After all, Occupy Wall Street is all about handouts! Print some pamphlets, grab your camera, and show the 99% you care.

Publicizing union boss pay is fun, because it’s self-evidently outrageous considering what these people do for a living. Here are some highlights from the handout:

• William Lucy (AFSCME) took $847,810 from public employees last year
• Gerald McEntee (AFSCME) took $555,367 from public employees last year
• Rhonda Weingarten (AFT) took $493,859 from teachers last year
• John Wilson (NEA) took $492,484 from teachers last year
• Dennis Van Roekel (NEA) took $460,060 from teachers last year

The icebreakers don’t end there!

• 446 NEA staff & officers took $100,000+ from teachers last year
• 426 UAW staff & officers took $100,000+ from auto workers last year
• 279 AFSCME staff & officers took $100,000+ from public employees last year

…And that’s only at the unions’ national headquarters.

Sources are cited in the PDF and linked below, with care taken to avoid Fox News and The Wall Street Journal for the sake of the ruse. If you find yourself facing an Occupier who considers all corporate media inherently right-wing, this indicates one of two things:

1. You’re about to get some entertaining footage
2. It’s time to back away slowly and head for home

While (1) and (2) are not mutually exclusive, it’s important to exercise caution!

One question I recommend asking your local anarcho-communist squatters: If it’s true that “police are the army of The Rich,” whose army is Occupy Wall Street?

Union pay (here’s an Excel workbook of the six-figure club) is from the U.S. Department of Labor. Income percentiles are from the left-wing Brookings Institution (view PDF), as reported last January by The New York Times.

Obama campaign contributions are from FEC records reviewed by OpenSecrets.org. Geithner tax-delinquency coverage is from NYT; Daschle from US News; Solis from USA Today; Killefer from ABC News. Office of the President tax delinquency stats were originally reported by WTOP FM in Washington.

Have fun… and remember to wear shoes you wouldn’t mind burning!

Cross-posted from Breitbart.com.

During one of his stemwinders about the wondrous things unions do, Sherrod dropped a reductio ad Hitlerum on Governor Kasich (OH), Governor Walker (WI), and Governor Christie (NJ):

Bizarrely, Sherrod claims he’s not comparing Kasich, Walker, and Christie to Hitler, Stalin, and Mubarak in the middle of comparing them to Hitler, Stalin, and Mubarak. While he’s conflating overdue reforms with mass murder, Sherrod also repeats one of his favorite deceptions by pretending government unions are the same as private industry unions.

Several media outlets noted the dictatorial portion of Sherrod’s rant, and the next day he apologized for stepping in it:

“But in speaking about this, I should not have mentioned the hostility of tyrants like Hitler to unions,” Brown said. “I don’t want my mistake to distract from the critical debate in Ohio, and I apologize for it.”

Sherrod didn’t want “to distract from the critical debate” over public union reform! Even now, slamming Ohio’s Senate Bill 5 as an “attack on workers” is the cornerstone of Sherrod’s stump speech – yet he always runs out of time before debating any of the critical specifics. Big Labor’s opponents are evil because it’s evil to oppose Big Labor.

Sherrod Brown is desperate to get additional mileage out of the union bosses’ $40 million smear campaign, but remember what was actually in Ohio’s union reform bill:

• Replace automatic step increases with merit pay for public workers.
• Require public employees to pay 10% of their pension costs and 15% of their health insurance costs.
• End forced payment of “fair-share” fees for public workers who don’t want to join a union.
• End last-in, first-out firing policies, requiring considerations other than tenure when local governments must make layoffs.
• Public workers retain the privilege of collective bargaining for wages & working conditions, but may no longer go on strike against the public.

No less the Progressive than FDR, patron saint of caring Democrats, knew public unions are an awful idea. Either Sherrod Brown is too dense to recognize government and private industry are different, or he’s been lying for years to protect his favorite interest group.

Footnote: This clip is from the same speech where Sherrod claimed public union reform violates Christian principles. Refer again to the bullet points above; those are the sort of hateful reforms that get you slandered on the Senate floor as a tyrannical heathen by Sherrod Brown.

Transcript of the C-SPAN clip follows.

Sherrod Brown: Because we, as a country, we stand for a more egalitarian workforce. We stand for worker rights. We believe workers should organize and bargain collectively, if they choose. We believe in a minimum wage. We believe in workers’ compensation. We believe in worker safety. We believe in human rights, and all of that is about the labor movement, and, you know, you can support labor rights in Guatemala, but you better damn be sure you’re supporting labor rights in Wilmington, and Columbus, and Cleveland, and, and Detroit, and Dover, Delaware, and everywhere else.

And that’s, um, that’s, those were, those were some of the words Secretary Clinton said – I’m obviously expanding on them – but, as a nation, you know, I I I I look back at history and some of the worst governments we’ve ever had, you know one of the first things they did? They went after the trade unions. Hitler didn’t want unions, Stalin didn’t want unions, Mubarak didn’t want independent unions. These, these autocrats in history don’t want independent unions. So when I see, when I see in Egypt, or if I see in, in the old Soviet Russia, or I see – history tells me about Germany – I, I, I’m not, I’m not comparing what’s happening to the workers in Madison or in Columbus to Hitler and Stalin, but I am saying that history teaches us that unions are a very positive force in society that creates a middle class and that protects our freedom.

Following a couple of posts in January, I’ve been happy to defer to more knowledgeable observers for ORP State Central Committee coverage. The inside baseball of this dispute doesn’t interest me much, but Kevin DeWine’s actions over the past two months validate the concerns I shared in December.

Yesterday Bytor posted a list of Central Committee winners, highlighting known losses for DeWine. Today ONN’s Jim Heath tweeted a series of updates & questions about the post-election Central Committee meeting DeWine has scheduled:

Actually, the meeting will determine who leads ORP only if a vote is called. Will Kevin DeWine (who has convinced at least 1 person of his success Tuesday) include an up-or-down vote on his continued chairmanship in the agenda?

My impression is that Team Kasich sought candidates who shared the governor’s belief DeWine should be replaced, as opposed to candidates who would support a specific replacement. I would be surprised if Governor Kasich endorsed anyone between now and April 13th.

