One Down, Three To Go

Today marks the end of the first year of the regime of BHO. And what a year it has been! Definitely a lot of material for us bloggers within that first year.

Before I get into the rant about BHO's first year, my most heartfelt "congrats" goes out to Scott Brown (you little piece of eye candy!) for finally bringing honor back to the Senate seat in Massachusetts. Now go kick some a$$, buddy!!! Time to rant.

The first order of business for the administration was to order the closing of Gitmo. Heaven forbid that we treat those kept there as enemy combatants in the war on terrorism. Now, we have the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and ilk slated to take place in New York City, the very place where they killed thousands of Americans on 9/11. It's a travesty and an insult.

Unprecedented spending also took place within that first year. Cash for Clunkers, stimulus money, bank bailouts, and the takeover of two of the major three automakers headlined for weeks. Unemployment has risen to over 11%, and many Americans are still being asked to tighten their belts while the government spends OUR money like drunken sailors on shore leave. What ever happened to living within our means?

The housing market took a nosedive within the last year due to Bawney Fwank and his cronies telling banks that they couldn't "red line," a practice of not lending money to those in high-risk neighborhoods. The result was people acquiring loans for houses they couldn't pay back, and massive foreclosures ensued. Of course, the blame was cast entirely on to the previous administration.

Cap and Trade was front and center for a while, but has taken a back seat of late. The ingenious idea of taxing carbon dioxide (plant food) was spawned during the whole "global warming" hysteria, a notion that has since been debunked and proven to be a statistical fraud. Yet the lefties of this country still echo Chicken Little's message of "The sky is falling!" in hopes of keeping their globalist agenda alive.

In the past year, our president has bowed numerous times to world leaders, sending the message that we are weak. Way to go, you moron! Dictators the world over have been given an almost royal treatment. Kim Jong Il received a personal letter from BHO asking that North Korea halt their nuclear development program. The result? An underground test fire of a nuke. Hugo Chavez was given a warm reception by BHO, and Hugo reciprocated with the gift of a book from his favorite Communist author. How appropriate.

The rise of terror activity during the past year has given Americans cause to once again worry, but the threat is constantly being downplayed. The shooting at Fort Hood that claimed 14 innocent lives, the foiled Christmas Eve bombing attempt, and other miscellaneous plots that were foiled have emboldened the enemy. Is BHO waiting for another 9/11 to recognize exactly what we are up against? It sure seems that way.

We've seen radical czars appointed within the past year. From Cass Sunstein to Kevin Jennings, the radical left has gained a foothold in the government as never seen before. Van Jones, the former Green Jobs Czar, has been the only one run out of town in disgrace. The rest of them keep pushing their respective agendas on the American people regardless of whether the people agree or not. The czars see this as their only chance to push their ideals into the mainstream, and they're not going to give up until the citizenry rebels.

ACORN, the community group who helped get people to vote more than once in many instances during the presidential election, was busted by a couple of undercover citizens giving advice on how to get government money to pay for a prostitution ring. While federal funding of the group was temporarily suspended, they're once again receiving our tax dollars. The sister group of ACORN, the SEIU, has picked up where ACORN left off in shady dealings with Andy Stern, the group's president, making numerous White House visits.

Lastly, the push for socialized medicine in this country under the benign name of "healthcare reform" has come to fruition. Over half the population doesn't want it, but BHO, Pelosi, Reid, and the rest of the socialists have decided that they know what's best for Americans, and they plan on giving the American people a healthcare-reform colonoscopy. So much for the voice of the people.

With all that has happened in the past year, our only hope is that November brings a Congress that is willing to stand up and voice the opinion of the American people when we say "NO MORE!" Should that not come to pass, our liberties in this country will be on life support. And we all know how this administration would handle that medical emergency.

Activist Alert!!! ACORN Funding Resumes November 1

After all the scandal and brouhaha that followed, Rep. Michelle Bachmann reveals that ACORN, a corrupt organization at one time represented by Barack Obama, will start receiving funding on November 1. Did anyone hear about this in the MSM? I sure as hell didn't.




Boy, Congress really punished them, didn't they? One month of funding taken away, and then the taxpayers get to give them money once again. That was harsh!

Call, email, fax, whatever you need to do to stop this madness! Let the turds know that anything less than a permanent ban on taxpayer funding of ACORN is unacceptable and is grounds for dismissal.

ACORN's $50M Real Estate Empire

I've never been to New York City. A place I've wanted to see just once in my life, New York has come to be known for one thing in recent years: high taxes and rent. From acquaintances I have who have lived there, it's not a place you can live in on a shoestring budget.

Enter everyone's favorite corrupt organization, ACORN. The New York Post is reporting that ACORN and some of its affiliates have become the owners of many low- and moderate-income housing units. The estimated worth of the real estate holdings is at least $50 million. How frickin' nice. Not only have they helped countless number of people scam the American taxpayers, but they've managed to build a real estate empire to rival Donald Trump using our tax dollars.

New York ACORN and a whole web of affiliates own or manage almost 1,500 housing units across three of New York's five boroughs. Estimated income from those units? $5.7 million from rents, fees, and profits from sales. Why were they even getting ANY tax dollars at this rate?

Generically-named nonprofits, holding companies, and development funds are given the task of managing these properties. Entities named 385 Palmetto Street Housing Development Fund and the Mutual Housing Association of New York (MHANY) are able to function without exposing any ties to the national ACORN conglomerate. Pretty slick, huh?

Since its inception in 1987, MHANY has accumulated more than 80 homes and apartment complexes across Brooklyn. MHANY reaped approximately $2.5 million in 2007 according to state and federal filings reviewed by the Post.

The revenue generated by these housing units helps support at least 18 local ACORN affiliates. Most of these affiliates are headquartered at 2-4 Nevins Street in Brooklyn, an address shared with the Working Families Party, a progressive group of grassroots community organizers. The group backs such causes as public education for all regardless of where they grow up, healthcare for all, and the green agenda. Sounds like an ACORN wannabe if you ask me.

Among the 18 plus affiliates is the New York ACORN Housing Company. Last week, this was one of the groups busted in an undercover video giving shady advice to two people posing as a pimp and a prostitute.

Local ACORN housing companies share a president, Hazel Desant, an executive director, Ismene Speliotis, and identical boards.

ACORN reports no compensation for the board members, although it disclosed that 10 directors -- all except Desant -- hold leases in ACORN-owned buildings ranging in value from $5,900 to $11,000 annually. I wonder how many people in New York would LOVE to have those rent rates.

Six of the directors owed a total of $8,700 in rent as of June 2008, according to the agency's most recent filing. Speliotis reported an annual salary of $60,773 in 2007.

A spokesman for the organization once represented in court by Obama said that the properties were acquired through city, state, and federal housing programs, and, therefore have no real resale value. Oh really??? Someone in New York should point this out the next time they want to sell one of their buildings. All this tells me is that ACORN used OUR money to buy these properties, but we don't get one dime of any revenue generated. What a bunch of crooks.

"New York ACORN Housing is one of the top providers of managers of affordable housing in this city or anywhere in the United States," spokesman Jonathan Rosen said.

"The Bloomberg administration has turned to New York ACORN housing again and again to help realize the city's vision of developing more affordable housing for New York's working families." This statement makes me wonder what's in it for Bloomberg. Let's face reality. His one goal in this life is to make money. Period.

New York ACORN Housing Company owns or manages several ACORN properties, including four multi-family dwellings in East Harlem and two sparkling new Brooklyn housing complexes.

Since 2000, ACORN has managed an 85-unit housing complex in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx, one of the poorest communities in the country. Over half the population receives some form of assistance. So not only did we most likely pay for the complex itself, but we're also most likely paying the rent for the residents of this apartment building.

ACORN has proven time and again that they'll manipulate the system to access the money paid by those who work their fingers to the bone. These people seem to have no scruples whatsoever.

If an investigation of ACORN comes to fruition, I suggest that they let Sheriff Joe Arpaio lead it.

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.

Obama and ACORN: A Timeline

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...

ACORN Booted from 9/12 Rally

This is great! Evidently, members of ACORN were selling Gasden flags at Saturday's march on Washington. When this came to light, patriots went for the throat. The police had asked the ACORN workers to leave, but they didn't do so right away. They should have.

Death of a Patriot

Nancy Armstrong, blogger of Ms. Placed Democrat, passed away Tuesday night. Details are unknown as of this posting. She was active in exposing the corruption of ACORN and was in touch with the ACORN 8. They were the ones who blew the whistle on the corruption and caused a firestorm.

A few videos of Nancy:







Although I never got to meet her, my deepest sympathy and prayers go out to the family of this true patriot.

Illegal Immigrants Being Urged to Boycott Census

Is it me, or is there a lack of common sense here?

