Obama Fires AmeriCorps IG; Michelle Involved? (Updated)
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Washington Examiner has background on Obama’s sudden firing of Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General (IG) of the the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS):
“The White House is going ahead with firing Walpin. The firing apparently stems from Walpin’s investigation of a non-profit group, St. HOPE Academy, run by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California (and a big Obama supporter). “[Walpin] found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car,” the AP reports. In April, the U.S. attorney declined to file any criminal charges in the matter and criticized Walpin’s investigation. But at the same time Johnson and St. HOPE agreed to repay about half of the $850,000 it had received from AmeriCorps.
Bottom line: The AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.”
Youth Today reports some decisions were made by Michelle Obama:
“Some decisions about CNCS are being made by First Lady Michelle Obama, according to service advocates (who asked not to be named). Last week, Mrs. Obama announced that her chief of staff, Jackie Norris, would move to CNCS as a senior adviser. Officials said yesterday that Norris is scheduled to arrive on June 22.”
Hope and Change, folks.
— DRJ
UPDATE 6/13/2009: Byron York has more.
After all, it was Walpin who at a Mitt Romney fundraiser back in 2005 joked that the Democratic Party were like “modern-day KKK,” as in the “Kennedy Kerry Klan.” He’s also a member of the ultraconservative Federalist Society.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=992492
No reason to fire this nut job at all.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:22 amDid not Teh One co-sponsor legislation designed to protect IG’s from this kind of political action? IIRC, the bill required that the President would have to notify Congress in writing 30 days prior to any action being taken. Given the reports that Teh One’s staff reportedly tried to force him to resign within the hour or be fired, it appears that they do not pay attention to their own legislation, or, conveniently ignore it.
JD (321903) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:24 amCertain members of Congress called the Republican Party an American Taliban, and managed to avoid getting fired. Unless you can show that his words somehow interfered wtih the performance of his duties, I’m afraid you have no leg to stand on.
Is it your contention that belonging to the Federalist Society is a firable offense?
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:30 amMichelle has always impressed me as the member of that pair with the highest testosterone level.
Mike K (2cf494) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:31 amC’mon, Steverino. You’ll just get told that “…that’s different…”
Why, we had a person on another thread stating that another poster was jealous of Letterman’s salary…while that same first person was certainly carrying on about Limbaugh, who is much richer.
But that’s different.
Eric Blair (5a226d) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:32 amAnyone who voted for a Chicago machine politician and didn’t expect Chicago machine political corruption is naive. It is now a race to see who can steal the most from the trillions to be wasted by the Obama regime.
Ken Hahn (29cf21) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:37 amThat link of poon’s didn’t do much to help his case. Here’s a quote poon conveniently overlooked:
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:56 amYou can always tell when Michelle is lying, like when she said she was going to be just a mom. She has that signsong tone and she looks away. I always thought, yeah, what are you really going to be doing? Now we know: She’s head of building the base and making sure everybody gets the money that the spendulus sets aside for them.
Patricia (2183bb) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:07 am“This is a Bush appointee who wants to put an exclamation point on his career,” said Steve Maviglio, political consultant and Johnson spokesperson.
Bush appointees are always guilty, according to troll “logic”. It’s a lot easier than actually thinking.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R., (4623d1) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:20 amKeep trying Steverino.
It’s obvious Gerald Walpin is a hyper-partisan right-wing nut job.
But, please continue complaining about the attorneys Obama chooses to fire.
More and more, right-wing blogs are filling up with reheated Daily Kos posts.
All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:24 amThe Federalist Society is not just conservative, it is ultraconservative. Prolly going to go shoot someone, or something like that, huh poon?
Brother Bradley – They are not capable of admitting when their side does something wrong. Period.
JD (321903) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:25 amIt’s not at all obvious, puke. All you’ve got is Walpin cracking a joke about the Democratic Party. That’s hardly “hyper-partisan” or a “right-wing nut job”, unless you want to concede that anyone who cracks a joke about the Republican Party is a “hyper-partisan left-wing nut job”. And you didn’t answer my question about what was a firable offense.
First, please show where I have complained about the attorneys Obama fires. Second, this is rich coming from the side that screamed bloody murder when Bush fired some attorneys.
