Acorn’s plan to gain power in OKC unveiled

http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/24/acorn-oklahoma-document-dump-the-oklahoma-power-plan/

ACORN OKLAHOMA Document Dump: The Oklahoma Power Plan

by Publius

ACORN’s San Diego office isn’t the only place its been careless with sensitive documents. Late last year, ACORN abandoned an office in Oklahoma. In its haste to vacate the office–and skip out on the landlord’s claim of back-rent–ACORN abandoned piles of documents, as well as a computer. Below is a copy of ACORN’s “Oklahoma Power Plan,” a long-term political plan to reshape politics in the Sooner State.

OKlahoma Power Plan –

The “Power Plan” is a very interesting document. First, it provides another example for how ACORN’s political operation thinks strategically. The plan is focused on impacting state legislative races to create momentum and a power base to effect political races next year.

The second interesting feature of the document is how overtly partisan it is. At the beginning of the document, ACORN makes clear its goal is to put the Democrats in charge of the state Legislature:

Second, become an influential organization by shaping a handful of strategic legislative districts that, by themselves, can change who controls the state legislature.  In other words, by taking credit for controlling some swing seats that return state senate power to progressives in 2008 and the state house to progressives in 2010, ACORN may not have members in a majority of districts, but we will be seen as the force that is making Oklahoma a progressive state in the way that it was 100 years ago.

By using this power to win significant changes for working people, by the end of our 5 years, we will have legitimized the progressive takeover of the statehouse and head into 2012 with a real possibility of changing what Oklahomans look for and expect out of their Congressional delegation.

Consider this analysis from its top political priority, OK state Senate district #43, held by GOP Senator Jim Reynolds:

The district’s south half will prove difficult, with more Anglo, Republican, and military families.  The half to the north will be more fruitful.  The entire district is working class, however, so it could respond uniformly to the right issue.  This is the one of ACORN’s two targeted districts with a minority population above 25%

Anyone who protested Bush for this; we’re waiting for you to protest “The Chosen One”

President Obama Reaffirms Power of Indefinite Detention, Will Not Seek Additional Congressional Powers

Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/president-obama-reaffirms-power-of-indefinite-detention-will-not-seek-additional-congressional-powers.html

The Obama administration reaffirmed its belief this week that it has the power to indefinitely detain prisoners at Guantanamo and said it would not reach out and ask Congress to craft legislation to give them the authority.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said that when Congress on Sept. 18, 2001 gave President George W. Bush the authorization to use force against those behind the 9/11 attacks, lawmakers gave President Obama the power to indefinitely detain prisoners captured in that effort.

“Congress has already provided authorization through the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force to detain persons who the president determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, persons who harbored those responsible for those attacks, and persons who were part of, or substantially supported, Taliban or al Qaeda forces or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners,” Boyd said.

This is different than President Bush’s claim he had an inherent executive authority to detain people.

The decision was met with mixed emotions by civil liberties groups.

“We’re pleased that they’re not going to go to Congress to get legislation,” Chris Anders, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, told ABC News, saying that means it will be “less likely that we’re going to have a chaotic and harmful debate and legislative process in Congress.”

The ACLU feared that Congress might write laws granting authorities to President Obama than the ones he is asserting.

That said, Anders took issue with the fact that President Obama is continuing indefinite detention of prisoners without charge.

“The Obama administration has continued to polices of the Bush administration of holding people at Guantanamo, Bagram, and elsewhere, and not trying them,” Anders said. “They should not be exercising that authority.”

Anders argues that there exists “no reason why this government cannot charge and try people suspected of terrorism crimes” since the statutes written for those who have aided and abetted terrorism are so broad it’s easy to convict someone of the crime.

In his May address on national security, President Obama described a category of detainees – those “who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases, because evidence may be tainted, but who, nonetheless, pose a threat to the security of the United States” — calling the dilemma of what to do with them the “toughest single issue that we will face.”

At the time, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, hammered the decision, saying “allowing detention without trial creates a dangerous loophole in our justice system that mimics the Bush administration’s abusive approach to fighting terrorism.”

The president described these detainees as perhaps individuals who have “received extensive explosives training at al Qaeda training camps or commanded Taliban troops in battle or expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans.”

But perhaps the evidence against them is tainted because of use of brutal interrogation techniques. The president said his “goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for the remaining Guantanamo detainees that cannot be transferred.”

The rules can’t “be based simply on what I or the executive branch decide alone. And that’s why my administration has begun to reshape the standards that apply to ensure that they are in line with the rule of law.  We must have clear, defensible, and lawful standards for those who fall into this category.  We must be fair procedures so that we don’t make mistakes.  We must have a thorough process of periodic review so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.”

