Bowfinger
Lifer
- Nov 17, 2002
- 15,776
- 392
- 126
Right, whatever you say. You have about as much credibility as Baghdad Bob. Regardless of your purported lack of party affiliation, actions speak louder than words. You have been an unfailingly loyal party-line toady for the RNC. If you've voted for a Democrat, at least in recent history, I'm betting it's only because you accidentally pushed the wrong button. On the other hand, I've been critical of both Democrats and Republicans, and have split my votes fairly evenly over the years between Dems, Reps, and third-party candidates. I do agree today's Republican party has managed to make itself even more repugnant and corrupt than the Dems, with propaganda-spewing shills like you pushing me farther and farther away.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
I wonder how many people can see past the last couple of years to what has kept us different than all other nations?
That was then, but now???
The American Way And... Another Way
That was then, but now???
The American Way And... Another Way
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal has had an ongoing concern with ACORN. This is his latest article, along with a separate reference to some documentation confirming Obama's work with the group.
Acorn Who? - Obama heads for the high grass.
Acorn Who?
Obama heads for the high grass.
By JOHN FUND
John Fund writes the weekly "On the Trail" column for OpinionJournal.com. He is author of "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy" (Encounter, 2004).
Mr. Fund joined the Journal in April 1984 as deputy editorial features editor. He became an editorial page writer specializing in politics and government in October 1986 and was a member of the Journal's editorial board from 1995 through 2001.
Only one of the five television networks that interviewed President Obama for their Sunday shows bothered to ask him about Acorn, the left-wing community organizing group whose federal funding was cut off last week by an overwhelming vote in Congress.
"Frankly, it's not something I've followed closely," Mr. Obama claimed, adding he wasn't even aware the group had been the recipient of significant federal funding. "This is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to," he said.
Mr. Obama added that an investigation of Acorn was appropriate after an amateur hidden-camera investigation had found Acorn offices willing to abet prostitution, but he carefully declined to say whether he would approve a federal cutoff of funds to the group.
Mr. Obama took great pains to act as if he barely knew about Acorn. In fact, his association goes back almost 20 years. In 1991, he took time off from his law firm to run a voter-registration drive for Project Vote, an Acorn partner that was soon fully absorbed under the Acorn umbrella. The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary.
Mr. Obama's success made him a hot commodity on the community organizing circuit. He became a top trainer at Acorn's Chicago conferences. In 1995, he became Acorn's attorney, participating in a landmark case to force the state of Illinois to implement the federal Motor Voter Law. That law's loose voter registration requirements would later be exploited by Acorn employees in an effort to flood voter rolls with fake names.
In 1996, Mr. Obama filled out a questionnaire listing key supporters for his campaign for the Illinois Senate. He put Acorn first (it was not an alphabetical list). In the U.S. Senate, Mr. Obama became the leading critic of Voter ID laws, whose overturn was a top Acorn priority. In 2007, in a speech to Acorn's leaders prior to their political arm's endorsement of his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama was effusive: "I've been fighting alongside of Acorn on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote in Illinois, Acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
But the Obama campaign didn't appear eager to discuss the candidate's ties to Acorn. Its press operation vividly denied Mr. Obama had been an Acorn trainer until the New York Times uncovered records demonstrating that he had been. The Obama campaign also gave Citizens Consulting, Inc., an Acorn subsidiary, $832,000 for get-out-the-vote activities in key primary states. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Obama campaign listed the payments as "staging, sound, lighting," only correcting the filings after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.
Given his longstanding ties with Acorn, President Obama's protestations of ignorance or disinterest in the group's latest scandal seem preposterous. Here's hoping White House reporters will press the president to clarify just how much he really knows about Acorn and when he knew it.
*************************
The following is one of the documents referred to in establishing the close link between Obama and ACORN.
(Toni Foulkes is a Chicago ACORN leader and a member of ACORN's National Association Board.)
Case Study: Chicago -The Barack Obama Campaign
Acorn Who? - Obama heads for the high grass.
Acorn Who?
Obama heads for the high grass.
