Trent Lott: We Don't Need Jim DeMint Disciples

Former Senator Trent Lott, currently a lobbyist, wants no more Jim DeMints in the Senate. Here are his exact words:

"We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," Lott said in an interview. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." 

"Co-opt" according to the dictionary means "to assimilate, take, or win over into a larger or established group."

Obviously, Lott likes the status-quo of today's Senate, which has no power to do anything, and didn't do anything meaningful before they lost everything to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Senator DeMint is one of the few at the top of my list of real conservatives who actually care about Constitutional principles, and isn't afraid to talk about them.

I'm left speechless after reading the article in the Washington Post. Maybe tomorrow I'll find the words to express my dismay. In the meantime, Karen at The Lonely Conservative has another incident within this same story, involving bloggers.

SEIU in Nursing Homes: How SEIU Affects your Loved One in a Nursing Home?

Adam Bitley at NetRightDaily asks What is Andy Stern? referring to the SEIU president's penchant for lobbying Washington, D.C. without registering as a lobbyist. While reading the post, Adam mentions that there is a newly launched website, the SEIU Monitor, from Americans for Limited Goverment.  We've watched the SEIU thugs in their purple shirts, now famously dubbed the Purple People Beaters as they attacked tea partiers. Now we can see the inside machinations of a movement gone seriously wrong, at the direction of Andy Stern. One question before getting on with this. Do you know someone in a nursing home? If you do, you'll want to find out if the workers are SEIU members. It might matter...a lot.
See a video below.

Andy Stern

Keep in mind that Obama's really, really good friend, Andy Stern, has let it slip that he is resigning his position as the Service Emloyees International Union (SEIU) president in 2012. Everyone is asking "why," and speculations are rampant.

From SEIU Monitor - Healthcare:

...in 2003, the SEIU struck a secret deal with nursing-home chains. Under the deal, the SEIU would be allowed to organize the workforces of the nursing homes. In exchange, the SEIU agreed to limit newly unionized workers ability to report abuses and unsafe conditions.

The deal curtailed nursing home patients' right to sue if they were neglected, abused, or even killed, and was called "coldblooded." Those who opposed these agreements were targeted by SEIU President Andy Stern. 

Terrifying, isn't it? How can this be legal?

From SEIU Monitor - Unpaid Hired Guns, we learn that SEIU placed United Healthcare Workers into trusteeship. Then hired OSO, a private intelligence firm to spy on fellow union members, and then allegedly rant up a $2.2 million bill - then refused to pay OSO the $2+ Mil.

Perhaps the SEIU's reticence to pay their bills has something to do with their deteriorating finances. After spending $85 million in the 2008 election and taking a $25 million loan to cover its costs, the SEIU claimed they needed to "safeguard their resources."

 According to the article, the unpaid OSO investigators are "retired law enforcement officers...."

Here's another one - Held Against Their Will: SEIU has more than 200,000 "agency fee payers:"

An agency fee payer is an employee who resigns their union membership, but still pays a "fee" in lieu of dues to the union....SEIU dissenters make up nearly 11 percent of the workers covered by the union's contracts. In fact, the SEIU has more dissenters than most unions have a s members....It also means that hundreds of thousands of SEIU members may in fact, be held in the union against their will."

In an article that I wrote about Andy Stern's resignation, I mused that perhaps he would actually run the new ACORN, whatever it is now, and where ever it is, because it is somewhere gearing up for the November election. Stern has been tight with ACORN for a very long time, as was Barack Obama. The SEIU Monitor says the SEIU has given nearly $8.5 million of union member's money to ACORN.

And a final glimpse behind the scenes of SEIU according to the SEIU Monitor - Growth at Any Cost:

Union executives like Tyrone Freeman have allegedly spent millions of dollars of dues money taken from low-paid workers to enrich their relatives and pursue a lavish lifestyle.

SEIU has their fingers in so many cookie jars. They have a campaign going to "Tell Glenn Beck's Advertisers to Stop Sponsoring Hate." So remembering that Andy Stern is resigning his position, the SEIU Monitor reports "e-mails"written by a Stern advisor, Matt Witt, worrying that the financial scandals might make it difficult for Stern to find another job.

