Obama twists the knife in Toyota

The president won't cease in his relentless persecution of Toyota. Yesterday the government announced that they were fining the Japanese automaker $16.4 million, a new record that dwarfs any previous fines imposed by the Department of Transportation.

The proposed fine, announced Monday by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is the most the government could levy for the sticking gas pedals that have led Toyota to recall millions of vehicles. There could be further penalties under continuing federal investigations. The Japanese automaker faces private lawsuits seeking many millions more.

Toyota Motor Corp. has recalled more than 6 million vehicles in the U.S., and more than 8 million worldwide, because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius hybrid.

Documents obtained from the automaker show that Toyota knew of the problem with the sticking gas pedals in late September but did not issue a recall until late January, LaHood said. The sticking pedals involved 2.3 million vehicles.

...

For those reasons, LaHood said, the government is seeking a fine of $16.375 million, the maximum penalty possible. That dwarfs the previous record: In 2004, General Motors paid a $1 million fine for responding too slowly on a recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles over windshield wiper failure.

Meanwhile, Toyota is facing more than 200 lawsuits from alleged victims of sudden acceleration and their sales have plummeted. All this is to the advantage of GM and Chrysler, both government-owned car companies and competitors of Toyota. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has crusaded against Toyota for months now, a conflict of interest to say the least.

All the government-fueled outrage obscures the fact that this has happened before. In the 1980s, Audi spent five years recalling their Audi 5000 models after allegations of sudden acceleration surfaced. Audi faced lawsuits from more than 7,500 Audi owners and their sales plummeted. The media piled on: 60 Minutes went so far as to air an alleged demonstration of sudden acceleration in an Audi car, which was later discovered to have been staged. It took almost 20 years and a couple name changes of the Audi 5000 for sales to finally recover. All this was without a massive government fine and a showboating secretary of transportation.

Meanwhile, most people are perfectly content with their Toyota cars. The company remains the most popular and successful automaker in the world. Of the top five most popular car brands in the United States, two are Toyotas. Toyota also remains one of the last automakers in the United States without unionized workers.

ACORN to merge with Working Families Party

ACORN isn't going away. That much has become clear as local ACORN chapters reorganize and change their names to avoid stigma. Today the corrupt community organization got another big boost as City Hall News reports that ACORN New York -- now New York Communities for Change -- will most likely merge with the Working Families Party.

Without the restrictions tied to government funding, according to [former ACORN president Bertha] Lewis and others, ACORN’s successor organizations will likely be even more politically aggressive than ACORN was. Already, supporters and board members of New York Communities for Change have begun to discuss whether the organization should join the Working Families Organization, an association of labor unions and community organizing outfits tied to the Working Families Party, a significant force in local elections. Lewis was a co-chair of the Working Families Party and co-founder of the Organization, and ACORN was among the largest and most influential members.

“They were such an integral part of the organization and everything we did,” said Dorothy Siegel, the treasurer of both the WFP and the WFO. “If we needed troops on the ground, there were two ways to get them: through ACORN and through an affiliate.”

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Though WFP co-chair Bob Master and executive committee member Peter Colavito were on the host committee for the event, neither they nor other officials from the WFP attended, according to Siegel, and ACORN leaders were absent from a meeting of the WFP executive committee in Albany in March. But Siegel said there has already been preliminary discussion among WFP members about whether New York Communities for Change should join the coalition.

“I think they want to participate,” Siegel said of the new organization’s leaders. “These are people who are very, very involved in the work of the WFP.”

ACORN and the WFP had always been sister organizations. While ACORN organized and rallied in the streets, the WFP exerted political pressure on candidates and threw its weight around in Albany. WFP allies, incorporated under the WFO, include powerful labor unions like the SEIU. Now, with the collapse of ACORN and the coming merger between NYCC and the WFP, all these groups and organizers are about to be brought under the same umbrella.

