“Madame Speaker and Leader Hoyer, the time has come for you to remove Charles Rangel from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Any further delay will make you little more than willing accomplices to his malfeasance,” Wilson wrote in his letter.

Wilson explained, “Mr. Rangel’s nefarious financial wheeling and dealing has brought disgrace upon himself, his office, our nation, and your House. Time and again, he has been caught red handed violating tax laws and House rules, only to plead a degree of unmitigated ignorance absolutely intolerable for a man in his position.”

The letter cites several transgressions:

1) failure to report over $1 million in outside income and $3 million in business transactions as required by the House,

2) failure to disclose at least $650,000 in assets he had previously failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms,

3) failure to disclose to the IRS or on his financial disclosure forms $75,000 in rental income for a beach villa in the Dominican Republic,

4) violation of state laws by claiming three primary residences and broke municipal laws by maintaining four rent-controlled apartments,

5) violation of House rules by using congressional letterhead to solicit donations for an education center bearing his name at City College of New York, and

6) delinquency in paying his property taxes on two New Jersey parcels and failure to report the sale of a $1.3 million brownstone.

Americans for Limited Government also launched a petition website, RangelOutNow.org, to encourage Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately investigate Rangel’s “repeated violation of public disclosure laws… [and] exactly how Mr. Rangel came into at least $650,000 in undisclosed income, and to audit the extent of his income.”

Wilson also called upon Holder to “prosecute Mr. Rangel to the fullest extent of the law for any and all infractions of the law.”

Rangel is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, but Wilson stated that the committee may be deliberately stalling, writing, “[T]he Ethics Committee — comprised of some of Mr. Rangel’s most ardent apologists — has clearly decided to turn its ‘internal investigation’ into an ‘eternal investigation.’ And justice delayed has long since become justice denied.”

According CBS’ Marcia Kramer, Rangel may have gone as far to “influence” members of the Ethics Committee to look the other way: “CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

The report continues, “Charlie’s ‘angels’ on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.”

In a statement, Wilson compared the stalling that has taken place with Rangel’s investigation with the swiftness that Congressman Joe Wilson had a resolution brought against him for shouting “You lie!” at Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress.Yesterday, the House voted 240-179 in a resolution against Congressman Wilson.

Said Wilson, “Think about it. Joe Wilson screws up, immediately apologizes to the public and Obama and they want to ‘investigate’ him. Meanwhile, Chairman Rangel lies, cheats and hordes millions of dollars we know not where from and nothing happens. This is the face of the leftist in control on Congress—the rack for small infractions for their opponents, a pass for heinous crimes by their allies.”

Attachments:
ALG President Bill Wilson Letter to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, September 16th, 2009.

“The Man Who Knew Too Little,” by Carter Clews, August 31st, 2009.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

###

Yesterday, the Senate voted 83-7 to prohibit ACORN from receiving housing grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Voting no were Senators Roland Burris (D-IL), Robert Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

“The ACORN Housing Corporation has long been pushing the very loose-lending policies that helped destroy the housing industry. And now it has been exposed for working with prostitutes, as well. Yet, these seven Senators have knowingly voted to keep sending taxpayer money to a highly corrupt organization of pushers and pimps,” said Wilson.

“The constituents of these seven unconscionable Senators need to know that despite ACORN’s clear track record of bad lending practices, the ‘Sordid Seven’ have chosen to look the other way,” Wilson added.

Wilson cited ACORN Housing Corporation’s troubled history in giving out cheap mortgages as playing a key role in weakening credit standards. “ACORN repeatedly gave out 100-percent financed loans, accepted undocumented income, and even gave out loans with no use of credit scores,” Wilson explained.

“The fact is, the Senate did not go far enough,” Wilson added, saying, “ACORN should be immediately defunded of all its federal moneys, no if’s, and’s, or but’s.” Wilson called on members of Congress to support a House Republican proposal to end all federal funding to ACORN reported this morning in the Washington Examiner.

ACORN is currently eligible for over $500 million of an “affordable housing fund” created under the $300 billion Foreclosure Prevention Act passed this past summer. According to the Consumer Rights League, ACORN receives some 40 percent of its funding from taxpayers annually. This fiscal year it has received $1.6 million received thus far for housing services.

