Patrick Gaspard's ACORN Connection: The Cover-Up Begins

Here's Ben Smith, at the Politico:

I hate to put a damper on the day's firestorm on the right over a White House staffer, but an American Spectator report making the rounds this morning that White House political director Patrick Gaspard used to work for ACORN in New York just isn't true.

But Matthew Vadum responds, "The Politico Gets Played By ACORN":

The Politico's Ben Smith is a living case study showing what happens when sincere, well-meaning journalists write about something they do not understand.

ACORN, quite predictably, claims Patrick Gaspard who is now an extremely close advisor to President Obama, didn't work for it.

Smith just got played by ACORN -- big time.

Read the whole thing, at the link.

The White House has denied that Gaspard worked for ACORN.

And conveniently, Wade Rathke, the ACORN founder, who was forced out following his brother Dale Rathke's embezzlement scandal, has updated a blog post to deny that Gaspard was employed by ACORN:

My “friends” on the right seem to be using me as a source for an attack at yet another new target: Patrick Gaspard, political director at the White House.

I have huge admiration for Patrick and have enjoyed my dealings with him over the years. In almost 1400 blogs I’ve done, sometimes I don’t get it right, call it a senior moment or whatever it might be, but reading the blogsphere with me as a source took me back searching for whether or not I could be causing a problem here inadvertently. Patrick was never on the staff of ACORN. I double checked with people I still know there, and it appears that I dropped a stitch there. Hopefully my misstatement won’t lead to the White House throwing him in front of the bus in this rush to neo-McCarthyism that has become so prominent. In this case, my memory tricked me. I’m glad to carry the weight and simply say I made a mistake, and damned if I’m not sorry and hope no damage is done to a good man doing a hard job.

Hmm. "Dropped a stitch"? That's a good one.

But notice this damning revision, from Rathke's May 16th post "SEIU's Good Obama Bet":

Furthermore this is big time stuff not just petty backroom deals and the Obama administration is getting way more than a bang for its buck in the partnership as well. The big news this week at the centerpiece of saving the Obama health care reform initiative was the announcement by some of the big healthcare operators that they would deliver MEGA-SAVINGS to help make the health care reform happen. Not surprisingly Andy Stern was there along with Dennis Rivera, head of SEIU’s health care division, and they were the only labor leaders there for good reason. Buried in the story in the New York Times lead report that day was the following sentence: “Dennis Rivera, coordinator of the health care campaign of the Service Employees International Union, led efforts to bring the industry groups together, with help from Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform.” Dennis delivered for SEIU and the White House in only the way that he can. Tell me that 1199’s former political director, Patrick Gaspard (EDIT: This line used to contain a reference to Patrick Gaspard working for NY ACORN. This is untrue, he never worked for ACORN. To see Wade’s correction: http://tinyurl.com/y9bscr8) didn’t reach out from the White House and help make that happen, and I’ll tell you to take some remedial classes in “politics 101.”

That tiny url (in italics) takes you back to the post cited above with the italicized block quote, as seen originally at Rathke's page ("Getting Leveraged on Heath Care"). The "1199" is SEIU Local 1199. It is cited by CEO Bertha Lewis, in a letter to the Nation co-authored with Patrick Gaspard, as an ACORN-affiliated local union. See, "Run WFP Run! Run WFP Run!":

Doug Ireland's offhand comments about the Working Families Party's role in the upcoming municipal elections in New York City were inaccurate and hurtful ....

Speaking for two affiliates of the WFP -- ACORN and SEIU/1199 -- I say that this is dead wrong.

Matthew Vadum has quoted the entire letter at his piece, "The Politico Gets Played By ACORN" (in case of some memory-hole action).

See also Stanley Kurtz's post from yesterday, "Patrick Gaspard, ACORN, and Obama":

There’s been a good deal of attention to ACORN of late, and deservedly so. Yet for all the fuss, what is arguably the most important Obama-ACORN tie of all has gotten short shrift. During the 2008 election, Obama’s close links to the far-left New Party were revealed and explored (although not by the mainstream press). Yet many seem to have forgotten that the New Party, particularly in Chicago, was dominated by ACORN (and by an ACORN-controlled SEIU union local). During the campaign, I detailed Obama’s New Party ties in two pieces, "Something New Here," and "Life of the New Party." Important evidence of Obama’s pursuit of the New Party endorsement can also be found in the September-October 1995 issue of "New Ground," newsletter of the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Obama’s New Party ties matter because they show that his links to ACORN went far beyond shared on-the-ground organizing, legal representation, training, or even funding (although all of those ties existed and were important). By running for office with the New Party, Obama was effectively indicating that he shared ACORN’s radical political goals.

So it’s of interest that in late 1995, just as Obama was seeking New Party endorsement in Chicago, Patrick Gaspard was working as a New Party organizer in New Jersey. (This was reported in "Jersey Man Hopes to Create Third Political Party," NPR, "Morning Edition, " September 28, 1995). Then, in the July 2, 2001 issue of "The Nation," Gaspard and Bertha Lewis jointly published a reply to a June 4 Nation article by Doug Ireland which had been critical of the New York’s Working Families Party (a successor to the New Party, led by New Party co-founder Dan Cantor, and largely controlled by ACORN and the SEIU). In the course of their letter, Gaspard and Lewis describe their extensive joint involvement in Working Families Party activities. The letter is signed: "Bertha Lewis, ACORN, WFP; Patrick Gaspard, SEIU State Council, WFP." This does seem to confirm and extend the new evidence of a close political tie between Patrick Gaspard and ACORN’s Bertha Lewis.

No doubt, some will dismiss the newly revealed connections between the Obama administration, Patrick Gaspard, Bertha Lewis, and ACORN as "guilt by association." Yet it seems to me that the evidence points to something more significant than that. We are talking about a persistent and shared political-ideological alliance between President Obama and the complex of community, labor, and party organizations controlled by ACORN.

More at the link.

Image Credit: The People's Cube, "ACORN: Honesty is Not Going to Get You the House." See also, Michelle Malkin, "ACORN Watch: “Honesty is Not Going to Get You the House”."

Deliver Us Obama: Community Organizers Pray to President

From World Net Daily, a retrospective look at the ObamaMessiah: "Community Organizers 'Pray' to President: 'Hear Our Cry. Hear Our Cry. Deliver Us'." This creepshow is totally predictable. Recall the Oliphant cartoon from the campaign. The video's below, via Nice Deb. See also, Michelle Malkin, "Creepy O-cult Video of the Day: “Deliver Us, Obama!."

