Republican Victory Fund/Republican House Victory

A few months ago during the primary elections, we brought your attention to the Independent Expenditure called the Republican Victory Fund. This was a fund set up by Republicans in the legislature for the purpose of maintaining a Republican majority.  The money was never intended to be used during a primary election to support one Republican candidate over another.  However, the fund which is overseen by Senate President Steve Pierce and his campaign manager, Camilla Strongin, chose to donate upwards of $80,000 to support establishment candidate Rich Crandall over John Fillmore in the primary. 

A gross misuse of the fund's intent.

In an article from AZ Central titled "Primary Puts Arizona Senate On A More Centrist Path," Senate President Steve Pierce said,

"Sen. Rich Crandall's 4-point win over Rep. John Fillmore in the East Valley was key to ensuring the next Senate will remain focused on job creation and the economy...retaining Crandall was important, not only because of the Mesa lawmaker's focus on education, but because Crandall has focused on economic issues."

Makes you wonder exactly what kind of education and economic bills Pierce would introduce in the next session should he maintain his position as Senate President.  Would the bills have anything to do with Medicaid exchanges for ObamaCare?

As we pointed out in our previous entry, wasting $80,000 on Crandall during a primary meant that there would be $80,000 less to help elect Republican candidates in the general election.


What we have recently discovered is that Senate President Pierce and his counterpart, House Speaker Andy Tobin, are once again being very selective as to who they have chosen to help in the general election.  Are they only supporting those who would be a "vote" for them to retain their leadership positions in the legislature?

Again, a gross misuse of the fund's intent.

As a reminder, Senator Pierce's campaign manager, Camilla Strongin, is the Chairman of the Republican Victory Fund.  Also, Strongin's company, The Engaging Company, has received an astounding $137,000 in consulting fees which is more than a quarter of the total funds raised.  The Engaging Company has also received over $86,000 for "consulting" on Pierce's campaign.

The Treasurer of the Victory Fund is Hieu Tran.  Tran is also listed as the Treasurer for Steve Pierce's campaign and is the contact (email and address) for the House Victory Fund.  Tran has been paid over $1100 for accounting services from the House Victory Fund. 

We're sure that these connections are merely an odd coincidence.

Here are the abbreviations for the various Republican and Democrat Independent Expenditures who have poured an eye-raising amount of money into the election.  The ones in RED are the Republican funds and show how much money was spend in SUPPORT of the Republican candidate/s.  The ones in BLUE are the Democrat funds which show how much money was spent to DEFEAT the Republican candidate/s.  We are only going to show the Republican candidates.

RHV - Republican House Victory
RVF - Republican Victory Fund
AAP - Arizona Accountability Project (organization headed by Linda Somo who helped elect Bob Worsley)
AV - America Votes (organization affiliated with Campaign For Community Change who helped Jerry Lewis during the LD18 recall election)
RA - Revitalize Arizona (received help from Anita Dunn and Hilary Rosen's Company)


DISTRICT 6
The Democrats are clearly targeting the Senate seat for District 6.  Considering the money Crandell has received from both the House and Senate IEs, will he (and the House candidates) be beholden to support the current leadership?

House - Barton/Thorpe
RHV - $32,600
RVF - $5400
AV - $6800

Senate - Crandell
RHV - $2700
RVF - $118,000
AAP - $146,000
AV - $14,400
RA - $20,700


DISTRICT 8
Why is the Senate candidate not receiving ANY help from the Republican funds to counter the $110,000 spent by the Democrats to defeat Ortiz? Clearly, this seems to be a "win-able" district in the House given the lack of Democratic funding and strong RHV support, so why is the Senate candidate not receiving any aide?

House - Pratt/Shope
RHV - $57,200
AV - $8800

Senate - Ortiz
AAP - $116,000
AV - $14,000


DISTRICT 9
Why would the ONE Republican candidate running for the House against 2 Democrat candidates receive $38,000  from the RHV (which is more than twice the amount of money Orr has raised for his campaign) while the Senate candidate has received nothing?  It's not as if the Senate Democrat candidate, Steve Farley, has had a lot of outside help.  He has only received $1800 in support from the IE America Votes. 