ACORN was also made eligible for more than $3 billion under the $787 billion “stimulus” spending bill, and $5.5 billion from the 2010 budget. Since 1994, ACORN has received at least $53 million from American taxpayers, according to the Washington Examiner.

Yesterday’s vote in the Senate followed the highly publicized disclosure of undercover videos revealing operations offering assistance to underaged prostitutes exclusively reported by Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government news portal. On the videos, ACORN workers were shown giving advice on how to evade taxes, set up a brothel, and even use minors as prostitutes.

The revelations have already led to the U.S. Census revoking its partnership agreement with ACORN in the official 2010 Census count, as ALG News previously reported.

In addition to its problems with housing funds and offering assistance to prostitutes, ACORN is under investigation for voter registration fraud in several swing states, including Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Missouri, and has a long history of such fraud in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. Americans for Limited government last year released a comprehensive executive summary of its activities.

“These seven Senators, who I’m now calling the ‘Sordid Seven,’ ought to be held to account, and Americans for Limited Government promises to remind their constituents often of their acting as bagmen for ACORN,” Wilson concluded.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

###

The videos were exclusively reported by Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government news portal. Although the Census Bureau has said that the revelations at regional ACORN offices was not “decisive,” in a letter dated September 11th, 2009, Census Director Robert Groves wrote, “recent events concerning several local offices of ACORN have added to the worsening negative perceptions of ACORN and its affiliation with our partnership efforts.”

The Census revealed in its letter, which terminated its partnership with ACORN, that the partnership was harming the mission of the Census. “Over the last several months, through ongoing communication with our regional offices, it is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with 2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 Census efforts.”

The letter continued, “Unfortunately, we no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your many local offices. For the reasons stated, we therefore have decided to terminate the partnership.”

Commenting on the Cenus Bureau letter, Wilson said, “To put it bluntly, the real problem with ACORN is not concern in the general public. It’s the fact that it has been staging voter registration fraud nationwide for years and has no business counting the population on an official basis.” Wilson pointed to investigations in several swing states, including Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Missouri, and has a long history of such fraud in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Mexico.

“The real problem with the Census is that it enlisted ACORN’s aid in the first place for the 2010 Census count knowing full well its terrible track record. And now, only because of overwhelming public pressure has it finally done the right thing,” Wilson added.

“Nonetheless, this is a start,” said Wilson, “and the next step is to stop sending taxpayer money to ACORN and its housing affiliates, including the ACORN Housing Corporation.” Wilson called for an immediate freeze in the disbursement of federal funds to ACORN.

“There is positively no reason that ACORN should be stealing money from taxpayers to carry on these shady activities, including voter registration fraud, unethical lending, and now helping prostitutes evade criminal detection by police,” Wilson added.

ACORN is currently eligible for over $500 million of an “affordable housing fund” created under the $300 billion Foreclosure Prevention Act passed this past summer. According to the Consumer Rights League, ACORN receives some 40 percent of its funding from taxpayers annually. This fiscal year it has received $1.6 million received thus far for housing services.

ACORN was also made eligible for more than $3 billion under the $787 billion “stimulus” spending bill, and $5.5 billion from the 2010 budget. Since 1994, ACORN has received at least $53 million from American taxpayers, according to the Washington Examiner.

“The ACORN Housing Corporation has been one of the principal backers of the irresponsible loose-lending policies including the Community Reinvestment Act, and has a history of strong-arming banks into handing out high-risk loans to low-income recipients, and yet receives money year after year with no accountability for its past misdeeds.”

Wilson cited ACORN Housing Corporation’s troubled history in giving out cheap mortgages as playing a role in weakening credit standards. “ACORN gave out loans without using credit scores, accepted undocumented income, and even gave out 100-percent financed loans,” Wilson explained.

Wilson concluded, “Congress has repeatedly passed up on opportunities to hold ACORN accountable and make it ineligible for funding. Instead, it has joined the criminal enterprise and knowingly served as its ‘bagman’ with taxpayer dollars. This has to end now!”

###

“Despite the extensive revelations of Cass Sunstein’s extreme views on animal rights, hunting, and scientific testing of animals, the Senate has chosen to simply take Mr. Sunstein’s word for it that he will not issue regulations that match his own views,” Sunstein said.

