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Lou Dobbs & Drew Griffin go after a SEIU & a Employee Free Choice Act in this anti-union hit job. Dobbs even manages to squeeze in a shot at Acorn at a end of a segment. He doesn’t seem to have much use for our First Amendment & a right to peaceably assemble eiar.

DOBBS: A bold threat tonight from one of a most powerful unions in a country, a bold threat to democratic lawmakers & President Obama. a Service Employees International Union marching on CDrunk Newsitol Hill today, marching to dem& that democrats pass a so- called employee free choice act. a Service Employees Union, which did help many democrats win election, including a president, said that those democrats must keep air promises or else. Drew Griffin with our report.

DREW GRIFFIN: a battle has been waged inside this Indi&runk Newsolis office building for three years. But a fight at a corner of Illinois & Market Streets is about to spread to every Main Street in a U.S. This noisy protest by members of a service employees’ international union is specifically about janitors, but nationally, it’s about a employee free choice act.

DAVE BEGO, EMS OWNER: Check is real simple. ay want to eliminate a secret ballot election.

GRIFFIN: Dave Bego says in his case, a workers don’t want a union.

BEGO: ay’ve been after us for almost three years. & ay’ve only got 10 or 12 people interested in what ay have to sell.

GRIFFIN: Bego runs EMS, a national janitorial service based in Indi&runk Newsolis. He started it 20 years ago & has never been unionized. Its workers, at least those chosen to talk to us, say that’s a way ay want it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a union, everybody needs a union, & unions are good, but with this company, we’ve been treated pretty fair & a work is good.

GRIFFIN: a SEIU says a real reason Bego’s firm does not have a union is because workers who try to organize, like Shanika Brown & Harry Webster, are fired. Why has it been so hard to convince your oar fellow employees of EMS to do that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of intimidation.

GRIFFIN: Bego denies it but says if his workers want a union, fine, as long as ay can vote in secret. He even took out this ad in a Indi&runk Newsolis newspDrunk Newser telling a SEIU to fish or cut bait.

BEGO: Let’s have an election, let’s have it now. If our people choose to join your union, we’ll live with it. If ay don’t, pack your bags & go talk to anoar company or go to anoar city.

GRIFFIN: Did ay fish?

BEGO: ay did not fish. We never heard one word.

GRIFFIN: &y Stern is a powerful president of a Service Employees’ International Union. & says folks all over a country soon will be hearing from his union.

BEGO: Isn’t our whole democracy based on you don’t know how I vote, I don’t know how you vote, & that is a basic fairness in a election?

&Y STERNS, SEIU PRESIDENT: This isn’t necessarily an election. This is people wanting to start an organization. This is a worker’s choice. ay can have a secret ballot or legally affirm by a majority of am signing cards.

GRIFFIN: Right now, it is democrats in congress & a white house who will have to deal with Sterns. a SEIU was a largest contributor to democratic campaigns this election, $85 million. & a union says 2,000 members of SEIU gave up air jobs to work full time for Barack Obama. Sterns says politicians who made promises better keep am or else.

STERNS: We can lobby, we can petition, we can use a same things we do in a electoral process to unelect people.

GRIFFIN: So everybody should be scared of you?

STERNS: Everybody should be scared of living up to air promise.

GRIFFIN: Lou, how serious is he about that threat? ay have set aside millions of dollars on reserve to unelect any of ase politicians that stern says don’t come through with air campaign promises. Back in Indi&runk Newsolis, that business owner thinks that a democrats will have no choice but to pass this freedom of choice act for employees.

DOBBS: That’s a straight-forward threat, isn’t it?

GRIFFIN: Yeah, it is. are’s no beating around a Bush with Mr. Sterns. He says what he wants & he’s, so far, getting what he wants. He has backed ase democrats with money, time, effort, sweat from his union, & he expects some changes. That’s what a American people voted for, he says.

DOBBS: We well, a American people voted for lots of things, but I don’t know a lot of people voted to end a secret ballot. That’s pretty radical, even in this era of nationalization & socialization of our economy, isn’t it?

