Despite its recent setbacks, the renamed ACORN network remains well positioned to receive support from left-leaning foundations, corporations, unions and the federal government, according to a whistleblower group comprised of former board members. Moreover, the existing financial apparatus that made it possible to transfer public money away from their stated purpose and into partisan political efforts remains intact.

The American Institute of Social Justice (AISJ), one of four national affiliates, deserves greater scrutiny and attention in this area. Over $53 million was transferred between ACORN and AISJ from 2000-2004, according to a report from the House Oversight Committee.

ACORN was also on the receiving end of a $4,952,288 grant from AISJ, according to the Institute’s 990 tax form for 2006. This is instructive because AISJ itself received almost $4 million from ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC) between 2000 and 2006, tax documents show.

“The money flowing to AISJ from ACORN Housing should be a huge red flag for investigators because almost all the federal money that the ACORN network receives goes into its housing affiliate,” Matthew Vadum, a senior editor with the Capital Research Center (CRC) observes. “So it’s entirely possible that when money was being transferred to the national ACORN organization from AISJ, taxpayer money designated for nonpartisan purposes might have been used for blatantly partisan purposes. These transfers are extremely suspicious. This is the type of financial activity that we see with organized crime and it should be investigated.”

On April 1, ACORN’s leadership announced it was dissolving its national network, but in reality the national affiliates and their many state level counterparts are simply remarketing and rebranding themselves, former insiders have warned.

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The former communists running Russia apparently understand tax policy better than the crowd in charge of U.S. tax policy. Not only does Russia have a 13 percent flat tax, but the government has just announced it will eliminate the capital gains tax (which shouldn’t exist in a pure flat tax anyhow).

Here’s a passage from the BBC report:

Russia will scrap capital gains tax on long-term direct investment from 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev has said. …Mr Medvedev told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that long-term direct investment was “necessary for modernisation”. …Its oil revenues fund, which has been financing the deficit, is expected to end next year, and the government wants to attract more foreign investment to boost the economy.

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There is a quote – endlessly repeated and often misattributed to Winston Churchill – that runs something like the following: If you are 20 and not a liberal, you have no heart. If you are 40 and not a conservative, you have no brain.

Taken on its own terms, this observation gives progressives a very narrow window of time in which to operate – something the Daily Kos appears to have recognized, in a rare moment of lucidity:

“Of course, we can’t make such a simplistic argument.  We don’t think that more government is always best.  In fact, even arguing over the size of the government is folding to a conservative narrative.  But how can we begin to discuss politics in the political world of today without tripping over conservative buzz words?  The honest truth is, we can’t.”

But there is hope for the progressive movement, according to our anonymous writer, in the following:

“1.) The blogosphere more-or-less is ours.  The right-wing attempts to match the left’s web presence has largely looked like our attempt to match their radio work.  The web belongs to the young, and the young, at least for now, are with us.

2.) Satire is ours.  Jon Stewart likes to deny his real-world impact, calling his show comedy.  And it is.  But it has great impact none-the-less.  Stewart and Colbert have made a huge difference by exposing fraud and corruption.  And most of this has been on the right.  Even when they come at us, they come from the left.  That kind of work, over time, builds values in the viewers that move them toward the left, like Limbaugh’s daily listeners eventually become Republicans.  And the right has fallen prey to attempting their version of political satire.  And, as you probably know, those attempts have been incredible failures.

3.) Academia remains reality-based, and that is good for us.  Although I think the accusations of campus “liberal bias” are greatly exaggerated, issues like human rights, equality, and environmentalism are clear values of the liberal arts community.  And these values are more than just issues for progressives.  They go a long way in pointing toward a framework for thinking progressively.”

Now, obviously, there are a few things that strike me as a bit foolish about this. For one thing, calling Academia reality-based strikes me as similar to calling Marvin the Martian carbon-based.

