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LONDON (Reuters) – Humanity faces a profound emergency and unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, a joint editorial published in newspapers in 45 countries said on Monday. The 56 newspapers said they were taking the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice to implore world leaders to "make the right choice" at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. "The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw a calamity coming but did not...

Rep. Michele Bachmann is all over radio presenting information on the corruption of congress, banking and ACORN. And NO, they're not going to let her on mainstream TV news! She explained that the CRA required banks to lend to unsound applicants OR they could instead contribute to.....ACORN. It's even worse than Bachmann presents it. We found this article from the year 2000, there were others as well...we were ASLEEP! This is just a few snips, long, worth the read. And remember, Clinton started misusing the law passed by congress - the Community Reinvestment Act, but for 8 years after the...

Congressional Democrats are set to announce Tuesday legislation aimed at squeezing more information from foreign banks and U.S. citizens with offshore accounts to ferret out tax evaders. The bill from Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), includes some of President Barack Obama's proposals to fight offshore tax cheating. According to a summary of the bill obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, it is expected to raise $8.5 billion for the U.S. government over 10 years. Foreign banks with U.S. customers would face a 30% withholding tax on income from...

KENSINGTON, Md. - Public parks are usually the places where children go to have fun. But the town of Kensington just passed a new rule that bans kids over five years old from playgrounds during the daytime...The girls at Kensington's Brookewood School are banned from using a public park right across the street for recess. "I don't think it's really fair because we're part of the community too and we want to play in the park," said Jill Collins, a fifth-grade student. The town council unanimously passed a resolution this week saying only caretakers with children five years old and...

The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, enacted under President Jimmy Carter, was intended to end "redlining," a practice in which banks supposedly ruled off many inner-city neighborhoods on their maps, refusing to issue mortgages within their boundaries. The immediate result was that -- to please regulators who have the power to shut down private banks -- bankers started reducing their financial standards, issuing loans to low-income or low-net-worth customers who might not previously have qualified. These lowered standards led, in part, to the housing market meltdown. But the Community Reinvestment Act did something a lot more troubling than that. It allowed...

WHEN government of ficials play the Olympic lottery, tax payers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world. So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback. Bringing the games to the Windy City is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's "vision." The entrenched Democratic powerbroker -- in office since 1989 -- would like to cap off his tenure with a glorious $4 billion bread-and-circuses production. The influential Daley machine backed Barack Obama in the presidential primaries. Obama lavished...

As various charges and complaints have materialized over the years, it seems that ACORN uses the communities in which they are located as staging grounds for national power grabs. With multiple states and entities receiving federal funds, ACORN plays to win. Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The Washington Examiner has covered ACORN’s: “Muscle for the Money” program:

SEIU endorses Obama *Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). *“ACORN’s so-called ‘muscle for money’ strategy extorts ‘donations’ from targeted government and corporate officials by offering them Mafia-like protection from protests by the group’s own paid thugs, ..” *..their 2007-2008 ventures with SEIU against the Carlyle Group that deserve a closer inspection. .. *“...SEIU .. staged a protest outside the Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters of The Carlyle Group as part of the union’s bid to organize Manor Care, the Toledo-based nursing home giant Carlyle is buying for...

Evil exists—evil people, I mean. Take Barbara Hall. She’s “Chief Commissioner” of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (HRC). That’s a place where someone can go and tattle on his fellow Canadians when he feels his “human rights” have been violated. The beautiful thing is, he gets to decide what those rights are and how they have been violated. No complaint is too frivolous! And there cannot be too many of them. In fact, Hall doesn’t think enough Canadians are ratting each other out because she wants the number of complaints to “spike”: she desires to boldly seek out “known and...

"LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson's family wants a private autopsy of the pop icon because of unanswered questions about how he died and the doctor who was with him, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday. "It's abnormal. He couldn't be found," he told The Associated Press from Chicago a day after visiting the Jackson family. "We don't know what happened. Was he injected and with what? All reasonable doubt should be addressed.""

"My grandfather paid for Carlisle Chevrolet from his labors. My father paid my grandmother for Carlisle Chevrolet through his efforts. It took me nearly 20 years to pay my parents for Carlisle Chevrolet. It took GM and Chrysler a mere 24 hours to take Carlisle Chevrolet from me."

