New ACORN Debris Flying from the Spinning Rotor (UPDATED)

As politicians across the nation begin to grope with the implications of the latest in a long series of ACORN scandals, a few more bits of debris have flown off the proverbial rotor blades in the last couple of days:

• In New York, Governor Patterson put ACORN contracts on hold for 30 days.
• In Georgia, Governor Purdue put the kibosh on future ACORN funding.
• In Louisiana, Governor Jindal banned ACORN funding.
• In Minnesota, Governor Pawlenty ordered a review and suspension of ACORN public contracts.
• In California, ACORN fired a now-tearful worker caught on hidden camera in San Diego advising journalists O'Keefe and Giles on how to smuggle child prostitutes over the border. Gov. Schwarzenegger called on the California attorney general to investigate ACORN. Update: The Santa Ana ACORN office shut down.
  
• In Ohio, ACORN suspended its "social services" but "will continue its lobbying work, pushing for health care reform and foreclosure legislation."

But, then again,

• In Massachusetts, 8 out of 10 Congressional representatives defended ACORN and voted to continue ACORN's federal funding.

Hat tip to Instapundit, And So It Goes in Shrieveport, and American Power, with cheers to BigGovernment.com.
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ObamaCare Makes Doctors Sick: 45% Consider Quitting

Physician opposition to ObamaCare hasn't gotten much press coverage in the last 5 months of heavy promotion by the Obama administration and Democrat-held Congress.

Obama managed to gain an endorsement for much of his health care "reform" from the AMA , a group that represents a mere 18% of American physicians, but the news that the AMA never endorsed the "public option" got buried in the pro-ObamaCare hullabaloo.

The Obama press propaganda machine have not been eager to tell people that their doctors--whom people trust with their lives--don't think ObamaCare will work as promised.

On September 10, physicians and other medical professionals from all over the U.S. tried to get the word out with a rally in Washington, DC, to petition lawmakers to defend patients from unnecessary bureaucratic intervention in health care. Interesting photo-journal coverage of this event is posted at Looking at the Left. (Give the site plenty of time to load.)

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons came to D.C. to present a petition from doctors to lawmakers. The AAPS has been a voice for private physicians since 1943. Their motto is Omani pro aegroto, “all for the patient”. The doctors met with the representatives from their respective states and argued for a platform that avoids unnecessary bureaucratic intervention in health care.

On Wednesday, Investor's Business Daily ran front-page coverage of the results of a recent IBD/TIPP poll of physicians and found that 45% of doctors would consider quitting if Congress passes the Democrat proposed health care overhaul:

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors' own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.

It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration's claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.

The following IBD pie charts give a clear picture of what what doctors think about Obamacare and its effect on their medical practices and the quality of patient care: (Click on graphic to enlarge.)


On Thursday, Investor's Business Daily continued their front-page discussion of the poll results:

Our poll also invited those taking part to tell us the reasons why they didn't like the health care reforms — or, in the minority of cases, why they did. The outpouring of written responses IBD received — about 1,300 in all — was stunning.

[snip]

In combing through the responses, we identified no fewer than 21 separate issues doctors felt either weren't addressed or weren't solved by proposed reforms. The issues are many, but boil down to three big categories: costs, controls and courts.

As one survey participant responded:

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This unconstitutional plan gives sovereignty over our bodies to unelected, unaccountable, ignorant bureaucrats. Every governmental micromanagement of our lives has failed in its objective, and caused moral and economic bankruptcy.

Excellent diagnosis, doctor.

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Delicious Reading: "Defund ACORN Act"

Every word a delight. Get the whole updated story at victorious BigGovernment.com:

HOUSE VOTES TO DEFUND ACORN

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House Votes to Defund ACORN, 345 to 75!

The House just joined the Senate in a move to stop throwing money at ACORN.

Read all about it at BigGovernment.com!

Here are the names of the Representatives who voted to keep giving your hard-earned money to ACORN:

Baldwin Becerra Brady (PA) Brown, Corrine Butterfield Capuano Carson (IN) Castor (FL) Cleaver Clyburn Crowley Cummings Davis (IL) DeGette Delahunt Doyle Edwards (MD) Ellison Engel Fattah Filner Fudge Green, Al Grijalva Hinchey

Hirono Holt Honda Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Johnson, E. B. Kilpatrick (MI) Kucinich Larsen (WA) Lee (CA) Lewis (GA) Lynch Markey (MA) McCollum McDermott McGovern Meeks (NY) Mollohan Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Nadler (NY) Neal (MA) Olver Pallone Pascrell

Payne Polis (CO) Price (NC) Rahall Rangel Roybal-Allard Rush Sánchez, Linda T. Schakowsky Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Serrano Sherman Sires Slaughter Stark Thompson (MS) Towns Tsongas Velázquez Waters Watson Waxman Wexler Woolsey

I guess they haven't quite got the message.

And don't forget about the Reps who voted "present," like Obama did 130 times when he was in the Illinois State Senate.

