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YOUTHTODAY.ORG

“The Corporation for National and Community Service has penalized the largest AmeriCorps program in the nation, but not nearly to the extent recommended by its controversial former inspector general.

CNCS docked the City University of New York (CUNY) $345,700 for this year, reducing its grant from $900,000 to $554,300, according to CNCS spokesman Sandy Scott. That will reduce the number of AmeriCorps members at CUNY from 3,600 last year to 2,300.

The biggest savings for AmeriCorps will be in the reduced amount of educational awards that will be provided.

In a report filed this summer, former CNCS Inspector General Gerald Walpin said CUNY was using AmeriCorps funds to pay for part of its teaching fellows program, which provides fellows jobs at New York City schools and full tuition to pursue master’s degrees.

Teaching Fellow program applicants often didn’t know that AmeriCorps funding was involved, Walpin reported, and few of the fellows did volunteer work. The report also found that CUNY did not operate an AmeriCorps orientation program or have program participants fill out timesheets, as required by CNCS.

Walpin recommended that CNCS attempt to recoup $75 million from CUNY, but CNCS acting CEO Nicola Goren said the agency disagreed with his findings.

‘We believe [CUNY] was and is eligible for AmeriCorps funding,’ Goren wrote in a letter responding to Walpin’s report, and the corporation ‘will not act on your draft recommendations regarding the status’ of the program. (See ‘Audit Slams Largest AmeriCorps Program’ at www.youthtoday.org.)

Walpin was fired later in the summer by the Obama administration; he has appealed the termination.

CUNY is beginning to address some of the problems laid out in Walpin’s report, Scott said in an e-mail.

‘CUNY improved its member timekeeping processes, implemented enhanced monitoring practices and revised its AmeriCorps orientation program,’ Scott wrote.

CUNY also has to use the AmeriCorps logo on various pieces of literature and advise teaching fellows that failure to abide by AmeriCorps’ procedures will result in their forfeiting the education grant.”

Hat tip to Just the Facts, PumaPac. 

What the hell is going on over there at NBC?  Can it be that their pandering to Obama and administration is finally biting them in the rear?  Or is it that they have dropped the ball so often, given a pass to legitimate news and has been caught dead to wrong on at least 30 occasions too many that their only recourse is to be denigrating, nasty, condescending and downright offensive?  How liberal and blatantly racist of them.

One thing is clear.  Failure is starting to take its toll. NBC is feeling the pain and one can only pray that it hurts like the devil.

Biggovernment.com

“**UPDATE** ^[1] Politico: NBC Vehemently Denies Allegations Over Anti-Semitic Email

**UPDATE 2** ^[2] ALG Statement in Response to Alleged NBC Email

**UPDATE 3** ^[3] NBC News Statement

**UPDATE 4** ^[4]Group Stands Ground Over Claims That NBC Employee Issued Anti-Semitic Email

Apparently NBC ‘Dateline’ producer Jane Stone or someone else who has access to her Blackberry has a problem with groups that oppose ACORN and with an ethnocultural minority.

When Stone received an email urging Congress to defund ACORN from Alex Rosenwald, director of media outreach for Americans for Limited Government ^[5], the following sentence came back to Rosenwald from Stone’s account: “Bite me, Jew Boy!”

Bite me Jew boy! ^[6] –

Americans for Limited Government released the following statement:

‘Americans for Limited Government does not contend that NBC or its parent company GE, are anti-Semitic. What is highly disturbing, however, is that there clearly is a culture at NBC that has allowed this person who clearly has issues to go unchecked.

Ms Stone claims she did not send the offensive email. If that is not the case, we at ALG call upon her to help ascertain who did send it using her Blackberry and her email address. If Ms Stone did, in fact, send it, we at ALG call upon Ms Stone to apologize to Mr. Rosenwald, and we call upon the NBC hierarchy above Ms Stone to join her in issuing that apology.

I am told by fellow right-leaning journalists that getting rude and offensive emails from reporters in the mainstream media is a fairly common occurrence.

It happened to me last fall when an occasional writer for the New York Times named Dan Mitchell sent me an electronic nastygram ^[7] after I appeared on ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ in a package about ACORN. I understand the newspaper disciplined Mitchell.”