House - Orr
RHV - $38,900

Senate - Mott
-0-
AV - $3000


DISTRICT 10
Why would the RHV fund outspend their Democratic opponents by a 5-1 margin in the House election while the RVF gave absolutely NOTHING to the incumbent Senator, Frank Antenori, whose opponent has benefitted from over $143,000 in help from outside leftist groups? Is it because Antenori might not be a vote for Pierce should he run again for Senate President?

House - Clodfelter/Vogt
RHV - $37,800
(Vogt also received an additional $20,800 from the RHV....nothing specifically went to help Clodfelter)
AV - $9200

Senate - Antenori
-0-
AAP - $40,000
AV - $14,000
RA - $93,000


DISTRICT 14
The Democrats in this district have outraised the Republicans by almost 2 to 1.  While Democrats have not used any IE money, perhaps this might be a good use of the Republican IEs to counter the additional money the Democrats have raised.  Unless, perhaps, they would not be a vote for Pierce or Tobin? 

House - Gowan/Stevens
-0-

Senate - Griffin
-0-

DISTRICT 17
Yarbrough had a last minute donation from the RVF on October 26th in the amount of $13,000.  This is curious since his Democrat opponent, Bill Gates, hasn't received any help from IEs nor have any IEs spent money opposing Yarbrough.  Is his vote for Pierce being bought?

Senate - Yarbrough
RVF - $13,000


DISTRICT 18
Why have both the House and Senate candidates received help from the RHV and the RVF in this district? The Democrats spent less than $10k fighting the Republican candidates in the House. However, the Democrats are clearly attempting to defeat McComish.  Pierce knows that a McComish loss would mean one less vote of support.  To Pierce, ensuring a win in District 18 is critical, even if it means sacrificing a seat from, say, a District 10.

House - Dial/Robson
RHV - $40,000
RVF - $6400
AV - $9800

Senate - McComish
RHV - $5000
RVF - $132,000
AAP - $97,000
AV - $15,000
RA - $188,000

DISTRICT 20
Yee just recently received help from the RVF after having already received over $22k from other groups yet the only opposition she has seen is $1400 from Planned Parenthood.  Why would Ms. Yee even NEED help?  The Democrats have another IE called "Building Arizona's Future" whose Chairman is State Senator David Lujan who has spent $70,000 attacking Mr. Seel. The best the RHV can do is $15,000? 

House - Boyer/Seel
RHV - $15,600

Senate - Yee
RVF - $12,000


DISTRICT 21
The Democrats haven't spent any money to help their candidates in this district and the Republican candidates have outraised their opponents which implies it should be an easy win for Republicans. So, did the two Republican House candidates need $8000 for their campaigns?  Why has Rick Murphy not received ANY help in his Senate race? Maybe because Murphy complained that Tobin held his union bills?

It is worthy to note that Rick Gray's wife, Lisa Gray, is the Treasurer of his campaign.  She is also running for Maricopa County Republican Chair.  Take a guess what side of the Republican aisle she might represent.

House - Gray/Lesko
RHV - $8000

Senate - Murphy
-0-


DISTRICT 24
If money was spent on a lone Republican House candidate in District 9, why is there no money to help the one Republican running for the House in this district?

House - Kaufman
-0-


DISTRICT 26
Lewis has also received $46,000 from Steve Pierce's IE called the UA Friends for Arizona, $3500 from the Cattlefeeders, $1000 from the Farm Bureau and another $4500 from the Dairymen. Why is Lewis receiving so much help from IEs that generally support candidates who represent rural areas?  Lewis isn't running to represent Prescott.  Why is he receiving help from Pierce's IE whose donors are alumni of the University of Arizona when Lewis is representing a district that is home to ASU?  Why are Speakman or Taylor not receiving any help at all from the RHV?

