Free Republic

OK, here's what should be the nail in the coffin for conservative claims that ACORN is poised to steal the New Jersey governor's race through rampant voter fraud. Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, tells TPMmuckraker that the much-maligned group has conducted absolutely no political or voter registration activity in the state during the 2009 cycle. And Kettenring added that ACORN had done very little such work during the 2008 cycle. In a column published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund sounded the alarm about the threat from ACORN -- but a close look reveals that even here he...

According to a July 9, 2008 article in the New York Times, Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder, Wade Rathke, “embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000.” The Times reported Dale Rathke embezzled $948,607.50, “carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.” ACORN “chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board.” According to an October 10, 2008...

Democrats' Ethics Targeted by GOP By BRODY MULLINS Republicans are seizing on newly revealed ethics probes of congressional Democrats ahead of next year's midterm elections, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues of failing to make good on their pledge to clean up Washington when they regained control of Congress. None of the Democratic lawmakers under investigation by the House Ethics Committee is expected to lose in 2010. And ethics concerns are usually less important to voters than pocketbook issues. But Republican campaign strategists say ethics issues rumbling under the surface could help the GOP pick up a few...

Senate Republicans are gearing up to block the appeals-court nomination of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton, whose resume includes a stint as a fundraiser for ACORN, the community-organizing group recently tripped up by a series of embarrassing undercover videos. Conservative legal groups have described Hamilton as "ultra-liberal." His appointment to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago would provide an aerie perch from which to rule on appeals from Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told fellow senators that before Veterans Day "We are going to [vote on] Judge David Hamilton, Seventh Circuit,...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. . Update: Big Government has contacted the Louisiana Attorney’s General office....

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts. The large office building sits at the corner of Dorgenois and Canal. ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said. "They have been extremely cooperative," she said. Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. Check back her for more details, as well as a statement...

The House Ethics Committee is trying to figure out how to clear seven crooked Black Democrats. Blacks you must remember are untouchables in Democrat-think. These Black crooks aren’t going down easy. They have a lifetime of experience being crooked Black politicians; they well understand their skin color is their “Get out of jail free” card. They know how to generate White liberal Democrat guilt. Phrases that stoke the fires of guilt One anonymous Black Congressional Caucus member said: “Is there concern whether someone is trying to set up [Congressional Black Caucus] members? Yeah, there is. It looks as if there...

ACORN: Bizarre and Corrupt Allie Winegar Duzett, November 6, 2009 According to John Fund of The Wall Street Journal, there is one question above all that Americans should be asking with regards to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now): “How did they get away with so much for so long?” Fund posited two possible answers at Accuracy in Media’s 40th Anniversary Conference held on October 23, 2009, the first being a “presumption of good intentions. ACORN was a community organizing group,” Fund said. “When their offices were raided in Nevada,” he noted, they told the world, “We’re just...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread!

Populace Media Sarah Carlsruh, November 5, 2009 James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles’ undercover videos revealing the scandal of ACORN, with over a million views on YouTube, are a testament to the escalating dominance of new media. At Accuracy in Media’s (AIM) 40th Anniversary Conference on October 23rd, a New Media and the Future of Journalism panel discussed recent technology in the media and the social media movement. Panelist Robert Bluey, after graduating from journalism school, envisioned that he would get a job at the Washington Post; that dream died when he discovered that such organizations did not covet a conservative...

Inside ACORN Allie Winegar Duzett, November 5, 2009 Often we hear about the corruption of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. While many of ACORN’s members are corrupt, a few have the courage to speak for truth and virtue. Anita MonCrief is one of those people. MonCreif told her story at Accuracy in Media’s 40th Anniversary Conference, held on October 23, 2009. “In spring of 2007, after noticing a pattern with ACORN and how they were treating employees regarding voter registration fraud especially, I contacted the Employment Policies Institute,” she said. “They run a site called RottenACORN.com....

Syracuse, NY -- When Danielle Masursky cast her vote Tuesday at the Buckley Road Baptist Church in Clay, a trio of elections inspectors were standing close enough to read her ballot choices. That’s not counting the other voters who, as she carried the ballot from a table to a scanning machine, might have been able to see which boxes she had filled in. “I think it should be secret, and nobody should know how you’re voting,” Masursky said. “I think that is a key element of democracy.” Voters across New York state agreed, complaining to county elections boards that the...

Reporting Lou Young NEW YORK (CBS) -- Democrat John Liu has won a decisive victory in the race for New York City Comptroller. The Queens Councilman has made history, becoming the first Asian-American elected to citywide office. They pretty much knew they were having a victory party at John Liu's headquarters in Midtown. In fact, you could see the optimism on the candidate's face when we caught up with him earlier tonight in Harlem. Liu was wrapping up his successful campaign for Controller at the side of the man who currently holds the office. And his is a big deal...

