ACORN Watch: “Honesty is not going to get you the house”
Photoshop credit: Leo Alberti
James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles visited one of ACORN’s New York offices in August, where they picked up handy tips on how to lie on housing forms to cover up a prostitution business (“Honesty is not going to get you the house,” one ACORN official advises) and how to hide cash from their illicit business (“When you buy the house with the backyard, you get a tin…and you bury it down in there…cover it…and put the grass over it…”).
Watch the whole thing at Big Government. This is now the third videotaped sting exposing the ACORN racket’s law-undermining, truth-sabotaging counseling sessions.
If the Census Bureau no longer trusts ACORN to collect data as a result of these videotapes, why is Congress still allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to the ACORN Housing Corporation?
AHC has received an estimated $16 million in taxpayer funds between 1997-2007, according to the Employment Policies Institute.
Last week, I noted that ACORN is now managing apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant for the newly completed Atlantic Avenue Apartments.
In April, I noted that the bone-headed Bush administration shoved another $1.6 million into AHC’s pockets to subsidize the left-wing mortgage counseling racket.
AHC has a long history of abusing federal housing funds and Americorps grants for political activities. Thanks to the Consumer Rights League and brave ACORN whistleblowers, we also know their shady practices include working to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens and relying on undocumented income, “under the table” money, that may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.
And thanks to the Employment Policies Institute, we know the stench goes back decades. Just one infamous episode from 1994:
AmeriCorps
In 1994 the ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC) was awarded a $1.1 million grant by AmeriCorps, a program of the Corporation for National Service (CNS). The money was intended to fund the training of 42 AmeriCorps members in 13 cities. The workers were expected to identify low-income families hoping to purchase a first home, to assist them in finding suitable housing, and to advise them in securing the
necessary financing.During the grant-making process, AHC was asked about its relationship to ACORN, because political advocates were ineligible for the grant. At the time, AHC maintained that it was a completely separate entity from ACORN, and CNS awarded the grant based on this understanding.
Evidence uncovered by Luise Jordan, the Inspector General for AmeriCorps, suggests that this promised separation was simply not true. In testimony before a house subcommittee, Jordan stated:
Our preliminary research determined that AHC was part of a number of ACORN-related organizations.
… Not only did we find references to ACORN having “created” AHC to serve purposes common to both organizations, we noted numerous transactions and activities involving AHC and other “fraternal” ACORN-related corporations. These transactions included costs charged to AHC, and thus to the CNS grant, by ACORN or other ACORN-related entities. … Charges of this nature were made to our grant for the AHC locations where AHC and ACORN (or other ACORN-related activities) were co-located.
AHC’s initial subterfuge pales in comparison to the illegal fundraising scheme it subsequently operated, using its AmeriCorps grant to increase ACORN’s membership.
According to Jordan, one ACORN member in the Dallas regional office stated that “the only reason for having the AmeriCorps program was to gain new ACORN members, and that if AmeriCorps loan counseling clients did not start becoming ACORN members, she could and would halt the AmeriCorps project.” Jordan found that this understanding was not limited to the Dallas office. Using government funds to solicit membership in an organization that— like ACORN—participates in direct political advocacy is a violation of federal guidelines.
AHC also utilized its government-funded loan counseling program to steer low-income families toward ACORN memberships. Jordan found that AHC had distributed leaflets stating that low income, first-time homebuyers were required to join ACORN, at an annual cost of $60, in order to receive the government-subsidized counseling. “An AHC loan counseling client in New Orleans (who is a retired high school business teacher),” she explained, “was escorted by an AmeriCorps member to an ACORN organizer who solicited membership in ACORN. The client felt like she was not going to be allowed to leave until she gave the ACORN organizer a $60 check, or authorized a $5 per month automatic bank draft for ACORN membership dues.” And as with ACORN’s own employees who attempted to unionize, AmeriCorps members who refused to participate in this illegal fundraising scheme faced the threat of immediate termination.