“Meanwhile, there has been no confirmation from the Obama Administration that it will not direct Mr. Sunstein to issue regulations that would harm cattle production, hunting, and the safe testing of drugs and products,” Wilson added. “Senators are now going to have to explain to their constituents just why they are throwing hunters, cattlemen, and consumers in their home states under the bus.”

In April, Barack Obama nominated Cass Sunstein to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget. This post is also known as the “Regulatory Czar,” since all major regulatory actions by the federal government are subject to review by this office.

In August, Senate Republicans had blocked a unanimous consent resolution to approve Sunstein without any roll call that had been attempted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Those who forced Reid to subject Sunstein to a roll call deserve recognition,” said Wilson, “because at least the American people know that Senators voting ‘yes’ had no problem with Sunstein’s radical views.”

Today, the Senate voted 63-35 to pave the way for a final vote on Sunstein later this week that Wilson called “a critical vote,” urging the Senate to reject the nomination.

In a speech at Harvard in 2007, Sunstein told an audience, “We ought to ban hunting, I suggest, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.”

Sunstein favors granting legal rights to animals. In 2002 he wrote in “The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,” “We could even grant animals a right to bring suit without insisting that animals are persons, or that they are not property.”

Sunstein also supported “further regulation” against hunting, animal testing and farming. “We should focus attention not only on the ‘enforcement gap,’ but on the areas where current law offers little or no protection. In short, the law should impose further regulation on hunting, scientific experiments, entertainment, and (above all) farming to ensure against unnecessary animal suffering.”

In a letter to farm bureaus nationwide sent in August, Americans for Limited Government alerted farmers and cattlemen of Sunstein’s views on animal rights. Days later, the American Farm Bureau announced their endorsement of Sunstein.

“The regulatory czar is an extremely powerful position, and if his views become standing regulation, the cattle industry in America could be destroyed, unsafe products could on their way to markets, and forests overpopulated with animals that can no longer be hunted who will starve instead,” Wilson said.

“Every senator who voted to end the filibuster on Sunstein has necessarily associated him or herself with his extremist designs. This is now a radical Senate. Every American wants to have the right to choose what to eat and purchase at the grocery store or at the farm stand, and the vote in favor of Sunstein was a vote against that right,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:
Bill Wilson Letter to Farm Bureaus Nationwide, August 27th, 2009

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

#  #  #

The poster, by award-winning cartoonist William Warren, is captioned “How Washington Politicians See the World.” It shows an overblown view of Washington, with the Capitol, the White House, and various government buildings dominating the foreground. In the far distance, only inches wide is the rest of the United States peopled by “Angry Mobs,” “Uninformed Masses,” and “Un-American Malcontents.”

“The poster is clearly a take-off on the old New Yorker cover ‘How New Yorkers See the World,’” said cartoonist Warren. “But in this case, its message is far more accurate, and ominous.”

Warren pointed out that each of the labels affixed to the American people is drawn from an actual description by members of Congress.

“The truth is,” Warren said, “I had to soften it some. ‘UnAmerican,’ of course, came from Pelosi and Hoyer, and ‘uninformed’ is how many of the politicians described those who have protested the Obama health care takeover. But, I purposely refrained from using Harry Reid’s depiction of Americans as ‘evilmongers,’ or Rep. Baird’s labeling them ‘brownshirts.’”

ALG president Bill Wilson wasn’t as sparing of the politicians’ feelings in his comments on the poster delivery.

“We’re shoving their own attitude right in their faces,” said Wilson. “In the long history of this country, we have never had a gang of career politicians so outrageously out of touch with the American people as we have in Washington today. They have decided they are a world unto themselves – and we’re telling them they’re not.”

Throughout the country, Americans for Limited Government has taken the lead in helping grassroots leaders organize protests against the Obama health care plan and other incidents of what it terms “Big Government power grabs.” The poster is being offered to the organization’s 400,000 members nationwide.

“The problem the politicians have is that the poster doesn’t merely reflect how they see the American people,” Wilson said, “it also reflects how the American people see the politicians.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Should any members of the media wish to accompany ALG staffers as they deliver the “Washington World View” posters to the members of Congress, they can meet the delivery team at:

When: September 10th, 1PM
Where: 300 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

“What sets this tour apart is that we’ll be on the ground organizing the grassroots, engaging them in hands-on training, and raising the clarion call that now is the time to take back America,” said ALG New Media Coordinator and Director of NetRightNation.com Adam Bitely.