Hastings (FL)

Watt

And then, those who didn't vote at all.

Abercrombie Barrett (SC) Clarke Connolly (VA)

Costa Frank (MA) McHugh Nunes

Paul Radanovich Tanner

Obama isn't going to be able to sign his name as "Maybe" when it's time to put his pen to the coming legislation.

This is going to get curiouser and curiouser.
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Laughing Through Tears: ACORN Investigates Themselves! (UPDATED)

Laughter:

From The Washington Times, via Publius at BigGovernment.com:

[ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis] said "no new intakes will be accepted into ACORN's offices for service programs, effective immediately."

She also said the group would begin "immediate in-service training for all frontline staff."

In addition, she said, "ACORN's independent Advisory Council will help select an independent auditor/reviewer no later than September 18th to review all of the systems and processes called into question by the videos."

Just so you know:

In early 2009, ACORN set up an independent Advisory Council to help put together a new management team under Lewis. Lewis was appointed to the job in the fall of 2008 after disclosure of a set of improper management decisions by the founder of the organization.

Tears:

As pointed out by Investor's Business Daily, Wade Rathke, founder of Acorn, also is the founder and chief organizer of SEIU.

A quick Google search of the names of the Advisory Council who will be helping Bertha Lewis and ACORN select an "independent auditor/reviewer" reveals the following:

• John Podesta was Co-Chairman of the Obama/Biden Transition Project. [UPDATE via There's My Two Cents: "Podesta runs the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which has been coordinating the public defense of ACORN this summer."]
• Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was former lieutenant governor of Maryland, location of the Baltimore ACORN. [UPDATE via There's My Two Cents: She "called the stories of ACORN’s frequent involvement in voter fraud a 'desperate smokescreen maneuver.']
• Andrew Stern is the international president of the purple-shirted SEIU (Service Employees International Union).
  
• Henry Cisneros was pardoned by Bill Clinton for lying to the FBI while Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
  
• John Banks is Vice President of Government Relations for Con Edison, where he is responsible for the management of the company’s government affairs activities as they relate to city, state, or federal policies.
• Eric Eve is Senior Vice President of Global Consumer Group, Community Relations, of Citigroup, which helps people facing foreclosure. (Added 8/17/09: Michelle Malkin identified Eve as a "champion of the ACORN/Citibank illegal alien loan program that openly undermines immigration laws and integrity in banking," a partnership with Citibank announced by the San Diego ACORN office designed to "secure home loans for illegal aliens" with "below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and no mortgage insurance requirements," and, obviously, no need for Social Security numbers.)

Here's the latest ACORN video, in which James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles visit a San Diego ACORN office and meet with an ACORN "lawyer":

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San Bernadino ACORN: New Definition of "Liberal"

Truly chilling, from James O'Keefe at Big Government:

According to Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski at Big Government (via The 9-12 Project), "ACORN = RICO":

The reality is, there are at least a half-dozen state and federal laws that could have been broken here. Even though the undercover girl is not a prostitute and there are no El Salvadoran girls either, this could still meet the legal standard for conspiracy to commit these various crimes. At a bare minimum, depending on the state, it likely fulfills the elements for the crime of attempted conspiracy, which usually carries the exact same penalty as the underlying crimes themselves (prostitution, tax fraud, etc.).

What’s important about prostitution and human trafficking is that they are specific triggers for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO. The RICO law is designed to enable the Justice Department to go after criminal enterprises. It defines “racketeering activity” as including importing illegal aliens for immoral purposes, falsifying identification documents and immigration papers, mail and wire fraud, and the sexual exploitation of children, among others.

The "missed stories media" may be looking the other way, but on the same day of the release of the above video showing a San Bernadino ACORN employee tell a purported pimp/prostitute pair that, "If they were liberal, they would be helping you" [set up a child-prostitution business], about a quarter of the House of Representatives agreed in writing that ACORN "should not receive another penny of American taxpayers' money."

Mike Flynn at Big Government pointed out that, last night,

[O]ver 130 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to disclose and terminate all federal funding to ACORN.

You can read the letter here.

As Flynn went on to advise:

That leaves 305 members of the House who are silent. If you want to find out whether your Congressman has taken a stand against an organization whose employees are eager to facilitate a child prostitution ring, call the House switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Spoken like a true "narrow-minded, right-wing" "bleeding heart."

Obama's New Consumer Financial "Protection" Agency

Everything that Obama has done from Day One has been an attack on Americans' ability to hold onto a little money, whether it is a dime tax on every can of soda, bigger energy bills, requiring Americans to chip in for other people's pensions (GM takeover), new foreign cars (Cash for Clunkers) and homes (2009 tax write-off for homebuyers), or that hard-to-ignore $787 billion stimulus package that's mostly stimulated the printing of unemployment checks.

But all that's just Obama's pre-game warm-up.

Yesterday the president announced his latest plan for another brand new, big-government agency, the "Consumer Financial Protection Agency." And, in the Obama version of double-speak, double think, it's all to protect little ol' consumers like you and me. Sort of like H.R. 3200, "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009," is meant to give your grandparents, injured vets, and disabled kids "more affordable" health care choices.