Democrats not shy about chasing cash Despite recession, lobbyists note increase in requests for campaign contributions Sunday, May 24, 2009 3:38 AM By Jim Siegel Ohio House Democrats returned to power in January after 14 years in the minority and brought with them an aggressive fundraising style that some lobbyists wish they had left behind. More than a half-dozen lobbyists, some independent and some representing influential trade groups, say House Speaker Armond Budish and his team are asking for "outrageous" amounts of campaign cash -- setting unprecedented goals and telling some groups they need to give House Democrats as much...

SNIPPET: "Forget the "60 Minutes" angle against an alleged big, bad American polluter. This looks like an Ecuadoran shakedown of millions of American small investors who have a stake in Chevron. Now that is a story worth investigating."

While Shakedown is most certainly a cautionary tale that will educate unsuspecting Canadians of the ever-present threat to their freedom of speech, it should be required reading for Americans who see their liberty and freedom under attack from the forces of political-correctness, and to an increasing degree, the current Obama administration and their policy of appeasement.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. civil rights activist Al Sharpton weighed into a fight over an Arizona sheriff's immigration sweeps on Tuesday, accusing him of racially profiling Hispanics and urging him to step down. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched deputies into Hispanic communities in the Phoenix area, where they stop people and arrest anyone who cannot prove he or she is a legal U.S. resident. Under a deal allowing them to enforce federal immigration laws, the deputies have arrested more than 1,500 people who they determined were in Arizona illegally, triggering street protests and condemnation from Latino activists...

The next shoe is dropping in an effort to end what is described as decades of persistent and systemic bias at the agencies that create, buy and place television commercials and other forms of media advertising. The N.A.A.C.P. is calling on the nation’s 25 biggest advertisers — on TV and in other media — to require that their agencies use racially diverse teams of employees in creative and account-management posts. The first letter in the initiative is to be sent to Procter & Gamble, the No. 1 advertiser in the United States with ad spending last year, according to the...

WASHINGTON – A day after his White House meeting with President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the United States a "deadbeat" donor to the world body while making the made the rounds on Capitol Hill. Ban's criticism Wednesday of the U.N.'s single biggest backer irked some members of the House Foreign Relations Committee. They were generally supportive of his leadership but voiced concern about U.N. efforts in areas from Sudan to Somalia. "He used the word 'deadbeat' when it came to characterizing the United States. I take great umbrage (over) that," Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the panel's senior Republican, said...

American Vision received a phone call from an NPR station yesterday (3.3.2009) asking me to appear on one of their shows to answer the charge by the Southern Poverty Law Center that our organization is a “hate group.” (For the record, I don’t do interviews with media outlets that are subsidized by tax dollars.) The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has listed American Vision as a “hate group” under the “other” category on their website because we are “anti-gay.’[1] I guess the majority of people in California who voted to outlaw homosexual marriage are also “haters.” Of course they are....

For years, political shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) have used demonstrations, boycotts and racial intimidation to dragoon millions of dollars, sub-prime mortgages and other assets from local and state officials, Fortune 500 corporations and federal bureaucrats. Now an aggressive group of non-profit activists using a somewhat more sophisticated version of the same approach is targeting the billions of private dollars given annually by tax-exempt philanthropic foundations and charities to groups and organizations spanning the spectrum of human need and improvement. Rather than simply flinging accusations of racism, the group challenges...

A third apology may not be enough. Chimpgate continues, though Rupert Murdoch himself has offered a mea culpa..

World Bank President Robert Zoellick Friday called on the new U.S. president to lead the developed world in diverting a small portion of economic stimulus to poorer nations caught up in the global crisis. Urging President Barack Obama to "send an audacious signal of hope," Zoellick said in an opinion piece in The New York Times that Obama should go to the April gathering of Group of 20 leaders in London with a proposal for developed countries to pledge 0.7% of their stimulus for a "vulnerability fund" to help countries that can't afford to run up deficits for bailouts and...

BRUSSELS/LONDON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Rich nations could raise $200 billion in climate funds through a levy on their greenhouse gases from 2013-2020 to help poor countries prepare for global warming, the European Union will say next week. The plan is set out in an EU paper outlining the bloc's position ahead of U.N.-led climate talks in Copenhagen in December, meant to agree a new, global climate treaty. The fund-raising idea is the most specific yet from any rich country or bloc on how to persuade developing nations to agree binding, concrete steps to slow their greenhouse gas emissions --...

