Obama Propaganda Exposed in Issa House Oversight Report is Only the Beginning

Originally posted at Big Government on Aug 17th 2010 at 6:17 am

by Liberty Chick

A stinging report was issued yesterday by Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  The report, titled “Analysis of the First Year of the Obama Administration: Public Relations and Propaganda Initiatives,” outlines a host of propaganda activities conducted by the Obama administration at the direct expense of the American taxpayers.  It notes in part,

“The Obama Administration frequently used federal resources to promote the President’s agenda. In many cases, the Administration relied on the reach and resources of federal agencies and their personnel to promote certain of the President’s favorite programs. The White House also leveraged ties to the arts and entertainment community to embed propaganda in the content of television programming and artwork. These propaganda efforts violated appropriations riders and federal law prohibiting the use of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes.”

“The White House also used its inherent visibility advantages to multiply the effectiveness of websites containing misleading and controversial information. The White House used its resources to push visitors to websites that urge grassroots activism based on false and misleading information. The President’s right to sell his policy recommendations to Congress and the public is not disputed; however, using the resources of the federal government to activate a sophisticated propaganda and lobbying campaign is an abuse of office and a betrayal of the President’s pledge to create “an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”

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SEIU’s Secret Weapon: If Obama’s Plan Fails, Brandish the Shareholder Resolution

on BigGovernment.com – by Liberty Chick

We saw their fury throughout 2009:  “Capitalism is Dead”, “Kill the Corporation”, “Bust Up Big Banks”, “Greed Kills”, “Bank of America, Bad for America”.  The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) led an all-out assault on Wall Street – and on capitalism and corporations – coining words and phrases that have since become common staples in the vocabulary of the bank-bashing craze.  That fury hit a fever pitch last March when word of the AIG bonuses went public.  It was the SEIU out in front of the protests, at AIG offices, and bussing protestors to the homes of AIG executives.

The months that followed saw more of the same.  In April, SEIU hailed the ousting of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner.  That same week, it stepped up its battleplan with the Mother of all Corporate Campaigns against Ken Lewis, Bank of America CEO and Chairman – complete with videos, rolling billboards, smear sites, petition drives, letter campaigns, media blitzes and more, while it placed equal attention on Bank of America, forcing the company to respond with a $40 million image boosting campaign of television and print ads.

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SEIU Doesn’t Care About Health Care. SEIU Cares About SEIU.

I wrote a long 4-part post a few weeks back about SEIU and its REAL interest in health care.  While most of that interest may be obvious – I mean, SEIU does have a division of its union dedicated entirely to Health Care workers, some of the history that has built up to their level of interest today may not be quite as obvious.  That’s why I published some of SEIU’s own presentations from years ago, where they discuss their strategy to “create” an issue that could become their political platform in order to embed themselves into government policy.  They needed an issue that would enable them to demonize anyone who would oppose their perspective.  An issue that would create political capital for SEIU and make them an attractive partner to potential political allies and, as they put in their words, “new strange bedfellows”.  An issue that would “create demand for SEIU-provided services.”

And that issue?  Universal Health Care.  So I asked, did SEIU manufacture this health care “crisis”?

Now, as I always say, don’t get me wrong.  I agree that some level of reform is needed in health care.  And I do want others who cannot afford it to be able to have access to affordable health care.  As someone with Lupus and a permanent spinal injury (and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills from spine surgeries and kidney treatment), I have had several periods in time when I was unable to work and therefore lost my health insurance.  So I know what it’s like to be without it, or to have medical debt, or to have a pre-existing condition.

I also know what government health care is like. And it is NOT the answer.

Don’t let the SEIU thugs fool anyone.  Show your opponents what this organization REALLY cares about.  They say it in their own words in their own presentations.

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And when they try to demonize you, show them SEIU’s tactics to paint opponents as not sympathetic to “working Americans”:

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Here’s a montage of snippets from just one presentation:

Are you interested yet?  Read the entire post.  It’s lengthy, but it is necessary to read the whole background to understand what the REAL plans behind this health care strategy are.  And how did they get here? How did our politicians get so involved? And how much have they spent? How much do they have to lose?

