Category: Politics

American Servicemen and Women to March in Gay Pride Parade…in Uniform

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

For one of the few times in my 53 years, I’m speechless. I’ll get back to you after you read this from yahoo.com.

The Defense Department on Thursday announced it is allowing service members to march in uniform in a gay pride parade for the first time in U.S. history.

In a memorandum sent to all its branches, the department said it was making the allowance for San Diego’s Gay Pride Parade on Saturday even though its policy generally bars troops from marching in uniform in parades.

The Defense Department said it did so because organizers had encouraged military personnel to march in their uniform and the event was getting national attention.

The move came only weeks after the Pentagon joined the rest of the U.S. government for the first time in marking June as gay pride month and made an official salute to gay and lesbian service members.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta vowed in a video message to remove as many barriers as possible to making the military a model of equal opportunity and said gays and lesbians can be proud in uniform with the repeal last year of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.

Last year, San Diego’s Gay Pride Parade had the nation’s largest contingency of active-duty troops participate before the military lifted its ban on openly gay service members. About 200 service members last year wore T-shirts with their branch’s name.

Former sailor Sean Sala, who organized the military’s participation in the parade, said he wanted service members to wear their official uniform this year to show there is no longer anything to hide.

“My soul is on fire,” he said after hearing the news Thursday. “They don’t fight in T-shirts. They fight in uniforms. This is about showing who they are.”

The Pentagon said the allowance is only for this year’s parade in San Diego and does not extend beyond that. Military personnel wearing civilian clothes do not need permission to march in any parades.

Back on September 20. 2011, abcnews.go.com reported that

Today, it’s official. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is formally repealed and gays and lesbians will, for the first time, be allowed to serve openly in the military. Reflecting on the milestone, President Obama said today he was proud to repeal the 17-year-old ban “because I knew that it would enhance our national security, increase our military readiness, and bring us closer to the principles of equality and fairness that define us as Americans.”

“As of today, patriotic Americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love. As of today, our armed forces will no longer lose the extraordinary skills and combat experience of so many gay and lesbian service members. And today, as commander in chief, I want those who were discharged under this law to know that your country deeply values your service,” the president said in a written statement.

Service members who were discharged under the policy will now be allowed to re-enlist and the military has already been taking applications from potential gay recruits.

Obama went on to note that the repeal “is a tribute to all the patriots who fought and marched for change,” from lawmakers to military leaders to the men and women in uniform.

“For more than two centuries, we have worked to extend America’s promise to all our citizens. Our armed forces have been both a mirror and a catalyst of that progress, and our troops, including gays and lesbians, have given their lives to defend the freedoms and liberties that we cherish as Americans. Today, every American can be proud that we have taken another great step toward keeping our military the finest in the world and toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals,” Obama concluded.

And now, Gay servicemen and women in uniform are going to march in a Gay Pride Parade, a clearly political exercise.

Now I’m not naive, gay Americans have always served in our Armed Forces…discreetly and professionally…not politically.

So, now they want to march? They’re a month late:

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is not requiring commands and agencies to hold gay pride events this month, even as the Pentagon prepares for its first celebration on Tuesday of gays serving openly in the ranks.

Mr. Panetta issued a message to troops June 15 recognizing June as Gay Pride Month in the military, after President Obama officially recognized it weeks earlier.

Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department’s general counsel who spearheaded the drive inside the Pentagon to repeal the policy against gays serving openly in the military, will be the keynote speaker at the Pentagon event, which will feature a panel discussion titled “The Value of Open Service and Diversity.”

The Pentagon has not released the names of panel members. A gay-rights group said it knows the names, but declined to identify them before the Pentagon does.

Pentagon spokesmen said Mr. Panetta has not directed commands, installations or agencies to hold companion gay pride events during June.

A spot-check of major commands – such as Special Operations Command, Pacific Command and Central Command – revealed that no special events or statements are scheduled. One spokesman said that does not mean an installation will not note the occasion with a statement or exhibit.

“I’m not aware of any events planned at this point,” said a Pacific Command spokeswoman.

Said Army spokesman George Wright: “Aside from the event at the Pentagon for [the Department of Defense], I’m not aware of any organized activities here at Army headquarters, nor at installations.”

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is not requiring commands and agencies to hold gay pride events this month, even as the Pentagon prepares for its first celebration on Tuesday of gays serving openly in the ranks.

Mr. Panetta issued a message to troops June 15 recognizing June as Gay Pride Month in the military, after President Obama officially recognized it weeks earlier.

Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department’s general counsel who spearheaded the drive inside the Pentagon to repeal the policy against gays serving openly in the military, will be the keynote speaker at the Pentagon event, which will feature a panel discussion titled “The Value of Open Service and Diversity.”

The Pentagon has not released the names of panel members. A gay-rights group said it knows the names, but declined to identify them before the Pentagon does.

Pentagon spokesmen said Mr. Panetta has not directed commands, installations or agencies to hold companion gay pride events during June.

A spot-check of major commands – such as Special Operations Command, Pacific Command and Central Command – revealed that no special events or statements are scheduled. One spokesman said that does not mean an installation will not note the occasion with a statement or exhibit.

“I’m not aware of any events planned at this point,” said a Pacific Command spokeswoman.

Said Army spokesman George Wright: “Aside from the event at the Pentagon for [the Department of Defense], I’m not aware of any organized activities here at Army headquarters, nor at installations.”

I tell you what, kids.  I’m going to march, too, and proudly proclaim my heterosexuality, every chance I get.

It would be just as appropriate.

The Northeast Republican National Convention

On By kingsjesterIn Politics9 Comments

Have you ever been excluded from a club, meeting, or party? Remember how rejected and mad that made you?

Wellll…grab the duct tape Reagan Conservatives, living in the Heartland.

The New York Post reports:

The word is going out quietly to Republican activists across New Jersey: If you’re going to the GOP convention in Tampa next month, be sure to be there by Tuesday night, Aug. 28, because Gov. Chris Christie is going to be giving the keynote speech that night.

“We’ve been told that’s the night to be there, that’s when the governor is going to speak. They’re saying he’s the keynoter,” one top party activist told The Post yesterday.

