tagged w/ Corrupt Politics
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http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/10/chaos-for-glory/#more-274
ACORN has ascended. They elect our politicians and receive billions in tax money. Their world is a revolutionary, socialistic, atheistic world, where all means are justifiable. And they create chaos, again, for it’s own sake. It is time for us to be studying and applying their tactics, many of which are ideologically neutral. It is time, as Hannah said as we walked out of the ACORN facility, for conservative activists to “create chaos for glory.”
http://townhall.com/blog/g/646528e5-cfa8-42f8-acab-23a2c16dab92http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/11/census-bureau-severs-ties-acorn/
The Census Director has sent a letter to the National Headquarters of ACORN notifying the group that the Census Bureau is severing all ties with the community organizing group for all work having to do with the 2010 census.
"Over the last several months, through ongoing communication with our regional offices, it is clear that ACORN's affiliation with the 2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 Census efforts," read a letter from Census Director Robert M. Groves to the president of ACORN.
"Unfortunately, we no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your many local offices. For the reasons stated, we therefore have decided to terminate the partnership," the letter said.
The news follows the firing Friday of two more ACORN employees after new hidden-camera footage showed workers for the group advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute how to subvert the law.
Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) reacted to the news Friday night, applauding the decision by the Census Bureau.
"ACORN had no business working on the Census. ACORN’s partisan election efforts and its involvement in criminal conduct rightly disqualified it from working on the non-partisan mission of the Census to accurately and honestly count the U.S. population," Rep. Issa said.
ACORN had previously been tapped to help with low level data gathering for the 2010 census. A copy of the director's letter has been sent to Congress and relevant committees, as well as ACORN.
Two more ACORN workers were fired Friday after a second video surfaced, this time showing staff members in the community organizers' Washington office offering to help the undercover man and woman acquire illegal home loans that would help them set up a brothel.
Those firings came less than 24 hours after another pair of ACORN officials, from the group's Baltimore office, were canned for instructing the "pimp" and "prostitute" how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador that pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes.
Both of the encounters were videotaped on a hidden camera wielded by 25-year-old independent filmmaker James O'Keefe, posing as the pimp — tapes that have ignited calls for investigations of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
The group's leaders said Friday they were "appalled and angry" at what their staffers had done, but insisted the videos were part of a political "smear" campaign and not representative of the institution as a whole.
~ ~ DO YOU THINK THIS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG ? ?http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/10/chaos-for-glory/#more-274
ACORN has ascended.... more
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Former Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee gave excessive contributions to two well-known Republicans and also is facing demands from the federal government for more detailed financial information on a number of fronts.
The deficiencies are highlighted in a five-page letter sent Aug. 19 by a Federal Elections Commission staffer to SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford. The FEC wants answers by Sept. 24.Former Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee gave excessive contributions to... more
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In the last few months the USDA conducted "listening sessions" on the National Animal Identification System and Premises ID. USDA received a severe beat-down but somehow turned this into "substantial support" even though an estimated 95% of the huge turnouts were adamanetly against the plan.
Of course Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, and Collin Peterson (D) MN, who heads the Ag Committee in the house never made an appearance.In the last few months the USDA conducted "listening sessions" on the National Animal... more
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MartiO
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3 months ago
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Whoever thought that our heart-healthy, low-cal, doctor-approved trips to the supermarket fish counter would become fraught with moral choices?
That's exactly the case being made by "The End of the Line," the disturbing new documentary on what overfishing is doing to the world's oceans. (It opens in Los Angeles next Friday.) The film from director Rupert Murray and investigative journalist Charles Clover was screened Monday at UCLA to mark World Oceans Day. Producer Lawrence Bender and longtime environmental activist Kelly Meyer (wife of Universal Pictures President RonMeyer) hosted a crowd that included Rosario Dawson, Saffron Burrows and Kimberly Estrada.
Later this summer, the campaign will include broadcast and online public service announcements featuring Martin Sheen, Alyssa Milano, Rosanna Arquette, Ellen Page, Kelly Preston, Anthony LaPaglia, Gia Carides, Brenda Strong, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Shawn Pyfrom, Keisha Whitaker, Ken Baumann, Kelli Williams, Dave Lieberman, Rene Auberjonois and former NBA player John Salley.
