Author Archive
ACORN Paycheck Aside, Patrick Gaspard is a Radical
Posted by Kyle Olson in ACORN, Obama, Van Jones, Wade Rathke on October 5th, 2009
Several days ago, Capital Research Center’s Matthew Vadum published research here indicating an ACORN alumni in the White House (other than the president): Political Director Patrick Gaspard. As I did three weeks prior at ACORNcracked.com, Matthew used a Wade Rathke blog as the source, which Rathke, the founder of ACORN, immediately changed after Vadum’s report, citing “memory tricks.” Politico led the way in poo-pooing the connection once Rathke played cover-up.
Rathke said it not only on his blog, but also at a book signing in New Orleans, which was recently covered in the Fox News Special: The Truth About ACORN.” While we attended that book signing and were not able to get that portion on tape, the Fox documentary crew did. Sadly, the remarks apparently ended up on the cutting room floor.
The fact is, Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s “Glue Man,” is more important than Van Jones ever hoped of being. The fact is, one of the most critical and influential jobs in a White House, the Director of Political Affairs, is occupied by a former SEIU health care lobbyist and ACORN organizer. To be exact, he was Executive Vice President–the #2–at SEIU 1199 in New York City.
After Gaspard was appointed to the White House, Carribbean Voice quoted him as saying, “I grew up in 1199…and I will always be an 1199er wherever I am.” SEIU’s luxury is that now taxpayers are paying for it.
Wade Rathke, current organizer with SEIU Local 100 (in New Orleans) and ACORN International (now “Community Organizations International”), called Gaspard a “great friend” on his ChiefOrganizer.org blog. Additionally, Rathke theorized how Gaspard was likely instrumental in working with SEIU to bring “big health care operators” to the table. [Figuring once scrutiny came to someone high-level in the White House, the evidence would be changed, we turned Rathke's blog posting into a PDF.]
That is curious, given the Obama Transition team’s pledge that Gaspard would refrain from issues he had lobbied previously. According to the Washington Post, a transition spokesman said, “Patrick and Mark [Gitenstein] have jobs on the campaign that are general in nature, but per the unprecedented ethics policy laid out earlier this week they will recuse themselves from the fields of policy or agencies they lobbied in the previous 12 months.”
So we are to believe the Political Director of the White House—one of the most important players in the administration—is sitting on his hands while Obama attempts to salvage his biggest “reform” yet, and likely ever? Ethics schmethics.
When Sean Bell was shot by New York City police in 2007, Al Sharpton reached out to Patrick Gaspard (while he was at SEIU 1199) to formulate a response. According to Politicker NY, “In December 2006, Mr. Sharpton asked Patrick Gaspard to help him assemble an emergency meeting of about 300 activists, black nationalists, union and political leaders to decide on an appropriate response to the police shooting…”
Sharpton used the SEIU 1199 office to hold a protest organizational meeting. According to The Observer, the union was represented by Gaspard at the meeting.
The People’s Organization for Progress, along with the New Black Panther Party, organized protests against the New York City police department, carrying signs saying such things as “KILL THE PIGS THAT KILL OUR KIDS.”
In October 2007, under Gaspard’s eye, the union hosted an event at its headquarters to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Che Guevara “by the military dictatorship of Bolivia under the direction of the CIA.”
“The bitter truth for U.S. imperialism forty years later is that Che’s example and ideas are more powerful and resonant than ever among oppressed peoples of the world, especially the Americas,” an announcement of the event read. Yes, under Gaspard’s watch and likely authorization, the union hosted a celebration of Che Guevara’s life. See an accouncement flier for a similar event.
Other participants included Communist Party USA, Freedom Socialist Party, People’s Organization for Progress, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action and many others.
SEIU 1199, in 2007, was a signatory on a petition to “free Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
Shortly after that, SEIU 1199 hosted the “International Secretary of the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign and Latin America correspondent for Marxist.com.” SEIU 1199, under Gaspard’s leadership, has filled a radical role in New York and national politics.
Gaspard has contributed to the Working Families Party, a political party founded—and still co-chaired—by ACORN.
He is still listed as a member of the advisory board to the Center for Working Families. The CWF’s address is the same as New York ACORN.
