Plus, there's lots of new material at Big Government: See, Publius, "BREAKING: White House Officials to Make Sure ‘Inappropriate’ NEA Conference Call ‘Never Happens Again’."
Is President Postmodern about to take his eyes off the ball in Afghanistan? His indecision and waffling on the subject makes it seem like he is getting cold feet. Not to mention the absolute horror of a Democrat doing something that goes against the polls. Remember--because it's easy to forget--that Afghanistan was always the Democrats "good war"--i.e., a way they could pretend to be strong and tough on national defense... you know, without actually having to be strong or tough.See also, PoliGazette, "Liberals’ New Obsession: Afghanistan." Plus, check Thunder Run for real stories from soldiers and families in the fight, "From the Front: 09/21/2009."
I read everything I could find about him, replayed his most famous games and talked with friends of his who frequented the Marshall Chess Club in New York, scene of some of his triumphs.
In time, my interest shifted from Fischer's chess to a much murkier aspect of his life: the identity of his father.
Paul Nemenyi (National Archives and Records Administration) - Paul Nemenyi's petition for U.S. naturalization, including a 1940 photo.
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The full story is here, "Chasing the King of Chess":Bobby's life story, like his behavior, was bizarre and complicated. At the height of his powers, he abandoned the game and went into seclusion, surfacing periodically to spout paranoid, anti-Semitic screeds and to denounce the United States. He died last year at 64 in Iceland, the only country that would have him.Read the whole thing, here.
It seemed to me that if I was to get a better grasp of this elusive figure, I needed to know more about his origins.
Bobby was born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn by a single mother, Regina Fischer. She told people his father was a German biophysicist named Gerhardt Fischer. The couple divorced when Bobby was a toddler. That's about all that was known.
The dearth of details about Gerhardt and his role in Bobby's life whetted my curiosity. What was he like? Did he share his son's intellectual gifts? What kind of relationship did they have?
My wife, fellow journalist Clea Benson, came to share my interest, and before long it morphed into something of an obsession.
We became part of a subculture in which Fischer fanatics dissect his old games like sacred scrolls, pay tens of thousands of dollars for his old notebooks and argue ceaselessly about whether later champions could have held their own against him.
In search of Fischer arcana, we've been to the Chess Hall of Fame in Miami, whose dominant architectural feature is an oversize rook. We've pored over records at the New York Public Library. We've hired Hungarian translators and sifted through 70-year-old letters stored at the National Archives in Maryland.
In 2002, I even made a pilgrimage to Reykjavik to see the chess board where Fischer and Spassky squared off 30 years before.
That same year, I resolved to get more serious about my research on Gerhardt. Enough amateur sleuthing. Now I would use my reportorial skills to gather every available fact about the man.
This latest round of problems for ACORN may be the best documented, but they are not the first nor, for that matter, are they the most serious. A report issued last summer by the Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to Sunday's Washington Times, "presented evidence that ACORN had engaged in criminal misconduct."
Among the findings, the report said, ACORN:
- Engaged in tax evasion, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting a cover-up of nearly $1 million embezzled by Dale Rathke, brother of group founder Wade Rathke;
- Committed investment fraud, depriving the public of the right to "honest services," and engaging in a racketeering enterprise affecting interstate commerce;
- Conspired to defraud the United States by using taxpayer dollars for partisan political activities;
- Submitted false filings to the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Department of Labor; and,
- Violated the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act.
Any one of these is a serious allegation. Taken together, they give ACORN most every appearance of being some sort of massive criminal enterprise worthy of a federal investigation of the sort made under the terms of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act—or RICO. In fact the group and its affiliates are currently the target of more than a dozen lawsuits related to voter fraud in the 2008 election alone.
As a result of the increased public scrutiny of its actions, the Obama administration has "severed it ties" with ACORN, at least as far as allowing it to participate in the 2010 Census. The U.S. House and Senate are both voting as fast as they can to cut off federal funding of the group and more than one coalition has been created to ask state legislatures and governors to do likewise. ACORN's response began as a militant defiance of the criticism, likening it to the use of "Willie Horton" in the 1988 presidential campaign.
