Biggest sign that White House deficit panel is a joke: O wants to appoint Andy Stern
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 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…
…Stern and Rivlin are well-known in Washington. Stern is president of the 2.2 million-member SEIU and an ardent supporter of Obama’s health initiative.
Reminder: The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. is probing the SEIU for possible violations of the Lobbying Disclosure Act for Stern’s frequent visits to the White House and with members of Congress in 2009.
Reminder: As head of the SEIU, Stern has groomed his own den of labor management thieves tangled in embezzelement/fiscal abuse across the country:
Excerpted from Culture of Corruption, “Chapter 7: SEIU – Look for the union label”
Andy Stern rallied the Illinois delegation to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August 2008 with an impassioned salute to the working man Flanking Stern on stage at the Denver celebration: Chicago political machine kingpins Rahm Emanuel and Richard Daley. Stern roared about “rebalancing power between wealth and work” to “make sure everyone shares in the wealth of a growing economy.” Echoing Obama’s 2007 speech to the SEIU political action conference, union boss Stern condemned the old way of doing business and called on American to “turn the page” on behalf of hard-working Americans and their families.
But just two weeks before Stern and company gathered in the Mile High City to celebrate Obaman’s coronation,, the Los Angeles Times published an explosive investigative series about the SEIU, Although the series got surprisingly little attention from national news organizations, L.A. Times reporters exposed how one of Stern’s top protégés “shared in the wealth” –— by siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars in dues money for his personal enrichment and pleasure. Moreover, the paper alleged, Stern helped cover up the scandal. No wonder they keep urging us to “turn the page.”
The L.A. Times investigation zeroed in on Tyrone Freeman who, like Barack Obama, began his career as an urban community organizer. In Atlanta, Freeman quickly ascended the SEIU ladder. In 1994, Stern found him at a small Georgia chapter of the union, Local 1985, and brought him westward. Stern set his loyalist Freeman up as head of Local 6434, the sprawling home care workers’ chapter in southern California that represents an estimated 160,000 workers who make about $9 an hour caring for the elderly and disabled. Stern chose Freeman as part of his administration slate at the SEIU convention in 2008 and named him a national vice president in addition to the L.A. appointment. The move wasn’t an altruistic act of affirmative action. It was part of Stern’s grander plan to consolidate power by merging locals into statewide chapters.
With bigger membership rolls came bigger coffers, and with bigger coffers came irresistible temptations.
Freeman, the L.A. Times discovered, had piped $600,000 in union contracts to his wife’s video production and entertainment ventures. The local also paid his mother-in-law $8,000 a month to babysit his daughter and other union employees’ children; footed a $13,000 bill for membership at a Beverly Hills cigar club; covered $12,500 in tabs at upscale Morton’s restaurant in Burbank; and forked over $8,000 in union dues to cover expenses for Freeman’s Hawaiian wedding. Freeman’s spending orgy didn’t end there.
Stern’s protégé created a non-profit training shop called the “Homecare Workers Training Center” –— ostensibly to provide educational opportunities for nurses. In practice, the non-profit served as a conduit to subsidize a childcare business operated by Freeman’s mother-in-law. “Her business had been receiving more than $90,000 annually for the past several years from the training center that Freeman founded as a separate nonprofit and chairs, according to IRS filings and interviews” by the L.A. Times. The funding from her son-in-law constituted more than 10 percent of the nonprofit’s total yearly expenditures. Freeman’s wife, Pilar, and brother-in-law, Hernando Planells Jr., are listed in state documents as officers in the mother-in-law’s business.” Freeman’s ransacking of Local 6434’s treasury didn’t end with nepotistic favoritism. The Times also reported:
* A housing corporation that Freeman helped found as a nonprofit has not been granted the IRS tax-exempt status it sought and was suspended from doing business in California. It also has claimed on its website to have a “strong relationship” with the prominent California Community Foundation, which says it has no such relationship.
* The union spent at least $123,000 more on the fund-raising tournament at the Four Seasons Resort in Carlsbad than it received in reimbursements, according to Labor Department filings and interviews. Freeman said the event made money for the charity. The union’s expenditures included $100,000 in payments to entities associated with former professional football star Eric Dickerson, which have been suspended from doing business in California. The payments were listed as donations to nonprofits, not as fund-raising expenses.
