ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20091007

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable



Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



"Daily Motivations"

Focus on listening. Listening is a sign of respect…a demonstration that people and their ideas are important. When people know you're willing to listen, they will share their ideas as well as their frustrations. Listening enables you to build a foundation of trust that is essential to motivation. -- John Baldoni



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

"Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit." (Ephesians 6:18)

A man traveled to another city on one cold morning. At his hotel, he noticed that everyone there was barefooted. In the coffee shop, he noticed a well-dressed fellow at a nearby table and asked, "Why aren't you wearing shoes? Don't you know about shoes?"

"Of course, I know about shoes," the patron replied.

"Then why don't you wear them?" the visitor asked.

"Ah, that is the question," the patron returned. "Why don't I wear shoes?"

After breakfast, the visitor walked out into the snow. Again, everyone was barefooted. Curious, he asked a passerby, "Why doesn't anyone wear shoes? Don't you know they protect the feet from the cold?"

The passerby said, "Believe me, we all know about shoes. See that building? It's a shoe factory. We gather there every week to hear the man in charge tell us how wonderful shoes are."

"Then why don't you wear shoes?" the visitor persisted.

"Ah, that is the question," the passerby replied. "Why don't we wear shoes?"

When it comes to prayer, many Christians are like the strange people in that city. They know about prayer. They believe in prayer. But if you ask them why they don't pray more, they would say, "Ah, that is the question. Why don't I pray more?"

Prayer is an indescribable privilege. What is amazing is that you can speak with the all-powerful, all-wise and all-loving God anytime, day or night, 24 hours a day -- no appointment needed!

Let us be praying Christians and not like those people without shoes!



"The Patriot Post"

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse." --James Madison



GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Yosi Sergant and ObamaScandals Continue for Obama Allies
First, it was the Obamaphilic gang of community organizers at ACORN generating controversy. Now, it's the lapdogs at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). And once again, an Andrew Breitbart Web site blew the cover off. At BigHollywood.com, Patrick Courrielche, an artist and NEA grant recipient, released a full transcript of an August conference call hosted by "the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the Corporation for National and Community Service" during which strategy was discussed with a "handpicked arts group" that had worked with Obama's campaign, including the artist who created the ubiquitous "Hope" poster.

So what, you say? Well, Courrielche reports, "Later in the call, 'specific asks' were delivered by Yosi Sergant, then Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts," requesting that the art group "create art on several hotly debated political issues, including health care." They were also asked to join "United We Serve," a public-service project led by Michelle Obama. Buffy Wicks, who oversees Obama's national service initiative at "Serve.gov" (which directs activists to ACORN) at the White House's Office of Public Engagement, told participants in the call, "[W]e're going to need your help." Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund writes, "Within two days of the phone call, 21 arts organizations endorsed President Obama's health-care reform plan."


SergantTo summarize, a taxpayer-funded organization (NEA) was "asking" taxpayer-funded artists to help the Obama administration enact a government takeover of our nation's health care system. Courrielche notes, "This practice has never been the historical role of the NEA. The NEA's role is to support excellence in the arts, to increase access to the arts, and to be a leader in arts education. Using the arts to address contentiously debated issues is political subversion. And the fact that the White House played a role in encouraging the arts to address contentious issues should also be considered a government overreach." Indeed, to Barack Obama, every government bureaucracy is a potential campaign arm. The community organizer has now morphed into a government organizer.

After being caught red-handed, the NEA first "reassigned" Sergant, though when that didn't work, he resigned on Thursday. The White House also pushed out new guidelines to ensure such politicization doesn't happen again. Try not to spew coffee on your keyboard.



News From the Swamp: Health Care Debate

While BO hogged the cameras, the Senate Finance Committee debated the health care bill proposed by Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). Democrats and the White House are eagerly displaying their definition of "transparency" by rushing through proposed amendments so that the public doesn't have a chance to see up close how completely this shoddy and unconstitutional legislation will ruin health care and bankrupt the country. Republicans are attempting to shed light on the subject by begging as much time as the "bipartisan" Democrats will afford them, but many of their proposals are falling short on party-line votes.