Except that talking about Mr. Horton, a convicted murderer sentenced to life in a Massachusetts prison without the possibility of parole who walked away from the last of nearly a dozen unsupervised furloughs he had received to commit additional crimes in Maryland, was not a political dirty trick as certain liberals and Democrats continue to insist; he was proof positive that former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis held views about incarceration, crime and punishment that were well outside the mainstream of American thinking. Likewise, the folks at ACORN who think they can mount a racially-tinged, aggressive offense to deflect attention from what is on those tapes are likely to be disappointed.
I mention this especially with reference to Peter Wehner's essay, "Glenn Beck: Harmful to the Conservative Movement":
I don’t pretend to be an expert on Beck. In the past I assumed he was a typical figure in the pundit and cable-media world. Only recently have I watched portions of his television program, as well as interviews with him, and heard parts of his radio program. And what I’ve seen should worry the conservative movement ....I omitted some of the passages at the center of Wehner's post, so check that for more substance.
I understand that a political movement is a mansion with many rooms; the people who occupy them are involved in intellectual and policy work, in politics, and in polemics. Different people take on different roles. And certainly some of the things Beck has done on his program are fine and appropriate. But the role Glenn Beck is playing is harmful in its totality. My hunch is that he is a comet blazing across the media sky right now—and will soon flame out. Whether he does or not, he isn’t the face or disposition that should represent modern-day conservatism. At a time when we should aim for intellectual depth, for tough-minded and reasoned arguments, for good cheer and calm purpose, rather than erratic behavior, he is not the kind of figure conservatives should embrace or cheer on.
JANUARY 2008 UPDATE: Joseph Parker, principal at the time of Insideschools' visit, resigned in late December after sustained protest from parents, and ACORN, the community group that helped create the school ... they alleged that under Parker's leadership, gang violence went unchecked, students failed to graduate ...The Inside Schools website is kinda sketchy, but it links to this New York Sun article, "Parents Press for ACORN Principal's Ouster." The piece includes this beauty of a fact:
Morale is so low, the report says, that at last year's graduation the valedictorian, Sharifa Noble, stood up and declared: "ACORN has let me down." The remark prompted a chorus of boos aimed at the principal, Joseph Parker.Here's the long blurb from the school's website. This is the case for home schooling - I'd never send my children there:
ACORN High School for Social Justice is “A Star that Shines in Brooklyn”. In addition, our school is distinctive because it is:
- International Teachers Programs. We now also have a partnership with Columbia University as a site for Peace Corp Fellows to complete their teaching internships.
- Support for the development of our teachers through a unique PD model. All teachers meet for common planning daily. Their assistant principal of supervision attends the common planning sessions at least twice weekly. The school’s schedule was modified to include two preparation periods per day for each teacher instead of one per day which is the norm in most NYC public schools.
- September 2008 will be the launch of state of the art Film/Media and music recording studios that will be centers of premier art programs including a Television Show in collaboration with Entertainers4Education Alliance.
- An emerging honors program including honor level classes, Advanced Placement courses and College Now. We are working on an Associate Degree program as well.
- Unique utilization of technology to deliver instruction and to assess academic performance. All teacehers will be provided with school laptops for use in lesson planning and delivery and they all have access to LCD projectors and smart boards. A writing lab is planned for school year 2008-2009.
- Annual College Tour to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). We will be initiating Ivy League and baby Ivy League college tours as well. 98 students participated in this year’s tour.
- Implementation of an excellent library program that will bring community members, actors, singers, and leaders into the building to speak with students and to participate in events such as Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, Poetry Month and Women’s History Month.
- A diverse after school program, in collaboration with our Community Based Organization, Acorn, comprised of academics, sports, the arts, and community service experiences for our students.
