Free Republic

Bertha Lewis is all done with apologies. Fresh off her ACORN Apology Tour, the group's CEO on Tuesday kicked of her new Denial Tour, charging that nearly every accusation lodged against the embattled community organizing group in recent weeks is not only false but downright racist. And for good measure, she threw in former President George W. Bush's adviser Karl Rove, arch villain and longtime whipping boy of liberals nationwide. "For many years, there've been folks who've disagreed with our ideology or methodology that has gone after us," Mrs. Lewis said in a speech at the National Press Club in...

Patrick Gaspard, considered one of the most powerful figures in the Obama White House, is a "longtime ACORN operative" and former union official, according to a report posted Monday on the American Spectator's online blog. Gaspard's name recently surfaced as the official President Obama dispatched to urge beleaguered New York Gov. David Paterson not to run for another term. Paterson insists he'll continue to run for governor even without Obama's support. Gaspard has extensive ties to organized labor and community-organizing groups. One measure of his influence in the White House: He holds the same "political affairs director" title that belonged...

Newly discovered evidence shows the radical advocacy group ACORN has a man in the Obama White House. This power behind the throne is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard. He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House. Evidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York. Lewis, the current "chief organizer" or CEO of ACORN, was head of New York ACORN from at least 1994 through 2008, when she took over as national leader of ACORN....

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

ACORN's top officer said Sunday that she was "outraged" by the content of hidden-camera videotapes showing her organization's employees offering advice to undercover filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute, as she pledged to "reform" the inner workings of the activist group. Chief organizer Bertha Lewis tried to calm a growing firestorm over the behavior of her group's employees. Allegations of voter registration fraud and other ethical lapses have plagued ACORN for years, but the videotapes were the last straw for the group's critics -- as well as its long-time defenders. The videotapes, filmed by two conservative activists, led to...

Georgia Rep. John Lewis, one of Washington's most prominent Democrats, called the White House earlier this year to try to block the appointment of a federal prosecutor who won convictions against more than a dozen public officials in Atlanta -- including former Mayor Bill Campbell, a longtime friend and ally of Mr. Lewis. After queries from The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Lewis' contacted White House Counsel Greg Craig late last month to withdraw his objections to the nomination of the prosecutor, Sally Q. Yates, for U.S. Attorney in Atlanta. Two government officials with knowledge of the matter described the calls....

Alexander Lewis, who has been at Citigroup since 1999 and before that worked at the Federal Reserve, will head to the Treasury "to work on domestic financial issues," said the Citigroup memo, which was sent Tuesday. -WSJ I suppose it is a step up for his career, but I am not so certain it is a step up for America. Citigroup’s chief economist Lewis Alexander just got a new dream job at the Treasury Department. And wow, he also once worked for the Federal Reserve – impressive! He is a professional con-man. Again, the administration is blatantly recycling old crooks...

The death of Pol Pot, 23 years to the day after he and the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia, occasioned long backward glances at one of the 20th century's most horrific genocides. It was noted everywhere that the communist reign of terror in Cambodia lasted nearly four years and that at least 1 million human beings -- by some estimates as many as 2 1/2 million -- were murdered in an orgy of executions, torture, and starvation. "In the name of a radical utopia," The New York Times recalled in its long obituary, "the Khmer Rouge regime had turned...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his involvement in Bank of America Corp.'s controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch on Thursday, arguing that even though the government's "responses were not perfect," the actions were necessary."I am confident that our responses were substantially correct and that they saved this nation from great peril," Paulson told a House Oversight and Investigations Committee. The former secretary of the Treasury is responding to concerns by lawmakers that he and the Federal Reserve may have ordered Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis to go through with the Merrill Lynch acquisition...

Fed Hit by Subpoena - Fasten Your Seatbelt By Axel Merk on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 · 6 Comments  The Federal Reserve was served a subpoena from a Congressional committee Tuesday, as lawmakers demanded documents related to Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch. In our view, this is a precursor of more trouble to come for the Fed. We have argued for some time that Fed Chairman Bernanke completely underestimates the political dimensions of the policies he pursues. The various "credit easing" programs have little to do with monetary policy, the domain of the Fed. Monetary policy ought to...

Confession time. It always bugs me when I see a politician darken the doorway of a church. This is counterintuitive, of course. I mean, here's the one door politicians should darken more frequently, in my opinion. Most politicians need a whole lotta churchin'. But the reason it bugs me is I always wonder if they're darkening that door for sincere spiritual reasons, or for photo ops. Too often it's proven to be the latter, not the former. The distinction can generally be made by how many news cameras are on hand and how much the politician smiles and waves. I...

'Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It  and Polarize It.'   - Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals.  That's what Barack Obama taught his ACORN followers in all his Community Agitator classes in Chicago. That slogan defines mob scapegoating, of course. It is an exact prescription for whipping up mobs -- by race, by gender, by ethnicity, by religion. If you want to know how to whip a mob of Pakistani Taliban fascisti to whip a young girl for flirting with a young man in public, this is exactly what you do: Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personality It, and Polarize It....

Lewis and Clark brought an airgun on the Voyage of Discovery. When this fact became widely known after World War II, while air rifle manufacturers were mass producing and marketing inexpensive models for boys throughout America, the revelation seemed profound. A pellet rifle? A BB gun on that famous expedition by Thomas Jefferson's Corps of Discovery? Well, not exactly. The airgun Lewis and Clark brought along was a powerful weapon, hardly a Daisy Red Ryder.

April 24, 2009, 1:42 a.m. TARP Looking More Criminal by the MinuteThe issue of TARP corruption may now extend from corporate CEOs and federal regulators to New York’s attorney general. By Donald Luskin Is TARP a criminal enterprise? When a CNBC producer called me on Wednesday to see if I’d debate that question on the Kudlow Report that evening, I thought the allegation was ridiculous. How could the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Assets Relief Program to rescue the banking system possibly be compared to the Sopranos? But now I’m not so sure. Yesterday’s sensational claims by New York Attorney General...

BAC Apr 23 2009, 06:40 PM EDT 8.82 Change % Change +0.56 +6.78% Developing... Andrew Cuomo has sent an angry letter to regulators including Mary Schapiro, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank regarding the behavior of Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke over the allegation that they forced Bank of America (BAC) to complete its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. The upshot: Ken Lewis was definitely interested in pulling the plug on the Merrill Lynch deal, but he was pressured not to with a threat that he'd be fired and the board would be completely sacked. This came from Hank Paulson,...

The integrity of the government's bailout actions are called into question by a new report. There's a lot at stake. A new report by the New York Attorney General says that government officials bullied Bank of America Chief Ken Lewis into accepting a merger with Merrill Lynch--then ordered him to keep mum about losses at Merrill. What's at stake? The integrity of the government's bailout actions, for one. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's reputation, for another. And of course Lewis' job. Thursday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released documents charging that in December former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressured...

Bank of America Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lewis testified under oath in New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation in February. During the testimony, Mr. Lewis told prosecutors that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke instructed him to keep silent about deepening financial difficulties at Merrill Lynch. In a letter today to members of Congress and the head of Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Cuomo called into question the transparency of the decision making in the process. Here are highlights from the transcript. Here, Mr. Lewis testifies about when he learned of Merrill's deepening losses: Mr....

<p>WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.</p>

(FORTUNE Magazine) – As we tap out these words on our trusty 101-key enhanced keyboard, the Dow Jones industrial average is around 2700 and also looking enhanced. ... (FORTUNE Magazine) – Easily the most maddening political debate these days is the one about whether Congressman Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat, should resign on grounds of turpitude. ...

Though members of the mainstream media seem to have noticed in recent days that the radical, thoroughly corrupt left-wing group ACORN exists, the MSM are still accepting ACORN's word that it is strictly nonpartisan. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the MSM continue to churn out stories about alleged "voter suppression" (yes, it exists, but it is a pretty minor thing, especially when compared to ACORN's widespread electoral fraud), ACORN's interim organizer in chief Bertha Lewis has removed any remaining doubt about which political party ACORN supports. Lewis is featured in a video posted on YouTube by an...

Though members of the mainstream media seem to have noticed in recent days that the radical, thoroughly corrupt left-wing group ACORN exists, the MSM are still accepting ACORN's word that it is strictly nonpartisan.Nothing could be further from the truth. While the MSM continue to churn out stories about alleged "voter suppression" (yes, it exists, but it is a pretty minor thing, especially when compared to ACORN's widespread electoral fraud), ACORN's interim organizer in chief Bertha Lewis has removed any remaining doubt about which political party ACORN supports.Lewis is featured in a video posted on YouTube by an ACORN affiliate,Working...

There's a new strategy hatched from the left, proof an Obama nation will not unite our country. It's as ugly as anything I've seen in politics. It hit me last week when Obama supporter and Democrat Congressman John Lewis compared McCain-Palin audiences to the people who voted for Gov. George Wallace, a white segregationist and Democrat who ran Alabama 40 years ago and has been dead for a decade. I'm sure many Obamites bought into his comparison. Rep. Lewis is a Civil Rights hero and should recognize stark, evil racism when he sees it, right? But it's sad, really sad,...

ARLINGTON, Virginia (AFP) — Republicans Sunday pushed back against charges that John McCain's campaign had been sowing "hatred" against Barack Obama, as they struggled to put their White House bid back on track. Just over three weeks until the November 4 elections, Republican presidential nominee McCain reacted furiously at the accusations leveled against him by 1960s civil rights icon John Lewis. The latest political turbulence came as Obama, 47, builds a steady lead over McCain, 72, on the national level, and on the state-by-state electoral map. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, on CBS television's "Face the Nation," said: "The idea that...

In a statement, Obama-Biden spokesman Bill Burton writes that, while Obama does not agree with the comparison of McCain's campaign to those of segregation advocate George Wallace, he does believe that Rep. John Lewis is justified in his condemnation of "the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night," as well as Palin's assertion that the candidate "pals around with terrorists." Here's the full statement: “Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies. But John Lewis was right to condemn some...

Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis is accusing John McCain and Sarah Palin of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at Republican campaign events to those featuring George Wallace, the segregationist former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate. "What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement issued today.  "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse." Lewis didn't accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities. "George Wallace...

Clinton fan club booster Ann Lewis popped up on FOX NEWS tonite to help provide analysis and insight on the Pennsylvania primary. Her appearance served to make one mindful of how annoying she was when Bill Clinton was in office. Her ever present answer to a pointed question of something like, "You're the only one in the world who perceived things like that and I'm surprised you would ask that question. Why, everyone in America is certainly not concerned about such an unimportant and inane thing." One, after seeing her I realized two things: I haven't missed her and, two,...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Police arrested a man in a grocery store parking lot after they say he put nude pictures of himself near people's cars. According to police, a man and his young daughter came out of a Harris Teeter at the Oceanfront Saturday to find the nude photographs on his car. The suspect, Robert B. Lewis, was allegedly in the same parking lot, sitting drunk in his vehicle, according to police. Lewis told 13News he is a victim of circumstance and that the pictures were never meant for grocery shoppers' eyes. "A lot of couples do that,...

A story in Friday's New York Times that said U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was going to back Barack Obama for president is inaccurate, a spokeswoman for the former civil rights leader told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning. Lewis press secretary Brenda Jones did not elaborate and has not yet responded to a request for clarification. The Times' story, which was carried in Friday's AJC, said Lewis was planning to drop his long-time support for Hillary Clinton and vote for Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in August. Lewis is one of 13 so-called superdelegates from...

A startling arrest in twin's death Brother of slain East High youth charged in his murder By Theodore Decker and Simone Sebastian THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH The twins did everything together. Relatives said they were inseparable. A teacher called them "two peas in a pod." And after Dennis Lewis, 17, was shot and killed while rushing to defend his mother during what appeared to be a robbery at their North Linden home last month, his twin, Derris, stood strong. He spoke for the family. He spoke to their teachers and peers at East of Arcadia High School, where he continued to...

Led by the state's twin deacons of demagoguery, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar and state Sen. Steve Murphy, the party of government wasted no time in going public with its shopworn answer to every conceivable catastrophe: more funding and more taxes. Ten years ago, long before Tim Pawlenty or George W. Bush took office, Minnesota's Office of Legislative Auditor made clear in a report to lawmakers that there was a "backlog of bridges that are classified as having structural deficiencies." The 2005 "bridge to nowhere" highway bill (one of the reasons the GOP lost control of Congress in '06) was loaded...

The foundation marked Gormley’s achievement with a donation of books — seven volumes of the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition — to the Tomlinson Library at Mesa State College. The journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark... were edited by Gary Moulton and published by the University of Nebraska Press. They are known among today’s historians as the best and most current version of the duo’s journey through the American West. Mesa State College Library Director Elizabeth Brodak said the fact that the books are forms of primary source material... “Anyone who wishes to get that flavor for...

April 26, 2007 C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther Speak Out Against Rick Warren's 'Seeker-Friendly Gospel' by Chris Rosebrough “Wait a minute”, you exclaim. “It is historically impossible for C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther to comment on Rick Warren. They were both dead long before Rick Warren launched Saddleback Church or wrote the Purpose Driven Life.” You may be technically correct but, remember that the book of Ecclesiastes tells us that there is “nothing new under the sun”. Fact is, Rick Warren did not invent the soft-pedaled 'seeker-friendly' gospel. Warren isn’t the first man in history to think that the way...

WONDERLAND Scooter Libby and Reputation Prosecutions that wreak ruin on a lifetime. The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is the closest version of a Red Queen trial this country has had in a long time. One says that knowing it might start a stampede from past defendants laying claim to the most upside-down prosecution. Lewis G. Carroll's account of the Knave' s trial before the Red Queen and White Rabbit is famous for the Queen's dictum, "Sentence first, verdict afterward." But read the full transcript of the mock trial and one will see that the real subject is not...

C.S. Lewis may be best known for his Chronicles of Narnia series of books, but with the success of the first Narnia film, it seems Hollywood is ready to start adapting the author's other works as well. First up: a big screen version of Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. Ralph Winter Prods. is producing the film along with Walden Media, reports Variety. Walden is no stranger to Lewis' work, having already worked with Disney on the first Narnia, as well as its upcoming sequel Prince Caspian. Planned for a 2008 release, Screwtape Letters is described as follows: "[It] takes the form...

Debate is the night of 12/5 at the Mermaid in Mound,MN Tickets are $65 with it all going to Anoka COunty disabled vets.

Lyle Dorsett has a lot of insights into the Anglicanism of C. S. Lewis, of which he writes in his book Seeking the Secret Place - The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis. He reminds us firstly of Lewis' statement in the Preface of Mere Christianity that he was neither high nor low Anglican, just an ordinary layman in the Church. He did have a high regard for the Anglican tradition. This is evident in his book Letters to Malcolm and personal letters. Dorsett says that the safest thing to call Lewis is a Protestant, since the Anglican Church was...

Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY Voters removed a 3rd District judge who reduced the sentence of a sex offender and also caught the wrath of deer hunters and gun owners for an anti-hunting diatribe from the bench. In Salt Lake, Tooele and Summit counties, 54 percent of voters Tuesday said Judge Leslie Lewis should not be retained, a rare defeat for a sitting jurist. Lewis, a judge since 1991, was out of town and unavailable for comment, court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said Wednesday. “I just don’t like the way this one was done,” said Greg Skordas, one of 40 lawyers...

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush hosted an Oval Office ceremony on Thursday to honor authors, historians and others with the National Humanities Medal. I was fortunate enough during my short career as a Middle East observer to get to know two of the honorees, Fouad Ajami and Bernard Lewis. Fouad was my houseguest when he first arrived in DC from Princeton back in late '79, early 1980. He was reading the famous Raj trilogy and Freud and a number of other books not directly related to the Middle East. We actually were going to invest in a couple...

Most private contractors keeping tabs on billions of dollars in governmental spending for the U.S. House Appropriations Committee have been let go. With about 60 investigators gone, the shakeup leaves only 16 full-time employees in the unit, USA Today reported. Committee spokesman John Scofield said that the quality of the unit's work had been questioned by leaders of the Republican-controlled committee. Scofield said the ongoing investigations include the $62 billion federal relief package for Hurricane Katrina.

When Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark out on their famous journey, he took extraordinary steps to provide for their safety. He provided them with a blank check backed by the United States government to purchase any ship they might figure they needed on the west coast, assuming they felt such a need, and he provided them with the ultimate small arm of the time. It appears as if this ultimate small arm might have been a major factor in the expedition not having been annihilated by Indians. Not that tribes were wiped out with the weapon, nonetheless...

House Republican appropriators remained unwilling yesterday to publicly endorse their leadership’s resolution requiring disclosure of earmark sponsors, setting up a possible rebellion by committee members that could bring down the resolution. Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) huddled with his panel yesterday afternoon but emerged with no firm panel-wide plan to oppose the earmark-reform resolution. Many GOP appropriators believe the resolution singles out their committee’s product while applying a narrow definition of tax and authorizing earmarks. “We are attempting to communicate with leadership that this committee feels very strongly that earmark reform is a priority, but it should apply to everybody,”...

LEWIS, a black-and-white cat in the Connecticut town of Fairfield whose attacks on passers-by nearly sent his owner to jail, was spared a death sentence on Tuesday when a judge ordered home confinement. He will also keep his claws, despite a victim's request that they be removed.

Jerry Lewis is a man embattled. In nearly 40 years of public service, he has risen from humble roots on the school board of San Bernardino to become one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives - chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which oversees nearly $900 billion in federal funding. He touts his successes in developing federal clean-air standards, crafting crime and drug legislation and securing emergency funding for disaster relief for California. Closer to home, he counts the establishment of a high-tech cancer center at Loma Linda University Medical Center, the expansion of Ontario...

Congressman Jerry Lewis is at the center of a federal investigation into a lobbying giant in the nation's capital, but he's not keeping a low profile. "This is not a difficult time at all,'' Lewis said Saturday from his home in Redlands. "Since I haven't seen any of these subpoenas or had anybody contact me about them, I don't think I should comment. I have served this community for 40 years, and I expect to continue to do so.'' San Bernardino County, the city of Redlands, and Cal State San Bernardino are among local agencies and businesses that have confirmed...

As many of you here in West Virginia know, Senator Byrd's wife died recently. And that he was married for 55+ years. Which means the 6-month rule may come into play: i.e. with long, stable marriages, spouses often die within 6 months of each other. . . Which, in turn, means we may well be looking at an Open Seat, come November, or, alternately, Senator Byrd dying AFTER filing/nominating dates close: the "Missouri" scenario that bit John Ashcroft. So, putting on my old hat as a contingency planner (acquired while I was in the Air Force). . . . what...

For years the US Government has listened to and learnt from the 90-year-old Professor Bernard LewisCONSIDER AMERICA the paradoxical. It is the most forward-looking country on earth, where one of the cruellest put-downs is “you’re history�. It is a youthful country, where the elderly are regularly dismissed as “old timers�. And its public discourse can be spectacularly anti-academic, with populist politicians railing against “pointy-headed professors�. But yesterday, Dick Cheney — arguably the most powerful Vice-President in American history — commandeered Air Force 2 and flew to Philadelphia to speak at a luncheon in honour of a 90-year-old history professor. The...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version April 26, 2006, 11:22 a.m. Bridge to November The inability of a handful of House Republicans to stomach a long-overdue belt-tightening reform is threatening to prevent the House from passing a budget resolution for the first time since 1974. Fortunately for fiscal conservatives, a pork-laden spending bill has come along just in time to remind the public why this particular reform is so desperately needed. On Tuesday, President Bush threatened to veto an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Katrina if it exceeds $92.2 billion. Bush, who has yet to...

Despite bombs, boats and rubber bullets, dozens of sea lions are continuing to kill salmon near the Bonneville Dam. This month, biologists are trying one last time to scare off the problem sea lions, but if that doesn't work, they may try to kill them. Sea lions could kill as much as 10 percent of this spring's salmon run and biologists say if they cannot get the problem solved soon, the situation could get ugly. The problem is that the salmon are disappearing. An estimated 8,000 salmon will be lost this spring at Bonneville Dam. "The difficult part about it...

Crazy Cat Terrorizes Connecticut Town FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer. "He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons." The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she...

FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.