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Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has recently stated her concerns about ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, involvement in the upcoming census where ACORN will be going door-to-door gathering personal information on every resident. Congresswoman Bachmann has told the media that she will only provide the “size of her family” to the census taker which she argues is the only requirement of the Constitution.
She adds that ACORN, the organization with which president Obama previously worked as a community organizer, is to get upwards of $8.5 billion in federal taxpayer funds for the census. ACORN has been alleged to having engaged in voter fraud in several states including indictments in Nevada and Pennsylvania. Let us not overlook the issue of payback in that presidential candidate Obama paid an Acorn affiliate $832,000 in the primary election to get out the vote. A listing of ACORN’s questionable nationwide conduct is listed at the end of this blog post.
Juice readers. Are you concerned about your privacy in providing answers to questions beyond the size of your family?
Do you agree with the Congresswoman that her understanding of our legal obligations in responding to the survey is accurate?
Should the census bureau issue a multibillion dollar contract to ACORN to conduct the next US census with the following track record of voter fraud?
Need a job? Why not sign up to be a census taker in your own community.
www.rottenacorn.com lists the following data on their web site:
“Nation-wide investigations into ACORN’s role in voter fraud have yielded dozens of indictments. Nevada recently charged ACORN with 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. In Pennsylvania, seven Pittsburgh-area ACORN employees were charged with falsifying voter registration forms. Six of them were accused of doing so to meet an illegal quota system.”
Listing of Fraud Allegations
State Year Details
AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.
CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.
2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
CT 2008 The New York Post reported that ACORN submitted a voter registration card for a 7-year-old Bridgeport girl. Another 8,000 cards from the same city will be scrutinized for possible fraud.
FL 2008 Election officials in Brevard County have given prosecutors more than 23 suspect registrations from ACORN. The state’s Division of Elections is also investigating complaints in Orange and Broward Counties.
2004 A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said ACORN was “singled out” among suspected voter registration groups for a 2004 wage initiative because it was “the common thread” in the agency’s fraud investigations.
IN 2008 Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.
MI 2008 Clerks in Detroit found a “sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent [voter] applications” from the Michigan branch of ACORN. Those applications have been turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s office for investigation.
2004 The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.
MO 2008 Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.
2007 Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.
2006 Eight ACORN employees in St. Louis were indicted on federal election fraud charges. Each of the eight faces up to five years in prison for forging signatures and submitting false information.
2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.
MN 2004 During a traffic stop, police found more than 300 voter registration cards in the trunk of a former ACORN employee, who had violated a legal requirements that registration cards be submitted to the Secretary of State within 10 days of being filled out and signed.
NC 2008 County elections officials have sent suspicious voter registration applications to the state Board of Elections. Many of the applications had similar or identical names, but with different addresses or dates of birth.
2004 North Carolina officials investigated ACORN for submitting fake voter registration cards.
NM 2008 Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.
2005 Four ACORN employees submitted as many as 3,000 potentially fraudulent signatures on the group’s Albuquerque ballot initiative. A local sheriff added: “It’s safe to say the forgery was widespread.”
2004 An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote. Citing this and other examples, New Mexico State Representative Joe Thompson stated that ACORN was “manufacturing voters” throughout New Mexico.
NV 2009 Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
2008 Nevada state authorities raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.
OH 2008 ACORN activists gave Ohio residents cash and cigarettes in exchange for filling out voter registration card, according to the New York Post. Some voters claim to have registered dozens of times, and one man says he signed up on 72 cards.
2007 A man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of illegal voting and false registration, after being registered by ACORN to vote in two separate counties.
2004 A grand jury indicted a Columbus ACORN worker for submitting a false signature and false voter registration form. In Franklin County, two ACORN workers submitted what the director of the board of election supervisors called “blatantly false” forms. In Cuyahoga County, ACORN and its affiliate Project Vote submitted registration cards that had the highest rate of errors for any voter registration group.
PA 2009 Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
2008 State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found “clearly fraudulent” signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
2004 Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.