As in "less is more."

From Nile Gardiner in the UK Telegraph:

In his speech to Wall Street bankers this morning on the first anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse, the president unveiled his ambitious new proposal for a grand Consumer Financial Protection Agency to enforce “the most ambitious overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression.”

This new government goliath, which smacks of EU-style state interventionism, is apparently necessary because those capitalist Gordon Gekko wannabes on Wall Street simply aren’t listening to the White House, and are daring to create wealth and - heaven forbid - profits, in the ashes of last year’s banking collapse. As Obama put it angrily in his speech at Federal Hall:

“Unfortunately, there are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment. Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we’re still recovering, they’re choosing to ignore those lessons. I’m convinced they do so not just at their own peril, but at our nation’s. So I want everybody here to hear my words: We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess that was at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.”

And we thought Slick Willy was pretty slick! Obama managed to get through an entire description of last fall's financial meltdown without even mentioning its root cause, mortgages for the uncredit-worthy, backed by the U.S. Treasury and rammed down bankers' throats by ACORN,who recently have been shown to be quite conversant with methods of procuring affordable homes for hard-working pimps, prostitutes, and child sex slaves, at taxpayer expense.

Gardiner continues:

Setting up a mammoth new federal bureaucracy is not the solution and is based on the premise that government knows best. It doesn’t. As the massive $787 billion stimulus spending bonanza has shown, the greatest beneficiaries of government intervention in the economy have been the unemployment rolls - now standing at nearly 10 percent of the workforce - and the national debt, which has reached a staggering $12 trillion.

But the worst is yet to come. After socialization of GM and Chrysler drove a big chunk of the U.S. auto manufacturing overseas, an Obama "remake" of the U.S. financial system will drive investment elsewhere, creating in the wake of the rush out of the U.S., even more job losses.

The biggest winner from Obama’s proposal will not be Wall Street. Any talk of increasing government control of the financial services sector is a job killer, and will drive investment overseas. It will be far less regulated markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong that will gain from an exodus of US capital.

The City of London could also emerge a major beneficiary from the new banking proposals. If the next British government, almost certainly a Conservative administration, opts for light but sensible regulation of financial markets and hedge funds for example, the UK will gain a significant competitive advantage over New York as well as further strengthen its lead position over European rivals such as Frankfurt and Paris.

Kill more jobs, drive away more investors. Obama's quite the leader. But who wants to go where he's leading?
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After the Tea Party's Over

AJ Strata at The Strata-Sphere posted a thoughtful comparison of the size of the September 12, 2009 Washington Tea Party versus the crowd that attended Obama's inauguration. After analyzing crowd densities and locations, Strata concluded:

In my opinion the [September 12] crowd was over 1 million. Maybe well over 1 million. But it is hard to compare a crowd in evenly spaced seats in a much more restricted lay out [at the inauguration] to a crowd of varying density spilling out into every crevice and corner in front of the Capitol [the Tea Party]. Given the high density and greater extent of taking over the open ground I think it is very possible the unadvertised Tea Party without any big name draws competed well with the largest inauguration crowd in recent memory.

It easily surpassed the inauguration crowds of all the other Presidents in recent memory. And that is saying something.

Here are two comparative views of the Mall after the two events, from a must-see collection of 9/12/2009 photos and videos presented by Ace at StealthFusion (via Strata-Sphere). The Washington Monument is visible in both photos. I think these photos speak volumes about the characteristics and values of the two opposing mindsets.

After the Obama Inauguration, January 2009

After the Washington DC Tea Party, September 12, 2009

These photos also beg the question: Into whose hands would you place the governance of your country?
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Meditation: 187 Candles Plus 1, Updates on Maryam, Marzieh, and Rifqa

I've been following the stories of three young women who converted from Islam to Christianity at great cost to their personal safety. Two of them are Iranians suffering in the most notorious prison in Iran, Evin Prison, for the crime of apostasy (departure from Islam), and the the third is a Sri Lankan minor now being held, at her own request, in the custody of the State of Florida.

**********

Maryam and Marzieh

Yesterday, supporters of the two Iranian women, Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh, gathered to pray for them in front of the Iranian Embassy in London. Here is a report from some Americans who traveled to London to join the vigil:

There’s been a great turnout at the Prayer Vigil today – people have come from all over England to stand in support of Maryam and Marzieh. We’ve sectioned off an area for the Vigil just outside of the Iranian Embassy. There are lots of banners and pictures, and everyone is dressed in white.

Throughout the day, the Vigil has attracted a lot of positive attention, both from passerbys and the news media. One major network is here to document, as well as a few other videographers.

Many attendees can’t believe that we traveled from the States to be here. They seem encouraged and inspired to keep fighting for Maryam and Marzieh’s freedom. We’re so glad we came.

It’s nighttime now in London, so we’ve lit 187 candles to represent each of the nights that Maryam and Marzieh have been in prison. It’s a powerful image.

