The first thing one must ponder when “considering public funding of elections” is the fact that if democrats REALLY want it as badly as they appear to – then, there must be something in it for them!

Of course there is. They are searching for some way, ANY WAY, to negate corporate donations to the GOP. That’s not all, of course, but the Dems are still P.O.ed over the Supreme Court’s decision concerning those corporate donations.

I suppose, for me, one of the irritants about so-called “voter-owned elections” is the simple fact that I, as a taxpayer, would be paying for the political campaigns of those with whom I am in almost total disagreement on the way this country and my state are run. That alone, is reason enough for me to stand solidly AGAINST public funding of elections.

It is another way for those in power to force Americans support those candidates they oppose. Those who support public funding of elections will swear the blame for the corruption in our government today can be laid at the feet of lobbyists and special interests.

Frankly, I am not so sure of that. You see – I AM A SPECIAL INTEREST! YOU ARE A SPECIAL INTEREST! As such, we sometimes fund lobbyists to go where we cannot, as individuals, to press our politicians for, or against, certain legislation we happen to agree with — or disagree with. Such is the case with business, education, and even religious organizations. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Understand this: Forcing an American citizen to support something he/she opposes, some say, will corrupt the American political system far more than any lobbyists or special interest group. I tend to agree.

Look, the bottom line is this: Public funding of elections is a violation of the free speech rights of all Americans. It is a restriction on that right and cannot be tolerated.

Not all Americans can take the time away from their jobs to go door to door, hand out pamphlets, put up roadside signs, make telephone calls, etc. But, many CAN spare a few dollars to send to the candidate who most nearly represents their view and philosophy on governing this nation and their state. Why should those hardworking Americans, indeed, ANY American, be forced to also give money to the very candidate they oppose? It is my contention they should not!

Corruption in our government will never be stopped by “voter-owned elections.” Corrupt government will be stopped only when we Americans stop electing corrupted and corruptible men and women to public office.

Ultimately the old saw “We get the government we deserve” is right. The plain fact is – ending corruption in American government will be achievable only when we end corruption in America – period! That begins at the knee of the mommies and daddies all across this land.

The scriptures tell us: “Bring up a child in the way he should go, and when he is grown, he will not depart from it.” Therein lies the answer to ending corruption in our government.

J. D. Longstreet blogs daily at INSIGHT on Freedom at: http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/

 

WesternFront America

by Larry Miller

A FaceBook friend of mine recently commented that there used to be a time when bribery and corruption were done behind closed doors. Now they hold press conferences to announce their price. She is right… and we’ve just witnessed the most recent proof as Democrats struggled to squeeze their Senators to get Barack Hussein Obama’s health insurance scheme passed.

An unapologetic Harry Reid commented, “A number of states are treateddifferently than other states. That’s what legislation’s all about: compromise.” Meaning those that held out were had even more taxpayer money redistributed to their states. As usual, those standing against the government takeover got the shortest end of the financial stick while those rolling over to the pressure from above reaped the rewards of their treachery.

Most everyone is aware of the $300 million Louisiana Purchase of Mary Landrieu and the Cornhusker Kickback that showed Ben Nelson unworthy of being referenced as “The Honorable”. Those are but two instances of Harry Reid falling into the Chicago thugocracy practice of buying off their obstacles to their plans. It is possible they avoided the far worse fate of a “suicide” in Fort Marcy Park… not that that ever happened in the nation’s capitol.

A caucus of conservatives in the house has compiled a list of a few more payoffs benefitting various Senators who appeared to be objecting to one or more aspects of this sinister plan.

Carl Levin of Michigan secured an exemption from the insurance tax for Michigan non-profit insurers… Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans of Michigan in particular.

Bernie Sanders of Vermont added $10 billion dollars for community health centers and the National Health Services Corps.

Bill Nelson negotiated a deal where Florida’s Medicare Advantage subscribers would be grandfathered into the system and will be able to keep their coverage.

Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye saw to it that Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) extension for Hawaiian hospitals which is for facilities serving a disproportionate share of Medicaid and uninsured persons. No other state received this extension.

Joe Lieberman reached an agreement that hospitals in Connecticut and Michigan would receive an extension of section 508 of the MediCare Modernization Act of 2003 that would yield higher reimbursements for services.

Chris Dodd secured $100 million for a “Health Care Facility” at a public research university that could only apply to the University of Connecticut.

Max Baucus, prior to his inebriated discourse before the Senate received funding for an extensive pilot program to aid residents near the EPA Superfund site near Libby, Montana.

This is pork on a scale never seen before. I can only think of the words of one of my childhood heroes – Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen who commented “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” And this was fifty years ago when a billion dollars was considered a lot of money.