See also: Atlas Shrugs, The Blog Prof, Gateway Pundit, HotAirPundit, RedState, and Sundries Shack. (Via Memeorandum.)

Added: The Snooper Report, "Why Are the DEMOCRAT "Christians" Allowed to Combine Church and State?"

Sarah Palin: Going Rogue: An American Life

I first saw the title at Midnight Blue. And the headline at Clifton's blog spreads the news, "Sarah Palin's Memoir 'Going Rogue: An American Life' Set for Nov. 17 Release."

See also, the Politico, "Palin's Title: 'Going Rogue'."

Leftists are already pouncing to rekindle old smears against Ms. Palin. And the smears will continue. So far, Palin's done everything right in lining herself up for the 2012 GOP primaries. Recall my essay on this July, "Can Palin Win the 2012 GOP Nomination?" Along with her book --- impressively scheduled for an early release --- she's raising money, traveling internationally, and offering widely-read policy papers (well, Facebook "papers," more accurately). And recall that Palin has been recognized as the most effective GOP critic of President Brack Obama. See, most recently, "Palin, in Hong Kong, Criticizes Obama's Policies." Best of all, Palin's looking good in pulbic opinion. See, Gallup, "Romney Edges Palin, Huckabee in Early 2012 GOP Test." Despite that headline, Palin's the's the one to beat in 2012, far and away.

Related: Matthew Towery, Juneau Empire, "GOP Return to Power Could Be Swift." Also, check Memorandum.

Is There a Human Right to Be Free From Offense?

The title of this post is inspired by Blazing Cat Fur, who links to the homepage for the upcoming conference of the Canadian Constitution Foundation: "Race, Religion, Equality and Freedom: Current Canadian Legal Controversies." The event is scheduled for this coming weekend, with one of the panels titled, "Is There a Human Right to Be Free From Offense?"

The answer's obvious: No, there's no human right to be unoffended. Human rights are generally considered those protections guaranteeing life, liberty, and property -- i.e., Lockean safeguards for the protection human dignity and survival. How those safeguards are defined is a political question, of course, and in postmodern societies, where constitutional protections for traditionally disadvantaged groups have become the sine qua non of hardline leftist ideologues, to be seen as opposing human rights for freedom from offense would immediately be considered "racist."

Anyway, I wasn't going to write about it until I saw a couple of posts right now online. First is Mark Steyn's essay, "What They're Telling Us":

This piece by Lloyd Marcus, a black conservative, is called "Stop Allowing The Left To Set The Rules", and deals with the alleged racism of the anti-Obama opposition. As Mr Marcus notes:

The Left published a cartoon depicting former black Secretary of State Condolezza Rice as an Aunt Jemima; another depicted Rice as a huge-lipped parrot for her Massa Bush. Neither were considered racist by their creators or publishers, or even widely condemned on the Left.

In opposition to black Republican Michael Steele's campaign torun for U.S. Senate, a liberal blogger published a doctored photo of Steele in black face and big red lips made to look like a minstrel. The caption read, "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house". Not one Democrat denounced these racist portrayals of black conservatives.

True. Nobody minds liberal commentators expressing the hope that Clarence Thomas "will die early from heart disease like many black men", etc. Contemporary identity-group politics are prototype one-party states: If you're a black Republican Secretary of State, you're not really black. If you're a female Republican vice-presidential nominee, you're not really a woman. What's racist and sexist here is the notion that, if you're black or female, your politics is determined by your group membership.

But, if we're talking about letting the left "set the rules", Mr Marcus' column reminded me of a larger point: Don't take your opponents at face value; listen to what they're really saying. What does the frenzy unleashed on Sarah Palin last fall tell us? What does Newsweek's "Mad Man" cover on Glenn Beck mean? Why have "civility" drones like Joe Klein so eagerly adopted Anderson Cooper's scrotal "teabagging" slur and characterized as "racists" and "terrorists" what are (certainly by comparison with the anti-G20 crowd) the best behaved and tidiest street agitators in modern history?

They're telling you who they really fear. Whom the media gods would destroy they first make into "mad men". Liz Cheney should be due for the treatment any day now.

I almost had to laugh at the brilliant accuracy of the description - that's postmodern leftism to a "T". And there's more at the link.

But that's not all. It turns out, via Glenn Reynolds, that we have a pretty good example of this in the case out of Richmond, Virginia, where residents have taken offense to a the use of the "Obama Joker" poster by a local strip club. Glenn titles his post, "FREE SPEECH: Only For Members of Officially Recognized Aggrieved Groups." He links to this story from NBC Connecticut: "NAACP Protests Obama Joker Banner at Strip Club":

While the NAACP and other groups protested a banner depicting President Barack Obama as the Joker from Batman on the side of a Richmond, Va., strip club on Monday, a dancer from the club walked through the crowd with a sign that read "Strippers for Obama" as a drummer kept a steady beat.

The banner hangs outside Club Velvet, and the club's owner, Sam Moore, said in a statement that the display is not intended to make a racial statement, but rather to express his displeasure with the Obama administration, according to WTVR-TV.

"This country is going to hell in a hand bag and the current administration is making things irreversibly worse," Moore said.

Some locals said they were offended by the banner, while others said it is a sign of freedom of speech.

Representatives from the NAACP, the Nation of Islam and other groups gathered outside Club Velvet at noon Monday to protest what they called an affront against the nation's first black president and "veiled attacks on all African people."

There's more at the link, plus a video.

I'm linking this video below, however, from Richmond's WWBT-NBC12, "Legal Analyst Speaks to Depiction of Obama as 'Joker' ":

'Jesus Christ! Where'd You Get that Cadillac?'

Well, I've been so busy with the heavy political blogging and grassroots activism, I've neglected the "Lightening Up" entries on rock music and more. So, not wanting to let down my good friend Anton over at PA Pundits International, as well as my regular reader, Kreiz, please enjoy The Clash, "Brand New Cadillac":

The first video at top features The Clash live in 1983, from Devore, California. The event was the US Festival (commemorative website here). The Clash headlined the first night of a three-day gig. Opening bands that day, on May 28th, included INXS, Flock of Seagulls, and the Stray Cats. The second day, May 29th, was the hard-rock concert featuring lots of big acts, like Judas Priest, Ozzy Osborne, and Van Halen. I attended the third day of events, May 30th. What a rock spectacular! The lineup included U2, Missing Persons, Joe Walsh, Stevie Nicks, and David Bowie. (Also playing in the beer gardens was Los Lobos, just when they started to hit it big in Los Angeles.)

