Disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke is urging Catholics to quit their church

President Obama isn't the only leftist to declare war on the Catholic church.

Disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke is urging Catholics to quit their church:

In the fall from grace of one institution after another, religious bodies have been on a steady decline for a generation.  No institution claims more members and fills less pews now that the Catholic Church on any given Sunday, nor has any outfit taken more of a licking in the public perception.  The inability to effectively manage the staff at the boundary lines between practice and principle has led to some dioceses declaring bankruptcy, multi-million dollar damage settlements, and a general uneasiness about how faith and flock have been stewarded by priests.  Couple all of that with a rigid hierarchy that seems committed to resisting change, pushing back the clock, some verifiable degree of misogyny, and a hardening attack on the victims of priestly misconduct and venerable institutions like the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and anything that still carries the torch of the Church’s long historic leadership in the fight for social justice.
What’s to be done?  Finally, it has become crystal clear.  It’s time to leave the church and follow the nuns! [emphasis added above]

That's rich. Wade is one of the worst managers in the history of nonprofit activism. His brother Dale embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN in 2000 and Wade covered it up for eight years. Wade's actions laid the groundwork for the collapse of ACORN. All ACORN needed was a push -- and that push was provided by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles the next year when they caught ACORN employees on undercover video offering helpful advice on setting up a brothel for pedophiles. The video sting caused Congress to cut off funding for ACORN and scared away remaining institutional funders. ACORN filed for bankruptcy on Election Day 2010.


And wow, does Wade really hate the Catholic church.

Historical ACORN documents uploaded to Scribd

For anyone who's interested, I've uploaded some documents from my ACORN files to Scribd.

So far there are lists of affiliates, the partial contents of the court file from a messy lawsuit, and other documents of interest.

Here is a link to my Scribd page.

Strange: ACORN Housing may be closed but it hasn't filed for bankruptcy

This is odd.

ACORN Housing Corporation, which changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), has closed its doors.

Yet there is no record of AHCOA filing a bankruptcy petition or being petitioned into bankruptcy, according to the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) database. None. And as of June 30, 2010, AHCOA was in the red by almost $2.5 million according to its most recent publicly available tax return (IRS Form 990).

I know AHCOA shut down because i) a very reliable source within the progressive movement told me so ii) its Twitter feed hasn't been updated in close to a year iii) its website (ahcoa.org) is down and iv) the secretary of state in Louisiana where it was incorporated has ruled that it is "Not In Good Standing for failure to file Annual Report."

According to the Louisiana Secretary of State's office AHCOA hasn't filed any reports since March 21, 2011.


Here is the "Not In Good Standing" report:
Affordable Housing Centers of America "Not in Good Standing" according to Louisiana Secre...


Weird.

Blogger Aaron Walker sues "Speedway Bomber" Brett Kimberlin

Conservative blogger Aaron Walker is fighting back hard against his terrorist tormentor, Brett Kimberlin, the infamous "Speedway Bomber."

Walker, who blogs as "Aaron Worthing" at Allergic to Bull, was jailed at the direction of Kimberlin after daring to blog about his criminal history. Kimberlin is a practitioner of the dark art of lawfare.

Incredibly, a Maryland judge, Cornelius "Brandenburg Shmandenburg" Vaughey, ordered Walker not to blog about Kimberlin. Criminal charges against Walker for allegedly violating the gag order have already been laughed out of court but the shut-yo-mouth injunction remains in effect.

Kimberlin, who served about a third of the 50 year federal prison term he was given, terrorized the town of Speedway, Indiana for a week. One of his bombs ripped off the leg of a man who became so despondent at his loss of mobility that he committed suicide.

The litigious Kimberlin brags about the legal skills he acquired behind bars. The felon-cum-progressive activist targets people who write about him or who just plain annoy him. (For a primer on the Kimberlin saga, read one of my previous articles. For a primer on the Walker versus Kimberlin saga, read another one of my previous articles.)

Kimberlin's mischief got Walker and his wife fired from their jobs and sent blogger Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain into hiding.

Walker is now employing a two-prong legal strategy. (Or maybe it's four prongs. I'm not sure what the Prong Protocol is here.) Attorney Reginald W. Bours III plans to apply next week to have the gag order (called a "peace order") lifted. 

Bours also filed a Maryland lawsuit against Kimberlin.


Another attorney representing Walker, Bruce Godfrey, filed a federal lawsuit seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. Like Bours, Godfrey has also moved to macerate the gag order. 

That's a lot of paperwork but it's nothing compared to the 100-plus lawsuits that Kimberlin brags about filing.