On May 26, 2012, Andrew McCarthy wrote the following article for nationalreview.com, answering a post by National Review’s Noah Glyn, claiming that Chis Christie was one of us (Conservative)

As it happens, I am a citizen of New Jersey, so my reasons for examining his record closely go beyond my day job. It is based on that examination that I see Christie as wildly overrated. Sure, his YouTube smackdowns of overmatched lefty hacks are catnip for the Right. The routine gets old fast, though. The tantrums have become as mundane as “Pass the salt.” Christie now erupts not only at teachers’ union drones but at NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly, New York congressman Pete King, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, anti-sharia “crazies” who resist Islamic supremacism, all those “completely intellectually dishonest” conservatives who think Romneycare may not have been a fabulous idea, and, one infers, just about anyone who happens by when Governor Grumpy is having a bad day . . . which seems to be often. Plus, there’s not much rain in them big winds: Christie’s bully-boy études do not drown out his nonstop symphony to “bipartisanship,” nor obscure that it is “compromise” with the Left that sends him into (not infrequent) frissons of self-adulation.

To be sure, Christie is a very talented politician and a deft extemporaneous speaker. He has done some good things in a heavily Democratic state dominated by municipal unions. He is certainly, as blue-state governors go, better than average. That does not make him a conservative, much less the “consistent conservative” of Glyn’s portrayal.

…In the post Glyn targets, my point was that Christie would be a poor choice as Mitt Romney’s running mate — a conclusion with which Glyn actually agrees. If the objective in making the pick is to improve Romney’s chances by balancing the ticket with someone more conservative than Romney, that purpose would not be served by selecting a near-clone of Romney. Another moderate northeastern GOP governor with a soft spot for socialized medicine is not going to energize tea partiers and other Romney-indifferent conservatives. Furthermore, my principal contention in the post, not mentioned by Glyn, was that Christie has been adamant about not being ready to be president. Given that readiness to assume the office is generally taken to be the salient qualification for the No. 2 slot, Christie would seem to be unsuitable on his own account. In any event, my main purpose was not to trash Governor Christie — as a governor for New Jersey, he may be the best we can do at the moment. My post addressed the claim, still making the rounds, that he’d make a good veep choice.

…Borrowing more millions to pay current operating expenses — heaping more exorbitant debt, with interest, onto the backs of New Jersey’s children — is exactly the practice Christie lambasted his statist predecessor over. He promised to bring it to an end. But now the dilemma: Christie wants to keep his conservative cheerleaders cheering by cutting income taxes while preserving his “reach across the aisle” cred by not only maintaining but expanding the welfare state. As always, the “have it all” fantasy relies on the mirage of epic growth. When that growth inevitably fails to materialize, a governor can either get real or start playing budget voodoo with borrowed money. The “consistent conservative” has made his choice.

I’m far from the first to observe that there is much less to Chris Christie than meets the conservative ear. A blue state could — and usually does — do a lot worse than Christie for its governor. But if “Christie is one of us,” then a lot of “us” aren’t.

As we get closer to the kick-off of what is sizing up to be a distinctly Northeastern Moderate (and I’m being kind) Republican Convention (no Reagan Conservative Republicans allowed), I am reminded of this analysis of the words of the greatest United States President in our generation, who just happened to be a Republican:

Matt Barber wrote in the Washington Times that

Ronald Reagan often spoke of a “three-legged stool” that undergirds true conservatism. The legs are represented by a strong defense, strong free-market economic policies and strong social values. For the stool to remain upright, it must be supported by all three legs. If you snap off even one leg, the stool collapses under its own weight.

A Republican, for instance, who is conservative on social and national defense issues but liberal on fiscal issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative socialist.

A Republican who is conservative on fiscal and social issues but liberal on national defense issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative dove.

By the same token, a Republican who is conservative on fiscal and national defense issues but liberal on social issues – such as abortion, so-called gay rights or the Second Amendment – is not a Reagan conservative. He is a socio-liberal libertarian.

Put another way: A Republican who is one part William F. Buckley Jr., one part Oliver North and one part Rachel Maddow is no true conservative. He is – well, I’m not exactly sure what he is, but it ain’t pretty.

I, like most other Conservatives out here in the Heartland, am going to hold my nose and vote for Mitt Romney.

But, this whole situation sure ain’t pretty.

Obama vs. Sheriff Joe: Don’t Mess With the Bull…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Back on November 3, 2010, actor Sylvester Stallone tweeted the following:

I voted did you? Gotta get the Manchurian Candidate out of the drivers seat before were ALL soaring off a cliff into Oblivion…Be smart.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona agrees.

Investigators for an Arizona sheriff’s volunteer posse have declared that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is definitely fraudulent.

Members of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s posse said in March that there was probable cause that Obama’s long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April 2011 was a computer-generated forgery.

Now, Arpaio says investigators are positive it’s fraudulent.

Mike Zullo, the posse’s chief investigator, said numeric codes on certain parts of the birth certificate indicate that those parts weren’t filled out, yet those sections asking for the race of Obama’s father and his field of work or study were completed.

Zullo said investigators previously didn’t know the meaning of codes but that the codes were explained by a 95-year-old former state worker who signed the president’s birth certificate. Zullo said a news reporter who has helped out in the probe let investigators listen in on an interview he concluded of the former state worker.

The Obama campaign declined to comment on Arpaio’s allegations.

The Arizona Democratic Party says in a statement that Arpaio’s investigation is intended to draw attention away from problems within his own agency, such as hundreds of sex-crimes cases that the sheriff’s office failed to adequately investigate over a three-year period.

So-called “birthers” maintain Obama is ineligible to be president because, they contend, he was born in Kenya.

Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama’s citizenship.

Obama released a copy of his long-form birth certificate in an attempt to quell citizenship questions.

Courts have rebuffed lawsuits over the issue.

Uh huh. The problem is: Obama seems to have a much in common with average Americans, as I do with the Eastern European in those commercials who identifies himself on the phone as “Peggy”.

Remember when Obama presented his “birth certificate”?

From wjbc.com, April 27, 2011:

“We do not have time for this silliness,” President Obama said in a statement to the media this morning about his birth certificate. The White House is releasing his full birth certificate, showing a live birth in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. In a statement, Obama called himself amused and puzzled about questions that have been raised about his birth. Since 2008, some conspiracy theorists have repeatedly raised questions about whether Obama was actually born in the USA. In recent weeks, real estate mogul Donald Trump has fanned the flames of doubt about the President’s birthplace. Trump is flirting with a presidential run as a Republican.

