Billionaire Obama Donors Fighting Obama Legislation

bloomberg.com:

Three Chicago billionaires who helped fund President Barack Obama's election campaign are fighting legislation he backs that would make it easier for unions to organize hotels they own.

Penny Pritzker, Obama's campaign finance chairwoman and a director of Global Hyatt Corp., has told the president she is opposed to the measure, known as card check, said a person familiar with the situation. Neil Bluhm, a partner in Walton Street Capital LLC, also opposes the bill, the person said. Lester Crown, chairman of Henry Crown & Co., criticized the proposal in an interview.

Read the whole story: bloomberg.com

Comments

[American50]

GE owns your obama

[Carolab]

Superior Bank suffered as a result of its former high-risk business strategy, which was focused on the generation of significant volumes of subprime mortgage and automobile loans for securitization and sale in the secondary market. OTS found that the bank also suffered from poor lending practices, improper record keeping and accounting, and ineffective board and management supervision.”

George Kaufman, a finance professor at Loyola University Chicago called Superior's failure "a tale of gross mismanagem­ent...enga­ged in relatively unethical practices, fancy-footwork accounting, playing it very close to the edge."

Kaufman says many share in the blame for the mess-the bank's managers, directors, and auditors, as well as banking regulators-but he also wonders how the PRITZKERS, as co-owners, could have allowed it to happen. "One of the great mysteries to me is what the PRITZKERS were up to, why they took these chances," he said. "It makes no sense given their wealth and visibility."

In December 2001, the PRITZKERS agreed to pay a record $460 million to the federal government to avoid being punished for the failure of Superior.

In 2002 uninsured depositors filed federal class-action charges under the RICO Act against one-time board chairwoman Penny Pritzker, her cousin Thomas Pritzker, Dworman, other bank principals and Ernst & Young. Plaintiffs’ attorney Clint Krislov claimed that those who controlled Superior induced depositors to put money in the bank, “corruptly” funneling money out of the bank to “fraudulently” profit the owners.

(wiki)

[WorkingClass]

Unions have their place and soon we will cram them down the throats of our corporate masters. But corporate rule will not be overthrown until we have an American Labor Party. SOLIDARITY is the power that will give us back our country.

[lastpost]

Why not set up a set-term trial in one particular region? That way the potential outcome of this act could be better understood and assessed. And full scale introduction abandoned, or additional measures incorporated, as deemed necessary.

[cardineau]

Influential (large) political donors contribute to whom they consider will be the winner. They do this expecting a return on investment in the form of biased legislation. Sometimes it doesn't work out.

[jeanrenoir]

Fortunately, Obama demonstrated in '08 a new kind of politics, one based on charisma and the Net, in which the politician becomes uniquely free of the interference of large donors by being able to crush rich people opposing him by getting so much money from the "little people" on the Net that the rich become irrelevant. THIS was the truly revolutionary significance of Obama, even greater than the racial angle, and, potentially even better for our national politics than electing a black man, wonderful as that obviously was. Obama's innovation in funding (building on Howard Dean) is especially important for the way it gives him unique freedom to still AIPAC if necessary, as every president since Reagan has been totally incapable of doing, since they were all bought by large conservative Jewish donors.

[v eyepete]

Owners must realize that their company is nowhere without the workers. The workers do the work and should get a piece of the pie for doing so, not just crumbs or what falls on the floor. The workers in America need to realize this as well, and unite and stop selling each other out. Many people fought and died or were brutally beaten in the 1930's for anyone to have any workers rights. They had much to lose, but yet they had the courage to stand up against the employer overlords. Their sacrifice needs to be respected and the slave mentality of some must be washed out of the minds of the ignorant who want everyone else to be that way. You make the company successful, you deserve a piece of the pie, which would be a life that more than just sustains you and your family. This way everyone profits not just the rich owner. Workers of America Unite and wake up!

[TxAggie]

The workers "deserve a piece of the pie"? For what , for coming to work and getting paid? Have the workers put up the risk capital, did they come up with the idea, are they responsible if the business fails? do these considerations not enter into the picture?

[ladylove114]

Love you, TxAggie. I could not agree more with your post.

[don]

Put your risk capital on the floor next to a carton and ask it to move the carton across the room. You may be investing your capital, but the worker invests his life and energy. Money is a tool, the real wealth of the nation lies in the work done by the worker. It really is time that you realize that the most valuable asset a company has is the people that actually do the work and bring those ideas into tangible reality.

[FGDinVA]

"...for coming to work and getting paid?"

Wow. You left out the part about "working their asses off." This explains so much about what is wrong with so many businesses in this country. They see the people doing the work as a liability instead of an asset.

