Recently in Progressivism Category

3/19 Update: Get off your butt and pick up the phone. Call every undecided Democrat before it's too late!

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The text of the monstrosity that is the Obamacare bill will supposedly be released today (in about half an hour, according to rumor). I'll have it for you as soon as it's out. Here it is.

Source: House Committee on Rules

Click the graphic below; it's based on the previous version of the bill, but the general thrust is the same.

Any bets on how big a bribe John Boccieri will demand for his "yes" vote?

1:00 PM Update: The House Republicans are doing everything they can to delay this assault on America.

11:55 AM Update: Here's the preliminary CBO report in PDF format.

11:45 AM Update: The Congressional Budget Office has supposedly scored the bill, and it's a bunch of crap. Still waiting for the text of the bill.

Drew Carey and The Reason Foundation decided to look for ways to save Cleveland from its aggressively stupid political leaders and their refusal to heed the first rule of holes. The result is a video series called "Reason Saves Cleveland":

Keep checking back as new episodes premiere, because I'll add them to this playlist.

3/18 Update: Right on cue, Tim Russo (a standard-bearer for typical Cleveland progressives) posts a spittle-flecked screed that misses the points of the Reason video ... and indelibly beclowns its author. Statist hacks like Russo simply cannot admit (or even comprehend) that punitive taxation and suffocating bureaucracy are responsible for Cleveland's sorry decline.

If Barack Obama's agenda isn't socialist, then what is it? For reference, please consult the Socialist Party USA's platform and the official program of the Communist Party USA

Since ACORN is re-branding its less-than-stellar image these days, they'll likely downplay or eliminate the name "ACORN" soon here in Ohio. Slapping a new label on a crooked organization might be easy, but selling property and changing leadership personnel is not. To make it harder for ACORN to crawl back under a rock somewhere, I'm linking to the Ohio Secretary of State's online records for ACORN's business filing information. Look for street addresses, agent names, etc.

As long as the name "Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now" is in use by an existing business or non-profit organization in Ohio, the Secretary of State's office will also have that information. To run that query, just push this button.

Ain't citizen journalism grand?

11:35 update: Wow. ACORN just agreed to surrender its business license in Ohio as settlement of that RICO lawsuit by the Buckeye Institute. That's good news, but let's be wary. Keep a close eye on what happens with these properties:

379 N. 20th
Lower Level
Columbus, OH 43203

2069 East 36th Street
Cleveland, OH 44115

1025 Central Ave Ste 3
Cincinnati, OH 45202

115 E. Market St.
RM 202
Akron, OH 44308

4945 Profit Way
Dayton, OH 45414

316 North Michigan
Toledo, OH 43624

12:20 Update: Apparently The Buckeye Institute recently split off the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law as an independent organization after the lawsuit was originally filed, so it's the new group that gets the scalp for defeating ACORN.

12:35 Update: Matt Naugle cheers the victory, but cautions everyone to keep an eye open for the same ACORN crooks returning with different front groups.

Many of the far-left Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives (along with Sen. Bernie Sanders, an admitted socialist) have long been members of The Congressional Progressive Caucus. It's a who's who of radicals and hair-on-fire statists. Lots of political junkies have heard of their group, and it's pretty much a known quantity.

Lately a new little group of lefty Dems has formed, calling itself The Populist Caucus. Not much is known about them yet, but when I compared their roster to that of the Progressive Caucus (as of February 20, 2010), look what I found.

Fourteen out of thirty members of the Populist Caucus are also members of the Progressive Caucus. Interesting, isn't it? Although the two groups are distinct, it's hard to believe they're all that different.

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2:10 PM Update: Massa will announce today that he is retiring.

Obama is ACORN. ACORN is Obama.

The two are inseparable.

Good riddance to a waste of capital. Gosh, I wonder why progressivism doesn't work in the talk radio medium without government subsidies?

Could it be that talk radio success requires rational thought and something more entertaining than perpetual foul-mouthed outrage?

I just looked up the summary of Ohio data on Recovery.gov and here's some of what I found. Compare the numbers for jobs created/"saved" and money wasted spent for Ohio's 18 congressional districts, and the numbers for the ten nonexistent districts that turned up.

$5.3 million went to nonexistent congressional districts, creating (or maybe it's "saving") 11 jobs. That's $482,174 per job. How do I sign up for that sweet deal? Then there's the average waste stimulus per job in our actual 18 districts, which works out to $294,758 ... still not too shabby. If I can snag one of the 149.5 jobs here in the 13th District, I will have cost America's taxpayers a cool $1,026,735! Betty Sutton, call your office. I want a job.

That's "transparency" in the age of Hope and Change™ for ya. Is this incompetent accounting, dishonest accounting, or both?

Want more? Nineteen out of the top twenty Porkulus recipients in Ohio are state, county, or municipal government entities. The one that's not government owned is "a single-purpose environmental remediation Limited Liability Corporation dedicated to providing remediation services to the United States Department of Energy at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site." In other words, a government contractor.

Boy oh boy, that Porkulus sure did stimulate the free market, didn't it? Way to go, Governor Strickland ... you sure know how to allocate funds. I can't wait to experience the joys of Obamacare, Cap & Trade, and amnesty for illegals.

For more analysis, check out Ohio Watchdog.

Under Nancy Pelosi's version of ObamaCare,

Americans who do not maintain "acceptable health insurance coverage" and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

By what authority can Congress require people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States? Please refer to this previous question to aid your answer.

