Posted under Seedy Politicians because that's what ACORN really is (and worse). That's where they belong alright ...
In the wake of devastating video reports revealing corruption at local offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, the U.S. Census Bureau has cancelled its agreement calling for ACORN to work on the 2010 census. Gott sei Dank.
"The Census Bureau has established criteria for partnerships...and reserves the right to decline partnership or terminate an existing partnership agreement with any group that 1) may create a negative connotation for the Census Bureau; 2) could distract from the Census Bureau's mission; or 3) may make people fearful of participating in the census," wrote Census Director Robert Groves in a letter today to ACORN President Maud Hurd. "To that end...we are today terminating our Partnership Agreement with ACORN."
Groves' letter comes after BigGovernment, a new website from web entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart, posted video reports in which ACORN officials in Baltimore and Washington DC were caught by an undercover camera openly endorsing tax evasion, prostitution, child sexual abuse, and the hiding of evidence from police. ACORN has fired the workers involved in both incidents.
Although Groves did not refer specifically to the BigGovernment videos, it is clear they influenced the move to terminate the Census Bureau's relationship with ACORN. Well done, sir!
"While not decisive factors in this decision, recent events concerning several local offices of ACORN have added to the worsening negative perceptions of ACORN "Worsening"? How do you worsen an already-negative number?
and its affiliation with our partnership efforts," Groves wrote. "Unfortunately, we no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your many local offices," Groves wrote. You're a idiot, Mr. Groves, if you ever thought it was.
"For the reasons stated, we therefore have decided to terminate the partnership."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/11/2009 19:36 ||
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Bus coming for Mr. Groves?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/11/2009 20:20 Comments ||
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A pro-family values California lawmaker, who resigned after being caught on tape boasting about his sexual conquests, denied Thursday that he had extramarital affairs, saying that "my offense was engaging in inappropriate storytelling."
Mike Duvall of Yorba Linda stepped down Wednesday after his comments were caught on an open microphone in a Capitol hearing room and reported by CBS 2 and KCAL 9 Tuesday.
But Duvall said Thursday that his "decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs."
Prior to the start of a committee meeting in Sacramento held earlier this summer, the 54-year-old lawmaker is heard talking to Republican Assemblyman Jeff Miller of Corona about the sensitive subject into a hot microphone.
He reportedly brags about having sex with a woman, who is "19 years younger..."
At the end of the conversation, Duvall mentions a second woman.
The videotape is courtesy of the in-house television station used by the State Legislature.
According to sources, the women Duvall is referring to are both married and both lobbyists in Sacramento.
Several media outlets reported one of the women works for Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services company that operates San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. Sempra issued an e-mail statement saying it was investigating the claims.
"The employee has denied the speculative media reports. Our investigation will be conducted to ensure not only that our policies on employee conduct are strictly adhered to, but also that our employee is treated fairly," the company said.
Duvall, who is married with two adult children, received a 100 percent rating from a conservative advocacy group for his votes on legislation considered pro-family. He represented parts of Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Anaheim, Placentia and Orange in Orange County.
Before resigning, Duvall apologized for the comments on his campaign Web site and said he made a mistake.
"I deeply regret the comments I made in what I believed to be a private conversation," he said. "This is a private matter and I ask that everyone respect the privacy of all involved."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2009 00:00 ||
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Several media outlets reported one of the women works for Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services company that operates San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
The electricity and microphone gods will not be mocked!
As billions of dollars from the economic stimulus plan pour through the U.S. economy, members of Congress, the administration and regulatory agencies are increasingly worried about the risks of fraud.
Earl Devaney told Congress on Thursday the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board he chairs is investigating those who may have misappropriated stimulus money.
His board has "forwarded more than 100 matters to various IGs (inspector generals to ensure heightened scrutiny of specific procurements that board staff has identified as potentially problematic.
"We've got about nine cases in various U.S. attorneys offices," he added. "I know from talking to them that they're very interested in sending some very loud signals early."
The Federal Trade Commission, too, has monitored scams where people have misrepresented their connections to the stimulus in order to convince people to hand over money or sensitive financial information.
It has gotten individuals to dismantle websites promising to help people get money from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for household bills or, even, "leisure travel," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He described the individuals as con artists and hucksters.
"The commission is committed to using its law enforcement authority aggressively to bring these schemes to a halt, and to continue deploying public alerts and educational materials," Leibowitz said.
