The Star Players in the ShoreBank Story

The Shorebank story is quite complicated and filled with literally hundreds – if not thousands — of individuals who have been in some way involved in the unfolding of an intriguing saga. It has been difficult to narrow down the field of characters in order to focus on just a few. Some of the names are familiar, and some are relatively unknown (except, perhaps, within the context of their own circles of influence).

The original founders of Shorebank probably didn’t dream that this bank would have the worldwide influence that it now has. They were all very active in their communities and had a desire to see the South Shore neighborhood re-built to its former state of safety and community life. The neighborhood had suffered economically and was becoming run-down and plagued by crime. Their hope was to re-invest and re-enliven this neighborhood of Chicago. They made loans towards the renovation of many of the buildings which were deteriorating and in disrepair. They also invested in new building projects to benefit the residents of South Shore.

For 30-plus years Shorebank has seen its founders’ dreams realized; and beyond those dreams, Shorebank has become the catalyst for international financing — especially that directed toward low-income people in many countries of the world. The Community Reinvestment Act, passed into law in 1977 during President Jimmy Carter’s term of office, encouraged financial institutions to make loans to low-income borrowers. Ron Grzywinski (one of the original founders of Shorebank) was the only banker to testify before Congress in support of the Community Reinvestment Act. Its passage was instrumental in paving the way for Shorebank’s success. The bank steadily grew financially and facilitated the renewal of poverty stricken areas through the rest of the 1970’s and early 80’s, catching the attention of then-Governor Bill and Hillary Clinton of Arkansas (in fact, according to the IFA, Bill is still advocating on behalf of ShoreBank).

(more…)

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Tags: Adele Simmons, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, bailout, Barack Obama
Posted Mar 13th 2010 at 6:01 am in Economics, Featured Story, Financial Services, News, Politics | 8328254 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/13/the-star-players-in-the-shorebank-story/The+Star+Players+in+the+ShoreBank+Story2010-03-13+14%3A01%3A14Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

Ex-Moderate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Embraces Communist Van Jones

Facing what could become a bruising primary battle, appointed U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is embracing one of President Obama’s best known communist appointees, former green jobs czar Van Jones.

The Hill reports Gillibrand will share the stage with Jones at a panel discussion sponsored by the Advocacy Project at the Harvard Club in New York. Jones, a self-described “communist,” was pushed out of the Obama administration five months ago following the embarrassing revelation that he was a 9/11 “truther” who had signed a petition accusing the U.S. government of orchestrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

For a time, Jones had been politically radioactive to Democrats but Gillibrand’s decision to work alongside him appears to bring Jones’s political exile to an end.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Advocacy Project, Barack Obama, Democracy Alliance, Erica Payne
Posted Feb 7th 2010 at 10:24 am in ACORN, Obama, Politics | 71122106 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2010/02/07/ex-moderate-sen-kirsten-gillibrand-d-n-y-embraces-communist-van-jones/Ex-Moderate+Sen.+Kirsten+Gillibrand+%28D-N.Y.%29+Embraces+Communist+Van+Jones2010-02-07+18%3A24%3A22Matthew+Vadum

Its a Wrap: The Most Underreported Stories of 2009

This year saw the birth of the tea party movement, the rise of administrative radicalism, and a suppression of information unlike ever before seen. Were it not for the new penny presses, blogs and the investigative citizens who author them, much of this information would be six feet under. When the media goes state and becomes nothing more than an echo chamber for the government, the task of sharing truth falls to the original keepers of liberty: the American people.

These are the most Underreported Stories of 2009:

1. CLIMATEGATE
Al Gore needs something to sustain him and his big pimpin’ life down at his ginormous, energy-sucking mansion in Tennessee. Thus the green market was born, a made-up market chock full of products like carbon credits and other Willy Wonka (but not as cool) ish items for people to buy as a way to feel good about themselves and their contribution to the planet without having to actually do anything. They don’t need a God! They need a Prius!

Celebrities Botoxed within an inch of their lives began popping up in PSA’s about global warming, about how we need to drive inefficient clown cars that run on electricity (which is still produced in coal-powered plants but hey, whatever) to save the planet. Musicians like Sheryl Crow crowed about using just a square of toilet paper to remove waste that has a greater street value than her latest album. All the hubris manifested in regulations handed down from Congress upon the automobile industry, the coal industry, et al., until finally! Cap’n Trade appeared in the House.

