California Conservative

You aren’t gonna believe this video. Jamie Colby sat in for Greta van Susteren on Friday night’s On the Record. She interviewed Scott Levenson of ACORN. If you watch no other video all weekend, this is the one you’d better not miss. Check this out:

Here’s a partial transcript of the conversation:

JAMIE COLBY: There is more breaking news that affects all of us: your vote. For the past few days, we’ve been reporting about a group called ACORN. Their members hit the streets to register low income voters. The organization is currently under investigation for voter fraud or registration irregularities in at least 13 states.

There also questions that have arisen about Sen. Obama’s possible ties to this group. Well, joining us now on the record in exclusively in his first interview is Scott Levenson. Scott Levenson is the national spokesperson for ACORN & Scott, thank you very much for choosing us to talk to us about this.

First of all, tell me about these investigations into ACORN. Every day, we hear new information who can’t even remember how many times they were encouraged to register by ACORN representatives.

LEVENSON: Let’s talk about what the real story is because it’s actually a great story. ACORN, along with Project Vote, registered 1.3 million folks over the last year. We saw record numbers of people interested in and excited about this election in ways that we never saw before. There were poor people and young people participating in this election in ways they never participated in before. That’s our mission. Our mission is to enfranchise the disenfranchised and empower the disempowered.

CROSSTALK

COLBY: You have registered alot of voters. I’m not sure you can personally answer but if you can, how many of them are legal voters and have the right to vote? Why just the poor and the disenfranchised because perhaps that benefits one party or antoher or one candidate or another because there are alot of wealthy people who are apathetic and who might not vote? Why don’t you do a general get out the vote?

LEVENSON: In fact, we are nonpartisan. We don’t ask people about their income level. We don’t ask people who they’re voting for. We don’t ask people what party they belong to when we register them to vote. And we’ve entered a bit of the silly season in politics. You know, all these stories that have come out over the last week.

COLBY: About raids on your offices.

LEVENSON: But the real story here is because we, by law, are required to hold onto and turn over every single voter registration form that’s filled out.

COLBY: And your position is that the election boards and commissions should be responsible for checking out these out and that your job is just to…

LEVENSON: Let me jump in here because it’s really important for the public to understand what’s gone on here. We spot, proactively, by ourselves, any questionable voter registration forms and proactively notify the appropriate authorities at the time that we collect it. We have been turning over registration forms to the authorities in these states weekly.

CROSSTALK

COLBY: But to do your job properly…

LEVENSON: I’m sorry, just one more point. The timing of this is so curious when we’ve been turning over these forms and there’ve been investigations in state after state…

I knew this was a spin job right at the outset. When Mr. Levenson said that “the real story” was that ACORN had registered 1.3 million voters, I knew that the rest of what he said would be of questionable truthfulness. When Mr. Levenson said “We spot, proactively, by ourselves, any questionable voter registration forms and proactively notify the appropriate authorities at the time that we collect it”, I felt insulted. That’s the biggest pile of BS I’ve heard in ages.

It isn’t possible for ACORN to “spot, proactively, by ourselves” “questionable voter registration forms” and “proactively notify the appropriate authorities” if the bipartisan Lake County, Indiana Elections Board spotted 2,100 fraudulent registrations out of the 5,000 registrations ACORN turned into them.

That storyline doesn’t fit with the Nevada Secretary of State’s investigation into ACORN and their seizing of documents and computers from ACORN’s Las Vegas office. Judges aren’t in the habit of issuing warrants just on a ‘trust me’ assurance. They won’t issue a search warrant unless law enforcemnt gives them ample documentation.

This is the lamest spin I’ve heard in ages:

It is difficult for voter registration operations to fully protect themselves against fraud by some of their employees or volunteers, because of the nature of the work they do, Ms. Hayden said.

“We hire people directly from the communities we serve, and we at ACORN pay them $8 an hour and ask them to collect between 15 and 20 signed voter registration cards in five hours,” she said. The problem arises “when you have some lazy people who might choose to sit at a McDonald’s and fill out the forms themselves instead of hitting the pavement and collecting good registration signatures from people,” Ms. Hayden said.

Organizations have supervisory staff. How difficult is it for those supervisors to spot 2,100 voter registrations whose signatures appear to be identical?

Thanks to Mr. Levenson’s going On The Record and thanks to Jamie Colby’s interview skills, we now have video of ACORN’s spin. We should always be that fortunate.

Technorati Tags: ACORN, Voter Fraud, Scott Levenson, On The Record, Inerview, Investigations, Law Enforcement, Jamie Colby, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

I’ve always assumed that Democrats boycotted the debates that Fox News sponsored because they wanted to stay of the right side of their Nutroots friends. I’m now willing to entertain the notion that there might be another reason. When the Obama campaign sent Dr. Susan Rice out to defend Sen. Obama, they really stepped in it. I offer as proof this video of her appearance on America’s Election HQ:

Just prior to this interview, Bill Hemmer pointed out that Obama’s campaign website said this about Iran: (more…)

First, let me explain that I’m talking about the John Roberts that works at CNN, not the John Roberts who is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. With that out of the way, CNN’s John Roberts has a great line in the interview. Looking Fred Thompson square in the eye, he said:

“Senator, I know how much you’d like to talk about the horserace but we’d like to talk about some issues this morning.”