Source:

Article printed from Big Government: http://biggovernment.com

URL to article: http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/25/nbc-to-anti-acorn-group-bite-me-jew-boy/

URLs in this post:

[1] **UPDATE**: http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/25/politico-nbc-news-president-blasts-reckless-and-defamatory-alg/

[2] **UPDATE 2**: http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/25/alg-statement-in-response-to-nbc-bite-me-jew-boy/

[3] **UPDATE 3** : http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/25/update-nbc-news-statement/

[4] **UPDATE 4**: http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/26/update-group-stands-ground-over-claims-that-nbc-employee-issued-anti-semitic-email/

[5] Americans for Limited Government: http://www.getliberty.org/

[6] Bite me Jew boy!: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12095464/Bite me Jew boy!

[7] an electronic nastygram: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2008/11/03/ny-times-reporters-iat-again-facebook-miller-says-nb-contributor-vadum

[8] Image: #

Just like the weeks preceding the August recess, the heat is on to push the healthcare bill through before the Senates takes its next recess. 

The Senate would normally recess the week of October 13^th.  Instead, they will work. Harry Reid claims that healthcare reform is too important to take time off.  It is more likely that Reid does not want the Senator facing its constituents again before this bill is pushed through.

 NEW YORK TIMES

“Mark your calendar for the week of Tuesday, Oct. 13: Senate to begin floor debate of major health care legislation.

Of course, given the Senate’s tradition for deliberative (read: excruciatingly slow) work on the great issues of our time, you should probably pencil it in. And keep an eraser handy.

But the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said today that he expects lawmakers will be able to begin full floor debate of the health care legislation that week after they return from the long Columbus Day weekend.

And if Mr. Reid’s schedule holds firm, it looks like the Senate would begin debating the health care legislation ahead of the House.

Congress often recesses for that week, allowing lawmakers to go home and confer with constituents and catch their breath – a sort of midpoint between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. But Mr. Reid said there was too much work to do.

“With all the things going on here, it just would not be right for us to take that week off,” Mr. Reid said in his opening remarks on the Senate floor. “I apologize to everyone for not being able to have that whole week off, but I think with health care, which is really beginning to ferment, it wouldn’t be right for us to be gone that week. I think we should be able to start our health care work that week here on the Senate floor.”

Of course, that schedule presumes that the Senate Finance Committee finishes up its work and that Mr. Reid can meld that bill with the health care measure approved in July by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Once that’s done, the legislation will quickly face its first big test: Mr. Reid will need 60 votes for a motion to proceed to the bill.”

It is clear that after what happened at the town halls this past summer, Reid does not want Senators meeting with their constituents anytime soon. 

In the meantime, Democrats voted down the Hatch amendment 13 to 10, an amendment that would have strengthened anti-abortion language in the healthcare bill.

Senators Reject Stronger Anti-Abortion Provisions in Health Bill

“Senators writing a health-care overhaul bill on Wednesday rejected a bid to strengthen anti-abortion provisions already in the legislation, in a vote that could erode support for the legislation among some Catholics who back its broad goal of expanding insurance coverage.

In proposing an amendment to strengthen anti-abortion provisions, Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, argued that provisions already in the bill to restrict federal funding for abortions needed to be tightened to guarantee they would be ironclad.

But his argument failed to carry the day. In the 13-10 vote against the amendment, one Republican–Olympia Snowe of Maine–voted with the majority. One Democrat–Kent Conrad of North Dakota–supported Mr. Hatch’s amendment.”

It is, therefore, safe to say that abortion will be paid for under Obamacare.  In the meantime, why is the church so quiet and who paid them off?

Received the following email.  

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN 

‘America’s elderly are finally realizing that Obama’s healthcare changes are largely financed by cuts in Medicare and are rallying against his proposals in increasing numbers.

The latest poll by Scott Rasmussen not only shows national opposition to Obamacare rising – now it is 41-56 against — but also shows the elderly moving against it even more strongly by 33-59 or almost 2:1.

And well they should!

Three-quarters of Obamacare is to be financed by slashing $500 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years. That comes to an eight percent cut.

Next year’s total Medicare spending, for example, will be about $500 billion by itself, so this is like having one year without Medicare at all! Obama’s fatuous claim that the cut will not affect care for the elderly is specious as any thinking person would realize.

