Former ACORN Worker Takes Plea Deal for Vote Fraud

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just prior to the election we discovered that in the state of Nevada the former chief of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s (ACORN) affiliated Project Vote organization was under indictment for voter fraud. This week we learn that Amy Busefink has coped a plea deal on charges of illegally paying “bonus” payments to workers registering voters during the 2008 election.

Busefink entered a plea on two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensating people for registering voters and faced 13 felony counts for the same. The fact that Busefink accepted this plea deal means that she as much as admitted that the state had the evidence to convict her.

Busefink will soon be sentenced.
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Former ACORN Worker Takes Plea Deal for Vote Fraud”


Another Reminder: ACORN Isn’t Dead

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Post reminds us of an important fact: ACORN isn’t dead. It is merely attempting to morph into a new group with a different name in order to shed its ruined reputation. It has no intention, though, of disappearing entirely like it should.

I’ve also mentioned before that this assumption that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is defunct is not a good assumption to make. These hardcore leftists won’t give up easily.

Interestingly, the new ACORN will also launch in an effort to skip out on the old ACORN’s creditors. That’s typical, isn’t it? So, to skip out on creditors and to get out from under it’s ruined reputation and name, ACORN plans to rebrand itself.
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Another Reminder: ACORN Isn’t Dead”


Saddest Letter Ever From One of Our Military Vets!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Major Mike Banzet of the U.S. Air Force retired this year after more than 20 years in service to his country. He didn’t do so happily, either. To explain himself he published a long letter in the Daily Inter Lake that is a spot on attack on America’s misguided support of the Democratic Party.

As I said Major Banzet really didn’t want to retire. He had to. He had to because he couldn’t live with a political party like the Democrats having any power at all in this country. With the anti-American attitude that the Democrat’s elected officials demonstrate, I can’t blame him.

Banzet was hardnosed and leveled serious charges. But they all ring true.
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Saddest Letter Ever From One of Our Military Vets!”


ACORN’s Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges

-By Warner Todd Huston

Contrary to popular perception, the criminal group ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) is not quite a’moulderin’ in the grave, folks. Many might recall that Congress turned off the spigot of federal funds flowing into the coffers of the organization responsible for federal election law crimes all across the country. Many might all recall that ACORN itself eventually said it would shutter its operations.

But even with all that recent history, ACORN’s Project Vote is still in operation and one of its main directors is a woman under a cloud of criminal charges in the state of Nevada.

Project Vote is supposed to be separate from ACORN, at least on paper. But as Matthew Vadum writes, “Although legally separate entities, in practice the two are the same, as the congressional testimony of former ACORN/Project Vote employee Anita MonCrief can attest. They share office space, employees, and budgets. Project Vote continues to operate out of ACORN’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.”
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ACORN’s Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges”


Former ACORN Worker Justifies Preventing Pledge of Allegiance at Illinois Candidate Debate

-By Warner Todd Huston

Thanks to Jeff Dunetz at Yid With Lid we have found out that a former ACORN worker turned director of the League of Women Voters has been heard justifying actions of the debate moderator who tried to prevent the audience at an 8th District candidate debate from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance last week.

As the debate began someone in the crowd yelled out asking if they were going to start the night’s activities with the pledge. The moderator of the debate nixed the idea saying “no we are not.” Then when the crowd expressed its shock and dismay she said “excuse me,” and “it has never been part of…” at which time she was interrupted by the entire crowd reciting the pledge anyway.

For days the controversy has raged since the October 20 debate where debate moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish tried to prevent the people from reciting the pledge. Then on Oct. 22, there was an outrageous story that Executive Director Jan Czarnik of the League of Women Voters was lambasting the pledge controversy as a stunt set up by GOP candidate Joe Walsh and an example of “phony patriotism.”

So the LWV thinks reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is “phony patriotism,” eh?

Disgusting.
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Former ACORN Worker Justifies Preventing Pledge of Allegiance at Illinois Candidate Debate”


UN Ripe for US Budget Cutting

-By Kevin Roeten

Reducing the US budget over $5 billion/year sounds too good to be true. Actually 1.2 billion is the US share (22% in 2010). But the ‘peacekeeping budget’ is a whopping $7.8 billion/yr, of which the US is responsible for over 27%, or $2.1 billion. The offending party—the UN. The place—Manhattan. The damage—at least $3.3 billion/year.

