6 things you should know about the IRS scandal

This ad was paid for by a "social welfare nonprofit."

Social welfare nonprofits at the center of the controversy over the IRS's targeting of Tea Party groups have another name. They're also called dark money groups because they don’t have to disclose the donors who spent more than $256 million into the 2012 federal elections.

ProPublica, the nonprofit public-interest news outlet, reminds us of six important facts lost in the controversy. We thought we'd share them with you:

1. Social welfare nonprofits are supposed to have social welfare, and not politics, as their “primary” purpose.
2. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision meant that corporations could pay for political ads, anonymously, using social welfare nonprofits.
3. Social welfare nonprofits do not actually have to apply to the IRS for recognition as tax-exempt organizations. (See Stephen Colbert on that point.)
4. Most -- about 80 percent -- of the money spent on elections by social welfare nonprofits supports Republicans.
5. Some social welfare groups promised in their applications, under penalty of perjury, that they wouldn’t get involved in elections. Then they did just that.
6. Donors to social welfare nonprofits are anonymous for a reason. It's because Alabama tried to force the NAACP to disclose its donors during the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950s. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1958 ruled the NAACP's donors could remain secret because disclosure would risk reprisal and threats. 

Election analysis: Labor is BACK!

The mainstream media finally woke up and discovered that labor is alive and winning political campaigns. Check out some of the headlines from last night:

Labor Unions May Tip Ohio for Obama

Union support key to Obama in Pa.

Unions, Hispanics, women carry Obama to Nevada win

Our pal Ed Schultz said it best on MSNBC last night (from Teamsters Local 20 in Toledo):

Where unions put their resources is where the president won tonight.

Just to give you an idea of what the Teamsters did, consider this: 400 Teamsters worked full-time to re-elect Obama, making a half-million worksite contacts and reaching 100,000 Teamsters through the national phone bank. 

The numbers only tell part of the story. Check out these comments from Brother Ray Torres, who successfully fought Prop 32, which would restrict union money in elections but exempt billionaires:

After weeks of travel, sliding down hills, scrapes, bruises, heat waves, combative management, run ins with the law and looong days...Prop 32 has been defeated! Im proud to be a Teamster and part of this strong organization. We mobilized! And we are victorious!

Even the influential, inside-the-beltway journalists who usually ignore us are reporting that labor propelled President Obama to victory. Here's Maggie Haberman in Politico:

Unions have had a rough period over the past few years, culminating in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in a recall election into which labor leaders poured their hearts. They have been on the losing end of battles in Ohio about collective bargaining rights. And New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie has famously done battle with them. 

Their brand at a time of national recession and shared sacrifice has not shone. But this election was also a reminder at how effective labor is at political organizing — and winning. 

Labor played a big role in helping Obama in Nevada and Wisconsin, as well as in Ohio. The popularity of the auto bailout in the Buckeye State with unionized manufacturers is hard to overstate. What’s more, the Citizens United ruling allowed unions to pool resources in a much different way this cycle. 

Obama’s relationship with labor has not always been sanguine. But in the end, he owes a lot to unions, which proved their muscle remains strong.

OK, ignore that "shared sacrifice crap" -- she obviously has no idea how much unions have sacrificed. But we take the larger point.

And we like what Dave Jamieson wrote in this Huffington Post piece titled, "Labor Unions Deliver For Obama With Post-Citizens United Ground Game":

President Barack Obama's decisive victory in Tuesday's election proved that unions' political ground game may be as potent as ever in the new age of super PACs. 

After the final tallies had trickled in, labor leaders were quick to note that unions played a critical role in tipping union-heavy states like Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada in the president's favor, validating labor's wide-reaching effort to paint Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's economic plan as detrimental to working-class Americans.

Great work, brothers and sisters! 

Teamster candidates' fate decided tonight

Former Teamster and astronaut Jose Hernandez in his Tracy campaign office yesterday.

Though we anticipate a long night waiting for the results of the presidential election (let's hope we have results tonight), we'll probably find out how some of our Teamster candidates fare before dawn.

