Free Republic

OK, here's what should be the nail in the coffin for conservative claims that ACORN is poised to steal the New Jersey governor's race through rampant voter fraud. Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, tells TPMmuckraker that the much-maligned group has conducted absolutely no political or voter registration activity in the state during the 2009 cycle. And Kettenring added that ACORN had done very little such work during the 2008 cycle. In a column published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund sounded the alarm about the threat from ACORN -- but a close look reveals that even here he...

According to a July 9, 2008 article in the New York Times, Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder, Wade Rathke, “embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000.” The Times reported Dale Rathke embezzled $948,607.50, “carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.” ACORN “chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board.” According to an October 10, 2008...

Investigators Searching DIA Clerk's Bank Account For Missing Taxi Fees. Denver police are investigating the embezzlement of $170,000 from Denver International Airport taxi fees. A search warrant obtained by 7NEWS shows the scam went undetected for nearly two years. At least 16 cash collections made by DIA Ground Transportation Department workers between November 2007 and late June 2009 vanished en route from that agency to the airport finance department without making it to the bank. The probe was triggered when a random DIA internal audit found a $10,000 collection missing in June, sources told 7News. Police said they were alerted...

It’s like being in the middle of a “tsunami” or an “avalanche” — or maybe both at the same time. That’s how Arthur Schwartz described his experience as general counsel of ACORN amid the recent right-wing attacks and congressional caving that are bringing the national community-organizing network to its knees. In an interview with The Villager last week, Schwartz, a prominent New York City labor attorney and longtime member of Community Board 2 in Greenwich Village, where he lives with his family, painted a dire picture of ACORN. Speaking in his office in the Unite Here! headquarters building at 26th...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Andrew Breitbart's Big Government will hold a press conference featuring James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, the two daring young journalists who, posing as a "pimp" and "prostitute," exposed massive corruption within ACORN's offices throughout the country. The Press Conference will be held at the National Press Club of Washington, DC on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. After suing Breitbart.com, Mr. O'Keefe and Ms. Giles in Maryland over the release of the Baltimore tapes, ACORN has issued public statements denying any wrongdoing in its Philadelphia office and lying about what happened there. Mr. O'Keefe...

A top-ranking Republican lawmaker is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder and obtained by The Hill on Monday, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) argues that President Barack Obama’s political ties to the scandal-plagued community-activist group and its affiliates will “taint” any potential Justice Department investigations. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has not announced whether it has launched a probe of ACORN, but Smith said any such investigation could be compromised. “I am very concerned that the president’s previous...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- An internal review by ACORN's board of directors found that $5 million was embezzled from the community organization, far more than the previously reported amount of $1 million, according to documents released Monday. The new amount was reported in a subpoena from the investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported. It is unclear if the money was taken from state, federal or private funds, according to the subpoena. ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new embezzlement allegation is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and...

An internal review by ACORN's board of directors found that $5 million was embezzled from the community organization, far more than a previously reported sum of $1 million, according to documents from the Louisiana attorney general's office.

$5 Million Embezzlement Report 'Completely False,' ACORN CEO Says In a speech to the National Press Club, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis called embezzlement allegations "completely false" and defended the group's management and mission. FOXNews.com Tuesday, October 06, 2009 ACORN's embattled CEO emphatically disputed on Tuesday a report by the organization's board of directors that $5 million was embezzled from the group, calling it "completely false." Bertha Lewis said the $5 million figure came from two former "disgruntled" directors who had since been voted off the organization's board. Lewis spoke after the internal review by ACORN's board was revealed to have...

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMPLAINT January 7, 2009 IN RE: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW Karen Inman, Marcel Reid, Coya Mobley, Robert Smith, Adrianna Jones, Yvonne Stafford, Louis Davisand Fannie Brown, et. al.Complainants vs. Defendants Wade Rathke, Dale Rathke, Steven Kest, Jon Kest, Mike Shea, Zach Pollett, Helene O’Brien, Amy Schur, Liz Wolf, Beth Butler, Mildred Brown, Maud Hurd, Alton Bennett, Bertha Lewis, Beth Kingsley andother unknown individuals. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMPLAINT (excerpt) The undersigned State Board delegates and National Board members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) file this criminal complaint againstACORN Staff and Executive Board...

