Democratic U.S. Rep. Convicted Of Racketeering, After Son Was Sentenced To Five Years For Bank and Tax Fraud

Longtime Democratic representative Chaka Fattah was convicted Tuesday to charges stemming from his efforts to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan.

[From article]
A veteran Pennsylvania congressman was convicted Tuesday in a racketeering case that largely centered on various efforts to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan related to his unsuccessful 2007 mayoral bid.
U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah was found guilty of all counts against him, including racketeering, fraud and money laundering. His lawyers had argued that the schemes were engineered without Fattah's knowledge by two political consultants who pleaded guilty in the case.
The 59-year-old Democrat had been in Congress since 1995 and served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. But he lost the April primary and his bid for his 12th term. His current term ends Jan. 2.
Fattah had little reaction to the verdict, but he kept a smile on his face as he conferred with his lawyers afterward.
He will remain free on bail. A judge set sentencing for Oct. 4.
Fattah told reporters as he was leaving the courtroom: "Well, it's a tough day, but I do want to thank the jurors for their service." He said he will confer with his lawyers on the next step.
Prosecutors said Fattah routed federal grant money and nonprofit funds through his consultants to pay back the illegal loan.
His wife, Philadelphia TV news anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, took a leave after her husband's indictment and then quit in February. She was cited in the case over the sham sale of her Porsche, which prosecutors said was a bribe. But she was never charged with any wronging, and she said the sale was legitimate.
In a related case, his son, Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr., was convicted on charges of bank and tax fraud and sentenced in February to five years in prison. A jury found he took part in a scheme as a subcontractor to defraud the Philadelphia school district.
Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Kravis said in his closing argument that Chaka Fattah Sr. used federal grants and nonprofit funds to enrich his family and friends.
Defense lawyers acknowledged Fattah might have gotten himself in financial trouble after a costly mayoral bid, but they said any help from friends amounted to gifts, not bribes.
Many of them came from co-defendant Herbert Vederman, a wealthy friend who had dreams of scoring an ambassadorship. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, testified that he never took the pitch from Fattah too seriously, even though Fattah once bent the president's ear about it. Democrat Ed Rendell, a former mayor and governor, was called to defend Vederman, his former deputy mayor. He said Vederman was qualified for the job and accused prosecutors of cynically misreading the help he lent Fattah.
Vederman helped support Fattah's South African nanny and paid $18,000 for a Porsche owned by Fattah's TV anchor wife.
"The nanny, the Porsche and the Poconos, they weren't part of a bribery scheme," Fattah lawyer Samuel Silver argued in closings. "Those were all overreaches by the prosecution."
The campaign loan was just one of several schemes prosecutors outlined during the trial. They say Fattah was aided in his endeavors by current and former staffers who ran his district office or the nonprofits; by Vederman, who now lives in Palm Beach, Florida; and by political consultants Greg Naylor and Thomas Lindenfeld, who pleaded guilty.
The other co-defendants are Bonnie Bowser, of Philadelphia, who ran his district office; Karen Nicholas, of Williamstown, New Jersey, who ran the education nonprofit Fattah started; and Robert Brand, of Philadelphia, a businessman married to a former Fattah staffer. The jury on Tuesday came back with a mixed verdict for them.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3652804/Verdict-reached-Pennsylvania-congressmans-bribery-case.html

Democratic congressman Chaka Fattah convicted on racketeering, fraud and money laundering charges for using federal grant money to pay back an illegal campaign loan
Fatah was elected in 1995
He was put on the powerful House Appropriations Committee
'The nanny, the Porsche and the Poconos'
Lawmaker ran into financial trouble after failed bid for mayor of Philadelphia
Defense claims Fattah accepted help from a friend, but not bribes
His son also was convicted in a related case
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 12:12 EST, 21 June 2016 | UPDATED: 13:09 EST, 21 June 2016

White House Spending Other People's Money Society, Gives About $20,000 of Taxpayer Money to Each Asylum Seeker and Refugee

[From article]
Federal taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $20,000 just to settle each refugee and asylum seeker, who are then immediately eligible for cash welfare, food stamps, housing and medical aid, according to anew report on the "refugee industry."
The report provided federal budget figures showing that the government spends $19,884 on each refugee the U.S. takes in.
[. . .]



The report from the Negative Population Growth Inc. said that the U.S. is currently accepting about 95,000 refugees and asylees. That is in addition to the over 500,000 legal and illegal immigrants coming to the U.S.
It focused on the industry created to accept the $1.8 billion in federal support to help refugees settle and sign up for further cash awards from Uncle Sam. The refugee agencies get a small portion, or about $1,875 per refugee they help. The rest goes to the United Nations, which helps to determine eligible refugees, and state agencies.
The State Department spends about $1.28 billion, and Health and Human Services another $609 million.



