21 Comments Add your own

• 1. Mike Carroll  |  October 17th, 2008 at 10:35 am

  The last time I checked ACORN was under investigation in 11 states including a number with Democratic Attoney Generals. Nah, nothing to worry about. Pat says its all nonsense. What flavor is the Kool-Aid this morning Patrick.

• 2. echo4charlie  |  October 17th, 2008 at 10:53 am

  What ACORN is doing is systematically subverting U.S. election law — on our, the taxpayer’s, dollar.

  ACORN, for any who don”t know, use various affiliated groups to agitate for “a living wage,” for “affordable housing,” for “tax justice” and union and environmental goals, as well as against school choice and welfare reform.

  ACORN, by the way, was a major contributor to the sub prime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting “strikes” against banks so they’d lower credit standards.

  Which brings us to Senator Obama, who got his start as a Chicago “community organizer” at ACORN’s side.

  In 1992 he led voter registration efforts as the director of Project Vote, which included ACORN. Last November, didn’t he laude ACORN’s leaders for being “smack dab in the middle” of that effort?

  Senator Obama also served as a lawyer for ACORN in 1995, in a case against Illinois to increase access to the polls.

  During Senator Obama’s tenure on the board of Chicago’s Woods Fund, The Woods Fund funneled more than $200,000 to ACORN. More recently, Senator Obama’s campaign paid $832,000 to an ACORN affiliate.

  The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money ($832,000) was for “staging, sound, and lighting.” It was, however, later admitted that the cash ($832,000) was to get out the (partisan) vote, when the truth finally surfaced.

  Senbator Obama’s campaign is now (conveniently) distancing itself from ACORN (surprised?), claiming Senator Obama never organized with it, and has nothing to do with illegal voter registration. Really? Hmmmmmmmmmm……………….

  My question is; Where is it anything but disingenuous to channel cash into an operation with a history of fraud, and then claim you’re shocked to discover reports of fraud?

  Senator Obama was happy to associate with ACORN, just as he was happy to associate with “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright and William (Bill) Ayers when it suited his purposes. But now that he’s on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties.
  Especially since he sees that we seem less stupid than he originally thought us, the lower-to-middle class Americans to be.

  Looks like people are catching on, which wasn’t a contingency that Senator Obama’s campaign planned for………………

  The Justice Department needs to treat these ACORN fraud reports as something larger than a few local violators, in my book. And, as of late, especially, it seems that they have.

  I’m still waiting for Senator Obama to promise the American people that he will open an investigation into the fraud reports, and let the Attorney General do his job, and bring everything to the surface.

  But that means that he’s got to step on some of the necks who helped get him to where he is today, and they may not be happy about that. They may decide to talk. Even worse fo him yet, they may even provide physical evidence verifying his deeper than admitted involvements…………….

  We can’t have that now………………

• 3. Mike Carroll  |  October 17th, 2008 at 11:06 am

  Damn it echo4charlie, there you go again. Cease and desist confusing Pat and his fellow liberals with facts.

• 4. Milton Waddams  |  October 17th, 2008 at 11:06 am

  What flavor is the Kool-Aid this morning Patrick.

  After watching this video about a new mailer by a GOP group, it looks like red is the flavor today… goe well with the watermelon, fried chicken and ribs in the mailer… The feigned ignorance of those items being black stereotypes is the best part…

• 5. Pat Cunningham  |  October 17th, 2008 at 11:25 am

  Mike Carroll: I can’t believe that you put any credence in that pile of crap EchoCharlie is selling. Obama has no real link to anything nefarious regarding ACORN. On the other hand, evidence of voter suppression by Republicans in recent elections is voluminous. Anybody who thinks this ACORN nonsense is going to diminish Obama’s electoral chances is as nutty as an acorn. I expect better from you, Mike, but you sometimes let me down.

• 6. echo4charlie  |  October 17th, 2008 at 11:40 am

  I think Mike’s a bright guy. Whether he agrees with a viewpoint that I state, or not. He doesn’t just look at the “rock” (analogy for facts), and accept it at face value. He looks around, and under, and forms his own opinion based on the facts that he finds.

  The “crap” that you state is being sold are facts. Check them out, and tell me where I am wrong in anything I mentioned. Here, or with debunking President Bush’s responsibility for our current financial crisis (in a prior post; Glass-Steagall Act/Gramm-Leach-Bliley ). These are facts. Solid. Proven.

  This following article is from the American Thinker. I don’t know if it is true, or false, and can never necessarily be proven, but several literary experts are stating that Senator Barack Obama had substantial help from Bill Ayers in the creation of his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father.