This year's conference of the Francophone European Association for Bahá’í Studies (Association francophone européenne des études bahá’íes, AFEEB) on 24 and 25 October 2009 in Luxembourg discussed the future world order and global governance. The programme included a presentation of the concept of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) by the Chairman of the Committee for a Democratic U.N., Andreas Bummel. Outlining the path towards a directly elected world parliament, Mr Bummel stressed the "spiritual dimension" of the efforts. "The establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly would represent a changed consciousness. For the first time in human history such a...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Andy Stern, why is he so powerful?? Join us and find out!

News. Lots of it. Glenn Beck news, Lou Dobbs news, Rush news, Fox news, George Soros news and yes, you knew this had to be in the mix somewhere: ACORN news. Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs fans, your prayers have been answered. Links to campaigns supporting the removal of both men from their respective television shows have been dropped by So We Might See, the increasingly controversial interfaith religious group funded in part by the George Soros-backed Media Democracy Fund. One of those campaigns (targeting Beck) was led by Color of Change, the group co-founded by now-resigned Obama White House...

A New Jersey hospital is denying accusations that ACORN workers have been inside collecting absentee ballots for the state's gubernatorial race. East Orange General Hospital CEO Kevin Slavin said Tuesday that "all proper protocols" were followed as part of its program to allow patients to vote via absentee ballot, and that no third-party groups were signing up patients. "Other than the specifically designated and trained staff to hand out and collect these ballots, no advocacy groups were authorized nor allowed access to the hospital to hand out absentee ballots to patients as has been recently reported in unsubstantiated blogs and...

From one of my readers in Newark: "Figured I'd shoot you an update before the after-work rush. There has been a slight uptick in in turnout, but the biggest uptick is number of unions guys out there. The streets of Newark are crawling with people in SEIU purple shirts. They are near polling places, placing campaign lit on cars, and all the kind of stuff. Big labor is heavily invested in a Corzine win and Corzine is dependent upon them for his GOTV so it is not surprising to us that they are out there, just that it took them...

That's what Hannity is reporting at 5:20 EST. GET OUT AND VOTE New Jersey GOP & Independents!!!

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Today Glenn tells us why healthcare is the key to controlling every aspect of your life, join us won't you!

Citigroup has advised NLPC that Senior Vice President Eric Eve has resigned for ACORN’s Advisory Committee. In a September 28 letter to Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, I asked that the bank sever its relationship with ACORN, including Eve’s membership on the Committee. In an October 29 reply, Citigroup also stated that it has “suspended our charitable financial support and program relationship with ACORN, and we are awaiting the results of the independent audit of ACORN activities now underway.”This is ominous, and certainly leaves open the possibility of continued Citigroup support for ACORN. The “independent audit” is no such thing. It...

John Fund: The state has received a flood of 180,000 absentee ballot requests. On some 3,000 forms the signature doesn't match the one on file with county clerks. Yet citing concerns that voters would be disenfranchised, Democratic Party lawyer Paul Josephson wrote New Jersey's secretary of state asking her "to instruct County Clerks not to deny applications on the basis of signature comparison alone." Mr. Josephson maintained that county clerks "may be overworked and are likely not trained in handwriting analysis" and insisted that voters with suspect applications should be allowed to cast provisional ballots. Those ballots, of course, would...

Karl Rove gives his assessment on the New Jersey Governor's race and the says you have to be way ahead....He should know, they twice tried to win New Jersey in 2000, and 2004....(Video)

Almost 20% of West Virginians eligible to vote are either dead or have moved. Five States with the Most Dead People Eligible to Vote: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. FUN TIME IN ACORN TOWN: DEAD PEOPLE RULE! Are you lonely when you go to the polling place? Want some company? Perhaps, you'd like to take along a dead "friend" to vote with you. That's a scenario that's becoming more possible across the United States. A combination of old voter registration lists that still contain the names of dead voters and voters who have moved, new "Motor Voter" legislation,...

Fearing a potentially devastating Democratic loss, the highly controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) group and its affiliated organizations are gearing up to tip the scales and re-elect embattled incumbent in the hard-fought New Jersey gubernatorial race, sources tell Newsmax. "Acorn is heavily involved in Gov. Jon Corzine's get-out-the-vote operation, but is maintaining a low profile at the insistence of the Corzine campaign," Matthew Vadum, senior editor of the conservative Capitol Research Center think tank, tells Newsmax. "If Corzine manages to win reelection, he doesn't want the victory tainted by his close association with Acorn." Wall Street...