From the report:
Two federal agencies sustain the refugee industry:
The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), in the State Department, supports a major share of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' budget. In FY2014 this support came to $1.28 billion, making the U.S. by far the largest donor to the UNHCR. Some of this money is supposedly used to expand the capacity of countries outside the U.S. to absorb refugees – potentially reducing the share of refugees coming to the U.S. Despite this, more refugees come to the U.S. than to the rest of the world combined: 67% of UNHCR-referred refugees settled in the U.S. in 2014.
[. . .]
Once settled, the refugees are eligible for further federal support and most take it, said the report.
— 47 percent of refugee households received cash assistance.
— 74 percent of refugees were on food stamps.
— 56 percent are on Medicaid.— 22 percent receiving housing assistance.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feds-spend-nearly-20000-to-settle-every-refugee/article/2593331


Feds spend nearly $20,000 to settle every refugee

By PAUL BEDARD (@SECRETSBEDARD) 

6/8/16 11:20 AM

Cambridge Spending Other People's Money Society 2016 Campaign

Politicians enjoy taking credit for the work of others. Taxpayers make it possible for the Spending Other People's Money Society to spend money. Vice Chairman of Cambridge chapter of the SOPMS does not thank taxpayers. He acts as if it was his money to spend. Troubling ideas in his essay include: "universal, high-quality early childhood education for all children." That moves closer to where government bureaucrats rear children. This politician supports more scrutiny by government psychiatrists. He speaks for everyone. How does he know that? Cambridge taxpayers are supporting neighboring cities and towns? 

The Vice Mayor  mentions "homelessness and [the] opioid crisis." How much money is spent on studies, plans, and providing blankets rather than homes to these people? What about the tsunami of illegal drugs across the open southern border? Who are the "we?" What is "socially just?" Who is included in "one another?" and "all our residents?" Some Cambridge citizens  remain outside the interests of this globally concerned politician, who boasts of how he spends US, MA and Cambridge taxpayer funds. No mention of billion dollar online businesses making money from civilian messages and searches. No mention of weak security for online medical records. Why does clueless government fail to protect citizens from harm?  

[From article]
I personally am excited to see is the $1.3 million that will go toward moving Cambridge closer to affordable, universal, high-quality early childhood education for all children.
[. . .]
There isn’t a person in our city administration who doesn’t understand and isn’t committed to finding ways to maintain affordable housing in Cambridge, and we will continue to direct funds to try and stabilize an ever-increasing housing market that is leading to higher rent and home ownership prices, not just in Cambridge but in the entire Metro Boston area.
[. . .]
continued funding to address our homelessness and opioid crisis
[. . .]
we know that we have more work to do in order to be the socially just community we want to be.
[. . .]
What makes Cambridge different, is that our financial stability, combined with our commitment as a community to support one another, puts us in a position to address these complicated issues and to put resources behind them to move our city forward for all of our residents.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20160505/NEWS/160508264

Vice Mayor column: Cambridge pulls off difficult balance with budget
By Marc McGovern
Posted May. 5, 2016 at 12:13 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

U.S. Taxpayers Fund Muslim Terrorism In Israel

[From article]
On April 18 Abd al-Hamid Abu Spour, a 19 year old Palestinian Arab, destroyed two public transportation buses in Jerusalem. There were numerous injuries, two of whom remain hospitalized, one with severe burns. This was the first bus attack during the 7+ month long intifada being waged against Israelis, which has resulted in at least 34 deaths to date.
The one person killed in the attack was the perpetrator himself. All Palestinian factions welcomed the attack. In the eyes of many Muslims, dying while committing a terror attack means Abu Spour is a “shahid,” or martyr for Allah.
[. . .]
On Monday, a week after the attack, a gathering took place at the UNRWA refugee camp in Aida, near Bethlehem. The location has a huge monument of a lock and key, symbolizing the defiant goal that the Palestinian Arabs will one day root out the Jews and take over the land they believe belongs to them.
The “festivities of the martyrs” event took place under the aegis of UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency). To think the official body representing the world’s community of nations is celebrating terrorism is bad enough. However, that is not the worst of it. The number 1 financial donor to UNRWA is the US, by far. The EU and UK are #2 and #3 in financial support. Their combined total represents over 50% of UNRWA’s donor support.
[. . .]