The WFP is already one of the most powerful community organizations in the country, and its creep over what was once ACORN New York will only make it stronger. They already have sway over numerous councilmen in New York City Hall and several legislators at the state level. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who took Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, is gaga for the WFP and actively sought out their endorsement. Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of New York and White House favorite for governor, has repeatedly refused to investigate the WFP. And of course there's Patrick Gaspard, former SEIU lawyer, friend of Bertha Lewis', and strong WFP ally. Gaspard is the White House's elusive political director and wields substantial power over New York politics.

Again, ACORN isn't collapsing -- far from it. It's reorganizing, consolidating, and merging with other radical groups. Ultimately, the community organizer scene may become stronger in New York because of it.

Craig Becker supports illegal alien workers

Over the weekend, President Obama announced 15 recess appointments. The most controversial of these is Craig Becker, a former SEIU lawyer. Becker was already in hot water because of his radical legal writings, including a 1993 piece arguing that workers should be forced to unionize. Now Naked Emperor News has dug up audio of Becker from a radio interview in 2001 voicing strong support for illegal alien workers.

BECKER: "SEIU, the largest union, and many of the other large unions now have a very, very progressive position on immigration and immigration reform, which, of course, unfortunately they didn't have 100 years ago. So it has a very great effect who we represent and who we're trying to represent on the politics of the labor movement."

HOST: "Can you be a little more specific about immigration? What do you mean a progressive policy on immigration"

BECKER "Well I think there's been a recognition that employer sanctions and the effort through punitive sanctions to prevent the hiring of aliens who do not have proper work papers has had a very deleterious effect. It's had a discriminatory effect. It's had a very harsh effect on a class of people who are here, who are going to remain here, who are going to keep coming here because of conditions which simply can't be affected through those kind of punitive sanctions. And then we have to have a different approach."

Becker's position seems to confirm what many have suspected for a long time: Unions are less representative of workers than progressive activists. Illegal aliens are horrible for American labor because they take blue-collar jobs and work for less. But instead of fighting for their members, unions are taking the standard progressive position. Obama has indicated that immigration reform will be his next project. It will be interesting to see which side the labor unions come down on.

Also interesting was Becker's contention that illegal immigration has changed who the unions are "trying to represent". Just how many criminal aliens are in the SEIU and AFL-CIO?

Becker's recess appointment places him on the National Labor Relations Board without a proper Senate vote. There he'll be one of five members who will shape labor relations for years to come.

The Glue Man puts another New York Democrat on notice

Patrick Gaspard, Obama's behind-the-scenes clean up man in New York, warned a wavering Blue Dog Democrat to get in line during the health care debate.

Rep. Mike McMahon defied a high-level arm-twisting campaign to vote no on health care, leaving some White House aides furious with the Staten Island rookie.

The Daily News learned that President Obama's political director, Patrick Gaspard, dispatched a prominent New York donor last week to warn McMahon his campaign contributions would dry up if he sided with Republicans.

"The message was that a 'no' vote could cause you a problem in the fall, but the other side of it was we can help you raise money," said a knowledgeable source. The Tammany-style squeeze play was delivered at a Democratic Club lunch in Washington last Friday by Alfred E. Smith 4th, great-grandson of the former New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate.

McMahon later voted no, the only congressman from the New York delegation to do so. It was a rare loss for Gaspard who usually gets his way in the Empire State -- his fingerprints have been on everything from Kirsten Gillibrand's success to David Paterson's implosion. But in defying Gaspard, McMahon may have saved his political career. His Staten Island district is being targeted by Republicans this year.

The unions were also outraged at McMahon's decision. One unidentified union boss growled, "He's going to lose in November, and I'm going to enjoy helping make it happen."

Second TSA nominee also won't rule out unionization

In January, Obama's nominee to head up the Transportation Security Administration, Erroll Southers, withdrew his nomination. Senate Republicans had filibustered the nomination after Southers refused to reveal whether or not he would unionize TSA workers. Republicans were concerned that allowing TSA labor to collectively bargain could result in workers going on strike, which would put the country at risk from a terrorist attack.

Obama's new man for the job is Major General Robert Harding. Under questioning from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Harding also refused to rule out letting the TSA unionize.