In 2004, Gaspard worked for America Coming Together, a George Soros-funded 527 organization that worked in swing states to elect John Kerry president. According to Michelle Malkin’s new book, Culture of Corruption:
During the 2004 election cycle, he had led the radical, left-wing, George Soros-funded group, America Coming Together (ACT) as national field director. SEIU poured $23 million into ACT in a costly, unsuccessful attempt to put Democratic Senator John Kerry in the White House. Under Gaspard’s tenure at ACT, the get-out-the-vote group employed convicted felons as canvassers and committed campaign finance violations that led to a $775,000 fine by the Federal Elections Commission–the third largest civil penalty levied in the panel’s history.
So, ACORN connection or not, Gaspard is a radical. Whether or not he drew a paycheck from ACORN is a distinction without a difference. And we shouldn’t allow a whitewash of the evidence to negate the rest of Gaspard’s background.
To Understand ACORN, Look To the Early 20th Century
Posted by Kyle Olson in ACORN on October 2nd, 2009
There was one man who paved the way for ACORN, its agenda and its tactics, and he rose to prominence a good twenty years before Saul Alinsky. His name was Arthur Townley.
Please bear with me for a bit of history. A.C., as he was more popularly known, was a member of the Socialist Party in North Dakota. At the time, grain prices were manipulated, in his view, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. What put him over the edge was when he overextended himself in an attempt to reap a hefty profit on flax, only to have the price drop, along with a bad crop. He lost a substantial amount of money.
As a socialist, he naturally blamed the out-of-state capitalists and sought to do something about it. His solution: A state-controlled grain industry. According to “Political Prairie Fire,” written by Robert L. Morlan in 1955, Townley had a multi-point list of demands, including “State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing houses, and cold-storage plants,” as well as “Rural credit banks operated at cost.”
When his Socialist Party wasn’t interested in his plan, Townley set out and created The Nonpartisan League in 1915, a mode for organizing farmers into a political constituency to be reckoned with. See, Townley lacked one key ingredient: power.
His theory was that in order to enact his plan, he needed to create the sufficient pressure on elected officials in meet his demands or face the consequences. His group also worked to elect candidates that agreed with its views.
Townley crisscrossed the state, signing farmers up as members of his organization. He pled his case of greater effectiveness than the local Chambers of Commerce with success. He soon put the dues dollars he raised towards purchasing more pick-up trucks and hiring more organizers to expand the group and thus its power.
What relevance does this have on what is happening today? According to ACORN co-founder Gary Delgado, the kind-of Third Tenor to the (in)famous Wade Rathke, ACORN used Morlan’s book “as part of the organization’s training materials since 1971.” Delgado said as much in his 1986 book, “Organizing the Movement: The Roots and Growth of ACORN.”
We’ve seen ACORN’s tactics play out in the Townley way for the last 39 years. And we see them play out as such today. Take my recent interview with Rathke as an example. When I asked him what SEIU and ACORN were doing to get health care reform passed, he explained SEIU was/is active in about 15 states and in Louisiana, where we chatted, there “are about 14 people working around the state because Sen. [Mary] Landrieu’s vote is so critical as one of those sort-of mushy Democrats we have to have to make this pass.”
You can see that portion of my interview here.
ACORN adopted the Townley method of creating the power, by registering the voters to elect its candidates or growing the “community” group to act as a hammer against weak-kneed elected officials, just to name a few.
Saul Alinsky is commonly viewed as the father of community organization and with that I have no beef. But I believe perhaps a more accurate patron of ACORN’s tactics would be A.C. Townley, the godfather of community organizing.
ACORN To Stand Trial in Nevada
Posted by Kyle Olson in ACORN, News, Politics on October 2nd, 2009
Apparently the partisan witch hunt that ACORN has been alleging has now spread to the Democratic Party, as the Democratic Attorney General of Nevada has successfully brought charges against ACORN, after an investigation by the Democratic Secretary of State.
ACORN’s explanation? A regional representative told the New York Times that the two are just trying to make a name for themselves. Has ACORN no shame?
Matthew Henderson, the regional representative, said this is the first time the organization has faced criminal prosecution.
From the Mercury News:
[Former ACORN employee Christopher Howell] Edwards told Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen on Tuesday that while he never sought written permission, his ACORN supervisors knew canvassers making $8 per hour were paid bonuses of $5 per shift for exceeding a quota of 20 voter registration cards last August and September.
His regional supervisor, Amy Busefink, initially wanted him to set the bonus mark at 26, he said, but agreed to his idea of 21.
“Hey, it’s Las Vegas. It’s blackjack,” Edwards said.