The major issue at this point is just how big a blow seniors will be dealt by the new plan. Part of the cost savings for Baucus's $800 billion plan derive from making real cuts in Medicare funding, and Democrat support is already starting to drift away at the prospect of seniors being asked to sacrifice a portion of their benefits. The traditional Democrat supporters in Big Labor are also concerned about the 35 percent tax to be imposed on so-called "Cadillac plans," health insurance packages valued at more than $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 for families. This tax is supposed to help fund the rest of the program, but the costs will hit hard for middle-class union families with generous insurance packages, though not necessarily generous salaries.



Government Stomps on Private Insurer

Humana Inc., principal insurance provider for the Medicare Advantage program, drew the ire of Democrats this week for having the temerity to advise its customers that they could see significant cuts to their benefits and services if ObamaCare becomes law. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, under Sen. Max Baucus's urging, ordered Humana to cease and desist in its letter campaign. The company is now the target of a federal investigation for violating a conveniently vague rule against scaring seniors with its communications. We wonder if Baucus has ever heard of the AARP.

Baucus denies that his program will have any adverse effect on Medicare coverage for seniors. The Congressional Budget Office disagrees, noting that Medicare Advantage will see $100 billion in cuts, ultimately leading to reduced benefits. This particular Medicare program is targeted because Advantage actually allows consumers to work with private insurers. Democrats, of course, hate this free-market idea.

The government's action against Humana is just a taste of what Hope and Change will bring. Today, they control through intimidation the message of private companies; tomorrow they control the companies completely.



New & Notable Legislation

Surprising no one, the Senate voted down an amendment by Jim DeMint (R-SC) that would have removed federal funding for an airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that The Wall Street Journal calls "Congressman Jack Murtha's Airport for No One." The airport serves fewer than 30 people each day for three commercial flights to Washington, DC, but it has devoured more than $150 million in Murtha pork over the last 20 years, including $800,000 in "stimulus" cash this year for -- get this -- a second runway. DeMint complained that "if we can't cut funding for this project, we can't cut anything in Washington." Flight 150000000 for DC is now boarding with plenty of seats available.

The House voted 406-18 Thursday to halt premium increases for Medicare Part B, given that Social Security recipients will not see a cost of living increase in 2010. Most Medicare recipients are already exempt from increases if there is no boost in Social Security payments, but many others would face monthly premium increases of $8 to $23 without action by Congress.

The Associated Press reports, "The Senate has unanimously condemned the release of the Libyan terrorist convicted in [the] Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie and called upon Libya to apologize for celebrating his return." The 1988 bombing killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. Scotland released Abdel Baset al-Megrahi last month on "compassionate" grounds because he is dying of cancer. He was greeted in Libya as a national hero by cheering throngs.

Last, hang on to your wallet -- due to plummeting readership and flat-lined advertising revenues, Barack Obama is open to a newspaper bailout. "I haven't seen detailed proposals yet, but I'll be happy to look at them," he said this week. And we thought the press was already in the tank for Obama.



Judicial Benchmarks: Campaign-Finance Law Struck Down

A three-judge panel of the DC-based Second Circuit Court of Appeals struck down prohibitions on campaign spending by independent political groups, a move one observer warned "could lead to a more negative campaign season." The rules, which were put into effect following the 2004 campaign, prohibited outside entities from the unfettered use of so-called "soft money" -- money not used in direct advocacy for the election of a particular candidate or issue. These rules came in the wake of a huge wave of political spending by tax-exempt organizations recognized under IRS Code, Section 527, such as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Club for Growth.

While some think that this ruling will largely benefit conservative groups given the recent overwhelming participation in the Tea Party movement, left-leaning groups also stand to prosper, as unions will once again be free to distribute their massive political war chest to a number of new and existing 527 groups such as Moveon.org. In fact, it was the pro-abortion group Emily's List that filed the suit, claiming the rules restricted their First Amendment rights. We agree -- on that point.

