Looks like Obama is not so keen on following his rules about lobbyists:

Despite the job title, McLaughlin wasn’t a registered lobbyist. Still, ethics rules created by an Obama executive order prohibit McLaughlin from “participat[ing] in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to” Google. But the e-mails show McLaughlin has been involved with formulating policy that directly affects Google, regularly trading e-mails with Google’s “evangelist,” and lobbyist.

~snip~

And only when I followed up with a question about the e-mails with lobbyist Davidson did Weiss admit “they did violate the President’s Ethics Pledge,” and note that McLaughlin had been reprimanded. [emphasis mine] Washington Examiner

Well so much for the no lobbyists lobbying for their special interests. How’s that transparency thing working out for ya?

Iran blinks after much bluster:

Iran will not be sending a blockade-busting ship to Gaza in defiance of Israeli warnings, an Iranian lawmaker said Saturday, citing Israeli “restrictions.” Yahoo News

Iran was going to send the blockade buster to help get “humanitarian” aid ships through. Perhaps the idea of being sunk by the Israeli Navy did not appeal to Iran. Imagine the humiliation if that happened.

Maybe the Islamic radicals don’t care who is leading our country:

As for the revolutionary Islamists–be they al-Qaida, Hamas, Hizballah, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhoods–or the radical regimes–be they Iran, Syria, the de facto Islamic Republic of Gaza, or others–all the U.S. governments are definitely the same. Indeed, they make this point explicitly in their declarations and media every day.

To them, the American people are “all the same” and the American governments are “all the same.” The argument between liberals and conservatives on this point is irrelevant. They hate the United States because of its values and they also hate the United States because of its policies. Gloria Center

While liberals love to exclaim that George Bush made the world, particularly the world of Islam, hate us, the reality is they hated us long before Bush was president. They bombed the WTC the first time under Clinton, attacked the Cole and other targets under Clinton and planned 9/11 under him. They do not like us no matter who is elected to lead us and they will continue to attack us until they are defeated.

How is that citizen of the world plan working out?

Another broken Obama promise? Gitmo remains open.

Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013.

~snip~
“The president can’t just wave a magic wand to say that Gitmo will be closed,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal thinking on a sensitive issue. The New York Times

Obama can’t wave a magic wand and make things happen but he sure acted like it when, with much fanfare, he signed the Executive Order to close it within one year of him taking office. That pen was his magic wand and he waved as if his deeming it so would make it happen.

This is what you get when you put someone with no leadership experience in charge.

Joe Biden Admits they can’t recover the jobs.

Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.” CBS News

Biden goes on to do what has become the main theme of this regime, blame it all on Bush. That excuse is getting old. Hey Joe, the mess belongs to you and you and Obama got it because you convinced America you could fix things.

Now you admit that you can’t.

Is ACORN running the Census?

Two Census Bureau managers from a Brooklyn field office were fired after their bosses found they faked household surveys to meet deadlines, the Daily News learned.

Instead of pounding the pavement and knocking on doors, the corner-cutting people-counters mined the phone book and Internet to make up answers to questionnaires, regional director Tony Farthing said. NY Daily News

This census has been poorly run and has cost billions more than any previous census. Perhaps that is because the Obama regime is using numbers of census employees to artificially lower the unemployment rate. These people are counted as new jobs but will be gone in a few months.

The folks who did this should be prosecuted for falsifying a government record. This is what happens when a corrupt regime runs things.

Biden calls store manager a Smart ass. Custard’s last stand:

Joe Biden, VP of the Obama regime, was out getting a frozen custard (he thought he was getting ice cream) and when he asked how much he owed the manager said not to worry about it, “It’s on us.” Then the manager told Biden to lower our taxes and we will call it even. Biden told the man to say something nice instead of being a smart ass. I thought the request for lower taxes was saying something nice.

This is the disdain the regime has for the average guy on the street. If you think you are paying too much in taxes and express that thought you are being a smart ass. This is because the regime, with people like Biden who have NO business experience, think they know better than you. Shut up you serfs and quit being smart asses. We know what is best for you.

Video at Real Clear Politics

Extending an open hand to Iran:

CIA Director Leon Panetta says Iran probably has enough low-enriched uranium for two nuclear weapons, but that it likely would take two years to build the bombs.

Panetta also says he is doubtful that recent U.N. penalties will put an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Yahoo News

It would seem as if the Obama doctrine of bowing to all the world leaders and extending an open hand to the bad people of the world has not paid off.