This gets back to inside baseball: I don’t know enough to comment on the good, bad, or ugly attributes of any potential candidates. I do know that instead of discreetly resolving his issues with Kasich and Speaker Batchelder, Kevin DeWine turned a dispute into a debacle – after pouring big bucks into electing his cousin Mike DeWine and his pal Jon Husted, dishonestly appropriating the Tea Party brand in the process.

The fact that DeWine is calling a meeting does indeed suggest he’s confident of his position. The fact that the meeting is the same day as the post-primary campaign finance filing deadline tells a different story! Given recent history, Committee members will want to know: how much donor money did DeWine spend defending himself, and how much of that went to disgraced consultant Brett Buerck?

Smoldering in the background is DeWine’s implausible claim to have disqualified several Kasich-backed Central Committee candidates with a last-minute rule change. If DeWine attempts to block elected Committee members from being placed, this whole mess could get a whole lot messier.

Regardless of whether you think DeWine should stay or go, a vote of the new ORP State Central Committee is the only way for this fight to end. Friday the 13th can’t come soon enough.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics.

Consistent with the whipsaw nature of this primary, polling mid-February suggested Ohio may be a lock for Rick Santorum. Quinnipiac registered a 7-point Santorum advantage in separate polls of likely voters completed 02/12 and 02/26. On 02/15, Rasmussen polling showed Santorum with a staggering 18-point lead, and the University of Cincinnati’s Ohio Poll conducted 02/16 to 02/26 indicated Saontorum was up by 11.

Heading into the February 22 Arizona debate, Santorum looked to be the last heir to the “not Romney” throne. Could he maintain enough momentum to roll Mitt Romney on Super Tuesday, despite Romney’s gold-plated ground game?

The debate was Santorum’s chance to shine, but he didn’t weather attacks from Romney and Ron Paul as well as he could have. I’ve been enthusiastic about zero candidates since Rick Perry dropped out; the Arizona debate finally convinced me to vote for Mitt Romney. How many other Ohio conservatives had a similar reaction to the snippy, discouraging tussle between Romney and Santorum?

In many cases, it won’t matter: Rick Santorum’s name will not be on the ballot in 3 of 16 Congressional districts tomorrow. Add to this news that Santorum failed to submit a full slate of delegates for 6 additional districts, and even a victory for Santorum in Ohio would be followed by an asterisk.

An NBC/Marist poll conducted yesterday shows a statistical dead heat. The in-inevitable Romney may yet win Ohio, in spite of himself and his campaign’s dicey consulting choices. Francesca Chambers at Red Alert Politics suggests Sen. Portman has buoyed Romney’s ailing Ohio operation in the past week. It doesn’t hurt to have enough cash to account for 80% of the total TV ad spend in Super Tuesday contests, either!

Ohio’s employment picture is brightening, but economic issues remain a huge concern here. Will Ohio Republicans take a chance on the author of Romneycare, or the guy barraged with questions about birth control? Whoever wins Super Tuesday and the eventual nomination, November in Ohio should be a contest between uniquely American ideals and Obama’s ideal America.

Other races to watch:

• Expect Josh Mandel – who is endorsed by Sen. DeMint and has already raised millions for November – to be the hands-down nominee for Sherrod Brown’s U.S. Senate seat.
• Ohio GOP State Central Committee races have been heated. The party’s ugly power struggle continues, with Chairman Kevin DeWine’s ability to work with Governor Kasich and others up for debate. If Kasich supporters win a majority of Committee seats and DeWine remains in charge, kinks in the Ohio GOP’s inner workings could damage general election campaigns.

Don’t doubt Barack Obama can be beaten in Ohio. While Kasich’s approval ratings tick into positive territory, Obama remains underwater. The idea of papering over problems with “stimulus” spending may have overstayed its welcome. And remember, Obama for America must contend with the awful record of Sen. Brown, who flaunts Obama’s worst traits like a crazed Progressive peacock.

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and Columbus Tea Party.

Duplicate programs cost taxpayers “tens of billions of dollars annually,” but the bar for efficiency was low:

Last year’s report identified 81 areas to make government more efficient. Congress and the Obama administration have implemented just four of those. There’s been some progress on 60 items, and no progress on 17.

This is better than I expected, since President Obama’s crowning achievement with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress was the sleek, sophisticated “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Obama’s idea of protection and affordability is shown here in a chart you may recognize:

A White House analysis claims 76% of Executive issues identified last year have been “addressed in some way,” while only 39% of recommend Congressional actions had been taken. Because it fits into the template Obama for America has been cranking out for weeks, the president will happily treat GAO’s report as mortar for the “Do-Nothing Congress” pillar of his campaign.

Barack Obama’s solution is for everyone to listen more carefully to Barack Obama and give him more power:

Two things that Congress can do right now to reduce duplication and waste are to pass the proposals in the President’s FY 2013 Budget and to pass the Reforming and Consolidating Government Act the Administration sent to the Hill earlier this year which will set up an expedited process to review government consolidation proposals.

To save yourself the agony of dissecting Obama’s FY13 budget, refer to the Obamacare chart above. Obama loves reminding us he inherited a mess: why didn’t he clean it up while he had a stranglehold in Congress?

Lest you forget Obama’s other first-year priority, review Sen. Coburn’s 2009 report on “stimulus” waste and his 2010 follow-up research on Obama’s approach to smarter, shinier federal government.

Tuesday’s GAO report itself refutes the Obama for America narrative:

And the government has at least 15 major financial literacy programs – including three new ones established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Can you think of a group less suited to financial literacy education than the U.S. government? In addition to the redundant programs Obama created by signing Dodd-Frank, illegally-appointed CFPB Czar Richard Cordray is making up new bureaucracy as we speak!

House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) responded differently to the GAO report, saying, “the enemy isn’t the Democrats, the enemy isn’t the Republicans – it’s the bureaucracy.

Which is worse: a self-serving bureaucracy that’s grown far beyond the bounds of sustainability? Or a Congress that promises generalities, defers specifics to unelected bureaucrats, and refuses to accept responsibility?

Whether you’re most concerned about the big pre-Obama entitlement programs, Obama’s adventures in collectivism, or the tendency of mundane bureaucracy to go all Little Shop of Horrors, this gets to the heart of it:

“Members of Congress don’t get the headlines for fixing something,” said Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste. “They get headlines for creating something.”