Finally, if Walpin is — as you claim — a nut job, why did St. Hope agree to return $400,000 of AmeriCorps money? And how about answering some of the points raised in the article you cited?
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:34 amTeh One cared about protecting IG’s from politics before he didn’t.
JD (55d896) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:47 amThe smartest thing poon has ever written on this blog is that quote from Battlestar Galactica.
Karl (133ddc) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:01 pmTesting
Gerald A (adb85a) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:03 pmIt’s not at all obvious, puke. All you’ve got is Walpin cracking a joke about the Democratic Party.
Careful Steverino, your phony “reasonable man” persona is starting to crack.
And further irony, all Letterman did was crack a joke, yet that sure got your panties in a bunch, didn’t it?
Consistency isn’t your strong suit.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:24 pmHmmm…a joke about the Democratic Party vs. a joke about a baseball player impregnating a 14 year old girl. Yeah, that’s quite a moral equivalence there.
So, what’s your proof that Waldin is a “hyper-partisan right-wing nut job”?
When will you admit that you were wrong when you said Willow Palin wasn’t at the game with her mother?
When will you address the legitimate issues in the post: that St. Hope was misusing public money?
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:46 pmCare to take bets on that, Steverino? It will just moveon to its next lie.
JD (b2da6e) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:50 pmLike Saddam Hussein used to say, when he was in charge of Iraq, “Elections have consequences.”
cboldt (3d73dd) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:51 pmSteverino,
Everybody knows Letterman was joking about Bristol, not the 14 year old.
Your feigned outrage based on a bad-faith interpretation of his joke only weakens your case.
When will you admit that you were wrong when you said Willow Palin wasn’t at the game with her mother?
When you come up with some proof, Little Stevie.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 12:59 pmWhen will poon – face come up with some actual evidence that it once worked for the following:
– CBS
– CIA (aka “Hit Squads”)
– clandestine, super – secret agent overseas assassination squads
– Enron
– NASA
How ’bout it, poon – face? Let’s see some actual evidence of so many of your past claims of employment – right now, all of it. C’mon, don’t be so shy and run away like a little girl every time you’ve been asked for this evidence.
Or are you in actuality a little girl? If so, then nevermind.
Dmac (f7884d) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:05 pmpoon:
Not true. I didn’t know that and it’s a pathetic defense if it’s true. What I might believe is that Letterman and/or one of his writers wrote the joke without having any idea which Palin daughter was with her, but they did not care since the joke was just too good to pass up.
DRJ (180b67) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:15 pmExcept it was Willow who was at the game, and not Bristol. YOu claimed Willow was not at the game, and you were wrong. You have yet to admit to your mistake.
I already showed you evidence that Willow was at the game. Sarah Palin was at the game with Willow, as this link shows:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/06/10/2009-06-10_sarah_palin_attacks_david_letterman_over_sexuallyperverted_joke_on_late_night.html
Here’s a quote from the link:
You have showed no evidence to the contrary. Purely on preponderance of evidence, I’d win.
JD:
I’m going to try to keep puke lying about this one issue so the little a-hole doesn’t have enough time to spread other lies.
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:18 pmWhoops, my comment at #21 was in the wrong thread – my bad.
Dmac (f7884d) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:20 pmPoon: the evasive 12 year old, simply incapable of responding to any substantive argument, unless by invective, just another leftist who despises all misogynist sexist jokes except those about female conservatives and their families.
But it’s always nice to read your comments, how else would we know what passes for thought and argument on the loony left these days, because I sure am not going to dirty my eyes by reading HuffPo et al.
Please, do explain in what twisted leftoid way, “Kennedy Kerry Klan” is equivalent (or even close to) to a “joke” about the rape of a 14 year old. I am a bit of an amateur logician and I look forward to finding as many of the logical fallacies as possible in whatever you post. I’m not sure your comment so far on the jokes is “Incomplete comparison” or “Inconsistent comparison”, but it’s for sure complete nonsense.
Fred Z (8b55a0) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:21 pmThe joke was about the Palin daughter at the game, which happens to have been Willow, poon. With Bristol a continent away, that would have made it hard for A-rod to impregnate her during the 7th inning stretch.
Told ya’, Steverino. It lies, and it is a liar.