The Iranian leadership knows Obama is weak and they are pushing the limits. They have enough nuclear material for two bombs and will have those bombs in the near future (and probably sooner than the estimated two years).

How is that world experience working out for ya?

Never surrender, never submit.

The former head of the now defunct organization ACORN is screaming racism and warning those mush heads who listen to her that things are worse now than they were during Jim Crow and the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. She is spouting the liberal line that the TEA Party movement is full of racists who will take off their masks and come after black folks.

What a load of horse dung.

This moron has no clue whatsoever. To her ACORN lost federal funds (the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated that ban) and disbanded because of racist white people. The fact that ACORN was involved in criminal activity never crossed her mind as a possible reason that the organization ran into trouble. Voter registration fraud, voter fraud, assisting people with tax evasion, prostitution, and importing minors for prostitution were all committed by members of her organization. Of this there is no doubt.

But that is not the reason ACORN had problems. No, it has to be racist white America.

Bertha also told the crowd that she is a Socialist and she stated that it is OK with her when groups tell her they are young, Democrat, and Socialist (as if there is a difference between a Democrat and a Socialist). That is all well and good. This is America and she can be what she wants but what she cannot do is slander other Americans by painting them as racists because she lacked the integrity to run her organization in an ethical manner.

Lewis also took a shot at the TEA Party movement referring to it as a “bowel movement.”

Ha Ha, how very juvenile. Is there any wonder why people do not take her or her former organization seriously?

The only bowel movement I saw was the one being executed when she was talking crap because it is obvious that this moron talks out her anus.

Which might not be all that impressive considering that her head is up there.

Source:
Washington Examiner

Never surrender, never submit.

The corrupt community organizing group ACORN is closing down. Some of the stronger local affiliates will remain but the national chapter is closing.

The ACORN Association Board met on Sunday March 21 and approved a set of steps to responsibly manage the process of bringing its operations to a close over the coming months. These include:

* Closing ACORN’s remaining state affiliates and field offices by April 1st; and
* Developing a plan to resolve all outstanding debts, obligations and other issues.

ACORN’s members have a great deal to be proud of–from promoting to homeownership to helping rebuild New Orleans, from raising wages to winning safer streets, from training community leaders to promoting voter participation—ACORN members have worked hard to create stronger to communities, a more inclusive democracy, and a more just nation. Politico

Members of this group were video recorded advising people to commit crimes (despite any claims to the contrary). The videos do not lie. There is no way to edit in people giving advice on how to break the law.

Now all we have to do is keep this corrupt organization from reorganizing under some other name.

Then again, they say this will happen on April Fool’s Day. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Never surrender, never submit.

ACORN, the community rabble rousing group that works to elect Democrats and to support Obama’s agenda, is on the verge of bankruptcy. This is great news! The corrupt organization has been caught committing one crime after another and using taxpayer dollars to do it.

After public attention focused on their criminal deeds Obama and Democrats distanced themselves from the group. Perhaps it is because the group’s illegal activities helped elect some of them (Franken).

But now the group is in financial trouble and preparing to file for bankruptcy protection.

Good, I want to see this group go out of business and not be allowed to reconstitute under some other name.

As for all of their workers who will be out of work, screw them. They can go on Obama unemployment. At least that government welfare would be cheaper than the government welfare we have been giving the organization for all these years.

And to think, we have a couple of courageous young people to thank for this because they did the job the lame stream media refuses to do.

Source:
The New York Times

Congress voted to stop paying taxpayer money to the liberal support group ACORN. This took place after damning videos were released which showed members of that corrupt organization showing a pimp and prostitute how to avoid the law, how to avoid taxes, and how to bring underage girls into the country to use for prostitution.

Attorney General Eric Holder has weighed in on the matter and has ruled that ACORN may still be paid under terms of contracts that existed prior to the Congressional ban.

If Congress voted to cut funding why is it OK to continue to pay them? Are we to believe that the contracts were made with the non-corrupt branch of this organization?

Seems to me that if a defense contractor was found to be breaking the law and Congress voted to cut funding then contracts would not be paid.

It looks like Obama’s AG figured a way to continue paying the corrupt organization our hard earned money. ACORN is a partisan group that supports Democrats and only Democrats. The government gives them our money to do just that.

Big Government has been on this story and has clearly demonstrated that ACORN is a wing of the Democrat party. Documents that ACORN threw away in order to destroy evidence shows that they work to get Democrats elected. It is time to stop giving them any taxpayer money.

And it is time for the Executive Branch to stop usurping the authority of Congress.