  This is what they are saying, and they pose a convincing argument into why it is that they feel that this is (very) possible.
  I see nothing of fact, per se, as all of their theory is circumstantial, but an interesting argument none the less………..

  http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/evidence_mounts_ayers_cowrote.html

• 7. Milton Waddams  |  October 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am

  e4c:
  It isn’t what you state, it’s what you imply. By leaving out other pertinent details, you imply that there is something wrong with what was done. For example, the work done by Obama as legal counsel in 1995 was regarding motor voter registration, registering to vote when you get a driver’s license. Last time I was at the DMV, I had to give them 3 ids and a blood sample to get a new license. Are you trying to say that the Secretary of State is complicit in voter registration fraud? The “10 second sound bite” has unfortunately become the weapon of choice for taking advantage of the notoriously short attention span and intellectual laziness of most Americans.

• 8. Henry  |  October 17th, 2008 at 12:22 pm

  e4c -

  What’s stopping the Justice Department from aggressive investigating of ACORN right now?

• 9. DingDong  |  October 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

  PAT, you must be getting senile. Obama’s campaign funneled $800,000 to them.

  http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/election/s_584284.html

• 10. Mike Carroll  |  October 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

  Patrick-you disapoint me when you misrepresent what I say. “Obama has no real link to anything nefarious regarding ACORN.” I never said that he did have connections to any nefarious ACORN activities but he does have connections to ACORN which he and his campaign have tried to deny and then minimize when the facts emerged.
  I said Echo4Charlie shouldn’t try to confuse you with facts and it would seem to me that the best way to show us the error of our ways is for you to counter his arguments. I’ll check in later for your dissertation.BTW, it looks like you are conceding that ACORN is a nefariuos organization. Good choice.

• 11. echo4charlie  |  October 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

  Milton Waddams,

  Senator Obama’s campaign paid $832,000 to an ACORN affiliate (Citizens Service Inc., a group that registers voters and has ties to ACORN). This is very recent. His campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money ($832,000) was for “staging, sound, and lighting.” It was, however, later admitted, by his campaign, that the cash ($832,000) was to get out the (partisan) vote, when the truth finally surfaced. Who were they working to register said voters through? Check it out………..

  Not only has he been closely tied to ACORN, but this is a specific instance where his campaign gave money to an affiliate (not ACORN directly, that is true, but where did the money go in the end?), and then LIED to the Federal Election Commission about the allocation of said money. Then, when caught and cornered, conceded, and ADMITTED the true designation and destination of that money.

  He supported ACORN early, and they returned the back scratch (which he gladly accepted). But, now that some of their less illustrious activity (or, my favorite euphemism: “buried bodies”) have floated back to the surface, after thought long sunk and gone. So, he has, for his own political aspirations, had to separate himself from yet another organization that he has actively supported.

  What about the training that he provided ACORN in the past and ACORN staff, and his role in past ACORN voter registration efforts? There is much more there. Senator Obama just wants to close the door on it. It is working against his own personal best interest now, so he needs to distance himself…………………………………..

  These aren’t ignorant “10-second soundbites”, this is researched and proven activity.

  Doesn’t he at least owe his supporters, some who know the truth, and others who will learn, honesty? Doesn’t he just need to belly up to the table, and be truthful? Although, now, even though it would be the honorable thing to do, it would tarnish him, and he would surely lose the election……….

  This election, and his personal agenda, are more important to him than being honest with the American people, let alone his supporters……

  On that note, here is a funny parody article about Senator Obama’s campaign:

  http://www.theonion.com/content/news/southern_sheriff_pulls_over_obama

• 12. Pat Cunningham  |  October 17th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

  Mike Carroll: Sorry if I misrepresented your thoughts. You just seemed so eager to validate that meaningless crap from Charlie. This whole ACORN thing is a GOP device calculated to change the subject from the economy. It’s a dog that won’t hunt.

• 13. echo4charlie  |  October 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm

  Ok, Pat.

  Never mind the FBI probe into ACORN. Pretend that isn’t happening. And, they, the FBI, get involved when there isn’t serious fraud involved…..right? They just take over with no probable cause. Standard SOP.

  Let’s talk about the economy. How is the current economic problem President George Bush’s fault? Be direct, and honest.

  Actually, how did he even have anything to do with the factors that caused our current economic state? Seriously? I’m just asking.

  Why would the “right” use ACORN to distract from the serious miscalculations and neglect of duty displayed by Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and legislation pushed through a fairly bi-partisan congress, by President Bill Clinton, no less, where the real, honest credit “deregulation” (for lack of a better term) and mortgage crisis arose from (warning: once again, the name ACORN will show up in the mix)?

