ACORN: "a key provider of money and manpower for the Democratic Party"

Obama and the Democrats love ACORN as well they should since the community organizing group is "a key provider of money and manpower for the Democratic Party" according to the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). In fact, last March, despite Congress banning ACORN funding, Obama ordered it restored after an out-of-control federal judge, Nina Gershon, made permanent her injunction against halting the cash transfer to the corrupt group.

Now federal judges are supposed to rule according to the Constitution which gives the power of the purse to the Congress. Nobody has a right to federal funding and it's up to Congress to pass appropriations that designate where taxpayer dollars go, but, hey! the Constitution never stops liberal judges from making things up as they go along and the Constitution be damned!

ACORN has been keeping its head down since all the scandals broke. And here are some of the reasons why NLPC writes:

Armed with its ‘by-any-means-necessary' philosophy of community power, ACORN activists in recent years have amassed a well-earned reputation for stretching the bounds of ethics and law via methods such as vandalism, property invasion, tax evasion, voter fraud and embezzlement. ACORN activists in Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and other states were prosecuted for generating phony voter registration cards, with any number of individuals pleading guilty. The State of Louisiana filed two tax liens against ACORN and an affiliate totaling more than $330,000, while the IRS hit up ACORN for tax liens amounting to more than $1.5 million. Wade Rathke in June 2008 was forced out of his own organization following revelations that he'd covered for his brother, Dale, when the latter, as ACORN chief financial officer, during 1999-2000 embezzled nearly $950,000. Neither has been prosecuted.

The national spotlight shined on ACORN ever more brightly after Barack Obama became president. Though never formally a member, Obama during his days as a Chicago lawyer in the mid-Nineties represented ACORN in its (successful) attempt to force the State of Illinois to comply with the new federal "motor voter" law that loosened voting registration requirements (and whose passage owed much to ACORN pressure). But with increased visibility came increased scrutiny. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., supervised the preparation of a detailed report released in July 2009 concluding that ACORN was structured as a racketeering enterprise. Two months later an ad hoc multi-city private sting operation caught local ACORN officials on hidden camera giving advice on how to get around the law. Quickly, the IRS and the Census Bureau canceled planned working relationships with ACORN. And Congress passed a resolution cutting off funds to ACORN. Read the complete article here.

ACORN, meanwhile, declared they were going out of business, while, in reality remaking themselves under different names. Which just goes to prove that community organizers never die, they just reincarnate under new names. After all, who wants all that experience of registering dead people and pressuring banks to make bad loans to go to waste? Surely not liberals who never tell a lie. Just ask them. They'll tell you it all depends on the meaning of the words. And like Humpty Dumpty in Alice's world, they mean just exactly what they say they mean, no more, no less. But don't hold them to it, because the meanings will change in a blink if it suits them.

ACORN: These Nuts are Involved in the Census?

The latest ACORN scandal involves Baltimore ACORN's tax advisor telling a woman she thought was a hooker and her pimp, actually undercover investigators, how to set up a brothel as a legal business. The adviser doesn't even flinch when the pimp says they are bringing in little girls from El Salvador as young as 14 to "man" the business. How should they handle them? "You can always claim them as dependents," is her advice about the planned abuse. When the pimp says the girls will be turning tricks, she tells them not to report the income because in the state of Maryland it is illegal to work under 16. "If nobody is telling it," she says, "they don't even exist." So much for child sexual abuse.

The two ACORN flunkies have been fired, but does anyone believe this isn't typical of ACORN? Their record is fraud at every level and now add enabling child abuse.

In light of this latest scandal, inquiring minds want to know - What exactly is ACORN's role in the 2010 census? They are listed as a "partner" with the census bureau. Will they be "organizing" their people to take census jobs? Will the census worker who knocks on your door be an ACORN flunky?

"Why does it matter anyway?" you ask. They only have to count. Nope, the census is used politically so its non-partisan integrity is crucial as the Washington Times editorial below points out. "The allocation of seats in Congress, and ultimately questions of who controls it, depend on an accurate count. Much of the money Congress spends is allocated based on the census. Requiring that the census be non-partisan is the first requirement that must be met."

Hold the administration accountable. Obama gave ACORN $800,000 during his campaign to register voters and ACORN fraud was rampant all over the country. Who is calling for ACORN's involvement in the census? The administration tried to put the census under White House control. Do you actually believe Obama has given up attempts to manipulate it? It's time for a serious investigation and not by the foxes guarding the henhouse!



ACORN to Play Role in 2010 Census

Political Corruption: Congressman slams ACORN Census participation

Explosive Documents! Reveal Dangerous ACORN-Census Partnership

EDITORIAL: ACORN to count heads for Census

Criminal Charges Against ACORN Raise Concerns About Its Partnership With Census Bureau

Dissing the Organizer: Obama, ACORN, and Catholic Action

When the Catholic Church takes up the collection November 23 for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, will Catholics in the pew know they are supporting abortion and other immoral causes?

By Stephanie Block

Over at the Catholics for Obama blog, the headline screams, “Palin Continues to Smear Catholic Action.” This preposterous thesis has been crafted from her comments about Barak Obama’s past as a community organizer. The blog contends, “Catholics across the country continue to be outraged by Republican politician Sarah Palin who repeated her smear against Catholic Action by mocking Barack Obama’s service as director of a community group sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (an arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) and led by eight Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago.”
Well! That’s quite a leap. Ms. Palin said nothing whatsoever about Catholic Action. It was the Catholics for Obama blogger who drew the connection between community organizing, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). There’s no secret here. The CCHD gives between a third and a half of its grants to Alinskyian organizing networks.
Alinskyian what?

If you are saying “Alinskyian, what?” you need to know that there are over 200 organizations operating in cities around the United States training social justice activists according to the theories of Saul Alinsky. Over the past 30 years, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has given millions of dollars from Catholic donations to these groups. That’s a lot of money going to train people in a very distinctive way of looking at the world and its problems.

Alinsky’s writings contain a number of disturbing premises:

“The third rule of the ethics of means and ends is that … the end justifies almost any means.”
“The seventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that generally success or failure is a mighty detriment of ethics. ... There can be no such thing as a suc­cessful traitor, for if one succeeds, he becomes a found­ing father.”
“The tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. ... Moral rationalization is indis­pensable at all tunes of action whether to justify the selection or the use of ends or means.”
“An orga­nizer working for change ... does not have a fixed truth — truth to him is relative and changing.”

The book from which those “rules” are taken is called Rules for Radicals and it opens with the disturbing lines: “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”
The reader can glean a great deal of information from those opening remarks. Machiavelli’s The Prince used to be on the Catholic index as forbidden reading (when the Church had an index) because Machiavelli was so completely amoral. The Prince and Machiavelli’s companion piece, “Discourses,” are cold-blooded examinations of political power, how it is obtained, maintained and expanded. In “Discourses” one reads: “Cunning and deceit will serve a man better than force to rise from a base condition to great fortune” and “A prince cannot live securely in a state so long as those live whom he has deprived of it.”
In The Prince, Machiavelli makes it clear that he believes the moral law does not apply to leaders. He says, for example: “So you see a wise ruler cannot, and should not, keep his word when doing so is to his disadvantage, and when the reasons that led him to promise to do so no longer apply. Of course, if all men were good, this advice would be bad; but since men are wicked and will not keep faith with you, you need not keep faith with them…But it is essential to know how to conceal how crafty one is, to know how to be a clever counterfeit and hypocrite.” (54) Elsewhere, he writes: “So a ruler…should do what is right if he can; but he must be prepared to do wrong if necessary.”
This is Alinsky’s model, rewritten for “the people.” It’s the antithesis of Catholic teaching. It cannot, therefore, be used to promote Catholic Action.

Ditching moral truth

Marxism teaches that “truth” is a social construction, determined by consensus. Alinsky teaches the same thing, writing, “An organizer....does not have a fixed truth – truth to him is relative and changing.” The organizer, for whom the “ends justify the means,” can’t be bound by moral absolutes. To support a ut ilitarian ethics, the truth must be fluid.
This is not what scripture or the Church teaches, of course. It isn’t enough that organizations acquire “good things” for their constituencies. They must accept and teach moral truth; they must be principled. A lying or bribing political lobby may win all its temporal battles, but it will have lost its soul.
Contemporary Alinskyian networks, far from repudiating Alinsky, have built upon his work: Mary Beth Rogers writes, “All participants in the Industrial Areas Foundation [the first Alinskyian network, founded in 1940] national training programs are given a reprint of a 1933 article by John H. Randall, Jr. titled ‘The Importance of Being Unprincipled’. ...The thesis is that because politics is nothing but the ‘practical method of compromise,’ only two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle...everyone else who wants to be effective in politics has to learn to be ‘unprincipled’ enough to compromise in order to see their principles succeed.”
Civic action predicated on “truth by consensus” is the antithesis of Catholic truth. It cannot, therefore, be used to promote Catholic Action.