It looks as if Jose Hernandez, former Teamster and former astronaut, has a good chance of winning his race for Congress in California. The Tracy Press reports,

Rep. Jeff Denham (R) and Jose Hernandez (D) are competing to represent California’s 10th District. (Redistricting) means Tracy’s former congressman, Democrat Jerry McNerney, is running to represent San Joaquin County north of I-205. 

Denham is a 16-year Air Force veteran, business owner and farmer who has served one term in Congress representing the eastern part of the San Joaquin Valley.

Hernandez seeks his first elected office after working his way from laboring in Central Valley fields as a teenager to riding in space as an astronaut for NASA.

Props to our Teamster brothers and sisters who were out helping him!

In Michigan, 33-year UPSer Gary McDowell also has a shot at unseating the incumbent. The Associated Press reports:

Rep. Dan Benishek and challenger Gary McDowell prepared to wrap up one of the nation's most hotly contested U.S. House campaigns Monday, attacking each other as political insiders ill-suited to make government meet the needs of their rural northern Michigan district. 

The rematch between Benishek, a freshman Republican, and former state legislator McDowell has produced a volley of television ads and fierce debate about which candidate would better safeguard cherished programs such as Medicare and the region's natural environment while promoting a stronger economy.

Steve Bullock with young supporters.

In Montana, a former Teamster and a former Teamster attorney are running statewide. Steve Bullock, who used to be Local 190's lawyer, is in a tough race for governor.

As Montana's attorney general, he championed the fight against misclassification and corporate money in politics. Polls show he's in a tie against Rick Hill.

Kim Gillan is the underdog in her race for the state's at-large congressional seat. The Associated Press reports,

Democrat Kim Gillan cast Republican opponent Steve Daines as an extremist who would curb Medicare benefits and abortion rights in the days leading to Montana's U.S. House election.

Back in California, Dr. Lee Rogers could upset Republican Buck McKeon, a 20-year congressman with questionable ethics. Rogers is an affiliate Teamster through the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council.

The Nation reported

The political future of Howard “Buck” McKeon, a Southern California congressman who routinely wins re-election by a wide margin, is suddenly in doubt... 

His corporate-friendly approach to lawmaking has also favored profit-seeking online colleges, which won access to virtually unlimited federal assistance on his watch. Almost all of McKeon’s significant legislative accomplishments involve the transfer of huge amounts of taxpayer money to quasi-private entities that are then liberated from government oversight.

Rick Nolan, earlier today.

Rick Nolan worked his way through college as a UPS Teamster, and now he's trying to make a comeback. He retired from the House of Representatives in 1981. Now, reports The Republic,

Democrat Rick Nolan's attempt to take back a northeastern Minnesota House seat his party lost in an upset two years ago topped the list of congressional races being decided in the state on Tuesday. 

Rep. Chip Cravaack was considered the most vulnerable of Minnesota's House Republicans as he tried for a second term two years after a surprise win over an 18-term Democratic incumbent. The 8th District race attracted national attention and millions in outside spending as Nolan tried to make a political comeback more than three decades after leaving Congress.

Teamsters in the final FINAL GOTV push

Hoffa and Hall on a whirlwind tour of Ohio.

Teamsters from Maine to Hawaii are making the last great effort to get their brothers and sisters to the polls and to vote for people who support working families. They're still flat out in the crucial battleground state of Ohio. Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall talked to members at a UPS work site this morning during their whirlwind tour of Ohio barns, hubs, locals, factories and campaign offices.

Hoffa and Hall traveled from UPS to a plant to visit more Teamsters. We're not sure where. The exhausted photographer emailed us "No clue where we are."

State political coordinator Jeff Crabtree with
Local 200 member Willie Lewis at ADM Cocoa
in Milwaukee.

The tremendous effort by unions in Ohio may be the key to the president's re-election. The Atlantic Monthly speculated that unions are Obama's secret weapon:

...if the manufacturing states of the Upper Midwest end up forming a surprising electoral-vote firewall for Obama, insulating his reelection bid from potential losses in Florida, Virginia, and Colorado, he will owe a debt of gratitude to the unions, who have been working doggedly, and largely under the radar, on his behalf.

