Michael Gaynor
Newt Gingrich better study the Cloward-Piven strategy
By Michael Gaynor
Gingrich sees the secular-socialist tidal wave, but apparently he thinks that Obama — the stealth socialist instrument or "tip of the Cloward-Piven spear" — is merely mistaken.
On June 24, 2010, former Speaker Newt Gingrich stopped by the Huntington Book Revue, aka Sean Hannity's favorite book store, located in Huntington, Long Island, New York, to promote his latest book, To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine.
Gingrich is right about America needing saving from Obama's secular-socialist machine and the succinct message on the book's inside flap is blunt:
"America on the Brink
"The Obama administration is conspiring to transform America. They want to remake our America — of free enterprise, faith, and personal freedom — into their America — of endless bureaucracy, secularism, and state control — despite overwhelming opposition from the American people. How is this possible? How has the Obama team succeeded in adopting widely despised policies like the massive stimulus bill and the healthcare takeover? How could such a radical president and his congressional leaders get elected and then take a center-right country in a socialist direction bitterly opposed by most Americans? Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has the answer: the Left have built a secular-socialist machine out of corruption, lust for power, and sheer ruthlessness, and are using it to steamroll over the will of the people. In this book, Gingrich reveals:
* How the secular-socialist machine gained power through deception and outright lies
* How the machine shuts the American people out of the legislative process
* Why some of our most powerful leaders seek to banish religion from public life
* How the machine uses taxpayer money to pay off its supporters and punish its opponents
* How we can replace, not reform, Obama's socialist programs
Exposing the mortal threat now facing America, To Save America offers concrete strategies for dismantling the machine and replacing it with policies and institutions that work. But we must act fast, Gingrich warns, or our children will inherit a secular, socialist America transformed beyond recognition."
Right!
Yet, amazingly, Gingrich said that the operators of that secular-socialist machine are merely mistaken, not malevolent.
The secular-socialist conspirators are NOT well-meaning, but mistaken.
Also amazingly, historian Gingrich seemed unfamiliar with the Cloward-Piven strategy when I asked him about it.
The Cloward-Piven strategy was presented in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation by radical socialist Columbia University professors Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.
Former socialist David Horowitz defined it as "[t]he strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis" that "seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse." See James Simpson, "Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis" (September 28, 2008) (www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html).
Gingrich's ignorance may explain why he proudly told his audience that he had been criticizing Republican strategists for "negative campaigning."
Simpson was insightful and blunt, not ignorant or gullible:
"Barack Obama, the Cloward-Piven candidate, no matter how he describes himself, has been a radical activist for most of his political career. That activism has been in support of organizations and initiatives that at their heart seek to tear the pillars of this nation asunder in order to replace them with their demented socialist vision. Their influence has spread so far and so wide that despite their blatant culpability in the current financial crisis, they are able to manipulate Capital Hill politicians to cut them into $140 billion of the bailout pie!
"God grant those few responsible yet remaining in Washington, DC the strength to prevent this massive fraud from occurring. God grant them the courage to stand up in the face of this Marxist tidal wave."
Gingrich sees the secular-socialist tidal wave, but apparently he thinks that Obama — the stealth socialist instrument or "tip of the Cloward-Piven spear" — is merely mistaken.
Simpson on ACORN:
"ACORN, the new tip of the Cloward-Piven spear
"In 1970, one of George Wiley's protégés, Wade Rathke — like Bill Ayers, a member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) — was sent to found the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now. While NWRO had made a good start, it alone couldn't accomplish the Cloward-Piven goals. Rathke's group broadened the offensive to include a wide array of low income 'rights.' Shortly thereafter they changed 'Arkansas' to 'Association of' and ACORN went nationwide.
"Today ACORN is involved in a wide array of activities, including housing, voting rights, illegal immigration and other issues. According to ACORN's website: 'ACORN is the nation's largest grassroots community organization of low-and moderate-income people with over 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the country,' It is perhaps the largest radical group in the U.S. and has been cited for widespread criminal activity on many fronts."
Simpson on Obama:
"The chart puts Barack Obama at the epicenter of an incestuous stew of American radical leftism. Not only are his connections significant, they practically define who he is. Taken together, they constitute a who's who of the American radical left, and guiding all is the Cloward-Piven strategy.
"Conspicuous in their absence are any connections at all with any other group, moderate, or even mildly leftist. They are all radicals, firmly bedded in the anti-American, communist, socialist, radical leftist mesh.
