PEORIA -- If this speaker is any tip off for future speakers, this is just what Peoria does not need! And it proves that taxes need to be raised on the rich, especially rich doctors.
Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush administration, will give the inaugural address of Bradley University's Falcon Executive Speaker Series on August 28 at 6 p.m. in the Peoria Civic Center ballroom.
The event will celebrate the establishment of the Theresa S. Falcon Executive M.B.A. program at Bradley. Tickets are $100 per person.
In May, Dr. Falcon, a Peoria physician and Bradley alumna, donated $2 million to the Executive MBA program at Bradley to provide scholarships and develop the Theresa S. Falcon Executive Speaker Series. In recognition of her generosity, the program was named the Theresa S. Falcon Executive MBA Program, the first EMBA program in the world named for and by a woman.
Too bad it has an anti-labor and anti-womens-rights speaker to begin the series!
Ms. Chao was the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor and the first Asian Pacific American woman ever appointed to a president’s cabinet. She was the longest serving Secretary of Labor since World War II, and the only member of President George W. Bush’s cabinet to serve all eight years of his Administration. She currently is a fellow with the Heritage Foundation and a contributor to FOX News.
Here's what one writer says about Chao's record:
Chao's tenure as Secretary of Labor is stained with dismantling critical mine safety protections, displaying open hostility toward workers and their unions, and collaborating with corporate interests, most notably through her husband, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Her embarrassing legacy shows a complete lack of accountability at the Department of Labor.
That's not all. Some of the most disturbing examples of where Elaine Chao's priorities lie include:
•Hiring a former colleague from the Heritage Foundation, D. Mark Wilson, who actually wrote a report titled "How to close down the Department of Labor."
•Cutting over 100 inspectors at the Mine Safety and Health Administration and, as a result, hundreds of mines weren't inspected and tragedies such as Sago and Crandall Canyon might have been prevented.
•Failing to issue a rule requiring employers pay for their workers' safety gear -- contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
•Having an auditorium at the University of Louisville named in her honor, compliments of her husband's $14.2 million earmark, at taxpayers' expense. Elaine never attended the university, although it is her husband's alma mater.
There's more: From another website:
Although Chao’s work as labor secretary focused primarily on domestic policy, she reinforced the Bush administration’s “war on terror” rhetoric by citing it as a rationale for pressing conservative policy on labor. In mid-2002, when the administration warned it might suppress certain union activities because they could “threaten” national security during a time of war, the Inter Press Service reported: “Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao have both intervened personally to tell the union's bargaining committee that the administration is prepared to prevent any strike, says Clarence Thomas, secretary-treasurer of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. … [A]ccording to Thomas, administration officials have made it clear that in the event of a strike, Bush would at least invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, under which striking longshoremen would be ordered to return to work for 80 days.”
Here's what Bradley U. says about Chao in its news release: Under her leadership, the U.S. Department of Labor achieved record results for workers and their families in promoting and protecting the health, safety, wages, retirement security and competitiveness of the nation's workforce. As the first U.S. Secretary of Labor in the 21st century, Ms. Chao focused on increasing the competitiveness of America’s workforce.
Secretary Chao's distinguished career has spanned the public, private and non-profit sectors. As president and chief executive officer of United Way of America, she restored public trust and confidence in one of the nation's largest institutions of private charitable giving. As director of the Peace Corps, she established the first Peace Corps programs in the Baltic nations and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. Her government service also includes serving as deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, deputy maritime administrator in the U.S. Department of Transportation and White House Fellow. She has also worked as vice president of syndications at BankAmerica Capital Markets Group and a banker with Citicorp. Prior to her nomination as Secretary of Labor, she was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and she is also on the board of the Institute of Politics at Harvard.
She's been a banker, too, and no doubt has profited mightily from the federal bailout caused by the irresponsibility of people like her. While her husband rails against federal deficits.
Ugh! I hope someone shows up to protest this event!
-- Elaine Hopkins
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