"Previous TSA administrators have said that they would be very, very concerned about collective bargaining not allowing the flexibility that you need to deploy forces you need to a certain area of an airport, to a certain airport, to change working hours if a crisis situation is at hand," Hutchison told Harding. "I hope you will also be looking at the flexibility of the workforce and the need for that flexibility as one of your priorities."

Harding said that while he had begun discussions with TSA stakeholders on the question of collective bargaining, he believed he still had to talk to members of the agency's workforce and officials across the Homeland Security Department before advising DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on screeners' rights.

Two federal employees unions, the FTEU and the AFGE, are fighting over the TSA employees in order to boost their lagging membership. The AFGE is part of the AFL-CIO, a deep-pocketed Obama ally and backer. If the TSA does unionize, it would be a huge kickback to both unions which have supported Obama in the past.

Pelosi now one vote short thanks to unions

Rep. John Boccieri, Democrat of Ohio, just announced that he'll switch his vote from no to yes, and it's not hard to see why.

He is one of four Democrats to switch from no to yes in the past few days as Obama and Democratic leaders try to corral enough votes for the legislation. A vote is expected on Sunday.

Boccieri has been pressured on the issue. Labor unions and other groups backing health care reform ran ads in his district.

Boccieri voted against health care reform the first time around. A Blue Dog moderate and former pilot, he's been remarkably principled in his deliberations over ObamaCare, even turning down a ride on Air Force One with the president. But Boccieri represents a heavily blue collar congressional district near Cleveland. The union pressure proved to be too much.

With Boccieri in the yes column, Fox News counts 215 votes in favor of health care reform. Pelosi and Obama need just one more.

Obama's AFL-CIO threatens to primary rep for acting in its interest

Rep. Stephen Lynch is a South Boston Democrat and former union ironworker. Yesterday, he announced that he'd be voting no on ObamaCare. Lynch has voiced several concerns, but his most serious is the bill's punitive tax on so-called Cadillac health plans. Such plans are often used by unions and would hurt their bottom line. That didn't sit well with Lynch, a labor Democrat with a very blue-collar constituency.

The unions aren't particularly grateful. Yesterday the blog Plum Line was sent the following from a source inside the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO source sends over the list of House Dems who are being targeted:

Dennis Cardoza, Jim Costa, Daniel Lipinski, Stephen Lynch, Michael Michaud, James Oberstar, Steve Dreihaus, Charlie Wilson Marcy Kaptur, John Boccieri, Zack Space, Tom Perriello, Jason Altmire, Christopher Carney, Paul Kanjorski, Tim Holden, Jerry Costello, Alan Mollohan, Nick Rahall, Kathy Dahlkepmer.

The source says that the threat of a primary or third-party challenge will be implicit, particularly since the AFL-CIO is already supporting Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter’s primary challenge to Blanche Lincoln.

Lynch is acting in the AFL-CIO's direct interest and they're threatening to primary him. It shows the extent to which many unions have become activist arms of the Obama Administration rather than organizations of workers. The Service Employees International Union, Obama's favorite union and the largest in America, is also working to primary ObamaCare apostates.

Unions vs. Obama. Teachers lose.

Last month, Central Falls High School in Rhode Island fired all 77 teachers after failing to come to an agreement with the local teachers union. Today, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten wrote an op-ed in USA Today bemoaning the Central Falls firings.

Applauding the mass firings at Central Falls High School — despite the real progress underway — is the latest clarion call by the blame-the-teacher crowd. Rather than sharing responsibility, administrators there chose to scapegoat the teachers who have helped bring about double-digit gains in student achievement at the struggling school.

The "fire them all" approach doesn't reflect the complexity of teaching in challenging schools. In their quest for a silver bullet, administrators instead are chasing what experience shows is a failed approach.

But the truth is that it wasn't the teachers who got themselves fired. It was the teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers, and Randi Weingarten. Barack Obama's education reforms require failing schools to pick one of four paths toward reform, or lose federal aid. One option is extending the work day for teachers from six hours to seven and making other improvements. Central Falls High School Superintendent Frances Gallo sent a plan to the teachers union extending the school day and expanding after-school tutoring. The union refused. After tense negotiations, a frustrated Gallo submitted a plan to the school board under which every teacher would be let go. The board approved 5-2.

