ACORN Shuts Down Offices Nationwide: San Diego Housing Hustler-Pimp Fired! (VIDEO)

I reported on ACORN's Santa Ana office closing down yesterday. Now we have the Los Angeles Times reporting that ACORN is downsizing nationwide: "ACORN Scaling Back or Shutting Down in Many Cities" (via Mememorandum):

Stung by the recession and a string of scandals, the ACORN community activist organization has been shutting down in many of the communities it once worked to empower.

No new clients are being signed up, said national spokesman Brian Kettenring, while the group conducts an internal investigation into how its business is conducted.

The Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now had already shuttered 40% of its centers -- in cities including Chicago, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Omaha -- since its high of 105 offices two years ago, he said. The branches helped low- and middle-income clients with housing, jobs and navigating government aid programs.

Kettenring said that the closures were mostly due to the poor economy and had become more frequent in the last year.

"We're seeing the same challenges the entire nonprofit sector is seeing," he said.

But former ACORN members say the scandals that have recently dogged the organization -- including allegations of mismanagement and voter registration fraud -- have been a bigger problem.

You can say that again. Kinda funny how we're seeing all these offices closing in the immediate wake of the Hannah Giles/James O'Keefe undercover investigation.

Also, from Big Government, "San Diego: ACORN Stands By Their Employee, Until They Don’t."

And from the New York Times, "G.O.P. Checks for a Pulse, and Finds One." (Via Memeorandum.)

Hey, Ain't That Racist? Lady GaGa Does Al Jolson ... Leftist Establishment is Down With That!

I've admired Lady GaGa quite a bit. She's extremely hot, in an unordinary way. But she's crossed a line of decency with her new blackface gig, on the cover of the fall issue of V Magazine:

Semi-nude images from the photo-shoot are here.

When entertainers in the early 20th century donned blackface, these artistic representations were soon condemned as racist stereotypes. Al Jolson's images are perhaps most famous; his scenes as a blackface entertainer in The Jazz Singer (1927) are widely acknowledged as patently racist today:

Recall Jane Hamsher, in a 2006 essay at Huffington Post, argued that Senator Joseph Lieberman had been "an integral part of the GOP's bully machine for the past six years ..." Hamsher illustrated the post with this awful blackface of Lieberman below, which was promptly removed amid the understandable outcry (complete with a feigned apology from "Hammering" Jane):

So what's up with Lady GaGa? Have we come full-circle and Birth of a Nation iconography is back as hot glam-fashion in the Hollywood-New York media-cultural complex?

The V Magazine piece argues that GaGa "pushes the outer limits of the avant-garde ..." And one celebrity gossip page quipped of GaGa's getup, "She wants to know if anyone still thinks that joke’s funny. ‘Cause I sure as hell do!"

Another gossip page jokes about GaGa's pubic hair (symbolically represented in the photographs), and one commenter finally asks, "Why is she in blackface? Is that what the kids consider cool these days. I'm just asking ..." But the thread gets its share of racial humor: "LOVE her pearly whites!!!!"

No word on the blackface gig from Perez Hilton, Lady GaGa's biggest Hollywood fan-boy (and fat-boy tag-along GaGa groupie). Of course, Hilton's cool with Kanye West's racist power grab at the video music awards last week, and he puts down rumors that GaGa's tour with Kanye was dumped: "Not Cancelled! Kanye/GaGa Tour Still Happening!" It turns out that GaGa's Al Jolson resurrection and Kanye's race-baiting don't rate up there with Carrie Prejean's opinion that marriage is for men and women. Nope, that's bigotry!! Remember Perez Hilton's total disbelief, with illustrations, when Ms. Prejean actually exercized her rights: "Carrie Prejean IS Suing The Miss California Organization!":

That's pretty much the leftist double-standard in action.

Now to be clear, as I said, I like Lady GaGa. I genuinely appreciate her oeuvre, and of course I think she's a sexual knockout.

But hey, aren't we having this big debate over racism in America? We're hearing all about the "racists" who're attacking President Obama from the likes of Jimmy Carter and Maureen Dowd. You know, remember how Joe Wilson's racist for suggesting that Obama's a liar (never mind that Obama's really a liar)? All the lefties are up in arms! Jim Crow is back!

But, ah, isn't Lady GaGa's Al Jolson schtick kinda Jim Crow-ish, you think?

Better not tell the MSM. They might attack me as, well, racist!

Irving Kristol, 1920-2009: Godfather of Neoconservatism

The Astute Bloggers graciously provides the New York Times link, "Irving Kristol, Godfather of Modern Conservatism, Dies at 89." Also, my good friend Ken Davenport has written his own thoughtful commemoration, "Irving Kristol, 1920-2009." Ken focuses on how Kristol's neoconservatism has become the most important critique of modern statist ideologies (and of especially the consequences of post-1960s Democratic Party social policy).

There's lots of commentary at Memeorandum. See Jules Crittenden, GayPatriot, Power Line, The Other McCain, and Outside The Beltway. See especially John Podoretz's obituary at Commentary, and Robert Kagan at the Washington Post. And Myron Magnet, at City Journal, shares a personal anecdote about Kristol's compassion:

His generosity, especially to young conservatives, was legendary. It was partly a matter of policy, for nurturing the talented and finding them influential jobs is the way to build a movement. But it was even more an emanation of the sweetness of his temper and the depth of his humanity. I was complaining to him about New York’s plague of aggressive panhandlers back in the 1980s, and he said, “If someone is so in need that he asks me for money, who am I to determine what’s driven him to it? I always give something.” The reality he always had before him was the human reality.