The organization can no longer be effective in achieving its goal of social justice and stronger communities. ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- touts itself as "the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities." And perhaps it is. But ACORN can no longer be effective at achieving its goals. The organization is so mired in scandal it will never recover. Let's look at the most recent events. According to a report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a subpoena issued in an investigation of ACORN by...

CORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,� she says, “and this was the first time that I...

"Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, this report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how 'opinion entrepreneurs' (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the "conservative echo chamber" orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story...

The Working Families Party that is organizing a bus tour protest this Saturday at the homes of AIG employees has deep ties to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire leftist financier George Soros and the radical group ACORN.A 2005 article by Richard Poe published at Discover the Networks details the connections:The Working Families Party (WFP) is a front group for the radical cult ACORN. It functions as a political party in New York State and Connecticut, promoting ACORN-friendly candidates. Unlike conventional political parties, WFP charges its members dues – about $60 per year – a policy characteristic of ACORN and...

Eric N. Gioia, a city councilman from Queens and a candidate for public advocate, was in a great mood Tuesday as he walked to his car after voting in the Democratic primary. Until he spotted a lone young man who stood on the sidewalk, holding a stack of fliers. “See him?” said Mr. Gioia, his face darkening. “He’s from the Working Families Party.” Much to the chagrin of candidates like Mr. Gioia, the still relatively little-known 10-year-old party had dispatched a small army in the weeks before the primary, selling voters on its candidates in the mayoral, City Council, public...

Average of just $1,486 per month for offices, one check for rent written to “401 K PMTs”Edward-Isaac Dovere by Edward-Isaac Dovere eidovere@cityhallnews.comUPDATE:Harry Zlokower, spokesperson for ISJ Management, called to confirm that the company is indeed the owner of the property at 2 Nevins Street, with Flatbush Fulton Realty Associates its subsidiary.However, Zlokower said, “Working Families Party is not a tenant of ISJ Management,” adding, “ISJ management has no knowledge of the Working Families Party. They assume it’s a sub-lease.”Zlokower also confirmed that ACORN is a tenant of ISJ Management, paying money directly to the property owner.Responding from the Working Families...

The Working Families Party was the big winner in this year's Democratic primary elections - having backed the winning candidates in both the public advocate's race and the contest for city controller. That's not good for mainstream Democrats, and it is not good for New Yorkers. As liberals, we recognize the value of left-wing advocates pushing against corporate interests. The WFP has played a useful role in helping to win an increase in the minimum wage and in rolling back tax breaks for luxury development. But as "liberals with sanity," we see danger when narrow agendas overwhelm the public good....

Founded in 1998 as a coalition of labor and community groups, the Working Families Party has combined old-fashioned, grassroots organizaing and strategic alliances with the Democrats to become an increasingly powerful force for progressive politics in New York City. The Indypendent recently spoke with the party’s Executive Director, Dan Cantor, about the WFP’s recent victories in the run-off elections for city comptroller and public advocate, mobilizing voters and taking on Bloomberg in November. ELIZABETH HENDERSON: Why has the WFP decided to take on Bloomberg this year when many democrats have given up the hope of defeating him? DAN CANTOR: Eight...

Unless you’re cool with, say, covering up the embezzlement of $5 million. Then you’re okay. Saith the woman heralded by RNC chair Michael Steele as doing a “phenomenal job” in handling the scandal: “For many years, there’ve been folks who’ve disagreed with our ideology or methodology that [have] gone after us,” Mrs. Lewis, ACORN’s chief executive officer, said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. “I mean we, [going back] to 2004, we now see through e-mails from Karl Rove from the previous administration that ACORN itself was targeted, targeted to go after us so that we...

NEW ORLEANS — An internal review at Acorn, the embattled community organizing group, revealed that its founder’s brother had embezzled $5 million from the group, five times more than the amount disclosed, according to a subpoena served Monday by the Louisiana attorney general. But the organization’s chief executive denied that any internal review had revealed that figure.

An internal review by the board of directors of the community organization ACORN determined that the amount allegedly embezzled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the previously reported amount of nearly $1 million, according to a new subpoena in an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Caldwell. The subpoena, released this afternoon, says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds." ACORN Chief Executive Officer Lewis said the new accusation about the embezzlement is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys have...