Stop Promising and Start Paying would fit on a bumper sticker, but wouldn’t win a lot of votes. So here we are, with a federal government that’s created $15,400,000,000,000 in debt… and counting.

If you look at the votes Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) casts, the things he says, and the bills he sponsors, one thing is clear: Sherrod is a dyed-in-the-wool statist. For every domestic policy question, his answer is bigger central government.

Sherrod Brown, a loud advocate for socialized medicine more sweeping than Obamacare, was nonetheless the 60th vote for Obamacare. Sherrod was a Senate champion of the auto bailout that left Chrysler owned by Fiat and General Motors controlled by Washington & the UAW. He cast the deciding vote for Obama’s “stimulus” boondoggle.

Make a list of federal bailouts and entitlement expansions from the past several years, and Sherrod Brown’s name comes up constantly. Here’s Sherrod at a June 2010 pep rally for a public union bailout:

For Sherrod, falling tax revenues present a familiar math problem. Union pay and benefits should never decrease, so when tax hikes are a political non-starter it’s time for more deficit spending! Sherrod steps in with free money to balance the equation, waving research from a union-funded Progressive group.

Sherrod Brown has built a 20 year Congressional career around our difficulty visualizing large numbers. Sherrod promises $75 billion as if he were bequeathing a gift to the peasants, knowing many voters actually believe “The Rich” can cover it – after forking over their fair share to fund Obamacare, the auto industry bailout, the stimulus bill, underwater mortgages, food stamps, unemployment benefits, and so on.

In Ohio, Sherrod is a key part of the industry thriving on this lie. If we oust him this fall, Policy Matters Ohio, Progress Ohio, Innovation Ohio, and the Ohio Education Association – plus locals of AFSCME, SEIU, and assorted openly Socialist groups – lose a seasoned class warrior and a reliable vote in Congress.

On top of the Local Jobs for America Act and the other programs listed above, here are a few other entitlement increases & federal bailouts Sherrod has hawked recently:

• The Fix America’s Schools Today Act, designed to send $25 billion to school districts squeezed by NEA locals across the country
• Billions for continued Trade Adjustment Assistance extensions, a favor to Big Labor included in the 2009 “stimulus”
• A $4.1 billion extension to COBRA health insurance subsidies for the unemployed
• Catering to AFL-CIO demands for more spending, fewer tax cuts in Harry Reid’s February 2010 “Jobs bill”

As a rule, Sherrod Brown’s ideas would be unwise even if we could afford them. Since we can’t, Sherrod is willfully contributing to a $15 trillion deficit – which he tries to blame on national defense and the Bush tax cuts.

The above clip is from a video posted by YouTube user thumos33. Transcript follows.

Sen. Sherrod Brown: Uh, Wendy Patton will talk in a few minutes about Policy Matter Ohio’s report that shows our region is facing elimination of critical public services at a time when we simply cannot afford that. The legal — the National League of Cities said last week 7 in 10 city managers and mayors are cutting jobs and services because of a loss in property – in property tax, especially in commercial real estate. But you don’t need me to recite these statistics, you know them because you live them every day, you’re seeing people still that can’t find work when they’re trying to.

[...]

Sen. Sherrod Brown: That’s why what you need from me and from Mayor Plusquellic and from Mayor Jackson is to take action. That’s why I will introduce next week when I return to Washington The Local Jobs for America Act, would help cities and municipalities save or create jobs even as they face these awful budget crises. This legislation is aimed at putting people back to work and turning them into taxpayers rather than benefit collectors. The bill would direct [Applause from the crowd] …the bill would direct $75 billion dollars over the next 2 years, uh, to cities, towns, and counties to save municipal jobs and prevent layoffs so that, so that fire- so that our, our, our cities, our communities, our counties are protected – firefighters, emergency medical personnel, law enforcement, all the services that are essential in a civilized society to a normal, decent life.

Cross-posted from Big Government.

Back in December the USPS agreed to delay restructuring until May, at the behest of Socialist Bernie Sanders and several Senate Democrats. The USPS has been running deficits for years and is losing roughly a billion dollars a month, but Progressives won’t acknowledge market realities or admit the postal union’s demands are insane.

Ever the spokesman for unicorn economics, “Postal Service Protection Act” co-sponsor Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has an online petition to “SAVE OUR POST OFFICES!”

Victimized by mathematics? Light the Sherrod-Signal!

Ohioans rely on post offices to do business and communicate with family – and thousands of Ohioans rely on them for jobs.

We can find a solution to our budget crisis that doesn’t involve shuttering these community institutions and handing thousands of workers a pink slip.

That’s why I’m joining Sherrod Brown’s fight to keep these post offices open!

If I’m reading Sherrod correctly, it’s evil to stop paying people who we can’t afford to pay. In what sense is this Progressive standard any different from Socialism?

To be fair, Sherrod has “a solution” to that nagging bankruptcy problem:

“Why couldn’t they serve coffee at a post office and charge a little?” he said.

Watch out, Starbucks! Americans will soon be congregating at their local post office for a cup of federal java.

To be a little fairer, the coffee caper isn’t Sherrod’s whole plan -

He said Congress should free the postal service from having to pre-fund its pension obligations for 75 years. He called that a “unique” requirement that costs the mail service more than $5 billion a year.

Unfunded state pension liabilities contribute to an estimated $4 trillion in debt, and leftists blame the states for not hiking taxes to cover Big Labor’s demands. With that in mind, Sherrod Brown’s big idea is to stop requiring USPS to sock money away in advance? This is a Progressive solution through and through – we’re running out of cash, so stop saving and spend, spend, spend!

Not everyone agrees USPS could be “saved” by fudging accounting rules. Take, for instance, the Postmaster General:

He also said, “Roughly 25,000 out of our 32,000 Post Offices operate at a loss” and that thousands of post offices generate less than $20,000 in annual revenue yet cost more than $60,000 to operate, and many of these unprofitable locations are a few miles away from another post office. He bemoaned the response to even the slightest effort to close any Post Office, as well as interference in other proposals to address the USPS deficit.