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In a June 14th editorial entitled “Politicizing the Fed,” the Wall Street Journal sheds light on one of the dubious regulations of the upcoming financial reform bill.  The Journal states:

The biggest underreported threat comes from Subtitle I, Section 1801 of the House financial reform bill titled “Inclusion of Minorities and Women; Diversity in Agency Workforce.” Sponsored by California Democrat Maxine Waters, the provision requires each federal financial agency, the Fed Board of Governors and the 12 regional Fed banks to “establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.”

So what else is new, you say? Don’t the feds already dictate racial and gender hiring? Yes, they do, through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and assorted other federal laws. As a matter of racial and gender diversity, the Waters provision is at best redundant.

But Ms. Waters and the House are hunting bigger game—to wit, the political allocation of credit.

[...]

The House provision makes that very clear by making each diversity officer a Presidential appointee who must be confirmed by the Senate.The post, says the bill, will be “comparable to that of other senior level staff.”  The post, says the bill, will be “comparable to that of other senior level staff.”

The law says this diversity czar will “ensure equal employment opportunity and the racial, ethnic and gender diversity” of the work force and senior management of these institutions. More ominously, this creature of Congress and the White House will also be charged with “increas[ing] the participation of minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the programs and contracts” of each agency and conducting “an assessment” of stated inclusion goals.

Mull over that one for a minute. Having recently lived through a financial mania and panic caused in part by political pressure for “affordable housing,” Congress will now order regulators to allocate credit by race and gender.

In an article I wrote on February 28th entitled “Fiscal Death by Welfare,” I argued: “I believe that as the downturn goes on the government will blame the banks for the lack of economic growth and force them to allocate credit to chosen political entrepreneurs and other bad credit risks…”  I truly wish I had been wrong in my assessment.

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New York Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo is proving a canny politician the further he progresses in his career.  Thursday, the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo trashed outgoing Gov. David Paterson’s budget plan, saying he opposes plans to tax soda and hike taxes on cigarettes, and favors cutting spending in order to close the state’s $9 billion budget gap.

According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Cuomo also indicated Thursday that as Governor, he would bring down state spending by eradicating state agencies and cutting spending on education, health care and Medicare.

New York’s deficit is expected to reach as much as $15 billion next year, with many observers blaming Paterson’s big spending approach for the situation.

Republican candidate for Governor Rick Lazio has been bashing Cuomo for failing to detail how he would close the budget deficit, just as Paterson has been dancing around various proposals to deal with New York’s current budget crisis.

Just days ago, taxpayer groups and convenience store owners breathed a sigh of relief when Paterson backed off his plan to raise cigarettes by $1 per pack, following Republicans in the State Senate signaling that they would vote against any bill including tax increases.

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Public employee unions and teachers unions have spent more than $1 billion during the last decade trying to influence California public officials and voters. Should locations like fire fighters union halls and teachers associations buildings be banned from being polling places? Since they contribute to candidates and ballot measures, and because of their deep political involvement it would make sense there is a conflict of interest for them being a polling place. Polling places should be neutral, free of possible intimidation and manipulation.

On the June 8th primary election in Bakersfield, California a polling place was a fire fighters union hall. The fire fighters union spent almost $200,000 for their candidates, more than any other candidate in this particular non-partisan supervisors race because of contribution limits of only $500 per individual. This polling place has both candidates signs supported by the unions at the entrance and across the street which was no secret the unions supported them. So the question is, should “politically active” organizations be polling places?

The other day President Obama gave BP an ultimatum, he met with BP executives for the first time, and squeezed $20 billion from the company.  He also made a prime-time bomb of a speech.  Moreover, in that short period, Tony Hayward has been demoted, a part-time czar has been appointed, and it is now reported that claimants are being turned away.

The success the Obama administration had in getting the oil spill live feeds off the front pages of websites and cable news stations and cause the change in the narrative from millions of gallons of oil gushing to a seemingly more proactive, authoritative, and administrative role in managing the devastating situation is remarkable.  At last, PR success.