It's not just Ohio. Throughout the industrial Midwest, Teamsters are phonebanking, canvassing, driving voters to the polls -- everything possible to put the working class in the "win" column.

In California, hundreds of Teamster families rallied last night against Prop 32, which would take union money out of politics but exempt billionaires and corporations. The rally started just hours after news broke that the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers had laundered $11 million to campaign committees supporting the ballot question.

Local 728's War Horse, getting
ready for action.

Some states, like Georgia, will almost certainly end up in Romney's column. But Atlanta Teamsters have their sights set on defeating anti-worker members of the state Legislature. Yesterday they readied Local 728's tractor trailer -- the "War Horse" -- to function as a campaign war room. Today they're phonebanking and sending canvassers to hotspots that need turnout.

Other states, like Maryland, will almost certainly end up casting a majority of votes for Obama. That didn't stop members of Local 453 in Cumberland from being up and at 'em early on Election Day:

Local 453 early this morning.

Stay tuned. We will keep you posted as the election develops.

Teamsters make final GOTV push

Ken Hall and Jim Hoffa at OmniSource Steel Dynamics.

Teamsters all across the country are corralling every vote they can today in the final effort to make tomorrow count for working families.

Riker Manufacturing.

Our brothers and sisters are active in battleground states like Ohio, Virginia, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin (sorry if we've left anyone out). General President Jim Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall are tirelessly visiting work sites in Ohio. Today they were up early visiting Teamsters at OmniSource Steel Dynamics in Toledo.  Then on to Riker Manufacturing, where they talked to workers at the plant.

While Hoffa and Hall were talking to Teamsters in Ohio, our Teamster brothers and sisters were in North Carolina, rallying for First Lady Michelle Obama. She was visiting Charlotte with  to persuade undecided voters to cast their ballots for her husband. Reports WSOCTV.com:

Teamsters in Charlotte, waiting for the First Lady.

The latest presidential polls point to a virtual tie between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama in North Carolina. 

In an attempt to sway some undecided voters, first lady Michelle Obama will visit Charlotte Monday and will speak at the airport.

Singer Mariah Carey and NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher are scheduled to appear with the first lady to stir up supporters.

Some states, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, are likely to post majorities for President Obama. That isn't stopping Teamsters from getting out the vote for the president and for worker-friendly Senate candidates.

Here, Teamster retiree George Corneliusson and Dan Durso were getting out the vote for President Obama and Senate candidate Chris Murphy at UPS  in Hartford, Conn.

In Minnesota, Teamsters field staff Jim Hilgenberg and Jared Wolsky (below) visited Local 200 members at USF Holland. The state legislative races are especially important in Minnesota, as a Republican supermajority tried to push through anti-worker bills through during the last session. Increasing Democratic representation in the Legislature will hold back such attacks on workers during the next session.

And our Massachusetts brothers and sisters never stopped campaigning for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. Here (below) they're out a get-out-the-vote rally in Malden with Teamsters local 25 driver training instructor Paul Mathi , UPS steward George Bassett, Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, UPS steward John Juszkiewicz, and UPS steward Michelle Joshua.

Great work, brothers and sisters!

