Obama: ACORNized, H8s non-unionism, revolts against reason, relabels Czars, smacked down by Feingold, shamed by Van, over the top, H8s term limits, stands by thugs.
Mismanagement: Meet the ACORN 7, SEIU fail, ACORN agonistes 24/7, tricked into forced-tribute, union organizers fail.
International: Obama spurns global Constitutionalists.
You know how I know you're gay? ... Incredibly, even after these revelations, six Democratic Senators and one liberal Independent still voted against barring the group from receiving federal housing money. Or maybe this isn't so surprising given the deep ties between ACORN and one of the Democratic Party's most reliable special interest groups, Big Labor. In some states, ACORN and the Service Employees International Union share a mailing address. Some Democrats so value ACORN's political activism that the group's unscrupulous behavior, however egregious, is apparently excusable. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Roland Burris (D-IL), Robert Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). (online.wsj.com)
ACORN: Never again ... ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees "indefensible," has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened. ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement that she was "ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN's service programs until completion of an independent review." (washingtontimes.com)
Related video: Hooking for ACORN in San Diego
Obama H8s non-unionism ... In an Executive Order few have heard about, President Obama is trying to eliminate union competition for federal construction projects. This egregious order encourages Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects costing $25 million or more. PLAs are collective bargaining agreements between contractors, their subcontractors and labor unions. Under a PLA, contractors must either use union workers or non-union workers who are forced to make contributions to union pension funds and other union programs - from which they will never benefit. These are blatantly discriminatory rules against non-union shops. (baconsrebellion.com)
Typical SEIU political operatives exposed ... The two-pronged federal probe of L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas' union dealings by the Labor Department and FBI gives a rare and priceless gander into what's wrong with politicians and unions. Put more bluntly, it's a teaching moment how one union can virtually buy elections and a politician can hire friends and associates with minimal or no scrutiny to work for them. The Ridley-Thomas probe is a spinoff of the corruption probe of former local labor chief Tyrone Freeman who is accused of siphoning tens of thousands of dollars from union dues for lavish trips and padding the union payroll with cronies. (dailynews.com)
ACORN-Care: It keeps getting worse ... They were well-dressed when they knocked on the door of a Huntington home last month and said they had information about President Barack Obama’s health care plan. That’s how they got inside to commit a violent home invasion on Aug. 29, a Suffolk prosecutor said Monday. Benjamin Thompson had a stethoscope around his neck and Natalie Desir carried a clipboard with pamphlets, Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock said after their arraignments in Riverhead. (newsday.com)
Van Jones, ACORN scandals expose MSM bias: Like stink on a skunk ... The handsome, articulate, Yale-educated Jones was named by Time magazine as an “Environmental Hero” in 2008, a star. His task: To bring urban minorities into the mostly-rich-and-white Green movement, which has historically ignored ghetto folks who actually live where environmental problems are objectively worst. When conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck started criticizing Jones, I thought Beck was nuts. Turns out Beck was right. Jones is gone. To me, the Jones fiasco raises some ironies: First, why didn’t mainstream press, including top outfits like Time, report Jones’ story? Let’s pretend John McCain won the presidency and proposed for “czar” some white guy who helped found a group with “Revolutionary” in its name and shaves his head. Would our trusty press watchdogs be on the story? Like stink on a skunk. (flatheadbeacon.com)
We don't need no stinkin' union organizers ... Why would unions be so eager to do that? Perhaps because they know that if workers hear both sides they may discover that unions are not all that organizers make them out to be. That just happened in Charleston, S.C. where the workers at a Boeing assembly plant voted to decertify the International Association of Machinists. By a 3 to 1 margin the once unionized employees voted to become nonunion. Why would workers do that? Perhaps the union wasn’t providing them with the benefits they were promised in the organizing campaign two years ago. Or perhaps because they realized that unions harm the competitiveness of the facilities they organize and they wanted to protect their jobs during this tough economy. Congress shouldn’t rush workers into voting for a union – with its upsides and downsides – until they have had the time to make an informed choice. (blog.heritage.org)