There's a new optimism stirring among activists in this community because after eight years of outright hostility emanating from the Bush White House toward environmental issues, the Obama administration is more willing to engage questions that involve complex international questions.
"The End of the Line," based on Clover's groundbreaking book of the same title, is the first feature-length documentary to take on the overfishing crisis.
According to the filmmakers, failure to take quick action will mean the end of most commercial fishing within less than half a century with dire consequences both in terms of depleting the food supply and the loss of jobs.
To make their case, Murray and Clover not only traveled to fishing grounds all over the world, but also confronted politicians and celebrity restaurateurs on camera.
As examples of what's in store for other popularly consumed species, Murray and Clover examine in detail the near extinction of commercial cod stocks and the impending collapse of bluefin tuna populations around the world, much of the latter caused by the West's newly aroused appetite for sushi and sashimi.
(Add that happy thought to your deliberations the next time you're trying to decide whether to spring for the toro at the local sushi bar.)Whoever thought that our heart-healthy, low-cal, doctor-approved trips to the... more
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The UN's top relief official has accused Hamas of violating international law by its "reckless and cynical" use of civilian shields, but called for Israelis to be held accountable for violating the principle of proportionality in its bombing of UN facilities in Gaza.
John Holmes, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, delivered his assessment during a briefing to the Security Council late Tuesday evening in New York on the work of the UN's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza.The UN's top relief official has accused Hamas of violating international law by its... more
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Kepano
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10 months ago
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A southern African summit on Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal decided Tuesday that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be sworn in as prime minister by Feb. 11, but his party said it was not satisfied with the meeting's results.
The summit also agreed that control of the hotly disputed Home Affairs Ministry, which has been a major obstacle to a final agreement, should be divided between President Robert Mugabe's party and the opposition for six months.A southern African summit on Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal decided Tuesday that... more
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Kepano
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10 months ago
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The White House is rushing to enact regulatory changes in species protection, mining and other sensitive areas.
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is hurrying to push through regulatory changes in politically sensitive areas such as endangered-species protection, dismaying opponents on the left, just as conservatives were irritated by rules rushed out at the end of the Clinton administration.
PLEASE SEE LINK FOR ENTIRE STORY: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122489005913868559.html
The White House is rushing to enact regulatory changes in species protection, mining... more
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On the question of extending the Endangered Species Act to polar bears, Sarah Palin hews to the Stephen Colbert position. And in her defense, she cited a study by her own state government in an op-ed for the New York Times earlier this year. In that article, she wrote:
I strongly believe that adding [polar bears] to the list is the wrong move at this time. My decision is based on a comprehensive review by state wildlife officials of scientific information from a broad range of climate, ice and polar bear experts. In fact, there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future — the trigger for protection under the Endangered Species Act. And there is no evidence that polar bears are being mismanaged through existing international agreements and the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Yep: you guessed it. We found out subsequently in the New York Times that the state's wildlife officials discovered no such thing:
Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears ... An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.
When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.
For the record.On the question of extending the Endangered Species Act to polar bears, Sarah Palin... more
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BuddyP
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1 year ago
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NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE!
'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon Association for the Preservation of Nature'
Discovered in AAPN Manus-Amazonas, Brazil.
Shallow clear-water adapted dwarf manatee is already on the edge of extinction due to rainforest deforestation, hunting...
THERE ARE NO LAWS TO PROTECT THIS CRITICALLY ENDANGERED DWARF MANATEE.
http://www.care2.com/news/member/785844898/889616
http://www.marcvanroosmalen.org/dwarfmanatee.htm
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED!
NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE!
'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon... more
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Sarah Palin may have seen the light - sort of - on climate change but that did not spare her from being singled out yesterday as America's environmental enemy of the year.
The Centre for Biological Diversity awarded Palin its Rubber Dodo award for her insistence - despite evidence to the contrary - that the polar bear population was rising across the Arctic. The Arizona thinktank condemned the Alaska governor as a "global warming denier".
"Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear," Kieran Suckling, the centre's director, said. "Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee."
The slap comes less than a week after Palin belatedly admitted the possibility of a human factor in climate change, in her first television interview since she was chosen as John McCain's running mate.
