Unions throw millions at data firm accused of breaking election law

2/24/2015

AP file photo

BIG GUNS: Catalist founder Harold Ickes is a former deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and an adviser to the Ready for Hillary super PAC. Catalist founder Laura Quinn is a former deputy chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore. AFL-CIO Political Director Michael Podhorzer co-chairs Catalist’s board of managers. Karen White, NEA’s data and information technology director, and SEIU Executive Vice President Kirk Adams are both Catalist board members.

By Jason Hart | Watchdog.org

Labor unions have paid Catalist, a consulting firm accused of illegal coordination with hundreds of Democratic campaigns, more than $10 million since 2007.

Conservative nonprofit Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against the company last week. The complaint alleges Catalist LLC, the Democratic National Committee and more than 300 Democrat campaigns have broken federal election law.

Photo credit: Twitter

COORDINATED: AFL-CIO political director Michael Podhorzer co-chairs Catalist’s board

A “progressive” data and technology vendor based in Washington, D.C., Catalist is backed by the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO and its member unions — because of its ideological goals and its ties to the Democratic Party.

Catalist founder Harold Ickes is a former deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and an adviser to the Ready for Hillary super PAC. Catalist founder Laura Quinn is a former deputy chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore.

The company is not shy about its political objectives. Catalist’s mission is to “provide progressive organizations with the data and services needed to better identify, understand, and communicate with the people they need to persuade and mobilize.”

AFL-CIO Political Director Michael Podhorzer co-chairs Catalist’s board of managers. NEA Political Director Karen White and SEIU Executive Vice President Kirk Adams are Catalist board members.

As The Washington Free Beacon first reported, Catalist may have frequently violated laws restricting coordination between political committees and outside groups.

In addition to selling contact list access and related services to Democrat campaigns, Catalist and NGP VAN — another data firm named in the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust complaint — work with unions and other activist groups.

Catalist and its various clients share one goal: electing Democrats. SEIU bosses credited Catalist with President Obama’s election and other Democrat victories in 2008.

“Catalist provided data services to SEIU and a substantial majority of the progressive and political communities in the 2008 election,” a 2009 SEIU reportexplained.

“Because Catalist users uploaded IDs from much of their voter contact work to the Catalist database, they were able to compile an increasingly more accurate picture of the American electorate,” the report continued.

The company has provided Democrat campaigns with “excessive, source-prohibitied, and unreported in-kind contributions,” has exchanged campaign and Democratic Party data “with soft money groups making independent expenditures” and is “established, financed, maintained and/or controlled” by the Democratic Party, FACT asserted in its FEC complaint.

“This is a politically-motivated filing without merit,” Catalist spokeswoman Amy Weiss said in an email response to a Watchdog.org inquiry.

Materials from secretive leftist donor network Democracy Alliance obtained by the Free Beacon suggest DA sees for-profit data vendors as a way to skirt campaign finance law. DA and left-wing billionaire George Soros have been Catalist supporters since the company’s 2006 launch.

“Mr. Soros and other alliance donors were early investors in Catalist, and many of the groups funded by the alliance now buy data from it,” The New York Times notedin a 2013 story.

Although NEA, SEIU and AFL-CIO are not named in the FEC complaint against Catalist, they and other unions have paid the firm $10,473,521 since 2007. Unions also are key donors to DA’s “Committee on States” project.

Unions have paid Catalist more than $1 million each year since 2009. In 2012 alone, unions paid Catalist $1,753,497.

Based annual reports to the U.S. Department of Labor, these labor unions have made payments to Catalist:

• AFL-CIO: $3,110,629
• NEA: $2,965,542
• SEIU: $1,954,600
• United Food & Commercial Workers: $1,083,500
• Change to Win: $840,000
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees: $438,750
• International Brotherhood of Teamsters: $80,500

Of the money reported, $590,000 from Change to Win and $188,500 from UFCW were reported as “Representational Activities.” In the 26 states without right-to-work laws, unions can take money for representational activities from nonmembers as a condition of employment.

Change to Win is a coalition led by SEIU, whose membership includes hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers. AFL-CIO’s largest affiliates are AFSCME and American Federation of Teachers, which are both public-sector unions.

NEA, the largest labor union in the country, represents public school teachers and had nearly 3 million members as of Aug. 31.

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Chickens Come Home to Roost… Jeremiah Wright’s Daughter Is Sent to Prison

2/24/2015
Jim Hoft

Jeri Wright and Rev. Jeremiah Wright
(photo from AP)

In September 2013, Jeri Wright, daughter of Reverend “God Damn America” Wright, and 12 other Democrats were charged with embezzling $16 million in Federal health grants that should have gone to AIDS charities and other programs for the poor and needy.

More than one of the defendants had direct ties to President Barack Obama.