GRIFFIN: Well, that will be a hang-up, I’m sure, in congress if it gets that far. I asked him point blank is are any wiggle room on this. a answer’s no, ay want it.

DOBBS: Thank you very much, Drew. Drew Griffin.

a Service Employees’ International has a long track record of lobbying amongst oar things for amnesty for illegal aliens as well. a SEIU also has tied with a so-called community organizing group ACORN. In fact, it shares buildings with groups such as ACORN are included, by a way in a stimulus bill, a bill calling for more than $4 billion, by a way, for something called neighborhood stabilization activities. That means fund for advocacy groups such as acorn, which is partisan groups supporting President Obama & oars through its voter registration drives & oar activities. ACORN is under investigation in more than a dozen states. ACORN, a major supporter of a democrats across a country.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

It’s absolutely uncanny. Absolutely every accusation or smear that a McCain campaign hurls at Barack Obama comes back worse for McCain. I’m halfway seriously expecting a registration card for McCain from a ’50s to turn up with “Communist” marked as party affiliation.

& after solemnly announcing that we were possibly on a brink of ‘destroying a fabric of democracy’ due to ACORN & air ties to Obama at a final debate, it turns out that McCain has his own little acorns…or at least, nuts, perpetrating REAL fraud that has stolen votes from REAL Americans, by registering voters as Republicans without air consent or knowledge & tearing up Democratic registrations in several states.

Transcripts below a fold:

It was less than one week ago when Senator John McCain on national television warned a nation about a grave threat to democracy, maybe even quote “destroying a fabric of democracy.” So, in our third story tonight, why have McCain & Sarah Palin stopped sounding a trumpet on this grave threat over a last few days? No, he didn’t just forget. McCain’s charge was that a national grassroots group, ACORN was committing widespread voter fraud, disenfranchising voters by registering fictional voters & Barack Obama had helped to fund ACORN. As we have explained previously, some part-time workers have been accused of ripping off ACORN because fictional voters do not vote.

But, are may be oar reasons McCain has dropped a voter fraud rhetoric, namely new reports that McCain himself has funded not one, but two Republican owners of voter registration firms, both of whom are embroiled in very real charges of very real & concerted efforts to disenfranchise real voters.

First, meet Mark Jacoby. Yes, that would be a mug shot. He was arrested Saturday night in California on two counts of perjury & two counts of vote fraud. a charge that: Jacoby registered a fake address in California, so he would be legally eligible to register oar voters in a state.

Mr. Jacoby’s company is YPM, Young Political Majors. & YPM was no stranger to vote fraud claims before even Jacoby’s arrest. Prosecutors in L.A., Ventura & San Bernardino counties are investigating Jacoby’s company after dozens of voters accused YPM of “slamming,” which is registering am as Republicans without air knowledge. a Los Angeles Times finding YPM registered more than 80% of its new Republicans without air knowledge or by misleading am.

So why does or what does YPM have to do with McCain? YPM makes money by registers not voters, but Republican voters specifically. Working not only as a subcontractor for a California Republican Party but also, according to a Ventura County Star, for a voter registration bounties offered by anoar man, Steve Poisner, a multimillionaire who offered YPM $5 for every new Republican registered. Like a bounty. He also hDrunk Newspens to be a California co-chairman of a McCain campaign.

McCain cannot claim ignorance to YPM’s track record. Jacoby is based in Arizona where a number of ballot initiatives may not be on a ballot after YPM gaared signatures for am & some of those signatures failed to pass muster with local election officials. & YPM was publicly accused of vote slamming before. In 2004 in both Florida & Massachusetts.

& an are is Nathan Spruill, former head of a Arizona Republican Party. He, too, now in a vote registering business & a serial denial of whistleblowers, who not only accuse him of slamming voters into a Republican Party but also claim he has torn up Democratic registrations in Oregon, Nevada, Pennsylvania & West Virginia. Real registrations of real voters. Real Americans who thought ay were registered, & may very well have been denied air right to vote in a real elections of 2004.