Liberationism

Alinskyian organizing, operating within faith-based institutions, is liberationist – as in liberation theology. Liberationism uses religious language to promote socialism.
Consider again, for example, the words quoted above: “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”
Christians don’t think in those terms. Catholic social teaching stresses the mutual dependency on God and one another that exists between the Haves and the Have-nots. They aren’t rivals. It’s an entirely different worldview.
Then there’s the pedagogy – the teaching method by which liberationists educate people into their worldview. Charlie Curran, a dissident Catholic theologian who admired Alinskyian organizing, writes: “Although Alinsky does not use the word ‘conscientization,’ there is no doubt that such a process is the cornerstone of his method….The people must learn that through their power they can bring about change. Raising consciousness is a part of Alinsky’s overarching commitment to popular education.”
Contemporary Alinskyian networks continue to use this pedagogy. Maryann Eklaund, in her Master’s thesis on one of these networks organizing in southern Texas, details the values clarification exercises – her term – its organizers used to get people to change their perspective on things. We’re talking serious manipulation of people.
Another writer, Mary Beth Rodgers, describes the same thing. “Cortes [an organizer for the Industrial Areas Foundation network, southwest region] knew that Mexican parents willingly sacrificed for their children – and often for their church. By talking about family values, could you motivate and organize people to act politically in their own genuine self-interest?...the new organization had to reach into the heart...The idea of protecting and enhancing families might make that possible.” The implication of this passage is that the religious and family values of Catholics have been used to generate a conversation between them and the organizers. The organizers use the relationship built from the Catholic values of the Mexicans to introduce another set of values – those of the organization.
That brings us to yet another element of liberationism, which is its deliberate use of scriptures and religious symbols for a political end. For example, St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in San Antonio used “new catechisms” that connected biblical and Mexican historical and cultural themes with the current issues of the Alinskyian organization to which it belonged. Now, Catholic catechisms don’t contain this sort of information. These “catechisms” were not designed to present Church teachings but the organizers’ teachings.
Liberation theology isn’t Catholic. It doesn’t support the Catholic faith any more than it supports authentic justice or truth. It cannot, therefore, be considered Catholic Action.

The big picture

What are contemporary Alinskyian organizations trying to build?
In general terms, their “vision” can be expressed as a practical philosophy of governance called variously a third way,” “participatory democracy,” or “democratic socialism.” All these terms, and others, describe a system of government that seeks to use “mediating institutions” – churches, unions, schools, and the like, held together by the relationships they have forged through the Alinskyian organization – to control all facets of its citizens’ lives.
To achieve this, Alinskyian networks are engaged in “restructuring” activities of all kinds. On the political level, they work among the Democratic Socialists of America, the New Democrats, and the New Party, and the Democratic Party. In the economic arena, they have promoted and overseen the Empowerment Enterprise Community Zones in dozens of communities. They support universal health care and are experimenting with church-based health-care clinics. They have driven federal education “reform” and are insinuated in many school-to-work programs. In short, the programs they support involve centralizing benefits that effect larger and larger groups of people.
Catholic social teaching has never supported socialism. In fact, Pius XI writes “No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true socialist.” The work of Alinskyian organizations cannot be considered – by any stretch of the imagination – to be Catholic Action.

Yet, This Is What the Campaign for Human Development Supports

Those are the foundational problems with the CCHD. Its political problems are twofold.
In the first place, millions of charitable Catholic dollars are being poured into organizing networks that are furthering a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual civic agenda. Nearly every legislative healthcare package they propose has an abortion-supportive element to it. There is not one politician of which I’m aware who has been endorsed by or emerged from these networks who publicly opposes abortion or homosexual “rights.”
By funding the Alinskyian networks, Catholics have become practical allies of the very groups they profess to oppose in the public square.
The second political problem with the CCHD collection is much worse, however. Not only does CCHD fund people whose goals are antithetical to Catholic Action but it provides the vehicle through which Catholics are systematical educated to work against Catholic Action.
How? CCHD-funded Alinskyian organizations organize in Catholic parishes, reeducating Catholic activists to work according to liberationist principles (not Catholic Action principles). There is widespread use throughout American-Catholic parishes of materials crafted to support Alinskyian organizing. The confusion, therefore, that Catholics express over fundamental moral issues and their comparative weight and urgency in public affairs isn’t just zeitgeist. It’s been systematically inculcated.

Obama and the Alinskyian Organizations

If one must fault Governor Palin comments about Obama’s community organizing experience, it’s that she minimized the seriousness of that experience. CCHD gave $40,000 in 1985 and $33,000 in 1986 to the Chicago Developing Communities Project, of which Obama was then lead organizer. It also gave millions to Gamaliel and ACORN, the Alinskyian networks that trained Obama and which today are stumping for his election.
The most recent accounting of CCHD grantees available (2006-2007) indicate that in just that one year, $1,146,000 was given to the ACORN network and well over $2 million went into the other major Alinskyian networks.
What did ACORN give us for that investment? Last year, The Seattle Times reported the biggest voter-registration fraud scheme in Washington history. Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged for filling out and submitting more than 1,800 fictitious voter-registration cards during a 2006 registration drive in King and Pierce counties.” (Keith Ervin, “Three plead guilty in fake voter scheme,” 10-30-2007)
This year, an ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced for to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
Those are convictions from the past year. There are also examples of indictments this year, such as the four ACORN employees in Kansas City charged with identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election and the Reynoldsburg fellow indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties. And there are current investigations into ACORN for voter fraud all over the map:
the Milwaukee ACORN for 200 to 300 fraudulent voter registration cards;
the Cleveland ACORN for its submission of 75,000 voter registrations, many of which are fraudulent;
the New Mexico ACORN, which claims to have taken 72,000 new voter registrations in the state since January, is under suspicion for 1,100 possibly fraudulent voter registration cards turned in to the Bernalillo County clerk’s office recently.

These are recent complaints, but ACORN’s history is riddled with criminal activity. During the last major election, the Wall Street Journal did a story about ACORN. Four ACORN workers had been indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter registration forms to the Kansas City, Missouri, election board; other ACORN workers were convicted in Wisconsin and Colorado and investigations, at the time the article was written, were under way in Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. [“The Acorn Indictments,” WSJ 11-3-06]

Programs that don’t work

The Wall Street Journal article points out some additional facts that have particular interest to us, two years later. “Operating in at least 38 states (as well as Canada and Mexico), ACORN pushes a highly partisan agenda, and its organizers are best understood as shock troops for the AFL-CIO and even the Democratic Party. As part of the Fannie Mae reform bill, House Democrats pushed an ‘affordable housing trust fund’ designed to use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac profits to subsidize ACORN, among other groups. A version of this trust fund actually passed the Republican House and will surely be on the agenda again next year.”
ACORN was a tremendous force for the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), created in the late 70s to force banks to make loans to low-income borrowers. Besides fighting for passage of this act, ACORN monitored banks9 9 compliance. Some analysts of the current housing crisis contend the CRA policies are in good part to blame. Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, takes the analysis a step further. The “housing bailout” package signed into law to rescue Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with an unlimited credit line not only increases the federal debt but also gives millions of dollars to La Raza and the ACORN. [Elizabeth Williamson & Brody Mullins, “Democratic Ally Mobilizes In Housing Crunch: Acorn Leads Drive to Register Voters Likely to Back Obama; New Federal Funds,” WSJ, 7-31-08]

Brought to you, ladies and gentleman, in part by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Remember that in November

ACORN: the Shady Bunch that's remaking itself so it can keep sucking up the tax bucks!

ACORN has been busy remaking itself since the exposure of its illegal activities and fraud last year. But you can be sure that liberal groups never disappear, they just go poof! and reincarnate under a different name. Matthew Vadum's been tracking the repackaging of ACORN; here's what he wrote last April:

The radical advocacy group ACORN is playing the biggest April Fool’s joke of all time on the American people.

That’s because the leftist group announced plans to shut down its national operations on April 1 -- of all days in the year.

Multiple sources within ACORN have already confirmed to me that the exercise is a hoax. ACORN intends to keep a low profile and then re-emerge in a year or two under a new name, they say. Read more here.

Hoax indeed. And the Federal Government continues to pour your hard earned tax dollars into this corrupt organization while our financial situation goes from worse to disaster. Here are two easy budget cutting suggestions for the administration: Planned Parenthood and ACORN. Both groups are filled with corruption and illegal activity.

Will ACORN Really be out of the Census?

The tentacles of the community organizer have a far reach. I'd like to think ACORN's ties to the census really will be severed, but I'm not confident. There's more than one way for a community organizer to get his hooks in the books. How many ACORN workers will apply as census workers without being formally connected to ACORN? It's a question worth pondering.

Census Bureau severs ties with ACORN in 2010 count

The ACORN Empire Strikes Back!

APNewsBreak: ACORN Sues Filmmakers

ACORN stormtroopers are taking aim at the two young investigative journalists, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia (aka James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles), who exposed the evil Empire and its network of death stars ready to facilitate the prostitution and slave trades.