- A school’s website including WebPages for all teachers to promote greater communication with students and parents.
- Administration of the Acuity periodic assessments in English and Mathematics.
- Students will have access to the world of work through partnerships with law firms and corporations through participation in our Legal Careers Academy or Icareers Academy.
- A number of sports teams including a winning PSAL Boys Varsity Basketball Team, going as far as the PSAL Division B championship this school year. Our students participate in other PSAL varsity sports as well as intramurals.
- Strong student government with a council in each cohort. The council is comprised of elected officials and other student leaders from the cohort who act as peer mentors for other members of their cohort.
- The Asset Program, a community based organization, is supporting this endeavor. Students are given opportunities to participate in all aspects of the school including working here as members of the Ladies and Gentleman Club.
- Great results with the use of School Island. School Island is a web based program that allows teachers to post assignments on line for students to complete.
What I wonder is this: What is “extremist rhetoric”? Ironically, almost anything Glenn Beck says is viewed as “extremist rhetoric”. In fact, anyone who disagrees with neo-liberal orthodoxy is considered an extremist.So true.
Carrie Prejean? Extremist gay hater.
Glenn Beck? Extremist Obama hater.
Rush Limbaugh? Extremist race baiting hater.
Mark Steyn? Extremist Muslim hater.
Ann Coulter? Extremist self and women-hating hater.
Michelle Malkin? Extremist illegal alien hater.
Glenn Reynolds? Extremist Tea-Party loving hater.
When center-left Obama-voting Democrats like Ann Althouse are accused of hating, really who isn’t a hater?
I’m sick of the p.c. rhetoric police. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore, and all the whacked out lefty pundits can say anything. The word is a tool and a sword. They wield it with impunity and want the conservatives to stay muzzled.
So, somewhere between psychotic, crazy loud-mouth libs and meek muzzled, passive, submissive conservatives there’s a balance. Incite violence? No. Stir to positive action, yes.
Yes, violence serves the Left. So does a silent majority. They’ve had it both ways for too long.
Not any more.
This is a good social science topic, by the way. Facebook and Twitter have been driving conservative mobilization all year, and while much of the activism is explicitly non-partisan (protesters are mad at both parties more often than not), events will clearly benefit the GOP when next year's elections roll around. Conservatives not wanting to waste a vote will rally to the Republican banner in the years ahead. And if the GOP doesn't learn the lessons of 2008, when small-government conservatives got pushed aside by the nomination of John McCain, the party may as well sit on the sidelines of power for a couple of more cycles.
An interesting related essay: "The Obama Roadblock: Why He's Sagging Online" (via Memeorandum).
Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement
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The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.But some have claimed that the invite and passages, pulled from the conference call that inspired the article, were taken out of context. Context is what I intend to establish here.
On August 10th, the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the Corporation for National and Community Service hosted a conference call with a handpicked arts group. This arts group played a key role in Obama’s arts effort during his election campaign, as declared by the organizers of the call, and many on the call played a role in the now famous Obama Hope poster.Much of the talk on the conference call was a build up to what the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was specifically asking of this group. In the following segment, Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, clearly identifies this arts group as a pro-Obama collective and warns them of some “specific asks” that will be delivered later in the meeting.
The rest is here. Buffy Wicks, pictured above, is quoted thus: "I’m actually in the White House and working towards furthering this agenda, this very aggressive agenda." The full audio and transcript of the NEA conference call is here. The call is organized and moderated by Michael Skolnik. He identifies himself as a filmmaker and political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons in New York.
Here's a snippet of interest from the transcript:
This is Mike Skolnik. I am based in New York. I am a film maker for the past ten years but currently serve as the political director for Russell Simmons. I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a conversation that was had. We had the idea that I would help bring together the independent artists community around the country. So as we hear everyone's names and locations and companies, this is extremely humbling to be in all your presence on the telephone. It's a remarkable group that is on this phone. I thank you for your time ....The passages cited roughly overlap with those that Courrielche has highlighted with yellow and red at the draft.