By JOHN FUND
John Fund writes the weekly "On the Trail" column for OpinionJournal.com. He is author of "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy" (Encounter, 2004).
Mr. Fund joined the Journal in April 1984 as deputy editorial features editor. He became an editorial page writer specializing in politics and government in October 1986 and was a member of the Journal's editorial board from 1995 through 2001.
Only one of the five television networks that interviewed President Obama for their Sunday shows bothered to ask him about Acorn, the left-wing community organizing group whose federal funding was cut off last week by an overwhelming vote in Congress.
"Frankly, it's not something I've followed closely," Mr. Obama claimed, adding he wasn't even aware the group had been the recipient of significant federal funding. "This is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to," he said.
Mr. Obama added that an investigation of Acorn was appropriate after an amateur hidden-camera investigation had found Acorn offices willing to abet prostitution, but he carefully declined to say whether he would approve a federal cutoff of funds to the group.
Mr. Obama took great pains to act as if he barely knew about Acorn. In fact, his association goes back almost 20 years. In 1991, he took time off from his law firm to run a voter-registration drive for Project Vote, an Acorn partner that was soon fully absorbed under the Acorn umbrella. The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary.
Mr. Obama's success made him a hot commodity on the community organizing circuit. He became a top trainer at Acorn's Chicago conferences. In 1995, he became Acorn's attorney, participating in a landmark case to force the state of Illinois to implement the federal Motor Voter Law. That law's loose voter registration requirements would later be exploited by Acorn employees in an effort to flood voter rolls with fake names.
In 1996, Mr. Obama filled out a questionnaire listing key supporters for his campaign for the Illinois Senate. He put Acorn first (it was not an alphabetical list). In the U.S. Senate, Mr. Obama became the leading critic of Voter ID laws, whose overturn was a top Acorn priority. In 2007, in a speech to Acorn's leaders prior to their political arm's endorsement of his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama was effusive: "I've been fighting alongside of Acorn on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote in Illinois, Acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
But the Obama campaign didn't appear eager to discuss the candidate's ties to Acorn. Its press operation vividly denied Mr. Obama had been an Acorn trainer until the New York Times uncovered records demonstrating that he had been. The Obama campaign also gave Citizens Consulting, Inc., an Acorn subsidiary, $832,000 for get-out-the-vote activities in key primary states. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Obama campaign listed the payments as "staging, sound, lighting," only correcting the filings after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.
Given his longstanding ties with Acorn, President Obama's protestations of ignorance or disinterest in the group's latest scandal seem preposterous. Here's hoping White House reporters will press the president to clarify just how much he really knows about Acorn and when he knew it.
*************************
The following is one of the documents referred to in establishing the close link between Obama and ACORN.
(Toni Foulkes is a Chicago ACORN leader and a member of ACORN's National Association Board.)
Case Study: Chicago -The Barack Obama Campaign
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
One issue of continuing concern is the extent and complexity of ACORN's interlocking organizations. Apparently, ACORN's Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI) handles the financial affairs of hundreds of affiliates within the ACORN network. ACORN member dues, government money, and foundation grants, are all sucked into the CCI vortex often never to be seen again.
ACORN?s Lobbying Shenanigans
ACORN?s Lobbying Shenanigans
by Matthew Vadum
Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy with a special focus on left-wing advocacy groups.
Vadum is an expert on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and has written somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 feature articles on the group and hundreds of blog posts.
Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI), the shadowy financial nerve center of the embattled radical activist group ACORN, has filed false lobbying disclosure reports with Congress, according to Ron Sykes, a former ACORN employee.
This revelation is important because, as former ACORN national board member Charles Turner said earlier this year on ?The Glenn Beck Program,? CCI ?is where the shell game begins.?
?ACORN has over 200 different entities that the money gets moved around to ? for this purpose to that purpose, this organization to that organization,? said Turner. ?We believe the way the money has been moved around, they?ve been laundering money.?