In March 2014 Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s daughter Jeri was found guilty on eleven counts that included money laundering and lying to federal agents.

This week US District Judge Sue E. Myerscough sent Jeri Wright to prison.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported:

Jeri L. Wright, the daughter of President Barack Obama’s former pastor, is headed to jail after a federal judge on Monday revoked a deal that allowed her to remain free as she awaits sentencing on a money-laundering conviction.

U.S. District Judge Sue E. Myerscough ruled that there was probable cause to believe that Wright committed a theft while she was free on bail and ordered Wright detained by U.S. marshals in Springfield, according to Sharon Paul, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Central District of Illinois.

Wright’s attorney, Victor P. Henderson, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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FOOD NAZI UPDATE: White House Easter Egg Roll gets fit

2/24/2015

The White House Easter Egg Roll is getting fit — Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” anti-childhood obesity initiative will be tied into this year’s annual event.

The theme for the April 6 egg-filled shindig is “#GimmeFive,” the White House announced Monday.

The campaign launched as part of “Let’s Move!” to celebrate the initiative’s fifth anniversary. “I’m going to be challenging all of you to give me five things that you’re doing to lead a healthier life,” Michelle Obama explained in a promotional video.

The Roll will include five souvenir eggs: four bearing the signatures of President Obama and the first lady on the back, and a fifth dubbed the “Bo and Sunny” egg that also features the “paw prints” of the presidential pooches.

A lottery for free tickets to the springtime tradition at the White House opened on Monday and closes at noon on Thursday.

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White House may not send a cabinet-level official to largest annual gathering of pro-Israel Americans - and the president won't go either

2/24/2015

• Typically, a high-level administration official represents the U.S. at AIPAC
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• With Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu set to make an in-person appearance - just before his country's elections -  the White House may stay away
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• The White House is avoiding Netanyahu during his visit to Washington as to not appear to be inappropriately endorsing his reelection campaign 
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By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The White House confirmed on Monday that President Barack Obama doesn't plan to attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's conference next week, held annually in Washington, D.C., and that no cabinet-level U.S. official is currently scheduled to make an appearance.

The 'largest gathering of America's pro-Israel community,' according to the confab's organizations, AIPAC draws a crowd of roughly 14,000 attendees, many of whom are of Jewish heritage.

The last time Obama showed up at the conference was in 2012 as he stared down reelection. Typically, a high-level administration official represents the U.S. at the mass gathering.

But this year, supporters of Israel, a close ally of the U.S., may not receive that courtesy from the administration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to make an in-person appearance. 

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President Barack Obama doesn't plan to attend AIPAC's policy conference next week, his spokesman confirmed today, and admitted the White House hasn't decided whether to send a cabinet-level official at all

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The president and his administration may snub the largest annual gathering of pro-Israel Americans in order to avoid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center right, who is pictured here on Monday with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, center left. Netanyahu is up for reelection in a few weeks, and Obama is actively keep his distance until then

The president is refusing to meet with Netanyahu during his visit so that he does not appear to be endorsing the Israeli leader less than two weeks before his country heads to the polls.

Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, two previous representatives sent by the administration, have scheduled foreign travel for next week.

Biden will be in Uruguay and Guatemala, the White House has said. Kerry will also be out of the country, the State Department said last week, but wouldn't say where he will go or why.

That will keep Biden away from Washington when Netanyahu addresses Congress, as well - the original purpose of his travel to the U.S.

House Speaker John Boehner secretly invited the Israeli PM to appear before Congress this month. 

After announcing the overture, Boehner, a Republican, obliged however to a request from Netanyahu to move the rare, joint session of the upper and lower chambers of the legislative branch to March 3 so that he could attend AIPAC's policy conference. 

It also had the effect of putting the speech closer to Israel's election day. 

The change of plans has put the White House in the awkward position of having to decide whether it will snub the conference in order to avoid an encounter with Netanyahu.

'We are still in discussions with AIPAC about what sort of administration representation they'll have at the meeting,' White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told Daily Mail Online on Monday, adding that 1600 Pennsylvania is 'still evaluating the invitation.' 

The Associated Press first reported that the White House may skip this year's confab on Friday after an AIPAC official told the news agency that the administration had not yet responded to its invitation.

The administration may dispatch Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the event, though, AP said. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has also been suggested to head the administration's delegation.

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OBAMA THANKS REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS FOR CAVING TO OBAMACARE MEDICAID EXPANSION

2/24/2015

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

by CHARLIE SPIERING23 Feb 2015332

Speaking to governors at the White House, President Obama pointedly praised Republican governors that caved to his Obamacare plan of expanding Medicaid.

“I want to thank all the governors, Democrats and Republicans, supporters and some opponents of the ACA who have expanded Medicaid to millions of people over the past two years,” he said. “I think that there’s recognition that it makes sense, and it’s bigger than politics.”