TX 2008 In Harris County, nearly 10,000 ACORN-submitted registrations were found to be invalid, including many with clearly fraudulent addresses or other personal information.
2008 ACORN turned in the voter registration form of David Young, who told reporters “The signature is not my signature. It’s not even close.” His social security number and date of birth were also incorrect.
VA 2005 In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.
In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. “Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia.”
WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.
WI 2008 At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies.
2004 The district attorney’s office investigated seven voter registration applications Project Vote employees filed in the names of people who said the group never contacted them. Former Project Vote employee Robert Marquise Blakely told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had not met with any of the people whose voter registration applications he signed, “an apparent violation of state law,” according to the paper.
Your facts are all wrong – even Bachmann’s list of potential fundng for ACORN doesn’t list the Census Bureau.
Sounds strange, the DOC Census Bureau hires their temp employees direct, after a background check.
I am almost sure that it is against the law to sub-contract out any of census work. Check out Title 13
http://uscode.house.gov/download/title_13.shtml
Larry M. While the questions at the end of this post were mine, none of the facts were created by me. I will try to post the audio clip link from which I got this data.
Larry M and Cook.
Here is the Washington Times report which includes the audio clip that I used in this post
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/17/exclusive-minn-lawmaker-fears-census-abuse/
I was wondering if anyone here was ever going to post anything about ACORN. While the majority of the major media has ignored what is fast becoming a long record of corruption, fraud, embezzlement and old fashioned street thugs a few outlets are starting to report just how intertwined ACORN is with the major unions and the government. Yes it is correct ACORN will be heavily involved in the census taking, legal or not.
#5 Anonplus,
I just went to the Wiki source for the cliffs notes version of what ACORN is all about. It seems like they’ve made mistakes, have had to pay fines/fees for those mistakes. It also seems to be a highly political flashpoint/talking point for those on the extreme right and GOP commentators. They are a progressives group. They have had a history since 1980’s.
Obama used their services for a fee during the primaries, but did not use them again for the national presidential campaign. There just seems to be a lot of energy to blame ACORN in inaccurate depictions over and over again on the website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now
This part caught my eye:
Throughout the election season, supporters of Republican candidates portrayed ACORN’s submission of invalid voter registration applications as widespread vote fraud. Republican presidential candidate John McCain claimed in the last presidential debate that ACORN was “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” Factcheck.org called the claim “breathtakingly inaccurate”.[52] In October 2008, Sen. McCain’s campaign released a Web-based advertisement claiming ACORN was responsible for “massive voter fraud”, a point repeated in the final presidential debate. The ads also claimed that home loan programs ACORN promoted were partly responsible for the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Both claims were found to be exaggerated and inaccurate.
If you could provide legitimate links to your grave concerns over ACORN, it would be greatly appreciated, b/c the verifiable information on that wiki site simply does not seem to indicate this long record of corruption, fraud, embezzlement and street thugs ( that are starting to be reported).
I bring this up, not to be contentious, but I think we all owe each other an attempt to portray what is truthful and accurate and tease out what is simply politically motivated blame shifting and unfair attempts to discredit others/organizations. I’d like to be able to see the links to what is spin and what is verifiable.
Red. Sorry to disappoint you but I have read that Obama DID utilize the services of an ACORN affiliate in the primaries. Somewhere to the tune of $832,000. Shall we split hairs on the name?
That, my blogger colleague, is not “chump change.”
Red. Part II. If Obama did not use ACORN in the primaries, Hillary Clinton might have been your party’s standard bearer. Therefore they did have an impact in the 2008 election
Red,
I figured this would get your hackles up a bit. We agree over on the other thread about corruption and you can multiply that times 100 as to ACORN. In fact the local district is almost following the same model. I’ll have to re-research and get back to you. I didn’t keep the links only because after awhile ACORN will make your head explode…8)
Larry,
with NO SUPPORTING LINK FROM YOU ON THIS subject of fees paid, I think the Wiki link will have to suffice. Obama DID use ACORN for the primaries, but did not use them again for the national election. Unless you have other VERIFIABLE links, the wiki link stands. Just as I posted. At the wiki link they made a reference to basically the money amount that you posted. for the PRIMARIES (not sure why that is such a point of contention for you, but there it is).
