Nanny State News, Michigan Style

Yesterday I reported on a pair of working mothers in the UK who were turned in to state authorities by a "whistleblower" for breaching the law by babysitting each other's toddlers (for free) without getting state registrations as "childminders." Instead of the two friends helping each other take care of their little ones, they had to put their tykes into "official" daycare.

At the same time, AP was reporting on a similar incident in southwest Michigan, where a call from a Barry County "complainant" resulted in state officials threatening a stay-at-home mom with arrest, fines, and jail for watching her working neighbors' children (for free) as they waited to board the school bus at her driveway every morning.

State Department of Human Services officials told her recently that she was operating an illegal day care. The stay-at-home mom [at left in photo] said officials ordered her to stop watching the kids, obtain a state license or face possible penalties. State law says no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks a year unless they're licensed.

According to the Grand Rapids News:

Lisa Snyder, the Middleville woman who looked after friends’ children until the school bus showed up, appeared this morning on NBC’s "Today" show [view segment], and said she was dumbfounded that state officials ruled her kindness constituted a daycare.

She has a bus stop near her home, and watched her friends’ kids for up to an hour each morning.

The Department of Human Services told her the agency responded to a complaint, apparently from a neighbor, that she was effectively operating an unlicensed daycare by looking after children of three friends, she said.

“I told them I thought it was ridiculous.”

When she told a state worker she wanted the kids inside, rather than standing outside in the rain or snow, she said she was told: “‘Tell the parents to buy them an umbrella.’”

State officials told Ms. Snyder that neighbor children could lawfully play with her children in her home only if the neighbor parents were home.

If those parents were running errands, however, she would be performing illegal childcare activities.

Barry County's unemployment rate is over 10%, and Michigan's is over 15%. It's time to lighten Michigan taxpayers' burden by giving pink slips to state lawmakers and law enforcers who don't have higher priority work than putting children of working moms and dads out into the rain and snow.

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Related Post: Nanny State News

Praying to Obama

Via Michelle Malkin from Naked Emperor News:.



Read Michelle's commentary and see other video here.
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Nanny State News

Just keep taking responsibility from parents and putting it into the hands of the state, and pretty soon you end up with . . .

From UK's Daily Mail:

Mothers are banned from looking after each other's children

By Sarah Harris

Two working mothers have been banned from looking after each other's toddlers because they are not registered childminders.

The close friends' private arrangement had let them both return to part-time jobs at the same company.

However, a whistleblower reported them to the education watchdog Ofsted [Office of Standards in Education] and it found their informal deal broke the law.

This was because little-known rules say friends cannot gain a 'reward' by looking after a child for more than two hours outside the child's home without agreeing to a number of checks including one from the Criminal Records Bureau.

Although the mothers never paid each other, their job-sharing deal was judged to be a 'reward'.

[snip]

The women, who have not been identified, had given birth at similar times. When their daughters passed their first birthday, they decided to return to work part-time at the same firm.

The colleagues agreed to look after each other's children as part of the job share. They are said to be 'very good friends' and the girls were so close they had grown up 'like sisters'.

[snip]

The women have now put their girls into official childcare 'meaning they can't work as they wished due to the elevated costs', friends say.

It's a wonder these mothers were allowed to have their children without a license.

I suppose parenting licenses are coming next. With exemptions for illegal aliens who want anchor babies, of course.

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Lefties Wrestle Over NYC: It's ACORN vs. Air America

The Working Families Party is a subsidiary of ACORN; Bertha Lewis is not only chief organizer of ACORN, she is also co-chair of the Working Families Party in New York.

Tomorrow, two Working Family Party candidates will be running against progressive Democrats in a NYC Democrat primary run-off. One of these ACORN candidates is Bill de Blasio, a City Councilman from Brooklyn running for the position of NYC's Public Advocate, next in line to the mayor. De Blasio's opponent is Mark Green, a former NYC public advocate who went on to preside over Air America Radio, the doomed Progressive talk radio network.