Will the Empire and the dark side of the Force defeat our heroes and the tea-drinking rebel band who want to save the Republic and restore its freedoms? Will the Galactic Emperor, his Darth Vader czars and his hordes of community organizing stormtroopers annhilate the rebellion? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of ACORN Wars: The Community Organizers Strike Back!

How Many More Nuts Are in This Administration?

ACORN's Man in the White House

Obama's Top Aide Gaspard Tied to ACORN

One has to laugh at Bill Clinton's resurrection of rhetoric about the "vast right-wing conspiracy." What's "vast" is the number of acorns and various other nuts in the Obama administration. Van Jones has been shaken off the White House nut tree, but there are plenty more still clinging to the branches -- like former ACORN executive Patrick Gaspard who was once Bertha Lewis' boss. You remember Bertha, the ACORN CEO. She defended all the offices that were willing to help the pimp and the hooker bring in underage children for their brothel -- oops, er, their entertainment center (or whatever the euphemism was).

Sorry, Bill, but the American people are wising up to the conspiracy and its stench is definitely coming from the left. But maybe the president can escalate a little war as a diversion (Afghanistan will do) to take people's attention off the blue dress (oops, wrong administration) off all the president's shady associates.

By the way, who's doing the vetting at the White House - Squirrel Nutkin? Must be somebody who loves nuts!

We Have a Short Window to Expose the CCHD; Let's Do It!

I sent this notice out to my e-mail list yesterday and it's worth reminding folks again. I hope you'll visit the video at YouTube, boost the views, and pass it on to your friends. Catholics don't let Catholics support CCHD. Many of the groups they support work directly against Catholic goals. Would you buy a white hood for a member of the KKK? If not, then stop letting CCHD fund networks that include pro-abortion, pro-homosexual groups that hate the Church and her teaching. It just doesn't make sense!

October 21st

Dear Friends:

The Catholic Media Collection (CMC) has posted a two-minute video on YouTube warning Catholics about supporting the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. This scandalous collection has poured millions of dollars into liberal groups over the past thirty years while telling people in the pews the money goes to help "the poor." Some of it does. So what? Would you drink a glass of water that was one third sewage? The CCHD collection verges on fraud!

The only reason CCHD stopped funding ACORN was because of embezzlement by one of the board members. The bishops didn't address ACORN's horrible agenda which has been all too obvious in recent months. The pretense that ending funding to ACORN has eliminated the scandal is ridiculous when you consider that many of the other community organizing groups receiving money operate exactly like ACORN does and are engageing in the same type of liberal lobbying.

Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) receives 15-17% of the collections. Its affiliates bus people to meetings to pressure politiicans to make the "right" liberal choice. Fr. Tuck Grinnell here in the Arlington Diocese provided 5 or 6 buses for one IAF VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement). meeting. One of their big issues is immigration reform. While their website talks about improving processing time for "legal" immigrants, Fr. Grinnell is using VOICE to advocate for "comprehensive immigration reform" and sponsored a forum featuring pro-abortion Catholic Jim Moran who favors blanket amnesty for illegal aliens as well as in-state tuition and other goodies. VOICE received $40,000 in the 2009 CCHD grant cycle.

Please pass this video on to your Catholic friends. If they want more information send them to the CMC website which has numerous articles on CCHD. They can also visit SperoForum and google Stephanie Block. This disgrace has gone on long enough. Many parishes are running in the red. Why are millions being funneled to secular groups that often have an agenda diametrically opposed to the Church?

Mary Ann Kreitzer

"The first law of history is not to dare to utter falsehood; the second, not to fear to speak the truth."
Pope Leo XIII

ACORN Plans to Police Itself! Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha.....

It's time for a Congressional investigation of this organizaton which has received multi-millions of dollars in taxpayer money. It's one rotten acorn!

ACORN calls its actions 'indefensible'

For ACORN articles on this blog go here.

Congress Plays Us for a Bunch of Chumps: ACORN Still Funded!

If anyone wants to know exactly how corrupt this Congress is all they have to do is see this dishonest move. Congress defunds ACORN for a month, gets the headlines, and the "defunding" expires October 31st. The ghouls, witches, and vampires, like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Christopher Dodd trick us all and pass the treats to ACORN. Shake your head over this one. Political corruption has never been so shameless. The Sir Galahad who rode into the White House with his glittering banner of hope and change is turning out to be Mordred, the evil knight. The oval office is less a round table and more a cesspool. Throw the bums out on election day!

President's ACORN Buddies Get Nearly 1 Million Firefighting Grant!