The FTC cannot criminally prosecute scam artists, such as a telemarketing outfit that he said told Americans they were eligible for $25,000 grants and offered to sell them a $59 book on writing grants, the chairman said, but the agency does refer the cases to state attorneys general, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2009 08:54 ||
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In another case of dishing it out, but not willing to take it -
When George Bush Senior was being methodical about federal funding in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, the Donks hammered on him for the slow response.
When George Bush Junior open the federal funding flood gates for quick response for Hurricane Katrina, the Donks hammered on him for the loss of accountability and resultant fraud.
Now its their turn. This is a preemptive attempt to avoid the standards they've set for everyone else.
#4
Sounds like another case for Palintir Technology, the upstart terror-tracking geeks out of California. An excerpt from the WSJ article:
Spy agencies like the CIA and military intelligence organizations have hundreds of databases each, most of which aren't linked up. A single database might contain reports from field agents or lists of known terrorists or companies thought to be financing terrorism. To conduct an investigation, analysts have to query individual databases separately, then try to make sense of the data -- frequently with pen and paper.
With many of the existing search tools, analysts also can't access some files on terrorist suspects or threats because a bit of data in the file is classified at a level higher than they are allowed to see. That is a problem, because making connections among new clues and existing data is a key to foiling terrorist plots. Among the missed opportunities cited by post-9/11 investigations were the failure to see that five of the 19 hijackers used the same phone number as ringleader Mohammad Atta to book their airline tickets, two used the same frequent-flier number, and five used two common addresses to make their reservations.
Palantir's software plugs these gaps by using a "tagging" technique similar to that used by the search functions on most Web sites. Palantir tags, or categorizes, every bit of data separately, whether it be a first name, a last name or a phone number. That means if only one piece of data in a file is classified top-secret, an analyst with a lower level clearance can still see the rest of the data. It also allows analysts to quickly tag information themselves as it arrives in the form of field reports from spies overseas, and to see who else in the agency is doing similar research so they can share their findings.
By connecting different databases, analysts can start making new links. Someone could see, for example, that one terrorist suspect flagged in one database has been living at the same address as the cousin of another suspect whose information is in another database, and that the two men flew to the same city after money was transfer red to a particular bank account.
Some analysts say Palantir's strength is helping analysts draw inferences when confronted with an enormous amount of disparate data. Palantir's tool is getting a thumbs-up from officers using it. "It is much simpler to understand the results of inquiries, and provides more in-depth database links then the current programs in use by the Army today," says Captain James King, an Army intelligence officer.
#5
As billions of dollars from the economic stimulus plan pour through the U.S. economy, members of Congress, the administration and regulatory agencies are increasingly worried about the risks of fraud how they can get their own filthy hands on some of it.
#8
I keep wishing the USG would investigate the fraud among large financial institutions that made the whole stimulus necessary in the first place. Something productive might come of that. Are Credit Default Swaps a scam? Instead they are investigating the CIA and wasting time on an even less affordable health care plan.
If it's a matter of politics at all, it's a matter of the ethics of politics. The fact is that Jones is a communist, an identity (which like "fascist") carries deep and authentic historical and moral opprobrium. Today's communists want to ignore the mass murders, the gulags, the ideological strait jackets, the sheer viciousness of their (sometimes subliminal) heroes. But they are vicious enough themselves.
No, Jones is not a member of the party... if the party still exists today. Yet he does not wish America well, and all of his rhetoric points to a revolutionary stance. Which also demonstrates how stupid he is. If he thinks that the American people are eager, or even willing to take a revolutionary road to their future he might, for his own better sake, be placed in a funny farm. No, not a prison at all. (That's what he wants for his enemies.) How about a fantasy spa or a kurhaus, and maybe it should be The Magic Mountain?
And last but in this case least: Wouldn't you know it? Jones also has been bitten by the anti-Israel bug. In the old days, when the Russians grasped that Zionism was the one force that could compel the exodus of British power--they called it imperialism--from the Middle East, the communists were for the restoration of the Jewish nation to its territorial home. As soon as the British left, the communists wavered in their support of the return and then they stopped wavering. All the way down to today. Jones' vulgar hatred of Israel is, alas, also a hatred of Jews.
A letter in Wednesday's FT responds to a news story in the paper's September 7 edition asserting that Jones was relieved of his post because he accused Republicans of abusing their congressional majority in the past. Nonsense, to be sure. The correspondent, writing from San Francisco, sets the context correctly: "Mr. Jones was forced to resign when it became clear that he was a complete crackpot who has for years and years said a lot of really crazy, stupid loonie-bin stuff. Very much like the kind of stuff, in fact, that Barack Obama's former pastor used to say each Sunday."
This raises an awkward issue. Part of the electoral enthusiasm for Obama came from just such people drawn to loonie-bin politics. That happens in every campaign. The difference is that, say, in Bill Clinton's race they were marginalized. And they certainly were kept our of office after the electoral victory, maybe even by Rahm Emanuel. And you didn't have to be from the far-far left to be shunted aside. Take Peter Edelman, politically respectable (he'd been an important aide to Robert Kennedy) and very smart. Or Lani Guinier, also very smart, maybe a little less politically respectable. With Jones, we were dealing with someone more like Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright. And an utterly ignorant Rashid Khalidi, which is an unimaginable Khalidi, a family so distinguished that I am almost intimidated when I write a word against this Columbia professor.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2009 00:00 ||
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Air travel is valuable but vulnerable, subject not only to mishaps but also to greedy tax bites that discourage consumers. Behold, then, two boneheaded schemes from both sides of the Atlantic.
Hard to say which is worse. From the U.S., the Democrat-led Congress is mulling the misnamed "Travel Promotion Act" to hit travelers with a $10 tax for visiting the U.S. under the visa waiver program. High-spending Europeans will take the hit. The aim? To promote more tourism through a "nonprofit" company staffed by political cronies and set up to buy advertising.
From the U.K., a government advisory Committee on Climate Change is recommending a $10 tax of its own on every airline ticket sold. The purpose here is to compensate Third World countries for global warming, turning every business trip into a guilt trip. For anti-Western tinhorns already short of cash -- like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe or Ecuador's Rafael Correa -- the gravy train is rolling in.
Both the tax on tourists and the tax for dictators are likely to see retaliatory levies from the other side of the pond. For consumers, that means an extra $20 in fees for air travel just to start, which will pile high for families taking vacations or business travelers making multiple trips. Net result: less travel, a depressed airline industry that cannot grow and more job losses.
There's reason to think the tax sponsors on each side of the pond intend as much. Sponsors of both the House and Senate versions of the U.S. bill are among Congress' leading protectionists.
For example, Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt, a sponsor of the House bill, has voted against free trade with Peru, Australia, Chile, Oman, Morocco, Singapore and Central America. At the same time, he has voted to subsidize U.S. industries and said yes to steel quotas. He has also opposed Mexican truck access, normal trade relations with China and presidential fast-track authority.
Just about the only reason the Cato Institute didn't rate him an absolute zero on its free-trade matrix is Delahunt's soft spot for communist regimes, particularly Cuba.
Delahunt reportedly has dismissed the controversy over the proposed travel tax as "a tempest in a teapot" and an ex-staffer is believed to be slated to head Uncle Sam's new travel promotion office.
Over in the Senate, the effort is led by Byron Dorgan, D-S.D., who has also shown a hostility to the free flow of trade, capital and people. On the trade front, the last time Dorgan's name came up was when Mexico selected South Dakota products for retaliatory tariffs after he voted to keep Mexican trucks out of the U.S. in violation of its North American Free Trade Agreement treaty obligations.
Nevada's two senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican (and bill co-sponsor) John Ensign also stand to benefit. Both think the tax to buy ads abroad to promote tourism here will be the jackpot for economically stressed Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, the protectionist vibe under the cover of green political correctness is going strong. "We are calling for a cap that would not require people to fly less than today, but would constrain aviation emissions going forward," said U.K. official David Kennedy in an e-mail to Bloomberg News.
They've set the arbitrary emissions cap for airlines at 2005 levels, meaning there won't be any more economic growth beyond levels seen four years ago. But dictators can cheer up, because the incoming cash means they won't have to do anything to generate growth.
Elites will have no trouble continuing their travel. Just ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for whom a tariff is nothing compared with the cost of the nine congressional jets she has on order. But for the rest of us, costs will rise and some families may not be able to travel at all.
And let's not forget the airlines, which must fill flights, and aircraft manufacturers,which support communities with jobs. The taxes will not only hit Europe and the U.S. and benefit rivals in Asia that shun tariffs. They will also hurt less-wealthy countries that rely on tourists, such as Costa Rica or Thailand. These are among the very countries the European tax is supposed to help.
Students, who may otherwise become area experts in places like the Middle East or Russia, will also travel less. The whole thing amounts to a redistributionist scheme that won't stop global warming and won't promote tourism. All it will do is control movement and expand government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2009 00:00 ||
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In his speech to Congress last night, Barack Obama threw a bone to Republicans on tort reform.
Many in this chamber -- particularly on the Republican side of the aisle -- have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. I don't believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet, but I have talked to enough doctors to know that defensive medicine may be contributing to unnecessary costs. So I am proposing that we move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine. I know that the Bush Administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test these issues. It's a good idea, and I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today.