I want to start off by saying a few things ... I heard somebody from Shepard Fairey's team introduce themselves, and I think Shepard and the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it's clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president and also during his first some odd days of his presidency and the president has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some of the issues that we face here in our country and also to engage people. And I think all of us who are on this phone call were selected for a reason, and you are the ones that lead by example in your communities. You are the thought leaders.
You are the ones that, if you create a piece of art or promote a piece of art or create a campaign for a company, and tell our country and our young people sort of what to do and what to be in to; and what's cool and what's not cool. And so I'm hoping that through this group and the goal of all this and the goal of this phone call, is through this group that we can create a stronger community amongst ourselves to get involved in things that we're passionate about as we did during the campaign but continue to get involved in those things, to support some of the president's initiatives, but also to do things that we are passionate about and to push the president and push his administration.
And the first thing that I thought we could all come together on and begin this collective of artists around the country was United We Serve or is United We Serve, and United We Serve is the president's call to the country to get engaged in meaningful community service, and I wanted to give you all the opportunity to hear more about the United We Serve from the folks who are running it as well as hear from the National Endowment for the Arts and Yosi Sergant, who many of us know has been a true champion during the campaign of the arts and as what he's doing over at the National Endowment for the Arts, and how we can all work together to promote and to engage our country in service as well as use art in doing so ....
I met Andrew Breitbart briefly on April 15th at Santa Ana's Tax Day Tea Party Event. He's seen here with his father-in-law, Hollywood actor Orson Bean.
Two more stories demonstrate how the Democrat-Media Complex, the natural alliance of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media, is more concerned with trying to figure out how to destroy Glenn Beck - "he's nuts!" - than to follow his methodical, accurate reporting. This dynamic - used against all potent critics and off-the-reservation journalists - shows that not only is the media ignoring all the negative things coming out about the Obama administration, it is acting like President Richard Nixon's henchmen, making life difficult for its whistleblowers.Needless to say, Ms. Couric didn't run with the story. But Breitbart and the conservative alt-media did. The Hannah Giles/James O'Keefe ACORN prostitution sting broke a few weeks back. The story's been a phenomenal follow-up to the Van Jones resignation, and the MSM is still catching up. The Breitbart enterprise continues to break stories and its latest exposé is the rightly-promised investigation into the NEA's corrupt art-propaganda ring that's shilling for the Obama administration. Patrick Courrielche reported at Big Hollywood on the NEA on August 25: "The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?" The Courrielche piece was an early indication of the timed-release of damning investigative reports. And this week promises to be no let-up.
One of the stories is that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a massive radical organization, is poised to receive billions from the Obama "stimulus" ....
Another story not making the evening news is that of artist Patrick Courrielche, who has shown that the National Endowment of the Arts is seeking to use government funds to promote Obama administration initiatives. On Sunday's "This Week," George Will pierced the mainstream media veil.
"Recently there was a conference call arranged by the National Endowment for the Arts, with a representative of the White House, for potential grantees or actual grantees of the federal government, getting subsidies - the theme of it was how the arts community could advance the president's agenda. Now I don't know how many laws that breaks, but I am sure there are some."
What are you waiting for, Katie Couric?
When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came to my office to show me the video of him and his friend, Hannah Giles, going to the Baltimore offices of ACORN – the nation’s foremost “community organizers” – dressed as a pimp and a prostitute and asking for – and getting – help for various illegal activities, he sought my advice. In the past, Mr. O’Keefe created brilliant social satire that rocked his college campus and even made its way on to the talk-radio and cable-news shows, but the magnitude of his latest adventure had the potential to rock the political establishment.Well, Breitbart's extending the multiplatform strategy this week. Here's this at Big Hollywood this morning, "Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call." Read the whole thing. Breitbart's enterprise has exposed the corrupt propaganda machine inside the National Endowment of the Arts. As noted:
I was awed by Mr. O’Keefe’s guts and amazed by the footage, but explained that the mainstream media would try to kill this important and illuminating expose about a corrupt and criminal political racket, and that the well-funded political left would go into “war room” mode, with 25-year-old Mr. O’Keefe and 20-year-old cohort Miss Giles in the cross hairs. I felt I had a moral obligation to protect these young muckrakers from the left and from the media, and to devise a strategy that would force the media’s hand.