Anonplus,
well, it certainly sounds like the ACORN information is juicy and plentiful. I look forward to seeing the links and accompanying text you’ll supply.
I have done a ton of research on this and the ACORN hip is seriously thin. It’s a bunch of talking points and half truths. The Voter Reg stuff was perpetrated by a handful of crappy employees – in most every case – other than the NV one where a supervisor unwisely made a benefit system (and he obviously didn’t know the laws and seems that he was a very bad hire and worker, though maybe did have good intentions in the matter – you know, most workers appreciate a bonus for good work – but this was illegal and misguided).
All in all – ACORN registered TONS of new voters and made it easier for them to become involved politically, that shouldn’t be looked at as a negative! If we had universal voter reg they wouldn’t have to do that work. I’m sure they would rather do the work they used to be more well known for (cleaning up blighted neighborhoods and empowering low income communities). And the fact that their communities are mainly black and latino and voted Democratic shouldn’t surprise anyone. If a christian org did Voter Reg they would go to their bases and would most likely register more repubs – I’m sure that they would also encounter fraud if they did a HUGE program like ACORN did.
ACORN goes knocking on doors in horrible neighborhoods. Places that would seriously scare a lot of people. Therefore they hire people that come from those neighborhoods. It makes sense that some would have criminal backgrounds and ACORN gives them a second chance – something that many employers would not do. ACORN pays their part time workers pretty good (the job isn’t glamorous and like I said: dangerous neighborhoods!) and they provide some sort of stability and a way for people to feel and be invested in their neighborhoods and the future.
I think thats why Obama and maybe even the census hired them. Can’t really send a bunch of college kids into some of those places – people won’t respect or talk to them. And if you check craigslist they are always hiring for different “canvass” jobs – so they ARE hiring local folks to do the work. They are just better equipped to go into the ghetto.
ACORN is getting a bad rap. And they aren’t perfect. What non-profit is? I work for a nationally recognized faith based (very conservative) org and we are messy also! We have to bid and work for contracts and sometimes things go horribly wrong. I’ve lived in 3 cities with ACORN offices – they look like crap! Falling apart and run down. But the people that work there are very passionate and work really long hours and have done wonderful things in some of the communities that I also work in. It’s sad that they don’t get recognized for that stuff.
#11 tupre,
Welcome and thank you for posting your comments at Orange Juice! blog.
I appreciate your personal observations. It helps to get a better view of the overall operations.
I am sure that Larry and Anonplus will be around SOON with all those promised links and juicy, ample stories of corruption that ACORN practies according to GOP talking heads. They promised!
😉
And in case anyone wants to know: NO, I am NOT tupre and NO i didn’t send them here. It was all Larry – he knows how to write a story worth commenting on! Nice work, Larry.
Red,
I realize all of these designated right wing media outlets such as: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, American Spectator and National Review along with the Right wing Fox network are easily dismissed by the left, but those are the only places you are going to find anything about ACORN.
While tupre is partly right in some of it is repetative and not new, it’s the potential that is so interesting. To make this simple the best place is to start with the ACORN 8. You can consider them disgruntled employees or whistle blowers but whatever they are, like the SAUSD thread, they open the door. There own webpage (complete with donations requests) pretty much tells their side of the story.
http://www.acorn-8.net/?page_id=56
These folks were desperate enough to turn to FOX’S Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. Several interviews are embedded on these webpages and pretty much capsulate the overall picture.
If you are still interested after that you can read the various articles at these links. By the way, can’t anyone edit the Wikipedia to “correct” content?
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/02/05/no-justice-no-peace/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/19/hill-panel-testimony-to-accuse-acorn-of-mob-tactic/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/01/conyers-weighing-probe-of-acorn/
From there you can go back to these articles from 2008 and 2006 to see this has been festering for a long time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html?_r=1
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-acorn_squash.htm
Red. The “primaries” are key in every election and should not be written off by anyone.