I was a Bowie freak at the time. "Let's Dance" had just come out and Bowie's career was in something of the "grand statesman's mode." Reaching a commercial pinnacle, he was happy and settling down after his sensational 1970s gender-bending turns ("Ziggy Stardust", etc.), and the drug-addled European-esque episodes of the 1980s ("Heroes," etc.). Some may recall that Stevie Ray Vaughn had played lead guitar on the studio album for "Let's Dance", but Vaughn didn't tour (there was a falling out with David, if I recall).

Anyway, I couldn't afford to attend all three days, although I'm still kicking myself for never having seen The Clash in concert - one of my favorite bands, and "Brand New Cadillac" one of my favorite songs. The studio version is at the second video above, an excellent homemade picture and video-clip collage.

Back online later tonight!

I gotta help my little one with his homework and do some MORE house cleaning - or my wife will have my neck for too much blogging! In the meanwhile, check out my good friends at Grandpa John's, Midnight Blue, Pat in Shreveport, Pelican Marsh, and Three Bears Later.

Patrick Gaspard: ACORN's Man in the White House

From Matthew Vadum, "ACORN's Man in the White House":

Newly discovered evidence shows the radical advocacy group ACORN has a man in the Obama White House.

This power behind the throne is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard. He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House.

Evidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York.

Lewis, the current "chief organizer" or CEO of ACORN, was head of New York ACORN from at least 1994 through 2008, when she took over as national leader of ACORN. With Gaspard at work in the White House, Lewis might as well be speaking to President Obama through an earpiece as he goes about his daily business ruining the country.

Erick Erickson of the website RedState recently did an excellent job explaining the relationship of Gaspard to Lewis and President Obama so I won't take up space here recalling all his valuable insights. Suffice it to say Erickson reported that Gaspard figures prominently in Lewis's rolodex, which Erickson has in his possession.

Skeptics among you may ask, How do we actually know the low-profile Gaspard, who prefers to work outside the public spotlight and who can hardly be found in Nexis searches at all, was Lewis's right hand man?

Because Gaspard's employment with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is acknowledged by no less an authority than ACORN founder Wade Rathke himself. Rathke writes at his blog:

Tell me that 1199's former political director, Patrick Gaspard (who was ACORN New York's political director before that) didn't reach out from the White House and help make that happen, and I'll tell you to take some remedial classes in "politics 101."

The "before that" time period Rathke is referring to is 2003 when Gaspard was executive vice president for political and legislative affairs for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. According to publicly available disclosure documents, Gaspard registered as a federal lobbyist for SEIU on Oct. 22, 2007. The registration and subsequent disclosures indicate he lobbied Congress on SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Incidentally, the lines between ACORN and radical left-wing SEIU, whose acronym stands for Service Employees International Union, become fuzzy in places.

SEIU Locals 100 and 880 are part of the ACORN network of organizations. Local 100 in New Orleans is headed by Rathke. SEIU Local 880 in Chicago is headed by longtime ACORN insider Keith Kelleher.

You'd never know about the SEIU connection from visiting ACORN's website, www.acorn.org. That's because the website has been receiving a thorough scrubbing in recent months. On ACORN's affiliated organizations page, references to the two SEIU locals mysteriously disappeared.

It's worth noting that Gaspard's ties to ACORN, SEIU, and Lewis go way back.

Read the whole thing, at the link.

Also, at the Wall Street Journal, "Bank Pulls Back From Acorn Work" (via Memeorandum).

Pro-Life Forces See Roe v.Wade as Vulnerable

From the Los Angeles Times, "A New Push to Define 'Person,' and to Outlaw Abortion in the Process":

It is one of the enduring questions of religion and science, and lately of American politics: When does a fertilized egg become a person?

Abortion foes, tired of a profusion of laws that limit but do not abolish abortion, are trying to answer the question in a way that they hope could put an end to legalized abortion.

Across the country, they have revived efforts to amend state constitutions to declare that personhood -- and all rights accorded human beings -- begins at conception.

From Florida to California, abortion foes are gathering signatures, pressing state legislators and raising money to put personhood measures on ballots next year. In Louisiana, a class at a Catholic high school is lobbying state legislators as part of a civics exercise.

"We have big and small efforts going on in 30 states right now," said Keith Mason, co-founder of Colorado-based Personhood USA. "Our goal is to activate the population."

Critics deride the effort as the "egg-as-person" movement and say it threatens in vitro fertilization; some kinds of birth control, including IUDs and pills; and stem cell research. They say that Americans will reject it as a government intrusion into their privacy.

"It's a backdoor abortion ban," said Ted Miller, spokesman for NARAL Pro-Choice America, which has worked with Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups to defeat such measures.

Since the mid-1970s, polls have found that about three-quarters of Americans support legalized abortion in at least some circumstances.

But this year, for the first time since the Gallup Poll started asking people in 1995 whether they identified themselves as "pro-life" or "pro-choice," a slight majority of Americans (51%) picked "pro-life."

Proponents of personhood measures root their hopes in the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, in which Justice Harry Blackmun wrote for the majority that a fetus is not legally a person.

Establishing personhood would topple the rationale for legal abortion, their thinking goes, though many people on both sides of the abortion debate consider this logic farfetched.

Defeats of personhood measures around the country -- notably in Colorado, which in 2008 became the first state to put a measure before voters -- have not daunted proponents, a loose confederation of evangelical Christian and Catholic antiabortion groups.

Mason said he had been inspired by other struggles -- against slavery, for women's suffrage, for gay rights."

I don't agree with the homosexual agenda, but I say, look at the tenacity of what they have done to fight for what is right," he said."I don't believe that just because we will not get enough votes in an election that we should not do this. I don't recall Martin Luther King checking the polls to see if he was right on civil rights."

Today, Mason will join activists in Sacramento to announce a signature-gathering campaign for an initiative to amend California's Constitution and define a person as a human starting at conception.

More at the link.

Video Credit: Jill Stanek, "Lila Rose, Pastor Walter Hoye to launch CA Human Rights Campaign today":

I'm told Lila Rose, Pastor Walter Hoye, Judie Brown, and the "Bella Movie guys" (don't know which ones) will be present to launch the CA Human Rights Campaign at a press conference today in Sacramento.

It is there the group will submit language for the Human Rights Amendment to AG Jerry Brown, to be presented as a 2010 CA ballot initiative if all goes as planned.

