Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

[Lonestar_logic]

right, and as said, as far as i know there has been NO VOTER FRAUD CHARGES against anyone at ACORN, official or employees hired to canvas potential voter registrants, and i have not seen one article or news media call the temps committing the crime of registration fraud called OFFICIALS OF ACORN, the only mention of officials that i have seen is ACORN OFFICIALS turned them in?

can you show me where the media has called these acorn workers as ACORN OFFICIALS...pretty please!

they had no office, this was not their full time permanent position within acorn, these were mostly, if not all, temporary lazy-ass workers who cheated and broke the law, individually, for their own pay....

and the official acorn in my opinion is negligent for not having stronger measures put in so that these employees can't cheat in the manner that hundreds if not thousands have done....and for goodness sakes, a better hiring practice/standard is in order!

I can back up my claims, can you back up yours? "this was not their full time permanent position within acorn, these were mostly, if not all, temporary lazy-ass workers "


[url=http://mcauleysworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/what-is-acorn-why-is-acorn-associated-with-voter-fraud-does-obama-have-an-acorn-connection/]VIDEO: What is ACORN? Why is ACORN Associated With Voter Fraud – Does Obama Have An ACORN Connection « Mcauleysworld’s Weblog[/URL]

Press Releases - News Room - U.S. Senator Mike Johanns for the State of Nebraska

your sources are ALL politically slanted and i do not accept them at their word...FOX, no way AND THE REPRESENTATIVE that just makes a statement that 30 officials have been charged is NO PROOF what so ever, he gave no proof either, just his commentary to promote his own political agenda, is what it looks like...so you will have to forgive me on that....

I don't consider Acorn temps or employees hired to walk the streets for voters to register, ACORN OFFICIALS....there could be some acorn officials involved but i have not seen one case yet of such and one thing is for CERTAIN,

ACORN, HAS NOT BEEN CHARGED WITH ANY VOTER REGISTRATION CRIME, period.

HAS ACORN been charged with a crime involved with Voter registration, YES OR NO?

You all IMPLY that they have, yet it just ends up being rotten, scummy individuals doing it all on their own and ACORN itself is never charged with the crime....IF THEY WERE INVOLVED, WHY IS IT that they have NOT been charged with the crime? Probably because there is no conspiracy on Acorns part to commit these crimes...don't ya think?

I am not trying to defend the criminals committing the crime, but i am certainly NOT going to pass the buck on to someone else or some other thing or institution that was NOT involved with these individual's crimes.

OUT OF ALL the cases that have been tried and these workers were convicted on, there has been NO IMPLICATION that Acorn, the institution was involved...WHY IS THAT?

Where is your logic lonestar?

Stay stupid all your life. It's seems to be working for you very well.

But tell me, why did congress vote to defund Acorn? After all according to you Acorn had nothing to do with any of these crimes.


And the fact that Acorn is mentioned by name in all of these voter fraud and voter registration fraud cases makes it clear that Acorn was indeed involved and heavliy.

I challenge you to prove that Acorn wasn't involved in these cases;

AR- 1998- A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.


CO- 2004- An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.

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.

MO- 2008- Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.

MO- 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.

NM- 2004- An ACORN employee registered a 13-year-old boy to vote.

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.

PA- 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.

PA- 2008- An ACORN employee in West Reading, PA, was sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for identity theft and tampering with records.

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.

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.

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.

INDICTMENTS

MO- 2007- Four ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City for charges including identity theft and filing false registrations during the 2006 election.

MO- 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.

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.

OH- 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.

OH-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.

I'm sure I could find more, but I think you get the point.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Look!!...Over there!!.....Shiny beads and a puppy!!!

Look...a PEA brain named DUDe...

For a pea brain he figured you out real fast didn't he

 

[Si modo]

Don't like FNC? Try CNN.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM708EjH0bs]YouTube - Lou Dobbs - ACORN Fraud & Obama Ties[/ame]

When is the RICO prosecution going to start? Is there a prosecutor interested in this?

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Don't like FNC? Try CNN.

YouTube - Lou Dobbs - ACORN Fraud & Obama Ties

When is the RICO prosecution going to start? Is there a prosecutor interested in this?