Who has a better grip on USPS finances: the Postmaster General, or Sherrod Brown and Socialist Bernie Sanders? If you thought Sherrod’s line about selling coffee was stupid, try this on for size:

“The postal service has been very restricted in what its [sic] allowed to do under law. It’s not been given opportunities to generate revenue,” Senator Brown said.

The U.S. Postal Service has a government-mandated monopoly on first class mail. Either Sherrod Brown is incredibly stupid, or he thinks Ohio voters are.

Well… we did elect Sherrod Brown. So maybe he’s onto something, after all.

Cross-posted at Big Government.

Where there’s a Progressive economic fallacy, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is never far away. Sherrod seems to think the U.S. economy performs best with bureaucrats working all the levers. This is his 20th year in Congress, so maybe we should forgive his ignorance of how a free market works!

During the 2010 debate over extending the Bush tax cuts, Sherrod made one of his frequent MSNBC appearances to share his rendition of the broken window fallacy:

As an Ohioan, Chris Matthews fawning “you’re the best there is on this argument” is not what I hope for from my senator.

I am impressed, though, with the way Sherrod Brown knows what every wealthy American is going to buy! I wonder how long he had to look into his crystal ball to be absolutely sure extending unemployment benefits is better for the economy than letting citizens keep and invest our own money.

The Right Scoop has footage of Sherrod making a more detailed (but equally laughable) case on the Senate floor around the same time as this Hardball spot.

Like Pelosi, Sherrod also argued for the “stimulus” effects of unemployment benefits in the summer of 2010:

Many have lost their job and, as a result, they lost their health insurance.  After that, they lose their home or apartment because they can’t afford the mortgage or rent. Passing an extension of unemployment insurance isn’t just the right thing to do – it will also help stimulate the economy and serve as a critical part of a jobs agenda that puts the middle class first.

Emphasis mine. Sherrod’s solutions for the crises in health care, housing, and unemployment are one and the same – government redistribution, paid for by “The Rich” with a wave of the hand.

Self-righteous demands for shortsighted spending are exactly what we should expect from a Progressive who can’t even manage his own property taxes. The silver lining: Sherrod Brown is up for reelection in November, and Ohio is not California.

Transcript from the Hardball clip follows.

Sherrod Brown: These tax cuts for the rich that Bush did twice, Chris, in ‘01 and ‘03 as you know, resulted in very little economic growth. We saw only 1 million jobs created in the Bush years, 22 million created in the Clinton years, when we reached a balanced budget with a fairer tax system, and there is no, there’s no real history illustrating that these tax cuts for the rich result in jobs. It’s extending unemployment benefits that creates economic activity that creates jobs – not giving a millionaire an extra 10 or 20 or $30,000 in tax cuts that they likely won’t spend because they’re already buying what they’re gonna buy anyway.

Chris Matthews: You’re the best there is on this argument. Sorry, I’ve gotta ask you one last question…

Cross-posted from Big Government.

Pathetic as Sherrod’s story was early in the day, things got worse for America’s most Progressive senator in the afternoon. His conference call to defuse the situation must have been one of the week’s most hilariously uncomfortable:

“I was late,” he said on a conference call with reporters when asked about the recent delinquency. ”I misplaced the bill and I paid it as soon as I found out. I paid a penalty for being late, and it won’t happen again.”

Senator Brown lost a tax statement and forgot to pay until a reporter came calling months later, but there’s no cause for alarm! He paid the penalty for his delinquency, and it won’t happen again.

When a reporter noted that it also happened five and six years ago, Brown said, “I misplaced it then. This is a small apartment. I’m not in D.C. nearly every week, I’m here when the Senate’s in session, I’m here three or four nights a week. I paid the penalty. And in no way, obviously, was I avoiding taxes.”

Because “the dog ate it” worked so well the first time around, Sherrod tries the same excuse for three consecutive property tax bills in 2006 and 2007. With no reporters reminding him, Sherrod actually fell so far behind on property taxes his condo was listed for public auction! Odd that a U.S. Senator would forget the existence of taxes for months on end, springing into action only when his property is on the line.

I love Sherrod’s volley of additional excuses. It’s a small apartment! He’s there less than 57% of the time! He’s been serially delinquent with payments, but was in no way avoiding taxes by not paying taxes! Obviously.

Since his election to the Senate, Sherrod has paid over $850 in penalties and interest for his failure to submit D.C. property taxes on time. That’s peanuts for a millionaire who promises trillions to interest groups and insists soaking the rich & slashing the military will pay for it.

Remember, Sherrod is a Progressive who thinks a republic of 300 million can – and should – be ruled by a few thousand bureaucrats in Washington. He’s unable to keep track of his mail and pay his taxes on time twice a year, but that doesn’t stop Sherrod from making big plans with your money!

• Sherrod Brown wants more federal regulations and federal spending to control America’s manufacturing and energy industries.
• Sherrod Brown, in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, wants Washington bureaucrats to make America fair.
• Sherrod Brown wants illegally appointed czar Richard Cordray to enforce undefined rules on the nation’s banks.
• Sherrod Brown wants socialized medicine even more sweeping than Obamacare.

Demanding bigger government while failing at his most basic civic duty: one more way Sherrod Brown resembles President Obama’s worst cabinet appointees and staff.

Cross-posted at Big Government.

To simplify mockery of their candidate for those of us with apolitical day jobs, Obama for America has assembled “Truth Teams” – Attack Watch in more sheepish clothing – in a handful of swing states. At the Ohio Truth Team announcement, it was suggested that crashing GOP events may be on the Obama cheerleaders’ agenda.

It's ruff defending a failed president!

Leveraging deranged protestors for the Progressive brand of populism is nothing new for Ohio Democrats, so The Columbus Dispatch tried to confirm the insinuation:

“We’ll do it in an appropriate, mindful way, recognizing the importance of the conversation,” said Ohio Democratic chairman Chris Redfern, also a truth team member. “The truth team, we envision, will be more of a rapid response, taking a message directly at locations where those individuals who align with super PACs or organizations in support” of GOP presidential hopefuls are present.

Emphasis mine. Given his history, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is a hilarious addition to an Obama group allegedly aiming for mature conversations. In the waning days of the 2010 campaign:

[...] the camera was rolling as Redfern leveled the expletive at critics in the Tea Party, who, in his words, believe health care is a privilege, not a right.

