ACORN

[TheMercenary]

My guess is that most of those who supported ACORN and the Dems push into Congress will do as they have in the past, look the other way and pretend it is a non-issue.

[classicman]

When ACORN hired volunteers to fan out with clipboards and then flooded elections officials with registration forms as Election Day approached, Mr. Potter said he worried it would result in the election system being overwhelmed. That, he said, could have led to the vast use of provisional ballots, or to scenarios where elections officials simply allowed people to vote without having had time to verify that they were officially registered.

Worse still, he said, was that it was later determined that only about one-third of the late registration forms submitted were from legitimate, new voters.

"I want to be clear, I do not have a vendetta against ACORN," Mr. Potter said. His beef, he said, is with a registration process that feels like something "left over from the horse and buggy days."

[TheMercenary]

ACORN quick to collect from feds, but slow to pay taxes
By: David Freddoso
Commentary Staff Writer
09/01/09 9:34 AM EDT
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is perhaps best known for its volunteers' habit of signing up fake voters. This has resulted in numerous state investigations and convictions of ACORN members for voter fraud activities.

But the group is also a tax scofflaw to the tune of more than $1 million, according to documents unearthed by another Louisiana-based non-profit, the Pelican Institute.

Pelican researcher Steve Beatty has come across dozens of outstanding and released tax liens against ACORN and ACORN affiliates, headquartered at two addresses in New Orleans. Although some of the liens have been paid, Beatty found that several are still outstanding, including a $547,000 lien by the federal government against ACORN itself.

ACORN, a non-profit, must pay federal Social Security and Medicare taxes for its employees, as well as state unemployment taxes.

Even as it keeps Uncle Sam waiting for tax payments, ACORN's cup runneth over with federal money. The group and its subsidiaries have received at least $53 million from Uncle Sam since 1989 through a variety of programs.

The Examiner has reported previously that ACORN received more than $5.4 million between 2002 and 2006 from just one federal department, Housing and Urban Development. According to reporting by our own Kevin Mooney, President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package contains an additional pool of $2 billion in housing redevelopment funds and $1 billion more in Community Block Grants for which ACORN and its related organizations can compete by applying to the federal and state governments.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op...-56583277.html

[classicman]

lol - Gov't is so stupid - they are paying acorn when acorn owes them money??? Why don't they just start withholding payments till the debt is cleared? Anyone?

[TheMercenary]

Stop that now. This government is about giving tax payer money away first. They will get to taking hard earned money away later. But not in ACORN's case. The Demoncrats will most likely give them a pass or special exemption.

[classicman]

ACORN turns in Fla. workers on voter fraud charges

MIAMI — Armed with a tip from the grassroots group ACORN about its own workers, authorities on Wednesday began arresting 11 people suspected of falsifying hundreds of voter applications during a registration drive last year.

ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has long been accused by Republican and conservative activists — fed by talk-radio hosts — of fraudulently registering voters. But Miami-Dade prosecutors gave credit to the group for coming forward and ACORN officials said they felt vindicated.

"It shows that we take the integrity of our voter registration work with the utmost seriousness," said ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring. "We turn in people who try to game the system."

Although ACORN is nonpartisan, its registration efforts focus on low-income and minority populations who tend to vote for Democrats; critics contend those efforts frequently bend or break registration rules. At times during the 2008 presidential campaign, people attending rallies for Republican nominee John McCain broke into chants of "No More ACORN!"

Last year, ACORN's national drive produced some 1.3 million voter applications.

ACORN first detected problems in Miami-Dade County in June 2008, according to a letter the group wrote to prosecutors. Investigators eventually determined that 11 canvassers, who were paid between $8 and $10 an hour, were turning in fake registration cards, mostly from the Homestead area.

"This is really about money. These are people who decided not to work," said Ed Griffith, spokesman for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katharine Fernandez Rundle.

The 11 workers each face multiple counts of two felony charges: false swearing in connection with voting and submission of false voter registration information. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The suspects collectively turned in about 1,400 registration cards, of which 888 were later found to be faked. Some contained names of celebrities such as actor Paul Newman, while in other cases the same real voter's name was used on multiple applications. There was no evidence anyone voted who should not have.

The FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement had made five arrests by midday and were looking for the remaining suspects. ACORN officials said the group regularly reports suspected fraud to authorities nationwide but the Miami prosecution marks one of the few times the complaints were taken seriously.

ACORN itself last year was the subject of fraudulent registration complaints in Missouri, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina, among others.

Hmmm - interesting. Perhaps the heat on the group is finally getting to them. Good.

[classicman]

Then again....

One of the defining hallmarks of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, is its propensity for using front organizations to advance its goals. The New Orleans-based nonprofit organization has fully 360 subsidiary and adjunct groups. Lately, one of its affiliates, a misleadingly-named nonprofit entity called New York Agency for Community Affairs, Inc. (NYACA), has been at the center of attention. A recent probe by a consortium of New York City newspapers shows NYACA thus far in this year alone has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from New York state and local taxpayers for political campaign services. In many cases, the lawmakers who earmarked the funds had been locked in close re-election campaigns that used NYACA volunteers. It's no small wonder that NYACA and ACORN overlap to the point of being nearly indistinguishable.

The New York Agency for Community Affairs has received more than small change. A recent investigation by Manhattan Media, a consortium of New York City neighborhood-based newspapers, reveals that NYACA and its ACORN alter ego have made out well. Examining tax forms, lobbying records, campaign finance reports, and contracts, researchers found that in 2009, NYACA has received $175,000 from eight state senators, $240,500 from 10 state assemblymen, and $85,000 from four New York City Council members. For 2006, NYACA reported a little over $1.3 million in revenues, almost all from government. That same year, the group paid out nearly $1.2 million for "contractual services" to ACORN and another $67,000 in direct grants. And in 2007, NYACA received more than $730,000 in government support, sending $711,152 of that to ACORN.

How closely are the two groups linked? For one thing, there's the Internet. Clicking on www.nyaca.org routes the viewer to the website of ACORN Housing Corp., www.acornhousing.org. Even more curiously, the New York Agency for Community Affairs isn't based in New York at all, but at 2609 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70119, the same address as ACORN's local affiliate there. What's more, NYACA's chief organizer is Jon Kest, younger brother of ACORN National Executive Director Steven Kest. Jon Kest also serves as chief organizer for the local ACORN chapter in New Orleans. As ACORN has its national headquarters in New Orleans (1024 Elysian Fields Avenue), it doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to realize NYACA is an ACORN front. But NYACA isn't entirely devoid of a New York connection: One of its employees is Bertha Lewis, head of ACORN's New York City affiliate. And the Kests until a decade ago ran the New York City operation.

[TheMercenary]

Imagine that...

[Undertoad]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,548827,00.html

I've been skipping over the ACORN stuff but this blew my mind. This is political operative work at its finest, but you have to admire what they came back with.

An undercover pair goes into ACORN office in Baltimore. The guy explains that he's a pimp, and the woman is a prostitute, and they need help with dealing with the IRS on their income.

They get all kinds of advice, including how to hide a lot of the income and how to declare that the woman is a "performing artist".

Then they tell the ACORN people that they have 13 underage El Salvadorean children waiting offshore, age 14, and that the kids will be turning tricks. At first the ACORN people say well uh we didn't hear that, and then they go on to give all sorts of advice anyway.

The ACORN women are clearly remarkably stupid, but this one's gonna leave a mark.

[classicman]

<crickets chirping> no comments from the gallery... disappointing but expected.

Lemme try - Must just be ANOTHER rogue employee - the organization would never train or support anything like that. . .

Originally Posted by classicman

<crickets chirping> no comments from the gallery... disappointing but expected.

Lemme try - Must just be ANOTHER rogue employee - the organization would never train or support anything like that. . .

i really dont see the point of responding, but if you insist

The Fox News report with a snip of a video and no context, other than an attempt at politically motivated entrapment? Not worthy of a comment.