Let me shift gears slightly to use another illustration closer to home.
The Republican Party primaries, in “safe” districts, determine who the winner will be every other November. The same is true for all Democratic representatives in their gerrymandered districts.
Check out the number of elected officials who are re-elected vs their contenders.
The fight for state and congressional seats is always in the primaries. Enogh said on that issue.
Ask Hillary Clinton if an ACORN connected firm getting close to one million dollars from the Obama campaign didn’t impact her losing.
Anonplus. Did you read the following reports as included in the above post?
Did you take note of indictments handed down in both Nevada and Pennsylvania?
If you disagree with the facts as stated, can you provide evidence to the Juice readers that they are incorrect?
“NV 2009 Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
2008 Nevada state authorities raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters as part of a task force investigation of election fraud. Fraudulent registrations included players from the Dallas Cowboys.
PA 2009 Seven ACORN workers in the Pittsburgh area were indicted for submitting falsified voter registration forms. Six of the seven were also indicted for registering voters under an illegal quota system.
2008 State election officials have thrown out 57,435 voter registrations, the majority of which were submitted by ACORN. The registrations were thrown out after officials found “clearly fraudulent” signatures, vacant lots listed as addresses, and other signs of fraud.
2008 An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records. A second ACORN worker pleaded not guilty to the same charges and is free on $10,000 bail.
2004 Reading’s Director of Elections received calls from numerous individuals complaining that ACORN employees deliberately put inaccurate information on their voter registration forms. The Berks County director of elections said voter fraud was “absolutely out of hand,” and added: “Not only do we have unintentional duplication of voter registration but we have blatant duplicate voter registrations.” The Berks County deputy director of elections added that ACORN was under investigation by the Department of Justice.”
To sum up. In the state of PA. Over 57,000 registrations were thrown out of which most were attributed to ACORN. When the integrity of any firm is questioned I surely would not thank them for prior support by awarding them a multibillion dollar contract.
And yes, we shouldn’t throw all of the ACORN workers under the bus but the census and voter registration are significant tasks that demand and deserve the highest integrity of ALL involved.
Larry,
I was just trying to be clear on what the information via the link SAID. If anything, the fact that Obama didn’t use them for the national election is something a bit suspect to me. However, I couldn’t find anything “wrong” as a reason why he chose not to use them again.
And Anonplus,
I am disappointed. YOU are the one making vague allegations and the first site I read is the american spectator. Buuzzzzzzz! That is not the NYTimes. I am not gonna sort thru a load of links looking for proof of your vague allegations.
I’d take you much more seriously if you said: This is what the problem is -> here is the link -> here is the highlighted quote from the link.
To me, that would give us some common ground. I don’t see you pulling my leg like this when it came to looking over the CAM stuff. You detailed it out. Right now… you seem to be triffling with me. Where’s the BEEF?
Whoa Larry! Obviously I came across 180 degrees from my intent. While I said tupre was partly right, I was NOT referring to the indictments or actually any of the content of his comment. I was referring to the links I was posting as being repetitive in content about the 8 year old embezzlement used repeatedly as a talking point. That was my error. I was thinking about one thing while inadvertently making reference to another.
Larry we are on the same page. I am aware of the various indictments and the validity. I’m aware that ACORNS claim of rogue employees is BS and of the Nevada ACORN illegal “quota” system.
I emphasized the links I used as right wing media only because I expected Red’s reaction that they would not be worth the read. (Although I was disappointed that she actually responded that way)
Now Red what is your beef again? You want me to spoon feed you the content of each link to substantiate my prior comment? That wasn’t what you originally asked for. To quote, “I’d like to be able to see the links to what is spin and what is verifiable.”
The first link you came across should have been on the ACORN 8, not the Spectator article. As I said before, The ACORN 8 are the group of ACORN insider whistle blowers. I provided that first because you obviously weren’t familiar with ACORN and willing to take an editable Wikipedia cliff note version as gospel.