"Saul Alinsky
"Most people are unaware that Barack Obama received his training in 'community organizing' from Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. But he did. In and of itself that marks his heritage and training as that of a radical activist. One really needs go no further. But we have.
"Bill Ayers
"Obama objects to being associated with SDS bomber Bill Ayers, claiming he is being smeared with 'guilt by association.' But they worked together at the Woods Fund. The Wall Street Journal added substantially to our knowledge by describing in great detail Obama's work over five years with SDS bomber Bill Ayers on the board of a non-profit, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, to push a radical agenda on public school children. As Stanley Kurtz states: '...the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle. That is a story even if Mr. Ayers had never planted a single bomb 40 years ago.'
"Also included in the mix is Theresa Heinz Kerry's favorite charity, the Tides Foundation. A partial list of Tides grants tells you all you need to know: ACLU, ACORN, Center for American Progress, Center for Constitutional Rights (a communist front,) CAIR, Earth Justice, Institute for Policy Studies (KGB spy nest), National Lawyers Guild (oldest communist front in U.S.), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and practically every other radical group there is. ACORN's Wade Rathke runs a Tides subsidiary, the Tides Center.
"Carl Davidson and the New Party
"We have heard about Bomber Bill, but we hear little about fellow SDS member Carl Davidson. According to Discover the Networks, Davidson was an early supporter of Barack Obama and a prominent member of Chicago's New Party, a synthesis of CPUSA members, Socialists, ACORN veterans and other radicals. Obama sought and received the New Party's endorsement, and they assisted with his campaign. The New Party also developed a strong relationship with ACORN. As an excellent article on the New Party observes: 'Barack Obama knew what he was getting into and remains an ideal New Party candidate.'
"George Soros
"The chart also suggests the reason for George Soros' fervent support of Obama. The President of his Open Society Institute is Aryeh Neier, founder of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). As mentioned above, three other former SDS members had extensive contact with Obama: Bill Ayers, Carl Davidson and Wade Rathke. Surely Aryeh Neier would have heard from his former colleagues of the promising new politician. More to the point, Neier is firmly committed to supporting the hugely successful radical organization, ACORN, and would be certain back their favored candidate, Barack Obama.
"ACORN
"Obama has spent a large portion of his professional life working for ACORN or its subsidiaries, representing ACORN as a lawyer on some of its most critical issues, and training ACORN leaders. Stanley Kurtz's excellent National Review article, 'Inside Obama's Acorn,' also describes Obama's ACORN connection in detail. But I can't improve on Obama's own words: I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career (emphasis added). Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. — Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007 (Courtesy Newsmax.)
"In another excellent article on Obama's ACORN connections, Newsmax asks a nagging question: It would be telling to know if Obama, during his years at Columbia, had occasion to meet Cloward and study the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
"I ask you, is it possible ACORN would train Obama to take leadership positions within ACORN without telling him what he was training for? Is it possible ACORN would put Obama in leadership positions without clueing him into what his purpose was?? Is it possible that this most radical of organizations would put someone in charge of training its trainers, without him knowing what it was he was training them for?
"As a community activist for ACORN; as a leadership trainer for ACORN; as a lead organizer for ACORN's Project Vote; as an attorney representing ACORN's successful efforts to impose Motor Voter regulations in Illinois; as ACORN's representative in lobbying for the expansion of high risk housing loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current crisis; as a recipient of their assistance in his political campaigns — both with money and campaign workers; it is doubtful that he was unaware of ACORN's true goals. It is doubtful he was unaware of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
"Fast-forward to 2005 when an obsequious, servile and scraping Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus swearing in ceremony for newly-elected Illinois Senator, Barack Obama. Mudd called, the Congressional Black Caucus 'our family' and 'the conscience of Fannie Mae.'
"In 2005, Republicans sought to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Senator John McCain was at the forefront of that effort. But it failed due to an intense lobbying effort put forward by Fannie and Freddie.
"In his few years as a U.S. senator, Obama has received campaign contributions of $126,349, from Fannie and Freddie, second only to the $165,400 received by Senator Chris Dodd, who has been getting donations from them since 1988. What makes Obama so special?
"His closest advisers are a dirty laundry list of individuals at the heart of the financial crisis: former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson; Former Fannie Mae CEO and former Clinton Budget Director Frank Raines; and billionaire failed Superior Bank of Chicago Board Chair Penny Pritzker.
"Johnson had to step down as adviser on Obama's V.P. search after this gem came out:
'An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive substantial bonuses in 1998. A 2006 OFHEO report found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Originally reported as $6-7 million, Johnson actually received approximately $21 million.
