The New Counter Culture

Conservatives have always been a pariah to both the Democrats and to a lesser extent the Republicans, who seem to want to be slightly less liberal democrats. Think of John McCain, Arnold etc. you get the picture. The reality is that Conservatives are adopting tactics of our foes to make news around the world. I call this the new and improved Counter Culture movement.
Counterculture move #1 was the shout heard across the world at President Obama - “you lie” by Congressional Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina. It was aimed at the President during the part of his speech where he claimed Illegal Immigrants will not receive benefits under his healthcare plan. Oddly, in this instance both sides have it right, due to the ambiguity of section 246 in the House healthcare bill HR 3200. The Presidents plan has language to potentially exclude illegal immigrants, but also purposely lacks any verification provisions.

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 contained a number of reforms to ensure that only “qualified aliens” (which excludes illegal aliens) would be eligible to receive federal public benefits. The three systems that are currently used by 70 other federal programs to verify immigration status and eligibility are called (IEVS) Income Eligibility Verification System - (SAVE) the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system - and the E-Verify system, which confirms an individual is work-authorized in the United States. The best way to protect American taxpayers is to require that everyone who enrolls in the proposed healthcare plan first verify their eligibility using the IEVS and SAVE databases.

What Joe Wilson was shouting about was that the Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration had just defeated two measures that would have required using IEVS , SAVE and E-Verify for healthcare benefits. He knew that the lack of verification – the same as used for all these other programs – meant that the plan would allow huge numbers of illegal’s to slip in to the system undetected. This is why he shouted “you lie” to Obama.

Counterculture move #2 is the wild and wooly youtube videos exposing ACORN – the Presidents own Community Organizing group - as the corrupt organization they are. The real issue is not just about ACORN, rather it is why would the Democrats in charge of the Federal Government hand over huge swaths of Census taking, Voter registration and large amounts of FHA home loan authorizations to an obviously corrupt organization?
Here’s what happened… Last Thursday, Sept. 10, a new website called www.BigGovernment.com launched with an exclusive video showing workers at an ACORN office in Baltimore advising two undercover investigative reporters on how to hide their prostitution business under federal tax laws. Not only are the pair very open to the intent of their need for housing to run a prostitution business, but they add that they plan to bring in about a dozen underage girls from El Salvador – that they will use as prostitutes. ACORN is in the business of helping people obtain Federal loans for housing, as well as advisers on how to properly fill out applications, tax forms etc. The advice from the ACORN staffers was shocking. They advised the two to hide the fact that they were Pimps and Prostitutes on any forms, and to list the 13 -15 year old girls from El Salvador as dependants. They showed the two how to successfully game the system by falsifying tax returns and getting federal loans to buy a house that they could use as a brothel for underage prostitutes smuggled in from El Salvador.
The duo, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles started this project thinking they would be thrown out of the ACORN offices, but instead they were embraced. Then they went to ACORN offices in DC, Brooklyn NY and San Bernardino, where they received the same advice –and shockingly – no opposition. In real life, Hannah Giles, 20, isn't a lady of the night. She's a minister's daughter studying journalism at Florida International University, and James E. O'Keefe, 25, a Fordham MBA student from New Jersey, isn't a pimp so much as a provocateur -- determined to expose what he sees as the hypocrisies and moral lapses of liberals by employing their own tactics against them.
The tie in to our new President is that Obama worked for Acorn in the past, and Acorn worked for Obama in the past election by running massive voter registration efforts. ACORN is also under Federal prosecution for falsifying voter registrations in Florida, but that’s another story. That doesn't mean the president is implicated in wrongdoing, but it suggests that as more corruption surfaces in ACORN, the more embarrassing it is for him. If the Justice Department fails to prosecute, it invariably would raise suspicions of political favoritism.
So there are two big stories of how the Conservative Grassroots is transforming into a Counter Culture Movement of the New Millennium. Out goes the silent majority label and onward to the vocal and visible majority status.