Today in Phoenix Arizona, members of the AFL-CIO protested outside Sen. McCain’s office. Their claim is that Sen. McCain and President Bush are so cozy with big oil that they would hurt the American people to do favors for their alleged friends. The problem is, the protest has been orchestrated by the Democratic Party and has no basis in fact.

Let’s review the fundamentals of their claim and the background of the organization which these protestors belong too. As is the case with so many other ‘news events’, this one is right out of the Democratic playbook.

The AFL-CIO has an anti-McCain booklet and links to many left-wing organizations right on their web site. Even back in 1997, they spent $35 million on an anti-GOP House freshman election campaign.

A study done by a Rutgers University economics professor in 1996 found that labor unions provided the Democratic Party with $300 million to $500 million that year. Groups like the AFL-CIO have an arms-length ideological relationship with the Democratic Party that is very questionable at best. Their protests do not really provide a voice for middle-class workers, but instead are designed to create negative press for Republicans and get Democrats elected. Protests against Republicans under the guise of middle-class representation are designed to fool as many people as possible.

The term ‘smoke and mirrors’ is very appropriate here and the ‘protest’ outside McCain’s office may define this term better than anything else could. News organizations will give voice to the ‘protestors’ carrying their anti-Republican, anti-McCain message to millions of TV news viewers, newspaper readers and internet blog junkies. The pro-Democratic, anti-Republican message will have reached these large numbers of voters for free. The strategy doesn’t cost the Democrats anything and they have willing participants in the form of AFL-CIO members who are as much as operatives.

Even in 1996, the AFL-CIO had 2000 ‘political activists’ in the field training tens of thousands of protestors to do the bidding of their leadership’s ideology. That ideology aligned with the Democratic Party and did not cost the Democrats a dime of campaign funds because the expenditures were the unions. Campaign finance still does not solve this ‘end-around’ tactic used by the Democrats to sway votes.

The net result of these ‘protests’ are always predictable. Their accomplices in the local media will perpetuate their message without questioning its authenticity. In the days ahead, the Arizona Republic (whether feature or editorial page) will delight in the opportunity to give bad press to Sen. McCain and the Republicans. The union protest will provide the perfect fodder for pages of pro-Democratic Party propaganda.

Other organizations walk in lock-step with the AFL-CIO as front organizations for the Democratic Party. The NEA gives millions of dollars to the Democrats every election cycle and throws a few token dollars at the Republicans. NEA publications are rife with anti-Republican, pro-Democrat articles.

AARP portrays itself as a non-partisan organization with the interests of seniors as its mission. A review of its two primary publications from the past five years paints a very different picture. As recent examples, the June 2008 issue of the AARP Bulletin had a cover story entitled, ‘What’s age got to do with it’? One would assume that a ‘non-partisan’ organization that supports the rights of older Americans would certainly celebrate the experience of Senator McCain. My guess is that if he were a Democrat that would be the case. Instead, the bulletin provided a couple of paragraphs giving their own antidotal reasons for McCain’s age benefits. Most of the article though, was geared towards casting doubt about voting for someone who will be 72 at election time.

AARP also publishes a bi-monthly called The AARP Magazine. They bill the publication as the ‘world’s largest circulation magazine’. They must be certain that the magazine will influence a lot of people. Most issues feature a Hollywood celebrity on the cover.

The May/June 2008 issue had two cover stories that celebrated Democrats. One was called ‘1968-The year that rocked our world’. The article touches on every liberal talking point known to exist. They begin by reciting the evils of our military and recite the story of the My Lai massacre. They praise Oliver Stone. They extol Walter Cronkite for questioning success in Vietnam. They cover the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. They then paint Tom Hayden and Mark Rudd as American heroes for participating in the Chicago and Columbia University protests of that year. The article then goes on the hail the activist work of Kathie Sarachild (protestor at ’68 Miss America Pageant) and Tommie Smith, who looked down at the ground and raised his fist during the playing of the National Anthem at the ’68 Olympics. The whole 12 page article celebrates the liberal activists of that year and provides no balance.

On the web site for the Committee On Political Education, Communications Workers of America (CWA-COPE), they advertise an anti-McCain booklet created by the AFL-CIO. Their web site states, ‘The AFL-CIO, announced on Wednesday(should be Thursday), March 12, 2008 a $53.4 million campaign to denounce Sen. McCain’s political positions on issues related to AFL-CIO members, hoping to elect a Democrat to the White House’. The site’s ‘news and opinion’ page lists a number of far left-wing blogs with links for their membership. This is the reality of union influence and a lack of balance.

