Free Republic

Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe III, the independent filmmakers behind the series of videos which swept the nation in 2009 and exposed internal corruption and illegality within ACORN Housing Corporation, were sued today in federal court in Philadelphia by an ACORN employee featured in one of the pair’s films. The plaintiff is Katherine Conway-Russell, a Philadelphia resident who has worked for ACORN since March 2008 as an office director. It was Conway-Russell who met with Giles and O’Keefe, posing as a prostitute and pimp as they had in ACORN offices nationwide during other installments of the undercover video series, for...

I want to say thank you to those of you who have contributed already to help State Senator Scott Brown defeat Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s choice to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. In just one day, we raised half of our goal of $5,000 for Scott Brown. An article published recently higlighted the fact that one of Democrat Martha Coakley’s biggest advocates, ACORN, gave her an A+ grade, which they gave to just 6 other state Attorneys General. "I am honored to have received this recognition from ACORN,” Coakley said in a statement after receiving the “honor.”

Many are puzzled that Democrats persist in ramming unpopular and destructive legislation down our collective throats while seemingly unconcerned by their plummeting poll numbers. A widespread belief is that the Democrats are committing political suicide and will be swept from one or both houses of Congress with unprecedented electoral losses next November. But since Democrat politicians rarely do things that will not ultimately benefit themselves, this column asked two weeks ago: "what do they know that we don't?" We may have found out. It's called universal voter registration. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund described the Democrat plan recently at...

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack reports tonight that Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris is claiming credit for inserting a provision that may benefit ACORN. But it’s not just the ACORN angle that’s scandalous. It’s the race hustler shakedown. Why, oh, why do we need to be funding massive new federal bureaucracies to create separate “Offices of Minority Health” in six separate health care agencies:

Senator Roland Burris is claiming credit for a provision in Harry Reid's "manager's amendment," unveiled Saturday morning, that could funnel money to ACORN through the health care bill. On December 9, Burris, an Illinois Democrat, pledged that he would filibuster a health care bill without a public option. "If we have to get 60 and it comes back and it does not have a public option in it, I will not vote for it," he said. Then early last week he said he could vote for the bill if there were changes made to achieve the goals of the public...

Congress -- and possibly Citigroup -- may be gearing up to start funding the organized crime syndicate ACORN again. The current federal funding ban expires Dec. 18. On Tuesday evening the House Appropriations Committee rejected on a party line vote of 9 to 5 an amendment offered by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) that would have blocked federal funding of the radical advocacy group. The amendment was needed because the Obama administration thumbed its nose at a provision in spending legislation that banned ACORN funding until the end of next week. In a ruling revealed late last month by the Justice...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

The embattled community group ACORN could help regulate the financial services industry under new financial regulatory reforms, said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Wednesday. Bachmann, a consistent opponent of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), said that an amendment given in the House Financial Services Committee could allow the group to sit on an advisory panel that monitors the regulations. “ACORN may have a seat at the table being on the oversight committee regulating the financial services industry of the United States,” Bachmann said at a press conference. “And that would be a cruel joke." Bachmann’s remarks come...

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has a justly earned reputation this decade for voter registration fraud, embezzlement and other illegal acts. Yet according to an eagerly-awaited internal assessment released yesterday, the radical nationwide nonprofit network's main, if not sole, problem is inadequate employee training and oversight. The audit, supervised by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, had been prompted by employees of ACORN offices in different cities caught in a video sting this summer giving advice on how to hide assets and falsify loan documents. The New Orleans-based "anti-poverty" organization and its defenders see vindication....

People shouldn't think that all ACORN does is help pimps and hookers buy houses, they serve the community in so many other ways, including embezzlement of donated funds, voter fraud, and using tax exempt dollars to help get liberal candidates elected. Yesterday the Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a forum to discuss ACORN and urge the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Democratic Party's favorite criminal enterprise. Congressmen Smith and Issa presented documentation indicating that ACORN already transferred many of its resources to several other left-wing advocacy and political groups...

ACORN, the troubled community service organization, recently considered changing its name in a bid to rehabilitate its image, according to an internal memo obtained by POLITICO. The document, which will be released Tuesday as part of a Republican congressional forum on ACORN, illustrates the internal deliberation the group has undergone after a year of embarrassing scandals. The document was found in Dumpster outside of an ACORN office in San Diego, a House Republican aide said. Derrick Roach, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for statehouse in California, took thousands of documents last week from the trash outside the office. An ACORN spokesman...

