It should come as no surprise that on the campaign trail, President Obama refused to be interviewed about Saul Alinsky, the community organizing guru who wrote Rules for Radicals, a how-to guide for destroying American capitalism and democracy.

Presumably Obama, who taught courses on Alinsky’s brutal, sometimes violent organizing techniques, declined to speak to reporters about the late guru. He must have realized that such an interview would throw an unwanted spotlight on Alinsky’s radicalism, and by extension, his own. Such counterproductive publicity would also have undermined the candidate’s efforts to reinvent himself as a moderate. Alinsky’s adherents now dominate the modern Democratic Party establishment. Apart from President Obama himself, they include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, Federal Communications Commission diversity chief Mark Lloyd, Obama’s ex-green jobs czar Van Jones, former DNC trainer Heather Booth, Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to name just a few. “Who the hell isn’t [an Alinskyite] in this administration?” asks conservative author David Horowitz.

And President Obama hasn’t been the only longtime ACORN operative working in the White House. There’s also the low-profile Patrick Gaspard who, until recently, was White House political affairs director, one of the titles Karl Rove held in President Bush’s White House.

In a move that ought to disturb anyone who cares about the integrity of the democratic process, earlier this year Gaspard took over the reins of the Democratic National Committee as its executive director—just in time to begin initial preparations for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

Gaspard hails from the same world of radical left-wing community organizing that made Barack Obama who he is today. Gaspard is an expert in the harsh, street-smart organizing tactics taught by Alinsky. He’s the hatchet man Obama sent to New York over a year ago to strong-arm then-Gov. David Paterson into dropping his reelection campaign. As executive director running the DNC’s day-to-day operations, Gaspard will oversee Organizing for America, a project of the DNC supposedly modeled on Alinskyite organizing principles.

Former Obama White House political director Patrick Gaspard is now ACORN's man at the DNC

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haitian parents, not much is known about this Rasputin-like power behind the throne. Gaspard studiously avoids publicity and is reluctant to talk to journalists. Look him up on Nexis and you will find virtually nothing about this influential radical leader. But his colleagues hold him in high esteem. “Patrick is the best political mind of his generation in New York and maybe the nation,” according to Kevin Sheekey, a lieutenant of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I wouldn’t dispute that,” added David Axelrod, at the time a senior advisor in the Obama White House.

Gaspard came to the White House from ACORN’s favorite labor organization, Service Employees International Union. (SEIU Locals 100 and 880 were, until recently, official affiliates of ACORN.) He had been executive vice president for political and legislative affairs for SEIU Local 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, which claims to be the largest union local on the planet, “representing more than 300,000 members and retirees in New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts.”

Evidence suggests that before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis’ political director in New York. How do we actually know Gaspard, who goes to extraordinary lengths to shun the public spotlight and scarcely appears in Nexis searches, was Lewis’ right hand man?

Because Gaspard’s employment with ACORN was acknowledged by no less an authority than ACORN founder Wade Rathke himself.

Rathke wrote May 16, 2009, 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.’”

ACORN founder Wade Rathke

The “before that” time period Rathke is referring to is 2003, when Gaspard was executive vice president for political and legislative affairs for Service Employees International Union Local 1199 (United Healthcare Workers East). It’s also worth noting that of all the entries in Bertha Lewis’ rolodex, a copy of which this writer gained possession of in 2009, the entry for Gaspard is the most extensive.

Gaspard’s ties to ACORN, SEIU, and Lewis go back at least to 1989, when he volunteered for the David Dinkins mayoral campaign in New York City. In 2003, he became acting field director for Howard Dean’s presidential bid. He was national field director in 2004 for America Coming Together, a now-defunct get-out-the-vote operation that received a $775,000 fine for campaign finance abuses. In 2006, Gaspard was acting political director for SEIU International. In 2008, Gaspard worked as national political director for the Obama campaign followed by a stint as associate personnel director for the Obama-Biden transition team.

As the old Washington saying goes, politics is personnel. Who knows how many administration offi cials were put in place by Gaspard with direct input from ACORN’s Bertha Lewis? It boggles the mind. Gaspard also worked for New York’s Working Families Party, an appendage of ACORN. Lewis is a co-founder of that party —which endorsed Obama in 2008— and has close ties to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who pointedly refused to have the House Judiciary subcommittee he chaired in the previous Congress investigate ACORN.