As we wait to see just what Stern, the person who has visited the White House more than any other person during the Time of Obama, does next - after SEIU, the SEIU Monitor is a go-to place for all the dirty details. Just a reminder, that the "Monitor" is a project of a really fine organization, Americans for Limited Government.



Kenneth Gladney - Tea Partier Beaten by SEIU members (video) Linked by The Lonely Conservative

Clarence Thomas Wife Virginia Thomas Launches Tea Party Linked NonProfit?

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Virginia Thomas, launched Liberty Central Inc. in January, which is referred to by the LATimes as a "tea-party-linked" organization. I don't see her specifically connecting her nonprofit to the "Tea Party"movement in the LATimes piece. Mrs. Thomas, known as "Ginni," says her organization is a nonprofit lobbying group formed to organize activism around a set of conservative "core principles."

Clarence and Virginia Thomas

Listen to this from Ginni, who certainly has some spunk. In an phone interview with the LATimes, she was asked if she had "discussed the effects" of Liberty Central on her husbands "perceptions of ...impartiality."

"I don't involve myself in litigation. Are you asking that because there's a different standard for conservatives? Did you ask Ed Rendell that question?" she said, referring to the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, who is married to a federal appellate court judge.

Ginni says "she adores all the new citizen patriots who are rising up across this country." She and Justice Thomas will be excoriated by the Left for this new venture, but  there is little doubt that she has looked at every possible objection and found nothing illegal or inappropriate.

The Liberty Central website shows it's plan to Educate, Motivate and Activate. First on their list is understanding core founding principles and their foundations. The organization will issue score cards for members of congress, and plans to be involved in the November election:

 She said it would accept donations from various sources, -- including corporations -- as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court."

Virginia Thomas has worked for the Heritage Foundation and former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX).

Read more at Memorandum

Check out Hot Air for commentary from Ed Morrisey

Linked by
 ReTeaParty
The Lonely Conservative: Oh the Scandal! Justice Thomas's Wife is a Conservative




Virginia Thomas at CPAC (video)

Lobbyists Underground: When is a Lobbyist not a Lobbyist?

When is a lobbyist not a lobbyist? When they choose not to register as one. The choosing appears to be a necessity. Even Ellen Miller, the co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation has gone underground - no longer registers as a lobbyist. Miss Miller is not a lobbyist in the true sense of the the word:

Miller's job is to keep an eye on those who shape public policy by pressing  "lawmakers directly."It is all about disclosure, and why would you want to register as a lobbyist when our President said there would be none inside his administration? Of course, lawmakers might invite "dozens of lobbyists to the DNC fundraiser last fall...but, well it was a mistake - so sorry. But inside the White House, lobbyists have a revolving door - because the President lifted his own ban, for his own convenience.

 This from June 2009:

There are now about 40,000 lobbyists eligible for jobs in the White House. I wonder what how he plans to control what they lobby for. 1 vs 40,000 doesn't look like good odds to me. If he can bend a rule this early in his term, there is no saying where he'll go next.

 The number of registered lobbyists fell by about 2,000 to 1,300 in 2009:

The falloff began shortly after Congress passed a sweeping ethics and lobbying law that imposed on registered lobbyists both heavier reporting requirements and potential criminal penalties. The law required lobbyists to report four times a year instead of two, and to detail any campaign contributions and certain meetings with public officials. The law also made it a crime for registered lobbyists to provide gifts or meals to lawmakers or their aides.

But for all its penalties, the law left the definition of a lobbyist fairly elastic. The criteria included getting paid to lobby, contacting public officials about a client’s interests at least twice in a quarter and working at least 20 percent of the time on lobbying-related activities for the client.

