SEIU defends political assault on privacy but clueless on door opened

Update, May 24: We welcome certain organized labor groups visiting our modest website, and hope you benefited from reading this column.

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By Kay B. Day

It might be comical if the actual act hadn’t been so nefarious. After members of the Service Employees International Union showed up at a Bank of America lobbyist’s home, the union website posted a defense of their members’ actions. But the flawed defense rested largely on a character assassination of a columnist who happened to live in the neighborhood. Nina Easton, Washington editor of Fortune, actually had the nerve to ask the so-called ‘protesters’ to leave.

I’d like to point out Easton was apparently the only person in the neighborhood brave enough to confront a mass of people  escorted by police. The presence of law enforcement combined with all those yelping union members who apparently had nothing better to do certainly must have terrified the teenage boy who happened to be home.

Big media missed at least one question that should have been asked.

I am hoping the law enforcement personnel who went along perhaps to ensure the safety of those union members aren’t union members themselves. Did national media even think to ask that question?

Of course SEIU won’t need to be on 24/7 news shows defending their actions--big media loves these guys.

And this organization has a direct pipeline to Washington—former president Andy Stern sits on President Barack Obama’s deficit panel.

Chicago Now sums up the situation at the SEIU house that Andy left: “SEIU has seen its liabilities skyrocket during the past decade. The union's liabilities totaled $7,625,832 in 2000. By 2009, they had increased almost by a factor of 16, to $120,893,259. Meanwhile, SEIU's assets barely tripled, growing from $66,632,631 in 2000 to $187,664,763 in 2009. A significant portion of SEIU's current assets are from IOUs from hard-up locals.”

Various columnists have alleged SEIU’s pension fund is seriously underfunded. The fact Stern is on a commission related to fiscal matters gives an idea of the impact of having an inexperienced leader in the White House.

But what the heck. Stern and Obama are buddies—the door at The White House is always open when a union friend comes knocking. And that knock is recurring; after all, the WH political director “comes from SEIU,” Stern told The Las Vegas Sun.

Though SEIU tried character assassination on Easton, the first dozen or so comments at the union blog railed at members for descending on a private home. But the union can rally members to praise their actions, so things will unbalance out I'm sure in the long run.

Various media said the union also took along a Huffington Post blogger. HuffPo commentary is often packaged as news by Google and other aggregators. Nothing like helping make the news you cover, is there?

Sidenote:  if you’re getting your news from HuffPo, you might want to start getting medical advice from your garbage collector.

Does the SEIU have any idea what they did when they marched on the lobbyist’s home?

What the union did is open a big heavy door to serious potential for civil unrest.

How long will it be before others come up with the idea to descend on homes of federal employees, teachers’ union lobbyists and (the horror!) even SEIU members’ homes? Will angry citizens now march on law enforcement personnel homes? Will dissatisfied patients now march on the homes of nurses whose care came up a bit short in the hospital? Surely you can see the door swinging open here. Demonology is in vogue right now, crafted to a fine art by Democrat strategists.

It’s my personal opinion the SEIU railing against BOA is like the pot calling the kettle black anyway. Does anyone really believe the bank bailouts (partly protecting pension funds) and the socialized healthcare bill (helps with all those retiree healthcare promises) didn’t help the SEIU?

Does anyone really believe the amnesty Obama lusts after won't benefit the SEIU? Look at their membership pools and then come see me when your eyelids flap open.

Repeating for the slow to come around types: the guy in our White House directing the politics “comes from SEIU.”

If anyone should be marching, it should be the taxpayers who get gouged because of impractical benefit packages with a price tag that cannot be sustained except by  GM-type bailouts.

Ironically the SEIU lists locals by region, complete with addresses. I realize this isn’t quite as good as being able to get your hands on Stern’s address, or the addresses of whoever organized the protest that terrified a teenager. But it’s a start.

So should civic minded types be marching on these locals and union organizers’ homes?

Of course not. A legal march on public property is quite acceptable. A march on private property should be off-limits. That’s why it’s called ‘private.’

In my opinion, SEIU has become nothing more than an organization of thugs.

The teen’s father is allegedly a Democrat. I wouldn’t care if he was an anarchist. No group should be able to politically assault the home of a person for any reason. If that’s going to be the standard for political protest, I’d say Andy Stern’s successor may be getting a lot of company she didn’t bargain for.

Stern is proud of the work SEIU did to get Obama elected. He told The Sun: “We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it.”

Our president must be really proud of one of his biggest supporters. Aside from Goldman Sachs, that is.

It takes a lot of guts to terrify a teenager. Congrats to the SEIU thugs for pulling it off.

It appears the union is running our country.