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A Housing and Urban Development Department lawyer asked the Justice Department whether the new law meant that pre-existing contracts with Acorn should be broken. And in a memorandum signed Oct. 23 and posted online this week, Mr. Barron said the government should continue to make payments to Acorn as required by such contracts. The new law “should not be read as directing or authorizing HUD to breach a pre-existing binding contractual obligation to make payments to Acorn or its affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations where doing so would give rise to contractual liability,” Mr. Barron wrote. The deputy director of...

"DOORKNOCKING BASICS Some of the roles of an organizer are: • To help people steer their anger toward the system into collective action • To recruit new members for the organization’s greater political power • To give people a sense of their own power • To listen to their stories • To raise the expectations of what people should feel they should get • To paint a clear picture of who the enemy is • To organize to hold corporations and the government accountable to low & moderate income people • To bring in extra revenue to the organization •...

Just more evidence that your common criminal is just plain retarded: On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN’s activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist the undercover film makers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice to boot. Although ACORN has denied any wrongdoing, some of the employees involved were terminated, and ACORN has publicly stated that they would fully cooperate with any investigations that followed. Interestingly, the local head ACORN organizer in California, David Lagstein was caught on tape earlier...

Here is video of Sean Hannity talking with Andrew Breitbart, James O'Keefe, and Hannah Giles about the latest ACORN video they have revealed. When asked by Hannity if he has more tapes, Breitbart answered "not only are there more tapes, it's not just ACORN." He then gave a "message" to Attorney General Holder "I want you to know we have more tapes, it's not just ACORN, and we're going to hold out until the next election cycle" unless Holder does "a clean investigation" of ACORN. (Video)

The Senate voted 59 to 39 to confirm Judge David F. Hamilton to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Hamilton, who sits on the Federal District Court in Indiana, was President Obama’s first judicial nominee. Republicans opposed the nomination, announced March 19, because of decisions Judge Hamilton made relating to abortion and prayers in the Indiana Legislature. Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana was the only Republican to vote for his confirmation.

Just when we thought it was all over, the ACORN Pimp/Hooker Scandal rises again. Our heroes, Hannah Giles and James O' Keefe the fake pimp and hooker were in Philadelphia meeting with the folks at ACORN. Next Stop, Sunny Los Angeles. The first tape released from the ACORN of sunny LA was of Felix Harris Mr. Harris didn’t care about that the two were involved with prostitution in regards to a housing loan, but when the O'Keefe/Giles team started talking about underage girls, he said that ACORN did not get involved with things like that. Felix was the only person...

Those undercover tapes of ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) keep popping up, like these at the Big Government web site.. After a pair of undercover filmmakers impersonated a pimp and prostitute at ACORN offices, the Attorney General's office in California led by former Governor Jerry Brown has promised an investigation not into ACORN, but into the filmmakers. On October 15th, local ACORN spokesman David Lagstein was the special guest of the East County Democrat Club in El Cajon, CA. Lagstein is ACORN’s chief organizer in the San Diego area. The meeting was held at Coco’s Restaurant, a...

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...

When both houses of Congress voted to defund ACORN several weeks ago, what they actually did was bar lawmakers and federal agencies from giving any money to the community organizing group for the duration of the temporary budget agreement, or continuing resolution, that was in effect at the time. Continuing resolutions are used to extend federal spending, and keep the government running, when Congress can't agree on appropriations bills for the fiscal year. When the congressional defunding of ACORN went into effect on October 1, there was a continuing resolution in place that would last until October 31 -- this...

Just weeks after overwhelming votes in the House and Senate to protect tax payers by barring federal funding to ACORN, Democrats have found a way to throw a life-line to their de facto campaign organization. Democrats on the House Committee on Financial Services adopted an amendment by Maxine Waters that will allow ACORN and other activists groups to share a regulatory role over our financial institutions.

The federal government has listed an ACORN affiliate in its catalog of approved charities – allowing federal employees to set up payroll deductions and donate a portion of paychecks directly to the group. The ACORN Institute, an affiliate of the national umbrella organization of ACORN, is featured in the Office of Personnel Management's 2009 CFC list of participating national and international organizations. The government's annual workplace charity campaign allows federal employees to contribute to qualified charities with cash, checks or payroll deductions. According to a Washington Post report, ACORN transferred millions of dollars in charitable contributions meant for the poor...