You could probably say the same thing about most neoconservatives. These folks, mostly, are former liberals who saw the light. But coming to one's senses doesn't mean abandoning compassion. Neoconservatives have a goodness of vision that's defining, and a propensity to back idealism with power that's frightening to many. Indeed, that's why no other manifestation of conservatism has generated as much hostility among antagonists. One need only to read the comments at Firedoglake's entry to get the feel for how badly leftists want to eviscerate Kristol, but they're ironically constrained by the same morality that's the central plank of the neocon vision: Be good and do good in furtherance of the good society (and don't be afraid of raw power while you're at it). That said, not all of the commentators at the post let their better values contain them, and this remark on the "evils" of the neocon worldview perhaps perfectly captures the left's nihilist zeitgeist:

Neoconservatism visited two disastrous and seemingly endless wars upon us. It engaged in a third, the War on Terror, which wasn’t just seeming but truly was endless by definition. Indefinite detention, rendition, torture, and domestic spying are just a few of its accomplishments. Neoconservatism also helped bankrupt the country, wrecked our image abroad, and damaged our Constitution. It institutionalized the public lie and championed immunity for those neoconservatives, of whom there were many, who broke the law. This is the cobbled together, amazingly unthought out “philosophy” of which Irving Kristol was the godfather.

You can see how comprehensive is that repudiation. But what's most interesting - besides the classic neo-socialist repudiation of the neoconservative worldview - is how the commenter pleads the neocon mindset is an "unthought" philosophy. It's a ridiculous statement, of course, borne of a demonic hatred of the mind that's characteristic of today's hardline leftist ideologies. The comment thus captures both the secular demonology and the secular collectivism that's essential to the base of today's Democratic Party.

As a younger neocon myself, Irving Kristol was less important to my theoretical development than have been the Kagans (Robert, Frederick, and Kimberly) and Charles Krauthammer.

But I nevertheless often return to Irving Kristol's brief and excellent summation of neoconservative ideology, published at his son William's Weekly Standard, "The Neoconservative Persuasion." If folks really are unsure about the fullness of the neocon worldview, which is as much a theory of domestic politics as it is one of foreign policy, they can't go wrong spending some time with that essay. And if readers want more, Commentary has made available the magazine's complete archive of Irving Kristol's work from its pages:

We at COMMENTARY will be opening the entirety of his 45-article oeuvre in our archives (from his first contribution, a short story called “Adam and I,” published in November 1946, to his last, a 1994 essay entitled “Countercultures“) for free perusal by all readers. It is a treasure trove, as he was himself an incomparable treasure of a man, an intellectual, and an American. May Bea, Bill, Liz, and Irving’s five grandchildren be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Cross-posted from Right Wing News.

Defending the ACORN Mob Enterprise

At the video, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis wants to slam down the race card against the conservative activists at Big Government who went undercover to expose the corruption and malfeasance at the community organizing group. Here's the key quote from Lewis: "I think that says a little bit about what Mr. O’Keefe thinks that a black and brown organization would go for." More at the clip:

Sadly, the flip side of Lewis' comments are truly racist: That Americans shouldn't expect high standards of morality from those entrusted to advocate for the poor, or from the minority poor themselves.

Given that, it's especially interesting to read Joe Conason's pitiful attack on the GOP for its allegedly depraved campaign against a "noble" institution. See, "In Defense of ACORN: The Right-Wing Crusade Against ACORN Is a Far Bigger Fraud Than Any Misdeeds a Few Employees Might Have Committed":

Like so many conservative attacks, the crusade against ACORN has been highly exaggerated and even falsified to create a demonic image that bears little resemblance to the real organization. Working in the nation's poorest places, and hiring the people who live there, ACORN is not immune to the pathologies that can afflict institutions in those communities. As a large nonprofit handling many millions of dollars, it has suffered from mismanagement at the top as well -- although there is nothing unique in that, either.

Yet ACORN's troubles should be considered in the context of a history of honorable service to the dispossessed and impoverished. No doubt it was fun to dupe a few morons into providing tax advice to a "pimp and ho," but what ACORN actually does, every day, is help struggling families with the Earned Income Tax Credit (whose benefits were expanded by both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton). And while the idea of getting housing assistance for a brothel was clever, what ACORN really does, every day, is help those same working families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.

Perhaps the congressional investigation now demanded by some Republican politicians would be a useful exercise, if conducted impartially. A fair investigation might begin to dispel some of the wild mythology promoted by right-wing media outlets.

Among the most popular canards on the right, repeated constantly by conservative pundits and politicians, is that ACORN has been found guilty of engaging in deliberate voter fraud, using federal funds. In reality, ACORN has registered close to 2 million low-income citizens across the country over the past five years -- a laudable record with a very low incidence of fraud of any kind.

Conason's an incredibly bad liar, although I guess that's what makes a skilled smear-merchant.

It's widely known that ACORN's essentially a criminal enterprise. John Fund has done yeoman's work in covering the epic scale of ACORN's corrupt voter registration racket. See, for example, "A Victory Against Voter Fraud"; "An Acorn Whistleblower Testifies in Court"; and "More Acorn Voter Fraud Comes to Light."

