In Black Caucus, a Fund-Raising Powerhouse

In Black Caucus, a Fund-Raising Powerhouse - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — When the Congressional Black Caucus wanted to pay off the mortgage on its foundation’s stately 1930s redbrick headquarters on Embassy Row, it turned to a familiar roster of friends: corporate backers like Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Motors, Coca-Cola and Altria, the nation’s largest tobacco company.
Soon enough, in 2008, a jazz band was playing at what amounted to a mortgage-burning party for the $4 million town house.

Most political groups in Washington would have been barred by law from accepting that kind of direct aid from corporations. But by taking advantage of political finance laws, the caucus has built a fund-raising juggernaut unlike anything else in town.

It has a traditional political fund-raising arm subject to federal rules. But it also has a network of nonprofit groups and charities that allow it to collect unlimited amounts of money from corporations and labor unions.

From 2004 to 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus’s political and charitable wings took in at least $55 million in corporate and union contributions, according to an analysis by The New York Times, an impressive amount even by the standards of a Washington awash in cash. Only $1 million of that went to the caucus’s political action committee; the rest poured into the largely unregulated nonprofit network. (Data for 2009 is not available.)

The caucus says its nonprofit groups are intended to help disadvantaged African-Americans by providing scholarships and internships to students, researching policy and holding seminars on topics like healthy living.

But the bulk of the money has been spent on elaborate conventions that have become a high point of the Washington social season, as well as the headquarters building, golf outings by members of Congress and an annual visit to a Mississippi casino resort.

Obamacare vs. the United States Constitution

Obamacare vs. the United States Constitution - HUMAN EVENTS

Public support for ObamaCare legislation is dismal. According to a February 2 – 3 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, among 900 registered voters surveyed, only 23 percent want it enacted. Fully 70 percent disagree. Among them, 47 percent would start over, and 23 percent would do nothing. (Margin of error: +/- 3 percent.)

Nonetheless, ObamaCare is like a quietly rumbling volcano -- dormant, but not yet dead. President Obama and Washington Democrats oscillate between tears over their stalled pet project and cheers that “We’re moving forward,” as Obama recently chirped. The White House’s February 25 bipartisan healthcare summit is a sulfurous puff of smoke that should worry ObamaCare opponents.

Consequently, those who want to stop this ruinous measure should keep highlighting its shortcomings until this initiative is extinct.

Obama Espoused Radical Views in College

Newsmax - Obama Espoused Radical Views in College

As a college student, Barack Obama expressed Marxist views, including the need for a new socialist U.S. government, according to a student who says he shared the future president’s opinion at the time.

Such views by a college student may not be surprising. And like most students who hold radical views, Obama’s positions, at least publicly, have evolved substantially.

However, this new window on Obama’s youth and early political thinking demonstrates how little is known about the background of America’s 44th president. [...]

For the next several hours, they discussed Marxism.

“He was arguing a straightforward Marxist-Leninist class-struggle point of view, which anticipated that there would be a revolution of the working class, led by revolutionaries, who would overthrow the capitalist system and institute a new socialist government that would redistribute the wealth,” says Drew, who says he himself was then a Marxist.

“The idea was basically that wealthy people were exploiting others,” Drew says. “That this was the secret of their wealth, that they weren’t paying others enough for their work, and they were using and taking advantage of other people. He was convinced that a revolution would take place, and it would be a good thing.”

Drew concluded that Obama thought of himself as “part of an intelligent, radical vanguard that was leading the way towards this revolution and towards this new society.”

A better “Miss Me Yet?” billboard

Michelle Malkin » A better “Miss Me Yet?” billboard

Democrats, Meet Your Biggest Nightmare

American Thinker: Democrats, Meet Your Biggest Nightmare

Scott Brown deserves credit, of course, for fighting an amazing campaign. But I think it's the Paulettes in Massachusetts who have the most to teach us. Such as:

1. There are a lot of voters out there who agree with us. Poll after poll shows that conservatives make up the largest voting bloc in America. It's high time we conservatives actually believed it.

2. There is no substitute, absolutely none, for personal, grassroots involvement in campaigns. Too many of us want to just "mail in" our support. That way, none of our neighbors will know that we are actually (gasp!) conservative. Go back and reread #1. There's a good chance your neighbors are conservatives, too.

3. Democrat and ACORN fraud cannot overcome a tidal wave of conservative and like-minded independent voters, even in liberal Massachusetts and New Jersey. For far too long we have accepted the inevitability of losing because of Democrat voter fraud. Then we just throw in the towel and don't even try to defeat the entrenched liberals. I'm certainly not saying fraud doesn't exist and that we don't need to be diligent in our efforts to combat it. But ACORN is no match for energized, intelligent, informed conservatives.

4. We have to get involved early. Signing up to make telephone calls the last weekend of a campaign, while better than nothing, isn't good enough. It was almost sad to see busloads of SEIU members rolling into Boston for President Obama's speech two days before the election. Outside of giving the media a thrill and depressing Beltway conservatives, the whole effort was a waste of time. Primaries for this year's congressional elections are starting now.

The time for conservative involvement is yesterday. Brown's win taught us that no seat is 100% safe. (My dream is to see that proved again in Barney Frank's district.) My own congressman is a blue dog Democrat who voted for cap-and-trade. I wonder if he has any idea what's in store for him this election year.

So here's to you, Paulette, and all your fellow patriots in Massachusetts. I can almost hear our Founders saying, "Ya done good!"

With absolute power, Team Obama grows stupid

With absolute power, Team Obama grows stupid | Washington Examiner

How could such smart people do so many stupid things? That question, or variations on it, is being asked in Washington and around the country about the Obama administration.

The same people who directed the campaign that defeated Hillary Clinton and routed John McCain, a campaign that raised far more money and attracted far more volunteers than any before it, have within a year come up with a legislative program that is crashing in ruins and that, to judge from recent polls, has left the Democratic party weaker than I have seen it in almost 50 years of closely following politics.

House GOP Leadership Wants Obama to Redraft Health Care Reforms from Scratch

CNSNews.com - House GOP Leadership Wants Obama to Redraft Health Care Reforms from Scratch

Obama recently announced he would invite Republicans to a televised health care summit on Feb. 25, aimed at jump-starting the stalled negotiations.[...]

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the president’s chief of staff on Tuesday that Republicans would “rightly be reluctant” to attend a bipartisan health care summit on Feb. 25 if President Barack Obama wants to negotiate on the bills already produced in the House and Senate instead of starting from scratch.

In a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Boehner and Cantor wrote, “If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate.”

Perhaps they should take him up on his offer to go through both the house and senate bills "line by line." Either that, or start over with a blank sheet of paper.