Please, educate yourselves.  Look beyond ACORN.  Look into the White House.  You’ll see a lot of purple behind those windows at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Here’s the whole presentation. But again, read the whole post to understand the full background.  If you cannot read all four parts, at least start with “Creating Crisis Using the Issue of Health Care”.

Patrick Gaspard, Federal Community Organizer? There’s More to the Web of ACORN, SEIU Health Care, Working Families, ACT and America Votes

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All this business about Patrick Gaspard, White House Political Director (the Karl Rove of the Obama White House), not having any affiliation with ACORN is absolutely absurd.  Have this administration and its state-run media outlets actually convinced themselves that the American people are really that stupid and ignorant?

I won’t even spend a lot of time on this one, because I’ve already covered it in older posts…as have many others, and it’s simply not worth spending much time on it since others are also covering it.  Just take the evidence and encourage the media to set the record straight.  Start with Ben Smith at POLITICO, who apparently settled for the usual ACORN semantic antics.

Hint to media:  just because it doesn’t say “This is ACORN” in giant letters on the front cover doesn’t mean it’s not ACORN.  Go to the 527 registrations, IRS records, FEC records and financial reports.  I know, it takes a little bit of extra time and work…maybe another 15 minutes extra…but that’s what journalists are supposed to be doing, isn’t it?

Before the White House, Gaspard was National Field Director for America Coming Together (ACT), one of 33 groups that made up the coalition of America Votes (ACT is now defunct due to FEC violations and the use of convicted felons as door-to-door voter registration canvassers for the organization…but you can still view their cached site using the handy WayBackMachine from Alexa).

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“America Coming Together”, one of 33 members of the America Votes coalition:

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America Votes coalition partner,  ACORN:

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And then of course, Gaspard was also executive vice president of politics and legislation for Local 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.  I wrote about this in a prior post, where I discuss all of the internal SEIU connections inside the White House that are in effect lobbying for government run health care, which incidentally would benefit SEIU by expanding its membership pool of health care workers from 2 Million to an exponential number of millions!  But that’s a whole other post altogether, and I’d recommend you give it a good read.  Not only does it include Gaspard, but how about former SEIU Counsel and ACT/America Votes director John Sullivan, who Obama appointed to the Federal Election Commission?  And National Labor Relations Board Appointee Craig Becker, another former SEIU Legal Counsel? Read the full post and look at the big picture – it’s bigger than just Patrick Gaspard.  (I’m beginning to think the White House is Purple inside).

Anyway, back to Gaspard…  If you also look at SEIU’s and Change to Win’s various filings with the Dept. of Labor and other agencies that detail their expenses, ACORN has been a recipient of payments in return for various organizing activities, including election related work.  I hardly think that Gaspard would have no knowledge of such, given that he was running SEIU’s political unit during the same timeframes.  SEIU, while an extension of ACORN, also utilizes ACORN as a vendor for GOTV and other political activity services, and Gaspard would have been top of that list as a client at the very least.

You may not find current references of SEIU on ACORN’s website and vice-versa, because they’ve scrubbed them due to negative press.  But once again, a quick search using the WayBackMachine will refresh one’s memory.

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And then there’s also the Working Families Party, which is an ACORN political unit that endorses candidates that represent its values and those of its alliance partners.  If you don’t quite make the connection, you’ll see they share the same offices and address, as well as the same staff.

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Also, as recently as 2007, Gaspard served on the advisory board of the Center for Working Families, the  political and policy strategy umbrella of the Working Families Party / ACORN.  In fact, Gaspard sits on the board with Jon Kest, director of national campaigns for ACORN (also known for his entanglement in the ACORN / New York Times / Forest City Ratner / Atlantic Yards scandal and brother of Steve Kest, ACORN National Executive Director).