About an hour ago, all of the attendees formed a big circle so we could pray and sing hymns together.

After talking with many different people today, we’ve been reminded that there are numerous stories like Maryam and Marzieh’s, happening right now… all over the world.

Supporters of Maryam and Marzieh have recently established a Web site dedicated to helping free these young women, who are in precarious health. Please visit this site, which provides more information about Maryam and Marzieh and which gives people an avenue by which to add helpful actions to their prayers for Maryam and Marzieh. These young women are suffering increasingly difficult deprivations as their captors attempt to induce them to recant their Christian faith, and their health is weakening. One of the young women, suffering from an untreated infection, fears that her death is near.

Scores of illegal detentions of converts to Christianity have been reported this year in Iran alone.

You can learn more about Maryam and Marzieh and what you can do to help them here.

**********

Rifqa

Today you could light one little candle (in the form of an email of support) for Rifqa Bary, a young Sri Lankan seeking the protection of Florida courts because she was discovered by her mosque and parents in Ohio to have secretly converted to Christianity. Rifqa is not languishing in prison, but, like Maryam and Marzieh, she is awaiting her next court hearing, at which her fate may be decided. At that hearing, she will continue to plead for the protection of the state of Florida against the Islamic punishment for apostasy, which is death. Rifqa fears death at the hand of her father, but, in reality, it could come from another devout Muslim, not necessarily even someone whom Rifqa knows.

Atlas Shrugs has reported that an Ohio police officer talked to almost 20 people who said Rifqa was in fear of her life and that, even now, Rifqa receives death threats daily. Rifqa's parents are demanding that she be returned to them. Ohio had not intervened in the case, leaving Rifqa's fate to a Florida judge, but, as reported by Atlas Shrugs, on September 11, Ohio Democrat Governor Strictland "caved to the Islamists' demand to return apostate Rifqa Bary to her devout Muslim home and hostile Noor mosque."

Via Jihad Watch, from the Orlando Sentinel:

The office of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland issued a statement saying the teenage girl who ran away from her Muslim home in Ohio to evangelical Christians in Orlando, Fla., should be returned to her home state.

"Child welfare agencies and authorities in Ohio and Franklin County are fully capable of providing for the security and well-being of Ohio's children," the statement said. "The governor believes this is a family matter and therefore would most appropriately be handled here in Ohio with the assistance of the child welfare and foster care system."

Fathima Rifqa Bary, 17, is living with a foster family in the Orlando area. She fled Westerville, Ohio, aboard a Greyhound bus in July, saying her father had threatened to kill her because she had abandoned his faith - Islam - and become a Christian. [...]

Amanda Wurst, a spokeswoman for Strickland, issued the statement Thursday. It puts Strickland, an ordained Methodist minister, at odds with Florida's Gov. Charlie Crist.

In a statement issued three weeks ago, Crist said he was grateful for a decision by Orange Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson to keep Rifqa in Florida.

[snip]

Rifqa's story has set off a firestorm of reaction. Crist's office reported Friday that it had received more than 10,000 e-mails about it.

Wurst said the Ohio governor's office has received more than 400 calls, e-mails and letters.

Having to choose between one's cherished faith and a death sentence is a terrible prospect, and one that no resident of the United States should even remotely be forced to contemplate. The least we can do for Rifqa--and other converts from Islam who live in fear--is to express our strong support for her to Governor Strickland, here, and Governor Crist, here. Rifqa's case would be much better served if she could remain in Florida until her 18th birthday.

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Related Posts:

• Mediation: Londoners Hold Prayer Vigil for Maryam and Marzieh
  
• Aqsa, Amina, Sarah, Rand
  
• Meditation: Will Florida Protect the Lives and Speech of Christians?
  
• Meditation: Maryam and Marzieh Face Death But Refuse to Renounce Christianity
• Meditation: Pray for the Release of Maryam and Marzieh
• Maryam and Marzieh: Convicted of Being Christian

Remember When Obama Was "Unaware of Tea Parties"?

Waaaay back on April 15, 2009.

I wonder if he's heard of them yet.

Washington, DC, crowd estimates: 1.2 million to 2 million.

Heh, heh, heh.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.
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White Slavery: No Problem for ACORN Offices (UPDATED)

New videos by a young filmmaker and a young journalist released by Glenn Beck at Fox News show ACORN's blasé attitude toward almost any kind of crime, including, sickeningly, white slaving children into prostitution. Posing as a pimp and a prostitute, the two went to ACORN's Baltimore office and Washington, DC office, where staffers at both locations offered to help them set up a brothel "and seek illegal benefits for 13 'very young girls' from El Salvador that [the] pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes."

Although huge amounts of tax monies are directed to ACORN on every government level, the organization gave plenty of advice to the purported criminals to help them avoid paying taxes.

