David Freddoso tried to explain that the only change Barack Obama would bring to the Beltway would be an introduction of the Chicago Machine politics that made him successful to the Beltway. The Inspector General of AmeriCorps, one of Obama’s pet projects, has discovered this the hard way. The independent investigator got fired for peeking too closely at an Obama contributor:
President Barack Obama says he has lost confidence in the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs and has told Congress he is removing him from the position.
Obama’s move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star, into the misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group that Johnson headed.
Walpin was criticized by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled an investigation of Johnson and St. HOPE Academy, a nonprofit group that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National Community Service. The corporation runs the AmeriCorps program.
AmeriCorruption?
UPDATE: It get’s juicier. A lot. Malkin has the deets.
How can Obama fire the IG..? Does he have authority to do so..? I guess that there is more corruption than Joey B. knew about; maybe this stuff is above his pay grade too…
I thought the President was simply the chief executive, and not the Monarch of his own personal fiefdom…
This is definately a Stalin-esque kind of move, just without the gulag to send him to. That’s probably earmarked in the next budget somewhere though…
Where’s the Outrage!, like when Booosh! asked for the resignation of the 9 of 100 US attorneys..? You know, the same US attorneys that Clinton replace All 100 Of! when he took office in 1992…
I guess we can expect the same level of furor as in 1992 also…
As Grassley pointed out, Bob, he falls afoul of his own rules.
Unfortunately, many won’t ever hear a word of this. It is really necessary for everyone to make sure the low information voters who put this type of crew in get to see this type of “change” in action.
Normally a free press would do this….
Unless the law establishing the position says otherwise, if the IG is an executive branch employee shit can roll downhill in the government too.
So, as futile as it may sound, it’s up to us to express our dissatisfaction over this to our representatives. Since, as LTC John noted, I don’t think we’ll hear this ballyhood very much in the
MSMSRM…Really, first that whole Kabuki dance with the “lobbyists” ban, now another set of rules he helped write that he’s freely violating…
Maybe he’ll just appoint a Political Payoff’s Czar and cut to the chase!
Akshually, according to the Washington Examiner:
No mention if the bill was signed, but I can’t imagine it wasn’t. (CONFIRMED: It was.)
So Obama’s firing of this IG violates the law. A law he sponsored and presumably voted for.
More goose-stepping on the Road to Serfdom:
Ho-boy.
wanna bet the “voting present” president doesn’t even know he sponsored the protect IG’s act?
Rob Crawford – Is he giving notice now? Did he give notice to congress already? Or Is the IG position Walpin holds grandfathered in some fashion?
TSK9, maybe he could go to a burger joint and find that out.
I’m starting to feel like we have the Kwame Kilpatrick president.
Really? I’m getting a Mugabe vibe, myself. With the New Black Panther Party in the role of the “veterans”.
SarahW — read the stories. Sen. Grassley, in a letter to Herr Obama, said, “your staff reportedly issued an ultimatum to the AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin that he had one hour to resign or be terminated”. One hour doesn’t sound like 30 days.
Dan, I was thinking maybe he needed a long over due date night.
The First Lady is firing the Americorps Inspector who uncovered corruption? Because it could uncover the kick backs that Chicago style politics thrive on? That is like Hillary and Bush AG firings all rolled into one delicous package of graft!
Rob – AP quote, via Malkin :
“On Thursday, Obama said in a letter to Congress that he had lost confidence in Walpin. Neither the president nor deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest would give details. The president must give Congress 30 days’ notice before removing Walpin, who is being suspended with pay for the 30 days. Earnest said, “The president will appoint a replacement in whom he has full confidence as the corporation carries out its important mission.â€
So Walpin didn’t cave and resign, at least. Perhaps that bill needs to be re-written so that no suspension can take place without 30 days notice?
It would seem the spirit of the O- sponsored IG protecton bill would call for O to explain WHY he has “lost confidence” in his IG.
How would re-writing the bill help? Obama would ignore that text, too.
Laws cannot stop the lawless.
I think they hoped to coax a resignation with the abrubt notice. I’m glad Obama failed.
Walpin’s investigations bore fruit and forced repayment of improper expeditures. For this he is asked to quit or be canned – very disturbing.
Note that the “acting” US attorney involved is of those appointed bythe Obama DOJ…
Sans outrage, of course…
I don’t know if it’s a good idea to bar suspensions of IG’s until Congress has had 30 days notice. I just hope the situation gets the review it deserves.
Most ethical administration evar!
So the President cites the fact that one of his recent appointees didn’t like what the IG was doing as the reason he is giving him the boot… self serving to the nth degree, but gets a pass in the press….