Cap’n Trade will rape and pillage your energy bills and even boss you around when it comes to remodeling or rehabbing a home. It’s almost like … congress has nothing better to do.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Al Gore, Andy Stern, climategate, Democrats
Posted Jan 1st 2010 at 6:34 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Congress, Economics, Education, Environment, Featured Story, Healthcare, Justice/Legal, Media Criticism, News, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 54262147 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2010/01/01/the-most-underreported-stories-of-2009/Its+a+Wrap%3A+The+Most+Underreported+Stories+of+20092010-01-01+14%3A34%3A55Dana+Loesch

Fox News: ACORN, Jennings Among Top Stories MSM Missed in ‘09

From Fox News’ Nine Big Stories the Mainstream Media Missed in 2009:

ACORN Tapes

Filmmakers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, posing as a pimp and a prostitute, went undercover to the offices of the community organizing group ACORN in the summer. They secretly videotaped employees instructing them in how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 “very young” girls from El Salvador whom the pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes. New videos emerged daily, but the mainstream media ignored the growing scandal for days, even as federal agencies began severing their ties with the group and members of Congress cried for an investigation. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, ACORN tapes, climate gate, Fox News
Posted Dec 31st 2009 at 2:43 pm in ACORN, Education, Media Criticism, News, Obama, Politics | 5429486 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/12/31/fox-news-acorn-jennings-among-top-stories-msm-missed-in-09/Fox+News%3A+ACORN%2C+Jennings+Among+Top+Stories+MSM+Missed+in+%E2%80%98092009-12-31+22%3A43%3A33Publius

The Green Religion and ClimateGate: Interview With Steven Mosher

This morning on The Dennis Miller Show, Guest host Andrew Breitbart interviewed Steven M. Mosher, a frequent contributor to the web site ClimateAudit.org.  You probably haven’t heard of Mr. Mosher, but you should have.  And that was the reason for our interview this morning.  Andrew used his six hours of national radio time (yesterday and today) to highlight the top stories from the “Under Media”.   ACORN, NEA, Van Jones, ClimateGate, stories that were virtually ignored by the major networks and pooh-poohed by the NY Times were, in fact, the stories that not only grabbed YOUR attention, but also drove legislation here at home as well as in Copenhagen.

Mr. Mosher was instrumental in promulgating the now infamous “hacked” emails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.  These e-mails have called into question the methods, the calculations, the peer review process, even the overall SCIENCE involved in the Global Warming arguments that drove the Cap and Trade Legislation as well as the UN Climate Conference and Kyoto Protocols.  Mr. Mosher obtained these emails on a CD from an unidentified colleague.  After days of review, Mr. Mosher realized the importance of the information he was sitting on, and he began the process of posting the information on various “Climate Change” websites and blogs.  Because the postings came from Mr. Mosher, the community immediately took them seriously.  The rest is “Under Media” history.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Adam Baldwin, Andrew Breitbart, cap-and-trade, carbon emissions
Posted Dec 29th 2009 at 1:54 pm in Environment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, News | 53342128 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sright/2009/12/29/the-green-religion-and-climategate-interview-with-steven-mosher/The+Green+Religion+and+ClimateGate%3A+Interview+With+Steven+Mosher2009-12-29+21%3A54%3A20Larry++O%26%2339%3BConnor

Obama: A Republican Plant?

Many of us had no idea the Republican Party had it in them, but to devise and implement such a plan was ingenious. Think about it; party leadership acting totally inept while a charismatic young Democrat presidential candidate captures the imagination of the normally lethargic youth vote, captures the senior vote, women, and even sends a thrill up the leg of the media.

And within a few short months after attaining the presidency, he conducts himself in a manner (personally and in office) that had not only invigorated his political opponents, but has them so energized they take to the streets and even march on The Capitol (more than once). One would have to conclude Barack Hussein Obama is either the most politically clueless president ever, or… is really a stealth Republican destroying the Democrat Party from within.

Is Barack Obama a Republican plant?