Today's Teamster News 11.05.12

New York region struggles to move on a week after Sandy  Reuters   ...Hundreds of thousands of commuters faced a frustrating journey into the city as public transportation remained spotty. Service on many rail lines was reduced and the subway was running at about 80 percent of its normal service. The challenges were more severe for tens of thousands of people unable to return to their homes and many more than that living without power or heat...
China's economic destiny in doubt after leadership shock  The Telegraph   ...If reports from the Hong Kong press and China's blogosphere are correct, a remarkable upset has occurred on the eve of the ten-year power shift next week -- the greatest turn-over of top cadres since Mao's revolution...
Too Big To Fail Remains Very Real  Baseline Scenario   ...the government is providing a form of insurance that encourages financial institutions to become even bigger – and thus even more likely to be protected by some combination of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and other agencies. This is an unfair, nontransparent government subsidy that encourages excessive risk taking and creates a very large potential downside for the nonfinancial side of our economy...
Pete Peterson and the Deficit Hawks Teach Lawmakers Deep Fiscal Irresponsibility  New Economic Perspectives   ...Utilizing strategies reminiscent of the mid-20th Century American Communist Party, Peterson’s overall tactic has been to found and/or fund a number of front organizations to create the illusion of a broad consensus arrayed in favor of his personal views, which are shared for the most part by a wealthy few within the financial and political elites.  These views in turn are extremely unpopular with the electorate, particularly as regards cutting or partially privatizing universal social programs like Social Security and Medicare...
A voting debacle in Doral causes chaos and confusion  Miami Herald   ...Elections officials, overwhelmed with voters, locked the doors to their Doral headquarters and temporarily shut down the operation, angering nearly 200 voters standing in line outside — only to resume the proceedings an hour later... (and this: Judge orders early voting extended in Florida's Orange, Pinellas and Palm Beach counties)
Eleventh-Hour GOP Voter Suppression Could Swing Ohio  The Nation   ...Any provisional ballot with incorrect information will not be counted, Husted maintains. This seemingly innocuous change has the potential to impact the counting of thousands of votes in Ohio and could swing the election in this closely contested battleground...

It's the end game for Teamster ground game

Jared Wolski and Jim Hilgenberg from Teamsters Local 200
with Tammy Baldwin today

Our brothers and sisters are out in droves for the final push to elect candidates who stand with working people. Teamsters are knocking on doors in the battleground state of Virginia right now. They're at the Obama rally in Wisconsin. They're campaigning hard against Prop 32 in California and against the Voting Amendment in Minnesota. They're trying to elect governors in Washington, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Montana.

Hoffa and Hall at Orbis yesterday.

They're everywhere.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall are traveling Ohio, visiting Teamsters work sites and joining rallies. Here they are yesterday on the plant floor at Orbis Corp.

Missouri Teamsters rallied yesterday for Sen. Claire McCaskill's re-election. They're hitting the phone banks and knocking on doors today as the election nears.

Teamster boots are on the ground for worker-friendly Senate candidates all over the country, people like Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Shelley Berkley in Nevada and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin.

Ed Duffy, VP Teamsters Local 399,
on Tuesday in Calif. "This is an
assault on California workers."

Our brothers and sisters in New Hampshire are working overtime to help Maggie Hassan win her race for governor. Her opponent, Ovide LaMontaigne, promised he'd be "Scott Walker on steroids" if he's elected. New Hampshire Teamsters are also out campaigning for International Vice President John Murphy, who's running for state representative.

Steve Bullock enjoys strong Teamster support in his race for governor of Montana. He's the former lawyer for Local 190 in Billings. As Montana's attorney general, he led a group of his colleagues across the country to fight misclassification.

Montana's Democratic candidate for its lone Congressional seat, Kim Gillan, is a former member of Teamsters Local 853 in California. Jose Hernandez, a former NASA astronaut and member of Local 601 in California, is in a tight race for Congress in California. Dr. Lee Rogers is an affiliate Teamster; he's also running for Congress in California against a staunch anti-worker incumbent. Gary McDowell in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has a good shot at unseating the incumbent. McDowell was a Teamster UPS driver for 33 years.

We know we've left plenty of people and causes out, but stay tuned and we'll have more.

How Elizabeth Warren got tough on the bank bailout

Here are 1 billion reasons Massachusetts Teamsters are all out for Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren: That's how many dollars she saved U.S. taxpayers.

Matt Stoller, writing for Salon explains how Warren wouldn't let the Treasury be shortchanged by bailout deals. He cites a new paper by Stanford political scientist Lucas Puente showing Warren's work on the Congressional Oversight Panel saved more than $1 billion. She did it by being skeptical toward the Treasury Department’s bailout plans.

Here's what happened: During the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. Treasury invested in shares of bank stocks. As part of the deal, the government got warrants, or the right to buy bank stock at a set price. Warren was the one person on the Congressional Oversight Panel who realized Treasury was selling off those warrants too cheap. Once she called the Treasury Department out on it, the warrants were sold for a better price -- for taxpayers.