One might think a public event honoring terrorism sponsored by a branch of the United Nations would be widely covered by the media. Yet, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict most of the world’s media seems to come under a spell of double standard. The abnormal becomes normal, the unacceptable turns into acceptable, and the victim is often seen as the bully.
There was virtually no media coverage of this publically supported terrorist-honoring event.
[. . .]
Regarding media coverage, Bedein sent out a press release to over 600 journalists throughout Israel, informing them of the UNRWA event honoring the terrorist. Incredibly he received a reply from only one. This yawn by the media is yet another disturbing reminder of the double standard Israel receives from most of the world.
[. . .]
The US provides the Palestinian Authority over $400 million annually. Concern about the Palestinian educational system is growing in Congress.
US taxpayers have an opportunity to send a strong message opposing their tax money being used to honor terrorists who target innocent citizens of America’s strongest ally in the Middle East. They can contact the members of the Middle East Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, as well as the Near East Subcommittee in the Senate.
There is no moral equivalence between terror and justice. It’s high time the UN stop making an exception when it comes to Israel.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/04/us_eu_taxes_fund_event_honoring_jerusalem_bus_bomber.html

April 29, 2016
US, EU taxes fund event honoring Jerusalem bus bomber
By Dan Calic

Immigration Advocates Admit Illegal Aliens Receive More Taxpayer BenefitsThan Citizens

[From article]
The concept of a civic community has been turned on its head in the United States. No longer do we take care of our own first and then do what we can to help the rest of the world. Along with the idea of actual borders, the idea that we owe our citizens the greatest protection is being tossed aside in practice, if not yet in theory.
As you ponder Rick Moran’s blog post, “Illegal alien families surging across border at record pace,” consider this, via the Washington Examiner:
Among recipients of food stamps, welfare cash and Social Security payments, refugee children receive more in taxpayer-funded aid than children of citizens, according to a new report on federal spending from the pro-immigration Migration Policy Institute.



For example, 30 percent of refugee children live in households that received food stamps from 2009-13. Among American children, the number was 27 percent, said the report titled, "Young Children of Refugees in the United States: Integration Successes and Challenges."
Some 8 percent received cash welfare, compared with 6 percent of U.S. citizen households. And 5 percent of children of refugees were part of Social Security's Supplemental Security Income program, compared with 4 percent of U.S. children.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/04/proimmigration_group_admits_refugee_children_get_more_federal_benefits_than_poor_us_kids.html

April 25, 2016
Pro-immigration group admits: refugee children get more federal benefits than poor US kids
By Thomas Lifson

Extraordinarily Difficult to Reduce Entitlements

[From article]
The entitlements that dominate our consciousness are big ticket items such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, unfunded sinkholes ranging from 50 to 200 trillion, depending on who’s counting. These staggering obligations may threaten to wreck national budgets and lay waste to society, but they have little to teach us about the fundamental, and very scary, nature of entitlements. Life’s little lessons are far more instructive. Lesser entitlements that resonate with our everyday experience are more human-size: a pay raise, an inflated school grade or a free drink at Moe’s Tavern on your birthday. We rarely think of these examples as entitlements, but once awarded, just try to get them back.
[. . .]
psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered a profound asymmetry in human behavior they dubbed loss aversion. Through a gamut of social experiments, they demonstrated that people strongly prefer avoiding loss to acquiring gain, a human imbalance that initiated the rewrite of traditional cost–benefit models.
[. . .]
The principle of loss aversion describes how a benefit – any benefit – becomes an entitlement.
[. . .]



Life, for our forebears, was at least precarious and challenging, if not truly “solitary, nasty, brutish and short,” as opined by Thomas Hobbes. Resources were precious. An extra caribou in the larder, a few more fur skins to guard against the elements or a roomier cave were certainly causes for celebration, but the loss of any amount of food, clothing or shelter was dangerous. Gain was valuable, but loss could be lethal; loss aversion makes evolutionary sense. Whether loss aversion remains beneficial or simply vestigial, it appears to be deeply embedded in our genes.
[. . .]



The political wishful thinking that we can cut, manage or even tame big ticket entitlements, if and when we so choose, belies eons of human history.
The time to plan for the control of entitlements is at their inception.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/04/the_only_way_to_cut_entitlements.html

April 19, 2016
The Only Way to Cut Entitlements
By Dean Kedenburg

Did Faulty Sidewalks Cause Death of Woman Who Used A Wheelchair?