"Obama denies ties to Raines but the Washington Post calls him a member of 'Obama's political circle.' Raines and Johnson were fined $3 million by the Office of Federal Housing Oversight for their manipulation of Fannie books. The fine is small change however, compared to the $50 million Raines was able to obtain in improper bonuses as a result of juggling the books.
"Most significantly, Penny Pritzker, the current Finance Chairperson of Obama's presidential campaign helped develop the complicated investment bundling of subprime securities at the heart of the meltdown. She did so in her position as shareholder and board chair of Superior Bank. The Bank failed in 2001, one of the largest in recent history, wiping out $50 million in uninsured life savings of approximately 1,400 customers. She was named in a RICO class action law suit but doesn't seem to have come out of it too badly.
"As a young attorney in the 1990s, Barack Obama represented ACORN in Washington in their successful efforts to expand Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) authority. In addition to making it easier for ACORN groups to force banks into making risky loans, this also paved the way for banks like Superior to package mortgages as investments, and for the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite them.
These changes created the conditions that ultimately lead to the current financial crisis.
"Did they not know this would occur? Were these smart people, led by a Harvard graduate, unaware of the Econ 101 concept of moral hazard that would result from the government making implicit guarantees to underwrite private sector financial risk? They should have known that freeing the high-risk mortgage market of risk, calamity was sure to ensue. I think they did."
Gingrich seems to think it was a good faith mistake!
Simpson knows better.
ACORN Housing was listed in the index of Gingrich's book.
ACORN was not listed in the index, but at least it was discussed a bit.
Gingrich noted that Obama, during his first campaign for an Illinois state senate seat in 1996, listed ACORN first on a questionnaire that called for the names of supporting organizations.
That is telling, especially when juxtaposed with this Obama lie during the last presidential debate: "My only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs."
Gingrich also reported that the Obama Justice Department had given ACORN a pass on voter fraud.
But Gingrich's book never mentioned ACORN's stealth socialism platform, or examined all of Obama's extensive ties to ACORN, or referred to ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief or the New York Times spiking on October 21, 2008 of an Obama/ ACORN expose on which Times reporter Stephanie Strom had been working with Ms. MonCrief.
As a presidential hopeful, Gingrich needs to get up to speed.
In addition to Simpson and Ms. MonCrief (www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.com), Gingrich should read Kevin Mooney's June 22, 2010 article at http://netrightdaily.com/2010/06/nyt-scrutiny-of-bermans-non-profits-should-be-directed-against-acorn/.
Mooney taunted The Times to let Ms. Strom report on the Obama/ACORN connection:
"...Strom is the same reporter who wrote about the ACORN organization in the months leading up to the 2008 presidential election. Her investigation was shut down when Anita MonCrief, the anonymous source Strom had been using, revealed that the Obama Presidential Campaign had sent its maxed out donor list to the Washington D.C. ACORN office. The relationship between Strom and MonCrief, a former Project Vote/ACORN employee, is described here in a previous TimesCheck posting."
"...Cleta Mitchell, co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA), had identified numerous violations of federal law involving ACORN's non-profit organizations based on testimony MonCrief delivered under oath. So...why is this is not a subject for further investigation?
"'Project Vote should be investigated and audited by the IRS to ascertain whether Project Vote should be allowed to maintain its 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, based on the apparent misappropriation of charitable contributions for impermissible purposes,' Mitchell concluded in her analysis."
"... the community organizers formerly known as ACORN also benefit from anonymous donors.
"'Anyone who celebrates the demise of ACORN has celebrated prematurely because they are not going away,' MonCrief said in an interview. 'The network is repositioning itself so it can receive new donations.'"
"MonCrief identified Wellspring Advisors, Vanguard Charitable Endowment, the Rockefeller Fund and the Tides Foundation as the major conduits for facilitating anonymous donations.
"'If someone wanted to contribute directly to ACORN without having their name attached to it they could give a check to Wellspring Advisors, they can give to Vanguard Charitable Endowment, they can give to Tides Foundation,' she said. 'There are so many ways ACORN can obtain money through these anonymous donors and some are connected to the Rockefeller Fund. So long as there is an agenda they are going to make sure that money is funneled to them anyway they can.'
"Strom, who has done some excellent investigative pieces, should consider reactivating her old source...."
The New York Times wants to conceal, not report, the truth about Obama and ACORN. But maybe Gingrich will learn what Obama and the Cloward-Piven strategy are really all about.