According to a July 9, 2008 article in the New York Times, Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder, Wade Rathke, “embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000.” The Times reported Dale Rathke embezzled $948,607.50, “carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.” ACORN “chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board.” According to an October 10, 2008...

A lesbian political activist who donated thousands to Democrats and homosexual causes is suspected of embezzling nearly $6 million from one of the world's largest insurance firms. Despite her $40,000 a year salary as an insurance compensation specialist, Phyllis Stevens purchased two homes valued at more than $550,000 and gave thousands of dollars in donations to Democratic Party political candidates and homosexual groups. The 58-year-old chairs the Midwest Chapter of Marriage Equality USA, a homosexual "marriage" advocacy group. She is accused of embezzling the money from health insurer Aviva over a period of five years. A civil complaint filed in...

Former ACORN bigwig Dale Rathke racked up a $157,000 American Express bill that he couldn't repay around the time he was caught embezzling from the group founded by his brother Wade, The Post has learned. Rathke was a big spender with multiple credit cards who rang up purchases at luxury shops, traveled by limo and frequented five-star hotels and restaurants, court papers show. American Express filed a claim against Rathke in 2003 in Louisiana civil district court. Among the court papers is a partial credit history that indicates Rathke had several different cards from different companies. He used them to...

WILKES-BARRE – A bookkeeper for an organization that raises money for cerebral palsy victims has been charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from the organization over a 10-year period. Ann Patricia Hudanick, 58, of Matson Avenue, Wilkes-Barre, was arraigned this morning before District Judge William Amesbury on a charge of theft by unlawful taking. She was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. According to an arrest affidavit, Hudanick worked for Creating Unlimited Possibilities, formerly known as United Cerebral Palsy of Luzerne County. She admitted she stole the money to feed an addiction to bingo, which she played at least five times...

Baltimore, Nov 11, 2008 (CNA).- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has not yet been able to determine if grants made to ACORN were used for fraudulent voter registration, but has cut off all funding to the community organizing group, Bishop Robert Morin announced on Tuesday. Shortly after addressing the full assembly of U.S. Catholic bishops, Bishop Morin spoke to reporters about what the bishops had learned concerning the use of grants from the CCHD to the group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which is currently under investigation in 13 states for voter fraud. CCHD originally...

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced that MILAGROS RODRIGUEZ pleaded guilty yesterday in White Plains federal court to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from customer accounts at Hudson City Savings Bank. According to the Information to which RODRIGUEZ pleaded guilty, statements made during the plea proceeding, and other documents publicly filed in the case: From approximately April 2002 through March 2009, RODRIGUEZ, who was employed as a teller and later as a branch...

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that BRIAN H. MADDEN was indicted today on charges that he misappropriated and embezzled over $4.7 million of escrow, client, and other operating funds from three title insurance agencies that he controlled and operated in New York. The three-count Indictment returned today by the Grand Jury adds a money laundering charge to the wire fraud and insurance fraud charges for which MADDEN was previously charged in a Complaint and arrested on May 19, 2009. According to the Indictment filed today in Manhattan federal court and the...

SAVANNAH, GA—Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced today the return of a seventy-seven count indictment by the federal grand jury against Savannah attorney Benjamin Sheftall Eichholz, age 58, charging an alleged scheme to embezzle more than $950,000 from employee pension benefit plans established to provide retirement benefits to present and former employees of the Eichholz Law Firm. The charges against Eichholz include Embezzlement from Employee Pension Benefit Plans in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 664; Money Laundering in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1957; Mail Fraud...

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systematic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate. Emerging accounts of widespread deceit and corruption raise the need for a criminal investigation of ACORN...

CHICAGO, IL—The co-owner and president of a Chicago-based company that invested union pension funds was charged in an information filed by the United States Attorney's Office with allegedly embezzling approximately $24 million. The information alleges that, between approximately 2002 and September 2006, John A. Orecchio stole the funds while acting as the investment manager at his firm, AA Capital Partners, formerly located 10 S. LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois. Orecchio, 43, formerly of Arlington Heights, was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of embezzling funds owned by an employee pension benefit plan in an information that was...

ATLANTA, GA—PAMELA D. JONES, 36, of Tucker, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Orinda D. Evans to serve 18 months in federal prison on charges that she embezzled more than $139,000 from ServeHAITI, a charitable organization that receives federal funds. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, “This defendant was the Assistant Treasurer for ServeHAITI, a charitable organization that provides medical, financial, and other assistance to impoverished areas in Haiti. Abusing her position, she embezzled more than $139,000 and used the money for her own selfish purposes, depriving the needy people who were intended to benefit. Stealing...