* And a now-defunct minor league basketball team coached by Freemant’s brother-in-law received $16,000 for what the union described as public relations.
Freeman’s local also paid nearly $106,000 to a company called “The Filming Inc.” –— for which the Times could find no state incorporation record or IRS nonprofit listing, no business license, and no legitimate address –— and another $106,000 to Hollywood talent agency William Morris for “advice and counsel” in such areas as media and “membership awareness.”
Even more troubling, Freeman allegedly rigged his own election. In August 2008, the Labor Department began investigating charges from rank-and-file members that Freeman’s union local “made it nearly impossible for candidates not on his slate to qualify for the ballot, according to people familiar with the probe. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office also opened investigations. Former employees of Freeman’s nonprofit charity also alleged that the Stern protégé forced them to work on campaigns of political candidates in violation of federal law.
Even more damning, a key union source told the Times that, contrary to the denials of union brass, SEIU’s top officials were warned of Freeman’s plundering six years before the paper blew the whistle:
In response to the July [2008] inquiries, [union spokesman Steve] Trossman had issued a statement on behalf of Stern that said the union had received no allegations about Freeman’s local. Freeman denied any wrongdoing.
The source, who said he was party to internal conversations about Freeman in 2002, told The Times last week: “The international knew that there were allegations of impropriety many years ago. This is not news to them.”
On Aug. 20, 2008, just days before Stern would join Democrats in toasting Barack Obama at the party convention in Denver, Stern’s protégé Tyrone Freeman stepped aside as head of Local 6434 and the chapter was placed in a temporary trusteeship. Stern’s office in Washington, D.C. released the announcement. “These allegations are of serious concern to all of us and we support Mr. Freeman’s decision to put the best interests of the members first,” Stern spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette wrote in an e-mail to the Times. But even as he relinquished his position, Freeman was apparently engaging in the strong-arm tactics he learned from Stern. Ten employees told the Times that they suffered retaliation after refusing to sign a petition supporting him as the scandal exploded. “Freeman’s lieutenants” at Local 6434 essentially pressured other members to sign a “loyalty oath,” one union member disclosed.
After dragging its feet and being forced to act to quell public embarrassment over the Times investigations, SEIU finally announced formal charges against Freeman “for engaging in self-dealing and financial malpractice in violation of SEIU’s Constitution and Local bylaws.” In November, Stern threw his underling under the bus. Freeman, whom Stern had groomed in his own image, was banned for life from the SEIU and ordered to provide $1.1 million in restitution to the union. A sanctimonious Stern issued a statement lamenting Freeman’s downfall: “Today’s decision sends a clear message across our Union…We are all accountable. Our members do some of the toughest jobs anywhere, and we will not tolerate any actions violating their trust or putting their interests at risk.”
But rank-and-file members weren’t fooled or mollified. An insurgent group called S.M.A.R.T. –— SEIU Member Activists For Reform Today –— blasted the union leadership:
Freeman didn’t come from nowhere. He was appointed by Andy Stern – for the third time…And there are many other locals where Stern has installed unaccountable appointees and, sometimes ignoring reports that they were out for personal gain…So Stern’s message to us is clear – he cares more about expanding control for himself and an ever shrinking inner circle than he does about building real power for working people, creating solid organizations, coming through on SEIU’s political pledges for the fall, or even the perception of our union and our movement as real, democratic, valuable and clean. He will only act when there is no other option, and he will never apologize.
As for Freeman, he glided into a new life as a Los Angeles sports agent –— where he uses his criminal involvement in defrauding low-wage workers as a selling point. His shameless biography on the website of the SMWW Sports Agency touts his “tireless commitment to lead the struggle for livable wages, decent housing and health care for all.” Burnishing his scandal credentials, Freeman adds: “I believe my recent personal experience evolving from turmoil, can be a testimony shared in preparing any athlete for the trials and tribulations of being a star.
