Free Republic

Not long ago I posted a piece with news that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had decided to cut off its association with the Association for Community Activists for Reform Now (ACORN). I also reported that the RIS and several other Federal agencies had stopped their dealings with ACORN, essentially defunding them of federal dollars. But that was then... On October 22 Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D, Calif) was sadly successful in getting an amendment passed in the House Financial Services Committee that would allow ACORN to become an official government actor in setting regulations for financial institutions. You read...

Mainstream Media Ignores Juicy ACORN Nuggets by Hannah Giles The “Pimp and Pro” story, exposing ACORN’s willingness to advise a prostitute on tax evasion and child sex trafficking, hit America a few weeks ago. There were a myriad number of angles to report, yet the Mainstream Media's favorite approach seems to be the method in which James O’Keefe and I orchestrated and gathered the information. It’s like going fishing, but instead of taking a picture and raving about the 750lb Mako shark you caught, you blather on about the bait that was used. What happens when people get bored? They...

WASHINGTON - During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions.  The Waters amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages" to join Federal banking regulators in advising the Director...

The federal government has listed an ACORN affiliate in its catalog of approved charities – allowing federal employees to set up payroll deductions and donate a portion of paychecks directly to the group. The ACORN Institute, an affiliate of the national umbrella organization of ACORN, is featured in the Office of Personnel Management's 2009 CFC list of participating national and international organizations. The government's annual workplace charity campaign allows federal employees to contribute to qualified charities with cash, checks or payroll deductions. According to a Washington Post report, ACORN transferred millions of dollars in charitable contributions meant for the poor...

Just weeks after overwhelming votes in the House and Senate to protect tax payers by barring federal funding to ACORN, Democrats have found a way to throw a life-line to their de facto campaign organization. Democrats on the House Committee on Financial Services adopted an amendment by Maxine Waters that will allow ACORN and other activists groups to share a regulatory role over our financial institutions.

Besides giving advice on avoiding taxes and fraudulently getting home loans for brothels featuring 13-year-old Salvadoran girls illegally smuggled into this country, ACORN officials could soon be helping regulate your local bank, thanks to an amendment adopted by Rep. Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, and provided that five slots on the oversight board for the proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency be reserved for representatives of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly...

When both houses of Congress voted to defund ACORN several weeks ago, what they actually did was bar lawmakers and federal agencies from giving any money to the community organizing group for the duration of the temporary budget agreement, or continuing resolution, that was in effect at the time. Continuing resolutions are used to extend federal spending, and keep the government running, when Congress can't agree on appropriations bills for the fiscal year. When the congressional defunding of ACORN went into effect on October 1, there was a continuing resolution in place that would last until October 31 -- this...

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has agreed not to charge ACORN with violating a state law regarding quotas for registering voters, under an agreement reached in a federal lawsuit today. The agreement between attorneys for ACORN and Zappala's office drops the district attorney from the lawsuit that challenges a state law barring use of quotas to pay voter registration canvassers. Under the three-page agreement filed today, Zappala agreed not to charge ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, with violations of the state law it is challenging. The agreement does not immediately affect pending...

Either Maxine Waters is dumber than a loaf of bread or she thinks that the American voters are all idiots, that can be the only explanation for her amendment to H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions. Yes that ACORN. Mad-Maxine's amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Join us Friday for a full hour of Lord Monckton and John Bolton! What is Bawney Fwank up to? Join us today and find out won't you!

GOP Candidate Scozzafava, Husband Have Ties to Union-Backed ACORN Front But on closer inspection, the bond isn't so strange. For one thing, Deidre "Dede" Scozzafava isn't a typical Republican. Despite her support for gun rights (she's received an endorsement from the National Rifle Association), she is a reliable supporter of Democratic initiatives. She supports cap-and-trade anti-global warming legislation, the $787 billion Obama stimulus plan, and state-sanctioned gay marriage. More to the point, she is a strong supporter of federal "card check" legislation that would force private-sector employers to recognize a union as the sole collective-bargaining agent if a union organizing...

A strange anomaly occurs whenever the phrase “voter registration fraud” is searched. Who’s responsible for that? Perhaps the players? Search the Internet and you will find dozens of stories on the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now or ACORN on a never ending stream of Google results. However, Project Vote (Voting for America) is often only listed as an affiliate. Articles posted by the mainstream media tend to downplay Project Vote’s role or is it something else?

After comparing the two Republican candidates running for the 23rd Congressional District seat, I can say wholeheartedly that only Doug Hoffman should be considered as the viable candidate for the position. His opponent, Dede Scozzafava, is affiliated with scandal-plagued ACORN through a close friendship with Bertha Lewis, who happens to be the head of ACORN. This is the same ACORN whose employees were caught in undercover video sting operations giving advice on how to run child-prostitution rings in inner-city homes and avoid paying taxes. This happened at ACORN offices in cities on both coasts and points in-between, and in one...