Small Business Rules:
1. Pay minimum wage
2. Offer no health insurance
3. Remind workers that they are expendable at every opportunity
4. Blame the under-paid, untrained, expendable workers for your company's failure

[randman2009]

Come on Penny. Did you honestly expect an ignorant liberal socialist with no experience in the private sector like Barry to do anything remotely pro business? You should have know better. You will reap what you have sown.

[Dustee]

Are you Joe-the-plummer? You appear to be one of the ig.norant right wingnut.

[entrenchedhoosier]

In the 24 years that I was a member of an AFL/CIO union local, I do not recall any endorsement a of a republican candidate for national office.
Apparently, these people saw the possibility of a pay to play scenario, in the 2008 election race.

They should have place their bet on Mustang McCain or Palomino Palin.

[HMDMSR]

What's wrong with AFL/CIO paying to play?

[entrenchedhoosier]

Nothing.

I don't recall my union local supporting, by whatever means, the anti-union political party ( the republicans).
So why would these anti-union management donors support, by whatever means, the pro-union party (the democrats)?

They supported the opposition.

Bad Choice.
Caught between a rock and a hard place.

[quiviran]

Probably so. It's Chicago.

[Dustee]

heh, There's a Chicago in every town. Don't fool yourself.

[C0Y0TE2]

bloomberg.com IS NOT A T R U S T E D SOURCE

Note the Swine Flu story - as quoted below - that Bloomberg.com posted (where president Obama's Mexican greeter died the next day of flu-like symptoms) was never retracted, explained, nor confirmed.

If bloomberg is so irresponsible with what it publishes, WE CANNOT TRUST ANYTHING THEY POST.

bloomberg.com: “The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archaeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEsNownABJ6Q&refer=home
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­------
bloomberg.com IS NOT A TRUSTED SOURCE
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­------

[v eyepete]

Thanks for the heads up. I will keep this in mind and recheck anything I read there. I am appalled at the low honor and honesty of journalism in general these days. What the heck happened!

[Halfwit]

I am tired of this argument so let me state that in my state, the primaries are run by the parties, not the state.

[Halfwit]

And let me repeat that primaries are a function of party, and not government.

[PerfectSense]

GM and UAW will drop jobs bank program that paid employees when there was no work

Starting Monday, General Motors workers will lose their jobs bank, a 25-year-old safety net that pays workers even when factories are closed.

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2009/01/gm_and_uaw_agree_to_drop_jobs.html

Yep, I can see why companies are so eager to unionize.

[HMDMSR]

The desire to belong to union, as you imagine it, is just a fetish. Workers can't stop at the unionization stage, but must continue to organize for a complete social transformation.

[dadw5boys]

So the union helps the poorest members instead of duplicating the job bank that the state offers at the umemployment office.

[PerfectSense]

The union is not paying the idle workers, the company is paying workers despite them not working. No wonder auto companies are in trouble.

[sharonh]

The new bill, the Employee Free Choice Act 2009, would eliminate the secret ballot election IF MORE THAN 50 percent of the employees sign the card. If an organizer can get a majority to sign the card and the NLRB approves the signatures, then the union is recognized. That would cut down on the chance for companies to delay the vote or intimidate workers who might want to vote for a union.

[hjfraser2002]

Thats what they don't get.

[vagabondvet]

Companies hire workers to increase profit; workers voluntarily work for companies to profit off mutual exchange. Why should a company be forced to recognize someone that will attempt to decrease their profits through coercion?

[BlueStateMensch]

"Mutual Exchange".

Bingo.

that's ALL collective bargaining is about.

Nice to see you on board, BROTHER.

[Halfwit]

Only government elections require a secret ballot.

[AtomicSplash]

student body president elections are generally required to be secret ballot

[Halfwit]

That is the choice of the school.
I meant legally.

[sharonh]

Unions ruining small business, fallacy. The smallest number of employees a company typically has before there is union interest is 50 or 60. That does not include tradespeople such as carpenters or electricians.

[Indubio]

The day a large corporations gives a crap about small business will be when Hell freezes over.

[PerfectSense]

UAW membership drops below 500,000
Union has lost more than 1 million members since 1979

WASHINGTON - United Auto Workers union membership has fallen below 500,000 for the first time since World War II, reflecting the massive restructuring undertaken by Detroit's automakers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23869586/

[AtomicSplash]

Reagan was elected in 1980. You're surprised union membership fell with the union busters in office?

[PerfectSense]

Clinton was a union buster?

[hortonhearsawho2]

bendoverfo­royaltymak­esense, u2 enjoy...

[HMDMSR]

Union membership peaked in the 50's, about 10 years after the Taft-Hartley Act, and other legislation, was passed, then used by Truman for strikebreaking. The government acted to remove communists from leadership roles, thereby weakening unions. Workers, organized or not, cannot compete with owners and managers in a capitalist environment.