But see also Dana Loesch's post yesterday, "Taxpayer Funded Serve.gov Filtering Activists to ACORN." Dana shows that some of ACORN's poor assistance is designed to help disadvantaged clients avoid paying taxes. As she notes, "after they assist you in procuring housing for your brothel of underage girls, ACORN can also assist you in skirting your taxes ..."

All of this is straightforward. ACORN's a thug organization and corporate-shakedown enterprise. If it wasn't for Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, the group would be enjoying continued mob activity outside of the public eye. The mass media doesn't care, and the radical left loves ACORN's radical anti-capitalist expropriation. And for both Bertha Lewis and Joe Conason to blame this on white racist assumptions of "black and brown people," or as part of a long GOP "frenzy" of attacks on the poor, is simply indicative of how morally bereft are those on the left today.

Carrie Prejean Rocks Values Voters Summit!

From the Wall Street Journal, "Carrie Prejean Wows Values Voters":

Conservative leaders are gathering this weekend in Washington, D.C., for the annual Values Voter Summit, but so far none has excited the crowd as much as former beauty queen turned marriage activist Carrie Prejean.

“Wow this is so exciting. I’m so excited to be here in Washington, D.C.” Prejean said to a standing ovation and raucous applause. “This has been a whirlwind of events, this has been absolutely crazy.”

The pageant controversy is an understandably emotional topic for Ms. Prejean: "Even though I didn’t win the crown that night. I know that God has an even bigger crown up there for me." And at various moments at the video:

More at The Dakota Voice, "Carrie Prejean at the Values Voter Summit."

Network Wars! Fox News Statement on Full-Page 9-12 Ad

From Michael Tammero, Vice-President of Marketing at Fox News (link):

“Generally speaking, it’s fair to say that from the tea party movement … to Acorn ... to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether.”

CNN's now going after Fox (link).

Via Memeorandum.

Orange County ACORN Office Shuts Down!

The Orange County ACORN office has shut its doors. I just spoke with the landlord at the office complex in Santa Ana, California, where local ACORN hacks provided services. The building-owner said she had just spoken with ACORN officials at the Los Angeles office. The group announced intent to vacate the premises this morning; personnel would be coming to Santa Ana to clear out their effects at an undisclosed date. The website to ACORN's Santa Ana office is here.

CEO Bertha Lewis released an earlier statement at ACORN's main page:

As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees, I am, in consultation with ACORN's Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN's service programs until completion of an independent review.

Looks like the termination of "new intakes" is starting right away, with the immediate downsizing of service delivery for the group. I took these photos. At bottom is the protest sign of Tawnya, one of the Orange County 9-12 protest organizers who visited the office today (that's her reflection in the first picture at the window):

(ADDED: Via Snark and Boobs, check WISTV News, "ACORN Loses Federal Cash, Vacates Columbia Office; Clyburn Responds"; plus, linked at Patriot Room.)

Andrew Breitbart: CNN 'Despicable', 'More Videos to Come'

Care of Freedom's Lighthouse, "Andrew Breitbart Slams CNN for their ACORN Coverage; Tells Megyn Kelly 'There Are More Videos to Come'":

At the viddy, Breitbart says, "We set traps for ACORN. And every time the lied, and they went to the mainstream media to lie ..."

Great stuff.

Also, Voting Female, "ABC CBS NBC – Kamikaze Media, Ignored Hurricane ACORN; not Your Grandfather’s Main Stream Media Anymore."

ADDED: From Big Government, MEDIA MATTERS: ‘On Fox, Breitbart bashes CNN’s ACORN coverage’." (Via Memeorandum.)

Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan: American Power Called It!

I'm scooping AOSHQ by months!

Check out Ace's post, "Inevitable: True Conservative Andrew Sullivan Praises 'Continued Evolution of Charles Johnson'."

But from American Power back in May, "Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan: Separated at Birth?":

And here's Andrew Sullivan's fine words in praise of Little Green Footballs:

The pioneer of the anti-Jihadist blog, Little Green Footballs, is repulsed by some of the developments on the populist, racist right. He's right to be; and has the courage to say so. For that he is subjected to the usual mau-mauing. Check out his blog. It's an Yglesias Award in motion.

I think it's fair to say that LGF's now gone completely to the other side. Is there anyone out there still aguing to the contrary? LGF Founding Bloggers was quite fair to Charles in a post the other day, "LGF Delinks Pajamas Media!." And my friend Michael van der Galien has long resisted throwing Charles under the bus (see, "Civil War Raging in the Right-Wing Blogosphere") But hey, the evidence is pretty overwhelming by now. The dude's cracked.

Obama Abandons Missile Defense to Appease Russia, Iran

From the Wall Street Journal, "Obama's Missile Offense: It's Better These Days To Be a U.S. Adversary Than Its Friend":

President Obama promised he would win America friends where, under George W. Bush, it had antagonists. The reality is that the U.S. is working hard to create antagonists where it previously had friends.

That's one conclusion to draw from President Obama's decision yesterday to scrap a missile-defense agreement the Bush Administration negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic. Both governments took huge political risks—including the ire of their former Russian overlords—in order to accommodate the U.S., which wanted the system to defend against a possible Iranian missile attack. Don't expect either government to follow America's lead anytime soon ....

The White House justifies its decision by claiming to have new intelligence showing that Iran's long-range missile capabilities are not as advanced as previously believed. Instead, it intends to upgrade and deploy currently available missile interceptors that are useful mainly for intercepting short- and medium-range missiles, where, it says, Iranian capability "is developing more rapidly than previously projected."

