9/28/08

Union operative: 'I broke the law all the time.'

More union corruption stories: here

Ex-union lobbyist exposes how union dues are used to create D.C. corruption

When a powerful politician told Joe Miller that "money is the mother's milk of politics," Miller countered with his own slogan. "Money is the wicked wine of politics," he replied.

I like Miller's catchphrase better, and he offers a candid look at politics and money in "The Wicked Wine of Democracy," his new memoir from University of Washington Press. Miller spent 40 years in national politics, first as a wide-ranging campaign consultant for Democrats, then as a lobbyist for unions and other groups in the nation's capital.

In this campaign season, his book is an entertaining reminder that while political policies and philosophies matter, so do personalities, backroom arm-bending, and that wicked wine. Now 86 and retired, Miller lives in Washington, D.C., but he has strong ties to the Northwest. An East Coaster, he visited the Northwest several times as a young man and was smitten with the region.

Miller was a writer and editor for several Northwest newspapers before he worked on campaigns for such regional luminaries as Warren G. Magnuson, Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Frank Church.

After helping John F. Kennedy win election, he set up shop as a lobbyist representing, among others, the United Steelworkers of America, railroads, and small timber companies in the Northwest. What sets his book apart from the standard insider fare are his tales as a lobbyist and his examples of wicked wine at work.

Miller writes that he passed envelopes of cash to lawmakers, converted campaign checks into hard-to-trace cash, illegally shifted campaign expenses onto the books of labor unions, and did campaign work while on a union payroll.

"I broke the law all the time," he said in an interview. "Everybody was doing it, and you couldn't survive unless you did it."

But Miller had limits. He admits salivating at the sight of a briefcase full of money, but he didn't take bribes. And he didn't skim from the bundles of campaign cash he delivered.

"Padding expenses was one thing," he writes, "stealing from candidates is another."

Miller is a likable and engaging storyteller on the page and on the phone - his nickname, after all, is "Smiling Joe" - so it's difficult to pigeonhole him as a dastardly fellow.

He says he's not remorseful for what he did because everyone else was doing the same, and then some. He also says grand schemes to reduce the role of money in politics would likely be ineffective or, if too strong, would hinder democracy in action.

"If Utopians took over and political money were outlawed," he writes, "slick operators would still find ways to infuse it into the process."

Miller says campaign financing is more visible than it used to be, thanks to disclosure laws, and says competing cash from competing interests tends to cancel each other out, or result in compromise.

To offset egregious practices, he urges reporters to do a better job investigating campaign money and the work of lobbyists.

Miller told me about the time a reporter learned that Miller had created bogus campaign committees with bogus officers who were Miller's neighbors. Miller held his breath when the story appeared in print, expecting a heap of scorn.

The fallout? Nothing.

"It's just resignation," Miller said. "That's the way the game is played."

(bellinghamherald.com)

ACORN's power-grab: Conquering the U.S.A.

More ACORN stories: hereVoter-fraud stories: here

Change that only unionists and collectivists can believe in

In case you — like most of us — have difficulty keeping up with Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama's ties to corrupt, terrorist and anti-American groups and individuals a new one has emerged. The mainstream press — as with Obama's other associations — is working overtime to cover this latest one up. Obama is directly tied to a group that has been both accused of and its members convicted of National Voter Fraud, embezzlement and misuse of tax payer funds — ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

What are Obama's direct ties to the voter-fraud group? Let's take a look. Obama was not only ACORN's attorney but, actually trained the group in "community activism!" And, while Obama was Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, he arranged funding for the voter-fraud group through the CAC. McCauley's World reports: "In Philadelphia alone ACORN has raised over $800,000 Dollars for Barack Obama's Campaign." In politics, scratching each other's back is always the order of the day.

The voter-fraud group is working almost non-stop — except when its members are arrested and taken into custody — to get Obama elected POTUS. If Obama is elected, we could actually have the least experienced, most corrupt and first Socialist/Communist POTUS in world history. And the other Obama direct ties to corruption and anti-Americanism? Let's take another look — shall we?