The conversion was followed by further revelations of Palin's tenuous relationship with scientific fact. News reports yesterday said that Palin bought a tanning bed and moved it into the governor's mansion soon after her election. A few months later, in May 2007, she issued a proclamation during skin cancer awareness month urging Alaskans to take preventive measures. "Skin cancer is caused, overwhelmingly, by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and from tanning beds," she said in a press release.
McCain had skin cancers removed in 1993 and 2000, and is religious about using sun screen and wearing a hat outdoors.
Sarah Palin may have seen the light - sort of - on climate change but that did not... more
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Don’t miss the hilarious point/counterpoint debate between Palin and a suprisingly articulate and snarky polar bear.
Read the rest of this entry »Don’t miss the hilarious point/counterpoint debate between Palin and a suprisingly... more
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--CNN's Ali Velshi falsely claimed "no oil shed into the Gulf of Mexico" from Hurricane Katrina during discussion of Hurricane Gustav.
Summary: On CNN Newsroom, Ali Velshi falsely claimed, "In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 40 of these [offshore drilling] platforms, but still no oil shed into the Gulf of Mexico because of that." In fact, a 2007 report prepared for the federal government by an international consulting firm identified damage from Katrina to 27 platforms and rigs that resulted in the spilling of petroleum products into the Gulf of Mexico.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200808310004?lid=563752&rid=13657559
During the August 31 edition of CNN Newsroom, while discussing Hurricane Gustav, senior business correspondent Ali Velshi falsely claimed, "In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 40 of these [offshore drilling] platforms, but still no oil shed into the Gulf of Mexico because of that." In fact, a 2007 report prepared for the U.S. Minerals Management Service by the international consulting firm Det Norske Veritas identified damage from Katrina to 27 platforms and rigs that resulted in the spilling of approximately 2,843 barrels of petroleum products into the Gulf of Mexico. The report further found that when also considering damage done to oil pipelines, a total of approximately 5,552 barrels of petroleum products spilled into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of Hurricane Katrina.--CNN's Ali Velshi falsely claimed "no oil shed into the Gulf of Mexico" from... more
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We’re getting the word out to voters about Governor Sarah Palin’s barbaric record on killing America’s wildlife, especially her active promotion of the brutal aerial hunting of wolves and bears.
As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has proposed paying a $150 bounty for the foreleg of each dead wolf. The aerial hunting program she champions has already killed nearly 800 wolves. She’s opposed efforts to save America’s polar bears from extinction. She’s fought against efforts to save some of the world’s most endangered beluga whales.
At nearly every opportunity, Governor Palin has sided with Big Oil, mining companies, wealthy trophy hunters and other entrenched special interests in support of policies that would greatly harm the wild animals we treasure.
Warning: This television ad -- like the governor’s support for this brutal practice -- is disturbing.We’re getting the word out to voters about Governor Sarah Palin’s barbaric record... more
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Illegal Wildlife Trade - Too Cute for Their Own Good
Cotton-top tamarins are smaller than spider monkeys, but they are equally charming, with outsize feet and shocks of wild white hair. They, too, are losing habitat at an alarming rate.
According to Anne Savage, Senior Conservation Biologist for Disney's Animal Programs, cotton-tops can survive in degraded forest but not isolated forest, island, that are disconnected from other kinds of habitat. Once, Savage recalls, she received a phone call from field staff saying that worker were cutting down trees [at the same time] as they were trying to count monkeys.
Between 30 and 70 percent of original habitat [has] disappeared she continues, due to deforestation for agricultural purposes, clearing land for cattle grazing or using trees for building materials and firewood.
Cotton-tops have also been taken for the biomedical trade. And as pets. They shoot the mother with a slingshot and take the young off her back when she falls to the ground says Savage.
Being cute is prized among humans, but for primates such as the variegated spider monkey (Ateles hybridus) and the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), the trait can be costly.
Alba Lucia Morales, of CI-partner Fundac in Biodiversa Colombia, admits to thinking the spider monkeys are the most wonderful in the forest. They are big and noisy the pregnant females are beautiful and the babies are gray and very cute.
But beauty in these animals is both blessing and curse. Deforestation and illegal wildlife trade threaten many animals, and these monkeys have an added challenge. No one is entirely sure exactly how many are taken each year for the illegal pet trade.