On Nov. 9 Wade Rathke will be speaking at Springfield college,Marsh Hall in Springfield Mass at 7:0PM and at UMASS on Nov. 10, Gordon Hall at 4:00PM. We will be arriving a half hour early to both. When I say we, I mean the western Mass 912 project. Our signs will be aimed specifically at ACORN's and Rathke's legal problems; they will also be aimed at student age people. Apparently we have a troll on our site, they have discovered our plans and plan to counter us. I am asking for help from anyone that can make it. The following...

The race for governor in New Jersey is so close in final polls that it may well end up in a recount -- the 1981 election did and was decided by less than 1,800 votes. If there is a recount, you can bet disputes about absentee ballots will loom large. Moreover, if serious allegations of fraud emerge, you can also expect less-than-vigorous investigation by the Obama Justice Department -- which showed just how seriously it takes such allegations when it walked away from an open-and-shut voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia earlier this year.

Big Government’s open about the fact that this is an issue: Will Corzine Allies Steal the Election in New Jersey? ACORN, Dirty Tricks and Absentee Ballot Fraud New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is locked in the political fight of his life. With just hours left before voting, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Corzine and GOP candidate Chris Christie, with Independent candidate Chris Daggett pulling significant support. Obama and VP Biden are making last ditch pitches for the embattled governor. But evidence is building that Corzine’s campaign may see its only salvation is in rigging the election. What can you...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread! Glenn will discuss why America's political landscape has become almost unrecognizable, join us won't you!

As the vice president knows, I have always advocated an all-of-the-above approach to American energy independence. Among other things, my alternative energy goal for Alaska sits at 50 percent because Alaska reached more than 20 percent during my term in office. The Obama-Biden administration, on the other hand, recently announced a renewable goal of only 25 percent. However, domestic drilling should remain a top priority in order to meet America’s consumption and security needs. etc...

Same Day Voter Registration Re-Introduced WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) are reintroducing legislation to "make it easier for Americans" to register to vote by allowing same day registration at polling places for all federal elections. By allowing voters to register at polling places the same day as they vote, the Same Day Registration Act would help increase voter turnout and voters would not have to worry about sitting an election out because they missed a registration deadline. And by having voters register in person, there is less of a chance that...

President Obama’s highly controversial Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, is concerned about the heterosexual indoctrination of children in our public schools. In his bizarre view: “we all know what’s promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country. And you know what, it doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But they’re still...

Of particular significance is the visit by ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson who met with White House political director Patrick Gaspard in March. The purpose of the meeting with Gaspard, a former ACORN employee himself, was not disclosed. Levenson, who is also a registered lobbyist for New York ACORN, is the charming fellow whom Glenn Beck threw off his set May 6 for calling the TV host a racist. He's been helping to coordinate ACORN's public disinformation strategy which relies heavily on lies and misdirection. It is worth noting that Levenson's visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wouldn't in itself be untoward...

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is locked in the political fight of his life. With just hours left before voting, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Corzine and GOP candidate Chris Christie, with Independent candidate Chris Daggett pulling significant support. Obama and VP Biden are making last ditch pitches for the embattled governor. But evidence is building that Corzine’s campaign may see its only salvation is in rigging the election. The first sign is a straight-up dirty trick. Daggett’s run for office is certainly convenient for Corzine, as he will help split any anti-Corzine vote. And, as a Corzine political...

Fearful that the party had almost no chance of winning the Nov. 3 New York special election after Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava abruptly announced Saturday that she was dropping out, high-ranking national Democrats immediately began working to secure her endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens, POLITICO has learned. On Sunday afternoon, their vigorous efforts paid off as Scozzafava bucked her own party and issued a statement supporting Owens over Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, a coup for Democrats who recognized that their best remaining chance of winning the Republican-leaning seat on Tuesday was to swing disaffected Scozzafava supporters their way. By...

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is locked in the political fight of his life. With just hours left before voting, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Corzine and GOP candidate Chris Christie, with Independent candidate Chris Daggett pulling significant support. Obama and VP Biden are making last ditch pitches for the embattled governor. But evidence is building that Corzine’s campaign may see its only salvation is in rigging the election. The first sign is a straight-up dirty trick. Daggett’s run for office is certainly convenient for Corzine, as he will help split any anti-Corzine vote. And, as a Corzine political...

In a conference call with reporters and bloggers, Doug Hoffman campaign spokesman Rob Ryan addressed his concern about the possibility of ACORN interfering in New York's 23rd district.

GOP nominee endorses Democrat after stepping aside under pressure from right By Tony Romm - 11/01/09 03:28 PM ET The Republican in a New York House race that has become a symbol of the divisions within the GOP endorsed her former Democratic rival Sunday, a sharp snub to the third-party conservative who forced her out of the race. Dede Scozzafava, who'd been chosen by local Republican leaders to try to hold the seat for the GOP, instead threw her support behind Democrat Bill Owens -- only a day after she unexpectedly backed out of the tough, three-way special election.