Another victory against current unconstitutional campaign-finance rules is pending in the Supreme Court, where the provision banning corporate purchases of political ads 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election is undergoing scrutiny through the case of "Hillary: The Movie." We won't comment on the merits of the film, but given the withering questioning from several justices, it's possible that McCain-Feingold itself may be on the ropes.



From the Leftjudiciary: Indiana Court Tosses Voter ID

Despite a significantly higher voter turnout last year than in most previous presidential elections, as well as Barack Obama's narrowly carrying the state, the Indiana State Court of Appeals threw out the state's voter identification law -- a statute that had already passed muster with the U.S. Supreme Court -- claiming the law wasn't equally applied to those casting absentee ballots. The 3-0 ruling, made by a panel of judges appointed by Democrat governors, was blasted by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels as "an act of judicial arrogance" and "transparently" partisan.

Predictably, state Democrat leaders hailed the ruling, claiming, even in the face of those increased turnout numbers, that the law requiring voters to present a form of identification bearing their photo "disenfranchised hundreds if not thousands of voters." Heaven forbid, after all, that voters are who they say they are and vote only once.



NATIONAL SECURITY

Warfront With Jihadistan: Requesting More Troops
Is Obama preparing to run up the white flag in Afghanistan? Unfortunately, recent actions point in that direction. Just a month ago, Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their convention in Phoenix that Afghanistan was "not a war of choice" but "a war of necessity." A few months prior to that, he had grandly announced his new strategy for victory there, telling the Taliban and the terrorists, "We will defeat you." On this past Sunday's talk-show circuit, however, Obama openly wondered if the U.S. was "pursuing the right strategy" and further said he would not send more troops to Afghanistan unless "we've got the right strategy." Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly told his top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to delay submitting a request for more troops and wait for the Obama administration to rethink its strategy.

A confidential report put together by Gen. McChrystal was strategically leaked, however, bluntly warning that without more troops, the eight-year Afghan war "will likely result in failure" within a year. The report also says that the Taliban have become a sophisticated enemy, using modern communication techniques and propaganda to recruit new members and plan attacks. McChrystal seems poised to request 40,000 more troops, for the first time bringing the total to more than 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Trying to downplay the report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said that while she has "respect" for Gen. McChrystal's conclusion, she countered, "I can only tell you there are other assessments from very expert military analysts who have worked in counter-insurgencies that are the exact opposite." She left people scratching their heads as to exactly who these unnamed "very expert military analysts" might be.

When Gen. David Petraeus presented President George W. Bush with a similarly dire scenario in Iraq, Bush resolutely ordered the troop surge that turned Iraq around. But it now appears that a weak-kneed Obama may ignore his leading commander's advice and instead listen to his increasingly raucous leftist base. During the presidential campaign, these double-talkers called Afghanistan the "real" war and Iraq just a "distraction." Well, Mr. President, it's time to put your money where your mouth is.



More Shenanigans in Honduras

It seems there really is no rest for the weary Hondurans. Nearly three months after the country's major legal institutions determined that former President Manual Zelaya had committed treason with his Hugo Chavez-esque grab for power, the tiny nation is still being pressured to allow Zelaya to resume his role as leader.

Now, Zelaya, likely aided by Venezuela's Chavez, has snuck back into the Honduran capitol of Tegucigalpa where, from the safety of the Brazilian embassy, he has called for his supporters to converge on the city with "peaceful" demonstrations. And they have done so, despite interim President Roberto Micheletti's declaration of a curfew, roadblocks and a closed airport. Meanwhile, Zelaya bizarrely complains of assassination attempts by "Israeli mercenaries" who he claims are using toxic gases and high-frequency radiation to torture him. Apparently, the "gas" has gone to his head.