Question keeps appearing, "Why was Dorothy Steele traveling in the street not on the sidewalk?" Does it have anything to do with impassable sidewalks for persons who use wheelchairs? Any investigations by the city or the state commissions on disabilities, or any of the taxpayer funded human services corporations? Any attempt to prevent similar needless deaths?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20160426/NEWS/160426867

Somerville man pleads not guilty in fatal hit-and-run in Cambridge
By Natalie Handy
nhandy (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Apr. 26, 2016 at 1:27 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Affordable Care Act Exacerbates Doctor Shortage in US

[From article]
The doctor will not see you now. The U.S. could lose as many as 100,000 doctors by 2025, according to a recent Association of American Medical Colleges report.
Primary-care physicians will account for as much as one-third of that shortage, meaning the doctor you likely interact with most often is also becoming much more difficult to see.
[. . .]
Without those doctors, our medical system is “putting out forest fires — just treating the patients when they get really sick,” said Dr. Richard Olds, the chief executive officer of the Caribbean medical school St. George’s University, who is attempting to use his institution’s resources to help alleviate the shortage.
Dr. Ramanathan Raju, CEO of public hospital system NYC Health + Hospitals, goes even further, saying the U.S. lacks a basic primary-care system. “I think we really killed primary care in this country,” said Raju. “It needs to be addressed yesterday.”
The primary-care gap is particularly acute in about one-third of states, which have only half or less of their primary-care needs being met. Connecticut is a standout among the group, at about 15%, with Missouri, at 30%; Rhode Island, at 33%; Alaska, with 35%; and North Dakota, at 37%, next on the list, according to government statistics.
[. . .]
“The real problem is we don’t have enough doctors in the right places and in the right specialties,” Olds said, noting that doctors tend to cluster in big cities, and are far more scarce in rural areas and in other small communities as well as certain parts of some big cities.
[. . .]
The pay disparities reflect America’s “fee for service” health-care model, which compensates providers based on the number and type of services they complete, and which inherently favors specialists.
Reform-minded critics say compensation should instead be based on the period of time a patient is cared for. They argue that this structure would incentivize preventative care and prevent unnecessary (and often costly) medical procedures. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is in the very early stages of considering this global payment model.
Experts say it’s not just that primary-care doctors are paid less; they also typically work longer hours and have to be well-versed in a wide array of medical issues, to refer patients to the appropriate specialists. [. . .]
“From the patient standpoint, the most important doctor you have is the primary-care doctor, who’s paid the least,” Olds said. “We pay for procedures, drugs and expensive tests, but we don’t pay doctors to think and care and manage patients’ health-care problems.”
• More demand: People are living longer and thus need more medical care, accelerating doctor demand;
[. . .]
The shortage is one that’s been stewing for decades but of late was exacerbated by passage of the Affordable Care Act, which increased the number of insured people and along with that the demand for doctor access, experts say.
• Medical schools themselves: Few medical schools consider a community-service background or an expressed interest in primary care when admitting applicants, though these are factors that would be easy to screen for. Past service in programs such as the Peace Corps and Teach for America are good predictors of students taking an interest in primary care, Olds said.
[. . .]
Then there’s the structure of the programs themselves. A majority of med-school faculty members tends to be composed of specialists (a more research-oriented bunch, aiding the school’s federal funding), which influences their students’ choices, and use of university hospitals as teaching sites doesn’t immerse students as much in the outside community, inhibiting growth of community roots.
[. . .]
• Geography: It doesn’t take more than a quick scan of a map of medical schools in the U.S to note that they’re heavily concentrated in the northeastern U.S. Graduates tend to stay in the areas where they went to school, so this contributes to a geographic skew among doctors.
Prospective doctors must complete a residency in order to practice medicine, but those programs — funded in part by federal dollars — aren’t located in areas with great need nor do they geographically calibrate with that factor in mind.
[. . .]
• A numbers game: Only about one in four medical-school graduates is heading into a primary-care career, according to Olds, a ratio that’s half what it should be.
But doctors also want to practice differently today than their predecessors did, placing a higher premium on regular, 9-to-5 hours, Miller said. So “we find it takes more than one doctor coming out today to replace an old-style, baby boomer doctor [of 25 years ago],” he said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-1-million-doctor-shortage-is-right-upon-us-2016-04-01


America’s million-doctor shortage is right around the corner
By Emma Court
Published: Apr 1, 2016 3:23 p.m. ET
Primary-care shortage is growing especially acute in rural areas and in parts of some cities

US Taxpayers Fund Terrorism By Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood Through US Dept. of Health Human Services

[From article]
The Obama administration recently gave a $270,000 grant to an Islamic charity that has been banned by Israel and the United Arab Emirates because of alleged financial ties to the terrorist group Hamas and to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided the funds last month to the U.K.-based Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) for its work in Kenya, according to the federal spending database USASpending.gov.
The funds are earmarked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s global health security partner engagement initiative.
Special: Blake Shelton Finally Confesses How He Dropped All of the Weight
The program is aimed at fighting infectious diseases and promoting “global health security as an international priority,” according to the CDC website.
But IRW has been at the center of other security concerns.
In 2014, Israel and United Arab Emirates banned IRW, which is headquartered in Birmingham, England, from operating within its borders alleging that the group supports and funds Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s military arm in Palestine.
Special: Demi Moore Reveals Her Post Divorce Skin Rejuvenation To Dr. Oz
Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon alleged in July 2014 that IRW’s chapters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were being run by members of Hamas.
“The IRW is one of the sources of Hamas’s funding and a means for raising funds from various countries in the world,” Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon said in a July 2014 statement. “We do not intend to allow it to function and abet terrorist activity against Israel.”
[. . .]