ACORN vs. Air America Radio. That's New York City.

Why would ACORN want their candidate to hold the position of Public Advocate? Perhaps to control city legislation, services, programs, pensions ($34 billion in assets), and "facilitate" voter registration and voting, to mention only some of the assorted powers that go with the job. Plus to act as the official lawsuit-bringing fox guarding the city hen house.

Right up ACORN's alley.

The Big Apple's Public Advocate holds plenty of clout, including the power to:

• preside over the City Council (most of the 11 new Council nominees were endorsed by the Working Families Party),

• act as ex-officio member of all Council committees,
  

• introduce legislation,
  

• review and investigate complaints relating to services and programs;
  

• inquire into alleged failures of city officers or agencies,

• serve on the Board of the New York City Employees' Retirement System ,
  

• sit on the appointments committee to select the Director of the Independent Budget Office, and
  

• act as a commissioner of the Voter Assistance Commission to encourage and facilitate voter registration and voting by all eligible United States citizens residing in New York City, etc.

According to the NY Times, which endorsed de Blasio (despite his known "cosiness with unions"):

Dan Cantor, the executive director of the Working Families Party, said Mr. de Blasio had established “a dense and deep network of connections” among community-based organizations and advocacy groups.

“He was not known by the broad voting public in a way that Mark Green is, but he was known by tenant advocates and homeless services providers and by union shop stewards,” Mr. Cantor said. “They know who Bill de Blasio is, and they spread the word.”

A recent debate between de Blasio and Green "was dominated by exchanges over private consulting fees, political contributions and endorsements."

From the beginning, Mr. de Blasio found himself answering questions about the accounting practices of the Working Families Party (which has endorsed him), and the $33,000 that he was paid in 2006 as a consultant to the Progressive America Foundation (Mr. de Blasio said it had been preapproved by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board).

The NY Daily News had a slightly different take on that $33 grand:

Public advocate candidate Bill de Blasio set a bad precedent when he hired himself out in 2006 as a paid lobbyist while serving on the City Council.

An organization called the Progressive America Foundation paid de Blasio $33,000 to press states to adopt election rules that would enable groups like the Working Families Party to more easily field candidates.

No doubt you've already guessed that the Progressive America Foundation has ties to the Working Families Party. No surprise there.

Charles Lenchner of the Working Families Party put it well: "For the first time, America has a community organizer in the White House. What if we put a whole slate of community organizers in City Hall?"

Get ready, New York. Maybe your new City Hall can do for you what Obama has done for the rest of America.
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Related Posts:

Notice Any Familiar Names in ACORN's List of Friends?

Poor ACORN: Tax Evasion, Investment Fraud, Racketeering

ACORN Has Its Own Political Party--And It's Winning Elections

Meditation: Ben Franklin on Mankind's Dependence on God

It is the duty of mankind on all suitable occasions to acknowledge their dependence on the Divine Being.

1748

Dallas Terrorist Does His Bit to "Shape the World"

We will be respectful, even when we do not agree. We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world for the better. . . .
--Barack Obama

Yesterday, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested on the charge of "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction." Smadi's target was Fountain Place, an emerald green 60-story glass tower in downtown Dallas.

Smadi's planned methodology: parking a 2001 Ford Explorer containing a bomb in the office tower's garage and then detonating the bomb from a distance using a cellphone. Thanks to the FBI, who had been monitoring Smadi for more than six months, the bomb was a fake.

Smadi told FBI informants about his goal:

I truly say it that my dream is to be among God's soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama, may God give him long life. I don't know what is in me, but I love him as I love my father.

Later, when Smadi had chosen his target, he told the informant:

Millions of people would incur losses: unemployment poverty, hunger, and a strike to the head of the government. Don't forget the psychological impacts for the loss of this beautiful building.

