First it’s the Secret Service under the bus while White House protectsw Michelle’s BFF Desiree Rogers.
Now the Obama Administration is rescinding financial disclosure rules for The One’s Union cronies.
Union officials have fought these financial disclosures since 2003. One of the AFL-CIO lawyers involved in opposing these disclosure requirements was Deborah Greenfield. Now, Greenfield is the Obama Administration’s Acting Deputy Solicitor of Labor and Director of the Office of the Secretariat. As Deputy Solicitor, Greenfield oversees these regulations.This looks like the same old Washington insider influence that Presidential Candidate Obama, President-Elect Obama, and President Obama promised that he would not allow.
But, there is more. Not only are Solis and lawyer Greenfield potentially violating President Obama’s declared prohibition against conflicts-of-interest, there are many more union insiders at the Department. The Senior Advisor to Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Mary Beth Maxwell, greatly benefits from this rescission because she was the Executive Director of ARAW. ARAW’s financial activities while Maxwell was in charge are currently due to be disclosed. However, in
eleven days these ARAW financial disclosures will be lost forever.
Yep, these are the people I want deciding what medical care I am allowed to receive.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/4 @ 8:57 am #
Great! Now big labor needn’t worry about anyone tracking where they’re “greasing the wheels” of progress, so to speak. Make’s it easier to feather the nests of their preferred patron’s in Congress…
All of this brought to you by imbedded lobbyists and special interest playahz inside the most Transparent!, Ethical! administration-EVAH!
Comment by Joe on 12/4 @ 9:18 am #
I hope that couple gets prosecuted, if only to embarass the White House more over this event. I am sorry for the Secret Service personnel hurt over this, but it was a screw up. I hope they can run it up the chain so Ms. Rogers faces some of the heat over it.
Comment by Barack H. Obama on 12/4 @ 9:46 am #
Hey, America! How’s my ass taste?
Comment by Scrapiron on 12/4 @ 9:50 am #
More lies have came out of the white house and congrssional leaders in 11 months than came out of the past 11 administrations and with Slick Willie as one of the past 11 that was a hard record to break. Question of the day, Can you be a democrat and not be a liar?
Comment by LTC John on 12/4 @ 9:54 am #
Maybe “change” = a whole heck of a lot of corruption, rather than the most ethical and transparent Administration ever!? A shame nobody from the press ever really asked what “Change You Can Believe In” meant…
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 9:58 am #
They just need to go ahead and let Bernie Madoff out of prison.
Compared to Obama and his friends, Bernie ain’t done shit.
I wish Obama and the Democrats would cut the bullshit and just be honest. Go on and say it.
“We liked the cut of ENRON’s jib. And here you thought that was all George Bush. Hold on while we foist that particular economic model on the entire country. Suck on it. Go Union!”
-President Obama (starring the US Congress)
52% of people in America need to get pimp slapped over this whole fucking thing.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 10:11 am #
I sometimes wonder what the rank and file workers at the union think when they see their underfunded pension invest in some dubious investment vehicle run by a Tony Soprano-esque character.
Do they take note that the union bosses have a separate pension fund that is filled to overflowing and invested in conservative fashion?
Maybe when your bosses are the Corleones, or at least in bed with them, it’s best to keep quiet.
Still, it has to gall the dues-paying chumps that the union bosses have become a cheap imitation of the robber barons that the unions were created to defend them from.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 10:11 am #
“Hey, America! How’s my ass taste?”
It tastes like a depression.
Without the class, dignity, and stalwart patriotism of the last American generation that survived one.
And a dust bowl.
Enjoy that rioting in the streets Bammy.
And the price of gold?
Inflation’s commin’ around the mountain when it comes
It’ll be comin’ around the mountain when it comes
And we’ll all have
chicken ‘n dumplins’a shit sandwichYes we’ll all have
chicken ‘n dumplins’a shit sandwich when it comesComic Book Guy: “Worst. President. Ever.”
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 10:39 am #
Still, it has to gall the dues-paying chumps that the union bosses have become a cheap imitation of the robber barons that the unions were created to defend them from.
That mirrors a conversation I had with some cow-orkers this week. At this point, Union Management is more detrimental to the well-being of the workers than Corporate Management. The reason they’re so desperate to get Card Check passed is that they know they’re not fooling anyone any more.
For example, my brother recently quit a job in a Teamsters depot to take one in a non-union depot. Now, when he busts his ass to improve the income of his route by 10-20%, he doesn’t have to worry about his route being taken from him by some lazy fuck with no work ethic but plenty of seniority (a common practice for Teamsters). What do you think are the odds that he’s gonna sign up to unionize the new shop, short of thugs threatening his family?