The IRW provides support and assistance to Hamas’s infrastructure,” the statement continued, alleging that IRW’s operations are “controlled and staffed by Hamas operatives.”
“The intensive activities of these associations are designed to further Hamas’s ideology among the Palestinian population.”
In Nov. 2014, United Arab Emirates added IRW to its list of designated terrorist organizations. HSBC, the London-based bank, also severed its relationship with IRW, citing the alleged terror ties.
But Ryan Mauro, who tracks terror-linked group as a national security analyst for the Clarion Project, says that IRW’s links to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood should, at the very least, disqualify it from receiving any federal funding.
“IRW’s Muslim Brotherhood ties should rule it out of the running for government grants. This is simply common sense,” Mauro told The Daily Caller.
The CDC grant isn’t the first federal grant IRW has received this year. As the Washington Free Beacon reported in December, U.S. Agency for International Development gave IRW a $100,000 stipend, also for work in Kenya.
Mauro also noted that more than 50 members of Congress support new legislation labeling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group. One supporter of the measure if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/30/feds-give-270k-grant-to-islamic-charity-with-alleged-ties-to-hamas-muslim-brotherhood/

Feds Give $270K Grant To Islamic Charity With Alleged Ties To Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood

Chuck Ross, Reporter
12:07 AM 03/30/2016

Recipients of Taxpayer Funds Unhappy With Extent of Benefits

[From article]
Tiera Williams and her four children dodge cars on a winter evening as they cross the parking lot of the Days Inn to the Washington motel room the children call "Mommy's house."
People at the Days Inn – one of at least 12 motels being used by the city to house 730 homeless families this winter – lean over the balcony that overlooks the courtyard lit by the December glow of yellow lights.
They occupy a hidden world of desperation and poverty mixed with every-other-day maid service, free WiFi, continental breakfast in the lobby, and lunch and dinner in the 170-room motel's banquet room.
[. . .]
Williams dumps bags of groceries on the motel room desk. In the mini refrigerator, she stacks yogurt, apples, oranges and a roasted chicken they will have for dinner that night. She uses her food stamps to buy meals because she doesn't like eating the pasta, casseroles, chicken, hot dogs and other dishes the city provides at the motel.
Isn't this shocking, how taxpayers are paying to prepare such low-class meals for welfare moms? What kind of country is this that doesn't cook better meals for people on welfare?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/welfare_moms_unhappy_with_free_lodging_prepared_meals_wifi_maid_service.html

February 4, 2016
Welfare moms unhappy with free lodging, prepared meals, WiFi, maid service
By Ed Straker

U.S. Taxpayer Funds, $400,000, to Discourage Somali Muslims From Joining ISIS

[From article]
A group has applied for $400,000 to run soccer games and other after-school programs to discourage Somali Muslims in Minnesota from joining ISIS.
[. . .]
How many messed up things can you see from this situation?
1) We imported large numbers of Somali Muslims into Minnesota.
2) Significant numbers have joined al-Shabaab and ISIS. ("More than 22"...I'm betting that means more than 23. Maybe even more than 24.)
3) We are funding anti-terrorism efforts to fight a problem we created by #1 above.
4) The anti-terrorism money is being directed to host soccer games for potential terrorists.
5) The idea behind this seems to be that potential terrorists, kept busy kicking soccer balls, will not want to decapitate Christians.
6) It somehow costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for terrorist sympathizers to play soccer.
As we bring more and more of these "refugees" in, do you think we will have to radically increase our soccer budget to keep up with the appeal of radical Islam for them?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/400000_soccer_games_meant_to_keep_minnesota_muslims_from_joining_isis.html

February 2, 2016
$400,000 soccer games meant to keep Minnesota Muslims from joining ISIS
By Ed Straker

Cambridge, MA Librarian Laments Excessive Testing of Third Graders

Local school officials suffer from two debilitating syndromes. One is the love of taxpayer funds. The other is obedience to authority and conformism. Only way to curb the education policies which continue to dumb down public school students is to eliminate the US Department of Education. An alternative is to elect and hire officials with spines, which is more difficult than the first solution. Do teacher unions play any role in these abuses?



http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20160119/NEWS/160116363

LETTER: Will this student testing in Cambridge really be harmless?
Posted Jan. 19, 2016 at 8:30 AM
To the editor:
--Susan Moynihan, librarian in Cambridge Public Schools

PBS Broadcasts Feature Showing Persons With Disabilties as Human Beings

This couple appears in the film to be healthy, handsome and normal. 