There is, however, a major problem with all of this:  the oil is still gushing from the well and now there are large amounts of methane causing dead zones.  The “damn hole” is not plugged.

To review, BP confirmed that oil was gushing at a rate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, which would be equivalent to 1,470,000 to 2,520,000 (million) gallons per day (42 gallons equals 1 barrel).  Presently, the oil continues to flow, but the rate is unknown as reported by CNBC on June 11:

Under the current system, a containment cap placed atop the gushing well pipe a mile below the ocean surface is funneling some of the escaping oil and gas from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to the surface to be collected in ships.

An undetermined amount of oil continues to escape from the cap into the ocean.

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After the Israeli action against the Turkish jihad flotilla aroused more international condemnation of Israel, Iran is now sending two of its own Islamic jihad flotillas – Moetillas – to Gaza. The war ship convoy (which the media affectionately has called a “humanitarian flotilla” while the “aid workers” set out to slice and dice the Jews) operated by jihad gangs from thug countries is the new way to wage war in the twenty-first century, if you’re not already busy blowing up buildings, trains, planes and other civilian targets.

The jihad flotilla. It melds propaganda together with violence, usually conducted separately, to wage war. The “aid ship” is the face of this century’s warship, like lipstick on a pig.

Of course, all of this is possible because the world media is aligned with the terror force. So when the jihadists, with the help of their leftist whores, paint up their weapon-filled warships like $2 homicidal trollops and call them “aid ships,” the media laps it up like a dog returning to its vomit.

There is no humanitarian crisis in the terror statelet of Gaza, and there is no such thing as a “Palestinian.” It was historically just a geographical designation: there were Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Muslims before ‘48. But no state. No history. No nationality distinct from that of the other Arabs in the area. No flag of this fakestinian narrative. That land is Jewish land. That history is Jewish history. That flag is the star of King David.

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Today, we celebrate Juneteenth.  On this day in 1865, the slaves in Galveston, Texas learned from Union General Gordon Granger that they had been freed by the application of the Emancipation Proclamation with the end of the American Civil War.

The Central Texas 9-12 Project continues to focus on educating ourselves about American history.  We are inspired by “Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White” by David Barton (available at Amazon.com).  This book discusses the contributions that African Americans made to our American culture well before the modern civil rights movement.  As we did further research we found a list of African-American Republicans on Wikipedia.  There are only 98 listed here.

While we maintain a non-partisan position for our organization, we feel that this list of 98 Republicans  drastically underestimates the number of politically conservative African-Americans. We will add this gentleman to the list, E. Frederic Morrow.  (1906-1994) Morrow was the first African-American to hold an executive position at the White House.  He served under President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Administrative Officer for Special Projects from 1955 to 1961.

Wikipedia is edited by the users. There are no pre-requisites and no costs associated with contributing accurate, factual information to this resource. In the spirit of honoring the contributions of African-Americans from both sides of the aisle, and with a desire to reach further back in our country’s history than the last fifty years, we issue this call to action.

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Like most people I didn’t expect a lot from the President during his oval office speech. What I got was a whole new look at the Candidate in Chief.

The first thing I noticed during the speech: I had never seen such an empty desk before., It was so clear, you could see all the dents in the desk, from where the previous presidents actually did some work.

Much has been made about how President Obama didn’t really seem comfortable in the speech, that he looked more like a visiting college student who got to sit in the big chair for a couple minutes. It could explain why his poll numbers have dropped faster than a bowling ball out a campaign bus window.

It was also only a one tele-prompter speech. Usually he has a two tele-prompter setup so his head moves back and forth, like he’s watching a beer pong game.

It was highly uncomfortable to watch. His eyes were locked on the teleprompter, and his hands never stopped moving. You weren’t even sure the guy reading, was the same guy who was moving the hands. It was almost like watching the cookie monster give an oval office address.