“If your kids are going to graduate from college, now he or she gets health care, your heath care, while he or she looks for a new job,” Redfern said. “It’s in the very base terms we win these arguments. Every time one of these (expletive deleted) says, excuse my language…”

The deleted expletive rhymed with “truckers,” and unless you count his perfunctory “excuse my language” as he remembered a news crew was in the union hall Chris Redfern never apologized. Instead, the Ohio Democratic Party used his rage-filled outburst as a fundraising opportunity:

In the e-mail, Redfern then asks for a $10 donation to his “swear jar” to “help the Ohio Democratic Party and its candidates get our message out and stick it to our opponents.”

He wrote, “I have been amazed by the outpouring of support the Ohio Democratic Party has received after I spoke out forcefully and unapologetically on behalf of working families.”

What a mindful, appropriate brush for Chris Redfern to paint his political opponents with! Now that the Super Obama Truth Squad has recruited the hateful creep who called the enemies of Obama’s totalitarian health insurance plan F-ers at a 2010 union event, they’re armed to the teeth with truth!

Tell us, Ohio Obama Truth Ninjas: How many of the 2.2 million Ohioans who voted to block Obamacare’s key mandate last November are F-ers? If it’s true that Ohio voters who oppose your preferred statist policies are F-ers, what is it we’re guilty of effing?

For more from Ohio, follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonahart. Apologies to Cheddar the Bulldog, whose owner submitted an un-doctored version of the above photo to Wikimedia Commons with a public domain license.

Cross-posted at Big Government.

At the same event where he told horror stories about privatization and the Republican scheme to ruin Medicare, Sherrod rolled the NEA affiliate’s war against union reform into a theme of conservative “attacks.”

By the end of his 40-second detour into the Progressive causes and glorious federal programs conservatives are attacking, Sherrod had built up a 9x attack multiplier! This sort of word power makes Sherrod Brown a rhetorical king, so long as no one ever asks how to pay for the bankrupt boondoggles he adores.

Similar to the speech where he slammed the faith of the governors on Big Labor’s enemies list, Sherrod gets so wound up talking about conservative attacks that he forgets to explain his alternative! It’s a shame, because Sherrod Brown has had decades in Congress to cook up the perfect tax-and-spend formula.

Still, think how grateful young Ohio teachers should be that Sherrod Brown is protecting their union bosses. If not for Sherrod, Ohio teachers might be paid based on merit! Public layoffs would consider factors other than tenure! Teachers would be asked to cover slightly more of their benefits so schools could avoid layoffs altogether! What a dystopian ruin Ohio would be if the Ohio Education Association had slightly less power.

Sherrod Brown is consistent, at least. He always credits Big Labor and bureaucracy with America’s success, while treating union bosses as the backbone of American society.

I’d like to extend a special thanks to the Columbus Education Association for sharing Sherrod Brown’s energetic pandering to a crowd that demands the impossible from Ohio taxpayers. You can see Sherrod’s keynote and footage from his Q&A session on the union’s YouTube channel (for now).

Transcript follows of the clips featured above.

Clip 1, Sherrod Brown: The vote in November on SB 5 [the union reform bill] repeal is the most important election in the country, the most watched election in the country, because of the attack – the attack on worker and collective bargaining rights, the attack on voting rights, the attack on women in Columbus, in the state legislature. In Washington, the attack on Head Start, the attack on Pell grants, the attack on public radio, the attack on Medicare, the attack on Social Security. All these things, I think, are absolutely hostile, absolutely enimical to what we, as a nation, have stood for for 75 years. The reason we have a prosperous middle class in this country, more than anything, is in the 1930s Congress passed, with Franklin Roosevelt signing, collective bargaining rights.

Clip 2, Sherrod Brown: How can young people not have second thoughts about a profession when the politicians that run our state – the conservative politicians that run our state – are attacking their profession and attacking what they stand for?

Cross-posted at Big Government.

If Midwestern voters see the benefits of free-market reforms at the state level, it’ll be bleak news for Barack Obama’s 2012 class warfare roadshow.

Early results for Walker and Kasich have been mixed, as they’ve both been demonized relentlessly by Big Labor. Wisconsin Democrats fled to protect their union financiers, but Walker and the Wisconsin GOP prevailed. How’s that working for taxpayers?

According to a report by the MacIver Institute, as of September 1, “at least 25 school districts in the Badger State had reported switching health care providers/plans or opening insurance bidding to outside companies.” The institute calculates that these steps will save the districts $211.45 per student. If the state’s other 250 districts currently served by WEA Trust follow suit, the savings statewide could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

If Big Labor’s failure in Wisconsin Senate recall races is any sign, voters can do the math. The Walker budget has caused what any sensible observer would expect: freed of suffocating union control, Wisconsin schools are saving money and avoiding layoffs.

In Ohio, Democrats dug in their heels, demanding higher taxes to fix the state’s estimated $8 billion budget deficit – which, to their dismay, Kasich balanced while phasing out Ohio’s death tax and raising no taxes. Several months and more than $30 million later, leftists killed a union reform bill whose effects voters never got a chance to see.

One result of Big Labor’s Ohio victory? Widespread public employee layoffs – hooray for blind obedience to union bosses!

With Democrats kicking and screaming (hardly a bill has passed in Ohio that Democrats haven’t brought a referendum or lawsuit against), Kasich and Walker seem intent on staying their respective courses set last year. Fortunately, union reform isn’t the only item on the agenda.

Aggressively courting job creators, both governors have trimmed senseless bureaucracy and focused on incentives for employers. Ohio and Wisconsin have started on the long road to recovery; from 2000-2010, Ohio ranked 50th and Wisconsin ranked 40th in private-sector job growth.

Governor Walker and Governor Kasich each spoke of the need to control public spending, streamline job training programs, and reform K-12 education in their 2012 State of the State addresses. Wherever they go – including official state speeches – both governors are smeared as corporate lackeys by useful idiots reading from Big Labor’s script.