Although some Republican governors continue to resist Medicaid expansion in conservative states, more moderate Republican governors such as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Michigan’s Rick Snyder, New Jersey’s Chris Christie, New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, Indiana’s Mike Pence, and Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich have dropped their opposition to the idea.

Obama specifically quoted Ohio Governor John Kasich, who sold the idea in his state arguing that the Medicaid expansion “saves lives, no question about it.”

Obama pressured Republican governors who are still resisting the expansion to consider it.

“If you’re state isn’t one of the 28 that’s already expanded Medicaid, I’d urge you to consider it, because our team is is prepared to work with you to make it happen.” he said.

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Will Obama’s New Regulations Wreak Havoc Upon The Elderly? Financial Advisers Say Yes.

2/24/2015

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) participates in a tele-conference town hall event on health care at the AARP in Washington, July 28, 2009. With Obama is Barry Rand (L), CEO of AARP and Jennie Chin Hansen, President of AARP. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES HEALTH POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR265K1

If you’re over 65 and you like your financial adviser, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to keep your adviser.

President Obama is set to speak at AARP headquarters in Washington, D.C. Monday afternoon alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren and consumer protection chief Richard Cordray. Obama will announce new regulations from his Department of Labor, which will set new rules governing financial managers and advisers.

The White House said that it wants to abolish ”hidden fees that hurt consumers and back-door payments that help Wall Street brokers.”

But the financial lobby is freaking out, claiming that Obama’s new rules — which have yet to be announced by the White House or independently verified — will take a huge toll on financial planners and affect millions of retirees.

A financial planner trade organization told The Daily Caller that the new rules come with a catch: they will effectively prohibit retired persons from keeping their trusted financial advisers if they make new investments during retirement.

“The rule will say that if you’re an adviser with a 401(k) helping participants, and you want to look at a lifetime income option [for your client] then you as an adviser would be effectively blocked from working with that participant if there’s any fee difference,” Brian Graff, executive director of the National Association of Plan Advisors, told TheDC, citing insider talk and a past Obama administration attempt in 2010 to push through similar rules.

If the fee you pay your financial adviser in retirement — for products like annuities — is even slightly higher than the fee you were paying your adviser when you were working and just had a 401(k) plan, then you will have to pay a 15 percent tax penalty on your total account value, Graff said, citing insider talk.

So if your 401(k) is worth $100,000, then you’ll have to pay a $15,000 penalty if you want to make new investments that would lead you to pay your adviser even one dollar more. Seniors might have to drop the advisers who help them with their 401(k) rollover. 

“They have this view that you should always keep your money in the [401k] plan,” Graff said of the Obama administration. ”We think that’s a dumb idea. An adviser you trust shouldn’t be blocked from working with you.”

“No one’s going to pay a 15 percent tax to keep their adviser,” Graff said. “This isn’t 95 dollars like the health care one. We expect that millions of 401(k) participants will be affected.”

“The irony is that you could then go down the street and get a new financial adviser who might charge you 200 percent more, and there’s no rule preventing that,” Graff said.

“Is it theoretically possible that you’ll have exactly the same amount of money in your rollover as you did in your 401(k)?,” Graff said. “No. Why then would you roll over?

“In the zeal to try to protect people they’re preventing people from being able to do what they want,” Graff added, noting that the potential rule is a “huge deal” in the financial industry.

The rule is expected to go through the regulatory process and take effect in a few months.

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Does Obama Love America or Islam?

2/24/2015

The only problem with this question is "why did it take over 8 years to ask?"

Walk into a store and you’ll see piles of red and pink in the Clearance box. Everything from heart-shaped cards and boxes of chocolate candy to plastic flowers and teddy bears clutching plush red hearts will be 50 percent off because Valentine’s Day comes but once a year. And Valentine’s Day is over.

Obama’s love for America also comes but once a year. He tosses it into a speech in the Midwest when his poll numbers are down and then it goes into the clearance box where you can buy his love and his patriotism for 50 percent off. And it’s still expensive at the price because the heart-shaped box is empty.

Greeting card sentiments come easily to the man who will say anything. Obama promised to eliminate income tax for seniors making less than $50,000, vowed transparent open government and promised that you could keep your doctor. His words were empty promises.

Love, of a person or of a country, is not judged by what we say. It is judged by what we do.

Every politician with ambition claims to love America. Most only love themselves. Some love other things. No one can know what is it in Obama’s heart, which is why the media’s shrill demands that Scott Walker affirm Obama’s love for America are silly and cynical, but we can certainly follow his passions.

We show our passions in the things that we really care about. We all have our duties and obligations. Obama’s obligations include delivering speeches praising America, occasionally placing his hand on his heart during the pledge of allegiance (when he can find it) and badly saluting soldiers with a latte cup.