As news of Gaspard’s involvement with ACORN spread, Rathke changed his blog entry. Where he had written that Gaspard worked for New York ACORN, he inserted two new sentences: “This line used to contain a reference to Patrick Gaspard working for NY ACORN. This is untrue, he never worked for ACORN.”

But Rathke wasn’t able to shove all evidence tying Gaspard to ACORN down the memory hole. If Gaspard isn’t tied to ACORN, why did he sign a letter to the editor of the Nation magazine (dated July 2, 2001) on behalf of the Working Families Party of New York? (Lewis signed the letter on behalf of ACORN and the Working Families Party.)

The party is part of ACORN, according to ACORN’s website, which in 2009 confirmed that in 1998, “ACORN members spearhead[ed] formation of the Working Families Party, the first community-labor party with official ballot status in New York state in more than 50 years.”

Internal ACORN documents obtained by this writer show Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 before he joined the Obama administration. While Gaspard worked as an executive vice president of SEIU Local 1199, he gave ACORN $15,000 in 2007 and $25,000 in 2008. That’s an awfully large tithe for someone who made $111,894 in 2007 and who has a wife and two children. The $111,894 figure comes from an SEIU 1199 tax return. (If salary and deferred benefits are combined, the total is $151,869.)

Given Gaspard’s longstanding links to ACORN, it’s not at all surprising that Scott Levenson, a lobbyist and spokesman for ACORN, dropped by the White House to visit with his former co-worker. The purpose of the meeting was not disclosed. Another New Yorker in the Obama administration, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, has close ties to ACORN. Before taking office, Donovan was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s housing development commissioner. He worked closely with ACORN for five years on several projects.

ACORN's man at HUD, Shaun Donovan

“Perhaps no administration official has had more interaction with ACORN than” Donovan, according to the New York Times. Reinforcing the newspaper’s point, ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis praised the HUD secretary. “We grew to respect him, and he grew to respect us,” she said. Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, reported Lewis admitted “ACORN has friends in high places for the first time in a long time.” Lewis acknowledged “that she has particularly good relationships with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and with Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director.”

This writer filed a Freedom of Information Act request with HUD last year seeking all correspondence between Secretary Donovan and ACORN. Instead of the maximum 45 days allowed, HUD responded eight months later. The letter said no such records of correspondence between ACORN and Donovan exist.

That’s hard to believe.

(This article is excerpted from “Subversion Inc.: A new book reveals how Obama’s ACORN friends are still ripping off American taxpayers,” by Matthew Vadum which was published in the May 2011 issue of Townhall magazine and is republished here with permission. Copyright © 2011 by Matthew Vadum.)

An award-winning investigative journalist, Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. Vadum is author of the new book Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers (WND Books), from which this piece is adapted. Of the book Andrew Breitbart says, “For too long the institutional left has been allowed to operate under cover of darkness because the Democrat-media complex refuses to hold them accountable. But these radicals who have been sticking it to Americans for decades scatter like cockroaches under the harsh spotlight of Matthew Vadum’s great new book, Subversion Inc.”

Federal copy editors are demanding the city change its 250,900 street signs — such as these for Perry Avenue in The Bronx — from the all-caps style used for more than a century to ones that capitalize only the first letters.

[...]

At $110 per sign, it will also cost the state $27.6 million, city officials said.

[...]

The Highway Administration acknowledged that New York and other states “opposed the change, and suggested that the use of all upper-case letters remain an option,” noting that “while the mixed-case words might be easier to read, the amount of improvement in legibility did not justify the cost.”

New York faces a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, despite Gov. David Paterson’s consistent drive to increase revenue by hiking taxes on goods, notably including cigarettes which currently attract nearly $6 per pack in taxes where purchased in New York City courtesy of a massive tax hike he ushered in earlier this year.

One wonders what New York politicians will look to hike taxes on next in order to fund the $27.6 million now required to be spent on new signage, courtesy of the federal copyeditors’ mandate.  In a state where hikes have recently been ushered through on personal income, health insurance, wine, cigars, and utilities, there aren’t many options left for them, except to cut spending in other areas to fund the multi-million dollar street sign overhaul.

Now, facing ongoing budget problems, New York is moving to impose taxes on a good the state is known for producing, and which many of its residents consider indispensible: The bagel.

An obscure provision in New York’s tax law allows Albany to tax “sliced or prepared bagels (with cream cheese or other toppings),” and the tax collectors are moving on bagel shops across the state.  A particular target appears to be Kenneth Greene, who owns over thirty Bruegger’s Bagel franchises in New York.  Greene’s customers are livid at the eight-cent per bagel tax being levied.  In response to customer outrage, Greene has posted signs reading “We apologize for this change and share in your frustration on this additional tax.”