It is clear that none of these were looking for anything more than their own advantage. It is also clear that none of these is really worthy of being addressed as “The Honorable”. Many of these elected elites have heard ad nauseum from their constituents that people simply do not want this socialist scheme. Yet they lunge forward in the race to destroy the best medical system in the world. We are not fighting this on philosophical grounds alone. We are in this fight for the well being of the young, the elderly and the unconnected who could loose their lives as a result of insufficient care. This program has real life and death implications and so many are opposing this plan with the passion of an academic discussion.

This redistributionist insurance hustle is intruding on each of our families ability to function and take care of our young and elderly, and we are expected to write or call those who are supposed to be representing us. We have been doing this and they have been ignoring us. Polite requests have fallen on deaf ears… time to step up a level or two. All we have left is to follow the advice of Ronaldus Magnus when he said, “When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.” Time to break out the torches and pitchforks!

Originally posted at Political Christian © Larry Miller

 

WesternFront America

World Net Daily has done an excellent job of outlining Dear Leader’s ties to the corrupt organization known as ACORN. While most of us have always known that he’s been capitulating to their every whim, this article really ties it all together nicely and shows just how far BHO has been willing to let ACORN stick it in.
Click here for the entire article.

1990s: Obama meets ACORN

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, first noticed Obama when he was organizing on the far south side of the city with the Developing Communities Project. A March 2, 2008, Los Angeles Times article by Letta Tayler and Keith Herbert, titled “Obama Forged Path As Chicago Community Organizer,” explored Obama’s pre-law school days as a community organizer in Chicago and his efforts to build a partnership with Chicago’s “Friends of the Parks.”

“Obama’s task was to help far South Side residents press for improvement,” the Times article explained.

1993: Woods Foundation

In 1993, Obama joined the board of the Woods Foundation, a non-profit foundation which declares its goal to “increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities by giving money primarily to not-for-profit groups involved in housing, the arts and other areas.” Obama served along with Bill Ayers and remained on the board until 2002.

Pajamas Media reports that during Obama’s time there, ACORN received grants of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002) and $40,000 (2002) from the Woods Fund.

1994: Buycks-Robinson v. Citibank

As WND reported, in 1994, Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School then fresh from his Project Vote! experience, represented ACORN in the Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Federal Savings Bank case, in which ACORN pressed for Citibank to make more loans to marginally qualified African-American applicants “in a race neutral way.”

After obtaining a settlement in the Citibank litigation, ACORN used its subsidiary organization ACORN Housing, a nationwide organization with offices in more than 30 U.S. cities, to push the group’s radical agenda to get subprime home buyers mortgages under the most favorable terms possible.

1995: ACORN attorney in Illinois lawsuit

In 1995, Obama was hired as a lawyer for ACORN in a major lawsuit. As a lawyer with civil-rights law firm Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland, he sued the state of Illinois on behalf of ACORN to implement the federal “motor voter” law.

Also in 1995, as WND’s Jerome Corsi reported, Bill Ayers co-founded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge with a $50 million grant program for the Chicago public schools. Ayers selected Obama to be the first chairman of the board of the Annenberg Challenge, a position Obama held for eight years, until 2003, a period during which Ayers remained active with the Challenge.

In his Wall Street Journal article, Stanley Kurtz wrote that the Annenberg project funneled money to through various far-left community organizers, including ACORN.

Obama’s FIght the Smears website claims Obama “never organized with ACORN”

1996: New Party ties

As WND reported, newspaper evidence shows Obama was a member of the New Party, which sought to elect members to public office with the aim of moving the Democratic Party far leftward to ultimately form a new political party with a socialist agenda. While running for the Illinois state Senate in 1996 as a Democrat, Obama actively sought and received the endorsement of the New Party, according to confirmed reports during last year’s presidential campaign.

Barack Obama pictured in New Party publication (Courtesy New Zeal blog)

According to Democratic Socialists of America documents, the New Party worked with ACORN to promote its candidates.

1997-2004: Illinois state senator

Obama meeting with ACORN leaders as an Illinois Senate candidate

In 1997, Obama became an Illinois state senator. ACORN national board member Toni Foulkes bragged of ACORN’s long-standing relationship with Obama prior to his election in the 2003-2004 issue of Social Policy.

2005: U.S. senator

In 2005, Obama became a U.S. senator.

2007: From Obama’s own mouth …

He was asked, “If elected president of the Unites States, would you agree, in your first 100 days, to meet with the delegation of representatives from these various community organizations that campaigned for community values? Could they count on you in your first 100 days to sit down with them?”

Obama responded, “Yes. But let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition, we’re going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda. We’re going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.”

2008: ACORN endorses Obama

On Feb. 21, 2008, the Acorn Political Action Committee endorsed Obama over Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries.

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, insisted they had nothing to do with ACORN after the inner-city advocacy group became engulfed in controversy over voter-registration fraud.