This was the fault of the teachers unions, not the teachers. Gallo emphasized that she didn't want the mass firings and intended to rehire many of the teachers later. Many didn't deserve what happened: as Weingarten points out, the teachers had had some luck improving Central Falls test scores. It was the unions' inflexibility that lost 77 people their jobs.

Big Labor's big ally is Barack Obama. Awash in union money, the president came to the Oval Office intent on paying back labor bosses. As we reported yesterday, two-thirds of the jobs "created" or "saved" by the stimulus have come from the Department of Education. In other words, the stimulus pumped cash into the teaching industry, 33% of which is unionized. In an obvious conflict of interest, the president has actually lent pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to the NFT to help improve their mediation efforts.

Ironically, although the president has beefed up teachers unions at every turn, they're now tripping up his own educational reforms.

Central Falls High School is one of the worst in Rhode Island. Half the students are failing every single subject. But the problem in Central Falls is symptomatic of a greater problem across America. As schools seek to improve, or businesses seek to compete, or the federal government tries to become more efficient, Big Labor blocks them at every turn. The teachers unions are particularly problematic. The New Yorker has reported that one New York City public school has a special "Rubber Room" where incompetent teachers mill about. The teachers are still paid a full salary because the school can't fire them thanks to union obstruction. One principal remarked that Randi Weingarten "would protect a dead body in the classroom."

Meanwhile, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, 66% of voters think teachers unions are more likely to protect their bottom dollar than improve education. If Obama keeps playing Big Labor's outdated game, he might find they stab him in the back on much needed change in schools.

Obama puts his inside man Andy Stern on the deficit commission

Yesterday ObamaWatchNews reported that the deficit commission the president is planning is a total sham. As if we needed any more proof, now comes word that the president is considering appointing Andy Stern, SEIU president and his favorite crony, to the commission.

Stern is the last person qualified to help take down the country's debt. His entire mission has been to enact regulations that cost businesses and taxpayers billions of dollars. He has wholeheartedly supported every one of Obama's wasteful spending schemes, including health care reform and cap-and-trade. He is less of an advocate for working people than a left-wing activist demanding that the government do more. Meanwhile unions have cost state governments, which can't fire organized public employees, millions.

More likely, Obama is appointing Stern to his fraud of a commission as another kickback. Stern and the unions have been kicked around a lot lately. Congress has abandoned card check and the president is now supporting an excise tax on expensive health care plans, which would cost Big Labor millions. Looks like the president wanted to soothe Stern's nerves. And with Stern's close relationship to the president, Obama can now control the "independent" commission from the inside.

Obama pays back another corrupt loyalist

Looks like ACORN-style tactics are in style at the White House. Today the newspapers are filled with quotes from a spokesman at the Department of Transportation named Olivia Alair. Alair has been attacking Toyota for their recent massive recall of cars, which was ordered by her agency.

Alair is fortunate she's around to talk to the press, seeing as how she almost went to prison. In October 2008, Alair and twelve other Obama staffers registered to vote in Ohio, even though none of them actually lived there. At the time, Ohio was a fiercely contested swing state. It took a warning from prosecutor Ron O'Brien for Alair & Co. to withdraw their voting registration ballots. It was a smart move. Alair could have easily been arrested and tried with voter fraud.

ObamaWatchNews is all about watching who and where Obama pays back loyalty -- no matter how corrupt. Alair is a great example. During the 2008 campaign, she was a spokesman for Obama in Ohio. Now she's wreaking havoc at the DOT, defending GM and Chysler's interests by dumping on non-union Toyota.

Big Labor throws a temper tantrum

Oops, the SEIU and the AFL-CIO are pissed off. We all know that BHO has spent much of his first year sucking up to his union cronies. He nominated a radical Secretary of Labor, reduced transparency requirements for labor unions, kicked back huge amounts of stimulus money to the unions, rewrote the laws governing government contracts to give labor ultimate control, tried to ram Card Check legislation through Congress, invited SEIU president Andy Stern to the White House every other week, called off Bush administration-era investigations into union officials, and practically let labor write a compromise on health care reform.

But it's just not enough. After Craig Becker, Obama's nutty nominee for the National Labor Relations Board was rejected by the Senate this week, the unions are blind with rage. John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, bleated, “Here’s labor getting thrown under the bus again. It’s really frustrating for labor, and a lot of union people are thinking: We put out big time in money and volunteers and support. And it seems like the little things that could have been aren’t being done.”

It's almost tempting to defend Barack Obama here. What more does he have to do to satisfy these people? Fortunately, if Big Labor remains petulant and whiny every time they don't get their way, Obama could lose his most potent and evil allies. Without Big Labor's big pockets, Obama would be just another Chicago pol.

Two serious setbacks for Obama

It's easy to get discouraged about what Barack Obama is doing, but there's always good news out there too. Today, Obama suffered two crucial defeats that he'll remember for a long time.

First, Craig Becker is a goner. Becker was appointed by Obama to serve on the National Labor Relations Board and his nomination has been tied up in the Senate for months. He's a bona fide pro-unions extremist (always a huge surprise in this administration) who wrote in 1993 that workers should be forced to unionize. Today, Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska, announced that he'll join a Republican filibuster of Becker's nomination. With Scott Brown opposing Becker as well, this is one left-wing loony Democrats don't have the votes to confirm.

Second, ObamaCare is all but dead. This news comes with the actual death of Democratic Rep. John Murtha. Murtha was Pennsylvania's longest-serving congressman and may he rest in peace. But without his vote, and thanks to the premature retirement of Rep. Robert Wexler and the defection of Rep. Joseph Cao, Nancy Pelosi doesn't have the votes to ram the health care bill through the House of Representatives again. Of course, never count out the devious Pelosi. But it looks like the drama of ObamaCare, which sent Obama's approval rating into a free fall and got Scott Brown elected in Massachusetts, is mostly over.

The big labor payback: Obama gives unions veto control over government contracts

We all know that Obama is a tool of big labor, but his latest union giveaway makes all the other kickbacks look like child's play.

Obama just announced his new High Road Contracting Policy, (that's Orwellian/Obamian doublespeak for "union tyranny.") Under the plan, government contracts will be given to companies that meet conditions laid out by the Department of Labor. Labor will get to assess and "score" companies based on how effectively they toe the union line. For example, if the Department of Labor decides that a certain corporation isn't paying its workers a "living wage" (whatever the hell that means), they can give them a low score and kill their government contract.

It gets worse. Each government department must now appoint a "labor advocate." (Like Stalin's 'political officers' their mission is to implement the boss's wishes and report those who fail to observe them). These sneaky tyrants will be responsible for scoring companies in the running for a departmental contract. Their arbitrary decisions will instantly kill deals for businesses that fail to conform to their specious standards.

This much power is unprecedented. So guess who's getting to handle the payback?

The Ministry of Work, excuse us, Department of Labor is headed up by SEIU- backed, Hilda Solis, a radical left-wing labor hack and former lobbyist* for American Rights at Work, a pro-labor group. Thanks to Obama, she now has control over the hundreds of billions of dollars of business performed every year through government contracts. We can only speculate upon the political color of her 'labor advocates'.

First, the government. How much longer will it be before these spies are placed in every business in America?

* One of more than 40 in Obama's Administration. Didn't he say he was against them?

Obama plays dirty with Toyota

Toyota has announced plans to recall and fix 7.5 million cars around the world -- all thanks to Barack Obama's administration. After reports of sudden acceleration in seven Toyota models came to its attention, Obama's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put out a "consumer alert". When Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood got wind of this, he demanded that Toyota do a massive international recall of all these cars.

So why is the Obama Administration suddenly so interested in Toyota's acceleration problem. Let's look at the facts:

-- Barack Obama's government now owns GM and Chrysler which compete with Toyota.

