ACORN Caught on Tape

[abc_123]

And this makes 4...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550562,00.html

Acorn employee saying she was just playing ...

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by abc_123

And this makes 4...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550562,00.html

Acorn employee saying she was just playing ...

If I were a detective in that AO I'd look into how her husband died, if he was shot I think I'd open a full on investigation because sounds to me like she committed murder.

I wonder how much smoke congress needs to realize there is a fire burning, the vote yesterday was a good baby step start, but I really hope someone in FBI is knee deep in a RICO investigation on them as we speak, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

[dennisw]

WSJ included an insert in its editorial today (Acorn Live!) listing the names of the U.S. Senators who voted not to cut off funds to Acorn! The editorial discusses many things about the Acorn controversy one of which is that a specific cadre of Senators who always comes to Acorn's defense when they are under fire. Here's the list as included in the insert:

Roland Burris, Ill.
Bob Casey, Pa.
Dick Durbin, Ill.
Kirsten Gillebrand, N.Y.
Pat Leahy, Vt.
Bernie Sanders, Vt.
Sheldon Whitehous, R.I.

In the editorial, they discuss the recent conviction for voter fraud of 11 Acorn members in Florida and the and an 88 page staff report on the organization's activities prepared by GOP Reresentative Darrell Issa of California. which begins with:

"The Association of Community Organzations for Reform Now(Acorn) has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud." "Both sturcturally and oppertionally, Acorn hides behind a paper wall of nonporfit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pusue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American public.

Acorn is partisan? Who woud have thought it.

The editor writes:
Conservatives have long complained that the type of voter fraud countenanced by liberal groups like Acorn taint the integrity of the ballot. Liberals remain unpersuaded, though to date, some 70 Acorn employees in 12 states have been convicted of voter registraion fraud.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Acorn has received 53 million of federal funds since 1994 and is scheduled to receive $8.5 Billion of stimulus funds.

Can you imagine the mischief they can create with $8.5 Billion?!!! I guess what is most suprising is that none of the Senators listed above are from California.

[abc_123]

I'm just waiting for tomorrow's video. You know the best is yet to come. I don't know how many more they have in the can, but if it were me, I'd make sure I saved a real good one for last!

[Ret10Echo]

Gansler Says ACORN Will Remain On Web Site
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - Robert Lang and Associated Press


Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said that his office will continue to list the advocacy group ACORN on his office's consumer protection division Web site, even though the group is facing scrutiny after several employees were shown on videos encouraging potential clients to file false tax returns and break other laws.

CLICK HERE for a link to Gansler's site listing ACORN.

Gansler said by law he must list all non-profit organizations that provide foreclosure counseling, and cannot remove them unless the groups lose their non-profit tax exempt status.

'The law forces us to post a listing of all organizations that do consumer protection work," Gansler told WBAL's Shari Elliker today.

However, Gansler said the listing is not an endorsement of ACORN.

"We don't endorse any non-profits over any other non-profits in the foreclosure area," Gansler said.

"We list all of the services that are available, and then people can make their own decisions."

Gansler also admits he has not seen any of the ACORN tape that was first disclosed last week. The video shows two ACORN workers at the Baltimore office telling the a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute to file false tax returns, and list teenagers from El Salvador who work for their operation as dependants.

Gansler said that he cannot investigate whether the agency broke the law, or whether the filmmakers violated state wiretapping laws. Gansler said only the Baltimore City State's Attorney's office can investigate, unless that office requests his office to investigate because of a conflict of interest.

"Me looking at a tape isn't going to then give me jurisdiction, no more than if I looked at a tape of a murder in Florida," Gansler said.

Reacting to questions from callers, Gansler said his office likely would not investigate whether ACORN's status as a non-profit is legal, noting that's an issue for the Maryland Department of State.

Gansler also told Elliker that he hasn't received many questions about ACORN from other media outlets.

He added the ACORN videos, "are no more relevant to us...than a murder that takes place in Florida. I'm happy to answer questions about it, but I cannot change the law to give us jurisdiction over a case where we don't have jurisdiction."

In Washington today, ACORN official say they are ordering an independent investigation in the wake of videos taken in offices in Baltimore, Washington DC and Brooklyn, New York.

The group also said it is refusing new admissions into its service programs.

ACORN will work with its advisory council, which includes prominent supporters of President Barack Obama, such as John Podesta, president of the nonprofit Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to name an independent auditor and investigator, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement.

The investigation will examine all the systems and processes called into question by the video, Lewis said.

In addition, ACORN won't accept new admissions into its community service programs, effective immediately, and within the next few days will conduct staff training, she said.

Lewis said the steps were being taken in response to "the indefensible action of a handful of our employees."

The moves by ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, come as some Republicans urge the Justice Department to investigate the group. In addition to the hidden-camera video, is under scrutiny for several voter-registration fraud cases.

The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN.

The video released Monday was among several that have prompted the firing of at least four ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington. It was created by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles and posted on BigGovernment.com, where O'Keefe identifies himself as an activist filmmaker.

In the film, O'Keefe and Giles enter an ACORN office in Brooklyn and O'Keefe can be heard stating that "we have a unique life situation" and asking if the pair qualify for housing help.

The ACORN housing coordinator and office administrator apparently urge the couple to lie about the woman's profession, with the housing coordinator suggesting that the woman launder the money.

"We have all been deeply disturbed by what we've seen in some of these videos," Lewis said, adding that the group "will go to whatever lengths necessary to reestablish the public trust."



WBAL Radio Baltimore

[Sigaba]

Source is here.

Editorial
From ACORN, a mighty controversy grows
After the release of several videos highlighting atrocious behavior by some of its workers, the liberal advocacy group needs to clean house.

September 16, 2009

The videos, aired mostly by Fox News and other cable news outlets, are truly shocking: A pair of conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute go to the offices of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, pretending to be seeking assistance getting a loan to run a brothel. Their hidden camera captures ACORN workers dispensing such advice as how to create a fictitious business name, how to classify the business on tax forms ("performance arts") and how to handle the tax consequences of smuggling more than a dozen underage prostitutes from El Salvador to work at the facility (an ACORN worker helpfully advises them to write off the girls as "dependents").

Unfortunately for ACORN, this isn't the first time the liberal advocacy group has been in the news. It became a liability for then-Sen. Barack Obama during the presidential campaign after almost a third of the 1.3 million new voters it registered were rejected, in some cases because they were fraudulent. During one of the debates, Sen. John McCain questioned Obama's past relationship with the group, which Obama had represented as a lawyer in a 1995 lawsuit.

Given all the scrutiny, one would have expected ACORN to be doing everything in its power to make sure its activities were squeaky clean. Yet since the initial video was released last week showing ACORN workers in Baltimore who appeared to be aiding and abetting criminal activity, activist filmmaker James O'Keefe has released two more showing similar behavior at ACORN offices in Washington and Brooklyn. The response from ACORN? Fire the workers involved and blame Fox News.

"We are the boogeyman for the right-wing and its echo chambers," reads a self-serving statement released Saturday by ACORN's chief organizer, Bertha Lewis. She claimed the videos were "doctored" and threatened legal action against Fox. What she didn't do is apologize for the appalling and possibly illegal behavior of ACORN employees, acknowledge that the organization has serious internal problems and vow to correct them, or do what she should have done as soon as the scandal was revealed: resign.

O'Keefe's hidden-camera methods are distasteful, and the extent to which his videos were edited is unknown. Their content is nonetheless devastating to ACORN -- so much so that, on Monday, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to withhold federal housing funds from the group. That's a shame because ACORN does worthwhile work in poor communities, helping people avoid foreclosure, giving them tax help and, yes, registering them to vote. If ACORN is to survive and retain a shred of credibility, it needs to stop deflecting blame and clean house.

I don't recall the Los Angeles Times decrying the hidden-camera methods as 'distasteful' when the tactic is used by news outlets. Nor, IIRC, did the paper say anything about ABC's editing of Charlie Gibson's ill-starred interview of Gov. Palin last fall. Instead, it provided a transcript of that charade as an editorial (source is here). Maybe if professional journalists spent more time following stories where they led, private citizens wouldn't have to do their jobs for them.

[Sigaba]

Source is here.

Sep 23, 2009 7:00 pm US/Eastern
APNewsBreak: ACORN Sues Filmmakers
BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer
BALTIMORE (AP) ― ACORN and two former employees of its Baltimore office filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Wednesday against the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed the employees giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.

The liberal activist group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland law requires the consent of both parties to record private conversations.

The employees seen in the video, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, were fired after it was posted online. Thompson and Williams are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which says they suffered "extreme emotional distress with attendant physical symptoms and injury to their reputations."

The lawsuit names James O'Keefe III and Hannah Giles, who played the pimp and prostitute in the video, as defendants. It also names conservative columnist and blogger Andrew Breitbart of Los Angeles, who posted it on his Web site, biggovernment.com.

Brietbart said he would respond with his lawyer to a request for comment. O'Keefe and Giles could not immediately be reached. Asked by Fox News earlier this month about the possibility of a lawsuit, O'Keefe said, "Bring it on."

"It's not in their interest to attack me and Hannah," O'Keefe told Fox News. "If they want to equate sex trafficking of young girls with videotaping someone without their consent, that's their moral prerogative, but that just shows you how low they are."

In the video, the pair claimed they planned to employ teenage girls from El Salvador as prostitutes, and one of the ACORN employees suggested that up to three of the girls could be claimed as dependents.

O'Keefe and Giles made similar videos at ACORN offices in Washington, New York and San Diego, but the lawsuit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, involves only the Baltimore recording.

The lawsuit claims the video damaged ACORN's reputation and asks for injunctions barring its further broadcast or distribution. It seeks $2 million in compensatory damages — $1 million for ACORN and $500,000 for each of the two former employees — as well as $1 million in punitive damages from each of the three defendants.

Andrew D. Freeman — an attorney for ACORN, Thompson and Williams — said the former employees did not wish to comment but that the emotional distress claim "is not an exaggeration."

"They're doing their best not to watch television. They've sort of been prisoners in their own homes," Freeman said. "While everyone, including them, agrees that some of the things they said were dumb, in Maryland we have a right to say dumb things in the privacy of our homes and offices without fear of being taped and without fear of being splashed all over the Internet."

Maryland's wiretap law is sometimes called the "Linda Tripp law." Tripp, a Maryland resident at the time, was indicted, but not prosecuted, for secretly recording telephone conversations with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky in which they discussed Lewinsky's affair with former president Bill Clinton.

ACORN — which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — bills itself as the nation's largest advocacy group for the poor. It started in 1970 in Arkansas and is now a a national, multimillion-dollar conglomerate.

The videos sparked outrage on Capitol Hill, where the House and Senate voted last week in separate bills to deny federal funds to ACORN. Maryland does not fund the group.