In the 2/3/10 column by Brett Schaeffer, Time to Rein in the U.N.’s Budget | The Heritage Foundation, he explains the details included in the 2010-2011 2-yr UN budget. [9] If one includes the US voluntary contributions to the UN, the US exceeds $5 billion annually. [13]
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UN Ripe for US Budget Cutting”


Illinois Budget Mess Deepens: Using 2011 Funds to Pay 2010 Bills

-By Warner Todd Huston

From The Bond Buyer, a website that tracks news on the bond market we see that the president’s home state is in an ever deeper budget hole every day.

In a stark illustration of Illinois’ deteriorating balance sheet, the state ended the first quarter of fiscal 2011 with $5.5 billion in overdue bills and faces a possible structural deficit of at least $15 billion in the next fiscal year if no action is taken, Comptroller Dan Hynes warned in his quarterly report.

The state closed out fiscal 2010 on June 30 owing $4.7 billion in bills. Another $1.7 billion of bills incurred in fiscal 2010 were submitted by an Aug. 30 deadline to bring the total level of fiscal 2010 bills to $6.4 billion. That figure represents 23% of fiscal 2010 general fund revenue.

Worse, the state is robbing Peter to pay Paul by taking money from the 2011 budget to pay 2010 bills. The state of Illinois is in fiscal meltdown and instead of cutting cost they are simply stealing money from future budgets to pay today’s bills. Worse, there really IS no future budget because the state has failed to pass one.
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Illinois Budget Mess Deepens: Using 2011 Funds to Pay 2010 Bills”


Vadum: A Reminder, ACORN Funding NOT Permanently Cut Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Matthew Vadum, ever vigilant on the evils perpetrated by ACORN, reminds us that the criminal community organizer has not had its federal funding cut off permanently. The temporary cut off is soon to expire and Vadum reports that there doesn’t seem to be anyone in Congress taking up a reinstatement of the ban.

In his Sept. 28 piece at the American Spectator, Vadum says that many people are confused about the funding ban imagining it was permanent.

This confusion about ACORN can probably be blamed in part on the quirks of parliamentary procedure and the complexity of the appropriations process. The legal language prohibiting the funding is contained in spending legislation that covers only the federal government’s current fiscal year which ends this Sept. 30.

The current funding ban is due to run out soon.

So is Congress making to fix this lack of attention on ACORN?
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Vadum: A Reminder, ACORN Funding NOT Permanently Cut Off”


Government Report Says ACORN Spinoff Illicitly Got Federal Funding

-By Warner Todd Huston

A report by the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that the ACORN Housing Corporation improperly received millions in federal funds. The report demands that the group repay the ill-gotten gain.

The organization later changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America after ACRON’s name was so badly tarnished by revelations of its corruption.

The report said that more than $9 million went to the organization and that some 80 percent of the $3.25 million received between 2008 and 2009 went to salaries for ACORN employees.
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Government Report Says ACORN Spinoff Illicitly Got Federal Funding”


Elite Favors: Congressmen Payoff Staffer’s College Loans

-By Warner Todd Huston

They call it a “recruitment tool,” but it is little else but yet another way for Congressional elites to give each other favors on the taxpayer’s dime. As Americans are increasingly losing jobs, even their homes, congressmen are using taxpayer’s dollars to pay off the student loans of their staffers. Worse, this has been going on since 1990.

The law was enacted in 1990 and updated in 2000 with the idea that congress could use this incentive to lure good applicants to congressional staffs.

As a 2002 report on the program states:

More than a decade ago, Congress authorized a student loan repayment program for highly qualified professional, administrative, and technical federal personnel covered by the General Schedule (GS). Section 1206(b) of P.L. 101-510, enacted on November 5, 1990,1 responded to a recommendation of the National Commission on the Public Service that a loan forgiveness program be established for federal service.2 The commission found, in its April 1989 report, that the federal government had serious problems in recruiting and retaining a quality workforce. Student loan repayment is viewed as a way to make government service more attractive to candidates, many of whom have incurred significant student loan debts in acquiring their education.

