Queen Meg’s Crown Jewels and Other Items Up for Auction
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You can own a piece of royal history, or even better, give a little something from the Queen herself as a holiday gift. Slow down, we’re not talking about some stuffy old English monarchial memorabilia. We’re talking about the one and only U.S.-born Queen Meg.
Surely you remember Queen Meg, the California Nurses Association’s (CNA’s) satirical imperial parody of free-spending billionaire Meg Whitman and her failed bid to buy California’s governorship.
The good queen has graciously donated some of her most prized possessions for a Royal Holiday Auction to benefit the Nicky Diaz Legal Defense Fund. Diaz is Whitman’s former housekeeper who worked for Whitman for nine years. She says Whitman knew she was undocumented for several years before Whitman fired her shortly before she announced her candidacy in 2009.
Wall Street Journal Profiles Calif. Nurses’ Political Success
The California Nurses Association’s (CNA‘s) summer and fall battle to defeat Meg “Wall Street” Whitman’s bid for the California governorship and elect Jerry Brown, got the attention of the Wall Street Journal.
In a recent profile, the Bible of business news called the CNA, “One of California’s most powerful political players.”
The CNA isn’t one of the biggest unions, but is considered one of the more effective. Its tactics are high-profile and often theatrical, with the union typically directing nurses to hound politicians. For example, CNA conceived the idea of hiring an actress to portray Ms. Whitman as “Queen Meg,” and to show up at campaign appearances around the state to parody her as monarchal.
Workers Getting Out the Vote as Election Clock Ticks
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There are only three days to go before an election fueled by the largest-ever recorded amount of secret corporate campaign contributions along with tens of millions of dollars from wealthy extremists and anti-worker Republican candidates. But for workers and their unions, it’s always been about people power, says Gerry Kelly, business manager of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 22 in Omaha, Neb. (see video).
It’s the time to rally our members, get them to the polls to continue to send a message that we can make a difference. We have phone banking….We also do canvassing of neighborhoods. It’s our members contacting our members.
Union activists and leaders around the nation are doing the same thing in these last few days before Nov. 2 to mobilize union family voters in vital races across the nation.
Californians Urged to Vote and Avoid a ‘Meg Moment’
One of the worse things that could happen next Wednesday would be for Californians to wake up and find out they’re having a “Meg Moment”—the awful realization that you should have voted, but didn’t.
To make sure Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman doesn’t buy the election after spending $163 million of her own money, the California Labor Federation has launched a new TV ad urging Californians to “Protect Yourself from a Meg Moment” by voting. The ad uses Whitman’s own words to expose her failure to vote for much of her adult life, while at the same time urging people to get to the polls.
The ad is part of the state federation’s largest-ever get out the vote (GOTV) mobilization effort supporting Jerry Brown for governor, Sen. Barbara Boxer and other working family candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Whitman Makes Money the ‘Old-Fashioned Way’—Tax Breaks for the Rich
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One thing you’ve got to say about Meg Whitman, California’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, she sure knows how to make money. She amassed more than a billion dollars despite a not-so-shining track record as CEO of eBay, board member of Goldman Sachs and other corporate stops.
Now, she stands to add to that fortune and maybe replenish her personal coffers after dumping some $141.6 million of her own money into her campaign to buy the election.
One of her cornerstone economic proposals is the elimination of California’s capital gains tax. If elected and able to abolish the tax that mainly benefits the mega-wealthy, Whitman could net some $40 million during a four-year term as governor, according to a new report. Now that’s making money the old-fashioned Republican way—tax breaks for the super rich.
Union Activists Counter Unprecedented Election Cash from Corporations, Front Groups
West Virginia Fire Fighters (IAFF), California Ironworkers and Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and AFGE members across the country are fighting back against the hundreds of millions of dollars Republicans, corporations and phony front groups are pouring into the November elections.