PHOENIX, AZ—Based on an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a Globe woman was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday afternoon for allegedly embezzling approximately $1.18 million from a Gila County credit union. Marlene Aguilera Pena, 45, has been charged with 25 counts of embezzlement from the now defunct Marian Miami Federal Credit Union, of Miami, Ariz. Pena was hired by the credit union in 1994 and became its manager in 2000. The indictment alleges that beginning in January 2001, through at least December 2006, Pena operated a scheme to defraud the credit union. The indictment goes on...

There’s been an enormous amount of speculation from all corners as the the motivation behind Sarah Palin’s resignation as Governor of Alaska. The speculation has covered the full spectrum from the leftist talking points that she can’t take political heat to her supporters declaring that she’s preparing for national office. Her detractors have pretty much stayed on message, repeating over and over again that she’s weak, can’t take the heat and is deserting her post. However today a new twist has been revealed via Obama propagandist. The new twist is that the resignation came just before a Sarah Palin federal...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK—Today, BRYAN ROSS BENTON, 24, and TYSON CHARLES MARTIN, 20, both of Stillwater, Oklahoma, have each been sentenced to ten months in federal prison for stealing money from a City National Bank branch in the Country Mart East Supermarket at 4510 Southeast Lee Boulevard in Lawton, announced John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. BENTON was sentenced on June 17; MARTIN was sentenced this morning. On May 27, 2009, a third defendant, TODD VINCENT RUDISILL, 22, of Lawton, was sentenced to 27 months in prison in connection with the theft and his embezzlement...

United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley announced today that Rebecca Dawn Long, age 36, of Jonesville, Virginia, was sentenced yesterday, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Big Stone Gap, to charges stemming from her embezzlement of $487,685.00 from The Peoples Bank in Lee County, Virginia. At the conclusion of today’s sentencing hearing, Chief United States District Judge James P. Jones rejected Long’s request for probation and sentenced her within the advisory guideline range to imprisonment for a term of 41 months. He also ordered her to make full restitution to the Peoples Bank....

MARSHALL, TX—U.S. Attorney John M. Bales announced today that a former bank official has pleaded guilty to embezzling funds in the Eastern District of Texas. TRACY CULP, 44, of Texarkana, TX, pleaded guilty to theft embezzlement by a bank employee today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Chad Everingham. According to information presented in court, from October 1, 2005 through June 6, 2007, during which time Culp was employed as the vice-president and branch manager of the Cass County Bank in Queen City, Texas, he devised a scheme to embezzle funds from the bank by creating fraudulent loans and diverting the proceeds...

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Donna L. Gatewood, age 43, of Baltimore, today to 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for embezzlement by a bank employee, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Motz also ordered Gatewood to pay restitution of $154,521.74. According to her guilty plea, Gatewood was employed as an accounting clerk at a bank from about October, 1998 until September, 2007 and was responsible for reconciling transactions in the bank’s general ledger and suspense accounts. In or before March of 2006, Gatewood discovered that...

SAN FRANCISCO—Alex Yan was sentenced yesterday to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $235,695.31 in restitution for bank embezzlement, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced. Mr. Yan pleaded guilty on February 9, 2009. According to the plea agreement, Mr. Yan admitted to embezzling money while he was a Business Relationship Officer with United Commercial Bank. Mr. Yan agreed that he violated the trust of clients who typically dealt with him directly, in order to take money from their accounts without arousing much suspicion. Mr. Yan also agreed that he used other tactics to avoid detection, such as...

In New York yesterday, Joe Biden, Obama's overseer of the spending of the "stimulus" package, acknowledged the following: ... some of this money is going to be wasted ... Obama's words in February: ... unprecedented responsibility and accountability on the spending. Without waste, without inefficiency, without fraud...

THE FIRST BULLETIN Tuesday that a Bucks County woman and her 9-year-old daughter had been kidnapped made national news because it was all just so unbelievable - a car crash on a busy street, mysterious men in a black Cadillac and a mom who made a frantic 9-1-1 call while trapped inside a trunk. Yesterday, the world learned exactly why the saga of 38-year-old Bonnie Sweeten and her 9-year-old daughter, Julia Rakoczy, was so incredible. It just wasn't true. And in an ending that was ironic beyond belief, mother and daughter were tracked down last night in America's ultimate land...