After a few years of pestering, with retaliatory threats because of my repeated questions, why persons with disabilities were never portrayed on taxpayer funded PBS stations in Boston, the stations actually (will wonders never cease?) broadcast a few full length features by independent videographers. The one being broadcast in January 2016 on WGBH-TV Boston and other PBS stations shows five people diagnosed with autism and their thoughts on love. They appear to be no different than thoughts expressed by poets and philosophers through the ages, and ordinary people alive today. The definitions expressed are pretty good. Two of the persons shown do not appear to have any serious illness. Nonetheless it is curious that the producer focused on love. Human services industry professionals assist people they declare disabled. Do they ever encourage them to enjoy love and romantic relationships as other people do?


Then there are three (of six) cable access television stations, CCTV, in Cambridge, MA (which receives about $1 million each year from the City). The executive director with a straight face explained to me that they could not find any features showing persons with disabilities to broadcast, as the reason why persons with disabilities seldom appeared on that station. That is Cambridge, MA the host city of Harvard University, MIT and Lesley University. The morally superior city which has a misguided self image as holier than thou.


Permanent host of PBS Greater Boston James Braude, former Cambridge, MA City Councilor omits persons with disabilities from appearing as guests on his show. He continues the tradition of Emily Rooney his predecessor.

Banning persons with disabilities is bad enough. The same show invites black people, women, homosexuals and Muslims to speak about how they experience discrimination. In Braude's mind everybody loves people with disabilities. Not so. They just don't think about them. For Braude every time there is a mass shooting he expresses a bigoted view, stereotyping people with disabilities as dangerous, violent and likely to take up arms and shoot up a theater or school. Braude objects vigorously to stereotyping black people, women, homosexuals and Muslims. But not so much for persons with disabilities, who he continues to insult on his taxpayer funded television show.

The same with CBS News' prestigous commentator, Andy Rooney's daughter, Emily Rooney. She was news director at WCVB-TV, Boston before she moved to public television. She now hosts a weekly show called Beat The Press, where her guests attack and ridicule conservative media errors, but ignore liberal bias. It is humorous to watch them make fools of themselves. Rooney refused to invite persons with disabilities on Greater Boston when she was the host. On Beat The Press she has a regular black lesbian, who hosts the Basic Black show, a few homosexuals, other black Harvard University elitists, but never, never anyone with a disability. For Rooney people with disabilities have no ability to repeat the liberal mantra and are unable to criticize, to listen to, or to read what is written, broadcast, published and posted online.

Taxpayer funded WGBH-TV, Boston's PBS station has a weekly show called Basic Black. Only upper class professional black people, e.g., professors, celebrities, journalists, are permitted on the show, which focuses on how black people can get more power and more money. They discuss how racist white people are, and how they enjoy privileges, which black people do not. People with disabilities are never seen on Basic Black or on WGBH, except as noted herein in recent days on independent shows. Not even black people with disabilities. That too is remarkable.

Harvard University when confronted with its bias against disability, marches out the few black disabled students they allow to matriculate. Never are white people with disabilities recognized at Harvard University. That is a fact. Over the past 20 years I am a tenant at a building owned and operated by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Harvard University campus police employees and building superintendents conducted and conduct a brutal criminal harassment campaign every day and every night. They disturb my sleep every one or two hours. They provoke, insult, ridicule, and humiliate me saying "He's crazy." But when I seek assistance from state and local taxpayer funded human services agencies they tell me, "There's nothing wrong with you." Their students tamper with my home computer, accessing it remotely to sabotage my use. For the elite at Harvard University and on public TV, disabled people are preferred targets for criminal abuse and bullying. No one listens to them and no one gives them a platform to petition for equal treatment by the four major approved victim groups.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/autism-in-love/

link to full video until April 10, 2016 9 [one hour, 13 minutes
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/autism-in-love/

Autism in Love
Independent Lens Production
Broadcast on WGBH-TV
Monday January 11, 2016

More broadcasts in  January 2016 see web page link above

* * *


Filmmaker Sophie and her son Ben

Sophie and Ben
Short about disabled child, raised by alternative family.

Aunt Dona and Grandmother Mimi

Film maker Sophie recognized she was unable to be so unselfish to take care of her aunt as her grandmother took care of her aunt.

Her son Ben, was diagnosed as having autism, as she had a history of autism. Aunt Dona asked to leave public schools in second grade. Ben entered school in second grade.

Ben: "Differences are what makes us human. I mean, imagine if we were all the exact same person. The world would be a boring place! And now since, and since we have differences that makes the, that makes the world an entertaining, that makes the world unique. And I feel like autism and Asperger's Syndrome are just a difference, where your brain is built a different way, and it's completely fine to be different because it's what makes us human."