A statement from White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer says the President viewed the issue as a distraction that was not good for the country. Pfeiffer said, “It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country.”

Distracting? Thank you, Lt. Frank Drebin.

Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to see here.

This has been a busy week for the sheriff. On Monday, he had a little message for cancelled talk show host and Liberal comedian George Lopez, who used to have a sit-com as well.

Chicagotribune.com reported the story:

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio isn’t laughing at George Lopez’s new one-man show on HBO in which the comedian blasts the Maricopa County lawman for his position on immigration and his “birther” stance.

In fact, Arpaio is daring the comedian, via the media, to stop hiding behind the mike and “meet me face to face.”

The controversial sheriff said he and his wife were flipping through the channels Saturday night when they paused to linger on Lopez’s show, “George: It’s Not Me, It’s You.” Arpaio said he was shocked at the potty-mouthed language coming from the comedian and switched to another channel without realizing the diatribe was aimed at him.

An Arizona reporter helpfully filled Arpaio in on the details. The sheriff’s response?

A dare for Lopez: “Get some guts. Come down here, and meet me face to face,” Arpaio told ABC15 in Arizona. “Let’s see how you act then.”

Arpaio probably isn’t joking. The tough-talking sheriff has long had a reputation as refusing to back down from controversy — even courting it. He has been accused of being abusive to prisoners, racially profiling Latinos and injecting himself into presidential politics by opening his own inquiry on behalf of those who believe President Obama was born outside the United States, and therefore is in the White House illegally.

You can watch the key snippet of Lopez’s show, “George: It’s Not Me, It’s You,” but be forewarned: F-bombs abound. Lopez also has a few choice words for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (Lopez makes the claim that Romney is actually Latino but has zero chance of getting the Latino vote come November.) The crowd cheers throughout.

Lopez, however, saves his fiercest wrath for Arpaio. We’d quote from it… if we were allowed to use such foul language in a family newspaper.

But we’re not.

By now, you’re probably wondering why I even posted this, as Sheriff Joe probably does not have a chance of a snowball in July of making his charges stick against the President of the United States.

I know…but, it does my heart a world of good, to see a good man fighting back.

A word of advice to the movie star from Ski Patrol and the “Preezy”:

Don’t mess with the bull if you don’t want the horns.

Romney, Palin, and the State of the Republican Party

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

Yesterday, I was observing and commenting on a discussion thread on my favorite Conservative website, whose subject was an article in the barely-read magazine Newsweek in which Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin stated that she had not been invited by the Romney Campaign to speak at the Republican Convention.

Intrigued, I went to the source article. Here are some excerpts:

Romney never seemed quite comfortable with politicking in the Tea Party era. Even in the heat of the primary race, Romney seemed put off by the idea of courting the activists, complaining in February that he wasn’t about to “light my hair on fire to try to get support”—a remark that only underscored doubts about him within the base.

…[Herman] Cain believes that the grassroots will eventually rally around the Republican nominee. “Romney is not Ronald Reagan,” Cain says. “But Romney is not Barack Obama. The Tea Party people, the citizens-movement people, they get that.” (Cain plans to continue his role as emissary between the Romney camp and the Tea Party, and plans a unity rally in Tampa on the eve of the convention.)

…Palin shares much of these same reservations about Romney. “Romney has said before that he doesn’t want to have to light his hair on fire,” Palin said on Fox last week. “Well, there are a lot of his base supporters, independents, who are saying, ‘Well, light our hair on fire, then!’” Palin’s objections to Romney are not so much about the man himself—she speaks of him respectfully, as he does about her—but about who, and what, he represents. Romney was the choice of the party’s elites, whom Palin has regarded with open disdain ever since her rough treatment during the 2008 campaign. They are some of the same people who anonymously disparaged Palin as a clueless bumpkin, and some of them are now helping to run Romney’s campaign. When unnamed Romney aides tell reporters that Romney will likely go with a “safe” choice for vice president because of the 2008 “disaster,” Palin notices.

She noticed, too, that when the Romney camp reined in Fehrnstrom after his “not a tax” goof, the man assigned to take on a more public role as Romney spokesman was Kevin Madden, best known in Palin’s sphere for his appearance on a CNN news panel just days before the 2008 election. The subject was the latest piece of leaked Palin gossip—her $150,000 “shopping spree” (for which Palin later reimbursed the Republican National Committee)—and the damage Palin was perceived to have done to the McCain campaign. “That’s an indication just how unseasoned Sarah Palin is as a national candidate,” Madden opined, before laughing about Palin’s lack of knowledge about issues and declaring that “people who have done this before” know enough to choose running mates “that are nationally vetted.”

Palin says that she doesn’t know Madden and will not comment about him personally. However, she adds: “I assume he didn’t do his homework and his disparaging remarks were due to him actually believing the BS reporting on my record and reputation that began the day I was tapped to run for VP. I’ll assume and hope he’s evolved since then, perhaps understanding now the leftist media’s agenda against candidates they oppose.”

The Romney camp will not comment on Palin, or on plans for the convention, but one adviser associated with the campaign suggested that Palin would be prohibited from speaking at the Republican convention by her contract with Fox News. “It’s true I’m prohibited from doing some things,” Palin says, “but this is the first I’ve heard anyone suggest that as an excuse, er, reason to stay away from engaging in the presidential race. I’m quite confident Fox’s top brass would never strip anyone of their First Amendment rights in this regard.” (Fox says her contract would not prohibit speaking at the convention if she sought permission.)

Palin is keeping the dates open in late August, just in case. In any event, she says, she plans to be politically active between now and November, starting with a Michigan Tea Party appearance, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. “No matter the Romney campaign strategy,” she says, “I intend to do all I can to join others in motivating the grassroots made up of independents and constitutional conservatives who can replace Barack Obama at the ballot box.”

Palin’s admirers—and they are many, judging by Facebook and Twitter metrics, where her numbers are far greater than Romney’s—still hope for a rapprochement. “Palin is the female Ronald Reagan of our time,” says Kremer of the Tea Party Express. “There’s no one that excites the base, and energizes the base, the way that Sarah Palin does. There’s just not.”

As I write this post, that thread on the before-mentioned Conservative website sits at 1,807 comments and growing. The next closest thread on the site is at 592 comments.

How come?

Well, as I sit here at my computer in the Northwest Corner of the Magnolia State, I’ve had some rather pointed questions running through my mind:

If you want to become President of these United States, as Mitt Romney says that he does, why would you intentionally marginalize 40% of the country’s population in Conservatives, especially when you are in a virtual tie in head-to-head polls with the worst president in America’s collective memory?

Governor Romney, are you scared that Gov. Palin will upstage you at the Convention? Are you scared that Conservatives are actually going to expect you to stand for something? Have you ever lived anywhere in your adult life besides the Northeast Corridor?

Governor, you can continue to ignore Conservatives if you wish.  Just don’t compare yourself to Ronald Reagan.  Ronaldus Magnus united the party.

I, along with most Conservatives who love this country, plan on holding our noses and voting for you on November 6th, in spite of it all., so we can rid our nation of the Manchurian President.

So, would you please start attacking Obama as viciously as you attacked your fellow Republicans in the Primary?

Thanks.

Smart Power! in Egypt: Those Weren’t Roses They Were Throwing

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

The First Lady of Smart Power! is at it again…making new friends wherever she goes…yeah, right.

The head of Egypt’s military took a tough line Sunday on the Muslim Brotherhood, warning that he won’t let the fundamentalist group dominate the country, only hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged him to work with Egypt’s elected Islamist leaders.

Clinton’s visit to Egypt underscored the difficulty Washington faces in trying to wield its influence amid the country’s stormy post-Hosni Mubarak power struggles. Protesters chanting against the U.S. – sometimes reaching several hundred – sprung up at several sites Clinton visited this weekend. On Sunday, protesters threw tomatoes, water bottles and shoes at her motorcade as she left a ceremony marking the opening of a new U.S. consulate in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Islamist Mohammed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood figure, was sworn two weeks ago as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the military handed over power to him June 30 after ruling Egypt for 16 months. The military, however, dissolved the Brotherhood-led parliament and stripped Morsi of significant authorities in the days before his inauguration, while retaining overwhelming powers for itself, including legislative power and control of the writing of a new constitution.

The United States is in a difficult spot when it comes to dealing with post-Mubarak Egypt – eager to be seen as a champion of democracy and human rights after three decades of close ties with the ousted leader despite his abysmal record in advancing either.

This has involved some uncomfortable changes, including occasional criticism of America’s longtime faithful partners in Egypt’s military as it grabs more power and words of support for Islamist parties far more skeptical of U.S. intentions in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.

That has fueled accusations among some Egyptians who back the military or oppose Islamists that Washington is promoting the rise of the Brotherhood to power.

As Hil was traveling to her meeting, she wasn’t exactly greeted warmly:

Protesters threw tomatoes and shoes at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s motorcade on Sunday during her first visit to Egypt since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

A tomato struck an Egyptian official in the face, and shoes and a water bottle landed near the armoured cars carrying Clinton’s delegation in the port city of Alexandria.

A senior state department official said that neither Clinton nor her vehicle, which were around the corner from the incident, were struck by any of the projectiles.

Protesters chanted: “Monica, Monica”, a reference to Former President Bill Clinton’s extra-marital affair. Some chanted: “leave, Clinton”, Egyptian security officials said.

It was not clear who the protesters were or what political affiliations they had. Protesters outside Clinton’s hotel on Saturday night chanted anti-Islamist slogans, accusing the United States of backing the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power.

The assault on her motorcade came on a day Clinton spoke at the newly re-opened U.S. consulate in Alexandria, addressing accusations the United States, which had long supported former President Hosni Mubarak, of backing one faction or another in Egypt following his ouster last year.

“I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which of course we cannot,” Clinton said.

Clinton also met the country’s top general, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on Sunday to discuss Egypt’s turbulent democratic transition as the military wrestles for influence with the new president.

The meeting came a day after she met Mursi, whose powers were clipped by the military days before he took office.

Mursi fired back by reinstating the Islamist-dominated parliament that the army leadership had disbanded after a court declared it void, deepening the stand-off before the new leader even had time to form a government.

The result has been acute political uncertainty as the various power centres try to find a way to get along in a country that still has no permanent constitution, parliament or government more than a year after Mubarak’s downfall.

In their hour-long meeting, Clinton and Tantawi discussed Egypt’s political transition and the military’s “ongoing dialogue with President Mursi,” a U.S. official travelling with Clinton said in an email brief.

“Tantawi stressed that this is what Egyptians need most now – help getting the economy back on track,” the official said.

Clinton “stressed the importance of protecting the rights of all Egyptians, including women and minorities”.

The talks also touched on the increasingly lawless Sinai region and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Speaking after the meeting, Tantawi said the army respected the presidency but would not be deterred from its role of “protecting” Egypt.

“The armed forces and the army council respects legislative and executive authorities,” he said in a speech to troops in the city of Ismailia. “The armed forces would not allow anyone to discourage it from its role in protecting Egypt and its people.”

Back on April 7th, Andrew McCarthy reported for nationalreview.com that:

In October 2010, on the eve of the Islamic revolution that the media fancies as “the Arab Spring,” the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood called for jihad against the United States.

You might think that this all but unnoticed bombshell would be of some importance to policymakers in Washington. It was not. It is not. This week, the Obama administration quietly released $1.5 billion in foreign aid to the new Egyptian government, now dominated by a Brotherhood-led coalition in parliament — soon to be joined by an Ikhwan (i.e., Brotherhood) luminary as president.

It is not easy to find the announcement. With the legacy media having joined the Obama reelection campaign, we must turn for such news to outlets like the Kuwait News Agency. There, we learn that, having dug our nation into a $16 trillion debt hole, President Obama has nevertheless decided to borrow more money from unfriendly powers like China so he can give it to an outfit that views the United States as an enemy to be destroyed.

It appears that money can’t buy friendship. Looks like Scooter invested our money poorly.

The Bain of Obama’s Latest Attack: Johnathan Lavine

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

My, how the worm turns…

The Obama campaign’s latest attack tells the story of workers at an Indiana office supply company who lost their jobs after a Bain-owned company named American Pad & Paper (Ampad) took over their company and drove it out of business.

Here’s what the Obama Web video doesn’t mention: A top Obama donor and fundraiser had a much more direct tie to the controversy and actually served on the board of directors at Richardson, Texas-based Ampad, which makes office paper products.

Jonathan Lavine is a long-time Bain Capital executive and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. He is also one of President Obama’s most prolific fundraisers. He has already raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign this election, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Lavine started working for Bain in 1993. He was one of three Bain executives who served on the board of directors of Ampad for several years, a post he held until 1999. Here’s a news release announcing his departure from the company in April 1999.

Lavine’s placement on the board of Ampad suggests he had a more direct role than Romney in the series of events surrounding the layoffs, labor disputes and eventual bankruptcy of the Marion, Ind., factory featured in the Obama campaign video.

Asked about Mr. Lavine’s role, Obama campaign spokesman Ben Labolt put the focus back on Romney.

“No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for president highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation,” Labolt said. “The president has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression”.

And, Labolt argued, Romney, as the CEO of Bain, would have been the one ultimately responsible for what happened with Ampad.

“He made profit at any cost for himself and his partners by outsourcing jobs and bankrupting companies,” Labolt said. “From buyout to bankruptcy, Mitt Romney was CEO and sole owner of Bain. The managing director working on Ampad reported directly to him and has said Romney could have ordered him to settle with the union but didn’t.”

UPDATE: Alex Stanton, a spokesperson for Bain Capitol, does not dispute that Lavine was on the board of Ampad, but insists that he had nothing to do with the workers being laid off in Marion, Indiana.

“Jonathan Lavine was not at Bain Capital when Ampad was acquired by the firm, and was not involved on the investment during the challenging situation at the Marion plant. The assertion he had any involvement with those events is totally false,” said Stanton in a statement.

Mr. Lavine and President Obama have a couple of things in common. Guess what University he is a Trustee of? Furthermore, look at where he got his M.B.A.?

Blessed Be the Ties That Bind…

From Columbia.edu

Jonathan Lavine

Columbia, B.A., 1988

Harvard University, M.B.A., 1992

Jonathan Lavine is a Managing Director at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm based in Boston.

Mr. Lavine serves as the managing partner and Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors, Bain Capital’s fixed income and credit affiliate, which he founded in 1997. Today, Sankaty is one of the leading credit and distressed debt managers, with over 160 employees in offices in Boston, London, Chicago and New York and approximately $18 billion in committed assets under anagement.

Before the formation of Sankaty, Mr. Lavine worked in Bain Capital’s private equity business which he joined in 1993. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Lavine was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department.

An active participant in charitable organizations, Mr. Lavine is Chair of the Columbia College Board of Visitors, a member of the Boards of the Dana Hall School, Children’s Hospital Trust, City Year, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Stand for Children. Mr. Lavine also is a member of the ownership group and a Director of the Boston Celtics.

Mr. Lavine received an M.B.A., with Distinction, from Harvard Business School, and a B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia College. He was a 2008 recipient of Columbia’s John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement. While at Columbia, he received the David Truman Award for outstanding contribution to the academic affairs of the college. In 2004, Mr. Lavine was named as one of the 40 outstanding Bostonians under the age of 40 by Boston Business Journal.

According to Bain Capital’s bio of Mr. Lavine:

Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer

Experience:

Mr. Lavine joined Bain Capital in 1993. He is a Managing Director, and since inception, managing partner and the Chief Investment Officer of Sankaty Advisors and its related funds. He is chair of the firm’s Credit Committee and Risk & Oversight Committee with overall responsibility for strategy, portfolio management and risk. Previously, Mr. Lavine worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Mr. Lavine began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert where he focused on acquisitions, financings and restructurings in a variety of industries.

The hard cold facts are: 

Romney was Running against Teddy Kennedy when SCM Office Supplies in Marion, Indiana went out of business in 1994. Obama bundler Jonathan Levine, who has raised $100,000 for the president, was still very active with Bain at the time. 

But, since when has the truth mattered to the Manchurian President and his minions?

From Reagan to Obama: From “The Shining City on the Hill” to “Sharing the Wealth”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

Remember how proud we were as a nation, when our President, Ronald Wilson Reagan,told the Russian President

Mr. Gorbachev…tear down this wall!?

The country of Poland remembers:

Polish officials unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, honoring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago.

The statue was unveiled in Gdansk, the birthplace of Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement, in the presence of about 120 former Solidarity activists, many of whom were imprisoned in the 1980s for their roles in organizing or taking part in strikes against the communist regime.

The bronze statue, erected in the lush seaside President Ronald Reagan Park, is a slightly larger-than-life rendering of the two late leaders. It was inspired by an Associated Press photograph taken in 1987 on John Paul’s second pontifical visit to the U.S.

The photographer who took the picture, Scott Stewart, expressed satisfaction that one of his pictures has helped immortalize “a wonderful moment in time between the two men.”

“In the news business we’re used to having a moment and then that moment being gone a day later. This is one image that should last for a good long time,” said Stewart, who now teaches graphic design and photography at Greenville Technical College in South Carolina. “I’m happy that it’s been chosen as the seminal moment to represent the relationship of these two people to Poland.”

Reagan and John Paul shared a conviction that communism was a moral evil, not just a bad economic system. And Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement that led the anti-communist struggle in Poland, has often paid homage to both men and told the AP in a recent interview that he deeply respected Reagan.

“Reagan should have a monument in every city,” Walesa said.

The political philosophy that President Reagan fought so hard against, our present president embraces.

On whitehouse.gov, the folks who are paid with your tax dollars, were hard at work posting this little gem from President Barack Hussein Obama’s (mm mmm mmmm) campaign stop Friday night in Roanoke, Virginia:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

This late, great American Entrepreneur and humanitarian would probably disagree with you, Scooter.

Founder of Wendy’s International restaurant chain; television spokesman. Born Rex David Thomas, July 2, 1932, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Thomas never knew his birth mother, and was adopted by a couple from Kalamazoo, Michigan, at the age of six months. Thomas’s adoptive mother died when he was only five, and by the age of 10 Thomas had lost two stepmothers as well. He spent summers in Maine with his adoptive grandmother, Minnie Thomas, who was his closest relative and a big influence in his life.

When Thomas was still a pre-teen, his family (his father, Rex, had remarried again) moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he worked at such jobs as a paperboy, golf caddy, and at a soda fountain counter in a drugstore. At 15, Thomas got his first job at a restaurant, and when his family decided to leave Fort Wayne to move again, he refused to leave, dropping out of school in the 10th grade and going to work full time.

Thomas served in the Army during the Korean War as the manager of an enlisted-men’s club. Upon returning to Fort Wayne, Thomas found his former boss at the Hobby House restaurant, Phil Clauss, owned some of the first franchises of the budding Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. Clauss offered Thomas the opportunity to move to Columbus, Ohio, to turn around the restaurants, which were failing. Colonel Sanders’s signature chicken had been a big hit for the Hobby House and Thomas thought he could sell it in Ohio. By 1968, a few short years later, a 35-year-old Thomas sold the franchises back to the headquarters for $1.5 million.

After complaining that he couldn’t find a good hamburger in Columbus, Thomas decided to open his own restaurant. On November 15, 1969, he opened the first Wendy’s restaurant, named for his eight-year-old daughter, Melinda Lou, known as Wendy. She was the youngest of his five children with his wife Lorraine, whom he married in 1956. Known for its square hamburgers and choice of toppings, Wendy’s quickly caught on and within less than a decade grew into a franchise of 1,000 stores.

In 1982, Thomas gave up command of day-to-day operations at Wendy’s. Four years later, after some business mistakes had hurt sales for Wendy’s, the company’s new president urged Thomas to take a more active role in the company. Thomas began to visit franchises and espouse his hardworking, so-called “mop-bucket attitude.” In 1989, he took on an even more important role, as the television spokesman for the company in a series of fantastically successful commercials.

With his folksy style and his relaxed pitch for his restaurant’s, Thomas became a household name. A company survey during the 1990s, a decade during which Thomas starred in every Wendy’s commercial that aired, found that 90% of Americans knew who Thomas was. After more than 800 commercials, it was clear that Thomas was one of the main reasons behind Wendy’s status as the number-three burger restaurant in the country (behind McDonald’s and Burger King), with more than 6,000 franchises.

Thomas also worked throughout his life to promote the adoption of foster children. He founded the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which promoted the creation of an employee benefits program for people who adopt, as well as a number of other groundbreaking initiatives. President George Bush named him a national spokesman on adoption issues. Thomas, who always regretted not finishing high school, hired a tutor and passed the G.E.D. high-school equivalency exam in 1993.

In December 1996, the portly Thomas had quadruple bypass surgery. Though he soon returned to his busy schedule of making commercials, he began undergoing kidney dialysis in early 2001. On January 8, 2002, Thomas died of liver cancer at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the age of 69.

And then, there are men like my late father.  He grew up in the Great Depression, dropped out in sixth grade and worked in a movie theater to help support his family. He worked as an engineer to help build the bridge over the Mississippi River at Helena Arkansas.

As I’ve chronicled, he was a Master Sergeant with an Army Engineering Company and landed at Normandy on D-Day, where he went on to clean out the Concentration Camps. He came home, married, raised children, and worked 2o years for Sears and Roebuck, where he was Salesman of the year and Sales Manager of the Year. And most importantly, he served God both in the choir and as a song leader for the majority of his life.

President Obama…you don’t understand Americans at all. We are not cowered sheep. We are a free, compassionate, and courageous people.

We don’t need your Marxist philosophy. In fact…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Put that in your arugula and stuff it.

Obama Calls Romney a Crook: Glass Houses, Preezy

On By kingsjesterIn Politics9 Comments

Things are beginning to get down and dirty in the Race for the White House.

Politico.com has the story:

President Barack Obama said Mitt Romney should answer questions about his ties to Bain Capital — and soon — in an interview taped Friday with WJLA.

The interview came as a series of Romney interviews were set to air Friday evening, following days of attention to questions about when the Republican candidate exited the venture capital firm and stopped leading day-to-day operations.

“My understanding is that Mr. Romney attested to the SEC, multiple times, that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital and I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does,” Obama said.

Obama told Scott Thuman of WJLA, the ABC affiliate in the Washington, D.C., area, that Romney “absolutely” must answer questions about his tenure at Bain and whether it continued past 1999 — when Romney has said in the past he left — to 2002, as Securities and Exchange Commission documents suggest.

“If he aspires to being president, one of the things you learn is, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations, that’s probably a question that he’s going to have to answer, and I think that’s a legitimate part of the campaign,” Obama said in the interview, which was conducted earlier Friday in Virginia Beach, Va.

The coverage area of WJLA — which shares a corporate parent, Albritton Communications, with POLITICO — includes Northern Virginia, a key region of the state that pushed Obama to victory in 2008. The election in Virginia is again expected to be close and hard-fought this year.

The president suggested Romney had ultimate responsibility over the company.

“As president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you,” he said.

On 7/2/2010, I posted a Blog titled: The Great Disconnect, Part 3: The Chicago Ascent

Let’s hop in the Wayback Machine, Sherman, and check into Obama’s run for the Illinois State Senate, shall we?

In 1995 “Bomber” Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadette Dohrn hosted a fund-raiser for Obama prior to Obama’s run for Alice Palmer’s seat in the state Senate and Ayers donated $200 to Obama’s upcoming state Senate campaign.

In 1996 at age 34, he ran for the state Senate in dubious campaign that is barely known of, outside of Chicago. Alice Palmer, the incumbent, had decided to run for Congress and supported Obama as her successor. But after Palmer’s congressional campaign ran into trouble, she changed her mind and decided to run for re-election to the Illinois Senate after all. Obama refused to step aside and the melee ensued. One of Scooter’s volunteers challenged whether Palmer’s nominating petitions were even legal. Obama’s campaign pulled the same chicanery concerning the petitions of other candidates. Palmer dropped out, and the other candidates were disqualified. So, Obama won unopposed in the Democratic primary—guaranteeing his victory in the general election. This was truly an example of Chicago-style politics at it’s finest…or dirtiest.

Around this same time, at a Bill Clinton White House event, philanthropist Walter Annenberg announced that he was making a $500 million grant to cities across the nation to put towards the reform of public schools. Bill Ayers was the head of the Chicago group that, with$49.2 million in hand, formed the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The launch party in 1995 was attended by the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago, as well as anybody was influential among the Chicago Political Elite. Guess who the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was? You guessed. Obama held the post until 1999. At that time, he stepped down and remained on the board. Bill Ayers worked closely with the Challenge as a leader of the newly formed Chicago School Reform Collaborative.

