ACORN loses California branch

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Repeat something often enough and it gains traction:

California ACORN has broken away from its embattled parent organization to form a new nonprofit group, a move that observers say might foreshadow other defections that would seriously undermine one of the nation's largest and most politically powerful community organizations.

The new group will have the same mission, will be staffed by many of the same employees who worked for ACORN, and will be funded by most of the same donors, said Amy Schur, the former head organizer for California ACORN. [...]

[T]he new group, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, was incorporated in California on Monday. ACCE is seeking federal nonprofit status. [...]

Congress was under pressure to strip funding from the organization [...]

Although a federal judge ruled in December that the funding cut was unconstitutional, and a Congressional Research Service report found that ACORN had not broken any laws in the last five years, the scandal so tarnished ACORN's reputation that the California branch [...]

[M]embers with similar complaints in other states were considering following California's lead. He and others said donor support has plummeted. [...]

ACORN's chief executive, Bertha Lewis, blamed the woes on "a multiyear political assault stemming variously from the Bush White House, Fox News and other conservative quarters" [...]

Sigh.

White House: Czar critics taking marching orders from Glenn Beck

By GottaLaff

Remember this?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now the White House is fighting back against this insanity:

Now the White House and its allies are accusing administration critics of taking marching orders from talk show host Glenn Beck, and pointing out that George W. Bush's administration appointed dozens of "czars" during his eight years in office.

"I think it's been somewhat remarkable that in previous administrations, so-called criticism of this has been a bit deafening, the silence has been deafening, only to have it come around as a political issue now," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

Later in the afternoon, White House communications director Anita Dunn posted a "reality check" about czars on the administration's Web site, noting that the term is not an official White House title and that several of those Obama appointed "czars" were actually approved by the Senate.

Wrong! You lie! "Czar" is a black socialist Nazi commie Hussein Obama word!

The Democratic National Committee was more blunt: "In leveling these ludicrous attacks, Republicans have crowned themselves the czars of hypocrisy," DNC press secretary Hari Sevugan said. Party officials blasted out six different e-mails to reporters on Wednesday flagging the Bush administration's reliance on "czars," citing news reports that going back to 2001.

Hypocrisy czars. I'm likin' that one. I may have to steal it.

"Most telling of the credibility of these attacks is that they come from the same Republican party that didn't utter a peep about the 47 documented czars in the Bush administration even when the so called 'abstinence czar' was caught soliciting," Sevugan said, referring to Randall Tobias, a top State Department who resigned in 2007 after he was caught soliciting prostitutes.

Boy Georgie had a Prostitute Czar. Perfect.

VIDEO: Rachel Maddow's excellent "Czar Struck" eviscerates Republican smears

By GottaLaff

Rachel does it again. If you ever need arguments to knock down the Rushpublics' latest Campaign-o'-Wrong, watch this video, bookmark it, memorize it, and laugh heartily:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

x

Not so fast, punditiots

By GottaLaff

I've been thinking all along, as many of you have, that President Obama is usually one step ahead of the rest of us. At the very least, IMHO, more often than not he has good reasons for what he does:

What's holding President Obama back from wielding his considerable political power like a club and smashing the Republican congressional opposition to his stimulus package? [...]

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that Obama is losing the all-important spin campaign to Republicans -- and that it's time for him to flex some muscle. [...]

But Obama's basic response to the criticism that he is not playing the Washington game right is that it shouldn't be a game in the first place. And the reason he has let Congress shape the bill rather than doing it himself is that he thinks that's the way American government is supposed to work.

Is it possible we've gotten so used to the way former President Bush played the game -- and rolled Congress -- that we are judging Obama by his standard? And if so, is that the right standard? What explains Obama's conduct? Is it naivete, or is it humility?

Maybe he's just smarter, fairer, more human, and more thoughtful than Bush. Maybe it's that simple. Maybe the punditiots should stop being so damned judgmental instead of being in such a hurry to jump on the propaganda bandwagon.