It's also nothing compared to the suffering he's caused.

BREAKING: ACORN Housing is dead!

I have it on good authority that Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) is dead. Until the devastating "pimp and pro" videos surfaced in 2009 that showed ACORN employees offering helpful advice on setting up a brothel for pedophiles, AHCOA's name was ACORN Housing Corp.

AHCOA's website (ahcoa.org) is down. AHCOA's Twitter feed hasn't been updated since August of last year. View it here.


Despite apparently kicking the bucket some time ago without anyone in the media (myself included) noticing, ACORN Housing has been in the news recently. Earlier this month it was reported that the Obama administration funneled $446 million in taxpayer money to ACORN alumnus Joe McGavin, now a director at the Illinois Housing Development Authority. As Judicial Watch discovered, McGavin was “Chicago Operations Manager” at Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) from November 2008 through January 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile.


Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, a longtime ACORN ally from his days as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's housing development commissioner, steered millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to his old friends at ACORN. Donovan is just one of several Obama cabinet members who did everything but bow down and grovel before Al Sharpton at the convention his group, National Action Network, held recently in Washington, D.C.

For years ACORN Housing was the largest branch of the corrupt ACORN empire of activism.

As I wrote in my book Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN Housing grew out of crime: squatting. It emerged from a 1982 squatting campaign in which ACORN built a squatters’ tent city behind the White House.


ACORN Housing was a cash cow for the ACORN network, providing significant funding for Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizing. Since 1997, ACORN Housing shelled out more than $5.1 million in fees or grants to other entities in the ACORN network. 

These intra-network transactions are the most troubling because out of all of ACORN’s affiliates, ACORN Housing was the most dependent on taxpayers for support and had a long history of abusing taxpayer funds. In 2008 alone, over 67 percent of gift and grants to ACORN Housing came from the federal government and Bank of America.

Developing...

Note: This story has been updated since it was initially posted.

George Soros has visited the White House 5 times

Radical philanthropist George Soros has visited the White House on at least five occasions since Barack Obama became president.

Perhaps Soros has some influence over Obama administration policy. Soros co-founded the ultra-secretive Democracy Alliance, a billionaires’ club that wants to radically transform America. He has said that European-style socialism “is exactly what we need now” and favors American decline. Soros, a currency manipulator with an insider-trading conviction, praises Red China effusively, saying the totalitarian nation has “a better-functioning government than the United States.”

The data appears in the White House’s online visitor access database. It is possible that Soros, the preeminent funder of the activist Left, visited the Obama White House more than five times because records of visits between January 20 and September 15, 2009 are not available in the database.

Here are the details of the visits:

On February 25, 2009 Soros visited David Lipton, then a White House economic adviser. (file #U70808)

On February 25, 2009 Soros visited Lawrence (Larry) Summers, who at the time was chairman of the White House U.S. National Economic Council for President Barack Obama. (file #U71032)

On March 24, 2009 Soros visited Christina “Tina” Tchen.  (file #U80165) Tchen is Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. According to her online bio from the White House website:

Tchen was previously a partner in corporate litigation at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In that capacity, Tchen represented public agencies in state and federal class actions, including the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Illinois Department of Public Aid, and the Chicago Housing Authority. Tchen is the recipient of many awards, including the Leadership Award from the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (1999); “Women of Achievement” award from the Anti-Defamation League (1996); and Chicago Lawyer “Person of the Year” (1994).

On March 25, 2009 Soros visited Lipton again. (file #U80759)

On February 16, 2010, Soros visited Summers (again) . (file #U79042)

Soros hasn’t spent anywhere near as much time at the White House as former SEIU president Andy Stern but five visits is still a lot.

Clash of the ACORN Titans

Later today ACORN whistleblower Marcel Reid debates Bertha Lewis, the former squatter who presided over the collapse of the corrupt community organizing outfit ACORN in 2010.

The one-hour matchup takes place at 10 o'clock a.m. (Eastern) on WPFW 89.3 FM (Washington, D.C.).

Listen live online here.

Reid was forced out of ACORN in 2008 after she demanded the group explain massive financial irregularities. She then co-founded a watchdog group called ACORN 8 with other whistleblowers. Reid contributed to the new book Race, Power & Politics: Memoirs of an ACORN Whistleblower, by Michael McCray.

Lewis is now president of the Black Institute, an ACORN-like organization in New York that focuses on African-American issues.

Glenn Beck likened Reid to Rosa Parks for her courage in taking on the powers that be at ACORN.

