Free Republic

Monday August 30, 2010 Congressmen Seek to Undermine Embryonic Stem Cell Ruling by Changing Law Senate aide: codifying Obama order "wouldn't do the trick" By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., August 30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Members in both chambers of U.S. Congress are angling to alter federal law in order to undermine a district court judge's temporary injunction that effectively puts a stop to the onset of taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research.U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled last Monday that Obama's March 2009 Executive Order, which permitted public funds for the research involving the destruction of embryonic human beings, directly conflicted with...

Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel defended himself on the House floor Tuesday, daring members to expel him. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) maintained that he did not intentionally break any House rules and complained about the investigation and trial process conducted by the House ethics panel, which has brought 13 charges against him. "It may be stupid, it may be negligent, but it's not corrupt," Rangel said in a meandering speech that lasted more than 30 minutes. In professing his innocence of all charges, Rangel also invited the ethics panel and House to take its shot at expelling him. "I'm not asking...

Inmates at a South Florida jail were masters at picking Uncle Sam's pocket, filing for more than $1 million in bogus tax refunds. Now the feds are fighting back.(snip)Detainees turned the IRS into their own private ATM, filing for about $1 million in fraudulent refunds. Before the scam was uncovered, they hauled in as much as $100,000 for themselves, their friends and relatives, say past and present law-enforcement officials. It was easy money. ``I was shocked that inmates could steal from the IRS that easily and that blatantly and not be prosecuted. Even when the case was handed to them...

An income tax fraud scheme discovered during a drug raid Thursday night is expected to lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal tax refunds. “I wouldn’t be surprised it went into the millions,” Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said during a news conference Friday. Agents went to a mobile home on Sligo Road, just off Egypt Road in the Rockledge community, Thursday night to raid a suspected methamphetamine distribution ring and discovered more evidence than expected in the tax scheme.

Man Pleads Guilty to Filing 250 Tax Returns for Dead People Riverside, Calif. (January 27, 2010) By WebCPA Staff A California man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. after he was accused of filing at least 250 tax returns of deceased individuals. Haroon Amin of Upland, Calif., pleaded guilty Monday to the charges. He was indicted, along with Ather Ali of Diamond Bar, Calif., in December 2008. The two were accused of filing the returns in 2002 and 2003 falsely stating that the deceased individuals earned wages from which income tax was withheld. The false returns claimed...

Last month we reported on new videos obtained by the (Christian Action Network) which showed terrorist training at the Jamaat al-Fuqra/Muslims of America headquarters compound in Hancock, NY. In the past few days we were contacted by a law enforcement source about a plot by members of the same Jamaat al-Fuqra compound in Hancock to engage in a massive tax return fraud plot using contacts obtained through mosques in New York and using the money to send to their sheikh, terrorist leader Mubarak Gilani, in Pakistan. Al-Fuqra recruits heavily in prisons, and many male members of the group are convicted...

A new federal rewards program dishes out cash to people who turn in friends, relatives and employers for fudging their tax returns. For 24 years Vincent A. Spondello toiled away as an accountant for a group of related companies known as Monex, a large Newport Beach, Calif. precious metals dealer. A trusted employee, he prepared tax returns and was given such tasks as overseeing the destruction of old corporate documents. It turns out that some records that were supposedly destroyed he took home instead. In May Spondello sent 25 boxes of original Monex papers to the Internal Revenue Service--documents that...

Authorities say he was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home's pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived...

Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. This story offers a dramatic demonstration that, despite the housing bubble causing the worst economic downturn in generations, the ideology of home ownership is alive and well in the United States and still being supported by the government. Without question, Tejada's loan is toxic--to her and to the taxpayers who are backing the loan. Her house cost $155,000. Tejada's loan was apparently made on a micro-down payment of just 3.5%, the minimum down payment to...

Evidence continues to accumulate from far and wide that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is lousy with corruption. The latest revelations come from Louisiana and Oklahoma. In the former, the local ACORN Housing Corp. office received contracts worth a combined $625,000 from the City of New Orleans for repairing existing low-income housing and developing new units in poor neighborhoods. The contracts were paid for with funds from federal Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An investigation by the Pelican Institute think tank of New Orleans, however, found that no work...