The Inspector General’s office (IG) was lucky to find out as much about the improper relationship between AHC and ACORN as it did. And AHC made every effort to obstruct the investigation. The IG issued subpoenas to AHC and ACORN, whose response “did not include several documents, or parts of documents that we had obtained from our other sources.” Jordan later wrote, “Our subpoena clearly called for these documents, and they were critical in supporting the conclusions of our investigation.” Withholding required documentation was only the beginning of AHC’s attempt to hinder the investigation. AHC also limited the ability of investigators to interview AmeriCorps members in private. This greatly hampered the IG’s ability to obtain reliable information regarding the activities of AmeriCorps members. Eventually, in response to a torrent of red flags raised by the IG, the Corporation for National Service terminated AHC’s grant…
• Tax forms show that the ACORN Housing Corporation has received more than $11,230,000 in public funds since fiscal year 1997. More than $5,100,000 was paid in fees or grants to ACORN entities.
I’ll ask again: If the Census Bureau no longer trusts ACORN to collect data as a result of these videotapes, why is Congress still allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to the ACORN Housing Corporation?
It’s all about the coordinated corruption.
Call your congressional representatives (202-224-3121) and say it louder:
ACORN is a criminal enterprise.
Not one more taxpayer dime.
***
Update: Sen. Johanns’ amendment to prohibit transportation/HUD appropriations funding from going to ACORN in the wake of the sting videos just passed at around 5pm Eastern by a vote of 83-7. The Democrats are starting to throw ACORN under the bus. It’s a start.
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I had a feeling that that pair had visited offices throughout the lower 48 and would release these videos at a steady pace as the heat built up against them. It will be fun to see the fall out as the curruption becomes undeniable. But, of course, they will continue to deny it. When do you think the State Run Media will join in?
On the plus side, if I ever need to hire a hooker, I know who to ask how to find one.
/sarc
Seriously, though: I don’t see how any level of outrage will persuade Pelosi & Pals to take budgetary action against ACORN. The vote fraud alone is reason enough for the Dems to keep the Rathkes on the payroll.
And there’s no way Obama is going to toss this crew under the metaphorical bus, as long as there is anyone else available to be the sacrificial victim. Witness the rapid firing of the schlubs in the Baltimore and DC offices.
Systemic illegality will never be deemed adequate cause to cut them off, as long as it can be blamed on individuals rather then the organization as a whole.
So: what does it take to get a RICO criminal investigation under way?
No, no, these are isolated incidents. Just another right-wing smear campaign, like Van Jones and the Planned Parenthood videos.
No, no, these are isolated incidents. Just another right-wing smear campaign, like Van Jones and the Planned Parenthood videos.
Sorry about the double post. Darn right wingers messed up my mouse.
Yes… and wait until you see what we did to your car.
The Feds aren’t the only ones paying ACORN. San Antonio hired them to provide “mortgage counseling services” last year, and probably are still using them. I’m sure a lot of other cities are doing the same.
Because they like stuffed ballot boxes? Just a guess.
“Mortgage Counseling Services”???
What??? Is there a shortage of whore houses “San An Tone”?
So areas already riddled with crime have federally funded ACORN to keep adding to the crime rate and then ACORN is the first to demand something be done about how disadvantaged their community is. What a racket!
Remember the Stimulus bill dumped one Billion dollars without any directions or controls, just money, into the hands of Census folks which was then to be run out of the White House. This firing of Acorn is just a smoke screen to appear as if the Rahm controlled census effort is going straight. What a joke.
A note to Michelle…and anyone else who no longer lives in the D.C. area:
Yesterday was “Adams Morgan day.”
Two things of note:
Among all the food and artists’ stands, there was one neither set-up, nor manned. The tent lay there abandoned, with boxes of “info” unopened.