House - Speakman/Taylor
AV - $9800

Senate - Lewis
RVF - $67,000
AV - $15,500

(We want to take the opportunity to inform and remind our readers that groups who supported Lewis' election during the recall are now shockingly donating to Democrats.  Such as, Las Adelitas who donated $350 to CBA during the recall and has now donated to Democrats in District 8, 9 and 10).

Alex Soto (L), Randy Parraz, Laura Dent (2nd from right)

DISTRICT 28
There are two incumbent Republicans running against one Democrat for the two House seats. Did the RHV REALLY need to give $72k in a House race where the Democrats have spent only $600 in opposition? McGee's campaign finance statements show that she has received donations from the President of the Cattleman as well as countless other lobbyists. McGee was also endorsed by Jon Kyl. I think we know where this is going.

House - McGee/Reeve
RHV - $72,600
AV -  $600

This pattern of donations only makes sense if you were to look at it in the context of Steve Pierce and Andy Tobin's desire to retain their seats of power as President and Speaker of the House.  They are clearly using this money to not just help any Republican get elected, but only to help THEIR Republicans who, in turn, will help THEM maintain power.

They should rename the IE to reflect the REAL purpose:

Pierce Victory Fund and the Tobin House Victory.

We will update the numbers as they are reported.

America Votes

Before we post our recent findings on the Republican Victory Fund, we came across some other, rather disturbing, bits of information which we thought we should pass along.  We'll present the information in two separate entries so as to not confuse the different affiliations.


The first installment will be on an Independent Expenditure group called America Votes who registered in Arizona on October 17, 2012.  Joan Fitz-Gerald is the President of America Votes which is headquartered in Washington D.C.

Partners of America Votes include:

Arizona AFL-CIO
Arizona SEIU
UFCW Local 99
AFSCME Local 3111
Emily's List
Arizona List (Committee for Pro-choice Democratic Women)
NEA
NAACP
Planned Parenthood
NARAL-Pro Choice
Center for Community Change


Of course, we're familiar with groups like the AFL-CIO, SEIU, NEA, and Planned Parenthood.  Some of the others might seem a bit more obscure.

But, remember the Center for Community Change? 

Their "action arm" called Campaign for Community Change is an organization that donated $9000 to the leftist group, Promise Arizona, to help support "republican" Jerry Lewis during the recall election.  Jerry Lewis even chipped in a $100 donation to PAZ in June and the only candidate that PAZ helped during the primary election was Raquel Teran, Randy Parraz's community organizer sidekick.  Quid pro quo.  Wouldn't it be ironic if PAZ helps Jerry Lewis' opponent in the general election?

Also, the leaders of the Arizona AFL-CIO (Rebekah Friend and Paul Castaneda) personally helped Randy Parraz get Jerry Lewis elected.  In fact, Castaneda is the treasurer of Moving Mesa Forward, Parraz and Chad Snow's creation which donated over $6500 to help Bob Worsley defeat Russell Pearce in the 2012 primary election.  Someone might want to inform Snow that they owe $150 in late fees for their group.

So, imagine our surprise when we noticed that America Votes contributed to Jerry Lewis' Democratic opponent, Ed Ableser.

What?  Wait a second...the same groups that helped Jerry Lewis get elected during the recall are now donating to his opposition?  

And not only are they donating to support Ed Ableser but they are also donating to Andrew Sherwood's campaign.  Sherwood was a big help to Parraz during the recall effort.  He was also the best man at Todd Landfried's wedding.

Sherwood and Landfried, spokesman for the Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform:

Landfried and Lydia Guzman:

Raquel Teran, Randy Parraz and AFL-CIO Paul Castaneda

Todd Landfried hugging Jerry Lewis on election night:

 

Who would have EVER seen that coming?

Remember when the Director of Center for Community Change, Deepak Bhargava, said this on Obama's Poverty Agenda?

Three ingredients necessary for transformational change to happen.
(6:17) "We do need visionary leadership that's capable of building durable coalitions. We need crisis, economic, foreign policy or otherwise, that force the breakdown of old paradigms and old ways of seeing the world. And most importantly, we need independent social movements that create public will to generate ideas that will deliver votes."

and this on immigration.

"...a group of immigrant leaders approached me and the Center for Community Change with the idea of doing a national campaign to win legalization for the growing population of undocumented people in the US. At that time, the topic was unspeakable in polite Washington conversation discourse—no politician, no national advocacy organization would tackle it. Partly because of the extraordinary quality of the leaders that approached us, and partly because it was so clear that we couldn’t be an anti-poverty organization without tackling immigration, we decided to go all-in.

We helped to form what was the earliest pro-legalization coalition in the country,

and we’ve been in it ever since."

 

 

Turning Arizona blue.

Affiliates And Their Affiliated Affiliates

A lot can be deemed about one's leanings when digging into the groups with which they are affiliated.


Take, for example, Arizona Representative, Russ Jones (R).  Mr. Jones is on the advisory board and council for the Arizona Community Foundation (Yuma sector).  He is also a donor.


Initiatives for the ACF reads like the Democratic propaganda platform:

Black Philanthropy Initiatives  ("The mission of the Black Philanthropy Initiative is to advance equity, health, education, leadership, and SOCIAL JUSTICE for African-Americans in Arizona.")


Education Reform (The ACF partnered with the Ellis Foundation on a report about the Education system in Arizona.  One of the partners of the Ellis Foundation is the Creighton School District.  The Creighton Elementary school is an affiliate of the IAF.  The ACF also gave a grant to STAND FOR CHILDREN which then campaigned in Arizona for the Prop 100 "temporary" sales tax increase.)


Affordable Housing

Latinos Unidos

VISTA- AmeriCorps (Obama's personal recruiting arm)

What piqued our interest was the Latinos Unidos initiative.

The website states:

The Arizona Community Foundation's Latinos Unidos initiative is the natural evolution of the highly successful Hispanics in Partnership program and the Arizona Hispanic Funders' Collaborative launched in 2005. With matching funds from the national Hispanics in Philanthropy organization, Arizona's HIP program granted $620,000 to the following 10 Latino-led nonprofits in 2006:

• Border Action Network
• Borderlands Theatre
• Florence Immigration Project
• It’s a Baby’s Life
• La Sociedad Mutualista de Obreros Mexicanos
• Pinal Hispanic Council
• Pirtleville Community Action Network
• Regional Center for Border Health, Inc.
• The Way of the Heart: The Promotora Institute
• Xico, Inc.

The grants were paid over a three-year period to boost the capacity of these organizations in several areas.

Let's look at just a few of these groups who received funding and what exactly they were doing during that three year period to "boost their capacity":

1.  Border Action Network (BAN).  A leftist open borders group whose activist leader, Jennifer Allen, is closely tied to people like Sal Reza, Randy Parraz, Raquel Teran, Isabel Garcia etc.

Anti-SB1070 video showing Allen, Reza, etc.
BAN and Citizens for a Better Arizona
BAN 2008 Year in Review Video
2009 at the Legislature showing Allen, Teran, AILA lawyer and ACLU representative

2.  Borderlands Theater
"Border people, in the best sense of the word, are citizens of the world.
Borderlands Theater has also benefited from the legacy of the artists/activists who performed with an earlier theater, Teatro Libertad, a collective and outgrowth of the early Chicano civil rights movement."

3.  Florence Immigration Project
"The Florence Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Arizona."

4.  La Sociedad Mutualista de Obreros Mexicanos
 
5.  Xico, Inc
One of the board members is Martin Quintana from Chicanos por la Causa. Another familiar board member is Brian Barabe, one of the founders of Parraz's first organizations created to fight illegal immigration legislation called the East Valley Patriots for American Values. He was one of the many who paraded the Utah-style Compact in front of both the Chandler City Council and most recently, the Mesa City Council.  Barabe donated to both Jerry Lewis' campaign as well as to Citizens for a Better Arizona.