ACORN and Obama have a long history of endorsing and supporting each other. Stanley Kurtz published some research on Obama's connections with ACORN at National Review Online:

At least a few news reports have briefly mentioned Obama’s role in training Acorn’s leaders, but none that I know of have said what Foulkes reports next: that Obama’s long service with Acorn led many members to serve as the volunteer shock troops of Obama’s early political campaigns — his initial 1996 State Senate campaign, and his failed bid for Congress in 2000 (Foulkes confuses the dates of these two campaigns.) With Obama having personally helped train a new cadre of Chicago Acorn leaders, by the time of Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama and Acorn were “old friends,” says Foulkes.

So along with the reservoir of political support that came to Obama through his close ties with Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and other Chicago black churches, Chicago Acorn appears to have played a major role in Obama’s political advance. Sure enough, a bit of digging into Obama’s years in the Illinois State Senate indicates strong concern with Acorn’s signature issues, as well as meetings with Acorn and the introduction by Obama of Acorn-friendly legislation on the living wage and banking practices. You begin to wonder whether, in his Springfield days, Obama might have best been characterized as “the Senator from Acorn." [emphasis mine]

Just in case you haven't seen these videos yet, here's a sample from Glenn Beck. The ACORN footage starts at about 5:30:

Maybe it's time to review the allocation to ACORN of tens of billions of dollars of political payback money currently hidden in the "stimulus package"?
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UPDATE:

From the Taxpayer March on DC
(and it's green, too!)

9/11: Remembering William J. Meehan

I am writing this tribute to William J. Meehan as part of Project 2,996, in which bloggers volunteer to remember the valuable lives of the people we lost on September 11, 2001.

Bill Meehan was a 49-year-old husband and father of three who lived in Darien, Connecticut, and who had had just moved his office to the World Trade Center in late August of 2001 because he was being asked more and more frequently to share his views of Wall Street on CNBC. Bill was chief market analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald, the country's largest bond firm, with more than 1,000 people working in four floors of the north tower.

I never knew Bill Meehan, but Amy Langfield did, and she wrote about him in a letter to her parents on September 18, the day she learned of his death. Amy had just returned to New York, where she reported on Wall Street matters for Reuters. Later, Amy published that letter in her blog, Amy's New York Notebook, on June 24, 2002, in a post entitled, "There's No Forgetting."

Here's some of what Amy wrote:

I used to talk to Bill Meehan nearly every morning when I was writing the market curtain-raiser for Reuters. He was often the first person I talked to in the mornings and always helped me get my bearings for the day. Super nice guy, always helpful, and had a good grasp of overall market conditions. I had to call analysts about 7:20 a.m. and find out what they thought the most important factors in the market would be that day -- there weren't that many people already in the office and on the ball by then, but Meehan was, and was [one of] only about five guys we knew who would bother to talk to reporters that early.

The New York Times had a few things to say about Bill Meeham too:

William J. Meehan liked to say he had the ideal job. "All he had to do was give an opinion," said his wife, Maureen. But when Mr. Meehan opined, Wall Street listened: he was chief market analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald.
The job was ideal if you did not mind rising at 4:30 a.m., which Mr. Meehan, 49, did to write his column for The Cantor Morning News, an online newsletter. He was a fixture on the proliferating financial shows and got to banter with Louis Rukeyser on "Wall Street Week."
A Meehan opinion was grounded in books. "He would read everything and anything," his wife recalled, "not just financial but also biographies and Harry Potter, too." He bought the early Potter books for his daughter, Katie -- and ended up reading them himself. But for a man who spent many a vacation day between hard covers, Mr. Meehan was also big on the Internet. "He was the first guy I knew to buy his Christmas tree online," said Steven Montano, The Morning News's managing editor.
Mr. Meehan initially worked for Cantor in Darien, Conn., where he lived, getting home in time to coach his three children in Little League, flag football and basketball. But in August, as his TV appearances became more frequent, he shifted to the World Trade Center.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Alkaban, a book that Bill Meehan might have read if he had lived, Dumbledore tells Harry, “‘You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him."

September 11, 2001, is a date that has been made sacred by the passing of so many. Every day since, many of us have been in need of somebody who died that day. In the days to come, America will continue to have much need of those we have lost, and we will profit much if we look inside ourselves to capture the lessons they would impart.
__________

Van Jones: It Ain't Over Until the Fat Lady Sings

She's got to belt it out good and loud, until the windowpanes rattle and the neighbors fall out of bed. And the fat lady doesn't sing until the whole story's been told.

Nobody (outside of Washington DC) wants to hear a story that ends with the villain sneaking out of town at midnight, laying low for an indecently short period of time, and then quietly but lucratively re-emerging as, say, a lobbyist getting paid from a different pocket of the same suit, or even as a lefty lawyer writing legislation for a Congress that couldn't be bothered.

What kind of ending would that be? Boring and unsatisfying.

No, for the story to have any zing, the villain has to really and truly lose power. Add points for every disgraced crony he pulls down with him.

That's one reason why Americans are going to keep spreading the word about Van Jones.

This story is just not finished being told.