This broke earlier this morning. Bank of America Corp. is suspending its work with the housing affiliate of embattled community organizing group ACORN. The decision comes as three Republicans in Congress ask Bank of America and 13 other financial institutions to give Congress a complete accounting of their dealings with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates.

Taxpayer-Owned Citigroup Still Bankrolling ACORN Submitted by Peter Flaherty on Sun, 09/27/2009 - 18:59   Now that taxpayers are Citigroup’s biggest shareholder, owning 36% of common stock, it is time for the company and its foundation to end its relationship with ACORN and its affiliates.Citigroup has received $45 billion in taxpayer TARP funds. In addition, taxpayers are on the hook for the lion’s share of losses on the company’s $335 billion loan portfolio.According to the 2008 annual tax return of the Citi Foundation, it provided the ACORN Institute, Inc. with grants of $500,000 for each of the years 2006, 2007...

Like rats deserting a sinking ship, ACORN's many enablers over the years are racing for the exits as the scope of the organization's shenanigans come to light. Even leftist fellow-traveler -- and, until now, stalwart ACORN defender -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is squirming. What took them so long? We've been warning about the group for ages.

More bad news for the Democratic Parties Favorite community organizing group, ACORN. While Harry Reid continues to get heat at home for refusing to allow Senate hearings on ACORN, Senator Grassley had his staff do a little investigation of their own. According to the Capital Research Center, Grassley (R-Iowa), asked the IRS to probe ACORN – and asked that the group be dropped from the Combined Federal Campaign (a charitable program for government workers). This is not the first time the Senator has gone after the ACORN criminal enterprise, in 2006 he asked the IRS to investigate ACORN for voter...

WASHINGTON – The embattled community activist group ACORN appears to be collecting charitable contributions through affiliate organizations that it then uses for impermissible lobbying and political activity, says the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee. The assessment, in a memo to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, further fuels the controversy surrounding ACORN, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The GOP staff memo says ACORN-affiliated charities are being used to raise money which is then funneled to other charities or other organizations for purposes other than what a donor may have intended. In response, ACORN chief...

The IRS yesterday severed its ties with ACORN, the profoundly corrupt community organizing group embroiled in a seemingly never-ending string of controversies, criminal investigations and voter registration fraud charges.  Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau also severed ties with the group. The latest controversy is over the series of videos covertly taped by new media journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.  In these videos, O’Keefe and Giles, posing as a pimp and prostitute, are given tax advice by ACORN representatives in different cities across the country.   The tax advice included listing “performance artist” as the prostitute’s employment code in...

ACORN being called a criminal enterprise. Despite years of warning signs that ACORN was violating the law, many state attorneys general have not investigated the organization or brought enforcement actions. State attorneys general, besides being the chief enforcement officers for violations of state laws, claim unique law enforcement authority over nonprofits. The reasons for inaction by state attorneys general may explain why ACORN is such a problem. ACORN has developed close ties, to put it mildly, with many state attorneys general as well as others deep in the Democrat establishment. The relationship between ACORN and Democrats may be described as...

See video @ WDSU: IRS Leins on ACORN

Bank of America is even still referring people to the ACORN offices caught on tape. A sample from the banks' website: Local Home Ownership Programs We work with local and national organizations to bring potential homebuyers education and financial resources to obtain a mortgage. Phoenix * ACORN. Bank of America works with Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Housing to provide special mortgage products to potential homeowners in Phoenix. For more information, call ACORN's Phoenix office at 1.602.253.1111 or visit the website at www.acornhousing.org. * NCLR. Bank of America works with National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to...

It now looks very much like there was a lot more truth to the criticisms about ACORN—the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now—than its leadership, its allies on Capitol Hill and its supporters in the media were willing to acknowledge.... This latest round of problems for ACORN may be the best documented, but they are not the first nor, for that matter, are they the most serious. A report issued last summer by the Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to Sunday's Washington Times, "presented evidence that ACORN had engaged in criminal misconduct." Among the...