online – Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools
“Despite having authored two autobiographies, Barack Obama has never written about his most important executive experience. From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), and remained on the board until 2001. The group poured more than $100 million into the hands of community organizers and radical education activists.
The CAC was the brainchild of Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground in the 1960s. Among other feats, Mr. Ayers and his cohorts bombed the Pentagon, and he has never expressed regret for his actions. Barack Obama’s first run for the Illinois State Senate was launched at a 1995 gathering at Mr. Ayers’s home.”
“The CAC’s basic functioning has long been known, because its annual reports, evaluations and some board minutes were public. But the Daley archive contains additional board minutes, the Collaborative minutes, and documentation on the groups that CAC funded and rejected. The Daley archives show that Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.”
“The CAC’s agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers’s educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism. In the mid-1960s, Mr. Ayers taught at a radical alternative school, and served as a community organizer in Cleveland’s ghetto.
In works like “City Kids, City Teachers” and “Teaching the Personal and the Political,” Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? “I’m a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist,” Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk’s, “Sixties Radicals,” at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.
CAC translated Mr. Ayers’s radicalism into practice. Instead of funding schools directly, it required schools to affiliate with “external partners,” which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn).
Mr. Obama once conducted “leadership training” seminars with Acorn, and Acorn members also served as volunteers in Mr. Obama’s early campaigns. External partners like the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education. CAC’s in-house evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its grants on the test scores of Chicago public-school students. They found no evidence of educational improvement.”
“Mr. Ayers is the founder of the “small schools” movement (heavily funded by CAC), in which individual schools built around specific political themes push students to “confront issues of inequity, war, and violence.” He believes teacher education programs should serve as “sites of resistance” to an oppressive system. (His teacher-training programs were also CAC funded.) The point, says Mr. Ayers in his “Teaching Toward Freedom,” is to “teach against oppression,” against America’s history of evil and racism, thereby forcing social transformation.”…Read more
Obama, Ayers and Mike Klonsky
Meet Michael Klonsky, Obama’s “social justice” education expert.
“With what little media oxygen there has been sucked out by the largely uninformative discussion of Ayers (and his wife and Weather Underground ally, Bernadine Dohrn) — in which the mantra “unrepentant terrorist” has been a pale substitute for the critical matter of the Ayers’s ideology that Obama plainly shares — much has been missed. Significantly, that includes another key Obama contact, Mike Klonsky.
Here’s what you need to know. Klonsky is an unabashed communist whose current mission is to spread Marxist ideology in the American classroom. Obama funded him to the tune of nearly $2 million. Obama, moreover, gave Klonsky a broad platform to broadcast his ideas: a “social justice” blog on the official Obama campaign website.
To be clear, as it seems always necessary to repeat when Obamaniacs, in their best Saul Alinsky tradition, shout down the opposition: This is not about guilt by association. The issue is not that Obama knows Klonsky … or Ayers … or Dohrn … or Wright … or Rashid Khalidi …
The issue is that Obama promoted and collaborated with these anti-American radicals. The issue is that he shared their ideology.
Klonsky’s communist pedigree could not be clearer. His father, Robert Klonsky, was an American communist who was convicted in the mid-Fifties for advocating the forcible overthrow of the United States government — a violation of the Smith Act, anti-communist legislation ultimately gutted by the Supreme Court. In the Sixties, Klonsky the younger teamed with Ayers, Dohrn, and other young radicals to form the Students for a Democratic Society. It was out of the SDS that Ayers and Dohrn helped found the Weatherman terrorist group.
Klonsky took a different path, albeit one that led inexorably to a new partnership with Ayers, which Obama mightily helped underwrite. Upon splitting off from the SDS, Klonsky formed a Maoist organization, first known as the “October League,” which ultimately became the “Communist Party (Marxist Leninist).”
Klonsky was CP(ML)’s chairman. He was so highly thought of by Mao’s regime that he was among the first Americans invited to visit Communist China. When he was feted there in 1977, a year after Mao’s death, the communist leadership hailed Klonsky’s party as “reflecting the aspirations of the proletariat and working people.””
“After getting his doctorate, Klonsky eventually made his way to Chicago and hooked up with his old SDS comrade (and self-professed “small ‘c’ communist”) Bill Ayers. Together, they co-founded the Small Schools Workshop in 1991. The goal — as Ayers has repeatedly made clear, most prominently in a 2006 speech before Hugo Chavez at an education forum in Caracas — is to bring the same Leftist revolution that has always galvanized them into the classroom.