There are credible estimates that serious tort reform could save the country between $100 and $200 billion annually in wasteful spending, as doctors practice defensive medicine to preempt lawsuits. Trial lawyers are adamantly opposed to any caps on damages and have made fighting tort reform their top priority for years. So tort reform was excluded from Obama's version of health care reform because the trial lawyers would have bitterly opposed it. Here's how former DNC chairman and medical doctor Howard Dean put it in a town hall two weeks ago. "Here's why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that, the more stuff you put in it, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on. And that is the plain and simple truth."
Now Obama says he's going to study the issue. "I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today," he said.
That would be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, whose resume includes eight years as director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association.
So Obama has chosen a former industry lobbyist to run tort reform.
Why are people cynical about health care reform?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2009 00:00 ||
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The American Trial Lawyers is a liberal group as a whole--they tend to be plaintiff oriented. I'd be surprised if ATLA has any interest in tort reform w/regards to medical malpractice. We are talking billions of dollars here.
#3
I think a federally-run health care plan without tort reform would turn into a massive stimulus for trial lawyers, except in cases where the caretakers & institutions are covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Rep. Joe Wilson serves solidly Republican 2nd District of South Carolina
Outburst during Obama speech not typical of Wilson, longtime acquaintance says
Wilson was state senator, aide to Strom Thurmond, lawyer in Reagan administration
Wilson's four sons are Eagle Scouts; one is running for attorney general
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2009 00:00 ||
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Would be nice if we could hold Obama to his word that this government program won't cover illegal care. Oh yeah, they won't be illegals if he gets the amnesty deal pushed through.
BTW, I love Pelosi's expression.
Sad that the story is about his comment rather than the reason for the comment.
God help us
Posted by: Jan ||
09/11/2009 3:46 Comments ||
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The left is total disingenuous about this. They know the illegals will get care because the Judiciary will direct it with or without provisions in the bill/act. That's how they got the care they get now. The only way to prevent it is to put a poison pill in the legislation that if the judiciary does extend benefits under the provisions of the act to illegals, it renders the entire act null and void. You think the left would accept that condition in the bill? /rhet question.
#3
Most of the criticisms of Wilson center around his chosen venue for his remarks and his so-called disrespect for the office of the President. There was no to-do when the Democrats booed Pres. Bush when he outlined the problems with Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. I have heard little discussion about whether Pres. BO actually told the truth or whether he was just delivering another bunch of promises and soundbites.
Joe, the look on Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reid's two faces was priceless. Thanks for the good laugh. You said what many of us think.
#4
There was no to-do when the Democrats booed Pres. Bush when he outlined the problems with Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security.
Exactly, nor when Rep. Pete Stark commented in 2007 from the house floor that our young soldiers were going to iraq " to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement".
#5
"Most of the criticisms of Wilson center around his chosen venue for his remarks and his so-called disrespect for the office of the President. There was no to-do when the Democrats booed Pres. Bush"
IIUC, Ted Koppel did criticize that.
In any case, you will notice there was no particular dust up about Republican booing Obama, or fussing with their blackberries. It was all about Wilson, cause HE did something unprecedented, in the US. (I note this sort of thing happens in the Israeli Knesset all the time, but I always thought it was cause of the crass russian radical roots of Israeli politics)
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/11/2009 11:24 Comments ||
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Wilson was state senator, aide to Strom Thurmond, lawyer in Reagan administration
If he had been aide to Byrd, y'all would be taking about segregation and the KKK by now.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/11/2009 11:25 Comments ||
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That's just the gambit from the political handbook the Democrats played when the Dixiecrats defected to the Nixon era Republicans. The left has taught the right how to play the power game. Now that it gets punted back into their team, the usual whine is expected.
#9
Wellhell, if Koppel didn't criticize it, then it was never a dust-up.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/11/2009 13:58 Comments ||
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#10
Other historical incidents completely overshadow this rather paltry one. Lincoln sneaked through Baltimore in disguise just prior to his inauguration in 1861 to lower the risk of his being attacked. Pres. Hoover was kept from attending the adjournment of Congress in the summer of 1932 due to the worries of the Secret Service over the Bonus Army then encamped in DC and milling around the steps of the US Capitol. Members of the Bonus Expeditionary Force did stone a few cars of the less-esteemed members of Congress that summer.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A pro-family values California lawmaker, who resigned after being caught on tape boasting about his sexual conquests, denied Thursday that he had extramarital affairs, saying that "my offense was engaging in inappropriate storytelling." 
