As the most recent scandal surrounding ACORN grows, it begs the question of “will they or won’t they?” As in, will Barack Obama and the mainstream media decide that it’s in their best interest to “throw ACORN under the bus”?

Things haven’t been going so well for either of them lately, and the ACORN scandal presents them with an opportunity to try and gain a little credibility.

The “mainstream” media continues to take a beating with steadily declining readers and viewers, and many media companies are in (or on the verge of) bankruptcy all over the country.

They have allowed themselves to become so invested in certain groups and politicians that they have forgotten their jobs – that thing they are supposed to do to attract readers and viewers and earn money – and now they are going down the tubes.

Obama’s in a similar situation. After taking office in what seemed like a coronation, accompanied by high public approval ratings, he has spent much of his time pushing policies that many who supported him have found to have little resemblance to the “hope and change” they thought they voted for. As a result, his numbers have been heading south. Fast.

A recent Gallup poll confirmed his slide in public approval as the third largest and fastest drop in presidential polling history. Currently only half of the country approves of the job he’s doing.

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As if you needed more reason to be sick of ACORN there's the distinct possibility that they are the reason that (it still hurts to say this) Al Franken is now a member of the US Senate.

How's that you say?  Quite simply, it's all about math.  Voter fraud math, that is.

After all the recounts and selective re-recounts were done, Franken won the election by an "official" 312 votes.  And ACORN claims that they registered almost 50,000 voters in Minnesota last year.  And, given the large percentage of ACORN registrations that have been proven fraudulent (too say nothing of further allegations), you easily come up with a "fraud" number bigger than the margin of victory in the race.

Kaus points out the following story from the folks at the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis...

...ACORN's foibles may seem largely irrelevant here in Minnesota, where the organization has so far been able to keep its nose relatively clean.

But ACORN does have a special place in its heart for at least one prominent Minnesota politician. Last year, it showered praise on Al Franken, endorsing his run for the U.S. Senate. Franken returned the esteem: "I'm thrilled and honored to receive this endorsement," he gushed in a press release. He added that he was "more motivated than ever to work with ACORN." ...

From the "who didn't see this coming" department, we find out that the administration that promised us great leaps for governmental transparency...to say nothing of the extra steps they promised to take in order to sell enough members of Congress to pass the stimulus boondoggle...has failed to deliver.

Via the Denver Post: 

The goal was to build a reporting system that allows the public to follow the zigzagging paths of dollars awarded under the $787 billion federal stimulus package. A financial GPS of sorts. But despite federal lawmakers’ pledge of transparency, the final stages of most money trails, along with key information about job impacts, will remain invisible to users of the Recovery.org website when it debuts next month.

Only details of a stimulus grant’s passage through its first two stops after it leaves the federal government must be reported, according to guidance memos from the White House Office of Management and Budget. That means billions of dollars will be untrackable and thousands of recipients will be left unidentified through the database, officials acknowledge.

“That isn’t transparent, and that’s the primary concern,” said Craig Jennings, senior policy analyst for OMB Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank examining stimulus spending.

“You basically lose track of billions of dollars, and in many cases there will be a whole lot of interesting connections at the sub, sub levels of funding missed,” he said. “These are levels that need oversight to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.”

Well, well, well.

It looks like some apologies might be due in Joe Wilson's direction if certain Democrats have their way.

Why is that?  Because after months of denying there would be a move to add illegal aliens to any government subsidized health care, the mask came off this week as Democrats moved to specifically include illegal aliens in the pending health care bills.

A large group of House Democrats are working to amend the House healthcare bill to specifically include subsidized coverage for illegal aliens. And the radical group LaRaza is calling on its members to contact Senators and "flood their voicemail" telling them to do the same - and drop any mandatory citizenship verification for coverage.

And they're in a hurry too.

They just rejected a Republican proposal to have at least three days to review a final bill - and they stopped a proposal to actually have the bill written out in legislative language BEFORE it gets voted on.
What they want it clear.  They want to ramrod an end product that will be full-blown, government run "Obamacare" - which will include illegal aliens.

During August conservatives brought tremendous pressure on Congress.  And support for government run healthcare is at an all time low.  read more »

From 'round the sphere...

US not acting like leader of the "free" world anymore

The Washington Times uses the example of speeches at the UN General Assembly last week to point out that Israel is looking more and more like the leader of the "free" world, while what it calles the "previous leader" (the US) has resigned it's role and decided to act more like a "global community organizer".  From the article:

...This was made plain by President Obama in his speech, titled "Responsibility for Our Common Future," in which he heralded "a new chapter of international cooperation." By contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a blunt and forceful call to action in the central challenge facing free people today. This is the struggle of "civilization against barbarism" being fought by "those who sanctify life against those who glorify death." ...

