WTF People?

[Empty V]

So Meg Whitman's former housekeeper is suing her for backpay and mileage. This b**** made $23/hr as a house keeper! Plus lied about her immigration status with a falsified SSN and driver's license. She blubbered in a press conference "she treated me, as if I was not a human being." while crying with the ever to tactful POS Gloria Allred next to her. I seriously hate people. What drives these people to do things like this? I really don't get it. Her and Allred should both be jailed for wasting our tax dollars. I wonder how much money our court system has wasted on that POS Allred.

[IBCoupe]

Her and Allred should both be jailed for wasting our tax dollars.

Which dollars are those?

[Empty V]

Which dollars are those?

The ones wasted in our court system.

[audtatious]

Would be interesting to know if the SSN was an actual "living persons" SSN and what they think about her "borrowing" it.....Why is the state not going after her for fraud? Did she falsify information to the company she used for car insurance too as that is fraud on them as well.

Snowball gets bigger the more you dig into it.......let's only concentrate on this poor lady being an illegal and sob our way to ignoring her criminal activity.

[Empty V]

Would be interesting to know if the SSN was an actual "living persons" SSN and what they think about her "borrowing" it.....Why is the state not going after her for fraud? Did she falsify information to the company she used for car insurance too as that is fraud on them as well.

Snowball gets bigger the more you dig into it.......let's only concentrate on this poor lady being an illegal and sob our way to ignoring her criminal activity.

So she's trying to get money for unpaid mileage in which she was operating with a fake driver's license? The media never ceases to amaze me when it comes to the garbage they report on. Man I miss the news.

[audtatious]

Based on your OP she had a fake SSN and DL. No, I haven't really read about this yet.....

[IBCoupe]

On the other hand, is it okay for employers to break the law just because they're breaking other laws by hiring someone who is an illegal immigrant?

[audtatious]

Employers should be punished for knowingly hiring those breaking the law.

[IBCoupe]

And for knowingly breaking the law.

[Empty V]

Employers should be punished for knowingly hiring those breaking the law.

It's a bit of a catch 22. The govt says you're not allowed to hire undocumented worked but they don't give you any means for finding out someone's legal status. What they do is reject the SSN and just ask for a new one. If they had a system where employers could check then it'd be okay, but they don't.

[IBCoupe]

I was talking about improper compensation. If they're to be hired, even illegal immigrants should be paid the minimum wage and be compensated properly for related expenses that an employer would normally be required to compensate for.

Before you freak out, ask yourself: if an employer is free to pay illegal immigrants less, why would they ever want to hire legal workers? Similarly, if illegal immigrants must be properly compensated, what's the benefit to hiring them over a legal worker?

EDIT: New thread here.

[Empty V]

I agree but I don't see where anyone stated that she was being gouged. She was making more than double the CA minimum wage.

[heliochrome85]

im just wondering
if a woman is so uneducated as to work as a housekeeper and such, do you really think she knows how to falsify documents?

i call
s***

my take
this woman was given a fake SSN by the agency that employed her. Meg Whitman hired staff, this woman got paid a fraction of what meg paid the staffing agency, and the staffing agency took care of immigration status loose ends to cover their asses.

it happens all the time

[audtatious]

She does not need to know as others can guide her.

[audtatious]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... .DTL&tsp=1

Startling accusations Wednesday that GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman had an illegal immigrant as her housekeeper for nine years have all the elements of a classic late-campaign "October surprise" - a sobbing victim, a media-savvy attorney, charges of hypocrisy and dirty tricks.

The charges sent Whitman's campaign team into overdrive as it worked nonstop to limit the political damage from the allegations, which the former eBay CEO dismissed as lies and partisan attacks.

The latest chapter in California's gubernatorial race unfolded live on TMZ.com, just hours after Whitman finished her first televised debate with her November opponent, Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown, a debate in which she argued that California employers must be held accountable for hiring undocumented workers.

It starred Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, a Democratic donor who is a controversial veteran of many highly publicized cases, surrounded by a battery of cameras in her office.