It’s no coincidence Scott Walker and John Kasich are attacked by the collectivist agitators who compose President Obama’s base. Competition vs. collectivism is the battle of the hour. Thanks to governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan who understand the centrality of competition to the American idea, millions of voters in America’s heartland will have tangible evidence to weigh against the federal dependency peddled by Barack Obama!

Cross-posted at Big Government.

The Ohio Democratic Party is led by Chris “Tea Party F***ers” Redfern, best known for a profane 2010 outburst against Obamacare opponents. Based on their behavior in Steubenville, even November’s Big Labor victory against fiscal reality hasn’t improved the attitudes of Ohio leftists!

State Rep. Bob Hagan (D – Youngstown), a Progressive kook’s Progressive kook, bused in 35 protestors for the event. Worse, Hagan handed out several tickets for Kasich’s speech to Occupy protestors ranting outside.

Rep. Bob Hagan (second from left) and Rep. Dennis Murray (second from right) are thanked by Occupy protestors for Hagan's tickets to the State of the State address.

Why would Hagan give tickets for a taxpayer-funded speech to obnoxious Occupy protestors? From The Columbus Dispatch‘s live coverage of the speech, shuffled into chronological order:

2:36 [...] Cat calls and chants have started from the balcony from protestors.

2:38 [...] People have been removed from the auditorium, but more calls coming from the balcony. [...]

2:39 One particularly loud woman has just been led out…”John Kasich is selling out Ohio!” she yelled as she was led out the back. Now a male voice can be heard.

2:40 [...] Meanwhile, man is led out of the room. Things seem to have quieted down now.

Rep. Hagan, too pathetic to face the derision that comes with disrupting a state event, sent in Occupy protestors to attack Governor Kasich. Wonder if he’s any relation to the “Hagan” who rallied protestors before Kasich’s speech?

“Governor Kasich has crossed the line many times,” Hagan said to the crowd.

Yep. Same guy. No matter how low the Ohio Republican Party sinks, there will always be Ohio Democrats like Bob Hagan waiting to out-sink them!

The Dispatch has video of an anti-fracking protestor screeching, “We can capture the air! We can capture the sun!” after being escorted out of the event (watch for the obligatory Occupy mic-check). The same protestor is shown exiting a bus – Hagan’s? – in an earlier Dispatch video which features perpetual union shill Bruce Bostick. Funny thing about Bruce Bostick: he’s a Communist.

When Big Labor, environmental activists, Democrats, and Communists are all equally enraged by your governor, it’s likely your state is on the right track!

Cross-posted at Big Government, RedState, and Third Base Politics.

For pro-life Ohioans like myself, the “Heartbeat Bill” to ban abortions after a baby’s heartbeat can be heard sounds like a great idea. According to pro-choice Ohioans, it’s terrible. Surely a U.S. senator with a diploma from Yale and two master’s degrees can dissect the legislation on its merits and explain why abortion on demand is a vital “reproductive right” …right?

Sherrod Brown being Sherrod Brown, what we get instead is a jumbled diatribe making frequent nods to Big Labor. He treats any conflict with his cartoonish Progressive mindset as an example of conservatives “going after” the rights of men, women, and children (wait, scratch that last one) everywhere.

Small wonder Sherrod considers abortion limits, voter ID, union reform, and civil rights “all the same.” Sherrod is a radical without a cause, so whatever he opposes is twisted to fit a tired class warfare narrative. Sherrod Brown should instead be hunting down whoever stole his sense of irony: cheering government-improved life expectancy in a pep talk to Planned Parenthood?

To the abortion lobby, Sherrod Brown is more than talk. A few things Sherrod has consistently voted against:

• Banning partial-birth abortion
• Making it a crime to harm an unborn child while committing another crime
• Requiring parental notification to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion
• The Mexico City policy, which stopped tax dollars from funding foreign abortion providers

Things Sherrod has consistently voted for:

• Taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood
• Taxpayer funding of abortions in military hospitals
• Taxpayer funding of abortions in federal prisons
• Taxpayer funding of international “family planning” services

Name one of Planned Parenthood’s fringe positions, and chances are Sherrod Brown has voted to make you pay for it!

Full source video is available from YouTube user choweysstillme. Transcript follows of the two clips featured above.

Cut 1 – Sherrod Brown: You know, you see what’s happening in Columbus, they’re trying to take away bargaining rights. [Audience members: Yes. BOOO!] And they’re going after women, and reproductive rights. They’re going after voting rights now, they’re trying, Ohio, if the Senate passes what the House passed, it’ll be the most restrictive voter laws in the country. [Audience: BOOO!] That’s going backwards, not going forward, so your, your voices really matter on choice, on women’s rights, on worker rights, on, on voting rights, on human rights, on civil rights, it’s all the same.

Cut 2 – Sherrod Brown: And, over the last 100 years, look what we’ve done in this country, um, in terms of, of, of civil rights and women’s rights and Social Security and Medicare, and, and minimum wage, and workers’ compensation, and prohibition of child labor, and clean air, and safe drinking water, and auto safety – seat belts, air bags. All these things have made, they’ve made, they’ve given people the ability to live 30 years longer. Back 100 years ago the average American, when you were born in this country you lived to be about 45 on the average. Today people live 30 years longer than that, and it’s because of government doing the right thing when you push government to do the right thing.

Cross-posted from Big Government.

The Senate Bill 5 campaign proved Ohio voters remain too receptive to union rhetoric. Trying to rehash the same arguments during a presidential campaign already focused on Progressive class warfare would be a nightmare.

Class: During a 2010 strike, Ohio Education Association staff hung a banner telling the OEA boss to kill himself.

The ridiculousness of public unions prompted me to start writing and researching with a purpose beyond, “here’s what annoys me today, and I know my friends wouldn’t want to hear this rant.” I wish I were more effective at making the case for union reform! If you could find another sap who spent more free time than I did over the past year arguing for the need to reform Ohio’s government union law, I would be amazed. On this subject, Ohio conservatives have a lot of work left to do.

Big Labor’s pockets are deep, and any attempt at union reform means attacking the strength of people who get rich pushing class warfare for a living.

