Brasscheck Exposes the Feds

On December 16, Brasscheck, the daily video release addressing generally progressive issues, joined the chorus heaping condemnation upon Illinois' Governor Blagojevich. Like most casual observers, Brasscheck followed the herd by referring to the non-existent "indictment" assumed after the Governor's dramatic early morning arrest and media-titillating perp walk.

To Brasscheck's credit, it had second thoughts on December 17, noting the not-to-subtle coincidence of Governor B's arrest and his support for Illinois workers - a point made on this blog on December 10. Brasscheck said:

Yesterday, we had some fun at the
Governor of Illinois' expense.

Maybe he deserves it.

On the other hand, there is something
very odd about the timing of his arrest.

The FBI, those paragons of law enforcement
virtue, seem to be operating more as
political enforcers than anything else.

See what the Governor was doing the
day before he was arrested...

Details:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/501.html

- Brasscheck

And on December 18, Brasscheck came back with another video on the Republic victory noting how quickly l'affaire Blagojevich pushed the labor action off the front pages:

When was the last time you heard good news
about a labor action in the United States?

Have you *ever* heard good news about a
labor action in the US?

There may be a reason for that.

Details:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/503.html

- Brasscheck

Kudos to Brasscheck for throwing more fuel on the fire of suspicion around the political motives of Fitzgerald's hasty arrest of the Illinois Governor.

Of course the issue is not Governor B's innocence; it would be shocking if he didn't participate in the pervasive process of "pay for play". As a noted defense attorney commented, it is customary for ambassadorships, UN appointments, and other government appointments to flow from campaign contributions and other financial commitments; influence-peddling is the lifeblood of bourgeois politics. Call it cynical, but it is surely naive to feign shock at the horse-trading that characterizes the crassness produced by two-party domination.

At issue here, though, is the blatant, high level abuse of judicial action to influence public sentiment and shape public policy. With Brasscheck, I question the timing of the dramatic arrest that tarnished Governor B's prior defense of Illinois workers and drove the story of militant action to the back pages, diminishing the chances of any "copycat" actions.

Later revelations show that Fitzgerald had even bigger fish to fry. Obama's associates, SEIU, and the labor movement in general are now all drawing scrutiny based upon implied association. The weekend Wall Street Journal reveals that an anti-union group, Center for Union Facts, plans to mount a media campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act based upon drawing links between SEIU and Blagojevich.

Those who fail to oppose this judicial thuggery should be reminded of the Federal campaign against Teamster President Ron Carey who died last week. On the heels of his victory against corruption and his leadership of an historic UPS strike, Carey was driven from the union leadership by a long, tedious judicial mugging that forced him from the union leadership and set back the cause of class struggle unionism. Then, like now, few had the stomach for a principled fight for judicial fairness in the face of public humiliation.

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