Once the American public saw with its own eyes the grotesque, common practices of ACORN’s housing offices, Mr. O’Keefe and Miss Giles could no longer be a legitimate focus of media scrutiny. Kill the messenger doesn’t work with the American people when they realize that the message is so devastating and honest. I think the video exposed the misuse of public funds and systemic manipulation of the tax code in the name of “helping the poor.”
If Mr. O’Keefe dumped the videos on YouTube, the political powers would have killed the expose before it got traction. I half-joked that he should secretly tape pitching the major television networks exclusive use of his videos for their nightly news broadcasts. But a simpler, less controversial method proved as fruitful.
I told him that in addition to launching his compelling and stylized Web videos, we needed to offer the full transcripts and audio to the public in the name of transparency, and to offer Fox News the full footage of each video before each was released.We had to devise a plan that would force the media to see the evidence before they had enough time to destroy these two idealistic 20-something truth seekers. Mr. O’Keefe agreed to post the full audio and full transcript of his video experiences at BigGovernment.com.
Thus was born a multimedia, multiplatform strategy designed to force the reluctant hands of ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post.
Among the Obama Administration officials on the call were Buffy Wicks, Office of Public Engagement and the lead White House official on the President’s Serve.Gov initiative to promote national service. Also on the call was Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.Gov. One of their main goals on the call, it seems, was to encourage artists to produce works that would reinforce the President’s call for service; specifically through the Serve.Gov web-portal.As Dana Loesch recently reported at Big Government, the Serve.Gov portal funnels citizens to volunteer or service projects connected with ACORN and other leftist groups. The taxpayer-funded website is evolving into a cyber-recruitment tool for the progressive movement.
Just how nutty is ACORN?Be sure to read the whole thing, which has a useful background chronology of ACORN's crooks, liars, and thugs. Can't resist the conclusion though:
Very, say longtime watchers of the extreme leftwing group that sprouted out of a radical 60s anti-government movement.
For decades ACORN has presented itself as a grassroots network dedicated to improving the lives of the poor.
But there's more to ACORN than its do-gooder veneer.
Just ask the banks, corporations and politicians who've been the target of ACORN's shameless shenanigans over the past 40 years.
Here's how the tiny seed of 1960s radicalism blossomed into a well-funded, national organization with political connections reaching all the way to the White House ....
THE FUTURE?Check also, Roger L. Simon, "Stephanopoulos and ACORN: Obama Lies Again."
ACORN's altruistic façade came tumbling down — possibly for good — this month after a series of videos showed staffers giving an undercover pimp and hooker tips on defrauding the government, laundering money, cheating on taxes and obtaining a mortgage to open up a home-based brothel.
The damning display put ACORN on the defensive again and even rocked its once solid base of support among Democratic lawmakers.
Both the House and Senate have passed bipartisan bills calling for an immediate halt to federal funding to ACORN, which a Republican tally puts at $53 million since 1994.
Governor David Paterson on Friday placed a hold on all state contracts with the agency's local chapter, and the US Census Bureau kicked ACORN off its upcoming 2010 population count.
Yet ACORN needs more than just a slap on the wrist for encouraging people to commit mortgage and tax fraud, according to Von Spakovsky, a former Department of Justice investigator. The activist organization has yet to be held accountable for most of its actions — past and present, he said.
"Nobody knows for sure how many subsidiaries ACORN has, but many investigations have shown they're mostly shell groups, used to transfer money around," said Von Spakovsky.
"We'll only know the true extent of their wrongdoing when the Department of Justice does a forensic audit, and we find out where those millions in federal funds have gone," he said.
President Obama in his media blitz on September 20 claimed he wasn’t keeping up with the issue because more pressing matters were at hand. “You know, if – frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely,” said Obama. “I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.”Read the whole thing.
Watch as Obama tries to distance himself from the ACORN group over the next few weeks. He cut ties to Reverend Wright when the association no longer was politically beneficial. But the fact remains that during the election campaign and before, Obama made repeated speeches to the group and even said he would consult with them on how to reorganize the country in 2007 ....
If this isn't an outright lie, I don't know what is. As one of the commenters at Lucianne notes:
Just when you thought that this mans credibility could sink no further, he makes this incredibly stupid statement:
"I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money."
The Apollo Alliance wrote the darned Stimulus Bill that has $4.19 Billion earmarked for the ACORN umbrella. You know, Van Jones’ organization Apollo Alliance, he’s a good friend of Valerie Jarrett like the BFF kind. Come on man, that statement is an insult to every American's intelligence [spelling corrections appended].
Absolutely.
The New York Times reports that Senate Democrats met with President-elect Obama in January to discuss "the proposed $800 billion economic recovery plan ... on track for passage by mid-February." The measure included funding for neighborhood stabilization and community development block grants. As House Minority Leader John Boehner noted in January, "ACORN Could Get Billions from Democrats' Trillion Dollar Spending Plan: 'Job Creation' Bill Offers Taxpayer-Funded Bonanza for Organization Reportedly Under Federal Investigation."
Plus, at the Washington Examiner, "Stimulus Bill Funds ACORN Despite its History of Corruption." And, Puma-Eyes, "ACORN Positioned for Billions of Obama Stimulus Scratch."
The conference agreement provides $3,000,000,000, of which $1,000,000,000 is appropriated for the Community Development Block Grant program and $2,000,000,000 is available for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This funding is provided instead of the $5,190,000,000 proposed by the House. Funding was not provided in the Senate. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding will assist states, local governments, and nonprofits in the purchase and rehabilitation of foreclosed, vacant properties in order to create more affordable housing and reduce neighborhood blight.ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis denied that her group was receiving neighborhood stabilization grants, but according to Eric Brown:
ACORN has basically denied that it has received or plans to seek the $2 billion in “neigborhood stabilization” funds provided for in the stimulus bill. The bill, however, also contains $1 billion for “community development block grants” and $2 billion for the “provision of emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes” (page 103 of the PDF). ACORN seems to be involved in this program. ACORN is hardly the stranger to public funds some have suggested; a search for ACORN-related information on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website alone yields over 500 hits, including clear indications that ACORN Housing Corp. receives public funds.Check the full text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 here.
In February, the White House trumpeted the initial distribution of block grant funding from the bill, "Fighting Foreclosure and Homelessness":
Just a week after President Obama signed the Act into law, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today allocated 75% of its recovery funds -- $10 billion -- to create green jobs, to revive housing markets with high rates of foreclosure, and curb homelessness ....Here's a screecap of the White House page, just in case:
The money opened up today includes:
$3 billion to develop, finance, and modernize public housing; $255 million for Native American and Native Hawaiian Housing; nearly $100 million for lead hazard reduction; $2.25 billion to kick-start the production of stalled affordable rental housing projects under the Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP); $2 billion to undertake much-needed project improvements to maintain the quality of critical affordable housing; $1 billion to rehabilitate affordable housing and improve key public facilities under the Community Development Block Grant Program; $1.5 billion to reduce homelessness, and prevent it among those facing a sudden economic crisis; and a temporary increase to the loan limits of mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
ACORN of course received over $800,000 from Obama during his presidential campaign, has received over $54 from the government over the last 10 years or so, and was set to receive about $8.5 BILLION from the stimulus package this year. Obama also was an attorney for ACORN during the ’90s. Obama’s first big “community organizer” jobs involved ACORN in 1992. He has been working along side ACORN since before he became an elected official. Obama also trained ACORN employees. There's also a famous soundbite of him now telling Acorn how they “will have a seat at the table” once he got elected [spelling corrections appended].