According to an article in the Washington Times this morning, ACORN's been awarded a Homeland Security grant that normally goes to firefighters. What exactly qualifies ACORN in the firefighting department? Must be they help the president put out political fires.

"[Senator] Vitter, who was routinely notified of the grant before it became public, sent his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Sept. 22, saying the money should be given 'to a more deserving group of first responders.'

"One such group might have been the St. Tammany Parish Fire District No. 3, which applied for a $120,000 grant to purchase smoke alarms for low-income families after a January fire killed four childrenin a home that had no working detectors.

"'We wanted to buy smoke detectors to spread to homes all over the community to prevent that from happening again,' Chief Charles Flynn said in an interview Tuesday." Read more....

CCHD Eliminates One Rotten Nut; Others Still Funded!

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) eliminated ACORN last year from their funding list. Has the problem been "fixed?" Not hardly. Oversight of grantees is insufficient. Catholic money in California is going to groups that support same-sex marriage. California Catholic has identified at least two grantees promoting the gay agenda.

CCHD was designed to funnell money into "progressive" groups. Traditional Catholic charities, those that performed the corporal works of mercy, were, by definition, ineligible for CCHD grants. Only those that "empowered" the poor were to be funded.

While CCHD claims to be aiming at poverty's roots, it misses the mark. One of the greatest causes of poverty is the breakdown of the family. And yet browsing the CCHD grantees list, you would be hard-pressed to find a single "charity" that helps to strengthen the poor family. As for including the poor in the makeup and decision-making of groups, even that is questionable. VOICE in Virginia is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation. It is primarily made up of affluent suburban Christians. In Catholic parishes (and presumably protestant churches as well), pastors strong-arm groups to attend the mass meetings and be the "voice" of the people. Among those out front, however, the identifiable voices are two "progressive" priests. It will be interesting to see if VOICE appears on the 2009 list of CCHD grantees. They are already diverting parish money for their liberal lobbying and will likely get their hand in the national till as well.

And here's another article from Big Government. There is a troubling link between "big government" and "big bureacratic Church" represented by the CCHD which has helped many a liberal, pro-abortion, pro-gay politician get elected through the help of ACORN and ACORN-type community organizing groups.

Is CCHD fixable? It's been thirty years and they're still funding groups opposed to Catholic teaching. How much can they be trusted and how long do we give these bureaucrats to get it right?

White House Calls out the Thugs!

Communities Organize Against Health Care, While Professional Protestors Organize at White House Behest

"'If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard!' Jim Messina, the White House Deputy Chief of staff, told Senate Democrats in a meeting to prepare them to respond to constituent protests according to staffers. In a similar vein, labor union bosses, such as the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), sent out memos urging their members to turn out in force and 'drown out' opponents’ voices."

And they aren't just whistling Dixie. Check out these stories.

Cameraman Caught in Middle When Town Hall Erupts Into Violence

The video below from MSNBC show how biased "reporters" manipulate the story. Note the presumption that the "violence" is the fault of those protesting the health care plan. (Last time I broke up a kid's fight there were two involved.) See how the AFL-CIO rep is NOT challenged. The assumption is the "mob" is the conservatives not the union and ACORN thugs who were let into the meeting in Tampa while protesters were shut out. Note also how they blame the groups urging Americans to make their voices heard and accusing them of inciting violence. The fact that the meetings are manipulated and supporters are given early entry and fill the rooms is left completely unaddressed by these "reporters." They ask what responsibility the group has for the actions of the protesters, a question they NEVER asked Obama's campaign team about their responsibility for ACORN's voter fraud. Just one more example of liberal hypocrisy.



If citizens organize, we're compared to the KKK and unAmerican. When the White House calls out ACORN and union thugs, they're just pushing back. We have rarely in the history of this country seen gangster government like this. As the town meetings continue to be contentious watch the liberals 1) cancel them and 2) manipulate who gets in. Oh wait, they're already doing that. What's next, the dead fish in the mailbox?

Another Blockbuster ACORN Video - San Bernadino

Here's one more example of a stellar ACORN operative: are you starting to see the trend? It wasn't just an isolated case of a few bad eggs. In Baltimore, Brooklyn, San Bernadino, Washington, D.C. They all approve of: prostitution, tax evasion, fraudulent representation of illegal businesses, child sex abuse, human traficking. Is there anything these folks won't stoop to and condone? This is liberalism which believes there is no truth and man is the author of his own destiny (except for the abused children). Obviously, for this woman her destiny included killing her husband, but setting it up first, which proves premeditation. And she got away with it.

