Posted on 09/22/2009 9:17:18 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger has been hired by ACORN to conduct an inquiry into the organization on the heels of a video that appears to show employees advising a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp to lie about the source of their income to get housing assistance.
Harshbarger, an attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP, is also the former president and chief executive of Common Cause, the good government organization.
“I have been asked by the leadership of ACORN to conduct an independent and comprehensive inquiry and review of the management of its service delivery to communities,” Harshbarger said in a statement. “The CEO and board have also asked me to make a full report, including recommendations for restoring ACORN’s full capacities to carry out its mission on behalf of low- and moderate-income families.”
In the meantime, ACORN has suspended accepting clients into its service programs for working-poor families including tax preparation, housing assistance programs, and benefits screening until the independent review is completed.
ACORN, a community organization whose mission is to end poverty, was founded in 1970 and has chapters in 75 cities including Boston. The group has come under fire since Fox News released videos secretly taken by undercover operatives posing as a prostitute and her companion seeking tax and housing advice at five ACORN offices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Harshbarger
The details on Harshbugger:
>>Luther Scott Harshbarger (born December 1, 1941, in New Haven, Connecticut) is a lawyer and a Democratic politician from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Harshbarger found public prominence and political success, like Janet Reno, by prosecuting cases in the day care sex abuse hysteria of the 1980s. He obtained the conviction of Gerald Amirault and other employees of the Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden, Massachusetts. The Amirault conviction has been widely criticized as a gross miscarriage of justice by publications as politically diverse as The Wall Street Journal (e.g., April 30, 2004) and The Nation (e.g., Feb. 28, 2002).
In 1990 he was elected Attorney General of Massachusetts, again defeating the incumbent, this time James Shannon, in the Democratic primary. He was re-elected in 1994 with 72 percent of the vote, and served from 1991 until 1999
He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Massachusetts in the 1998 gubernatorial election. He lost in a close race to incumbent Republican Governor Paul Celucci[2].
Let me know when Jim DeMint, Mark Levin and Avi Nelson are hired.
This man put 3 people in jail on a witch hunt for sexual abuse. The Fells Acres case was a massive injustice so I have no faith in him to call balls and strikes fairly.
well, it’s either big D or little d
In case anybody’s wondering where the current MA AG is, she’s Martha Coakley and she’s running to be Ted Kennedy’s successor. Would she take time out of her busy campaign schedule to investigate ACORN? Or Mayor Menino’s deleted
emails? Of course not! (Esp. since she needs Menino’s
endorsement!)
You beat me to it.
This man, on the basis of this Fells Acres Day Care case, deserves the fate accorded to Cory Giles - pressed to death, slowly, mercilessly.
Nothing infuriates me more than this case and Mrs. Amerault having to die in prison because this scum-bag made a conscious effort to be a scum-bag. If I had more time, I would say what I really think of this POS
ACORN Independent Advisory Council
* John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress
* Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Board Member, RFK Foundation, former MD Lt. Governor
* Andrew Stern, International President, Service Employees International Union
* Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, Cityview
* John Banks, VP of Govt Relations, Con Ed (utility lobbyist)
* Eric Eve, Senior VP of Global Consumer Group, Community Relations, Citigroup
* Harvey Hirschfeld, President, Lawcash
* Dave Beckwith, Executive Director, Needmor Fund
Hey, here’s a novel idea.......How bout an independant investigation with someone NOT hired by ACORN. F-ing scumbags!
Yup! I noticed someone else posted the story via a diff source and the thread headline reads “ACORN hires one of their own”. Scott Harshbugger, as I call him!
The left screams about eliminating injustice except when they are responsible for it. They get hysterical over conservative tough-on-crime attitudes but when lefties like this one (and Reno) throw innocent people into prison, then they remain silent.
(no link)
FLEET AGREES TO LOAN PROGRAM $120M PLAN TARGETS MINORITY HOME BUYERS
Boston Globe - Wednesday, September 27, 1995
Author: Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff
Fleet Financial Group Inc., which is seeking federal approval to acquire Shawmut National Corp., has agreed to a $120 million, national loan program for minority home buyers. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN , will oversee the program, which it negotiated in recent weeks with Fleet and its Atlanta mortgage subsidiary, Fleet Finance. Under the program, the Fleet companies will make loans to low-income and minority home buyers in seven cities, including Boston and Ne w York.
ACORN ‘s program brings to more than $600 million Fleet’s commitments in recent months to affordable housing, mortgages, and small business loans. The programs, analysts said, are part of Fleet’s efforts to mute opposition from community groups and state agencies as it seeks the approval of federal regulators to purchase Shawmut.
Fleet, said James Moynihan, a senior vice president of Advest Inc. in Boston who follows the company, is trying “to keep everybody happy.” He expects the merger to be approved in early November.
