ACORN Director Pleads Guilty

[incarcerated]

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2009/aug/acorn-director-pleads-guilty

ACORN Director Pleads Guilty

Last Updated: Fri, 08/21/2009 - 5:07pm
A high-ranking official at the taxpayer-funded leftist group that conducts fraudulent voter registration drives has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for organizing a scheme that illegally paid workers to register new voters.

As a Nevada field director for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Christopher Edwards paid canvassers—many of them “lazy crack heads”—to register new voters for the 2008 presidential election. He also set illegal quotas of at least 20 voters a day for canvassers to keep their job and offered an additional $5 for registering 21 or more.

ACORN’s shady quota system is illegal in Nevada as well as most states and the Chicago-based community group with strong ties to President Obama faces criminal charges across the nation. As part of Edwards’ guilty plea, he is cooperating with authorities and will testify against several high-ranking ACORN regional officials.

His testimony could strengthen other pending criminal cases against the group and its crooked method of recruiting new voters in low-income, “underserved” communities. For its corrupt 2008 drives alone, ACORN faces criminal charges in Florida, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. In an effort to dismiss the charges in Pennsylvania, the group actually filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the state anti-quota law it violated unconstitutionally interferes with important political activity.

In previous elections, ACORN has been busted for falsifying information to register new voters in numerous other states, including Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina and Colorado to name a few. In 2007 the group settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State after seven workers were caught submitting about 2,000 fake registration forms.

ACORN’s well documented history of fraud and corruption led to an overdue congressional investigation that determined the community group is a criminal enterprise. A lengthy report recently published by the House Committee on Government Reform reveals that ACORN has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systematic fraud and that the group hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.

Incredibly, the radical leftist organization with offices around the nation continues to receive massive amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars for its various community programs. Earlier this year ACORN got a multi billion-dollar infusion—for “neighborhood stabilization activities”—from the monstrous economic recovery bill that was supposed to create new jobs and offer an immediate tax relief to stimulate the ailing economy.

[LarryW]

Seems all I can do these days is wring my hands and grieve the loss of American integrity, to mourn to the heavens, "What can we do to heal our land?" Looks like nothing's as good as it used to be. I'm beginning to feel like Andy Rooney's older brother. Like the Hee-Haw song goes, "Gloom, dispair and agony on me"...

Looks like Nevada is THE place around counting coo these days. They got O.J. and now they're going after ACORN. Election year 2010 isn't coming soon enough.

[Richard]

Looks like nothing's as good as it used to be.

Ahhh...those good ol' days...guess you forgot about this one.

The Stolen Presidential Election of 1876
Fraud and Bribery Helped Republicans to Keep the White House

On the night of the national election in 1876, returns seemed to indicate a victory for the Democrat, New York Governor Samuel Tilden. However, by the next morning Republican newspapers, led by the New York Times, were casting doubt on Tilden’s apparent victory. At the center of the controversy were the electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. If all three states were awarded to the Republican, Rutherford B. Hayes, he would become the next President. Significantly, Tilden needed only one state to win.

Bribery and Intimidation in the Election of 1876

High ranking leaders in the Republican Party swiftly raced to the South, armed with suitcases of money. Tilden heard of these efforts and was himself encouraged by his own election team to pay fifty-thousand dollars to secure the South Carolina electoral votes. Tilden, however, refused, putting his trust in the American people and the Constitution. A wealthy man, Tilden rejected any notion of bribery. Tilden had been responsible for ending the infamous "Boss Tweed" ring in New York.

In the disputed states, Republican counters discarded enough “suspicious” ballots to ensure a Hayes majority. But because these states had rival governments, one set up under Congressional Radical Reconstruction and the other under Abraham Lincoln’s original Reconstruction plans, each state submitted two sets of electoral votes to the Congress (Florida submitted three different sets).