Related video: Mob Boss v. Union Boss
Our #1 union-backed, tax-funded fraud group ... What elected officials armed with reports of multiple election-fraud investigations could not accomplish last year, a couple of kids with a hidden camera and demonstrable guts did. And that is light a fire beneath Congress to keep the increasingly corrupt Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, from receiving anything in the way of federal funding. The folks at ACORN have resided pretty much full-time at the public trough since 1994. Over these last 15 years, it has been reported that the leftist “reform” organization, born of the ’60s-era radical philosophy that held its founder, Wade Rathke, in considerable thrall, has received upwards of $53 million in federal swag. Those heavy-largess days may be coming to an end. In the run-up to last year’s general election, ACORN was under investigation in no less than a dozen states for alleged voter-registration irregularities. As alarming as these charges may have been, they are small potatoes compared to what those conservative documentarians — James O’Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20 — managed to uncover while paying visits to a number of ACORN field offices. (dailynews-record.com)
ACORN hearts corruption ... By agitating for mortgage loans that the borrowers could never repay, ACORN and similar groups were primarily responsible for the conditions that led to our current financial crisis. This is not speculation or partisan blather, but a matter of historical fact, extensively documented in last September's article and many, many others. But there are other ways to gnaw at the fabric of our society. Their daily activities are also devoted to corrupting and overloading our society with social ills of every description. The gameplan seems to be: if it is illegal and/or immoral, pile it on! These videos underscore just how low they are willing to go. (americanthinker.com)
Obama leads 'revolt against reason' ... One would hope that reason prevails over socialism, but, as Ludwig von Mises wrote many years ago, socialism really is a revolt against reason, and an emotional revolt at that. It becomes an article of faith that the band will march through the wall at the end of the blind alley, even when it becomes utterly apparent that the wall is there to stay. If I can put the whole thing into one word, it would be “collectivism.” Collectivist thought begets collectivist policies, and collectivist policies always are doomed to fail, yet there always are people out there to demand them. (prisonplanet.com)
ACORN done in by Obama ... When O’Keefe and Giles released the first ACORN video, they explained that the underlying purpose of the project was to redirect Alinskyite tactics back at the original Alinskyites practitioners themselves – such as ACORN. As Alinsky said, the idea is to ”make them live by their own rules. If you make them live by their own rules, you destroy them.” The project is a demonstration that the rules are much more effective on offense than they are defense – and guess who’s on defense now? A lot of ”reformed” 1960s radicals and younger neo-progressives have been learning this lesson of late – ACORN is not alone in that regard. However, Obama’s presidential campaign tactics and his administration’s first six months in office – massive spending, GM/Chrsyler takeovers, Walpin firing, etc. - encouraged right-wing activists to get better acquainted not just with ACORN’s operations, but also with Alinsky and his methods. As a result, we might one day look back and say that Obama did everyone one favor: he set in motion (or at least accelerated) the demise of ACORN. (poligazette.com)
New York takes on ACORN corruption ... The media may be trying as hard as possible to ignore the series of undercover videos taken at ACORN offices around the nation, but politicians don’t have that luxury. Even in New York, both state and city officials have reacted to voter outrage over the actions of ACORN staffers offering advice on hiding tax evasion and child prostitution, especially since these offices run in part on taxpayer money. The New York Post reports that the city council in NYC have suspended payments to ACORN pending further investigation, and that Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation (hotair.com)
