There has been a good deal of discussion of late about whether or not the IRS should launch an investigation into Media Matters’ tax-exempt status.  In today’s part two of a three part series from FOX Business’ Elizabeth MacDonald, details of the civilian complaint filed by C. Boyden Gray demonstrate why the former White House counsel to President George W. Bush believes that Media Matters should have its tax-exempt status yanked.

Citing a pattern of “unlawful conduct,” Gray writes in his petition, which FOX Business has obtained, that the nonprofit has “executed a partisan strategy” in violation of U.S. tax law as it exists “no longer to educate the public but, rather, to declare ‘war on FOX,’” Gray says, quoting from an interview its founder, David Brock, gave to the website Politico.

Also unlawful, Gray says, is the nonprofit’s reported goal to “disrupt” the commercial interests of News Corp. (News Corp. is the parent of FOX News and FOX Business.)

Read the whole article, Former White House Counsel to IRS: Pull Media Matters’ Tax-Exempt Status.

Among the activity noted in the complaint:

• Conducting a campaign to get chain book retailers to stop selling the book, “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry”
• Advocating for legislation such as the Fairness Doctrine, which would be in violation of tax law if such activity exceeds an insubstantial amount
• Stating that it is “looking for ways to turn regulators in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere against the network,” and intending to “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to [sic] disrupt his commercial interests.”
• Using tax-free dollars to fund the “Progressive Talent Initiative,” an endeavor “geared toward members of the Netroots community” and aimed at producing “camera-ready liberals” who can speak to the media on progressive issues

So many other examples not even mentioned in the article are readily available.

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Has President Barack Obama been deceiving America, with his Ethics Executive Order 13490?  It certainly appears that the actions of the Obama Administration are far from his recent statement that he has “put into place the toughest ethics laws of any Administration in history [pause] in history.” A host of Obama’s appointments call into question the President’s commitment to his own Ethics Order.  Appointments such as U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Sec. Hilda Solis, DOL Deputy Solicitor Deborah Greenfield, and NLRB Board member Craig Becker undermine Obama’s claim of “toughest ethics.”

Now, the National Right To Work Committee introduces John Lund,  Obama’s “overseer” of union financial reporting and disclosure at DOL’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS).  This Obama appointee is a former director of the now-defunct Pacific Northwest Labor College,  a former SEIU union employee , a fomer IUOE union employee, and former director of the University of Wisconsin School for Workers.   Lund’s appointment means that he is now in charge of investigating financial mismanagement and irregularities by the very labor union officials he has trained for decades. (click to view the NRTW shocking handout on Lund)

Big Labor Payback Job One for Obama

Even though Obama campaigned on transparency and a focus on ethics, cronies at DOL focused on eliminating basic financial union disclosure and union officials’ conflict-of-interest disclosures requirements.

At DOL, John Lund cut the number of labor union investigators, rescinded disclosure of union officer benefits, eliminated financial reporting for unions like the Wisconsin Education Association Council, and eliminated conflict-of-interest reporting for thousands of union officials.  Each of these actions benefits Big Labor Bosses, but undercuts those forced to pay union dues and fees as a condition of employment.

John Lund Conflicts-of-Interest

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Yesterday, we at the Media Research Center went to the MoveOn.org “We Are One” union rally in Washington, D.C. held outside of the Treasury building to ask the people why they were there protesting.

All of the groups taking part of the rally included: the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, CommonCause, Communication Workers of America, Greenpeace, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MoveOn, NAACP, National Education Association, SEIU, United Food and Commercial Workers, and USAction.

Given it was blatantly obvious beforehand they were rallying against the Koch brothers despite marketing it as standing up for MLK’s dream, I figured I’d ask them what that exactly was all about. Many people literally could not answer, some refused to answer, and some essentially repeated talking points liberal websites churn out- which shall remain nameless. Including Medea Benjamin of Code Pink.

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You may remember President Obama’s recent call for civil discourse this past January.  Well, it appears that the Left is still very much struggling with the #newtone online.  Unless, of course, you consider a persistent stream of steady death threats against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a display of etiquette straight from the Emily Post Etipedia of manners.

