WNA - Thompson: Spreading the Incompetence

WNA Editor's Note: In the following featured commentary from Jeri Thompson, as published at the American Spectator, Barack Obama's decisions ranging from "stimulus" to his partisan health care strategy to his appointments show that no matter how much he promises to "change," for him, it's more of the same ol' Chicago way:

Spreading the Incompetence

By Jeri Thompson

You know the old fable about the scorpion and the frog, and how the frog is nice enough to help the scorpion cross the river on its back even though it's certain the scorpion will kill him, and the scorpion promises that he won't so the frog does it, and the scorpion does poison the frog midstream and they both drown, and the scorpion apologizes by saying that he couldn't help himself because it was just his nature?

Well, that's just a long-winded way of saying that no matter what President Barack Obama says, he's like the scorpion. He might say he's seen the light and believes the American economy is his Number One priority. He might say he's learned his lesson and that he's going to end partisanship on health care "reform." He might even start reading notes off his hand instead of his Teleprompter. But in the end, he's still Barack Obama, a politician from Chicago who knows only one way of doing business.

Take the economy. The United States is now in the 27th month of an economic recession that has cost our nation more than 8 million jobs -- and trillions of dollars worth of government spending has failed to turn things around.

If Obama has seen the light, you'd assume he'd turn away from his Keynesian playbook, and maybe consider going to the policies that pulled our nation out of the last economic ditch we were in: lower taxes, fewer regulations, and less government. But instead it's more of the same.

But as with so much of Obama's worldview, the policies are only half the problem. The other half is the people he puts in place to put those policies into action. Remember Van Jones of environmental policy fame? How about Susan Crawford of Internet policy fame? Well guess what? Obama hasn't learned his lesson, and he's putting the same kind of people in place to "work" on the economy.

Nicole Lamb-Hale, for example, was recently confirmed as Obama's Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing. Ms. Lamb-Hale's job is to represent U.S. manufacturers to the world -- although as a bankruptcy attorney she has no real experience in the manufacturing industry. In fact, her primary qualification appears to be that she went to law school with the President.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers, this vital segment of our economy lost nearly 2 million jobs over the 19-month period between December 2007 and July 2009, with additional job losses forecast for 2010.

Given the immense challenges U.S. manufacturers are facing, what kind of message does a President send when he puts a bankruptcy lawyer in charge of the manufacturing sector? It's comparable to appointing a tax cheat to run the Treasury... oh... wait... never mind. In fact, the Lamb-Hale hire is about as nonsensical as a plan to levy during this great period of economic uncertainty an additional half-trillion dollars in corporate taxes -- which is what Obama's budget proposes.

Speaking of taxes, Obama's appointment of Mary L. Smith as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice's tax division is another troubling choice. Smith has been nominated for one of the most important tax policy positions in Washington -- despite the fact that she has no prior experience in tax law. Not only does Smith lack a degree in her field and relevant experience with IRS tax cases, she admitted during her Congressional testimony that she personally hasn't tried a tax case in her life -- ever. Smith also acknowledged under questioning that she hasn't taken any continuing legal education classes on tax-law issues, either. This is the person who is supposed to head up the Justice Department's tax division?

It's these kinds of hires -- and there are plenty more in the confirmation cue waiting for their chance to do Obama's bidding -- that just confirms Obama's true character. In all things he does it's the Chicago way: just "Rahm" like-minded cronies and acolytes through the process no matter what the cost, and hope the American people don't notice the damage that results.

If President Obama has truly seen the light and understands that jobs and the economy are what matters most to the American people, he'll at least make an effort to allow the free market to provide some of the solutions to lift the United States out of its economic troubles. And as for jobs? Well, first he can put in place some policies that allow the private sector to create real jobs in real communities across America. After that, putting a lot more of his Administration's hires and prospective hires like Lamb-Hale and Smith out on the street looking for new jobs of their own, wouldn't hurt either.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/02/17/spreading-the-incompetence

Washington News Alerts - Jeri Thompson Releases Memo Showing SEIU Setting Senate Schedule on Becker Vote

Email Released by Jeri Thompson Raises Eyebrows

February 9^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—An email sent from a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lobbyist to Democratic members of the U.S. Senate shows that the SEIU had advance knowledge of when key votes on Craig Becker were to be held. Becker is one of Barack Obama's nominees for the National Labor Relations Board.

The email was released by Jeri Thompson, co-host of the Fred Thompson Show.  She will be discussing it in detail on her show, which begins at 12PM.