Other bagel shop owners meanwhile are holding out hope the tax collectors refrain from targeting them next.  “I hope they don’t come after me for that,” said Florence Wilpon, a founding owner of Ess-a-Bagel in Manhattan, per a quote in the Wall Street Journal.

Taxpayer advocates have repeatedly argued that the best way to close budget deficits is to cut spending, rather than pursue tax gimmicks and other measures designed to increase revenue from consumption of various goods.  No doubt many bagel-munching New Yorkers now find themselves in agreement.

Democratic leaders and major party donors plan to hold a lavish 80th birthday gala for Charles Rangel at The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan next month, despite 13 ethics charges pending against the veteran lawmaker.

Lobbyists and other party donors received invitations this week to join Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and New York Gov. David Paterson at one of New York’s finest hotels to celebrate Rangel’s birthday.

Gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are also listed as featured guests, according to an invitation viewed by The Hill.

Some potential guests received the invitation a day after the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct issued a report accusing Rangel of multiple ethics violations.

While some Democrats think Rangel has become politically radioactive in Washington, the invitation lists a variety of enticements to get people to show up to his birthday bash and contribute to his campaign.

Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” will serenade them and guests who pony up $200, $500, $1,000 or $2,500 for tickets. The funds will go to the Rangel Victory Fund, a campaign account.

The 2010 Rangel Birthday Gala is planned for August 11th despite the fact that Rangel’s actual birthday is June 11th.

Read the whole thing here. Read that last sentence again.

Just one day after the hike went into effect, Massachusetts’ Berkshire Eagle reported that an Xtra Mart convenience store and gas station in Great Barrington was already seeing an uptick in purchases from bargain-hunting New Yorkers.  According to the manager of the store, “a lot of people are coming from New York…  We had to order a lot of cigarettes, more than usual, in anticipation of New Yorkers coming down.”

In Jersey City, convenience stores and gas stations have been benefiting from New Yorkers buying their smokes outside the state’s borders for years—and they expect to see more of that.  Phil Hwang, who works at a gas station near the New Jersey end of the Holland Tunnel, was recently reported as saying “People from Manhattan will buy cigarettes here and they’ll buy a carton at a time.”  He added that the last time New York hiked its cigarette tax, sales at his shop increased 20 to 30 percent.

In Pennsylvania, smoke shops were also anticipating a boost in customer numbers before the tax hike went into effect.

In Vermont, about a week ago, at least one store in Grand Isle was reporting a doubling of cigarette sales.  For the price of one pack of cigarettes in New York, smokers can sometimes buy two packs there.

In towns near the Connecticut border, meanwhile, New York store owners were within days of the hike coming into effect predicting a loss of customers to shops across the border.  Tony D’Onofrio, who owns a smoke shop in Rye, New York, told his local paper that the majority of his outraged customers pledging to quit would instead “travel to Connecticut.”  Ramon Varjrs of Port Chester also commented that  ”Most people will go to Connecticut or New Jersey now, where for the price of one pack they can get two or three.”

Experts tracking the situation say they also expect to see more bulk purchases of cigarettes on Indian reservations.  That opinion comes fresh on the heels of news that Thomas Stanton, an investigator who ran New York’s Tax Department’s enforcement division overseeing efforts to combat cigarette smuggling, has been fired after complaining about a budget freeze that would hamper undercover enforcement operations.  Such enforcement operations have been key in enabling New York to collect high taxes that many smokers have sought to avoid paying for years.

That is a task that fiscal policy experts now say will be easier to accomplish, just as it will become more difficult for New York to close its budget deficit using additional revenue derived from the tax increase.  Originally billed as capable of infusing something in the $300 million range, with which to fill the state’s budget hole, if smokers continue to respond to the hike by buying cigarettes in less heavily-taxed jurisdictions, the hike could fail to deliver—leaving the state still mired in red ink.

That is what occurred in New Jersey, after a tax increase was put through several years ago.  That hike was expected to generate additional revenue, but when smokers decided to cross state lines to avoid paying the tax and buy smuggled cigarettes on which it was not taxed, collections actually fell by millions.

That may be one reason why New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie decided to forego a cigarette tax increase in his budget this year—logic that Gov. David Paterson seems not to have considered, generating much gratitude amongst New York’s neighbors as well as smugglers and bootleggers.

