Posted on 09/11/2009 9:26:24 AM PDT by conimbricenses
Obama and ACORN:
Barack Obama has publicly denied ever working for ACORN in his career as a “community organizer.” In 1992 Obama got one of his first “community organizing” jobs with an outfit called “Project Vote” as its state organizer for Illinois:
“Sneed hears a massive voter registration drive on the South and West sides is being conducted by Gary Gardner, president of Soft Sheen products, Joe Gardner, former strategist for Mayor Harold Washington, and Barack Obama, a state director of Project Vote, a national voter registration group.” – Chicago Sun Times, August 2, 1992
So what was “Project Vote” all about? Let’s allow Barack Obama himself to explain it:
If Project Vote is to reach its goal of registering 150,000 out of an estimated 400,000 unregistered blacks statewide, "it must average 10,000 rather than 7,000 every week," says Barack Obama, the program's executive director…. "Our biggest problem is the young, the 18 to 35 group," said Obama, 31, the first African American to serve as president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. "There's a lot of talk about 'black power' among the young but so little action." During the 1982 preparation for the 1983 victories of the late Mayor Harold Washington, a similar drive waved the slogan "Come Alive by October 5." The current drive's new banner is "It's a Power Thing," which is loaded with logic. "Today, we see hundreds of young blacks talking 'black power' and wearing Malcolm X T-shirts," Obama explained, "but they don't bother to register and vote. We remind them that Malcolm once made a speech titled 'The Ballot or the Bullet,' and that today we've got enough bullets in the streets but not enough ballots." The best news from Obama is that Project Vote, which has the financial backing of Soft Sheen hair-care magnate Edward Gardner, may become a permanent, year-round program based on: Ongoing community "accountability sessions" that include surveillance of black as well as other elected officials. Continuous voter education on crucial issues facing the City Council, the state legislature and the U.S. Congress - broken down in laymen's language understandable at the grass-roots level. "All our people must know that politics and voting affects their lives directly," Obama said. "If we're registering people in public housing, for an example, we talk about aid cuts and who's responsible.” – Chicago Sun-Times, August 11, 1992
You read that right. “Project Vote,” run in Illinois by state coordinator Barack H. Obama, was a radical black power organization. Project Vote was something else too though. It was an ACORN-affiliated voter registration group that was active in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Here’s a description of it from a news article during the 1992 campaign when Obama was working for them:
“Sandy Newman, exec. dir of Project VOTE!, a national non-partisan, non-profit voter participation organization which targets African-American communities, announced that registration efforts have added "over a half million" new voters to the rolls -- "most of them in swing presidential states with close Senate races," including IL, PA, MI, OH, NY, CA, MD and CT. Project VOTE! has increased African-American registrations by 24% in PA, 11% in IL and 13% in MI…In NYC, Project VOTE! with ACORN and the NY Public Interest Research Group, added more than 90,000 voters” – The Hotline, October 8, 1992.
Project Vote’s connections to ACORN are deep and they go back at least to the early 80’s. During the 1984 election Project Vote and ACORN formed a coalition with a bunch of other far left groups to register voters. Not surprisingly, the Project Vote from back then is not all that different from today. Their favorite recruitment strategy is a familiar one – go down to the welfare line and “recruit” people.
