The Service Employees International Union was protesting what it calls Sodexo's unfair and illegal treatment of workers. Sodexo says the union was spreading misinformation.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 16, 2010 617-335-8333
MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TODAY
Dan Winslow, counsel for the Scott Brown for U.S. Senate campaign, will hold a media availability to announce the filing of a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democratic Party regarding a recent mailing paid for and sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Winslow will make a statement and take reporters' questions at MassGOP Headquarters in Boston TODAY at 4:00 PM.
Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after a report that a union backing rival Martha Coakley used state resources to urge workers to volunteer for Coakley's campaign.
The report by FOX25 said the Service Employees International Union used state computers and e-mail addresses to direct state employees to volunteer for Coakley, the Democratic state attorney general.
Coakley is referring questions to the attorney general. (corrected)
Brown is none too happy about this mailer, either.
Nah, we don't need health care reform, and Big Insurance is America's #1 First Choice for Quality Care! The status quo is working! Obama's a Marxist who wants to take over the Whole Wide World!
Insurance companies have used the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny coverage to countless Americans. [...]
But, in DC and nine other states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming,insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that "domestic violence victim" is also a pre-existing condition.
Words cannot describe the sheer inhumanity of this claim. It serves as yet further proof that our insurance system is broken, destroyed by the profit-mongering of the very companies whose sole purpose should be to provide Americans with access to care when they need it most. In 1994, an informal survey conducted by the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that8 of the 16 largest insurers in the country used domestic violence as a factor when deciding whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.
Assisting abusers is beyond sick and wrong and should be illegal. The only pre-existing condition here is that of crimes being excused, camouflaged, and supported by Big Insurance.
Gladney did not address Saturday's crowd of about 200 people. His attorney, David Brown, however, read a prepared statement Gladney wrote. "A few nights ago there was an assault on my liberty, and on yours, too." Brown read. "This should never happen in this country."
Supporters cheered. Brown finished by telling the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance.
First, the video that was taken immediately after the incident:
It sure looks like Kenneth Gladney could walk without so much a a limp to me. He was also speaking clearly and without obvious pain. But what do I know?
Via the YouTube blurb:
The Obama administration (thugs) said to punch back twice as hard and 2 black men wearing S.E.I.U. shirts took it literally by beating down a black conservative just for exercising his right to free speech.St. Louis County police say six people were arrested. Two of those were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances. Carnahan was gone when the ruckus started.
Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with Don't tread on me printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started.
It just seems there's no freedom of speech without being attacked, he said.
Now, a day later, he's confined to a wheelchair and apparently is unable to speak, although he was perfectly articulate in the video above:
Via the YouTube blurb:
Kenneth Gladney, who was attacked and beaten at the Russ Carnahan town hall by the representatives union supporters, attended the rally against violence today at the SEIU headquarters in St. Louis.
Kenneth's attorney David Brown read a letter by Kenneth to the crowd since Kenneth was still weak to speak publically.
Next, a few excerpts from Windy City Watch about the incident and presser in St. Louis. They point out that in an interview done shortly after the brawl, Gladney could vocalize just fine... several times... on the Tee Vee Machine... specifically ClusterFox:
During today's press conference Kenneth Gladney was in a wheel chair and unable to speak because he was on pain killers. But for some reason he was not in a wheel chair and was able to speak when he made numerous appearances on FOX NEWS ("Your Money w/Neil Cavuto" "The O"Reilly Factor") on 8.7.09.
He claims he was punched in the face numerous times and kicked in the head, however his face looks fine. [...]
This guy is nothing but a pure fraud, being used by the tea baggers. Why was this fool able to speak on FOX NEWS but unable to speak from his wheel chair today?
When in doubt, blame the unions, get a lawyer, and go on ClusterFox.
I wasn't there, but from the videos, it certainly looks as though Gladney was in better shape than he claims to be once he realized he could sue.
An official with SEIU, which has been sending members to town halls to counterbalance the Tea Party brigade, sends over this audio of a phone call the union received on its central voicemail system, threatening to teach union officials a thing or two about “the Second Amendment” [...]
Brian Beutler reports that an anti-health care reform organizer is explicitly calling on the troops to “carry” and if SEIU members get disruptive, to “hurt them.”
This has to stop. I don't even want to think about what will happen if it doesn't.
A source has leaked details to Politico of what reporters there describe as a "draft of HELP's likely public option proposal." Here are the key details:
The option would be one of the Gateway choices. It would follow the same rules as private plans for defining benefits, protecting consumers, and setting premiums that are fair and based on local costs....
The payment rates paid by the option would be no more than the local average private rates - but could be less. The Secretary would negotiate these rates.
Initial reports of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions process suggested that the committee's draft would call for a public option that paid providers Medicare rates plus about 10 percent--a robust plan which would have left a wide middle ground on the issue between that committee and the Senate Finance Committee. This leak doesn't rule that configuration out explicitly--but if it's accurate, then the committee's kicking the issue back over to the executive branch, and insisting only that the public plan operate on at least a level playing field with private insurers.[...]
[T]he developments on that committee seem to have pleased SEIU president Andy Stern who last night wrote, "HELP Committee working hard on solid public option," on his Twitter feed.
Increasingly frustrated by Senate Republicans stalling the confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Labor Secretary, unions are preparing to amp up a national campaign for the nominee.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) blasted a web video to 60,000 online activists Friday asking them to support Solis’s confirmation. In the video, SEIU President Andy Stern asks viewers to sign a petition to back the California Democrat for the Labor position.[...]
The web video is the beginning of a national push by unions for Solis as her confirmation process stumbled since her hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last month. [...]
“We are going to ramp this up as much as we need to ramp this up to see Rep. Solis confirmed,” said Ramona Oliver, SEIU’s communications director.
The union, the nation’s largest with 2.8 million members, already has an impressive nationwide apparatus to turn to in support of Solis.
Announced last month, SEIU started the “Change that Works” campaign, which is pushing in 2009 for health care reform, the economic stimulus bill and the EFCA. The union has committed 30 percent of its staff and financial resources to the campaign, costly roughly $50 million.
“We have a nationwide field operation. That could quite easily be tapped into for this,” Oliver said. “We could pull anything from that toolbox.”
This is who the Republicans want to destroy. They not only represent hard-working citizens, they also represent more Democratic victories. That's a big part of what this is all about.
The Service Employees International Union is targeting John McCain's health care plan in a new ad airing in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, suggesting the Republican's plan will mean tax increases for middle income Americans. [...]
The union will also send literature to 390,000 "undecided health care workers" in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia and Wisconsin, the union says. The mailer compares McCain and Barack Obama's health care proposals. "Only Barack Obama's plan controls costs, expands coverage and holds insurance companies accountable," the mailer says. SEIU will also send an informational DVD about health care issues related more specifically to seniors to voters in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The union will spend $1 million to air the ad in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for one week and maybe expand it thereafter. The new ad comes as the Obama campaign has started airing ads about health care that also suggest McCain's health care proposals would raise taxes on middle income Americans. Back in late April, the SEIU aired an ad attacking McCain's health care proposals. It also aired pro-Obama ads during the Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas Democratic primaries.
(Jacquelyn Martin - AP)
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