Colonel,
Maybe you forgot; he’s a good man…
*snort*
Most transparent and ethical administration in history: K.Olbersham.
As with Clinton singing the act which criminalized bosses having sex with their employees. With Clinton this was at least on the smaller personal scale. Obama will do every rotten thing done by a Democrat President and take it all to a wider, more public level.
I can’t see why the I.G. was getting his knickers in a twist. It seems to me that the Americorps program was being run on perfectly normal lines. Just like the Chicago Annenburg Challenge for instance, or any other piece of community organising.
The law is whatever judges like Sonia Sotomayor say it is.
Oh, yeah…. I won.
Anyway, what’s up with a King getting rid of a ‘turbulent’ priest who’s getting all ‘scriptural’ on him. That’s what Kings do. And if the Queen wants to send one of her favorite courtiers to look after things for her, well God Bless Her Majesty I say.
So if the Lords and Ladies in the Congress want to whine about it, let them explain to the subjects why they’re going against the most popular King ever.
Cheez, with all the lese majestie on this site you guys seem to think you’re living in some sort of republic or something.
What country am I living in? Dave Bing is mayor of Detroit and Kevin Johnson is mayor of Sac’to? Is the main requirement for political office these days a complete understanding of the pick and roll?
Sam Cassell for mayor of Houston!
He not only has to notify Congress 30 days before the firing, he has to state the reasons for it.
That could be interesting, if only in a humorous way.
mojo – I suspect the reason will be “I won”.
Hey, did you folks hear that Kwame is living in a million dollar mansion in Texas? Apparently he didn’t fall very hard.
Has anyone seen this plan by Dear Leader – “US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive“? Is that what he meant by shovel ready stimulus projects?
SW, I’ve long long kept a secret hope that every city planner gets to meet up with Rhamnousia in a dark dank alley one day. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any evidence that if such a meeting has taken place that word of the transpiring events has gotten out to the wider community.
sdferr,
Retribution towards city planners is a fine thought, but as you say, I’ve yet to hear of it. Lord knows there are enough British examples of ghastly town planning. But have you heard anything of this story in the US media? “Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.” Strikes me if a Republican administration proposed such a thing, comparisons with Israeli house demolitions and “ethnic cleansing” would be made. Social engineering under Dear Leader, however, well, just another day in Obamalot.
No I hadn’t heard of it until your linked post just now, SW. It comes as no surprise to me at all though. This is what our betters were born to do, after all. And god knows, no Republican administration will ever be confused for “our betters”.
I cannot get that link to work. What cities would they bulldoze?
It starts with this JD:
Oops – feel free to delete me. Sorry.
Flint?
Can we start with Mikey Moore’s ancestral tenement?
What, no Cleveland? Cleveland sucks so badly, they don’t even want to demo it? And to think I talked my wife into moving to this shithole. I was a lifer, but she was a Georgian, who was transplanted to Chicago. Kill me now.
I thought the same thing. Too bad that KJ is a typical dem mayor, though. He was a helluva player.
The article says 50 US cities are targeted, OI, so maybe Cleveland will get that American Idol makeover.
Cleveland has to be scheduled for a makeover. Have they not seen the place? BTW, I’m not agreeing or advocating for this dumbshit idea. Not at all.
Sacramento will elect nothing else.
Ever. Or until the state capital is finally moved to Tijuana and all those politicians and bureaucrats and clueless interns leave town for good.
Gee who was the last guy who thought we had to wipe out areas and force everyone into smaller urban areas… hmm yeah that was Pol Pot. Oh and that and Ceausescu guy. Urban renewal, you know. Sort of the opposite of Maoist rural Socialism.
I’ve long thought that City Planning should be illegal. It certainly seems to me from the horrible traffic flow and idiot ramp and entry designs and cut-off neighborhoods around here that they can’t manage traffic, and they don’t seem to be doing any better in any other areas.
Note that the author described something they thought was impossible as fighting against gravity (flight is, after all, impossible), and decried as “sad” the belief in the rather obvious contention that a community’s growth is success and it’s shrinking is failure. The City Planning cult does seem to want civilization to be in decline.
Also, for some reason, they expect people to spend most of their spare time sitting on patios watching plants. Not sure I get that one.
I think that when someone’s career path starts with the contention that they’re going to be deciding how everyone else lives their lives, nothing good comes from it.
That being said, yes, Obama is breaking the law, yes, it’s to hide corruption, and no, people who get their news from the MSM won’t understand this.
Well, it’s easier to plan when you don’t have to build anything new. ‘Cause building new stuff requires… planning.
OT, but Obama’s health care Czar appointee smells like lobbyist/conflict of interest all the way…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23688.html
Enjoy