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

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)

An Iowa congressman is questioning the timing of the sudden resignation of a controversial Obama administration official, whose husband has had close ties to ACORN and has recently been named President Obama's White House counsel. In serving as White House communications director, Anita Dunn had created a stir when she told school children earlier this year that Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse Tung was one of the people she admired the most. She also launched a public attack against the Fox News Channel for its reporting on the ACORN prostitution scandal. Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) thinks it is curious that...

Barack Obama's newly appointed White House Counsel claimed that the voter fraud investigation into ACORN was "an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics." Bob Bauer was named Obama's top lawyer Friday, replacing Greg Craig. Craig is the scapegoat for Obama's failure to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. Bauer worked for Obama on the 2008 campaign. During that time, he sent a letter to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey arguing that ACORN should not be investigated for voter fraud. ACORN has admitted to more than 400,000 fraudulent voter registrations in 2008. The community organjizing...

The annual CCHD (Catholic Campaign For Human Development) collection will be held in churches this coming weekend-November 21 and 22. This is the same group that was giving money for years to the Saul Alinsky-style group called ACORN before ending its relationship with the controversial group. After much criticism for its leftwing funding, the CCHD has supposedly tightened up their standards. Unfortunately these new standards are not working because the CCHD is still funding groups that: -Have a registered sex offender (child porn) on the staff -Are working to change laws so you can not refuse to rent to convicted...

Newly appointed White House counsel Bob Bauer is "perfectly positioned to be tasked with erasing the tracks between Obama and ACORN," one Republican lawmaker charged Friday. The lawyer's hiring, announced this morning shortly after Greg Craig officially resigned the post, was also an attempt by the White House to deflect any fallout that may arise from an ACORN investigation currently underway in Louisiana, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) added in a statement. “Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN, the congressman told supporters. "Bauer’s hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the...

In an ironic twist that leaves you scratching your head, ACORN has sued the Federal Government, claiming that the bills cutting their funding were unconstitutional. If religion is the last refuge of a scoundrel, I guess we can now say that the Constitution is the last refuge of the community organizer. It's almost surreal to see them try and protect their criminal conspiracy with the very document they work so hard to undermine.

NEW YORK – ACORN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a law cutting off federal funding to the organization. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit on ACORN's behalf Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. It claims the law was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an individual organization. Messages for comment left at the White House and the federal agencies named in the suit were not immediately returned.

ACORN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Congress crossed the Constitution when it passed a law cutting off federal funding to the organization. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit on ACORN’s behalf Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. It claims the law was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an individual organization. Messages for comment left at the White House and the federal agencies named in the suit were not immediately returned.

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 very public venue. Because of ACORN’s close ties to the Democrat party, Mr. Lagstein clearly felt he was among friends. These two clips ...

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...

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...

KSTP investigated absentee ballot inconsistencies and reported their findings last night, and you can watch the video here. Many cities put up roadblocks to their investigation request -- and Bloomington threatened felony charges against KSTP if they reported on their findings. The most damning part is Sec. of State Mark Ritchie's denial of problems and response when asked to look at ballot envelopes and comment. "Ritchie first told us he could not read our examples, then said he wouldn't look at photocopies of absentee ballot envelopes." A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation has found that mistakes made with absentee ballots in...

On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution funding the Federal Government through December 18th. The continuing resolution was passed as part of the behemoth Interior-Environment Appropriations conference report. A continuing resolution is a stop-gap provision which allows the government to continue its operations until Congress can determine the next year’s appropriations. The actions taken today merely extended the expiration date of the resolution which went into effect on October 1st. By extending the existing continuing resolution Congress has continued to deprive ACORN and its affiliates of federal funds until December 18th. This is not a...

Mainstream Media Ignores Juicy ACORN Nuggets by Hannah Giles The “Pimp and Pro” story, exposing ACORN’s willingness to advise a prostitute on tax evasion and child sex trafficking, hit America a few weeks ago. There were a myriad number of angles to report, yet the Mainstream Media's favorite approach seems to be the method in which James O’Keefe and I orchestrated and gathered the information. It’s like going fishing, but instead of taking a picture and raving about the 750lb Mako shark you caught, you blather on about the bait that was used. What happens when people get bored? They...

A strange anomaly occurs whenever the phrase “voter registration fraud” is searched. Who’s responsible for that? Perhaps the players? Search the Internet and you will find dozens of stories on the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now or ACORN on a never ending stream of Google results. However, Project Vote (Voting for America) is often only listed as an affiliate. Articles posted by the mainstream media tend to downplay Project Vote’s role or is it something else?

