Free Republic

This has to be the FUnniest VIDEO coming out of all the leftwing union confrontations currently taking place. Picture a drunken Popeye the Sailor as a complete moron and you get this guy. What makes this video especially FUnnie is that he is accusing the Tea Party folks of being uneducated. As of this writing this video only has a little over a 6000 views but it really needs to go viral. Alert all your friends (especially bloggers) and give them a HEADS UP on this video. It PERFECTLY illustrates where the true ignorance in our body politic exists.

Since the beginning of the Wisconsin Insurrection, progressive activists have done everything the mainstream press accuses the Tea Party of doing. They have held signs comparing Governor Scott Walker to Hitler, Hosni Mubarak, and Benito Mussolini. They have displayed signs with targets superimposed on the Governor's face. They have surrounded the homes of elected officials and issued threats. Some have expressed their desire to see the Governor assassinated on the social networking site Twitter. A Democratic Congressman has encouraged union activists to "get bloody" and another compared Governor Walker to a dictator. A blogger at the far-left site Daily Kos...

I own a small business. About two hours ago, a woman came through the door marked NO ADMITTANCE EMPLOYEES ONLY and started talking to one of the guys, asking questions about the business. He tried to point out to her that she had just walked through a door that was pretty clearly marked as for employees only and she waved that off and produced a business card that said she was a UPS Representative. she starts to explain that she is here by request of Homeland Security and is doing a checkup on our business because we do a lot...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) hit back at AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Thursday for calling her rhetoric "poisonous." Trumka went to Anchorage, Alaska — Palin's political backyard — to deliver a speech in which he is expected to criticize Palin's language, which he says could incite violence from her supporters. "And down in Tyler, Texas, she’s talking about — and I quote — 'union thugs.' What? Her husband’s a union man. Is she calling him a thug? Sarah Palin ought to know what union men and women are," Trumka will say. "That’s poisonous. There’s history behind that rhetoric....

WESTMINSTER – After spending more than $80 million and building a major lead in public opinion polls, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman may finally have met her match Tuesday in the parking lot of the Asian Garden Mall. The billionaire candidate was delivering her stump speech to about 150 people at an open-air rally when about 50 protesters from the California Nurses Association and its schoolteacher allies interrupted by chanting and blowing whistles just a few dozen yards away. Flanked by banners reading "Take Back Sac," Whitman finished her speech without acknowledging the protesters and later said she wouldn't let...

From prison guards to teachers, organized labor wields influence over California politics like an iron pipe. In the Sacramento region, one group's clout rises above the others. The Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447 has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into local campaigns over the years. They've groomed young candidates on utility boards, attacked mayoral hopefuls and given heavily to local Democratic organizations. In the past three years, Local 447 has pumped $758,803 into area candidates, political committees and measure campaigns, records compiled by the secretary of state's office show. That's more than the region's two largest law enforcement unions,...

When thousands of peaceful, Tea Party protestors came to Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nev. last Saturday, you would have thought that the favorite son of this hardscrabble, mining town would garner tons of local support. Not so. Members of IBEW Local 357 were called to action to agitate the crowd and, as we’ve previously shown, to hurl eggs at the busses carrying them.

Barack Obama and organized labor have made no secret about promoting each other's interests. Indeed, his 2008 presidential victory would have been much more difficult in absence of union financial contributions and volunteer work. Thus, Obama's recess appointment Saturday of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, effectively overriding a Senate Republican filibuster last month, served as an IOU as well as an expression of the president's will. Becker, currently a top union lawyer, has argued that workers should not have any right to opt out of union representation. Moreover, he's counseled a large local union founded as a...

Major Garrett tweets this response from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka on the defeat of Craig Becker: "A Republican-led filibuster has put political interests over the needs of America’s working families," Trumka said. "We support President Obama’s expressed willingness to make recess appointments of critical posts in the federal government if that’s what it takes to get around minority delay and obstruction."

AFL-CIO leader: Democrats inviting repeat of 1994 over economy woes By Kevin Bogardus - 01/11/10 01:01 AM ET The Democratic Party could see a repeat of their epic electoral defeat 1994 when Republicans won the House unless they institute dramatic changes in economic policy, the leader of the AFL-CIO said Monday. In prepared remarks at the National Press Club, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the majority party needs to end its coziness with the financial sector and step up and take action for workers to avoid losing control of the House. “In 1992, workers voted for Democrats who promised action...

The AFL-CIO's new president on card check, health reform and the challenges facing the union movement.Pittsburgh The new boss looks the part. There's the Walesa-esque moustache and burly former linebacker's physique. The Polish-Italian roots in the southwestern Pennsylvania mining town of Nemacolin where he went down the coal shaft at 19, following his grandfather and father, before rising up union ranks. There's the reputation for toughness, a short fuse and gruff sense of humor. To supporters, Richard Trumka boasts the right résumé to head up America's largest labor federation; to doubters, inside the movement and out, the AFL-CIO went with...

There is no such thing as ‘a right to a job’—there is only the right of free trade, that is: a man’s right to take a job if another man chooses to hire him.” —Ayn Rand, “Man’s Rights,” 1963— If you want to understand the most common reason for unemployment in America—the real unemployment rate of which is now well into the double digits—you need only look as far as Washington, D.C., home of the federal government, for the answer: bureaucratic intervention in the economy in the form of minimum wage laws, “public works” projects, “stimulus” programs and the regulation...

By Greg Robb, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A labor leader has moved into a high-profile position as chairman at a regional Federal Reserve bank. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington has selected Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until the end of the year, the New York Fed announced Monday. Hughes is the first labor leader to head the New York Fed. A spokesman at the AFL-CIO office said Hughes was not taking questions.