If jihadist ideology is supposedly a perversion of true Islam, how can it be "Islamophobic" to identify and remove jihadists from our military?

Click on the images below to see them at full size.

Before Obama's site was scrubbed:

After Obama's site was scrubbed:

See the difference? Look at the second bullet point.

It's a start. The first one's a matter of semantics, but the third one's still a lie.

ACORN shares office space and personnel with the Service Employees International Union. SEIU and other unions in the Big Labor alliance funnel millions of dollars to ACORN. ACORN and Big Labor lobby for the same legislation, endorse the same partisan political candidates, and work together in every other conceivable way. Members of ACORN and Big Labor pass in and out of the revolving door of the Democratic Party and the federal government. Sure, the fancy paperwork sitting on file in dusty government offices says that these organizations and people are officially separate entities, but that's like trying to hide a 500-lb nudist under a cocktail napkin.

Progressive politicians (*cough* *cough* Betty Sutton), Big Labor and ACORN are one and the same.

When you see the news reports about the disgusting things that ACORN does, remember that those same people work for gigantic labor unions, work on the staffs of liberal Congress members, and infest the Obama administration from top to bottom. Their reckless spending outstrips any in American history, and they intend to double down. Their tax hikes hurt small businesses, who employ the vast majority of Americans. Their ridiculous regulations and economically illiterate mandates caused the housing and credit crisis, which triggered last fall's economic crash. Their policies have driven unemployment to record highs, and will needlessly prolong the economic pain you're feeling.

When Barack Obama ran for President, he portrayed himself as a reasonable and moderate Democrat with help from the mainstream media. He is not what he claimed to be. He has always been joined at the hip to his former employer ACORN, Big Labor, and the most extreme elements of the radical left-wing fringe. He believes in their cause, wants what they want, and lies about it non-stop. He doesn't care about "the little guy", nor does he have your best interests at heart.

What he and his fellow smiling and soft-spoken radicals want is more power, and they'll take your property and your liberty to get it ... if you let them. The warnings were there before the election, and the warnings were right. There's still time to stop the slide toward utter ruin.

Don't just sit there hoping for change. Look at what that got us.

For your viewing disgust, courtesy of Big Government, here's part one:

Remember ... ACORN is using your tax dollars to conduct these activities. Are you tired of this scummy group yet?

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9:15 PM Update: The ACORN employee in the pink shirt is Tresa Kaelke (née Tresa Berhow, née Tresa Parten), who claims to speak regularly with politicians like California State Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod and U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. Babs denies it, of course.

Boy oh boy, I hope so. These crooks don't understand Americans who value individual liberty and limited government, but we understand them and their entire rotten playbook. Their houses are built on sand, and we're the onrushing tide. Stand by for a collapse.

Are the stated goals of ACORN substantially the same as yours ... and do you expect anyone to believe you if you deny it?

A teaser from last night:

Saul Alinsky's corpse must be spinning at high RPM right now. Set your DVR to record Glenn Beck's show on Fox News Channel this afternoon. It's gonna be a doozy.

Hat tip: Freedom's Lighthouse

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9:58 AM Update: Glenn just said on the radio that it concerns an admission of murder. This is gonna be quite a video, it seems.

... according to the not-so-subtle excuse offered by NPR blogger Frank James in defense of ACORN:

Meanwhile, conservatives show no signs of letting up.

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It's also important to keep in mind that ACORN's workers are coming from the same low-income neighborhoods the organization serves, with all that entails -- poor schools, high crime and the sorts of social problems that have been documented for decades.

So the flaws conservatives are pointing out about ACORN are not so much problems associated with that organization per se but more about the problems of being poor and minority in urban America.

Wow. The sheer chutzpah here is breathtaking. This isn't proof of a problem with ACORN per se? According to his logic, every organization serving poor urban minorities (and employing same) must also be riddled with criminals. I suspect quite a few non-profits based in heavily urbanized areas would vehemently protest Mr. James' blanket slur.

What alternate universe does he live in? In JamesWorld, we are expected to gaze in condescending pity upon community organizers advising would-be politicians how to get away with mortgage fraud, tax evasion, and child prostitution. After all, the community organizers are those people. You know what he means, right? Wink-wink, nudge-nudge ... the ones who have dark skin and no money and live in the 'hood. They don't know any better, the poor dears.

Good Lord, what racist bilge!

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9/15 Update: Maura Flynn gets it.

9/16 Update: Gregory of Yardale gets it too.

The vote was 83-7, with 9 not voting. Incredibly, überliberal Sherrod Brown (D-OH) voted with the majority. He's worried about his re-election prospects. He should be.

Now let's see which way former labor lawyer and perpetual union suck-up Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) decides to go.

Next, the Congress needs to pass a stimulus clawback of any and all funds that end up in ACORN's coffers.

Here's a not-so-subtle warning to any uppity American in Baltimore thinking of exposing the scummy and crooked organization that spawned President Obama: if you embarrass ACORN by revealing its true nature, you'll become a target for the State's Attorney, a slavering Obamabot prosecutor.

Patricia Jessamy is the Maryland State's Attorney responsible for Baltimore. When she heard that two conservatives went undercover with a hidden camera and busted ACORN for facilitating child prostitution, mortgage fraud, and several other scuzzy activities, she wrote them a commendation.

Just kidding. She's threatening to send them to jail for up to 5 years.

Here's the kicker: Ms. Jessamy contributed $1000 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Funny how that works.