Did Jones take his midnight walk because he called Republicans "assholes," like the Obamatons would have us believe? Because he's an avowed Marxist/Leninist activist, which the Obamatons would rather not discuss?

Or was it because Commissar Jones had just been outed as an anti-American nut who told a rally that the U.S. deserved the 9/11 attacks? Only a day after nearly 3,000 people were savagely, torturously murdered by Islamic jihadists in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, Jones went out of his way to rally with other "blame America first" speakers "against the threat of more US violence." There's video of the event, if you can bear to watch the loony revision of history by assorted "supporters of Palestine," "anarchists," and "socialists" in Oakland, California.

Written by an attendee at the rally, as reported by BizzyBlog:

A recurring theme of the speakers was the brutal violence committed by or supported by the United States government on a daily basis. "The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City," said Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who also warned against forthcoming violence by the Bush Administration. "The US cannot bomb its way out of this one. Safety at home requires justice abroad."

In a diverse international community shocked by recent world events, deep feelings about the United States government were expressed. A young Puerto Rican person said that "the belly of the beast had something back to eat." A young Filipino human rights activist said that "when we found out what kind of place got hit, we were kind of glad to see the Pentagon burning. But we also know that thousands of Puerto Ricans, Haitians and other workers were in those buildings." An African-American man who works on gentrification issues in West Oakland said that "we're always seeing Americans drop bombs on people. We watch the Vietnamese get bombed, Iraqis get bombed, Palestinians get bombed, now it has come home to roost." Japanese-Americans spoke about internment camps and the nuclear holocaust brought on by US militarism.

There's plenty more to the Van Jones story, and it's bound to get out. The question is: How many disgraced cronies will be written into the script before the curtain closes?

Hat tip: Yukio Ngaby at Critical Narrative
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10,000+ Chicago Area Tea Partiers Cause 2-Mile Backups on I-80

Illinois Review has reported that more than 10,000 Labor Day Tea Partiers converged in the Chicago area, jamming roads and highways. Traffic on I-80 was backed up for two miles from both the east and west.

The Tea Partiers had assembled to greet the arrival of the Tea Party Express from California, which made a stopover at New Lenox Municipal Complex on its way to Washington, DC, for the Taxpayer March to be held on September 12.

A national Tea Party Express entourage had to have Will County sheriff escort the bus into the Municipal complex, around the backed up traffic on I-80. The buses are a part of a 33-city national tour, headed for Washington DC on September 12.

According to the Tea Party Express--Official Tour Blog, the Sheriff's Office reported that a portion of Interstate 80 was shut down for traffic control due to "the massive influx of people." The protesters carried signs of protest against "the Obama Administration, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin."

In Obama's own stomping grounds!

Below, Dottie McQueen of Joliet had some good things to say:

Are you ready to tea party? Click here.

Hat tip to American Power; check out this site for great coverage of the Tea Party Express.

Labor Day Lament: Sixteen Tons

Written by Merle Travis, sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Labor Day Bonus: Pink Slip for Green Jobs Commissar Van Jones

The Obama administration and Commissar Jones finally succumbed to public inquiry about Jones's ideological qualifications for his job and the public outrage that followed. After the Obama administration released the news of Jones's resignation, the MSM got around to noticing a couple of smudges on his resume that already had much of America fuming. Among these, from ABC:

"I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the [Rodney King] verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist."

Jones and other young activists in 1994 formed a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, rooted in Marxism and Leninsm.

Obama's administration was so eager to tell American workers that Obama had put a self-avowed Marxist/Leninist activist in charge of a $30 billion budget for the stated purpose of creating so-called "green" jobs that they released Jones's resignation letter after midnight last night, that is, in the earliest possible hours of the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.

What, no prime time announcement speech by the president? Maybe his teleprompter took the long weekend off.

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Mediation: Londoners Hold Prayer Vigil for Maryam and Marzieh, Convicted of Being Christian

In the UK:

Women's Prayer Vigil for Maryam and Marzieh in Iranian Prison (Reprinted from CCFON)

Article Published: 4th September 2009

Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Esmailabadi are Iranian Christians who were imprisoned six months ago for converting to Christianity. Attieh Fard, a member of the Iranian Christian Fellowship who is fighting for the religious freedom in Iran, is encouraging Christians to come and pray for them and for the freedom of Christians in Iran, who are unjustly persecuted for their love of God. This will be a quiet prayer in silence and unity.

(Please see the CSW and The Guardian reports for the background of the story)

DATE: Saturday, 12 September 2009

TIME: 12.30pm – 9.30pm

VENUE: Outside Iranian Embassy at 16 Princes Gate, London, SW7 1PT‎ (nearest tube station South Kensington)

Please note: The prayer vigil is mainly for women (Strict white dress code: white dress covering your arms and legs, and a simple scarf to cover your hair). Men are welcome to come too, but would be asked to stand separately.

