In Egypt, community organizing bears fruit with Obama as POTUS

By Michael Gaynor

Timid Republicans and even some conservatives are afraid to challenge President Obama on his ACORN ties and lies, but radicals who know the truth follow the ACORN articles by MonCrief and me at www.EmergingCorruption.com and they are into concealing instead of revealing the truth about Obama's ACORN ties and lies.

ACORN founder and Chief Organizer from 1970 to 2008 and ACORN International founder and still Chief Organizer Wade Rathke joyously described recent developments in Egypt as a triumph for "community organizing."

THAT is ominous.

"Community organizing" was Rathke's thing long before President Barack Obama got into it, connected to ACORN and then embarked on a political career that has resulted in his winning the 2008 presidential election and proceeding to push the stealth socialist agenda.

For more on Obama/Rathke/ACORN, including a fine photo of Rathke and former President Bill Clinton, see ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief's latest article, "ACORN Zombies, Obama and Stealth Socialism" (http://emergingcorruption.com/2011/02/acorn-zombies-obama-and-stealth-socialism/).

Rathke (http://chieforganizer.org/2011/02/11/spontaneous-no-way-organizers-speak-in-egypt/)

"...despite the attempt of the New York Times reporter, David Kirkpatrick, to try and shoehorn Facebook and all of the new tech tools into the factual accounts to fit into the modernist, American-touched narrative he would like to tell, these are simply down and dirty stories of exceptionally good, shoe leather, street sense, and solid strategic community and political organizing.

"Here are the elements they have now revealed:

The core cadre was about 15 organizers all less than 30 years old forged from a variety of oppositional parties and experiences. The coalition was held together on a non-ideological and non-partisan framework of uncompromising opposition to the current regime based on a sense of what one organizer in the video called the 'spirit of Tunisia:' the sense of movement that something was possible now that might not have been possible before. Old school organizers with proven skills whether from the Muslim Brotherhood or the Communist Party in Egypt were critical because they knew how to organize from their years as persecuted minorities despite the fact that they lacked a mass base and in the words of one young, feminist organizer, would be unlikely to pull '10%' support if allowed on the ballot. This was a pragmatic coalition. Communications, it seems, were rudimentary. The messages in the tree hole or posters plastered after midnight in communications from past rebellions were replaced by some connections via Facebook or Google Talk, but these were only ways to secure safe conversation and contact, not to actually move and organize people. I know this seems obvious to organizers, but it's important not to be confused. The organizers were aspiring middle class professionals it seems, but the masses that moved were unique compared to past efforts because in the words of one of the organizers, this time they went to the poor neighborhoods rather than the middle class areas as they had in the past. [Starting in a poor neighborhood was itself an experiment. 'We always start from the elite, with the same faces,' Mr. Lotfi said. 'So this time we thought, let's try.'] And, the poor and working class areas in these 'field tests' followed them out of their houses, cafes, and businesses into the streets and didn't stop until they were done and the organizers outlasted and out lapped by the people. The organizers worked in teams. Smart! The organizers recognized that surveillance was a part of their lives and political work so they continually masked their plans and feinted with false locations, targets, and so forth to confuse the police state. Shrewd! The organizers finally used real, bread and butter issues not democracy and pie in the sky, and to no organizers' surprise, people responded by putting boots on the bricks: 'Instead of talking about democracy, Mr. Lotfi said, they focused on more immediate issues like the minimum wage. 'They are eating pigeon and chicken and we are eating beans all the time,' they chanted. 'Oh my, 10 pounds can only buy us cucumbers now, what a shame what a shame.' Yes, Virginia, self-interest still has to be mixed with aspirations to create the chemistry of social change. The organizers moved within the intensity of crowd and it's energy understanding that you cannot simply repeat the same drill day after day and scheduled the big events on Tuesdays and Fridays to allow the crowd to reenergize. This is brilliant and shows these folks were real police...amateurs never get this, but professionals know!

"Enough said.

"These folks are organizers not keyboard punchers, and they are writing the case study on how to organize within the moment of a movement the changes that matter. Nothing can take away the spirit and courage of the masses of people moving to the call, but people are being served by some great organizers and this is where the future of Egypt and many other countries will be determined."