Bitely will be handling the tour’s new media outreach. “With Congress about to come back into session, now is a critical time for the grassroots to be organized. A lot of the work that was done in August has been in preparation for the upcoming legislative session, where the Obama health care takeover will be voted on in both houses and cap-and-tax in Senate,” said Bitely.

“Our message to middle America is: the time has come to take back our country—one community at a time. Here’s the message for Barack Obama: ‘We have just begun to fight,” Bitely added.

The American Liberty Tour is a collaborative project of the American Liberty Alliance, American Majority, Americans for Limited Government and the Sam Adams Alliance.

Bitely can also be followed during the tour. on Twitter.com under the tag line, www.twitter.com/adambitely or @adambitely.

“The American Liberty Tour will be providing daily updates to bloggers across the country about our stops, the message that is being delivered to the grassroots, and what they can begin doing to help take back America.”

“On the tour, we’ll be training and encouraging individuals to become active in their communities, in the streets, online, politically and in government, and to be communicating directly and constantly to their representatives. It’s now or never to build a viable political movement,” Bitely said.

Bitely said “change,” a common theme in the 2008 presidential election, “is antagonistic to Washington. It comes from without, is dependent on the genuine outrage of the American people, and is what sets the agenda in Washington. Without individual Americans becoming politically organized, however, the outrage is easily ignored by politicians.”

Americans for Limited Government renewed his call for Americans nationwide to join the tour, which will feature Adam Bitely (NetRight Nation), Ned Ryun (American Majority), Eric Odom (TaxDayTeaParty.com), Ken Marrero (American Liberty Alliance), Erick Erickson (RedState), “Joe the Plumber”, Lloyd Marcus (The Tea Party Song), and many others.

“Only if the American people pose a viable political threat to the establishment in Washington will they be fearful of losing their jobs. That’s the only time they’ll act in the interests of their constituents,” Bitely said.

“This is your country. That’s the message we’ll be taking to Sacramento, Tallahassee, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Change will come from individual Americans in their communities who are determined to save their nation from a government that is destroying the country,” Bitely concluded.

Media Availability:
For radio and television interviews, please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

For beat reporters, please contact Robert Romano at (239)207-4347 or at Robert@getliberty.org for more information on the tour or to set up an interview.

Editors and columnists, please contact Justin Williams at (703)383-0880 or at justin@getliberty.org for more information on the tour or to set up an interview.

###

Wilson called upon Americans nationwide to join the tour, and “to begin organizing to take back America from the Washington power elite through the establishment of a viable political movement in the defense of liberty, limited government, and free markets.”

“Change will not come from Washington. Change will come in Sacramento, Tallahassee, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Change will come from individual Americans in their communities who are determined to save their nation from an unsustainable, unaccountable Leviathan in Washington,” Wilson declared.

“Rallies are great for venting anger. But anger is not enough. The American people’s best defense is action in their local communities,” Wilson added. “So, the American Liberty Tour will be traveling across the country providing training to individuals. The hard left has been doing this kind of ‘community organizing’ for decades. Now, it’s time to give them a dose of their own medicine.”

The American Liberty Tour is a collaborative project of the American Liberty Alliance, American Majority, Americans for Limited Government and the Sam Adams Alliance, and will feature Adam Bitely (NetRight Nation), Ned Ryun (American Majority), Eric Odom (TaxDayTeaParty.com), Ken Marrero (American Liberty Alliance), Erick Erickson (RedState), “Joe the Plumber”, Lloyd Marcus (The Tea Party Song), and many others.

ALG New Media Coordinator and Director of NetRightNation.com, Adam Bitely, said that the American Liberty Tour “will provide a good venue for people to come out and learn how to become active in their communities, whether it be online, in their local political party organizations and governments, in the streets, and in direct communication with their representatives—all to organize against these government takeovers of every aspect of our lives. Citizen activism is now more critical than ever.”

Bitely said action was the only way the American people could preserve their liberty. “Concerned citizens nationwide must get involved, because right now we have an intrusive, oversized government. But now it’s on the defense, attempting to mask its actions as being representative of the will of the majority of Americans, when it is not,” Bitely added. “It is clear to us that the majority does not like the course and direction that the nation is headed in.”