Photograph insert: ACORN founder Wade Rathke (left) and ACORN enabler Drummond Pike (right) of Tides Foundation in an undated photo taken in Peru. On the wall is a large poster of Communist icons Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
When former ACORN activist Ron Sykes was informed by this reporter that ACORN affiliate CCI registered him as a lobbyist, he was angry. ?It?s like identity theft,? said Sykes in an interview. ?I have no idea why they registered me. I didn?t register myself and was not aware that they were doing it.?
Whether this reflects ACORN?s institutional carelessness or a calculated effort to deceive, the discovery throws some light on how ACORN treats its employees, moves money around the ACORN network, and deals with the federal government. Federal lawmakers have known for years about ACORN?s unorthodox and possibly illegal practices, including its use of government resources to promote legislation and its extensive commingling of funds within its network of affiliates.
Former ACORN officials say these activities are controlled by the mysterious CCI, which is located in ACORN?s headquarters in New Orleans. CCI handles the financial affairs of hundreds of affiliates within the ACORN network. ACORN member dues, government money, and foundation grants, are all sucked into the CCI vortex often never to be seen again.
Although CCI is registered as a nonprofit corporation in Louisiana, it does not appear to have sought tax-exempt status from the IRS. Surely it has declined to seek tax-exempt status because entities with that status have to publicly disclose financial data. This is the same approach employed by George Soros?s Democracy Alliance, a piggybank for left-wing political infrastructure that is registered as a taxable nonprofit in order to prevent public scrutiny of its finances and internal affairs.
Sykes said he came to the nation?s capital in 2006 as an intern for ACORN?s national legislative program, working for it from April 2006 to February 2007. He said he was never a lobbyist although he did help to prepare lobbyists to meet with lawmakers and their staff on issues of interest to ACORN such as voting rights, housing programs, minimum wage laws, and predatory lending. Occasionally he went along on Capitol Hill visits, but arguing for or against specific legislation was not his job, he said.
According to forms filed under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act by CCI, Sykes lobbied as an employee of CCI on behalf of ACORN between Jan. 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007. He is described in three disclosure forms as a ?fellow.? When a person ceases lobbying, the registering organization (in this case CCI) is supposed to declare this fact, but there is no indication in the online lobbying disclosure database maintained by the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives that CCI did so.
Sykes said he received a scholarship from ACORN to help him cover living expenses but that it was abruptly cut off months ahead of schedule in February 2007. During his internship he became curious about ACORN?s financial affairs and began to ask a lot of questions about where the money was going.
?I guess they got a little irritated and the scholarship money from the ACORN executive board was cut off,? Sykes said.
He found out that his internship was coming to a premature end when he received an email and a telephone call from the legendarily smooth Wade Rathke, who was then chief organizer (CEO) of ACORN. Rathke offered him thanks and told him that he did a great job. ?I asked him if there were any positions open and said I?d like to stay but he said there was no funding at this time for a salary for me,? Sykes said.
A former senior ACORN official contacted for this article, Marcel Reid, who was a member of ACORN?s national board from October 2005 to late last year, said she and other members were unaware that CCI even did lobbying.
Legal reform advocate and lawyer Zena Crenshaw said CCI?s behavior raises several red flags.
?They certainly should be segregating 501(c)(3) funds from their lobbying activities,? said Crenshaw, a founding director and executive director of the National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project Inc. (NJCDLP). ?I?m not sure how you can segregate them if the lobbyist is handling the money. I don?t know how CCI can be both a lobbyist and a financial manager handling ACORN?s 501(c)(3) funds.?
?This just confirms the need for an examination of the organization?s affiliates,? said Crenshaw, who is also chairperson of the legal affairs committee of ACORN 8, a group of former ACORN members co-founded by Reid that is calling for a forensic audit of ACORN.
ACORN was warned by its own lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg last year that its lack of internal firewalls and its chaotic organizational structure were likely to land ACORN in hot water. Kingsley?s letter to her client was excerpted in a report by Republican investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The investigators found that CCI should have paid an excise tax on any lobbying expenditures it made, but noted that evidence indicates the spending was never reported to the IRS.