Oh that Lou Dobbs, we all know he is just a crazy racist Si Modo (TOTAL SARCASM)

 

[rdean]

Once those on the right have been indoctrinated, there is nothing there to reason with. They simply can't understand the difference between Goofy registering to vote and Goofy SHOWING UP to vote.

They list every infraction from 2003 to now. It looks to me that John McCain voted against veterans benefits more times than Acorn has been charged with something.

Besides, Acorn tries to find jobs for the poor. Helps poor people with their taxes. Registers Americans to vote. They must be punished.

Look how many rotten Republican polititions there are. Why isn't the right screaming and panting about those guys? They get a lot more public money.

 

[Si modo]

Once those on the right have been indoctrinated, there is nothing there to reason with. They simply can't understand the difference between Goofy registering to vote and Goofy SHOWING UP to vote. ....

Fraudulent resistrations are in violation of election laws.

You know, fraud?

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Once those on the right have been indoctrinated, there is nothing there to reason with. They simply can't understand the difference between Goofy registering to vote and Goofy SHOWING UP to vote.

They list every infraction from 2003 to now. It looks to me that John McCain voted against veterans benefits more times than Acorn has been charged with something.

Besides, Acorn tries to find jobs for the poor. Helps poor people with their taxes. Registers Americans to vote. They must be punished.

Look how many rotten Republican polititions there are. Why isn't the right screaming and panting about those guys? They get a lot more public money.

Hey stupid, the act of registering goofy to vote is a crime. Acorn also helps people commit tax fraud. Or did you not see the videos? If you think that the people that were so eager to help a pimp and a prostitute in an underage sex slave ring is an isolated case, then you are an idiot beyond description.

You are one stupid fuck for defending Acorn, especially in light of the current investigations, indictments and convictions.

Tell me why are you Obama supporters so fucking stupid? Oh hell, lookie there, I just answered my own question. Obama supporter= stupidity.

 

[mdn2000]

How many Acorn officials were convicted of voter fraud and/or voter registration fraud?

That is a hard question to answer, you want to focus on strictly officials and not the workers they supervise, right.

Does it matter?

All were employed by Acorn, their position or job title is irrelevant.

I thought it might matter to you thats why I asked, one can easily state the organization is sound and should not be punished as an organization due to the activity of it employees and volunteers.

My opinion is any organization like ACORN must go regardless of criminal activity. We need a change and I aint talking Obama. We need to take the power away from the politicians, Republican and Democrat.

No Lobbyists, none, seems clear, politicians leave office and get cushy jobs for passing laws that favor corporations or special interest groups. It also goes the other way as well, corportate hacks become politicians and due favors for corporations.

There should be one tax in the entire USA that never changes, that would take all the power away.

A percentage would go to defence, so of course we need to address the control congress has over awarding government contracts.

We to have term limits, no career politicians

 

[Lonestar_logic]

That is a hard question to answer, you want to focus on strictly officials and not the workers they supervise, right.

Does it matter?

All were employed by Acorn, their position or job title is irrelevant.

I thought it might matter to you thats why I asked, one can easily state the organization is sound and should not be punished as an organization due to the activity of it employees and volunteers.

My opinion is any organization like ACORN must go regardless of criminal activity. We need a change and I aint talking Obama. We need to take the power away from the politicians, Republican and Democrat.

No Lobbyists, none, seems clear, politicians leave office and get cushy jobs for passing laws that favor corporations or special interest groups. It also goes the other way as well, corportate hacks become politicians and due favors for corporations.

There should be one tax in the entire USA that never changes, that would take all the power away.

A percentage would go to defence, so of course we need to address the control congress has over awarding government contracts.

We to have term limits, no career politicians

I agree.

 

[Bfgrn]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

 

[Si modo]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

Yet, fraudulent registration is.....fraud. Against the law.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

Yea Acorn is innocent. It's the evil news media makiing all this shit up.

 

[Bfgrn]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

Yet, fraudulent registration is.....fraud. Against the law.

OK...if fraud against the government is the grounds to defund an organization...ACORN isn't even on the radar screen! ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.”

Federal Contractor Misconduct List

How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of massive corporations?