Lewis, on the other hand, is a thoroughly corrupt radical activist leader who doesn't hesitate to throw her supporters under the bus if the money's right, as I show in my book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

Obama’s Pre-Election Gift to Illegal Aliens

My article from today's Front Page Magazine:

Obama's Pre-Election Gift to Illegal Aliens

By Matthew Vadum

In a move more imperial than presidential, President Obama last week granted what amounts to a kind of de facto citizenship to as many as 1.4 million young illegal aliens.

From the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday Obama announced plans to bypass Congress and partially implement the so-called DREAM Act which would have offered a path to U.S. citizenship for youthful illegals who served in the armed forces or attended college. The administration says 800,000 illegal aliens could benefit although Jon Feere of the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies says the true number is closer to 1.4 million.

The cynical move came mere days before Obama was scheduled to speak at a major gathering of Hispanic activists in Florida.

Within hours of the announcement Obama’s reelection campaign sent out a mass email to supporters romanticizing this cohort of illegals as “Dreamers” who love America. These illegal aliens “should be able to dream as big as they want,” wrote Katherine Archuleta, national political director for the campaign.

The president said the new decree would take effect immediately in order to “lift the shadow of deportation from these young people.” Why this shadow needed to be lifted right now, while record unemployment levels plague the nation, was not explained.

“Let’s be clear, this is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship, this is not a permanent fix,” Obama said. “This is the right thing to do.”

Of course the former constitutional law lecturer knows full well that any executive order that withholds prosecution for unlawful acts is by definition an amnesty, that is, an act of official forgiveness for past offenses.

Like all amnesties it rewards lawbreaking and serves as a flashing green light to would-be illegal immigrants, inviting them to jump the queue. Amnesties beget amnesties. Each one increases the likelihood that another immigration amnesty will follow in the future – and so on and so on and so on.

Paranoia from The Nation magazine

The Left is going all-out to push the tired old meme that asking a voter for photo ID somehow discriminates against minorities, the poor, and other aggrieved groups.

Longtime fellow-traveler and ACORN apologist Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation magazine, is trying to raise money by promoting this ridiculous idea.

Not unexpected but still tedious. Make that very tedious.

Here’s a copy of a fundraising letter I received today from her:

Obama Gives $446 Million to ACORN Veteran

My article from today's Front Page Magazine:

Obama Gives $446 Million to ACORN Veteran

By Matthew Vadum

A former senior ACORN official has been put in charge of close to half a billion taxpayer dollars in Illinois, one of the most corrupt states in the Union and the home state of America’s Community Organizer-in-Chief.

What could possibly go wrong?

In 2010 the Obama administration designated $7.6 billion for a foreclosure relief program. Of that total $445.6 million will be administered by ACORN alumnus Joe McGavin, now a director at the Illinois Housing Development Authority. As Judicial Watch discovered, McGavin was “Chicago Operations Manager” at Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) from November 2008 through January 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Until two years ago AHCOA was called ACORN Housing. The nonprofit corporation renamed itself Affordable Housing Centers for America after undercover activists caught ACORN employees offering helpful advice about starting a brothel for pedophiles and committing other crimes on video in 2009. Soon after, popular revulsion prompted Congress to ban funding of ACORN and groups related to it.

Left-Wing Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Gets Conservative Blogger Jailed

Here's my piece from yesterday's Front Page Magazine.

Left-Wing Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Gets Conservative Blogger Jailed

By Matthew Vadum

Something is rotten in the State of Maryland.

Convicted terrorist bomber and perjurer Brett Kimberlin is free while one of his many harassment victims remains under a judicial gag order for the crime of writing about Kimberlin’s violent criminal history. It’s a bizarre situation, as I reported on “The Source” TV show with Ezra Levant.

Kimberlin and his cadre of cyber-stalkers try to bully conservative bloggers into silence. They post personal information and home addresses of their targets to send the message that “we know where you live.”

The extraordinarily litigious former federal prisoner does not tolerate being discussed unfavorably on the Internet. He typically files lawsuits against bloggers who dare to bring up his lengthy criminal record and antisocial behavior and seeks injunctions to shut them up. He is a ruthless, relentless bully.

But help is on the way.

As various Kimberlin detractors including CNN contributor Erick Erickson have found themselves “SWAT-ted” after writing blog posts about the infamous “Speedway Bomber,” ABC News reports that Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is now demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate. SWAT-ting consists of tricking 911 operators into dispatching emergency response teams to a targeted person’s home. It’s a nasty prank that could easily get a victim killed.

The Anti-Democratic Party

Here is my Front Page Magazine article from yesterday:

The Anti-Democratic Party

By Matthew Vadum

America’s Democratic Party lost its enthusiasm for democracy a long time ago.

Today’s gubernatorial recall vote in Wisconsin a short time after the most recent general election is just another reminder of how far the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson has strayed from its honorable roots. Founded as a reaction against the elitist ways of the we-know-what’s-best-for-you Federalists of the early Republic, the modern Democratic Party can’t stop telling Americans what to do.

Democrats are acutely mindful of Joseph Stalin’s aphorism that “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”

VIDEO: Vadum's update on the Brett Kimberlin saga from Sun News Network

I was on "The Source" with Ezra Levant on Sun News Network (TV) earlier today providing an update on the Brett Kimberlin saga.

Here's the video clip:



(Thanks for posting the video, SDAMatt2a!)

TV: Vadum on The Source - Sun News Network 5 pm ET today

I'll be on "The Source" on Canada's Sun News Network (TV) at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time providing an update on the Brett Kimberlin saga.

HuffPo corrects piece that misquoted me

The Huffington Post promptly corrected Clarence B. Jones's column that misquoted me. The corrected version is here.

I requested a correction less than a day ago. The blog post seeking the correction may be found here.

Obama Celebrates Socialist Dolores Huerta

From the May 31 edition of Front Page Magazine:

Obama Celebrates Socialist Dolores Huerta

By Matthew Vadum

When you’re a champion of so-called social justice, there is no end to the accolades you’re likely to receive regardless of your faults.

Falsely described by those on the Left as a compassionate humanitarian, radical labor leader Dolores Huerta has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. Huerta “has fought to give more people a seat at the table,” Obama said euphemistically.

The award is not all that surprising for an administration that kisses the ring of Al Sharpton.

In an acceptance statement Huerta pushed all the right politically correct buttons:

The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women’s movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights.

Did Huerta leave any aggrieved interest group out? If she did, it must have been an innocent oversight because she’s far too wonderful and inspiring a leader to have deliberately slighted any gripe-laden, tax-eating constituency.

Sloppy HuffPo writer Clarence B. Jones smears me

Clarence B. Jones, allegedly a Scholar in Residence at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, really should be more careful when writing.

This individual wrote at the Huffington Post on May 28:

The conservative columnist Mathew [sic] Vadum put all of the above in political election perspective for 2012. He writes, registering minorities [sic] "to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals."

Oh yeah? Where did I write that?

I never wrote such a thing. In the article Jones links to about taxpayer-supported registration of welfare recipients I used the quoted phrase in arguing that registering the poor to vote themselves more benefits was an antisocial act, which in fact it is. I never wrote anything about race.

This is a disgraceful smear.

He also spelled my first name as "Mathew" which is incorrect.

I demand a correction from Jones and the Huffington Post.

Brett Kimberlin and the Threshold Foundation’s radical ties

(This blog item was originally posted at the Capital Research Center blog on  May 30, 2012.)

What do self-described “communist” Van Jones, his good friend Arianna Huffington, radical philanthropist George Soros, the Threshold Foundation, and the Tides Foundation all have in common?

They all are connected in some way to convicted “Speedway Bomber” Brett C. Kimberlin, a man described by Michelle Malkin as “a radical, violent, lying, dangerous felon.”

Kimberlin, as blogger Liberty Chick previously reported,

spent nearly 17 years in prison after being convicted of launching a week-long bombing spree that terrorized the residents of Speedway, Indiana in the late 1970’s. One of the blasts horribly maimed a man so badly that it directly led to that man’s suicide a few years later, which was proven when the widow of that bombing victim successfully sued and won a civil judgment against Kimberlin for $1.6 million.

Kimberlin is a political trailblazer of sorts. He is a tactical innovator whose tried and true methods would have impressed the father of modern community organizing, Saul Alinsky. The late conservative Internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart recognized Kimberlin’s unique talents last fall, tweeting that the convicted terrorist and his confederates needed “exposure.”

Kimberlin is focusing on bullying conservatives into silence, which is the same thing that so much of progressivedom is concentrating on nowadays. But unlike Van Jones and the various Marxist agitators who have inflicted damage on conservative talk radio and innocuous groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) through innuendo and smears, Kimberlin gets in his enemies’ faces. While in prison he taught himself the law. Nowadays he sues conservatives who write about him and obtains restraining orders against them – the First Amendment be damned.

Amazingly, a leading Kimberlin detractor, conservative blogger Aaron Walker, was jailed by a Maryland judge yesterday after criticizing Kimberlin.