Of course, our Congresscritters aren’t ever going to listen to a common deliveryman. He didn’t go to Harvard Law, so how could he possibly know anything?
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 10:50 am #
“Of course, our Congresscritters aren’t ever going to listen to a common deliveryman.”
Can your brother do Homer Simpson’s voice? Then they might listen. Would make a good campaign commercial anyway.
Homer: “Oh, I always wanted to be a Teamster. So lazy and surly… mind if I relax next to you guys?”
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 11:02 am #
My favorite tidbit from the union buffet of malfeasance is the fact that the pensions for the rank and file are underfunded and what is there is invested in schemes that smell of Don Corleone and dead fish.
Of course, the union management’s pensions are overfunded and invested in a very conservative fashion.
It is ironic that the union management has morphed into that which the unions were created as a hedge against; a corrupt nest of well connected fat-cats.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 11:05 am #
Oops. Didn’t mean to make the same point twice; I didn’t think the first one posted.
Comment by Carin on 12/4 @ 11:06 am #
Oh, lord. I was just at the secretary of State. The government employees there suck (long boring story) and I started bitching to the guy behind me. He said he’d just got laid off at GM and would love a government job with all the benefits.
I. Bet. You. Would.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 11:19 am #
“He said he’d just got laid off at GM and would love a government job with all the benefits.”
Should’a told him GM was a “government job with all the benefits”.
And it failed.
Meet anybody at the secretary of State office laid off from Ford?
I haven’t met any either.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 11:20 am #
It’s pretty much the end of the world when government jobs start looking like heaven. In that post, you can see the essence of Obama’s plan for a totalitarian state is working quite well.
Government employment: 2 million employees doing pretend work, and getting paid with printed money.
I used to think Obama was a clown, but now I am starting to believe that he is an Eeeeevil clown.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 11:25 am #
Why are deficits run by GM a good reason to fire the President of GM, but the America-killing deficits run by the President of the United States are OK?
Do we really have to wait for 2012 to fire The Manchurian President?
Comment by Pablo on 12/4 @ 11:44 am #
Oh, like a nonprofit or a PAC or a political party/candidate?
OK.
Comment by cranky-d on 12/4 @ 12:03 pm #
Government jobs should never be more attractive than private-sector jobs. They shouldn’t even be equally as attractive. But since they are, and it’s much more difficult to get laid off, it’s no wonder people want to take the government jobs. People naturally look out for their own interests.
Of course, most of us know this already.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 12:07 pm #
“non-government entity”
Websters: non gov⋅ern⋅ment en·ti·ty
1.) An endangered species due to Democratic encroachment.
2.) Some thing progressives hate (*see liberal)
3.) An obstruction to socialism
4.) The only chance for America
Comment by Disclose like disssss on 12/4 @ 12:08 pm #
I’d say they’re like a nonprofit or a privately held business. Would it be a problem if they had to do the same as these groups? Clearly if they have a PAC that PAC should be treated like a PAC.
Comment by Pablo on 12/4 @ 12:25 pm #
They’re not like a nonprofit, they are a nonprofit. Do you have some sort of problem with the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act?
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 12:51 pm #
Which sock-puppeteer has come out to play today?
Comment by The Lost Dog on 12/4 @ 12:55 pm #
Big labor? What a joke.
Iused to work for the meat cutters union (not as a member, and a union that controls most supermarkets), and I can tell you, this union shit is a fucking joke!
The guys that run the union throw the employee’s money away at every opportunity. How about ten seats at a Clinton fund raiser for $2,500 a pop?
How about the best blow you could ever find?
They want your money, and with this little twit, Obama, in the driver’s seat, they are very likely to get it.
Glen Beck – full of crap? When Beck shows PROOF of all that he says? Or is Obama full of Marxist crap, and trying to shove his Marxist weenie down America’s throat??
We report – you decide….
Comment by Pablo on 12/4 @ 1:06 pm #
Well, as long as you don’t mind, ARAW is a 501(c)(3). Which makes them the same as a 501(c)(3). But this isn’t about leadership selection. This is about financial disclosure. Are you familiar with Form 990, btw?
Q: “Do you have some sort of problem with the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act?”
A: Only if it is unlike what is required of other non-profits. Then that would be a problem.
Were you even trying to answer the question?