I look at it a different way: from a comedian’s perspective. I’ve played some fairly hostile crowds during my years on the road. But the one kind of crowd I cannot tolerate is a small one. I think most comics will agree that one of the most terrifying places you can perform is to an empty room. (Of course since I’ve become big and famous, that rarely happens to me anymore.)

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Some people have always occupied themselves in crying out that the end is near. This sort of thing has been going on for millennia. But lately, it seems to me, the volume of such doom-saying has risen markedly. Websites that feature apocalyptic forecasts have grown like weeds on the Web, and at least one well-known libertarian site has shifted from more analytical material to heavy doses of gloom-and-doom. An odd aspect of this increasing tendency toward Chicken-Little-ism is that it now comes for the most part in two completely different versions. Let’s call them the Left Version and the Right Version.

The Left Version, of course, has been bombarding us for the past forty or fifty years mainly as a warning of imminent environmental catastrophe ― of near-term exhaustion of natural resources, terminal ruin of a hyper-polluted physical environment and, most recently, overheating of the earth’s atmosphere with countless attendant climatic disasters. Leftists who peddle this terrifying prospect seek to allay the threat by ceding totalitarian powers to government officials who in their copious wisdom will save the day, if only narrowly and at the cost of our liberties and our modern standard of living.

The Right Version has resided for decades more in the shadows cast by millenarians, goldbugs, and self-anointed financial gurus than in the bright media glow that has illuminated the leftists’ prophecies. Recently, however, many more people seem to have concluded that the only sane course is to forsake all hope for the continuation of socio-economic life as we have known it, and hence that preparation for a complete social and economic meltdown ― Greater-than-Great Depression, hyperinflation, dollar collapse ― obliges us to stock up on guns, ammo, gold, and a larder full of dried beans and other survivalist goodies.

It is interesting that although many people take an ominous forecast more or less seriously, they have embraced dramatically different conceptions of the nature of the impending doom. Are those who foresee the future so differently living in the same world? If so, how can they have come to such clashing conclusions about the events to come?

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A few days ago, Texas Rep. Joe Barton, ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Commitee “apologized” to BP for the pressure the Obama Administration put on the company to fund an escrow account to compensate victims of the Gulf Oil leak (which is still spewing oil, btw). Certain parts of the blogosphere are calling for his resignation. And, national Democrats have launched a new TV ad on the controversy.

Personally, we kinda think Barton’s calls for federal government oversight of college football is a more worthy contender to spark cries for his resignation. On this issue though, he think Glenn Reynolds summed it up best in this statement from The Hill:

The story of BP vs. the White House is a story of crooks being shaken down by thugs, with a liberal dose of incompetence on both sides. Barton was only pointing out the shakedown aspect, but he was certainly dead-on with regard to that.

As a 2010 Census watchdog, I am extremely disturbed to learn that a man so deeply involved in the Blagojevich/Obama-Senate-seat-for-sale scandal is now employed in an upper level management position by the Census Bureau in Chicago.

Even if the man, Joseph Aramanda, has not been convicted (yet) of  a crime, his reputation for being involved in illegal activities seriously undermines the credibility of Census Bureau operations in Chicago. In a city with corruptionlinked to 2010 Census advertising, the public should not have to worry that upper management positions are being filled by individuals who are directly tied to government corruption and fraud.

Furthermore, Joseph Aramanda’s experiences as a pizza franchise owner (his job prior to the Census Bureau gig) don’t qualify him to be in charge of 1,000+ employees.

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Representative Tom McClintock  delivered the following remarks in the House of Representatives in opposition to H.R. 5297.  The bill will be voted on by the House.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  M. Speaker:

The proponents tell us that this bill will increase lending to small businesses.  To do so they are creating a $30 billion slush fund to make loans to smaller banks, therefore encouraging smaller banks to make loans to small businesses.  Or so they say.

