You know the unions are desperate when...

I have rarely heard such despicable lies in political ads as those ads running against Colorado Amendments 47 and 49, the former being "Right to Work" (i.e. not to have to be a union member or pay union dues to get any particular job) and the latter removing the government's ability to automatically deduct union dues from paychecks.

Critics are calling the ads attacks on teachers and firemen.

An ad I heard against 49 today said that the measure would "put the paychecks of firefighters into the hands of businesses and the government" which is exactly the opposite of what 49 does. It says that no private organization can have dues or other contributions automatically taken from the paycheck of a government employee. Here's the specific language:

An amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning deductions from governmental payroll systems, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting a governmental payroll system from taking a payroll deduction from any government employee except deductions required by federal law, tax withholdings, judicial liens and garnishments, deductions for individual or group health benefits or other insurance, deductions for pension or retirement plans or systems, or other savings or investment programs, and charitable deductions.

The idea that this somehow is putting firefighters' paychecks at risk is something that even a good propagandist could do. The ad is an outright lie, playing to fears of uninformed voters.

There are similar ads against 47 saying that evil business owners want 47 to pass so they can cut wages and health benefits for workers.

Here's the official ballot title:

An amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning participation in a labor organization as a condition of employment, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting an employer from requiring that a person be a member and pay any moneys to a labor organization or to any other third party in lieu of payment to a labor organization and creating a misdemeanor criminal penalty for a person who violates the provisions of the section.

Does that sound like business owners trying to hurt workers? I don't think so.

Of course, the unions have huge money to throw at opposing these measures because of the deal with the devil that Colorado "business community" made with the unions, giving them $3 million and pledging to help defeat pro-business Amendments in return for the unions pulling some outrageous anti-business Amendments from the ballot.

My guess is that 47 and 49 will both fail because the money opposing them is so massive compared to the money supporting them. It will be like Referendum C which passed by a narrow margin although the money spent to pass it was 10 times the money spent against it. When the difference in ad budgets is that large, it's hard for the small budget to win...and the smaller budget is never the unions.

You often hear government say things like "if we don't get this tax hike, starving orphans will be thrown out on the street in the middle of winter." The claims against these ads are almost worse, implying they'll reduce the safety of firefighters' working conditions.

Watch this and tell me where in the proposed Amendments anything like what this guy is warning about is even theoretically possible:

Even the liberal Denver Post has come out for Amendment 49.

The lies and desperation in these ads are the worst I've ever seen, and that says a lot. The firefighters in particular should be ashamed of themselves, though it's less surprising when you go to a firefighters' web site where they're opposing these measures and see AFL-CIO logos all over the place. In any case, this puts at least a temporary end to any contribution I'll be making to any firefighters organization in the state other than the local all-volunteer firestation up here in the mountains near my home. My respect for firefighters has taken a body blow, and my level of distaste for unions has reached a new high.