Smadi is a 19-year-old illegal alien from Jordan who had been living in the small town of Italy, Texas, where he worked as a cashier at the local Texas Best Smokehouse near his home in "a development made up of dozens of small, individual dome structures along U.S. Highway 77." "One friend described his home, where he lived alone, as simple; neat, with a surround-sound system, laptop, weight bench, TV and a bed." His friends called him Sam, and described him as "fun, easygoing, and always willing to lend a hand" and "liked to play with his neighbor's children. "He loved techno music, had earrings in both ears, and he was often seen wearing a belt buckle decorated with rhinestones that formed a gun." He "drank occasionally and smoked cigarettes." One friend said that "he looked just like 'your average American rock star.'"

"This comes as a shock to us; he was just an awesome person," said friend Tabatha Rogers. "He was good to us."

Several Islamic terrorists have been arrested this week, the last week of Ramadan, including in Denver, New York, and Springfield, Illinois. The Springfield plot was hatched by a prison convert to Islam.

Today is the last day of Ramadan, and it has been declared a "National Day of Prayer" for Muslims, who have already begun to rally at Capital Hill in Washington, DC. The organizers of this event include Muslims with extremist ties, such as Hassen Abdellah, an attorney who represented Islamic terrorists for the 1993 and 2001 world trade center attacks.
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Related posts:
Another Recent Convert to Islam
Dear Judge: It's More Fun with My AK-47
Wanted: 4 Guys Seek Empathic NYC Judge
Suicide Truck Bombers Do Their Bit to "Shape the World"
Iran Continues Effort to "Shape the World"
Somali Pirates Do Their Bit to "Shape the World"

Notice Any Familiar Names in ACORN's List of Friends?

Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer of ACORN and Co-Chair of the Working Families Party (a political party in New York, Connecticut, South Carolina, and Oregon) has lots of friends, and she doesn't mind sending them a "special shout-out" every now and then for help defending ACORN from "scurrilous right-wing attacks and smears":

Among Bertha's favorite people:

• People for the American Way
• AFL (American Federation of Labor)
  
• SEIU (Service Employees International Union)
  
• AFT (American Federation of Teachers)
• NEA (National Education Association)
  
• Steelworkers
• CWA (Communications Workers of America)
  
• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP
  
• Maxine Waters (D-CA) (House Judiciary Committee)
  
• John Conyers (D-MI) (House Judiciary Chairman)
  
• Jerry Nadler (D-NY) (House Judiciary Committee)
  
• everyone on nets roots
• MoveOn.org
• Firedoglake
• AMERICAblog
• Black Agenda Report
• Open Left

And, of course, that community organizer listed on the Working Families Party line:

• Barack Obama.

By the way, the AP has reported that the IRS finally has taken the hint and has divested ACORN of its status as a "volunteer tax assistance program." That means ACORN won't be offering "free tax advice" this spring to millions of low and moderate income-tax filers this spring, at least not under IRS auspices.

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Poor ACORN: Tax Evasion, Investment Fraud, Racketeering . . .

In March of this year, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who is the House Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said, "I will certainly consider a hearing on ACORN if I ever hear any credible allegations."

In May, Congressman Steve King (R-IA), a member of the Judiciary Committee, demanded Congressional hearings into ACORN's finances when it was revealed that more than 250 nonprofits claimed ACORN's headquarters as their address, and that the Obama's campaign had paid one of those firms more than $800,000.

"This spider web, this myriad web of ACORN dollars and revenue streams, every bit of them should be looked at, all the corporations that they are networked with all of the boards of directors of those corporations, the inner locking connecting, the faces that are the same from board to board."

ACORN believes an investigation of its finances is "...a continuation of the right wing Republican attacks which continues to stalk ACORN. This ACORN as 'punching bag' redundancy is not worthy of your audience."

But FOX News has found more than 250 nonprofit groups list ACORN's New Orleans headquarters as their address. Among them is Citizens Services Inc., a firm that was paid more than $800,000 by the Obama campaign for a get-out-the-vote program last year.

