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  #1  
Old 11-06-2008, 12:06 PM
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Relying on government...

Obama campaign workers angry over unpaid wages

Posted: Nov 5, 2008 01:38 PM MST

Updated: Nov 6, 2008 08:47 AM MST

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Political paychecks
1:59

Former Obama workers claim they were short-changed




Indianapolis - Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.

"I want my money today! It's my money. I want it right now!" yelled one former campaign worker.

A former spokesman for the Obama campaign said 375 people were hired as part of the Vote Corps program and said people signed up to work three-hour shifts at a time. Three hours of canvassing got workers a $30 pre-paid Visa card.

The workers showed up to get their cards Wednesday morning at 10:00 am.

"There was a note on the door saying 1:00 pm and then at 1:20 pm everybody was like why is nobody here. They just got here and they're trying to get it organized," said Heather Richards, a former campaign worker.

The large gathering of around 375 people prompted police to call in extra officers and set up temporary barricades. The barricades helped keep the crowd from spilling out onto Meridian Street. Police say the several hundred people in line were for the most part orderly.

"No arrests. Some of the people were upset at first because the line wasn't moving as fast as they thought it should. But we really haven't had any problems," said Major Darryl Pierce, Metro Police.

Eventually people did start getting paid, but some said they were missing hours and told to fill in paperwork making their claim and that eventually they would get a check in the mail.

"Still that's not right. I'm disappointed. I'm glad for the president, but I'm disappointed in this system," said Diane Jefferson, temporary campaign worker.

"It should have been $480. It's $230," said Imani Sankofa.


"They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90," said Charles Martin.

"I worked nine hours a day for 4 days and got paid half of what I should have earned," said Randall Waldon.


Some people weren't satisfied with filling out a claim form for money they felt was still due to them.

"They say that they gonna call you or they going to mail it to you, but I don't know. We'll see what happens," said Antron Grose.

"Talking about they'll mail it to us. I ain't worried about that, man. They're not going to mail nothin'," said Martin.

Note: The comments tool has been disabled for this story. It is WTHR.com's policy to approve all comments before they are posted because we aim to maintain a civil dialogue on our site. However, because of the large volume of comments generated by this story, we do not have the time to approve them - therefore they have been turned off. We are sorry for any inconvenience. While our goal is to encourage interactivity on our site, in this case, we simply do not have the staff to devote the time to approving comments.

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This thread is not intended to shed poor light on Pres Elect Obama. It is to display the wisdom of relying on govt or bureaucracies for sustenance or welfare. As I read this story and watched the vidclips linked in it, I was reminded of Soviet commodities lines in the 80's where folks waited for hours to be provided toilet paper, shoes, food, etc.

The lesson is self reliance is security.

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  #2  
Old 11-06-2008, 12:24 PM
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How does this translate to "relying on government?"

Obama's campaign organization is responsible for paying these folks, not the goverment.

These were regular people sincerely interested in helping the cause. I don't believe the welfare-types would have been interested in working anyway.

Obama fought pretty hard campaining in Indiana prior to the election. I'm sure his organization extended nice monetary offers to many folks for rapid assistance in the campaign.

So they show up to get paid...so what? Wouldn't you? A few hundred $$$ is significant enough for me to bother to collect.
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  #3  
Old 11-06-2008, 01:08 PM
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You missed the point.
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Old 11-06-2008, 01:22 PM
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This is the point...

"Note: The comments tool has been disabled for this story. It is WTHR.com's policy to approve all comments before they are posted because we aim to maintain a civil dialogue on our site. However, because of the large volume of comments generated by this story, we do not have the time to approve them - therefore they have been turned off. We are sorry for any inconvenience. While our goal is to encourage interactivity on our site, in this case, we simply do not have the staff to devote the time to approving comments."

First sign of censorship
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  #5  
Old 11-06-2008, 01:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azimuth View Post
You missed the point.
I missed it too. Your analysis doesn't follow. These people were WORKING for the money.
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  #6  
Old 11-06-2008, 01:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt L View Post
I missed it too. Your analysis doesn't follow. These people were WORKING for the money.
That is not the point.
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  #7  
Old 11-06-2008, 01:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LUVMBDiesels View Post
...First sign of censorship
It's not censorship for a private company to control the content of its own website. What would concern me is if they were required to allow anyone to post anything they want.
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  #8  
Old 11-06-2008, 01:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azimuth View Post
You missed the point.
So did I.

How does this dispute between a private employer and its employees tell us anything about relying on government?
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  #9  
Old 11-06-2008, 01:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LUVMBDiesels View Post
...First sign of censorship
I still missed the point.