Ruthless Andy Stern taught Tyrone Freeman and his southern California peers all too well. Rickman Jackson, another Stern administration protégé and former chief of staff to Tyrone Freeman, headed Michigan’s largest SEIU chapter before being “reassigned” for three years to a staff organizing job after the revelation of financial shenanigans tied back to L.A.’s Local 6434. While collecting a six-figure annual salary in Michigan, Jackson was drawing a second salary in California and accepted $33,500 in housing payments on a residence listed as the business address of Freeman’s bogus housing non-profit corporation.
Another Stern administration protégé, Annelle Grajeda, rose to power after the SEIU president installed her as president of the 80,000-member Local 721 in Los Angeles. She ascended to positions on the union’s state council and international executive board. Like Freeman and Jackson, Grajeda had been voted onto Stern’s official administration slate at the SEIU convention in 2008. The Times published damning details of how Grajeda’s ex-boyfriend, SEIU official Alejandro Stephens, collected multiple salaries and consultant fees from the union while also pocketing a salary as a Los Angeles County health services employee. Grajeda had arranged for her ex-lover to get an eight-month leave of absence from the job. He was fired after he refused to return to work. Grajeda quit her California posts after catching public flak and found a new job –— as special assistant to SEIU secretary-treasurer Anna Burger in Washington, D.C.! Her former chapter heralded the move up. Grajeda will now oversee efforts to “partner with the Obama administration” to secure more public funds for SEIU projects. What could go wrong?
Former SEIU 721 President Annelle Grajeda assumed her new role as special assistant to the International Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger for the Public Sector Mar. 9.
According to a staff announcement from the International Union in Washington, D.C.: “With more than two decades of service, Annelle has played a critical role in winning strong contracts for tens of thousands of union members, preserving trauma centers in Los Angeles County, fighting for health care reform, defeating ballot initiatives in 2005 that challenged working families’ livelihoods and uniting more than 80,000 workers into SEIU 721 for greater strength and a stronger voice for public service providers. She brings this wealth of experience and talent to the national level in her new role.”
…The International’s announcement went on to state “While there has been no finding of wrongdoing on Annelle’s part, she has decided to change the capacity in which she serves the Union in order to take on the challenge of developing quality public services at a time when funding is threatened like never before.”
In her new role, Annelle will expand SEIU’s work in the public sector partnering with the Obama Administration to secure more funds for key infrastructure projects and core public services including care for the elderly, health care, education and social services.
Tyrone Freeman, Rickman Jackson, and Annelle Grajeda were all groomed by Stern and personally appointed by him to the posts they exploited. But there’s no “three-strikes” policy in labor management. Like Obama, Stern has managed to pass the buck while pretending it stopped at his desk. Birds of a feather evade accountability together.
The L.A. SEIU debacles were just one stinking layer of Stern’s rotten onion. Corruption isn’t an anomaly at the SEIU. It’s a contagion. Cronyism isn’t the exception. It’s the rule…
As John Ruberry observes: “At the state level, public sector unions are a large part of the reason many state governments facing massive deficits, and in some cases, possibly default.”
Another fox guarding the henhouse. It’s the Obama way.
***
Related: Jan Schakowsky and SEIU Get Out the Vote For Chicago Mob Linked Alexi Giannoulias
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Well…(as Jack Benny would say).
That is certainly consistent with fascist economics…
Big business…
Big labor…
Under the direction of Big Government.
How many clowns can BHO pack into this clown car?
I always thought the “budget commission” was called … Congress. Silly me.
And another excerpt from Michelle’s book! At this rate before long I’ll have the whole thing in parts, reminiscent of Johnny Cash’s tune, “One Piece at a Time.”
Okay, so we now know the primary goal of the commission is to INCREASE SPENDING and the DEFICIT. At least that is clear now…
Though the term is not in common use these days, I think we now have a clear picture of the type of State-controlled economic program The One and his henchman have in mind: Syndicalism aka from George Will, “Unionocracy.” The article makes for unpleasant reading.
They have no friends, associates, or business partners that aren’t either tax evaders or outright thugs. I just want to fall asleep and wake up when they’ve all been indicted.
MM, I’ve not seen this story profiled anywhere else. Thanks again for your hard work.
Stern has never seen a pile of other peoples’ money that he didn’t think belonged to him.