* William Ayers-former head of terrorist group the Weather Underground — was Obama's colleague at the Woods Fund of Chicago and Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Note: Ayers lobbied to have Obama named Chairman of the CAC. Ayers is also a major fundraiser for Obama

* Obama's acknowledged over 20 year minister and mentor, Jeremiah Wright, has made and continues to make anti-American, anti-white and anti-Semitic "sermons"

* Obama has direct ties to Saudi Arabian funders and the Black Panthers

* Depending on one's sources, Obama was either the #2 or #3 Fannie Mae (Democrats' personal slush fund) funded politician

* Obama is directly ties to now-convicted felon Antoin Rezko

* Obama wants to work with the very leaders of countries who want to destroy us

The evidence against this man continues to mount. But, still Democrats and the Democrats' media want him as POTUS. Corruption recognizes and supports its own, folks. This could never happen in a sane world.

http://www.kmbc.com/politics/10214492/detail.html

http://www.abc-7.com/articles/readnews.asp?articleid=21814&z=2

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/10/missouri-acorn-voter-fraud-scandal.html

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20128338&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

http://www.barackbook.com/Profiles/ACORN.htm

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/20/obama_got_start_in_civil_rights_practice/

http://mcauleysworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/what-is-acorn-why-is-acorn-associated-with-voter-fraud-does-obama-have-an-acorn-connection/

http://rosettasister.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/%E2%80%9Cthe-chicago-annenberg-challenge-where-william-ayers-hired-barack-obama-to-be-board-chairman%E2%80%9D-stanley-kurtz/

Wright-hate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M-kD0QdRJk

http://www.newsmax.com/politics/obama_sutton_saudi/2008/09/03/127490.html


http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/04/11/rezkos-corruption-trial-put-obamas-ties-to-him-in-spotlight.html

(renewamerica.us)

Taking away workers' fundamental right

More EFCA stories: here

EFCA "false choice" scheme reminiscent of Progressive-Fascist Era

Kirk Schuring's Congressional campaign contends that John Boccieri "showed his disdain for area workers" by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. That prompted Boccieri's campaign to blast Schuring for abandoning "his half-hearted attempts to paint himself as a supporter of workers and friend of the American labor movement."

The two sides have been jockeying to show they have labor union support. On Sept. 2, Schuring announced a labor coalition had formed to back his campaign. Local labor officials — through the Hall of Fame Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO — answered by endorsing Boccieri in Ohio 16th District race.

Schuring, a Republican state senator from Jackson Township, and Boccieri, a Democrat state senator living in Alliance, are running to replace U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Bethlehem Township, who will retire after serving 36 years in Congress.

PROPOSED CHANGE

The Employee Free Choice Act is a bid to change union organizing rules outlined in the National Labor Relations Act. The Employee Free Choice Act passed the U.S. House on March 1, 2007, but it has been stalled in the Senate since June 2007.

The proposed change is allowing union representation through "card check," which is the process of employees signing cards stating they want to be part of a union. Now, card sign-ups generally are followed by an election, although employers can agree to accept the signed cards and skip the election process.

Under the Free Choice act, employers can't demand an election when a majority of employees have signed union cards and there is no evidence of coercion by organizers. Additionally, if an employer and union can't reach an agreement within 90 days, either party can ask for federal mediation that could lead to binding arbitration.

SCHURING'S STANCE

In a press release Tuesday, Schuring said he supports the right of any employee to unionize, but believes workers asked to join a union should have the right to an election.

Calling the act "radical legislation," Schuring said the proposal would take away secret ballots "and expose employees to possible intimidation tactics by union organizers. It could make for a potentially very uncomfortable work environment for millions of working men and women."

The release adds that Schuring believes a secret ballot election is a worker's best defense against potential harassment, intimidation or even retaliation because of public disclosure of someone's private decision.

"Card check is not a move to help the rank-and-file workers in our shops and factories. In fact, it takes away their fundamental right, and that's why I oppose it," Schuring said.

BOCCIERI'S RESPONSE

Boccieri's staff fired back by contending that Schuring's support for unions lasted only three weeks — from the Sept. 2 labor coalition announcement until the Sept. 23 Employee Free Choice Act release.

"Our current leaders on Wall Street and in Washington certainly aren't looking out for American workers, and with this attack, Senator Schuring isn't either," Boccieri is quoted as saying.

Dan Sciury, local AFL-CIO president, is quoted in Boccieri's release as being unimpressed with Schuring's professed concern for the worker's rights. Schuring isn't a friend of working people, Sciury said.

"I think most workers are a lot more concerned about being intimidated out of joining a union by their employers than they are about being intimidated into one," Sciury said.

"The Employee Free Choice Act simply gives workers who want it one more option for forming a union and advocating for better rights at work," Sciury said.

(cantonrep.com)

SEIU members protest against Andy Stern

More SEIU stories: here UHW stories: hereAndy Stern stories: here

Whitewash in the works, Stern ducks accountability

Thousands of health care workers from around the state gathered Friday in San Mateo to protest what they said was a hostile takeover by their parent union.

Members of United Healthcare Workers-West, or UHW, milled outside the San Mateo Event Center in red T-shirts bearing the slogan "Hands off Our Union" as former U.S. Labor Secretary Ray Marshall conducted hearings inside on the dispute between UHW and its parent, Service Employees International Union.

SEIU has charged UHW leaders with improperly using millions of dollars of member dues and other misconduct and recommends putting the local union under a trusteeship, which would remove its internal leaders from power.

"The international wants to appoint people to come in and run the bargaining teams when they know nothing about our facility and what our needs are," said Linda Cornell, a secretary in the medical and surgery unit at Stanford Hospital.

Michael Torres, a respiratory therapist at the USC University Hospital in Los Angeles and an elected UHW representative, said SEIU president Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger engaged in a smear campaign against UHW and tried to undermine its contract negotiations with employers.

They "have acted like the worst union boss — even worse than my current employer, who intimidated us, harassed us, threatened us and told us to never vote union," said Torres, who is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit UHW filed earlier this month
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against SEIU in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The suit alleges that SEIU officials quashed internal dissent by attempting to discredit UHW with negative publicity and orchestrating the trusteeship, "wherein Stern assumes autocratic control over a dissident subordinate entity, its members, property and assets, and terminates its democratically elected leaders."

UHW officials say their union became the target of SEIU's wrath after criticizing the parent union's practices. They have also accused SEIU of mailing Stanford Hospital workers, who were voting on whether to join UHW earlier this month, letters that negatively portrayed the local union.

"We have received a lot of information from the international, all negative toward UHW," Cornell said. "Our employer used that information to try to dissuade people from voting the union in again."

SEIU spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette called those charges unfounded and said internal union rules require that members receive written notices about trusteeship hearings and corruption charges against leaders.

The only way Stanford workers would have received those mailings prior to joining the union is if UHW mistakenly provided information in the members' database, Ringuette said.

"The allegations against SEIU leadership are serious," Ringuette said. "We have no more important responsibility than to protect our members' interests and to make sure that we are fully accountable to them for how their dues money is spent."

She noted that SEIU establishes trusteeships in about four unions per year.

"Trusteeship is not political," Ringuette said. "We set a very high bar for ourselves."

After the hearings end, Marshall will allow members and officials from both unions to make written submissions for 30 days. He will then submit a report to Stern, who will ask SEIU's executive board to make a final call on the proposed trusteeship.

That decision could come as soon as November, according to union officials.

(insidebayarea.com)

Part of the problem or part of the solution?

More ACORN stories: hereVoter-fraud stories: here

Congress enters ACORN's collectivist abyss

More ACORN stories: hereVoter-fraud stories: here

Researcher downplays "Capital Magnet Fund" diversion

As America peers into the economic abyss, radical community organizer groups are itching to get in on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s big bucks, Big Government bank bailout action. (Maybe we should call it BBBGBBA.) The push comes after President George W. Bush caved this summer and signed another housing bailout that contained slush fund language.

As first reported by Warner Todd Huston of NewsBusters, Democratic lawmakers have been attempting to insert language into the bailout package to siphon off 13%* of profits (if there are any) from the sale of troubled assets and put it into a slush fund called the Housing Trust Fund. Here is the wording, apparently from Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut):
TRANSFER OF A PERCENTAGE OF PROFITS.

1. DEPOSITS.Not less than 20 percent of any profit realized on the sale of each troubled asset purchased under this Act shall be deposited as provided in paragraph (2).

2. USE OF DEPOSITS.Of the amount referred to in paragraph (1)

1. 65 percent shall be deposited into the Housing Trust Fund established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568); and

2. 35 percent shall be deposited into the Capital Magnet Fund established under section 1339 of that Act (12 U.S.C. 4569).

REMAINDER DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY.All amounts remaining after payments under paragraph (1) shall be paid into the General Fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.
The proposed fund resembles the Social Investment Fund Network that was inserted into the Democratic Party’s official platform and that Senator Barack Obama has proposed.

As Michelle Malkin has pointed out, the fund “would serve as a permanent, taxpayer-backed pipeline to Democrat partisan outfits masquerading as public-interest do-gooders.”

HotAir has an excellent post on the topic here.

* It seems to be 13%, anyway. The fund would take 65% from the 20% so that’s how I arrived at the figure of 13%.

- Matthew Vadum is Editor of Organization Trends and Foundation Watch, two monthly newsletters published by Capital Research Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank that focuses on the politics of philanthropy.

(canadafreepress.com)

Forced-labor unionists get ugly in Colorado

Related: "Anti-choice Big Bedfellows smacked down"
"The 28 labor-states" • More worker-choice stories: here

Labor-state union & business bigs intolerant of worker-choice

As labor groups and businesses in Denver brawl over proposed amendments to the state constitution, parties across the state are lending sharp eyes to issues packing this year’s ballot. Seven business-related proposals have drawn concern from all sides in Steamboat Springs.

For example, the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort As­­sociation is encouraging its members to vote against four amendments it considers anti-business. The local teachers’ union, however, is promoting those four and fighting three amendments it views as anti-worker.

It all started with Amendment 47.

That constitutional addition would prohibit employers from requiring workers to pay dues to labor organizations. Chamber Executive Vice President Sandy Evans Hall said the Chamber Board of Directors voted to support the measure if it makes the Nov. 4 ballot.

“I think you know (it’s important) to give people the opportunity to vote in private to form a union or not,” Evans Hall said. “They feel as though the individual’s choice is something they support.”

Dennis Carlson is the director of the regional state teachers’ union affiliate that includes the Steamboat Springs Education Association. About 110 local educators are part of the union, Carlson said. The larger group, the Colorado Education Association, does not take dues from nonmembers, he said.

The union is against Am­end­ment 47.

“We call it the right to work for less,” Carlson said. “Basically, it limits the ability for unions to be able to organize and collect dues from members and nonmembers who benefit from the union, and also, these certain agreements have been negotiated in good faith between the labor organizations and employers.”
Backlash

After 47 appeared, other labor-related amendments followed. Gov. Bill Ritter and others in the capital are negotiating to try to get all or some of them off the ballot. The parties that proposed the amendments have until Thursday to remove them.

State Rep. Al White, a Hayden Republican running for the state Senate seat representing Steamboat Springs, said he thinks every labor amendment should go.

“I think that our current labor laws are adequate to serve the citizens,” he said. “I don’t think we need additional tweaking, particularly if it’s going to result in these potential union measures, which would have a very deleterious effect on Colorado business if any were adopted. That being the case, I will vote against all of them and all the pro-business measures, as well.”

Labor and business should make a “good-faith effort” to re­tract the Amendments, he said.

White’s opponent, Steamboat Democrat Ken Brenner, said he is against the right-to-work measure.

“If you work somewhere and your job place has a union that represents you that negotiates for wages and benefits and workplace safety, you’re receiving the benefits of union services,” Brenner said. “You should be sharing in the cost of providing those services.”
The face-off

The other two amendments seen as pro-business — or anti-worker — are 49 and 54.

The first would prohibit public employers from deducting money from workers’ paychecks for anything but specific purposes. Union dues are not included.

The 2008 State Ballot Information Book, prepared by the Colorado Legislative Council, provides arguments for and against each amendment. It states that Amendment 49 could intrude on the “ability of public employees to make individual decisions about paycheck deductions.” The amendment also could interfere with local governments’ authority to choose which deductions are available, it states.

Amendment 54 restricts pol­itical contributions from certain government contractors. The limits would apply to labor groups holding collective bargaining agreements with state or local government.

“That limits our ability to use money that our members have donated for political action, so it would be illegal for us to spend money on political campaigns and spend money on initiatives,” Carlson said.

The four amendments that are seen as pro-worker — or anti-business — are 53, 55, 56 and 57.

Those relate to penalties for executives whose businesses break the law; requiring specific cause for termination; requiring employers to provide health insurance; and allowing injured workers to sue employers if they think the workplace is unsafe, respectively.

Evans Hall said the four would be harmful and expensive to businesses and Colorado’s business climate. The health insurance amendment, 56, would require companies with 20 or more workers to pay 80 percent of costs for employees and 70 percent for dependents.

“I look at some of the businesses that would have to comply with this — for instance, the restaurants, and it would result in higher costs of doing business, lost jobs, higher cost of goods and services,” Evans Hall said. “I think a lot of employers would have to decrease employees’ wages, bonuses or other benefits to offset this cost.”

Keeping quiet

Most large local employers had little to say.

Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. would not comment. The only union on the mountain is the ski patrol, Ski Corp. spokesman Mike Lane confirmed. Ski patrol officials referred all questions to Ski Corp.

A spokeswoman for Colo­rado Ski Country USA, the state trade association, said the association has no stance on 47 but is against 55 and 56.

“It’s a matter of these issues just not being the best business choice for our industry, so right now we’re not going to support them,” spokeswoman Jen Rudolph said.

A spokesman for Xcel En­­er­­­gy, which runs the Hayden Station power plant, said the company was not taking a position. Peabody Energy, which runs Twentymile Coal Co., directed questions to the Colorado Mining Association. A spokesman was out of the office as of press time Thursday.

Despite the silence, Brenner said folks were fired up on all issues and candidates.

“Believe me,” he said, “Colorado is a political battleground this year, in every sense of the word.”

(steamboatpilot.com)

Paltry strike pay for IAM-Boeing unionists

Related: "IAM strike fund depleted for political uses"
IAM-Boeing stories: hereMore strike stories: here
"Nation gets a preview of Barackonomics" • "Trickle down strike-onomics"

Union dues get squandered on politics

After 22 days on strike, Boeing machinists are recieving their first strike checks from the union. "It means my livelihood. It means me paying my rent, buying groceries," said Barbara Russell.

The first weekly strike checks of $150 were available Saturday for 25,200 Puget Sound area Machinists union members on strike at The Boeing Co. It may not seem like much, but after 22 days on the picket line, at least it's something. "It's a lot better than nothing, a lot better, and it's fine with me, I'll take what I can get," said Julie Brumbaug.

The checks became available on the 22nd day of the strike that began on Sept. 6 at 12:01 a.m. over several issues, including pension plans for new workers, a cost of living wage increase and concerns that work might be outsourced to other companies.

"We haven't heard much about the negotiations or anything like that but we're prepared to do what we have to do," said Clinton Metcalf.

The union says it has a $140 million strike fund, and can issue checks for five or six months.

But many workers aren't certain they can last that long.

"I have a little bit of savings I'm living on right now, but I can only last about four to six weeks, and then it will be gone, so I'm a little bit nervous about that," said Lori Hurd.

No new negotiations are on the horizon.

The last Machinists strike in 2005 lasted 24 days and the previous one in 1995 went 69 days.

Union spokeswoman Connie Kelliher said workers picked up their checks at three locations -- Green River Community College, the Seattle union hall and the Evergreen Fairgrounds -- from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. She said workers who didn't pick up their first checks can get their first checks along with their second ones next Saturday.

(king5.com)

Rules for Barack

Related: "Saul Alinsky's rules guide Barack"
Saul Alinsky stories: here

ACORN fraud news blackout lifted

Related: "News blackout on ACORN fraud"
More ACORN stories: hereVoter-fraud stories: here

Union-backed voter fraud group finally gets well-deserved attention

Earlier today, when House Republican leadership framed its opposition to the bailout bill as it currently stands, a principal objection focused on the group ACORN, which the e-mail alert called "the scandal-tarnished 'community organizing group'" -- with scare quotes in the original.

They're referring to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a group generally allied with Democrats and derided by the GOP as corrupt, inefficient and a front-group for Democratic efforts on the ground.

In issuing the statement, House leaders are reflecting -- and also feeding -- a reaction to the provision that has exploded in the last day or more. Our colleague Ben Smith says he's gotten more than a dozen anti-ACORN e-mails in just the last few hours. The viral uprising is both organic and institutionally driven. Prominent bloggers have fed the flames and so has the Wall Street Journal editorial page; several of the e-mails sent to Smith reference a House leadership alert on the "ACORN Slush Fund" and others refer to the Journal opinion. On Thursday night, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Crypt that his friend Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) opposes the provision.

"The draft bill includes a left-wing giveaway that would force taxpayers to bankroll a slush fund for a discredited ally of the Democratic Party," reads one leadership alert. "At issue is ACORN, an organization fraught with controversy for, among other scandals, its fraudulent voter registration activities on behalf of Democratic candidates. Rather than returning any profits made in the long-term from the economic rescue package, Democrats want to first reward their radical allies at ACORN for their (often illegal) help in getting Democrats elected to office."

In the end, how much of the bailout's potential profits are earmarked for ACORN? "None. Absolutely none. All funds would go to state and local governments," said Steven Adamske, spokesman for Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Financial Services Committee and a lead negotiator.

The opposition has grown so intense that critics refer to the measure in arcane legislative lingo. Erick Erickson titled a Friday morning blog post at RedState: "Section 105(d) of the Bailout Must Go."

Here's the relevant language:
TRANSFER OF A PERCENTAGE OF PROFITS.

DEPOSITS. Not less than 20 percent of any profit realized on the sale of each troubled asset purchased under this Act shall be deposited as provided in paragraph (2).

USE OF DEPOSITS. Of the amount referred to in paragraph (1) 65 percent shall be deposited into the Housing Trust Fund established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568); and 35 percent shall be deposited into the Capital Magnet Fund established under section 1339 of that Act (12 U.S.C. 4569).

REMAINDER DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY. All amounts remaining after payments under paragraph (1) shall be paid into the General Fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.
And here's Frank's one-page summary of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and to find the relevant bill go here and search for H.R. 2895.

State and local governments can then dole out the funds and could send money to ACORN if they so choose and if the organization's efforts meet the standards set out in the law. For their stand against the provision, Adamske tweaked House Republicans, who have long called for more state control of federal funds.

"Are they worried that the Governor of Alaska and the Mayor of Wasilla will give money to Acorn?" he asked.

Regardless, House Republicans are saying that unless the possibility of ACORN seeing any money from this bailout is eliminated, there's no deal. "Doling out favors to ACORN and other liberal special interest groups are a non-starter for House Republicans," said Behner spokesman Kevin Smith. "If Rep. Frank wants to keep ACORN in the bill he can secure the necessary Democratic votes for passage because he'll need every one of them."

(cbsnews.com)

Consumer Rights group raps ACORN

More ACORN stories: hereVoter-fraud stories: here

ACORN hits the radar

More ACORN stories: hereVoter-fraud stories: here

Union-backed voter fraud group arouses suspicions

Barack Obama is part and parcel of one of the most corrupt organizations at the grassroots level. He knows the rot. He has contributed to the rot. And now he runs for the highest office in America.

It's the corrupt Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) that will get some of the bailout money. That's what Dems are championing.

Here's how this corrupt entity will get its dough. Twenty percent of all profits from the bailout will slide into goodwill agencies via the Housing Trust Fund.

The Fund has been manipulated by Congressional Dems. For example, ACORN has got some of that money.

And what is the rotter core of ACORN?