This is a private website, not a government-sponsored page. Censoring a blog takes a lot of work, especially heavy volumes of responses. I doubt Obama's camp has anything to do with it.

Ask our OD moderator how simple it is to keep our group of trolls in line...
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Old 11-06-2008, 01:56 PM
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Don't trust the thieves. Their fingers are greener than yours.
Like I always say, half of the country is employed by government. They can turn it off whenever they want. And then everyone whines about it like the government is here to save you. Obama is government, hes a politician and should be treated as such. Instead of him going down with the ship, the people starve and the top of the pyramid prospers as the free market vanishes. Soon, the entire country will be working for the government and wondering why 80% of their check is gone before they touch it. Ditto for corporations, they don't care about you. Is that the point, more or less? Basically, you follow the cult, you get the cool aid.
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Old 11-06-2008, 02:54 PM
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To be honest, I'm surprised they got the money out that they did. If I had been offered pay for my volunteer work, I wouldn't expect the money for at least a week. In the last days, and day of an election, I'd expect 100% of the resources devoted to getting elected. I'd expect to wait several days before they could engineer paydays.
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Old 11-06-2008, 07:24 PM
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Originally Posted by dculkin View Post
So did I.

How does this dispute between a private employer and its employees tell us anything about relying on government?
I'm curious as well. I don't see how the two are related in anyway.
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  #13  
Old 11-06-2008, 09:31 PM
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My point is that folks who depend upon govt. and/or their officials and bureaucracies for sustenance are fools regardless of which method of quid pro quo was employed (work or influence).

One would think that Pres. Elect Obama, being newly elected on a platform of caring for his brother and spreading the wealth around, would see the importance of a good example this soon after the election for credibility and diligently see that his contractors were paid expeditiously and in full. I'd be willing to bet if his help had demanded payment in advance, he would have expedited their checks to facilitate an effective campaign. As it is, it appears his workers are no longer indispensable which brings me to my second point.

When folks rely on govt, they put themselves in a position of vulnerability. They must remain invaluable to govt and it's officials. Since the character and mood of govt reflects the personalities of its officials, those who've placed themselves in a dependent posture to it/them are forced to behave accordingly or face losing the payments. In this way they surrender their self determination (freedom) for the security of guaranteed funding. Of course as we see in the article's example, sometimes the funds are not what the dependant expects which breeds dicontent and dismay.

Yes, these folks worked for their money. But they relied on a govt official and bureaucracy to make good on their promises which is why they are now disappointed. I'm confident that they will be paid in full eventually. However, I think a truly astute individual would read the writing on the wall and divorce himself from relying on promises of govt subsidies and providence for the reasons statred above. If this is how the wealth is to be spread around, I'll choose to make my own and spread it where I want.
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  #14  
Old 11-06-2008, 09:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azimuth View Post
My point is that folks who depend upon govt. and/or their officials and bureaucracies for sustenance are fools regardless of which method of quid pro quo was employed (work or influence).

One would think that Pres. Elect Obama, being newly elected on a platform of caring for his brother and spreading the wealth around, would see the importance of a good example this soon after the election for credibility and diligently see that his contractors were paid expeditiously and in full. I'd be willing to bet if his help had demanded payment in advance, he would have expedited their checks to facilitate an effective campaign. As it is, it appears his workers are no longer indispensable which brings me to my second point.

When folks rely on govt, they put themselves in a position of vulnerability. They must remain invaluable to govt and it's officials. Since the character and mood of govt reflects the personalities of its officials, those who've placed themselves in a dependent posture to it/them are forced to behave accordingly or face losing the payments. In this way they surrender their self determination (freedom) for the security of guaranteed funding. Of course as we see in the article's example, sometimes the funds are not what the dependant expects which breeds dicontent and dismay.

Yes, these folks worked for their money. But they relied on a govt official and bureaucracy to make good on their promises which is why they are now disappointed. I'm confident that they will be paid in full eventually. However, I think a truly astute individual would read the writing on the wall and divorce himself from relying on promises of govt subsidies and providence for the reasons statred above. If this is how the wealth is to be spread around, I'll choose to make my own and spread it where I want.
Your not going to be able to make your point with this example. Too much assumption and extrapolation. Plus, a truly astute individual wouldn't expect a temp job on a political campaign to pay out like a bank teller.

P.S. Nice to see you back.
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Last edited by A264172; 11-06-2008 at 09:57 PM.
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  #15  
Old 11-06-2008, 09:49 PM
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When folks rely on business, they put themselves in a position of vulnerability. They must remain invaluable to the executives and board members. Since the character and mood of the executives and board reflects the personalities of its officials, etc.

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