Allentown union official Nick Balzano has been a political punching bag all week because he threatened to file a grievance against the city for allowing a Boy Scout to clear a walking path in a city park.
Three days of taking body blows nationally from conservative pundits, a rebuke from the Lehigh Valley’s congressman and even a lashing from his own union led Balzano to voluntarily resign his position Thursday as head of the local Service Employees International Union.
Balzano said he and seven other executive officers of the local SEIU stepped down.
Via HolyCoast.com. Note that the SEIU itself hung Balzano out to dry: when your guys are already out there on camera beating up protesters and gadflies, it’s not a good time to start a fight with the Boy Scouts of America*. I suggest that the various loyalists of that organization keep that in mind.
Moe Lane
*Not that it’s ever a good time. Nobody smart in American politics messes with the Scouts. Boy or Girl Scouts.
Crossposted to RedState.
Self inflicted indeed.
In the last sentence of the quote, total up the number of “executive officers” who resigned. That’s EIGHT “executive officers” at a union LOCAL.
@Rob-
Precisely. THIS is what our tax dollars are going for: feathering the nests of a bunch of parasites. Don’t EVER believe these bastards when they bitch about their bloated union contracts.
I say let ’em go on strike. Idiots.
I wonder how many scalps you need for a merit badge? I’d
say this eagle scout should have plenty!! Bet he’s doing the scalp dance this week.
Wait a minute is this the same Nick Balzano (the local head of the SEIU in Allentown) who was not an officer of any sorts in the SEIU according to the national SEIU office?
But if you allow citizens to do things for themselves, how do you create enough government jobs to employ everybody?
Of course, I guess you could always have the unionized government employees not actually do their work anyway. I wonder if that’s been tried anywhere?
Greetings from Chicago,
Mike
Heh. There should be a merit badge for fighting an defeating government unions.
To mess with the Boy Scouts, it takes the DNC.
My best recollection was their National Convention in 2000 or 2004. One day they had Boy Scouts doing the Presentation of the Colors (for all you liberal trolls, that the ceremony for bringing in or taking out the United States Flag for a meeting; it includes saying the Pledge of Allegiance or the playing of our National Anthem). It was on C-SPAN. The Boy Scouts were booed.
The Democrats like Girl Scouts though. Would you want to screw with an organization that sells cookies by the millions?
*Not that it’s ever a good time. Nobody smart in American politics messes with the Scouts. Boy or Girl Scouts.
I can’t resist: http://www.motifake.com/index.php?start=72532
“I wonder how many scalps you need for a merit badge?”
5!
“Nobody smart in American politics messes with the Scouts. Boy or Girl Scouts.”
Well, here in Philadelphia we have politicians with spines who are at least making the right effort to ‘mess’ with the Scouts over their discriminatory practices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_Liberty_Council_v._City_of_Philadelphia
The ‘jury’ is still out, so to speak. I just wanted to make sure due credit was given.
SS EIU
Working (people over) Together!
Stupid Boy Scouts. Just who the hell do they think they are? You CAN’T just go around stealing people’s jobs! YOU JUST CAN’T DO THAT!!!
Don’t you know that the Democratic Party has refused to allow them to perform the colors at their convention for years,
At the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000, delegates booed a group of young Scouts as they led the Pledge of Allegiance. And in 2001, a group of Democrats in Congress led a failed effort to repeal the Boy Scouts’ federal charter. http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2008/08/07/opinion/letters/doc4898f5ce1828c402022050.txt
Bureaucrats and bureaucracies are the greatest threats to our freedoms than anything, even mid-east terrorist.
Smack those self-serving cretins down whenever possible.
Toots McGee, you accuse the Boy Scouts of “discriminatory practices”? What. pray tell, is discriminatory of allowing groups to choose their own leaders? When you get the NAACP to have David Duke as a leader, then perhaps you can get the Boy Scouts to accept gay Scoutmasters.
OTOH, I would also be opposed to installing David Duke in a leadership position in the NAACP.
And yes, homosexuality is opposed by the Boy Scouts, and rightfully so. I suppose next you’ll try to get the courts to ban Christian churches from worshipping Christ?
–chicopanther
An Eagle Scout
And one more thing… If the SEIU was upset that a Boy Scout cleaned something up, was it because it made the union look bad because they weren’t doing their jobs? This is supposing that it was a union job to clean up the location in question.
–chicopanther
“Counting Coup” Merit Badge on the way.
Hope this future Eagle Scout gets into politics later in life. Sounds like a good young man.
@Toots
As the courts have repeatedly noted, the Boy Scouts, being a private club, can discriminate against whomever they please. They could keep out boys with blue eyes if they chose…it’s THEIR club.
The only thing the state (or fed gov’t) can do is deny the scouts any financial support because of their discrimination. It’s simply not the governments job (nor their right) to tell private clubs who they can have as members.
This is the same issue as with the private golf clubs who don’t allow women. So long as they don’t accept public funds, there’s absolutely NOTHING us citizens have a right to say about it.
The particular case you mention is a more complex one than simple discrimination and public funds. After all, the scouts built and maintained that building for 80 years now. The city could be seen as just trying to strong-arm them out of a very valuable piece of property after realizing they could make far more money with other tenants.
As a matter of fact, I’d even say since the city conveniently overlooked the scouts discrimination for so long, it may bear some culpability in this case.
If the courts decide for the city, then they’re essentially saying the contract was a legally unenforceable. This means the city did not negotiate in good faith, and could owe the scouts for the cost of building and maintaining the building for 80 years.
Did he get a free ticket to Disneyland?
My LOCAL TV station has commercials for “Volunteerism” where you get a free ticket to Disneyland. Think the SEIU is charging these official government endorsed Volunteers also? Just curious, don’t care – I’m in CANADA. But I’m certain my LOCAL TV station thanks your government sponsored Volunteer organizations for purchasing broadcast time.
And, yes, I do he gets a ticket.
Of course Balzano wasn’t an officer of any sort. He had probably resigned — under orders — fifteen seconds before that comment went out to enable its “truthiness.”
Bet he still gets a pension.
Boy Scouts are Bigots. They do not allow atheists or gays.
Girl Scouts have no such restrictions.
I do not contribute to the Boy Scouts.
I contribute generously to the Girl Scouts.
@@ Sherry….
Ummm, they do allow any child to join — gay, athiest, or otherwise.
What they do not allow is for homosexual men to be in charge of groups of impressionable-aged boys.
Sry to bother you with facts. 🙂
The Girl Scouts don’t allow boys.
That makes them just as ‘bigoted’ as you make out the Boy Scouts to be.