Captivated by moronic street theater protest, California press corps shows how worthless it is

Coverage of the California governor's race by the mainstream media has been abysmal.

Latest example: Associated Press reporter Judy Lin was apparently captivated by a sophomoric street theater protest performed by the ultra-left wing California Nurses Association.  Here is video of the idiotic protest that captured her attention:

The guy in the white shirt and blue tie appears to be Sacramento Bee reporter Jack Chang.  It looks like he starts to giggle at about 3 seconds.  Below is a screen grab of the man who appears to be Jack Chang.

Below is Jack Chang's photo from his Twitter page. Is this the same guy giggling in the video? You be the judge.

The state is $19 billion in debt and faces serious issues, but the low-grade reporters working for mainstream news media don't rise to the challenge.

Predictable: CNA to celebrate 90th anniversary of women achieving the right to vote by attacking Meg Whitman

Leftists will co-opt anything to advance their agenda.  Take the leftists currently running the California Nurses Association.  The CNA plans to celebrate the 90th anniversary women achieving the right to vote by -- what else -- attacking Meg Whitman.

Whitman is trying to become the first woman governor of California.  If elected, she would be the 33rd woman governor in the US.  Even Whitman's opponents -- most of them, I'm guessing -- wouldn't think of using the the anniversary of the 19th amendment ratification as an occasion to attack the woman who has the best chance of becoming the state's first female chief executive.

But no one has ever accused the hard-core lefties in charge at the CNA of being reasonable or decent.

From a CNA flyer:

These people are not in touch with rational faculties.

Yes, it will be your typical CNA street theater.  More details::

Of course, the pretext for the attack on Whitman is her admission that she rarely voted over the past 3 decades.  But the CNA would use any reason, no matter how flimsy, to attack Whitman.

The attack on Whitman based on her voting history will fail because elections are about the future, not the past.  And juvenile protests will turn off most voters.

Related:

• $160K-a-year CNA employee assaults GOP supporter
• Another high-paid CNA thug from last week's assault identified?
• Bypassing the leftist leadership at the CNA, Whitman reaches out to rank and file nurses 

A lot of interest in CNA goon Mike Griffing

Judging by my Google stats, there is a lot of interest in what is going on with CNA anger management candidate Mike Griffing and his enablers at the CNA.

Below is a screen grab of the most recent Google searches that sent people to my blog.

In case you missed it, below is the video of $164K a year CNA employee Mike Griffing knocking the camera out of a GOP supporters hands, then returning to push/assault him.  (More than 86,000 YouTube hits as of today, despite zero interest in the assault by the MSM.)





If this assault was committed by a Tea Party member it would be covered by mainstream media.  The media aren't covering this story because it reflects badly on the CNA.  The 86,000 YouTube hits shows the people are searching for actual news, not just what the gatekeepers at the SF Chronicle and Sacramento Bee think is newsworthy.

Related:

• Meet Mike Griffing
• Another high-paid CNA thug from last week's assault identified?

Another mega-union joins effort to defeat Whitman

The California Teachers Association says it will join other California unions working to defeat Meg Whitman.

California Working Families for Jerry Brown, the independent expenditure group working to help the Democratic State Attorney General's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, just got a powerhouse ally -- the 325,000-member California Teachers Association.

CTA President David Sanchez, in announcing the move, called Brown "the education candidate for governor."

"He gets that California's future depends on a world-class, quality public school system,'' Sanchez said in a statement today. "We believe Jerry Brown can lead this state of of this fiscal crisis, and bring collaboration back to Sacramento."

If you think public employee salaries and pensions are busting our budget now, just wait til the unions control the government.

Latest anti-Whitman mailer sent to nurses shows CNA's campaign to defeat Whitman isn't working - among nurses

Does the latest CNA mailer to nurses signal the CNA is losing its grip on rank and file nurses?  I think so.

I obtained the anti-Whitman mailer sent to nurses by the CNA this week and it looks to me like the CNA is still desperately trying to convince nurses to vote against Whitman.

Below is the front page of the mailer.  Claiming Whitman is "at war" with California's nurses is absurd.  More than 100,000 nurses have already received a letter from Whitman which renders the "at war" claim ridiculous.  Whitman's letter was straightforward, calm, reasonable.  She invited nurses to join her advisory board.  She pointed them to her website, Truth for Nurses, designed to correct the misinformation about her.

You'd think by now the CNA would have found an effective line of attack, but the CNA hasn't found one.