Conflict in the Congress

As the votes were opened and counted in early 1877, the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives but the Republicans controlled the Senate. As the votes from the disputed states were submitted, each was formally challenged, forcing the two houses to meet separately in their respective chambers and vote on a resolution. Given the voting rules and the fact that each party controlled one part of the Congress, the lawmakers were at an impasse.

Both Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden finally agreed to the creation of a special electoral commission made up of fifteen members that would evaluate and decide each set of disputed electoral votes. After agreeing, however, the fifteenth member of the commission, an independent whose neutrality had been widely regarded, resigned in order to take the Illinois Senate seat. He was replaced by a Republican.

As the commission stripped Tilden of the votes, beginning with Florida, which was considered his best opportunity, it became apparent that the Democrats would be robbed of victory. Democratic House leaders threatened to filibuster until the end of the short term, taking the nation to inauguration day without a new president and the nation to the brink of a Constitutional crisis.

Back Room Deals Put Hayes in the White House

Republican Congressional leaders met with Southern Democrats and brokered a “compromise” to ensure their acquiescence. The new Republican president would withdraw the last remaining Union troops from the South, providing for “home rule;” one Cabinet position would go to a Southerner; and the Congress would vote funds to help rebuild Southern infrastructure.

How much Hayes actually knew about the events beginning with the day after the 1876 election is debated by scholars. His presidency, however, was a lonely path because he was in everyone’s political pocket. Called “old 8 to 7” behind his back, as a reference to the special commission, and “his fraudulency” by others, Hayes had little popular support or sympathy.

The Election Ends Reconstruction in the South

As the last federal troops were withdrawn, all of the states in the South were “redeemed.” This also meant that African Americans lost all political and social rights enjoyed during the early years of Reconstruction. Writing in the early 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois remarked that, “the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.”*

And so it goes...;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

* http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_stolen_presidential_election_of_1876

[longrange1947]

And the Democrats have been doing it ever since. :munchin :D

Florida was the first time it did not go their way. But they made it up this last time with Franken.

[Richard]

IMO - it's truly a bi-partisan activity - always has been. :p

And so it goes...;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

[JoeyB]

Not that ACORN shouldnt be strung up.... I agree with Richard, they are all crooked.
I dont think there is a politician out there you can trust, Dem or Repub, to do anything other than take care of themselves.

[LarryW]

So, what can we the over-powered do about it? I don't mean for that to be rhetorical, either. I'd really like to know. Example...

A neighbor of mine was elected to the House. The fellow's kids and my kids played together, grew up together, we made ice cream under the maple trees out front together. He and I were on Town Council together. He gets elected and that's the last I hear from him. I send him a note and it goes unanswered, emails are ignored (and I do not send him fwd's or time-share opportunities either). I never fail to get newsletters telling all about his achievements. The notes come right along with the Bishops Lenten Appeal letter, too. Typical.

The routine is this: all communications go to his staff. They sort them out, and those that represent political opportunities for either the staff or the Congressman are summarized and sent for his review. If it's a complaint or anything negative, forget it...the guy will never see it. Our Government suffers from "staff" infections. We are becoming (IMHO) like Czarist Russia...leadership out of touch with the people, Generals unable to understand or believe what their subordinates tell them.

Whew! I got on a roll there. Sorry. ("Go in peace to love and serve..." (the Right Reverend old fart slipping out the side door now.))

[dr. mabuse]

I know a few Republicans at the state and federal level that have gotten kicked in the teeth over and over again fighting the good fight. They're not all crooks.

Someday, I'll tell what I heard behind closed doors from Tip O and others when I was a democrat. BTDT. :D

[Richard]

When politics enter into municipal government, nothing resulting therefrom in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible...

- Mark Twain, Letter to Jules Hart, 17 Dec 1901

And so it goes...;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

[incarcerated]

http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/media/pdfs/20090723ACORNReport.pdf


"Is ACORN Intentionally Structured as a Criminal Enterprise?"

- Staff Report, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - July 23, 2009