(more…)

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Tags: auto bailouts, Barack Obama, Big Media, cap-and-trade, climate change
Posted Dec 22nd 2009 at 5:29 am in Featured Story, Obama, Politics | 46746160 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bparks/2009/12/22/obama-a-republican-plant/Obama%3A+A+Republican+Plant%3F2009-12-22+13%3A29%3A31Bob+Parks

‘Clueless’ Clark Alert: The Top Ten Undernews Stories of the Year, Part I

Because nobody who’s anybody reads the The New York Times these days, except the die-harders and dead-enders along West End Avenue, as well as the editors of Time and Newsweek, you may not know who “Clueless” Clark Hoyt is, but it really doesn’t matter because he doesn’t know who you are, either.  For those scoring at home in their pajamas, Mr. Hoyt is the “public editor” of the Times, i.e. the hapless fellow who has to write those tedious Sunday reports to the readers, in which he explains why whatever the Times did was right and whatever they didn’t do… well, hey, they didn’t know about it!  What do you think they are, a “newspaper of record” or something?

Some editors told me they were not immediately aware of the Acorn videos on Fox, YouTube and a new conservative Web site called BigGovernment.com.  When the Senate voted to cut off all federal funds to Acorn, there was not a word in the newspaper, although a report in the Caucus blog that day covered the action. When the New York City Council froze all its funding for Acorn and the Brooklyn district attorney opened a criminal investigation, there was still nothing.

Well Mr. Hoyt, welcome to the world of the “undernews” – Mickey Kaus’s apt word for the news that everyone in the blogosphere knows about but, apparently, no one who gets his news strictly from the Times, other major newspapers, the newsweeklies, and most of the networks has the slightest inkling of.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN videos, Andy Stern, Buffy Wicks, Clark Hoyt
Posted Dec 18th 2009 at 5:29 am in ACORN, Culture, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 4708633 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mwalsh/2009/12/18/clueless-clark-alert-the-top-ten-undernews-stories-of-the-year-part-i/%27Clueless%27+Clark+Alert%3A+The+Top+Ten+Undernews+Stories+of+the+Year%2C+Part+I2009-12-18+13%3A29%3A53Michael+Walsh

Friday Free For All: Czar Cards Edition

Received a deck of these in the mail recently. Its the perfect stocking stuffer! And, a great thing to pull out about 5 hours into your next poker game. Or, you can just keep them as a handy reference for future resignations. Van Jones is already out. Is Kevin Jennings next?

More info here. (And, yes, Mr. FTC, we received exactly one deck of cards. Retail value: $10.95)

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Tags: Kevin Jennings, Obama Czars, Policy Czars, Van Jones
Posted Dec 18th 2009 at 4:21 am in Open Threads | 4907835 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/12/18/friday-free-for-all-czar-cards-edition/Friday+Free+For+All%3A+Czar+Cards+Edition2009-12-18+12%3A21%3A10Publius

ObamAmerica: Reign of the Czars

President Obama’s decision to appoint so many czars is  clearly troubling members of Congress, who have taken the  unusual step of holding hearings on the issue.  The decision of the two Senate committees is remarkable because a President’s management style is rarely questioned by the Senate or House during the first year of his term, especially when they are all members of the same political party.   But, Obama’s decision to appoint almost 40 policy czars, and then give them broad powers and budgetary responsibilities, has created a more serious constitutional issue.  

The Senate is primarily concerned that President Obama may be end-running the Constitution, along with the growing fear, shared by many citizens, that the power and the extraordinary amount of funding that is controlled by the Czars may be undermining the authorities of the senate-confirmed agency heads on whom the Senate has placed its imprimatur and its trust. 

Czars currently influence or directly control over a trillion dollars of government spending, which is more than the spending of the entire federal government during the Reagan Administration.  And, yet, few of the Obama  czars were ever vetted through the traditional review process where potential conflicts of interest are revealed.  Nor are Obama’s czars accountable to the Senate to justify policy or spending decisions. 

(more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, Carol Browner, czar, Ken Feinberg, Obama administration
Posted Oct 28th 2009 at 2:15 pm in Congress, Obama, Politics | 2220260 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ldoan/2009/10/28/obamamerica-reign-of-the-czars/ObamAmerica%3A+Reign+of+the+Czars2009-10-28+21%3A15%3A41Lurita+Doan

Major ACORN Victory In New York Thanks In Part To Van Jones

ACORN’s New York operations are looking forward to a potential new flow of federal dollars, thanks to the New York State Senate and New York Governor Paterson.

