Free Republic

One of the nation's largest labor unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is promoting a plan that will centralize all retirement plans for American workers, including private 401(k) plans, under one new "retirement system" for the United States. In effect, government pensions for everyone, not unlike the European system and regardless of personal choice. The SEIU, which was integral to the election of Barack Obama as president, is working with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, on SEIU's plan, called "the Retirement USA Initiative." Claiming that the retirement system...

It has been said often, and with more eloquence than I, that Barack Obama's priorities are misplaced. Where are the jobs pundits are asking? But even as he lip-serves employment, he needles America. Vladimir Lenin once said, "Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism," and it's clear that Obama and Lenin share philosophy. Clearer still is that Obama doesn't care. Not about November. Not about your family. Not about your job. What he prioritizes -- as evidenced by his push for "reform" -- is the "fundamental restructuring" of the American economy. Andy Stern, the most frequent White House...

Everything you need to know about President Obama's commitment to fiscal responsibility and cost containment can be summed up in two words: Andy Stern. The profligate, corruption-coddling head of the powerful Service Employees International Union was named to the White House debt commission last week. If Obama thinks Stern holds the cure for our government spending woes, you can be certain his latest health care prescription will be fiscal hemlock. Obama extolled Stern and his other federal debt panel appointees as "distinguished individuals" who'll bring a "sense of integrity" to the job. Tell that to rank-and-file SEIU members across the...

Everything you need to know about President Obama's commitment to fiscal responsibility and cost containment can be summed up in two words: Andy Stern. The profligate, corruption-coddling head of the powerful Service Employees International Union was named to the White House debt commission last week. If Obama thinks Stern holds the cure for our government spending woes, you can be certain his latest health care prescription will be fiscal hemlock. Obama extolled Stern and his other federal debt panel appointees as "distinguished individuals" who'll bring a "sense of integrity" to the job. Tell that to rank-and-file SEIU members across the...

The White House picks its most frequent visitor to sit on its deficit commission. He believes in big government, in big spending, and that the workers of the world should unite. What could go wrong? Computer security firms have been known to hire the best former hackers because they know best how to stop others like them. But the appointment of Andy Stern, president of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU), to a bipartisan commission to come up with ways to deal with the rapidly rising federal budget deficit is like having a serial arsonist organize Fire Prevention Week. Government...

Snarky Photochoppage of ... the One trying to change the subject ... Andy Stern is on the Obama team ... The Wicked Witch of Congress and the Rangel exemption to the "most ethical Congress in history"

Union Influence: The White House picks its most frequent visitor to sit on its deficit commission. He believes in big government, in big spending, and that the workers of the world should unite. What could go wrong? Computer security firms have been known to hire the best former hackers because they know best how to stop others like them. But the appointment of Andy Stern, president of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU), to a bipartisan commission to come up with ways to deal with the rapidly rising federal budget deficit is like having a serial arsonist organize Fire Prevention...

Obama’s New ‘Fiscal Responsibility’ Commissioner Andy Stern Loves Redistributing Wealth and Global Government http://www.breitbart.tv/obamas-new-fiscal-responsibility-commissioner-andy-stern-loves-redistributing-wealth-and-global-government/ BRIETBART.TV AND NAKED EMPEROR NEWS

Ow. Ow. Ow. I am laughing so hard I can’t breathe. Can. Hardly. Type. WaPo brings us the beyond-satire news that the White House wants to put SEIU president Andy Stern on the federal deficit panel. Now, it’s not just a dog-and-pony show. It’s a dog-pony-and-thug show. I love how WaPo uses the word “eclectic” to describe the choice. “Eclectic” is the new synonym for corruptocrat: Eclectic trio of candidates considered for Obama deficit panel: Republican David M. Cote, the chief executive of Honeywell International, has emerged as a top contender for a slot on President Obama’s commission to bring...

Republican David M. Cote, the chief executive of Honeywell International, has emerged as a top contender for a slot on President Obama's commission to bring the nation's soaring debt under control, a senior administration official said Saturday. The White House is also considering appointing two Democrats: Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, and Alice M. Rivlin, a budget expert and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve who recently launched a separate, independent effort to draft a bipartisan plan to stabilize government borrowing.

Craig Becker Uses Rules for Radicals For #1 SEIU-Obama priority, the ends justify the means President Obama’s radical union-backed nominee to the National Labor Relations Board lied to a Senate confirmation panel earlier this week about his ties to the embattled leftist advocacy group ACORN. The nominee is Craig Becker, who, at least until recently, was longtime associate general counsel to SEIU. Becker is considered radical in part because he believes that “employers should have no role in the unionization process,” according to Brian Johnson, executive director of the Alliance for Worker Freedom. During a hearing Tuesday by the Senate...

Leaders: The champion of Polish freedom tells America it's no longer that shining city on a hill. As it slouches toward socialism, he warns, those yearning to breathe free in the world can no longer look to the U.S. for help. They were the giants of their age. Together, President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II and a little known shipyard worker named Lech Walesa stood up to Soviet communism and brought freedom to the captive nations of Europe. Last Friday, Walesa was in Chicago campaigning for a GOP gubernatorial candidate in the Illinois...

Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern said that Senators that vote against his ideas are "terrorists." That's right, folks, this union chief is saying that any politician that votes against the politically motivated ideas of Big Labor should be branded a "terrorist." This is the sort of gutter rhetoric that union thugs specialize in but regardless Stern should be ashamed of himself for bringing the political debate down into that gutter. Scum. Andy Stern is simply scum for using such idiotic and demagogic rhetoric. Stern said this line of crap to Bloomberg News (as reported by CNSNews.com)... Read the...

Stern Lashes Out At Senate Dems, Calls Some Legislative 'Terrorists' 01-26-10 Two of the most powerful union officials in the country lashed out at Senate Democrats on Tuesday, jokingly calling some of them legislative "terrorists" and slamming leadership for "squandering" a supermajority in the Senate. Pointing to the failure of Congress to pass health care reform and effectively stimulate job creation, SEIU president Andy Stern insisted that "unless something dramatic happens here" the country's labor activists will not be eager to help the Democratic Party in the 2010 elections. Speaking at a forum on the state of the American worker...

They’ve dumped nearly a $1 million of rank-and-file dues into Martha Antoinette Coakley’s coffers. They “pulled out all the stops” before the primary and they’ll be throwing all their ground troops into the Bay State over the weekend. We know how the SEIU thugs operate. I told you in Culture of Corruption about Andy Stern’s organizational motto: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.” They’ll go after Boy Scouts. And baby-sitters. And home health-care providers. They raided their treasury to pour $60-$80 million into Obama and the Democrats’...

"We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama - $60.7 million to be exact - and we're proud of it," Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern proclaimed last year. Now he and other labor leaders want a full return on their investment. "A full return," more than anything else, means getting Congress, the executive branch and the courts to transform labor law and policy into vehicles for a massive expansion of union membership and bargaining power. That goal surely would have been realized were it not for dogged and principled opposition. The 2008 presidential and congressional elections provided a...

Politics: With the Massachusetts Senate race in a dead heat, the Service Employees International Union makes a massive ad buy for a Democrat raising money from lobbyists. Sorry, Sen. Kerry, but the tea party's coming. Having received a tsunami warning, the purple shirts of the SEIU have sprung into action with a major ad buy trying to pull the Senate candidacy of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley from the jaws of defeat. The buy size of $685,000, extracted from the union dues of not-always-willing workers, is one of the biggest of the election. The ads note that Republican Scott Brown...

(The PPP quote/headline is too long) Headline: Andy Stern: “Health Care Bill is not about What the President Wants or Ben Nelson Wants, but What SEIU Members Need” During an interview with CNN on December 22nd. Andy Stern, President of SEIU, said that the Health Care Bill is no longer about what the President wants, or Ben Nelson Wants, But what SEIU Members Need. Really? I thought the Health Care Bill was to “Help” make Health Care affordable for All people, not just SEIU members. Then Again, it really won’t make it affordable for anyone, including SEIU Members. Also in...

Services Employees International Union (SEIU) expressly urged Democrats to keep the process moving by passing the Senate bill in hopes that President Barack Obama and congressional leaders can nudge it back toward the left during the conference committee process. The AFL-CIO did not go that far, but its exhortations that Congress not give up on healthcare reform are predicated on the legislation surviving the Senate. Labor organizations are in a bind after spending millions of dollars promoting healthcare reform during the 2008 presidential campaign and throughout the course of this year. The Senate measure, like its House-passed counterpart, includes union...

The Boy Scouts' motto is: Be prepared. Who knew it meant preparing to de fend themselves against union thuggery? Kids, pay attention: This is a teachable moment for all of you on power, politics and Big Labor's culture of corruption. At last week's City Council meeting in Allentown, Pa., a top official of the local Service Employees International Union chapter ranted about 17-year-old Scout Kevin Anderson's park-cleanup work. To earn an Eagle Scout badge, Anderson devoted some 200 hours to picking up trash and helping clear a 1,000-foot walking path with fellow members of Boy Scouts Troop 301 of Center...