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In the US:

Americans can take action in support of Christians who live in the United States but suffer persecution for their religious beliefs. Rifqa Bary, a Sri Lankan teenager living in the U.S., appealed to a Florida Court for protection when her secret conversion from Islam to Christianity was discovered. Hers is an important case testing the American will to preserve what Thomas Jefferson called our most inalienable and sacred human right, freedom of religion.

An email to the Governor of Florida in support of Rifqa can help: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

Governor Crist can also be reached by phone at (850) 488-7146 or by fax at (850) 487-0801.

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Related Posts:

• Aqsa, Amina, Sarah, Rand
  
• Meditation: Will Florida Protect the Lives and Speech of Christians?
  
• Meditation: Maryam and Marzieh Face Death But Refuse to Renounce Christianity
• Meditation: Pray for the Release of Maryam and Marzieh
• Maryam and Marzieh: Convicted of Being Christian

1.9 Million Federal Workers Average $120,000 Per Year

Earlier this week, Obama made a big deal about his decision to reduce federal workers' cost-of-living pay hikes by a mere four tenths of one percent, from 2.4% to 2%. The president neglected to mention one or two little related facts of interest, brought out in an editorial in Investor's Business Daily, including that 1.9 million federal workers earn an average of $120,000 per year, almost double what is earned by their counterparts in the private sector:

According to the Cato Institute, average per-employee wages are far higher among federal civilian workers than private-sector workers. That gap is even wider, almost double, when total compensation, which includes health care and other benefits, is included.

State and local workers aren't doing too badly either. USA Today pointed out that:

Overall, total compensation for state and local workers was $39.25 an hour — $11.90 more than in private business. In 2007, the gap in wages and benefits was $11.31.

Across the nation, state budgets are going belly up, with 43 states facing shortfalls in 2009, and taxpayers are being driven to the wall. Of those enormous state budgets, 50% goes to pay state workers and, of that 50%, about one third pays worker benefits.

For every $1-an-hour pay increase [since 2002], public employees have gotten $1.17 in new benefits. Private workers have gotten just 58 cents in benefits for every $1 raise. The difference: Companies have ended most traditional pension plans and increased workers' share of health care costs. Government paid an average of $8,800 annually toward employee medical insurance. Private companies paid $4,100.

It's nice to know that those friendly folks at the IRS and the Green Jobs Commissariat will continue to enjoy good salaries and health care security, isn't it?
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Van Jones, Crack Addicts, and Philanthropy for Hip-Hop "Activists" (UPDATED)

Isn't it interesting that Van Jones, and the large group he is addressing in this video, have such obviously close knowledge of the behaviors of crack addicts?

This is the same Van Jones who wants "hip-hop" to become central to the social change the Obama administration is in the process of creating. Here is Jones' praise of Constant Elevation, a 2003 event in which a panel of hip-hop "youth activists" addressed an audience of "a few dozen representatives from some of the largest philanthropic foundations in the country":

This event makes it clear that the path of social change needs to go through youth culture, and therefore it needs to go through hip-hop. Once hip-hop becomes central to social change, the entire game will be changed.

Redstate wants to know "who 'suggested' Van Jones for his job, because "he or she has to go too."

Wouldn't you also like to know who put hip-hop "activists" in the same room as "a few dozen representatives of some of the largest philanthropic foundations in the country"?

Van Jones' advice to President Obama:

Using U.S. energy products to fuel the nation's economy, a "shameful" joke!

Making hip-hop "activists" central to critical national decisions, a must-do change, can't wait.

Advice Barack Obama is paying him for, using our tax dollars, of course.

Video via Redstate, via Hot Air Pundit, via @seanhackbarth.
Hip-hop quote via Gateway Pundit, via commenter Photosynthesis.
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UPDATE: Who put hip-hop "activists" in the same room with foundation reps? Grantmakers in the Arts provides a list of organizations:

Several sponsors and collaborators helped make Constant Elevation possible: California Council for the Humanities, California Fund for Youth Organizing, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, The James Irvine Foundation, Northern California Grantmakers, Open Society Institute, The San Francisco Foundation, Tides Foundation, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Idolatry and Indoctrination: The Socialist Twins

Are Obama's robotic followers in the Dept. of Education so innocently enamored of the guy that they can't imagine anyone not being "inspired" by the prospect of their child being required to read a worshipful biography (such as Barack Obama, Son of Promise, Child of Hope), then listen to Obama speak, then join a classroom discussion of his merits, and, for homework, write a self-examination of his or her ability to conform to Obama's desires?

Or is Obama's upcoming televised pop quiz for American children just one more jackbootfall on our current Democrat-induced forced-march to socialism?

The answer doesn't really matter. Both idolatry and indoctrination are enemies of independence, as every American used to know.

A prominent feature of all totalitarian states is the required use of textbooks praising the leader to the skies. Textbooks published in North Korea under Kim Jong Il, for example, are heavy on fantastic biographies of that "respected leader," featuring cut-aways like "Thank You, the Great Leader Marshall Kim Jong Il" for fictitious services like helping the Allied Forces win World War II. Textbooks published in Iraq under Iraq's "beloved" Saddam Hussein, were filled with "reverential references to the former dictator or his Baath political party," prompting one educator to suggest that Western students studying Iraq be asked to consider, "What are the drawbacks of linking patriotism to a single leader?"

