ACORN: Housing Assistance For Prostitutes

[DaShi]

And yes some Acorn employees have been convicted

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124182750646102435.html

Good

[rah]

I'm not trying to say that the organization is rotten to the core, but they have done quite a few shady things so those that think they've never done anything wrong are really looking through some great rose colored glasses. They do need to clean up their act before they can earn the public trust back. Until then, they should not get a dime from the feds.
They have done some good things.

[Dinner]

In all fairness, Republicans only want democrats not to vote and Democrats aren't trying to register Republicans. (Acorn isn't either) So don't try to make it sound racist, it's just partisan.

And yes some Acorn employees have been convicted

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124182750646102435.html

What spin Rupert Murdock's idiots put on that. Yes, seven low level people were charged and guess who turned in those seven people? ACORN! Yes, that's right ACORN hires people to register people to vote and pays them per registration so some of these people try to cheat ACORN by registering "Bugs Bunny" and the like. So ACORN turns these people in and you want to pretend people attempting to cheat ACORN is ACORN's fault. That sounds like victim blame to me.

By Federal law ACORN or any other organization registering people cannot refuse to turn in any voter registration form (not turning in a completed form is a federal felony) but they do mark those forms which are obviously false and turn them in to the proper authorities to be investigated. Yet the lies the right wing tells makes it look like ACORN is to blame when in reality it hasn't done anything even remotely wrong.

It's fascinating how illiteracy seems to be a lefty thing. Zkrib and Oerdin both have it bad...

You're one of the idiots who bought into the lies and enuendo without even looking at the basic facts. See my response to Rah to find out where you went wrong.

[Dinner]

I'm not trying to say that the organization is rotten to the core, but they have done quite a few shady things

I'm still waiting for proof they've done anything shady what so ever. Or maybe you'd like to go into how the people who made those stupid pimp videos completely lied, deceptively edited, and are likely to go to jail? Because, you know, they actually broke the law.

[Darius871]

Or maybe you'd like to go into how the people who made those stupid pimp videos...are likely to go to jail?

Leaving aside the fact that they're probably not even civilly liable under Maryland's wiretap statute, you honestly don't even understand the distinction between civil and criminal?

You really need to lay off MSNBC for at least a few minutes a day.

[Drake Tungsten]

State and local ACORN chapters are going to change their names...

ACORN 'dissolved as a national structure'

The embattled liberal group ACORN is in the process of dissolving its national structure, with state and local-chapters splitting off from the underfunded, controversial national group, an official close to the group confirmed.

"ACORN has dissolved as a national structure of state organizations," said a senior official close to the group, who declined to be identified by name because of the fierce conservative attacks on the group that began when a conservative filmmaker caught some staffers of its tax advisory arms on tape appearing to offer advice on incorporating a prostitution business.

The videos proved a rallying point for conservatives who had long accused the group of fomenting voting fraud. Though the videos did not produce criminal charges, they appear to have been fatal to the national organization.

"Consistent with what the internal recommendations have been, each of the states are developing plans for reconstitution independence and self-sufficiency," said the official, citing ACORN's "diminished resources, damage to the brand, unprecedented attacks."

The new organizations, he said "will be constituted under new banners and new bylaws and new governance," he said, consistent with the recommendations of an outside panel.

Much of the group's strength lay in its local chapters in places like New York, which appear to be continuing to operate as normal. New York's City Hall News reported today that the local group there had re-emerged under the name "New York Communities for Change."

UPDATE: A person familiar with the New York reorganization said the new group has a new board, including some relative outsiders, like an official at the union Workers United, Wilfredo Larancuent, as well as most of the old leadership.

But the impact appears to be minimal.

"It’s not like this is some kind of hostile thing," said the New York source. "This is what Fox has produced. National Acorn and Bertha Lewis are continuing doing their thing, but the New York flagship has been forced into this new organization."