Citizen Services lists two ACORN headquarters as its offices and even shares a third floor legal department with ACORN.

[snip]

"ACORN has all these subsidiaries and affiliates that seem to be shell organizations with money being transferred between them and to investigate that takes a lot of resources," said [former FEC Commissioner Hans] von Spakovsky, a visiting legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "I really think that's the kind of thing that only someone like the FBI could thoroughly investigate."

By July, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were "accusing ACORN of violating several tax and election laws by using tax dollars to support its liberal political agenda." According to their report:

ACORN provided contributions of financial and personnel resources to indicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, and Barack Obama when he was running for president.

Heather Heidelbaugh, vice president of the Republican Lawyers Association, says ACORN has received $53 million from taxpayers and has access to $2.8 billion in the Obama administration.

"What we think has happened is that all of that money has gone into one account -- Citizens Consulting, Inc. -- and has been intermingled with members' dues, foundation grants, donors' grants, all sorts of other money; and then that money has been used to further the campaigns of people running for office that ACORN endorses," she explains. "That, clearly, is illegal."

Heidelbaugh, who calls the report "shocking," says ACORN is funneling tax dollars to its 361 affiliated organizations so they can carry out partisan political activity. Such a scheme, the lawyer argues, warrants a criminal investigation.

The report made a "case for ACORN as a criminal enterprise."

Among the findings, the report said, ACORN:

• Engaged in tax evasion, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting a cover-up of nearly $1 million embezzled by Dale Rathke, brother of group founder Wade Rathke;

• Committed investment fraud, depriving the public of the right to "honest services," and engaging in a racketeering enterprise affecting interstate commerce;

• Conspired to defraud the United States by using taxpayer dollars for partisan political activities;

• Submitted false filings to the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Department of Labor; and,

• Violated the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act.

As Peter Roff of U.S. News & World Report concluded:

Any one of these is a serious allegation. Taken together, they give ACORN most every appearance of being some sort of massive criminal enterprise worthy of a federal investigation of the sort made under the terms of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act—or RICO. In fact the group and its affiliates are currently the target of more than a dozen lawsuits related to voter fraud in the 2008 election alone.

And then, as even President Obama knows by now, the filmmaker/journalist team of O'Keefe and Giles, secretly videotaped staff members of 5 different ACORN offices attempting to help set up a child-prostitution business using federal funds. In response to the scandal, the House voted to stop ACORN from collecting any more tax dollars.

Did Jerrold Nadler think he had finally heard enough "credible allegations" to "consider" holding a hearing on ACORN's activities?

No.

In fact, Nadler argued that cutting off ACORN's federal largesse would be “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Poor li'l ACORN.

According to Nadler:

“It may be that ACORN is guilty of various infractions, and, if so, it ought to be vetted, or maybe sanctioned, by the appropriate administrative agency or by the judiciary,” he said. “Congress must not be in the business of punishing individual organizations or people without trial.”

But Nadler still has not considered holding a hearing of the "various infractions" of which ACORN "may be" guilty.

To which the Republican Lawyers Association has made the following reply:

Hat tip: Libertyblog and Amanda Carpenter of the Washington Times.

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Judge Keeps Rifqa Bary in Florida, Temporarily, Again (UPDATED)

Yesterday, Rifqa Bary returned to an Orlando court in her ongoing effort to remain in Florida foster care where she can practice her Christian faith in safety. In July, when the 17-year-old's conversion to Christianity was disclosed to her Sri Lankan parents by members of their Ohio mosque, Rifqa fled, saying that she feared her father might take her life. In Western terms, Rifqa is a convert to Christianity exercising a basic right but, in Islamic terms, she is an "apostate" guilty of a capital offense under Sharia law if she does not recant and return to Islam. [link added 9 a.m., 9/22/09]

Yesterday saw Rifqa's third court hearing since she left Ohio, and the presiding judge, Daniel P. Dawson, ruled for the third time that Rifqa stay with a Florida foster family temporarily as the case develops.