Another section of the mailer is an attack on Genevieve Clavreul, portrayed in the flyer as Whitman's Nurse Adviser.  See the slam on Clavreul below.

Fortunately Clavreul has a platform to point out the falsehoods.  A blogger calling herself "raconte" says she is the nurse targeted in the mailer.  Yesterday on her blog, The Nurse Unchained,  "raconte" laid out point by point why each allegation against her is a lie or a distortion.

She is not Whitman's hand-picked adviser, she never endorsed Schwarzenegger’s bid to “rollback” the ratio law, she never campaigned against nurses, and she hasn't travelled around the U.S. fighting RN ratios.  Her quotes in Working Nurse Magazine and in the Boston Globe are edited to distort what she meant.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Doesn't reflect well on the CNA that they have to stoop to lying about Genevieve Clavreul.

This flyer comes on the heels of 2 major missteps by CNA this month.  When CNA bussed in hundreds of nurses to hold a boisterous rally in front of Whitman’s home July 15th, it looked unseemly to a lot of people – including plenty of nurses. Then a $164K a year CNA employee named Mike Griffing assaulted a GOP supporter and the YouTube video of the assault has more than 86,000 hits.

Reading between the lines of the nurse mailer, it's obvious the CNA is still trying to convince rank and file nurses to vote against Whitman -- which is not where the CNA top brass wanted to be just three and a half months before the election.

Related:

• Bypassing the leftist leadership at the CNA, Whitman reaches out to rank and file nurses

CNA thug from from last week's assault ID'd as highly-paid Pete Castelli

John C. Drew thinks the man in black who appears in the CNA assault video is Pete Castelli, who makes a cool $120K a year as a CNA lead representative. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Castelli is a graduate of New River Community College, in Dublin, VA where he studied between 1981 and 1983. His official job title is reported as Lead Labor Representative for the National Nurses United. He has apparently been in that job since January, 2008. He caught my attention, in part, because he did nothing to interfere with the hitting and harassment taking place and documented in this YouTube video. When the legal authorities start to ask questions, Castelli suggests that the GOP folks are engaging in illegal behavior.

According to Castelli: "I supervise the staff working in Northern California/Nevada Division for CNA/NNOC." He says he is responsible for negotiating contracts, working on union elections, and providing rank and file leadership training.

Every bully needs enablers, and the man in black plays a role in protecting the bully, Mike Griffing. 

Let's see if photos give us any clues if Castelli is the enabler wearing black..  Below is a screen grab of the man wearing black from the assault video.

Compare that to a photo of Pete Castelli, below, taken on a 2005 trip to India with the AFL-CIO.  (More photos here.)

Same earlobe, sideburns almost the same, watch worn on right hand.  Hair looks the same.  Wearing a black shirt in both photos.  So is the fellow in black in the assualt video CNA's Pete Castelli?  You be the judge.

BTW, if you want to see more on Castelli's salary, check out CNA’s 2009 Form LM-2 Labor Organization Annual Report.  See page 52 for Castelli's salary - $119,904.  (Wow, these CNA thugs make a lot of money.)  Click image below to enlarge.



Update:  Union thug Pete Castelli has gone from CNA to SEIU. Here he is on twitter: @fattirefanatic.  Castelli's twitter avatar is below.  (He likes a little curl in his hair above the right eyebrow, doesn't he.)

Bypassing the leftist leadership at the CNA, Whitman reaches out to rank and file nurses

I have obtained a copy of the letter the Whitman campaign mailed to more than 100,000 California nurses.

The campaign is doing an end-run around the lefties in charge of the California Nurses Association to set the record straight about Whitman's positions.

Here is an excerpt from Whitman's letter stating her position on ratios:

Shrewd move by the Whitman campaign.

See an unconvincing California Nurses Association campaign flyer claiming Whitman will cut staffing ratios here. 

The CNA efforts range from the childish ("Queen Meg" street theater) to the downright thuggish (Mike Griffing assault).

Looks to me like Whitman is bettering the CNA. 

I might post more excerpts of the Whitman letter later.

Can you identify another CNA union thug?

Mike Griffing has been identified as the $164k-a-year CNA thug who knocked the camera out of the hands of a GOP supporter, then pushed and hit him several times at an anti-Whitman rally last week. 

Let's take a look at some of the other CNA thugs who were there during the assault, shall we?  Below is the video of the assault.  Pay close attention to the big bald man wearing sunglasses who appears toward the end.