6.  Regional Center for Border Health?  The same RCBH whose CEO is former Arizona Senator, Amanda Aguirre from the same district as Rep. Russ Jones?  The same organization that receives almost all of its funding from the Alinsky IAF which receives THEIR funding from the TAXPAYERS?


Two of the Arizona Hispanic Funders' Collaborative organizations who help contribute funds included:

• Arizona Community Foundation  (Rep. Jones serves on the Advisory Council)
• Border Philanthropy Partnership  (Rep. Jones serves as the Treasurer)

I think we're beginning to understand why Rep. Jones had "struggled mightily" about voting for SB1070.  He himself claimed,

...he intends to represent all people in his district, and thus will not sign on to any type of voting pledge. “We narrow ourselves down and make ourselves less flexible,” he says. “It’s more important for a constituent to try and understand the candidate’s core values that make the person who he is; that’s the best a candidate can possibly do.”

We'll explore more of Mr. Jones and his core values in our next installment.

Kyrene Education Association. Just Another Alinsky IAF Affiliate

We previously exposed two Alinsky IAF affiliates in the Mesa Unified School District.  One is the Mesa Education Association and the other is the MESPA (Mesa Education Support Personnel for the Mesa Public Schools).

There appears to be yet another IAF affiliate in our Public education system.  This time, it is in the Kyrene School District in Tempe.

The Kyrene Education Association

The current president is Erin Kirchoff.  On her Facebook page, she is a fan of groups such as:

Moveon.org, AZ Working Families, 1 million strong against Michele Bachmann, Arizona Progress, Obama for America-Arizona, One Voice Community Center, ONE Community, Barack Obama, Terry Goddard, Kyrsten Sinema, Ed Ableser, David Schapira, NoH8 Campaign, Center for Progressive Leadership (training course that Raquel Teran and Lilia Alvarez attended.  Board members include Progressives Kyrsten Sinema and Chad Campbell), AZ Democrat party, Human Rights Campaign.

Also, according to their meeting minutes, they received a visit from the lead organizer of the IAF Valley Interfaith Project affiliate, Joe Rubio in January 2010.  He "emphasized the necessity of all people who care about education to become involved in the effort to educate the electorate on the history of Arizona's decline in education funding".

You get the picture.

Within the KEA is a Human and Civil Rights Committee.  It is headed by Kinora Hernandez.   The mission statement says the committee is

...comprised of Kyrene teachers who are passionate about

making sure ALL students and staff in Kyrene are treated fairly

and with respect. 

The committee develops policies and activities to support our strategic objective to advance racial, economic,

and gender equity in Kyrene schools.

The committee sponsors two events each year. 

1.  National "mix it up day"

It sounds like a nice idea.  Except for the fact that it implies that our children are incapable of making friends and good choices on their own and that all children are inherently bullies.

"Mix it up day" is sponsored by Tolerance.org which was founded by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Tolerance.org sounds so...very...tolerant.  Their mission statement:

"Dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations,

and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation's children."

They include teaching kits for teachers which are geared towards specific grade levels.  These kits include subjects such as:

American Civil Rights Movement:  A Time for Justice

Bullied:  A Student, A School, and a Case That Made History

(a documentary film that chronicles one student's ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies.  It can become a cornerstone of anti-bullying efforts in middle and High School.)

Viva La Causa

(The Delano strike and grape boycott led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta)

2.  "No Name Calling" Week

In an agenda for the KEA, they discussed ideas on how to incorporate "no name calling" into the curriculum.  Ideas they came up with included:

Do something simple:  Have students sign No Name-calling Pledge sheets or wear stickers to pledge that they will not bully (basically, teachers bully kids into pledging they won't be bullies)

Social Studies:  Have students generate a survey about bullying and administer their survey to a specific number of students in the school. (use kids to bully and pressure other kids to promote your agenda)

Math:  Create math problems.  For example, If 15% of the students in a class of 27 do not come to school because they fear they will be bullied while at school, how many students would be missing?