© Michael Gaynor
June 25, 2010
Gingrich sees the secular-socialist tidal wave, but apparently he thinks that Obama — the stealth socialist instrument or "tip of the Cloward-Piven spear" — is merely mistaken.
On June 24, 2010, former Speaker Newt Gingrich stopped by the Huntington Book Revue, aka Sean Hannity's favorite book store, located in Huntington, Long Island, New York, to promote his latest book, To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine.
Gingrich is right about America needing saving from Obama's secular-socialist machine and the succinct message on the book's inside flap is blunt:
"America on the Brink
"The Obama administration is conspiring to transform America. They want to remake our America — of free enterprise, faith, and personal freedom — into their America — of endless bureaucracy, secularism, and state control — despite overwhelming opposition from the American people. How is this possible? How has the Obama team succeeded in adopting widely despised policies like the massive stimulus bill and the healthcare takeover? How could such a radical president and his congressional leaders get elected and then take a center-right country in a socialist direction bitterly opposed by most Americans? Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has the answer: the Left have built a secular-socialist machine out of corruption, lust for power, and sheer ruthlessness, and are using it to steamroll over the will of the people. In this book, Gingrich reveals:
* How the secular-socialist machine gained power through deception and outright lies
* How the machine shuts the American people out of the legislative process
* Why some of our most powerful leaders seek to banish religion from public life
* How the machine uses taxpayer money to pay off its supporters and punish its opponents
* How we can replace, not reform, Obama's socialist programs
Exposing the mortal threat now facing America, To Save America offers concrete strategies for dismantling the machine and replacing it with policies and institutions that work. But we must act fast, Gingrich warns, or our children will inherit a secular, socialist America transformed beyond recognition."
Right!
Yet, amazingly, Gingrich said that the operators of that secular-socialist machine are merely mistaken, not malevolent.
The secular-socialist conspirators are NOT well-meaning, but mistaken.
Also amazingly, historian Gingrich seemed unfamiliar with the Cloward-Piven strategy when I asked him about it.
The Cloward-Piven strategy was presented in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation by radical socialist Columbia University professors Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.
Former socialist David Horowitz defined it as "[t]he strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis" that "seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse." See James Simpson, "Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis" (September 28, 2008) (www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html).
Gingrich's ignorance may explain why he proudly told his audience that he had been criticizing Republican strategists for "negative campaigning."
Simpson was insightful and blunt, not ignorant or gullible:
"Barack Obama, the Cloward-Piven candidate, no matter how he describes himself, has been a radical activist for most of his political career. That activism has been in support of organizations and initiatives that at their heart seek to tear the pillars of this nation asunder in order to replace them with their demented socialist vision. Their influence has spread so far and so wide that despite their blatant culpability in the current financial crisis, they are able to manipulate Capital Hill politicians to cut them into $140 billion of the bailout pie!
"God grant those few responsible yet remaining in Washington, DC the strength to prevent this massive fraud from occurring. God grant them the courage to stand up in the face of this Marxist tidal wave."
Gingrich sees the secular-socialist tidal wave, but apparently he thinks that Obama — the stealth socialist instrument or "tip of the Cloward-Piven spear" — is merely mistaken.
Simpson on ACORN:
"ACORN, the new tip of the Cloward-Piven spear
"In 1970, one of George Wiley's protégés, Wade Rathke — like Bill Ayers, a member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) — was sent to found the Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now. While NWRO had made a good start, it alone couldn't accomplish the Cloward-Piven goals. Rathke's group broadened the offensive to include a wide array of low income 'rights.' Shortly thereafter they changed 'Arkansas' to 'Association of' and ACORN went nationwide.
"Today ACORN is involved in a wide array of activities, including housing, voting rights, illegal immigration and other issues. According to ACORN's website: 'ACORN is the nation's largest grassroots community organization of low-and moderate-income people with over 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the country,' It is perhaps the largest radical group in the U.S. and has been cited for widespread criminal activity on many fronts."
Simpson on Obama:
"The chart puts Barack Obama at the epicenter of an incestuous stew of American radical leftism. Not only are his connections significant, they practically define who he is. Taken together, they constitute a who's who of the American radical left, and guiding all is the Cloward-Piven strategy.
"Conspicuous in their absence are any connections at all with any other group, moderate, or even mildly leftist. They are all radicals, firmly bedded in the anti-American, communist, socialist, radical leftist mesh.
"Saul Alinsky
"Most people are unaware that Barack Obama received his training in 'community organizing' from Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. But he did. In and of itself that marks his heritage and training as that of a radical activist. One really needs go no further. But we have.