The investigators also found that by ?intentionally blurring the legal distinctions between 361 tax-exempt and non-exempt entities, ACORN diverts taxpayer and tax-exempt monies into partisan political activities.? They argued that ACORN should be stripped of its jealously guarded tax-exempt status because it illegally spends taxpayer dollars on partisan activities, commits ?systemic fraud,? and violates racketeering and election laws.
?Operationally, ACORN is a shell game played in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia through a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators,? the report said. Structurally, it is ?a chess game in which senior management is shielded from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act.?
The report examines the ACORN network?s abusive interlocking directorates, and claims that the group deliberately organized itself to escape legal and public scrutiny. ?ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.?
ACORN uses interlocking directorates, which refers to individuals serving as directors on multiple corporate boards, in order to subject its network of affiliates to centralized control from the top. Having interlocking directorates may be widespread and lawful, but the practice raises questions about the quality and independence of board decision-making.
While the ACORN network claims to be a ?family? of organizations, embodying the ethos of community organizing, which stresses local action and decentralized authority, it is run by senior officials who treat its national board as a rubber stamp.
It?s worth noting that all three lobbying disclosure forms were signed digitally by Donna L. Pharr, who is listed as CCI?s assistant treasurer. The services of the ubiquitous Pharr, herself a walking, talking example of interlocking directorates, are in demand all throughout the ACORN empire. She?s on the board of dozens of ACORN affiliates including ACORN Housing Corp. and the American Institute for Social Justice Inc. Pharr is also deputy treasurer of Minnesota ACORN Political Action Committee and is listed in a Michigan Bureau of Elections filing as the contact person for Communities Voting Together, a 527 pressure group.
CCI itself has a long and checkered past.
In 1996 the federal Department of Labor sued CCI. The next year a federal court ordered CCI to cough up $10,000 in back wages.
CCI currently owes at least $400,117 in back taxes to the IRS, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, and Maryland, according to the Nexis tax liens database. This figure excludes the $442,533 in tax liens that the IRS has rescinded over the past five years after they were presumably paid. Tax liens are only issued by creditor tax agencies after a tax debt has become seriously delinquent. The ACORN network has had millions of dollars in tax liens filed against it since 1989.
Last year Wade Rathke was dumped as chief organizer of the group he founded after ACORN?s national board learned that he failed to notify police when he discovered in 2000 that his brother Dale, who was a senior official at CCI, had embezzled $948,000 from the group.
Wade Rathke engineered a cover-up for his brother and allowed him to leave the payroll of CCI to work as his $38,000 a year ?assistant? at ACORN headquarters. The missing money was disguised as a loan to an officer on the books of CCI.
Despite being expelled from ACORN, Wade Rathke remains involved with at least five ACORN affiliates. Rathke recently changed the name of ACORN?s international consultancy, ACORN International, to Community Organizations International. Both ACORN and Rathke maintain that COI is no longer an affiliate in the ACORN network.
Rathke also remains chief organizer of the New Orleans-based Local 100 of SEIU, another ACORN affiliate he founded. He does not appear to have stepped down as president and director of Affiliated Media Foundation Movement (AM/FM), an ACORN affiliate that produces news segments for eight alternative radio stations. He is also publisher and editor-in-chief of Social Policy magazine, a quarterly journal published jointly by two ACORN affiliates (ACORN Institute and American Institute for Social Justice).
And Rathke?s family members remain employed by ACORN. His common law wife, Beth Butler, and his son and daughter still work for ACORN. Butler is ACORN?s regional director for the Southeast U.S.
ACORN?s Lobbying Shenanigans
ACORN?s Lobbying Shenanigans
by Matthew Vadum
Matthew Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy with a special focus on left-wing advocacy groups.
Vadum is an expert on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and has written somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 feature articles on the group and hundreds of blog posts.
Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI), the shadowy financial nerve center of the embattled radical activist group ACORN, has filed false lobbying disclosure reports with Congress, according to Ron Sykes, a former ACORN employee.
This revelation is important because, as former ACORN national board member Charles Turner said earlier this year on ?The Glenn Beck Program,? CCI ?is where the shell game begins.?