In West Virginia, you’ll remember that a Republican TV ad for multimillionaire and mostly Florida resident John Raese’s campaign for the U.S. Senate used actors—encouraged to come to the auditions looking “hicky” in trucker caps and flannel shirts—to portray West Virginians.
The outcry over that condescending slap in the face to real West Virginia voters forced the National Republican Senatorial Committee to pull the ad last week. Now, some IAFF members who are real West Virginians are on the air (see video) backing Gov. Joe Manchin (D). In a commercial airing around the Mountain State, Mark Roberts, a Dunbar firefighter (IAFF Local 1228 member), says:
Joe Manchin doesn’t hire Philadelphia actors to play hicks in his ads. We need a real West Virginian to fight for us in the U.S. Senate.
IAFF President Harold Schaitberger says the Raese ad was offensive:
We didn’t have to ship in East Coast actors who pretend to support Joe because West Virginia is filled with firefighters who are proud to support him. West Virginians realize that Joe Manchin has been a fantastic governor, and they also understand that his legacy of service provides evidence that he will be an even better senator.
As Part of One Nation, Union Members Mobilize to Get Out the Vote
While tens of thousands of union members were marching for jobs and economic justice on 10-2-10 in One Nation Working Together rally in Washington, D.C., thousands of their brothers and sisters across the country were knocking on union family doors and volunteering to get out the vote for 11-2-10.
In Ohio, union families in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton fanned out in neighborhoods spreading the word that Nov. 2 is about jobs and the candidates who will fight for jobs to rebuild the economy–candidates like Ted Strickland for governor, Lee Fisher for U.S. Senate and Betty Sutton for U.S. House.
Along with organizing a 28-bus convoy to One Nation, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO launched a Day of Door Knocking Action around the state where several hundred union volunteers spent part of their Saturday visiting union households to communicate with their co-workers, friends and neighbors about working family issues.
In California, union members distributed fliers outlining the Wall Street/corporate platform of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
Kentucky working families were out in force for U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway who is running strong campaign against Tea Party-backed Republican Rand Paul and Paul’s platform to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare.
For more on Labor 2010, click here.
Fiorina, Whitman Hold Their Tea Parties in Private
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California Republican candidates Meg Whitman, for governor, and Carly Fiorina, for the U.S. Senate, share many traits. They are both mega-wealthy CEOs with job-killing records. While they portray themselves as competent, sensible and reasonable business women, both are really anti-worker corporate cutthroats who embrace the extreme right-wing agenda that’s taking over the Republican Party this fall.
Another thing they share: concerted efforts to keep their connections and meetings with the radical Tea Party out of the public eye—especially the eyes of moderate voters. But thanks to Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle, California voters know with whom and where they are sipping the Tea Party’s Kool-Aid.
Nurses to Whitman: ‘Women Vote for Women Who Vote!’
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More than 1,500 people, including many women in early 20th century fashion, marched and rallied in Sacramento yesterday to mark the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote.
The rally, sponsored by the California Nurses Association (CNA), also spotlighted how Republican gubernatorial candidate, billionaire CEO Meg Whitman, hasn’t exercised that right during most of her adult life. She has admitted her voting history is “atrocious.”
Susan Segal, a nurse at Oakland Children’s Hospital, told the San Francisco Chronicle:
Not only did she not bother to vote, but then she has the chutzpah to want us to vote for her.
Corporate Scandals No Bar to Campaign Cash for Whitman
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Who says opposites attract? Two billionaire CEOs—California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and her deep-pocket angel, Henry Samueli—are pretty darn cozy. Both their companies have been targets of federal investigations, which looked into whether they were engaged in the same kind of shady Wall Street dealings that drove the economy into meltdown.
Last night, Samueli held a Whitman fundraiser at his beachside Corona Del Mar mansion, where $50,000 bought you four tickets to an “intimate” and “private” dinner with Whitman, four “photo opportunities” and eight tickets to a cocktail reception. For the more budget-minded, a mere $25,900 scored you two dinner tickets, two photo-ops and six cocktail tickets.