The political blogosphere has been exploding these past couple weeks over a special congressional election in an unlikely portion of upstate New York. A key reason is the connections between the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a virtual adjunct to the more reprehensible sectors of the Democratic Party. An ACORN front group, the Working Families Party (WFP), on October 9 formally endorsed the Democratic opponent in this tight three-person race. But the WFP has endorsed Scozzafava more than once in the past. And a major reason is that her husband,...

National Public Radio’s Kevin Whitelaw blames “right wing ideologues” for destroying the reputation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, more commonly known by its acronym—ACORN. “By relentlessly focusing on ACORN’s election fraud, mismanagement, embezzlement and other criminal activities, right wing fanatics are overshadowing the significant accomplishments of this great organization,” Whitelaw contends. “They’ve gotten millions enrolled for welfare. They got millions to vote for Obama.” Whitelaw characterized recent revelations that ACORN employees advised applicants on how to set up an illegal prostitution business as “misguided zealotry.” “It’s easy for those who earn an honest living to ridicule...

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection is next month. CCHD might as well stand for Catholic Cash Helping Democrats. Thirty to 50% of the collection goes to community organizing and helped elect politicians like Lorretta Sanchez and Barack Obama. Please urge Catholics to BOYCOTT THE COLLECTION. Spread this YouTube video far and wide!

WAKE UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Join us for head exploding moments won't you!

Hundreds of union members and organizers descended on the streets of downtown Chicago Monday morning to picket the offices of Goldman Sachs Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. The group, which included supporters from community group National People's Action and the Service Employees International Union, has organized the protests to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Bankers Association. The group is demanding that "banks end their over-reliance on greed and profits and commit to using their taxpayer bailouts and backstops to help America's economy recover," said a news release from the Service Employees International Union.

In Obamanutz, I commented that it would require an especially gifted forensic accountant to untangle all of the George Soros/left wing foundation money laundering schemes and connections. As Ann Coulter has correctly surmised, all charitable foundations ultimately get hijacked by the left. Liberals can’t help themselves, they are drawn to free money like flies to manure. Michelle Malkin has done yeoman’s work unraveling some of the organizations and identifying ACORN’s “shakedown coordinators” via SEIU:

This past March, Heather Heidelbaugh, a Pennsylvania Attorney, testified before Congressman Jerrold Nadler's Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties subcommittee about the fraud perpetuated by ACORN. Her testimony alleged violations of the election code, fraud and misrepresentation, and violations of equal protection and due process. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) was shocked at the testimony and called for a probe of the Democrat's favorite tax fraud group but Nadler's response was to stonewall. When the Congress voted to cut off funds to ACORN not only did Congressman Nadler vote against the resolution, but make speeches against cutting off the funds saying...

Ingraham: "I might not be invited back..."

The crucial Nov. 3 special election in upstate New York features two candidaties -- liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens -- connected to the Working Families Party (WFP) which is the New York political arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). <snip> With both Big Labor and ACORN working to defeat the Conservative -- who is also being attacked by the national GOP Establishment -- Hoffman's campaign is sending out a nationwide call for volunteers to help match the "community organizers" being brought into the 23rd District by his major-party opponents. "We need boots...

Bill Cosby has a great way of distilling things. Looks like he's done it again! I HAVE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE. HERE IS MY PLATFORM: (1) 'Press 1 for English' is immediately banned. English is the official language. Speak it or wait at the border until you can. (2) We will immediately go into a two year isolationist posture to straighten out the country's attitude. NO imports, no exports. We will use the Wal-Mart policy, 'If we ain't got it, you don't need it.' (3) When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it....

On July 27th, Michelle Malkin launched the publicity tour for Culture of Corruption on Sean Hannity's radio show. Starting on May 18th, the same Michelle Malkin began writing a series of blog posts that featured Anita Moncrief, an informant that blew the whistle on a connection between ACORN and the Obama administration. Malkin has used the monikor "whistle blower" to describe Moncrief, and her coverage hasn't merely been positive but sometimes downright fawning in describing Moncrief. In fact, Malkin featured Moncrief ten times before the book came out. Before this post on the 18th, Malkin had written only once about...

Last week, longtime of head of ACORN's Louisiana branch, Beth Butler, was summarily fired from ACORN by a directive that came straight from ACORN's chief organizer, Bertha Lewis. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, this had to do with an internal struggle over where the power center would be, near Louisiana or in New York. At the time, I speculated that Butler, the common law wife of Wade Rathke, would join him at Community Organizations International. I was wrong. Several Louisiana ACORN leaders, including the recently ousted state leader, are expected to announce today that they have...