Seated beside her was Mexican-born Nicandra Diaz Santillan - Whitman's nanny and housekeeper from 2000 to 2009 - who charged that Whitman had mistreated her and failed to pay her for all the hours she worked.
Allred's allegations

Allred alleged that Whitman "never asked if Nicky were here legally" when she hired her to work 15 hours a week as a $23-an-hour housekeeper in Whitman's 15,000-square-foot home, then upped her workload and responsibilities. The attorney said she would file a lawsuit demanding back wages for hours she said Diaz worked and for which she was never paid, and for years of unspecified "abuse" she took at her employer's hands.

But Whitman said she had no way of knowing Diaz was in the country illegally because the housekeeper had provided her with a phony Social Security number and signed a required statement stating that she was a legal resident of the country.

Allred charged that Whitman ignored a 2003 letter the Social Security Administration sent to her home, informing her that Diaz's Social Security number did not match her name - a red flag for an undocumented worker. She said the agency asked Whitman to provide proper documentation, and Whitman never responded. But Allred did not show such a document Wednesday to back up that claim.
Was there a letter?

Whitman's team said the former CEO never saw such a letter - and, in any case, Diaz was in charge of picking up the mail in the house.

Sarah Kim-Lee of the San Francisco regional office of the Social Security Administration would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the letter, saying such correspondence would be confidential.

It wasn't until Diaz came to her in June 2009 and said she was an illegal worker who had falsified her employment information that Whitman knew there was a problem, she said. Whitman then fired Diaz, saying in a statement that "it was one of the hardest things I've ever done."

"I feel terrible for Nicky," Whitman said at a campaign event Wednesday at Cisco Systems in San Jose. "She is being manipulated and I'm sorry. Everything Gloria Allred is saying is an absolute lie."

Whitman added, in response to a reporter's question, that she hadn't addressed the matter in her many discussions about immigration during the campaign because "it never came up."

The day's events were "an absolute shame ... a political manipulation by the Jerry Brown campaign and the Democratic Party," said Hector Barajas, a spokesman for the Whitman campaign. In exploiting Diaz, "it just shows how far they're going to get elected."
Political fallout

But Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said the story underscores how "once again, Meg Whitman has shown that she thinks the rules don't apply to her."

Just days until California voters begin casting mail ballots, the passion on both sides raises a key question in California's marquee race: Will the allegations that Whitman hired - and even possibly mistreated - an undocumented Mexican housekeeper be a game-changer in the deadlocked contest between Brown and Whitman?

"Absolutely; she's hypocritical when it comes to immigrant rights," said Rose Ann DeMoro, chief executive of the California Nurses Association, which has satirized Whitman on the campaign trail as "Queen Meg," an out-of-touch billionaire businesswoman.
Quick respose

But Whitman's quick response to the charges, which she apparently knew were coming, may limit any damage to her campaign, said Sam Singer, a San Francisco consultant who specializes in crisis communication.

"By being ready for the attack, she initially handled it very well," he said. "By immediately responding ... she may have knocked the legs out from under this story."

The results of the controversy could be very different in the Latino community, however.

Whitman - aiming to attract at least one-third of California's 15 million Latino voters - has opened a campaign office in East Los Angeles and run a barrage of Spanish-language television and radio ads as part of her aggressive outreach.
Undermining message

But the televised image of Diaz crying over her treatment by Whitman is likely to be a strong one in the Latino community, said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles.

In Diaz, Latinos "can recognize someone they know, someone who may live across the street," he said. "It helps to undermine everything Whitman may have done so far."

The story will be a sensation in the Spanish-language press and one that won't go away in a hurry, Regalado added.

Democrats will be doing everything possible to keep the story alive. Brown's supporters would be delighted if Whitman had to spend days dealing with the backlash from the charges, throwing her off the campaign's planned message with the candidates' second debate coming up Saturday in Fresno.

[AZhitman]

im just wondering
if a woman is so uneducated as to work as a housekeeper and such, do you really think she knows how to falsify documents?

i call
bullsh*t

You gotta come hang out with me at work, then. You'll see.