At 1:14 watch Big Baldy approach the incident, positioning himself perpendicular to the cameraman.  At 1:45 he moves so he is facing the cameraman square on, about 2 feet away.  Then he moves forward, getting to about 12 inches away from the cameraman and flashing an Intimidator Smile. 

Below is a screen grab of Big Baldy.  He doesn't shove or hit the GOP supporter, probably because he knows he is being videotaped.  Or maybe it's because he is a junior cadet thug-in-training.  Even though Big Baldy played a lesser role, his presence helped thug Mike Griffing have the confidence to push/shove the cameraman.

I found another photo of Big Baldy on the CNA Flickr page.  The pic below was taken during a street theater protest.  CNA gave Big Baldy a non-speaking role as security for "Queen Meg."

As we ID more of the CNA thugs we might learn how close they are to CNA's leadership team.

CNA thug Mike Griffing draws funny cartoon about a union negotiator "grabbing Kaiser chick by the throat"

Remember the photo of CNA union thug Mike Griffing teaching union nurses about patient care techniques Alinsky tactics at a recent CNA organizing conference?  A closer look at the photo reveals a lot about the CNA and its tactics.

I enlarged the paper Griffing was holding up to see what patient care techniques Alinsky tactics he was teaching his students.  Turns out Griffing had drawn a funny stick figure cartoon to show his students.   The cartoon shows one stick figure grabbing another by the neck and choking.  Check it out below.

The top two words on the tablet are not legible.  The bottom sentence:  "Kay McVay Reaches Across Table to Grab Kaiser Chick by Throat"

Kay McVay is a negotiator for the California Nurses Association.  Of course what's on the tablet is just a cartoon.  There is no record that McVay physically assaulted anybody the way Griffing did.  But a violent choking cartoon is definitely something a leftist goon would draw.

See a photo of the newly-trained Alinskyite nurses holding up their certificates after the Griffing class here.
 
In case you missed it, here is the video of cartoonist/thug Mike Griffing knocking the camera out of a GOP supporters hands, then returning to push/hit him.

CNA thug Mike Griffing clams up

Via John C. Drew, looks like CNA goon Mike Griffing won't answer questions about his assault of a GOP supporter last week.

I placed a call to Mr. Griffing earlier today and he said he was referring all comments to the CNA's media department. The media department's number, however, is busy. I'll be surprised if I hear back from them.

I'm on vacation with friends and won't be back until later tonight.  I doubt we'll hear from Griffing or the CNA anytime soon, though.

The union goon who assaulted GOP supporters has been identified as CNA organizer Mike Griffing

Thanks to information from a reader, the union goon who assaulted a GOP supporter at a rally last week has been identified.

His name is Mike Griffing.  He is a community organizer and I understand he also works in collective bargaining. 

See a 2001 union press release naming Griffing here.  (Irony: the union bragged that under terms of the CNA-CHW agreement, "no threats, intimidation, coercion or disciplinary action shall be taken or threatened against RNs for organizing with CNA.")

About last week's assault, below is the video of Griffing knocking the camera out of a GOP supporter's hands, then returning to hit and shove him.




Below is a photo of Mike Griffing training CNA union members in patient care community organizing techniques earlier this year.

The info in this post is premiminary, I know.  But stay tuned, there is more to come.

Update: A commenter ID'd Mike Griffing in comments at BreitbartTV.  Griffing can shove but he can't hide.

Update #2:  Moe Lane did some digging and found out Mike Griffing is part of the CNA leadership and made over $164,000 last year.

Update #3:  Dr. John Drew reports Mike Griffing isn't answering his phone.

Figures!... looks like the thug who shoved GOP volunteers isn't a nurse -- he is a community organizer

Yesterday I posted video of the unknown CNA thug who knocked a camera out of the hands of a GOP volunteer, then shoved or hit the volunteer.  I said I'd post any info about his identity.

Research is starting to pay off.  I don't know his full identity yet but what I have found indicates he is probably a community organizer, not a nurse.

I stumbled on the California Nurses Association Flickr page yesterday and came across this photo from a training event earlier this past spring.

The name on the name tag is Mike.

Mike is our goon, but he might not be a CNA goon.

This photo was taken at the "Nurses Organizing Institute 2010"  - which is some kind of training in community organizing.  By the name tag and the way he is holding up papers behind a podium it looks like he was a speaker or trainer.  (And what is it with Mike and pens?... in the top picture he has a pen clipped to his shirt collar, and in the next picture he has a pen clipped to his name tag.)  See a photo of the newly-trained Alinskyites holding up their certificates here.