"Bill Ayers
"Obama objects to being associated with SDS bomber Bill Ayers, claiming he is being smeared with 'guilt by association.' But they worked together at the Woods Fund. The Wall Street Journal added substantially to our knowledge by describing in great detail Obama's work over five years with SDS bomber Bill Ayers on the board of a non-profit, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, to push a radical agenda on public school children. As Stanley Kurtz states: '...the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle. That is a story even if Mr. Ayers had never planted a single bomb 40 years ago.'
"Also included in the mix is Theresa Heinz Kerry's favorite charity, the Tides Foundation. A partial list of Tides grants tells you all you need to know: ACLU, ACORN, Center for American Progress, Center for Constitutional Rights (a communist front,) CAIR, Earth Justice, Institute for Policy Studies (KGB spy nest), National Lawyers Guild (oldest communist front in U.S.), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and practically every other radical group there is. ACORN's Wade Rathke runs a Tides subsidiary, the Tides Center.
"Carl Davidson and the New Party
"We have heard about Bomber Bill, but we hear little about fellow SDS member Carl Davidson. According to Discover the Networks, Davidson was an early supporter of Barack Obama and a prominent member of Chicago's New Party, a synthesis of CPUSA members, Socialists, ACORN veterans and other radicals. Obama sought and received the New Party's endorsement, and they assisted with his campaign. The New Party also developed a strong relationship with ACORN. As an excellent article on the New Party observes: 'Barack Obama knew what he was getting into and remains an ideal New Party candidate.'
"George Soros
"The chart also suggests the reason for George Soros' fervent support of Obama. The President of his Open Society Institute is Aryeh Neier, founder of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). As mentioned above, three other former SDS members had extensive contact with Obama: Bill Ayers, Carl Davidson and Wade Rathke. Surely Aryeh Neier would have heard from his former colleagues of the promising new politician. More to the point, Neier is firmly committed to supporting the hugely successful radical organization, ACORN, and would be certain back their favored candidate, Barack Obama.
"ACORN
"Obama has spent a large portion of his professional life working for ACORN or its subsidiaries, representing ACORN as a lawyer on some of its most critical issues, and training ACORN leaders. Stanley Kurtz's excellent National Review article, 'Inside Obama's Acorn,' also describes Obama's ACORN connection in detail. But I can't improve on Obama's own words: I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career (emphasis added). Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. — Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007 (Courtesy Newsmax.)
"In another excellent article on Obama's ACORN connections, Newsmax asks a nagging question: It would be telling to know if Obama, during his years at Columbia, had occasion to meet Cloward and study the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
"I ask you, is it possible ACORN would train Obama to take leadership positions within ACORN without telling him what he was training for? Is it possible ACORN would put Obama in leadership positions without clueing him into what his purpose was?? Is it possible that this most radical of organizations would put someone in charge of training its trainers, without him knowing what it was he was training them for?
"As a community activist for ACORN; as a leadership trainer for ACORN; as a lead organizer for ACORN's Project Vote; as an attorney representing ACORN's successful efforts to impose Motor Voter regulations in Illinois; as ACORN's representative in lobbying for the expansion of high risk housing loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current crisis; as a recipient of their assistance in his political campaigns — both with money and campaign workers; it is doubtful that he was unaware of ACORN's true goals. It is doubtful he was unaware of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
"Fast-forward to 2005 when an obsequious, servile and scraping Daniel Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus swearing in ceremony for newly-elected Illinois Senator, Barack Obama. Mudd called, the Congressional Black Caucus 'our family' and 'the conscience of Fannie Mae.'
"In 2005, Republicans sought to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Senator John McCain was at the forefront of that effort. But it failed due to an intense lobbying effort put forward by Fannie and Freddie.
"In his few years as a U.S. senator, Obama has received campaign contributions of $126,349, from Fannie and Freddie, second only to the $165,400 received by Senator Chris Dodd, who has been getting donations from them since 1988. What makes Obama so special?
"His closest advisers are a dirty laundry list of individuals at the heart of the financial crisis: former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson; Former Fannie Mae CEO and former Clinton Budget Director Frank Raines; and billionaire failed Superior Bank of Chicago Board Chair Penny Pritzker.
"Johnson had to step down as adviser on Obama's V.P. search after this gem came out:
'An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) report from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson and his successor, Franklin Raines, to receive substantial bonuses in 1998. A 2006 OFHEO report found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Originally reported as $6-7 million, Johnson actually received approximately $21 million.