"As far as the work in the communities and policy campaigns, no one will notice the difference," the source said. "It’s people who still believe in their basic mission of fighting for poor people."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0210/ACORN_dissolved_as_a_national_structure.html

[Darius871]

ACORN 'dissolved as a national structure'

At least that explains why the lawsuit against Giles & O'Keefe was dismissed over failure to pursue it instead of the substantive flaws:


28218713-ACORN-v-O-Keefe-Docket -

[Berzerker]

OKeefe did a hatchet job on Acorn, they should be able to sue the hell out of him

[Dinner]

To bad ACORN is dead even though it was completely innocent of the claims. The Attorney General in California did a complete review of the parts which occurred in this state and found that the tapes were dramatically edited to give a false impression; even going so far as the edited version making it appear the ACORN people said exactly the opposite of what they actually said. They also edited out that ACORN repeatedly called the cops on them, that the guy didn't claim to be a pimp as the edited version claimed, dressed in a suit & tie instead of the 70's pimp outfit, and generally made statements completely different then he claimed on the edited tape with extra footage slipped in.

In short, it was a complete politically motivated hatchet job from start to finish with tons of lies and false accusations. The attorney general did find, however, that ACORN wrongly throw away 500 pages of paper work which state law said had to be shredded and the state branch of ACORN wrongly filed out their state tax return for 2007 (which was later corrected). Of the charges claimed by the pimp & ho hitmen though ACORN was found completely innocent based on the unedited tape which the Attorney General has now put on line. The pimp & ho turned over the tape in exchange for immunity as they were both facing up to 20 years in prison for violating the California Privacy Act by taping other people without permission in a residence or place of business.

[Ecofarm]

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.

Emerging accounts of widespread deceit and corruption raise the need for a criminal investigation of ACORN. By intentionally blurring the legal distinctions between 361 tax-exempt and non-exempt entities, ACORN diverts taxpayer and tax-exempt monies into partisan political activities. Since 1994, more than $53 million in federal funds have been pumped into ACORN, and under the Obama administration, ACORN stands to receive a whopping $8.5 billion in available stimulus funds.

Operationally, ACORN is a shell game played in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia through a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators. Structurally, ACORN is a chess game in which senior management is shielded from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act.

The report that follows presents evidence obtained from former ACORN insiders that completes the picture of a criminal enterprise.

First, ACORN has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in self dealing, and aided and abetted a cover-up of embezzlement by Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke.

Committee investigators have established that a violation of corporate duties led to gross abuses of tax laws and other federal regulations. According to documents obtained from insiders, ACORN was made aware of its lax management structure but chose to ignore the problems and continue a cover-up of criminal activity. By refusing to report Dale Rathke’s embezzlement of $948,607.50 as an excess benefit transaction, ACORN appears to have violated the Internal Revenue Code. ACORN’s cover-up of the
embezzlement for more than eight years would also constitute obstruction of justice.


Second, ACORN has committed investment fraud, deprived the public of its right to honest services, and engaged in a racketeering enterprise affecting interstate commerce.

Committee investigators have documented ACORN’s use of charitable contributions against donor intent, typified by ACORN’s secret transfer of donor funds to recover losses due to embezzlement. Moreover, ACORN comingles the accounts of federallyfunded affiliates with politically-active affiliates and lacks sufficient oversight to safeguard taxpayer and donor interests, even though it receives millions of federal dollars.

ACORN’s purposeful lack of quality control translates into the employment of convicted felons and other suspect persons. Through a strategy of providing financial incentives to employees who meet voter registration quotas, ACORN conducts voter drives that routinely produce fraudulent registrations. In fact, ACORN’s employment practices have the intentional effect of encouraging voter registration fraud while linking criminal culpability to the lowest-level employees rather than the directors who contrive the illegal schemes. To date, nearly 70 ACORN employees have been convicted in 12 states for voter
registration fraud, though no federal charges have been filed against ACORN’s directors. In fact, Pennsylvania judge Richard Zoller – after holding a low-level ACORN employee liable for election law violations – noted that “somebody has to go after ACORN.”


Third, ACORN has committed a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using taxpayer funds for partisan political activities.