I like that: “Student loan repayment is viewed as a way to make government service more attractive to candidates…”
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Elite Favors: Congressmen Payoff Staffer’s College Loans”


Politico Cries Over Lost Jobs of Hill Staffers in November

-By Warner Todd Huston

“I think people underestimate how disastrous this could be,” says a Democrat Congressional staffer who worries over losing his job once all the new Republicans sweep into Congress after the November elections. Politico’s Erika Lovley seems also to worry about the “massive layoffs” that will come to staffers in November. But to me this is one type of job loss to celebrate not cry over.

Lovley gravely warns that if Republicans win big in the elections, “it’s not just elected Democrats who will be unemployed — more than 1,500 Democratic staffers could lose their jobs, with layoffs stretching from low-wage staff assistants to six-figure committee aides.”

Oh the humanities. Time to warm up the tiniest violin in the world to accompany this pity party.
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Politico Cries Over Lost Jobs of Hill Staffers in November”


Ebay, Adobe, EA Games, Many Others Leaving California For Utah Over Confiscatory Tax Rate

-By Warner Todd Huston

Computer software giant Adobe, computer game monster EA Games, and Internet auction king ebay are abandoning California to set up shop in Utah. Why? California’s horrid business climate and high taxes.

Adobe Systems, maker of a suite of graphics programs such as Adobe PDF, Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, have announced that they are building a $100 million facility in either Salt Lake City or in nearby Utah County, Utah. The facility will bring thousands of jobs to Utah over the next few decades.

In May the Internet auction company ebay also announced a major new facility to be built in Salt Lake City. The $287 million data center will also bring hundreds of new jobs to the Bee Hive State.

Not to be forgotten, games maker Electronic Arts opened its new facility in July in Salt Lake City where around 100 employees are already at work.
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Ebay, Adobe, EA Games, Many Others Leaving California For Utah Over Confiscatory Tax Rate”


Quinn Loses Another Campaign Staffer, This Time His Chief of Staff

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did Quinn Fire Ethics Investigator to Help Chief of Staff?

Illinois Governor, Pat “the Accidental Governor” Quinn, has had a steady stream of campaign staffers quitting his campaign of late but this one is a bit different. Quinn’s chief of staff resigned Monday under a cloud of possible ethics violations.

Jerry Stermer, 67, is under an ethics probe for using his government sponsored email account to send campaign solicitations. Government officials are not allowed to use their government offices and other facilities for elections campaigns.

Stermer leaves a $150,000-a-year job and was Quinn’s highest paid staffer.
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Quinn Loses Another Campaign Staffer, This Time His Chief of Staff”


Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like most bills, the legislation meant to reform California’s failing public pension system started out stronger than it ended up. But unlike most bills the final bill has been so gutted, so defanged, that it leaves the pension system in a worse mess than it was when the bill was introduced. Not surprisingly unions are the culprits.

One of the things that the bill was supposed to stop was the practice of “pension spiking.” This is the practice of government workers getting a sudden raise in position, salary and benefits just as they are about to retire. This sudden raise, often instituted only weeks or months before retirement, allows the employee to retire at a higher pension rate than they would have with their last, normal salary.
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Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill”


Illinois: Is the State Fair an Entitlement?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Let me start this by saying I am not against state fairs. State fairs have a long tradition in America and often serve as a focal point for the community, most especially the rural, farm community. But a state fair is neither a “right,” nor an entitlement. Unfortunately, the attitude that a state must have a fair is just another abuse of what the role of government should be, especially in the United States. We are not a monarchy and when a state is billions in the red a state fair is the last thing people should be wasting state money on.

In fact I’d say canceling the state fair because of the deficit that politicians have gotten us into might be one way to get people to understand that they should be voting these politicians out of office.

In Illinois this whole state fair discussion arises from Pat “the accidental Governor” Quinn’s ire over what a Chicago-based conservative think tank said about the bankrupt state spending money it doesn’t have on an elaborate state fair.
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Illinois: Is the State Fair an Entitlement?”