The issue in NY....thousands of non-profit organizations have both a 501(c) (3) that lobbies/engages in political advocacy and a 501(c)(4) that conducts research and provides service programs, in the same manner as ACORN. They are nearly always intermingled..working in the same office, with the same administrative offices, etc. And, in many cases, the overhead fees built into the federal/state grants given to the research/program side indirectly subsidize the advocacy side of the organization....a common practice.

I've worked for a few public interest groups myself where that was the case. In one, I was funded by a feferal DoJ grant to conduct research on community policing. As part of my work, I spoke with many local police department officials and in the course of those conversations would discuss how Congress was considering cutting funding for community police grant programs and their support for the funding might be helpful.

No big deal.

The only issue worthy of discussion is the one case in the country (Nevada) where ACORN has been charged with a crime....paying 13 workers an extra $5/shift (that amounts to about 75 cents/hr). The fact that the local guy squealed comes as no surprise...self preservation.

I'll wait for the outcome. If they are guilty, they should pay the penalty.

Somewhat related are the recent revelations from Karl Rove's testimony about the firing of the US attorneys, as well as DoJ internal investigations, that the US Attorney in NM was fired for not pursing charges against ACORN, even though his on-site investigation found no substance to the politically motivated allegations.

What I find most amusing:
I was at a party recently where the topic of ACORN came up (yes, I party with political type people) and a comment was made from someone who works with ACORN that they are not all that concerned with the uproar.

While they would prefer it go away and they know they need better internal oversight of part-time workers, every time a Beck or Limbaugh rants about ACORN, the organization gain more acceptance in the minority community where Beck/Limbaugh/Republicans, not ACORN are perceived as the enemy,

Bottom line for me is that ACORN has been sloppy in its voter registration drives and needs much better management. The rest is political theater.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Redux

What I find most amusing:
I was at a party recently where the topic of ACORN came up and a comment was made from someone who works with ACORN that they are not all that concerned with the uproar.

Not surprising at all. This is the attitude that bothers me.

Originally Posted by Redux

While they would prefer it go away and they know they need better internal oversight of part-time workers, every time a Beck or Limbaugh rants about ACORN, the organization gain more acceptance in the minority community where Beck/Limbaugh/Republicans, not ACORN are perceived as the enemy

No shock there either. Who would you prefer - the side who want to GIVE you stuff for nothing or the side that wants to make you work for it?

Originally Posted by Redux

Bottom line for me is that ACORN has been sloppy in its voter registration drives and needs much better management.

This is what I've been harping about all along - it took a sarcastic <crickets> to get you to admit it??? Sheesh - you must be worn out today. Did you take your vitamins? :P

Originally Posted by classicman

This is what I've been harping about all along - it took a sarcastic <crickets> to get you to admit it??? Sheesh - you must be worn out today. Did you take your vitamins? :P

I recall saying right from the start of the discussion that from my personal experience in a coalition with ACORN years ago, I found them to be overly aggressive to the point of obnoxious, but effective.

I have said repeatedly that they need better oversight of part time workers....but sloppy oversight and bad internal management is not a crime.

I was not the one to compare ACORN to the mafia, an "organization" engaged in drugs, prostitution, gambling, extortion, with little regard for taking a life or two along the way.

And you and I both know that much (not all) of the criticism of ACORN is politically motivated because the more minorities they register to vote, the more likely Democrats will benefit.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Redux

The Fox News report with a snip of a video and no context? Not worthy of a comment.

Orly?

raw transcript

video part 1


video part 2 in which the couple is given advice on how to cover up 13 underage El Salvadorean sex slaves


That was in Baltimore. This morning they've posted video of when they tried the same thing in DC, with the added twist that the boyfriend/pimp is going to use the sex slave funds to run for Congress:

part 1


part 2

If ACORN committed a crime, it should be investigated.

If it was staged in any way, it should be investigated as well.

I would like to see more than a Fox News report and a video by a conservative partisan with an agenda.

Just as I would like to see a DoJ independent counsel investigate the Bush DoJ and WH officials like Rove to determine if there was an orchestrated attempt at the highest levels to require US attorneys to investigate ACORN, even if those attorneys found no reason for investigation.