Committee investigators have unearthed documentation that ACORN and its affiliates conducted meticulous research that fed aggressive campaign initiatives designed to elect Democratic candidates in targeted races. ACORN forged both formal and informal connections with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obama, among others. Each of these campaigns received financial and personnel resource contributions from ACORN and its affiliates as part of a scheme to use taxpayer monies to support a partisan political agenda. These actions are a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws. Documents contained in this report reveal ACORN’s political agenda. ACORN’s 2005-2007 Strategic Plan states that “just as important as . . . mobilizing existing progressive voters, ACORN and similar groups actually create new progressive voters.” In the same document, ACORN acknowledges that its “issue campaigns play the dual role . . . of attracting new members, and educating or politicizing existing members.” One particular issue where ACORN claims success is “fighting key elements of the national Republican program.” In other documents, ACORN affiliates take credit for the election of former-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. In the 2006 year-end report of ACORN affiliate Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 880, efforts to elect Blagojevich and advance partisan political agendas are called “flawless.” Labor organizations, unions, and other tax-exempt entities stretched Chicago-style political manipulation and back room schemes beyond Illinois to other state-wide and national campaign efforts. In the State of Ohio, where ACORN directors drafted a political plan contained in this report, overt partisan goals are enumerated. The ACORN Ohio Political Plan states:

ACORN will target three competitive Ohio congressional districts as well as a half dozen state rep seats nested within the districts. Our electoral work will mobilize and educate voters [and] our paid professional canvass will execute tightly managed Voter ID and GOTV canvasses moving our core constituency of base and swing voters to the polls to vote for the candidates who most
closely align with a progressive Working Families Agenda.

Moreover, documents provided by former ACORN employees and contained in this report demonstrate the degree to which ACORN and ACORN affiliates organized to elect President Barack Obama in 2008.


Fourth, ACORN has submitted false filings to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor, in addition to violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Committee investigators have tracked ACORN’s numerous failures to comply with federal laws that required the payment of excise taxes on excess benefits to Dale Rathke. SEIU Local 100 – under the direction of ACORN founder Wade Rathke – filed bogus reports with the Labor Department in order to conceal embezzlement. ACORN violated the overtime and record-keeping provisions of FLSA. All of these fraudulent acts would constitute a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 by presenting false documents to the United States government.


Fifth, ACORN falsified and concealed facts concerning an illegal transaction between related parties in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

Committee investigators have concluded that ACORN plundered employee benefits and violated fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA by relieving corporate debts through prohibited loans to a related party. Moreover, ACORN affiliates lack independent control of their own assets and maintain shoddy accounting practices that serve to hide ACORN’s secret and illegal use of monies. ACORN conspired to conceal information concerning prohibited transactions from its board in violation of its corporate charter. ACORN’s termination of board members who sought to uncover its illegal activities perpetuates a cover-up at the expense of adherence to its own bylaws.

The evidence contained in this report proves that ACORN’s stated purpose to promote grassroots civic participation has been perverted through fraudulent and illegal acts. The weight of evidence against ACORN and its affiliates is astounding. This syndicate of tax-exempt organizations has coordinated and implemented a nation-wide strategy of tax fraud, racketeering, money-laundering and manipulating the American electorate.

Scrutiny is essential to lift a dark cloud of suspicion from nonprofit community organizations; to bring to justice the responsible parties who have heretofore been shielded from prosecution by ACORN’s obscure organizational structure; to protect the American system of democratic self-government from manipulation and disruption; and to free our political climate from the choke of corruption that threatens to strangle free and fair elections.

U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 2009

http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Reports/20091118_ACORNREPORT.pdf

One-third of the 1.3 million voter registration cards turned in by ACORN in 2008 were invalid.

[Dinner]

Ah, yes. The bill which recently got tossed out as being an unconstitutional bill of attainder I believe.

The California Attorney General's report: http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/pre...orn_report.pdf

BTW the report you cited was actually a propaganda piece written by Darrel Issa who is an all around lying piece of ****. I should know as he's my Congressman.

