With leftists bent on making this election about the rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street, I decided to put together a fact sheet to shred Big Labor’s “solidarity” talking points. If you’re an enterprising filmmaker – or just a bored conservative with no sense of smell – this double-sided PDF is the ideal handout for a wade into your nearest Occupy camp.
After all, Occupy Wall Street is all about handouts! Print some pamphlets, grab your camera, and show the 99% you care.
Publicizing union boss pay is fun, because it’s self-evidently outrageous considering what these people do for a living. Here are some highlights from the handout:
- William Lucy (AFSCME) took $847,810 from public employees last year
- Gerald McEntee (AFSCME) took $555,367 from public employees last year
- Rhonda Weingarten (AFT) took $493,859 from teachers last year
- John Wilson (NEA) took $492,484 from teachers last year
- Dennis Van Roekel (NEA) took $460,060 from teachers last year
The icebreakers don’t end there!
- 446 NEA staff & officers took $100,000+ from teachers last year
- 426 UAW staff & officers took $100,000+ from auto workers last year
- 279 AFSCME staff & officers took $100,000+ from public employees last year
…And that’s only at the unions’ national headquarters.
Sources are cited in the PDF and linked below, with care taken to avoid Fox News and The Wall Street Journal for the sake of the ruse. If you find yourself facing an Occupier who considers all corporate media inherently right-wing, this indicates one of two things:
- You’re about to get some entertaining footage
- It’s time to back away slowly and head for home
While (1) and (2) are not mutually exclusive, it’s important to exercise caution!
One question I recommend asking your local anarcho-communist squatters: If it’s true that “police are the army of The Rich,” whose army is Occupy Wall Street?
Union pay (here’s an Excel workbook of the six-figure club) is from the U.S. Department of Labor. Income percentiles are from the left-wing Brookings Institution (view PDF), as reported last January by The New York Times.
Obama campaign contributions are from FEC records reviewed by OpenSecrets.org. Geithner tax-delinquency coverage is from NYT; Daschle from US News; Solis fromUSA Today; Killefer from ABC News. Office of the President tax delinquency stats were originally reported by WTOP FM in Washington.
Have fun… and remember to wear shoes you wouldn’t mind burning!
Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonahart