Photo taken today by Big Government contributor Kevin Kane at ACORN Headquarters in the Big Easy:

This picture is worth at least a thousand words.

AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.

This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and good men must feel for the event. Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished than seriously to be expected. The plan offered to our deliberations affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local institutions, not to involve in its discussion a variety of objects foreign to its merits, and of views, passions and prejudices little favorable to the discovery of truth.

Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new Constitution will have to encounter may readily be distinguished the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies than from its union under one government.

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Earlier this year Robert Chanin, the recently retired general counsel for the National Education Association, discussed the effectiveness of teachers unions at a gathering in San Diego:

Despite what some of us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child.

NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.

You can see that portion of his 20 minute speech here:

Chanin’s honesty was, in a way, refreshing. For too long the NEA, as well as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have been hiding their intentions behind the guise of student advocacy, using children as human shields to block criticism.

But the truth is that the NEA and AFT are huge national labor unions with political agendas and have a great deal of influence with state and national lawmakers.  NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com are designed to bring attention to those facts.

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Big Government Contributor Dana Loesch has this gem from Sen. Roland Burris (D-Blagojevich):

Senator Rowland Burris of Illinois, the Senator who was appointed to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, blames George Bush for Chicago not getting the Olympics in 2016. Burris stated in an interview, shortly after the announcement, that the image of the U. S. has been so tarnished in the last 8 years that, even Barack Obama making an unprecedented pitch for the games could not overcome the hatred the world has for us as a result of George Bush.

Of course, it should be noted that Chicago was selected as a finalist in June, 2008. You know, when the guy the whole world is supposed to hate was President. Oh, those crafty foreigners. Consider this an Open Thread.

Earlier this week, ACORN founder Wade Rathke brought his traveling “everyone-is-against-us” road show to DC to promote his new book, Citizen Wealth. The book doesn’t contain surprises; a 200 page polemic laying out a stale progressive agenda for America. What was interesting though, was a rare glimpse from ACORN’s long-time Chief Organizer into the current scandal now overwhelming the organization. Rathke did not disappoint.

I should note that on a personal level Rathke is easy-going and downright charming. And having been around the political/policy block for decades, he’s mastered a tight control of messaging. A control that makes his successor, Bertha Lewis, sound like an amateur college activist by comparison. That said, his Q & A exchange was fascinating. (Video below from Founding Bloggers.)

But Rathke, for all his political prowess, does slip up. While extrapolating about why he and ACORN’s leadership made an executive decision not to disclose his brother’s nearly $1 million embezzlement, Rathke explains that they were afraid their opponents would “weaponize” the crime in order to destroy ACORN. He went on to suggest that the current turmoil engulfing ACORN justifies the decision to cover-up the embezzlement scandal for eight years. He clearly believes that the end (ACORN’s existence) justifies the means (a cover-up). Rathke still doesn’t appear to acknowledge his brother’s crime for what it was. He refers to his brother’s embezzlement as a “misappropriation” of funds. His moral calculus, while seemingly sincere, is disturbing. Other organizations that truly attempt to aid low-income families (without political agendas) should be alarmed.

Another item of interest came at the end of this interview clip. Rathke talked about the “subculture of organizing” and intimated that it was much different than the broader culture we inhabit. Taking a rare jab at ACORN, he noted that “There is a different culture,” a distinction he believes ACORN doesn’t fully appreciate. Different culture, indeed.

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As Americans rise up all across the country to challenge a political elite that many believe does not listen to them, it is important to consider the tools that people in many states have employed to directly affect change: the petition.

In Missouri, our Constitution includes the following passage:

The people reserve power to propose and enact or reject laws and amendments to the constitution by the initiative, independent of the general assembly, and also reserve power to approve or reject by referendum any act of the general assembly, except as hereinafter provided.  (Article 3, Section 49)

The document  clearly states that the people possess the right to initiate laws and constitutional amendments, even though they grant those same powers to their representatives in the legislature.  This is an important since it permits the people to enact laws directly and without going through the standard legislative process.

Unfortunately, in Missouri and other states where the people enjoy this right, the initiative process is continually under assault from state legislatures—Republican and Democrat alike—even to the point of adopting unconstitutional limitations to them.  Such efforts have included the following:

• A 1969 law in Oklahoma required that petition circulators be state residents.  In December 2008, the Tenth Circuit Court unanimously struck down that law as unconstitutional.  The Court did the same to a similar law in Colorado in 2002.

• A 2005 law in Ohio that restricted petition gatherers from being paid per signature was struck down by the Sixth Circuit Court struck in March 2008.  Ohio appealed the decision but the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear it.  Similar pay-per-signature regulations have been overruled by federal district courts in Idaho, Maine, Mississippi and Washington.

• A Colorado law that required petitioners to wear badges with their name and whether they were a volunteer or paid circulator was struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999.