On April 21, 2008, Representative Charles B. Rangel met with officials of the American International Group, the now-troubled insurance giant, to ask for a donation to a school of public service that City College of New York was building in his honor. Mr. Rangel had already helped secure a $5 million pledge for the project from a foundation controlled by Maurice R. Greenberg, one of the company’s largest shareholders and its former chief executive. And C.C.N.Y. officials, according to the school’s own records, had high hopes for A.I.G. — a donation of perhaps as much as $10 million.

In 2006, Publix Supermarket Charities donated almost $30 million to causes that included Habitat for Humanity, the March of Dimes and United Way. But Al Piña isn't satisfied. Mr. Piña, the chairman of the Florida Minority Community Reinvestment Coalition, believes Publix isn't giving enough to people of color who donate to other people of color. Welcome to the latest trend in racial extortion. According to a study that Mr. Piña commissioned from the California-based activist group Greenlining, Publix gave only 2.81% of its grants in 2006 to "minority-led organizations." Minority-led is defined as groups whose staff and board of directors...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said Tuesday it will pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 lawsuits over wage-and-hour violations, ending years of dispute. (read more at link...excerpted AP article)

The indictment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn't the only thing happening in Illinois last week. Bank of America was the victim of a concerted shake-down operation that could be replicated around the country. Banks apparently now are expected to give money away to failed borrowers. This could become federal policy when Barack Obama, who supported this new example of Chicago blackmail, becomes president. One of the casualties of the faltering housing market is Chicago's Republic Windows and Doors. Bank of America cut off the company's line of credit in response to falling demand. "If the bank saw some light at...

"Organizers of the action said the company can't pay employees because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won't let them. Crain's Chicago Business reported that Republic Windows' monthly sales had fallen to $2.9 million from $4 million during the past month. In a memo to the union, obtained by the business journal, Republic CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors. Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. "Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters...

December 09, 2008 Categories: Barack Obama Blago wanted to shake down Warren Buffett Blagojevich and his inner circle were expansive in pondering just how they could leverage the Senate appointment for financial gain, and at one point the governor floated the notion that legendary financier and Obama supporter Warren Buffett could somehow be brought into the deal. In a November 11th conversation with John Harris, his Chief of Staff, Blagojevich said he could start a 501(c)(4) political organization to extract money from the billionaire Sage of Omaha, whom the governor called Obama’s “friend.” “What, for you?” Harris replied. “Yeah,” said...

Everyone could get CO2 permits - China study08 Dec 2008 22:43:34 GMT Source: Reuters By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent POZNAN, Poland, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Everyone on the planet could get identical greenhouse gas emission rights as part of a drive to halve emissions by 2050, according to a study by Chinese scientists on Monday. The proposal, presented on the sidelines of a Dec. 1-12 U.N. conference on fighting global warming, would force nations such as the United States which have used most fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution to buy emission rights from poor nations. "Developed countries shall take...

Disability regulations are likely to get “tougher” in Gettysburg, according to town administrators, to help the borough government avoid court time as it battles American with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaints. The municipality is currently mired in 26 disabled rights suits filed with the state’s Human Relations Commission in Harrisburg.(snip) Property owners in Gettysburg, according to town officials, are responsible for sidewalks. Some driveway and sidewalk ADA upgrades, Lawver has predicted, could cost as little as $2,500 and as much as $10,000. (snip) President George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act in 1990, making accessibility for disabled persons a...

Citigroup & ACORN Sign Groundbreaking Agreement to Expand Homeownership in Communities Around the Country New York-Citigroup and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) today announced a landmark partnership that advances the goals of both organizations in promoting homeownership in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods, especially in immigrant communities, increasing the availability of affordable credit, and promoting financial education. The partnership also reinforces Citigroup's position as a key industry leader in responsible and innovative lending practices. As part of the partnership, announced today at an event in New York City, Citigroup and ACORN have agreed to collaborate on several...

Congratulations, tolerance mau-mauers: Your shakedown of a Christian-targeted dating website worked. Homosexuals will no longer be denied the inalienable "right" to hook up with same-sex partners on eHarmony. What a landmark triumph for social progress, eh? New Jersey plaintiff Eric McKinley can now crown himself the new Rosa Parks -- heroically breaking down inhumane barriers to Internet matchmaking by forcing a law-abiding private company to provide services it was never created to provide. "Men seeking men" has now been enshrined with "I have a dream" as a civil rights rallying cry of the 21st century. Bully for you, Mr. McKinley....