LaborUnionReport, in a terrific summary of Right-to-Work, had this to say about the proposed amendment to Ohio’s constitution:

This brings us back to Ohio.Ron Paul supporter and Tea Party consultant Chris Littleton is spearheading an effort to put Right-to-Work on Ohio’s November ballot. If successful in getting enough signatures to have the initiative placed on the ballot, Littleton and his compadres will likely do nothing more than ensure an Obama victory in Ohio.

With unions collecting more than $8 billion per year in union dues, no amount of money Littleton can raise will be enough to outspend the unions on the issue Right-to-Work—as evidenced by the recent fight over SB5 (Issue 2) in November.

In fact, union bosses and Democrats are likely hoping for Littleton to get enough signatures to put Right-to-Work on the ballot. [Don't be too surprised if unions, either directly or indirectly through third-party operatives, quietly encourage people to sign the petitions.] Once Right-to-Work is on the ballot, unions can turn Ohio into World War IV (again).

Regardless of the amount of money Littleton and his associates may make from putting Right-to-Work on Ohio’s ballot, his efforts put the rest of the nation at risk of seeing Barack Obama win Ohio and, as a result, likely re-election. This is something that, hopefully, even Littleton’s presidential pick, Ron Paul, would see the practical ramifications of avoiding if it meant putting Obama back in the White House for four more years.

• Even though Ron Paul has been cagey on stating he would not run as a third-party candidate, his son, Rand Paul, has stated that it would be impractical, knowing that it would ensure an Obama victory. Hopefully, his Ohio supporters are as practical in that regard when it comes to placing Right-to-Work on November’s Ohio ballot.

As the saying goes: “Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” Or, in the case of Ohio, another way to put this is: Forego the battle for now, if it helps you win the war later.

With the nation nearing $16 trillion in debt and owing $117 trillion in unfunded liabilities, despite the legislature in Indiana winning Right to Work, putting a Right-to-Work initiative in Ohio is not worth the risk. Not now. Not this year.

I’ve got no beef with Chris Littleton. The 1851 Center and the Ohio Liberty Council do good work, as brilliantly demonstrated by the success of the Ohio Healthcare Freedom Amendment last November. I don’t expect many people to care about my opinion, but I will not be signing a petition to get Right-to-Work on the 2012 ballot.

Before telling me what a spineless pushover I am, take a few minutes to review my work for Senate Bill 5.

Many suspect the cutoff is linked to the abortion debate. Komen has been under fire by anti-abortion activists, after its connection to the pro-choice organization was publicized.

I’ve ruined the trademark CBS subtlety by marking in bold the network’s refusal to frame the debate as “pro-life” vs. “pro-choice,” or “pro-abortion” vs. “anti-abortion.” Pro-lifers should be glad the reporter didn’t label Live Action and its allies “anti-choice,” I guess!

Unyielding sympathy for Planned Parenthood isn’t limited to fossilized media outlets and your NPR-loving Facebook friends. Many of the senators and representatives up for reelection this fall support abortion so strongly, they’ve voted repeatedly to make you pay for it.

The following Senate incumbents’ races are rated Toss Up or Lean D by The Cook Political Report.

All five of these incumbent Democrat senators are rated 100% by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Among the extreme pro-abortion votes earning Bill Nelson (FL), Claire McCaskill (MO), Sherrod Brown (OH), Debbie Stabenow (MI), and Jon Tester (MT) their perfect Planned Parenthood scores:

• All five voted against SCHIP language which, in Planned Parenthood’s words, “unnecessarily personified the fetus.” March 14, 2008, Allard Amendment to S. Con. Res. 70, Roll Call vote 81
• All five voted against reinstating the Mexico City policy, which – until President Obama abolished it by executive order – prohibited federal funding of foreign abortion providers. January 28, 2009, Martinez Amendment to H.R. 2; Roll Call vote 19
• All five voted against preventing Obamacare from subsidizing abortion coverage. December 8, 2009, Nelson-Hatch Amendment to H.R. 3590, Roll Call vote 369
• All five voted against ending federal funding of Planned Parenthood. April 14th, 2011, H. Con. Res. 36, Roll Call vote 60

With Obamacare looming larger every day, conservative voters must remember what Planned Parenthood is all about – and recognize how far outside the mainstream the group’s enablers are. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is right to stop funneling donations to the nation’s top abortion provider, and it’s past time for Congress to do the same with taxpayer funds.

If you live in Montana, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, or Florida, help make your incumbent Democrat senator’s pro-abortion record known by all!

Sherrod asked President Obama about his plans for a federal manufacturing and energy policy during a February 2010 Democrat meeting:

President Obama knows what’s best, and seems annoyed by the democracy blocking his path. For all his worries of “falling behind” autocratic China in the race to throw money at unmarketable products, we have to wonder how much of the New York Times coverage he was briefed on the week before!

In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.

[...]

As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy.

Emphasis mine. Impromptu poll: Do you think Sherrod Brown or President Obama comprehend how expensive capital is, or realize China’s population and infrastructure are different from ours? Do you think they would cross Big Labor in order to compete with Chinese manufacturing in a meaningful way?

What the average person might call “reality” is only a cloud of pesky details for Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown to wave aside. Green energy is A Good Thing, so taxpayers should happily spend money on green energy while coal & oil companies take their medicine and ask for more. Pipelines are right out. Sure, we’ll lose the occasional half billion or so funding the endeavors of Obama donors, but that’s part of the fun!

If you suffer through the complete hour-and-fifteen session on the White House YouTube channel, you’ll hear both Sherrod and the president mention glowingly Ron Bloom, Obama’s former “Car Czar.” Bloom, instrumental in bringing the UAW out on top of the Chrysler and GM bailouts, is both an SEIU alum and a Mao enthusiast. Forget about the jobs lost to China; the ghost of Chairman Mao draws in Obama appointees like a siren!

In matters of manufacturing and green energy – as with most everything else – Sherrod Brown is a cheerleader for Obama’s worst Progressive tendencies. For a Senate seat the GOP can retake this November, look no further than Ohio!

Cross-posted from Big Government.

[MEA President Iris] Salters joined about 1,000 union members protesting at the state Capitol on Tuesday, saying the bill is “again a way to say to labor, you don’t count. It’s a way to say to employees, get back. I believe it’s just like being in the slave days.”

