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From ACORN's web site: http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12342 ACORN is a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization with national headquarters in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. To maintain independence, ACORN does not accept government funding and is not tax exempt. From House/Senate bill and laws search: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:5:./temp/~c1109ELV8i:e647497: H.R.3221 Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) SEC. 2401. HOUSING COUNSELING RESOURCES. There are appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated for the fiscal year 2008, for an additional amount for the `Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation—Payment to the Neighborhood Reinvestment...

After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday. The bill's total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said. The officials stressed that no final decisions have been made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement. House Democrats have announced plans for an economic forum on Monday "to help Congress develop an economic recovery

<p>After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.</p>

Our elections serve as an example of free choice and peaceful transfer of power to the world where too many people are denied the right to vote and a new governing authority comes in during a bloody coup. That's why allegations of rampant voter registration fraud and electoral fraud throughout Ohio and the country are all the most disturbing. But what makes me angry - and what makes a lot of my constituents angry - is that an organization at the heart of this controversy is receiving federal tax dollars. For years, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- James Terry, Chief Public Advocate for the Consumers Rights League, today issued the following statement supporting the calls of House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Roy Blunt and Senator John Ensign to investigate the activities of ACORN as well as suspend taxpayer funds to the organization in light of mounting evidence of fraudulent activity in Nevada, Missouri and Ohio. CRL also expressed outrage over ACORN's willingness to accept rampant fraud as the cost of doing business. James Terry, Chief Public Advocate, Consumers Rights League: "ACORN says they don't take federal money, but AHC...

Washington, DC -- A new exhibit at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery celebrates women's contributions to America but honors a handful of abortion advocates. The exhibit touts Margaret Sanger, the founder of the nation's largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, and others. Read the full story and take action at: http://www.LifeNews.com/nat4423.html

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents detailing earmarks submitted by Barack Obama on behalf of his family and political supporters during his time in the Illinois State Senate. The documents were obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Among the projects detailed in the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch: · Blue Gargoyle: Barack Obama helped secure a $25,000 grant for the Blue Gargoyle in August 2000, an organization that was headed by Capers C. Funnye, Jr., Michelle Obama’s first cousin once removed. · Garden to Nowhere:...

USAID Defunds International Abortion Provider Posted on October 04, 2008, 12:36 PM | Deal W. Hudson For those who think, erroneously, the Bush administration has done little to reduce abortions during its two terms, I would draw attention to the announcement that USAID has withdrawn funding from Maria Stopes International. Invoking the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, Kent Hill of USAID explained the action based upon the "coercise abortion practices" of Maria Stopes. Four years ago I met with a group of Catholic legislators in Peru -- the purpose of the meeting was to hear their complaints about U.S. funding of Maria Stopes....

Hollywood fat cats got a substantial tax slash in the $700B rescue....film and TV moguls like Steven Spielberg on down to low-budget independent producers - get a 32% top tax cap for US projects. Most American businesses pay 35%. Another provision lifts the cap on existing tax deductions.....they can now immediately deduct project costs up to $15M, regardless of the production's total budget.....previously available only to projects costing less than $15M....average productions cost upward of $70M.......estimated to cost taxpayers about $480M over a decade.

Last week, the Bush administration proposed a three-page bill to bail out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion. It died in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week. On Friday, though, the House approved a far bigger, broader, and beefier version of the bill--which has ballooned to a remarkable 442 pages. The vote was 263 to 171, with the bulk of the opposition coming from Republicans. Because the Senate already approved the measure, it immediately went to President Bush, who signed it into law. On the theory that this would be a way to convince previously skeptical...

A little history gives us the best guide to understand what all of this drama is about. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke admitted at a banquet on Nov. 8, 2002, that the Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression that began Oct. 24, 1929, and continued all through the decade of the 1930s. The Fed did this by deliberately tightening up and withholding the money supply for lending, which immediately caused a domino effect. Highly leveraged investors, who were in the stock market on borrowed money, were instantly wiped out when their loans were called in. Banks that had loans out...

Last night, Biden had a snide "bridge" comment.....somebody needs to bring this up! Biden, Obama helped keep ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ alive Joe Biden, Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment diverting bridge funding Both voted for final transportation bill that included the $223 million bridge earmark http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/biden.earmarks/index.html

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the Senate's version of a rescue package for the financial industry includes many extra provisions, including mental health benefits that were championed by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. Klobuchar said Wellstone's cause is among a number of other additions to the bailout bill that the Senate will take up Wednesday night. Previous forms of the mental health legislation would have mandated equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both, which is known as mental health parity. Wellstone was killed along with seven others in a plane crash outside of Eveleth,...

Washington - While crafting a bill intended to rescue the U.S. economy this week, lawmakers couldn't stop themselves from adding billions of dollars in tax breaks that have little to do with restoring confidence in financial markets. Senators quietly tucked a number of earmarks into the tax package of the 451-page bill that was passed Wednesday night and is expected to be put to a vote in the House today: a $2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children; a $100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners; $192 million in rebates on excise taxes for...

NEW YORK - The credit markets finally got a bailout bill, but the stranglehold hasn't let up — a troubling sign that lenders and investors believe the package will only be a baby step in the long road to economic recovery. The credit markets, where companies go to get cash loans, have seized up since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and in anticipation of the $700 billion plan initially voted down by the House. The House passed a revised version of it Friday following the Senate's approval earlier this week, but anxiety about its effectiveness kept demand for...

What do failing banks and foreclosed houses have to do with race tracks? A lot, apparently, if you're Charles Schumer. The New York Senator added an earmark to the nation's $700 billion "rescue plan" that will extend current tax laws for race tracks that allow them to be considered the same as amusement parks in the eyes of the IRS.

Here are some of the special-interest provisions that are now part of the Wall Street bailout legislation. The bill started at 3 pages, grew to 106 pages, and is now 451 pages. Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502) Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503) 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504) Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308) American Samoa (Sec. 309) Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310) Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311) Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312) Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315) Railroads (Sec....

Negotiators on Capitol Hill finally reached an agreement on a sweeping bailout of the financial sector by the Treasury early this morning, attempting to head off bank runs and panics around the world when the Asian markets open tonight. The plan includes options for asset insurance that House Republicans demanded, as well as broad accountability for actions taken by Treasury in purchasing assets. The deal also allows a wider group of banks to rid themselves of the toxic assets, created in large part by Congress over the last ten years:

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that the Continuing Resolution approved today by a vote of 78-12 in the U.S. Senate includes $257,103,000 in funding for Illinois projects. The bill, which includes fiscal year 2009 appropriations for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and Military Construction – Veterans Affairs, was passed by the House earlier this week and will now go to the President for his signature. The following projects and provisions are included in the bill: Department of Defense Center for Advanced Emergency Response, Chicago: $4.4 million to further develop the...

The financial meltdown will change many things in America, and we can start with campaign promises. You can say goodbye to universal health care, a cornerstone of Barack Obama's campaign strategy. Massive medical benefits are now impossible because the bailout will take all the money. Also, it's sayonara to John McCain's across-the-board tax cuts. The Democrats will likely control Congress again and, in the face of a $750-billion expenditure, there is little chance taxes will decline in any significant way. So, both candidates find themselves losing a major core issue because of the greedy, stupid mortgage scandal. Polls show that...

Conservative House Republicans and economists warn about the toll a $700 billion federal bailout of the financial sector would have on the taxpayers footing the bill. But according to Bloomberg TV analyst Marc Faber, the actual cost could be closer to $5 trillion. Faber, author of the “Gloom Boom Doom” report, appeared on Bloomberg TV’s Sept. 26 broadcast of “Bloomberg Today” and noted just how small the proposed $700 billion bailout is compared to the overall U.S. credit market.

As negotiations on a Wall Street bailout bill got back on track, the House passed a $61 billion economic stimulus bill Friday, that Democrats said was needed to help a struggling Main Street. Democrats won the support of 41 Republicans in passing the measure on a 264 – 158 vote. A number of Republicans, including GOP leaders, objected to the bill on the grounds that it was rushed through the House. Democrats sent the bill to the Rules Committee Thursday night and brought it to the floor Friday. But Democrats had been talking about the broad outlines of their stimulus...

Let’s do a reality check on the spending spree the U.S. Treasury is currently on: Troubled Asset Relief Program: $700 billionFannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE): $200 billion (est.)AIG (AIG): $85 billionBear Stearns: $29 billionCurrent running total: $1,014 billionCurrent U.S. population: 305 million“Cost” per citizen: $3,324 (the equivalent of one dirty long weekend at the Wynn in Las Vegas)10 year U.S. bond: 3.80%Annual carrying cost per citizen: $126.31Annual principal and interest payments over 10 years: $405.75 Congress is putting the Fed Chairman and the Treasury Secretary through their paces, but at the end of the day, the politicians know...

Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The numbers are big. That much is certain. The Federal Reserve has backstopped the purchase of Bear Stearns to the tune of $29 billion. It will loan $85 billion to insurer AIG. It's letting banks borrow up to $150 billion using risky mortgage-backed securities as collateral. And it's letting investment banks, which it doesn't regulate, get short-term loans using the central bank's discount window. The Treasury, meanwhile, has pledged to backstop Fannie and Freddie up to $200 billion. Lawmakers passed legislation allowing the Federal Housing Administration to insure up to $300 billion in loans for troubled...

