Puff Piece in WaPo on new AFL-CIO President Shredded

It's only going to be a matter of time before those who support the MSM begin to get victimized by the same entities they're championing. Chris Cillizza writes a Puff Piece Profile on new AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and it's ripped apart by.............a Left Wing blog?

h/t to NewsBusters for uncovering the "selective reporting" uncovered by The New Republic.

Cillizza's profile of Trumka highlight's the latter's history as a uniter and not a divider when it comes to bringing groups togethery. In light of the current status of the AFL-CIO, such a man would be envied.

The long and short of it is that the AFL-CIO has lost member unions to a competitor called "Change to Win". The more well-known defectors are SEIU and Teamsters. Cillizza apparently had softballs dancing in his head at the keyboard because he never questioned, challenged, nor reported on Trumka's questionable past. In fact, what Cillizza did was akin to grilling an onion without taking off the dried, outer brown layer.

Quoting from John B. Judis' piece in New Republic...

The story (Cillizza's piece) fails to mention that Trumka himself was one of the reasons for the split. In 1996, James P. Hoffa ran for president of the Teamsters against the incumbent Ron Carey. Carey won the election, but the results were thrown out when federal officials discovered that Carey campaign people were illicitly using Teamster funds for his campaign. Carey’s campaign would send the money to individuals in other organizations ostensibly for other purposes and the individuals and organizations would arrange for the money to be donated back to the Carey campaign.

According to a statement made by Carey’s former campaign manager, Trumka and the AFL-CIO were involved in this money-laundering scheme. At Trumka’s request, $150,000 was sent to the AFL-CIO for get-out-the-vote efforts in the 1996 general election. The money was then sent to Citizen Action, a community organizing group, which passed it back to the Carey campaign. While Trumka was mentioned in the federal complaint, he was not indicted. And he refused to testify in the federal investigation on fifth amendment grounds. So nothing has been proven, but you would probably have a hard time finding a labor official – and particularly one at the Teamsters – who doesn’t believe Trumka was laundering money for Carey.

If there's any truth to this, being a fly on the wall of Hoffa's office while he's reading Cillizza's piece just might command a hefty premium.

Read Cillizza's piece for yourself.

Sarah Palin sounds like Dagny Taggart

In 'Atlas Shrugged', Dagny Taggart ran a railroad and corrupt powers prevented her from running her business. With Sarah Palin, oil and gas pipelines are facing similar opposition. In a column by Sarah Palin that appears in the Washington Post today, she says the following:

Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.

On July 3rd, I wrote that Palin's decision to resign made sense if her motivation involved going on offense.

As Governor and former VP Candidate, the abuse she's endured has been malicious, cruel, unjustified, and the kind I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy (not the least of which involved a despicable left wing blogger distorting the face of Palin's Down Syndrome son, Trig). And guess what? The attacks were effective because they put Palin on the defensive in almost every instance.

Not anymore. In her editorial, she slams Obama's policies. More importantly, her words are going to force the Obama Pawns to respond, which means they will have to switch from offense to defense, if only for a little while.

With justified attacks on the Obama economy, Cap and Trade, and unemployment, Palin delivers some VERY STRONG body blows.

In 'Atlas Shrugged', Dagny refused to be denied when it came to building a bridge to Wyatt Oil. Palin is showing a similar tendency by insisting that Alaskan oil be made available to the lower 48.

h/t to Gateway Pundit

ACORN Whistleblower Speaks Out

Michael McCray is a former member of ACORN and now one of the ACORN 8, which is a group that is demanding that ACORN's funding be withheld until an investigation is completed. Doug Ross interviewed McCray and posted it to his blog.

Read the whole thing here.

McCray maintains that all of the manifestations of ACORN's corrupt practices that we've all come to know and love are just symptoms. The real problems, says McCray, are the corrupt leaders (hmmmmm, sounds like the U.S. government's problem too).

Anyway, ACORN is run with a militant mindset and a union-like structure. Don't believe me, just listen to a guy who was on the inside. As you read McCray's words, think about how often what he says here is said about some Unions.

the biggest shortfall is that ACORN has become unaccountable to the needs and desires of its membership; while purporting to be (and claiming benefits from) being a membership organizations. I believe ACORN has been hijacked by a cabal of individuals who are acting in their own financial and political best interest.

Now for the militant part, which is even more disturbing in light of what Barack Obama has said on video.

Some pray, some write letters, some make phone calls but ACORN goes to “war,” they will engage in immediate direct action for the benefit of low and moderate income families. In a way ACORN is like the Marines.

ACORN is like the "Marines" and "goes to war"?

The founder of Community Organizing was Saul Alinsky. If you listen to Alinsky's son David, Barack Obama is Community Organizing's Golden Boy.

Let's not forget Saul's methods...

The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

Or this...

Through a process combining hope and resentment, the organizer tries to create a “mass army” that brings in as many recruits as possible from local organizations, churches, services groups, labor unions, corner gangs, and individuals.

Now have a look at Barack Obama on July 2nd, 2008 while in Colorado.