Here’s but a small sampling from the #caring Tweeters:
(NOTE:  I prefer to view the video with music like this as accompaniment…)

Initially, I’d written a summary here of some of the details around Gov. Walker’s proposal, including some of the positive highlights, like granting employees the right to choose whether or not to contribute dues to a labor union.  But then I decided, “nahhhh….why bother?”  Agree or disagree with some, all or none of the Governor’s proposal, everyone has something to contribute to the conversation.  But death threats are NOT an acceptable part of ANY conversation.

I’d thought we’d learned that by now, after documenting the same exact behavior in January.  With all the Big-Brother Twitter monitoring the Soros flunkies are doing out there, you’d think they would have posted and condemned this by now.

So much for that #newtone.

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Remember back in late March when we caught Harry Reid astroturf “supporters” throwing eggs at the Tea Party Express bus?

And remember how we caught them on camera blaming me for the act they perpetrated, even calling the local police?

Remember then Harry Reid’s local police force driving away when they found out the Democratic Party-directed union astroturf squad was behind throwing the eggs — and not me?

Remember how we caught on tape Nevada Democratic Party Field Director Brian DiMarzio organizing the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357 who were the ones who threw the eggs?

And remember a befuddled DiMarzio telling a police officer that I was the one who threw the eggs, and speaking to the IBEW Local 357 on a first-name basis?

Well, Mr. DiMarzio, formerly an employee of the AFL-CIO — go figure! — is still employed with the Nevada Democrtic Party even though his nefarious exploits made it on to national TV.

According to the Nevada State Democratic Party website, Mr. Dimarzio is still employed as their Field Director. Until March, I didn’t know what Democratic Party political field directors were until I saw one directing union thugs in the field.

How much money does that pay in this tough economy?

Speaking of big-time salaries within the Democrat/Big Labor Axis:  Remember Eddie Gering?

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The American Federation of Government Employees has launched a new ad targeting Republicans, or ‘teabaggers’, depicted in a cheering crowd with the faces of House Minority Leader John Boehner, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle, and RNC Chairman Michael Steele- with a sign that reads “Tea Baggers Section.”

According to the website of the union behind the ad:

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If you saw the front page of the latest edition of QUAD CITIES LABOR NEWS, you probably noticed an article under the headline, WHAT’S WITH ALL THE BILLBOARDS? Unfortunately, the article beneath the headline fails to offer a truthful answer to the question and, in fact, stinks of desperation.

The article begins with the following inaccurate description of the nonprofit group behind the placement of election-focused billboards in the Quad Cities area:

Perhaps you’ve seen them. They disparage Phil Hare while saying little about who is paying for them. The group behind the billboards on 11th Ave. in Rock Island and River Drive in Moline is a front group for Bobby Schilling called Veterans4Schilling.

In the remaining paragraphs of the labor union rag, truth seems to be an afterthought.

In the second paragraph, for example, it’s claimed that “The Federal Election Commission has already filed a complain against Veterans4Schilling for unethical practices” and it’s alleged that the group changed its name to Veterans4Constitution after the complaint was filed.

First, everyone knows the Federal Election Commission did not file any complaints. It was an operative of Hare — one James L. Moody — who filed the Aug. 27 complaint with the FEC. Second, one needs only read the complaint to see that Moody directed his “beef” at Veterans 4 Constitution, not Veterans 4 Schilling.

As for the claim that appears in the third paragraph (i.e., that none of the Republican candidates endorsed by the veterans group were veterans), I’d love to find out why Robert Enriquez, the GOP candidate for Illinois Secretary of State, doesn’t qualify as a veteran in the eyes of the labor folks. After all, he served as a Marine Corps officer and completed two overseas tours.

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From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Organized labor is hatching a plan to use prominent Democratic officials and TV ads to pummel Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker over the O’Donnell Park garage accident to try to keep him from being elected governor.