More Info:
http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/colombia_threatened_tamarin_spider_monkey_IPS.aspx
Illegal Wildlife Trade - Too Cute for Their Own Good
Cotton-top tamarins are smaller... more
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At her speech before the Republican National Convention, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made this heartfelt-seeming claim, via CBS News online:
Palin: “To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.”
Sarah Palin might have changed her mind on this one recently. However, a comment here notes that Palin actually slashed funding for schools for special needs kids by 62 percent. Budgets: FY 2007 (pre-Palin), 2008, 2009 (all pdfs).
Analysis from Momocrats: The facts here show Governor Palin cut funding for special needs kids dramatically.
In 2007, before Palin assumed her office of governor, the State of Alaska FY2007 Governor’s Operating Budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary (this department provides services—not just school but services—for children with severe disabling conditions) includes approved and necessary budget increases to help special needs children. This budget was released in December, on the 15th to be precise, 2006.
In that budget, the budget actuals are (FY = Fiscal Year):
FY 2005 6945.30
FY 2007 Management Plan 7949.30
FY 2007 Governors 8265.30
Palin was elected governor in November of 2006, and assumed her position in January 2007.
When budget time rolled around in 2007, Sarah Palin—self professed advocate for special needs children, mother to a special needs child, aunt to a special needs child, and who promised in her acceptance speech last night that she was there for special needs children — slashed the budget. When she said she would be a “friend and advocate in the White House,” I guess she just meant in words, not with actual money for needed services.
Here’s what the State of Alaska FY2008 Governor’s Operating Budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary shows:
FY 2006 7949.30
FY 2007 Management Plan 3173.70
FY 2008 Governor 3156.00
You see right. Under Governor Palin, funds decreased from a planned budget of 8265.30 to 3156.0. That’s a 62 percent decrease. Actual consumed amount went from 7949.3 to 3156.00, where it lingers to this day. That’s a 60 percent decrease.
At her speech before the Republican National Convention, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made... more
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'Truce' is reached in battle over Idaho forest land after years of political battles with the Bush administration pushing for "less-restrictive" rules. *CONSERVATION CAN NOT ENDURE IF THE PEOPLE MOST AFFECTED BY IT DO NOT SUPPORT IT*
Legal and political battles over the future of national forest land have raged since 2001, with the Clinton administration’s “roadless rule” protecting millions of acres from loggers, miners and development, and the Bush administration pushing for less-restrictive rules.
Other wilderness-protection groups opposed the plan released on Friday. Some, like the Wilderness Society, based in Washington, were concerned about the likelihood of phosphate mining in the acreage with less protection, and continued to press for the full measure of safeguards afforded by the Clinton-era rule.
Craig Gehrke, the regional director of the Wilderness Society, said on Friday that the organization’s position had been that all the national forest land protected by the 2001 rule “should be left roadless and undeveloped.”
The compromise on forest protections was embraced in the federal government’s final environmental impact statement, which will be open to public comment for 30 days. Final adoption would probably come late in the fall.
The new regulation covers only Idaho. The original Clinton rule applied to the entire country. That rule and a Bush administration substitute have been tangled in two-track litigation in federal courts, and it is not clear whether the new Idaho compromise plan will remain free of this tangle.
While the compromise was being hailed in a news conference in Boise, Idaho’s capital, in Colorado the battle continued unabated. That state, where 4.1 million acres were protected by the original roadless rule, has proposed a plan that has drawn fierce criticism from environmental groups for provisions that, they say, cater to ski resorts, ranchers and other commercial interests.
Mike King, the deputy director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said the draft proposal had exempted some categories of land from roadless protections but had not delineated the boundaries of the land. This prompted assertions from environmental groups that the loopholes made the rule meaningless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/30forest.html?ref=science'Truce' is reached in battle over Idaho forest land after years of political battles... more
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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will sue the Interior Department over its decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species."We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it's unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models," says Alaska Assistant Attorney General Steven Daugherty.
To green groups, that argument is, shall we say, unimpressive. "Even the Bush administration can't deny the reality of global warming," says Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The governor is aligning herself and the state of Alaska with the most discredited, fringe, extreme viewpoints by denying this." Palin's litigation comes mainly out of fear for Alaska's fossil-fuel-reliant economy, even though the wording of the Interior Department decision went to great lengths to ward off any new restrictions on oil and gas drilling.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will sue the Interior Department over its decision to list... more
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Current Law Allows Commercial Breeders to Shoot Dogs!