But in August 2008, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the Obama campaign paid $832,598.29 to ACORN “offshoot” Citizens Services Inc. for “get out the vote” projects from Feb. 25 to May 17.

The newspaper revealed that Obama’s payments to CSI for services were unusual: “For example, CSI received payments of $63,000 and $75,000 for advance work. Excluding the large payments to CSI, the average amount the Obama campaign spent with other organizations was $558.82 per check on more than 1,200 entries classified as advance work.”

(Anita Moncrief, former ACORN insider)

According to the report, Citizens Services Inc. is headquartered at the same address as ACORN’s national headquarters in New Orleans. A 2006 ACORN publication describes Citizen Services Inc. as “ACORN’s campaign services entity.”

2009: Criminal case against ACORN

According to the results of a congressional investigation done in July, ACORN was found to be rife with criminal activity.

A report from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform states that ACORN “has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.”

Since 1994, ACORN has received more than $53 million in federal funds, according to the report.

“Under the Obama administration, ACORN stands to receive a whopping $8.5 billion in available stimulus funds. Operationally, ACORN is a shell game played in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia through a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators. Structurally, ACORN is a chess game in which senior management is shielded from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act,” the report said.

So there you have it. BHO may be calling ACORN’s recent exposure a travesty, but make no mistake about it. He agrees with and has supported every illegal activity this organization has been a part of.

Birds of a feather…

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Connecting More Dots: SEIU

The other day, I posted a timeline, courtesy of World Net Daily, that showed the relationship between ACORN and the current occupant of the White House. It sparked my interest, so I decided to do some more research online. The corrupt dealings of this administration just keep coming and coming and coming…

Glenn Beck has done a stellar job of reporting the corruption by the organization who receives millions of OUR tax dollars every year. In fact, I feel that Beck should be sharing a Pulitzer Prize with the two undercover filmmakers who videotaped all the crap that has come to light in recent weeks.

Beck has recently called the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), headed by president Andy Stern, the sister organization of ACORN. If they are the sister organization, this is a relationship that is more incestuous than any from the hills of Appalachia.

Recently, the SEIU has made the news by using thug tactics at Tea Party protests across the country. Intimidation and physical force are their weapons of choice.

While we now know about the ties between the Oval Office and ACORN, what about the ties between ACORN and the SEIU?? Let’s take a look.

The Union Label Blog has connected the dots. Keep in mind that while being associated with ACORN, the SEIU has the ear of BHO.

SEIU Locals 100 and 880 share the same address: 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue in New Orleans. Just up the street is the ACORN office at 1016 Elysian Fields Avenue. Wouldn’t be that far to walk, eh?

The unions are to file disclosure statements regarding finances with the Department of Labor. According to Local 880′s 2005 financial filings with the DOL, there’s been some closed-door dealings going on. Loans and payments have been made to ACORN-run organizations.

• A loan receivable from SEIU Local 100, which started the year at $11,500 and ended the year at only $500—a note shows the loan wasn’t repaid in cash, but rather “reduced to in-kind service”
• “Gifts” totaling $151,694 to the L880 Political Action Committee, which is run out of ACORN’s Louisiana office
• Local 880 received $36,425 as a “contractual fee” from the L880 Political Action Committee
• Representational activities included $6,388 in non-itemized payments to the Chief Organizer Fund (Chief Organizer is Rathke’s title for most of his positions) at ACORN’s office and $66,870 in non-itemized payments to Citizens Consulting Inc., ACORN’s multi-use organization
• $177,430 paid to Citizens Consulting for “Accounting and Administrative Support” and non-itemized transactions for “General Overhead”
• $10,102 paid to Citizens Consulting for “Union Administration”

Local 100′s financial filings reveal even more corruption.

• $8,098 in overhead paid to Citizens Consulting
• $9,523 paid to the “Peoples Equipment Resource Corp,” which is registered to Rathke at ACORN’s headquarters
• $6,300 to the Elysian Fields Corporation
• Accounts payable records show $73,984 to the Elysian Fields Corporation; $34,241 to Citizens Consulting; $13,795 to the Fifteenth Street Corporation; and $9,072to the 4415 San Jacinto Corporation—all of which are run out of ACORN’s New Orleans headquarters
• Loans payable included its original $11,500 debt to Local 880 and $8,907 to the Association for the Rights of Citizens—a group run by Local 880 and ACORN.48 Loans to these two organizations were reflected as early as 2000, with as much as $47,000 of money from members in Local 880 being used to support its less-successful sibling.

ACORN appears to have been hired by the SEIU to assail Wal-Mart for not unionizing their employees because the SEIU headquarters sent two installments totaling $500,000 to the “Wal-Mart Organizing Project.” The checks were sent to 1016 Elysian Fields Avenue in New Orleans: ACORN’s Big Easy Office.