?ACORN has over 200 different entities that the money gets moved around to ? for this purpose to that purpose, this organization to that organization,? said Turner. ?We believe the way the money has been moved around, they?ve been laundering money.?
Photograph insert: ACORN founder Wade Rathke (left) and ACORN enabler Drummond Pike (right) of Tides Foundation in an undated photo taken in Peru. On the wall is a large poster of Communist icons Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
When former ACORN activist Ron Sykes was informed by this reporter that ACORN affiliate CCI registered him as a lobbyist, he was angry. ?It?s like identity theft,? said Sykes in an interview. ?I have no idea why they registered me. I didn?t register myself and was not aware that they were doing it.?
Whether this reflects ACORN?s institutional carelessness or a calculated effort to deceive, the discovery throws some light on how ACORN treats its employees, moves money around the ACORN network, and deals with the federal government. Federal lawmakers have known for years about ACORN?s unorthodox and possibly illegal practices, including its use of government resources to promote legislation and its extensive commingling of funds within its network of affiliates.
Former ACORN officials say these activities are controlled by the mysterious CCI, which is located in ACORN?s headquarters in New Orleans. CCI handles the financial affairs of hundreds of affiliates within the ACORN network. ACORN member dues, government money, and foundation grants, are all sucked into the CCI vortex often never to be seen again.
Although CCI is registered as a nonprofit corporation in Louisiana, it does not appear to have sought tax-exempt status from the IRS. Surely it has declined to seek tax-exempt status because entities with that status have to publicly disclose financial data. This is the same approach employed by George Soros?s Democracy Alliance, a piggybank for left-wing political infrastructure that is registered as a taxable nonprofit in order to prevent public scrutiny of its finances and internal affairs.
Sykes said he came to the nation?s capital in 2006 as an intern for ACORN?s national legislative program, working for it from April 2006 to February 2007. He said he was never a lobbyist although he did help to prepare lobbyists to meet with lawmakers and their staff on issues of interest to ACORN such as voting rights, housing programs, minimum wage laws, and predatory lending. Occasionally he went along on Capitol Hill visits, but arguing for or against specific legislation was not his job, he said.
According to forms filed under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act by CCI, Sykes lobbied as an employee of CCI on behalf of ACORN between Jan. 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007. He is described in three disclosure forms as a ?fellow.? When a person ceases lobbying, the registering organization (in this case CCI) is supposed to declare this fact, but there is no indication in the online lobbying disclosure database maintained by the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives that CCI did so.
Sykes said he received a scholarship from ACORN to help him cover living expenses but that it was abruptly cut off months ahead of schedule in February 2007. During his internship he became curious about ACORN?s financial affairs and began to ask a lot of questions about where the money was going.
?I guess they got a little irritated and the scholarship money from the ACORN executive board was cut off,? Sykes said.
He found out that his internship was coming to a premature end when he received an email and a telephone call from the legendarily smooth Wade Rathke, who was then chief organizer (CEO) of ACORN. Rathke offered him thanks and told him that he did a great job. ?I asked him if there were any positions open and said I?d like to stay but he said there was no funding at this time for a salary for me,? Sykes said.
A former senior ACORN official contacted for this article, Marcel Reid, who was a member of ACORN?s national board from October 2005 to late last year, said she and other members were unaware that CCI even did lobbying.
Legal reform advocate and lawyer Zena Crenshaw said CCI?s behavior raises several red flags.
?They certainly should be segregating 501(c)(3) funds from their lobbying activities,? said Crenshaw, a founding director and executive director of the National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project Inc. (NJCDLP). ?I?m not sure how you can segregate them if the lobbyist is handling the money. I don?t know how CCI can be both a lobbyist and a financial manager handling ACORN?s 501(c)(3) funds.?
?This just confirms the need for an examination of the organization?s affiliates,? said Crenshaw, who is also chairperson of the legal affairs committee of ACORN 8, a group of former ACORN members co-founded by Reid that is calling for a forensic audit of ACORN.
ACORN was warned by its own lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg last year that its lack of internal firewalls and its chaotic organizational structure were likely to land ACORN in hot water. Kingsley?s letter to her client was excerpted in a report by Republican investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The investigators found that CCI should have paid an excise tax on any lobbying expenditures it made, but noted that evidence indicates the spending was never reported to the IRS.