I find it very interesting that our nation's Dept. of Education didn't stop to ask that question before writing teacher guides to Obama's indoctrination hour for children.

It is remarkable that our federally funded hive of education specialists had no difficulty inventing teacher guides for a text that the teachers can't yet access because, presumably, it will remain a work in progress by Obama's administration until its political utility can be fully appreciated and exploited. It is also interesting that, less than a week before the required viewing, the teacher guides are still under revision because they are so abhorrent to so many Americans.

It also is interesting that Obama, non-too-modestly (or courteously) has chosen to interrupt many American children's first day of school for his address. We can hope that the younger children will have had a chance to settle down and that the older children will have had the opportunity to find their seats and meet their teachers before Obama begins his noon lecture.

Non-obamatons aren't sure whether to keep their kids home during the president's schoolchildren indoctrination hour, have their children sent to a study hall instead, or join their kids in their classrooms to keep overly idolatrous teachers from reinforcing the message that the only good child is an obamaton.

Many parents are phoning their schools, school superintendents, and school boards to express their alarm that respect for a two-party system in the United States no longer exists as a practical consideration in the minds of American educators.

Whether school boards and superintendents pass that test or not, it is obvious that observance of a two-party system definitely will occur in voting booths across the country, including voting booths in which school boards are elected.
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Tea Party Express!

Wow.

Check out the schedule here: teapartyexpress.org

Hat tip: American Power
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Aqsa, Amina, Sarah, Rand . . .

The four pretty teenagers pictured above, ages 16 to 18, all were victims of so-called "honor killings" committed by their fathers. In two of the murders, the fathers were assisted by another family member. In the other two murders, another family member blamed the girls for their own deaths.

Above, from left to right: Aqsa Parvez, strangled to death in Ontario for refusing to wear a veil to school; Amina and Sarah Said, shot to death in Texas on suspicion of dating non-Muslims; Rand Abdel-Qader, strangled and stabbed to death in Iraq for talking to a British soldier.

In a recent interview at FrontPage, Pamela Geller, the founder, editor, and publisher of AtlasShrugs.com, discussed the sensational case of another Muslim teenager, Rifqa Bary, 17 years old, who fled on a bus from Ohio to Florida to apply for Court protection from honor killing. Rifqa's offense: converting to Christianity.

Rifqa Bary, who recently turned seventeen, converted to Christianity from Islam – bringing upon herself Islam’s death sentence for those who leave Islam. When she was questioned by a news reporter, she spoke with the voice of every girl murdered in the name of Islamic "honor" [video here]. You could hear Amina and Sarah, Aqsa and Rand. The bitter cries that no one heard. Rifqa pleads for herself but she cries for all Muslim girls who are oppressed and subjugated.

[snip]

“You guys don’t understand,” Rifqa said. “Islam is very different than you guys think. They have to kill me. My blood is now halal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I’m from a Muslim background, it’s an honor. If they love God more than me, they have to do this."

[snip]

This is the front line – right in Florida. While our finest young Americans engage in hard fought battles on the front lines of the global jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel is on the front lines of the global jihad in the Middle East, Muslim women all over the world are on the front lines in the war against Islamic jihad. The battlefield is their homes. They live their lives in abject terror in homemade concentration camps.

Rifqa Bary’s life hangs in the balance. The West should do everything in its power to save her.

[snip]

When Muslim girls like Rifqa Bary, the most courageous girl in America, see what happened to Amina and Sarah Said, Aqsa Parvez, and so many others, they're forced to live out their sentence in their homemade concentration camps, because they see that there is no escape. If the West will not stand up for its values, its own unalienable rights, then these girls have no chance.

Do you have any idea how many Muslim girls are watching, and watching very closely, the case of Rifqa Bary? She represents their hope of freedom. That's why the Islamists want to kill her. If she succeeds, she will give other Muslim girls hope. That is why we must do everything we can to support her and other Muslim girls in danger of honor killing, by building shelters, creating an underground railroad, and supporting their attempts to be free.

Rifqa Bary goes before a Florida judge this coming Thursday, September 3. She is praying that the judge does not return her to her Sri Lankan parents, who have been living and doing business in Ohio but have now made preparations to leave the country.

Rifqa is not alone in fearing death for converting to Christianity. As I write this post, Maryam and Marzieh, two young Iranian women, are languishing in an Iranian jail, facing the death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity.

An email to the Governor of Florida in support of Rifqa can help: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

Governor Crist can also be reached by phone at (850) 488-7146 or by fax at (850) 487-0801.

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Related Posts:

• Meditation: Will Florida Protect the Lives and Speech of Christians?
  
• Meditation: Maryam and Marzieh Face Death But Refuse to Renounce Christianity
• Meditation: Pray for the Release of Maryam and Marzieh
• Maryam and Marzieh: Convicted of Being Christian