According to foxnews.com, Latino leaders are calling on illegal immigrants to boycott the census citing that being counted but not represented is unfair.

Why the hell are they being counted to begin with? The purpose of the census is to get an accurate count of AMERICAN CITIZENS to gerrymander Congressional seats. To count illegal immigrants only serves one purpose: To bolster population counts in what are normally Democratic strongholds. Thanks ACORN!! Oops...I mean COI (Communist Obama Idealogs).

"It doesn't make any sense, in some way it is immoral that we are counting 12 million undocumented immigrants who have no benefit at all financially speaking," said Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders.

No financial benefit??? How about the illegals who fill our emergency rooms and get their bills paid by the American taxpayer? Or how about the illegals who fill our prisons and are cared for by the American taxpayer instead of being deported? The burden on our system by illegal immigrants is what's immoral, Rev. Rivera.

I'm not going to go into the reasons why we need to address illegal immigration. I posted on this yesterday, and I don't want to be redundant. Maybe Rev. Rivera needs to read it.

Someone please pass the duct tape!

An American Tale 2009

As I was looking through my usual list of sites to find a subject that hasn't been beat to death, I stumbled across this wonderfully humorous (although frighteningly true) article on americanthinker.com. It's going to make my Monday a little easier to deal with!

The Feetus and the Fly - A Fable

Andrew Thomas
Once there was a kingdom populated by a proud and productive populace. But over time they grew restless and bored with their increasingly pampered lives. They began to feel guilty over their wealth, good fortune, and healthcare on demand. "We want change!" they cried. They crowned a new ruler, King Barama, a champion and secular savior of their venal desires.

Barama proved to be a powerful ruler who smote his enemies with an iron Chicagoland fist, but he lacked the moral fiber of the previous fumbling but well-meaning king. He was a very callous and hard-hearted fellow, demanding that the species of tiny creatures known as the Feetii be put to death on demand, no matter how much they looked or acted like humans. "They have no souls", was the specious rationale of the king and his followers.

The king then decreed that healthcare was too expensive, and had to be spread sparingly among the populace, including those who swam the moat and climbed over the castle walls. He declared that the selfish, greedy complaining pigs in the kingdom that pay all of the golden tribute to the king would pay more for less benefit. The old and infirm were told to move to a giant iceberg, which floated slowly out to sea. This pleased and amused three of the king's evil creatures, the giant AARP, the winged SEIU, and the rotten ACORN. They fed the remaining ancient ones into a wood chipper while the king danced and chortled with joy. He rewarded his obedient demons with gold from the royal coffers, funneled through a small house on Elysian Fields to avoid detection.

One day the king addressed his loyal followers. Suddenly, a small, insignificant housefly began to distract him as he spoke, and he instantly crushed it as he crushed all who opposed him. (Of course it was the annoying FOXNEWS fly that he truly dreamt of crushing.) To the king's stunned amazement, his crowd of loyal followers grew angry. "How dare you kill that innocent fly!", cried Ms. PETA. "It feels pain, you know!"

Then a voice was heard from the back of the throng. "What about us?" shouted a tiny, forlorn Feetus. "We feel pain when you crush our skulls with your deadly forceps! Your excuse has always been that we don't have souls, but the other creatures in the kingdom that you cherish and protect don't have souls, either!"

After a long silence, one of the king's loyal followers stepped forward. "There is no such thing as a soul", he simply said. Suddenly it all became clear to the incredulous Feetus. In the king's loyal followers' eyes, a Feetus was the moral equivalent of, nay, the moral inferior of a common housefly. After all, the Feetii would devour the king's resources and lay giant carbon footprints all over the kingdom if they were allowed to live. And it now made sense why the king would allow the giant AARP, the winged SEIU, and the rotten ACORN to feast on the remains of the aged, after their slow, agonizing deaths at the hands of a kingdom-run healthcare system. Since souls do not exist, all life is morally relative and can be degraded by sovereign decree.

Without warning, the Jabberwocky-like fire-breathing ABCNBCCBSMSNBC appeared. Carnal thrills ran up its legs, and it mated with the king. In the creature's heat of passion, a splendiferous magic spell was released. All of the Feetii were miraculously transformed into cute little puppies and kittens. From that moment on, none of the king's followers would dare to suggest that they be put to death, and everyone lived in peace and harmony ever after. King Barama and the ABCNBCCBSMSNBC got a room.