US Treasury raises Fed funding By Francesco Guerrera in London, Aline van Duyn in New York and Krishna Guha in Washington Published: September 16 2008 14:47 | Last updated: September 17 2008 16:09 The US Treasury on Wednesday announced it was creating a supplemental funding programme to ensure that the Federal Reserve has the cash it needs and its ability to provide emergency liquidity support for the markets is not constrained by the size of its own balance sheet. The move was intended to deal with fears that the US central bank’s balance sheet was overstretched following the AIG loan...

Republican lawmakers and conservative leaders are angry about the latest in a string of government bailouts announced less than a month after they renewed their pledge to control federal spending. The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced an $85 billion bailout of the insurance giant American International Group (AIG), surprising many lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, who had received little information in the preceding days. Conservatives on and off the Hill said this week’s massive bailout violated free-market principles and encouraged reckless behavior in the future. “I’m dubious,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). “I have not heard why its failure would...

It’s time to stop government funding and tax breaks for “Big Abortion.” That’s the message from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachman, R.-Minn. Speaking at the Family Research Council Values Voter Summit on September 12, Bachman detailed how Planned Parenthood – a controversial non-profit “family planning” organization that reportedly performed 289,750 abortions in 2006 – has expanded significantly. She cited a June 23 Wall Street Journal article by Stephanie Simon that revealed 501(c)3 organization had a record $1 billion in annual revenue in a recent financial report. “I got a call from my husband one morning that said, ‘Michele, take a look...

For those that missed it, Sarah is vindicated once again by the non-partisan group Citizens Against Goverment Waste which states she killed the Bridge to Nowhere not Congress.

The United States is mired in a "once-in-a century" financial crisis which is now more than likely to spark a recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday. The talismanic ex-central banker said that the crisis was the worst he had seen in his career, still had a long way to go and would continue to effect home prices in the United States. "First of all, let's recognize that this is a once-in-a-half-century, probably once-in-a-century type of event," Greenspan said on ABC's "This Week." Asked whether the crisis, which has seen the US government step in to bail out...

The White House budget office said yesterday that it has decided not to incorporate mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the federal budget, citing the temporary nature of the Treasury Department's takeover and "the level of federal ownership" of the firms. The decision affects the way public expenditures on the two companies will be reflected in official budget projections. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has pledged to invest as much as $200 billion to keep the firms solvent. On Tuesday, two days after the takeover, officials at the Congressional Budget Office announced that the deal had bound...

Obama voted AGAINST Katrina Aid http://paganpower.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/obama-voted-against-katrina-aid/

The candidate that claims to be the only presidential contender who doesn't take money from lobbyists is in fact the biggest recipient of lobby-related contributions. Barack Obama rakes in millions from law firms serving the interests of Wall Street, including the financial institutions that gave us the subprime lending crisis. Lawyers that work for firms that earn hundreds of millions of dollars for lobbying may technically not be lobbyists, but they share in their colleagues' earnings as influencers of Congress - a legal loophole that allows Obama to claim his hands are clean of lobby loot. The top contributors to...

Before Team Obama continues its attacks on Sarah Palin for at one point voicing some general support for the Bridge to Nowhere, the presidential hopeful has some explaining to do. Let the record show that Barack Obama himself voted for the bridge at least twice, as did his running mate Joe Biden. If Team Obama is to continue to point out that Palin was for the bridge before she was against it, they either must explain why Obama and Biden never denounced the project or, on the other hand, describe why they were in error for supporting it. At the...

Senator Jim DeMint has provided a clear voice against the corruption of pork-barrel spending, often castigating his own party while doing so. Along with John McCain, Tom Coburn, and Russ Feingold (D-WI), he has demanded that Congress act to stop the waste and influence peddling that earmarks subsidize. As such, he has a clear understanding of those who represent change, and those who offer business as usual, and he makes the distinction clear in his essay in the Wall Street Journal, emphases mine: --------------------- Mrs. Palin used her veto pen to slash more local projects than any other governor in...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Joe Biden repeatedly made the claim in a Sunday interview on the NBC political show "Meet the Press" that he opposes taxpayer funding of abortions. However, a look at his voting record over the years reveals numerous instances where Barack Obama's pro-abortion running mate did exactly that. "I don't support public, public funding. I don't, because that flips the burden. That's then telling me I have to accept a different view," he said on the program. As recently as February, Biden voted against an amendment that would permanently prevent abortion funding at Indian health care service...

Though Gov. Palin originally supported the earmark spending on the Ketchikan bridge (“to nowhere), SHE eventually KILLED THE PROJECT, choosing to spend Federal money on other infrasturcture programs. However, Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama voted FOR funding the Bridge, EVEN when given a second chance by Sen. Tom Coburn, who proposed shifting earmark funds to Katrina relief. Sen. McCain did not vote on the Coburn Amendment, though he is ON RECORD AS OPPSOING the Ketchikan bridge earmark.

Fighting a Different Alaska Republican, Alaska Dems Credit Palin with Killing Bridge to Nowhere September 08, 2008 4:38 PM Conservative bloggers point out that in their campaign against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Alaska Democrats gave credit to Gov. Palin for helping to kill the Bridge to Nowhere. “Gov. Sarah Palin said the $398 million bridge was $329 million short of full funding, and only $36 million in federal funds were set aside for it," the Democrats say. "She said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities."...

Senator Barack Obama on Thursday released a list of $740 million in earmarked spending requests that he had made over the last three years, and his campaign challenged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to do the same. The list included $1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois. But as the Senate debated a bill to restrict the controversial method of paying for home-state projects — a measure defeated Thursday evening — Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign also said...

I live in Washington, in a neighborhood that is home to lawyers, political consultants, television personalities and the chief executive of the TIAA-CREF pension fund. Not exactly an abode of the superrich, but the kind of neighborhood where almost nobody does her own yardwork or vacuums his own floor. Children’s birthday parties feature rented moon bounces or hired magicians. The local grocery stores offer elegant precooked dinners of salmon, duck and artichoke ravioli. Four miles to the southeast there stretches a different Washington. More than one-third of the people live in poverty. Close to half the young children are overweight....

Welcome to the People's Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state's Republican governor. That's $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin's. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax...

WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors. Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.... This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended...

ANCHORAGE — As she introduced herself to the nation Friday as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin touted her record as a reformer who worked to end the "abuses of earmark spending in Congress."But earmarks have never been a dirty word in Alaska, a huge state dotted with small communities that have enormous dollar needs for sewers, roads and other projects.Instead, earmarks — pet projects that members of Congress fund but that no federal agency has requested — have become a mainstay of political life here, and one that Palin embraced from early on in her career as...

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group. There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures, the Wall Street Journal reported. The borrowing could be needed to cover short-term cash-flow pressures caused by reimbursing depositors immediately after the failure of a bank, the paper said. The borrowed money would be repaid once the assets of that failed bank are sold. "I would not rule out the possibility that at some point we may need to tap into (short-term) lines of credit with the Treasury for working capital, not to cover our losses,"...

Sen. John McCain -- joined by Republican colleagues Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and David Vitter of New Orleans -- sent a letter to President Bush this week, saying that in light of tensions with Russia, the White House should tell NASA to stop any further dismantling of the shuttle infrastructure for at least a year to keep open the possibility of more shuttle flights beyond 2010. "We believe it is imperative, as NASA continues the transition from the Space Shuttle to the successor vehicles, that the means for producing additional flight hardware and obtaining additional flight engineering and support...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has been given an evening speaking slot at the Republican National Convention and will focus his remarks on wasteful government spending and earmarks, his office said Thursday. Coburn, who, like GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), is a vocal opponent of pork barrel spending, will address the convention on Tuesday night. Giving the Oklahoma senator a coveted evening slot will highlight McCain’s commitment to curbing wasteful spending and is seen as a nod to fiscal conservative voters fed up with the deficit spending that occurred during Republican control of Congress and continues under the Democratic...

Here is John McCain's New Radio Ad "Millions". It hammers Obama for his plans for huge tax increases and for increasing the size of Government.

Vancouver, WA - U.S. Sen. Patty Murray offered a bleak financial assessment this week for replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge, saying it would be “extremely difficult” for the federal government to provide even the minimum contribution backers expect. Murray, D-Wash., told The Columbian the project faces a number of potential obstacles, including a projected $3.4 billion shortfall in the federal highway trust fund and the possibility of a John McCain presidency. The Arizona Republican has promised to veto any “pork barrel” earmarks that direct federal dollars to projects outside the regular appropriations process. Preliminary financial plans call for using $400...

On the campaign trail, Sen. Barack Obama bashes President Bush for "reckless" economic policies that are "mortgaging our children's future on a mountain of debt." But the Democratic presidential candidate has adopted a key component of Bush's fiscal policy: A novel bookkeeping method that guarantees that the $9.5 trillion national debt will get much bigger. When Obama promises to cut taxes for the middle class without increasing the deficit, he is measuring his proposals against the large deficits that would result from Bush's plan to extend his signature tax cuts beyond their 2010 expiration date. Because Obama wants to eliminate...