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:

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Tags: ACORN, Apollo Alliance, Apollo Doctrine, Dan Cantor, David Paterson
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 1:36 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, Politics, State Politics | 1957888 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2009/10/22/major-acorn-victory-in-new-york-thanks-in-part-to-van-jones/Major+ACORN+Victory+In+New+York+Thanks+In+Part+To+Van+Jones2009-10-22+20%3A36%3A59Andrew++Marcus

The Public Option Deception

The public option has been a political football since early summer. The President has said more than once that he prefers it but will not demand it. This was considered capitulation by many on the left who see the public option as necessary for “real” reform. Meanwhile, belying the President’s public statements, there are reports that the President’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel has been quietly but firmly twisting arms in the back rooms to insure the public option is included in the final bill. Even now, pressure is mounting on Harry Reid to include the public option in the health reform bill he brings to the Senate floor.

In response to the tumult over what appears to be a small feature of the effort, more than one critic has wondered aloud why Democrats don’t just give up on the public option – which is opposed by every Republican – in order to reach a more bipartisan outcome. What exactly is so important about the public option anyway? And why do Democrats in particular seem so wedded to the idea?

There is a simple answer to these questions, but it’s an answer you’ve likely not heard from any institution in the mainstream media. The truth is that the public plan is a carefully devised scheme, a sneaky strategy, to deceive American voters. It’s a political marketing ploy designed to move the nation to a single-payer system – like the one in Canada – over the next decade. The public option is the Trojan horse. On the outside it’s all about “choice and competition”, but once it has been dragged within the walls of American medicine it’s true nature will become evident. By that time, it’ll be too late.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, American Medical Association, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Clark Hoyt
Posted Oct 21st 2009 at 5:15 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Healthcare, Politics | 18546101 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/richmondsexton/2009/10/21/the-public-option-deception-with-exclusive-new-audio/The+Public+Option+Deception2009-10-21+12%3A15%3A58Morgen+Richmond+and+John+Sexton

ACORN Paycheck Aside, Patrick Gaspard is a Radical

Several days ago, Capital Research Center’s Matthew Vadum published research here indicating an ACORN alumni in the White House (other than the president): Political Director Patrick Gaspard.  As I did three weeks prior at ACORNcracked.com, Matthew used a Wade Rathke blog as the source, which Rathke, the founder of ACORN,  immediately changed after Vadum’s report, citing “memory tricks.”  Politico led the way in poo-pooing the connection once Rathke played cover-up.

Rathke said it not only on his blog, but also at a book signing in New Orleans, which was recently covered in the Fox News Special: The Truth About ACORN.”  While we attended that book signing and were not able to get that portion on tape, the Fox documentary crew did.  Sadly, the remarks apparently ended up on the cutting room floor.

The fact is, Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s “Glue Man,” is more important than Van Jones ever hoped of being.  The fact is, one of the most critical and influential jobs in a White House, the Director of Political Affairs, is occupied by a former SEIU health care lobbyist and ACORN organizer.  To be exact, he was Executive Vice President–the #2–at SEIU 1199 in New York City.

After Gaspard was appointed to the White House, Carribbean Voice quoted him as saying, “I grew up in 1199…and I will always be an 1199er wherever I am.”  SEIU’s luxury is that now taxpayers are paying for it.

(more…)

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Tags: 527 organization, ACORN, Al Sharpton, America Coming Together, Barack Obama
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 8:45 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama | 1207028 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/10/05/acorn-paycheck-aside-patrick-gaspard-is-a-radical/ACORN+Paycheck+Aside%2C+Patrick+Gaspard+is+a+Radical2009-10-05+15%3A45%3A36Kyle+Olson

ACORN and SEIU: Anatomy of a Shakedown

Across America community organizations operate in impoverished, disadvantaged, low-income or minority communities. No matter the phrase used to describe the special interest, a group exists to represent it. Often these organizations initially have good intentions and seek to give back and serve the community in which they operate. When government money, power and influence become part of the equation however, lofty principles tend to fall by the wayside. Other organizations are created to cause chaos and disrupt the system.

The Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was perceived by many as a well-intended organization, but it appears that the association that Wade Rathke founded was increasingly driven to cause chaos and disrupt the system whenever it could.