To say that that caught Fred off-guard is understatement. All in all, I’d say that Roberts did a great job in interviewing Fred. I just wish more interviewers would focus on the important things rather than on frivolous things about ‘looks presidential’ or ‘the most conservative electable candidate’.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, YouTube, John Roberts, CNN, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

It speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, YouTube, Conservatism, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Joe Lieberman’s op-ed in this morning’s Opinion Journal is must reading if you want to know the truth about what’s happening in Iraq. Suffice it to say that he shames the ‘Dunce-like Duo’, aka Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, with actual facts on the ground. Here’s a sampling of those facts:

When I returned to Anbar on this trip, however, the security environment had undergone a dramatic reversal. Attacks on U.S. troops there have dropped from an average of 30 to 35 a day a few months ago to less than one a day now, according to Col. John Charlton, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, headquartered in Ramadi. Whereas six months ago only half of Ramadi’s 23 tribes were cooperating with the coalition, all have now been persuaded to join an anti-al Qaeda alliance. One of Ramadi’s leading sheikhs told me: “A rifle pointed at an American soldier is a rifle pointed at an Iraqi.”

This stands in stark contrast with Reid’s and Pelosi’s pronouncement yesterday. Here’s the heart of their pronouncement:

“The increase in US forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation. It has not enhanced Americas national security. The unsettling reality is that instances of violence against Iraqis remain high and attacks on US forces have increased. In fact, the last two months of the war were the deadliest to date for US troops.”

I wouldn’t have Reid or Pelosi doing my taxes with math skills like that. They say that attacks on US forces have increased while Lieberman says that “attacks on U.S. troops there have dropped from an average of 30 to 35 a day a few months ago to less than one a day now.” (more…)

As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, let’s not forget the meaning of the holiday. Remember those who gave us our freedom — and those who serve to defend it everyday.

A powerful, prayerful lament for Memorial Day — honoring our servicemen and women and their families. “The Last Day in May” was written by songwriter Michael Troy (www.folkmichaeltroy.com) and is performed by Jed Marum on his MILES FROM HOME album (www.cdbaby.com/cd/jedmarum4)

Bottom Line Up Front: Marines are kicking up the efforts in Ramadi, bringing “some good counterinsurgency” to Iraq.

GEN Petraeus would say, “That’s some good counterinsurgency going on there!” And the Marines in Ramadi are rising to the occasion.

Marine CPT Marcus Mainz is taking his men in Ramadi, Iraq, out from the FOB (Forward Operating Base) and into the community. The focus shift from making contact with the enemy to making contact with the people is the highly successful counterinsurgency doctrine that works. And it is working.

Meanwhile, in one Marine battalion, 200 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment opted to extend their enlistments in Ramadi, for no bonus money. The L.A. Times tells the story, which goes like this:

Lt. Col. Craig Kozeniesky, the battalion commander, and Sgt. Maj. William Jordan, the senior enlisted man, assembled Marines whose enlistments were running short. Marines who were there don’t remember that Kozeniesky or Jordan spent much time speaking of the complexities of U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century. Instead, the two asked the Marines to help the battalion’s younger members.

“I just told them: ‘We’ve been together this long. We need you — the young Marines need you,’ ” Jordan said.

In an infantry battalion, a sergeant major serves as the embodiment of institutional values to younger “grunts.” At 44, Jordan has been in the Marine Corps for 27 years.
“Finally I just told them, ‘Everybody who is with us, move to the right side of the room,’ ” Jordan said. Only a handful stayed put. About 175 moved immediately to the right side.

“I was blown away,” Jordan said. “In all my years in the Marine Corps, I never saw anything like it.”

Officials say extensions are not uncommon among the Marine Corps’ 24 battalions, even as some return to Iraq for their third combat tour. In fact, they say, few records are kept because they are so common.

Unlike a reenlistment, the move earns the Marines no bonus money, no promotion and no promise of a job shift or posting to a favored duty station.

Marines say that residents (of Ramadi), encouraged by tribal sheiks and imams, have turned against the extremists and, among other things, are pointing out the location of hidden roadside bombs.

“The last time, it was like the people didn’t want to do anything to help their neighborhoods,” Mellado said. “Now it’s a big change. I want to be here to help with that, to help my Marines.”

OORAH! Two things that make for a successful counterinsurgency effort are 1) living with the people/security/police forces of that nation; not remaining in the FOB and 2) longevity; the same soldiers, same faces remaining in the area, creating familiarity and trust to win over the hearts and minds of the locals. These Marines are good men doing it right.

Cross-posted @: Bottom Line Up Front

Jim at Gateway has posted a great video of Gen. Petraeus and President Bush meeting with reporters. The video provides a terse smackdown of Congress for acting like Commanders-in-chief.

This video will send a strong message to Congress that they won’t get away with overstepping their bounds. It’s long past time that President Bush lets Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy and Murtha have it with both barrels. Better late than never, right???

Technorati Tags: President Bush, David Petraeus, Iraq War, Commander-In-Chief, Constitution, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Never forget. Semper vigilo.

(Hat tip: Reader Saul A.)