But are these the things he loves and cares about?

We can follow Obama’s passions the way that an adulterer’s trail to his mistress can be followed no matter how many cards or stuffed bears he gives to his wife.

What are the things that Obama is passionate about?

In his first days in office, he signed a number of executive orders. Of his first five orders, three involved Muslim terrorists captured and held in Gitmo. His third executive order was about the “humane” treatment of terrorists. His fourth executive order sought to close Gitmo. Like the man who can’t wait to get away from his wife so he can call his mistress, Obama made his priorities clear from the start.

It took Obama a month to set up the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. It took him two days to set up a Special Interagency Task Force on Detainee Disposition to free Gitmo terrorists.

Obama prioritized helping Muslim terrorists over the economic recovery. Why? Because that was a subject he was passionate about.

People will always prioritize what they are passionate about over what they aren’t. It’s easy to look at a mission shift and see the choice that has been made.

For example, is Obama passionate about space exploration? He told the head of NASA that his “foremost” priority was making Muslims feel good about themselves.

Obama is more passionate about Muslim self-esteem than he is about visiting other planets.

Is he passionate about god and religion? That depends on which god and which religion.

Obama left out “Under God” when reciting the Gettysburg Address. The DNC’s platform initially left out “God” and booed the reinsertion. Obama’s invocation at his inauguration also dropped “Under God”.

However Obama cheerfully recited “Allahu Akbar”, the opening of the Islamic supremacist call to prayer, and called it “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth.” He had a man jailed for making a YouTube video attacking Mohammed and blamed him for Muslim acts of terror against America.

Obama’s religious beliefs, such as they are, remain locked in his head. But there is only one religion that he is passionate enough to protect by imprisoning those who blaspheme against it.

He may botch salutes and the pledge of allegiance, but he has retained the ability to chant “Allahu Akbar” with a “first-rate accent”.

He may think that the “good book” says “don’t throw stones in glass houses”, but he accurately quotes the Koran. The things that we remember are the ones that we really care about.

Obama has an obligation to reference the Gettysburg Address, to wait out the pledge of allegiance and to praise America. He has no obligation to quote the Koran or chant “Allahu Akbar”. These are things that he does because he wants to do them. They are the things that he is actually passionate about.

Does he love them more than he loves America? No one can know what is in another person’s heart.

There are married couples who have lived together for decades only to discover that the love of their life had been cheating on them all along. And who is to say that the adulterer doesn’t love? We can’t pass a final verdict on his feelings. But we can know his faithlessness by his deeds.

We can say of him and of Obama that they broke faith with the covenant that they had entered into. We can say that they betrayed those who trusted them, lied to them, used and abused them, and then feigned outrage when their actions were questioned.

Can the media’s furious talking heads denouncing Giuliani deny that Obama lied to Americans? Can they deny that he harmed them? Can they deny that he refused to take responsibility for his actions?

The facts are clear. Only the interpretation is in doubt. And the interpretation is what we are debating.

Does Obama lie to Americans because he loves them? Does he weaken America abroad because he loves it? And if Obama loves America, what does he love about it and how does he show that love? Does he love the Constitution? If he did, he wouldn’t constantly violate it. Does he love Americans? Which Americans? The ones whose health plans he took away for ObamaCare or the ones whose jobs he took away to legalize illegal aliens? The ones whose votes and wishes he ignores and snidely mocks?

Is it the Americans who no longer believe in the future under his rule that he loves? Is it the unemployed Americans he loves? Is it the Americans he jailed under his new laws and regulations that he loves?

If Obama loves Americans, then it’s a clear case of hurting the ones you love.

And if Obama doesn’t love Americans, what America does he love; the rock band or the Walt Whitman poem, the town America in the Netherlands or the Neil Diamond song?

Questioning Obama’s love for America is alleged to be unacceptable gutter politics, but accusing his critics of being racists is a standard debating tactic for those same outraged media talking heads.

It wasn’t gutter politics when Obama claimed that the national debt under Bush was “unpatriotic”. Is Obama at least as “unpatriotic” for increasing the debt by 70 percent? Is it possible that his spending spree proves that he doesn’t love America? Or is indebting our children the way that he shows his love?

Can we question the patriotism of a man who frees terrorists or only of a man who locks them up?

Is asking whether Obama loves America an unacceptable question because the answer is obvious or because it isn’t?

Obama will go on making speeches in which he claims to love America while making the country poorer, more dangerous and weaker. He will also go on making speeches praising Islam while increasing the power, influence and wealth of Muslims in America and around the world.

As the clearance box after Valentine’s Day shows, anyone can buy a card or a teddy bear. It’s the actions that count. It’s not what we say that shows love. It’s what we do that shows what we truly care about.

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