The agreement with ACORN , which has criticized Fleet’s lending policies, is notable because it is national in scope and includes the first commitment for loans by Fleet’s mortgage company, in addition to loans by the bank itself.
“This is one of the bigger [loan programs] we had on a national level so we’re feeling pretty good about that,” said Maude Hurd, president of ACORN , which has organizers in black and Hispanic city neighborhoods in 30 states. “We have signed the papers.”
Through loan applicants who apply to ACORN , Fleet and Fleet Finance will provide $120 million over three years for home loans for low- and moderate- income home buyers, Hurd said. Another $30 million was promised to continue an existing Shawmut loan program.
Other cities in which the loans will be made are: Bridgeport, Conn., Milwaukee and three western cities; Denver, Phoenix and New Orleans. Houston is also being considered. The program will start as a pilot in three cities, Fleet said, and if successful will be rolled out elsewhere.
Fleet spokeswoman Meg Pier downplayed the ACORN program’s connection to the merger, saying it is “representative of those we’ve had historically.”
Indeed, before Fleet announced the merger it negotiated a $140 million loan program with union housing activist Bruce Marks.
But the pace of Fleet’s dealmaking with community groups has quickened in recent weeks as the merger approaches.
Before Massachusetts would agree to the merger, Attorney General Scott Harshbarger obtained $210 million from Fleet for small business and consumer loans. Connecticut got another $207 million. And the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations and the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance negotiated nearly $50 million in loan programs from Fleet.
Hurd said her organization insisted on including Fleet Finance in the program because it operates “in a lot more places than Fleet Bank itself and certainly a lot more ACORN cities.” Talks between Fleet and ACORN broke down a year ago because Fleet was unwilling to include the finance company in the agreements.
Fleet Finance two years ago settled legal actions against its loan practices in Georgia, and the company is currently facing a lawsuit by Michigan customers. ACORN criticized the mortgage company at August hearings by the Federal Reserve, claiming a failure to make enough loans in minority neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Oakland, and Chicago.
“They’ve definitely had a history and they should be included” in the new loan program, Hurd said.
ACORN ‘s biggest loan program, with NationsBank of Charlotte, N.C., provides $270 million over three years to low- and moderate-income home buyers in five cities.
Remember when Obama’s people investigated whether Obama’s people did anything wrong regarding the Illinois Senate seat (Blago) and found Obama’s people handled things correctly?
Expect reports of "tough questions" and "hardball investigation."
If the communists-that-call-themselves-democrats are good at anything it is blowing BS like a firehose at a teacup.
(no link)
AG admits he mulled D.C. job prospects - Had denied seeking post
Boston Herald - Friday, May 9, 1997
Author: ANDREW MIGA and JOE BATTENFELD
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Scott Harshbarger , who last week emphatically denied seeking a Clinton administration post, yesterday admitted discussing a top job with Justice Department officials earlier this year.
Harshbarger’s acknowledgment appears to contradict his strong public statement last week that he has “never wavered” in his intention to run for governor in 1998.
White House sources said Harshbarger was still being considered for a Clinton administration post as late as last month - a charge Harshbarger denies.
Harshbarger did admit yesterday to faxing his resume to the Justice Department and meeting with officials in January about the then-vacant deputy attorney general post.
Deputy White House Chief of Staff John Podesta , a Harshbarger friend, helped serve as an intermediary for Harshbarger as he explored job prospects, sources said.
(snip)
What bugs me is that this kind of bait-and-switch WORKS! Most Americans are so naive or media-influenced they seldom dig into any issues beyond the headlines or what their favorite TV talking heads tell them. This “investigation,” after it’s been properly distorted by the media and politicians, will leave most Americans satisfied that ACORN has been properly vetted and has made all needed changes. Then on with business as usual as our government continues down the road to totalitarianism.
(Circa 1995) Fleet Finance two years ago settled legal actions against its loan practices in Georgia, and is currently facing a lawsuit by Michigan customers. ACORN criticized the mortgage company at August hearings held by the Federal Reserve, claiming a failure to make enough loans in Milwaukee, Oakland, and Chicago's minority neighborhoods . “They’ve definitely had a history and they should be included” in the new loan program, Maude Hurd, president of ACORN Hurd said. (NOTE Fleet is now BancAmerica). ACORN ‘s biggest loan program, with NationsBank of Charlotte, NC, provides $270 million over three years to low- and moderate-income home buyers in five cities.
NOT happily ever after......... the collapse of the Nation's economy was precipitated by ACORN's criminal extortion of lending institutions.
Food stamps were considered "income" for loans made to people who had no proof of a job or US citizenship. If applicants were breathing and could make an "X" on the loan app, they got the money.
ACORN criminally extorted companies to make stupid loans to greedy deadbeats who defaulted---sticking taxpayers with the bills.
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