Comment by deez clothes on 12/4 @ 1:18 pm #
“Are you familiar with Form 990, btw? ”
Yup. Have looked them up too.
“Were you even trying to answer the question?”
That’s my answer: My only problem would be if it differred from other non-profits. Do you know if it does?
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 1:26 pm #
“How about the best blow you could ever find?”
Provided we’re not talking about a white powdered substance…
Had that.
So other than stealing blue collar folks money while lying to them and violating the shit out of RICO and/ or , there’s no worthwhile point to a Union.
Jimmy Hoffa is buried with Obama’s birth certificate.
Hey, I’m kidding!
I don’t know where Obama’s birth certificate is buried.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 1:30 pm #
There was supposed to be a “and/or [insert felony here]” up there, but I used an < instead of a [ and HTML woke up and thought it was supposed to do something.
I guess it couldn’t figure out what, and just left it out.
Comment by Pablo on 12/4 @ 1:35 pm #
Does the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act differ from other nonprofits? That’s a tough question, given that it is a law and not a nonprofit organization. Does TARP differ from other pets? Does the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act differ from other motion pictures?
You’re going to have to tell me.
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 1:38 pm #
Is anyone keeping track of how many names this one has used?
Comment by sdferr on 12/4 @ 1:46 pm #
Ah, so it’s white-trash-parency now? Post-racialism here we come. Yee-haw, to quote a Dean.
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 1:47 pm #
Let it babble. So far, the answers to its inane questions have only reinforced the original point. I’m treating it as the “rookie cop” character that exists only to give the other characters a way to take care of the exposition for the audience. It’s a useful narrative device.
Comment by bailouts for hookers and blow on 12/4 @ 1:48 pm #
“How about the best blow you could ever find?”
See, I think they ought to disclose their blow just like any other business.
“Does the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act differ from other nonprofits? That’s a tough question, given that it is a law and not a nonprofit organization.”
Oh you didn’t get that i was referring to the disclosures under that law? Isn’t that what we have been talking about? Do you happen to know if they are different under the law vs for other non-profits? It’s ok if you don’t know. I don’t either and I’m trying to find out and it seems like you know what you are talking about.
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 1:51 pm #
Tom – It is easier to simply scream RACISTS!
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 1:53 pm #
You too, Johnson. Good Allah.
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 1:56 pm #
Johnson doesn’t seem to realize that the people in the picture on the left are Democrats, and the people in the picture on the right are a mix of Independent and Republican.
But then, I’m betting there’s a lot of things Johnson doesn’t understand.
Comment by When the Signs are this good on 12/4 @ 1:58 pm #
there’s no need to blog anymore.
Comment by Of course it helps if the link works on 12/4 @ 1:59 pm #
don’t it?
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 2:02 pm #
Tom has a unique view of what constitutes racism. And by unique, I mean fucking pig-headed stooopid.
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 2:03 pm #
Actually, teabagging is enjoyed by people of all colors, and it’s not strictly a gay thing, either. Embrace the lifestyle! Widen your horizons!
Tax protests, on the other hand? Well, those are just icky, and you wouldn’t believe the horrible people who do that sort of thing.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 2:04 pm #
“CNN is reporting”…
LMAO. Where? From Baghdad?
…”from whites that never went to college”
Considering the current state of academia, whites (blacks, browns, purples, magentas, etc) are probably better off not having gone to college.
Hey Tom, what if the white trash establishment write a collective thesis on “Why America Sucks” or “How to Internalize My Misogynistic, Racist, Hetero-normative, God Bothering, Boomstick buying Oppression?”
That’s bank for an ivy league humanities degree.
I can’t wait!
Every swinging dick in my trailer park will have a fucking diploma from Harvard.
Brand new double wides and Confederate flags for everybody!
Hey Tom, what’s MSNBC reporting?
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 2:05 pm #
But enough about how Tom thinks that alternative sexuality is strictly a white racism thing. How ’bout lets talk about all the ways in which Tom’s union continues to fleece its membership and use its connections in government to gain political favors that will allow it to grow the number of members its able to fleece?
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 2:05 pm #
Protesting taxes and government spending is codeword dogwhistle racism.
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 2:08 pm #
Hey, Tom! While we’re at it, let’s talk about how many of your fellow union members (you know, the blue-collar working guys getting fleeced by you and your politically connected friends) are whites with no college education.
Service my narrative, bitch!
Comment by Slartibartfast on 12/4 @ 2:08 pm #
Tax protests are racist; just ask Johnson.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 2:10 pm #
“Teabaggers are 99.9% white”
I guess I found the .01%.