ONE GUESS WHO: “U.S. Census Bureau”
On a more local note: The renouned restaurant “Madam’s Organ” posted large placards out of their establishment, explaining why, for the second year, they no longer participate – some problem with the “organizers” and “$10 million.”
err…renowned.
So much for “preview”…I need spell check!
“Madam’s Organ” sounds like it should be a drag bar.
‘Organized Crime’, without a doubt.
Hello Public Servants….DO YOUR JOB!
There has to be a very long detail investigation of everything involving ACORN.
Anyone getting a house with the help of ACORN. Anyone having taxes done with the assistance of ACORN. Anything related to tax payer money involving ACORN.
more like illegal alien drop houses…
The good news is that
The bad news is that the data collection has been turned over to La Raza. I say that is jest, of course, but something like that is certain to happen.
Now ACORN is threatening legal action against O’Keefe and Giles – and *gasp* Fox:
These stings are racist…
ACORN has been a parasitic tumor on the American taxpayer since the 60s. For fear of being labeled racist or not politically correct, our elected officials, in particular, Republicans, have allowed this arm of the Democrat party to flourish. They’ve not only ripped the taxpayers off, they’ve stolen elections and intimiated corporations (usually referred to as extortion) for decades.
It’s not a stretch of the imagination to logically conclude that if ACORN will lie and cheat with the small things like individual entries for voter registration, they would also lie and cheat with the larger issues.
Where are the watch dogs and indignation from our elected officials? I know, it’s a rhetorical question.
All funding and stimulus to ACORN and its myriad of organizations must be stopped now.
I love watching the cockroaches run for the dark. These two kids did what the State Run Media is supposed to do and they’ve done it well.
If they were targeting criminal conservative organizations they’d be hailed as brilliant.
Can’t wait to see which ACORN office is next on the list.
Anybody want popcorn?
Wait… I know this one.
Because ACORN gets illegals and dead people to vote for Democrats?
Really!?!?
My wife and I just bought a HUD repo. We got a terrific deal on it. In fact, following the advice Dave Ramsey often gives, we were able to pay cash for it.
And, following the advice of Jesus Christ:
We were totally honest.
Larger issue here is if ACORN decides to sue, defense is entitled to “discovery”, where they will demand ACORN release internal records, correspondence, emails etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was O’Keefe and Big Government’s stratagem from the get go. Bring it ACLOWN!
Ya think O’keefe et al will have much trouble raising funds for their defense? I’m in!
Coordinated corruption? From a bunch of clowns who register Micky Mouse to vote, divert millions of dollars of taxpayer money back into political campaigns and live large on our dime I would guess coordinated corruption is their forte. Their “Mortgage Counseling Services” would make Jesse James and the Daltons proud. Their Chief Financial Adviser, Bernie Madoff, was unavailable for comment at the moment.
But rest assured my fellow citizens-we can be confident Attorney General Eric Holder will be right on the case! If you can not trust Eric who can you trust?
I wonder what kind of jobs they will be trained for?…………….
Just more proof that the POTUS is a corrupt Chicago thug. ACORN is HIS baby, right? Geez, people, wake up! Glenn Beck is absolutely right…unless we get rid of the blatant corruption in this country, we are sunk. And that corruption goes all the way to the very top! The President of the United States is CORRUPT. Is anybody listening?
These two kids, O Keefe and Giles, that did this should be given the a Medal of Freedom! Not by Obama but by US, the American people! Great job Kids–Keep it up!
Yeah, right… ACORN will have it’s money cut off… Yeah, and when chickens get lips, they will learn how to whistle…
Laugh out loud funny!
SPOT ON. As long as the White House has its hooks in the Census it needs to be resisted.
Excellent point!
shut the taxpayer supported criminal enterprise down and put all the garbage running the show in jail. the slime balls they have as staff are doing what the garbage want them to do, as with all liberals it’s easier to blame others than to accept responsibility. courage is a foreign word to liberals.
Well, here’s one way to get some of the MSM to pick this up. Have ACORN play the victim.