According to Rasmussen Reports, 60 percent of voters say the country is headed in the wrong direction, with only 34 percent saying it is headed in the right direction.

Eric Odom, co-founder of TaxDayTeaParty.com and President of the American Liberty Alliance said that the tour was designed to bring like-minded citizens together “who are a sick and tired of Washington running the country into the ground, and who are looking for a way to fight back.”

President of American Majority Ned Ryun said, “It is the politicians and bureaucrats who have brought this nation to the brink of financial ruin, devastated our schools, eroded our liberty and property rights, and have rapidly nationalized more and more of the economy. And it is American people who solely have the power to stop this alarming trend.  What we want is to empower them to be effective in making those changes that need to be made.”

Wilson agreed, “No national group will save this country. Active citizens in their hometowns will save this country.”

Odom said the numbers were not surprising. “We’re talking about a government that through interventionism has wrecked the economy, and now in response has engaged in the most rapid increase of spending in human history. The American people are concerned that the nation is headed off a precipice.”

Ryun agreed, and said, “Washington thinks that it can centrally plan the economy, health care, education, our savings and spending habits, our retirements—in short, our lives. But it cannot, and the American people realize this, and they are wondering what they can do to stop an unsustainable, out-of-control government.”

Wilson said the tour would send a clear message to Washington, “that the politicians have lost the consent of the governed. That it is not the government that rules the people, but that it is the people who run the government.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

# # #

“This is the beginning of the end of the time-honored filibuster, and is Reid’s attempt to solidify one-party dictatorial rule in the U.S. Senate for the first time in American history,” Wilson said, adding, “And it’s all designed to stage a complete takeover of the nation’s entire health care system by the slimmest of margins.”

In recent weeks, Reid has threatened to use reconciliation, whereby only 51 votes would be needed to pass the government-run health care proposal.

Wilson credited protesters and concerned citizen efforts nationwide who have called, emailed, wrote letters to, and visited with Congressmen at their offices and town hall meetings for persuading elected officials to vote against the bill. He said public opposition to the bill “has created an insurmountable obstacle to passage as long as Reid doesn’t try to pervert the system.”

According to Rasmussen Reports, 53 percent of voters now oppose the bill. And Barack Obama’s public disapproval has hit the 50 percent mark for the first time in his term.

“Harry Reid doesn’t have the 60 votes needed in the Senate for cloture on the so-called ‘public option,’ and the American people deserve all of the credit,” Wilson said, adding, “And so now, in a desperate gamble, he plans on using the non-germane reconciliation process—which is supposed to be reserved for budget measures—to pass ObamaCare with a simple majority in spite of public backlash to the plan,” Wilson said.

On FOX News Sunday in August, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) conceded, “The fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the United States Senate for a public option. There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort.”

Wilson called the plan “the single largest expansion of entitlement spending since the 1960’s,” pointing to a report by Kaiser Health News stating that the legislation would cost $1.5 trillion over ten years. “It will cost even more than that once private health options begin diminishing and the public is forced into the socialized system, and Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama know it,” Wilson said.

Wilson called it a “tossup” as to whether Reid will actually pursue what some analysts call the “nuclear option,” but said “it looks more likely than not,” pointing to recent statements by Reid’s office.

According to Reid spokesman Jim Manley, “The White House and the Senate Democratic leadership still prefer a bipartisan bill. However, patience is not unlimited, and we are determined to get something done this year by any legislative means necessary.”

“This is just one more dictatorial move by Harry Reid, and it shows just how much disdain Congress has for their own constituents,” Wilson said. “First congressional leadership calls opponents to the bill ‘un-American’ and compares them to Timothy McVeigh in order to intimidate opposition. And now, having failed to silence the American people, they are simply going to try to impose their tyrannical will upon them.”

In the pages of USA Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote, “These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.”

Congressman Steve Kagen (WI-CD8) said they were “uncivilized,” and Congressman Baron Hill (IN-CD9) called them “political terrorists.” Congressman Brian Baird (WA-CD3) called opponents of the legislation “Brown Shirts” and compared them to domestic terrorists, “Some of the rhetoric that we’re hearing is… eerily reminiscent of the kind of things that drove Tim McVeigh to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma.”