Besides giving advice on avoiding taxes and fraudulently getting home loans for brothels featuring 13-year-old Salvadoran girls illegally smuggled into this country, ACORN officials could soon be helping regulate your local bank, thanks to an amendment adopted by Rep. Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, and provided that five slots on the oversight board for the proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency be reserved for representatives of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly...

Several Louisiana ACORN leaders, including the recently ousted state leader, are expected to announce today that they have started a new organization under the same name after national authorities of the community action network voted to take over the chapter. A notice of a news conference scheduled for 3 p.m. in Light City Church, 6117 St. Claude Ave., says the event will include "Louisiana ACORN Executive Director Beth Butler, " who was fired from that post Oct. 12 by national ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. The document states that Butler will be joined by several Louisiana ACORN officers, board members and...

Is ACORN a toxic organization? Illinois Congressmen Mark Kirk and Peter Roskam, along with North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry, made the case today at a press conference in Chicago. Below is a press release handed out by the office of Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL). Research reveals web of financial ties between ACORN and SEIU; SEIU Local 880 formed by ACORN, rents office from ACORN front group while another finances ACORN “election efforts”; U.S. Census recently cut ties with ACORN but partnership with SEIU remains CHICAGO – Illinois Congressmen Mark Kirk and Peter Roskam today urged the U.S. Census Bureau to...

Chris Edwards, the former Las Vegas Director for ACORN has "flipped" for the Nevada AG's prosecution of ACORN in voter fraud case. Matthew Vadum of Capital Resource Center claims the Nevada AG has possession of ACORN Resource Manual which includes a registration incentive scheme called, "21" that paid cash bonuses.FOX News video of interview here and at link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFaIeMogWa4

It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. "We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."

Guillermo Loaiza, a loan officer for a unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in Phoenix, has resigned from the board of Acorn Housing, a spokesman for J.P. Morgan said. Acorn Housing is an affiliate of the community-organizing group Acorn, the full name of which is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Both Acorn and Acorn Housing have been under fire since the recent release of secretly recorded videos that depicted Acorn employees offering advice on evading taxes, setting up brothels and smuggling illegal immigrants. J.P. Morgan has said it doesn't have a regular working relationship with Acorn...

Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood has revealed new audio of the August 10 National Endowment for the Art, White House, and United We Serve conference call. However, The Obama administration apparently met with 60 artists and creative organizers as early as May 12 according to an online document (Download)by the Pratt Center for Community Development, State Voices, Arlene Goldbard, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Other artists(link1 link 2)have corroborated this meeting happened.

*NEA conference call full audio and transcript here** Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?” The question still requires debate but the facts do not. The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable. But some have claimed that...

Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood is out today with new details on the National Endowment for the Arts scandal, including a full transcript and audio recording, as well as a CliffsNotes summary by John Nolte, of the notorious Aug. 10 conference call in which administration officials urged artists to help promote President Obama's legislative agenda. Formally, the call was led by Michael Skolnik, who is not a government employee. But Skolnik declares at the start of the call that he is acting on behalf of the administration:I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about...

Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern by John Nolte At first glance, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conference call of August 10th, 2009 sounds innocent enough because it’s supposedly been organized by Michael Skolnik, political director for Russell Simmons and someone not officially associated with any government agency. Skolnik appears to be acting independently as a concerned citizen and to have taken it upon himself to gather together a group of artists and art organizations hoping to move them towards “national service.” And how nice of the White House, the...

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

With the federal treasury facing insolvency what industry do we help next? Well lets see, how about the public relations arm of the Democratic party, the newspaper industry. That way when our Taxes go even higher they can tell us that it is a great idea. Today the President said that he would be happy to look at the Senate proposal allowing papers to restructure as non-profit organizations. Non-Profit may describe a newspaper's balance sheet, but it should not describe its tax status, unless of course, if Senator Benjamin Cardin( D-Md.) gets his way. The Senator introduced a bill on...

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

This is it; the story we were speculating about today. Well, this is the "pre-story" and the rest breaks tomorrow at noon (don't know EST or PST) But, there is even a larger issue that hasn’t yet received much attention in the press. Among the Obama Administration officials on the call were Buffy Wicks, Office of Public Engagement and the lead White House official on the President’s Serve.Gov initiative to promote national service. Also on the call was Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.Gov. One of their mail goals on the call, it seems, was to encourage artists to...