The Obama administration has repeatedly ignored Honduras' right to self-determination with measures that make the Left's cry of "American imperialism" during the Bush years seem like child's play. The U.S. State Department has cut off vital aid to Honduras and has denied its citizens U.S. visas, all to make it bend to the will of Obama, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. "It is imperative that dialogue begin," Hillary Clinton declared, and "that there be a channel of communication between President Zelaya and the de facto regime in Honduras." Memo to Hillary: Zelaya is no longer president, his legal term in office has expired, and the "de facto regime" is a legitimate transitional government until elections can take place.

Regardless, the U.S. State Department has declared that it will not recognize the outcome of the upcoming elections on Nov. 29 unless Zelaya is returned to power.



And Last...

It wasn't long ago that Barack Obama was using the United States Postal Service as a shining example for how ObamaCare's "public option" would affect the competition. The Postal Service, Obama argued, hadn't driven its competitors out of business and neither would ObamaCare. In fact, he argued, it was the Postal Service -- and not FedEx or UPS -- that was having all the problems. Fast forward a couple of months, and Congress is considering a USPS bailout as part of a stopgap spending bill scheduled to come before Congress in the next week. According to David Rogers at Politico, it "would be allowed to defer $4 billion in payments due at the end of this month to cover retirement benefits for its employees." The deferment could last until 2017. It's no wonder Obama has shifted to comparing the public option to public universities. Then again, in California, college tuition is skyrocketing this year by 32 percent due to the state's crushing budget deficits. Looks like it's back to the drawing board, Barack!



"The Web"

Video: "Saturday Night Live," Oct. 3, 2009

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/05/video-snl-slams-obamas-effectiveness-in-speech-sketch/#



Perversion 101: Kids taught 'gay' sex, rape, bestiality

High school teacher keeps job after handing out pornographic 'banned book'

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112014

A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality.

John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his son. The book is published by MTV Books.

Davis found the book in his son's possession, along with a bookmark that said, "Read banned books. They're your ticket to freedom."

"My son was reading the book and stated it was a school assignment," Davis told WND. "He was embarrassed that I began to peruse through the book and discovered its contents. He advised that the book belongs to his English teacher, Mrs. Kathleen Renard."

Upon reading the book, Davis discovered the following:

sex acts between teenagers male and female masturbation suicide oral sex extensive use of profanity, especially the "F"-word multiple cases of homosexual acts between teenage boys, including kissing, seduction and anal sex illegal drug and alcohol use, including smoking marijuana and LSD usage anonymous homosexual acts between men and boys rape of a teenage girl while she cried molestation of a young boy by a woman molestation of a young girl by an older man how hitting a girl can turn her on and make her love a boy attempted sex between a boy and a dog Davis confiscated the book and arranged to meet with Renard and William Byrd High School Principal Richard Turner.

Amazon.com excerpt from 'Perks of Being a Wallflower'

The father said the English teacher was not present at the Oct. 2 meeting. He asked the principal if he could speak with the teacher, but he said Turner refused to call her in, saying, "I'm not going to fire her over this."

Get "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom"

"I was supposed to be meeting with him and the teacher together so I could get some answers," Davis said. "He wouldn't let the teacher come in because he was trying to protect her."

Davis said the principal explained that Renard had made "a whole row" of banned books available to her students in celebration of the American Library Association's "Banned Book Week." She included her personal copy of "Perks of Being a Wallflower," complete with her own name on the inside jacket, among other selections.

The book is listed among ALA's top 10 "most frequently challenged books of 2008." The ALA "banned" books also include many other stories that reference sex, occult themes, violence, offensive language, drug abuse, homosexuality and suicide.

The principal told Davis he believed the book was inappropriate, but he said the father handled his complaint improperly.

Parents were not informed that these banned books would be made available to the students. Davis said that when he expressed this concern to the principal, he replied, "You're right about that."

According to Davis, the principal said he believed the teacher should not have provided the books. Principal Turner claimed he had met with the instructor and disciplined her, but Davis said he would not say what actions had been taken. Instead, he told the father, "That's between me and her."