Thompson described the email as "marching orders to the Senate HELP Committee, telling them what their schedule was going to be."

According to the email sent from Alison Reardon, legislative consultant for SEIU, "Your attendance at is crucial to appointing Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  Please attend Thursday's HELP Ex. Session to report out President Obama's nomination of Craig Becker for Senate confirmation."

The memo continues, "This is the highest priority for organized labor, and Majority Leader Reid will file Cloture on Friday 2/5, and has assured us that Senate will vote to end debate at 5 p.m. Monday 2/8."

The email also asks for Senators to confirm their attendance at the executive session of the HELP Committee.

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson praised Thompson, saying, "Jeri Thompson has done the nation a great service by releasing this email, which clearly shows the SEIU setting the Senate's agenda.  This is unseemly."

ALG Research Director, Don Todd, said that the email shows that "The SEIU is setting the Senate agenda on the Becker confirmation.  She knew prior to the final committee vote when the vote on the floor was going to be.  Before the committee knew, before Senate Republicans knew."

"That is just unheard of," Todd added.

Robert Romano, Washington News Alert Bureau Chief, contributed to this report.

http://washingtonalert.org/?p=1694



New Emails Show Contradictions with Sworn Testimony by Controversial Labor Nominee

Reid Breaks Pledge Not to Hold Important Votes Prior to Scott Brown Certification

By Robert Romano

January 29^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, breaking a pledge not to hold important votes prior to Senator-elect Scott Brown's seating, is now set to push through another highly controversial Obama nominee.

M. Patricia Smith, Barack Obama's nominee for Solicitor of Labor, is scheduled for a cloture vote Monday, February 1^st, at 5:30PM, according to the Senate Executive Calendar.

However, new emails have emerged from a freedom of information request by Americans for Limited Government (ALG), showing more contradictions between Smith's testimony and her communications within the New York State Department of Labor, casting doubt on whether she would be confirmed.

According to an ALG analysis of the emails and Smith's testimony, "The email traffic found in the attachment shows clearly that Department officials were in touch with outside groups from the beginning of the program.  Not only did Department officials contact outside groups at the outset but these groups provided input, they even provided suggested edits to the Department.  Further, Patricia Smith was in the loop on the discussions and development of the program."

In testifying to Congress, when asked by Senator Richard Burr if she "reached out to individuals and groups to craft the specifics," Smith said, "Actually, no, Senator, we did not. This was an internally crafted group. It was only after we sat down and crafted it ourselves that we reached out to groups to see if they would be interested."

The Wage Watch Initiative was not launched until January, 2009.  Said Don Todd, Director of Research for ALG, "The emails go back as far as April, 2008.  She misled the Senate, no question."

Yesterday, Reid scheduled a cloture vote on Smith, as reported by the American Spectator.  But according to top Capitol Hill sources familiar with the situation, it highly unlikely that Senator Brown will be sworn in before the vote.

"Simply put, Reid's promise to hold off on important votes until Brown is sworn in is a lie," said Todd, also noting key votes yesterday confirming Ben Bernanke to a second term at the Federal Reserve and raising the national debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion.

"Reid ramming Smith through without seating Brown is particularly troublesome in view of the fact that Ms. Smith misled Congress in sworn testimony," Todd added.

Todd's charge that Smith "misled Congress" stems from a hearing concerning the nominee's participation at the New York State Department of Labor enforcement initiative called, "wage watch," which deputizes private entities, such as ACORN, to do enforcement work through "formal partnerships" with the state.

Groups participating in this initiative are given a specific geographic zone to patrol, are provided with training and literature, and are assigned a designated contact person to which they provide "referrals" when they find what they decide are violations of wage and hour laws.

The majority of groups participating in the initiative are either labor unions or labor union-affiliates.  When the initiative was launched in January 2009, a coalition of trade associations representing thousands of New York businesses protested, writing to Smith that "To give quasi-enforcement capabilities to certain, seemingly hand-selected constituencies sets a troubling precedent that could spread among the spectrum of state agencies."

The letter continues, "We wonder how such an effort can create an atmosphere of anything other than vigilantism where every honest employer will have a legitimate concern for the preservation of his or her rights as a taxpaying business owner in the state of New York. The image painted by the Department in its January 26 release is of a posse of activists, duly deputized by the weighty imprimatur of the Department, demanding access to any employer in the state whom they have chosen either at random, by will, or by prejudice."