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.

However, days later, Paterson reversed himself, indicating he would pursue a $200 million cigarette tax hike proposal, packaging it with other proposals which sources say he believes will elicit Senate Republicans’ support.

Americans for Tax Reform immediately blasted the move, saying that Paterson’s budget crisis “is of his own creation,” and arguing that Paterson had “forgotten” his original reason for backing off the tax hike:

“It’s an incredibly stupid policy move that will give New York the nation’s highest cigarette tax rate and will force New York City smokers to pay $6.25 to the government for every purchase. Which, of course, they won’t do – they’ll turn to smuggled cigarettes or jump the border to buy in bulk. Tax-paid cigarette sales have declined 8.3 percent annually over the past decade in New York. Expect that to increase – and tax revenue to fall well short of projections – should Paterson get his way.”

The New York Association of Convenience Stores has previously spoken out against the increase, arguing that a hike in the tax would force increased cigarette tax evasion as people switch from buying cigarettes from traditional outlets like gas stations—where they are taxed—to Native American reservations, online, or neighboring states, where they either are not, or are not taxed as heavily.

With Paterson set to leave office, opposition groups say it is unclear what political pressure can be brought to bear on him to drop taxes and tax hikes from the budget, though some remain hopeful that Senate Republicans can be persuaded to reject Paterson’s current proposal.

Together they applied the Van Jones’ Apollo doctrine to tap into federal stimulus money allocated to New York.

Governor Paterson recently signed into law something called the “Green Jobs – Green New York Act of 2009″. The new law provides for the creation of a massive slush fund of federal stimulus dollars to be set aside for “green jobs”.

Those green jobs include but will not be limited to “Energy Auditors”, certified green contractors, green financing services to help pay for property upgrades, and more.

There are a number of places in the legislation where ACORN, SEIU, and their affiliates stand to gain access to this new green slush fund. Below is but one excerpt which must make them very happy:

How much money are we talking about? Hundreds of millions of dollars. From the legislation:

*Provides $112 million of capital funding from the Regional Greenhouse
Gas Initiative (RGGI), $70 million of which will be for a Green
Jobs-Green New York revolving loan fund designed to commit resources
fully during this phase with no less than 50 percent of capital monies
going to residential retrofits.

*Provides $2-4 million of RGGI funds to be used to establish green job
training throughout the state to establish a green workforce for the
2151 century and requires the NYS Department of Labor to work with
NYSERDA to development additional training resources.

Don’t worry, because the legislation calls for an advisory board to monitor all of the projects and how the cash is being distributed. That shouldn’t pose much of a threat to ACORN’s access to the cash though, because, almost every sponsor of the legislation just signed into law are card carrying members of President Obama’s Working Families Party, aka ACORN.

Their names are listed below, WFP members are in red:

Introduced by Sens. AUBERTINE, BRESLIN, FOLEY, HUNTLEY, C. JOHNSON, LAVALLE, MAZIARZ, MONSERRATE, MORAHAN, ONORATO, OPPENHEIMER, PARKER, PERKINS, SAMPSON, SAVINO, SCHNEIDERMAN, SERRANO, STACHOWSKI, STEWART-COUSINS, THOMPSON, VALESKY, VOLKER, WINNER

One concerned lawmaker tried to force the ACORN issue when the bill was being debated:

A group calling itself Lawyers 4 Green Jobs authored the legislation with help from the following:

Lawyers for Green Jobs was formed in 2008 by a group of young environmental attorneys who met while attending the New York City Environmental Law Leadership Institute (NYCELLI) and shared a strong passion for the economic implications of environmental and social issues. Their idea to propose green jobs legislation for New York State grew in part from their coursework in NYCELLI and in part due to the fact that there currently exists no such law. Since that time, L4GJ has been engaging national and New York-based green jobs advocacy organizations, such as Green For All, the New York Apollo Alliance, and several environmental justice groups, to foster a statewide policy for green jobs in New York.

Green For All was founded by Van Jones. Now we all know what green he was talking about. Yours and mine.

Working Families Party Director Dan Cantor is crowing about this victory:

Together with Governor Paterson and legislative leaders (both Democrats and Republicans), that coalition helped put together innovative legislation that we hope will be a model for other states.

It’s funny to see Dan Cantor praising Governor Paterson, since it wasn’t that long ago the Working Families Party was slamming Governor Paterson, and his “Right-wing allies in the senate”