Posted on 06/19/2009 10:40:49 AM PDT by radar101
The California Republican Party seemed to hit political paydirt in a YouTube ad that pilloried the Service Employees International Union for "bullying state leaders in the budget process."
The ad featured footage of an angry woman telling lawmakers that union members would work to defeat lawmakers who didn't vote their way.
It turns out that the woman portrayed as an SEIU union leader in the commercial is a home health care worker from Fresno named Lisa Brown, who works for the state by caring for her son who has Down syndrome.
Now Brown is calling on Republicans to pull the ad and "apologize for its content."
"I am the mother and care provider for a sweet young man with developmental disabilities who doesn't comprehend the implications of budget cuts on the table in Sacramento," Brown said a letter to the state Republican Party.
Brown, who is an SEIU member but not a union official, said: "Your attempt to label me a 'union bully' would be hilarious if it weren't so dangerous to people that I love.'"
The GOP ran the video to counter a $1 million SEIU advertising blitz featuring a television commercial that urges lawmakers to consider taxes on oil extraction, cigarettes and alcohol to avoid social services cuts.
In the selected clip in the GOP ad, Brown hardly treads easily on lawmakers:
"We helped to get you into office, and we got a good memory," she says angrily at a legislative budget hearing. "And come November, if you don't back our program, we'll help to get you out of office."
Brown said in her letter that she appeared at the hearing "to speak from my heart and in my own words" on behalf of services for the disabled.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
You make an excellent point but let's "not throw the activist out with the discarded protest signs".
Back-off the home-care employment angle but the advert should stay. She made the threat without bringing up her situation. She spoke as a union member, not a single mother with a DS child.
For follow-up:
What does she do with her son of she gets furloughed or laid-off?
The fact that she’s an employee sort of torpedoes the excuses. subsidizing care for severely disabled citizens is one thing. Allowing the subsidized care givers to join a union is BS.
The State of California pays her union wages to stay home and take care of her special needs son? Am I reading that correctly?
Without ever having paid anything into the system?
Yup. That's one of the biggest problems with SS.
Why not just be honest, and call it welfare?
A mother gets paid for taking care of her child? And here we’ve been doing it for free all of these years.
She is employed by the state to take care of her own son and is a member of the state employees’ union. So, if she has a beef with the state will she go on strike and refuse to take care of her own son?
Lady, you really don’t want to go there with me.
There are many things I don’t think the government should be funding.
I think public schools should be shut down. The government shouldn’t be funding education. I homeschool my children. I shouldn’t be held responsible for anyone else’s. Why don’t you ask humblegunner about his opinion of homeschooling and public schools. He would never want public schools shut down.
If you look at post #14, you’ll see that I commented FIRST that this woman might be receiving both SSI and a salary, and that the political ad should air as is. I’m the one who put it out there, and humblegunner was replying to me.
But, I don’t think it’s right to joke and laugh about a situation involving a disabled person by using the word “retarded”. That was no better than what the Democrats do when they joke and laugh about Palin’s family. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
What makes me laugh are people who complain about one thing but not another. Why should there be social security in the first place? Let’s go there, shall we? Someone could point out that people should be responsible to save for their own futures. SS isn’t an insurance plan you pay into. A retiree’s SS payments are being taken from the people working now.
I also agree. We do too!!
The uniform is a nice touch. Who wears a uniform to take care of their own child?
Re: “I wonder how much they’d pay me to take care of myself? I can be challenge at times.”
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I know — me too — and I’m, um, having some trouble with my feisty dog, too. Can I get some monetary help with that?
Nope. This stinker is rife with fruad so open and obvious that the CA newspapers have even reported it. About 1/3 of the people who are enrolled as home health aides never even see the person they are suppossedly helping, let alone give any assistance.
This was passed by the CA rat legislature a few years back to provide new members and dues to two unions: SEIU and I forget the other one but they are a large public employee union in CA.
There was never any thought that this program was intended for military wounded. SEIU recently announced that they are aware of the fraud and are launching an investigation. Results should be available in about 3 years.
Re: “Hiding behind her disabled child. What a coward.”
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I want details about the child and his disability — why is he not in some ‘school?’