I can’t understand why he didn’t pick former Treas Sec Hank Paulson for this commission. For bi-partisanship ya know.
Might as well select OJ and Charlie Manson for the humanics angle. And maybe that KSM guy to represent the muslim factor (since he’s going to be living in New York soon any way).
Oh and Bernie Sanders for his input on how any “rescue” program will affect wall street.
This is Kabuki theater at it’s best.
Note to self, buy more food, reload more ammo.
FIFY
Slow Joe told us we need to spend to avoid bankruptcy. He would know, right? I mean, he is the vice president. the American people would have to pick a pretty smart person for that job, wouldn’t they?
Is Stern trying to unionize the White House? Lotsa money there ya know…
I wish I could get as big a chuckls out of it as you Michele, but for me, just mad. Anger, red faced, P!ssed off, mad as hell anger. Andy Stern should be in prison, not sitting on some panel.
Corruptocracy.
It’s the Chicago way……….
I watched Glenn on Fox this afternoon and he brought this up. It seems our dear andy and acorn have changed their name in various states. Same acorn under another name under andy. This andy has the ear of this bho and will see what andy wants, he gets. The money we taxpayers give to, (whatever name they change it to) will get millions and billions to see they get the seiu and other unions will make it impossible to fund them. The unions have cratered every country they get the hold on. It is like the rop type, on inch at a time.
I have to go chill, this is so horrible I need to talk to God to help. I never in my numerous years thought I would see this.
L
The route to prison might well go through a panel.
Seriously. . . these people in DC have 2 TRILLION DOLLARS in revenue EVERY YEAR to spend.
Imagine how much you could do with a trillion dollars. Well the US government can’t figure out how to run government for less than 2 TRILLION DOLLARS a year.
Somebody somewhere has got to say, ‘WOW, we have 2 trillion dollars to spend. . . how come we can’t do what we need to do with that much money and have some left over?’
The Hydra lives on….
OT, did anyone catch Hugh Hewitts’ interview with Victor Davis Hanson last week? Best one hour of radio I’ve heard….ever.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/transcripts.aspx?id=4c99c2d2-f0bb-4633-97f8-2d3f1591fed5
Why isn’t Andy Stern in jail yet????
/sarc
mythbusters had an episode where they polished “crap”…shiny looking but it’s still crap…new name…same crap…giving stern control of anything is just plain insane…of course we all know that this entire administration is just that…
The sad thing is that if they can’t run government for less than 2 Trillion dollars, there isn’t an amount of money that would work.
They wouldn’t be able to run government with 4T or even 10T because they have no concept of fiscal responsibility.
*Every day there is a reminder of why I call this administration, P-BO and his Communist Clown Cluster, and today is no exception; How about Bernie Madoff?; Would make about as much sense.
*And to the topic of this deficit panel, the GOP needs to put their “hell no” plan into full on action by taking no part in the process, and instead submit to P-BO the plan put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan, and tell him they will continue to work with the American people on even better solutions.
You have got to be freakin kidding me. No, seriously, you are kidding, right? Can this POTUS get any more bizzare? This is so “in-your-face” that I am now convinced he does not give a flying fig about the American people. He HAS to know this is insane and the people will be furious….doesn’t he? Or is he that stupid?
I feel the same way, but before I fall asleep, I plan to pull the covers over my head to keep the monsters away. It helps.
P.S. I am going through my second round of pneumonia in as many months. Pray for me. I know most of you will, and I would be very grateful. Once Spring gets here and I can go out and bake in the sun, I should be fine!
Wasn’t Zsa Zsa Gabor available? She knows a thing or two about cutting spending. At least as much as Stern.
off topic…Brown voted with the democrats on the “jobs” bill. Sigh. I guess it was too much to expect anything but a RINO from MA. It still was a big win putting an R in the senate at this time. But I think our Mr. Brown will be a one-termer!!
We knew he was a RINO but that seat was going to be filled by a liberal anyway. He served his purpose. He will lose in 2012 without GOP help and we Tea Party people will control the GOP after November.