Most recent among the developments is a dependency petition filed in Columbus, Ohio by Rifqa's parents, who would like Ohio courts to oversee Rifqa's return to their home. However, Rifqa's guardian ad litem in Florida, a lawyer, fears that Rifqa might lose state protection in Ohio, for example, if her parents dropped their dependency petition as soon as Rifqa was returned to them.

Now that the Ohio courts have entered the picture, interstate agreements require that Judge Dawson converse with the Ohio judge. Among the topics to be discussed: Which state has jurisdiction in the case, Florida or Ohio? Is the case a dependency case, a criminal case, or a truancy case?

Upcoming court dates in the Bary case are October 13 (Florida) and October 27 (Ohio).

Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs
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UPDATE from Atlas Shrugs:

WASHINGTON, DC (September 21, 2009) - Prominent former Muslims-- apostates from Islam-- will hold a press conference Thursday, September 24 to announce the launch of a new civil liberties organization, Former Muslims United, and the start of a national campaign to educate the American public and policymakers about the threat from authoritative Shariah-- Islamic law-- to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims.

At the press conference, Former Muslims United founders Nonie Darwish and Ibn Warraq (both internationally-respected authors and scholars) will release letters calling on the Department of Justice and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate possible hate crimes and civil rights violations against apostates from Islam, including the circumstances of the current Florida case of 17-year old Rifqa Bary, a former Muslim. The letters are also signed by Former Muslims United co-founders Mohammad Asghar, Wafa Sultan and Amil Imani.

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Related Posts:

• Meditation: 187 Candles Plus 1, Updates on Maryam, Marzieh, and Rifqa
  
• 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

ACORN Has Own Political Party in NYC--And It's Winning Elections

It isn't well known, but ACORN has its very own political party, which is winning races against progressive Democrats in New York and other states. The name of this enterprise is the Working Families Party (WFP). From Discover the Networks:

According to the party's website, WFP is a coalition founded jointly by ACORN, the Communications Workers of America, and the United Automobile Workers. However, ACORN clearly dominates the coalition. New York ACORN leader Steven Kest was the moving force in forming the party, and WFP headquarters are located at the same address as ACORN's national office, at 88 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

An outgrowth of the socialist New Party, WFP was created in 1998. According to a 2000 article by the Associated Press, its objective was (and still is) to "help push the Democratic Party toward the left." In pursuit of this goal, WFP runs radical candidates in state and local elections.

[snip]

The Working Families Party benefits from a quirk of New York State (and Connecticut) election law which allows parties to "cross-endorse" candidates of other parties. Thus when Hillary Clinton ran for the Senate in 2000, she ran both on the Democratic Party ticket and on the Working Families Party ticket. Of the 3.4 million popular votes Ms. Clinton received from New Yorkers, the Working Families Party delivered 103,000.

"Candidates know that when they're on our line, they're committed to certain things," explains Bertha Lewis, who moonlights as WFP co-chair and New York ACORN Executive Director. Speaking days before Mrs. Clinton won her Senate seat in 2000, Lewis noted, "Hillary knows that if she wins, we're going to be knockin' on her door. She won't be able to hide."

[snip]

During the campaign, Mrs. Clinton spoke at numerous WFP events, most memorably at the party's debut convention, held March 26-27, 2000 at the Desmond Hotel in Albany -- an event which the Communist newspaper People's Weekly World approvingly called "a turning point in New York politics." After receiving WFP's endorsement, Clinton vowed to wage a "people's grassroots campaign." "[T]here have been few candidates in history more supportive of our issues than Al Gore and Hillary Clinton," proclaimed WFP campaign literature.

That was then.

Along came Barack Obama, one of ACORN's very own "community organizers" and lawyers, and Hillary slipped under the train, reduced to a babbling mouthpiece for Obama's unique Poke-An-Ally-In-The-Eye brand of socialist foreign policy.