BEFORE the Dale Rathke embezzlement finally became last year, John Fund, in “Grapes of Rathke: ACORN, a liberal activist group, comes under scrutiny. About time,” reported: (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Booz Allen, Carlyle Group, Community Reinvestment Act, Dale Rathke
Posted Sep 27th 2009 at 5:30 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, Obama, Politics | 930271 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/amoncrief/2009/09/27/acorn-and-seiu-anatomy-of-a-shakedown/ACORN+and+SEIU%3A+Anatomy+of+a+Shakedown2009-09-27+12%3A30%3A58Anita+MonCrief

NY Times Editor: Paper Was Too Slow to Cover ACORN Scandal

From New York Times Public Editor Clary Hoyt:

ON Sept. 12, an Associated Press article inside The Times reported that the Census Bureau had severed its ties to Acorn, the community organizing group. Robert Groves, the census director, was quoted as saying that Acorn, one of thousands of unpaid organizations promoting the 2010 census, had become “a distraction.”

Clark Hoyt

What the article didn’t say — but what followers of Fox News and conservative commentators already knew — was that a video sting had caught Acorn workers counseling a bogus prostitute and pimp on how to set up a brothel staffed by under-age girls, avoid detection and cheat on taxes. The young woman in streetwalker’s clothes and her companion were actually undercover conservative activists with a hidden camera.

It was an intriguing story: employees of a controversial outfit, long criticized by Republicans as corrupt, appearing to engage in outrageous, if not illegal, behavior. An Acorn worker in Baltimore was shown telling the “prostitute” that she could describe herself to tax authorities as an “independent artist” and claim 15-year-old prostitutes, supposedly illegal immigrants, as dependents. (more…)

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Tags: 2010 Census, ACORN, acorn scandal, BigGovernment.com, Bretha Lewis
Posted Sep 27th 2009 at 12:26 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 9362114 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/27/ny-times-public-editor-discusses-papers-slow-reflexes-on-acorn-scandal/NY+Times+Editor%3A+Paper+Was+Too+Slow+to+Cover+ACORN+Scandal2009-09-27+07%3A26%3A16Publius

Planting the Seeds: The Politicized Art Behind the ACORN Plan

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah.

They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned.

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.

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. (more…)

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Tags: ABC, ACORN, acorn scandal, Bertha Lewis, Brian Williams
Posted Sep 20th 2009 at 7:08 pm in ACORN, Featured Story, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 5858303 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2009/09/20/planting-the-seeds-the-politicized-art-behind-the-acorn-plan/Planting+the+Seeds%3A+The+Politicized+Art+Behind+the+ACORN+Plan2009-09-21+02%3A08%3A32Andrew+Breitbart

9/11 Truther Van Jones Likens Himself to Wrong Churchill

We haven’t heard the last of Van Jones.

Arianna Huffington was kind enough to allow her good friend who happens to have been a former campaign manager from her California gubernatorial run to post his preliminary reflections on being unceremoniously booted from the Obama administration on the Huffington Post.

It’s the least she could do.

Jones is President Obama’s former green jobs czar.

He believes the Bush administration caused the 9/11 terrorist attacks to happen. He also denounced the United States on Sept. 12, 2001 blaming America for the atrocities the day before. He also mourned the deaths of the people killed in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center but only the ones who were working class.

In what will no doubt find its way into the memoirs he might be contemplating writing, Jones compares himself to Winston Churchill, which is odd for many reasons but especially because of the apparent contempt that President Obama holds for the late great British prime minister.

With all the modesty one has come to expect from a community organizer, Jones writes

Of course, some supporters actually think I will be more effective on the “outside.” Maybe so. But those ideas always remind me of that old canard about Winston Churchill. After he lost a hard-fought election, a friend told him: “Winston, this really is just a blessing in disguise.” Churchill quipped: “Damned good disguise.” I can certainly relate to that sentiment right now. [emoticon in original]

He likens himself to the wrong Churchill.

Van Jones is more like Ward Churchill.

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Tags: Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post, Van Jones, Ward Churchill, Winston Churchill
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 10:36 am in Obama, Politics | 381452 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/09/17/911-truther-van-jones-likens-himself-to-wrong-churchill/9%2F11+Truther+Van+Jones+Likens+Himself+to+Wrong+Churchill2009-09-17+17%3A36%3A43Matthew+Vadum

Sham Angelides Commission Will Protect ACORN

Congress’s official investigation into the financial crisis, the so-called Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, will convene its first meeting today.  Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked chairman of the commission Phil Angelides, has deep ties to radical left-wing politics, including the Van Jones-connected Apollo Alliance, which he chairs, and ACORN, which is an Apollo member and endorsed and actively supported his gubernatorial campaign.  His selection proves the commission will be a politicized attempt to advance a left-wing agenda through a revisionist history of the financial crisis.  It also assures that ACORN and other community organizers who forced banks to make reckless loans in the name of affordable housing will be let off the hook.