Is HE that stupid? No. He isn’t that stupid. He simply does what he does and knows he has just less than three more years to pretty much do as he pleases. He won’t be impeached. He won’t be pushed into a resignation. He will do what he will do, d*&n the consequences and to hell with anyone that doesn’t like it or him. As long as he can enrich his friends, push his socialist agenda and move the US farther left, he will.
Agree. But at least when we get back Congress we can neutralize him a bit!!
And if Ayers didn’t get the attention be got during the campaign, he’d had been nominated by Omambo to be Eduction Secretary.
I now expect Odumbo will nominate Hugo Chavez……for something.
When I pray, I will pray that some of the global warming gets your way to get it warmed up. If it is cold there, you must be the exception, the glaciers are all but gone and there are only two polar bears left and they are both male. Just ask Algore.
Off Topic, but possibly good news.
Personally, I’ll believe that snake is dead when I see the tail stop wiggling.
Ha!! Global warming comes here to Minnesota starting in about April or May. Last possible frost is May 15th. So believe me, I could use some of the global warming a bit early this year. The warming lasts until about Sept. 30th and then we go into a global cooling phase. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
Maybe Obama will let them adopt.
It used to start here around February or early March but it looks like we’ve got another dose of global cooling coming tomorrow.
Stern on Team Obama… just another cronie added to the pile of $h!t this man has dumped on the 300 million citizens of this country.
So, how’s that hopey-change going for ya?
Nice try Michelle, but there already is a parody blog, called The Onion! What? This is not a parody? “Honey, have you seen the Pepto?”
You know, Obama has a knack for comedy. Putting the rat in charge of the hen house…watch out for those eggs…
Hmmm, I wonder whose budget Andy Stern will recommend cutting first.
Virginia Sheriffs are circulating a petition against Senate Bill S.1611 which intends to Unionize Public Safety Officers.
We all know that unionization provides less service for more money. If you are not interested in having your property taxes increase to support the unions, contact your senators and tell them not to support this bill.
The unions must have managed to get an exclusion from the Thirteenth Amendment like they did that healthcare tax silliness. ‘Cause it’s obvious they own themselves a president.
Oh, and he still looks like the bad guy from “Sneakers.”
If you haven’t figured it out yet, every move Obama makes is a calculated, “in your face”, gesture to conservative values. He’s taunting the other side.
With Stern on the panel, he can best see where the spending has been going for the labor unions, and to make additional spending recommendations.
This whole administration is geared toward public/government service and growth, at the expense of the rest of us. As Rush puts it… “returning the wealth to its rightful owners”.
Stern is a communist. What flavor? Take your pick. I choose the Stalinist flavor.
As many have said often times before: Exactly why are unions permitted in government? It is nonsense unless you are a communist attempting to create a dependent voting block. From whom are the “workers” being protected? The Taxpayers?
Or control the minions like in the USSR.
I’ve said it before, the ONLY way we are going to get our pols to quit feeding their constituents is when we go broke. So, like the 18th century surgeons, be quik with the knife and saw, as that causes less pain than any alternative they had. Stern will be a great help in ratcheting up gubmint spending on unsustainable pensions, so bring it on. Most states and municipalities are now technically bankrupt, and the fed is only solvent because it can print money, so when no one accepts that printed trash, we will financially collapse. Russia, China, and soon the U.S. will have to go back to capitalism to revive their economy after just a few decades of GREAT COMMUNIST PLANNING AND TAKING CARE OF EVERYONE EQUALLY BADLY.
I’ll say it again; we wouldn’t need all of this happy horse manure if ex-Sen. Mark Hatfield had cast his vote to pass the balanced-budget amendment. It was the all-time worst political betrayal. Our dying country will have written on its tombstone, “Murdered 1995 by Mark Hatfield”.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It just doesn’t seem possible that this president could be that tone deaf; there is something more sinister going on here and this president doesn’t care.
That’s the problem with Progressives and why they are so dangerous to our God-given freedoms. They believe their ends justify their means and they are not bashful about it either. They will lie, cheat, steal or hijack elections, anything to get what they want (which always involves money, power and control).
They have been the same throughout the history of mankind. The worst went so far as to kill innocents to get what they want, others didn’t go that far. But in the end they were all Progressives.