However, that is not how Smith described the program to Congress.  According to the Washington Times, "Smith told senators vetting her appointment to be the Labor Department's solicitor that her 'wage watch' pilot program in New York was created over the last year to 'engage groups to help us with education' and not to let the private groups conduct labor investigations.

"But internal memos obtained by Republican aides on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee show Ms. Smith's state labor agency in New York actually referred to the union and group participants as 'enforcers,' The Washington Times has learned."

Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-WY) said Smith may have misled Congress about the true nature of the program.  As reported by the Times, Enzi wrote in a letter, "If it was her intention to mislead the Senate, then I must oppose her nomination.  If she unintentionally gave inaccurate statements to the Senate, then I question her ability to manage a large operation, since she does not have a clear understanding of what is taking place in her own department in New York."

"There have been definite misstatements of fact by Ms. Smith about 'wage watch.' There is no question," said Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson, citing the new emails. "She claimed that the unions were not reached out to craft specifics for 'wage watch,' but they were."

With the senatorial hold put on Smith by Enzi, it would require a 60 vote cloture motion to have it lifted.  According to ALG's Todd, if Brown were seated, Smith would face "a near-certain filibuster.  She lied to Congress, and the only way she could get confirmed now is on a party-line vote."

Smith was nominated to be Solicitor of Labor in March, 2009, the third highest official and the person with the final word on all legal advice in the Department.

Attachment:
ALG Nominee Alert: M. Patricia Smith and Lorelei Boylan, May 2009.

Robert Romano is the Washington News Alert Bureau Chief.

http://washingtonalert.org/?p=1425



Special Election Alert: Dead voter casts ballot in Springfield

Dead voter casts ballot in Springfield

By PAUL CHESSER

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—A woman who cast an absentee ballot late last year died last week, but apparently her vote will still count, despite the fact that it may have been illegal.

An officer, who did not want to be identified, at the Van Sickle Middle School poll revealed the nature of the situation after a discussion with this reporter about a recent story that cited the number of deceased persons on Massachusetts voter rolls. "Well, I'm about to cast a vote for a dead person here in a little while," he said.

He went on to explain that the voter, a woman who he would not identify, mailed her absentee ballot on December 26, 2009 to the Board of Elections. According to at least two other poll workers, the woman passed away last week and her funeral was on Thursday. Asked if he knew whether it was a legal ballot or not, he responded that he wasn't sure, and called the City of Springfield Election Commission Office.

Less than five minutes later he received a return call from an unidentified official with city elections saying the ballot was legal. A later conversation with Gladys Oyola, acting election commissioner, revealed that city staff consulted with the Secretary of State's office and were informed that the ballot was legal.

However, Chapter 54, Section 100 of the General Laws of Massachusetts states, "No ballot mailed or delivered…shall be counted if the officers charged with the duty of counting the same are cognizant of the fact that the voter has died prior to the opening of the polls on the day of the election."

A worker in the city election office explained that she had consulted with the Secretary of State's office. "I get my instructions from the state," she explained, adding the information about the woman's passage was "hearsay." She did not want to be identified in a news story.

Earlier at the Van Sickle School the poll worker relayed that he was told the same thing – that the voter's death was "hearsay." He then said to this reporter, "It's not hearsay; they (the other poll workers) went to her funeral." But he accepted the city's counsel that the ballot was legal. The language of the law addressing the situation was not discovered until later this afternoon.

Asked for someone who could speak on the record on behalf of the city election office, Oyola then got on the phone. She explained that the absentee ballots are sent to the appropriate polling places for counting on Election Day.

"As far as us here in the office, we weren't aware she died," Oyola said, adding that because of that the vote should be counted. She then checked with the warden at Van Sickle and discovered that the absentee ballots had already been fed into the voting machine. "At this time, it has been counted," she said.

Calls to the Scott Brown and Martha Coakley campaigns seeking official comment were not returned prior to filing this story. An employee who answered the phone at Secretary of State William Galvin's office was aware of what happened at Van Sickle, and said the office was looking into it, but passed on an inquiry about the matter to spokesman Brian McNiff. He said he did not know about the situation and said he would call back once he obtained more information, but had not prior to the filing of this report.



Election Observer: Coakley worker offers to buy poll workers lunch, told by cop to "sit down"

Election Observer: Coakley worker offers to buy poll workers lunch, told by cop to "sit down"

January 19th, 2010, Lawrence, MA--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv91DNlEzP0