Keep checking back as new episodes premiere, because I'll add them to this playlist.

3/18 Update: Right on cue, Tim Russo (a standard-bearer for typical Cleveland progressives) posts a spittle-flecked screed that misses the points of the Reason video ... and indelibly beclowns its author. Statist hacks like Russo simply cannot admit (or even comprehend) that punitive taxation and suffocating bureaucracy are responsible for Cleveland's sorry decline.

As long as the name "Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now" is in use by an existing business or non-profit organization in Ohio, the Secretary of State's office will also have that information. To run that query, just push this button.

Ain't citizen journalism grand?

11:35 update: Wow. ACORN just agreed to surrender its business license in Ohio as settlement of that RICO lawsuit by the Buckeye Institute. That's good news, but let's be wary. Keep a close eye on what happens with these properties:

379 N. 20th
Lower Level
Columbus, OH 43203

2069 East 36th Street
Cleveland, OH 44115

1025 Central Ave Ste 3
Cincinnati, OH 45202

115 E. Market St.
RM 202
Akron, OH 44308

4945 Profit Way
Dayton, OH 45414

316 North Michigan
Toledo, OH 43624

12:20 Update: Apparently The Buckeye Institute recently split off the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law as an independent organization after the lawsuit was originally filed, so it's the new group that gets the scalp for defeating ACORN.

12:35 Update: Matt Naugle cheers the victory, but cautions everyone to keep an eye open for the same ACORN crooks returning with different front groups.

Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH13) joined Ohio Reps. Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH11) and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH15), as well as Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Kendrick Meek (D-FL) to introduce H.R. 4635--a measure to combat foreclosures. Ohio has been particularly impacted by the foreclosure crisis and projections indicate no signs of change. In Ohio's 13th Congressional District alone, 17,555 homes are projected to be foreclosed upon over the next four years. This legislation will require lenders of Federal loans or guarantees to enter into mediation with homeowners prior to placing the property in foreclosure or a sheriff's sale.

Since anything advocated by Maxine Waters automatically gets my antennae twitching, I went to the bill's text, which contains this key nugget (the emphasis and links are mine):

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, before a qualified mortgagee may initiate a foreclosure proceeding or a sheriff sale, the qualified mortgagee shall conduct, consistent with any applicable State or local requirements, a one-time mediation with the affected mortgagor and a housing counseling agency, at the expense of the qualified mortgagee.

For purposes of this section the term 'housing counseling agency' means a housing counseling agency certified by the Secretary under section 106(e) of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 1701x(e)); or a neighborhood housing services program established by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation under section 606 of the Housing and Community Development Amendments of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 8105);

The parties are forced into mediation (even if it's a slam-dunk case of delinquency by the borrower), and look who foots the entire bill for the mediator's fees: the lender trying to foreclose on the delinquent borrower. When the government keeps forcing a company to incur new costs, the company must eventually pass on those costs to its customers. Otherwise the company will go bankrupt.

If this law passes, it will end up costing you more to get a mortgage. Care to guess which legislators will then wail and gnash their teeth about "predatory lenders screwing the poor" and "fat cat bankers jacking up fees" when those inevitable effects occur? Now, this is par for the course among politicians who have no clue how a free market works. They think the solution to every government-imposed problem is more government regulation and spending. What's unusual is that this isn't the worst part of the bill.

ACORN Housing describes itself as "a non-profit organization that was established to help low-to-moderate-income people become and remain homeowners. But our Housing Counselors are trained and certified by the US dept. of Housing and Urban Development." Is this just a happy accident? With ACORN's favorite son in the White House, does anyone doubt that HUD will eagerly encourage ACORN (or whatever it decides to call itself this week) to get in on the foreclosure mediation gravy train?

So why would Betty Sutton try to harm your ability to get a mortgage, and why would she funnel money to groups like ACORN? Could it have something to do with ACORN's longstanding intimate ties to the Service Employees International Union? Maybe. Both ACORN and Big Labor share hordes of workers and piles of cash for the Democrat Party's get-out-the-vote efforts and for their own corporate shakedown schemes. If cash from ACORN's coffers was to find its way to SEIU, where might it go next? Would anyone be surprised if a politician in the back pocket of Big Labor coincidentally wound up with generous campaign contributions from SEIU and friends? What if that politician suddenly needed money and get-out-the-vote help (*cough* surplus voters *cough*) due to a serious general election challenge (not to mention an astonishing primary challenge)? Would that politician have an incentive to start the slush fund tango?

The House Ethics Committee has now determined that a violation of the ban on corporate funded travel did occur and is still considering other allegations against Mr. Rangel. I think that in order to preserve the public trust, which is of the highest priority, Representative Rangel should, at this point, step aside as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Our nation is facing many challenges and we must put all our energy, without distraction or question, into meeting those challenges.

It's funny how responsive to ethical concerns a politician becomes when her seat is no longer safe.