We're all for deploying interceptors to stop Iranian missiles of every range. But the Administration's argument is difficult to credit, not least because our sources told us as early as February that the Administration was prepared to abandon those sites—which is to say, well before the allegedly new intelligence became available.

It's also hard to square the intelligence community's sanguine assessment with Iran's successful launch of the solid-fuel Sejil missile in May. With an estimated range of 1,560 miles, the Sejil could deliver a one-ton payload as far as Warsaw. That cannot be comforting when the International Atomic Energy Agency is now saying that Iran has "sufficient information" to build an atomic bomb and will also "overcome problems" involved in its delivery system.

The Administration's likelier motive for scrapping the interceptors is that it hopes to win Russia's vote at the U.N. Security Council for tougher sanctions on Iran. Maybe the Russians have secretly agreed to such a quid pro quo, though publicly they were quick to deny it following yesterday's decision.

And as Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov has noted, Vladimir Putin's Kremlin benefits by keeping the Iranian crisis on a low boil, because the threat of a Middle East crisis drives energy prices up while putting U.S. interests at risk. Russia also likes spooning out dollops of diplomatic help at the U.N. in exchange for material Western concessions. This time, the concession was missile defense. Next time, perhaps, the West can be seduced into trading away the pro-Western government of Georgia, or even Ukraine.

Also, at National Review, "President Obama knows how to put a smile on faces in Tehran and Moscow: This morning, he announced the abandonment of plans to develop a small missile-defense system in Eastern Europe."

At Hot Air, "Democrats to Obama: Um, What Exactly Are We Getting For Selling Out Poland to Russia?" (Via Memeorandum.)

Plus, see the Astute Bloggers, "OBAMA CEDES POLAND AND CZECH REPUBLIC - SCRAPS MISSILE DEFENSE FOR EUROPE." And Stop the ACLU, "Obama’s European Missile Plan Is Actually Pretty Good If We Take Out the Appeasement."

Image Credit: Bosch Fawstin.

The Ideological Clarity of the Democratic Agenda

From John David Lewis, "Obama’s Atomic Bomb: The Ideological Clarity of the Democratic Agenda":

As the leader of the Democrats—the party that carries an historical reputation for expanding government power, higher taxes, and limitless spending—Obama reasserted and rejuvenated his party’s traditional commitment to the statist course. This commitment permeates his speeches. He regards businessmen not as valuable producers, but as conniving parasites who must be placed under comprehensive government controls, including a “czar” to approve executive pay. He expressed this desire in an angry rant against financial managers who received contracted bonuses.8 Obama regards doctors not as lifesavers, but as predators willing to sacrifice their patients to needless operations in order to get money.9 He regards the police who respond to reports of a burglary as cops who act “stupidly,” before the relevant facts are clear. He regards overseas regimes that have pledged to continue to attack the United States as deserving of apology. Meanwhile, he wants to prosecute American intelligence officers who used “harsh” interrogation techniques against enemies who have killed Americans. Obama and his administration are overtly and publicly committed to an ideologically radical leftist agenda.

Obama’s choice of advisors has helped to define his antibusiness agenda. He hired, for instance, John Holdren as his director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Holdren has expressed his views of industry in print since the 1970s: “A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States.”10 Such views are consistent with a range of policies planned by the administration, from stringent business regulations being drafted by the Congress and Obama’s economic czars, to cap-and-trade legislation intended to strangle industry, to unremitting attempts to place the medical industry under comprehensive government control.

Such views permeate Obama’s rhetoric, which connects him in many people’s minds to the most radical (i.e., consistent) advocates of democratic socialism. Despite his attempts to appear moderate, the basic nature of his administration—its essential identity, purpose, and worldview—is becoming crystal clear. He is a leftist and a socialist on principle, who vilifies the free market, apologizes for his country before murderous foreign dictators, and finds salvation in ever-growing government power. Not all Americans see him this way, but the number is growing with his every word and deed.11

Obama, of course, does not intend to be clear about his socialist identity. He is trying to come across as a “reasonable,” moderate “centrist.” But his attempts to appeal to moderate voters are angering the hard left and alienating the independents. Meanwhile, an increasing number of astute American voters on the right are largely unmoved.12 Many people are seeing him as a skilled orator who is trying to save his agenda.

Image Credit: The People's Cube.

Why ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham

From Matthew Vadum, "Once Upon an ACORN: Why ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham":

The announcement by ACORN that it is creating a panel of inquiry consisting of its corrupt friends is a fairy tale. ACORN did the same thing last year after an internal scandal but when the honest people on ACORN’s internal panel began asking uncomfortable questions, it cast them out.

Since it’s a fairy tale, let me tell the story the fairy tale way:
Once upon a time there was a group called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). It was run, and continues to be run today, by very bad people who do very bad things while they pretend to make America a better place.

Read the whole thing, at the link.

Plus, Andrew Berman, "ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham."

Credit 'Big Government' for Defeat of ACORN

From Byron York:

Although Republicans had long fought against ACORN, it is not an exaggeration to say that none of this would have happened now without the BigGovernment undercover videos. Democrats who in the past had reflexively supported ACORN ran for cover after seeing ACORN employees encouraging tax evasion and prostitution. The BigGovernment videos mark an important moment in the development of alternative media sources, and official Washington responded before most of the establishment press did. This is truly an extraordinary series of events.