Breaking News: Sarah Palin Supports ACORN RefundingDoug Giles Saturday, October 24, 2009 The only way the fringe “news” outlets would ever report on ACORN in an antagonistic manner would be if Sarah Palin somehow supported this creepy cabal. Sarah, if you’re reading this column, maybe you should throw your name behind ACORN for a month or two just to get the White House/ACORN’s lap dogs to finally join with FOX and bark down the despicable ACORN clowns until they’re properly vilified, permanently defunded, and eternally ensconced in American history as nothing more than a bad, bad memory—a veritable proverb...

I have sent the following e-mail to Nick Goldberg, the Editorial Page Editor for the Los Angeles Times: Nick, A recent op-ed in your paper defending ACORN makes at least two factual misstatements: 1) that ACORN staff offered to help shield an underage prostitution ring at only two offices, and 2) that no voter fraudulently registered to vote by ACORN had ever actually cast a ballot. Furthermore, your paper failed to disclose that the author of the op-ed, Peter Dreier, has been a (presumably paid) consultant for ACORN in the past . . . something that might help explain how...

Several Louisiana ACORN leaders, including the recently ousted state leader, are expected to announce today that they have started a new organization under the same name after national authorities of the community action network voted to take over the chapter. A notice of a news conference scheduled for 3 p.m. in Light City Church, 6117 St. Claude Ave., says the event will include "Louisiana ACORN Executive Director Beth Butler, " who was fired from that post Oct. 12 by national ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. The document states that Butler will be joined by several Louisiana ACORN officers, board members and...

In this epsiode of the Conscience of Kansas I speak to Doug Giles of clashradio.com, we talk about the ACORN scandal. Next, we talk to Jackie and Dunlap from Red State Update. It is a very funny and informative show. We invite you to listen and comment on the show!

You have got to be kidding me: During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions. The Waters amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of “consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages” to join Federal...

Let's try a thought experiment. Imagine we are about four years ago. The leak that Bush was using warrantless wiretaps had just occurred recently. Now, imagine that a spy begins to leak information but to only two sources for the most part. One source is Markos Malitsos of the Daily Kos. The other is a relatively unknown left wing blogger. Imagine that initially the unknown blogger leaked their name recklessly. Then, despite this initial breach of trust, both Kos and this unknown begin to not only write about the story but begin to write endlessly about this leaker and present...

As damning video after video is released showing ACORN’s willingness to counsel lawbreakers, no one has been more willing to assassinate the character of ACORN’s opponents than the hired guns at the left-wing group Media Matters for America.

From the pages of Government Doesn’t Listen, Part MMXLVII, we have this stunning example from the House Financial Services Committee. Yesterday, Reps. Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, and the rest of the Democrats decided to grant community organizers governing powers by giving them a role in shaping and enforcing new regulations on the American financial industry. That seems to include, although not explicitly, ACORN:

National People's Action Network has put out an email reporting that 10,000 people have signed up to protest this weekend at the American Bankers Association conference in Chicago. This is really one mixed bag of protesters. NAPN, as I have previously reported (See here), is an ACORN want-to-be. I'm sure most of the anti-bank protesters don't have a clue about this. [snip] Bottom line the radical left is attempting to co-opt the anti-big banker movement and fold it into an anti-capitalist message.

We all know that ACORN is having some serious short term financial difficulties. Ever since the video tapes made by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles were released, ACORN's image has suffered. With that image in decline, so to has funding begun to dry up. First, several governmental agencies began to cut off funds. Then, Bank of America cut ties. With funding drying up, ACORN is having all sorts of short term funding issues. Like any other organization, when you're unable to generate revenue, you are forced to lay off and even fire. Unlike most organizations, ACORN isn't simply laying off...

WASHINGTON - During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions. The Waters amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages" to join Federal banking regulators in advising the...

ACORN founder-turned-pariah Wade Rathke explained in late July SEIU’s and ACORN’s involvement in the push for socialized medicine. Who really wants a government takeover of health care? Labor unions and tax eaters. The question remains: if and when the Congress passes “reform,” will the American people understand who is really behind it? Video at link.

WAKE UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! The whitehouse hit list just keeps growing and growing and growing and.....join us won't you!

ACORN Scandals Grow & Grow Malcolm A. Kline, October 23, 2009 When two college students pretending to be a prostitute and her pimp sought help from ACORN employees, staffers couldn’t do enough for them as the two claimed to be importing underage girls to work as ladies of the evening. The Association for Community Organizers for Reform Now responded with a lawsuit. Documentarian Andrew Breitbart, who helped distribute the videos, disputes the claims made by ACORN. “ACORN claims this is a $100 million Fox News investigation,” Breitbart said at a press conference at the National Press Club here in Washington,...