The ABC report is here, "Obama on ACORN: 'Not Something I've Followed Closely' Won't Commit to Cut Federal Funds."
Barack Obama’s ties to ACORN (see Memeorandum) are not incidental nor are they casual ...The money given to ACORN through one of its front companies–CSI–was not a simple clerical error. The Obama Presidential campaign deliberately tried to hide its relationship to ACORN and funneling almost $1 million dollars to ACORN by using a group with no experience doing the task that it was ostensibly hired to do. The story is pretty simple–it is about Citizen Services Inc., a Nigerian director of CSI [Citizens Services Inc.] living in Minnesota and false campaign financing report.
If you want to understand why ACORN offices across the country are able to give crafty advice on avoiding taxes, fooling the police and setting up child prostitution businesses then you must first understand why the campaign of Barack Obama gave almost $1 million to an organization with no track record in doing the electioneering work they were hired to do.
See the full report, here.
Cartoon Credits: Wordsmith.
As you can see in the promotional image of the event, the organizers are hoping for 50,000 attendees. In light of the 9/12 March on Washington event last weekend, I promptly started to wonder how this one will be covered by the mainstream media. It will be interesting to see how favorably or unfavorably the attendees will be portrayed: radicals? whack jobs? honest folks exercising their freedom of speech? Will numbers of attendees be accurate or suppressed or exaggerated? Will the MSM be shocked and insulted by religious hordes gather at Capitol Hill, or will the fact that these are Muslims result in being given a "pass" by the press? If it were Christians gathering, let alone Catholics, would the event even be covered or would the people be ridiculed for believing in God?Well, great questions. I'm not holding my breath, obviously.
The Hill has a report, "ACORN Defends Itself; Issa Remains Critical":
Seeing its federal funding under threat from Congress, ACORN’s leader defended the community organizing group from allegations of tax fraud Sunday.Issa's August ACORN report is here: "Committee on Oversight and Government Reform."
“You have an organization that absolutely pays its taxes, that absolutely has firewalls,” said Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN, short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Lewis was appearing on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace ....
“The bottom line is there is no transparency in ACORN,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Issa and other Republicans have investigated the community organizing group. Issa’s staff issued a report where it alleges ACORN of tax fraud, hiding its books behind a number of overlapping charity and nonprofit groups.
“You are giving an answer that your own counsel says isn’t true according to your own counsel. You don’t have firewalls. That’s from an internal memo,” Issa said.
"Our bill calls for the redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq so that we can focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan."
-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 8 [2007]
In "Reconciliation and Resolve in Afghanistan," I discussed the heightened agitation on the radical left for a U.S. defeat in Afghanistan. As is so often the case, the left's new attention to withdrawal in Afghanistan is emblematic of the hypocrisy and unseriousness of the antiwar forces on national security. The most prominent leftist lie is that the U.S. was fighting the wrong war in Iraq, that America should focus its resources to defeating the "real" terrorists in Afghanistan. As hardliner Spencer Ackerman admitted, "For years, many progressives have argued that the real war on terrorism is in Afghanistan as a rhetorical bludgeon to argue against the Iraq war, and relatively few criticized Obama’s plans for escalation."
So now we have another example of this at the Moderate Voice, "The Futility of American Deaths in Afghanistan." The Moderate Voice basically argues that Americans are clueless on Afghanistan and its stupid to think we can win. I've already addressed the basic argument in my post cited above. So, I'm turning things over to Michael van der Galien, in "Liberals' New Obsession: Afghanistan":
I can’t help but notice that the war in Afghanistan is strangely quickly becoming the new Iraq War. Liberals said for years that US soldiers died in vain in Iraq. This war could not be won, they said. It was time (whether it was in 2003 or 2008) to withdraw ....More at the link. Also, Memeorandum.