The full article is here (via Memeorandum). See also, Byron York, "Under fire, Democrats Abandon ACORN in Droves."

Also, check Big Government for all the latest.

Attacks on Obama Driven By Racism?

Check out this great symposium on charges of racism against President Obama, at Booker Rising, "Is Criticism of President Obama Driven by Racism? Is The Race Card Being Used To Prop Up Obama?":

Robin Martin: "Black America Is In Dire Need Of A Collective Lobotomy":

Asserts the conservative blogger, about Rep. Hank Johnson's (D-Ga.) comments claiming that criticism of President Obama marks the return of the white-hooded Ku Klux Klan terrorizing black areas: "I am convinced that my people need a collective national lobotomy. Why? Because we are clearly clueless about what real racism is. This is evidenced by the fact that we are unable to tell the difference between racism and bad form. Absolute everything is processed through the lens of race. Look at this disgusting display of black pathology...The fact that an overwhelming amount of black folks view reasonable and valid criticism of President Obama as racist indicates that we are indeed suffering from a collective mental illness and in dire need [of] treatment. Clearly, liberal programs haven't cured the ills that grieved us over the last forty years so I fear the only cure is a national collective lobotomy."

More great stuff at the link.

See also, "Analysis: ‘Racist’ Claims Defuse Word's Power" (via Memeorandum). Plus, Hot Air, JustOneMinute, and Stop The ACLU."

Cartoon Credit: William Warren at Americans for Limited Government.

The Glenn Beck Supremacy

You know, ever since last spring, when Glenn Beck aired his comments about "preparing for anarchy in America," there's been something extraordinarily accurate about his commentaries on the Obama administration. The Van Jones resignation certainly cemented Beck's status as the premier commentator on the contemporary right. Indeed, just last week I argued that "Beck has emerged as cable TV's Rush Limbaugh."

Well, my remarks might have been clairvoyant (or someone's reading my blog!). The Beck-Rush comparison's picking up steam. For example, there's a good buzz today over Time's new piece: "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?" And here's a key passage:

Beck is 45, tireless, funny, self-deprecating, a recovering alcoholic, a convert to Mormonism, a libertarian and living with ADHD. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for stitching seemingly unrelated data points into possible conspiracies — if he believed in conspiracies, which he doesn’t, necessarily; he’s just asking questions. He’s just sayin’. In cheerful days of yore, he was a terrific host of a morning-zoo show on an FM Top 40 station. But these aren’t cheerful times. For conservatives, these are times of economic uncertainty and political weakness, and Beck has emerged as a virtuoso on the strings of their discontent. Rush Limbaugh, with his supreme self-confidence, holding forth with “half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair,” found his place as the triumphant champion of the Age of Reagan. Macho Sean Hannity captured the cocky vibe of the early Bush years, dunking the feckless liberal Alan Colmes for nightly swirlies on the Fox News Channel. Both men remain media dynamos, but it is Beck — nervous, beset, desperate — who now channels the mood of many on the right. “I’m afraid,” he has said more than once in recent months. “You should be afraid too.”

The piece describes Becks' schtick as a combination of "entertainment and enlightenment." And the article is surprisingly sympathetic, if not fawning. Mostly, though, it's condescending toward conservative-libertarianism. Beck taps into real anxieties. And as these anxieties are dovetailing with truly monumental policy impacts, advocates of Beck's scenarios are excoriated as "fringe elements" and "racists."

What's amazing, and this is why the Time story is significant, is how quickly Beck and others on the right - like Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit (who is cited in the article) - have had a dramatic effect on politics at the highest levels. This stuff is almost like All the President's Men without Deep Throat. If President Obama were in turn to be impeached - not a far-fetched scenario, given the Bill Clinton presidency - commentators will no doubt "pin the blame" on "fear-mongerers" like Beck. Natually, Beck and others will be demonized for their "hatred," while the legacy media gives a pass to the administration's corrupt communist ties. This creates a classic feedback loop. When the press white-washes real scandals and Democratic malfeasance, the Beck-heads become even more feverishly delirious.

Anyway, Beck's only going up right now, and note how Politico's Michael Calderone's picking up on my theme of Beck's new supremacy. See, "Glenn Beck vs. Rush Limbaugh."

More at Memeorandum.

Obama as Witch Doctor Another Chance to Smear Conservatives

Could be a hoax. At all the events this year, I've never seen the "Obama as witch doctor" tea party sign.

But even if real, leftists denounced the alleged "witch doctor" imagery months ago, so there's nothing new here. Move along.

Naturally, the "witch doctor" sign is just perfect for the radical left's meme that tea partiers are "racist." We've been hearing it all year; and as noted previously, huge majorities reject the idea that opposition to the administration's program is racist. See, Fox News, "FOX News Poll: Are Obama's Opponents Racists?"

Cartoon Credit: William Warren at Americans for Limited Government.

Nancy Pelosi: Tearful Warning of 1970s-Style Political Violence - 'This Climate is Frightening'

The Blog Prof gets the hat tip: "Video: Nancy Pelosi Worries About Tea Protest Violence. Chokes Up. Likens It To What Killed Harvey Milk."

But check out this from The Hill, "Pelosi Concerned About Potential for Political Violence Like S.F. in '70s":

A usually steely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday began to tear up when, in responding to a question about the tone of the national debate, she recalled the politically charged violence that tore through her hometown of San Francisco in the late 1970s.