Last October Rathke posted this intriguing message at www.organizersforum.org:

"An International Dialogue in Egypt

"September 25, 2011 to September 30, 2011

"Our fall 2011 International Dialogue will be located in Egypt where we will meet with labor and community organizers and other activists in Cairo. There are exciting changes and developments that are currently taking place in Egypt with elections coming soon to determine leadership transitions in what has been an autocratic regime, now challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood and succession and democracy issues. The trip is still in the planning stages, and we will post updates as soon as we have them.

"We plan to travel with approximately 15-20 participants, and we will strive to have a mix of both community and labor organizers/leaders from a variety of community organizations and unions....

"If you are interested in applying to attend this dialogue, we invite you to apply by sending an email of interest to Wade Rathke chair@organizersforum.org Organizers' Forum...."

I reported that in an article titled "What Did Wade Rathke Know About Egypt that the CIA Didn't and What Will Obama Do Now?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=110204) and went on to quote Rathke as saying that "Greg Galluzzo of the Gameliel Foundation was speaking to me the other day and was telling me that the report from their participant in the Vietnam dialogue in 2010 was so moving that it not only almost brought tears to other organizers eyes because it was such a transforming experience for him, but they already had a list of people signing up for Cairo."

I also quoted a Galluzzo tribute to Obama tribute "still available at http://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/barack-obama-and-the-gamaliel-foundation-community-action-utilizing-faith-and-saul-alinsky-training/:".

Thanks to a commenter at MonCrief's www.EmergingCorruption.com, I learned that it's no longer available.

Here's the comment (http://emergingcorruption.com/2011/02/what-did-wade-rathke-know-about-egypt-that-the-cia-didnt-and-what-will-obama-do-now/#comments):

"The link that you posted has been removed. -http://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/barack-obama-and-the-gamaliel-foundation-community-action-utilizing-faith-and-saul-alinsky-training/

Thank you for copying the contents and pasting it in your own post. I have found that the contents of links that I posted were swiftly removed when I first began to blog. This is the reason why I copy all content and link it to the source, but I always copy the content. It's not that I want to catch anyone in a lie or bad position necessarily, but I want to have it for my reference to come back to. In any case, I'm glad you copied it, or it would have been a moot point. Good post."

Excellent advice!

I confirmed the removal myself.

Obama mentor Madeline Talbott also follows Emerging Corruption.

Talbott posted a comment to my article titled "The Key to Beating Obama in 2012 Is Publicizing the Truth About Him and ACORN" (http://emergingcorruption.com/2010/12/the-key-to-beating-obama-in-2012-is-publicizing-the-truth-about-him-and-acorn/).

I promptly emailed her back as follows:

"Thank you for commenting.

"Would you please identify those 'very few' ACORN 'bad apples'?

"Perhaps 'ACORN 8' folks?

"Did you know why the ACORN 8 dropped you and your husband from their 'complaint' to the US Justice Department at the last minute?

"Pertinent excerpt from http://www.redstate.com/anitamoncrief/2010/03/04/why-the-acorn-8-protect-obama-and-lie-to-conservatives/:

The biggest PR move involved the so-called Department of Justice complaint. The complaint to the DOJ addressed the embezzlement scandal and used a number of examples to support their 'civil RICO' complaint. No disputing the facts here, ACORN is corrupt. However, what is missing from the complaint is intriguing and ties the ACORN 8 back to Obama. Reid appeared eager to file the complaint and was even ready to send it to the press without some exhibits being prepared by the lawyers (screenshot below).

"At the last minute the complaint was amended to protect Obama's mentor, former ACORN leader, Madeline Talbott and her husband, Keith Kelleher. Talbott, is also a fellow New Party alum of Reid and Obama. National Review Online provides the background:

'ACORN's leading role in the New Party as the result of a conscious decision by the organization to move into electoral politics in a more substantial way than they had been able to solely through their political action committee. In addition to [Wade] Rathke and [Zach] Polett, a key early supporter of the New Party was Obama's closest ACORN contact, Madeline Talbott.'

Here's the ACORN 8 'complaint' as filed: http://www.acorn-8.net/PDFs/USAttComp.pdf.

The same allegations against the named defendants in the filed 'complaint' were made against you in the prior draft approved by Marcel Reid."

I'm NOT surprised to report that Talbot did NOT answer.

Timid Republicans and even some conservatives are afraid to challenge President Obama on his ACORN ties and lies, but radicals who know the truth follow the ACORN articles by MonCrief and me at www.EmergingCorruption.com and they are into concealing instead of revealing the truth about Obama's ACORN ties and lies.

© Michael Gaynor