Goonism

Hipped by the Local Liberty Blog, check this sterling example of collective bargaining per the indispensable Michelle Malkin: UNION THUGS UNHINGED.  "...Whipping the crowd into a frenzy was none other than (Assembly) Speaker Fabian Nunez, who was a featured speaker at the rally in Pershing Square."  There was absolutely no mention of this incident in the MSM today, excepting the Channel 9 clip that apparently was provided by the CRP.

And also from Local Liberty, not the worst idea you'll hear today in Cracking Down on Employers of Illegals:

Conor Friedersdorf proposes an equivalent of the Minutemen for employers of illegals. See his Beyond Borders Blog and regular columns in the Daily Bulletin.

Work site arrests dropped 83 percent between 1999 and 2003, according to the Government Accountability Office. Over roughly the same period, fines issued to employers fell from 427 citations in 1999 to just three citations during fiscal 2004!

Comments

[R.A.]

I saw the video of the lone, female, conservative demonstrator making a point to push and stand at the front of a large and obviously union related rally. Come on.

The women was a plant, she was looking for trouble from the union rally attendees and she got the fifteen minutes of fame that she wanted in order to make the unions attendees look bad.

There is no way that this wasn't a set-up and there is no way that she needed to press forward into the crowd of those in opposition to her message in order to make her point.

She wanted to make trouble and she got it from the union rally attendees.

[Union member]

I watched the viddeo 3-4 times, she was not invited, and then she pushed her way in to force her view on the crowd. Sorry, they did not try to hit, they were trying to keep her off camera. The guy did steal her cap, but she got it back. If she wanted to speak her mind then she should have had her own ralley, instead of trying to b reak into that one. She has the right to her point of virew and her free speech, but guess what, so did the MAJORITY of those she was attacking with her words. So, do we stop the majority or the loaner? The uninvited loaner.

She got exaclty what she wanted- 15 minutes.

[Roastedredpeppers]

Two minutes of hate for the evil, arch-villain Emmanuel Goldstein.

[AlexB]

I watched the video - amazing. Especially when the 'security' staff is ripping up the Vote Yes signs.

Check it out in Jon Fleishman's comments at www.flashreport.org.

[Gustavo Arellano]

Gilchrist said he would expand his Minuteman Project into the corporate boardroom when I interviewed him--what happened?

[Union Dude]

Especially when the 'security' staff is ripping up the Vote Yes signs.

I don't think the securithy staffer ripping her signs means anything. If anything, she was protecting...her signs made her a big target. She (Arnold's gal) was likely a plant and should not have been in the middle of the mix. I doubt she'll sign up for that job again.

I did check out Fleishman's page but I don't see anything new. I did notice that the OC Register is reporting that Arnold is now blaming the republicans for his failing administration (Schwarzenegger said that "Democrats and Republicans alike" are responsible for soaring debt in Sacramento "but they won't do anything about it.")

I wonder what the republican leadership thinks of their early endorsement for Gov now?

[Jason]

I don't think the securithy [sic] staffer ripping her signs means anything. If anything, she was protecting

Are you serious? Did you watch the video and see the look on her face? She was pissed off, tore those signs with gusto, threw them down to the floor with in-your-face bravado, and walked away. Didn't look to me like she had the "Vote Yes" lady's safety in mind.

If she wanted to speak her mind then she should have had her own ralley [sic], instead of trying to b reak into that one.

Oh, you mean like the CTA members should have done when they interrupted a press conference (the one with the speech by Tom McClintock) about the lawsuit started by the handful of teachers over this year's arbitrary dues increase? Did they go have their own rally, or did they try to drown out the organizers of the event with their own shouting, etc.?

How quickly we forget, when the shoe is on the other foot.

[Jason]

Speaking of goonism, via National Review comes a story of a teacher (Fountain Valley School District's 2004 Teacher of the Year) who in a September 2005 LA Times interview characterized Prop. 75 as "a freedom-of-choice issue" "so simple, my Kindergarten children understand it. Ask permission." The result? A scathing letter (anonymous of course, signed "Four Pro-union teachers who think you and the governor and the Republican party stink" and delivered to her school mailbox) that, after tangentially going on and on about national politics and how America has become greedy, called for her "to be bitch slapped in public by all the teachers you work with for demonstrating such a high level of right wing drivel and stupidity." Wow. Gotta love the inclusion and tolerance displayed by those wonderfully generous union members, eh?

In contrast, Judith Liegmann, one of the litigants in September's suit to get back that $60/year dues increase, received this letter from another staff member at her own Sunnyvale school, voicing her support for the freedom the Prop. 75 supporters are trying to achieve and exhorting her to "keep up the good fight."