Language Arts:  Write poems, narratives and enter in the Creative Impressions Contest sponsored by nonamecalling.org

Art:  Create pieces that reflect feelings generated by bullying.  Enter in the Creative Impressions Contest sponsored by nonamecalling.org.

Who is nonamecalling.org?

Their sponsors include:

Amnesty International, Anti-defamation league, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Colage - Children of Lesbian and Gays Everywhere, Girl Scouts of the USA, Jewish Mosaic-the National Center for Sex and Gender Diversity, National Conference for Community and Justice, NEA, National Urban League, OUThistory.org, Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Based on the meeting minutes, the focus of the KEA is to promote Democrats in elections (like Penny Kotterman, David Schapira), encourage teachers and others to vote for every bond override proposal and education money-focused Propositions (like Prop 100), support continued funding for all day kindergarten, any legislative actions that affect teachers, teacher salaries and days off for sick time or vacations. 

What about the children? 

visit the KEA Youtube page for more insight.

Hey Teacher! Leave Them Kids Alone!

Channelling our inner Pink Floyd

The IAF and Teacher's unions.

All in all

 just another brick in the wall.

Breitbart posted an article about a Wisconsin Teacher's Union being trained by a well-funded Alinsky's IAF group.

This didn't come as a big shock to us.  We have a Teacher's Union in our own backyard that is an actual AFFILIATE of the Alinsky IAF.  And the teachers in this union are

TEACHING OUR OWN CHILDREN.

Suppose parents in Conservative

 Mesa, AZ even realize this?

A little refresher course:

Two of the groups in the IAF Valley Interfaith Project include:

Mesa Education Association.

MESPA
(Mesa Education Support Personnel Association for Mesa Public Schools)

The MEA website homepage gives the impression that they have nothing but the best interests of the children at heart.

We are a professional association advocating for quality public schools for every child.

Yet, most of what they REALLY do is for the benefit of the teachers themselves. Oh, and they are activists for liberal causes. Anything for the children, right?

President of MEA, Kathy Ray on right

-One of the members of the MEA Facebook page, Robert Unferth, was heavily involved in the Russell Pearce recall effort and recruited help from the IAF MEA organization.  He posted last June:

Robert Unferth RECALL PEARCE - NEXT STEPS: 1) Make calls to over 10,000 supporters; 2) Continue to visit voters every Saturday to sign them up; 3) Voter registration and PEVL sign-ups; & 4) Raise $5,000 by the end of June. Please let your friends and family members know that our campaign is not over! Now is the time to recruit more volunteers and stay engaged, active and vocal!
www.recallpearce.com or email to rap7power@gmail.com  (Randy Parraz's email account)

-If you are looking for ways to make your voice heard, and show your support for your fellow teachers in Wisconsin (and other states), as well as support for all public workers, here are a few things you can do.

1. Visit the AEA website at www.arizonaea.org for more information on “Wear Red for Ed” and a link to sign NEA’s petition on Education Votes.

2. Visit moveon.org at this link: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=112845&id= to sign up to attend the “Rally to Save the American Dream” being held TOMORROW (2/26) at the Arizona State Capitol at 12 PM.

3. Tell your friends and family, and encourage them to show their support for educators and public employees, as well as workers’ rights

-Hey teacher friends! Please support Mesa teacher, Mike Conway Monday night as he debates his opponents in Legislative District 18. HE NEEDS SUPPORTERS, so please support Mesa Education Association's own member! (We have discussed Mike Conway before)

-This month MEA has assisted several teachers with disciplinary issues as well as evaluation concerns.  (what about the kids?)

-MEA has an amazing team assembled for bargaining and we have been meeting several times to prepare for the new process, but also to plan for our interests in making our working conditions better.

-Mesa teachers and support staff members have borne the brunt of a bad economy plus a legislature that has certainly not been supportive of public education, public education teachers and support staff. Our elected "leaders" have been especially punitive toward the concept that employees have participation in the decisions that affect our profession, our careers and the student learning for which we are tasked.