I can see the intro…
“ACORN Suing shock amateur bloggers after racist video aired on Fox News”
They’ll do anything to down play attacks on their gods.
That would be a brilliant strategy. Turn this into a chess match against checker players.
I suspect they would have no trouble whatsoever raising money.
Get ready under the bus — 2 more Brooklyn ACORN workers will be joining their sistahs soon.
Fax Pelosi’s offices with this report. Do it often, do it quick. I have.
Do the same to Harry Reid.
Repeat procedure to Barney Frank’s office. Same with Dodd’s, and anyone who catches your fancy.
Call/email/fax Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel. Obama does not read anything, so it is futile to try and reach him.
They ought to know, they ought to be reminded they report to the people.
ACORN is an utter waste!
ACORN!!!
Funding brothels for underage sex slaves since 2008!!!!
2009 we will be opening up our new crack house program!!!
Brought to you by Obama..
Laurie Essig , over at Big Government, writes:
Notice no mention of the “girls from El Salvador” are underage, and being used for sex by adults.
That is how the left rewrites the criticism against them, by dropping the most egregious point, and minimalizing the left.
swede and NJ-Aviator, I think you’re both right about O’Keefe and Giles not having any difficulty raising a defense fund.
Those kids are heroes – as has been said, they’re doing the work the MSM won’t.
I saw on FOX this morning someone (Juan Williams maybe?) refer to ACORN as a “plantation run business”. As in White’s at the top and minorities doing all the work. Apt description in my book.
So any bets on how long it will be before ACORN is dissolved to correct this injustice to the American people. Only to be followed by a “new” organization hired to carry on the good works of ACORN?
AS is the rest of Obama’s big government enterprise.blockquote>Not one more taxpayer dime.Well we know that’s not going to happen on Obama’s watch. Oh, and by the way, why not say the same to Obama and his criminal gang.
Let them survive on Oreos and a pogo stick!
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I remember a movie a long time ago about police investigating a series of disappearances of young men.
All the evidence pointed to a single man who was “a pillar of the community” and the police could not get a warrant to search the man’s house.
The suspect continued to taunt the police chief, even dressing as a clown for a child’s birthday party the chief was attending with his son. He said directly into the chief’s face,
“Everyone loves a clown. Clowns can get away with murder.”
Every time the chief went to a judge the suspect’s lawyer was there, giving a convenient excuse for each piece of evidence, dismissing it all.
At the final meeting, between the police chief, the district attorney, and the judge, the chief spoke up in frustration.
He listed every piece of evidence that had been presented, culminating with the fact that one of his sergeants had said the odor coming from the man’s basement “smelled like a morgue” and asking the judge just how much evidence would it take.
The judge signed the warrant and the police found dozens of bodies buried in the man’s basement, many of them recent, showing that the body count had increased while the police were trying to get the judge to listen.
Unfortunately, because of the man’s “standing in the community”, he was allowed to continue to capture, sodomize, and murder young men and teenage boys because those in power could not believe he was capable of these crimes.
Just before the final credits, the movie showed text saying that the story was real and adhered to the facts. The police chief became an FBI investigator and his methods of collecting evidence became textbook lessons for both police and the FBI.
I leave it to those who know how to find this information to do so and valid what I have written above.
If you cannot think of the reason for my writing this, then I feel sorry for you. —TL
“Honesty is not going to get you the house” or the Senate, Supreme Court or Presidency.
Tim, I think you’re referring to the made for TV movie about John Wayne Gacy, starring Brian Dennehy.
And yes, your point is well made.
Nice one. All too true, unfortunately.
Speaking of cockroaches, one has to wonder how many of these “workers” at ACORN in offices that haven’t been exposed yet will have disappeared by the time their video hits the web.
This might give you an idea regarding what’s to come in the form of video.
And I love the quotes from ACORN’s Bertha Lewis. She claims the video was doctored.