So says a local union official with loose lips who was secretly recorded yakking away outside an east side bar earlier this month. `

Here’s what he said everyone can expect in the next six weeks:

TV spots will hit Walker for neglecting county facilities; supervisors will continue to call for an independent investigation of O’Donnell Park; Walker’s opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, will push legislation on the subject; and Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration may let state engineers come in to inspect the county facility.

“I’m kind of at the center of a maelstrom right now in terms of kicking Scott Walker’s (expletive),” said John-david Morgan, a lobbyist and spokesman for the Service Employees International Local 1, on Sept. 10 outside the Y-Not II tavern on E. Lyon St. “I’ve been kicking Scott Walker’s (expletive) for two months now. We’ve been on TV; we’ve done all kinds of stuff.”

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After seeing the U.S. economy start to dive during the summer of 2008, Teresa Pershall decided it was time to downsize her business and prepare for the long, tough economic road ahead. She had, after all, seen this type of thing before. In Vietnam. Decades earlier.

In 1980, Teresa — then known by her Vietnamese name, Thi Nquyen — found herself standing in a rice field holding two little babies and asking herself, “What do I do now?” Her only answer at the time was to work. And work hard. Twenty hours a day was not uncommon.

Only a few years earlier, the Viet Cong had taken over South Vietnam and seized her family’s property. Teresa’s husband and many of her family members were able to flee the country, but she remained behind to take care of her two elderly parents and her two babies by herself. Many others she had known simply disappeared after being taken away by armed men from the new regime. She did not want the same to happen to her children and her parents.

Asked to describe what it was like to live under communism, she said, “It’s a really wonderful life for people who work for the government and a really horrible life for those who work outside the government.”

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There are certain professions that carry an implicit mandate, one that goes beyond performing the required duties of that profession.  A social contract exists in these specialized lines of works that requires the performer to place the needs to those he serves above his own.  Police officers, soldiers, and firemen are three such professions.  There is a fourth, but this profession’s mandate has been corrupted by union greed and politics.

I speak of the Teacher, especially the teacher of the American high school and university.

The mandate of the Teacher is simple:  to educate.  The simplest, purest form of the Teacher can be found in my book Teacher of the Year: The Mystery and Legacy of Edwin Barlow. For 35 years, Edwin Barlow taught mathematics at his beloved Horace Greeley High School in New York. Thousands of students passed through his classroom. Yet when he died, he remained as much a cipher as the day he arrived, for he deliberately shrouded his life in rumor and mystery.

One of the many reasons why he kept his life secret was simple:  he only wanted to be remembered as an educator.  He only wanted his students to carry his classroom (and life) lessons into the world.  Every interaction he ever had with a student always had an underlying agenda: teach that student something, about anything.  He did so with a purity of intent unmatched by the greatest philanthropists of our time.  He did so wielding a demanding, humorous, profound, and frightening persona.  His classes were not merely invitations to learn, they were command performances.   At a time in their lives when teenagers are more concerned with physical appearance, he demanded that they respect their minds.

I should know.   I was one of his students.   In over twenty years of the American educational system, I never encountered another instructor like him.   Oh sure, I had plenty of notable teachers who made a difference in my life.  None of them, though, provided me with an education in life, as well as their formal topic.  None of them had the impact Mister Barlow did.  And none of them cared as little about personal remuneration as Mister Barlow did.  He chose the esthetic life, gave away much of his salary to charity each year, and didn’t give a hoot about the union.

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In today’s Washington Examiner, the always interesting Michael Barone dissects Labor’s big loss in Arkansas:

She wanted to win reelection and knew that card check was political poison in almost entirely non-unionized Arkansas.

Big labor decided to teach her—and all Democratic members of Congress who were quailing at the prospect of voting for card check—a lesson. The lesson would be that, however much a vote for card check would reduce your chances of winning a general election, opposition to card check would result in your defeat in a Democratic primary. Their ready and willing instrument was Bill Halter, whose path to higher office seemed otherwise occluded. At the beginning of March he announced his candidacy and proclaimed himself the champion of the working man. Blanche Lincoln, in agonized response, proclaimed herself the target of outside interests. In a matter of weeks labor unions and moveon.org—originally formed to defend Bill Clinton against impeachment—sent millions to Bill Halter’s campaign. Lincoln, recently elevated to the Chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee, sponsored a bill to shut off all derivative trading. The Obama White House carefully protected this bill from defeat while the primary and runoff contests were pending, while Bill Clinton campaign gallantly for Lincoln and against his appointee Halter.