They also both served on the board of the charitable Woods Fund of Chicago from 1999 to 2002. Just a “guy from the neighborhood”. Huh, Scooter?

Additionally, Scooter served on the board of the Joyce Foundation from 1994 to 2002. This foundation started as the financial back-up plan of a widow whose family had made millions in the lumber industry.

After her death, it was run by philanthropic people who increasingly dedicated their giving to Liberal causes, including gun control, environmentalism and school changes. It has grown over the years until it is now bigger than the TIDES Foundation and actually funds it.

The Joyce Foundation in 2000 and 2001 provided the capital outlay to start the Chicago Climate Exchange. It started trading in 2003, and what it trades is, believe it or not, air.

What a coincidence, that, as president, pushing cap-and-trade is one of his highest priorities, huh?

Back to the Future (Hey, that’s catchy. It would make a great movie title.  Oh, wait. Never mind.)…

Romney is finally manning up and fighting back, according to abcnews.go.com:

Mitt Romney wants President Obama to apologize for his campaign’s suggestion that the Republican candidate could have broken the law by making inaccurate statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Romney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl late this afternoon that Obama should clean up his campaign staff after officials coordinated an effort to imply that Romney committed a felony by saying he left Bain Capital in 1999, though The Boston Globe reported this week that Romney was listed as the company’s CEO until 2002 on official files.

“The president needs to take control of these people,” Romney said. “He ought to disavow it and rein in these people who are running out of control.”

Romney added, “He sure as heck ought to say that he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team.”

Romney insisted that he abandoned the private-equity firm he founded to run the Olympics and that, after 1999, he had “no role whatsoever in the management” of Bain even though SEC documents listed him as president, chairman of the board and sole stockholder.

“I left any responsibility whatsoever, any effort, any involvement whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999,” Romney said.

Obama is proving that he’s not just a “guy in over his head”, he ‘s a vindictive, petulant president with a re-election team weened on Chicago Politics.

Romney is going to have to treat Obama like he did his fellow Republicans, in he wants to win on November 6th.

Condi Rice for VP? Yes or No?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

So…word came out yesterday that eventual Republican Nominee Mitt Romney was considering Former Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice as his Vice-Presidential running mate.

Beltway Darling Peggy Noonan thinks the idea is absolutely faaabulous:

Speaking the other day to a gathering of businesspeople from across the country, I mentioned the subdued nature of the election and my thoughts as to its reasons. I was surprised to get no push-back afterward, even from political enthusiasts, only agreement.

But the news: When conversation turned to the vice presidential nominee, I said we all know the names of those being considered, spoke of a few, and then said Condoleezza Rice might be a brilliant choice.

Here spontaneous applause burst forth.

Consider: A public figure of obvious and nameable accomplishment whose attainments can’t be taken away from her. Washington experience—she wouldn’t be learning on the job. Never run for office but no political novice. An academic, but not ethereal or abstract. A woman in a year when Republicans aren’t supposed to choose a woman because of what is now called the 2008 experience—so the choice would have a certain boldness. A black woman in a campaign that always threatens to take on a painful racial overlay. A foreign-policy professional acquainted with everyone who’s reigned or been rising the past 20 years.

I should add here the look on the faces of the people who were applauding. They looked surprised by their own passion. Actually they looked relieved, like a campaign was going on and big things might happen and maybe it could get kind of . . . exciting.

Just remember…in 2008, Peggy Noonan endorsed Barack Hussein Obama.

Rush Limbaugh had a unique take on it:

So today Romney goes to the NAALCP convention. One of the names that is also on this list that shows up now and then but not in every story about it, is Condoleezza Rice. Now, I don’t have any idea who Romney’s gonna choose, but when I saw this story yesterday, “Romney May Name Running Mate Early in Election Race,” I thought, “Why?”

This is awful early to name a VP.

Of course, the Reuters headline says “may name.” But it’s a fairly lengthy story about what the advantages in doing so could be, and they list the people that are possible. It mentions here, “Romney is also considering whether to name a woman, his wife, Ann, said.” To the team of people that would select a running mate. And I’ve seen Condoleezza Rice’s name mentioned off and on. Here goes Romney to the NAALCP. What are the odds that he would pick Condoleezza Rice next week, coming off of this speech to the NAALCP?

(interruption)

You think zero? Why?

Of course, when Obama chose Biden, there was no criticism. He chose a lunatic. He chose a plagiarist. And now the guy, Biden, is out there telling sex jokes. Did you hear about this? I think we’ve got it in the Stack here. Biden. Who was he talking to? Was it an Hispanic group? He was talking to some group of people about how small the house was where he grew up and how thin the walls were and how his parents managed to “get away with it” nevertheless.

I kid you not. (laughing) Honestly! It was La Raza. Biden was talking to La Raza. He said (paraphrased), “We had all the ingredients: Small room, thin walls. You know, just like you.” We do have the sound bite. Somebody tell me what number it is. I know it’s there. Yeah, number eleven. Here it is. This is yesterday Las Vegas at the National Council of La Raza Luncheon.

BIDEN: I was raised in a… No Horatio Alger story, a normal story. A three-bedroom house, split level, in a new development, in the mid-fifties in Delaware. Those walls were awful thin. I wonder how the hell my parents did it, but that’s a different story.

AUDIENCE: (laughter)

BIDEN: I know you don’t know anything about that!

AUDIENCE: (laughter)

BIDEN: I know none of you in your families have done the same thing!

RUSH: So here he is talking to the Hispanics saying (paraphrased), “Look, I grew up just like you did: A whole bunch of people in a cheap house with thin walls, and I don’t know how my parents did it. I know none of you in your families have done the same thing.” He’s trying to share a commonality with ’em. (interruption) Snerdley, a lot of people think about their parents doing it, and they can’t visualize it. But nobody talks about it! Certainly not vice presidents!

They don’t go to groups, particularly La Raza, and say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Remember the car you came here in? Well, it’s like the house you lived in. Well, it was the same for me, and I tell you: All of us were packed in there like sardines and the walls were very thin, and I don’t know how my parents got away with it!” You know, if Romney chooses Condoleezza Rice, we’re not gonna get anything like that from her as vice president. I was at the Horatio Alger dinner where she was inducted into the society a couple years ago.

Tuesday morning, Condi was on CBS This Morning, where she said:

“I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elective office,” Rice told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday.