Last Tuesday, on Sept. 15, candidates of the Working Families Party forced surprised Democrat incumbents into run-off elections in New York City:

Eric N. Gioia, a city councilman from Queens and a candidate for public advocate, was in a great mood Tuesday as he walked to his car after voting in the Democratic primary. Until he spotted a lone young man who stood on the sidewalk, holding a stack of fliers. “See him?” said Mr. Gioia, his face darkening. “He’s from the Working Families Party.”

Much to the chagrin of candidates like Mr. Gioia, the still relatively little-known 10-year-old party had dispatched a small army in the weeks before the primary, selling voters on its candidates in the mayoral, City Council, public advocate and comptroller races. Organizers knocked on 227,928 doors and talked to 62,112 voters, a party official said. On Tuesday, more than 350 workers were stationed throughout the city, most working for a day rate of $100.

Their efforts resulted in the party’s best electoral showing yet. In the public advocate’s race, the Working Families endorsed Bill de Blasio, a city councilman from Brooklyn. Coming from behind, he forced Mark Green into a runoff on Sept. 29, even though Mr. Green was the presumed front-runner based on pre-election polls and had already held the position. In the comptroller’s race, the party backed John C. Liu, a councilman from Queens, who won 38 percent of the vote, more than any other candidate, and will face the second-place finisher, David Yassky, a Brooklyn councilman, in the runoff.

Of the four incumbent council members who were toppled, three faced challengers supported by the Working Families Party.

“To say that it has vastly exceeded expectations would be an understatement,” Dan Cantor, the party’s executive director, said of the primary results. “Nobody saw this coming.”

The party also supported Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. in the mayor’s race, though its endorsement did not make much difference since he had long been expected to win.

[snip]

And it is allied closely with powerful labor unions, whose members tend to be reliable voters, even in low-turnout primary elections like the one on Tuesday.

That has resulted in a history of success in local races, as in 2003 when its endorsement and field work helped Letitia James win a City Council seat. But it has never been so deeply involved in citywide races and has never had so much to show for its work.

The NY Times article, published as the ACORN scandal videos were hitting the blogosphere and Fox News, failed to mention ACORN's connection with the Working Families Party.

Interesting, especially considering that the NY Times endorsed seven of the Working Families Party candidates.

But the NY Times did mention that the Working Families Party had "drawn scrutiny" because it has a "for-profit arm, Data and Field Services, which provides staff members to knock on doors, call potential voters and hand out campaign flyers."

The city’s Campaign Finance Board has warned the party that it would be watching its finances closely, prompted by critics who say that the service charges fees lower than such campaign services typically cost. The board also determined that the Working Families Party and Data and Field Services, which share an office and staff, are virtually indistinguishable.

[snip]

In June, three Working Families staff members started working for the de Blasio campaign, helping recruit volunteers and contact voters. Data and Field Services provided field managers, who organized the 200 people hired to canvass on primary day.

[snip]

The three City Council candidates supported by the party were Jumaane Williams, a housing advocate from Brooklyn who beat Councilman Kendall Stewart; Daniel Dromm, a public school teacher who defeated Helen Sears in Queens; and Deborah Rose who defeated Kenneth C. Mitchell and could become the first black member of City Council from Staten Island.

“Getting their endorsement was a tremendous help,” Mr. Dromm said, who won the party’s support months ago after a rigorous round of interviews by members of its Queens chapter and others at the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers. Mr. Dromm sat alone at a table in the middle of the room, he recalled, as his questioners formed a horseshoe around him.

[snip]

In the end, he said, the greatest service the party provided was “legitimacy.”

“They validate you as a candidate,” he said.

Legitimacy. Right.

Let's see how the Working Families Party candidates do in the run-0ff elections on September 29.
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Meditation: Abigail Adams on Trust in God

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people. Trust in Him at all times, ye people, pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us.

June 18, 1775, Letter to her husband, John Adams

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.

_________

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