At her weekly news conference, Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked if she was concerned about whether the debate over healthcare and the role of the federal government — much of it wrapped in escalating anti-government rhetoric — could lead to acts of violence.

“I think we all have to take responsibility for our actions and our words. We are a free country and this balance between freedom and safety is one that we have to carefully balance,” Pelosi began.

But she then reached back some 30 years, to the very beginning of her career in politics, to recall how heated rhetoric led to the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by a disgruntled former supervisor on Nov. 27, 1978.

“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw … I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco,” Pelosi said, choking up and with tears forming in her eyes. “This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and … I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made.”

More at Memeorandum.

ACORN Prostitution Scandal in San Diego: Housing Pimp Juan Carlos Caught On Tape!

At Big Government, "ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in San Diego, CA":

Lots more commentary at Memeorandum.

Panoramic Image of 9/12 March Makes Leftists Look Like Idiots

I first saw this over at The Rhetorican, "Panoramic View of the 9/12 March."

The full image is here, care of iOwnTheWorld.com and Memeorandum.

Nice Deb has the discussion, "70,000 Tops, Right Nutroots?":

iOWNTHEWORLD’s Mr Pinko obtained this photo from Freedomworks photographer, Michael A. Beck, who was offered a rare opportunity to photograph the massive gathering of patriots on 9/12.

This is a RARE photo of the 9/12 Rally taken in extreme High Resolution from atop the Capitol Building. Mr. Beck was personally escorted to this rare vantage point by a congressman who will remain anonymous. This panoramic view offers the viewer documentation of the epic scale of this peaceful demonstration of democracy in action.

The main netroots freaks are at Media Matters. See, "Beck, Limbaugh Run Wild With Estimates on Size of 9/12 Protests." And while 2 million sounds higly inflated, pictures such as that above, the time-elapsed photos, as well as the traffic-camera photo and the one massive crowd shot by Mary Katherine Ham, all make the claim that just "70,000" attended look patently stupid.

London's Daily Mail strikes a reasonable line here, "A Million March to US Capitol to Protest Against 'Obama the Socialist'":

As many as one million people flooded into for a massive rally organised by conservatives claiming that President Obama is driving towards socialism.

The size of the crowd - by far the biggest protest since the president took office in January - shocked the White House.

The key phrase there is "as many as one million people" flooded the mall. The available images and sophtisticated analytical reports confirm those estimates.

For a full analysis, see Charlie Martin, "More 9/12 Crowd Data: Yeah, It Was Big: The Latest Sourced Information on the 9/12 Crowd Points to a Lower Bound of at Least Half a Million."

ACORN Video San Diego: Housing Official Solicits Hannah Giles!

The hat tip goes to The Rhetorican, "NEW ACORN VIDEO: San Diego":

But see AOSHQ, "Vid of Creepy ACORN Guy Soliciting Hannah, Asking How He Can Help Smuggle Girls Across Border":

Let's Recap: In all five offices, ACORN officials sought to help out a prostitute. Fine, let's let that slide.

In five offices, ACORN officials sought to help out a prostitute who told them she was bringing around a dozen girls 13-15 years old into the country to be sex slaves.

In four of the offices (and maybe the fifth, we don't know yet), various methods of tax evasion or false statements on tax filings were encouraged by the ACORN staff.

In one of the offices, a tweaker seemed interested in leaving ACORN to come help out at the underage child sex slave brothel.

In one of the offices, a creepy guy told Hannah he had "connections" in Tijuana which might be useful for smuggling 13-15 year old sex slaves across the border.

He also solicited Hannah for sex. People are blowing this off as no big deal. I think it is. Because the reason I think he was offering to help smuggle child sex slaves across the border is he wanted to have sex with Hannah, and he figured that was his in.

So: In all five offices -- which are official federal "partners" with the IRS, being paid to help low-income people file taxes -- ACORN provided advice chiefly amounting to tax fraud or evasion and in several cases offered assistance in running a child sex slave brothel.

Five for five.

More at the link, and Memeorandum.

Allahpundit's also on the case, and snarks, "You’re all modern-day McCarthyites for watching this. You know that, right?"

More snark from Darleen Click, "The White House is starting to nudge ACORN under the bus. No word yet if Charlie Gibson has figured out what ACORN is.

See also, Big Government, "It’s Not Just ACORN; SEIU’s Underage Sex Scandal."

Hannah Giles, James O'Keefe Profiled at New York Post

From the New York Post, "Duo Who Turned This Trick":

The two conservative activists who captured ACORN employ ees giving advice on the sex trade and money-laundering only play a pimp and prostitute on video.

In real life, Hannah Giles, 20, isn't a lady of the night. She's a minister's daughter studying jour nalism at Florida International Uni versity.

And James E. O'Keefe III, 25, a Fordham MBA student from New Jersey, isn't a pimp so much as a pro vocateur -- determined to expose what he sees as the hypocrisies and moral lapses of liberals by employing their own tactics against them.

The pair met last year on Facebook after O'Keefe posted his own gotcha videos, showing Planned Parenthood employees agreeing to his request to earmark his donations for the abor tions of African-American babies.

After Giles proposed the ACORN video-sting idea, O'Keefe -- who started making the videos while a stu dent at Rutgers University -- pounced on it. "Why go after ACORN?" Giles asked. "Because I love America, I love God, and corrupt institutions don't help that."

Lots more on the ACORN scandal at Big Government. Also, Memeorandum.