It recently came to light that individuals employed by ACORN have been apparent accomplices with regard to the conduct of alleged criminal activities. Surprisingly, it was the investigative ingenuity of ordinary citizens who brought this information to the attention of the public. As a Member of Congress, these relevations are of interest to me in that ACORN is the beneficiary of substantial federal funding. As the former Attorney General of my state of California, this story is of great concern to me for an entirely different reason. Ironically, it is those who revealed the alleged illegal acts, rather than the...

It’s like being in the middle of a “tsunami” or an “avalanche” — or maybe both at the same time. That’s how Arthur Schwartz described his experience as general counsel of ACORN amid the recent right-wing attacks and congressional caving that are bringing the national community-organizing network to its knees. In an interview with The Villager last week, Schwartz, a prominent New York City labor attorney and longtime member of Community Board 2 in Greenwich Village, where he lives with his family, painted a dire picture of ACORN. Speaking in his office in the Unite Here! headquarters building at 26th...

I guess this is about as close to fairness as NPR is capable of in its reporting on ACORN. The first few paragraphs of today's NPR story on ACORN, by Kevin Whitelaw, tell you all you need to know about Whitelaw's perspective on the embattled radical advocacy group: ACORN, the community organizing group, is fighting for its survival these days, but its current plight has been years in the making. Part of the story is the group's own missteps. ACORN was founded to help low- and middle-income Americans, but its edgy tactics and a series of gaffes fed the notion...

ACORN is asking workers it is laying off to continue working at ACORN as "volunteers" but to apply to the government for unemployment benefits.

ACORN, the community organizing group, is fighting for its survival these days, but its current plight has been years in the making. Part of the story is the group's own missteps. ACORN was founded to help low- and middle-income Americans, but its edgy tactics and a series of gaffes fed the notion that the group was unreliable. That image, however, was built in part by a long campaign of attacks and allegations of illegal activities from a host of opponents in the corporate world, the Republican Party and conservative media outlets. ACORN attracted the scrutiny of these groups because its...

The two independent filmmakers who posed as a pimp and a prostitute and received advice from ACORN employees in five cities on how to skirt tax and immigration laws will hold a press conference Wednesday on their experience at another of the group's offices -- this one in Philadelphia. James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles will be joined by Andrew Breitbart, a conservative commentator who runs Breitbart.com and BigGovernment.com, which first posted the videos last month. "ACORN representatives claim James and Hannah were kicked out of Philadelphia," Breitbart said in a statement prior to the 9:30 a.m. ET news conference. "They...

This video copy works, unlike the YouTube embeds elsewhere.

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles have released another ACORN sting...

Not long ago, Pam Geller told the story of an ACORN office in Florida that had destroyed all the Republican voter registration forms it had gotten during a 2008 voter registration drive. Geller had a first-hand account of this crime from one Fathiyyah Muhammad, an Obama voter that is a registered Republican. She is also an African-American. "This is my first experience" with ACORN, Muhammad said. "This was before Obama got the nomination, long before then….I heard about this group that was paying $3.00 per person, to go out and to get people to sign up to vote. So I...

ACORN,the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, faces still another high-stakes challenge — and more embarrassment — in Nevada, where it has been charged with 13 felony counts related to potential voter registration fraud during the 2008 campaign. This is the only state where ACORN, as an organization, is accused of criminal wrongdoing. Similar investigations in Pennsylvania and Florida have resulted in charges against individual canvassers the group hired to register voters. “With ACORN, one wonders how it could get worse for them,” said Tom Fitton, president of Washington-based Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group that has been...

GLENN: From high above Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, this is the third most listened to show in all of America. Hello, you sick twisted freak. Welcome to the program. Is Michele Bachmann on the phone? Congresswoman Bachmann, welcome to the program. How are you? CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Good morning, Glenn Beck. I'm doing great. Great to talk to you. GLENN: May I say I believe you are one of a handful. Give me a number. I'm thinking five, a handful of people, maybe three, that actually are in there doing the right thing, and you'll fall on your sword if...

On February 18, 1943, 21 year-old Sophie Scholl placed a stack of anti-Hitler leaflets on a banister overlooking the main hall in the University of Munich. Deciding, in a split-second, to ensure that the papers would be picked up by all the students when they emerged from their classrooms, Sophie pushed the papers off the banister, and signed her death warrant. Within moments, having been caught by a miserable janitor looking for his moment of glory, Sophie and her brother Hans Scholl, were in a Gestapo car, speeding to the interrogations and trial that would deliver them to the guillotine...

Today, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann called once again on Minnesota to follow the national lead and conduct a complete and independent audit of all of ACORN&'s activities in the State of Minnesota. Recent actions by ACORN employees caught on tape advising tax fraud for a prostitution business are not something Minnesotans support, Bachmann said. And, they shouldn't have to wait until another undercover investigator comes to town to verify Minnesota operations aren't tainted by the same questionable practices. In a letter sent to Senator Ann Rest, Chairman, and Representative Mike Beard, Vice Chairman, of the Legislative Audit Commission, Bachmann called for...