So this thug might be some kind of field organizer with AFL-CIO or some other national union.  Who knows, maybe he is an ACORN graduate.

We're getting close to flushing out this rat so stay tuned.  Still would like more details -- if you have tips or more info on this clod, email me.

In case you missed it, here is the video of Mike knocking a camera out of the volunteers hands, then coming back to shove him.

Do you know this man?... CNA union thug shoves Whitman volunteers (video) - see updates!

Update: linked by BreitbartTV and The Lonely Conservative, thanks!

Update #2:  A geographical clue - the thug may be from the Bay Area.  Via John C. Drew:  "... This video was shot on the campus of Canada Community College on July 15, 2010. The CNA had just completed another rally in front of Meg Whitman's home in nearby Atherton, CA."

Update #3:  His name is Mike and he is a community organizer. 

Update #4:  Identified!  His name is Mike Griffing.

Do you recognize the man pictured below with the gray goatee and glasses wearing a CNA tee-shirt?

If you know who he is, send me the info.  He assaulted/harassed Whitman volunteers at a rally this week, all captured on the video below.  You can see him using his left hand to knock a camera out of one of the volunteers hands at 8 seconds and again at 12 seconds.  He returns later and shoves or hits the cameraman several more times.

Here is the video:



He is wearing a red CNA t-shirt that is starting to fade -- maybe because he has worn it to multiple CNA protests.  It shouldn't be hard to ID the guy.

Photos of the CNA protesters at Meg Whitman's home

Organized by the far-left California Nurses Association, throngs of anti-Whitman protesters went to Meg Whitman's home in Atherton Thursday to protest.  Like prior CNA protests, the union brought along professional actors for a predictable "Queen Meg" street theater routine.

Was this a shrewd move by the CNA?  No.

Going to a private residence to protest is a no-class stunt.  Not to mention a waste of union dues.

"The radical leadership of the California Nurses Association has decided to spend untold thousands of dollars from members’ dues on a stunt," said Sarah Pompei, a spokeswoman for Whitman. "How many nurses are being forced to use sick days to attend this political theater? While Meg believes it is important for all California nurses to know her true positions on the issues, she’ll focus on having a meaningful conversation without the partisan politics."

Below are some photos of the CNA stunt.

Thursday's protest might make the CNA leadership feel important but I have a hunch it isn't helping the CNA's preferred candidate, Jerry Brown, at all.  Going to someones private home is a major turnoff to most voters. 

By the way, Meg Whitman wasn't home to see the adolescents -- she was at a manufacturing plant in Southern California.

California Nurses Association to protest at Meg Whitman's home

The adolescents in charge at the California Nurses Association plan to protest at Meg Whitman's home in Atherton today.

I have obtained a copy of a flyer promoting the CNA protest.  (Click to enlarge.)

Protesting at someone's home is a no-class tactic.

So far the CNA protests against Whitman have been unserious.  Previous protests have consisted of weird street theater consisting of rented Rolls Royces and actors portraying "Queen Meg" and other unknown characters who mock Whitman.  In the past the CNA has driven a $50,000 shrink-wrapped bus to the protests.  All paid for out of member dues.

The Whitman campaign launched a website for nurses which points out some of the outrageous uses of union dues by Rose Ann DeMoro and her lefty team at CNA.

I'm confident the majority of nurses -- not to mention a majority of California voters - are not impressed by the antics of the nurses union leaders.

Is the nurses union writing headlines for McClatchy?

Looks to me like McClatchy is doing what it can to ensure Jerry Brown is elected California governor this fall. Want evidence? Look no further than the headline in this McClatchy piece published Monday:

If you read the article, the Whitman campaign videotaped a union event and live-streamed the event back to Whitman headquarters.  Not much different from what political campaigns from both parties have been doing since the invention of the video camera.  But since the campaign doing the videotaping was Republican, the McClatchy headline-writer calls it "spying."

The Sacramento Bee and the McClatchy newspaper chain are essentially working for Jerry Brown and the entire Dem slate of candidates.

Related:

• Objectivity at the Sacramento Bee

Rank and file union workers are about to learn what their union bosses are doing with dues money

Meg Whitman is going over the heads of the union bosses to appeal to rank and file workers.

This week Whitman is continuing her outreach to nurses who belong to the California Nurses Association, now headed up by ultra-leftist Roseanne DeMoro.  The campaign sent a mailer to thousands of nurses highlighting the $50,000 the CNA leadership spent on a bus that travels to Whitman campaign events -- plus a limo and and street theater actors who mock Whitman.