The investigators also found that by ?intentionally blurring the legal distinctions between 361 tax-exempt and non-exempt entities, ACORN diverts taxpayer and tax-exempt monies into partisan political activities.? They argued that ACORN should be stripped of its jealously guarded tax-exempt status because it illegally spends taxpayer dollars on partisan activities, commits ?systemic fraud,? and violates racketeering and election laws.
?Operationally, ACORN is a shell game played in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia through a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities, to use taxpayer and tax-exempt dollars for partisan political purposes, and to distract investigators,? the report said. Structurally, it is ?a chess game in which senior management is shielded from accountability by multiple layers of volunteers and compensated employees who serve as pawns to take the fall for every bad act.?
The report examines the ACORN network?s abusive interlocking directorates, and claims that the group deliberately organized itself to escape legal and public scrutiny. ?ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate.?
ACORN uses interlocking directorates, which refers to individuals serving as directors on multiple corporate boards, in order to subject its network of affiliates to centralized control from the top. Having interlocking directorates may be widespread and lawful, but the practice raises questions about the quality and independence of board decision-making.
While the ACORN network claims to be a ?family? of organizations, embodying the ethos of community organizing, which stresses local action and decentralized authority, it is run by senior officials who treat its national board as a rubber stamp.
It?s worth noting that all three lobbying disclosure forms were signed digitally by Donna L. Pharr, who is listed as CCI?s assistant treasurer. The services of the ubiquitous Pharr, herself a walking, talking example of interlocking directorates, are in demand all throughout the ACORN empire. She?s on the board of dozens of ACORN affiliates including ACORN Housing Corp. and the American Institute for Social Justice Inc. Pharr is also deputy treasurer of Minnesota ACORN Political Action Committee and is listed in a Michigan Bureau of Elections filing as the contact person for Communities Voting Together, a 527 pressure group.
CCI itself has a long and checkered past.
In 1996 the federal Department of Labor sued CCI. The next year a federal court ordered CCI to cough up $10,000 in back wages.
CCI currently owes at least $400,117 in back taxes to the IRS, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, and Maryland, according to the Nexis tax liens database. This figure excludes the $442,533 in tax liens that the IRS has rescinded over the past five years after they were presumably paid. Tax liens are only issued by creditor tax agencies after a tax debt has become seriously delinquent. The ACORN network has had millions of dollars in tax liens filed against it since 1989.
Last year Wade Rathke was dumped as chief organizer of the group he founded after ACORN?s national board learned that he failed to notify police when he discovered in 2000 that his brother Dale, who was a senior official at CCI, had embezzled $948,000 from the group.
Wade Rathke engineered a cover-up for his brother and allowed him to leave the payroll of CCI to work as his $38,000 a year ?assistant? at ACORN headquarters. The missing money was disguised as a loan to an officer on the books of CCI.
Despite being expelled from ACORN, Wade Rathke remains involved with at least five ACORN affiliates. Rathke recently changed the name of ACORN?s international consultancy, ACORN International, to Community Organizations International. Both ACORN and Rathke maintain that COI is no longer an affiliate in the ACORN network.
Rathke also remains chief organizer of the New Orleans-based Local 100 of SEIU, another ACORN affiliate he founded. He does not appear to have stepped down as president and director of Affiliated Media Foundation Movement (AM/FM), an ACORN affiliate that produces news segments for eight alternative radio stations. He is also publisher and editor-in-chief of Social Policy magazine, a quarterly journal published jointly by two ACORN affiliates (ACORN Institute and American Institute for Social Justice).
And Rathke?s family members remain employed by ACORN. His common law wife, Beth Butler, and his son and daughter still work for ACORN. Butler is ACORN?s regional director for the Southeast U.S.