Related:
Big Government
Big Government

Looks like the ACORN office in San Diego (that demonstrated fraud like this) is not the only one that has been breaking the law by dumping thousands of papers containing personal information. ACORN beat feet out of an office in Oklahoma last year so it could avoid paying the back rent it owed (no wonder they help people get loans they can’t even hope to pay back) and the group left behind a lot of paperwork and a computer. The paperwork included the group’s plan for putting the right politicians in office. The document posted at Big Government leaves no doubt that ACORN is a liberal organization dedicated to assisting the Democratic party. It is interesting the way they describe neighborhoods with Anglos in them (as if that is a bad thing).

Looks like ACORN is in violation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which governs how personal information is handled by certain institutions (of which ACORN is one). The documents dumped include credit reports (like the one found here), social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, addresses, dates of birth and all kinds of information that would be very useful to someone interested in stealing an identity.

The fine for failing to safeguard this information is $100,000 per incident. Since there are tens of thousands of papers containing tens and thousands of breaches of personal information, ACORN should be bankrupt and out of business when they get done with the fines.

I am amazed at the number of people who continue to defend this organization. It is rotten to the core and just when you think you have seen it all a new item pops up to expose them even more.

This group is a bunch of community organizing thugs who break or skirt the law in order to advance a political agenda just like their former mentor, Barack Obama or B-HO, as it were.

Each day Breitbart releases another item that exposes the corruption of ACORN.

He has promised that if the Attorney General does not launch a serious investigation then a lot of stuff will be released before the 2010 election.

That’s one way to take down the Democrats. Take down their community organizing firm.

Seems like the community criminal organizing group known as ACORN has filed suit against the US Government for voting to cut off its funds after employees of the group were video taped encouraging people to commit criminal acts. The last video demonstrated that the powers that be in ACORN lied about the encounter in one of its offices.

The Community Organizer in Chief distanced himself from the people he used to work with and members of Congress voted to cut off TAXPAYER money that was being sent to the ACORN crime family.

ACORN is suing basing the claim that it is unconstitutional for Congress to cut its funding.

That qualifies the legislation as bills of attainder, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the suit on behalf of ACORN. A bill of attainder punishes a person or group without the benefit of a trial, and is illegal under Article 1 of the Constitution.

Bills of attainder have traditionally been understood to have more serious legal consequences — including the seizure of private property and even capital punishment — than Congress’ decision to withhold funds that are at its discretion to disseminate. Though members of Congress have accused ACORN of corruption, it is not clear how the exercise of its own prerogative is outside the bounds of legislative power. Fox News

Maybe I have this wrong but I have never seen in the Constitution where TAXPAYER money is allowed to go to a group like this in the first place. Be that as it may, what makes the people of ACORN think that TAXPAYERS are supposed to fork over money to them when they are continually involved in crime?

This group is a partisan organization that works to get Democrats elected. Why should any Republican have to pay tax dollars to support something like this? Why would any self respecting Democrat (I know, if they were self respecting they would be Republicans but stick with me on this) want TAXPAYER money spent on this kind of stuff?

Suppose there was a group that said it was a community organizing group and it took tons of TAXPAYER money to do “good” things. Then suppose it registered people but threw out all the cards where people registered as Democrats. Suppose the group pushed the agendas of Republicans and suppose members were caught giving advice to people on how to engage in prostitution using illegal alien minors or how to evade taxes?

Don’t ya think people like those at ACORN would be up in arms about it?

I guess since ACORN happens to be a liberal organization that uses TAXPAYER money to advance liberal causes it figures it is OK to bilk the TAXPAYER.

Congress is well within its right to cut off the funding at any time and for any reason.

If ACORN does not like that then perhaps they should all go out and get real jobs.

I understand that the new government run health care system will need people experienced in committing fraud…

Progressives, despite their deceptive name, want to look backwards, which is why, when you have a real question about one of their half- baked and failing policies, they love to point out former President Bush ( don’t they know he hasn’t been around for eight months?).  So I guess it is in keeping with their character to go back to the past for ideas that didn’t work then, and rework them into ideas that won’t work now.

At least, in this aspect, they are consistent.

As we try to shake off the financial crisis, here’s a bright idea. Take a law that has led to the writing of an enormous amount of bad mortgages and expand it. Then take enforcement away from bank examiners and give it to housing activists.

Sound like a poisonous cocktail? Well, it is what the Obama administration and Democrats are currently stirring up onCapitol Hill.