Cambridge, MA Celebrates One View of Spending Other People's Money For Planned Parenthood

Cecile Richards Earns $500,000 per year spending other people's money

Great report about one side of the issue. Isn't that called propaganda? US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked Cecile Richards ($590,000 salary) why she apologized for statements on the videos if they were not true. She dissembled. See US House Committee hearing on C-span, Planned Parenthood Government Funding Sep 29, 2015. Committee Chairman Chaffetz (R-UT) revealed taxpayer millions spent on lobbying, first class travel, salaries, foreign aid. Interesting listening. Regarding the videos, see

http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/29/forensic-analysis-planned-parenthood-videos-are-authentic/


Forensic Analysis: Planned Parenthood Videos Are ‘Authentic’
Kate Scanlon / @scanlon_kate
Daily Signal
September 29, 2015

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/30/cambridge-planned-parenthood-pinkout/

Cambridge Participates in ‘Pink Out Day’ for Planned Parenthood
By THEO C LEBRYK, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Harvard Crimson
September 30, 2015

Special Interest Group Leaders Represent Themselves

Taxpayer money is showered on illegal immigrants. Diverting that to elders would be remarkable. Excess of money, bureaucrats take from working men and women is appropriated based on effectiveness of lobbyists. Harvard University, e.g., has three full time lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Leadership of older American organizations e.g., AARP are run by elitists who work for themselves, as teachers union leaders and politicians do. Plenty of older Americans. But they are disorganized. Three wealthy and powerful victim groups focus on the interests of their leadership too, i.e., black racism lobby, homosexual lobby, and women. This column mentions the BLGTP faction of elders, and the ADA. Unlike the BLGTP lobby, persons with disabilities remain forgotten except during campaigns and budget deliberations. Politicians know they can fool enough people to get elected employing useful idiot journalists. Elder persons and disabled persons refuse to recognize the role of misguided journalists, who act more and more like politicians every day. Instead of whining get out there and embarrass those with taxpayer money and access to media. You can't change the world. But you can embarrass the guilty.



http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150725/NEWS/150728319

Growing Older column: Conference on Aging missed valuable opportunities
By Richard Griffin
Posted Jul. 25, 2015 at 9:00 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

AIDS Research Scientist Sentenced To 4 Years in Prison, $7 million Fine, For False Statements

Dong-Pyou Han, 58
[From article]

A former Iowa State University scientist who altered blood samples to make it appear he had achieved a breakthrough toward a potential vaccine against HIV was sentenced Wednesday to more than 4 ½ years in prison for making false statements in research reports.
Dong-Pyou Han, 58, also must pay $7.2 million to a federal government agency that funded the research. He entered a plea agreement in February admitting guilt to two counts of making false statements.
Government prosecutors said Han’s misconduct dates to 2008 when he worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland under professor Michael Cho, who was leading a team testing an experimental HIV vaccine on rabbits. Cho’s team began receiving NIH funding, and he soon reported the vaccine was causing rabbits to develop antibodies to HIV, which was considered a major breakthrough. Han said he initially accidentally mixed human blood with rabbit blood making the potential vaccine appear to increase an immune defense against HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS. Han continued to spike the results to avoid disappointing Cho, his mentor, after the scientific community became excited that the team could be on the verge of a vaccine.
Iowa State recruited Cho in 2009, and his team — including Han — continue the research with NIH funding. A group of researchers at Harvard University found in January 2013 the promising results had been achieved with rabbit blood spiked with human antibodies.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2015/07/02/scientist-aids-research-fraud/

Scientist Sentenced To Prison For AIDS Research Fraud By Spiking Vaccine With Rabbit Blood
July 2, 2015 7:39 AM

CBS News Cleveland OH

Taxpayer Funded Protests

Wendy Kopp, Founder, Teach For America

[From article]
It’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Teach for America — whose leaders are at the forefront of inflammatory anti-police protests in Baltimore, Ferguson, and now McKinney, Texas — and left-wing activist groups such as Organizing for Action (President Obama’s partisan community organizing army).



Guess what, taxpayers? You’re paying for it!
Wendy Kopp founded Teach for America in 1989 after writing her Princeton University thesis on the need for a “national teaching corps” of elite college grads who would serve students on short-term stints in low-income neighborhoods. The do-gooder group has exploded into a massive, nonprofit business.
[. . .]
TFA’s most infamous public faces don’t even pretend to be interested in students’ academic achievement. It’s all about race, tweets and marching on the streets.

http://michellemalkin.com/2015/06/10/teach-for-americas-professional-taxpayer-subsidized-agitators/

Teach for America’s professional, taxpayer-subsidized agitators
By Michelle Malkin

June 10, 2015 09:52 AM

Taxpayer Funded Boston Public Television Bans Persons With Disabilities As Guests

Emily Rooney, daughter of CBS News celebrity, Andy Rooney. Long time host of WGBH-TV Boston PBS Greater Boston news show and former news director at WCVB-TV. As host on WGBH Rooney banned persons with disabilities as guests on her show, except allowing them to explain how much they loved their goods and services from the human services industrial complex (MA State Rep. Marie Parente's term).