The L.A. Times had a very interesting piece last week on the unusually close relationship between Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and President Obama. The story revealed how Stern "enjoys unusual access to the White House," and how often Stern is invited to attend meetings the administration holds on policy even as other union heads are left out of the loop. The piece does cast some doubt on just how much clout Stern might have with Obama as several of the initiatives he has pushed hard for have yet to come to fruition -- but it should also...

Authorities on Tuesday arrested the president of a state workers union local on suspicion of possessing child pornography and violating his probation as a sex offender. Jaime E. Feliciano, 49, works at the state Insurance Department as a research program specialist, according to public records. Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said authorities recently received a tip from police in Reno that Feliciano had inappropriate contact with a juvenile there. Curran said the tip was turned over to the high-tech crime task force, which is led by the Sheriff's Department. Task force members carried out a compliance check...

Former labor leader Carl "Bubba" Scarbrough is pleading guilty this morning to molesting a teenage boy in the sauna at Fort Sanders Health and Fitness Center in West Knoxville in June 2005. The plea in Knox County Criminal Court comes after newly filed court records indicate the 13-year-old boy might not be Scarbrough's only victim. In a stunning set of records filed in Knox County Criminal Court by Assistant District Attorney General Willie Lane, witness after witness recount Scarbrough allegedly spied on them in either a fitness center shower or sauna while masturbating. "Surely, he's not doing what I think...

RICHMOND -- A Richmond elementary-school teacher who had just been placed on leave was arrested on felony charges Wednesday after she refused to leave campus and instead rallied her students against the principal, kept her class in the library and used a girl as a shield as police arrived, authorities said. The Sheldon Elementary School teacher, Jennie Mo, 57, of El Cerrito grabbed one of her girl students and managed to get another student to help her as she was confronted by a police officer in the school library, police said. She ended up being handcuffed in front of her...

<p>Philadelphia - A special three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals convened Wednesday to hear arguments on whether a Federal Civil Rights suit may proceed against Gov. Ed Rendell and overturn a 2003 lower court ruling that there was insufficient evidence. Rendell is charged with conspiring to suppress the First Amendment rights of protesters by having Teamsters Local 115 beat them while they demonstrated outside Philadelphia's City Hall during a Democratic fundraiser featuring President Bill Clinton. Rendell, who was mayor of Philadelphia at the time, admitted in a deposition following the Oct. 2, 1998 beatings to personally inviting Teamsters Local 115 Secretary-Treasurer John Morris and instructing the union to "drown-out" the Clinton protesters. "I specifically said I didn't want any interaction with the demonstrators. I wanted this to be extremely peaceful and extremely positive," Rendell also claimed in the deposition, which was taken two years after the fact. Morris was caught on video by local media placing a fedora over protester Don Adams' head, signaling the Teamsters to knock him to the ground and assault him. Adams was treated at a nearby hospital for a concussion, lacerations and multiple bruises. His sister, Teri, sustained minor injuries. Testimony from Morris' chief of staff revealed that, after the beatings, Rendell called Morris about the Teamsters who participated in the attack and said, "nothing is going to happen to these guys," and "I know how these things go." He then suggested that Morris and the Teamsters file a criminal complaint against Adams, which they did two days later on Oct. 4, 1998, alleging that he struck a woman in their group. Even though there was no police reports supporting the Teamster's claim, the incident was caught on video, and the District Attorney's Office pursued trial against Adams, who filed suit against the Teamsters and Rendell several months later. At one point, the Teamsters offered to drop their charges against him if he dropped his case. During that time, they launched a media campaign and accused Adams of being a woman-beater. Adams rejected the deal and was found not guilty on July 8, 1999. Five teamsters then pled guilty to various charges of assault and were granted probation, and Morris died in 2001. Arguments surrounding Rendell's involvement center not on how convincing the evidence is, but whether his interaction with Morris after the fact - consoling the Teamsters and advising them to sue Adams - can be used as evidence to support the charge of conspiracy. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in United States vs. Smith in 2002 that concerted actions to conceal unlawful behavior are relevant to a finding of conspiracy. The Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion in United States vs. Brodie last year. However, Philadelphia Law Department attorney Jane Lovitch Istvan, who represents Rendell, argued in brief, "The alleged conversation in this case ... contained no evidence of attempted concealment, nor is there a pattern of other alleged attempts to conceal." "I think he might have a case," Circuit Judge Restani said during oral arguments surrounding Adams' claim. The three circuit judges were appointed to hear the case from outside the Third Circuit Court's jurisdiction after a motion asking the entire Circuit to recuse itself was granted. This recusal was issued due to the fact that Rendell's wife, Judge Marjorie Rendell, sits on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.</p>

Prosecutors want a former Oak Ridge labor leader and politician accused of rape jailed, and his alleged victim wants $10.5 million from the operators of a West Knoxville health club where the two crossed paths. Assistant District Attorney General Willie Harper has filed in Knox County Criminal Court a motion to revoke or increase bond set for Carl "Bubba" Scarbrough in a pending rape case. Harper's motion came hours after Scarbrough was charged Thursday night with driving under the influence and refusing to take a test to measure the level of alcohol in his blood stream. "Our firm is in...

Pensacola, Fla. -- A second middle school teacher was arrested for allegedly letting students skip gym class if they paid $1 each day. Tamara B. Tootle, 39, turned herself in Thursday and faces six counts of bribery, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said. Authorities said she told students at Ernest Ward Middle School during the 2004-05 school year that they didn't have to dress for her physical education class but would still receive a 100 percent for participation for a bribe. Tootle, who has resigned, was released on bond,