The concept may be called small schools, but Klonsky and Ayers uniquely grasp the force-multiplier effect. In a small class, the teacher preaching the “social justice” gospel that American capitalism is a racist, materialist, imperialist cauldron of injustice can have greater impact on the students he seeks to mold into his conception of the “good citizen” — and on the teachers he is teaching to be preachers. Writing trenchantly about how this system of “critical pedagogy” short-changes the basic education needs of disadvantaged children, the City Journal’s Sol Stern observes that theorists like Klonsky and Ayers:
nurse a rancorous view of an America in which it is always two minutes to midnight and a knock on the door by the thought police is imminent. The education professors feel themselves anointed to use the nation’s K-12 classrooms to resist this oppressive system. Thus … teachers [are urged] not to mince words with children about the evils of the existing social order. They should portray “homelessness as a consequence of the private dealings of landlords, an arms buildup as a consequence of corporate decisions, racial exclusion as a consequence of a private property-holder’s choice.” In other words, they should turn the little ones into young socialists and critical theorists.”…Please read the entire article
Report from Fox News September 02, 2009
“Critics Decry Obama’s ‘Indoctrination’ Plan for Students”
“A suggested lesson plan that calls on school kids to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Obama is troubling some education experts, who say it establishes the president as a “superintendent in chief” and may indoctrinate children to support him politically.”
“Obama’s critics say the lesson plans and the president’s calls for a “supportive community” are troubling on many levels.
“In general, I don’t think there’s a problem if the president uses the bully pulpit to tell kids to work hard, study hard and things like that. But there are some troubling hints in this, both educationally and politically,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.
Among the concerns, McCluskey said, is the notion that students who do not support Obama or his educational policies will begin the school year “behind the eight ball,” or somehow academically trailing their peers.
“It essentially tries to force kids to say the president and the presidency is inspiring, and that’s very problematic,” McCluskey said. “It’s very concerning that you would do that.””…Read more
Michelle Malkin on Obama’s speech to public school students
Once again, we are reminded by history, something our teachers should be aware of, of attempts to control the minds of our young people. Adolf Hitler created the Hitler youth, brainwashed them and encouraged them to turn in their parents for non doctrine behaviour. George Orwell watched Nazi Germany play out and incorporated the brainwashed Hitler youth into the children of “1984.” We cannot afford to let history repeat itself again. Speak up against this mind control attempt. The future of our children and this country is at stake.
I just got off the phone with the NC Board of Education. I asked them 2 questions about the Obama speech to school students scheduled for September 8, 2009.
1. Will the state of NC participate in this?
2. Will opposing opinions be allowed?
The answer to both questions is that this will be handled at the local level. In NC this means the county school boards or other local governing body.
I am requesting that all NC citizens contact their local school boards, ask the above questions and voice your concern about allowing Obama to influence your children.
I am also requesting that citizens in other states contact your state board of education and find out what their policy is and likewise voice your concerns.
Exercise your First Amendment Rights and protect our children and our country.
Yesterday, August 26, 2009, the Citizen Wells blog presented an article about Obama’s ties to SEIU, a group that claims to be a union representing working people.
“SEIU,Service Employees International Union, thugs have been a prominent feature at many of the town hall meetings on health care. Did you ever wonder why they were there. This article from American Thinker on January 6, 2009, months before these town hall meetings, will shed some light on their presence.”
Today, August 27, 2009, a great commenter on this blog alerted us to another article referring to SEIU as the new mafia.
“SEIU, The New Mafia”
“We all have heard about the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) during the 2008 general election. Even more recently, the SEIU was active in being “ushers” at the Tampa town hall meeting on August 6, 2009 sponsored by Florida State Representative Betty Reed (D-Dist. 59) with special guest, Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL), on the topic of healthcare reform. It was no surprise that SEIU members acted on their best, I mean, not on their best behavior when using mafia-like tactics in preventing ANY proud American willing to practice their first amendment right of free speech.”
“Furthermore, the SEIU advocates for illegal alien employment as evidenced by their adopted amendments and resolutions from their 2008 convention in Puerto Rico! Yes, in an economic climate where LEGAL immigrants and Americans are losing their jobs, the SEIU writes “How To” guides for employers if they are subjected to an I.C.E. raid. This would partly explain their behavior at town hall meetings around the country as they do not want the COMMON SENSE voice being heard about some of the issues surrounding the healthcare crisis; i.e. illegal aliens who receive free healthcare at the American’s expense!”
“So, I’ve browsed the SEIU’s 2008 amendments and resolutions and provided specific examples of how their intended goal of promoting jobs in all industries for all people actually has counterproductive practices. On face value, this organization is just the street level thug division of the Organize for America movement which is an extension of the Obama’s 2008 campaign. In fact, I actually feel sorry for SEIU members for being exploited by the liberals to advance their agenda instead of filling their ranks with people that fully understand issues and grasp the severity of their actions.”
Obama’s SEIU Thugs Attack a Black Conservative Outside Russ Carnahan Town Hall.
The following comes directly from the SEIU constitution. There is so much unAmerican, anti business, marxists propaganda there that I had a difficult time deciding what to include.
Resolution # 102a Adopted at the 2008 SEIU Convention
Building Workers’ Strength with Comprehensive Immigration Reform
SEIU members have many reasons to stand united for comprehensive immigration reform.
