The Oregonian has a disheartening story proving once again why public employees unions should be outlawed.
Here we have a case of a criminal fireman who ripped off the city through a false claim of being injured and unable to work, he admits his guilt and doesn’t press the city for more benefits, yet the union DOES take the city to court to get undeserved benefits for this layabout fireman!
For 12 years fireman Tom Hurley ripped off the city of Portland’s fireman’s disability fund by receiving monthly checks of $3,200 at the taxpayer’s expense despite that he really wasn’t disabled. In fact, he took the city’s money and put himself through cooking school and then went to work in the food service industry. All paid for by the taxpayers.
And when the city finally wised up and cut him off from the honey pot, even Hurley didn’t appeal the decision. He just shrugged his shoulders and moved forward with his new career as a chef.
But the union would have none of this “end of benefits” business. No, the union wouldn’t move on. The union took the City of Portland to court to force the city to keep paying this former fireman scam artist. The union wants the city to pay this layabout fireman $103,000 in “lost” disability payments.
The city is claiming it wants to “go to war” over this whole thing. Let’s hope they do and let’s hope they win. This union ripoff of the taxpayers is unconscionable.
Big payoffs to unions, free healthcare to illegal aliens, death panels for Americans, limits and rationing to Americans… it’s ALL in the bill (HR 3200).
And remember, folks. We get taxed immediately but none of these wonderful “benefits” actually kick in for FOUR YEARS! So even if you liked this communist paradise you won’t get it for almost half the decade. It makes you wonder… how many dead people will Democrats be responsible for since this bill doesn’t kick in for so long, eh?
These are the things that Democrats want in a nationalized healthcare bill. These are the things that WILL end up passed if ANY part of Obamacare is passed.
This will materially alter the relationship between citizen and government and will put a tombstone over what was the United States of America. If Obamcare passes, the U.S.A. is dead.
The cat poop sandwich (surprisingly, no video of that scene from Anchorman) they are showing is not the same cat poop sandwich they will ask you to eat, as the American Spectator points out
Shortly before midnight on Sunday, Democrats released a 2,309 page health care bill that will start the process of reconciliation — but don’t let that fool you, it’s not the actual reconciliation bill with all the changes you’ve been reading about. Instead, as Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member on the Budget Committee, explained to me last week, this is just the “shell” bill — the vehicle that Democrats need to get moving on health care. Once the bill gets approved (likely Monday), Democrats will send this phantom bill over to the Rules Committee, where it will be stripped, and then they’ll insert in all of the actual changes that they’ve negotiated.
Why all of the theatrics?
Well, under the reconciliation rules in last year’s budget, any reconciliation bill would have to have been submitted to the Budget Committee by October 15, 2009. It just so happens that earlier versions of health care legislation cleared the Ways and Means and Education and Labor Committees last year. So Democrats just dusted that legislation off, and are using that as the vehicle to begin the reconciliation process. That’s why, for instance, if you look through the 2,309 page bill that was released Sunday night, you’ll find a public option, which leadership has indicated would not actually be in the final bill. (Interestingly, the student loan bill is also tacked on at the end.)
Just a “simple up or down vote,” remember?
Constitutional democracy? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitutional democracy.
Michelle Malkin has a taste of the table of contents, at least prior to the Democrats getting around to inserting in all the provisions not in the bill. The Democrats are expressly attempting to thwart the Will Of The People, as John Boehner points out
“Democrats may run Washington, but the American people are in charge of this country,” Boehner said. “The moment a majority forgets this, it is writing itself a ticket to minority status.”
The Better Government Association (http://www.bettergov.org/), a beleaguered Chicago-based watchdog group that has its work cut out for it, recently released its “Hall of Shame” report that details the nearly 150 county officials that have gone to jail for corruption in Barack Obama’s home county of Cook. And that doesn’t even include the over 100 Chicago officials, a city also situated in Cook County, that has also gone to jail over the last few decades.
Because of the high amount of corruption and the large and ever growing roster of jailed county officials, in its press release, the BGA bitingly asks, “[I]s it any surprise this multi-billion dollar labyrinth of governmental entities is referred to disparagingly as ‘Crook County?’”
The scams took place over the past four decades in the courts; the offices of the Assessor, Sheriff and Treasurer; and the President’s Office of Employment and Training. They involve bribes, payoffs, rip-offs, padded contracts, ghost payrollers and the wholesale subversion of the judicial system. The perpetrators include elected officials at the highest and lowest levels of city, county and state government; judges, lawyers and lobbyists.
Sadly, the BGA finds that the corruption in Cook County government is widespread and “not confined to a single unit of government.” This corruption was found in such departments as the Cook County Board President’s office, the employment offices, the highway department, the sheriff’s offices, the assessor and the treasurer’s offices as well as the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In fact, the BGA found that corruption is endemic throughout the government and no one ever seems to be held accountable.
The report details Operation Greylord that was carried on between 1980 and 1992 that ended up convicting 15 judges, 47 lawyers and 24 police officers and court personnel before it was done.
Also discussed was the corruption plagued reign of Cook County Sheriff James O’Grady whose corruption was so wide-spread that the investigation reached from the Sheriff’s Dept. to the city and county clerk’s offices, the County Treasurer’s Office and the Board of Tax Appeals. During this investigation it came to light that county police officials were shielding a mob-run bookmaking operation, were as much as selling passing grades on the sheriff’s exam, and was rife with bribe-taking, theft and graft.
And as late as 2009 the BGA reveals the sordid tale of the looting of County funds from a program called POET, the Cook County Board President’s Office of Employment Training, where millions of taxpayer’s dollars went missing through embezzlement by County officials.
And these are just a small serving of the scandals, graft, theft and corruption that is contained in the BGA’s report. And remember, this report is only about the county government in which the City of Chicago sits. Obama’s hometown of Chicago has even more corruption and even more jailed officials to talk about. That tale, the BGA informs us, will be told later this year.
So, when someone wants to know from what sort of place that Barack Obama and most of his closest advisors come, you have but to offer them the “Hall of Shame” report from the Better Government Association of Chicago. That should answer all their questions.
Thousands upon thousands of Americans voted for Obama because they bought into his image of hope, believed him when he said he would change DC politics.
Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Just coincidence? If it is just a coincidence, then that’s really not all that reassuring either, because that would mean that we have the most clueless, idiotic president in American history currently sitting in the Oval Office. When you find out that Jim Matheson voted against Obamacare not just once but twice, it sure looks like Obama was trying to buy his vote, doesn’t it?
Now, sensible people might learn when legislation is this difficult to pass. They might listen to the angry constituents who don’t want this bill. They might move on when they see that it’s this hard to get this bill passed, even with a super-majority in Congress. Most people would realize that no one wants this bill, and that they need to let it go. But Obama is a Chicago-style president. He’s sworn that he’ll get his done no matter the cost, so he will bribe congressmen, he’ll strong-arm senators, he’ll use any dirty tactic he can to get his way, no matter how corrupt… and no matter how much the American people are against it.
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!