It is a splendid example of what I like to call McClintock’s Second Law of Political Physics: the more we invest in our mistakes, the less willing we are to correct them.

It’s apparently escaped the proponents’ attention that we are already doing precisely what the proposed new small business lending fund would do through the TARP’s existing Capital Purchase Program.

That’s the conclusion of the Special Inspector General of TARP, Neil Barofsky. He wrote to the Financial Services Committee on May 17th and said: “in terms of its basic design, its participants, its application process, and perhaps, its funding source from an oversight perspective, the (Small Business Lending Fund) would essentially be an extension of TARP’s (Capital Purchase Program).”

So if this scheme actually worked, we wouldn’t need this bill – banks would already be lending like crazy.  The problem is, it doesn’t work.  But some members can’t bear to face the American people and admit that they’ve squandered billions of dollars of working families’ hard-earned money.  So instead they bring us more of the same.

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The Louisiana oil crisis continues unabated. Oil continues to pollute the Gulf and the Obama Administration continues to fiddle while Louisiana suffers.

In addition to being angry with BP and the Obama Administration’s weak response, activists have taken to the street to protest Louisiana’s Senators’ support for a BP bailout. Apparently both Louisiana Senators decided to cater to the special interests and voted for the Durbin Amendment to the Financial Reform bill that would increase the profits of companies like BP by shifting the cost of credit transactions away from them and forcing consumers to pay for them instead.

Both parties are responsible for the passage of the Durbin Amendment to bailout BP and other big retailers.
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While the “March Madness” that resulted in the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act of 2010 would lead you to believe that STAT change was needed in our health care system, the on-going delay in the “fix” to the SGR (sustainable growth rate) formula for Medicare invokes images of a long waiting list for a rationed medical procedure.

Medicare, the federal government’s health care insurance plan for the elderly and disabled established in 1965, is largely funded from payroll taxes and FICA, and supplemented with premiums paid by its beneficiaries. It is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and is the place to look to see how our government will administer a health care system.

Since 1998, the SGR has been a component of the formula used to calculate physician payments for providing services to Medicare patients. It is based on the GDP and not on actual health care practice costs (which have been rising faster than the GDP.) The SGR produced steep cuts in physician compensation for services to Medicare patients, in hopes that by paying individual physicians less, overall health care cost would decrease.

Unfortunately, this approach has failed.

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I had this movie fantasy about Obama. He would be whining to his closest associates like David Axelrod or Valerie Jarrett and there would be an open microphone. The American people would finally hear him express his utter disdain for them. Then everything would change!

My fantasy scene comes from “A Face in the Crowd” a 1957 drama starring Andy Griffith. Our future loveable Sheriff Andy Taylor played an entertainer from Arkansas, Lonesome Rhodes, who was in reality a mean-spirited, drunk. He was rescued from a jail cell with his guitar and charmed small town radio. Then he rose to national fame on the new miracle of TV. His public persona was crafted by others as an everyman who understood their hopes and dreams. People tuned in and bought the products he advertised even if every once in a while he went off script and betrayed his manipulative power. At first the public just laughed and bought more.

It was the beginning of the age of television and a cautionary tale about the power of mass media. One character realizes it potential for political power and calls TV ‘the greatest instrument of persuasion in the history of the world” Another more concerned character comments” you have to be a saint to stand all the power that little box can give you”

“A Face in the Crowd” may seem to be all about entertainment if it weren’t for the fact Lonesome Rhodes is persuaded to support a Presidential candidate and have him on his TV show. Lonesome understands what it could mean to join the powers of the mass media and politics. He tells his girlfriend” “Marcia you just wait and see. I’m gonna be the power behind the President… and you’ll be the power behind me” Of course later on he dumps Marcia for a teenage baton- twirler but that is another part of the plot.

Obama is a creation of the media. They loved him for giving a great speech in front of those fake columns. It was a TV set!

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