Then Bush did what had to be done, sent extra troops, developed a new strategy and turned things around. Suddenly anti-war activists were nowhere to be found. Barack Obama did win the elections, of course, but the anti-war crowd did not even mention Iraq once. The reason was rather obvious; things were finally going just fine and Americans knew it. They could complain, advocate immediate withdrawal, but no one would fall for it.
So they had to find a new obsession, a new reason to condemn “American imperialism” and the war on terror. A new excuse to advocate isolation and surrender to forces that wish to destroy the West.
They looked around, trying to find a good cause. They tried Venezuela but that one didn’t work. Americans don’t like socialists. Iran, then. But Americans fear Iran and there’s no war going on between Iran and the U.S. Not at this moment anyway. North Korea then? Nope. Not a good ’cause’ either.
Luckily for the left things went wrong in Afghanistan. The coalition ran into serious resistance. In fact, the Taliban seemed to make a comeback. They pushed government and forces further and further back and controlled an constantly growing area.
And so they finally found their new cause, their new obsession through which they could feed their anti-American hunger.
The troops have to be withdrawn! The war effort in Afghanistan is doomed! The Taliban is too strong! We shouldn’t ever have gone to war with this country anyway! Bush lied, people died!
The tactics the far-left uses share close resemblance to the tactics they used to discredit the war effort in Iraq. In fact, they are exactly the same, including pretending that the war was illegal or at least unnecessary.
Lest we forget, Afghanistan was attacked because the country’s government protected Al Qaeda, which attacked America on 9/11/01. The war on Afghanistan was an act of self defense, not of aggression. It was meant to destroy or at least severely weaken organizations and the government that killed thousands of innocent Americans on that black day.
The goal wasn’t to bring glorious peace, democracy and prosperity to the Afghan people but to weaken Al Qaeda and the Taliban so they couldn’t attack Americans on American soil anymore.
The main problem with American healthcare is too much government. Let's reduce government control and let real competition create better services and lower prices.Other opinions at the link: Dr. Bill Frist, David Frum, and Mickey Edwards.
The shortest explanation of conservatives' approach to improving the best -- albeit still imperfect -- healthcare system in the world is: Do the opposite of what President Obama wants.
I see four key components to the conservative approach.
First, it's time for honesty from Democrats, Republicans and the health profession. People don't know their own healthcare costs when they're covered, therefore they don't shop around for better prices and there's less incentive to keep costs low. Health savings accounts would put sanity back into the system because people would have "skin in the game." When people spend their own money, they spend it more wisely.
Second, government must not directly or indirectly control healthcare. Democrats and Republicans have demonstrated time and again that they succumb to special interests. Keep the government's nose out of patient-doctor relationships and do not create a government database of medical records.
Third, respect constitutional constraints, which means most federal involvement is barred or limited. Use the commerce clause of the Constitution productively, as it was intended, to break down inefficient barriers to interstate commerce. Allow citizens of any state to choose from what's available in all 50 states. Let consumers carry their coverage from job to job and from state to state. Include reasonable tort reform, but only consistent with the Constitution.
Fourth, don't discourage profit. The desire for profit drives better prices, service and products.
Further, any reform should not require individuals to obtain health insurance. Besides being frightful, unprecedented Washington authoritarianism over individuals, mandating captive markets destroys incentives to keep costs lower and consumer service higher.
Obama claims that health insurance is a moral imperative. By law, hospitals can't deny emergency treatment for patients who aren't insured, leaving an unpaid care gap estimated at more than $50 billion annually, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Conservatives and independents at the tea parties, town halls and beyond believe it is a moral imperative to stop burdening the next generations with trillion-dollar deficits and to stop government's stealing from the Medicare trust fund, which now has unfunded liabilities of $36.3 trillion, according to the Heritage Foundation.