We have gone through previous incarnations of those who wanted to slash Medicare and pretended that it would not affect the elderly. Newt Gingrich tried to sell this act of alchemy in 1995 and the elderly didn’t buy it then and aren’t buying it now!

It is obviously impossible to cut Medicare reimbursement without slashing the time doctors spend with patients. It is equally obvious that you cannot cover 30 million new patients without more doctors and nurses.

And the Medicare cuts in doctors’ fees will, of course, cause a decrease in the number of medical professionals. Investor’s Business Daily conducted a poll in September which showed that 45% of all doctors said they would seriously consider retiring or closing their practices if the Obama bill passes. A larger number will likely refuse to treat Medicare patients.

Indeed, current law provides for a 21% cut in Medicare fees to doctors next year and a 6% cut the year after. The new $500 billion in cuts are on top of these reductions! What kind of medical care do we expect our elderly to receive when the doctor who they visit is getting $35 or $40 for seeing them!

But the Senate appears ready to ram this bill through regardless of what the public or the elderly think. They have 60 votes and they won’t listen to anyone. But we have to make them listen!

PLEASE take two steps right now.

1. I have persuaded the League of American Voters to run 10 second advertisements in key states that show an elderly person saying: ‘Senator _________: Please don’t cut my Medicare by $500 billion. I need my Medicare.’ We need to get these ads on in the key states.

Obama would like us to believe that the key issue is whether or not to have a public option, precisely because he is prepared to concede the point (and have a co-op which would be run by the government for at least the first three years instead). But we need to focus attention on the cuts in Medicare. It is slashing services to the elderly that is the key point!

Please help the League place these ads – Donate very, very generously – Go Here now.

This is the key moment and you can make all the difference in the world.
With pressure such as the elderly are bringing to bear, the Senate would not dare pass this benighted plan!

2. If you live in one of these key swing states, PLEASE write the Senator I have indicated. To get talking points for your letter, consult our book Catastrophe. But write today:

Again, please donate to the League to place ads exposing how Obama Care will rob Seniors of Medicare benefits – Go Here Now

Thank you very much.

Time is running short!

Received the following email.

“Dear Liberty Activist,

Today, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson called upon the Obama Administration to dismiss Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ‘Diversity Czar,’ Mark Lloyd, because ‘his extreme views on government control over media outlets endangers a renaissance of media in this, the information age.’

‘Mark Lloyd is an enemy of freedom, the Constitution, and free speech,’ said Wilson, adding, ‘and he has no place in a position of power to curtail that freedom.’

Lloyd was appointed on August 4th to be Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer of the FCC.

In 2007, Lloyd helped co-author a report by the Center for American Progress, ‘The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio,’ where it is written, ‘The disparities between conservative and progressive programming reflects the absence of localism in American radio markets.’ This disparity, the paper argues, arises from ‘the consolidation of ownership in radio stations and the corresponding dominance of syndicated programming.’

‘This is the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine’ by other means,’ said Wilson. ‘If Lloyd has his way, the American people will be subjected to a radical shift in the radio programming they enjoy, no longer based on ad sales, but by local boards that will act as licensors—and, by extension, censors—for radio stations. That is where content will be determined.’

The Center for American Progress report goes on to advocate for the restoration of local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations, greater power for local boards to control radio licensing, and to a requirement that commercial owners who fail to abide by ‘enforceable’ public interest obligations to pay a fine to support public broadcasting.

‘Lloyd would make his icon Hugo Chavez proud,’ said Wilson, citing the fact that Chavez has shut nearly every freely owned media outlet in Venezuela. In July, the Venezuelan National Assembly at Chavez’s amended the Telecommunications Law to limit the ‘concentration’ of private radio and television ownership, and the government also regulates the use of the public airwaves, which has resulted in the closure of many privately-owned radio stations that were allegedly operating without a ‘valid’ license.

Wilson noted that Lloyd had in the past praised Chavez’s rise to power. In a panel on ‘media reform’ after speaking on the use of radio as a propaganda tool by the state of Rwanda during the conflict between the Tutsis and the Hutus, Lloyd said, ‘In Venezuela Chavez really had an incredible revolution, a democratic revolution’ wherein ‘Chavez began to take very seriously media in his country.’