As damning video after video is released showing ACORN’s willingness to counsel lawbreakers, no one has been more willing to assassinate the character of ACORN’s opponents than the hired guns at the left-wing group Media Matters for America. As I noted yesterday, thin-skinned Jamison Foser of Media Matters wrote Oct. 16 that “some conservative activists induced a statistically insignificant number of the organization’s low-level employees to behave badly.” ...

It recently came to light that individuals employed by ACORN have been apparent accomplices with regard to the conduct of alleged criminal activities. Surprisingly, it was the investigative ingenuity of ordinary citizens who brought this information to the attention of the public. As a Member of Congress, these relevations are of interest to me in that ACORN is the beneficiary of substantial federal funding. As the former Attorney General of my state of California, this story is of great concern to me for an entirely different reason. Ironically, it is those who revealed the alleged illegal acts, rather than the...

Glenn Beck vetted Doug Hoffman, the CONSERVATIVE Republican candidate who is running for a Congressional seat in New York State, on his radio talk show this morning. He stated that Newt Gingrich has teamed up with ACORN to support Dede Scozzafava, who is also supported by the Daily Koz and the Working Family Party. Her conservative voting record had a high score of 15 out of 100. Hoffman said that 46 Democrats had a more conservative score than she, who is pro union and pro card check, among other things. A New York State Assemblywoman for eleven years, she is...

style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As the Left barrels forward with its agenda to remake the United States, Sen. John McCain has interrupted President Obama’s latest payoff to the Shadow Party. McCain announced Wednesday he would place a hold on Obama’s appointment of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker is a longtime lawyer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which donated $27.8 million to Obama’s 2008 campaign. McCain described Becker as “probably the most controversial nominee that I have seen in a long time” – and that from an administration that has nominated John Holdren, Van Jones, and...

As we know, ACORN has claimed that conservative journalists Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe were turned away from the Philadephia office and that a police report was filed to that effect. Has anyone tried filing a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the Philadephia police to determine when, if at all, ACORN filed that police report?I'm thinking it might be illuminating.

ACORN’s New York operations are looking forward to a potential new flow of federal dollars, thanks to the New York State Senate and New York Governor Paterson. Together they applied the Van Jones’ Apollo doctrine to tap into federal stimulus money allocated to New York. Governor Paterson recently signed into law something called the “Green Jobs – Green New York Act of 2009″. The new law provides for the creation of a massive slush fund of federal stimulus dollars to be set aside for “green jobs”. Those green jobs include but will not be limited to “Energy Auditors”, certified green...

ACORN Unveiled part #1: National Press Club October 21, 2009 - statement from Rep. Steve King. http://www.youtube.com/profile?edit=1#p/c/C0168B17E4FC5310/0/LpcE9ApN5qo ACORN Unveiled part #2 - Statement from Andrew Breitbart http://www.youtube.com/profile?edit=1#p/c/C0168B17E4FC5310/0/LpcE9ApN5qo ACORN Unveiled part #3 - James O'Keefe, Philadelphia video http://www.youtube.com/profile?edit=1#p/c/C0168B17E4FC5310/2/gGq5FSOtW9s ACORN Unveiled part #4 - James O'Keefe, Questions for Andrew Breitbart http://www.youtube.com/profile?edit=1#p/c/C0168B17E4FC5310/3/MV3O1VKPqso ACORN Unveild part #5 - Questions for Andrew Breitbart, Hannah Giles http://www.youtube.com/profile?edit=1#p/c/C0168B17E4FC5310/4/zecNW2S2ipk See Also: "The Media's Complicity: Analysis of ACORN Coverage" http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/21/the-medias-complicity-analysis-of-acorn-coverage/ AND: Breitbart: "ACORN has lied every step of the Way" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568830,00.html

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned. And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove...

I guess this is about as close to fairness as NPR is capable of in its reporting on ACORN. The first few paragraphs of today's NPR story on ACORN, by Kevin Whitelaw, tell you all you need to know about Whitelaw's perspective on the embattled radical advocacy group: ACORN, the community organizing group, is fighting for its survival these days, but its current plight has been years in the making. Part of the story is the group's own missteps. ACORN was founded to help low- and middle-income Americans, but its edgy tactics and a series of gaffes fed the notion...

ACORN is asking workers it is laying off to continue working at ACORN as "volunteers" but to apply to the government for unemployment benefits.

It’s like being in the middle of a “tsunami” or an “avalanche” — or maybe both at the same time. That’s how Arthur Schwartz described his experience as general counsel of ACORN amid the recent right-wing attacks and congressional caving that are bringing the national community-organizing network to its knees. In an interview with The Villager last week, Schwartz, a prominent New York City labor attorney and longtime member of Community Board 2 in Greenwich Village, where he lives with his family, painted a dire picture of ACORN. Speaking in his office in the Unite Here! headquarters building at 26th...