Writes Stoller,

This leverage saved the taxpayer roughly a billion dollars. The final budget for Warren’s Congressional Oversight Panel was $10,684,422. That’s roughly a one hundred to one return on investment for every dollar invested in oversight. And that’s not including anything else that Warren’s oversight body did.

Brother John Juszkiewicz, a UPS steward, sent us the photo above of Teamsters  at a get-out-the-vote rally for Warren yesterday in Malden, Mass. Pictured are Teamsters local 225 Driving Instructor Paul Mathi, UPS Steward George Bassett, Elizabeth Warren, Juszkiewcz, and UPS Steward Michelle Joshua.

Today's Teamster News 10.30.12

Leaner government storm response one year after Irene  New York World   ...New York greets Hurricane Sandy with fewer shelters and state troopers — and a shorter timeline for evacuation...
As the Frankenstorm Arrives Romney/ Ryan Go Silent on Their Plan to Cut FEMA and Disaster Relief  Politicususa   ...As the East Coast braces for a massive storm, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are trying to cover up the fact that if elected they intend to cut funding for both FEMA and disaster relief...
Sensata outsourcing rattles Illinois community: 'Jobs need to stay here'  Guardian   ...Workers residents have held protests to prevent vehicles shipping parts destined for China from Bain-owned company...
Privatizing prisons is a scam (opinion)  Youngstown Vindicator   ... when you have to cut costs to save money to meet the profit margin of a private company shortcuts are the only way to operate. When you create shortcuts, security is the first casualty...
Digital Debate: Teamster’s Hoffa & Amway Heir DeVos: Clash Over Unions!  CBS News   ...Teamsters President James P. Hoffa is associated with the labor movement as few others, having been weaned on it by his late father, storied union boss Jimmy Hoffa who ran the powerful organization decades earlier...
Illinois School Bus Workers Vote To Join Teamsters Local 777  IBT   ...School bus drivers and monitors with Illinois Central School Bus in Waukegan, Ill., have voted to join Teamsters Local 777 in Lyons, Ill., standing strong throughout a hard-fought campaign for respect and justice from the employer. There are 220 workers in the bargaining unit...

Mitt Romney's tax dodges, Part VII

It's taking us more than a week to share Rolling Stone's report all the ways Mitt Romney avoided paying taxes on the fortune he made harvesting companies at Bain Capital. This one's a little complicated. But note the practices described in Part VII were investigated by New York's attorney general.

FEE FAKERY

Not content with the carried-interest boondoggle, Bain also uses a scheme known as fee conversion to transform smaller management fees – which are supposed to be taxed as regular earnings – into investment income taxed at only 15 percent. A Bain manager simply "waives" his right to his fee and is instead staked an investment of equal value in the private equity fund. Because the manager can then cherry-pick from the fund's investments, he is virtually guaranteed a rich return – flouting the spirit of the lower tax rate on capital gains, which is designed to reward investors who take risks with their money. "Because they didn't receive the cash, they claim that it's not a taxable event," says Fleischer. "It's not legal." New York's attorney general has launched a criminal investigation into the practice.

Romney denies he took part in such waivers, which may have robbed the Treasury of up to $220 million. But according to Fleischer, Romney's financial records suggest he "benefited personally from fee conversion." He also served as the sole shareholder in the firm that set up the deals, making him legally responsible for determining how Bain structured them.

Read the whole thing here.

Ohio voting machines linked to Romney can be hacked

Good to know.