Pending legislation would have prevented the slaughter of these dogs!
Information on House Bill 2525, visit: http://www.doglawaction.com/
Please See Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/pa-kennel-owner-shoots-80-healthy-dogs
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff released the following statement in response to the shooting of 80 dogs at two Berks County kennels:
"The recent shooting of 80 dogs at two Berks County kennels is saddening. The decision by commercial breeders to kill healthy dogs instead of paying to repair a kennel and seek veterinary care is alarming, and will likely outrage many people. Unfortunately, the killing of the dogs was legal under current Pennsylvania law.
"The two kennels involved have both voluntarily closed, but until our state's outdated dog law is changed kennel owners may continue to kill their dogs for any reason they see fit, even if it is simply to save money. We can't afford to wait any longer to pass legislation that would ban commercial kennel owners from killing their dogs.
"House Bill 2525, introduced in May, would allow only veterinarians to euthanize dogs in commercial breeding kennels. The bill would strengthen current dog laws and provide better standards for the health and safety of dogs in commercial breeding kennels without burdening other types of kennels that house dogs. The legislature has an opportunity to pass this important legislation this fall, and they should -- as doing so will assure that this activity will be illegal in PA commercial breeding kennels moving forward."
Rather than seek medical attention for dogs suffering from fleas and fly sores, kennel owners Ammon and Elmer Zimmerman of Kutztown shot all 80 of their dogs to save costs. The Zimmermans, owners of A&J Kennel and E&A Kennel, voluntarily surrendered their licenses on July 29 after killing the dogs.
Dog wardens inspected E&A Kennel on July 24, noting several violations for kennel sanitation and maintenance. Wardens also noted fleas and fly sores on 39 of the dogs and ordered veterinary checks. Wardens issued four citations for violations and planned to confirm the veterinary checks during a follow-up inspection. The wardens were notified on July 29 that the owners of both kennels chose to destroy the dogs and dismantle the kennels.
News Articles:
Maxatawny Township kennel owners kill 80 dogs rather than seek treatment:
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=102118
Thoughts on Paws: Maxatawny's Zimmerman brothers should be shot for killing dogs
http://readingeagle.com/blog.aspx?bid=17&id=17135&t=Maxatawnys-Zimmerman-brothers-should-be
PETITION: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/pa-kennel-owner-shoots-80-healthy-dogs
INFORMATION on the House Bill 2525:
http://www.doglawaction.com/
Current Law Allows Commercial Breeders to Shoot Dogs!
Pending legislation would... more
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The Bush administration is proposing new rules that would weaken species protections and eliminate independent scientific review of development projects that could threaten species habit.
The changes ("tweaks") that the President Bush and the Bush Administration are proposing would weaken Section 7 of the landmark Endangered Species Act.
For more than three decades, this key provision of the ESA has safeguarded imperiled species from the impacts of potentially harmful federal projects.
Key to the success of this provision has been the requirement for interagency consultation between "action agencies" that build dams or highways, issue oil and gas leases or timber cutting contracts, etc., and the "conservation agencies" that have the primary responsibility for protecting endangered species (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service).
The conservation agencies have always had the opportunity and responsibility to take a second look at the projects proposed by the action agencies. As a result of taking that independent look, the conservation agencies have often been able to suggest project modifications that avoid harmful impacts to rare species.
The proposed regulatory changes would eliminate the requirement for an independent review by the conservation agencies. The result will almost certainly mean that both harmful impacts on rare wildlife, and opportunities to avoid those impacts, will be overlooked.
Conservation is not the mission of federal action agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Highway Administration, and others. To make sure that their projects (and the projects of many other federal agencies as well) do not cause needless harm to rare species, the existing requirement for independent review by federal conservation agencies should not be abandoned.
Please follow the link for the petition to President Bush. If these regulatory changes are made, it will be as if the Endangered Species Act does not exist... not to mention the horrific impact on the environment.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION!
http://action.edf.org/campaign/esa_action
I will be posting more news release on this issue.The Bush administration is proposing new rules that would weaken species protections... more
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