The White House and Congress want to expand a 30-year-old law–the Community Reinvestment Act–that helped to fuel the mortgage meltdown. What the CRA does, in effect, is compel banks to seek the permission of community activists to get regulatory approval for bank expansions and mergers. Often this means striking a deal with activist groups such as ACORN or unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and agreeing to allocate credit to poor and minority areas that are underserved.

In short, the CRA encourages banks to make loans they would not ordinarily make. What’s more, these agreements often require that banks offer no-money-down mortgages and remove caps on how much debt a borrower can take on. All of this is done in the name of “financial democracy.”

Liberals pooh-pooh the idea that a 30-year-old law could have contributed to the current subprime crisis and credit crunch. But what they ignore is the massive expansion of CRA-commitments forced on banks in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

forbes.com

This is stupidity on a truly mind boggling scale. These are the people you want to represent you? 

According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, in the first 20 years of the act, up to 1997, commitments totaled approximately $200 billion. But from 1997 to 2007, commitments exploded to more than $4.2 trillion. (Keep in mind this is more than four times the size of the current health bill being debated in Congress.) The burdens on individual banks can be enormous. Washington Mutual, for example, pledged $1 trillion in mortgages to those with credit histories that “fall outside typical credit, income or debt constraints,” and was awarded the 2003 CRA Community Impact Award for its Community Access program. Four years later it was taken over by the Office of Thrift Supervision.

forbes.com

And some liberals still maintain that the CRA had nothing to do with the mortgage meltdown. Yeah, right- only if you hold your hands over your ears and yell, “La, La, La-” at the top of your lungs.

And then to compound the situation, ACORN, the “community organizing” group that used the CRA to crowbar favorable mortgages from reluctant banks, thus contributing to the mortgage meltdown find themselves under investigation.  They were largely untouched by the myriad scandals because they had patronage in Congress, and indeed the WH. Now they have found that there are limits to what even they can get away with.

Let the investigations begin, and spare no one- scorched earth policy should apply here.

Louisiana’s attorney general has broadened the scope of an investigation of ACORN to include a possible embezzlement of $5 million a decade ago within the community organization, five times more than previously reported.

ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new reported amount is “completely false.”

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has been conducting an investigation of ACORN since June. He issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to former ACORN International President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group’s books. Those subpoenas were focused on possible ACORN violations for non-payment of employee withholding taxes, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act. No charges have been made.

The attorney general had inquired in June into an alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.

nola.com/politics

Yes, New Orleans would be a great place to begin- after all, it is the home base of ACORN, and her sister agency (although you might think there could be the teeniest bit of “conflict of interest”) SEIU, the union that is as close to Nobama as the warts on his backside. This could get real ugly, because there are so many pols in Washington who are tangled in ACORN’S web, and a true and thorough investigation will flush them out like the roaches they are.

Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. Thesubpoena issued Monday changed the tone of the investigation and put a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue.

“Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million, ” the new subpoena says.

The subpoena says, “It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds.”

The subpoena requests documents from Citizens Consulting Inc., a financial arm of ACORN, and from various accounting and legal consultants in New Orleans. Investigators are trying to verify the issues raised in the subpoena.

“We’re going to follow the evidence where it leads us and try to do the right thing,” said David Caldwell, head of the attorney general’s public corruption and special prosecutions divisions. “We are actively investigating the case, whatever the outcome might be. This is something we are devoting our full attention to.”

Wade Rathke, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, referred questions to ACORN officials. Lewis said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys had a chance to review the subpoena.

nola.com/politics

It’s convenient that Wade Rathke is in Thailand- taking a vacation in the land of underage prostitution? We may never know, but he is beyond reach of a subpoena at the moment. We need to grab Dale, his brother, and squeeze him dry in front of a Grand Jury- but would he lie? I think he would- which leads us back to Deep Throat’s famous words- “Follow the money.”

That may well be our best course- because the money trail will tell us the truth.

The other players, probably not so much.

ACORN, the Association that has given “community organizing” a bad name, has come under increasing criticism and even investigations. Good, but not enough- not nearly enough, as this organization has, through the years, morphed into many entities; SEIU, the Services Employees International Union, the Tides Foundation (a Soros- based liberal organization), and the Apollo Alliance, a group that helped the Resident actually write the healthcare and stimulus bills- think there might be a wee touch of conflict of interest, given the SEIU is organizing the nursing profession and other service aspects that stand to receive scads of money if all this passes.

All of these “organizations” need to be investigated- that much is plain- what isn’t , is whether these actually will be.