The Clinton intervention may have proved decisive. Although the Clintons have left Arkansas, Arkansas voters still have warm feelings toward them, as witnessed by Hillary Clinton’s 70%-26% defeat of Barack Obama in the 2008 Arkansas Democratic presidential primary—the biggest percentage win in her campaign. Lincoln won the runoff by a 52%-48% margin—hardly inspiring but a whole lot better than a defeat.

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Jo Ann Emerson is back in the news today as one of nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives sponsoring H.R. 3936, a $165 billion union pension bailout bill. But why?

It could be that the seven-term Republican elected in the 8th Congressional District of Southeast Missouri simply loves bailouts. After all, she did vote for the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) and “Cash for Clunkers”. But I don’t think her love for bailouts is the main reason why she is behind the bill.

Instead, I think her sponsorship of the union bailout bill stems from the fact that she is married to Ron Gladney.

In a May 3 post, I pointed out that her second husband is both a Democrat and an labor union attorney for St. Louis-based Bartley Goffstein LLC and that, according to Federal Election Commission records, she has received campaign contributions from a variety of union entities, including the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). And that’s not all!

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“After a great amount of my own thought, hearing opinions from many of you, and holding them up against my own criteria—I recommend that Anna Burger not only temporarily—but then permanently—become the 10th President and first woman to lead our union.”

That’s what outgoing SEIU President Andy Stern requested in his April 16th letter to the International Executive Board of SEIU, as he named Anna Burger as his preferred successor.

But locals from New York, Los Angeles, Oregon, and Washington State, as well as Canada, all lined up behind Mary Kay Henry tonight to commit their votes.  According to Politico’s Ben Smith,

“It’s done,” an SEIU insider emailed moments ago.

Tonight’s development comes only days after Anna Burger’s plea to the International Executive Board:

“During my 38 years in SEIU, I’ve held every position but one and now I’m asking for your support… to be the next International President.”

However, building tensions between locals across the country that saw Stern as a divisive figure, too politically entrenched and connected to the DC complex, have left the union itself divided.  Some have seen Mary Kay Henry as a more uniting force that might break the national union away from the chains of the DC operations and bring the power of the locals back to the members again and keep the peace amongst other locals. Others (including me) speculate that she’ll infuse new life into those very DC operations and could possibly even accelerate some activities; she apparently has fewer enemies than Stern or Burger did.  As Politico reports,

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In the wake of yesterday’s terrible tragedy outside of Vancouver at the Whistler Sliding Center, where Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili sadly lost his life, safety is on the minds of many.  Only hours before the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the 21-year old lost control of his sled at 88mph and was catapulted over the track wall into a steel support column.  All throughout the week, coaches, commentators, and even other Olympians have questioned the safety of the track, as nearly a dozen other athletes have also crashed during practice runs, including a Romanian women’s slider who was knocked unconscious and defending Olympic luge champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.

The President of the World Luge Federation said the track is too fast and thinks it is a planning mistake, while Australian luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg questioned whether athletes were being treated as “crash test dummies“.  The shocking footage of the accident was replayed all throughout the day and evening yesterday, leaving horrified viewers focused on discussion about the safety of the track.

But in all of this shock, horror and sadness over the tragic death of an athlete in his prime and the dangers of the track on which he lost his young life, what has the SEIU focused on?

Food safety. (Translated =  unionizing)

Reports of the horrible accident in Vancouver began surfacing in the press as early as 12:30 pm EST  Friday.  Yet, the SEIU still felt their unionization Food Safety concerns were so paramount that they went ahead and issued a press release anyway, after 5:00 pm EST:

“PRESS RELEASE:  Healthcare Union Raises Concerns Over Safety Of Food to be Served to Olympic Athletes at Vancouver Olympics“

“Sodexo is providing catering services for athletes during this key moment in their sporting careers, and we’re concerned about the food they will be providing,” charged the SEIU in Friday’s press release.

