ACORN's latest scandal should be last straw

The organization can no longer be effective in achieving its goal of social justice and stronger communities.

ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- touts itself as "the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities."

But ACORN can no longer be effective at achieving its goals. The organization is so mired in scandal it will never recover.

According to a report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a subpoena issued in an investigation of ACORN by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell claims $5 million was embezzled from the organization. That's five times more than previously believed.

Initial reports were that Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, had embezzled nearly $1 million in funds from the organization 10 years ago.

But Dale Rathke remained on the ACORN payroll eight years even after the theft was discovered and the crime was hidden from ACORN's Board of Directors because of fears it would be used as a "weapon" against the group.

According to the Times-Picayune report the subpoena says, "Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million."

This comes on the heels of this summer's undercover videos that showed ACORN staff members promoting child prostitution, tax evasion and other crimes. These videos were shot at ACORN field offices by student journalists posing as a pimp and prostitute.

The liberal organization, which has long been a target of conservative commentators -- particularly talk radio -- was lambasted over this one. Frankly, ACORN should have been roasted. What the ACORN staff members did was outrageous.

In a speech at the National Press Club this week, Bertha Lewis, ACORN CEO, denounced the employees' actions caught on tape. She said the videos "made my stomach turn."

That's not nearly enough to get ACORN off the hook considering that long before the latest incidents ACORN was involved in other controversies, including voter fraud.

At this point, ACORN has become the symbol of all that's wrong with liberal policies. Democratic politicians are no longer standing by the organization. Its federal funding is going to slow to a trickle, if not evaporate.

But even if ACORN were to clean house and right its ship, the public wouldn't buy it. Its image is so tainted that the only productive use of the ACORN name is as a punch line on a late-night talk show.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMPLAINT
January 7, 2009
IN RE: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW

EXCERPT The undersigned State Board delegates and National Board members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) file this criminal complaint against ACORN Staff and Executive Board members for fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy and concealment, and criminal civil rights violations. Additionally, since there has already been the public admission that a felony was committed, it is also possible that other federal offenses have also been committed including but not limited to;

Title 18 U.S.C. §1341, Mail Fraud;

18 U.S.C.§1001, Presenting a False Document to the an Agent of the United States Government;

18 U.S.C.§1027 False statements and concealment of facts in relation to documents required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and other possible offenses including civil and/or criminal RICO violations;

18 U.S.C. §§1961-68 (RICO Act);

18 U.S.C. §1001 (False Statements to Agents of the U.S. Government);

18 U.S.C. §1341 (Mail Fraud),

18 U.S.C. §1027 (ERISA Violations), and,

18 U.S.C. §241(Conspiracy Against Civil Rights).

Finally, the complainants contend that full investigations of a RICO conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. §1962(c) are warranted because they assert that (1) the defendant persons (2) were employed by or associated with an enterprise (3) that engaged in or affected interstate commerceand that (4) the defendant persons operated or managed the enterprise (5) through a pattern (6) of racketeering activity, and (7) the complaints were injured in its business or property by reason of the pattern of racketeering activity. Thus, the complainants feel that a formal RICO investigation is also warranted.

--SNIP-- 24 pp complaint

SOURCE http://www.acorn-8.net/PDFs/USAttComp.pdf

In a shocking report, Elizabeth Kingsley, who is an ACORN attorney, expressed concerns that ACORN and Project Vote may have violated federal laws because of how they interacted. Project Vote, the Kingsley report says, hires ACORN to perform voter registration drives.. Project Vote is a 501(c)(3) federally tax-exempt organization, which means that it is subject to prohibitions on partisan political activity.

ACORN, however, is not subject to those same restrictions, because it is not federally tax exempt. Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, told the New York Times that,“Project Vote and Acorn have a written agreement that specifies that all work is nonpartisan.”

Kingsley, however, claims that the way records were kept made it impossible for her to tellwhether or not PV's money had, at the end of the day, been used for strictly non-partisan purposes. Until 2007, Project Vote's board was exclusively composed of ACORN staff. Kingsley said about this, "As a result, we may not be able to prove that 501(c)3 resources are not being directed to specific regions based on impermissible partisanconsiderations." Kingsley also claims that governance issues plagued the organizations, writing, "Board meetings are not held, or if they are, minutes are not kept, or if minutes are kept, theynever make it into the files.

"Several Project Vote board members claim that they were unaware that they served on Project Vote's board: George Hampton, listed as a board member on federal tax filings from 1994-2006, said that he had never heard of Project Vote. Cleo Mata, listed as a board member on tax forms from 1997 to 2006, also said she was not aware she was on the Project Vote board.

Although ACORN represents itself as separate from its related or associated entities, these companies are in reality all ACORN. The ACORN entities share common goals, management, control, locations, financial management and interlocking directors and staff. (In a presentation to ACORN Funders, Steve Kest describes the Association or “ACORN Family” of as one corporation.)

AARP is in the ACorn/SEIU mix as well.

From the article: ‘Help pass Obama’s health care reform! Earn $325-$550 per week!’ KNOW THY ENEMY!
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=aarp

Immigration...healthcare...ALL the same enforcers....

SEIU & AARP....FYI

“AARP does not operate a PAC, but its employees gave candidates, committees and parties $53,200, with Democrats receiving 90 percent of that.”
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/02/special-interests-to-listen-ca.html

SEIU & AARP...joined at the hip and helping write amnesty/healthcare legislation. AARP uses your dollars to fund the likes of:

MALDEF - Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund

AARP says: “”Anybody who looks at immigration has to look at aging,” says Harry R. Moody, director of academic affairs at AARP. “First, immigration affects the age structure of society” by adding younger members to the population, he says. “Second, the people who do hands-on care work are immigrants. Look at our nursing homes! We have an image of people picking tomatoes — that’s not the whole story. Immigrants are the front-line caregivers.”
http://www.maldef.org/truthinimmigration/camarota_asks_how_many_americans09072008/index.html

& http://www.americanpatrol.com/MALDEF/Contributors-2002-2003.html (Fannie Mae gives to them, too!)

AARP also contributes to LULAC

La Raza
http://www.nclr.org/section/awards
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/03/the-left-wing-mortgage-counseling-racket/

And from AARP’s ‘Latino’ magazine....
http://www.aarpsegundajuventud.org/english/presence/index.html

Meet AARP’s New CEO: A. Barry Rand

A. Barry Rand, chairman of the Board of Trustees at Howard University and a nationally recognized agent for social change, has been tapped as AARP’s new chief executive officer. He will become the organization’s first African American CEO when he assumes the position in April.

AARP Welcomes Jacob Lozada

AARP Board member Jacob Lozada gives AARP Segunda Juventud readers his perspective on issues facing U.S. Hispanics and how he hopes to boost AARP’s profile in his native Puerto Rico.

AND AARP works hand in hand with the SEIU. They are the ones formulating the legislation that the dems are pushing.

“– AARP, Business Roundtable and SEIU, which together represent more than 50 million Americans, today took another groundbreaking step for their “Divided We Fail” group by jointly delivering endorsed principles for health information technology (IT) legislation to Congress.

http://www.businessroundtable.org/press_release/aarp_business_roundtable_and_seiu_deliver_end

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