JD (c1b316) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:21 pmComment by JD — 6/12/2009 @ 1:21 pm
Well, “everyone” knows that A-Rod has an exceptional “stretch”.
AD - RtR/OS! (1add59) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:29 pmJD,
Jeff Goldstein has warned us about fanatics trying to twist people’s words so they can be used as weapons.
Letterman is in charge of what his joke means…he said it was about Bristol.
Any hater who attempts to interpret it as being about Willow is, as Jeff says, a fanatic.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:33 pmMaybe the joke was racist instead of sexist, intimating that A-Rod, had a magic, well, A-Rod, that can impregnate white girls from 5000 miles away? Just a thought.
This story reeks of politics as usual, not so much about the hope and change.
carlitos (7d2345) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:33 pmWhat really reeks is the stench from the troll infestation.
AD - RtR/OS! (1add59) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:36 pmSome Internet-Lysol would come in handy.
I wonder how well the defense, “But I really thought she was 18” would work in court.
Aside from that, Letterman’s defense boils down to, “I didn’t mean to insult your 14 year-old daughter, I meant to insult your 18 year-old daughter.” Quite a manly thing to do, isn’t it?
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:37 pm“Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.”
Well, duh. His job is to ccover-up and expedite theft by the Dems, not expose it.
Dave Surls (388559) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:39 pmLetterman is in charge of what his joke means…he said it was about Bristol.
Any hater who attempts to interpret it as being about Willow is, as Jeff says, a fanatic.
You still claiming Willow wasn’t there or is that over with now?
Gerald A (adb85a) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:44 pmHow long before Walpin gets “Spitzered”?
daddy ate my eyes (0a8329) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:46 pmGerald, poon will never admit that he was wrong, he will simply avoid the subject from now on.
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:47 pmJeff Goldstein has warned us about
Ah, right on cue, another attempt to deflect – when cornered, it always brings in irrelevant subjects.
Dmac (f7884d) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:53 pmI am so tempted to tell a joke, and be in charge of what it means, but it would be really, really mean to do so.
carlitos (7d2345) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:53 pmYou still claiming Willow wasn’t there
I’ll be happy to stop claiming Willow wasn’t at the game once someone links to a picture of her there or a report from a reputable news agency that says she was there.
Even still, all rational Americans know Letterman was referencing the Palin offspring that made queeny a gramma.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:53 pmLOL
carlitos (7d2345) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:56 pmLetterman stopped being funny when his show went from days to nights.
daddy ate my eyes (0a8329) — 6/12/2009 @ 1:57 pmWillow Palin wasn’t there. Dick Cheney made a hologram of her and beamed it into Yankee Stadium, just like the “jets” on 9/11. Dick Cheney hates him some New York.
carlitos (7d2345) — 6/12/2009 @ 2:05 pmThat sound you just heard was the goalposts being moved.
Are you claiming the article in the NY Daily News was incorrect? On what basis? I’ll refer you to the Genesis Fallacy if you aren’t careful…
Steverino (69d941) — 6/12/2009 @ 2:05 pmPoon tells lies, and poon is a liar. It cannot help itself. It is what it does.
JD (bc5db9) — 6/12/2009 @ 5:38 pmpoon’s incompetence continues to expand.
Meanwhile, Obama’s crookedness is more manifest.
Its almost like they are linked in synchronicity …
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/12/2009 @ 7:00 pmWow, that’s neutron-star grade density there, folks.
Face it, poon (or is it alphie?), there’s no good way to spin this.
Techie (482700) — 6/12/2009 @ 8:32 pmThe AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.”
Is such behavior really surprising or unexpected? After all, we put the type of person into the White House who has the characteristics and qualities of one of those leaders we’d see running a Banana-Republic country or a flaky, corrupt city government like in Philly, Detroit or Oakland.
Mark (411533) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:00 pmLittle Steverino doesn’t know how to post a link here.
Could one of you geniuses give the tyke a few pointers?
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:18 pmActually, I can post a link just fine.
See?
When I am at work, the computer I use doesn’t respond well to the link dialog Patterico uses here, and I’m generally too lazy to type all the html tags.
You have yet to respond to my question: Is it your position that the article in the New York Daily News is incorrect? If so, on what basis?
Stop dodging the question, stop the ad hominem attacks on me, just answer it.