The irony is, Congress demands certain things from those who register as lobbyists, but Congress does not demand that you register as a lobbyist in the first place, to continue doing the job of a lobbyist. Here's an example:

Of course, even before the new rules, there were some public policy advisers who avoided registration while nonetheless profiting handsomely by helping private clients influence Congress and the White House. Under the Obama administration, the most conspicuous example is Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate leader. He advises colleagues and private clients on health care policy as a member of the lobbying firm Alston & Bird. And he also informally consults on health care policy with Mr. Obama, senior White House officials and former Senate colleagues. But he is not registered as a lobbyist. (Mr. Daschle has said he complies with all the rules.)

Anyone want to venture which lobbyists have access to the President, and which do not? The Obama administration is a blank slate representing a bald-faced lie.

La Raza La Radicals

By Jim Simpson

Outrages are coming so fast and furious these days that I am numb. It has become difficult to be outraged when practically everything politicians of both parties are doing is outrageous. But a recent proposal in Congress deserves mention. HR 1999, proposed in April by co-sponsors Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) and Rick Renzi (R-AZ), would provide $10 million a year to a radical immigration group, the National Council of La Raza (meaning “the Race”). The bill offers funds for “community development and affordable housing projects and programs serving low-and moderate-income households,” for families of “Hispanic origin.” So giving immigrants the same free medical care, education, food, housing and income support available to all low income groups is not enough. Now we have to single them out for special treatment, empowering a radical organization in the process! And the bill does not discriminate between legal and illegal immigrants. I don’t need to tell you where most of the money will go. It is bad enough there are already programs that do this. The real dig is that NCLR gets to distribute the money, keeping them well endowed and cementing their position of influence within the immigrant community. NCLR challenges the “radical” label that Michelle Malkin, U.S. Congressmen and others have placed on them. On the NCLR website they make a forceful argument claiming they oppose illegal immigration, disavow separatist or racist Hispanic movements and only seek to bring Hispanics into the American mainstream by teaching English, respect for our laws, etc. Sounds truly inspiring. Of course the Congressman who had the guts to call them radicals has since conveniently died, and thus has no way of responding further. I like to be factual. Anyone who reads my columns knows that. So I looked into some of the organizations and causes they support. Remember proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot initiative that would have denied social services to illegal immigrants? What reasonable person would deny it’s insane to allow illegal immigrants to not only flagrantly violate our border laws, but then get all kinds of social services to award their criminality once they get here? It passed with 58% support. Any rational taxpaying citizen, Hispanic or otherwise should support it, right? Not La Rasa. They, along with other groups, successfully defeated it in court with the help of then Governor Gray Davis. Here’s their answer, as expressed in an address by former NCLR President Raul Yzaguirre at their 2003 Annual Conference:

Proposition 187 in California and similar proposals elsewhere were ugly efforts to hurt the Latino community. They were direct and blatant attacks.

But we fought back. We didn't passively sit back and accept someone else's fate for us. Maybe we surprised the bigots and the xenophobes. We got angry when they expected us to be meek.

Now the Hispanic community is being assaulted once more. This time they don't want to make you angry, so their tactics are subtle. But no matter how many nice words and glossy photos they hand us, a knife in the back is deadly even if it's delivered with a smile.