ACORN's top officer said Sunday that she was "outraged" by the content of hidden-camera videotapes showing her organization's employees offering advice to undercover filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute, as she pledged to "reform" the inner workings of the activist group. Chief organizer Bertha Lewis tried to calm a growing firestorm over the behavior of her group's employees. Allegations of voter registration fraud and other ethical lapses have plagued ACORN for years, but the videotapes were the last straw for the group's critics -- as well as its long-time defenders. The videotapes, filmed by two conservative activists, led to...

"They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What's more, it ain't over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet. Stay tuned." ----snip---- "High praise to you, Mr. Stewart. It's nice to see there's someone out there in liberal media-land who would recognize there's something terribly wrong on these videos. And yes, there are more to come." At the very least, filmmaker James O'Keefe and actress Hannah Giles deserve a Pulitzer Prize for their expose of deep corruption and unspeakable...

Perhaps we shouldn't have been completely surprised by the videos we've seen of ACORN workers offering assistance to prostitution rings. I mean, there was Cincinnati . . . Shari Bell, 41, of Walnut Hills was arrested Wednesday night by Cincinnati police, reported WCPO, NewsChannel5's Cincinnati sister station. Bell allegedly approached an undercover officer's car in Evanston and offered him sex for money. Police also said they found a crack pipe in Bell's coat pocket. Bell told police she works for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now at the time of her arrest. And then there was Cleveland: An...

The liberal political organizing group ACORN faced internal chaos and allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud long before two young conservatives embarrassed the group with undercover videos made at field offices in Washington and across the country.

The House of Representatives voted today, 345-75, to cut off all funding to ACORN. All Republicans voted for the measure. That doesn't mean it will happen, of course; the measure, which is attached to a student aid bill, goes beyond the scope of the Senate's action earlier this week. Don't assume that ACORN can't ride out the storm and have its funding quietly restored by the Democrats, now that those in swing districts have had an opportunity to tell their constituents they voted to stop funding the voter fraud/tax fraud/prostitution organization. For now, at least, supporting ACORN is hard to...

( Surprise: ACORN audit to be conducted by panel full of leftists and cronies.) From this profoundly warped announcement (via ABC who engages in daily, early-morning information huddles with the Obama “White House”) from ACORN itself, it’s announced that ACORN is, uhh, going to “investigate” ACORN, with this group of Lefties-at-hire to go onto the media-stage and do the “Let’s Investigate” routine: In a press release, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis says, that as “a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees,” the group will immediately stop accepting anyone into ACORN office for service programs, will conduct...

I have pieced together how much ACORN staff members make and what does the Job entails. All information from ACORN.

October 20, 2008 By Kyle-Anne Shiver "A People's Organization is dedicated to an eternal war...A war is not an intellectual debate, and in the war against social evils there are no rules of fair play." - Saul Alinsky; Reveille for Radicals; p. 133 Rules? What rules? Laws? What laws? Clearly, Alinsky's acolytes take him at his word. When one is fighting a war "against social evils," one is above the law. Rules and laws are for the other people. I'm stunned by the irony here. For the past eight years, Americans have been bombarded nearly nonstop by cries of "Bush...

Interactive site at link.

Move over, Bill Ayers. This week, Republican activists have a new Public Enemy #1. It’s ACORN, the once-obscure community-organizing group that boasts of having registered 1.3 million new voters. Republican officials and advisers to Sen. John McCain have accused ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) of rampant voter-registration fraud. Indeed, officials in states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Indiana and Connecticut now are looking into accusations that ACORN workers turned in thousands of fraudulent or duplicate voter-registration applications. (The Dallas Cowboys magically filled out voter registration forms in Nevada, for example.) So what exactly is...

Updated: The tip was accurate, but the Cleveland Plain Dealer got the story out first. See update after background. Okay, that's what we have at the moment. Yesterday's majority decision, penned by former Ohio Solicitor Jeffrey Sutton, said, "Nothing about this case, or the relief (Ohio Republicans, who brought the suit) seek will allow them to prevent a single voter from casting a ballot in the November election ... "At most, the identification of a mismatch allows a county board to investigate whether the mismatch has a legitimate explanation (say, a recent change of address)." The practical effect, Sutton...