Housing: For years, a self-described "bank terrorist" blackmailed banks into making bad home loans in our inner cities. Now those loans are defaulting by the millions, and he's blaming banks.Bruce Marks, founder of the leftist Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, makes a good living shaking down banks for loans to deadbeat borrowers that he thinks are entitled to homes. Last month, he and about 100 urban protesters stormed Fannie Mae's headquarters, demanding it stop foreclosures on subprime houses — the same homes his group pressured Fannie to fund. As usual, the bullying tactics worked: Fannie Mae is now reviewing every...

Bad beat of the year: The Danish government wants 73% of Peter Eastgate's WSOP winnings. Peter Eastgate won $9,152,416 in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, but the question is how much of it he will get to keep. Denmark has strict taxation rules for poker winnings - Eastgate has to pay 45% in taxes on winnings up to approximately $520 000 and 75% on the rest (over $8.5 million). The end result will be $6.6 million in taxes, if the Danish government gets what it wants. Eastgate moved to England shortly after reaching the Main Event final table to protect...

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased...

This is a blog excert from Wade Rathke, the founder and Chief Organizer of ACORN International and SEIU Local 100, AFL-CIO, etc. ACORN’s foreclosure prevention negotiations have picked up momentum behind the scenes again recently. Last week solid progress made with teams at Merrill Lynch in New York and WAMU in Seattle. Next week another face-to-face round in Dallas with GMAC and other metroplex area servicers on the docket. A call with Wells this week to finally get them into the game and discuss much needed streamlining is now set. Ocwen, a target not long ago, is piloting in three...

The city of Manassas and the Manassas City Schools and School Board reached a settlement this week in regards to the year-old Equal Rights Center lawsuit. The city will pay the plaintiffs $625,000 while the city schools will pay $150,000. There are also several stipulations that Manassas must abide by, including the hiring of a housing manager/advocate position. Manassas will also pay Virginia non-profit organization Housing Opportunities Made Equal $60,000 as part of the settlement. On Monday, the city council passed a resolution approving the settlement on a 5-1 vote with only councilman Marc Aveni opposing. The 2007 lawsuit stemmed...

Christian and other religious groups opposed to abortion were allowed to advertise on Google for the first time from today, after the search engine capitulated in the face of a legal challenge. Google had banned pro-life religious groups from buying adverts against search terms such as “abortion” and “abortion help” but was forced to abandon its policy after it was accused of breaching equalities legislation. The challenge was brought by the Christian Institute, a cross-denominational pressure group, who said that Google’s change of heart was an acknowledgement of the rights of everybody to hold an opinion on the subject. Mike...

The weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal highlighted the growing menace of groups like California's Greenlining Institute. Greenlining is a left-wing pressure group that threatens adverse public relations campaigns against lenders that refuse to bow to its agenda. The Journal editorial begins: Readers who run a foundation, serve on a board or are thinking of starting such a charitable effort should know about the gauntlet of shakedown artists forming up to demand a piece of the action. As with so many marginal ideas, this one is coming out of California. A proposed bill there would have required foundations with...

BELOVED former Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr. died broke, in debt to the IRS, and left his estate in such a shambles that it still hasn't been straightened out. And according to "Deconstructing Sammy" (due next month from Amistad/HarperCollins), by journalist Matt Birkbeck, Davis didn't have to die. After a cancer diagnosis in August 1989, doctors recommended surgery on his throat that offered an 80 percent chance of survival. He opted instead for radiation, which had a slim 30 percent survival rate. Davis made his decision based on his dismal finances. If he couldn't sing, he reasoned, he couldn't...

George Juelch was in Baghdad, about to embark on a hazardous eight-hour road trip to Mosul, when he got a disturbing phone call from his wife in Pismo Beach. She told him she had just opened a letter from the California Military Department. The department runs the National Guard and had hired Juelch as a cook at Camp San Luis Obispo before he was mobilized for Iraq duty. The Guard was writing Juelch to tell him it was shutting down the dining facility at the camp, and would no longer need his services. In other words, he was being laid...

