A note from Garnet92: all parts of this series of articles are long. It’s unfortunate, but necessary. The posts could easily be much longer since there is that much worthwhile information available. I have tried to pare the voluminous data down to the most salient points, but some will feel that there is simply too much to read and skip these pieces. In that case, so be it. However, to those who really want to be informed, you will not get the complete picture without expending some effort.

This is the fourth in a series of articles exposing some little known information about the inner workings of our opposition – the liberal left. In the first three articles, Pesky Truth presented the most influential individuals, the funding sources (foundations, etc.) that provide the money for the liberal groups, followed by a post that concentrated on ACORN.

This piece will highlight other liberal groups that seek to overthrow our Constitution and establish a Socialistic government that eliminates capitalism and (supposedly) provides a Utopia for everyone. This installment includes SEIU, The Shadow Party, and HCAN.

Remember that the players are highlighted in bold RED, the funds, organizations, or groups are highlighted in bold BLUE, and big bucks they throw around are in bold GREEN.

Service Employees International Union

Why is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) leading this group presentation? Because they contributed more to left-leaning 527 groups than any other funding source over the last three elections. Those 527 recipients were political organizations that channeled money to democratic candidates, PACs (political action committees), and other liberal groups. 527s are so named by referring to the section of the U.S. tax code (Section 527) that controls their operation.

Look at these SEIU contributions:

·         2004: $47,695,646

·         2006: $28,212,510

·         2008: $34,534,324

That’s $110,442,480 spent by SEIU over three elections. The SEIU was the top contributor to 527s in 2006 and 2008.

This looks like a bona fide miracle – all of those janitorial members, those healthcare workers, the government employees – hardly the highest paid workers in the country, somehow managed to contribute over $110 million dollars to leftist causes – it’s like the loaves and fishes all over again!

The SEIU story began in 1921, when members of seven small janitor unions dared to dream that they could build their political strength by forming a single organization, the Building Service Employees International Union.  The BSEIU, a union of mostly immigrant workers chartered by the then-AFL, changed its name to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1968. Chicago-based Local 1, SEIU's first local union, is still organizing janitors and security officers today.

SEIU's membership has grown from 625,000 in 1980 to more than 2 million todayacross the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) ranks among the largest and fastest-growing unions in North America. It has more than 300 local affiliates and 25 state councils. Giving voice to its wish to radically transform an American society that it deems rife with inequity, SEIU's mission is "to improve the lives of workers and their families and create a more just and humane society." Classifying Women and minorities as the most aggrieved victims of discrimination and maltreatment, SEIU notes that 56 percent of its members are women and 40 percent are "people of color."

SEIU members work primarily in three service industry "divisions":

Healthcare:As America's largest union of health care workers, SEIU represents more than 900,000 caregivers and hospital employees, including  some 110,000 nurses and 40,000 doctors in public, private, and non-profit medical institutions.

Public Services:The second largest union of public service employees, SEIU represents over 1,000,000 local and state government workers, public school employees, bus drivers, and childcare providers.

Property Services:SEIU is the largest property services union, with 225,000 workers who clean, maintain, and protect commercial and residential office buildings.

The current President of SEIU is the former New Leftist Andrew Stern, who advanced to the Union's top post in 1996 when his predecessor, John Sweeney, became President of the AFL-CIO.  At the outset of his tenure with SEIU, Stern told his members that he expected "every leader at every level of this union - from the international President to the rank-and-file member - to devote five working days this year to political action

In effect, this was a mandate for those union leaders to work in support of the Democratic Party. Stern also sits on the Executive Committee of America Coming Together, a Democratic Party auxiliary funded by George Soros. Moreover, SEIU is a major component of the so-called "Shadow Party," a nationwide network of more than five-dozen unions, nonprofit activist groups, and think tanks whose agendas are ideologically far left, and which are engaged in campaigning for the Democrats. Designated as a "527 organization", SEIU is not required to register as a "political organization" with the Federal Election Commission, and consequently may collect as much ”soft money" as it wishes, with no limits on how much it may receive from individuals or corporations. This money, in turn, is funneled to Democratic candidates, political action committees, and other "527" groups pursuing similar agendas.   

After Howard Dean dropped out of the Presidential race in early 2004, Andrew Stern played a major role in persuading the Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, to pick Senator John Edwards as his running mate. As of June 2004, SEIU had already committed $65,000,000  towards defeating incumbent President George W. Bush in that year's November election. The money was used to finance voter registration drives, voter "education" initiatives, get-out-the-vote campaigns, and the efforts of some 2,000 political organizers working full-time against President Bush in 17 key battleground states. Moreover, the Union pledged to supply 50,000 "volunteers" from its membership rolls just prior to, and on, Election Day.