Other groups like the United Mine Workers and Sheetmetal Workers, who are affiliated with the AFL-CIO, believe that the organization stands for American workers and families. They never stop to consider that Republicans cut their taxes providing thousands of dollars for each family to buy food, transportation and clothing. Middle class workers used to have to work until June each year just to pay the government. What has the Democratic Party done recently to benefit those same middle-class Americans?

During the Johnson administration, congress passed a law that required unions to file financial reports under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. What they excluded from the law was any requirement to identify expenditures that were political in nature. The first president Bush issued an executive order requiring the filing of the missing information. This was near the end of his term as president. When Bill Clinton took office, he immediately voided the new requirement. Unions like the AFL-CIO could continue their substantial monetary and manpower support of the Democrats covertly.

Twenty-one years ago today (June 12), President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech instructing Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”. That was the beginning of the end of the cold war and changed much of the world for the better. In 1861, another Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, pronounced to a young country that slavery was not acceptable. The next four years was the beginning of the end of slavery. In both cases, Republican Presidents, unafraid of their detractors, changed history for the better.

When Republicans have done so much for Americans, why do organizations like the AFL-CIO do so much to destroy them? Because; Democrats do so much for unions.

Barack Obama friend and associate Antoin (Tony) Rezko was just found guilty on Wednesday by a federal jury of 16 counts, including fraud, money laundering and bribery.  The real estate developer has often been credited with raising the funds for Mr. Obama that helped propel his career.

Sen. Obama claimed in an interview that  “this isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew”.  Sen. Obama has had a 20 year relationship and friendship with Mr. Rezko. Obama made the same claim when the public learned of the anti-Americanism and racism that is deeply ingrained in Obama’s friend and mentor; Jeremiah Wright.

If it seems that there is a pattern here, there is. Barack Obama uses poor judgement in picking his friends and associates. What is worse, these friends may simply reflect the person that Obama actually is.  People with similar personality traits are often attracted to others like themselves.  Had Mr. Rezko been a Republican supporter and fundraiser, this story would be front page news on every paper in the country.

Worse yet, Mr. Rezko’s crimes have tied him indelibly to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a democrat. Mr. Rezko raised $1.4 million for Mr. Blagojevich and $250,000 for Barack Obama. There are several federal investigations ongoing of Mr. Blagojevich.

In addition to providing funding to Mr. Obama, Tony Rezko was involved in a scheme to divert teachers pension investments to firms that would provide kickbacks.  He was also able to push a health board into approving a new hospital so he could get a cut from the contractor’s bribe.  Rezko’s take- $3.9 million.

The irony of all this is the campaign waged by the Democrats in recent years to paint the Republican Party as having a ‘culture of corruption’. When real investigations occur and real evidence is presented though, it is the Democrats who operate in a true culture of bribes, kickbacks, questionable vote tampering and hidden money trails.

There is the friendship and association between Barack Obama and William Ayers also. This gets little press and is conveniently glossed over by the press.  William Ayers was a member of the radical domestic terrorist group; The Weather Underground.  Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician, remembers being at Mr. Ayers home with another Ayers friend, Barack Obama. He characterized the two as ‘friends’.

During the sixties, The Weather Underground was responsible for 25 bombings.  They were also responsible for the killing of a Brinks guard and two New York State Troopers during the robbery of a Brinks truck.  In 2001, William Ayers told the New York Times, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough”.

Barack Obama’s friendship with William Ayers has been seen on other occasions including when he complimented Ayers in a Chicago Tribune article in 1997.  Obama and Ayers served together for three years on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago.

More recently, Obama friend Father Michael Pfleger, has gained national attention with his anti-Hillary ranting’s.  During a debate on gun control in Chicago, Father Pfleger is quoted as saying, “we’re gonna snuff out legislators who are voting against our gun laws and we’re coming for you because we are not going to sit idly”. His threat to kill Illinois legislators has been swept under the rug by the national media.  This is another Obama friend.

Why would anyone with a conscious or a lick of common sense vote to put Barack Obama into the most powerful job in the world?  Good question. He has made decisions, based on his extreme ideology to associate himself with a confirmed racist, an unrepentant domestic terrorist, a convicted money launderer and briber and an anti-white political preacher violating the governments ban on political speech at the pulpit. By extension, Mr. Obama’s association with Rev. Pfleger hints at his approval of anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, who is Pfleger’s close friend also.

When we elect a person to the highest position in the land, the least we expect is someone who uses good judgement in selecting their friends and associates. A lot can be learned about a person by the company they keep.