"Obama denies ties to Raines but the Washington Post calls him a member of 'Obama's political circle.' Raines and Johnson were fined $3 million by the Office of Federal Housing Oversight for their manipulation of Fannie books. The fine is small change however, compared to the $50 million Raines was able to obtain in improper bonuses as a result of juggling the books.
"Most significantly, Penny Pritzker, the current Finance Chairperson of Obama's presidential campaign helped develop the complicated investment bundling of subprime securities at the heart of the meltdown. She did so in her position as shareholder and board chair of Superior Bank. The Bank failed in 2001, one of the largest in recent history, wiping out $50 million in uninsured life savings of approximately 1,400 customers. She was named in a RICO class action law suit but doesn't seem to have come out of it too badly.
"As a young attorney in the 1990s, Barack Obama represented ACORN in Washington in their successful efforts to expand Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) authority. In addition to making it easier for ACORN groups to force banks into making risky loans, this also paved the way for banks like Superior to package mortgages as investments, and for the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to underwrite them.
These changes created the conditions that ultimately lead to the current financial crisis.
"Did they not know this would occur? Were these smart people, led by a Harvard graduate, unaware of the Econ 101 concept of moral hazard that would result from the government making implicit guarantees to underwrite private sector financial risk? They should have known that freeing the high-risk mortgage market of risk, calamity was sure to ensue. I think they did."
Gingrich seems to think it was a good faith mistake!
Simpson knows better.
ACORN Housing was listed in the index of Gingrich's book.
ACORN was not listed in the index, but at least it was discussed a bit.
Gingrich noted that Obama, during his first campaign for an Illinois state senate seat in 1996, listed ACORN first on a questionnaire that called for the names of supporting organizations.
That is telling, especially when juxtaposed with this Obama lie during the last presidential debate: "My only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs."
Gingrich also reported that the Obama Justice Department had given ACORN a pass on voter fraud.
But Gingrich's book never mentioned ACORN's stealth socialism platform, or examined all of Obama's extensive ties to ACORN, or referred to ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief or the New York Times spiking on October 21, 2008 of an Obama/ ACORN expose on which Times reporter Stephanie Strom had been working with Ms. MonCrief.
As a presidential hopeful, Gingrich needs to get up to speed.
In addition to Simpson and Ms. MonCrief (www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.com), Gingrich should read Kevin Mooney's June 22, 2010 article at http://netrightdaily.com/2010/06/nyt-scrutiny-of-bermans-non-profits-should-be-directed-against-acorn/.
Mooney taunted The Times to let Ms. Strom report on the Obama/ACORN connection:
"...Strom is the same reporter who wrote about the ACORN organization in the months leading up to the 2008 presidential election. Her investigation was shut down when Anita MonCrief, the anonymous source Strom had been using, revealed that the Obama Presidential Campaign had sent its maxed out donor list to the Washington D.C. ACORN office. The relationship between Strom and MonCrief, a former Project Vote/ACORN employee, is described here in a previous TimesCheck posting."
"...Cleta Mitchell, co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA), had identified numerous violations of federal law involving ACORN's non-profit organizations based on testimony MonCrief delivered under oath. So...why is this is not a subject for further investigation?
"'Project Vote should be investigated and audited by the IRS to ascertain whether Project Vote should be allowed to maintain its 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, based on the apparent misappropriation of charitable contributions for impermissible purposes,' Mitchell concluded in her analysis."
"... the community organizers formerly known as ACORN also benefit from anonymous donors.
"'Anyone who celebrates the demise of ACORN has celebrated prematurely because they are not going away,' MonCrief said in an interview. 'The network is repositioning itself so it can receive new donations.'"
"MonCrief identified Wellspring Advisors, Vanguard Charitable Endowment, the Rockefeller Fund and the Tides Foundation as the major conduits for facilitating anonymous donations.
"'If someone wanted to contribute directly to ACORN without having their name attached to it they could give a check to Wellspring Advisors, they can give to Vanguard Charitable Endowment, they can give to Tides Foundation,' she said. 'There are so many ways ACORN can obtain money through these anonymous donors and some are connected to the Rockefeller Fund. So long as there is an agenda they are going to make sure that money is funneled to them anyway they can.'
"Strom, who has done some excellent investigative pieces, should consider reactivating her old source...."
The New York Times wants to conceal, not report, the truth about Obama and ACORN. But maybe Gingrich will learn what Obama and the Cloward-Piven strategy are really all about.
© Michael Gaynor
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