SEIU's membership growth is heavily dependent on the public (i.e., government) sector, where 37.2 percent of employees are currently unionized (as compared to only 8.2 percent of private sector workers). Since the middle of the twentieth century, union membership in the private sector has declined by more than 80 percent. Only in the public sector, have unions grown during this period. Because this is precisely the niche in which SEIU dwells, the Union has a vested interest in helping to elect Democratic leftists who will press to make government ever-larger, so that it can produce an ever-increasing number of union-dues-paying jobs for welfare workers, socialized medicine healthcare workers, Medicare nursing home workers and the like.

SEIU has also taken a stand on matters of national security: In 2004, the Union endorsed the Civil Liberties Restoration Act, which was designed to roll back, in the name of protecting civil liberties, vital national-security policies (such as the Patriot Act) that had been adopted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is clearly an extreme left position since SEIU members would be expected to benefit from a secure America just like any other citizen, regardless of skin color or political affiliation.

Finally, here is an example of the power of the SEIU union. Based on contributing more than $33 million to the Obama campaign, you can imagine the clout that they must have with B. Hussein. Now that you know that, you’re ready to consider the following:

Political retribution? Purchased influence? You be the judge.

And here’s an SEIU-related update (August 2, 2009): as this is written, SEIU Local 1000 in California has authorized a strike if Governor Schwarzenegger doesn’t rescind a monthly three-day furlough that reduces state worker’s pay by 15%. The SEIU has 95,000 members in state government in California. The legislation that includes the furlough closed a $24 billion budget gap.

And a later August 7^th update: Guess who we find “defending” the Obamacare proponents at the Town Meetings? SEIU members sporting their purple SEIU t-shirts. In one case, at Russ Carnahan’s event in St. Louis, the SEIU thugs were allowed entry into the meeting hall through a secondary door before ordinary citizens were allowed in (through the front door). They occupied the front half of the hall which reportedly had a 250-person occupant limit before opening the doors to a crowd of about 1,000 taxpayers who were clamoring to get into the meeting. Obviously, they were there in numbers to offset the citizens who were expected to engage in lively debate with Rep. Carnahan. Over 800 peaceful anti-healthcare-plan protestors were excluded from the meeting.

SEIU thugs were again trying to intimidate citizen protestors. One black conservative man was attacked by four SEIU thugs and sent to the hospital. Three SEIU men, all three were wearing purple SEIU t-shirts and one women attacked Kenneth Gladney for handing out conservative items while black. Here’s a link to the complete story on Hot Air:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/08/07/photos-and-video-carnahan-event-in-st-louis/

THIS from the Community-Organizer-in-Chief. Isn’t it ironic that he is now against opposition communities organizing?

The Shadow Party

The so-called "Shadow Democratic Party," or "Shadow Party," is a nationwide network of more than five-dozen unions, non-profit activist groups, and think tanks whose agendas are ideologically to the left and which are engaged in campaigning for Democrats. Activities include fundraising, get-out-the-vote drives, political advertising, opposition research, and media manipulation. The Shadow Party was conceived and organized principally by George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Harold Ickes -- all identified with the Democratic Party left.

Who first coined the term "Shadow Party?" In the November 5, 2002 Washington Post, writer Thomas B. Edsall wrote of "shadow organizations" springing up to circumvent the McCain-Feingold's soft money ban. Journalist Lorraine Woellert first called the Democrat network a "shadow party" in a September 15, 2003 Business Week article titled, "The Evolution of Campaign Finance?" Other journalists quickly followed suit.

Wall Street billionaire George Soros is the Shadow Party's principal founder and mastermind. Clear hints of Soros' intentions began to appear as early as the 2000 election. It was then that Soros (shouldering about one-third of the cost) sponsored the so-called "Shadow Conventions." Organized by author, columnist, and socialite Arianna Huffington, the Shadow Conventions were media events designed to lure news crews from the real party conventions that year. Huffington held her "Shadow Conventions" at the same time and in the same cities as the Republican and Democratic Conventions, in Philadelphia and Los Angeles respectively, and featured leftwing critics of mainstream politics. The Shadow Conventions promoted Huffington's view that neither Democrats nor Republicans served the interests of the American people any longer. In Huffington's view, U.S. politics needed a third force to break the deadlock.