As various charges and complaints have materialized over the years, it seems that ACORN uses the communities in which they are located as staging grounds for national power grabs. With multiple states and entities receiving federal funds, ACORN plays to win. Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The Washington Examiner has covered ACORN’s: “Muscle for the Money” program:

“ACORN’s so-called ‘muscle for money’ strategy extorts ‘donations’ from targeted government and corporate officials by offering them Mafia-like protection from protests by the group’s own paid thugs, many of them convicted felons. ACORN has also blocked bank mergers until the targeted financial institutions agreed to change their lending policies to ACORN’s satisfaction.”

biggovernment.com

“Mafia- like” protection- oh goody- that sounds, well- illegal, doesn’t it? At the very least, unethical, but when has unethical ever stopped a liberal before (see: Bill Clinton)? 

This has been going on for a long time, beginning with the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) of Jimmy Carter’s term, which had the lofty goal of allegedly helping the less advantaged to progress in society, but ACORN and the others all do one thing in common- they use the politics of confrontation and passive extortion to achieve their ends.

As various charges and complaints have materialized over the years, it seems that ACORN uses the communities in which they are located as staging grounds for national power grabs. With multiple states and entities receiving federal funds, ACORN plays to win. Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The Washington Examiner has covered ACORN’s: “Muscle for the Money” program:

ACORN’s so-called ‘muscle for money’ strategy extorts ‘donations’ from targeted government and corporate officials by offering them Mafia-like protection from protests by the group’s own paid thugs, many of them convicted felons. ACORN has also blocked bank mergers until the targeted financial institutions agreed to change their lending policies to ACORN’s satisfaction.”

While it is easy to see the benefit for ACORN to go after Sherwin Williams or Jackson Hewitt, it was their 2007-2008 ventures with SEIU against the Carlyle Group that deserve a closer inspection. In 2007 SEIU began a series of “grassroots” actions designed to pressure the Carlyle Group to the bargaining table.

“The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) staged a protest outside the Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters of The Carlyle Group as part of the union’s bid to organize Manor Care, the Toledo-based nursing home giant Carlyle is buying for $6.3 billion.”

biggovernment.com

It is all about the pressure, and everybody wants to be Tony Soprano, I guess, but in reality, there are lines you do not cross and ethics you cannot ignore without a penalty, and just because the Resident might be an ardent supporter does not mean that he will support you if you begin to embarrass him, and that is what is happening now.

The videos that incriminate ACORN, and show them actively attempting to evade IRS tax laws, and set up, or aid in setting up an alleged house of prostitution, have caused this group and any others associated with ACORN to finally feel some heat.

Good- it’s about time- this group, as well as the others mentioned above, are a boil on the butt of our nation, and it is time to lance it and get rid of this infection. 

This kind of help our Republic absolutely does not need.

ACORN is the organization that worked to get Barack Obama elected. The organization is billed as one that helps the under served and they worked hard to register people to vote. Many of the registrations were phony and there were plenty of accusations of fraud. Many offices are under investigation.

Obama taught the people at ACORN when he was a community rabble-rouser.

Recently, two people went into a Baltimore ACORN office and pretended to be a pimp and a prostitute. The stellar employees are on video telling the two how to avoid taxes, how to get a home in which to run a brothel (with under aged girls) and how to hide the prostitutes job. OK a couple of bad people in an office does not make a tainted organization. The two were fired, end of story.

Then a video was released with the same two in a Washington DC ACORN office and they were given the same advice. They were told how to break the law. OK, two instances does not a tainted organization make. Two people were fired.

Now a video with the same scenario and same advice has been released from an encounter in an ACORN office in New York. Two people were fired and ACORN claims the videos were doctored.

We are at three instances of the same advice being given to two people and that advice is how to break the law. This is more than a coincidence. It shows a systemic problem in that organization. It shows just how deeply the corruption runs and yet, the MSM has not reported on it. It has been largely ignored by the MSM. Fox News is practically the only organization giving any time to the story.

Last night Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift as she was giving an acceptance speech for an award that West felt should have gone to someone else.

This has played non stop on the news and West took time in his scheduled appearance on the new Jay Leno show to apologize for his outburst. He has apologized several times since the incident but felt it necessary to do so again. That is all well and good but how much coverage does this warrant? This has gotten a lot more play from the MSM than the corruption that has been exposed in ACORN.

The liberals said there was nothing to the allegations against ACORN when they surfaced last year. Now that the corruption cannot be so easily dismissed the left has found a way to deal with it.

They just ignore it.

Even Obama had more to say about Kanye than he did about ACORN.