Today's Teamster News 10.29.12

The American Economy On Purgatory Mountain  Economic Populist   ... It's not taxes, small government or big government, or even the deficit. The real problem are jobs going offshore, companies treating workers as disposable and the never ending race to the bottom on wages, global labor arbitrage...
A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift  New York Times   ...the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that the retail and wholesale sector, with a total of 18.6 million jobs, has cut a million full-time jobs since 2006, while adding more than 500,000 part-time jobs...
EU Bureaucracy has Lost Control of Italy; Social Mood Turns Black  Mish's Global Trend Economic Analysis   ...Northern Italy has been fermenting with protests and is becoming radical.  The paradox is that the rich part of the country is collapsing under the Euro and the EU driven austerity, crushed by competition from Germany, competition from Asia and other emerging region with weaker currencies and improving technology and skills and by high commodity and energy costs...
‘Anti-Business’ Obama Is Best President For Corporate Profits Since 1900  ThinkProgress   ...Even if corporate profits under Obama are compared to the 2008 peak — in order to erase the effect of the financial crisis — “average annual corporate profit growth under President Obama is 6.8%,” or nearly three times as large as it was under President Reagan...
Romney Auto Bailout Ad Tells Four Myths In 30 Seconds  ThinkProgress   ...Romney claimed he read a news story that said Chrysler was planning to “moving all production to China.” The Bloomberg News piece he referenced, though, made it clear that Fiat, the Italian company that now owns Chrysler, was opening new factories in China to make Jeeps for Chinese consumers. No American plants will be closed, and no American jobs will be lost...
New tools aid door-to-door push for votes  Boston Globe   ...A Teamster and UPS driver, Cote said he has been inundated with union literature urging him to vote for Obama. The Teamsters have their own microtargeting effort; the union president, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., who supports Obama, can be heard in a message on Cote’s answering machine. Cote is sympathetic to concerns that union interests could be undermined by a Romney presidency...

Former UPS Teamster running for Congress from Minn.

We're paying close attention to 19 political candidates who are Teamsters, used to be Teamsters or are close Teamster friends. Between now and Nov. 6, we'll be presenting one candidate a day to you, courtesy of Teamster Magazine. Read about other Teamster candidates here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Former congressman Rick Nolan retired from Congress in 1981, but he never stopped paying attention to what was going on in Washington, D.C.—or with his fellow Teamsters. That’s why he’s again running for the U.S. House Seat in Minnesota’s 8th District.

“Unions are the backbone of the middle class in America,” Nolan said. “Let’s not forget that the union movement raised the working class out of poverty less than a century ago and provided a powerful voice for the average working man and woman. That voice is being challenged every day. Working families need more allies, and unions continue to fight for all of us.”

“I worked my way through college as a Teamster at UPS. This is my union,” Nolan said. He is committed to fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, pension protection and against right to work.

Nolan’s background has not only shown him the importance of unions but of small businesses. He has been a successful local business owner who has created jobs throughout Minnesota through his sawmill and wood pallet factory, which is family run.

Nolan is a former three-term Minnesota congressman recognized nationwide for his battles on behalf of working families, farmers, small businesses and rural communities.

Obama surprises NH Teamsters today

(UPDATES to ADD Obama comment in 3rd graf.)

We just received an email from Brother Dennis Caza, Local 633's political coordinator:

We had a 15 minute notice that President Obama was coming to visit Teamsters Local 633 TODAY!!!!

The president was on his way to Nashua. When he arrived, he said,  "I saw a bunch of signs, said Teamsters for Obama, I thought I'd stop by."

You can see from the photo he was at the Manchester hall shortly after lunch.

The Associated Press reported:

A group of about 60 members greeted the president with loud cheers and chants of “fired up, ready to go!” Obama addressed the group briefly, telling them the state will be “very important” on Election Day on Nov. 6. 

“We don’t know how this thing is going to play out,” Obama said. “These four electoral votes right here could make the difference.” 

Obama won New Hampshire by 9 percentage points in 2008, but polls show the race tightening here. The New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s most prominent newspaper, endorsed Republican Mitt Romney. 

Before leaving the Teamsters office, the president listed his accomplishments, including protecting equal pay for women, and he added: “I’m going to need you guys over the next 11 days to work as hard as you can. Do it not for me, do it for your kids.”

Our New Hampshire brothers and sisters cleaned up real nice, don't you think?

Teamsters rock the vote all over the USA

Teamsters heading out to hear President Obama in Denver on Oct. 24 

Teamster boots are walking all over the country for pro-worker candidates. It's never been more important to elect people who will make sure that the benefits of our economy go to working and middle-income families.

Our Colorado brothers and sisters saw President Obama in Denver earlier this week. The Denver Post reported,

President Barack Obama asked huddling supporters in a chilly City Park on Wednesday to stick with him for another four years, calling his GOP opponent out of touch on America's problems and arguing that the presidential election is about trust. 