Maybe you better tell me which periodicals you will not accept as valid first so I don’t waste my time quoting from it or putting up the link too.
Anonplusw.
We’re good.
Have a Happy Father’s Day tomorrow!
Red.
Without a crystal ball I cannot tell you what the “Obama for president” team was thinking last fall.
Perhaps they had concerns about the reports of ACORN misdeeds in the primaries which they tried to distance themselves from.
And Anonplus. Sorry for the above typo in your name
Larry,
A typo is better than my stray thought causing a misunderstanding..no worries.
Anonplus,
the first link was some kind of Acorn bashing site. The second one was a right winger site.
At least one of those “whistleblowers” was being accused of stealing and got fired for it. None of us can sort thru that kind of scenario and come to a positive conclusion, because it could be either story. We know the politics of employment from all the crap posted at SAUSD corruption thread.
In this thread http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html?_r=2
We learn that the founder’s brother stole a million dollars EIGHT YEARS AGO, yet they kept him on the payroll until just a month ago (as of May 2008).
—–> That’s what I am talking about. I am not interested in researching this stuff, if you already know what the links contain. Maybe you could just spoon feed me. I’ll stick to the subject longer and may even find it of interest enough to do further digging on my own. 😉
I think that the fact that Obama didn’t use them for the national race is of interest. He seems to have enough information to pick and choose who he will stay associated with. the fact that the founder’s brother was still on payroll despite the large theft, may have been tipped to Obama at some point.
So, what is the conclusion? ACORN should be dismantled? Watched more closely?
I see that a donor was offering to pay the outstanding balance of what the guy owes. They are also saying that they are putting financial auditors, stronger management and legal counsel in place so that the organization can go forward. Is this going to be an acceptable series of events, or is ACORN going to always carry the label of corrupt? Did those things take place now?
There was a handful of people who knew about the embezelment, kept it under wraps and are STILL employed with ACORN. They still there or did they get shown the door?
What about the Points of Light group that had some similiar embezzlements? Should that be shut down?
Bad stuff will happen in any given organization from time to time, but just how far reaching is the corruption and is it being addressed? You and I both know how crappy corruption is and how it derails an organization and its goals. Is ACORN beyond repair?
Red,
I’m glad to see you read a little bit of some of the links I gave you. Yes some are rightwinger sites and newspapers or magazines because that is where you are going to find a lot of the information. The left or main stream media rarely will touch ACORN. Now I read left winger sites because I believe in “know thy enemy”. Hell that’s how I landed at OJ and it turned out not to be as leftist as it appeared at first glance. I hope your mind is not so closed that you won’t even look at a right wing article. If that’s the case I can save myself a lot of time.
ACORN is a conglomerate of over 230 (some claim as many as 294) organizations nationwide and internationally. All are compartmentalized as to their various activities. Some are union organizers, others are political activists, others voter registration organizations,and the rest range down to locals that do the actual work of trying to help the local misfortunate.
As you have learned ACORN was started by Wade Rathke. Rathke’s history goes clear back to the 60’s where he was a member of the group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). While his history is significant especially to those trying to connect the dots to Obama, it’s not important to me in our discussion here.
Where you need to go is to when the embezzlement and coverup of the nearly 1 million dollars by Dale Rathke, the brother of Wade Rathke, was discovered. The discovery was made about 8 years after it occured. The way it was covered up is where things get dicey.
Among those 230-294 organizations is one called Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI) CCI is the clearing house for the entire ACORN structure. Every nickel from dues, every dime from donations, and every penny from government grants (million over the years to 2008) are filtered through CCI, located in New Orleans. CCI disburses this money back to locals and in between the various organizations as it sees fit.
Between continuous allegations of voter fraud and hints of the concealed embezzlement surfaced, CNN reported; “In July,(2008) the ACORN board selected an interim management committee to look at the possible embezzlement and its concealment. Inman and Reid were two of the members appointed to the committee. When an ACORN affiliate that acts as the group’s accounting firm denied the committee members access to the books, Inman said, she, Reid and several others filed a lawsuit to have the court order ACORN to preserve the books and give them access to all accounting matters.