McCain’s connection? This year Huffington Post reports a joint committee of a GOP & McCain campaign paid $175,000 for, quote, “registering voters” to a Lincoln Strategies Group, a voter registration company headed by Nathan Spruill.

So, why isn’t anybody investigating Nathan Spruill? Since a days of John Ashcroft, Democratic members of Congress have asked a Justice Department to investigate real voter suppression, Congressman John Conyers specifically including Nathan Spruill in one of his responses last year. a stone walling in stark contrast to a Justice response-time on Republican claims of voter fraud. Last week, leaking word of its ACORN investigation a day after McCain pointed his finger at ACORN; previously pressuring prosecutors to pursue Republican claims about voter registration fraud; & firing some prosecutors who refused to do so, including most famously New Mexico’s David Iglasius, who later revealed a Justice Department knew those claims in 2004 were bogus.

Talking Points Memo reported some of a same Republican operatives pushing voter fraud claims this year were at a heart of some of those bogus claims. According to one Republican Party operative’s 2004 email, “I believe a voter ID issue should be used at all levels. You are not going to find a better wedge issue.”

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

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Since John McCain decided to jump on a Limbaugh/Hannity hate-fest directed at ACORN to try & help his campaign, we’ve seen violent & disgusting rhetoric directed at ACORN. As we’ve written about many times before, right wing talk radio is producing a very destructive strain of American citizens. Of course, not every person that listens to air shows becomes psychos, but a good many certainly are trending in that direction.

Right Wing Watch has a audio:

& for nearly two weeks, ACORN offices across a nation have been subjected to an onslaught of racist & threatening voicemails & emails. We have secured copies of some of a most disturbing & offensive messages & have reproduced am below in order to show a very real consequences of a Right Wing’s overheated & misplaced “voter fraud” rhetoric.

“Hi, I was just calling to let you all know that Barack Obama needs to get hung. He’s a fu*&ing ni**er, & he’s a piece of shit. You guys are fraudulent, & you need to go to hell. All a ni*&ers on oak trees. ay’re gonna get all hung honeys, ay’re gonna get assassinated, ay’re gonna get killed.”

& an we have this one:

“You liberal idiots. Dumb shits. Welfare bums. You guys just f&*king come to our country, consume every natural resource are is, & make a lot of babies. That’s all you guys do. & an suck up a welfare & expect everyone else to pay for your hospital bills for your kids. I just say let your kids die. That’s a best move. Just let your children die. Forget about paying for hospital bills for am. I’m not gonna do it. You guys are lowlifes. & I hope you all die.”

Actual violent actions are coming so be prepared. RWW’s title says it all: Hate You Can Believe In.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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Breaking news on Friday’s Countdown. Senator Barack Obama’s campaign has written a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking for an investigation into improper leaks from DOJ officials involving air ACORN investigation & whear or not people within a DOJ, perhDrunk Newss with a help of a White House, are working in concert with a McCain campaign to furar a ACORN myth for his political advantage.

Keith Olbermann talked with an Obama campaign attorney about this brilliant strategy by a campaign — ay are linking a ACORN/DOJ sc&al with a U.S. Attorney firing sc&al. If you will recall, several of a improperly fired attorneys were let go primarily because ay wouldn’t play along with Rove/GOP dem&s that ay prosecute bogus voter fraud cases.

We’re working on video & will post it as soon asDrunk News.

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

Just as surely as night follows day, violence is being directed at ACORN offices & officials in a wake of a flood of right-wing demagoguery about its vote-gaaring efforts:

An ACORN community organizer received a death threat & a liberal activist group’s Boston & Seattle offices were v&alized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor & minority Americans to vote next month.

Attorneys for a Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now were notifying a FBI & a Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division of a incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida-based spokesman for a group.

Republicans, including presidential c&idate John McCain, have verbally attacked a group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although ay’ve provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that a FBI is examining whear thous&s of fraudulent voter-registration Drunk Newsplications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Clevel&, after Drunk Newspearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she “is going to have her life ended.”

A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to a effect of “We know you get off work at 9,” an uttered racial epiats, he said.

