Right On The Right

Barack Obama is a typical liberal Democrat, and he's more than willing to employ the same dirty tricks, and employ (literally) the same foul players on the political scene. Gateway Pundit has a post up which talks about one dirty player in particular, Patrick Gaspard, a man who recently worked for an SEIU affiliate in New York. What's interesting is what Gaspard did in 2004:

The Kerry effort will be aided by America Coming Together, an independent group working to get out the Democratic vote. The group plans to stage marches before Election Day to polling stations that open early in key states to put ‘peer and community pressure’ on low-propensity voters, said Patrick Gaspard, the group's national field director.

America Coming Together, or ACT, was fined over $700,000 for illegal fundraising, but they did much more. They hired felons to canvass neighborhoods in several states, including here in Ohio. As pointed out at GP, several of them even ended up going back to jail following the 2004 cycle. To top it all off, the slime was knee-deep in Ohio:

The Ohio Republican Party sued in Marion County just before its county courthouse doors closed at 4:30 p.m., asking for a restraining order against state and county Democrats and the political group America Coming Together. The suit claimed they were peppering the Republican strongholds of Marion and Greene counties with misleading taped phone messages. Republican attorney Mark Weaver said several dozen GOP voters complained to party headquarters that the messages directed them to an improper polling place or told them, incorrectly, that they needed to bring identification or a utility bill to the polls.

I hope that this isn't the change we're supposed to be waiting for, because it's nothing new. It's old political tricks, by an old ultra-liberal machine, with old policies, old tactics, and an old hatred for the will of the American people. Isn't it time for Barack to drop the "hope and change" mantra when he's engaging in the same old dirty politics?

There's no room for strong-arming in the workplace, from either employers or labor unions. That's why I support secret ballots for union votes, secret ballots for workers to enter a union, and secret decisions to flag your money for charities instead of political causes if your union donates to candidates. Via RedState, a great ad about secret ballots:

Hank Johnson (D-GA) spent quite a bit of money paying the rent for his campaign headquarters. His rent was so large, that I suggest he go after his landlord for price gouging. The problem is, he is his landlord, and he's the one charging himself a huge sum of cash. The Majority Accountability Project has done some research and chronicles the ethically-shady move:

U.S. Representative Henry “Hank” Johnson, D-GA, pays more in rent for his campaign office than any other member of Georgia’s Congressional delegation, including the Peach state’s two U.S. Senators - a distinction made more dubious by the fact Johnson’s landlord is the law firm that bears his name.

A Majority Accountability Project (majorityap.com) review of the freshman Democrat’s financial disclosure forms, filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), found that Johnson began paying Johnson and Johnson Law Group in Decatur, GA, $1500 a month in “rent for campaign headquarters” in April, 2007. Johnson practiced civil and criminal law at Johnson and Johnson for more than 30 years, where he was a partner with his wife, Mereda Davis Johnson.

A search of business records in the state of Georgia revealed that Johnson and Johnson Law Group was dissolved October 17, 2007, but Johnson again paid the firm a month later.

Johnson's using funds from his campaign, funds contributed by average folks, to line his own pockets. Johnson replaced Democrat Cynthia McKinney, and it's not looking like his ethics are any better. Culture of Corruption?

I received this video yesterday by e-mail, and I find it pretty funny. Content Warning for tons of sexual humor:

I posted a link to my must-reads a while ago saying that Barack had decided to join the chorus of Senators calling for an earmark moratorium. No word yet on if that's actually going to happen. When we look at Barack's actual record on earmarks however, we see a very different story, and Obama has the traditional Democrat habit of giving earmarks to those closest to him. Via NRO:

Dan Riehl notes, via Amanda Carpenter, that in the list of earmarks he requested, $1 Million was requested for the construction of a new hospital pavilion at the University Of Chicago. The request was put in in 2006.

You know who works for the University of Chicago Hospital?

Michelle Obama. She's vice president of community affairs.

As Byron noted, "In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office."

This sounds like a typical case of a politician using his power to benefit his family, and a typical case of a liberal Democrat loving pork. Barack Obama may have recently joined the fight for an earmark moratorium, but for nothing more than political expediency. Barack isn't on our side in the push for a smarter smaller government