Obama stood with sleeves rolled up beneath overcast skies and boasted about his frenetic schedule with nine swing state stops in a no-sleep 38-hour stretch, 13 days before the election. 

Polls say Romney and Obama are in a statistical tie in Colorado.

Teamsters from Local 30 in Pennsylvania were phone banking for President Obama in Greensburg -- with none other than former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. In the photo above are Roger Foley, Carl "Hands" Paullet from Teamsters Joint Council 40, Gov. Dean and Jan Foley.

Nevada is another battleground state where polls show the two presidential candidates very close.

To the left is a picture of Local 993 President Mike Magnani speaking with his members at the general membership meeting on Wednesday. Mike asked his members to vote for President Obama to protect their jobs. He reminded his members that they have until Nov 2 to vote early.

Nevada is the home of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is trying to buy the election for Mitt Romney. Adelson, who owns casinos overseas, wants to break the unions responsible for Las Vegas' middle class and reduce gaming and hotel wages so they match those in India and Macao. He told the Times of India,

• In India, the manpower is abundant and very cheap, and that makes investment very enticing. 
• Manpower here (in Macao) is cheap.
• Tax rates in Macau are much higher than in Vegas, but we intend to balance that with the much cheaper manpower here.

Our brothers and sisters in Ohio are working hard for President Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of the staunches opponents of job-killing trade deals you'll meet. Below is a photo of Sen. Brown  talking at Teamsters Local 413 and 284 in Columbus earlier this week.

And finally, we bring you this photo of Carl A. "Hands" Paulette, retiree; Jim McClalland and Mark Hilderbrand from Local 249. They's standing in front of the Teamster Temple in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh. We love to see that Teamster power!

Wis. "Fab 14" senator, a longtime Teamster, runs for re-election

We're paying close attention to 19 political candidates who are Teamsters, used to be Teamsters or are close Teamster friends. Between now and Nov. 6, we'll be presenting one candidate a day to you, courtesy of Teamster Magazine. Read about other Teamster candidates here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Wis.) understands working people because he is one.

“One day I was working on the garbage truck, and the next day I was working in Madison, hiring staff,” said Hansen, a former Green Bay Department of Public Works employee and 20-year member of Local 662.

A tireless advocate for workers’ rights, Hansen is one of the famous “Fab 14” state senators who left Wisconsin in 2011 in a show of solidarity against Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on collective bargaining for public employees.

Since then, Hansen and his fellow Democrats have taken back the state senate and he is running for a fourth term in Senate District 30.

“It’s the 1 percent against the 99 percent and I’m representing working men and women in this state,” Hansen said. “I stood up for what I believed in and I will continue to stand up for working people—for affordable health care, quality education and care for our seniors.”

Mitt Romney's tax dodges, Part V

Now that we've told you about four countries where Mitt Romney hides money, we are moving on to his U.S.-based, er, techniques.

We are indebted to Rolling Stone for bringing us this eight-part series on ways the Republican presidential candidate avoids paying his fair share of taxes. So if you think he's the guy to make sure the benefits of our economy go to regular working and middle-income families -- well, good luck with that.

Today, thanks to Rolling Stone, we bring you Romney's retirement tricks.

RETIREMENT TRICKS

Romney has stockpiled as much as $87 million in his IRA – even though contributions to such retirement accounts are limited to just $30,000 a year. "Congress never intended IRAs to be used to accumulate that kind of wealth," says Wilkins. To get around the limits, Romney appears to have directed his IRA to invest in a special class of Bain stock. By assigning an artificially low value to the shares, Bain ensured that any returns would be wildly inflated – as much as 30 times the initial investment. By buying rigged stock with his limited IRA dollars, Romney got to reap the bonanza tax-free.

Romney also padded his IRA by investing in "blocker funds" that Bain has set up in the Caymans. Such funds attract tax-exempt investors – like college endowments or Romney's IRA – that want to avoid paying the Unrelated Business Income Tax, a 35 percent penalty designed to prevent tax-exempt investors from having an unfair advantage over for-profit businesses in private-equity deals. But by buying shares in offshore blocker funds that then invest in Bain and other takeover artists, investors like Romney bilk the Treasury out of $100 million a year. "It's an absurdly easy escape," says Shaviro.