Remember, this is the community organizing network following Saul Alinsky's rules. The end justifies the means even when the means include turning little girls into child prostitutes and urging violence against them to get more money. Note the liberal politicians named in the video including Barbara Boxer, California senator.

Note as well her remark that "if they were liberal they would help you." This type of corruption is endemic to godless liberalism which champions individual autonomy. If you are your own god, you can do whatever you want.

Many Americans are living in a dream world, believing that there are no repercussions from the liberal philosophy. They think it means helping the downtrodden: getting the government to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. Wake up, folks. Government charity is an oxymoron, a contradiction. Idealistic blindness is not a virtue. These liberals have raked in millions in government tax dollars often with liberal politicians enabling them! And Obama wanted them involved in the census? How would you like this woman knocking at the door and casing your property?

Turn up the heat on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development

USCCB's Social Justice Arm Under Scrutiny

If you want to know what really matters to someone, look where they put their resources, especially their money. Since 1969, four years before Roe v. Wade, the bishops have been taking up the annual collection for the Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) ostensibly to "help the poor." Now I expect most Catholics who drop money in the basket think that means feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, etc. But that's not the CCHD understanding of helping the poor. No, every program of that type is BANNED under CCHD guidelines: Mother Teresa's homes for AIDS patients - ineligible, crisis pregnancy centers that serve the poor - ineligible, shelters and soup kitchens - ineligible. That's right: no direct services that help the poor are funded by CCHD. They are specifically ineligible for grants.

No, the way CCHD helps the poor is to feed the organizer, shelter the organizer, clothe the organizer, pay a salary to the organizer etc. so he can go out and gather the poor to sit in at banks, shut down hospital emergency rooms with bogus medical problems, and other "creative" but legal ways to harrass, intimidate, and demand whatever the organizers and the people want - usually more government services or private funding (protection money) from the targeted institutions. Sometimes what they get backfires. Economists agree that sub-prime lending and affirmative action loans to those who couldn't afford them, a primary goal of ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation, fueled the housing crisis and the current foreclosure debacle. Are the poor and middle class who got into homes they couldn't afford better off for being foreclosed on and losing everything? Who helped it happen? ACORN and other community orgnizations funded by the CCHD. And who helped elect the most pro-abortion politician in history? Again, the organizers with funding from the CCHD.

Now it would be reasonable to think that a Church that articulates so clearly the evils of abortion, euthanasia, and other anti-life measures, would put their money where there mouth is. So after 1973's Roe v. Wade decision, one would expect the bishops to institute a national pro-life collection focused on ending abortion. They could easily have substituted it for the CCHD collection since destruction of the family is a primary cause of poverty. But they did not.

There is not and never has been a national Catholic collection to fund groups that fight abortion and assist women in crisis pregnancy centers. The bishops' bureaucracy at the national level has very single-mindedly advanced liberalism while actually undermining the pro-life movement. (I could give an extensive description of the ways the first head of the National Right to Life Committee at the USCC, Msgr. James McHugh, later Bishop McHugh, undermined the laity's pro-life efforts, but that's the subject of another article.) At any rate, while millions of dollars have been collected under false pretenses from people in the pew and used to advance liberal issues and elect pro-abortion politicians, pro-lifers depended on their local dioceses, parishes, Knights of Columbus groups, and the faithful laity to defend the rights of the innocent and weak not only with fine words, but with cold cash.

With all the scandals we've seen in the past few years with CCHD, it's time for the bishops to take action against this blot on their honor. They have been too trusting of their own bureaucracy which is filled with liberal moles who are Catholic in name only willing to compromise the lives of 4,000 babies murdered every day in abortion mills around the country. It's time to replace the CCHD collection with a pro-life one.

Your Excellencies, to your national body we say: Stop funding the enemies of life and put OUR money where your pro-life mouth is!

As an addendum I will just mention one organization here in Virginia being funded by a $40,000 2009 CCHD grant. VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) is an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation. It is an interfaith coalition of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic congregations. Their three main issues at present are to lobby the government to build more low-income housing, provide dental care, and for immigration (read amnesty for illegals) "reform." They use mass meetings which generally feature liberal politicians who agree to advance their agenda including more public services and college tuition for illegals. Two well-known liberal priests in the diocese, Fr. Tuck Grinnell and Fr. Gerry Creedon, are up front organizers for the group. At one of the meetings someone suggested working to end abortin and the idea was booed. Many of the churches involved are loud and proud supporters of abortion, gay rights, and same sex marriage. Is this what Catholics in the pew think they are supporting when they put their money in the CCHD collection?