Stupid is no way to go through life Tom.
Comment by Harvard Infomercial on 12/4 @ 2:17 pm #
“Considering the current state of academia, whites (blacks, browns, purples, magentas, etc) are probably better off not having gone to college.”
And the unemployment figures on this prove it!
Comment by agile_dog on 12/4 @ 2:17 pm #
America is 74% white
Teabaggers are 99.9% white
I rest my case
I think you need to rest your brain, first. What do those numbers prove? That it is mostly white folks that are trying to stop the rush to self-destruction? How about this one: What percentage of blacks voted for Obama? Try well over 95%. What percentaage of whites? Not nearly close. So obviously blacks are racists, since they all voted the same way.
And just to make sure you hear it again: teabagger is a porn reference. You sure you want to be using such a slur?
Comment by royf on 12/4 @ 2:18 pm #
Comment by Johnson on 12/4 @ 1:50 pm
Hey Johnson its a 99% probability that the people in that picture on the left were registered Democrats, All the really racist whites in the South were. See history of the KKK for confirmation.
And please tell me what is good about the racist ideology which is Marxism/Communism/Fascism. It has always led to failure, one of those failures is discrimination against one ethnic group or another. Those are your people proudly killing minorities for the benefit of the politburo. Be proud since you are so fucking stupid its all you have.
Comment by DarthRove on 12/4 @ 2:21 pm #
I see Ted the Assertion Monkey is playing again. I have one word for Ted, and I mean it in the most racist way imaginible.
Pickles.
Parse that, bitch.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 2:38 pm #
“You sure you want to be using such a slur?”
Yeah, he’s sure.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 3:15 pm #
Now that the bloom is off the putrid Chicago rose, the trolls naturally prefer to be here at Protein Wisdom. There’s too much denouncing of comrades going on at all the usual leftist sites they frequent.
That classic commie circular firing squad mentality sure is ugly when it’s your fellow travelers, isn’t it?
Obama ushers in a golden age of trickle-down failure! Take that, Reagan!
Impressive.
Comment by Lazarus Long on 12/4 @ 3:15 pm #
” I don’t think that is how unions work, I think they work by members votes.”
It’s kinda hard to get to the polling place with a broken leg.
Comment by Lazarus Long on 12/4 @ 3:18 pm #
“Comment by Tom on 12/4 @ 1:57 pm #
Tom – It is easier to simply scream RACISTS!
America is 74% white
Teabaggers are 99.9% white
I rest my case”
What case is that?
Comment by Hmmm Feels good on 12/4 @ 3:18 pm #
“And just to make sure you hear it again: teabagger is a porn reference. You sure you want to be using such a slur?”
For some folks it is a pleasant personal experience. Ask your significant other.
Comment by Lazarus Long on 12/4 @ 3:21 pm #
“For some folks it is a pleasant personal experience. Ask your significant other.”
Ask yours.
Oh.
You don’t have one.
Never mind.
Comment by Lazarus Long on 12/4 @ 3:22 pm #
I guess there’s always Rosy Palm and her five daughters, right, Hmmmmm?
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 3:24 pm #
BE ADVISED:
‘Trickle Down Failure’ is a copyrighted description of all past and present actions related to the Obama Administration and, as such, the individual or group employing the phrase, ‘Trickle Down Failure’ should credit and remit the sum of 15 cents to Mr. W or his ilk.
Even the trolls know that ‘Trickle Down Failure’ is an accurate description of the results of every major Obama program. But they won’t pay the 15 cents, ’cause they’re the REAL outlaws!
(and their parents cut off their allowance after they got busted for trashing that Starbucks on Earth Day)
Comment by Obstreperous Infidel on 12/4 @ 3:27 pm #
LOL…Neither of the twits (probably the same twit) has proven anything remotely what they have hoped to prove. So protesting the socialization of the country is the same as racism? The composition of a crowd doesn’t make them racist. Not at all. In any way, shape or form. I have no words. You’re truly stupid, stupid people.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 3:27 pm #
Obama ushers in a golden age of trickle-down failure! Take that, Reagan!
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 3:32 pm #
No, Obstreperous Infidel, protesting Obama is racist.
Obama is a socialist.
Ergo; protesting socialism is racist.
Duh.
Comment by Squid on 12/4 @ 3:32 pm #
It figures that the guys who so enjoy Obama’s Golden Trickle would be the first to call their political opponents “tea-baggers.” It’s all they know, really.