Michelle Malkin on ACORN's Prostitution Scandal (VIDEO)

Via Hot Air, "Video: Michelle on the Media’s ACORN “Protection Racket" (from tonight's Sean Hannity show):

Jim Treacher Investigates the Czars!

The "boob czars," that is:

As successful as the 9/12 Washington Tea Party was, it still left us with some questions: Who were those wonderful czars? Where did they come from? And most importantly, do they mind if we take some more pictures?

Thanks to the Green Czar (AKA Floridajayhawk on Twitter), we now know a little more about these cheerful, good-natured lovers of liberty and what they're trying to get off their chests. He was nice enough to answer a few questions via e-mail:

Greetings, Green Czar! So, who are you fine folks?

We live in South Florida. Boob Czar lives in a state close to Florida. We got involved with southfloridateaparty.org. We have done many protests in South Florida.

More at the link. And more pictures of ... well, protest signs!

Charles Johnson Attacks Pamela Geller for Defending Rifqa Bary!

Here's the screencap from Charles Johnson's post, "'No Evidence' Rifqa Bary's Parents Want to Kill Her":

Johnson writes:

The anti-Islam blogs have been hyperventilating for months over the case of Rifqa Bary — a Muslim teenager who converted to Christianity, ran away from home, and found a new home with a radical fundamentalist Christian preacher, Blake Lorenz of the “Global Revolution Church.”

People like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have injected themselves into this case, judged her parents, and found them guilty of intended murder — because they’re incapable of imagining that Muslim parents might not be murderous monsters. In their twisted paranoid world, all Muslims are honor killers, and that’s all there is to it. Evidence be damned. If her parents say they love her and would never hurt her ... well, that’s just what a lying Muslim would say, isn’t it?

Charles links to a CNN story on the a Florida Law Enforcement report claiming that there was "no clear evidence of criminal activity" against the parents. Yet, Rifqa Bary recorded new testimony indicating her dreadful fears for her life:

I am sixteen and I love Jesus, um... crazy how I found the Lord but, people were blown away but, my parents are Muslims, radical, radical Muslims. You guys don't know the history of Islam, it's really hostile towards Christianity and the mere word of Christian can bring such a hatred in them right. I'm a secret Christian, I've been hiding for a long time, three of four years. They can't know of my faith, because if they do know, the consequences are really hard. Just the culture and background they come from like, is so hostile towards Christianity ... the consequences are great.

Check Pamela's post as well, "Libel blogger Goes Anti-Rifqa Bary."

And isn't big ole' Charles Johnson supposed to be a firm advocate for truth and reason. Boy, look at this smear: At the screencap for LGF at top above, you can seen this sentence at the bottom of the post, in parentheses:

(I’m fairly sure that Spencer and Geller will now attack me, but that’s standard fare for them when they’re caught out espousing bigotry and inciting hatred.)

Well, call me a bigot or something, because I believe Rifqa Bary when she says she fears for her life. And her fear is certainly justified. She was threatened with death by her father and allegedly abused by her uncle. (And see Jihad Watch, "12-Year FBI Veteran Says Serious Flaws in FDLE Report Claiming Rifqa Bary Wasn't Abused.") A Facebook message from a Muslim group threatened to kill Rifqa Bary ("Rifqa Bary Facebook Fatwa: 'We Need to Kill Her'"), and the CAIR-backed Muslim community erupted in outrage in August when Florida Judge Daniel Dawson granted a stay on Rifqa's threatened return to Ohio. See a full report at Red County, "Muslim Assault against Apostates: the Rifqa Bary Case."

See Jihad Watch for additional information.

*********

UPDATE: ... I've made some adjustments to the post. Pamela did not link Charles, although Johnson routinely redirects those who link to him. See, Jihad Watch, "Charles Johnson's Latest Libels Answered."

ADDED: Saber Point, "BAN CHARLES JOHNSON: Don't Read or Link to 'Little Green Footballs'."

Marsha Blackburn, Mike Pence Interviews on 9-12 March on Washington

Here are intervews with Representatives Marsha Blackburn and Mike Pence, speaking on the 9-12 March on Washington:

More at the Washington News Observer.

Maxine Waters Wants Probe of 'Birthers' and 'Teabaggers' (AUDIO)

Maxine Waters is reallly too much some times. See, "Waters: Probe 'Birthers and the Teabaggers' at Rallies for Racist Views." Listen to her at the video:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said that it's not enough for African-Americans to levy allegations of racism against the right-leaning protesters, and that the media must look into their views.

"I want those people talked to; I want them interviewed," Waters told the liberal Bill Press Radio show in a podcast. "I want journalists to be all over those rallies and the marches with the birthers and the teabaggers."

"What I'm looking for is the very people who carry the signs who are referring to the policies in very, very strange ways like 'Obamacare' and 'Bury Obamacare with Kennedy,'" she said. "What I've been interested in is hearing from those people that everybody's referring to -- everybody on the Mall, in the rally."

See also, Gateway Pundit, "Maxine Waters: Media Should Probe the "Birthers & Teabaggers" at Rallies."

Plus, from Voting Female, "Maxine Waters Calls All Tea Party Protesters Homosexuals in her Latest Attack on Free Speech: For Those Who Haven't Figured It Out Yet ...'Tea Bagger' is a 'Male Homosexual'":

Way to Go, Maxine Waters, you Socialist Racist Anti-Constitution Anti-Homosexual Anti-White ASSHAT! Show the World just how much of a BIGOT YOU REALLY ARE!