-A meeting on February 28, 2012 at Mesa High School  featured Joe Rubio from the IAF Valley Interfaith Project who spoke about "Organizing for Power."

Joe Rubio is the Supervisor for the IAF Southwest Affiliates. We know what he thinks about immigration. He said, criticizing AZ lawmakers who passed SB1070, "Where do the legislators think business will find workers?"

We also know how Rubio felt about the Arizona Accord....

"The accord focuses on common sense solutions, not demagoguery, and it shows that good economics and a humane approach to immigration are not only possible but very necessary.”

So, the MEA teacher's group is hosting a meeting with the Supervisor for the IAF? SAUL ALINSKY's IAF?

It sounds EXACTLY like something that would be useful

"for the children".

Just as we're sure the strategies discussed in a leadership training meeting will help train them to be better teachers "for the children".

Like: ability to organize, we are activists, organizers, and our favorite....

"Educate so that the word ADVOCATE is seen positive"

So, we have the Mesa Education Support Personnel Association with the Mesa PUBLIC SCHOOLS who is affiliated with the IAF.

We also have the MEA (and the AEA and NEA) with Mesa Public Schools who have ties to the IAF. Suppose those teachers who work for Mesa Public schools and those who pay dues to groups like the MEA, AEA or NEA realize that they are directly supporting the IAF?

All in all it's just

 another brick in the wall.

Saul Alinsky. We Were Spot On.

Andrew Breitbart was preparing to vet President Obama before his untimely death.  His spirit, however, will live on.

The first of many anticipated installments appeared yesterday entitled:

The Vetting, Part I: Barack's Love Song To Alinsky

The piece mentions how Alinsky was happy about manipulating the Christian community to back his programs.   We already suspected this was the strategy since many of his alliances include "faith-based" organizations which typically have the word "interfaith" in their title.

Arizona Interfaith Network

Valley Interfaith Project

Northern Arizona Interfaith Council

One Arizona Interfaith Leaders

Pima County Interfaith Council

Yuma County Interfaith Council

Remember, the community organizer behind the Russell Pearce recall effort, Randy Parraz, was trained in Dallas at the Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation.

Remember, also, that one of the tactics was to publicly attempt to get political leaders to sign agreements before a large assembly of their constituents like the recent Arizona Accord or Mesa Compact. 

The same kind of agreement which people like newly elected Senator, Jerry Lewis, along with countless members of the LDS faith were more than happy to endorse. Thus, willingly and ignorantly aligning themselves with the tactics and philosophies of Saul Alinsky.

You do what you can with what you have and

clothe it with moral garments

 The same Alinsky whose ideals shaped who President Obama is today.

The same Alinsky who has prepared an army that will test the faith of members of the LDS church should Romney win the Republican nomination.  Including those who have already proven themselves to be fools.

The first thing you need to understand is that the political Left in America operates an Alinsky Death Star that it aims at those who stand in the way of Barack Obama’s re-election. The Left was exiled in the political wilderness for 30 years until Obama’s election; Leftists will not give up control of the country easily and will employ every attack in their arsenal to secure Obama a second term. There is no “stun” setting on the Alinsky Death Star — the one and only setting is “obliterate” and it’s being powered up to hit Salt Lake City with laser-focused persecution and ridicule you’ve clearly never imagined possible. Because Romney is not only a Mormon but served in key leadership positions in your church, Mormons and Mormonism will be targets in the all-out-war the Left wages to keep Obama in power this summer and fall.


Wheats and tares.


  

A Closer Look At Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation PART 1

We've already exposed the IAF that has infiltrated the Mesa School District and suckered some gullible "Republicans" into signing the Arizona Accord.  At this stage of the game, it's too late to try and waste time on the hope that they may some day see the error or their ways.  It's time to move on, even if it means leaving them on the side of the road to wallow with their new-found friends.  Even if they DID come around to the truth, we can't waste time waiting for that moment because by that point, it will be too late.

