Free Republic

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is backing construction of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in comments that downplay divisions among unions in the labor federation over the controversial project. “They are not divided on the pipeline itself,” Trumka said in a C-SPAN interview when asked about differences among unions over Keystone. “They are divided on how the pipeline is done.” ADVERTISEMENT “I think we are all unanimous by saying we should build the pipeline, but we have to do it consistent with all environmental standards, and I think we can work that out, I really do, and we are for...

<p>Washington -- The fate of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge rests with the U.S. Senate, but the debate these days is on the airwaves, not in hearing rooms.</p> <p>The Teamsters union, emerging as the most prominent pro-drilling group, is about to launch its own ads to counter a recent anti-drilling advertising campaign, said Alaska Teamster leader Jerry Hood.</p>

Rhetoric ANNOUNCER: “George Bush let corporate polluters rewrite our environmental laws. He wants to rollback the Clean Air and Water Acts …” VIDEO: Stairway/White House; Child at water fountain/Smokestacks. CHYRON: “George Bush; Rewrite Environmental Laws; George Bush; Rollback Clean Air & Water Acts” The Facts Administration Proposed Tough New Diesel Emissions Rules Bush Administration Proposed Tough Off-Road Diesel Emissions. “The proposed rules, unveiled by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, would slash off-road diesel emissions by as much as 95 percent and bring them in line with recently adopted standards for heavy-duty diesel trucks and buses. They would...

Rhetoric VIDEO: Kerry KERRY: “There’s nothing we value more in America than our freedom and independence.  And yet here we are today a nation more dependent than ever on Mideast oil.  I’ve proposed a plan that will make us energy independent of Mideast oil in the next ten years.  Energy independence isn’t just about better gas mileage and a cleaner environment, it’s about protecting our national security and our freedom.  I’m John Kerry and I approved this message because a strong America is an independent America.” CHYRON: John Kerry; A Plan For Energy Independence; JohnKerry.com; Approved By John Kerry...

On Saturday, Hill made his second trip to Dallas this year, this time to open up to the world.

His disappearance 40 years ago is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in U.S. history, and now new evidence has emerged about Jimmy Hoffa’s possible fate. A mobster who was believed to be involved in the labor boss’s disappearance suggested before he died last year that the feds were on the right track when they searched a New Jersey dump for Hoffa’s remains, a bombshell report says. Investigative reporter Dan Moldea confirmed that the FBI searched the dump in 1975, looking for a 55-gallon drum they believed the Teamsters boss had been entombed in.

22 November 1963. 51 years ago. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing that day? I was in phys ed class and had just finished running the cross country course. As I walked up the locker room door, Coach Waite was sitting on the steps with his face in his hands. He was crying. I asked what was wrong and he told me that President Kennedy had been shot and killed. That was a bad day for me.

It seems big labor is getting nervous about anticipated disastrous effects on the healthcare benefits of union membership by Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. So nervous are they in fact that James P. Hoffa and organized labor comrades Joseph Hansen and Don Taylor addressed their concerns in personal letter form to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, a clear break from the more conventional late night exchange of cash and instructions so common between labor kingpins and Democrat politicians. “We can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health...

OAKLAND TWP. (WWJ) - Federal agents searching for the body of former Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa believe they are about to crack one of America’s biggest unsolved mysteries. CBS News has confirmed a suspicious concrete slab was retrieved by investigators from the Oakland Township field where they have been digging for any sign of Hoffa. It’s too soon, however, to know whether the slab is anything more than part of an old foundation for a barn. The dig — the latest in what’s been nearly a 40-year search — is reportedly the result of extensive FBI interviews with former mobster...

The FBI saw enough merit in a reputed Mafia captain’s tip to once again break out the digging equipment in search of the elusive remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, last seen alive when he left for lunch with two mobsters 38 years ago. Federal agents brought excavation equipment Monday to a field in suburban Detroit where Tony Zerilli said Hoffa’s remains were buried. Zerilli, 85, told Detroit television station WDIV in February that he knew the location of the remains. …

Tony Zerilli, alleged to be the underboss of Detroit's biggest crime family, is breaking his silence on one of the greatest unsolved crimes in American historyA man who federal agents say is a main character in the infamous unsolved mystery about the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa is breaking his silence after decades of refusing to answer questions. The reputed gangster says the union leader was buried in a field in suburban Detroit -- about 20 miles north of the restaurant where he was last seen. Eighty-five years old and barely able to walk, Tony Zerilli never thought this day would...