It would be nice to hear our own President use that kind of language.

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New Jersey school upset of video of kids singing Obama's praises

Yes, the school leadership is upset over the video, but not why you would think.  They're not upset over the fact that the teachers decided to get the kids to sing an oblation to Obama.  They're upset that it was videotaped.  The administration pointed out that "school staff had no knowledge of the recording".  No surprise there.  In fact, that's probably the only reason we got to see it.  read more »

While what divides American political conservatives from communists could (and I suppose does) fill volumes, we do have something in common with the Chinese communists.

We both think the US government is spending too much money.

From Deroy Murdock's column today:

In one of today’s richest ironies, America’s fiscal health -- such as it is -- hinges on the generosity of the Chinese Communist Party. Annoying Beijing’s mandarins could prompt them to skip our Treasury auctions. If China stops lending the Treasury money to underwrite Uncle Sam’s spendaholism, the Federal Reserve will need to print even more dollars to nudge the day of reckoning back over the horizon.

The Chinese have urged Washington to stop spending and printing so much money, lest inflation turn China’s $800.5 billion in Treasuries into a giant misfortune cookie. Chinese officials have grown increasingly vocal -- and decreasingly diplomatic -- in asking the US government to start practicing fiscal discipline.

“If they [the Fed] keep printing money to buy bonds, it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard,” predicts Chen Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress...

You gotta' love it.

I guess this goes to prove that, when it's YOUR money that's on the line, (in this case, theirs), you tend to have a little more common sense...as opposed to when you operate on OPM, (like our government).  read more »

As you probably know by now, ACORN is suing the folks reponsible for getting video evidence of their pervasive corruption.  That includes the video's producer and "pimp" James O'Keafe, the "prostitute" Hannah Giles, and the webiste BigGovernment.com.

Well now Hannah Giles' supporters have set up a legal defense fund for her - and she needs you help.

Since ACORN already has some of your tax money it can use to go after the conservatives that helped bring it down, it's only right that the people that helped make this possible get some of our support too.

Donate today...

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Related:

It just keeps getting deeper:

From the Washington Post:

Documents released by a Senate Republican on Thursday show that leaders of the ACORN community organizing network transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money meant for the poor to arms of the group that have political and sometimes profit-making missions.

ACORN's tax-exempt groups and allied organizations, long a target of conservative ire, used more than half their charitable and public money in 2006 to pay other ACORN affiliates, according to an analysis by the tax staff of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).

Which begs the question: "where's the IRS investigation?"

Despite his pretense at maybe being interested in medical malpractice related tort reform, Obama and his buddies on the left have done absolutely nothing to make it a real part of any "reforms" they have proposed, either in the past, or now as part of "Obamacare".

Why?  Well, Mark Tapscott has some thoughts on that in his column today:

What caught my eye...concerns a little known fact about a long-forgotten class-action lawsuit filed in 1994 by three young trial lawyers, one of whom just happens to be sitting in the Oval Office today as president. The case was Selma S. Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Federal Savings Bank.

Obama and his colleagues claimed in the suit that Citibank had had rejected loan applications by the plaintiffs simply because they were black, or because they lived in predominantly black neighborhoods. In short, the suit was one of thousands filed during the 1990s claiming racial bigotry, not poor credit histories, explained high rejection rates among minorities applying for mortgages.

Whatever you think on that issue, here's what struck me: After four years of haggling, Citibank settled with Buyck, a Chicago woman, out of court.  She received $60,000. Obama and the other lawyers on the plaintiff side got $950,000.

Some of the things that are interesting...

"Change" the UN can believe in

"The One" gave his first speech to the United Nations yesterday and, as National Review points out, "The other U.N. member states must be beside themselves with glee. President Obama gave them virtually everything they could ask for without demanding anything in return that was not already on the agenda (and which they are prepared to twist to their advantage). He did not even ask them to support more accountability, transparency, or efficiency in the U.N.

Now that's "change" those guys can believe in.  Waytago...

They're killing old people!

The Congressional Budget Office is at it again...  Tripping up Obama and liberals pushing Obamacare.  In this case, the director pointed out that, despite what Obama has said, his plan would result in reduced Medicare benefits for senior citizens.

No word on whether or not the liberals will start accusing themselves of "killing old people" like they did when Republicans suggested simple reductions in the rate of growth of the program (much less cuts).  read more »