That suit became known as the ACORN 8 because, according to Inman, eight ACORN people signed onto it. She now says there are 25 members demanding the accountability.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/13/acorn.investigation/
The ACORN 8 were either dismissed or when not permitted by local bylaws, simply locked out of the building.
The ACORN 8 website that you called an “ACORN bashing site” was created so that these people could present their accounts of the situation and raise their own money for support of legal fees.
The Acorn 8 discovered most of the general media would not carry much of their story so they turned to FOX news where Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck took up the investigation and that is still ongoing.
Rather than outline further it is easier to again refer you to the Acorn 8 website. Each page has an embedded video clip from Glenn Becks TV show containing interviews with 3 of the ACORN 8 and other information on ACORN.
After watching the clip simply go down the list in the upper left corner entitled “Learn More”. Each page has another clip. By the time you watch them all you will be more than up to speed. The link is:
http://www.acorn-8.net/
If you want to read the Federal Lawsuit which outlines completely the history and legalese you can click on it from the ACORN 8 webpage or directly here at: http://www.acorn-8.net/PDFs/USAttComp.pdf
Of course you can always read the previous links I provided but this will pretty much do it here. Ok Red up to you.
Anonplus,
I may get back to the ACORN issue. I am pretty engrossed in the events in Iran right now.
I certainly know more about the ACORN issues today than i did just a day or so ago.
I am not sure if i have the energy to get all outraged over all the corrupt goings on over the last decade. I mean, is this much worse than those Haliburton contractors who were starving our troops and overbilling for it, or those HAL contractors who did such shoddy work that soldiers were electrocuted in the showers that the company was hired to install? And how about all the theft and ponzi schemes that have landed some folks in jail and many many more in the poor house? What ACORN did was rotten, but the scope of it didn’t kill or bankrupt anyone, so far as I can tell.
I do appreciate the links and the discourse. If things heat up with ACORN in the news again, I will be much more likely to read up on it. And for that I thank you 😉
Red,
No problem. The lack of traction on ACORN is common but not for what is included here anyway. Voter fraud and embezzlement is only the tip of the iceburg I believe. If this story does go where I suspect it will over the next several years you may wonder what happened. If I’m wrong then you can laugh at my suspicions.
Red.
Do you take stretching exercises every morning?
How did we get from ACORN to Ponzi?
Without naming names I probably know victims of Bernie Madoff’s scandal. However, when traditional bank investment ROI is around 3 to 4 percent and you are promised 10 percent plus, you need to think long and hard about the reality and risk of sustainning that pot of gold.
As posted on Google: “Trust nothing. If It’s Too Good To Be True…It’s not True.”
Larry,
I don’t know if I’m reading too deep into your comment #25 or not. But if you are saying I failed to provide as promised you will have to be a little plainer since I’m basically special Ed when it comes to metaphors. However if I’m missing your point entirely that’s my problem. Either way I’ll just go away quietly.
Anonplus. The above comment was addressed to Red
who shifted from ACORN to Ponzi schemes.
Let me cite another example. We have many friends and neighbors who would tell us about a great stock investment while we took a very safe, conservative approach to our investments.
Check out the Aesop Fable of the tortoise and the hare. I chose to be a tortoise and dind’t take a major hit in our finances these past two years.
Larry,
I understood what you initially said but was looking for a subtle secondary meaning that obviously was not there. Keep an eye on ACORN as they are reinventing themselves from the name up.
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jun/26/michele-bachmann/michele-bachmann-claims-acorn-getting-money-work-c/
Exactly Cook, the fact of the matter is they AREN’T.
Michele Bachmann took one little thing, made a massive conspiracy theory from it and has claimed it as fact.
She has already made it quite clear that she doesn’t know the difference between reality and conspiracy theories.
The woman should not be in Congress, she should be in a nice padded room where she can rant about the NWO, the Amero, and Republican Internment Camps all she wants.