| Obama: Alinsky 24/7, war-monger fail, transparency fail, hearts Pelosi, hearts Hugo-Ayers-Dohrn, Sotomayor fail. Mismanagement: ACORN ratted-out, Dems duck @ SEIU, throw the bums out, SEIU attacks GOP, boycott Whole Foods, union goons heart LatAm thugs, Teamsters strike. International: Hugo advances New Prog agenda. |
ACORN rat turns against corrupt bigs ... The attorney general’s office turned up the heat Monday on a national organization at the heart of a voter registration fraud investigation. Christopher Edwards, 33, the former Las Vegas field director for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, pleaded guilty to two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters. As part of a plea agreement, Edwards will testify against the other two defendants in the case — ACORN and its former regional director, Amy Busefink. The anti-poverty organization has local chapters in 100 cities across the country and national offices in New Orleans, New York and Washington. State investigators consider Edwards the mastermind of an illegal incentive program at the local ACORN office that, with the approval of Busefink and national ACORN officials, encouraged the collection of fraudulent voter registration forms during the 2008 campaign season. (lasvegassun.com)
Dems take refuge inside union HQs ... Democrat Tim Bishop found sanctuary from New York town hall protesters at his local SEIU office. Democrat Alan Grayson of Florida followed suit — he’s holding his town hall at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 606 Union Hall at 820 Virginia Drive. Union members will man the microphones. (michellemalkin.com)
"There Is Only the Fight" ... The first person to catch the virus was Sarah Palin, whose family also was infected, including, unforgivably, her children. Then it was Joe the Plumber, for asking a question. Next were the Mormons. Then it was Rush Limbaugh - who hit back. Next, tax-day "tea party" attendees were "tea bagged." Then there was a beauty contestant. And a Cambridge cop, too. And now we have town-hall "mobs." Smile ... you've been "community organized." When put on the media stage, these individuals and groups have been isolated for destruction for standing in the way of a resurgent modern progressive movement and for challenging its charismatic once-in-a-lifetime standard-bearer, Barack Obama. This is their time, we've been told. And no one is going to stand in the way. The origins of manufactured "politics of personal destruction" is Saul Alinsky, the mentor of a young Hillary Rodham, who wrote her 92-page Wellesley College senior thesis on the late Chicago-based "progressive" street agitator titled, "There Is Only the Fight." Mr. Obama and his Fighting Illini, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, have perfected Mr. Alinsky's techniques as laid out in his guidebook to political warfare, "Rules for Radicals." In plain language, we see how normal, decent and even private citizens become nationally vilified symbols overnight - all in the pursuit of progressive political victory. (online.wsj.com)Bonus links:
• Summary of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'
• More Saul Alinsky stories: here
• 'Rules for Radicals' at amazon.com
Obama's Prog War-Mongering Fail ... President Obama urged more than 5,000 veterans gathered here to brace for a daunting and perhaps bloody period ahead in Afghanistan, but told them he believes this war is "fundamental to the defense of our people." "As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead," the president said at the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight, and we won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy." (washingtontimes.com)
Treat politicians the right way ... "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P. J. O'Rourke • Here is the antidote to Nationalized Health Care. It's our government and we should be able to do what is best for us. I propose that we throw the whole Congress and Senate out of office. Institute six (6) year term limits retroactively in the house and twelve (12) years in the Senate, and refuse to allow them to become bureaucrats by playing musical chairs ... no skipped second term. Take away their ability to vote themselves raises and retroactively take away their lifetime pensions, tie their raises to the cost of living. (rightsidenews.com)
Obama Transparency Fail ... It should hardly come as a surprise that once in office elected politicians forget about, abandon, or fudge on promises made to get elected. President Barack Obama’s record on transparency and openness, however, is more disappointing than most such instances. During the campaign, candidate Obama promised an unprecedented degree of openness and transparency, in contrast to the notoriously secretive Bush White House. Regarding health care, he said: “We’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN so the people can see who is making argument on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.” Once in office, however, the administration quietly cut a deal with Big Pharma not to allow Medicare to grind drug companies for lower drug prices, in exchange for a promise to voluntarily reduce prescription prices by some $80 billion over 10 years. The news has trickled out and there’s some question whether the deal will be honored, but it wasn’t exactly shown on C-SPAN, nor was the White House the first to tell us. (cnjonline.com)
Obama-Pelosi Dems lied, health reform died ... To hear it from President Obama, the choice is simple: his plan or the status quo. He is wrong on both counts: he has no plan, and the Republicans do. In fact, Republicans have introduced meaningful health care reform for years. In the 1990s, Republicans tried to change Medicare into a defined-contribution model, more along the lines of the plan that federal employees enjoy. The Republican-controlled Congress passed such legislation in 1995, but President Clinton vetoed it. Seeing the future impacts of Medicare costs, President Clinton set up a bipartisan Medicare Commission headed by John Breaux (D-LA). The Breaux Commission came up with a similar plan in 1999. Democrats killed that too. (americanthinker.com)
Why Barack hearts Hugo: Ayers-Dohrn ... So it appears that Ayers' trip to celebrate Chávez's "Socialism of the 21st Century" was financed by someone or something other than the taxpayers who pay Ayers' $126,000 annual salary at a public university. Did Chávez pick up the tab? The complete results of several Freedom of Information Act requests to the University of Illinois about Ayers will be discussed at an August 20 conference in Washington, D.C. that I am convening. We are told that Ayers, a political associate of Barack Obama, has abandoned his activities as a communist terrorist, and that he and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, another former leader of the Weather Underground, are now "respectable" academics. Ayers is formally known as a "Distinguished Professor" of Education and "University Scholar," while Dohrn, a one-time booster of mass murderer Charles Manson, teaches law and discusses "human rights" issues at Northwestern University. But the Chávez regime that they are aiding and abetting is backed by terrorist Iran and directly implicated in the activities of the communist narco-terrorists in Colombia. Perhaps their continuing influence over Obama helps explain why the President has been so accommodating toward Chávez. (postchronicle.com)