Angelides’s San Francisco-based Apollo Alliance describes itself as a “coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution.”  Based on the radical past of some of its key figures, the use of the word revolution is appropriate.  Apollo was conceived of, and presently serves, as a clearing house to align the otherwise disparate interests of environmental groups, labor unions, social justice organizations, and rent-seeking corporations.

Disgraced former White House green jobs czar Van Jones was an Apollo board member, involved with the group from its founding, and was its model for a new type of leader.  Apollo board member John Podesta, who was chairman of Obama’s transition team, already brought Van Jones back to the Center for American Progress, Podesta’s influential think tank where Jones had previously been a senior fellow.  These are Angelides’s friends and ideological peers. (more…)

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Tags: AFL-CIO, Apollo Alliance, Cathy Calfo, Center for American Progress, Ella Baker Center
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 5:25 am in ACORN, Congress, Economics, Politics | 387836 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pkerpen/2009/09/17/sham-angelides-commission-will-protect-acorn/Sham+Angelides+Commission+Will+Protect+ACORN2009-09-17+12%3A25%3A46Phil+Kerpen

ACORN Story Grows But Mainstream Media Refuse to Cover It

From FoxNews.com:

This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings. But almost no one is covering it.

Bruce Springsteen once wrote: “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come).” I doubt he expected that story of love gone wrong would become ideal political commentary for the group known as ACORN.

The small scandal showing an embarrassing video of Baltimore ACORN staffers looking like they were giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel, is now national news. — This story has everything you could ever want – corruption, sleazy actions at tax-funded organizations, firings, government ties, sex, hookers. It is a network news director’s dream. Imagine the ratings!

Only almost no one is covering it.

This is the news media in the era of Van Jones and President Obama. The major outlets cover what they want and create the themes they want. When they find something inconvenient, they let it pass. They didn’t like the Van Jones story, so they ignored it. The network news media liked the financial entity known as Fannie Mae, so they ignored that scandalous organization for years. ACORN is getting the same treatment. (more…)

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Tags: ABC, ACORN, acorn prostitute, acorn prostitute video, acorn prostitution
Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 10:27 pm in ACORN, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 2518209 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/14/acorn-story-grows-but-mainstream-media-refuse-to-cover-it/ACORN+Story+Grows+But+Mainstream+Media+Refuse+to+Cover+It2009-09-15+05%3A27%3A02Publius

Mark Steyn on ACORN: Community Organizing in Action

Last night, Mark Steyn discussed Obama’s connection to ACORN and ACORN’s role in the 2010 Census on the “The Hugh Hewitt Show”:

Hugh Hewitt: I think you’re right. It will come down to whether or not there are enough Democrats who will lemming-like go over the cliff for the benefit of President Obama’s vision for America. And that remains to be seen. Let me ask you about the ACORN story. Have you been following the story at www.biggovernment.com that Andrew Breitbart has loosed about…

Mark Steyn: Yeah.

HH: What do you make of this?

MS: Well, this is a story in which he’s got some amazing footage of ACORN officials telling a pimp and a prostitute how to lie to the IRS, and how to claim mythical, underage dependents in exotic lands as dependents for taxation purposes and various other things. It’s fascinating stuff, because it’s a glimpse of what community organization is in action. Community organization means bigging up your base. And if necessary, that means conscripting all kinds of peculiar figures, including pimps, prostitutes and their various fictional or real dependents in foreign lands, and claiming benefits for them. And it’s absolutely outrageous that actually more of this wasn’t exposed in the campaign, because Obama’s connection to ACORN, and his willingness to give ACORN a role in the United States Census, puts a huge question mark over the reliability of government data, and over U.S. elections, not so much in blue and red states, but in purple states, it puts a big question mark over the integrity of those elections.

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Tags: 2010 Census, ACORN, Andrew Breitbart, BigGovernment, child prostitution
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 1:24 pm in ACORN, News, Obama, Politics | 1082105 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/11/mark-steyn-on-acorn-community-organizing-in-action/Mark+Steyn+on+ACORN%3A+Community+Organizing+in+Action2009-09-11+20%3A24%3A25Publius