The Hypocrisy of Bill and Hillary Clinton

Dick Morris published the following blog comment on Tuesday 10 Apr 2007.

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/?p=33

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THE CLINTONS HYPOCRISY: MAKING MILLIONS FROM ANTI-SEMITIC, ANTI-WOMAN, ANTI-WORKER, AND ANTI-UNION U.A.E AND DUBAI

Hillary Clinton and her campaign repeatedly highlight her ardent feminism, her lifelong advocacy of worker's rights, her consistent support for unions, and her love of Israel.

But those principles go right out the window if there's money involved. When it comes to lining their pockets, the Clintons have a double standard. While Hillary chastises American corporations and employers for lay-offs and opposition to greater union organizing rights, Bill is paid big bucks that go into their joint bank accounts to legitimize and promote the anti-Semitic, anti-worker, anti-union, and anti-woman Arab state of the UAE and its emirates of Dubai.

It's not just Bill's $1.2 million speaking fees from Dubai that have enriched the Clintons. And its not just the million dollar contribution by the Emir of Dubai to the Clinton Presidential Library that has endeared the Islamic monarchy to them.

It's much more that that: Bill Clinton is personally responsible for delivering the ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the U.A.E., Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to a partnership with Yucaipa Cos., headed by Bill and Hillary's uberfundraiser Ron Burkle.

Bill Clinton is a paid adviser and member of the Board of Directors of Yucaipa. Together the Sheik and Yucaipa have formed a new company, Dubai Investment Group Limited, to jointly invest Yucaipa funds and the Sheiks' personal funds.

So Bill Clinton is now an adviser and member of the board of directors of a company that is in partnership with the government of Dubai - a part of the world that blatantly discriminates against women, abuses workers in violation of International law, outlaws unions, deports strikers, and bans Israelis and their products from ever entering the country.

The Clintons won't reveal how much the former president pocketed for setting up this deal, except to report on Hillary's Senate disclosure form: "more than $1,000."

A lot more. According to San Francisco Examiner columnist P.J. Corkery, Clinton makes $10 million a year from Yucaipa.

At the same time, the average worker in the Dubai and the UAE construction industry makes about $177 per month., not enough to support a family. According to the U.S. State Department, 98% of the workforce in the UAE is made up of foreigners, who Human Rights Watch "indentured servants, with no right to form unions or hold strikes." About 20% of them work in the Dubai construction industry. Most of these workers are illiterate and have paid huge fees (usually with loans) to get the job. It is a routine practice for employers to withhold paychecks for several months and to hold the workers passports as 'security.'

There is no minimum wage.

There is no right to organize for collective bargaining for foreign workers or domestic workers. There is no right to strike. Those who dare are either deported or banned from working for a year.

There is no right to freely move from job to job unless either the current employer agrees to provide a letter of 'no objection' or the worker leaves the country for six months.

Worker safety is not an important matter and there are only 80 inspectors to monitor over 250,000 employers.

Workers are out in 104 degree temperature in the summer with a only a two and a half hour break in the middle of the day – a break that used to be four and a half hours, but was recently shortened.

The workday is 8 hours, but employers frequently require overtime – without extra pay. There is a six day work week.

Many of the lowest skilled workers live in horrible conditions. The U.S State Department report on human rights in the UAE notes that:

"low-skilled employees were often provided with substandard living conditions, including overcrowded apartments or lodging in unsafe and unhygienic "labor camps," often lacking electricity, potable water, and adequate cooking and bathing facilities. Some low-paid workers did not receive these benefits, even if stipulated in their contracts."

For the full report: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78865.htm

But while Bill collects the checks for the Clinton family from anti-worker Dubai, Hillary lectures about workers rights.

Just last week, Hillary spoke at the convention of the Communications Workers of America and urged its members to contact Republican Senators about pro-union legislation:

"let them know this is a voting issue; this goes to the real heart of whether we're going to be a country that stands on a principle that every person should have the right to join a union, to be part of a bargaining unit that will stand up for your income…"

Hillary doesn't have the same interest in the workers whose employers enrich the Clintons – she apparently has no objection to the Dubai dollars or Dubai's disgraceful treatment of workers.

Our own government has recognized the severity of the abuses: "Since 1995 the country has been suspended from the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) insurance programs because of the government's noncompliance with internationally recognized worker rights standards."

Hey, Hillary, stop the hypocrisy.

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http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/?p=33