All working people face lower pay and benefits when some hard-working, taxpaying workers are driven into an underground economy because they are denied legal status.
The political strength of working people is seriously undermined when millions of workers are denied the right to vote because they have no real path to citizenship.
Our primary mission – to unite all working people for a better future – cannot be achieved as long as many workers face exploitation and discrimination.
Our communities are weakened when politicians eager to exploit divisions pass laws that result in workers being denied access to drivers’ licenses and insurance or qualified high school graduates being denied a college education.
As a result of the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform last year, we have seen an alarming increase in local laws that target immigrant workers and their families, along with costly deportation raids that make headlines but do not realistically fix a broken system. Deportation threats without reform have pushed undocumented immigrants further into the underground economy, dividing the workforce and driving down wages and benefits for all working people.
When the Bush administration announced a federal attack on undocumented immigrant workers, including a new policy on “no match” Social Security cases, SEIU developed a tool kit and held legal trainings to educate employers and workers on their rights in the event of a worksite raid and/or “no match” letter.
As the federal crackdowns increase, so do state and local laws that target immigrant workers and fuel fear, hate, and division in communities across the country. Legislation in states such as Arizona, Oklahoma, and Virginia that deputizes local law enforcement and empower them to persecute undocumented immigrants will cost billions in taxpayer dollars, but solve nothing.
We will oppose initiatives including guest worker programs if they do not provide future immigrant workers with a safe, orderly, and legal process that includes full protection of U.S. laws and a pathway to citizenship.
SEIU members will continue to help immigrant workers organize to unite their strength with us.
Resolution # 105b Adopted at the 2008 SEIU Convention
Justice for All: Reforming Our National Healthcare System
This Moment Calls for Our Leadership
Our nation’s healthcare crisis has touched every kitchen table, every worker, every boardroom, and every patient and continues to grow worse each day. 48 million people in the United States have no health insurance and hundreds ofmillions more are under-insured, making it difficult or impossible for them to access quality health care;
SEIU will bring its full resources to this fight in the form of national membership mobilization, political action, and local resources to amplify our voice on this issue and be prepared for the real healthcare reform work that begins on November 5, 2008 with a newly elected President and Congress.
3. While we continue to defend employer-based plans that provide quality healthcare for our members, the current employer -based health care system is not a realistic foundation for 21st century health care reform, particularly given the competitive challenges of a global economy.
Further be it resolved:
To win national healthcare reform SEIU members pledge to:
Help to build and grow Healthcare United, an organization of both union and non-union nurses and healthcare workers, and support the work of Americans for Health Care — to speak out with healthcare consumers to help lead the fight.
Resolution # 106a Adopted at the 2008 SEIU Convention
Quality Public Education for All
A high quality, universal public education system is crucial to ensuring equal opportunity for our children. But our nation’s children do not have equal access to a quality public education. The opportunities provided by public schools have been selective and have excluded too many of our children. Millions of children of working families, particularly in lower income communities, do not have access to schools in which all students can thrive.
Resolution # 107 Adopted at the 2008 SEIU Convention
Rebuilding the Middle Class
Commit 50% of the growth budgets and 50% of non-growth staff during the first 100 days of the 111th • Congress toward the passage of Employee Free Choice and healthcare reform.
Resolution # 115a Adopted at the 2008 SEIU Convention
Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean
Today, progressive, democratically elected movements continue to grow in strength across Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela are increasingly committed to fighting against poverty and illiteracy and for a more just society.
Resolution # 122 Adopted at the 2008 SEIU Convention
Resolution on the Campaign for the New American Dream
WHEREAS in February 2008, the International Executive Board endorsed Barrack Obama to become the next President of the United States, and since that time SEIU members and leaders from around the country have worked tirelessly in primaries and caucuses from Oregon to Pennsylvania, from Texas to Wisconsin, in Puerto Rico, Indiana, Ohio and other states. We have also built upon our successes in the 2006 Congressional General Elections in 2008 to preserve a democratic seat in Massachusetts, elect a progressive democratic in Maryland and make unprecedented gains in difficult congressional districts against anti-worker candidates.
SEIU will help expand the work of nonprofit entities such as Mi Familia Vota, Strengthen Our Lives (S.O.L.), and The American Dream Fund so that all working people, including immigrants, will be active and united.
Larry Sinclair confuses Obama supporters with facts in this Youtube video:
“Organizing For America members say “you don’t need to read 1000 pages of a bill…””
“University of Central Florida Students transported by Organizing for America to the Alan Grayson/Joe Biden events in Orlando do not even know what they are supporting. These students (all but 1 of which are members of SDS) were transported to the Biden school speech and then to the Marriott Hotel for the $1000, $5000, & $10,000 per donor Biden/Grayson/Kosmas fund raiser in a Black SUV. The SDS president was seen coming and going from the Hotel on his cell phone calling other members.”
Citizen WElls 