Wilson concluded, “Harry Reid’s consideration of eliminating the filibuster would change Congressional tactics from demonizing public opposition to shunning it altogether.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

# # #

“What concerns me and I am sure will concern you is Mr. Sunstein’s extreme positions on animal rights,” Wilson wrote in his letter to the agricultural sector. “If put into law or regulation, these radical stands will destroy agriculture and threaten America’s ability to feed itself much less do any exporting of agricultural products.”

“A vote for Sunstein is a vote against agriculture,” Wilson said in a statement. “If Cass Sunstein had his way, the entire cattle industry could be plunged into a litigation nightmare for years to come.”

On April 20, 2009, Barack Obama nominated Cass Sunstein to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget. This post is also known as the “Regulatory Czar,” since all major regulatory actions by the federal government are subject to review by this office.

Earlier this month, Senate Republicans blocked a unanimous consent resolution to approve Sunstein without any roll call that had been attempted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Now, it will require 60 votes to invoke cloture on the nominee.

Sunstein favors granting legal rights to animals. In 2002 he wrote in “The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer,” “We could even grant animals a right to bring suit without insisting that animals are persons, or that they are not property.”

Sunstein also supported “further regulation” against hunting, animal testing and farming. “We should focus attention not only on the ‘enforcement gap,’ but on the areas where current law offers little or no protection. In short, the law should impose further regulation on hunting, scientific experiments, entertainment, and (above all) farming to ensure against unnecessary animal suffering.”

“This is just the beginning,” Wilson said in a statement. “Cass Sunstein is a litigation menace, and putting him as the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs would give him a position to inflict patently absurd regulations through the entire federal bureaucracy.”

“That means his bizarre worldview would most certainly find its way into countless thousands of regulations,” Wilson added.

“Animal testing, which everyone knows is a critical practice to testing the safety—for humans—of everything from drugs to make up to space exploration has saved countless millions of human lives, but Sunstein would do away with it entirely,” Wilson said.

Wilson also called upon the U.S. Senate to block his nomination, “Every senator voting for Sunstein must necessarily associate him or herself with his extremist designs.”

“Every American who wants to have the right to choose what to eat and purchase at the grocery store or at the farm stand should be greatly alarmed by Barack Obama’s radical appointment of Cass Sunstein,” Wilson concluded.

Attachments:
Bill Wilson Letter to Farm Bureaus Nationwide, August 27th, 2009

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

# # #

On Monday, the Southern District Court of New York ordered that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors comply with Bloomberg News’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to produce the details of some $2 trillion in emergency loans that were made. This includes who received the $2 trillion of loans, the terms under which they were received, and what collateral was taken by the Reserve branches in exchange for the loans.

“The Senate must condition its support for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on compliance with this court ruling,” Wilson said in a statement, adding, “Without transparency in the Federal Reserve, there will be no assurance that any of the root causes of the financial crisis—which the Fed caused—will be addressed.”

District Judge Loretta Preska ordered that the Board must produce the 231 pages of documents within 5 business days. Also, the Board must search for records relevant to the request that constitute “Records of the Board” held by the New York Federal Reserve by September 14th.

Wilson said that Federal Reserve compliance with the court’s decision would “begin to shed some much-needed light on the Fed’s unprecedented moves that threaten to bankrupt the nation.”

Wilson wrote that “Since the financial crisis hit, the Federal Reserve has been engaged in an unprecedented response about which little is known but will most certainly lead to more asset bubbles and inflation,” including $7.76 trillion in bailouts. These efforts included the $2 trillion in undisclosed loans.

In his letter, Wilson wrote, the financial crisis was in large part caused by the Federal Reserve. “Fed policy directly caused the lethal combination of easy money accommodating the spike in housing that artificially inflated demand for housing, the expansion of the securities trade as led primarily by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that was able fuel on the fire, and which in turn led to the derivatives trade run by AIG.”

“None of the policies by the Fed that caused the crisis have been addressed. Unless the Federal Reserve is reined in and its activities made completely transparent, the sorts of financial calamity that plagued the nation in 2008 will most certainly happen again,” Wilson warned in conclusion.

Attachments:
Letter to the U.S. Senate from Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson, August 26th, 2009.

“Backgrounder on Bernanke Reappointment and Record,” Americans for Limited Government, August 2009.

Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.

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