[Ecofarm]

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 00:00

U.S. Court of Appeals Suspends Ruling that Congressional Funding Ban on ACORN was Unconstitutional

WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary Committee Member released the following statement on the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit decision to stay the December 2009 injunction by Clinton-appointed Judge Nina Gershon that the Congressional funding ban on the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) was unconstitutional. As a result, as the U.S. Court of Appeals further reviews the case, the Congressional funding ban will go back into effect, and ACORN will not receive taxpayer dollars.

“I applaud the Court of Appeals for immediately addressing the effects of Judge Gershon’s attempt to legislate from the bench. Today’s action immediately restores the congressionally mandated ban on funding ACORN and its affiliates as a result of their criminal conduct and wasting of taxpayer dollars. Congress has the constitutional right to deny an organization the benefit of taxpayer dollars.

“With today’s action by the Appeals Court, the Obama Administration must take immediate steps to re-implement the funding ban for ACORN Congress put in to law. In recent months, ACORN has undergone a rebranding campaign to disguise itself and its affiliates. As a result, the White House and all federal agencies must be extremely vigilant to ensure that rebranded organizations who have continued to make deals and maintain connections to ACORN don’t receive taxpayer dollars.”

Click here for a copy of the Appeals Court Decision to Stay Judge Gershon’s injunction on implementing the Federal funding ban on ACORN.

Click here to read the April 2010 report entitled “ACORN Political Machine Tries to Reinvent Itself.”

Click here to read the February 2010 report entitled “Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies.”

Click here to read the July 2009 report entitled “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?”

http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=663%3Aissa-applauds-appeals-court-decision-to-temporarily-reinstate-acorn-funding-ban&catid=27%3Alatest-news&Itemid=1

Trying to paint ACORN as a legit voter-registration non-profit is about as silly as the pimp outfit trying to paint them as pedo-enablers. It doesn't take a genius, a centrist or even a moderate to see that ACORN is deeply corrupt. Defending ACORN is similar to defending the RCC, in delusion-required.

BTW the report you cited was actually a propaganda piece written by Darrel Issa who is an all around lying piece of ****. I should know as he's my Congressman.

Committee investigators have established that a violation of corporate duties led to gross
abuses of tax laws and other federal regulations...

Committee investigators have documented ACORN’s use of charitable contributions against donor intent, typified by ACORN’s secret transfer of donor funds to recover losses due to embezzlement...

Committee investigators have unearthed documentation that ACORN and its affiliates conducted meticulous research that fed aggressive campaign initiatives designed to elect Democratic candidates in targeted races. ACORN forged both formal and informal connections with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obama, among others. Each of these campaigns received financial and personnel resource contributions from ACORN and its affiliates as part of a scheme to use taxpayer monies to support a partisan political agenda. These actions are a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws...

Committee investigators have tracked ACORN’s numerous failures to comply with federal laws that required the payment of excise taxes on excess benefits to Dale Rathke...

Committee investigators have concluded that ACORN plundered employee benefits and violated fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA by relieving corporate debts through prohibited loans to a related party...

Yeah, sure... the whole committee and their investigators are all a bunch of liars. What are you, a full-lotus?

[Dinner]

BTW the appeals court didn't over turn the ruling that the bill targeting and singling out ACORN for special punishment was indeed an unconstitutional bill of attainder. What the appeals court did say it they will block the ruling from being implemented for a short period in order to allow the attorneys time to make a pitch for an appeal. In June the court will decide if the appeal has any merit or not and if it is worth the court's time to actually have a full hearing. I'm willing to bet they won't let it go ahead. It's a pretty open and shut bill of attainder which was well documented by the original ruling.

[Ecofarm]

The only question is if it was fair to single them out; that doesn't make ACORN innocent of the committee's findings.

Are you seriously trying to paint them as innocent based solely on a procedural technicality that may prevent congressional action? What basis do you have for calling the committee's report a lie?

[Dinner]

That was just a partisan hit squad. It's telling that every state which looked into the charges (those being the states where the tapes were made) have completely cleared ACORN of any wrong doing connected to the claims made by the right wing fraudsters.