That's why I'm now calling my Czars 'point persons' ... That’s why we’re investing in a clean energy economy that will free America from the grip of foreign oil and create millions of new green jobs that can’t be outsourced. That’s why I’ve named a new point person to jumpstart American manufacturing so that we can make “Made in America” not just a slogan, we want to make it a reality. (Applause.) (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Dem Sen. Feingold rips Obamunism ... Dear Mr. President: As you know, there has been much discussion about your decisions to create and assign apparently significant policy-making responsibilities to White House and other executive positions; many of the persons filling these positions have come to be referred to in the media and even within your administration as policy "czars." I heard firsthand about this issue on several occasions from my constituents in recent town hall meetings in Wisconsin. The Constitution gives the Senate the duty to oversee the appointment of Executive officers through the Appointments Clause in Article II, section 2. The Appointments Clause states that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise proved for, and which shall be established by law." This clause is an important part of the constitutional scheme of separation of powers, empowering the Senate to weigh in on the appropriateness of significant appointments and assisting in its oversight of the Executive Branch. (wxow.com)
FOB Van Jones shames Administration ... You can't grasp the full craziness of Van Jones, Obama's now-resigned "green jobs czar" (actual job title: "Special Advisor on Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation for the White House Council on Environmental Quality") unless you watch his speeches on YouTube. In a nutshell, along with his anti-capitalism, Marxism, and anti-white racism, Jones' big idea is that we should knock down our prisons and create green jobs by having the nation's murderers and rapists come over to caulk our windows. Jones describes U.S. prisons as "slave ships on dry land," a "punishment industry" that's disproportionately victimizing people of color and profiting from America's ongoing "racist war." (thenewamerican.com)
Labor-state workers tricked into forced union tribute ... Two northern Michigan day care providers backed by a free-market law firm sued the Department of Human Services on Wednesday on allegations of enrolling them in a stealth union and withholding a portion of their payments for union dues. Sherry Loar and Dawn Ives of Petoskey, who care for children in their homes, said they didn't know the union, an affiliate of the UAW and AFSCME called Child Care Providers Michigan, even existed until DHS began to withhold part of their child care subsidy payments in January. (freep.com)
Obama over the top ... A recent Daily Herald editorial chastised parents' reaction to Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren as "going over the top." Was it really irrational for parents to be concerned about what Obama might say to their children? What could possibly be the foundation of such "over the top" irrationality? Could it be Obama's 20-year association with a hate-spewing reverend? Could it be Obama's choice to fill his cabinet with people who didn't pay their taxes? Could it be Obama's global U.S. apology tour? Could it be Obama's bowing to Saudi Kings? (dailyherald.com)
Honduras-MSM scandal: Because Obama H8s term limits ... Our thug-worshipping diplomats figured they’d slip it by us. With the nation focused on barbecues and the beach, they announced that, if Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez’s client, Manuel Zelaya, isn’t returned to power in Honduras, the United States won’t recognize the results of that country’s upcoming free elections. Why was former president Zelaya driven from his would-be throne in Tegucigalpa? He tried to subvert Honduras’ Constitution and set himself up as president-for-life. (exilestreet.com)
Obama stands by his oppressive thug friends ... As we might say in Spanish, "por fin" — finally. At last, U.S. officials are opening their eyes to the dangers Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his club of enemies of the United States present to this country. For those of us complaining about the passivity of the U.S. government and media when asked about Venezuela's alliances with Iran, Syria, Libya and Russia, finally some are starting to sound the alarm. Last week, Manhattan District Attorney Roberto Morgenthau said he believes Iran has been employing its agreements with Venezuela to use the South American country's banking system to evade U.S. and U.N. sanctions. Morgenthau also worries that Iranian factories have been located in remote areas of Venezuela that would be "ideal for the illicit production of weapons." "The mysterious manufacturing plants, controlled by Iran deep in the interior of Venezuela, give even greater concern," Morgenthau said. (sun-sentinel.com)
International Collectivism
Obama refuses to meet with constitutionalists ... President Obama's upcoming visit to the 64th UN General Assembly, which opened yesterday, will be nothing if not entertaining. Substantively, Obama should be delighted. A confluence of recent events has brought to fruition his campaign promises to launch diplomacy with our adversaries: Negotiations without preconditions are blooming everywhere. (nydailynews.com)