Posted on 10/05/2004 10:14:56 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
Labor Activists Invade Bush's Campaign Sites By ELLEN GEDALIUS and WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune Published: Oct 6, 2004
TAMPA - Labor activists stormed President Bush's campaign headquarters in Tampa on Tuesday, part of an orchestrated event nationwide involving thousands of people protesting his policies on overtime pay. No one was injured or arrested in Tampa, police said. Miami and Orlando also were among the 17 cities in swing- voting states where the AFL-CIO organized such events.
Protesters, including construction and hospital workers, were armed with postcards and petitions expressing their disapproval of Bush's overtime policies. Some held signs reading: ``Don't Take Away Our Overtime.''
Activists put at least one sign on a wall of the headquarters at 800 W. Platt St., pleading with Bush to ``keep his hands off overtime pay,'' said Eddie Acosta, an AFL-CIO member who organized the Tampa rally.
The Bush administration issued new overtime pay rules in August. Proponents say the changes could make about 1 million more workers eligible for overtime. Critics contend 6 million could be reclassified as exempt from overtime pay.
Bush ``knows we're frustrated with this,'' said John Cox, an AFL-CIO member based in Orlando. ``We thought this is the best way we can get our message heard.''
Stan Fields, a Bush campaign coordinator in Tampa, said the message was lost in the tactic as dozens of demonstrators rushed into the headquarters about 1 p.m.
``They were stamping. They were chanting,'' Fields said. ``Literally, you couldn't hear inside this building. This place was rocking.''
Al Higginbotham, Hillsborough County Republican Party chairman, said he arrived late to the scene and was told demonstrators, although not making physical contact with campaign workers, had moved within a few inches of them to impede them from leaving.
Joseph Agostini, spokesman for the state GOP, complained that just hours before Tuesday night's vice presidential debate, ``a forum for civil discussion of issues, we have these organized labor thugs using terror tactics in America.''
The demonstrators did not disrupt business, said Rob Ray, Hillsborough County Democratic Party vice chairman.
``That's what they always try to say about working people - that when you demonstrate together for a cause, you're being a mob or a thug,'' Ray said. ``No one was hurt. We abided by what the police officers asked us to do.''
Protesters stayed in the public area of the headquarters or on the street, and they left when asked, said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.
``They might have been boisterous or somewhat intimidating, but they didn't threaten anybody,'' McElroy said.
Still, Republicans were alarmed.
``It's a shame that the campaign has gone to the point that they'd use strong-arm tactics against volunteers,'' Higginbotham said. ``It's unsettling to people who are volunteering to a cause they believe in, and I can assure you that folks I'm associated with will never be involved in an effort like that.''
Reporter Valerie Kalfrin contributed to this report. Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7562. Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.
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Isn't their loitering laws or anything. Tell them to GTFO if they aren't going to do anything.
Here's some quotes from another article about this.
"Countered South Florida AFL-CIO president Fred Frost: "It was as civil as it gets.'"
"Debra Booth, president of the Central Florida AFL-CIO, described the protest as "peaceful'"
If there are any union members in florida here, you may want to contact these people to let them know what you think.
Debra Booth - Central Florida AFL-CIO (407) 649-8557
Here's an e-mail for Fred Frost's branch
info@sfaflcio.org
And here's an email for journalist Mark Schlueb at the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.
mschlueb@orlandosentinel.com.
Well, well. This explains the gunshots into a Bush campaign office earlier today.
Nice people, those leftists....
Democrats are at their best when they can frighten people. Their candidates use the tactic and so do their voters. Scare tactics or intimidation it's all the same to them.
>>The demonstrators did not disrupt business, said Rob Ray, Hillsborough County Democratic Party vice chairman. <<
And how, pray tell, would he know that?
Is this a civic owned building? If not, they were tresspassing.
A DAY IS COMING FOR THESE COMMUNISTS...
Vote Bush Nov. 2!
Lefty Loony Communist Rats...they're real close to biting off just enough to choke dead on.
Ray the pinhead doesn't seem to grasp the concept of unlawful restraint. Preventing campaign workers from leaving is the act of a thug.
A similar mob attacked the Bush-Cheney HQ in Orlando, too:
http://www.local6.com/politics/3785861/detail.html
I agree. It is similar to the harrassment and intimidation that goes on in Latin America.
Linda Chavez has a book out now titled "Betrayal" which catalogues the unions corrupt financing and support of the Democrats. It also details the violent tactics they use. I recommend it highly.
Give these union thugs some brown shirts and swastika armbands and send them back to 1934 Nazi Germany.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will read it!
Come on folks.
Carter reviewed the elections in Venezuela and concluded all was on the up & up.
These break-ins are only the will of the people.
UP, UP, and AwAY!
"Some" heads are cooler than mine,I guess.
It's for the greater good ,I'm sure.
We are just too shallow to grasp their opinions.
Here's a link to contact the national office of the AFL-CIO
http://www.aflcio.org/siteguides/contactus.cfm
John Sweeney, the President of the AFL-CIO needs to make a public statement explaining how it came to be that this was coordinated at multiple bush/cheney offices. He also needs to provide an apology to the campaign workers and President Bush. I hope he is criminally prosecuted, but I'm not holding my breath.