Davis said, "As far as I know, he may have just given her a paid day off. He wouldn't tell me."

The book is listed among ALA's top 10 "most frequently challenged books of 2008." The ALA "banned" books also include many other stories that reference sex, occult themes, violence, offensive language, drug abuse, homosexuality and suicide.

The principal told Davis he believed the book was inappropriate, but he said the father handled his complaint improperly.

Parents were not informed that these banned books would be made available to the students. Davis said that when he expressed this concern to the principal, he replied, "You're right about that."

According to Davis, the principal said he believed the teacher should not have provided the books. Principal Turner claimed he had met with the instructor and disciplined her, but Davis said he would not say what actions had been taken. Instead, he told the father, "That's between me and her."

Davis said, "As far as I know, he may have just given her a paid day off. He wouldn't tell me."

Davis is still in possession of the book and has chosen not to give it back to the instructor because he said he doesn't want it back in the hands of students.

"This is one of the better schools around," he told WND. "People need to wake up and start questioning some of the things that are going on in the schools. They wonder why we're having so many problems with teens. A lot of it has to do with what goes on in the schools."

Concerned individuals may contact William Byrd High School or the Roanoke County School Board.



Do Americans trust the news media?

Marcia Segelstein - Guest Columnist

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=711694

As a former producer for CBS News, famous in its glory days for journalists like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, I was particularly interested in a newly released poll by Sacred Heart Universitiy.

The SHU Polling Institute recently conducted its third survey on "Trust and Satisfaction with the National News Media." It's a national poll intended to answer the question of whether Americans trust the news media. In a nutshell, the answer is a resounding "No!"

The results are stunning, and don't bode well for the future of the mainstream media, including my former employer. They do, however, point to the perceptiveness of the American public.

Pollsters asked which television news organizations people turned to most frequently. CBS News didn't even make the top five! Who did? Fox News was first by a wide margin of 28.4 percent. CNN was second, chosen by 14.9 percent. NBC News, ABC News, and "local news" followed, while CBS News lagged way behind with only 7.4 percent.

On the question of media bias, a whopping 83.6 percent agree that national news media organizations are "very or somewhat biased." And the American public seems to recognize that the bias is specifically reflected in coverage of President Obama. Of those polled, almost 90 percent say that the national media played a "very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama." Close to 70 percent believe the news media "are intent on promoting the Obama presidency."

Those are staggering numbers. But there's more.

On Obama's healthcare reform: More than half of those surveyed (56.4 percent) say that the news media are promoting it "without objective criticism."

On Sarah Palin: A majority of those surveyed (57.6 percent) believed that the news media "appear to be coordinating efforts to diminish the record of former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin."

The late Walter Cronkite, while occupying the anchor chair at CBS News, was once voted the most trusted man in America. Which media outlet is most trusted to be accurate today? Again, Fox News took first place with a healthy margin of 30 percent. CNN followed with 19.5 percent, NBC News with 7.5 percent, and ABC News with 7.5 percent.

It's clear that Fox News fills a niche. It was viewed as "mostly or somewhat conservative" by a 4-to-1 margin. Nonetheless, it's also the most watched and most trusted. That's especially impressive considering that it's still the new kid on the block when it comes to television news, having started in 1996.

Dr. James Castonguay is associate professor of Media Studies and Digital Culture at Sacred Heart. He believes that Fox News "taps into the sensibilities of a large portion of the population." He also believes, as he told me, "that as we see a strong degree of polarization and political partisanship in the country in general, we see a similar trend in the media." That probably explains why Fox News is also considered the least trusted, according to the SHU poll. Viewers seem to either love or hate Fox News.