The Shadow Conventions were purely symbolic affairs. They fielded no candidates for office. However, many of Soros' activities during the 2000 campaign went beyond symbolism. It was during the 2000 election that Soros first experimented with raising campaign funds through Section 527 groups. In preparation for the 2000 election, Soros assembled a team of wealthy Democrat donors to help him push two of his pet issues -- gun control and marijuana legalization. Their donations greatly exceeded the limits on political contributions stipulated by campaign finance laws. Soros therefore laundered their contributions through Section 527 groups - dubbed "stealth PACs," by the media of that time.

As of August 2004, the husband-wife team of George and Susan Soros had contributed $13,120,000 to Shadow Party groups and operations, second only to Soros' longtime friend and collaborator, insurance mogul Peter Lewis ($14,175,000). The third leading donor was Jane Fonda ($13,085,750), followed by Hollywood producer Stephen Bing in fourth place ($9,869,014). Other major funders of the Shadow Party include the Tides Foundation and the Open Society Institute. 

During the 1990s, Soros had grown close to Bill and Hillary Clinton. In Hillary, Soros discovered an ideological soulmate. Mrs. Clinton shared his aversion to U.S. "hegemony." Like Soros, she sought to subordinate U.S. interests to global interests; U.S. sovereignty to global government; U.S. law to global courts; U.S. wealth to global taxation; and U.S. productivity to a scheme for global income redistribution. She also shared Soros' hostility to Israel. Soros and Mrs. Clinton formed a friendship based upon their mutual beliefs. When the Clintons left office, Soros dedicated himself to restoring Hillary to the White House. 

At the heart of the American Shadow Party is the Center for American Progress (CAP). It was launched on July 7, 2003 as the American Majority Institute. The name was changed to Center for American Progress on September 1, 2003. The official purpose of the Center was to provide the left with a new think tank of its own.

Hillary Clinton tries to minimize the depth of her involvement with the Center for American Progress. But persistent press leaks confirm that she - and not its official President, John Podesta - has ultimate authority at CAP. "It's the official Hillary Clinton think tank," an inside source confided to Christian Bourge of United Press International. It's not completely wrong to see it as a shadow government, a kind of Clinton White-House-in-exile - or a White House staff in readiness for President Hillary Clinton."

To develop the Shadow Party as a cohesive entity, Harold Ickes undertook the task of building a 21st-century version of the Left's traditional alliance of the "oppressed," the disgruntled, and the "disenfranchised." He formed a coalition of pro-abortion activists, leftwing minority groups and leftwing labor unions. By the time Ickes was done, he had created or helped to create six new groups, and had co-opted a seventh called MoveOn.org. Together, they constitute the administrative core of the Shadow Party. They are: America Coming Together; America Votes; the Center for American Progress; Joint Victory Campaign 2004; The Media Fund; MoveOn.org; and the Thunder Road Group.

The Thunder Road Group (TRG) is the strategic nerve center of the Shadow Party. Founded in early 2004 by Jim Jordan, an attorney with a long track record as a Democrat "spin doctor," it is headquartered at 888 Sixteenth Street NW in Washington, DC. It coordinates strategy for the Media Fund, America Coming Together (ACT), and America Votes, all of whom lease space in the same building. TRG is a political consultancy that combines the roles of strategic planning, polling, opposition research, covert operations, and public relations. It is through TRG that the Shadow Party formulates its plans, dispatches orders to the network, and presents its public face to the world. "[The Thunder Road Group] is an operation unlike any other in politics, devising strategy, message, and public relations services for the 527s," writes The Boston Globe.

In a November 11, 2003 interview with Laura Blumenfeld of the Washington Post, George Soros described how he had jump-started the Shadow Party in the summer of 2002. The Wall Street billionaire told how he summoned a team of political strategists, activists and Democrat donors to his Southampton beach house in Long Island. According to The Washington Post, attendees included: Morton H. Halperin (Director of Soros' Open Society Institute); John Podesta (Democrat strategist and former Clinton chief of staff); Carl Pope (ACT co-founder, Democrat strategist, environmentalist, and Sierra Club Executive Director); Steve Rosenthal (Labor leader, CEO of America Coming Together, former chief advisor on union matters to Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, former Deputy Political Director under DNC chairman Ron Brown, and AFL-CIO Political Director from 1996 - 2002); Peter Lewis (major Democrat donor and insurance entrepreneur, and founder and chairman of Progressive Corporation); Rob Glaser (major Democrat donor and Silicon Valley pioneer); Ellen Malcolm (co-founder and president of ACT and founder of Emily's List); Rob McKay (major Democrat donor, Taco Bell heir, and McKay Family Foundation President; Lewis and Dorothy Cullman (major Democrat donors, and founders of the Lewis and Dorothy Cullman Foundation in New York).