Union = Organized Crime, AKA Thugs.
So why does this activity surprise anyone?
Why do we have RICO statutes if they aren't going to be used to preserve America? ??? RAT Unions, the ACLU, the MSM, and on and on...
Yeah...Cahtuh certifying an election with a Communist RAT running is like having a WOLF count the SHEEP for the SHEPARD...
I wonder if the campaign needs security volunteers?
I was wondering the same thing.
Hmm...
Unless you have a bad heart. I guess when someone drops dead because they scare the hell out of them that would just be TOO BAD?
You know, I don't think they have a right to come into a building and chant/yell and intimidate people who are volunteering for a candidate they believe should be President, like they just did.
If someone did that where I was sitting minding my own business, I would be really upset. If I was working with elderly people, I can assure you, they would be shook up. This is WRONG!
Man this ticks me off. I'm afraid if someone did that to me, I'm gonna punch someone in the face. Call it a nervous reaction. A little pepper spray for Bears is probably gonna come out of my purse too.
Book Review: Betrayal by Linda Chavez
... Betrayal How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics.
By Linda Chavez. Review by Emily Shaheen. Who will ...
www.townhall.com/bookclub/chavez1.html - 52k -
And just what did you call those few people in suits who demanded the media be let in at one of the recounts in Florida Ray?
With the leftists trying everything they can to steal the election,I'm really wondering how far we may have to go to protect ourselves,our votes and our laws.
Do I detect a nation wide assault going on here? Why aren't these facilities being guarded?
With thugs like them, I'd be worried about my pet.
I'd have pepper spray handy. I'd use it too if they came storming in screaming and getting up in my face acting agressively. A volunteer was already harmed! When they act like that, you don't know what they are going to do.
Someone else is going to get hurt too. Those labor people are not demonstrating peacefully, what a bunch of bunk. They get quite physical. Prayers for our volunteers who are only minding their own business.
These thugs make me sick.
The law ought to punish them fully, or we'll see no end to this! The next month is going to be interesting. Lets pray the American public doesn't let this kind of tactic keep them from the voting booth. This may be exactly what their hoping for.
It's just another form of terrorism if you think about it.
Hell, you and I both know that either way, the RATS are going to start a real American Civil War.
If they get elected, they're coming straight for our guns, and you know that for certain. Well, that's gonna get ugly sooner or later (thinking back to America's Liberal Communist RAT-led alphabetocracy committing numerous violations against Americans) if Kerry wins.
If Bush wins, and it's close, you can guarantee that the courts won't be the only places that heat up. And from this point forward, after Bush wins, they're going to keep playing dirty, will try to Impeach him, will get more shrill in their anti-war b.s. - and their chaos wing of anarchists and marxists are going to do something REALLY stupid...
I don't put any single thing past a Communist RAT...expect the worst, prepare for the worst and pray for the best.
Shoot, I just said dogs because that's always a good first line of scumbag defense. Most scumbag's will a)kill your dog or b)get run off by the dog. All scumbag's hate being gnarled up by a dog...
Of course, the next lines of defense, right down to your sidearms and blades, are all strategically located.
Two words: Pepper spray.
Any idea if the Police where these things are happening are union or not?
It's when they send the union thugs over to somebody's private residence in the dark of night and the person is so thankful to be alive and/or scared that next time they'll be dead that they don't tell anyone ... those are the ones that will should some of the faithful to rethink this Union and Communist DemocRAT thing, IMO.
No clue...easy enough to Google though.
He wasn't union and had to continue working during a strike.When he had gotten off work that night,he found his home trashed and wife terrified by union goons that broke into his place.
He and his wife loaded what they could grab into a car and made it to my place about 50 miles from their home being followed by several cars the entire way.
The union goons took off when he got to my place(easily defended and very well supplied)and I've wanted payback ever since.
Thugs, force, fear and intimidation...the usual dems strategy in their whole policy of being.
Laura McElroy is an IDIOT.
Read the article again....
Protesters stayed in the public area of the headquarters or on the street, and they left when asked, said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.
``They might have been boisterous or somewhat intimidating, but they didn't threaten anybody,'' McElroy said.
This is the face of the DemocRATic Party of nowadays.
Agreed. There were THREE incidents just yesterday, and not a peep from the MSM. What will it take to get these incidents recognized, a bomb?
This stuff is starting to smell organized. I believe the John-John Campaign has some questions to answer. I will be looking for an interview with someone from their main HQ today and let y'all know how it comes out.
I'm going to start a small grass roots effort to get folks to bring their still and video cameras to the polls on Nov 2 (since I can't call for arms). I am working on a name and slogan. Please FReepmail me with ideas, pledges of help, and critiques. Although I would appreciate the humor some will provide, please keep it to serious inquiries.
Don't forget this thuggery was "civil" while voting machines "intimidate" voters in the same state. Hmmm, seems a bit out of this world to admit to being frightened by an inanimate object while physically intimidating other people.
But, I'm not really surprised, Demonrats are out of this world.
Isn't the issue of overtime pay a fluke?
Yet these people call us Nazi's....
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