“Project Vote, which registered voters in cheese and food stamp lines, unemployment and welfare offices and other social agencies, said it had signed up 500,000 and expects that number to reach 650,000 before Election Day…In Tennessee, Steve Miller, state director of Project Vote, said, "The next 48 hours could very well determine what might happen in the election." A consumer activist group called ACORN announced plans in Little Rock to register 2,000 low income voters by Oct. 16. "We'll work weekends, we'll work grocery stores and in parking lots to sign up these voters," said Elena Hangii, national president of the organization.” – Mike Feinsilber, “New Voters Signed Up in a One-Day Blitz” Associated Press, October 5, 1984
That’s not all though. ACORN and Project Vote had a long-standing partnership to assist left wing Democrat political campaigns. They appeared together several times in the 80’s and early 90’s:
“Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now also has called off its campaign for the city administrator proposal because of the city Board's commitment to implement the Act 840 plan. ACORN spokesmen said last week that Rev. Helen Fleming of the nonprofit Project Vote organizations at Washington, who came to Little Rock recently to help ACORN with the city administrator campaign, will no longer campaign on the change of government issue but will work with ACORN on other matters.” – Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 2, 1987
And again…
“From Chicago to Arkansas, from Missouri to Pennsylvania, organizations representing blacks, Hispanics and the poor are complaining that state and local political leaders of both parties are trying to keep registration down--and them out. Project Vote--which specializes in registering poor people on unemployment lines, in welfare offices and in food distribution centers--has filed suit in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Missouri to gain access to those public facilities. All four states had Republican governors at the time… "I think we are creating the impression that this is something that could be very big, and there is talk about a movement comparable to 1964-65 around registration," said Hulbert James, president of the Human Serve Fund, a drive similar to Project Vote seeking to register the poor at government facilities. A week and a half ago, these two groups, along with such organizations as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the National Organization for Women (NOW), the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Americans for Democratic Action, declared "a national voting rights emergency" as part of an effort to boost the general registration drive.” – Thomas B. Edsall, “Flip Side of Voter Drives,” Washington Post, June 24, 1984
And another…
“The Alliance for Justice, a coalition of church, community, labor, women's and black organiziations, will hold "Registration Sundays" in 750 churches in 26 cities aimed at registering poor people to vote. The group includes the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the National Congress of Black Churches, Church Women United and Project Vote.” – “Meanwhile,” Washington Post, February 9, 1984
And another…
“As an example of a new round of action by these groups, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, has organized tent cities across the country, including New York and Newark, and called them ''Reagan ranches.'' Project Vote, a new organization, sent people across the country to register people in unemployment, welfare and food stamp lines. It says it added 82,000 names to the voting rolls.” – John Herbers, “Activists Taking New Political Roles” New York Times, October 31, 1982
But here’s the real kicker. Project Vote/ACORN was every bit as corrupt back then as it is today. Here’s a little gem about their voter fraud activities in Cleveland during the 1992 campaign season at the same time Barack Obama was running their office in Chicago:
“Thaddeus J. Jackson, who resigned last month as chairman of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, pleaded guilty yesterday to improperly using his influence to secure payment of $2,400 from a voter registration group…Jackson has acknowledged taking $2,400 over the summer from Project Vote, a group that promotes voter registration among minorites. He claimed he acted as a consultant for the group, which the fact-finder, retired federal Judge Richard M. Markus, labeled a probable breach of ethics. Jackson also ordered board employees to photocopy the registration cards of 32,000 new voters. Jackson said the work, which was not authorized by the board, was to help in a private study on minority registration trends. Jackson has denied that he sold the copies to Project Vote.” – Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 19, 1992Obama and ACORN go way back. That’s what he really meant by “community organizing” and that’s why he’s in bed with them today.
Hm, Chicago+Community Organizing+Voting = ACORN,
....Are we surprised? Not!
Not exactly breaking news.
ACORN has hundreds of front groups
Check out this link for details of bo’s communist connections:
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-file-78-smoking-gun-proof-that.html
“Sneed hears a massive voter registration drive on the South and West sides is being conducted by Gary Gardner, president of Soft Sheen products,”
Soft Sheen? LOL, is that like Soul Glo from the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America? I always wondered if Obama came to America from Kenya to find his Queen! /sarc
Barack Obama was never an ACORN community organizer.Well, that clears that up. /sBarack was never an ACORN trainer and was never an employee of ACORN.
ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack led in 1992.
As an attorney, Barack worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to represent ACORN and other voter's rights groups in a lawsuit to enforce the widely praised federal Motor Voter Law in Illinois.
The Huffington Post has laid out the evidence showing the truth about Barack, ACORN, and these smears. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/05/smears-contradicted-obama_n_132098.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/03/obama-camp-debunks-voter_n_131686.html
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/obama_lies_claims_he_never_worked_for_acorn/
That's true.
HE WAS THEIR LAWYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m impressed that there is ANY evidence that he had ANY job at all prior to becoming a Senator.
Did he need to show his birth certificate prior to being hired?
I appreciate the thread—do you have links so we can archive? It’s nice to have evidence with original sources
Given what we know about ACORN, i’m surprised they didn’t hire him to set up a brothel.
It can all be found on news archive sites like Lexis Nexis, but unfortunately most of these articles are from the pre-internet era of news.
With billions of our dollars stuffed into their treasury ACORN becomes the first federally funded criminal organization. Oblabas Alma Mater, who would have guessed?
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/
Yup, we confirmed this well before the election last year.
bump for after work
bumped and marked for future reference.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.