“Bigots,” “xenophobes,” that’s what we are. And “a knife in the back is deadly even if it's delivered with a smile.” That last snide remark was aimed at George W. Bush and other Republicans trying to court the Hispanic vote. Not bigoted? Not racist? Not radical? Certainly not grateful. This group has relied extensively on generous American foundation and government grants since its inception in 1968. They received $5.8 million from the Feds in 2005, according to their Annual Report, and now they may well get an additional $10 million/year for their trouble. How nice. It gets better. Have you heard of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, better known by its acronym MEChA? If you live in California, you have. This group’s website states “We are Chicanos and Chicanas of Aztlán reclaiming the land of out birth…” which according to their revisionist history includes areas of the Southwestern US. In their answer to critics’ charges of support for this radical separatist group, NCLR explain that MEChA is really just a “student organization whose primary objectives are educational” and that their founding charter’s radical goals don’t matter. To make their pathetic case, they cite, of all things, a passage from an LA Times article by one Gustavo Arellano that “few [MEChA] members take these dated relics of the 1960s seriously, if they even bothered to read them.” So we’re supposed to take the word of a Hispanic LA Times reporter as an answer to this serious charge?!? I went to the MEChA website. The first page states in bold print “The following documents are essential to the philosophy of MEChA. Every MEChista should be familiar with them,” referring to MEChA’s “National” Constitution, El Plan de Santa Barbara, and El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán. The Constitution states in its preamble: “Chicano and Chicana students of Aztlán must take upon themselves the responsibilities to promote Chicanismo within the community, politicizing our Raza [Race] with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to continue the struggle for the self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlán (emphasis mine).” To get a flavor for how these “liberated” people think, go to the following Aztlán news link, where the author discusses how the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse saga is being exploited by “Jewish pornographers,” or visit their news site, for a treatise from these enlightened Mexicans on their charming views of Americans. This is the same tripe you’d find coming from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the American Socialist Party or MoveOn.org, Daily Kos, or Michael Moore come to think of it. Simply amazing how predictably similar they all are. The fact is that NCLR has teamed up with blatantly radical groups like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) to thwart illegal immigration reform at every turn. NCLR’s website has a clean, professional look and their propaganda carries all the buzzwords designed to make them look moderate, very much like the equally-radical Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). They have similarly wrapped themselves in the mantle of moderation by cultivating friends in both parties, flattering gullible lawmakers. So are they polished? Yes. Do they fool a lot of people? Apparently. Are they really moderate? No. According to WorldNetDaily, NCLR had “virtual veto power” over the most recent Senate immigration proposal. These are the folks pushing immigration policy in the U.S. Is there anywhere left to turn?

Illegal Immigrants Pander Thru UN

By Stanford Matthews originally posted at: Blog @ MoreWhat.com Another initiative by the United Nations cloaked in veils of morality and their human rights version of public relations. Nothing like allowing the special interest of not only the United States but foreign countries as well to hide behind the UN to stiff American citizens. Lobbyists don't only work Washington, they are alive and well at the UN. This misadventure by the UN should be of concern to all American citizens of the legal variety. For now, gone are the days when simply using the word American implied one was a legal citizen of the United States. Thanks to the United States representatives to the UN who have publicly pushed for human rights initiatives in other countries, the shoe will go on the other foot. Under normal circumstances that would be understandable. But when is the last time you remember any country successfully solving human rights violations after intervention by the UN? So while the others skate on their responsibilities, America will be subjected to who knows what by the political dance from others at the UN. It is claimed there is a center in Texas that houses illegal immigrant detainees that has been 'highly criticized'. If you had to guess the source of the complaints, do you suppose it may be someone opposed to immigration control? It is reported vaguely in the AP report that it was 'a federal district judge'. But it would appear by the same report that the ACLU or similar group and other immigration advocates initiated what is an unsubstantiated claim based on this same AP report. So what, the ACLU and some other no borders advocates whined to a federal judge? There is at least one other location in Texas that is the subject of this UN visit. The visitor from the UN is being described as an independent expert on migrant rights. Interesting that part of the complaint concerns a suggestion that the place of detention for illegal immigrants is 'like a prison'. Imagine that, a prison to house illegal immigrants prior to deportation from violating federal law in the United States. The expert on migrant rights is Jorge Bustamante. Based on the AP report and other research, Mr. Bustamante is a professor from Mexico and holds or held positions at Notre Dame as well as other institutions. He also is on some of the economic councils at the UN and advocates dual citizenship for immigrants as referenced below from 1998.

Report of the UN working group on the rights of migrants Mr. Jorge A. Bustamante (Mexico) continued to act as Chairman-Rapporteur. ... Denial of dual citizenship, creating social and legal problems for migrants ... www.smc.org.ph/rights/experts.htm

He has already visited LA and will go to more cities and report his findings to the 47 country UN Human Rights Council.

Human rights expert examines migrant issues in L.A. The U.N.'s Jorge Bustamante spends two days seeking information on the treatment of migrants. By Teresa Watanabe, Times Staff Writer May 4, 2007 In the first broad international scrutiny of U.S. treatment of migrants, a United Nations human rights expert took testimony about worker abuse, government raids, family separations and other issues as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Los Angeles on Thursday. Bustamante, a University of Notre Dame sociology professor who splits his time between his native Mexico and the United States, said that anti-immigrant sentiment is rising around the world as unprecedented levels of global migration have prompted a growing number of nations to adopt restrictive laws.

