Say Anything Blog

and RICO prosecution of ACORN.

More and more evidence is accumulating which demonstrates that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has been engaged in criminal conspiracy and criminal acts across multiple state lines.

The swamp of Congressional corruption, which Speaker Pelosi promised to drain, starts here.

Now will Congress investigate ACORN?
Examiner Editorial
October 4, 2009

Evidence continues to accumulate from far and wide that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is lousy with corruption. The latest revelations come from Louisiana and Oklahoma. In the former, the local ACORN Housing Corp. office received contracts worth a combined $625,000 from the City of New Orleans for repairing existing low-income housing and developing new units in poor neighborhoods. The contracts were paid for with funds from federal Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An investigation by the Pelican Institute think tank of New Orleans, however, found that no work was actually performed to fulfill the contracts. Worse, Pelican couldn’t talk to the ACORN official managing the contracts because he had left the organization months ago. One more thing: The office address listed on the contracts for ACORN turned out to be a vacant lot, although new plumbing connections indicated a trailer had recently been located on the site.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma City, documents found in a recently vacated ACORN office included a detailed memo titled “Power Plan” for a five-year effort to elect supportive legislators and transform Oklahoma to a progressive state “in the way it was 100 years ago.” The man in charge of the office left town without paying back rent or utility bills, according to OklahmaWatchdog.org. Also found in the documents was a script for a Houston ACORN-directed recruiting campaign for “hiring Outreach Workers to remind people to get out and vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming election.” As a tax-exempt nonprofit, ACORN is barred from participating in partisan election activities, and its national spokesmen have insisted throughout the 2008 presidential race that their organization was not working to elect Obama.

These revelations come hard on the heels of the sensational videotapes showing ACORN employees in Baltimore, New York and San Diego giving advice on concealing a brothel featuring 13-year-old girls smuggled here from Latin America. Congress is considering measures to stop any more federal funds from going to ACORN after an Examiner investigation found the group has received at least $53 million in recent years. More than a dozen states are investigating allegations of improper election activities by ACORN. Now, with evidence of apparent theft of federal grant money and blatantly partisan political work, what else must be exposed before Congress gets off the dime and conducts a full-fledged investigation?

Without doubt there is now enought evidence to more than justify a Federal investigation under the RICO statutes for tax evasion, fraud, and campaign violations accross multiple state lines.  Further delaying actions can only be viewed as attempts to prevent criminal prosections which would in turn expose elected officials to public and legal scrutiny.

Hat Tip: Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds

History tells us that the highest honor paid to a Roman general was the Triumph.  Legend tells us that the triumphant general was accompanied in his chariot by a slave whispering in his ear “Memento mori” (Remember [that thou art] mortal).

Who (other than the IOC, which in any case is not part of the administration) fulfills this role in the Obama Administration?

Complete with a thoughtful analysis of the differences as well as the similarities.

Lament for a nation
By David Warren
The Ottowa Citizen

...

Yes: a lot of people have entertained the idea, that Mikhail Gorbachev was to the late great Soviet Union, what Barack Obama is to the surviving United States—the leader who reforms so many things so quickly that his country suddenly disappears. One recalls the speed with which the first Soviet head of state to be born after the October Revolution became its last head of state. It took him about three years: just less than the time of one U.S. presidential term. (Though he had already taken three years to warm up, as General Secretary of the Communist Party.)

It is, today, a little-known fact that Gorbachev did not bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union, on purpose. Those who still detect a glint in his eye would do well to respect his persistent denials. He was sincerely trying to reform the place. He was walking a dog with powerful jaws, but rather loose teeth; he tried to adapt it to a vegetarian diet; it died.

Indeed.  Those working towards the destruction of the Soviet Union were an informal coalition built around an American President, a British Prime Minister, and a Polish priest.  It was this small cadre who believed the Soviet system could, and should, be destroyed.  Gorbachev was doing his level best to keep the corpse lurching on. (more...)