By Jeremy Scahill

In the ever-evolving story of the witch-hunt against the community organization, ACORN, Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson and others, have been hammering away on an interesting point about the Defund ACORN Act, which recently passed the House and Senate, and seeks to ban the organization from receiving federal funds: This GOP-led initiative, as written, may actually apply the federal-funding ban to massive defense contractors and other big corporations. There should be no doubt that this was not the intent of Rep. Darrell Issa, the far right Republican who sponsored the legislation, and his cronies who are on a major league witch-hunt of an organization whose real crime is registering poor people and people of color to vote. But since they put this legislation out there, it is a worthwhile discussion of what this would look like.

The Republican sponsors of this bill are, of course, among the most vocal Congressional lobbyists for massive government contracts to scandalous corporations such as Blackwater, KBR/Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, as part of the bloated war budget. The list of their crimes far overshadows the allegations—and more importantly, the evidence— against ACORN. “De-fund the crooks,” Grayson said. “The numbers of those who have filed fraudulent forms with the government — it’s like a who’s who of government contracting.” In an interview on Salon Radio, Grayson put out this important statistic: “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.” For a list of the massive government contractors who would technically be banned from receiving federal funds under this legislation, see the Project on Oversight and Government Reform’s Contractor Misconduct list. Check out both the fraud category and the revenue one as well and then put that up against ACORN.

What’s more, the Republicans—and, unfortunately their friends on the other side of the aisle—are advocating punishing ACORN for the—as yet legally unresolved—allegations against a small number of ACORN employees or affiliates. What is painfully ironic about this is that this standard should actually be applied to senior Bush administration officials who authorized, tried to legalize, and oversaw torture and war crimes. It should have applied to the commanders at Abu Ghraib. It should apply to Blackwater’s Erik Prince. They had actual knowledge and complicity at the highest levels. But all of their crimes have been covered up by the tired “bad apple” narrative over and over again. It is never the system that is the problem in the eyes of its powerful beneficiaries. In the case of ACORN, if you really care about facts, then you know that—at best—we are talking about the misconduct of a few people (who were fired) and not some top-down criminal enterprise, which is precisely what the Bush administration was and massive war contractors are.

The Defund ACORN Act states that an organization should be banned from receiving federal funding if it “employs any applicable individual, in a permanent or temporary capacity” or “has under contract or retains any applicable individual” who has “been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration.” Beyond the fact that Karl Rove and other powerful Republicans orchestrated the firing of US Attorney David Iglesias for refusing to cook up a story of voter fraud, which he called a “boogeyman” and conduct a prosecution based on lies and propaganda (remember, ACORN itself reported the registration irregularities that were used against it), this is priceless hypocrisy. Again, take the case of Blackwater, which has had five of its operatives indicted on manslaughter charges for gunning down unarmed civilians while on an official US government contract. A sixth Blackwater operative already pled guilty to killing an unarmed female doctor in Iraq. Blackwater didn’t fire these men, as ACORN did its workers who were set up in a potentially illegal sting operation. No, Blackwater defends this senseless killing by its men.

Or how about the fact that two Blackwater operatives plead guilty to illegal weapons smuggling charges and former employees say the company’s owner Erik Prince has smuggled unauthorized weapons into Iraq in dog food bags on his private planes?

The GOP smear machine tries to link ACORN to prostitution. Beyond the hypocrisy of Republicans denouncing prostitutes (long history of using them), do they really want talk of prostitution? One former Blackwater employee recently stated in a sworn declaration that Blackwater owner Erik Prince “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.” Another former employee described “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ [in Iraq] in exchange for one American dollar.” [PDF links to these affidavits are here] Even if ACORN did provide inappropriate tax advice to a prostitute, is that really on the same level as this conduct being conducted on a huge US government contract? If you think these are just the allegations of disgruntled employees, read the Justice Department’s perspective on Blackwater’s crimes and how its men “specifically intended to kill” Iraqi civilians as “payback for 9/11.”

Now, yes, obviously, these alleged crimes are not directly related to the “financing of a campaign for election,” as laid out in the Act. But what about this fact?: Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, has poured more than a quarter of a million dollars into the campaign coffers of the very Republicans that help(ed) him get the contracts that result in all of these alleged crimes. Ninety-percent—a full 90%—of Blackwater’s business is with the government, including over $1 billion in “security” contracts. ACORN got $53 million over 15 years, most of which went to support housing for low-income people. How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of war corporations and gigantic multi-nationals? This is not even to mention the criminal banks and financial institutions that ripped off hundreds of millions of hard-working Americans.

