Tag Archives: SEIU

Union that pushed for Obamacare drops medical coverage of children

From the Wall Street Journal. (H/T Don Surber via ECM)

Excerpt:

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

The fund is administered by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Union officials said the state compelled the fund to start buying coverage from a third party, which increased premiums by 60%. State health officials denied forcing the union fund to make the switch, saying the fund had been struggling financially even before the switch to third-party coverage.

The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

No one ever said that union members were wizards at economics. At least this time they have to face their own ignorance.

Left-wing Democrat groups pack Stephen Colbert / Jon Stewart rally

Politco has the list of some of the left-wing Democrat special interest groups who attended the pro-Obama rally staged by left-wing radicals Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

Excerpt:

Abortion-rights supporters, marijuana fans, environmental activists, government watchdogs and the Democratic National Committee all will be cruising the Mall and spreading their messages in the hopes of winning hearts, minds and votes three days before Election Day.

— At least 100 MoveOn.org Political Action volunteers will serve 25,000 cups of hot chocolate that advertise a get-out-the-vote effort people can join by texting the organization.

— Public Citizen’s government watchdogs are giving out 5,000 signs featuring slogan-contest winners like “It’s a Democracy, Not an Auction,” chosen from 6,000 entries.

— Abortion rights supporters from NARAL will be trolling the Mall, metro stations and the bus parking lot at RFK Stadium, some in Lady Liberty costumes, rewarding people who sign up to volunteer with a sticker saying, “Vote Pro-Choice. Politicians Make Crappy Doctors” — also a product of a slogan contest.

— After the rally, the pro-pot activists at Students for Sensible Drug Policy are set to do eight hours of phone banking urging California voters to support Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in the state.

None of the groups quite know what kind of crowd to expect — MoveOn’s Ilyse Hogue called it a “huge mystery.” — but they figure it will probably be young, liberal and frustrated. Just the kind of folks whose untapped energy can be channeled into get-out-the-vote efforts.

Two clowns organizing a rally for the Clown-In-Chief. Yay! 10% unemployment! 3 trillion in budget deficits! Everyone laugh! It’s so funny!

The radically leftist New York Times reports that the Democratic National Committee will be heavily involved in the Colbert/Stewart rally.

Excerpt:

…the Democratic National Committee is doing everything it can to capitalize on the event.

Volunteers and staff members from the headquarters are greeting people as they get off of the buses or arrive in Washington on trains, armed with sign-up sheets for canvassing efforts in districts across the country.

And for those rally attendees who have not gotten enough of politics by the end of the rally, they can head over to the the committee’s headquarters a few blocks away, where there will be a phone bank. Committee officials said they expected to get at least 100 people there.

The rally had been a subject of concern for some Democrats, who said it would siphon the most active Democrats from around the country away from the get-out-the-vote efforts in their home states and districts.

But a spokeswoman for the Democratic committee’s Organizing for America said Saturday that the party is supportive of the Comedy Central hosts’ event.

“We think having people energized and enthusiastic in the final days before Election Day is great,” said the spokeswoman, Lynda Tran. “OFA is urging people to head from the rally to a phone bank or to pick up a canvass and go door to door to urge their friends, neighbors, and communities to head to the polls on Tuesday.”

Indeed. And the rally is supported by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Barack Obama’s old anti-American terrorist buddies, too.

Excerpt:

When comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced their rallies on the national mall scheduled for this Saturday, they may not have expected—or wanted—an endorsement from Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. But Ayers told the Ford Motor Company-sponsored Green Festival in Washington, D.C. last Saturday that the event will be a needed respite from the “Alice in Wonderland” world of military domination of the planet and wars waged by the U.S. “empire.”

The October 30 Stewart/Colbert rallies, dubbed “Restore Sanity” and “Keep Fear Alive,” are “worth attending,” Ayers said.

[…]Ayers and Dohrn had staged a fundraiser for Obama when he began his political career by running for the Illinois State Senate. Ayers and Obama served on a board and appeared at functions together. During the campaign, however, Obama tried to play down his relationship with the terror couple.

All of Obama’s buddies from Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are very excited about the rally. I’m sure Reverend Jeremiah Wright would approve, as well.

Is MTV pressuring its employees to attend anti-Tea-Party rallies?

Story from Big Hollywood. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Now that the establishment’s favorite comedian, Jon Stewart, has the state-sanctioned approval of no less than the President of the United States for his upcoming “Mock-The-People” rally on October 30th, it only makes sense that Comedy Central’s state-enamored sister company, Barack-The-Vote MTV (both MTV and Comedy Central are owned by Sumner Redstone’s Viacom) would team up to do everything possible to help President Obama’s party in these dire final campaign days when the only question about the coming Republican wave is just how large it will be.

[…]An internal email reveals that MTV is investing heavily in making a success of Jon Stewart’s counter-rally to Glenn Beck’s incredibly successful August event. But the music network’s tactics give the whole affair a taint similar to October 2nd’s “One Nation” rally, where all that Big Labor-SEIU astro-turfing still wasn’t able to reproduce Beck’s grassroots success. Below is a portion of an email that I’m told just went out to some, and maybe all, MTV employees.

You have to click through for the e-mail from MTV to its employees.

This should come as no surprise, however. MTV is, after all, the same network that just held a “casting call” for the 250 young people needed for a townhall meeting the network was kind enough to arrange for the President just a few weeks before the midterm elections.

Also adding to the whole Stewart astro-turf vibe is Arianna Huffington, who just announced that she’s donating a cool $250k to bus in those who apparently wouldn’t go otherwise…

Compare that to Tea Party rallies where people drive their own cars and park them, no buses are used. And the signs are all hand-made, not manufactured by some union.