Boyd said today that since courts in Washington, D.C., continue to actively review habeas corpus cases of Guantanamo detainees, that counts as carefully evaluating and justifying detentions.

“The administration is not currently seeking additional authorization,” Boyd said.

-jpt

Bosnia crumbling

Been There, Didn’t Do That

By George Will

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/09/20/been_there_didnt_do_that_98385.htmlWASHINGTON — For 11 days in late August and early September in 1995, U.S. and NATO air power defended Bosnian Muslims, who were being attacked by Bosnian Serbs, who were supported by Serbian Serbs. This was merely the overture to something much more ambitious — a grand concert of nation-building that began when the Dayton agreement reached in December of that year calmed the Balkan furies of revanchism and revenge, for a while.

But agreements, like flowers, last while they last, and today’s fraying of Bosnia is not the fault of Richard Holbrooke, whose skill and tenacity produced the Dayton peace. Or perhaps the Dayton pause. Holbrooke, whose diplomatic career began in Vietnam, continues in the Obama administration, where his portfolio is Afghanistan and Pakistan. As the president contemplates an ambitious mission in the former, as a prophylactic measure to stabilize the latter, he should read “The Death of Dayton: How to Stop Bosnia From Falling Apart,” in Foreign Affairs.// <![CDATA[// // <![CDATA[//

Political scientists Patrice C. McMahon and Jon Western note that Bosnia was “once the poster child for international reconstruction efforts” and was considered “proof that under the right conditions the international community could successfully rebuild conflict-ridden countries.” Now, however, Bosnia “stands on the brink of collapse.”

Between 1996 and 2007, Bosnia received $14 billion in international aid from 17 foreign governments, 18 U.N. agencies, 27 intergovernmental organizations and approximately 200 nongovernmental organizations, plus the presence of 60,000 troops from 36 countries. It was, McMahon and Western say, “arguably the most extensive and innovative democratization experiment in history.” On a per capita basis, reconstruction of Bosnia — population, fewer than 4 million — “made the post-World War II rebuilding of Germany and Japan look modest.” The $14 billion was $300 per Bosnian per year. Since 2002, international donors have pledged $65 per Afghan per year.

Today, the centrifugal forces of the rival ethnic nationalisms of Bosnia’s Muslims, Croats and Serbs have, McMahon and Western say, stalled reform and the economy — unemployment is 27 percent, 25 percent of Bosnians live in poverty, and the public sector, with a ludicrous 160 ministers, swallows almost half the GDP. International organizations, suffering Balkan fatigue and eager to declare “mission accomplished,” are withdrawing, leaving Muslims isolated and vulnerable, and, as Bosnia is, McMahon and Western say, “drifting toward chaos.”

William Hague, shadow foreign secretary for Britain’s Conservative Party, which probably will be in power a year from now, in July endorsed the view that “Bosnia is on the edge again.” McMahon and Western warn: “Unless checked, the current trends toward fragmentation will almost certainly lead to a resumption of violence.” And history suggests that what happens is Bosnia does not stay in Bosnia.

“With factions from all three ethnic groups now challenging the Dayton structure,” McMahon and Western are emphatic: “First, a strong U.S. commitment is necessary.” But this is not a propitious moment to propose that, with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq — and North Korea, etc. — on Washington’s mind. So this question is apposite: If Bosnia — situated in placid and prosperous Europe; recipient of abundant aid and attention from the United States, the European Union, NATO and the U.N. — is so resistant to nation-building, what are sensible expectations for a similar project in remote, mountainous, tribal Afghanistan?

“It is human to hate,” the late Samuel Huntington wrote. Communities, like individuals, crave clear identities, which sometimes are built on foundations of shared dislikes. This is true of the communities within Bosnia, and Afghanistan.

In 1915, the young Walter Lippmann said: Considering that the East Side of Manhattan is a mystery to the West Side, “the business of arranging the world to the satisfaction of the people in it may be seen in something like its true proportions.” Lippmann later joined Woodrow Wilson’s post-World War I attempt to rearrange the world, which suddenly included Yugoslavia, of which Bosnia was a piece.

“I don’t want any of this onward-and-upward stuff,” said the aged Oliver Wendell Holmes to the young Lippmann. “You young men seem to think that if you sit on the world long enough you will hatch something out. But you’re wrong.” Holmes, who had been wounded at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, still the bloodiest day in American history, knew from experience that force can accomplish large things, such as the defeat of secession. But Holmes also knew there are limits.

// <![CDATA[//

georgewill@washpost.com

Obama’s goons coming to a catholic church near you!

http://www.reddirtreport.com/news.php?id=12076

OKLAHOMA CITY – The flyer is simple but informative. “Community Organizing at St. Charles.” Sounds innocuous enough. But upon closer inspection, it appears to be further attempts by ACORN-esque organizers to infiltrate well-meaning parishioners in the Catholic Church in the Oklahoma City area, among other places.

The flyer reads: “Come to a special training in community organizing for Catholic parishes, presented by Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee and hosted by Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish.”

Not much could be found about the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee, other than a Grace Presbyterian Church flyer online that notes that “the OSC is a congregation-based community action group that equips churches to better meet the needs of their communities through training and support.”

It also said seven Catholic churches are part of 27 churches in Oklahoma City that are getting involved with this community-organizing activity.

The corrupt group ACORN, which had been active in Oklahoma City until late last summer, is believed to be connected to this action considering it’s past links, as noted in this 2003 National Housing Institute article. Red Dirt Report was given an exclusive peek into a recently-abandoned ACORN office in south Oklahoma City last October. That report can be found here.

The event, scheduled August 8 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. is not being held at St. Charles Borromeo, rather at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in their Connor Center at 32^nd and Western.

Among items on the “program” at this “community organizing” event, includes “interactive community organizing training based on the first five chapters of Nehemiah with attention to the concepts of subsidiarity and solidarity, by Kris Ausdenmoore, lead organizer, Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee.”

Ausdenmoore, it turns out, according to a 2008 article in the Sooner Catholic, was the lead organizer for the Oklahoma IAF. IAF stands for Industrial Areas Foundation. They are located throughout the United States and have chapters in Canada, England and Germany, according to www.industrialareasfoundation.org. And they deal with not only Christians but Muslims, Jews and others as well.

“The leaders and organizers of the Industrial Areas Foundation build organizations whose primary purpose is POWER – the ability to act – and whose chief product is social change. They continue to practice what the Founding Fathers preached; the ongoing attempt to make life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness everyday realities for more and more Americans.”

IAF is pushing socialistic political ideas like the “living wage movement” in the United States, according to their website. And when they ask themselves why they do what they do, they respond, in part: “We do it because we are angry.” Boiled down, they are angry that life is not fair and more must be done to make it fair, whatever it takes. This is not much different from the liberation theology movement that swept Latin America and radical Catholic churches in North America more than 30 years ago.

It also notes there will be a potluck lunch, “focused house meeting training,” and don’t forget your Bible.

Alerting the masses to this Marxist organizing activity was popular afternoon radio talk show host Mark Shannon on KTOK AM 1000 in Oklahoma City.

“This is nothing more than a scam for Saul Alinsky, Barack Obama’s Marxist mentor. And to the churches, shame on you,” Shannon said.

And this is true. Obama, the community organizer, was a great admirer of Rules for Radicals author and activist Alinsky, who died in 1972. Charles Beggs, who writes for the Tulsa Beacon, wrote in April in an article called “The Wolves Are At the Door,” that IAF has “disavowed some of Alinsky’s more extreme views” but also split churches in the process “seek(ing) to work within unsuspecting Catholic and Protestant congregations, and among other constituencies, to further a decidedly liberal agenda.”

Callers to his show Tuesday afternoon were equally concerned. One caller noted that this is nothing but a government attempt to further Obamanize the churches by forming “brownshirt” groups and advance leftist and socialistic ideas, including redistribution of wealth.

Another caller said he was fed up with Oklahoma City Archbishop Eusebius Beltran because he is a poor leader and Catholics who have concerns about radical leftists making inroads in their churches are ignored.

Shannon tended to agree and chided the churches that are getting involved with this activity, calling on listeners to “infiltrate the meeting” and “tape record the meetings” and send them to him afterward.

These community organizers, Shannon said, are “bad, bad news. We don’t want them in Oklahoma City.”

Further research led Red Dirt Report to the website of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, which goes into more detail about the “Community Organizing at St. Charles.”

The website says they are involved in community organizing by quoting Pope Benedict 16^th and the late Pope John Paul II and noting that they are looking out for the “common good.”

“In September (community organizers) will conduct a parish information campaign. The object of this campaign will not be to GIVE information to parishioners. It will be to HEAR the concerns of our parishioners and to lean abou the pressures facing our families and individuals as citizens in the metropolitan area.”

With that in mind, Red Dirt Report hopes to attend the Saturday organizing event and will report more in the coming days.

Copyright 2009 West Marie Media

Mary Fallin Town Hall Meeting

Francis Tuttle, Portland Campus, 3500 NW 150th

Thursday, August 13, 5:30pm

The Joker

Jim DeMint dismantles Obama on healthcare

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/07/21/sen_demint_obama_cant_back_up_his_utopian_promises.html

OK County GOP Picnic

The event was very well attended.  Dignitaries and candidates for office included Randy Brogdon, Tadd Lamb, Guy Liebman, Dwayne McAnally, and Colby Mitchell.

New Obama Ad

Romney leading