Just to make sure you see it, here are their names together on the Center for Working Families letterhead, sharing the ACORN address in Brooklyn:

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There’s plenty more to help illustrate the connection between Patrick Gaspard and ACORN and SEIU (and America Votes and America Coming Together and the Working Families Party…) but is it really necessary to pull out every paper connection one can find?  There’s enough out there to chew on.  And if that’s still not enough, then simply ask anyone who worked for ACORN before Gaspard made the move to the White House.  Those in his geographic circle especially – both in ACORN and in SEIU – will tell you he had plenty of connections with ACORN.

You can review some of the ACORN and SEIU financial trails on my “ACORN Money Trail” page. View federal grants to ACORN, government grants to the Tides Foundation that were then donated to ACORN, SEIU expenses on the 2008 Presidential election, campaign donations from ACORN, Working Families Party, and SEIU to middle-man 527 organizations to Barack Obama, and a library of ACORN legal documents and letters.

Why the Van Jones Controversy is a Far Deeper Issue that Needs Attention

Could lingering tension from the fallout reach into your home?

Van Jones’ frequent teachings to people from disadvantaged communities have included views like, “white polluters are poisoning communities of color”.  He may have resigned from his White House post, but this former czar’s Green Jobs programs will continue on without interruption.  Many of the beneficiaries – and Van Jones admirers – of one such program are now graduating from stimulus-funded Residential Weatherization Certification training programs all across the country.  And while Congress and the White House refuse to denounce the racially divisive statements of Van Jones, these graduates will soon be moving onto the next phase of their certification program:  performing government mandated Weatherization work in your private home.  In light of rising tensions over the fallout, does this concern anyone?  It concerned me, because I’m in NJ and I personally have already received the materials requesting that I make an appointment to have a “certified weatherization specialist” come in to inspect my home and do an energy efficiency assessment. (To skip down to the NJ Green for All Program and see these documents, click here).

Throughout all of the recent controversy about Van Jones, and now finally his resignation, there was always something that had personally kept nagging at me.  I’d been researching for some time the money and resources that this administration, progressive philanthropists, and labor unions have been investing in ‘Green’ initiatives.  I’d also done a prior post back in June, “Whose Agenda is it, Really?”, about the fact that the current agenda and policies, as well as most of the stimulus package, appear to have been written by the labor unions and not by our current members of Congress.

Several seemingly unrelated sets of documents that I have in my files were consistently popping into my mind as I continued to follow the Van Jones story.  And the more that I heard such hateful rhetoric directly from the mouth of Van Jones on video, the more concerned I became, and the more that “nagging feeling” kept prodding me to go through my research folders so that I could make whatever connection might be bothering me.  And now I know why Van Jones’ statements were bothering me, for more reasons than the outwardly obvious:

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Van Jones is a man that progressives and environmentalists have held high on a pedestal. Like the President, he is a skilled orator and a best-selling author. He has represented causes that he claims aim to lift individuals out of poverty. This administration and everyone close to it, including key members of Congress, know everything there is to know about Van Jones.  He has been a guest at many of their own events, where some of his recently publicized controversial statements were made. They have embraced his views – good AND bad – for years.  The words of Van Jones have helped mold the opinions of likely hundreds of thousands of individuals across this nation, especially in inner-city and poverty stricken areas.  Make no mistake, Van Jones was, and still is, a very powerful force. He is an influencer, a channeler, a persuader. He can affect others to say and do things. And for years, he has been preaching his self-proclaimed Marxist views, the evils of “suicidal gray capitalism”, and he has been telling the residents in communities of color that “white polluters” have been “poisoning their communities.”

And just as Van Jones resigns, many of these disciples, beneficiaries of $500 million (with billions more to come) in Green Jobs stimulus funds, will become graduates of weatherization training programs, and then they will be sent directly into the private residences of the very people that Van Jones has told them have been “poisoning their communities”.

THIS is the reason that this is a bigger story than a 9/11 Truther petition or a right-wing smear story. This is a story that needs investigating, and one that needs to be told, before any of these residential programs – currently optional –move into the mandatory participation phase.  The mainstream media has an obligation to serve as one of the checks and balances, a duty it’s grossly neglected to perform in recent months.

HELP OBAMA REFORM HEALTH CARE, GET PAID ($400-$600 Per Week)

Portions of this post come from Caleb Howe over at RedState.  Read his entire post, “Let’s Talk Astroturf“.  It’s a fantastic jewel.

No kidding. That’s a real job ad heading. One of hundreds placed this week.

With Pelosi and her cronies publishing scathing editorials in today’s newspapers about the “Astroturf” and the “manufactured activism”, I must question whether she’s really of the opposite sex.  Because this woman has got to have the most ginormous BALLS  that have ever been known to humankind (and animal species).  There is solid proof out there all over the web that these hacks are feverishly hiring “activists”…most of the ads for which have been placed in only the last week.  I mean, have you SEEN these things???  The web is just oozing with hundreds of them…all across the country.  Like ants at a picnic.

Hello??  Are you still there, mainstream media?? It’s me, America.

Caleb reveals the job ads that he and others found online, at places like Craig’s list, that have been posted by various organizations hiring activists to “HELP PASS OBAMA’S HEALTH REFORM AND EARN $325-$500 PER WEEK!”. Here is just one screen shot below that was captured (because I’m sure someone will remove the ads as soon as the bloggers get this word out).

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My contribution to this will focus on showing you how YOU pay for this…eventually…

Let’s take the “Working America” ad, for example:

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Working America is AFL-CIO:

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And YOUR taxpayer dollars help the AFL-CIO every year.  Here’s just a little snapshot of some funds they received from the government the last 8 years. I haven’t even pulled any 2009 yet, but trust me…in next year’s reports, you’ll likely see funds that paid for today’s rent-a-thugs…they’ll just be hidden under something else, like “Training” or something:

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You can also view this full report and search others at the usaspending.gov website.

Other groups hiring include:

Washington CAN!

http://www.washingtoncan.org

The Fund for the Public Interest

Runs more than 70 field offices for groups like the The State PIRGs, the Sierra Club, Human Rights Campaign, and Environment America.  And if you are familiar with these groups, then you know well enough who funds them. That would be George Soros, who has just spent $5 Million to lend a hand this August on Mob-Watch.

Find the jobs on their sites at:

http://www.jobsthatmatter.org

http://www.fundforthepublicinterest.org

Other good links on the day’s Astroturfocracy Watch:

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/06/24/who%E2%80%99s-funding-the-obamacare-astroturf-campaign/

http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/08/pelosi-astroturf-healthcare/

Congress Fails to Protect Americans – from Their Mistakes. Revisiting the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis.

Watch the video, hat tip to ProudToBeCanadian

“Timeline shows Bush, McCain warning Dems of financial and housing crisis; meltdown”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1

Just a quick little post to remind us again who caused the sub-prime mortgage and housing crisis, and to prod us to do something about it. We keep letting this one slip onto the back burner, with everything else going on today. When will we get these clowns out of Congress?  100 years ago, they’d be tried for treason, for not protecting the security of every American when it was demanded by other senators – from both parties – in the last session of Congress.  They were repeatedly warned. Not only did they not act, they actively fought against protecting us.  Frank, Pelosi, Waters, Schumer, Dodd…they all failed us, and they continue to pretend as if they knew nothing of it.

Need we remind the last session of Congress that we all get C-SPAN, and most of us watched these debates on the house and senate floors in 2003 through 2008? We do have long memories, the average people of this country. This is why we are all angry. Not because McCain didn’t win the election. Not because Obama won the election. But because Congress fails us over and over again – when those with any sense dare to speak out, they bully them and vote them down, then they lie about their involvement when the next administration rolls in.

In any other sense, it sounds like a crime to most of us.

Oh…and for all the Bush haters out there…trust me, it’s not like I’m any big fan of Bush, either. (Although he did try to put a stop to this and lost out to the Democratic Congress). So you don’t need to try and bait me into that tired, old argument.  Actually, it’s not like I’m even a Republican, because in reality I’m not. I’m Libertarian.  I’m just calling it like most of us see it on this particular topic.