Beyond the question of innocent until proven guilty, these questions must be asked of Democratic lawmakers who support this punitive legislation against ACORN: Where is your legislation to defund the companies whose men are indicted by actual, real life prosecutors for manslaughter; who are accused by the IRS of tax fraud and whose North Carolina compound has been raided by the ATF for possessing unauthorized, automatic weapons? What about the move to defund KBR, which has provided polluted drinking water to US troops and installed faulty electrical wiring that has resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers? What about the move to defund the massive US-funded mercenary force DynCorp in Iraq, Colombia and Afghanistan? A company whistleblower alleged that in Bosnia he “witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.” What about defunding Armor Group, which employed security guards at the US embassy in Kabul who were throwing fraternity-style parties, complete with disgusting hazing of new recruits in the form of alcohol shots off of butt cracks and the fondling of genitals?

Any misuse or abuse of taxpayer money should be thoroughly investigated, but ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. Shame on those Democrats who have engaged in this witch-hunt against a 400,000 member organization that has helped millions of poor and working class people while simultaneously continuing to vote for billions and billions of dollars in funding to proven corrupt organizations that operate above the law and above any effective oversight.

In any case, this legislative hunt against ACORN may be a moot point.

Earlier this week, the Congressional Research Service’s legislative department completed a report looking at the question of the constitutionality of the Defund ACORN Act. The CRS report raises the question of whether this legislation is punitive in nature and if it will “violate the prohibition on bills of attainder found in Article I, § 9, cl. 3 of the Constitution.” In other words, as Constitutional law expert Glenn Greenwald points out, “an act aimed at punishing a single party without a trial.”

More...

 

[Si modo]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

Yet, fraudulent registration is.....fraud. Against the law.

OK...if fraud against the government is the grounds to defund an organization...ACORN isn't even on the radar screen! ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.”

Federal Contractor Misconduct List

How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of massive corporations?

By Jeremy Scahill

In the ever-evolving story of the witch-hunt against the community organization, ACORN, Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson and others, have been hammering away on an interesting point about the Defund ACORN Act, which recently passed the House and Senate, and seeks to ban the organization from receiving federal funds: This GOP-led initiative, as written, may actually apply the federal-funding ban to massive defense contractors and other big corporations. There should be no doubt that this was not the intent of Rep. Darrell Issa, the far right Republican who sponsored the legislation, and his cronies who are on a major league witch-hunt of an organization whose real crime is registering poor people and people of color to vote. But since they put this legislation out there, it is a worthwhile discussion of what this would look like.

The Republican sponsors of this bill are, of course, among the most vocal Congressional lobbyists for massive government contracts to scandalous corporations such as Blackwater, KBR/Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, as part of the bloated war budget. The list of their crimes far overshadows the allegations—and more importantly, the evidence— against ACORN. “De-fund the crooks,” Grayson said. “The numbers of those who have filed fraudulent forms with the government — it’s like a who’s who of government contracting.” In an interview on Salon Radio, Grayson put out this important statistic: “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.” For a list of the massive government contractors who would technically be banned from receiving federal funds under this legislation, see the Project on Oversight and Government Reform’s Contractor Misconduct list. Check out both the fraud category and the revenue one as well and then put that up against ACORN.

What’s more, the Republicans—and, unfortunately their friends on the other side of the aisle—are advocating punishing ACORN for the—as yet legally unresolved—allegations against a small number of ACORN employees or affiliates. What is painfully ironic about this is that this standard should actually be applied to senior Bush administration officials who authorized, tried to legalize, and oversaw torture and war crimes. It should have applied to the commanders at Abu Ghraib. It should apply to Blackwater’s Erik Prince. They had actual knowledge and complicity at the highest levels. But all of their crimes have been covered up by the tired “bad apple” narrative over and over again. It is never the system that is the problem in the eyes of its powerful beneficiaries. In the case of ACORN, if you really care about facts, then you know that—at best—we are talking about the misconduct of a few people (who were fired) and not some top-down criminal enterprise, which is precisely what the Bush administration was and massive war contractors are.