Leave it to a MOONBAT TROLL Like Rep. Maxine Waters to denigrate freedom loving rightfully dissenting Americans by calling them all Homosexuals and attacking them as Homosexuals.

While we have all witnessed the likes of Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olbermann using such personal attacks on constitutionally protected Political Dissent, these two idiots are not members of Congress and loss of respect for you, Maxine Waters, by the Greater American Public, for a Congress Man or Woman to use these tactics and these Minority Pejoratives is a WHOLE OTHER KETTLE OF FISH.

Keith Olberman has been dismissed as a Wall Eyed Manic by Mainstream America and Janeane Garofalo’s career as a professional comedian has been destroyed by her own behavior.

For the Socialist DEM Political Party Office Holders in Congress, who pretends to defends the Homosexual Community, to use Extremely Offensive Slang Terms like Tea Bagger as an insult to Tea Party Protesters is equal to calling Tea Party Protesters, Red Neck NI*GERS.

The Only Difference between calling people Tea Baggers and calling people Nig*ers is which Minority Group’s Perjorative is used for personal attacking purposes on people.

More at Memeorandum. And Weasel Zippers, "Maxine Waters (D-Gestapo) Wants "Teabaggers" Interviewed to see if They're Racists ..."

Rachel Maddow: Joe Wilson a 'Mascot for Incivil, Racist Fringe'

I've said it many times by now, but Rachel Maddow's show is simply a platform for the left's unsubstantiated smears against conservatives. Last night, she looked at comments in support of Joe Wilson as evidence that the right is "uncivil" and that the movement is "unhinged." Check at 2:45 minutes:

Maddow goes on to present a far-fetched "history" of right-wing extremism and postulates that the fate of groups like the John Birch Society is in store for today's conservative and libertarian activists. Maddow's elevation of Joseph Farah and Dick Armey to the center of the "movement" is a classic straw man fallacy.

Of course, the public's not buying the left's "racism" scare tactics. As Rassmussen points out this morning, "12% Say Most Opponents of Obama Health Care Plan Are Racist":

Twelve percent (12%) of voters nationwide believe that most opponents of President Obama’s health care reform plan are racist. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of voters disagree, and 21% are not sure.

In recent days, several Democrats have suggested that racism is a factor. The most prominent to make that accusation is former President Jimmy Carter.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans reject the notion that most of the opponents are racist. So do 78% of voters not affiliated with either major party. However, just 39% of Democrats share that view. Twenty-two percent (22%) of those in the president’s party say that most of the opposition to his plan comes from racists, and another 39% are not sure.

Okay, think about this: Two-thirds of respondents reject Rachel Maddow's hard-left claim that opposition to the president is racist. And 9 of 10 Republicans along with 8 of 10 independents reject the view as well. Maddow's appealing, in fact, to a genuine fringe element herself. Of those 39 percent, a large segment would be the same fever-swamp radicals who have burned George W. Bush in effigy.

And if you check Gallup's piece up today, "Healthcare Bill Supporters Cite Uninsured; Foes, Big Gov’t."

Basically, the common responses see ObamaCare as an unnecessary expansion of big government. And the response for "government should not be involved in healthcare" measures support for a total government takecare of health markets, not simply a government role, since we know Medicare is a traditionally popular program for the elderly.

Most importantly, there's nothing here that indicates racist sentiment. Democrats are playing the "race card" because they're desperate. If you noticed at the video, Maddow repeatedly refers to President Obama as a "relatively popular president." The only problem is that he's not relatively popular. As early as March analysts were indicating how President George W. Bush (the evil "Chimpy") was more popular than President Obama at the same stage in the presidential term. And as this essay indicates, "George W. Bush was in office 37 months with an unpopular war before he fell to the Obama historically low level according to Gallup."

See more at Cold Fury, Power Line, Protein Wisdom, QandO, Say Anything, and YID With LID.

Conservatives Find Winning Formula in ACORN Attacks

From the New York Times, "Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn, Favored Foe":

For months during last year’s presidential race, conservatives sought to tar the Obama campaign with accusations of voter fraud and other transgressions by the national community organizing group Acorn, which had done some work for the campaign.

But it took amateur actors, posing as a prostitute and a pimp and recorded on hidden cameras in visits to Acorn offices, to send government officials scrambling in recent days to sever ties with the organization.

Conservative advocates and broadcasters were gleeful about the success of the tactics in exposing Acorn workers, who appeared to blithely encourage prostitution and tax evasion. It was, in effect, the latest scalp claimed by those on the right who have made no secret of their hope to weaken the Obama administration by attacking allies and appointees they view as leftist.

The Acorn controversy came a week after the resignation of Van Jones, a White House environmental official attacked by conservatives, led by Glenn Beck of Fox News Channel, for once signing a petition suggesting that Bush administration officials might have deliberately permitted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Even before Mr. Jones stepped down, Mr. Beck had sent a message to supporters on Twitter urging them to “find everything you can” on three other Obama appointees.

Conservatives believe that they have hit upon a winning formula for such attacks: mobilizing people to dig up dirt, trumpeting it on talk radio and television, prompting Congress to weigh in and demanding action from the Obama administration.

At the video, Bill O'Reilly, "The Collapse of ACORN."

See also, Big Government, "The Science Behind the Acorn Sting." (Via Memeorandum.)