Read the whole thing here.

Ohio Teamsters get their ground game on

In the last two weeks of this presidential election, it all comes down to the ground game. And nowhere is the ground game more important than the battleground state of Ohio.

For our brothers and sisters in Ohio, it's man-to-man combat persuasion.

Here Eric McKee, a union steward for Local 507 at Riser Foods, talks with Robert Moran, a union steward for Local 1164, at the Distillata work site. Work site visits are key to the Teamsters member-to-member efforts to turn out the vote for worker-friendly candidates on Nov. 6.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa visited work sites in Cincinnati, Toledo and Cleveland and led rallies in all three cities.

The Houston Chronicle reports that it's working:

...Team Obama ain’t giving out numbers of voter contacts and doors knocked. But when pollsters in Ohio asked voters if they have heard from the campaign: 

Heard from Team Obama in Ohio? 36%
Heard from Team Romney in Ohio? 29%

Matt Ford, political coordinator for Local 507, said he feels good about the outcome:

It's nothing like the midterms, more like 2008.  We can thank SB5 for uniting us against Republicans. That's the one silver lining of that legislation.

Mitt Romney's tax dodges, Part IV

No tax dodge would be complete without the Cayman Islands, and you can bet Mitt Romney took advantage of it!

Rolling Stone brings us the eight ways Mitt Romney avoids paying his fair share of taxes. Here we bring you Part IV:

Cayman Cash

Romney has nearly $30 million stashed in at least a dozen Bain funds in the Cayman Islands, where, as one filing boasts, investments are free from "income, estate, transfer, sales, or other Cayman Islands taxes."

But because some of those funds are directly invested in U.S. companies, they likely disclose their investors to the IRS, making them unattractive to tax cheats. So Bain also raises capital for its deals by selling shares in "feeder funds" – intermediary entities that invest in Bain's official funds, but don't have to make disclosures to the IRS. "If you want to cheat, they've rolled out the red carpet for you," says Wilkins.

Has Romney paid all his taxes on the shady funds? Only he and the IRS know for sure. But even if Romney never cheated personally, the feeder funds he appears to have invested in cater to tax criminals, making it easier for him and his Bain partners to raise capital and rake in big management fees.

Romney is profiting from one form of tax evasion in the Caymans: equity swaps. Under this racket run by top Wall Street banks, American firms pay out their profits – tax-free – to investment funds based in the Caymans. According to a Senate investigation, the purpose of these complex instruments is "to dodge payment of U.S. taxes on U.S. stock dividends." Romney has more than $1.25 million invested in four funds that profit from equity swaps – including two managed by Goldman Sachs.

Read the whole thing here. And thanks to Rolling Stone!

Teamster doctor running for Congress from Calif.

We're paying close attention to 19 political candidates who are Teamsters, used to be Teamsters or are close Teamster friends. Between now and Nov. 6, we'll be presenting one candidate a day to you, courtesy of Teamster Magazine. Read about other Teamster candidates here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

California podiatrist Dr. Lee Rogers, an affiliate Teamsters member through the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, is running for U.S. Congress in California’s 25th District.

Rogers is challenging Republican Rep. Buck McKeon, a longtime anti-worker congressman who has fought against organized labor and the Labor Department.

“The middle class is suffering while we’re giving away billions in subsidies to profitable companies,” Rogers said. “Let’s focus our tax dollars here at home and protect working families.”

Rogers has been endorsed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. He specializes in podiatry and limb salvage at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. He co-founded and directed the Amputation Prevention Center in the hospital, and has published more than a hundred scientific papers, articles and book chapters on health policy.

Rogers said in his first 100 days he would oppose Republican plans to gut Medicare, co-sponsor a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding Citizens United, introduce legislation to ban x-ray scanners on humans for non-medical purposes and establish a yearly conference of local California leaders to establish legislative priorities.

He and his wife Susan live in Simi Valley with their two daughters.