Steverino (1b3695) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:23 pmFrom your link stevie:
By the way nice pic of her and her husband at a ball game without their child with Down Syndrome…who is watching him her teenage daughter?
That’s the “proof” you’ve been droning on about?
Point/laugh.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:25 pmPoon – that is a lie and you are a liar. A vile filty disgusting liar. But you are invested in this idea that Willow did not go to the game, and the pot odds must tell you to stick with that untenable position. That pic does not prove what you claim it does, and you continue to beclown yourself.
JD (579091) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:35 pmThat pic does not prove what you claim it does
Nor does it prove that Willow was at the game, does it, son?
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:43 pmThat was not in the article, you lying sack of shit.
You STILL haven’t answered my question about THIS link:
Which proves you were wrong about Willow
From that link:
For the last time: do you still insist that Willow was not at the game? Do you have any evidence to support that claim?
If not, then admit you were wrong and shut your pie hole about it.
Steverino (1b3695) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:51 pmI am not your son, you pr*ck. You are not honorable enough to even shine my father’s shoes.
You are the one that claims, and the only person claiming it. I might add, that Willow was not there. Your claim, your burden of proof. You can start by showing how and why all of the media reports are wrong.
But you cannot, so you will not.
JD (579091) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:55 pmBut Steverino was flapping about having “proved” that Willow was at the game, son.
Burden to the braggart.
Got anything else Stevie?
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 10:57 pmLie, liar. That is what you are, and what you do.
Again, I am not your son, and you insult my father referring to me in such a manner. Please refrain from doing so any further.
JD (579091) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:00 pmGot anything to counter me, dickface?
YOU are the one who said Willow was not at the game. I’ve provided evidence that says she was. It’s now up to you to refute my evidence. If you have no refutation of my evidence, then I have met my burden of proof.
BTW, if Willow really wasn’t at the game, don’t you think someone who sat by her…say, Rudy Giuliani…would have said something about it by now?
Steverino (1b3695) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:02 pmWho gives a poon what poon believes or says? It’s a poon. Around here, we scoop poon up into plastic bags, when our dogs drop it. In other places, poon just gets biodegraded, hosed away, dries up and blows away ….
nk (38bcfb) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:14 pmI’ve provided evidence that says she was.
Maybe you could point out to us exactly where your “evidence” is, Stevie?
Willow isn’t in the picture and she’s not mentioned in the text of the article you linked to.
And watch your language…your facade is starting to slip.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:18 pmLA Times blog article mentioning Willow was the only Palin daughter at the game:
Link
NBC article saying Willow was the Palin daughter at the game:
Link
NY Daily News article (already linked by Steverino above) confirming that Willow was the only Palin daughter at the game:
Link
poon,
no one you know (1ebbb1) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:27 pmWhich of those three sources (NBC, LA Times, or NY Daily News) do you not consider a reputable news source?
Now you’re just deliberately dishonest. She certainly is in the text of this link:
NY Daily News article
Here’s the text of the article, from the top:
(emphasis added)
This is the third time I’ve cited that passage and provided that link. Either you don’t know how to read, or you’re being willfully blind.
I don’t feel compelled to watch my language when speaking to someone who has treated me so contemptuously as you have. If you don’t like my language, I invite you to go foul some other blog.
Steverino (1b3695) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:28 pmThat’s better.
I accept your proof.
poon (093c46) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:40 pmThis Chicago Tribune editor also said Willow was there:
DRJ (180b67) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:42 pmComment by poon — 6/12/2009 @ 11:40 pm
Translation: I didn’t bother to read your link before, Steverino, but since you put it in front of my face I have no choice. “Now bring me the head of a pig – and a goblet of something cool and refreshing…Anyone have a fiddle?” (0:00 – 0:45)
no one you know (1ebbb1) — 6/12/2009 @ 11:44 pmAll of that over a fact. It is fundamentally dishonest.
JD (cb9226) — 6/13/2009 @ 6:14 amJD, it is all about Teh Narrative. Facts don’t matter.
Eric Blair (5a226d) — 6/13/2009 @ 6:36 amNotice how poon(alphie) desperately wanted to talk about something other than the attempted IG runaround.
“Look!!! Over there!!! Palins!!!!!!!!111!!”