New host, former Cambridge City Councilor, Jim Braude, continues Rooney's policy.

Glad to see that taxpayer funded WGBH presents a one-sided view of this issue. Adam Reilly interviews two extremist black supremacists for their analysis. They lament a white racist nation as they advocate on taxpayer funded TV with no opposition. Racist? Do they mean black racist? They act as if they are the only persons ever discriminated against. Maybe reading some history is in order for the Tufts University historian and the special interest communications corporate executive. For many years the three wealthy and politically powerful "victim" groups dominated the air time of taxpayer funded Greater Boston and other WGBH shows, while persons with disabilities remain banned from appearing on those shows. Why do Greater Boston and WGBH in general open their shows to full participation by three wealthy and politically powerful "victim" groups, while banning persons with disabilities from appearing on TV? The producers, directors, airhead anchors, and management appear to share the misguided, unlawful hateful beliefs that all persons with disabilities are ignorant and stupid. Shame on them for their continued extreme hatred toward persons with disabilities denying them access to taxpayer funded television. Shame on them after several years of bringing this unlawful bias on WGBH and PBS to their attention. The response was threats to have me banned from Boston media, which they did, adding criminal harassment by local supporters of the taxpayer funded radio and television, PBS and WGBH. and their three powerful and wealthy victim groups.


Greater Boston
June 16, 2015
Host: Adam Reilly
Segment on NAACP Leader, Rachel Dolezal, Passing As Black
Periel Joseph, Tufts University History Professor
Colette Phillips, CEO Communications Corporation






http://wgbhnews.org/post/boston-2024-updates-rachel-dolezal-surprising-nh-poll

Illegal Immigrants Owe Thanks To U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy

[From article]
Sen. Ted Kennedy’s 1965 immigration act allowed the Democrats to start winning elections the same way they win recounts: by enlarging the pool of voters.
Liberals couldn’t convince Americans to agree with them, but they happened to notice that the people of most other countries in the world already agreed with them. So Sen. Ted Kennedy’s immigration act brought in millions of poverty-stricken foreigners to live off the American taxpayer and bloc-vote for the Democrats.
[. . .]
At the precise moment in history when the United States abandoned any attempt to transmit American values to its own citizens, never mind immigrants, the 1965 immigration act began dumping the poorest of the poor from around the world on our country.
[. . .]
We don’t have an obligation to bring in people who need government assistance intended for our own people. You only have to do something you don’t want to do if you’re obliged morally, legally or with a gun to your head.
[. . .]
Kennedy’s 1965 immigration bill, combined with white self-loathing and, in some quarters, WASP-loathing, has made it impossible for America to assert any sensible traditions, even abandoning the requirement that immigrants learn English, our “common medium of speech,” as Justice Louis Brandeis put it.

http://humanevents.com/2015/06/17/first-mary-jo-kopechne-then-america/?utm_source=coulterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

First Mary Jo Kopechne, Then America

Ann Coulter
Wednesday Jun 17, 2015 2:29 PM

US Taxpayers Fund Anti Semitic, Anti Israel NGOs in Europe

[From article]
“The ongoing government funding for NGOs that engage in anti-Semitic activities and rhetoric, governments highlight a persistent double standard: Hatred of Jews is tolerated in a way that would be unthinkable for other racial, ethnic, or religious groups,” said NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg in a statement. “Jewish and Israeli targets are often denied the right to define what constitutes discrimination against them.”
The NGO Monitor report cites Amnesty International, Sabeel, and Human Rights Watch as several of the groups that engage in anti-Israel rhetoric.
[. . .]
BADIL, another group critical of Israel, has been granted over a quarter-million dollars in funding over the next two years by Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, according to the report.
The organization held a cartoon contest in 2010, rewarding a drawing of a Hasidic Jewish caricature holding a bloody pitchfork and two keys labeled “U.S.A.” and “UK” while crushing Palestinian children. It also published a cartoon of an octopus with a Star of David on its head. According to NGO Monitor, the images were later removed after complaints.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/report-un-european-governments-funding-anti-israel-groups/

Report: UN, European Governments Funding Anti-Israel Groups
Millions go to groups that promote anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views
BY: Alana Goodman
May 11, 2015 3:30 pm