(Click to enlarge)

Last week the campaign launched http://www.truthfornurses.com/ to highlight the union's misuse of union dues, and to give the other side of the story.  Research shows Whitman's strategy could pay off -- a June poll found 40% of nurses already support Whitman, compared to 43% who support Moonbeam.  Check out the graphic below.

The lesson: rank and file workers don't blindly follow ultra-partisan union bosses.

Public employee unions going all-out for Moonbeam

Public employee unions are planning to all in their power to make sure Moonbeam is elected governor of California.  Here is the latest development from the California Labor Federation.

California labor unions on Monday launched what they said would be an aggressive campaign against former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

California Labor Federation leader Art Pulaski (pictured above) said the unions will focus on exposing what he described as Whitman's Wall Street agenda. The labor federation will be joined by unions representing teachers and nurses, among others.

"As we have learned more about Meg Whitman's policies and proposals, it has become clear to us she would pose a serious threat to millions of California workers," Pulaski said in a call with reporters.

Pulaski said labor leaders are starting earlier than ever in the governor's race because Whitman, a billionaire, expects to spend $150 million on her campaign. He declined to specify how much the unions plan to spend but said it will involve 25,000 volunteers who will make phone calls, knock on doors and mail hundreds of thousands of fliers.

The unions said Whitman's corporate philosophy will hurt working families by cutting jobs and lowering taxes on the rich.

Whitman, Pulaski said, "shares a philosophy that what's good for Wall Street must be good for everybody. Most everybody has had to learn the hard way that that's a bogus policy."

Previous:

• CA labor leader: "We are going to do everything in our power to make sure Jerry Brown wins"
• California Professional Firefighers endorse Moonbeam
• California Nurses Association endorse Moonbeam
• Report: SEIU gives $150,000 to Moonbeam campaign

Sacramento Bee prints union propaganda as news

I know the Sacramento Bee has been hard hit with layoffs, but what is their excuse for publishing a union-backed study as news?

Check this:  Bee reporter Bobby Caina Calvan wrote an article published in the Bee titled California nurse-staffing law saves lives, study says

Read the article and you realize Calvan did little more than transcribe a freeaking press release from the CNA, one of the labor unions working to elect Jerry Brown.

And the reporter even quotes Shirley Toy, described in the Bee piece as a registered nurse at U.C. Davis Medical Center.

"One less patient makes a big difference," said Shirley Toy, a registered nurse at the UC Davis Medical Center.


"The less patients you have, the more time you have to spend with a patient," she said. "And if you're the patient, you want your nurse to give you all the care you need."

Google much, Bobby?  Shirley Toy is not just a nurse, she is a CNA activist.  She showed up at at the Meg Whitman protest over the weekend.  And she managed to get quoted by AP reporter Juliet Williams.  And in this piece published in the New York Times.  Toy also managed to get herself quoted by a reporter last year after the CNA filed suit over patient ratios  (see here).  Shirley does get around.

By the way, the CNA was so pleased with Calvan they posted his article on their web site -- but spelled his name wrong, ha!

I'll keep my eye on lazy reporters like Bobby Caina Calvan from the Bee and Juliet Williams from the AP.

AFL-CIO to launch campaign to elect Jerry Brown

Art Pulaski, AFL-CIO chief, says his mega-union has planned an aggressive campaign to mobilize union members to elect Moonbeam.

California AFL-CIO chief Art Pulaski told me that they will put on a big effort to mobilize union members and provide ground forces for the overall Democratic campaign on behalf of Brown and other candidates. And that their negative focus is on Whitman...

In fact, they've already prepared materials for communication to their members, with three flyers. One is pro-Brown, citing the attorney general for "A Lifetime of Fighting for Working Families." Two are anti-Whitman, with one calling her "Miss Fortune," with the now notorious magazine cover photo of the billionaire in riding gear with the rented horse. The other, called "Wall Street Whitman," goes through her strongly pro-corporate positions and her unhappy tenure on the board of Goldman Sachs.

And this week, union members begin showing up at Whitman events, starting with her string of fundraisers with Mitt Romney, her longtime mentor who came up with the idea for her to run for governor of California.

Related:

• CA labor leader: "We are going to do everything in our power to make sure Jerry Brown wins"
• California Professional Firefighers endorse Moonbeam
• California Nurses Association endorse Moonbeam
• Report: SEIU gives $150,000 to Moonbeam campaign