‘Mark Lloyd is a menace to the freedom of expression, and the right of the American people to choose which content they want to listen to through in a competitive marketplace,’ said Wilson, adding, ‘But under Lloyd, the American people could be living in a world without Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, or many other great voices who dare to challenge the establishment.’

You know what to do.  Let’s get on CapWiz and tell the White House and Congress to get rid of the government’s so-called diversity czar.  Enter your zip code and follow the steps.  And we can keep calling out to the House and to the Senate. Of course, you can also reach them via the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

And, here’s the Target 92 list on the House side to all vulnerable and Blue Dog Democrats.  (You can really use this on any issue, whether ObamaCare, defunding ACORN, etc.) Blue Dogs are in blue. Here’s the .xls.pdf versions.  Of note, the first 40 on the list are the Blue Dogs that signed the ‘deficit-neutral’ letter mentioned above.  Everything you need to email their staff, write letters, make phone calls and send faxes, both to their district and Capitol Hill offices.
and

In today’s Liberty Action Report, for Barack Obama, it’s the ‘public option’ or bust, Obama pushes for the Olympics in Chicago, and David Bozeman begs to differ with Glenn Beck.  Plus, Appointment Watch returns this time looking at Valerie Jarrett and John Holdren.  And, the Las Vegas-Review Journal writes about how Democrats remain mystified with the tea parties.

Please send your letters to the editor at Robert@getliberty.org. We publish all points of view!

Take care! And until tomorrrow…

For Liberty,

Robert Romano
ALG Senior News Editor
www.getliberty.org

P.S. Want to help us keep fighting? Help us out with a small donation today! Or mail it to: Americans for Limited Government, 9900 Main Street, Suite 303, Fairfax, VA 22031.’

STLTODAY.COM

“The ‘tea party’ movement and its message of fiscal restraint and opposition to big government comes to St. Charles’ Frontier Park Friday with a rally from 5 to 7 p.m.

Onder

Among the speakers will be former state Rep. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year. Onder, a physician and an attorney, will speak on health care reform.

The crowd also will hear from author Kevin Jackson, Catherine Bleish of the Liberty Restoration Project and Paul Curtman, a Marine veteran who will speak on the U.S. Constitution. Diane Jones of radio station KPLW in Washington in Franklin County will be the m.c.

St. Charles County Council Chairman Joe Brazil helped organize the event. Brazil, a Republican from Defiance, said he had turned down some other GOP elected officials who wanted to speak because organizers wanted to keep the event from becoming too partisan.

The rally will be preceded by a one-hour ‘pre-rally’ beginning at 4 p.m. During that period, Brazil said, people can stop by information booths and listen to patriotic music.

Brazil said it will be the first mass ‘tea party’ event in St. Charles County since the movement started last February after CNBC commentator Rick Santelli suggested a ‘tea party’ in opposition to President Barack Obama’s mortgage aid plan.”

Ironic isn’t it that most of Obama’s agenda is detrimental to the poor, many of whom voted for this man.  Clearly another example of government’s war on America enroute to socialism.

CATO INSTITUTE

“A Wall Street Journal story yesterday reports the rising level of poverty in America caused by the steep and lingering recession. As I point out in a Washington Times column that also ran yesterday, one unintended consequence of President Obama’s trade policies so far has been to make the growing number of poor even poorer.

As I explained in the ‘Economic Watch’ column:

America’s highest remaining trade barriers are aimed at products mostly grown and made by poor people abroad and disproportionately consumed by poor people at home. While industrial goods and luxury products typically enter under low or zero tariffs, the U.S. government imposes duties of 30 percent or more on food and lower-end clothing and shoes – staple goods that loom large in the budgets of poor families.

To win favor with organized labor and other opponents of trade liberalization, Mr. Obama has either defended or actually raised barriers on precisely those products of most interest to poor households. …

The $25 billion in revenue raised each year from import duties represent by far the most regressive tax the federal government imposes. Yet the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have refused to move forward with trade agreements that would lower trade taxes that fall most heavily on the poor. By supporting the farm bill, but not new trade agreements, the president has embraced the status quo rather than change.”

Read the full article.