The Defund ACORN Act states that an organization should be banned from receiving federal funding if it “employs any applicable individual, in a permanent or temporary capacity” or “has under contract or retains any applicable individual” who has “been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration.” Beyond the fact that Karl Rove and other powerful Republicans orchestrated the firing of US Attorney David Iglesias for refusing to cook up a story of voter fraud, which he called a “boogeyman” and conduct a prosecution based on lies and propaganda (remember, ACORN itself reported the registration irregularities that were used against it), this is priceless hypocrisy. Again, take the case of Blackwater, which has had five of its operatives indicted on manslaughter charges for gunning down unarmed civilians while on an official US government contract. A sixth Blackwater operative already pled guilty to killing an unarmed female doctor in Iraq. Blackwater didn’t fire these men, as ACORN did its workers who were set up in a potentially illegal sting operation. No, Blackwater defends this senseless killing by its men.

Or how about the fact that two Blackwater operatives plead guilty to illegal weapons smuggling charges and former employees say the company’s owner Erik Prince has smuggled unauthorized weapons into Iraq in dog food bags on his private planes?

The GOP smear machine tries to link ACORN to prostitution. Beyond the hypocrisy of Republicans denouncing prostitutes (long history of using them), do they really want talk of prostitution? One former Blackwater employee recently stated in a sworn declaration that Blackwater owner Erik Prince “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.” Another former employee described “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ [in Iraq] in exchange for one American dollar.” [PDF links to these affidavits are here] Even if ACORN did provide inappropriate tax advice to a prostitute, is that really on the same level as this conduct being conducted on a huge US government contract? If you think these are just the allegations of disgruntled employees, read the Justice Department’s perspective on Blackwater’s crimes and how its men “specifically intended to kill” Iraqi civilians as “payback for 9/11.”

Now, yes, obviously, these alleged crimes are not directly related to the “financing of a campaign for election,” as laid out in the Act. But what about this fact?: Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, has poured more than a quarter of a million dollars into the campaign coffers of the very Republicans that help(ed) him get the contracts that result in all of these alleged crimes. Ninety-percent—a full 90%—of Blackwater’s business is with the government, including over $1 billion in “security” contracts. ACORN got $53 million over 15 years, most of which went to support housing for low-income people. How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of war corporations and gigantic multi-nationals? This is not even to mention the criminal banks and financial institutions that ripped off hundreds of millions of hard-working Americans.

Beyond the question of innocent until proven guilty, these questions must be asked of Democratic lawmakers who support this punitive legislation against ACORN: Where is your legislation to defund the companies whose men are indicted by actual, real life prosecutors for manslaughter; who are accused by the IRS of tax fraud and whose North Carolina compound has been raided by the ATF for possessing unauthorized, automatic weapons? What about the move to defund KBR, which has provided polluted drinking water to US troops and installed faulty electrical wiring that has resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers? What about the move to defund the massive US-funded mercenary force DynCorp in Iraq, Colombia and Afghanistan? A company whistleblower alleged that in Bosnia he “witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.” What about defunding Armor Group, which employed security guards at the US embassy in Kabul who were throwing fraternity-style parties, complete with disgusting hazing of new recruits in the form of alcohol shots off of butt cracks and the fondling of genitals?

Any misuse or abuse of taxpayer money should be thoroughly investigated, but ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. Shame on those Democrats who have engaged in this witch-hunt against a 400,000 member organization that has helped millions of poor and working class people while simultaneously continuing to vote for billions and billions of dollars in funding to proven corrupt organizations that operate above the law and above any effective oversight.

In any case, this legislative hunt against ACORN may be a moot point.

Earlier this week, the Congressional Research Service’s legislative department completed a report looking at the question of the constitutionality of the Defund ACORN Act. The CRS report raises the question of whether this legislation is punitive in nature and if it will “violate the prohibition on bills of attainder found in Article I, § 9, cl. 3 of the Constitution.” In other words, as Constitutional law expert Glenn Greenwald points out, “an act aimed at punishing a single party without a trial.”

More...

Then write your congressman to ask that those get defunded, too.

I don't defend corruption.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

Yet, fraudulent registration is.....fraud. Against the law.

OK...if fraud against the government is the grounds to defund an organization...ACORN isn't even on the radar screen! ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.”

Federal Contractor Misconduct List

How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of massive corporations?

By Jeremy Scahill

In the ever-evolving story of the witch-hunt against the community organization, ACORN, Florida Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson and others, have been hammering away on an interesting point about the Defund ACORN Act, which recently passed the House and Senate, and seeks to ban the organization from receiving federal funds: This GOP-led initiative, as written, may actually apply the federal-funding ban to massive defense contractors and other big corporations. There should be no doubt that this was not the intent of Rep. Darrell Issa, the far right Republican who sponsored the legislation, and his cronies who are on a major league witch-hunt of an organization whose real crime is registering poor people and people of color to vote. But since they put this legislation out there, it is a worthwhile discussion of what this would look like.

The Republican sponsors of this bill are, of course, among the most vocal Congressional lobbyists for massive government contracts to scandalous corporations such as Blackwater, KBR/Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, as part of the bloated war budget. The list of their crimes far overshadows the allegations—and more importantly, the evidence— against ACORN. “De-fund the crooks,” Grayson said. “The numbers of those who have filed fraudulent forms with the government — it’s like a who’s who of government contracting.” In an interview on Salon Radio, Grayson put out this important statistic: “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.” For a list of the massive government contractors who would technically be banned from receiving federal funds under this legislation, see the Project on Oversight and Government Reform’s Contractor Misconduct list. Check out both the fraud category and the revenue one as well and then put that up against ACORN.

What’s more, the Republicans—and, unfortunately their friends on the other side of the aisle—are advocating punishing ACORN for the—as yet legally unresolved—allegations against a small number of ACORN employees or affiliates. What is painfully ironic about this is that this standard should actually be applied to senior Bush administration officials who authorized, tried to legalize, and oversaw torture and war crimes. It should have applied to the commanders at Abu Ghraib. It should apply to Blackwater’s Erik Prince. They had actual knowledge and complicity at the highest levels. But all of their crimes have been covered up by the tired “bad apple” narrative over and over again. It is never the system that is the problem in the eyes of its powerful beneficiaries. In the case of ACORN, if you really care about facts, then you know that—at best—we are talking about the misconduct of a few people (who were fired) and not some top-down criminal enterprise, which is precisely what the Bush administration was and massive war contractors are.

The Defund ACORN Act states that an organization should be banned from receiving federal funding if it “employs any applicable individual, in a permanent or temporary capacity” or “has under contract or retains any applicable individual” who has “been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration.” Beyond the fact that Karl Rove and other powerful Republicans orchestrated the firing of US Attorney David Iglesias for refusing to cook up a story of voter fraud, which he called a “boogeyman” and conduct a prosecution based on lies and propaganda (remember, ACORN itself reported the registration irregularities that were used against it), this is priceless hypocrisy. Again, take the case of Blackwater, which has had five of its operatives indicted on manslaughter charges for gunning down unarmed civilians while on an official US government contract. A sixth Blackwater operative already pled guilty to killing an unarmed female doctor in Iraq. Blackwater didn’t fire these men, as ACORN did its workers who were set up in a potentially illegal sting operation. No, Blackwater defends this senseless killing by its men.

Or how about the fact that two Blackwater operatives plead guilty to illegal weapons smuggling charges and former employees say the company’s owner Erik Prince has smuggled unauthorized weapons into Iraq in dog food bags on his private planes?

The GOP smear machine tries to link ACORN to prostitution. Beyond the hypocrisy of Republicans denouncing prostitutes (long history of using them), do they really want talk of prostitution? One former Blackwater employee recently stated in a sworn declaration that Blackwater owner Erik Prince “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.” Another former employee described “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ [in Iraq] in exchange for one American dollar.” [PDF links to these affidavits are here] Even if ACORN did provide inappropriate tax advice to a prostitute, is that really on the same level as this conduct being conducted on a huge US government contract? If you think these are just the allegations of disgruntled employees, read the Justice Department’s perspective on Blackwater’s crimes and how its men “specifically intended to kill” Iraqi civilians as “payback for 9/11.”