...As with so many marginal ideas, this one is coming out of California. A proposed bill there would have required foundations with more than $250 million in assets to report the racial, gender and sexual orientation of their board members, staffs and grantees. The bill's sponsors recently agreed to drop the issue in return for a political payoff of millions of dollars from 10 of the state's biggest charities...

Left-wing pressure groups like the Center for Responsible Lending played a role in bringing down Indymac, according to commentator Jerry Bowyer. Around the same time Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) questioned the financial viability of the California-based bank, an event the Office of Thrift Supervision said gave "the bank a heart attack," the Center for Responsible Lending exacerbated the situation. As Bowyer writes: Indymac has been under attack from the hard left. The Center for Responsible Lending issued an attack on Indymac within a few days of Schumer's letter. CRL is part of a small army of left of center...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A police lieutenant in Daytona Beach was fired over accusations that he threatened slower emergency response times if he was not given complimentary specialty Starbucks coffee drinks. An internal police investigation found that Daytona Lt. Major Garvin received free coffee for about two years from a city Starbucks coffee store. However, when recently denied free coffee from new management, Garvin allegedly told managers that he could change the police department's response time if they refuse to give him complimentary drinks. Garvin is accused of saying, "If something happens, either we can respond really fast or we...

Consumer Protection or Legal Extortion? Daily Article by S.M. Oliva   |   Posted on 7/10/2008 On April Fool's Day of this year, New Mexico resident Mark Hershiser received a letter from Erika Wodinsky, a San Francisco attorney, demanding Hershiser turn over all revenue from Native Essence Herb Company, a small business co-owned by Hershiser and his wife Marianne. The letter was not a joke or a mistake. It was a premeditated act of extortion by Ms. Wodinsky. She had never met or spoken with Hershiser; her staff discovered Native Essence through its modest website.Internet scams and predators are...

Hillary Clinton hasn't forgotten that her defeat came not at the hands of voters but because of her opponent's ability to out-organize her in caucus states. By some measures, she equaled or surpassed Barack Obama in the popular vote. Nonetheless, Mrs. Clinton has officially rallied behind Mr. Obama in hopes of giving Democrats their best shot to win a presidential election since 1996. But she has a price. Mrs. Clinton showed up in Unity, N.H. for a symbolic event with Mr. Obama and the downpayment seems to begin with $10 million in cash – the amount her campaign still owes...

It's official: Obama will back a filibuster of any Senate FISA legislation containing telecom immunity, his campaign has just told Election Central. The Obama campaign has just sent over the following statement from spokesman Bill Burton: "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Some cash-strapped US municipalities are resorting to slapping fuel surcharges onto tickets issued to speeding drivers in order to fill dwindling city coffers hit hard by skyrocketing gas prices. Beginning July 1, the Georgia town of Holly Springs, near the city of Atlanta, will add a surcharge of 12 dollars for each moving violation as a means to avert a budget deficit brought on by high fuel prices. "It's a creative and innovative idea of our police chief," said Holly CothranDrake, spokeswoman of the city administration which on Wednesday received queries from several American municipalities that are...

Petrostate By Marshall Goldman (Oxford, 244 pages, $27.95)Russia, with its huge natural-gas reserves, uses its monopoly on east-west pipelines to promote Russia's political interests -- and reacts toughly when challenged. Marshall Goldman sets out these disturbing truths in "Petrostate," a bleak and yet spirited account of Russia's energy politics. The West, Mr. Goldman makes clear, should be wincing at its own vulnerability. The story, as Mr. Goldman tells it, starts with the first oil boom in the czarist era, when Russia and America together produced 97% of the world's oil. Foreign companies were booted out of the Soviet Union by...

Almost 50 companies - including PepsiCo, General Motors, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Continental Airlines, Johnson & Johnson and Chase - and some labor unions sponsored Sharpton's National Action Network annual conference in April. Terrified of negative publicity, fearful of a consumer boycott or eager to make nice with the civil-rights activist, CEOs write checks, critics say, to NAN and Sharpton - who brandishes the buying power of African-American consumers. In some cases, they hire him as a consultant. The cash flows even as the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn has been conducting a grand-jury investigation of NAN's finances. http://www.nypost.com/seven/06152008/news/regionalnews/rev__al_soaks_up_boycott_bucks_115554.htm