A common argument for limiting the petition process is that it puts too much money into politics or that it invites fraud.  Yet courts have found this not to be the case.  In the 2005 ruling against Ohio, the Court concluded that prohibiting payment per signature would increase the costs and the time necessary to obtain the required signatures. The Court also rejected the evidence that this particular form of payment resulted in fraud.

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A credible source claims the embattled left-wing advocacy group ACORN is poised to announce massive staff layoffs but an ACORN spokesman denies this is the case.

A credible source close to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now revealed that the activist network intends to lay off all staff members operating out of its New Orleans headquarters. All information provided by the source to this reporter in the past has turned out to be correct.

However, ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson of the public relations firm The Advance Group in New York City said the source was incorrect.

In an interview Friday afternoon with Levenson said (referring to BigGovernment.com), “You guys just can’t get it right. You’re wrong again.”

When pressed to elaborate, Levenson declined to do so.

Levenson received media attention earlier this year when Fox News host Glenn Beck ejected the combative publicist from his studio during a commercial break. Beck said at the time that Levenson accused him of being a racist.

My source said that one of the employees to be cashiered in the Crescent City is the daughter of disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke. Rathke’s wife, Beth Butler, also works for ACORN but it is unclear at this point if she too will be laid off. Rathke’s son also reportedly is employed by ACORN. (more…)

It is easy to feel a little melancholy on a rainy fall day in Chicago.  Summer is indisputably over and, while our autumn is lovely, we know too well what is right around the corner.  But today is truly a sad day in my city.   Despite the potential political fallout of losing the Olympics let’s all remember that America and one of its greatest cities was repudiated.  And that should not make any of us happy.

Chicagoans admit that we are ethically challenged when it comes to our politics.  It is important to point out that in our business and other dealings we try to espouse Midwestern values and deal fairly with others.  We are not proud of the reputation that the Cook County Democratic machine has won for us.  And many are still trying to do something about it.   But by and large, our distaste for local political habits in no way diminishes our love for our city, our state and our communities.

To my fellow conservatives who are deconstructing the implications of Chicago’s embarrassment at the hands of the International Olympic Committee and the indisputable damage it has done to the president’s reputation and image, I simply ask that you remember that there are millions of people in the Chicago area who are ordinary working people who take great pride in their community.  All of us, conservative, liberal and independent, bid supporters and even bid detractors, are hurting a little today.  We got embarrassed on the world stage as well.

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Well, the admissions just keep on coming. In the UK, lead canary for all things “climate change” — for example, polls show a majority of their public now see the agenda as just a new excuse for the state to extract more wealth from its citizens — we have a paper by the Tyndall Centre for  Climate Change Research saying the agenda demands “reducing the size of the economy through a ‘planned recession’”, in the words of the Daily Telegraph. Tyndall is an activist consortium of British academic institutions known for carrying the banner on the “climate” agenda.

The Telegraph offers an eye-catching sub-head: ” Britain will have to stop building airports, switch to electric cars and shut down coal-fired power stations as part of a ‘planned recession’ to avoid dangerous climate change.”

This should only surprise you if you have relied upon claims by the global warming industry — itself a consortium of activists inside and outside of government, Big Science, Big Academia, and other rent-seeking industry crafting schemes to profit in the near-term from the wealth-transfers — or the Obama administration, desperate to walk-back the president’s admission that his plan of cap-and-trade will “bankrupt” all sorts of facilities and cause your energy prices to “necessarily skyrocket.”

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Money intended for soldiers fighting war is instead being spent on senators’ home-state pet projects

Defense spending bill contains an earmark that has nothing to do with national defense, $20 million for an institute honoring late Senator Ted Kennedy

Maryland Senator earmarks tens of millions of dollars in a defense spending bill for her top campaign donors

New Jersey receives $4.8 million earmark to increase the size of Long Beach Island beaches and dunes

National Science Foundation hands out taxpayer cash in experiment to determine if birth order affects willingness to make risky economic decisions

Federal grant pays to design and build an exhibit about the significance of lacrosse

There was one man who paved the way for ACORN, its agenda and its tactics, and he rose to prominence a good twenty years before Saul Alinsky. His name was Arthur Townley.

Please bear with me for a bit of history.  A.C., as he was more popularly known, was a member of the Socialist Party in North Dakota.  At the time, grain prices were manipulated, in his view, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  What put him over the edge was when he overextended himself in an attempt to reap a hefty profit on flax, only to have the price drop, along with a bad crop.  He lost a substantial amount of money.

As a socialist, he naturally blamed the out-of-state capitalists and sought to do something about it.  His solution: A state-controlled grain industry.  According to “Political Prairie Fire,” written by Robert L. Morlan in 1955, Townley had a multi-point list of demands, including “State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing houses, and cold-storage plants,” as well as “Rural credit banks operated at cost.”