It’s not as though the SEIU could not have known about the tragedy  – the story had been broadcast all over the news for at least five hours before SEIU pushed out its attack.  If they didn’t know, then they’re even more disconnected from reality than we thought they were.

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First, they came for the Babysitter.  Then, they came for the Eagle Scout.   Now, they’ve come for the Crossing Guard.

Warren Eschenbach, an 86-year-old a retired Wausau Water Works employee volunteers his time as a crossing guard at the Riverview Elementary School in Wausau, Wisconsin.  After the Wausau School District built an area just outside an intersection at the school’s location for parents to pickup their kids from the school, the intersection became busier than usual for a short time every day.  So, Eschenbach did a noble thing.  He went over to the school and spoke with parents, kids and administrators, and he volunteered to patrol the area at pickup time to make sure kids got to their parents’ cars and that others crossed the streets safely.  After all, he worked for five years as a crossing guard at the Franklin Elementary School up until three years ago.  He lives two doors down and it’s for a half hour every day.  Who could take issue with that?

Well, apparently union bosses can.

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Ten minutes prior to the start of a December 15^th, 2009 board meeting of the Riverside Community College District in California, board members are handed a 52-page document filled with millions of dollars in projects to be funded by the district’s taxpayers, who themselves are struggling under the state’s 12.4% unemployment rate.  The document, a draft Project Labor Agreement (PLA), will commit long-term construction and ancillary projects for the next several years to labor unions.

At least twenty-three members of the public, many of them local private business owners who oppose the PLA, have attended to publicly comment on the proposal.  Two of the board members have never even seen the PLA prior to today, and have asked for a special session to review it.  Despite opposition from the public, and the concern voiced by those two board members, the remaining three board members have moved that the Board of Trustees authorize Chancellor Greg Gray to negotiate the final PLA with the Riverside and San Bernardino Building and Construction Trade Councils. Board Trustees Virginia Blumenthal and Janet Green dissented.

So, without adequate time for all to review the draft, without any backup analysis provided to justify the use of up to $350,000,000 in Measure C taxpayer funds, without giving the public reasonable time to voice their opinions, and with an unemployment rate of over 12% when non-union workers are in even greater need of jobs than union workers…why would three of Riverside’s five board members vote to move forward with a final negotiation anyway? Why the rush? Residents and business owners in Riverside are wondering the same thing, and hope to have the chance to weigh in before the PLA’s final draft is signed.

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United Auto Workers (UAW) union rank and file members shout down their own UAW leadership in a heated meeting on January 24th, as their UAW leader loses it at the podium.  Sunday’s meeting in California made last summer’s Town Halls look like a family picnic, after a few choice words from their UAW leader spurred the crowd of rank and file members to erupt in screaming and chaos.  At one point,  another attendee tries to reason with the crowd, pleading “we have women and children in here that are scared.”

WARNING: Strong language, angry-town-hall-mob-like-behavior

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Throughout the debate over health care reform, there has been a great deal of discussion over the role of special interests in influencing the votes of lawmakers. Liberal democrats, progressive think tanks and mainstream media have repeatedly accused anyone who opposes government run health care of standing with special interests instead of with needy Americans, painting them as greedy and selfish. And now that a bill has passed in the House and is on its way to the Senate, big government proponents of a ‘public option’ are already attacking their fellow Democrats’ own bill, insisting that it may as well have been written by special interests.

Funny they should mention that. Because, just like the stimulus bill, it was written by special interests.

While it’s true that Republicans certainly receive their fair share of donations from the health industry, the surprising truth is that Democrats actually receive more.  Because there’s one giant special interest sector that everyone seems to be leaving out:  Big Labor.  And in the monarchy of labor these days,  there is one queen that’s at the top of the money chain, and that’s the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the top billing union in its parent coalition, Change to Win. Especially when it comes to the issue of health care.

Let’s start first by breaking down the numbers.

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