Brainonska511
Lifer
- Dec 10, 2005
- 28,720
- 13,881
- 136
Red Dawn
Elite Member
- Jun 4, 2001
- 57,529
- 3
- 0
I'd bet on the latter, your posts are long winded and usually comprised of others thoughts and when you add your commentary it's usually so self absorbed the result is a form of nausea to those who read it.Originally posted by: PJABBER
LACK OF READING SKILLS/INTEREST
This.
PJ is just another faux Independent (R) in sheeps clothing. A member here for 8 1/2 years and he's suddenly politically enlightened? All was good before but *NOW* there's something wrong with our government? Right. Save it for your freaking blog, dude. GAFL.
I finally turned in my (R) card last year because of the social conservative fundie's who have taken over the party. That and the outright dishonesty I see and hear from right wing media. I would have gone (I) but I wanted to send a message and let them know they pushed another moderate to the (D) party.
I'm just tired of watching him practically blow Glenn Beck every other thread. Independent, my ass.
The most important thing - surely - isn't from where the allegations are coming from, but rather wether they are true or not.
So far, after reading this entire thread, it's been a hell of a lot of shooting the messenger-type posts from the opposing side, and very little in the way of refuting the actual accusations.
That's just deplorable.
...And if the accusations ARE true, then everybody, regardless of their political leanings, SHOULD be extremely concerned with why this was allowed to happen, and why it was covered up and ignored by the D:s.
So far, after reading this entire thread, it's been a hell of a lot of shooting the messenger-type posts from the opposing side, and very little in the way of refuting the actual accusations.
That's just deplorable.
...And if the accusations ARE true, then everybody, regardless of their political leanings, SHOULD be extremely concerned with why this was allowed to happen, and why it was covered up and ignored by the D:s.
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
I'd bet on the latter, your posts are long winded and usually comprised of others thoughts and when you add your commentary it's usually so self absorbed the result is a form of nausea to those who read it.Originally posted by: PJABBER
LACK OF READING SKILLS/INTEREST
^^
You speaketh the truth here.
Doc Savage Fan
Lifer
- Nov 30, 2006
- 15,456
- 389
- 121
That's just how they roll here...pretty sad.
ACORN has a checkered history to begin with and has been suspected of being a quasi political arm of the Democrats (under the guise of helping the poor) for quite some time. The structure of the organization is highly complex and much of it lacks transparency...but comparing this with organized crime is a little over the top at this point. On the other hand...with the latest "revelations" now surfacing...it's highly likely that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. The stench coming from this organization can no longer be ignored and passed off as a couple of farts. A full investigation is obviously needed.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
From everything I am reading, the ACORN story is going to have legs.
The ACORN organization was deliberately structured to be difficult to track and hold principals accountable. I happen to like brevity and clarity in discussion but to achieve some sense of the scope and complexity of the entity under discussion requires patience.
I am truly sorry to upset so many partisans with so many complicated words, sentences and paragraphs. Myself, I find the story interesting because of the complexity. If you take the time to follow the threads of this scandal, you might also learn a bit about how the real world of political corruption and criminality works. If you don't, and want to tune it out, do so. No one's feelings will be hurt if you don't participate.
I have only managed to watch two Glen Beck shows as I usually focus on market wraps at the times he is on - got to make a real living ya know? In the two shows I watched, he did a masterful job in explaining some of the same linkages I am curious about right now. And if you care about how tax money is being misspent he is a lot more accessible in his explanations than the financial and legal stuff I review.
So, please don't waste your time with personal attacks. I really don't care. Spend your energy in learning something new every day and you will wind up more informed, if maybe a bit more disillusioned and angry. I vent my outrage by lobbying my Congressional representatives, not by playing with ad hominem attacks on P&N. I suggest you do the same.
The ACORN organization was deliberately structured to be difficult to track and hold principals accountable. I happen to like brevity and clarity in discussion but to achieve some sense of the scope and complexity of the entity under discussion requires patience.
I am truly sorry to upset so many partisans with so many complicated words, sentences and paragraphs. Myself, I find the story interesting because of the complexity. If you take the time to follow the threads of this scandal, you might also learn a bit about how the real world of political corruption and criminality works. If you don't, and want to tune it out, do so. No one's feelings will be hurt if you don't participate.