Now, yes, obviously, these alleged crimes are not directly related to the “financing of a campaign for election,” as laid out in the Act. But what about this fact?: Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, has poured more than a quarter of a million dollars into the campaign coffers of the very Republicans that help(ed) him get the contracts that result in all of these alleged crimes. Ninety-percent—a full 90%—of Blackwater’s business is with the government, including over $1 billion in “security” contracts. ACORN got $53 million over 15 years, most of which went to support housing for low-income people. How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of war corporations and gigantic multi-nationals? This is not even to mention the criminal banks and financial institutions that ripped off hundreds of millions of hard-working Americans.

Beyond the question of innocent until proven guilty, these questions must be asked of Democratic lawmakers who support this punitive legislation against ACORN: Where is your legislation to defund the companies whose men are indicted by actual, real life prosecutors for manslaughter; who are accused by the IRS of tax fraud and whose North Carolina compound has been raided by the ATF for possessing unauthorized, automatic weapons? What about the move to defund KBR, which has provided polluted drinking water to US troops and installed faulty electrical wiring that has resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers? What about the move to defund the massive US-funded mercenary force DynCorp in Iraq, Colombia and Afghanistan? A company whistleblower alleged that in Bosnia he “witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.” What about defunding Armor Group, which employed security guards at the US embassy in Kabul who were throwing fraternity-style parties, complete with disgusting hazing of new recruits in the form of alcohol shots off of butt cracks and the fondling of genitals?

Any misuse or abuse of taxpayer money should be thoroughly investigated, but ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. Shame on those Democrats who have engaged in this witch-hunt against a 400,000 member organization that has helped millions of poor and working class people while simultaneously continuing to vote for billions and billions of dollars in funding to proven corrupt organizations that operate above the law and above any effective oversight.

In any case, this legislative hunt against ACORN may be a moot point.

Earlier this week, the Congressional Research Service’s legislative department completed a report looking at the question of the constitutionality of the Defund ACORN Act. The CRS report raises the question of whether this legislation is punitive in nature and if it will “violate the prohibition on bills of attainder found in Article I, § 9, cl. 3 of the Constitution.” In other words, as Constitutional law expert Glenn Greenwald points out, “an act aimed at punishing a single party without a trial.”

More...

Acorn isn't a contractor... dumbass.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

MY EYES....They Burn

 

[mdn2000]

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

OK...if fraud against the government is the grounds to defund an organization...ACORN isn't even on the radar screen! ACORN does not even make the top 1000 list of organizations that should be subjected to immediate and swift review. “The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.”

Fraud against the government? This is much bigger that some simple fraud, this is VOTER FRAUD. Fraud in elections is a huge crime, one of the greatest crimes against the Constitution. They are commiting crimes against freedom, the crime that ACORN commits effects everyone of us.

We have no way of knowing if Obama really won, not with all the crimes ACORN has commited You think we caught every criminal in ACORN, each case of a forged signature, a faked registration is a crime, thousands and thousands of crimes, so many its impossible to investigate, with the government completely controled by the Liberals, all three branches they wont conduct a Grand Jury investigation.

You cannot use your examples as a reason why ACORN should be allowed to continue, the crimes commited by ACORN are much more sinister and damaging in a Republic.

 

[Oddball]

Look!!...Over there!!.....Shiny beads and a puppy!!!

Look...a PEA brain named DUDe...

Look...A neutron brain named nobody.

 

[Oddball]

Fraud against the government? This is much bigger that some simple fraud, this is VOTER FRAUD. Fraud in elections is a huge crime, one of the greatest crimes against the Constitution. They are commiting crimes against freedom, the crime that ACORN commits effects everyone of us.

Immigration fraud, welfare fraud, aiding and abetting international sex slavery....And lord knows such people have absolutely nothing to do with the illicit drug trade and its attendant violence.

 

[Si modo]

Fraud against the government? This is much bigger that some simple fraud, this is VOTER FRAUD. Fraud in elections is a huge crime, one of the greatest crimes against the Constitution. They are commiting crimes against freedom, the crime that ACORN commits effects everyone of us.

Immigration fraud, welfare fraud, aiding and abetting international sex slavery....And lord knows such people have absolutely nothing to do with the illicit drug trade and its attendant violence.

... and a partisan organization which STILL has its NPO tax status.

The list is long for their violations and corruption.

Yet, the visceral defense of them??? THAT, I cannot understand. Teabag them.