The amendment "recognizes the inherent human rights, dignity and worth of all human beings from the beginning of their biological development," said Pastor Hoye in a statement. This is commonly known as a personhood amendment, and they're popping up everywhere. According to Personhood USA, groups in 17 states are now at various stages of play on this.

Be sure to read the rest of Jill's post for the internal movement debate on overturning Roe v. Wade.

Giving Voice to Our Enemies: Newsweek: 'The Taliban in Their Own Words'

The only explanation I can think of is that Newsweek's editors have used "journalistic objectivity" in the service of postmodern relativism. Their report, "The Taliban in Their Own Words," glosses over the goals of demonic Islamist jihadism to portray a pitiful, poor population caught in the timewarp of great power rivalries.

Here's this heartfelt discussion from Mohammad:

The end of the Taliban was the start of my jihadi career. My father died in 1994, leaving me to take care of my mother, brothers, and sisters. So I'd had no time to join Mullah Omar's movement. For years I had a very heavy conscience for having missed the jihad. After the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001, many injured and traumatized mujahedin began coming to the mosque in Peshawar where I was the imam. Some of the worshipers asked me outright why I hadn't fought in the jihad like these men.

I needed to make up for not joining the fight. I started asking around if the mujahedin were still active, but no one could give me a real answer. Then one day I heard about a young Afghan named Azizullah who had been in the resistance—he's in jail now in Afghanistan. I went to his house, and told him I wanted to help the resistance against the Americans if it was forming. He lied, saying he was only a poor man and had nothing to do with jihad. Then one day I saw him walking to the mosque. I joined him. He was still hesitant, but finally he said he could help. He gave me directions to a militant camp in Waziristan and a letter of introduction.

The highlighted emphasis is added. This guy above regrets he didn't join the jihadis in the 1990s, so now he wants to catch up and restore his creds by killing a few Americans. Cool dude.

Okay, how about Haqqani:

In early 2003 my family and I moved to a rented house near Peshawar. It was the first time I was living in my own house since 2001. I put my white clerical outfit back on. And suddenly the Taliban's defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah, came to see me—the first senior Taliban leader I had seen since our collapse. He was traveling around Pakistan to rally our dispersed forces. Half the Taliban leadership was back in touch with each other, he said, and they were determined to start a resistance movement to expel the Americans. I didn't think it was possible, but he assured me I could help.

He said to meet him again in two weeks, and gave me an address. I was surprised at the number and rank of the people I found at the meeting. There were former senior ministers and military commanders, all sitting together, all eager to resist the Americans. Obaidullah told me: "We don't need you as a deputy minister or bureaucrat. We want you to bring as many fighters as you can into the field."

There you have it. More gung-ho resistance against the Americans.

Now, here's Akhundzada:

There are famous Taliban poems about how mujahedin come to free villages from occupiers at the point of a bayonet. I began living that poem. My body and mind got stronger and my mental problems disappeared. As word of our success traveled, I was able to organize another group of new, young recruits. They were smarter, more spirited, and better motivated than my former Taliban fighters.

Still, we lacked weapons and money. So I visited Mullah Dadullah. He had gone into Helmand province in early 2006 with 30 people. When he returned months later, he had organized 300 sub-commanders who each had dozens of troops. He had also signed up and was training hundreds of suicide-bomb volunteers. His return was like the arrival of rain after five years of drought.

Hey, sounds like a great guy! Suicide bombers no less! Impressive! Takes real courage!

Okay, back to Mohammad:

Once we sent a shipment for the making of IEDs to our forces in Zabul province. For some reason we forgot to include the remote-control devices. I got an urgent call from the commander asking me to quickly send the missing items. So I hid the remotes among some books and clothes in several travel bags. At Torkham [the Khyber Pass crossing], the police asked me to open the bags. At first I thought I should flee. But where could I run? I started searching for the key to open the bags. There was a long customs queue. The impatient policeman finally said: "You're taking too long. Get out of here."

Another night I was in a hotel in Kabul on a mission to smuggle remote devices and explosives. Afghan police and intelligence were checking all the travelers staying in the hotel. My fellow mujahedin and I hid the bags containing the remotes in the bathroom. The police checked our luggage and pockets. But God blinded their eyes to the bathroom. If they had found the devices I would have ended up in jail for life. All these close calls strengthened my faith and my commitment to the jihad.

Hey, perhaps Newsweek's got some actionable intelligence out of all of this. You think maybe we could stop a few IED attack on U.S. troops and civilians with that dope?

One more time with Haqqani:

In 2007 I returned to Afghanistan for the first time. I visited the south and spoke to Taliban units, to elders and villagers, and raised new recruits. Mullah Omar has entrusted me with the job of touring towns and villages on both sides of the border to encourage people to support, contribute to, and join the jihad. Between 2006 and 2009 I have personally raised hundreds of new recruits to join the resistance. [In August] I traveled to eight Afghan provinces in 20 days. The unpopularity of the Karzai regime helps us immensely. In 2005 some Afghans thought Karzai would bring positive change. But now most Afghans believe the Taliban are the future. The resistance is getting stronger day by day.

Then this guy's got information on the whereabouts of resistance fighters targeting Americans. I can't imagine how Newsweek's editors thought this was good journalism.

Here's this, from Khan:

Fighting the Americans is not easy. One night in the summer of 2007, my commander, Mullah Nurla, was killed in an American raid on his house. Other Americans killed 12 of our commanders. All the raids came between midnight and dawn. We found out that the Americans were finding us by tracing our cell-phone calls, and by calls from spies giving away our locations. So we forced the cell companies to stop all transmissions from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. We still worry about helicopters and bombers, but we are suffering fewer American night raids. I think they just don't have the intelligence they used to have. Fewer people are willing to cooperate with them and betray us.

Our men, on the other hand, are watching American bases 24 hours a day. They inform us of American movements. We used to hit the Americans with roadside bombs and then disappear. Now when we explode an IED, we follow that with AK and RPG fire. We now have more destructive IEDs, mostly ammonium-nitrate bombs that we mix with aluminum shards. We get regular deliveries of these fertilizers, explosives, fuses, detonators, and remote controls. One heavy shipment is on its way right now. I think we are better at making IEDs now than the Arabs who first taught us.

I had to hightlight that whole passage.