Three relatives have been charged in connection with an embezzlement scheme at George Mason University, and investigators say they stole as much as $200,000. University police say Jose Rosado, a supervisor with Campus Living Villages-- a company that manages the dorms at GMU-- hired as many as five ghost employees. All of them were members of his extended family. ... According to Jim Short, president of Campus Living Villages, Jose Rosado was a supervisor who had been working for the company since 1998.... Explaining how the scheme worked, Short said some employees who don't have bank accounts choose to get...

Think your income tax check is safe when you send it off to the IRS? Think again. An ABC News investigation has uncovered case after case of checks being stolen, manipulated and cashed by contract employees responsible for processing them, resulting in delayed payments and heavily disrupted lives. "It was beyond my wildest imagination that this theft would be an inside scam," Brad Miller of Garland, TX told ABC News. Last year, Miller sent a cashier's check for more than $20,000 to the IRS, where it ended up in the hands of a Bank of America employee in Dallas who...

SAN MARCOS — The bookkeeper for a North County manufacturing business was arrested on accusations of embezzling nearly $10 million from her employer to fund her lavish shoe collection, remodel her home, vacation in Italy and gamble, authorities said. Sheriff's investigators say Annette Yeomans, 51, siphoned an average of $100,000 a month from Quality Woodworks, Inc., while she was chief financial officer from 2001 to 2007. As a result, the San Marcos cabinetry business was forced to lay off employees and restructure their operations, said Sgt. Mark Varnau of the sheriff's Financial Crimes Unit. Her purchases include spending nearly $25,000...

A former Hunterdon County school official pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling more than $90,000 from Delaware Valley Regional High School, saying he stole most of the money from the cafeteria. Robert P. Walsh, 43, of Forks Township, Pa., admitted in federal court in Camden that he committed the crime from 2005 to 2007 while he served as the school's business administrator and then superintendent, authorities said. "This was a top school official, well-compensated, whose charge and duty was to protect the interests of the school district and its students," Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra said. "Instead, he acted as...

Link only - Ex-Weight Watchers worker gets 10 years for stealing nearly $1M

CNN) -- Community organizing group ACORN, investigated this year for filing fraudulent voter registration forms, has fired two board members it had asked to investigate allegations that an ACORN founder's brother embezzled nearly $1 million. The fired board members were investigating allegations that money was embezzled from ACORN eight years ago. An internal document from the ACORN executive board, obtained by CNN, shows that members Karen Inman and Marcel Reid were "removed from any office or committee position you may have held." A separate document says that "the memberships of Karen Inman and Marcel Reid in ACORN is canceled, and...

ACORN embezzler Dale Rathke (shown at left) enjoys the good life at the 18th Annual New Orleans Film Festival in 2007. Photo: www.newyorksocialdiary.com* * * * *We found a fun little photo (above) of Dale Rathke out on the two in New Orleans last year while his brother, ACORN founder Wade Rathke and senior ACORN officials such as national president Maude Hurd were busy covering up the close to $1 million that Dale stole from ACORN. Earlier this year the story about Dale stealing money from ACORN broke. He embezzled the money from ACORN in 2000 and the coverup lasted...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/us/10acorn.html Correction Appended In the wake of an embezzlement scandal that rocked the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, two of its board members are seeking a court order to force it to hand over financial documents. They also are seeking to sever what they describe as continuing ties between Acorn and its founder, Wade Rathke, who resigned after it became public this summer that his brother had embezzled almost $1 million from the organization eight years ago. They contend that Mr. Rathke continues to direct the staff and expenditures. “Acorn will suffer irreparable harm if the...

Some years ago, I was asked to speak to a Christian homeschooling conference -- my wife and I have homeschooled our six children -- and during the question-and-answer session after the speech, I faced a question for which I was unprepared. "How has your Christian faith influenced your political beliefs?" This stunned me into silence for a second. Then I answered: "Well, I guess it comes down to that part about 'Thou shalt not steal.'" From there I proceeded to discuss the basic immorality of the welfare state, how it is wrong for government to take money that one man...