At the 2002 meeting, Soros laid out his plan to defeat President Bush. He began implementing his plan even before the meeting had adjourned. Before coffee the next morning, Soros had secured pledges amounting to almost $27,000,000, and the Shadow Party was born.

New groups are constantly being formed in the Shadow Party, while others vanish. To determine how many groups exist in the Shadow Party at any given time is difficult. Even more daunting is trying to determine the purpose of each group. In some cases, groups seem to have no function other than to transfer funds from one 527 to another to obscure the money trail.

As of 2004, a partial list of Shadow Party groups included the following:

Air America Radio

America Coming Together 

America Votes

AFL-CIO

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

Association of Trial Lawyers of America

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Center for American Progress

Communication Workers of America

Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

EMILY's List

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Media Fund

Media Matters for America 

Million Mom March

Moving America Forward

MoveOn.org

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

NARAL Pro-Choice America

National Education Association (NEA)

People for the American Way

Planned Parenthood

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Sierra Club

Thunder Road Group

Note: not all listings contain hyperlinks

Health Care for America Now (HCAN)

Ordinarily, I would not have included this one as it is relatively new among the leftist groups. But, as the name implies, it has been created as an advocacy group to press for “Obamacare.”

What is Health Care for America Now (HCAN)? The following is from HCAN’s website:

“Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is a national grassroots campaign of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people dedicated to winning quality, affordable health care we all can count on in 2009. Our organization and principles are supported by President Obama, Vice President Biden, and more than 190 Members of Congress. [Ed note: that is reason enough to distrust this group.]

We are building a national movement to win comprehensive health care reform by helping mobilize people in their communities to lobby their U.S. Senators and Representatives in Congress to stand up to the insurance companies and other special interest groups to achieve quality, affordable health care in 2009.”  

Our Steering Committee includes: ACORN, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Campaign for Community Change, Children’s Defense Fund Action Council, Communications Workers of America, International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), MoveOn.org, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, National Education Association, National Women’s Law Center, SEIU, UFCW, USAction, Women's Voices, Women's Vote and Working America.

Check out their “steering committee,” those like-minded groups form a who’s who of left-wing liberal organizations.

According to Michelle Malkin, HCAN was expected to march on Capitol Hill sometime this August. She notes that they won’t have to march very far since they’re headquartered at 1825 K Street in Washington, DC — smack dab in the middle of Beltway lobby land.

MoveOn, of course, is the recreational political vehicle of radical liberal sugar daddy George Soros. The magnate’s financial fingerprints are all over the HCAN coalition, which includes MoveOn, the action fund of the Center for American Progress (a Soros think tank), and the Campaign for America’s Future (a pro-welfare state lobbying outfit).

Indeed, HCAN includes all of the aforementioned groups, plus the AFL-CIO, ACORN and more. HCAN is conducting a joint campaign with Organizing for America (OFA), the Democratic National Committee-run vestiges of President Obama’s campaign. The astroturf has been on public display at events like Pres. Obama’s healthcare town hall meeting in Northern Virginia, where all of the live questions came from members of SEIU, HCAN, and OFA. Heading into the August recess, the White House and the Congressional Democratic Leadership are working in close coordination with outside groups, including but not limited to, HCAN, Families USA, AFSCME, SEIU, and AARP.

In July, Obama hosted a White House citizen town hall that featured three face-to-face questions. The lucky three? One was a member of HCAN, a second was a worker for the Virginia Organizing Project (which coordinates trips and forums with HCAN), and the third was a woman from SEIU. If they’re green and leafy, they must be plants, eh?

And these people like to call themselves “grassroots.” The more proper term (coined by democrat Lloyd Bensen of Texas in 1985) is “Astroturf.”

~~~

Much of the preceding information was gathered from Discover The Networks – a website that has the most comprehensive gathering of information imaginable about people and organizations that promote liberal causes. Here’s the link: DiscoverTheNetworks.org.

Some additional information is from: http://www.basicsproject.org/american_fifth_column/organizations_agencies/organizations_agencies.htm

http://www.seiu.org/

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/04/obamacare-the-grassroots-are-always-greener/