Here in L.A. many of those kids are babysat every single day thanks to the taxpayers’ dollars. I know a lot about this as a good friend is a ‘permanent’ substitute in LAUSD who occasionally gets calls to ‘babysit’ the ‘special needs’ classes.
There are always several helpers in those classrooms, few kids to watch over, and NO teaching is taking place, just babysitting, including — get ready — diaper changing!!! And those diapers are NOT on babies!
Why are we paying this particular woman to stay home with her son? Remember the old days when people cared for their own relatives without expecting $$$ from other taxpayers?
RE: “Here is la petite fleur with her mouth perpetually open at a SEIU United Healthcare Workers (UHW) rally in Fresno on May 31, 2009. She (it?) may not be a union official, but it’s clear it (she?) is a union activist & crony. Bottom line?...Shaddup you phony!”
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Is that her son? He can stand up — and walk? Why is he not in special needs classes held at public schools?
Did I miss the part where this woman has a REAL job somewhere? Without scrolling back to see more details, I’m guessing caring for her son is her idea of a ‘job’ instead of her motherly duty.
A pox on this woman — she should be embarrassed to show her face in public.
Homeschooling is NO option for the vast majority of folks, retarded or otherwise.
I commented FIRST that this woman might be receiving both SSI and a salary
Then she is scamming the system, plain and simple.
I don’t think it’s right to joke and laugh about a situation involving a disabled person by using the word “retarded”
Point out this joking and laughing. I missed it.
SS isn’t an insurance plan you pay into. A retiree’s SS payments are being taken from the people working now.
I've been paying into it for decades. You tell me I should expect nothing back?
Retard.
Works for the state by caring for her son??? What in hell is this about?? I wonder if we could get a tax passed to help me paint my house, shovel snow from my driveway, feed the dog, ... In the unforgettable words of the King of Siam, "Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."
Yep, SSI known as “supplemental security income”. Kids can get it for being diagnosed as “ADHD” among other things. If you don’t have “credits” for work you can be eligible for SSI as opposed to SSD. No wonder the system is broken!
And as prior posters have so aptly pointed out—the woman is “employed” by the state to CARE FOR HER OWN CHILD????? WTF???
I know exactly what you mean about people agreeing to some marxist talking points and not others. You're all conservative about limited government and yet go all PC on me and humblegunner. I guess you think that there are things people can't say. What is your list of things that aren't to be said or joked about? Please let me know so that I can search for you in the threads and not violate your delicate ears with my incorrect words.
And just when did we lose the correct meaning of the word retarded? When did it become an insult and not a description of a factual state? There is nothing shameful about stating a fact, and I do not take it back nor apologize for saying anything that I said. Humblegunner and I were not laughing at a retarded boy. We weren't laughing at all, but ruefully expressing our disgust with a government that would give a woman a salary to care for her own son, and an woman who would think that is okay. Any laughter or cruelty was in your own mind.
"Why should there be social security in the first place? Let’s go there, shall we? Someone could point out that people should be responsible to save for their own futures. SS isn’t an insurance plan you pay into. A retiree’s SS payments are being taken from the people working now."
There shouldn't be SS in the first place. People should be responsible for their own retirement income.
Unfortunately, there are millions of people who think that SS is there for their retirement. That's reality and can't be changed for those millions. It is not common knowledge that three people are paying for each retiree now, and it's getting worse by the moment. More's the pity. Undoing that, or somehow phasing it out, is beyond my ability to even suggest, but that doesn't mean that I approve of it.
You've made a lot of assumptions about me and read my mind incorrectly a lot here. JS.
so she is running a scam to care for her own child?
Yes. That was the whole point of my first post.
But, now, based on posts by you and TheOldLady, we're discussing SSI payments for the disabled. Both you and TheOldLady have suggested Social Security should be for retired people only.
Sure, you pay into SS, but so do the vast majority of people, including many of those people collecting SSI for their disabled children. That's why most people believe they are justified in collecting whatever government benefit they're collecting; everyone is paying into the system to one extent or another.
My last message was a direct reply to TheOldLady. I pinged you because I referred to you in it. But, once again, you show yourself to be rude, too.
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