Comment by Lamontyoubigdummy on 12/4 @ 3:44 pm #
Perhaps if the Tea Party folk had professionally made signs (like every leftist who manages a 10 person circle jerk protest) that say, “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp”, then Obama/ Organizing for America/ ACORN might get on board.
Comment by Significantly Othered on 12/4 @ 4:11 pm #
“Well, as long as you don’t mind, ARAW is a 501(c)(3). Which makes them the same as a 501(c)(3).”
You know I just noticed ARAW isn’t a union. It’s a union funded 501(c)(3). Are you sure the rules for unions apply to them?
Comment by JD on 12/4 @ 4:24 pm #
That is like its 7th name, plus the Tom/Johnson/Willie the Racist ones. The asshats cannot help themselves.
How do my balls taste, Tom?
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 4:37 pm #
A ‘Union funded’ 501(c)(3)?
Non profit in this case just means that they’ve siphoned off the money before they do the books.
Comment by alppuccino on 12/4 @ 4:48 pm #
So this guy Tom likes the occasional scrotum dipped in his mouth. So he’s a teabagee?
I don’t mind that the Tea Party Patriots are being called teabaggers. The teabagger is the one who dips the scrotum. And even the lady Tea Party Patriots have bigger balls than Obama.
Again, Tom, Obama the Idiot, Hairy Reed, Pelosi, Michelle and her friend, they’re all teabagees. They get their mouths filled with balls. And the big scrote will be dipped in 2010. So Tom, you’d better start stretching.
Comment by alppuccino on 12/4 @ 4:50 pm #
Can’t wait when Fat Al Gore has to give his Oscar back and then he asks “Why does Obama get to keep his Nobel? That was based on bullshit too!”
You don’t have to answer if you currently have balls in your mouth Tom.
Comment by Mr. W on 12/4 @ 4:51 pm #
That was a beautiful, heartfelt sentiment Alpuccino.
…sniff
Comment by Scrairon on 12/4 @ 6:05 pm #
Will he be impeached or simply comitted to the insane asylum? With so many disappointed democrats I expect an assignation attempt by one of the crazed democrats, and there are millions, any day.
Comment by geoffb on 12/4 @ 6:32 pm #
Sarbanes-Oxley their ass. Good enough for management, good enough for them. Especially like these,
Please have someone insert one line in one of those 2000 page monsters that puts the Unions into that bastard law.
Comment by B Moe on 12/4 @ 7:20 pm #
What percent white is the NBA? Could any other employer get by with that?
Comment by Pablo on 12/4 @ 10:01 pm #
The rules in question cover disclosure of the use of union dues. I suspect that they don’t address nonprofits at all, but a nonprofit that runs on union dues becomes subject because we’ve decided, in law, that we’d like to see where union dues get spent.
Let me ask again. Do you have a problem with that?
Comment by Pablo on 12/4 @ 10:07 pm #
Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a statistic out of my ass! And rest my case on it!
Someone else (or is it the same one again?) needs to take a gander at the 9/12 Rally speakers list and then get their Google Images on. Or Bing, which might be less evil. But then, if you’re an idiot, what’s the point?
Comment by JD on 12/5 @ 10:38 am #
No, one of your other dummass sock-puppets said that.
Comment by meyacone on 12/5 @ 11:35 am #
Go to a union meeting an ask for an accounting/audit of the pension fund, Tom. I belonged to a labor union for two years while working my way through college. The 57 year old man that I worked with was given a job with my fencing crew(very strenuous work, and I was 19 at the time). He had 27 years in the union, and during a meeting he raised a question regarding the funding of our pension. He was trying to reach the 30 year plateau to secure a higher retirement payment. Instead of giving him a flagman position, which was reserved for older laborers or connected members, he got assigned to fencing. He ended up working half the season, and eventually retired. I can’t imagine what would have happened if he’d been a teamster.
Comment by Mega Dittos! on 12/5 @ 11:39 am #
“Only if it is unlike what is required of other non-profits. Then that would be a problem.”
Well somebody said it.
Comment by Nemesis12 on 12/6 @ 2:50 am #
The three officers would have been put on l;eave by the Service, not Obama. And they are right to do so, the fact that these people got through was a security breach. The Service’s job is to protect the President, and that this has happened is no surprise.
Someone failed to do their job properly…whether you like
Comment by Rusty on 12/6 @ 11:17 am #
#78
You nailed. Unions do not exist for the rank and file. Labor is a commodity. Unions exist to enrich labor leaders.
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