Why such desperate race-baiting against reforms that would modestly limit public union power? MEA bosses, following the example of higher-ups at the National Education Association, extract a tidy living from their members’ pockets.

Michigan occupational averages are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. MEA staff and officer pay comes from the Department of Labor. While the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers estimate average annual wages in Michigan at $43,280, average pay for MEA staff and officers is $96,373.

Crazy, isn’t it, how angry public unions get about reforms that would threaten their monopoly? MEA bosses must truly care about their underpaid, unappreciated members!

MEA President Iris Salters, quoted above comparing school choice and merit pay to slavery, took $283,280 from Michigan teachers’ paychecks last fiscal year. MEA Public Affairs Director Doug Pratt defended her logic and her threat of an illegal strike:

“MEA will not stand silent while Michigan’s public schools and middle class are under attack,” Pratt said.

“These votes are our way of increasing the awareness and action among our members statewide to stand in defense of our jobs, our rights, and the futures of our students and communities. Should lawmakers fail to end these attack on the people of Michigan, we will not shy away from taking action to stop them.”

Emphasis mine. To be honest, the more I learn about NEA affiliates across the country, the less I worry about my time wasted fighting for Ohio’s union reform bill. Union bosses everywhere seem to be reenacting the same idiotic melodrama!

Meanwhile, 148 of 334 MEA staff and officers are paid six figures. Counting Ms. Salters, the top of the payroll includes 6 people who take more than $200,000 a year from Michigan teachers:

• LUIGI BATTAGLIERI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: $267,367
• ARTHUR PRZYBYLOWICZ, GENERAL COUNSEL: $238,475
• STEVEN COOK, VICE PRESIDENT: $228,799
• THOMAS FERRIS, SOUTHERN ZONE DIRECTOR: $207,525
• GRETCHEN DZIADOSZ, AED UNISERV: $200,869

Public Affairs Director Pratt, standing athwart education reform yelling “STUDENTS,” took $174,879 from Michigan teachers last year.

How did Michigan taxpayers survive before the Michigan Education Association?

NEA calls its political action committee “The NEA Fund for Children & Public Education.” Subtle, right? But NEA doesn’t stop at spending tens of millions on Progressives who will shovel money at public education without demanding reform for broken tenure and compensation policies. The nonpartisan materials on NEA’s member-funded website include, to sample a few recent items:

• Why School Choice Fails
• The ‘Right to Work’ Assault on the Middle Class
• The Case Against Vouchers

Given the union’s claim to stand for Middle Class workers, a casual observer might expect the salaries of NEA officers and staff to resemble the average working stiff’s. That casual observer would be very, very wrong.

Based on the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 90% of full-time private industry workers in America are paid $39.81/hour or less. Assuming a 40-hour week, NEA officers and staff are paid an average of $55.23/hour.

Average annual pay for NEA officers and staff is $114,882, using figures from the union’s most recent filing to the U.S. Department of Labor. NEA bosses preach collectivism while collecting hefty paychecks from members who they insist are underpaid!

You may want to put down any liquids before looking at specifics:

• John Wilson, Executive Director: $492,484
• Dennis Van Roekel, President: $460,060
• Lily Eskelsen, Vice President: $371,904
• John Yrchik, Executive Director: $328,617
• Becky Pringle, Secretary/Treasurer: $325,384

Last year, 44 NEA staff and officers were paid more than $200,000. Out of just over 700 officers and staff, 446 were paid six figures. Review the numbers from the Department of Labor.

If an NEA member ever berates you about the shortcomings of school choice legislation, cut them some slack! Only an Obama strawman says free markets are perfect, but Obama strawmen are the only counterpoints offered in NEA materials. Wait for a pause in the union script, share this info, and ask why forcing kids to attend a school where teachers are forced to fund NEA beats messy individualism!

The National Education Association and its affiliates throughout the country will lie about who they are, reward themselves richly with member dues, and attack anyone who points out the appalling truth. Don’t let selfish NEA posturing dissuade you from fighting for what’s right.

Here are two of the most telling exchanges from the segment, which you can view in its entirety courtesy of YouTube user toddfein:

My favorite part of this clip is Sherrod’s self-contradicting statement, “this isn’t a liberal/conservative, left or right, it’s whose side are you on?” Sherrod is a Progressive, you see, so he’s not divisive – he just wants you to pick a side, and if you pick the wrong side he’s going to demonize you.

As reported in November at Third Base Politics, an Ohio conservative blog I help manage, Sherrod Brown’s campaign site even used the Occupiers’ “stand with the 99%” rhetoric for an email-harvesting web petition. Occupy Wall Street’s whiny demands that government do everything are a perfect match for Sherrod’s pitiful class warfare, and it seems obvious Sherrod had high hopes for the movement.

In an October 2010 USA Today editorial titled “How to fight Tea Party’s faux populism,” Sherrod was less excited about organized protest:

Tea Party populism is driven by anger at our government and at our country. Real populism fights for all Americans, while Tea Party populism divides us.

Republicans have always been good at coming up with catch phrases and slogans that traffic in fear and misinformation.

What changed between 2010 and 2011? Rallies against Obamacare’s unconstitutional overreach – for which Sherrod Brown was the deciding “Yea” vote – were replaced by riots against The Rich. Where is Sherrod’s editorial decrying the rampant violence and hatred we’ve seen from the Occupiers he endorsed on television not 4 months ago

By December, Occupy camps across the country had racked up more than 400 criminal incidents – leading the movement to win coveted Time “Person of the Year” recognition and the illustrious Breitbart “Ambiguous Entity of the Year” award. Last week, even Nancy Pelosi walked back her support for Occupy Wall Street.

Search for evidence of Sherrod Brown’s disapproval, and the best you’ll find is a snarky PolitiFact Ohio hit piece against his Republican opponent, Josh Mandel. As of this writing, Sherrod’s “Stand with the 99%” petition is still online.

It’s odd that Sherrod took to the pages of USA Today to wag a finger at Tea Party anger but is now giving the Occupiers a pass, don’t you think?

For the entire miserable picture, you can watch the full Hardball segment, review the transcript, and read Sherrod’s tea party smear in USA Today. When you’re done, I suspect you may want to send a few bucks to Josh Mandel’s campaign.

Cross-posted from Big Government.