ACORN: A Communist Boogeyman by: Sarah Carlsruh, October 14, 2009 Bertha Lewis, CEO of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), spoke at a press conference at the National Press Building on October 6th. When asked if this was meant to be an “apology tour” for the recent YouTube video scandal and voter fraud allegations, Lewis replied that it is a “set-the-record-straight tour.” Recently, undercover journalists posing as a pimp and a prostitute received seemingly routine advice from ACORN counselors in several cities on how to evade taxes and establish housing for a brothel employing underage illegal immigrants....

The organization can no longer be effective in achieving its goal of social justice and stronger communities. ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- touts itself as "the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities." And perhaps it is. But ACORN can no longer be effective at achieving its goals. The organization is so mired in scandal it will never recover. Let's look at the most recent events. According to a report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a subpoena issued in an investigation of ACORN by...

Here is audio of GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann today telling the Chris Baker Show that ACORN will begin receiving Federal Funds at the stroke of midnight Halloween night! Bachmann says Congress actually only defunded ACORN for the month of October, and that most Americans don't realize they will be back in the money on November 1. . . (AUDIO)

While Congress wrestles with various ways to strip ACORN of any remaining federal funding, the White House has somewhat quietly begun to disconnect itself from the community-organizing group. OMB director Peter Orszag yesterday sent the following compliance memo to “all Executive Branch agencies” to meet the requirements of the continuing resolutions that Congress have already passed to keep the government funded in the absence of a budget. Orszag basically says to cut ACORN off immediately:

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMPLAINT January 7, 2009 IN RE: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW Karen Inman, Marcel Reid, Coya Mobley, Robert Smith, Adrianna Jones, Yvonne Stafford, Louis Davisand Fannie Brown, et. al.Complainants vs. Defendants Wade Rathke, Dale Rathke, Steven Kest, Jon Kest, Mike Shea, Zach Pollett, Helene O’Brien, Amy Schur, Liz Wolf, Beth Butler, Mildred Brown, Maud Hurd, Alton Bennett, Bertha Lewis, Beth Kingsley andother unknown individuals. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMPLAINT (excerpt) The undersigned State Board delegates and National Board members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) file this criminal complaint againstACORN Staff and Executive Board...

[caption id="attachment_10828" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="ACORN boss and embezzlement coverup co-conspirator Bertha Lewis spins a yarn about ACORN at Washington, D.C.'s National Press Club yesterday."][/caption] The current chief organizer of ACORN, who was up to her eyeballs in the $1 million embezzlement scandal at the embattled radical leftist group, lied and lied and lied some more in an appearance at the National Press Club yesterday. The contemptible Bertha Lewis, who now prefers to call herself "CEO" of ACORN, gave a "grand performance" at the press club, Glenn Beck said on his TV show Tuesday. Beck's right. Maybe she should get nominated...

ACORN's scandals hit a nerve with conservatives. It's likely no one in the media would understand why even if they were to try. Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, however, gets right what so many people have missed, which is that the real problem with ACORN is that it's not just ACORN. She is quoted in The Hill saying there needs to be "a ‘strong investigation' into a variety of nonprofits in the wake of political corruption allegations at ACORN," and that, "a broader investigation of other nonprofit organizations is needed because they could be using federal funds to influence the outcome of...

"I have no problem with not getting a grant, I've lost grants before," said Chief Flynn, one of the fire officials who complained to Mr. Vitter in a letter. "My issue is ACORN in New Orleans. Their mission statement says nothing about fire safety or fire prevention. It bothered me that ACORN got $1 million and there are so many smaller and bigger departments that have a need for that money."

I just saw a guy from Breitbart TV on FoxNews who said a woman worked for ACORN and she went out and registered minority Republicans but when she got back the ACORN folks said there was no such thing as a minority Republican and threw the registrations away and they never paid the woman for her work either.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis yesterday blamed the Bush administration for the organization’s woes and accused Republicans of “ACORN McCarthyism.� Lewis blamed Karl Rove for instigating the legal troubles the “community organizers� are facing. At this point, reports of ACORN illegal conduct have sparked a string of criminal investigations nationwide on charges of fraudulent voter registration activities.  Most recently, two young journalists caught ACORN staffers in a sting operation exposing tax and sex trafficking advice.  Both houses of congress have passed measures to de-fund the organization, Lewis was hosted by the National Press Club at a “Newsmaker� event yesterday where she...