Notice that last part, about how the "Arabs taught us." That's going to be al Qaeda in Iraq or . These are the forces of the militant arch of jihad that's spanning from Israel to South Asia. Newsweek's reporters are traveling with these terrorists, and they've obviously obtained information that could save American lives. If you read the caption to the photo-gallery, the disclaimer reads, "Because they continue armed struggle, the men [insurgents] would not be photographed for this story ..." You think?

This is what these nice friendly Taliban do -- FULL CONTENT WARNING!! TURN AWAY AT WEAK STOMACH!!:

Stanley McChrystal's Frank Talk on Afghanistan

I nearly posted on this last night, but didn't find a YouTube to go with my commentary. Readers can watch the interview at CBS, "McChrystal's Frank Talk on Afghanistan."

The Hill covers the conclusion of the interview, which was pretty dramatic. See, "Despite Pressure, McChrystal to Hold Firm on Request for Troops":

Gen. Stanley McChrystal said he will not back down from his request for additional troops in Afghanistan, even though Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration have been hesitant to embrace it.

Speaking on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan said pressure to rescind that request will have no affect on his actions going forward.
“Doesn’t affect me at all, and I take this extraordinarily seriously,” McChrystal said, according to a transcript. “I believe that what I am responsible to do is to give my best assessment.”

McChrystal’s recent report -- delivered to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen on Friday and asking for 40,000 more troops -- is a hot-button issue on Capitol Hill, with Democrats hitting the Sunday talk show circuit earlier in the day and saying that the administration should weigh McChrystal’s request very carefully.

"I think the president is correct to take his time, to really examine what the alternatives are at this time," Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said, echoing fellow senator and former Navy Secretary Jim Webb (D-Va.).

Obama authorized 21,000 additional troops for Afghanistan as soon as he came into office in January and the last from that order are still deploying to the region.

McChrystal deflected when asked whether he thought he would get what he is asking for from Washington.

“I’m confident that I will have an absolute chance to provide my assessment and to make my recommendations,” he said.

At MyDD, Charles Lemos argues the Afghan effort is hopeless:

Afghanistan is an artificial state, the rump left over after the Grand Game between Britain and Russia ended in the late 19th century. This Central Asian entity we call Afghanistan is an accident drawn up to suit the interests of outsiders, not those of the myriad peoples of the region. To believe that we can create a strong and stable central government defies historical and cultural realities.

Actually, expert analysis rejects that view, based on an interest-based analysis of the key participants to the conflict. See my earlier report, "Reconciliation and Resolve in Afghanistan." See my analysis of public support for the deployment as well, "Success Matters: Public Opinion and the War in Afghanistan."

Babe Blogging: Britney Spears Bikini Pics

I'm temporarily coming out of babe-blogging retirement to share this wonderful bikini pic of Britney Spears at the Ritz Carlton, Marina Del Rey, from August 16. The inspiration is William Teach's "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and the Classical Liberal's homage to Britney, "Not Reason, Just Britney." Enjoy!

As always, more fabulous babe blogging at Theo Spark's. And don't miss Camp of the Saints' refreshingly cool entry on Tina Louise! (Hat Tip: TrogloPundit.)

Canadians Push for 'Private Option'

A great report at today's Los Angeles Times, "In Canada, a Move Toward a Private Healthcare Option":

When the pain in Christina Woodkey's legs became so severe that she could no long hike or cross-country ski, she went to her local health clinic. The Calgary, Canada, resident was told she'd need to see a hip specialist. Because the problem was not life-threatening, however, she'd have to wait about a year.

So wait she did.

In January, the hip doctor told her that a narrowing of the spine was compressing her nerves and causing the pain. She needed a back specialist. The appointment was set for Sept. 30. "When I was given that date, I asked when could I expect to have surgery," said Woodkey, 72. "They said it would be a year and a half after I had seen this doctor."

So this month, she drove across the border into Montana and got the $50,000 surgery done in two days.

"I don't have insurance. We're not allowed to have private health insurance in Canada," Woodkey said. "It's not going to be easy to come up with the money. But I'm happy to say the pain is almost all gone."

Whereas U.S. healthcare is predominantly a private system paid for by private insurers, things in Canada tend toward the other end of the spectrum: A universal, government-funded health system is only beginning to flirt with private-sector medicine.

Hoping to capitalize on patients who might otherwise go to the U.S. for speedier care, a network of technically illegal private clinics and surgical centers has sprung up in British Columbia, echoing a trend in Quebec. In October, the courts will be asked to decide whether the budding system should be sanctioned.

More than 70 private health providers in British Columbia now schedule simple surgeries and tests such as MRIs with waits as short as a week or two, compared with the months it takes for a public surgical suite to become available for nonessential operations.

"What we have in Canada is access to a government, state-mandated wait list," said Brian Day, a former Canadian Medical Assn. director who runs a private surgical center in Vancouver. "You cannot force a citizen in a free and democratic society to simply wait for healthcare, and outlaw their ability to extricate themselves from a wait list."

Read the whole thing, here.

I'm surprised, frankly, that the Times' editors even ran this piece. The paper's been one of the country's biggest journalistic shills for ObamaCare. When I reported on the massive Adam Schiff town hall in August - which was the lead story on that night's local ABC News broadcast - the Times competely ignored the story in the next day's paper. Instead, we saw a tearjerker piece on the massive free healthcare clinic at the L.A. Forum. I'm putting the Los Angeles Times practically in the same category as its New York Times counterpart. See, "The New York Times ACORN Cover-Up; or, How the Right-Roots Brings Down the Old Grey Lady." Once in a while, some fair-minded journalism gets through, like today's piece on Canada above. Otherwise, it's pretty frustrating reading the newspaper in the mornings.

Hillary Clinton on Iran: 'Transparency or Sanctions'

Here's Hillary Clinton's interview this morning on Face the Nation, "Clinton on Iran: Transparency or Sanctions":

Clinton spoke of transparency and diplomacy, but not on the question of military force. Even Robert Gates said all options should remain on the table. Clinton sounded like a model of equanimity here. She was tougher during the campaign. See, for example, Johanna Neuman,"Was Hillary Clinton Right on Iran?"

Since When Did 'Homosexual' Become a Bad Word?

I blogged the gay marriage controversy for months following the passage of Proposition 8 last November. With the California Supreme Court's ruling last May, some activists argued for an appeal to the U.S Supreme Court (an unfavorable venue, given the Court's current conservative majority). And just this week gay rights activists submitted a ballot proposal to the Secretary of State's office. A group called "Love Honor Cherish" filed the measure, but other groups have argued that 2010 is too soon for a new gay marriage push. Some fear that a failed campaign could set back the cause.

