Breitbart fabricates smear that SEIU's Stern is "sending SEIU goons" to "beat up innocent Americans"
In November 8 comments posted on his Twitter account, Andrew Breitbart accused Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern of "sending SEIU goons" to "beat up innocent Americans." However, the article to which Breitbart linked offered no evidence to support the claim that Stern was involved in violence at a local SEIU office in Sacramento, and it reported comments from local SEIU leaders that disputed the purported victim's account of the incident.
Breitbart to Stern: "Stop sending SEIU goons 2 beat up innocent Americans." On his Twitter account, Breitbart accused Stern of sending "goons" to inflict violence on California state employee and SEIU critic Ken Hamidi. Breitbart also challenged Stern: "Lets settle it like men, u&me. Im dead serious." [Breitbart's Twitter account, 11/08/09]
Linked article provided no evidence to support Breitbart's claim. Breitbart linked to a November 6 article on the website of KCRA, a local Sacramento television station, reporting that Hamidi "claims that union leaders ordered him to be assaulted" at an SEIU Local 1000 meeting. However, the article also quoted a local SEIU official claiming that it was Hamidi, not local SEIU members, who initiated the violence.
From the KCRA article:
A state employee claims he was assaulted Thursday by four or five union members at a Service Employees International Union Local 1000 meeting.
The man also claims that union leaders ordered him to be assaulted.
"They were ordering them to get me thrown out, saying, 'Throw him out of here, throw him out of here. Beat the hell out of him.'" Ken Hamidi said.
However, union leaders told a different version of what happened.
"He came to a union meeting with another woman who had film equipment. He was asked to leave," Yvonne Walker, President of SEIU Local 1000, said. "When he refused, he became abusive to members of our staff. He actually physically assaulted a couple of our staff people." [KCRA.com, 11/6/09]
Stern not part of the story. Despite Breitbart's suggestion, the KCRA article did not mention Stern in any way. Hamidi's accusation that "union leaders" ordered him to be beaten was aimed at the leaders of the local SEIU chapter, who, as noted above, strongly dispute the charge.
Hamidi removed from previous SEIU meetings. According to KCRA: "Hamidi is an outspoken critic of the union. He hosts a cable access show that regularly criticizes leaders of SEIU. Hamidi admits that police have escorted him out of previous union meetings."
Don't make poor Andy have a sad!
~
You just keep bashing the unions and voting for the Republican sissies who kowtow to the Wall St. punks who buy up good companies that pay good wages and benefits so they can lay off American workers, send the operation overseas and pay dirt wages in foreign countries in the name of greater personal gain. And you act like you care about your country. You pretend to be upset about historically high unemployment numbers. You think people should just suck it up and roll with this immoral Wall St. practice of treating companies and people like commodities to be bought and sold for a quick buck.
You Republicans cannot think of the long-term consequences of your policies because you can't see beyond the short-term gain. And you certainly are incapable of taking personal responsibility for the pain and suffering you inflict on flesh and bone people with your extremist economic ideology.
You people need stop pretending to be patriots, you have no concern for the well-being of your fellow Americans.
About 50 million American workers pay almost ALL of the federal income taxes collected by your beloved leftist politicians. Those taxes are on the income that those workers CREATED. If those people stopped working the American economy would crumble, and the entire world economy would soon follow.
But it's never enough. As your beloved leftist politicians keep making their labor worth less and less, they will work less and less. Or they'll do like me and just move more and more of their business to the black-market side of their operations.
There is never a time when it's not greater take home pay for a greater salary.
Pathetic
And your incessant crying about taxes has never been shown to be true. High taxes, especially on the rich, have never been shown to hinder long term prosperity. Never. If you can prove otherwise, do it. I know you can't because you're full right-wing hot air.
In fact, when taxes are higher on the wealthy, the middle class does better. We had high upper crust taxes under FDR, all the way up til Reagan and we had the greatest expansion of the middle class the world has ever seen.
With your insistence that taxes will stop the wealthy in their tracks, or allow them to resort to illegal channels, you paint a picture of the wealthy as buncha belly aching, lazy, good for nothing punks who are only out to get something for nothing. It's always you cons who want to work a man to death as cheaply as possible for dirt wages, with no benefits, no retirement so you can suck up the fruits of his labor while giving nothing in return.
Something for nothing.
Jerks.
We will only stop working as far as the IRS knows. The people who want we have to offer will still get it - for a fair price.
You are human waste. You sicken me. You're slump shouldered slithering criminal acts cheapen the sacrifices my family has made serving your country.
Like I said, something for nothing. Whether you're exploiting your fellow man, or leeching off other people's tax dollars by taking advantage of the publicly funded highways to move your merchandise, protect your rights (through the courts) and insure your security (through the police dept.) you are always looking to get something without giving anything.
As Ronnie would have said if he had the nuts, "You effing welfare queen. You want to take, take, take and contribute jack-s**t."
He crashed the union meeting uninvited, and claims to be an unpaid reporter for a cable access show. His reason for showing up? To expose corruption within the union. Hence the camera operator who apparently accompanied him. In typical right-wingnut fashion, he has decided that SEIU is corrupt, and was looking for evidence to support his belief. Sort of the opposite of how journalism works, as far as I have seen.
No charges have been filed in this incident, and it is probably Mr. Hamidi who is fortunate they have not. Just like Kenneth Gladney, it's just one more transparently obvious smear attempt.