Although, your alternate scenario is likely too.

[AZhitman]

Looks like, as the artice says, "a political manipulation by the Jerry Brown campaign and the Democratic Party".

Pathetic and sad. Run on the issues, Jerry... you pinhead.

[srellim234]

To be honest, AZ, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Brown and his campaign have no connection or previous knowledge about what Allred is doing. Both major parties have operatives pulling dirty tricks in back rooms while providing "plausible deniability" to their candidates.

A Republican trying to run a clean campaign can't stop the Chamber of Commerce from running nasty ads against his Democratic opponent. A Democrat trying to run a clean campaign can't stop a union from running a nasty ad against his Republican opponent. I think that's happening here.

Look at what the Swiftboaters did to John Kerry.

[AZhitman]

Very, very good point.

In other news, Allred's a clown.

[srellim234]

But she's a filthy rich clown.

[AZhitman]

You could have just as easily said, "she wears a size 8 shoe". Both are irrelevant to me.

Not bashing you for pointing that out, but I just never understood that whole thing... You know, for example: I'm sitting there talking football with the guys, and i say, "Bill Romanowski is a douchebag." And invariably, someone will say, "He makes more money than you."

Uhhhh, ok. And?

Anyhow, that wasn't directed at you - just reminded me of a pet peeve of mine.

Carry on.

[IBCoupe]

That's the plausible analysis that I heard, Srellim. Allred's well known to be a Democrat, and she's well known to have given money to multiple Democratic campaigns. She's also well-known to take on very visible clients, so it seems entirely plausible that the Brown campaign had no knowledge or influence in the thing.

Of course, that's probably also the best way that the Whitman campaign can spin it. If she tries to really take on this issue, she'll lose out with one demographic or another. If she stands against illegal immigration, she may salvage her position with Republicans but lose out on the politically-torn latino vote. That's more likely to happen than standing with her employee; she'll lose bigger with Republicans than she would have with the Hispanic community. The best Whitman can hope to do is deflect and shift some attention away from her and onto the opposition, by trying to link the lawsuit to the Brown campaign.

[stebo0728]

if a woman is so uneducated as to work as a housekeeper and such, do you really think she knows how to falsify documents?

i call
bullsh*t

Dude didnt you know they have pamphlets on how to falsify documents.

[srellim234]

AZ, the only reason I pointed it out is that she may be a clown but she is one who has figured out how the game is played and she has captalized by it.

[C-Kwik]

Ultimately, the overall intent is for this to look bad on Whitman regardless of who is behind it. The big question is how credible is the evidence. Most of what is being dished out appears to be he said-she said type stuff, but the letter from Social Security could be a big issue depending on what it actually says. My guess is if it is quite damaging to Whitman, it will be released or leaked closer to election day to provide enough time for the public to absorb it but still be fresh in the minds of voters.

[audtatious]

That's assuming the letter actually reached Whitman in the first place. Not like she is a sit-at-home house wife who has nothing better to do than catch the mail. In most circumstances, when having long-term "trusted" staff, it would not surprise me if the housekeeper would actually sift through the mail for Whitman to get rid of the "junk" mail and bring things to her attention. She had access to it all at least so unless the letter was certified/signature required there is no way to tell if Whitman received it.

Of course, the word of an illegal who perpetrated fraud by using fake SS and DL numbers if far more trustworthy than some Republican woman who is running for office.

[96Qowner]

I saw Allred on Greta's show last night and they had a copy of the letter. It was a notification that the SSN didn't match the name, and it specifically said that it was a notification, and that no action should be taken, ie she should not be fired, under risk of a lawsuit. It had a note by the husband to the worker, asking her to look into it. That's it - no proof Whitman ever saw it, or ever knew the letter had arrived.

The worker came to them last year and confessed, and they let her go.

[audtatious]

There you have it.....

[AZhitman]

...and yet the morons who vote a straight lefty ticket STILL won't comprehend how that can possibly exonerate her.

[audtatious]

Only because they don't care.