Meanwhile, voters in Maine, Michigan, and Washington State will have a chance to vote on gay rights initiatives this fall, just one year after the contentious California gay marriage fight. In Maine, it turns out there's a big controversy over at a conservative advertisement that apparently changes an AP news headline to include "homosexual." According to AmericaBlog, "That headline only exists on anti-gay sites. It's not from the Associated Press." The orginal story is here, "Gay Rights Group: Maine Diocese Violating Tax Law. "

It's not immediately clear why the Yes on One campaign would alter the headline for the ad buy. Perhaps "Homosexual Advocacy Group" has more negative connotations than "Gay Right Group." No matter, the campaign should be criticized if they've dishonestly altered an AP report for political purposes.

Having said that, what's even more interesting is the reaction on the left. Darleen Click points us to a Feministing post on the controversy, which includes this blast of hatred:

Truly fighting for equal rights requires a social change and public pressure. Why did textbook companies begin to consciously include photos of students of color in their course materials after the civil rights movement? Because diversity--of ethnicity, of community, and of culture -is the norm, not the exception. The idea of an "other," of a "minority," or even the implication of a same-sex marriage being "non-traditional," alienates and isolates queer individuals and families worldwide.

Teach children about same-sex marriage in schools. Never refer to queer-identified individuals as "homosexuals." Treat churches who refuse to perform same-sex marriages like those who refuse to perform interracial marriages.

But if Maine's Question 1 is defeated, churches will remain the same, school curriculum will retain its heteronormativity, and "homosexuals" will still fear living openly. Maine conservatives have nothing to worry about.

Never refer to individuals as "homosexuals." But in fact, that's what they are. A look over at Wikipedia turns up this straightforward discussion:

Homosexuality is a sexual orientation. A homosexual person is sexually and romantically attracted to people of their own gender. Men who are attracted to other men are called "gay." Women who are attracted to other women can be called "gay" as well, but are usually called "lesbians". People who are attracted to men and women are called bisexual. Together homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people make up the "LGBT community." It is difficult to say how many people are homosexual. Homosexuality is known to exist in all cultures and countries, though some governments deny that homosexuality exists in their countries.

That's how I would explain what a "homosexual" is to my own kids. There's nothing discriminatory about it. Perhaps the Yes on One campaign sought to tap into "homosexual" as synonomous with "homo," which is an anti-gay slur. That said, the outrage among gay rights activists is even more cynically exploitative, and pushing "queer" as the acceptable postmodern terminology is bound to alienate traditional families. Certainly families in Maine have a right to be concerned that schools will ram down politically-correct notions of gay marriage as "normal" on children.

More honesty all around would be helpful. But if anything, this battle shows what the gay-rights ayatollahs are all about. Just like last year, anyone of traditional orientation is likely to face Stalinist show trials should they deviate from the radical left's "queer" rights agenda.

What a disgrace.

The New York Times ACORN Cover-Up; or, How the Right-Roots Brings Down the Old Grey Lady

After reading Michelle Malkin's post, it just occurred to me that the utter hugeness of the ACORN scandal - which is turning into nothing less than Obama's Nixonian cover-up extravaganza - may well mean that the rightroots blogosphere will ultimately bring down the New York Times. Michelle's responding to Clark Hoyt's explanatory mea culpa for the Times' utter cluelessness, "Tuning In Too Late." See the responses at Memeorandum as well. The New York Times is still often referred to as America's "unofficial newspaper of record." But for most people, the partisan bias there is just intolerable. I wrote about this last fall during the campaign. We no longer have an independent press. See, "Obama's Media: The Return of the Partisan Press." Michelle also posts her article from last fall, and it's worth citing here just for the power of posterity: "What's Missing From the New York Times Coverage of ACORN."

Also, Anita MonCrief, who is discussed by Michelle above, has a new piece up at Big Government. See, "ACORN and SEIU: Anatomy of a Shakedown." Plus, check Memeorandum for the latest developments.

Police Break Up Protests at University of Pittsburgh

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "About 1,000 Protest Against Police Brutality; 110 Detained."

Police repeatedly ordered a crowd of about 1,000 people to leave Schenley Plaza in Oakland on Friday night before they arrested 110 of them, Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper said.

"All the arrests were predicated on the failure to disperse," Harper said during a news conference Saturday.

Some of the people at the plaza on the edge of the University of Pittsburgh's campus characterized the gathering as a peaceful stand against police brutality in the wake of two days of high security assembled for the G-20 summit Downtown ....

Pitt police Chief Tim Delaney said two emergency text notifications were sent to 51,000 e-mail addresses and cell phones at 7:20 p.m. and 10:04 p.m. warning students not to go to Schenley Plaza. The second message advised students to remain at home because safety conditions outside "may be deteriorating."

"The individuals that chose to be there were there. The innocents had the ability (via) communications not to be involved, and I think we really were successful," Delaney said.

Delaney rejected reports that many of those who gathered and were arrested were Pitt students. He could not specify how many of those arrested were students. Students who were involved could face disciplinary action by the university.

I'm going to disagree with Glenn Reynolds on this. And Doug Mataconis is critical too: "Once Again I Ask, Does This Look Like America To You ?" But Doug's commenters capture my sense of what's up:

Large crowds are dangerous and unpredictable. If the point of this video was to show that we live in a police state, it failed miserably. What is clear to anyone who has a passing familiarity with police states is how UNAFRAID the spectators were. They just stood there as a line of riot police slowly marched toward them. They looked more curious than cowed, with cell-phone cameras out. Do you think people in, say, North Korea or China ask the police to explain what they are doing? Do you think people the USSR would stand around as the police tell them to disperse? Do you think that it is the smartest thing to read the cans of tear gas in the middle of the street as the police are approaching? All these indicate a complete lack of fear, or even respect of the authority of police.

**********

Funny!

The left (including NBC, CBS, ABC, NYT, etc.) have been wringing their hands for months, wondering not IF, but when the Tea-partiers/town hall protesters were gonna get violent. And then we get these left wing terrorists who show up to these types of protests like clockwork … and the media gets upset some of these lefties end up getting arrested …. and a littl' roughed up. Screw that … you come to my house and start smashing things, and setting them on fire, I'll snap your neck! About time these left wing terrorists get their assess kicked.

See also, "Protesters, Police Clash After G20 In Pittsburgh."