The broadcast news outlets, on the other hand, are clearer about their attitude toward Fox News. Consider ABC News anchor Charles Gibson's dismissive comments about the recent undercover videos shot at ACORN offices around the country. Employees of ACORN, which receives millions of federal dollars annually, were shown appearing to advise a couple dressed as a pimp and a prostitute about how to set up a brothel in one instance. It was Fox News who first aired the videos, eventually attracting not only the attention of the viewing public, but Congress as well. Well after the story broke, Gibson was asked about it on a radio show. He claimed not to be familiar with it, adding that it might be "just one you leave to the cables."

That kind of arrogance isn't working too well for ABC News, or any of the broadcast networks for that matter. They see themselves as somehow above bias, as holier-than-Fox standard bearers of truth. But only 24.3 percent of the SHU respondents say they believe "all or most news media reporting." They also overwhelmingly (86.6 percent) believe "that the news media have their own political and public policy positions and attempt to influence public opinion."

The SHU poll shows that people perceive Fox News as being conservative. It also shows that by a 3-to-1 margin, CNN is perceived as liberal. Fox News is the most watched among those polled, beating out CNN by a margin of almost 2 to 1.

We are a divided country. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. We are a mixed bag of people who identify ourselves as conservatives, liberals, and independents. Thank goodness the news media perceived as liberal no longer have a monopoly.



Gibbs: Obama Has Only ‘Read a Decent Part’ of Health Care Bill

By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55038

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs speaks at the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

(CNSNews.com) – President Obama has spent some time in the past few months rebutting critics of the health care legislation being debated in Congress, and telling Americans what he insists it does or does not say about certain issues such as abortion and whether people will be able to keep their current health insurance plans. But the president has only read “a decent part” of the legislation he is describing, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs revealed yesterday.

When a reporter noted at Monday's press briefing that there had been some discussion on Capitol Hill about whether members of Congress would read the text of the health care bill before voting on it, and then asked Gibbs whether the president would read the bill himself before he signs it into law, Gibbs said: “Well, I think he's read a decent part of the legislation that's been bandied around right now, and we should address this as with members of Congress when we have closer to a final piece of legislation.”

The question of whether lawmakers actually read the laws they enact has been a matter of public controversy this year, with people at town hall meetings this summer exhorting their congressional representatives to read the health care bill being debated in Congress.

In February, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) told CNSNews.com that none of his colleagues would be able to read the 1,071-page stimulus bill before voting on it. The final text of that bill was not made available to members of Congress or the public until late at night the day before it was voted into law.

“No, I don’t think anyone will have the chance to [read the entire bill],” Lautenberg had told CNSNews.com.

In July, as CNSNews.com reported, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) mocked the idea of reading the health care bill. “What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” he said.

Last week, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee which has oversight over the legislation, told CNSNews.com, “I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life.”

The language in such bills is “arcane,” “hard stuff to understand” and “incomprehensible,” said Carper.

On Aug. 4, when Gibbs was initially asked whether Obama would read the entire health care bill, Gibbs made a joke of the question. “I don’t know what his vacation plans are currently,” said Gibbs.

As of now, one version of the health care bill has been produced by three House committees and another has been produced by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The Senate Finance Committee is preparing to vote on its own version of the bill, but the text of that bill has not been produced. The committee is planning to vote instead on a summary of the bill that some committee members call “conceptual” language and others call a “plain English” version of the bill.

The House version of the bill, which is available to be read, is more than a thousand pages long.



Will House Democrats Vote to Protect Chairman Rangel Again?

Failure to Pay Taxes and Disclose Income, Using Official Letterhead to Raise Money for ‘Monument to Me’, Corporate-Funded Trips Among Accusations Rangel Faces
Washington, Oct 6 - Upon winning the majority in the 2006 election, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that Democrats would usher-in “the most honest, the most open, the most ethical Congress in history.” Despite that well-known promise, however, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) remains as chairman of the Ways & Means Committee even though he faces serious charges that are now the subject of an Ethics Committee investigation. Moreover, Democrats have twice voted against resolutions calling for Rangel to step down as chairman until the investigation is complete. House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (R-TX) announced last week his intention to offer another resolution this week to remove Rangel from his chairmanship pending completion of the investigation.

Before the House votes on a resolution, it might be helpful for the Majority Democrats to review the accusations facing Rangel:

Failure to report $75,000 in rental income on federal and state tax returns: The New York Times reported that Rangel “earned more than $75,000 in rental income from a villa he has owned in the Dominican Republic since 1988, but never reported it on his federal or state tax returns, according to a lawyer for the congressman and documents from the resort.” Rangel also “paid no interest for more than a decade on a mortgage” for the villa and “the loan was given to him by the resort development company, in which Theodore Kheel, a prominent New York labor lawyer, was a principal investor. Mr. Kheel, who has given tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Rangel’s campaigns over the past decade.
Agreed to preserve a tax break that would benefit a supporter who on the same day pledged to give $1 million to Rangel’s ‘Monument to Me’: As the New York Times reported, Rangel agreed “to preserve a tax loophole for an oil-drilling company at the same time that its chief executive pledged $1 million to a City College of New York school that will bear the congressman’s name.”
Used official congressional letterhead to solicit support for his ‘Monument to Me’: The Washington Post reported that Rangel “penned letters on congressional stationery and has sought meetings to ask for corporate and foundation contributions for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, a project that caused controversy last year when he won a $1.9 million congressional earmark to help start it.”

Rented four rent-stabilized apartments: As the New York Times reported, Rangel had four rent-stabilized apartments “including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan” and “six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.” Rangel “paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments” even though the “current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month.” Rangel later relinquished the apartment used as a campaign office.

Took at least two corporate-funded trips: As The Hill newspaper reported, the funding of trips Rangel took to the Caribbean raise questions about whether the trips violated “a two-year-old ethics rule passed after Democrats regained the House.” A major airline “provided in-kind donations of tickets for Rangel and five other members of Congress to fly from their districts to St. Martin.” According to ethics experts, the donation of tickets “for members to use for a specific trip is a clear violation of House ethics rules governing travel.”

Failed to disclose millions of dollars in income and assets: The New York Post reported that Rangel “failed to report as much as $1.3 million in outside income -- including up to $1 million for a Harlem building sale -- on financial-disclosure forms he filed between 2002 and 2006, according to newly amended records.” Rangel also “lowballed his income by as much as $70,000 in 2002, $46,000 in 2003 and $117,000 in 2006” and in 2004 “Rangel left off his disclosure form as much as $430,000 in stock transactions.” CBS News reported that Rangel also omitted a checking account worth more than $250,000.



Obama Moves to Muzzle Top Military Commanders

By: David A. Patten

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/McChrystal_obama_gates/2009/10/05/268742.html?s=al&promo_code=8B27-1

Sources tell Newsmax the Obama administration is muzzling its top military leaders, and keeping them from publicly airing their views on how to fight the war in Afghanistan.

The administration's primary target: top Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose speech in London last week apparently caught administration officials off guard.

In fact, The Daily Telegraph reported that Obama's advisers were "shocked and angered" by McChrystal's speech.

"This is a food fight in the war room, and it's getting ugly," observed Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent and Manhattan Institute scholar Judith Miller, regarding the sharply contrasting views being aired within the administration over how to fight the war.



ACORN's Man in the White House

By Matthew Vadum on 9.28.09 @ 6:09AM

Newly discovered evidence shows the radical advocacy group ACORN has a man in the Obama White House.

This power behind the throne is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard. He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House.

Evidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York.

Lewis, the current "chief organizer" or CEO of ACORN, was head of New York ACORN from at least 1994 through 2008, when she took over as national leader of ACORN. With Gaspard at work in the White House, Lewis might as well be speaking to President Obama through an earpiece as he goes about his daily business ruining the country.

Erick Erickson of the website RedState recently did an excellent job explaining the relationship of Gaspard to Lewis and President Obama so I won't take up space here recalling all his valuable insights. Suffice it to say Erickson reported that Gaspard figures prominently in Lewis's rolodex, which Erickson has in his possession.

Skeptics among you may ask, How do we actually know the low-profile Gaspard, who prefers to work outside the public spotlight and who can hardly be found in Nexis searches at all, was Lewis's right hand man?

Because Gaspard's employment with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is acknowledged by no less an authority than ACORN founder Wade Rathke himself. Rathke writes at his blog:

Tell me that 1199's former political director, Patrick Gaspard (who was ACORN New York's political director before that) didn't reach out from the White House and help make that happen, and I'll tell you to take some remedial classes in "politics 101."

The "before that" time period Rathke is referring to is 2003 when Gaspard was executive vice president for political and legislative affairs for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. According to publicly available disclosure documents, Gaspard registered as a federal lobbyist for SEIU on Oct. 22, 2007. The registration and subsequent disclosures indicate he lobbied Congress on SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Incidentally, the lines between ACORN and radical left-wing SEIU, whose acronym stands for Service Employees International Union, become fuzzy in places.

SEIU Locals 100 and 880 are part of the ACORN network of organizations. Local 100 in New Orleans is headed by Rathke. SEIU Local 880 in Chicago is headed by longtime ACORN insider Keith Kelleher.

You'd never know about the SEIU connection from visiting ACORN's website, www.acorn.org. That's because the website has been receiving a thorough scrubbing in recent months. On ACORN's affiliated organizations page, references to the two SEIU locals mysteriously disappeared.

It's worth noting that Gaspard's ties to ACORN, SEIU, and Lewis go way back.

According to the Complete Marquis Who's Who, Gaspard has a long history of political involvement stretching back to at least 1989 when he volunteered for the David Dinkins mayoral campaign in New York City. In 2003 he became acting field director for Howard Dean's presidential bid. He was national field director in 2004 for America Coming Together, a now-defunct get-out-the-vote operation that received a $775,000 fine for campaign finance abuses. In 2006 Gaspard was acting political director for SEIU International.

Gaspard also worked for New York's Working Families Party, which is an appendage of ACORN. Lewis is a co-founder of that party -- which endorsed Obama last year -- and has close ties to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) who has been most reluctant to have the House Judiciary subcommittee he chairs investigate ACORN.

Nadler invented the incredibly creative argument that recent legislative language aimed at depriving ACORN of federal funding constitutes an unconstitutional "bill of attainder." Perhaps singling out the mafia for a federal funds cutoff would be unconstitutional too in his eyes.

Meanwhile, the American public is beginning to realize that ACORN is a vast criminal conspiracy whose reach extends to the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Obama's statement that he's barely aware of ACORN's problems is nothing short of ridiculous, especially so because Patrick Gaspard was a political director for ACORN New York.

Last year he worked as national political director for the Obama campaign followed by a stint as associate personnel director for the Obama-Biden transition team.

As the old Washington saying goes, politics is personnel. Who knows how many administration officials were put in place by Gaspard with direct input from ACORN's Bertha Lewis. It boggles the mind.

We also now know the Obama administration was lying about ACORN's high level involvement in the 2010 Census. The coordination between ACORN and the Census was revealed as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the relentless investigator Tegan Millspaw of Judicial Watch. The Census and other government agencies have cut ties with ACORN as the ACORN scandal widens.

We have to wonder: when it comes to ACORN, what else is the Obama administration lying about?



"The e-mail Bag"

Women Jokes On Men!

Q. How do men get excersize at the beach?
A. By sucking in their stomachs every time they see a bikini.

Q. What's a man's idea of helpin with the housework?
A. Lifting his legs so you can vacuum.

Q. Why are all dumb blond jokes oneliners?
A. So men can understand them.

Q. How do women define a 50/50 relationship?
A. We cook/they eat; We clean/they dirty; We iron/ they wrinkle.

Q. What is the difference between government bonds and men?
A. Government bonds mature.