So, let's expose what the IAF and groups like them (ACORN, PICO) have been up to for the last 50 years...while we were sleeping.

In part 1, we will look at who the IAF is and what role they have played in our schools.

In 2005, this report surfaced on community organizing and our schools.

Can Community and Education Organizing Improve Inner-City Schools?

Norman J. Glickman and Corianne P. Scally

Rutgers University

"IAF is a good example of a national organizing group that has taken on education issues. Founded in the 1940s by Saul Alinsky, IAF organizes a broad base of citizens across race and ethnicity on a wide range of issues (Alinsky 1946, 1971). Today, the Foundation’s network includes more than 50 local groups representing more than 1,000 institutions and one million families, principally in New York, Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Maryland. These IAF affiliates have removed blighted properties and built thousands of units of “Nehemiah” housing built in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC. Further, they have had successful living wage campaigns in Baltimore and New York; pushed human capital efforts to connect less educated people to good jobs; and, importantly for this paper, developed a large number of Alliance Schools in the Southwest (mostly in Texas) and community-based schools in New York.

IAF’s base is local institutions—primarily faith congregations, but also parents’ associations, schools, and trade unions—which it sees as rooted in communities and committed to advocating for societal change over the long term. The organization bases its philosophy on traditional mainstream American values—on religious faith and the self-interest of people—making campaigns for social change more sustainable. IAF works with poor and often less-educated people, channeling their anger about inequality into an agenda for political action. It maintains an “Iron Rule:” never do for people what they can do for themselves—a kind of tough love. This encourages self-reliance among its community leaders. To reach their objectives, members go through multi-day training programs to learn how to think through local issues, to relate to each other and to public officials, and to recruit neighbors to local causes—creating what IAF calls a “university of the streets.” IAF’s organizing process differs from many of the other groups discussed earlier: leadership development and constituent development come early in the process, with issue identification (such as the need for better schools) coming later, flowing out of dialogue within the organization.

IAF has built a network of more than 150 Alliance Schools in Texas and elsewhere in the Southwest. These campuses operate on the philosophy that public schools have a critical role in improving communities. Local IAF groups began organizing to transform a culture of low expectations for students and little or no community participation. Now, they argue, the campuses have increased achievement and formed strategic alliances. Groups focus on strategically engaging parents in the process of running schools, rather than having them involved in a token manner (Shirley 2002). This means building leadership among parents and using the social capital that grows out of that to improve school performance through civic engagement. The Alliance Schools expect teachers to reach out to parents in their neighborhoods. Teachers learn the basics of the IAF philosophy and train in elements of organizing (e.g., how to carry out one-on-one house meetings with parents).

Since IAF affiliates in these two regions (Texas and New York) have been working in schools for well over a decade, there has been enough time for their actions to begin to show tangible results. Our initial assessment of the indicators of both community and school outcomes show some positive results, although students and schools have not reached the highest level of attainment that IAF desires. As Shirley (2002, 38) finds, the advances made thus far have often come with political friction, remain hard to measure in terms of student achievement, and leave “considerable room for improvement.”



A long-used model of building community power through alliances and collective action—community organizing—has been refocused to make schools more responsive to community needs and to transform them into allies rather than adversaries.

National groups such as the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and the Pacific Institute for Community Organizations (PICO) continue to work with poor people across the nation to improve conditions through grassroots organizing.  Many independent, local organizers are also at work on campaigns for living wages, affordable housing, and fighting predatory lending practices within low-income communities.

Once groups identify and agree upon the issues of greatest importance to them, they work toward indigenous leadership development to increase the community’s ability to address problems on their own and get their voices heard. As these organizations define their issues and develop leaders, they build political power. Poor people can often take on the forces of city hall or the statehouse and win political victories. Writing about IAF, Cortes (1994) says “when people learn through politics to work with each other, supporting one another's projects, a trust emerges that goes beyond the barriers of race, ethnicity, income, and geography: we have found that we can rebuild community by reconstructing democracy.”