  Even Alec Baldwin, a guy who can barely find his own socks in the morning, or even operate a hairbrush, toothbrush, or razor, can even see the root of today’s economic problems. Yes, congress had been trying to axe the Glass-Steagall Act since the ’80s, but who finally dropped the hatchet? Seriously?

  It’s a dog that’s pretty keen, with a sharp nose, and to be honest, he hunts pretty well…….

• 14. Pat Cunningham  |  October 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

  Charlie: Your account of the repeal of Glass-Steagal is wildly inaccurate. The principal sponsor of the repeal was John McCain’s buddy, Phil Gramm. In the Senate, where the Republicans enjoyed majority control at the time, the vote was 54-44. One Democrat voted for the bill, and the rest voted against it. NO REPUBLICANS VOTED AGAINST REPEALING THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. In the House, 5 republicans voted against Gramm’s bill, and 51 Democrats voted against it. Clinton should never have signed the bill, but let’s not pretend that it was a Democratic initiative. It wasn’t.

  (NOTE: WHEN I FIRST POSTED THIS RESPONSE, I USED DINGDONG’S NAME INSTEAD OF CHARLIE’S. THE CORRECTION HAS BEEN MADE, AND I APOLOGIZE TO BOTH GENTLEMEN FOR CONFUSING THEIR IDENTITIES.)

• 15. Craig Knauss  |  October 17th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

  I always love this guilt by association crap. If being in the same room is equivalent to aiding and abetting, then John McCain is guilty as hell for lots of things. For example, he used to associate with Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and other racists and former Klan members. Does that make McCain a racist and Klan sympathizer? By your logic processes, it does. And McCain DID have some radical friends as well as some thugs who were participating in the illegal Iran-Contra scandel. He also has associated with convicted felons like G. Gorden Libby. Again, by your logic, that makes McCain also a sleazeball. Fortunately, “guilt by association” is prohibited by our legal processs.

• 16. Mike Carroll  |  October 18th, 2008 at 6:42 am

  Pat-for the record, Clinton says signing that bill was the right course of action and he has affirmed that stance in the last week to ten days.

• 17. Echo4Charlie  |  October 18th, 2008 at 7:13 am

  There is no guilt by association. Senator Obama was an active ACORN endorser, only distancing himself when “bodies” started turning up.

  President Bill Clinton is the one who signed and pushed the bill to congress.

• 18. Pat Cunningham  |  October 18th, 2008 at 9:57 am

  I’m still waiting for you conspiratorial pinheads to come up with one shred of evidence of wrongdoing on Obama’s part in connection with ACORN. Just one shred of evidence.

  By the way, EchoCharlie, here’s what PolitiFact has to say about one of McCain’s phony claims regarding Obama and ACORN:

  “In 1992, Obama directed Project Vote, “an arm of ACORN that also encouraged voter registration,” according to the McCain campaign. Obama did direct Project Vote, but it is a separate organization from ACORN. This year, Project Vote and ACORN worked together on a nationwide voter registration drive, and they have worked together on other initiatives in the past. But they are separate organizations. We didn’t find any evidence to indicate they had a relationship during the 1992 Illinois drive. And even if they did, Obama clearly directed the drive for the Project Vote organization. We couldn’t find any allegations of impropriety related to the 1992 drive. We rate this statement False.”

• 19. DingDong  |  October 18th, 2008 at 10:31 am

  As this housing crisis has evolved more and more evidence points to the real problem. Over-regulation, more so the wrong kind of regulation. The Democrats encouraged more and more lending of money to people who could not really afford it. They also encourage and demanded that Freddie and Fannie buy these loans. They then sat back and said, don’t worry everything as fine. The is reams and reams of evidence that they did, including CSPAN tapes. As far as Obama and ACORN, PAT you think in is not at all curious that his campaign gave ACORN $800000 for getting out the vote?

• 20. snuss  |  October 18th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

  Speaking of ACORN……

  Missing ACORN funds spark lawsuit, power struggle
  NEW ORLEANS - ACORN, the national activist group dogged by a high-profile voter registration fraud scandal, has another bruising item on its agenda when its board of directors meets here this weekend.

  Leaders of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are locked in a legal dispute stemming from allegations that the brother of the group’s founder misappropriated nearly $1 million of the nonprofit’s money several years ago.

  The embezzlement case, a recent revelation to some board members, has spawned a lawsuit and set off a power struggle inside ACORN at a time when the liberal group’s voter registration practices are the subject of fraud investigations and fodder for presidential campaign attacks.

  Bertha Lewis, ACORN’s interim chief organizer, called the lawsuit “a distraction from us marshaling our forces to deal with the Republican right-wing attacks” over ACORN’s voter registration.

  The lawsuit filed in August by two board members accuses ACORN founder and former chief organizer Wade Rathke of either concealing or failing to properly report that his brother Dale embezzled around $948,000 from New Orleans-based ACORN and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000.

  Instead of reporting the allegations to law enforcement authorities, a small group of ACORN executives allowed the Rathke family to repay the misappropriated money, according to the lawsuit brought by board members Karen Inman and Marcel Reid.

  Inman and Reid said the agreement, which called for the stolen money to be carried on the books of an ACORN affiliate as a loan to an officer, was kept a secret from the full 51-member board until earlier this year.

  “We need to find out what happened, when it happened and make sure that ACORN is viable,” Inman said during a press briefing about the dispute Thursday in New Orleans. Inman also says she wants an independent audit of ACORN’s books.

  Rathke, who founded ACORN in 1970, defended the decision to keep his brother’s actions an “internal matter” and resolve it with “private restitution.” Reporting the case to law enforcement could have left the group at risk of financial ruin, Rathke said.

  “One choice would have been to go that way, but then we wouldn’t have been able to collect that money,” he said.

  No working phone number for Dale Rathke could be found and a request by The Associated Press to contact him through his brother wasn’t immediately answered.

  Lewis said the group’s board recently hired attorneys to explore whether Dale Rathke’s actions warrant a criminal investigation or could be the subject of a civil case.

  “Remember, we just found this out in June,” she said.

  Rathke said he took responsibility for his brother’s “mistakes” by resigning, while Inman says he was fired. Rathke blames a “small group of dissidents” for the turmoil that has followed his departure.

  “I wish they would have kept the internal affairs of the organization internally,” he said.

  Inman and Reid filed suit for access to ACORN financial records that staff members allegedly refused to give them.

  During their meeting this weekend, board members are expected to discuss the lawsuit and explore ways to resolve it. A state judge presiding over the case has asked for a transcript of the board’s discussion.

  Lewis said Inman and Reid don’t speak for the entire board and didn’t have authority to file suit on the board’s behalf.

  “As you can well imagine, any organization that just fired its founder after 38 years would have internal issues,” she said.

  Wade Rathke says he stepped down as ACORN’s chief organizer in June, but remains chief organizer for ACORN International. A spokesman for ACORN said the two organizations are separate entities, although they have shared office space in New Orleans.

  Rathke shrugged off the board members’ lawsuit, calling it a “minor matter,” and expressed confidence that the voting registration controversy won’t consume the group.

  “ACORN is a big organization now, and they’re big enough to weather this,” he said.

  ACORN, which says it has more than 1,200 chapters in 110 cities, has become a household name in this year’s presidential election. During his debate Wednesday with Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain said ACORN could be on the verge of “destroying the fabric of democracy.”

  ACORN is accused of submitting false voter registration forms for some of the 1.3 million young people, minorities, and poor and working-class voters it has registered. The FBI has joined nearly a dozen states in investigating.

  On Friday, Pennsylvania’s Republican Party sued ACORN and the state’s top election official, accusing the group of fostering voter registration fraud and asserting that the election system lacks adequate safeguards to stop it.

  The lawsuit asks the state Commonwealth Court to order ACORN and its affiliates to provide lists identifying all the voters it registered and to finance public-service announcements to remind first-time voters that they must present identification at the polls.

  ACORN screens registration forms and is careful to flag questionable ones so that county election officials can scrutinize them, Pennsylvania ACORN leader Ali Kronley said at a news conference.

  In New Orleans, some of ACORN’s rank-and-file members fear the double dose of bad publicity could have a chilling effect on fundraising and jeopardize the group’s work on the city’s fragile recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

  Vanessa Gueringer, who chairs ACORN’s chapter in the city’s Lower 9th Ward neighborhood, said the embezzlement case isn’t stopping volunteers from gutting homes, registering voters and campaigning for better access to health care in storm-battered New Orleans.

  “We look at this as a ripple in the pond - something that happened eight years ago and has been resolved,” she said. “Our hope is that people won’t focus on the negative and focus on the positive.”

  Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/election08/articles/2008/10/17/20081017acornmoney1017.html

  Since ACORN gets Federal funding, shouldn’t this qualify as a Federal crime, for misuse of government funds? And wouldn’t covering it up be another crime?

• 21. Gary  |  September 18th, 2009 at 10:41 am

  Hahaha… How silly you look now that more sunlight has shown on this corrupt outfit.

  Yes, it was all just a vast rightwing conspiracy.

Leave a Comment

Name Required

Email Required, hidden

Url

Comment

Security Code:

Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed