tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985842125194309281.post4600257879347859219..comments2023-02-20T03:24:47.787-05:00Comments on jonathan j prinz / BEYOND ALL THAT: Hiding in plain sight.Jonathan J. Prinzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02298654988875937997noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985842125194309281.post-21252889063600040022010-10-30T20:05:00.000-04:002010-10-30T20:05:00.000-04:00Dear Jonathan,You mention Unions in the opinion pi...Dear Jonathan,<br>You mention Unions in the opinion piece. I had a rather startling eye-opener the other day. In my district there is an excellent Congressman named John Hall. My union's PAC has endorsed him. I asked the Chair to please ask our attorneys if "Citizens United" now enabled us to give to Congressman Hall to counteract the thousands upon thousands being funneled to his opponent. We as a local in an international union have to coordinate our giving with the international to fit under a rather strict ceiling. The total given by all locals and the international together can not exceed that ceiling. All of the news about "Citizens United" includes unions as being unleashed along with corporations. Our attorneys told us "no" we could not give freely. We still had to operate under the old rules. So the reality is, if you are a corporation and have $1,000,000 to give to the GOP Governors Committee, you are free to do so, but if you are a small Local with $5,000 to give to Congressman Hall to pay for signage, you may well be out of luck.<br>The tragedy is not just that the playing field has been tilted even farther into the Corporate realm, but that the media are painting the picture so that the public is mis-lead once again about the relative strength of labor against management. Labor has once again taken it on the chin while the "news" media are reporting it to be "fair and balanced."<br>Always a pleasure to read your stuff.<br>Daniel Dashmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6985842125194309281.post-31625178657111331012010-10-30T17:45:09.000-04:002010-10-30T17:45:09.000-04:00intersstinginterssting<br>Sdombeyhttp://profile.typepad.com/sdombeynoreply@blogger.com