Gitmo for U.S. health care patients? ... Democrats' health care legislation in the House of Representatives includes several provisions that deny patients the ability to challenge access and treatment decisions in federal court. As a result, space is being cleared at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility -- which critics called a "legal black hole" -- to accommodate American health care patients. (optoons.blogspot.com)
Anti-Prog Dem calls for limits on pols' power ... I am a Democrat and I am for healthcare reform. I am also against the legislation as it stands. A 1,000-page bill that only specialists can interpret is absurd. Posting it online, then "hiding" pages that require special software to read is being sleazy. Calling citizens who disagree with the legislation vile names shows the arrogance and disdain of the Democratic Party toward the general populace. I want reform. I want term limits and I want them now. Two terms and out. Change the health benefits of all members of Congress to Medicare. We the people no longer trust Congress. You gave billions of our dollars to companies that helped to cause this depression, then allowed them to pass out millions in bonuses. And now we are supposed to trust this legislation? (delmarvanow.com)
SEIU goons amp up hyper-partisanship ... The battle over health care reform led protesters to the headquarters of the Massachusetts Republican Party today. The group called on the GOP to stop supporting giant insurance companies over working families. Dozens of members of the service employees international union marched outside the Massachusetts Republican Party headquarters calling on the GOP to end its orchestrated campaign to stand in the way of health care reform. Harris Gruman/SEIU: “Republican activists are showing up at town hall meetings and being told 'be as disruptive as possible’.” (necn.com)
Boycott oppressive Whole Foods ... Here are the newest developments: 1) a demonstration at Whole Foods headquarters in Austin today. A couple dozen sign-carrying demostrators came out to agitate for the cause, bringing the boycott right to corporate headquaters. Some local media coverage will likely result. The other new development concerns the boycott Facebook page which is nearing 10,000 members. (openleft.com)
U.S. union goons aid LatAm socialist thugs ... Anti-democratic forces working to de-stabilize the new government in Honduras have attracted U.S. labor unions as allies in their cause. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE, and the United Steelworkers (USW) have lined up behind Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega to express their support for Manuel Zelaya, the former president of Honduras (washingtonexaminer.com)
P2P Dirt: Shame on union political front-group ... Manhattan DA candidate Richard Aborn's campaign recently paid out $55,000 to the for-profit arm of the Working Families Party -- two months after he got its coveted endorsement, according to campaign-finance records. The news comes as good-government groups called for more scrutiny of Data & Field Services, which was founded two years ago to give the liberal party's preferred candidates the ability to buy its operation's political services. (nypost.com)
Militant Teamsters strikers plague Nevada ... Members of Teamsters Local 533 picketed across Northern Nevada on Monday after contract negotiations between Granite Construction Co. and a group of truck drivers broke down last week. Strikers were at Granite’s Nevada headquarters, 1900 Glendale Ave. in Sparks, and various Granite projects, including at Reno-Tahoe International Airport and along Interstate 80 at Floriston, Calif. (rgj.com)
Sotomayor backs murderer ... Justice Sonia Sotomayor is getting into the swing of being a member of the Supreme Court. Sotomayor made what appears to be her first public decision as a justice on Monday, voting unsuccessfully to delay the execution of an Ohio death row inmate. She voted along with the court's liberal bloc — Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer — to stop the execution of Jason Getsy, whose execution is Tuesday. Getsy had asked the nation's high court Monday to allow him to challenge Ohio's lethal injection system as cruel and unusual punishment. The court's other five justices voted to deny the stay. Getsy, 33, was sentenced to die for shooting 66-year-old Ann Serafino in 1995 in Hubbard, Ohio, near Youngstown. (washingtonexaminer.com)International Collectivism
Global New Progs dis property rights ... Since last December when the sit-down at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago drew international attention, workers around the world have been employing that same militant tactic. In early August, police forcibly ended job occupations in three different countries. (workers.org)
Chávez advances Lat Am Progressive agenda ... Venezuelans erupted into protest this weekend in response to a new law that seeks to indoctrinate the nation's students in the "21st Century Socialism" of Hugo Chávez and eliminate religious instruction from the nation's schools. The law will also reportedly establish censorship of the press, prohibiting communications that "produce terror in children, incite to hatred, and offend the healthy values of the Venezuelan people and the mental and physical health of the population." Students peacefully protesting the new law were met with tear gas and water sprayed by the police, as well as rocks and sticks thrown by Chávez supporters, according to multiple media accounts. A group of reporters from opposition newspapers, also in a protest against the law, were assaulted and injured by pro-Chávez forces, sparking protests and demands for prosecution of the culprits. Chávez denounced the attack and says he is investigating. However, Venezuela's increasingly dictatorial president was unapologetic and defiant in his defense of the new Education Law. "We have to dismantle the system of capitalist bourgeois education. Now, the law is obligatory, university authorities that do not arise from a legitimate process may not be recognized. Enough with the dictatorship in the universities!" At the signing of the law on Saturday, Chávez said that it was necessary for "the profound revolution, the creation of new men and women, the socialist revolution," and added that "true democracy can only exist in socialism." (lifesitenews.com)