Connecting the dots between ACORN, SEIU, and Obama

What I know about ACORN, the SEIU and Obama

"I'm quite sure part of Obama and the SEIU's long-term plan is to unionize every American health-care entity. And thuggery toward that end doesn't bother them."

Washington ACORN pimps like Baltimore!

Second Video Shows ACORN Officials Helping 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in Washington Office

Gangster Government and Community Organizing! Have they bled us dry yet?

If the health care bill passes it will more likely be due to gangster government than the merits of the case. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel who is a chief health care advisor to the administration (He believes health care should be rationed and refused to the elderly and handicapped.) has this advice for getting the bill passed.

"Every favor to a constituency should be linked to support for the health-care reform agenda. If the automakers want a bailout, then they and their suppliers have to agree to support and lobby for the administration's health-reform effort."
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

Blackmail and bribery are the m.o. under the Obama administration. In politics horse-trading is the rule rather than the exception, but this administration has brought it to new levels. Toe the line or else.

Which is why the current uproar over the Town Hall meetings is so funny. To see the liberal community/union organizers going ballistic over conservative organizing is hilarious. How dare the uppity conservatives borrow a page out of their playbook. Shaking rubber sharks at bank board meetings is ACORN's idea. The teaparty organizers have no right to wave all those "Don't tread on me flags" around. And sending teabags to Congress? Cut it out!

Liberal hypocrisy is very entertaining. Where were the buses filled with ACORN employees heading out to demonstrate at the homes of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae executives who made obscene bonuses by cooking the company books? The AIG executives were pikers compared to the government thieves. No demonstrators for them! The masses just need to understand. Government theft=good, private profit=bad!

My dad used to say when 49% of the taxpayers were carrying the other 51% there would be a tax revolution. Seems like we're about there. Productive citizens are being bled dry by government cheats, corporation fat cats, union and community organizers, as well as low-life politicians whose only concern is lining their own pockets. It's time to revolt before the citizen body is a corpse.

The "Pimp & Prostitute" Who Made the Mainstream Media Look Like Fools

BREITBART: The politicized art behind the ACORN plan

Ho-hum...we all know that the mainstream media are shills for liberal politicians. They've demonstrated it again and again. Not that FOX is squeaky clean. As a serious Catholic I'm not a fan of cafeteria Catholics Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity either. I'm interested in the the truth, which the Lord promises will set us free.

As Scripture says, we need to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves and continue to fight the good fight. Kudos to the young investigative team, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who did what the "IMPORTANT professionals" (Yes, Charlie, that means you and ABC!) didn't and wouldn't! It's a David and Goliath story to warm the heart!

For everything you ever wanted to know about ACORN (and maybe didn't), go to BigGovernment.com.

James O'Keefe at the Chesterton Conference

The Chesterton conference was outstanding. Among the speakers was James O'Keefe, the young videographer who uncovered ACORN's moral turpitude when he showed they were willing to help a hooker and a pimp set up a brothel using underage girls from the third world. Don't look for this kind of story in the New York Times or The Washington Post. They are too busy shilling for liberalism and moral relativism. O'Keefe, on the other hand, is a first rate investigative reporter doing the job the drive-by media won't. He was the hit of the conference giving the young folks there a great role model of zeal and courage and giving the oldies like me great hope for the future.

To those who say that dressing up and telling a story is "lying" think about this. All story-telling is an opportunity to reflect on moral realities. Jesus told stories to illustrate moral truths and make his audience think and react. That's what O'Keefe and his crew do as well. They role play and photograph the reactions of the "audience." They don't entrap them (like government agents did to Randy Weaver). They may even be hoping for a moral reaction from their audience. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with liberalism that's unlikely. Of all the ACORN offices they visited only one refused to "help" the hooker and the pimp. What their role playing did was to expose truth. And that's the purpose of all good fiction. We're in the story together. So make sure when you respond to the story of life it's according to virtue, not vice!

N.B.: Funny how nobody talked about "lying" when the liberal crowd was "exposing" the crisis pregnancy centers for "lying to women" by withholding up front information to which they did not have a right.

O'Keefe also gave us a lot of great laughs, especially his story of getting Lucky Charms banned from the Rutgers cafeteria for discriminating against the Irish! It just showed that the ridiculousness, not to mention stupidity, of the politically correct diversity crowd.

So enjoy your Lucky Charms and think of young Irishman James O'Keefe while you admire the stereotyped little leprechaun on the front. Pray for this young man and all the "new media" young people like Lila Rose who exposed Planned Parenthood and the students assaulted by Congressman Bob Etheridge. May their numbers grow!