Michigan's attorney general is charging a former employee of a community organizing group with forgery after he says the man falsely submitted six voter registration forms. He worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

TALLAHASSEE -- Two suspicious Seminole County voter registration cards became a flash point Wednesday in the Republican effort to suggest the community group ACORN is committing fraud in its historic Florida get-out-the vote efforts. An ACORN spokesman said the group spotted what appeared to be forged registration cards weeks ago and fired a worker over them. Seminole's election chief, Mike Ertel, said he was still "tremendously concerned," but stopped well short of calling the incident "fraud." The Republican National Committee, though, levelled the accusation and blasted the housing and wage advocacy group in a nationwide conference call with reporters, saying...

The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

NEW ORLEANS — ACORN, the national activist group dogged by a high-profile voter registration fraud scandal, has another bruising item on its agenda when its board of directors meets here this weekend. Leaders of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are locked in a legal dispute stemming from allegations that the brother of the group's founder misappropriated nearly $1 million of the nonprofit's money several years ago. The embezzlement case, a recent revelation to some board members, has spawned a lawsuit and set off a power struggle inside ACORN at a time when the liberal group's voter registration...

Baltimore, Nov 11, 2008 (CNA).- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has not yet been able to determine if grants made to ACORN were used for fraudulent voter registration, but has cut off all funding to the community organizing group, Bishop Robert Morin announced on Tuesday. Shortly after addressing the full assembly of U.S. Catholic bishops, Bishop Morin spoke to reporters about what the bishops had learned concerning the use of grants from the CCHD to the group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which is currently under investigation in 13 states for voter fraud. CCHD originally...

The only way they'd defund the outfit is if it endorsed the war in Iraq or Afghanistan.<--snip--> One of Acorn's leading Congressional enablers has been Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts. Last year Mr. Frank appeared in a promotional video for "Acorn's Grassroots Democracy Campaign," and this year he led the effort to repeal a year-old legal provision barring groups from receiving housing subsidies while under indictment for voter fraud. This he called "a violation of the basic principles of due process." Mr. Frank was absent yesterday when the House voted to defund Acorn, although he had been on the House...

The ACORN vote in the House is stunning news. Just 48 hours after Republican Leader John Boehner introduced the "Defund ACORN Act," the bill -- which most Republicans thought Democrats would do anything to block -- passed by a resounding 345-75 vote. It would never have made it to a vote had not the Democratic leadership decided to allow it, and the winning total included 172 Democrats. Yes, 172 House Democrats voted to totally cut off funding for an organization that has worked for years on behalf of Democrats nationwide. Couple that with the 83-7 Senate vote to cut off...

If this link does not work, do a search on line for "glenn beck listen live" This is scary, the young man who filmed the ACORN video.

Google Cache reveals Obama has a very very active relationship with ACORN, the child prostitution ring helpers. Click the link to see the 3,410 pages that President Obama currently, yes CURRENTLY, has with thes folks willing to import child prostitutes. CLICK HERE

Bertha Lewis Media Blitz: Video of her tonight on CNN w/Blitzer and MSNBC w/Schultz claiming ACORN will 'go after' O'Keefe, Giles and Fox. Click link to watch.

The journalists at the center of an embarrassing scandal for the grass-roots organization ACORN also paid a visit to the ACORN office in San Diego County. Grass-roots organizing has gotten a black eye on the national stage after undercover videos involving ACORN, a controversial group with a local office, were released that were shot during a series of visits from a hidden-camera crew. At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, a video was broadcast on Fox's "Hannity" that purported to show a San Diego ACORN staffer discussing human trafficking with two people who were undercover. Earlier in the day, local ACORN officials,...

UPDATED: ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees "indefensible," has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened.

A left-leaning community organizing group says it has no contracts with Minnesota that would be impaired by Gov. Tim Pawlenty's directive to cut off state money. Pawlenty on Wednesday ordered a review and suspension of public contracts with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN. The potential 2012 presidential candidate says no state money would go to ACORN unless legally obligated. ACORN is under fire after a hidden-camera story alleging illegal activities by some of its workers. ACORN deputy political director Kevin Whelan says there are no present contracts that would be affected in Minnesota. Whelan...