Everything has a fundamental essence, a quality that makes it uniquely itself. Take an orange, for example. It's not only a citrus fruit -- it's an orange-colored citrus fruit. Horticulturists can alter its size, its texture, its sweetness, and even (to a limited extent) its color, but as long as its color is orange, the fruit remains "an orange" because that color is its definition. Change the color, however, and suddenly you have the un-orange, the anti-orange. You have something completely different that no longer contains the essence of the original fruit. Lose the essence and you lose the orange....

As we at SayNoToACORN.com are fighting to help inform you about what you can do to impress upon our local and federal officials to distance themselves from ACORN, the other side — those that support the actions of ACORN — are also organizing. This fact proves that we cannot just sit idly by and hope that things go our way. We must act to make sure our politicians listen to us and defund this criminal organization. We must speak because our opponents definitely are. Once again, Byron York reports on this story and he finds a webpage trying to cajole...

Some of my best friends have worked for ACORN. They are honest, dedicated and moral individuals who appreciated the mission of this group, which has done so much good for some of our poorest citizens. So I take it personally when Congress reduces ACORN to an object lesson about the purported immorality of some community organizers. ACORN isn't perfect. Both its loose organizational supervision and occasional zealotry of its organizers have led to abuses. But Congress has been extremely hypocritical and biased in cutting off federal funds. When two conservative activists posed as a pimp and a prostitute and with...

I want to personally thank Republican Dede Scozzafava for acting so selflessly today in the NY District 23 race. Now it's time to cross the finish line with Doug Hoffman so that he can get to work for District 23 and the rest of America. With Congress poised to overhaul one-sixth of our economy with so-called health care “reform” (which is really a government takeover of health care) and with plans to enact a cap-and-tax bill just as our economy struggles to recover, Doug Hoffman will be a voice for fiscal responsibility and common sense in Washington. We need candidates...

Hey Staten Island! Wake up! Staten Island is one of NYC's five boroughs -- home to cops, firefighters and a mix of hard working blue collar and white collar families. Staten Island was hit real bad on 911. They have no clue how dirty the Working Families Party is. But we do. The Democrats are a racketeering organization using their proxies like the Left wing Working Families Party (how ironic), ACORN, and community organizing organizations to steal elections and usurp the will of free men. (more here) The NY Post came out with this story on the Working Families Party...

As we at SayNoToACORN.com are fighting to help inform you about what you can do to impress upon our local and federal officials to distance themselves from ACORN, the other side -- those that support the actions of ACORN -- are also organizing. This fact proves that we cannot just sit idly by and hope that things go our way. We must act to make sure our politicians listen to us and defund this criminal organization. We must speak because our opponents definitely are. Once again, Byron York reports on this story and he finds a webpage trying to cajole...

Fear and outside influences kept me off Fox the weekend before the election. Fear and a sense of loyalty to Strom kept me from immediately exposing the New York Times by releasing our email exchanges before March of 2009 and fear tied me to Marcel Reid, who used those fears to manipulate and control me. In the end, fear did not prevent me from realizing that I was no longer ideologically aligned with the ACORN 8. I was no longer the far left radical who wanted to change the system, and I no longer felt that I had to stand...

Andrew Breitbart blew into Washington recently for what amounted to a victory lap. The Internet entrepreneur spent last week soaking up accolades from conservatives for having offered guidance to the two twenty-somethings who posed as a pimp and prostitute and took a hidden camera into several ACORN offices. The pair filmed workers from the national liberal community group appearing to aid them as they inquired about starting a brothel — a move that has put ACORN on the defensive and made the activists, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, instant conservative heroes. But in the end it’s Breitbart who may be...

Is there one, (one?!) honest Democrat? C'mon, New Jersey! NJ-GOV: Jon Corzine’s Absentee Ballot Slush Fund NRO via Redstate National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a tremendously important story. Jon Corzine is trying to build an absentee ballot slush fund to win a recount in the New Jersey Governor’s race. Basically, the Democratic Party has asked the Secretary of State to send provisional absentee ballots out to people whose signatures on their absentee ballot requests don’t match: In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters....

Check this out ... the SEIU is the sympathetic, comforting, understanding shoulder on which the oppressed bank employees (the ones with jobs!) can lean.

After hearing from an angry parent, I reached out to "Queen Sister," a colorful activist who has been at the forefront of rallies to stop the violence near Fenger High School. It's not surprising that Queen Sister's mailbox is full. Last time I saw her, she was outside Fenger yelling through a bullhorn. Since the fatal beating of Derrion Albert -- a tragedy that was captured on video -- activists like Queen Sister have been in great demand. And since U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (US Dept of Ed & Chicago Dept of Education) promised millions of dollars to quell...