HAR!!!!
Then says she can not defend the actions of the ACORN workers.
She’s got to be beside herself. How cool.
Yes.
Thank you for refreshing my memory.
—TL
And this is why we still need a third party.
AmeriCorps?
How about AmeRICOrps?
And speaking of a RICO prosecution,
Captain Ed was calling for one before the election:
Was’t it a boastful community organizer who taught ACORN how to play the ropes in Chicago?
Bayer just got a large Aspirin order!
After 2 days of stings wouldn’t you think ACORN would have caught on by now…..or are they that stupid.
“Black people should never trust whites. A white person is never really a black person’s friend.” Or so I’ve been told. By blacks. Including a ‘black educator’ who taught that to his students for many years.
THAT is the lesson the ‘black community’ is taking away from this: Those ACORN workers screwed up because they trusted white people, not because they were encouraging and abetting criminal behavior.
Most people have no idea how bad things have gotten. Most people still have no idea just how stupid it was to vote in Obama.
I would like to see the folowup on the schlubs. Will they be given money, houses, transfers to other offices. They were probably doing the bidding of Acorn so Acorn will not just dump them It is a facade. Lets see what they are doing a couple of months from now.
Amerikas chickens are coming home to whistle.
They finally admitted they are liars.
The Truth is not in their character.
These people have no Honor. Is it any wonder why some individuals are called names?
Check their backyard for the tin of tax payer money.
Or the Senate …
Or the White House …
Et Cetera …
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
And here’s just the party!
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
HaHA forgot the link!
Here it is.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I just finished writing to Duncan D. Hunter asking him to call for an investigation. I urge all of us with republican or conservative representatives to do the same.
What’s most disturbing is how blatant they are! No winking and nodding. They are apparently confident in their lawlessness. That kind of attitude about violating the law comes from lots of practice.
ACORN is indeed a criminal enterprise!
Send John Conyers (chairman of the House Judiciary Committee) an email and tell him what you think!!!
MAKE SURE HE CAN HEAR YOU!!!!
Tell him the tea party is going to visit him if he does not do his job:
Suggested text:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HEY John Conyers
DO YOUR JOB!!!
GET TO WORK OR THE TEA PARTY IS COMING TO VISIT YOU !!!
CAN YOU HEAR US NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His email address:
john.conyers@mail.house.gov
it ain’t no fun/if the homies cain’t have none
I sure hope I get my nickel in the mail.
So ACORN is now going to make the unemployment numbers go up! So did BO create these jobs or is he going to save them?
What’s with the concern I see over the maistream media not covering this? ACORN sustains major damage with each new sting, and that damage is equally suffered by the media outlets that don’t cover it. Think of both entities as ships which suddenly, unbelievably, and undeniably have had major holes blasted in their hulls. Thug thizzle from the pimp and prostitizzle.
Patrick Swayze dead at 57…RIP….
You would think that all people, white, black, green, and yellow, would want fairness and honesty.
If they did, they need to trickle them out enough to get Congressional hearings, see what comes of them, then trickle some more if Congress wants to cover it up.
….or wait until it’s closer to the election, see which Dims still support ACORN, then release them in their district.
Time for some hardball.
Michelle, it would be nice to see which Senator voted in favor of giving ACORN
moneyour tax dollars, and compare those votes to this amendment and how they voted.ACORN was a known entity BEFORE they were shoveling money at them, yet it took videos like this to convince many to do the right thing.
Oh, and if they think there is no need for Congressional hearings, why did they vote to cut off funds?
…and in discussions with Michael Moore for the documentary on how its so pervasive on the right.
I also suspect the IRS would be watching the fund VERY closely to ensure every “i” was dotted, and “t” crossed.
What amazes me is that Congress thought these people were worthy of millions and millions of tax dollars.
Who at the top of ACORN was smart enough to convince Congress to give them money?
It certainly wasn’t Bertha.
The People’s Cube: