' The Issa Report- ACORN "a criminal enterprise..."'--Click the picture:
Posted on 09/22/2009 7:08:33 AM PDT by WKB
JACKSON, MS (WLOX) - Governor Haley Barbour issued an executive order Monday stripping any state funds away from an advocacy group tied to illicit activities in another state.
The executive order, delivered to the Secretary of State's Office Monday afternoon, seeks to shut off taxpayer dollars to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - known by the acronym "ACORN."
"I have instructed the State Fiscal Officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Governor Barbour said.
Mississippi joins a growing list of states severing ties to the group after a video was released showing employees in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., advising two undercover activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute to lie about the prostitute's profession, suggested they launder the money and advised how to hide underage prostitutes.
The U.S. Census Bureau also dropped the organization as a community partner after the news of the sting surfaced. ACORN is being investigated by at least 20 states, and the Internal Revenue Service is conducting a review of its relationship with the group.
Mississippi ping
obviously a racist move
I’m sending this to my governor in Nebraska.
Something every Gov. needs to see.
It would be racist anywhere BUT Mississippi. /sarc
Danger: ACORN is harmful to teen age girls and other living things.
I love these johnny come latelies.
The Barbour of Seville “cuts” off ACORN!
Nice twist on the old "War is unhealthy for children..." slogan of the Vietnam era. We should Photoshop the old peacenik poster with the ACORN logo.
Good for you, Haley, you da man!
Now, direct the State Attorney General to conduct a comprehensive investigation of financial records of ACORN and all its front groups in your state.
Then, direct the state's Election Commissioner to conduct a comprehensive investigation of 2008 campaign electioneering and spending by ACORN in every county in your state.
You're probably one of the few governators we can depend on to take each step till ACORN is completely neutralized in your state.....and by extension and example, the 50 sovereign states of America.
Leni
Thanks. I am hoping someone with good photo shopping skills will do exactly that!
Besides being (perhaps) necesarrily legalspeak ... what exactly does that mean?
State investigates ACORN: AG's office mum on line of inquiry
The Louisiana Attorney General has opened an investigation into the community-organizing organization ACORN. “All we can say is we are investigating,” wrote Tammi Arender, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s office. “We can't say much else since it's open.”
She encouraged anyone with credible information about ACORN to call investigators at (225) 326-6120.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has been under pressure to investigate the nationwide organization, which is based in New Orleans. The chief complaints involve a case of a nearly $1 million embezzlement by the brother of the group’s founder which was never reported to authorities; the lack of accountability for the millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars that ACORN and its related groups have received over several years; and the potential for public money to be used by partisan affiliates of ACORN.
ACORN and its related Project Vote, a nationwide voter-registration drive, have earned the scorn of commentators and critics, who say the effort was a thinly veiled effort to push Democratic candidates and recruit new dues-paying ACORN members. ACORN workers in several states have been arrested in connection with voter-registration fraud, but the organization itself has not been charged with a crime.
Only last year did most of the 51-member governing board of ACORN learn of nearly $1 million in inappropriate charges to an ACORN credit account by Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder and then-leader Wade Rathke. Rather than report the incident to authorities, Wade Rathke worked with a small group of ACORN leaders to arrange for a repayment schedule by his brother. After more than $200,000 was repaid, an outside donor stepped in and repaid the balance. Even so, news of alleged crime and the quiet handling of the repayment rocked the organization. A splinter of the governing board has broken off and is demanding that the group open its books to public inspection. The Acorn 8 says it wants to return the group to its roots of giving a voice to and empowering low-income people. They’re concerned that the organization has moved away from that mission and is improperly getting involved in politics.
The Project Vote effort is a tax-exempt charity, and is not allowed to participate in partisan politics. But an internal report by an ACORN attorney raised questions about whether the registration drive was kept separate from other allowable political activities by ACORN. According to an October story in The New York Times, the lawyer, Elizabeth Kingsley, “found that the tight relationship between Project Vote and Acorn made it impossible to document that Project Vote’s money had been used in a strictly nonpartisan manner. Until the embezzlement scandal broke last summer, Project Vote’s board was made up entirely of Acorn staff members and Acorn members. Ms. Kingsley’s report raised concerns not only about a lack of documentation to demonstrate that no charitable money was used for political activities but also about which organization controlled strategic decisions.”
Alternatively referred to by critics as “radical” and “mob-like” in its tactics, ACORN bills itself as the nation’s largest grassroots movement, with more than 400,000 members in 110 cities. Its Web site says its membership consists of “low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.” Rarely shy in their tactics, ACORN members have made headlines by storming corporate meetings and board rooms, as well as picketing in front of the homes of politicians, to demand action on their programs they say are aimed at social justice. Before its workers drew attention by submitting bogus voter registrations in the name of Mickey Mouse and the like, the groups was best known for pushing “living wage” ordinances in various cities. Those efforts called on governments and their contractors to pay more than the national minimum wage.
Such an effort in New Orleans resulted in voters approving a first-in-the-nation minimum wage citywide in 2002, setting the bottom at $1 above the national minimum. That measure, however, was struck down in court.
Probably means they are not going break any laws trying to catch lawbreakers.
Now if Ole Miss and LSU fans could only love one another. :>)
“...ACORN bills itself as the nation’s largest grassroots movement, with more than 400,000 members in 110 cities...”
Our “Tea Patries” have them beat by a MILE!
You GO, Haley!!
Perhaps a full State Audit of all of their books would actually be more interesting....
How much funding does the state of MS give to ACORN? I’ve called around and can’t seem to find out. I heard recently that Gov. Bobby Jindal and one other governor also acted quickly to cut off all funding to ACORN, only they hadn’t been giving them any in the first place...
how much money has Mississippi paid ACORN?
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909300351
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