Yes, this is the same elegant creature who screeched about "taking out" Tea Party "son-of-a-bitches" [sic] at a presidential event last year.  In case you'd forgotten, both the White House and the DNC conspicuously declined to repudiate his vituperation at the time.  Now Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. has taken his anger mismanagement show to CNN, seething about an incipient "civil war" in Michigan:   Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Tuesday he expects Michigan unions and lawmakers to break out into "civil war" after the state legislature passed right-to-work bills that would weaken unions' power. "This is just...

Data that NASA's discovery wee a sample of Martian dirt could be earth-shattering, but the space agency is taking time to check its work. NASA's not sharing a 'historic' find on Mars... yet Data from a sample of Martian dirt could be earth-shattering, but the space agency is taking time to check its work. SAM, a mobile sample analysis lab, is currently mounted on Curiosity and finding interesting stuff in Martian soil. It seems NASA and the Curiosity rover have found something exciting and nerd-tastic on Mars, but the space agency's scientists are holding back for now, despite how painful...

When James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, looks at the Tea Party today, he flashes back to 1964 and sees the John Birch Society. "The Tea Party, these right wingers are basically the modern-day John Birch Society," he told U.S. News. "They are being extremists." The John Birch Society gained traction in the earl 60s with its vehemently anti-communist rhetoric and distrust in government. Hoffa says just like in the early 60s when the John Birch Society pushed for Barry Goldwater, who was the more conservative candidate, to be the Republican presidential nominee, the Tea Party has...

Mallory Factor blows the lid off of government union corruption in his scathing new book, Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind. Government unions have for years scammed taxpayers out of billions of dollars, engaged in thuggish behavior, undermined public education, and forced workers to pay union dues without their consent. Even after high-profile skirmishes in Wisconsin and Ohio, the depth of government union corruption has never been fully appreciated. The arrival of Mr. Factor’s devastating new expose ensures that this will no longer be the case. Shadowbosses is chock full of stunning revelations that illustrate the toxicity...

Historian Lamar Waldron is out with his new book Watergate: The Hidden History which exposes Nixon's role as the liaison between the CIA and the Mafia in their failed plots to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, and it was files on this subject which the Watergate burglars were seeking as reported by Thom Hartmann for the Huffington Post: As one of the Watergate burglars admitted, and Senate Watergate Committee investigators indicated in their secret questioning of Mafia don Johnny Rosselli, Nixon was worried about a Cuban Dossier of CIA attempts to kill Fidel Castro. Those attempts began in earnest in...

Apparently you can serve two masters. In Montreal, QB Canada Marvin Elkind was a small-time Jewish hood working for the Italian Mafia who later became a police informant, and the 77-year-old's double life is the subject of the new book The Weasel by Adrian Humphreys as reported by Rene Bruemmer for The Gazette. Elkind got his underworld start at the age of 18 as the driver for Jimmy Hoffa whom he chauffeured for four years, and he claims to know where the infamous Teamsters boss is buried as reported by Joe O'Connor for the National Post: "' have it on...

The ink was barely dry on the asterisk in Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.'s rant about taking out those "son-of-a-b*tches" -- referring to Tea Party members -- when the vice president made his own contribution at a Labor Day rally. "This is a fight for the existence of organized labor," the veep shouted. "You are the only ones who can stop the barbarians at the gate!" And the diatribes have continued with the establishment of a website designed to track unfair comments made by those who, in President Obama's words, want to "cripple" America. Congresswoman Maxine Waters' snippet about telling the Tea...

Fred Gegare, who is challenging Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in elections this month to head up the transport union, says that Hoffa and the US government are colluding to control the union by the use of intimidation. If true, the allegations could mean that 50 years of work trying to rid unions of mob influence has come to an end.  Hoffa and the Justice Department, says Gegare, have abused a decades-old consent decree, “which was once used to remove mobsters two decades ago, [but] is now being used to target [Hoffa’s] critics” through a “rogue investigative unit set up by...

Editor's note: Monday's letters about a Labor Day vow by Teamsters general president James Hoffa to "take . . . out" his political opponents continue to generate a lot of interest from Newsday readers. Hoffa stood by his comments during a radio interview on Friday with KIRO-FM in Seattle. Here's an excerpt:"I'm talking about the tea party Republicans who are trying to take away everything that labor has fought for, who frustrate the president when we try and put America back to work, who are out there trying to pass right-to-work, and who are trying to take away collective bargaining...