New Court Decision: Congress Can Withhold ACORN Funding

-By Warner Todd Huston

Looks like ACORN lost another round in court last week. New York’s 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court’s decision to re-instate Congressional funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) ruling that halting funding did not violate the group’s rights.

Congress finally cut off federal funding to ACORN after the controversy stirred by conservative activist James O’Keefe who videotapped various ACORN offices advising a prostitute to hide her profession in order to get federal housing funding. The “prostitute” was in truth an investigative reporter working with O’Keefe.

ACORN tried to sue James O’Keefe but its lawsuit was thrown out.

Eventually ACORN became so politically toxic that Congress eventually and properly cut off funding for the organization. In response to the actions by Congress ACORN sued to re-instate the finding claiming their rights were being violated and that Congress had given the group what amounted to a “corporate death sentence” by having the funding removed.

After winning the first round with favorable decision by a district court judge in Brooklyn, the case was appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court ruled that the Brooklyn judge was wrong and said that since ACORN only got 10 percent of its funding from the federal government that the organization’s rights were not being violated and its existence was not endangered by removal of federal funding.

It would appear however, that ACORN is fighting a losing battle. Time will tell, certainly.
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New Court Decision: Congress Can Withhold ACORN Funding”


‘Tax Extenders’ Bill: Another Democrat Bailout of Special Interests

-By Warner Todd Huston

The so-called “tax extenders” bill that was initially part of the unemployment package that Congress passed last month is still on the table. It was separated from the unemployment bill because the GOP opposed its inclusion and for good reason. It is little else but a sop to special interests and big corporations.

The Democrats claim that this bill will provide “broad-based” tax relief for “average American businesses.” But snuggly hidden inside this bill are a regalia of “earmarked” tax loopholes for some of the Democrats biggest donors, corporations that hardly need any tax relief.

The Democrats have been trying to get this sop to special interests passed in one form or another all year but so far no luck. This time the Democrats are trying to graft another version of tax extenders to legislation that would give the states $26 billion to pay for state health and education programs.
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‘Tax Extenders’ Bill: Another Democrat Bailout of Special Interests”


Schwarzenegger Again Orders Furloughs for State Workers

-By Warner Todd Huston

California has been ground zero in the war between over paid state employees unions and government budgetary concerns and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has leveled yet another salvo in that battle by again ordering more furloughs for state workers.

After ending the previous program to furlough 200,000 state workers the Governor has introduced a scaled back plan after the state controller reported that state accounts would be in the red by October.

Unlike the last time, Schwarzenegger’s newest attempt is open ended and will end “when lawmakers pass a 2010-11 budget.” There are other differences in this scaled back plan including thousands of new employee exemptions.
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Schwarzenegger Again Orders Furloughs for State Workers”


SEIU Attacking Fellow Union for Concessions

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Engineers and Architects Association, a 48,000 member public employees union in L.A., has come under attack from the politically active Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for having the civic sense to realize that the high times of ever rising pay at the taxpayer’s expense is coming to an end.

In a deal about to be voted on, the Engineers and Architects Association agreed to present to its members a new contract that would require them to pay a whopping extra $10 per visit to the doctor (that will put it up to $20 per visit). Also gone would be the $15 a month to “enhance their life insurance and disability insurance” paid by the city. Finally, union members would have to pay five percent of their monthly healthcare premiums.
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SEIU Attacking Fellow Union for Concessions”


ACORN Whistleblower Anita MonCreif’s New Venture: EmergingCorruption.com

-By Warner Todd Huston

ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, the brave young woman whose conscience wouldn’t allow her to cover for ACORN’s criminal activity while she was in its employ, has started a new venture. A website dedicated to rooting out government corruption called www.EmergingCorruption.com was launched last weekend headed by Anita and a cadre of writers and researchers (myself being one of them).

Emerging Corruption is a political news website that provides to the public information and investigations into ACORN and other center-left enterprises. The news website will investigate and expose historically corrupt special interest organizations and will feature information and investigations into organizational tactics, programs, campaigns, staff & initiatives including fund raising and finances.
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ACORN Whistleblower Anita MonCreif’s New Venture: EmergingCorruption.com”


Are We Headed Toward Another Revolution?

-By Warner Todd Huston

We see this sort of thing off and on as political eras wax and wane. The question of whether or not we are only just behind a new revolution starting up in the United States has been repeatedly asked almost since the instant the first one (or even the second one — the Civil War) came to a close.

But are we? Are we about to be plunged into a second revolution of some sort or another? And who will be on what side of this revolution? Angelo Codevilla, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, asks this question in the recent issue of the American Spectator and I must say he presents compelling reasons why we might be headed for another revolution.

It’s all about “America’s Ruling Class,” says Codevilla. These elites have lost touch with America and are now solely interested in whats good for the ruling class and not whats good for America and it people.
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Are We Headed Toward Another Revolution?”


Unions Holding Up Cash for the Troops

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the Washington Times had a story that should enrage every true American. The Democrat Congress is allowing Big Labor’s needs to come before the needs of our troops. The supplemental budget that Congress is considering is supposed to be about funding the troops and their efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Democrats are more interested in how many payoffs for Big Labor they can stuff into the thing then in funding the troops.

Like most supplementals, this bill began with a singular purpose: paying war expenses. It since has been larded with billions in wasteful projects and programs designed to attract the vote of the left-of-center members with no fondness for the military. Among the House-approved giveaways are a $10 billion bailout for big-spending local governments, loan guarantees worth $9 billion for purported renewable energy, $3 billion for black farmers and American Indians who sued the government and $1 billion for summertime “youth activities.”

Even worse is the language to nationalize our first responders, policemen, and firemen. (As we talked about HERE)
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Unions Holding Up Cash for the Troops”


Dems Include Union Bailout in War Funding Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no other aspect of Washington D.C. that upsets voters more than government spending surreptitiously added on to spending bills and this week Congress indulged its inner drunken sailor once again by adding a $10 billion bailout for teachers unions in the bill that is supposed to fund the war effort.

The teacher union bailout ups the $60 billion expenditure to a $70 billion tab and is causing even some Democrats to balk.

Republicans have demanded that the war funding bill be clean of any tacked on spending and have threatened to withhold support of the bill if the teachers union bailouts and other unrelated spending additions are kept.
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Dems Include Union Bailout in War Funding Bill”


Federal Funds Paid for ACORN Youth Groups

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you haven’t checked out CNSNews.com, it is a great place to find stories not widely discussed in the Old Media. Often CNS hits stories before anyone else and the Old Media has to play catch-up to report what CNSNews already reported. Recently CNS had an investigative story detailing millions in federal funds that went to pay for ACORN sponsored youth indoctrination groups.

According to CNS the U.S. Justice Dept. gave $135,130 in 2005 to a group called The New York Agency for Community Affairs. It turns out that this group was just an adjunct of ACORN and served as a recruitment arm among young people for the parent organization.

The Government Accountability Office also reports that nearly $40 million in federal funds went to ACORN and groups like it between 2005 and 2009.
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Federal Funds Paid for ACORN Youth Groups”


NJ Gov. Christie To Union Member: You Can Always Quit

-By Warner Todd Huston

At a public meeting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tells a union teacher who is whining about her pay scale that she can always quit teaching if she doesn’t like it.

I LOVE this guy!

And while this teacher was whining that she makes no where near $83,000 per year, the truth came out today that she actually makes $86,000 annually.


Why are the Collar Counties Going GOP? Fiscal Responsibility

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Chicago’s NBC blog The Ward Room, Edward McClelland posits that the reason both Mark Kirk and Bill Brady are winning in current polls in the collar counties — those counties surrounding Cook, Chicago’s home — is because Quinn can’t balance a budget and Giannoulias was a failed banker. It’s about fiscal responsibility, says McClelland.

McClelland quotes a poll from the extremist left-winger website the Daily Kos that finds that Republican Kirk leads Democrat Giannoulias 41-38 in the hunt for Obama’s old Senate seat. Anecdotally interesting, yes. Proof of actual numbers, I’m not so sure. There is little of any worth to anything on the Daily Kos, but if even that wholly slanted website is showing Giannoulias down one might take that as a sign that it is true that Kirk is leading at this time.
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Why are the Collar Counties Going GOP? Fiscal Responsibility”