Glenn Beck Storms Seattle

From Mediaite, "Glenn Beck Storms Seattle: Meets Hundreds of Protesters, But Thousands of Fans":

Glenn Beck went out West this weekend to receive the key to his hometown, Mount Vernon, Washington and speak at an event in Safeco Field.

So how did it go? Pretty much like all things Beck these days – it went really well for the Fox News host.

The Seattle event saw more than 7,000 people come out to hear Beck speak. There’s video up on YouTube (and some embedded below). Here’s a taste:

What is this government trying to do? They’re trying to take your necessity away. They’ve got a whole lot of invention coming our way, I promise you that. Don’t let anyone take our necessity away, or anybody take that failure away from us, because…failure is what builds you.

As for the non-Beck fans – the Seattle Times put the number at “about 30″. Or, put another way, irrelevant.

See also, "Beck Speaks to 7,000 at Seattle: 'The American People Have Not Surrendered'."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's straining with its meme, "Protests Turn Ugly Outside Glenn Beck Event in Mount Vernon."

More at Memeorandum.

Nihilists Out in Force at G-20 Protests

Hmm, I think I'll dedicate this post to the folks at the American Nihilist shithole - and please pardon my French ... sometimes there's just no good word substitutes! Check out (O)CT(O)PUS, for example, "BILLIONAIRES FOR WEALTH CARE: IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM." These folks hate America.

But hey, help is on the way. It turns out that the People's Cube has a great post up on this week's anti-globalization protests, "Dude! G20 Riots In Pittsburgh." Great images and photos. Plus, "Down With Capitalism!!!" And the narrator's got this red rooster to assist the chronicle of events:

Yep, awesome stuff! And there's lots more like this at American Nihilist! See, "MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE":

In short, the most expensive healthcare system in the world has not made us healthy, wealthy, or wise. To maximize earnings, private insurers “cherry pick” the most profitable subscribers, reject high-risk applicants, eliminate those with “pre-existing” conditions, and limit benefits. One inevitable consequence of a profit-driven system is a large pool of “medically uninsurable” applicants who are denied access to affordable, quality healthcare.

Another consequence are high premium costs that partition our people into ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’ An estimated 47 million people lack healthcare coverage, and medical debts will drive a million people each year into bankruptcy ....

Real people in the real Universe have no lobbyists, no PR funds, no advocate to argue their case, and that is how the interests of America’s well-healed healthcare cartels win every time.

That's right!! People just like this - "real people in the real universe" - are out in force this week in Pittsburgh. Nihilists of the world unite!

The People's Cube Goes to Washington!

Don't miss this, from The People's Cube, "9-12 Tea Party Pictures: Red Cube Goes to Washington."

Robert Gates: 'We Don't Take Any Options Off the Table'

From John King's interview with Robert Gates this morning. Gates is highly skeptical of military efficacy vis-à-vis Iran, but given the long cat-and-mouse Tehran's played with the West, there's some reassurance that we might at least consider decisive forceful action:

Gates also stated at the interview that "'I very much enjoy working for' Obama" (via Memeorandum). That's more testimony to how good a man Robert Gates is than how good a man is the president.

Was President Obama Kissing Another Woman?

Now that's some suave diplomacy! But hey, Michelle Obama might not be too forgiving of the takeaway shots! Good thing "The One" can point to exculpatory video:

And here's this from Freedom's Lighthouse:

Ever vigilant to help out President Obama, here is CNN video that explains a "U.N. Kiss" photo of Obama and woman there. It does show that still photos can be deceiving.

So true.

Barack Obama and the National Interest

One of my students e-mailed me to express his fascination at how President Obama's recent speeches conform to the "liberal international" model in international relations - my student noted that Obama "seems to negate that a realist political theory can even apply to our modern 21st century international relations." That's a sharp observation. Obama's talk of mutual collaboration and shared interests in the world diverge from the power-politics paradigm of world politics. Yet, watching this video below, and then thinking about Jennifer Rubin's comments at her post, "Wanted: Defender of American Interests," it's clear that Obama rejects the notion of states as key actors in international politics, and hence the assumption that national interests drive state decision-making. Here's Rubin:

Obama plainly embodies that mindset of liberal elites. America is flawed. America has no distinct message or values, and its interests are entitled to no more weight than Belgium’s or Cuba’s. It’s wrongheaded to assert our national interests. We should be seeking consensus and righting the great wrongs that America has done to other nations—both its stinginess in redistributing wealth and its failure to cater to other nations’ geopolitical and psychological concerns. Russia needs reassuring. The Arabs need validation. And it’s the president’s job to lower America’s profile so as to not incur the wrath of hostile powers.

Average Americans don’t buy into any of this. They have the notion—ridiculed by Obama and his supporters—that America is unique, both in its attributes and in its role in the world. They might grow weary of the burdens and prefer shorter and less costly wars (what democratic people do not?), but the notion that we should simply go along with the crowd, avoid hurting Russian sensibilities, or contradict false historical narratives of Arab nations in contravention to our own interests and those of our allies are alien and off-putting to them. If Iran is a threat to the world, ordinary Americans expect their president to do something about it, not merely call another meeting to talk with thugs spouting genocidal nonsense.

I think that's extremely perceptive, and interestingly, I think the observation about average Americans may become increasingly germane to the debates heading into the 2010 and 2012 elections. While leftists continue to excoriate grassroots activists as "teabaggers" and 'racists," the fact is that more and more political independents are turning against this administration. And if lots of folks who aren't particularly partisan realize this administration's making Neville Chamberlain look like Genghis Kahn, well, "The One" may well soon become shorthand for "The One-Term" Obama presidency.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit, "Obama On Nuclear Conflict With Iran: "I'm Not Interested In Victory" (Video), and HotAir Pundit, "Obama At The G-20 On Iran: “I'm Not Interested In Victory”." More at Memeorandum.

Iran Tests Short-Range Missiles

The BBC has video, "Iran Missile Tests Stoke tensions." And the New York Times has the story, "Iran State Media Report Short-Range Missile Test." (Via Memeorandum.)

And this is what Astute Bloggers reported yesterday, "BREAKING NEWS: IRAN SAYS IT WILL ALLOW IAEA INSPECTIONS":

THE IAEA HAS PROVEN OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN IT'S USELESS. IRAN, INDIA, PAKISTAN, LIBYA, AQ KHAN, SYRIA - ALL FOOLED THE IAEA.

WE MUSTN'T LET IRAN DELAY US. IT ONLY MAKES THEM STRONGER.