When his Socialist Party wasn’t interested in his plan, Townley set out and created The Nonpartisan League in 1915, a mode for organizing farmers into a political constituency to be reckoned with.  See, Townley lacked one key ingredient: power.

His theory was that in order to enact his plan, he needed to create the sufficient pressure on elected officials in meet his demands or face the consequences.  His group also worked to elect candidates that agreed with its views.

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Well, not yet, but this is certainly encouraging. On Tuesday, we brought you the story of Sen. Bennett’s request to carve out $5 million from vital maintainance funds to provide ‘digital scrapbooks’ to National Guardsmen. Big Government was able to shine a spotlight on an earmark buried deep inside a Committee Report to the Defense Appropriations bill. On Thursday, CNN picked up our story and confronted Sen. Bennett on the Senate steps to ask about the ’scrapbook earmark’.

Watch the whole wonderful thing.

An amendment will be offered Tuesday to strip out this and several other earmarks. Capitol Confidential is getting results.

A little cartoon to brighten your day, even as Senate Democrats seem Hell-bent on trying to hit the dimmer switch on our economy.

Read more here and here.

So, not only did Chicago lose out in its bid for the Olympics, it lost in the FIRST ROUND. It is kind of like the world community saying to President Obama, “Not only no, but Hell No.”

Breaking story here. Consider this an open thread.

From the Pelican Institute’s investigative reporter, Steve Beatty:

Despite landing $625,000 worth of work with the city of New Orleans to develop or repair housing for poor people, an offshoot of the activist group ACORN appears to have done nothing to fulfill the contract, no longer has the specified office in New Orleans and no longer employs the director who signed the contracts.

Acorn Housing Corp. has received no city money in connection with the two contracts, city spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett told WDSU-TV recently. Neither Quiett nor her representatives responded to requests from The Pelican Institute to address other questions about the contracts, one of which expired Aug. 31.

Those questions include:

• How did Acorn Housing get the contracts, through competitive bid or otherwise?
• Why did no one with the city monitor the contract to ensure the city got what it expected?
• Is the money still available to help low-income residents of New Orleans?
• Do city officials expect the current contract, which expires Jan. 31, to provide any services?
• Will Acorn Housing continue to be included on the city’s list of designated non-profit Community Housing Development Organizations?  

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Bertha Lewis recorded this video tribute to Randi Weingarten, head of one of the NY teachers’ union, at the 10th Anniversary ‘Celebration’ of the Working Families Party. For those keeping score at home, ACORN is, allegedly, a non-partisan organization. Working Families Party is a political party. In other words, partisan. Sheesh:

Bertha Lewis, ACORN Chief Organizer:

One more simple thing you can all do to help ACORN: Vote! For the community organizer Barack Obama on the Working Families Party ballot line.  It’s row “E” on the ballot.  “E” for the “economy.”  Voting for Barack is good, but voting for him on the Working Familis Party line is better.  Vote “change” like you mean it, people!

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Apparently the partisan witch hunt that ACORN has been alleging has now spread to the Democratic Party, as the Democratic Attorney General of Nevada has successfully brought charges against ACORN, after an investigation by the Democratic Secretary of State.

ACORN’s explanation?  A regional representative told the New York Times that the two are just trying to make a name for themselves.  Has ACORN no shame?

Matthew Henderson, the regional representative, said this is the first time the organization has faced criminal prosecution.

From the Mercury News:

[Former ACORN employee Christopher Howell] Edwards told Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen on Tuesday that while he never sought written permission, his ACORN supervisors knew canvassers making $8 per hour were paid bonuses of $5 per shift for exceeding a quota of 20 voter registration cards last August and September.

His regional supervisor, Amy Busefink, initially wanted him to set the bonus mark at 26, he said, but agreed to his idea of 21.

“Hey, it’s Las Vegas. It’s blackjack,” Edwards said.

And according to Justice of the Peace Jansen, according to the Times:

“It appears to me,” he said, “that Amy approved this 21 blackjack program as an incentive to get more people registered so they can be in good standing to meet the national quota of Acorn.”

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[ED: Big Government isn't just in Washington, DC. In this story, local Republicans and Democrats tag-team to put out of business a local charity providing safe rides home from local bars. Often, the fight against Big Government begins at home. This installment comes from the editor of the great local news site, Quincy News.Org]

Jonathon Schonekase can’t seem to escape his past. 

He changed his name hoping people would forget about his setting fire to an abandoned school when he was a juvenile. He then went to prison as an adult, where he lost his eye in a fight. 

Jonathon said the loss of a friend in a drunk driving accident gave him the idea to start a service where, maybe, he could give people an option to avoid drinking and driving. 

Jonathon started “Courtesy Rides” on New Year’s 2008. He posted his number in bars, people called him and he picked them up. Didn’t cost them a thing. If they wanted to leave a tip, so be it. 

Now more than a year and a half after starting the service, the town where he started it has decided Jonathon needs to be regulated. 

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