Here is some additional information about the man who will do his best for the plight of the illegal immigrant and all the business and political interests that desire his obviously objective analysis of the situation. But it seems the only item that is ignored in analyzing the situation is the very first one. Illegal immigrants are described as such for their choice to violate federal law of a sovereign nation by entering the country through any means necessary other than those prescribed by law. Mr Bustamante will discuss these matters with the US government, immigration advocates and illegal immigrants. Sound fair to me. No bias will ever develop through this contrived investigation. http://www.nd.edu/~latino/academics/facultybios-html/bustamante_print.html

The Institute for Latino Studies University of Notre Dame 230 McKenna Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556-0764 Tel: (574) 631-4440 Fax: (574) 631-3522 E-mail: latino@nd.edu URL: www.nd.edu/~latino Jorge Bustamante Titles: Eugene Conley Professor of Sociology Office: 214 Hesburgh Phone: (574) 631-4454 Fax: (574) 631-2401 E-mail: bustamante.1@nd.edu Education BA and PhD, University of Notre Dame Research Interests International Migration, Mexican American Studies, and the Sociology of Development Current Courses International Migration and Human Rights Publications With more than 200 publications in scholarly journals of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Venezuela, Spain, and Mexico, mostly dealing with Mexican immigration to the United States and the US-Mexico border phenomenon, Jorge Bustamante has been hailed as a leading expert in the field of international migration. Bustamante has also been writing a weekly column in the editorial pages of Mílenio Diario of Mexico City since September of 2000 and Frontera of Tijuana since November of 1999. Teaching Experience Bustamante has been a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin; at El Colegio de México in Mexico City; and, presently, at the University of Notre Dame, where he has held an endowed chair (the Eugene Conley Professor of Sociology) since 1986. As a visiting professor he has been in charge of seminars and graduate courses at the University of California, Riverside; the National University of Mexico; and the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris. Appointments In 1994 Bustamante accepted appointments to the Joint Public Advisory Committee (J-PAC) as well as the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC), which were created by the governments of Mexico, the United States, and Canada as a result of the "parallel agreements" of NAFTA. Following Mexico's admission to the OECD, Bustamante was appointed to be SOPEMI’s (Continuous Reporting System on Migration) correspondent for Mexico. He continues serving as coordinator of the Social Sciences Committee of the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology for the President of Mexico. In 1995 the government of Japan appointed him Honorary Consul in Baja California, Mexico. In 1995 Bustamante was a member of a binational group of researchers, appointed by the governments of Mexico and the United States, to conduct research on Mexican migration to the United States. Then, in 1997, the member countries of Latin America and the Caribbean voted in favor of Mexico’s proposal to appoint Bustamante as part of a new 5-member committee to study the worldwide relationship between international migrations and human rights. In November of 1997, during the committee’s first working session in Geneva, Switzerland, Bustamante was elected President, and he was reelected one year later. He founded El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF), the prominent Mexican institute for the study of border issues located in Tijuana, Mexico, from its creation in 1982 until January of 1998. In July of this same year, the Bank of Bilbao Vizcaya Foundation granted him its annual fellowship, one of the most prestigious in Spain. Awarded to several Nobel prizewinners in the past, this is the first time this fellowship has been granted to a social scientist. Bustamante's most recent appointment was on 12 May 2000 to UAM’s (Metropolitan Autonomus University of Mexico City) Junta Directiva, a collective body that serves as the highest authority of the three academically self-governing universities that comprise the UAM. Honors In 1988 his overwhelming body of research was cited by Mexican President Madrid when he gave Bustamante the Premio Nacional de Ciencias, the highest award granted to scientists by the Mexican government. Also, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari presented Bustamante with the National Award on Demography for his research on Mexican migration to the United States. On 18 January 2001 Dr. Bustamante was appointed a member of an advisory group on immigration and population policies by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.