Now it's really time to quarantine Iran.

The USA should say: "Effective Monday, no goods or services or money or gasoline comes or goes into Iran until Iran dismantles their nuclear assets.

If Iran doesn't start dismantling them within 3 weeks, then we will bomb and destroy their nuclear assets, and all their military assets.

Unless there is a successful popular pro-West uprising.

See also, Jennifer Rubin on the Obama administratin's appeasement, "Wanted: Defender of American Interests."

Digby's Hullabaloo Rejects Afghanistan as Just War: Joins Neo-Stalinists in Protest Against U.S. Neo-Colonial Project

Okay, here's a follow up to AOSHQ, "Liberal Blogger Admits: We Claimed to Support 'The Good War' in Afghanistan as Political Strategy to Prove Our "Macho" Credentials; We Never Meant It," and Jim Geraghty's, "Democrats Never Meant What They Said About Afghanistan."

After Geraghty sent the NRO comment trolls over to swarm Digby's page, she closed comments and posted an update. Check this part especially:

I have always believed that The Good War was a myth and that the Democrats used it as a political weapon. I've written about it plenty in the past. But why these bloodthirsty wingnuts should take issue with that and conclude that I'm therefore responsible for the deaths of American soldiers is beyond me.

After all, the Democrats were all for the war --- just like they were. The only problem the right had with it was that the Democrats criticized George W. Bush for not being enough of a warmonger on Afghanistan. They weren't pacifists. They were just liars and political opportunists. And now the Republicans and the Democrats are all potentially on the same team, pulling for a bigger and better and longer war in Afghanistan. Huzzah! Post partisan comity is at hand.

Notice something here: Diby's essentially saying that (1) don't freaking link me in with the Democratic war party, because (2) I'm way out further on the left than almost everyone in Congress. That is to say, obviously, by rejecting the "Good War," Digby aligns with the one-and-only Representative Barbara Lee, who in 2001, was the sole Member of Congress to vote against the the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF) --- i.e., the Afghan deployment. It may be recalled that Representative Lee chairs the Hip Hop Caucus Advisory Board, which is the White House-linked group behind plans to desecrate the historical memory of September 11. It all fits together like a puzzle.

Interestingly, Digby's basically in solidarity with the International ANSWER forces who are staging their 8th anniversay Afghanistan protests on October 7th in Los Angeles:

U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan!
End Colonial Occupation: Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine...
Money for People's Needs, Not War!

Notice the classic Marxist-Leninist agitprop, "End the Colonial Occupation."

And so, yes, Digby's right --- she did oppose the war all along, just like the hardline neo-Stalinists looking to topple global capitalism. Digby's a major player in the "progressive" netroots, but as I've long pointed out, "progressive" is the political-correct contemporary term for "neo-commmunist." Where Digby's not correct is by suggesting today's Democratic Party is simply politically expedient, a shadow war party. The fact is, from the top leadership in Congress, to President Barack Obama, the current U.S. goverment is infiltrated with neo-communists and fifth-column terror enablers. The only reason they support anything resemble mainstream foreign policy views is constituency pressure and the need to keep up the cloak of secret moderation. (We'll see how that works out November 2010.)

The stakes are clearly high for the forces of good in this country. Great job by Ace and Jim Geraghty in hammering Digby, but it's not just that Democratic-leftists "misreprepresented" themselves. It's all part of the larger plan to turn over the U.S. to the world's forces of moral decay and collectivist destruction.

(P.S.: If all goes well, I'll be infiltrating the October 7th ANSWER protest to photograph and report on the antiwar agitation and revolutionary anti-Americanism. Stay tuned ...)

Breitbart's Rules for Radicals

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a little late to this party, but her essay gives me an excuse to run this Hannah Giles interview with Sean Hannity at the same time. Here's this from K-Lo, "Rules for Counter-Radicals: Andrew Breitbart, Internet Juggernaut":

Something happened as folks on the right sat around waiting for Sarah Palin’s next Facebook post, wondering who the next Ronald Reagan would be. Something happened while folks debated death panels, what Rush Limbaugh said at noon that MSNBC or Rahm Emanuel is up in arms about. Something happened while the president of the United States planned his strategy for getting a Washington his party runs to sign up for his health-care revolution.

The stuff of which media revolutions are made happened.

The Left rules, you could still argue. But that’s in spite of being Left. Barack Obama ran for president downplaying his left-wing ideology and record, instead talking vaguely about “hope” and “change” and even invoking Ronald Reagan.

You’ve seen the tea parties. You saw the march. Now you’ve seen inside the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

Andrew Breitbart, born and raised online, has been a longtime collaborator with web wonder Matt Drudge. Always a behind-the-scenes mover, he’s come out of the shadows a bit with his own websites, Breitbart, Big Hollywood, and Big Government— taking the Rules for Radicals and Radical Change and running with them.For as long as I can remember, the Right — most notably the Capital Research Center — has been writing about ACORN. And, for as long as I can remember, ACORN has gotten government funding anyway.

For as long as I can remember, churches naively gave them money anyway. As recently as this summer, we exposed the ties of the Democratic party and its nominee to this community-organizing organization, its radical anti-capitalism and its voter fraud.

But what it really took was a cartoonish pimp-and-prostitute sting operation. A guy and a gal with a hidden camera and a website willing to publish. By now you know the story. When asked how to skirt the law and establish a brothel, representatives of ACORN offered them advice — a gift to the Right that for so long has wanted to take them down. Want to know how to get on welfare? James O’Keefe III, portraying a pimp who sought to traffic in foreign children, got advice, with Hannah Giles, portraying a prostitute, by his side. Want to cheat the tax system? ACORN provided this advice, too. Public housing? ACORN helped! And always make sure to have a tin for hiding the profit, they added.

More at the link (via Memeorandum).

See my earlier reports as well, "American Power: ACORN, NEA, and Andrew Breitbart's PWNING of MSM," and "Two Cheers for Andrew Breitbart."

Related: "ACORN Circles the Wagons: Our Staffers 'Are Victims'."

LGF's 'Frogger-Gate': Best 'Downfall' Parody, Evah!!

I'm still trying to decide which of the many punchlines here is the best. "Kos and DU don't watch Fox ... Should be okay, don't want to lose credibility with them" is my top contender! Right up there is the earlier crescendo to "I'm not changing my post. Glenn Beck is a frog killer!" More good stuff at the clip:

Don't miss the second video for the full background story:

Hat Tip: Atlas Shrugs.