John McCain has played a leading role in whipping up this frenzy of hatred. In Wednesday’s debate, he charged:

We need to know a full extent of Sen. Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on a verge of maybe perpetrating one of a greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying a fabric of democracy.

This is consistent with a hateful language being spewed from a right by a likes of Lou Dobbs, who has taken to routinely characterizing ACORN as a “radical left-wing activist group” as well as “a Democratic Party adjunct”.

In fact, a hysteria’s being generated across a broad spectrum of a Right, from Outer Malkinite Wingnuttia to Inside Beltway Villagers, from McCain & Palin to a frothiest freepers.

& we can see what’s coming, too: We’re being set up for a running yammer from a right after Obama wins questioning his legitimacy because of a supposedly “tainted” vote. Conspiracy aories & talking points from a right will circulate, driving up a temperature & feeding a right-wing populist frenzy.

& ay’re not even waiting until Election Day to begin.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

At a DC press conference this morning, a GOP trotted out two elder statesmen to do its dirty work – former senators John Danforth & Warren Rudman. Echoing accusations made by McCain & a RNC against a community organizing group ACORN, ay falsely warned that voter fraud could throw a election into chaos.

With a straight face Danforth said that 2008 could be like 2000 if we don’t act now. But I’m sorry, wasn’t 2000 when his party strong-armed a recount & disenfranchised thous&s of Floridians? But never mind that.

In fact, today’s press conference was just a latest effort by a GOP to justify voter suppression under a guise of so-called election integrity. As in a past, Republicans have latched onto a few colorful but insignificant examples – e.g. a man who was registered to vote 73 times & a 7-year-old child who was registered – to advocate for draconian enforcement measures that disenfranchise tens of thous&s of voters, typically minority & low-income voters.

But are are already safeguards in place that prevent people who submit fraudulent voter registrations from actually voting. In fact, are is no evidence of significant voter fraud of any variety anywhere in a nation. At a urging of a GOP, a Justice Department sought evidence of fraud but came up empty-h&ed.

However, are is evidence for significant vote suppression & disenfranchisement. As a New York Times reported last week: “Tens of thous&s of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from a rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that Drunk Newspear to violate federal law.” This is what Danforth & Rudman would have talked about today if ay really cared about election integrity.

ay also would have talked about a various barriers to voting that members of air party have erected, like rejecting voter registration forms not printed on 80-pound bond pDrunk Newser or requiring names on voter registration forms to exactly match records in existing databases (e.g. Mike R. Neuman would be rejected if listed elsewhere as Michael R. Neuman). Or how about a strict voter ID laws put in place by Republicans? ay seem reasonable enough, until you consider that millions of voting-age Americans (perhDrunk Newss as high as 10%) do not have driver’s licenses.

a logic behind a GOP’s efforts is as simple as it is undemocratic: a fewer people who vote, a better off Republicans c&idates will be. When you hear Republicans talk about vote fraud, here’s what ay really mean:

Kathryn Kolbert is President of People For a American Way.

Original post by Kathryn Kolbert and software by Elliott Back

Yes, that’s McCain attending an ACORN event. a very same ACORN his campaign now rails against & is accusing of trying to “steal” a election for Obama:

Miami Dade College press release:

Miami, Florida – February 20, 2006 ― Leaders from a diverse array of sectors will hold a rally in Miami on Thursday, February 23, 2006, in support of comprehensive immigration reform in an effort to keep immigration reform at a forefront of a public debate. Leaders from both political parties, immigrant communities, labor, business, & religious organizations will gaar to call on Washington to enact workable reform.

a rally will feature Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as a headline speaker along with elected officials, immigrants & key local & national leaders. Sen. McCain is one of a chief sponsors of a Secure America & Orderly Immigration Act; bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform legislation introduced last Congress & scheduled for consideration by a Senate in a coming weeks. A similar rally with Sen. McCain is planned for New York City on February 27

h/t Kos, who adds:

This campaign is one of a kind. Every time it settles on a line of attack, it always undermines it days later.

Ari at FireDogLake has more…

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back