The former Secretary of State said the Republican candidate had a “deep bench” of more willing candidates to choose from.

“I’m saying there is no way I will do this, because it’s really not me, I know my strengths. Gov. Romney needs to find someone who wants to run with him,” Rice said. “There are many people who will do it very, very well, and I’ll support the ticket.”

When “CBS This Morning” host Charlie Rose pressed Rice, noting she hadn’t technically said she wouldn’t accept the offer to be vice president, she was more definitive.

“It’s not going to happen — and no,” she said.

I’m going to wrap up today’s post with a quote from “The Great One”, Conservative Talk Show Host Mark Levin.  He said it better than I can:

I’ve been thinking during the break because this story broke on my watch — can you imagine? This is actually bad politics not only will Romney be defending Bain right up through the election now he’s going have to be defending Bush and Bush’s policies right up through the election. This is a bad idea. No offense, Condi Rice.

Didn’t they say throughout the Republican primary we had a nominee Romney because he’s the only one who could win? Why am I the only one remembers that?

And these polls, don’t they make you nervous right now? The economy’s on its back. Romney’s running against a true loser who has nothing to offer the country, literally nothing. So he’s a propagandist. So far the Romney team has not been able to cut through it and then you get this John Sununu — who gave us Souter for all those years — walking around like he some kind of smart uncle telling us they are husbanding their resources are just waiting for the right time to unleash on Obama.

Obama’s spending the summer trying to define Romney, successful or not, and Romney’s not spending the summer trying to define Obama, which he must do. So here we are debating Bain capital. And then we’ll be debating RomneyCare. And if he does pick Rice, then will be debating the entire George W. Bush record which is exactly what the Bush people want. Well it’s not what I want.

Now pick a d!@n conservative whose managed something. He’s got a strong bench to choose from and stop playing it safe. That’s my opinion. Nothing personal. Nothing personal. But I mean we’ve got great Governors out there, who are a lot of good and who have shown a lot of courage among other people, by the way. Among others. So let’s get with it. Can’t we win this d!@n race? Can’t we act like we actually want to? Can’t we be confident in our conservatism?

I am. I have my doubts about the GOP, though.

The Obamas…Still Community Organizing

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

In 2008, all the Liberal Pundits were marveling over the “ground game” of the Obama Campaign, and their success in “getting out” the vote.

Four years later, the Obamas are still Community Organizing…as hard as they can:

During a campaign stop for her husband in Miami, Fla., on Tuesday, first lady Michelle Obama urged grassroots volunteers to find unregistered voters and “shake ’em,” reminding them that President Obama has predicted this election “will be even closer than the last one.” Obama also told voters to “multiply” themselves to help get the president reelected.

“He needs you to keep making those calls, doing that hard work. Knocking on those doors. Treacherous work, right? Tiring work. He needs you to keep registering those voters. You know, the ones, you know, that aren’t registered and you gotta get ’em and shake ’em. Find them, get them registered,” Michelle Obama said at the campaign event.

“And even more important, he needs you to multiply yourselves,” Obama said to supporters. “Think about it like that. Multiply yourselves. Reach out to everybody you know. Your friends, family, neighbors and tell them to go to barackobama.com — find out how they can roll up their sleeves and get involved.”

“And let me just say that if anyone in here has any doubt about the difference that you can make, I just want you to remember that in the end this election could all come down to those last few thousand people that we registered to vote. Think about it like that,” Obama said.

Of course, the Obamas cut their teeth in Community Organizing:

In the summer of 1988, while still at Harvard, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) landed a job as an intern in the Chicago office of the influential law firm of Sidley Austin. ( How does a first-year law student get an internship at such a prestigious law firm?) He was dating Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer from a working-class family in the South Shore area of the South Side. She also just happened to be his mentor at the firm. The lovebirds got married in 1990, and settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side along the lakefront. Built around the University of Chicago, both black and white affluent families lived among the middle class and the poor. Hyde Park boasts a strong base of independent voters who are committed to political reform, which influenced Obama’s political message.

He worked for seven months in 1992 on a voter registration and education project that helped elect Bill Clinton as president and Carol Moseley Braun as the state’s first African-American female senator.

You may have heard of it: Project Vote. In 2008, Project Vote and ACORN were responsible for a voter registration drive targeting battleground states Obama needed to win the White House.

Though officially non-partisan, the ACORN/Project Vote voter drive focused on groups that they thought would vote Democratic in the presidential contest: African-American, young, Latino and low-income earners. They referred to these groups as “historically underrepresented in elections” in a press release they issued, in an attempt to justify what they were doing.

ACORN/Project Vote operated voter registration drives in 21 states in 2008; including the battlegrounds Colorado, Florida, Michigan (since move to Obama) Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They were very instrumental in Obama’s victory.

The good news is, that, at least as a national organization, ACORN has shut its doors:

On November 2, 2010, Bertha Lewis announced that ACORN had filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. In a statement posted on the group’s website, Lewis claimed that ACORN, because of its own “highly effective strategies,” had been unfairly targeted for a “political onslaught” and a “barrage of unmitigated accusations” by its “right-wing” foes.

In 2010, at least 15 former ACORN employees were convicted of voter fraud-related activities.

In August 2011, the former ACORN, having previously pleaded guilty to unlawfully paying cash bonuses to voter-registration canvassers who managed to meet their quotas, was convicted of felony voter fraud. This marked the first time that ACORN itself, as opposed to its individual workers, had been convicted of a crime. The court fined ACORN $5,000, the maximum allowed under state law. At the sentencing hearing, Las Vegas Judge Donald Mosley said:

“It is making a mockery of our election process. If I had an individual in this courtroom … who was responsible for this kind of thing, I would put that person in prison for 10 years, hard time, and not think twice about it…. This is the kind of thing you see in some banana republic, Uruguay or someplace, not in the United States.”

While ACORN as a national entity officially disbanded in 2010 after 40 years of activism, its aforementioned offshoot organizations continued, undeterred, to pursue ACORN’s traditional agendas.

In July 2012, however, it was reported that the Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) — formerly known as ACORN Housing — had vacated its Chicago premises and ceased operations due to bankruptcy.

However, ever though ACORN has gone bye-bye, all those Democratically-controlled Foundations that funded it are still around…and you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to do whatever it takes to overcome the will of the American people and put the Manchurian President back on the Throne of the Regime.