This so-called "community organization of low-and moderate-income families that addresses housing, schools, neighborhood safety, health care, job conditions" and so forth sounds American apple pie.

ACORN, further, has a national membership rostered at 350,000 with 850 neighborhood conclaves in more than a hundred cities, not only in the US but Argentina, Canada, Mexico and Peru.

Wade Rathke, George Wiley and Gary Delgado founded ACORN in 1970.

Obama was at the center of ACORN. As a community organizer he was right there with the corruption. He trained ACORN workers and they in turn worked on his campaign in Illinois.

Now to voter fraud. ACORN submitted false voter registration forms. "ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State.

"Seven ACORN workers had submitted nearly 2,000 bogus voter registration forms. According to case records, they flipped through phone books for names to use on the forms, including 'Leon Spinks,' 'Frekkie Magoal' and 'Fruto Boy Crispila.'

'Three ACORN election hoaxers pleaded guilty in October. A King County prosecutor called ACORN's criminal sabotage 'an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls'" per Michelle Malkin's "The ACORN Obama knows."

There is more:

* In Ohio in 2004, four ACORN employees were indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter registration forms.

* In January 2005 two Colorado ACORN workers were sentenced to community service for submitting false voter registrations. ACORN's regional director said, "we find it abhorrent and do everything we can to prevent it from happening."

* On November 1, 2006, four part time ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City, Missouri for voter registration fraud. Prosecutors said the indictments are part of a national investigation. ACORN said in a press release that it is in part responsible in these individuals being caught, has fired them, and has cooperated and publicly supported efforts to look into the validity of the allegations.

* ACORN was investigated in 2006 for submitting false voter registrations in St. Louis, Missouri. 1,492 fraudulent voter registrations were identified.

* In 2007, five Washington state ACORN workers were sentenced to jail time. ACORN agreed to pay King County $25 000 for its investigative costs and acknowledged that the national organization could be subject to criminal prosecution if fraud occurs again. According to King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, the misconduct was done "as an easy way to get paid [by ACORN], not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections."

* In 2008, the Michigan Secretary of State office told the Detroit Free Press that ACORN had been submitting a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications to vote.

* On September 17 2008, the Bernalillo County clerk in New Mexico notified prosecutors that the office had received fraudulent registration cards per Wikipedia.

For more, read Michelle Malkin at http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/25/the-acorn-obama-knows/

(renewamerica.us)

SEIU, Stern perpetrate injustice

More SEIU stories: hereAndy Stern stories: here

Andy Stern's kangaroo court

More SEIU stories: hereAndy Stern stories: here

Collectivist calls for new Constitution

More collectivism stories: here

Friend of Barack wants liberty for the United States

Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez said on Saturday it was the capitalist system that had caused the financial crisis in the United States and the country should come up with a new constitution.

Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on the last leg of a tour that included visits to China and Russia, he said: "I think the United States should start a constituent process to create a constituent assembly, a new truly democratic model."

A constituent assembly is a body elected to draft and sometimes adopt a new constitution.

"It was capitalism that caused the ruin" in the United States, said Chavez, who is one of Washington's fiercest critics, calling the financial crunch "the worst financial crisis in history".

"Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic rise from the ruin ... It's time to shout 'Liberty!' again in the United States," Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free of the "dictatorship of the elite" such as big banks and corporations.

Critics accuse Chavez of running an authoritarian, Cuban-style regime in oil-rich Venezuela.

Chavez, who has signed various deals from weapons to energy this week in China and Russia also signed an agreement with Portugal's Socialist government on Saturday to buy 1 million ultra-cheap laptops for schools and 50,000 pre-fabricated houses in deals worth $3 billion.

They also signed a draft deal between Energias do Portugal and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for the development of a liquefied natural gas project from the Blanquilla Este reserve in northern Venezuela.

The computers, which the government started distributing in Portuguese primary schools this week at a subsidised price of 50 euros ($73.15), will be delivered to Venezuela from December. They cost 285 euros in stores in Portugal.

The laptop is based on Intel Corp's Classmate PC, a cheap computer that has been adopted in various formats in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia.

(reuters.com)

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