Kevin Mooney at the Washington Examiner had more information that had been posted at The Other McCain. A 2007 LM-2 (financial disclosure form) shows SEIU Local 880, which is active in Illinois and Minnesota, donated $60,118 to ACORN for “membership services.” Organized labor has kicked it back in the form of gifts and grants to ACORN totaling $2.4 million, the LM-2’s reveal.
When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) decided to cut the pay of home health workers by two dollars an hour during the state’s last budget crisis, saving $74 million. These workers are SEIU members. What was the union’s reaction? They pressured the Obama administration to withhold $6.8 billion in stimulus funding in retaliation. In fact, SEIU representatives were invited by Obama to negotiations between federal and state government officials that were held via a conference call. Why is a union being asked to participate in negotiations between government officials when they hold no such position? A SEIU spokeswoman later defended the call as “an example of transparency.” Yeah…right.

How does this tie to the White House other than the ACORN link? Obama appointed Craig Becker, the associate general counsel of Andy Stern’s SEIU, to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker is radical on the issue of unions, and his opinions are very well known within the political circle.
Mr. Becker wants to implement his radical unionism on the American capitalist society. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, he explained that traditional notions of democracy should not apply in union elections. He wrote that employers should be barred from attending NLRB hearings about elections, and from challenging election results even amid evidence of union misconduct. He believes elections should be removed from work sites and held on “neutral grounds,” or via mail ballots. Employers should also be barred from “placing observers at the polls to challenge ballots.”

More extraordinary, Mr. Becker advocated a new “body of campaign rules” that would severely limit the ability of employers to argue against unionization. He argued that any meeting a company holds that involves a “captive audience” ought to be grounds for overturning an election. If a company wants to distribute leaflets that oppose the union, for example, Mr. Becker said it must allow union access to its private property to do the same.

With all of this political favortism coming to the surface, how can Dear Leader distance himself from ACORN and SEIU when he is chin-deep in the muck?

Someone’s getting thrown under the bus.

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Originally posted at The Right Stuff © Denise

 

WesternFront America

by Larry Miller

With apologies to the Wizard of Oz, this is the reaction by many to the news that Van Jones, the Green Jobs Czar had resigned from his position. This departure was several weeks in the making as the digital age has given us a massive archive of most anything a public figure says or does… and people were searching this database to learn about Jones real character.

Being a card carrying member of the left… communist even, Jones reaction was that he was victim of lies and distortions. But, how can there be lies about his quotes when they are available on YouTube for all the world to see? He was accused of being a communist/ He was accused of wanting to expand the “green” movement to achieve the Marxist version of justice he has espoused for some time/ He was accused of being a “truther”. The electronic evidence showed these to be facts beyond a shadow of a doubt… yet he was a victim of character assassination we were told.

Van Jones was clearly out of step with the American people, but apparently not out of step with the Obama administration. When Jones came on board, Valerie Jarrett rhapsodized about how happy they were to have him as part of the team… that they had been watching him for years, and loved what they saw. It’s not as if Jones is the only member of the administration to find disfavor after their team membership was announced. Steven Rattner, the car czar is gone. Tom Daschle didn’t make it through the confirmation process, and the list goes on.

It seems that Van Jones was the “victim” of Saul Alinsky’s rule number eleven which says, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.” Glenn Beck, among others, saw something fishy about Jones and tenaciously pursued the man, finding all sorts of irrefutable evidence that his beliefs and morality made him unsuited for this office or pretty much any office. It was not a general objection to the government program, but it was a specific to a man in a position of power, and it worked! FoxNews and the blogosphere pushed this story… the rest of the main stream media ignored it. Yet, word got through to the world and justice was served – poetically as well, since an application of Saul Alinsky’s teaching got the job done on another community organizer. It’s amazing and encouraging how the media power structure is shifting.

This should give us hope, that even when we see most of the media pushing the statist agenda, people are turning from them to alternate news sources. Word is getting out, but the administration is fighting back with the likes of Diversity Czar, Mark Lloyd. We may need different strategies as we move forward, with some of the changes being discussed at the FCC. However if we persist, we can keep up the pressure – Alinsky’s rule number eight – as we continue to throw them off their game, until we achieve our victory. We cannot give up or let up!

With Jones gone, what can we expect? First thing we will see is the depth of the Obama bench. We will see who be next in line and how aggressive they will be in pursuing the marginally-legitimate green portion of the job and the big-government inspired expanded economic intrusion into everyone’s life. Jones will be gone, but will his spirit remain… much as Tom Daschle’s influence is still felt in the area of health care even though he was denied the official position.

So we can and should celebrate a victory. Never before have the peoples wishes been so thoroughly and systematically ignored by our supposed leaders. We removed one of Obama’s minions by public pressure and exposure to light of truth. Who will be next, Mark Lloyd?

Originally posted at Political Christian © Larry Miller

 

WesternFront America