You don’t really want’t to make your own life and death decisions, do you?

When you have experts in the craft of memorizing lines and faking emotions insisting you turn that responsibility over to DMV style medicine!

Hat Tip:  HotAir

It’s the party of depravity in full on projection mode.

Didn’t think so.

Indeed it should, as it was Rape, forceful sodomy, statutory rape, and not an insolated incident.

Just wondering: How many teen girls has Polanski raped?
By Allahpundit
HotAir

An important question to ask, no?  Not necessarily for the sake of justice — as a 76-year-old, he’s unlikely to be prosecuted again — but for the sake of determining just how much child molestation a masterpiece like “Chinatown” entitles you to.  By my count, we’ve got one confirmed incident (a rape-rape, in Whoopi Goldberg terminology, not statutory rape) per the guilty plea that he entered in L.A. in 1977; we’ve got a likely statutory case via his, ahem, “romance” with 15-year-old Nastassja Kinski; and we’ve got this charming anecdote dug up Mark Steyn, which pre-dates both of those incidents.

Jonah, in my weekend column, I quote Robert Towne, the screenwriter of Chinatown, who says he found it hard to concentrate during writing sessions at Polanski’s place, what with “the teenyboppers that Roman would run out and take Polaroid pictures of diving off the f***ing diving board without tops on. Which was distracting. With braces.”

I guess “teenybopper” could encompass a range of ages, although I don’t know many 18-year-olds to whom that term is normally applied — and who, at that age, are still having their teeth straightened.  But kudos to our genius auteur for being able to maintain his focus on a cinematic masterwork while snapping presumptive spank photos of pre-pubescent girls.  Clearly he’s earned a comfortable retirement in a Swiss chalet for that.

Anyone think this sort of behavior ended cold turkey after Kinski, incidentally?  And anyone think his L.A. victim is the only one he agreed to pay hush money to?

Well, they obviously got paid more than minimum wage so that obviously makes it all ok in the estimation of our leftards…

Provided succinctly, as always, by Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds:

NOTING THE HUFFINGTON POST’S DIFFERING TREATMENT of Roman Polanski and Mark Foley.  “But unlike Foley, Polanski is not a Republican .  He’s simply wanted in L.A. on a child rape charge.”

Related:  Applebaum blames the victim for the rape.  Plus, an interesting development:  “The vast majority of French people feel the same way about Polanski as the vast majority of Americans.  In both countries, sympathy for a child rapist seems isolated to the entertainment elite and the media sycophants who love them.”  And the tax-and-financial advisors at ACORN . . . .

This is why our founding fathers were dead set against hereditary aristocracy (viz klan Kennedy) and privilege (private law applicable only to the rich and powerful).  Our local leftards, rather less so.

The (convicted, fled before sentencing) rapist of children is of course Roman Polanski.  His Hollyweird apologists are:

Jonathan Demme

John Landis

Michael Mann

Martin Scorsese

Woody Allen

Not a dime of my money will ever go to to these shitheel apologists for a pedophile rapist.

Hat Tip: Allahpundit

In prison where he will remain for the next 24 years

As previously noted, Hsu (seen below with a minor Chicago political figure) sure got around…

Looks like he should have rolled when offered the chance, as clemency and a pardon went right out the door when Hillary! lost the nomination.

Observed from Dairy Hill.

Behold his evisceration of Polanski and his apologists:

MEGAN MCARDLE ON ROMAN POLANSKI:  “You would think we’d busted him for unpaid parking tickets.  The guy drugged a thirteen year old girl in order to rape her.  Perhaps the French have some sophisticated, European point of view on these things that I, with my puritan ancestry, simply cannot rise to.”

Or they could just be miserable shitheels.  Related item here:  “Let’s keep in mind that Roman Polanski gave a 13-year-old girl a Quaalude and champagne, then raped her.”  Just remember:  If he weren’t a member of the politico-artistic elite, he’d have done hard time already. 
But, since he is, we get this:  Hollywood Unites To Defend Polanski.  “If his unspeakable deed doesn’t meet the standard, what exactly would Roman Polanski have to do in order to become a pariah in this town … I mean, besides vote for Sarah Palin?”
UPDATE:  Reader Michael McElwee smells a rat:

Isn’t it obvious this arrest – out of nowhere – is a political move by Obama’s minders?
What better to keep Greta and America distracted for a week or so?

Don’t be silly.  That would suggest that the justice system was entirely politicized.

Indeed.  It makes one suspect that the Polanski’s and the Kennedy’s are related at some distant remove.  One could even go far as to treat Democratic complaints of Republican wrongdoing as projection of either current Democratic practice (e.g. Congressional “Culture of Corruption”) or planned policy (politicization of Justice) without grave risk of error.

UPDATE:

On fire this morning as well!

MORE ON THE Anne Applebaum / Roman Polanski conflict. You can tell a lot about a governing class from who it’s willing to cover for.

UPDATE: Col. Douglas Mortimer writes:

Well, let’s remember that in the book “Less than Zero,” the children of the Hollywood elite watch a 12 year old girl be bound, raped, and murdered at a party. That little nugget of joy didn’t make the movie, but the author obviously knew these people.

Our tastemakers.

ANOTHER UPDATE: HOWARD KURTZ:

If Polanski was an ordinary Roman, and not an award-winning film director, we wouldn’t be having this debate. There is sympathy for him because he’s considered a great artiste. The Hollywood elite wouldn’t give Polanski the plumber the time of day if he had sexually assaulted an underage girl. And that suggests to me a stunning double standard.

Suggests?

And as usual, does so succinctly:

ROBERT SAMUELSON:  Health Care As An Exercise in Ego Gratification:

What’s driving the great health debate of 2009 is not a popular clamor for universal insurance. “Many Americans are balking again at the prospect of health care reform,” writes pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center. A new Wall Street Journal poll found 41 percent of respondents opposed to President Obama’s proposals and 39 percent in favor (the rest were undecided). The underlying driver is politicians’ psychological quest for glory. . . .  Americans worried about this legislation may not know its details or may even be misinformed. Still, their skepticism is justified. Grandiose rhetoric obscures unflattering reality. The proposals don’t force the major structural changes in the delivery system that might curb uncontrolled health spending, which is the central problem. The bills Congress is now considering might marginally improve Americans’ health but would worsen the federal budget outlook and squeeze other public and private spending. Whatever bragging rights result will quickly erode in the face of the health system’s continuing problems.

Yeah, my prediction is that if it passes it’ll be like the Iraq war — in five or ten years most of the people who voted for it will be pretending otherwise.  Hell, they’ll probably find a way to blame Bush . . . .

Seems likely.

Alternate Title: Fake Science!

As previously (and subsequently) mentioned, the “scientists” behind the “study” which resulted in the IPCC have “lost” their raw data.

How.

Convenient.

Sadly for them, it’s also too late.

Yamal: A “Divergence” Problem
by Steve McIntyre
Climate Audit

The second image below is, in my opinion, one of the most disquieting images ever presented at Climate Audit.
Two posts ago, I observed that the number of cores used in the most recent portion of the Yamal archive at CRU was implausibly low. There were only 10 cores in 1990 versus 65 cores in 1990 in the Polar Urals archive and 110 cores in the Avam-Taymir archive.  These cores were picked from a larger population - measurements from the larger population remain unavailable.


One post ago, I observed that Briffa had supplemented the Taymir data set (which had a pronounced 20th century divergence problem) not just with the Sidorova et al 2007 data from Avam referenced in Briffa et al 2008, but with a Schweingruber data set from Balschaya Kamenka (russ124w), also located over 400 km from Taymir.
Given this precedent, I examined the ITRDB data set for potential measurement data from Yamal that could be used to supplement the obviously deficient recent portion of the CRU archive (along the lines of Brifffa's supplementing the Taymir data set.) Hantemirov and Shiyatov 2002 describe the Yamal location as follows:

The systematic collection of subfossil wood samples was begun, in 1982, in the basins of the Khadytayakha, Yadayakhodyyakha and Tanlovayakha rivers in southern Yamal in the region located between 67°00 and 67°50 N and 68°30 and 71°00 E (Figure 1). These rivers flow from the north to the south; hence, no driftwood can be brought from the adjacent southern territories At the present time, the upper reaches of these rivers are devoid of trees; larch and spruce-birch-larch thin forests are located mainly in valley bottoms in the middle and lower reaches.

Sure enough, there was a Schweingruber series that fell squarely within the Yamal area - indeed on the first named Khadyta River - russ035w located at 67 12N 69 50Eurl .  This data set had 34 cores, nearly 3 times more than the 12 cores selected into the CRU archive.  Regardless of the principles for the selection of the 12 CRU cores, one would certainly hope to obtain a similar-looking RCS chronology using the Schweingruber population for living trees in lieu of the selection by CRU (or whoever).

Look away, adherents of the Church of algore; the death of your faith has arrived!

Find it, below the fold… (more...)

AKA blackwaterboob

Mr. Moran, on reflection I've been given to understand that having your racist proclivities pointed out repeatedly has been a burden on you.

So if that repeated drubbing in your own racism chafed your hide, I’m really sorry to hear it.

And while I’d like to accept your apology, you didn't offer one. Thus I won’t, either.

But since our host has asked me to tone down the rhetoric against your racist self, I shall do so (even though you have blown off his recommendation that you apologize for your other scurrilous accusations). 

Rest assured Mister Moran, that your pleas have fallen on deaf and uncaring ears. Our hosts request, backed with implicit force as it is, is another matter.

Furthermore, while you have suggested that we “move on” you, like MoveOn.org, have repeatedly shown an inability to do any such thing.  Nonetheless, I will abide by our gracious host’s wishes until you once again revert to form. (more...)

One of the cornerstones of scientific credibility is that experimental data and models must be reproducible.  If a different research team carrying out the same experiment produces the different data, the theory being tested is in trouble.

Global warming models are, of course, notorious for their inability to accurately model historical data, but now it seems there’s an additional problem.

SERIOUSLY?  The Dog Ate My Global Warming Data.  “Apparently, they were either lost or purged from some discarded computer. Only a very few people know what really happened, and they aren’t talking much. And what little they are saying makes no sense.”

“Settled science” where they cannot even show their original raw (un-adjusted) data?

The Dog Ate Global Warming
Interpreting climate data can be hard enough. What if some key data have been fiddled?
By Patrick J. Michaels
National Review Online

Imagine if there were no reliable records of global surface temperature. Raucous policy debates such as cap-and-trade would have no scientific basis, Al Gore would at this point be little more than a historical footnote, and President Obama would not be spending this U.N. session talking up a (likely unattainable) international climate deal in Copenhagen in December.

Steel yourself for the new reality, because the data needed to verify the gloom-and-doom warming forecasts have disappeared.

...

Now begins the fun. Warwick Hughes, an Australian scientist, wondered where that “+/–” came from, so he politely wrote Phil Jones in early 2005, asking for the original data. Jones’s response to a fellow scientist attempting to replicate his work was, “We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”

Reread that statement, for it is breathtaking in its anti-scientific thrust. In fact, the entire purpose of replication is to “try and find something wrong.” The ultimate objective of science is to do things so well that, indeed, nothing is wrong.

Something stinks to high heaven with regard to an expansive global program for which the raw data in support cannot be produced.  They’re asking us to turn over the reins of our economy to them on their unsupported say so.

I think I’ll pass.