-- Toyota has remained comparatively unaffected by the recession and gives GM and Chrysler the stiffest competition.

-- Toyota's plants, located in five states, are not unionized, a major liberal sin. They stand in stark contrast to GM and Chrysler where auto unions have huge ownership stakes thanks to Obama.

-- Will they bleat it's for public safety?? Well, GM and Chrysler have also had complaints filed about sudden acceleration problems, but they haven't received edicts from the government.

Obama's finally getting a head for business -- now that GM and Chrysler are under his control, it looks like he's trying to kneecap the remaining private car companies left in America.

Things you won't hear during Obama's State of the Union tonight

Leave it to the Irish.

Paddy Power, an Irish on-line betting service, is offering odds on the length of Obama's speech, the color of his tie, and which political cliche he will utter first.

The favored cliche, at odds of 4-to-1, is "heath care reform." The longshot, 500-to-1, is "always bet on black." (Oddly, the phrase "I won't seek re-election" is a mere 250-to-1.)

In the same spirit as the good people at Paddy Power, here are some of the biggest longshots for tonight's address.

"I admit that my attempt at health care reform was a complete debacle and I take full responsibility."

"I believe the people at ACORN acted stupidly."

"Corruption and radicalism in our government cannot be tolerated. I'll be immediately firing Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, John Holdren, Cass Sunstein, Hillary Clinton, Ray LaHood, Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner, Kevin Jennings, Adolfo Carrion Jr., Ron Bloom, Patrick Gaspard, Ezekiel Emanuel, Mark Lloyd, Melanne Verveer, Farah Pandith, and Todd Stern."

"I believe special interest money and influence in Washington is a problem. And let me make it clear: That includes unions. Unions are part of the problem."

"This is in no way President Bush's fault."

"I have read and studied the Founding Fathers closely. I understand that our government is always to be a limited one. I know that our country was conceived in Lockean liberalism, which guarantees every man and woman personal liberty. I trust the American people enough to let them make their own decisions and not to intrude on them with government."

"So how about that special election up in Massachusetts last week, huh?"

"Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith. Thank you very much. God bless you, and God bless America."

The last line is from Ronald Reagan's 1984 State of the Union address. Don't hold your breath waiting for that one.

Obama thug attacks conservative reporter

Last night, John McCormack, a reporter for the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, attempted to ask Massachusetts Democrat Senate contender Martha Coakley a question as she left a Capitol Hill fundraiser. McCormack was immediately shoved to the ground by a man walking with Coakley. The man then continued to block McCormack's access.

It has now been established that the assailant was Michael Meehan, a prominent Democratic strategist who has been helping the Coakley campaign. Meehan is also an employee of Barack Obama. Obama appointed Meehan to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees federal news operations like Voice of America. Meehan is a hotshot in Democratic circles and he and Obama reportedly go back a long way.

In fact, the Massachusetts election has been swarmed by thugs. Yesterday the Coakley campaign was caught deploying union members to hold up campaign signs. The workers were reportedly paid $50 to do so, even though at least one said in an interview that he was voting for Scott Brown.

Of course, if Coakley loses, Barack Obama's health care bill won't pass the Senate. Obama's trying to buy another Senate seat with his crooked campaign strategists and union thugs.

Yet another Obama official on the unions' payroll

Obama's pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is one of the most powerful men in America right now, having the exclusive power of determining executive pay. He is even able to draw back money that has already been paid. Now he is headed to the American Federation of Teachers union to allegedly help them improve public education by identifying the bad teachers. A shrewd move by the second largest teacher's union who recognize that Feinberg is revered as a "mediator". He teaches this at his alma mater, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst -- and its eponymous Feinberg Institute -- which claims to deal with "life, value and compensation studies", and asks such questions as "How much is a human life worth?"

Feinberg was once administrative assistant and chief of staff to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, and is a founding partner in anothe eponymous organization, the Feinberg Group. It has arbitrated cases ranging from Agent Orange liability and asbestos injuries to the administration of the fund for victims of the Virginia Tech shooting. Feinberg is a director of a George Soros-funded legal group, Human Rights First.