And according to Justice of the Peace Jansen, according to the Times:
“It appears to me,” he said, “that Amy approved this 21 blackjack program as an incentive to get more people registered so they can be in good standing to meet the national quota of Acorn.”
The case now will go to a jury and according to the Associated Press, ACORN and a former employee also standing trial, Amy Busefink, will plead not guilty upon arraignment October 14.
This case will likely have a dramatic effect on ACORN’s/Project Vote’s voter registration program as it could lead to discontinuing incentives for registrations alltogether.
But, even more critical than that, by having ACORN as an entity on trial, it stands to lose its non-profit status in the state, according to a more complete AP story on Breitbart.com and face other penalties.
And ACORN’s attorney, as well as the one for Busefink, are attempting all sorts of legal gymnastics. The Mercury News article:
“There’s no hard and fast evidence that people were fired for not reaching that mark,” [ACORN attorney Lisa] Rasmussen said, adding that bonuses were awarded to people “for a job well done.”
Apparently witness testimony isn’t sufficient. And this:
Busefink’s lawyer, Kevin Stolworthy, said Busefink was actually employed at the time by the advocacy group Project Vote, a nonprofit voting rights organization that is not named as a party in the criminal case.
ACORN can’t have it both ways: it can’t pretend to be under one umbrella, ACORN, then when questions are raised, attempt to explain there is a division of labor.
For example, when we caught “campaigns” for political candidates on a board in the background of the Brooklyn video, we alerted the New York Post reporter, who followed up with a story. In it, ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson said:
ACORN insists it is not doing anything wrong because the primary endorsements and campaigning are being done by the group’s political action committee, spokesman Scott Levenson said.
ACORN’s sloppiness is slowing catching up with it and its attempt to have it both ways won’t work forever.
ACORN ‘Advisory’ Committee Has Huge Stake in Success of Group
Posted by Kyle Olson in ACORN, News, Politics on October 1st, 2009
As ACORN’s faux independent review gets under way, ACORN’s advisory committee, made of up key liberal allies, is watching it closely, as seen in a fresh media advisory issued by David Redlener of The Advance Group and obtained by ACORNcracked.com. That’s because ACORN is a critical component to the Left’s agenda for America.
Remember during the bank bailouts the justification was because they were “too big to fail.” Well, to the liberal Left, ACORN is too big to fail. It has its hands in too many things and runs an effective ground operation through registering voters, turning them out on Election Day, as well as managing ballot initiative campaigns as a tool to boost Democratic turn-out.
Consider Professor Peter Dreier’s analysis of ACORN’s use of ballot initiatives, from a 2005 article he wrote:
ACORN’s strategy to inject this issue into state ballot measures is another important step. In early 2004, ACORN initiated a statewide ballot initiative in Florida to raise the state minimum wage, registered thousands of residents, mostly in low-income, minority neighborhoods in cities, to increase turnout on election day, and won a decisive victory the following November. On its own, this is an impressive accomplishment. Since its victory in Florida, ACORN and its labor allies have begun talking about grassroots minimum-wage initiatives in other states in 2006, particularly where Democrats have a chance to expand, or hold on to, key offices. Campaigns are already underway in Ohio, Michigan, and Arizona, and ACORN is exploring possibilities in six other states and several cities. The strategy is designed to increase voter turnout and to provide candidates with a clear economic-justice issue.
Dreier, for the record, has a long history with ACORN and just last week appeared on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show to decry the media’s treatment of the group during its latest scandal.
Consider for now just two of ACORN’s advisory committee members: John Podesta and Andy Stern.
Podesta, a chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton, is president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, and organization providing and intellectual ammunition and personnel for the Obama Administration and Congress. He received “special recognition” from ACORN at a recent event hosted by the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union.
Stern is president of the SEIU. His organization, according to its own numbers, spent over $60 million getting Obama elected and has been a leader in Healthcare for America Now, the organization, along with ACORN, that has been providing the ground troops in the fight for the proposed government takeover of health care.
It’s no mistake that government bureaucrats overseeing a proposed “government option” would be unionized, according to the legislation. Stern’s SEIU would likely be at the front of the line, given his union’s work to elect this Administration and Congress. Health care reform as it’s been progressing would likely mean a huge influx of members for the SEIU.
A hobbled ACORN would be a detriment to the Left and its agenda that’s still unfolding.