Voting for the IG protections while a Senator, then doing anything to circumvent them when he’s calling the shots. Typical Obama behavior. All his statements come with expiration dates.
Techie (482700) — 6/13/2009 @ 6:59 am“Hope and Change, folks.”
Personally, I hope we have a change of government ASAP.
Dave Surls (61d018) — 6/13/2009 @ 7:34 amMust. Not. Discuss. Political. Firing. Of. IG.
JD (dab43d) — 6/13/2009 @ 8:45 amThe fired inspector general, Gerald Walpin, has been credited with saving taxpayers millions of dollars by rooting out waste in Americorps, one of the most poorly-run agencies in the federal government, which has lousy tabs on how taxpayer money is spent.
If inspector general Gerald Walpin were really the ultraconservative right-wing nutjob that Poon and the White House claim he is, why did the White House earlier cite Walpin in pushing Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court?
(The White House’s citation of Walpin can be found at CNN’s Political Ticker on June 2.
Americorps is already one of the most poorly-run agencies in the federal government, but it’s now going to have three times as much money to waste as in the past (a bill Obama championed and recently signed will massively increase its budget).
John Dunston (33e46c) — 6/13/2009 @ 5:02 pm[…] federal prosecutor and big-name law firm partner with clients across the political spectrum), is a right-wing renegade (a ridiculous […]
In Cover-Up, Obama Fires Inspector General to Shield Crony and Waste Taxpayer Money | OpenMarket.org (cdb046) — 6/13/2009 @ 7:49 pmSo poon troll, having admitted you were lying when you stated that Willow was not at the game are you now ready to admit that Letterman was joking about the rape and impregnation of a fourteen year old girl? Or are you going to continue to lie?
As to the subject of this post, you can’t have some one investigating Obama’s pals. Soon some one would be looking into who got kick backs from earmarks for Chicago hospitals and which politicians were given houses by felonious slumlords.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 6/15/2009 @ 12:38 amSen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is upset the Obama administration “failed to follow the proper procedure” firing Walpin without congressional notification.
The White House ethics counsel says Walpin was losing focus:
Walpin responds: “I know what I’m saying and what I’m doing and I’m not incoherent.”
As the firing may have broken the law, McCaskill is expected to have more to say later today.
steve (b67c01) — 6/17/2009 @ 9:12 amIf Barcky has lost one of his mouthpieces in McCaskill, maybe this one will have some traction.
JD (50d704) — 6/17/2009 @ 9:19 amI just noticed this post by DRJ, which I think is interesting, if off-topic.
Sounds like the editors don’t mind admitting their biases in the blog at least. That’s progress. Remember, the Trib is the ‘conservative’ Chicago daily with the same ownership as the LA Times.
carlitos (84409d) — 6/17/2009 @ 9:22 amThey are “conservative”, carlitos. At least they are if you use the LA or NY Times as the baseline.
JD (50d704) — 6/17/2009 @ 9:36 amsteve,
I think this is a questionable assertion as suggested by your link to the Claire McCaskill story. But if this really is the standard for service in Washington DC, how does the Obama Administration explain letting Joe Biden continue as VP?
DRJ (180b67) — 6/17/2009 @ 10:39 amThank goodness that getting lost while reading from TOTUS does not qualify as being confuzzled or disoriented.
JD (50d704) — 6/17/2009 @ 10:59 am76 & 77…
AD - RtR/OS! (65f6c2) — 6/17/2009 @ 12:28 pmThis is starting to border on sedition…
To the re-education camps for you, after the mandatory psychiatric evaluation, of course.
tooo much testosterone.the original thread was about walpin’s firing. you BOYS turned it into a nasty yelling match. all of you should have your mouths washed out and put to bed with no supper. personally, i would like to hear more about the 30 day requiremnet for the firing of an ig. while in the military, we believed the ig’s were pretty close to God. they had no agenda, other than making sure the wings and divisions performed to the best of their ability. we all know there is graft in every major charity. people are inately greedy and selfish..that is why there are igs. so you Boys need to back up and cool off and address issues a little more important than a bad joke that was insensitive. whatever our personal beliefs are…we don’t need to become violent. you all lost perspective. oh, should i punch your lights out for the “little girl” comment? please, grow up guys and act like men.
d spence (408bcb) — 6/21/2009 @ 8:54 am