I have only managed to watch two Glen Beck shows as I usually focus on market wraps at the times he is on - got to make a real living ya know? In the two shows I watched, he did a masterful job in explaining some of the same linkages I am curious about right now. And if you care about how tax money is being misspent he is a lot more accessible in his explanations than the financial and legal stuff I review.
So, please don't waste your time with personal attacks. I really don't care. Spend your energy in learning something new every day and you will wind up more informed, if maybe a bit more disillusioned and angry. I vent my outrage by lobbying my Congressional representatives, not by playing with ad hominem attacks on P&N. I suggest you do the same.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
I am not going to post a wall of text from this article as it contains too many valuable refernce points and images in making its case. The opening summary, however, is included below.
The ACORN corruption story is leading into organized labor. While SEIU is bound at the hip to ACORN, other labor groups are also being identified as collusive as more documentation is reviewed.
Props to BigGovernment.com for breaking the story and keeping on top of it. Not bad for a brand new WWW site.
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
by Don Loos
Don Loos is Senior Advisor to the President of National Right To Work. Don served in the George W. Bush Administration for over seven years at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). At the Labor Department, Don received two Secretary of Labor?s Exceptional Achievement Awards from Sec. Elaine Chao for his significant roles in labor union financial transparency revisions (Form LM-2) and union officer conflict of interest financial disclosure revisions (Form LM-30).
Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It?s another Big Government ? Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark.
Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL?s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers? union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com. Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts.
That?s right; union bosses gave teachers? forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution. No wonder Solis? Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure!
In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers. But, the days of disclosure are numbered. Big Labor has commanded Labor Secretary Solis to shut it all down.
Note: In 2003, the AFL-CIO?s disdain toward ?informed? workers was apparent in its 2003 official comment to the Labor Department. It claimed that these reports would be too confusing for union members...
The ACORN corruption story is leading into organized labor. While SEIU is bound at the hip to ACORN, other labor groups are also being identified as collusive as more documentation is reviewed.
Props to BigGovernment.com for breaking the story and keeping on top of it. Not bad for a brand new WWW site.
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections
by Don Loos
Don Loos is Senior Advisor to the President of National Right To Work. Don served in the George W. Bush Administration for over seven years at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). At the Labor Department, Don received two Secretary of Labor?s Exceptional Achievement Awards from Sec. Elaine Chao for his significant roles in labor union financial transparency revisions (Form LM-2) and union officer conflict of interest financial disclosure revisions (Form LM-30).
Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It?s another Big Government ? Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark.
Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL?s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion. Semmens discovered that teachers? union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com. Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts.
That?s right; union bosses gave teachers? forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution. No wonder Solis? Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure!
In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers. But, the days of disclosure are numbered. Big Labor has commanded Labor Secretary Solis to shut it all down.
Note: In 2003, the AFL-CIO?s disdain toward ?informed? workers was apparent in its 2003 official comment to the Labor Department. It claimed that these reports would be too confusing for union members...
umbrella39
Lifer
- Jun 11, 2004
- 13,816
- 1,126
- 126
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
Cliff Notes version -
Union bosses gave unionized teachers? forced union dues to ACORN.
U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is attempting to dismantle union financial disclosures mandated by Congress in 1949 that would reveal this information.
******
While I like Don Loos's attempt at detail in tracking ACORN's involvement with labor unions, likely the next big thing that will blow up, his writing is way too convoluted and the formatting sucks. I think his pieces are poorly edited versions of 100 page reports in that he tries to jam in information that makes more sense in a much longer article.
Union bosses gave unionized teachers? forced union dues to ACORN.
U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is attempting to dismantle union financial disclosures mandated by Congress in 1949 that would reveal this information.
******
While I like Don Loos's attempt at detail in tracking ACORN's involvement with labor unions, likely the next big thing that will blow up, his writing is way too convoluted and the formatting sucks. I think his pieces are poorly edited versions of 100 page reports in that he tries to jam in information that makes more sense in a much longer article.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
Fox News is going to be doing a major special on ACORN tonight.
Megyn Kelly is an attorney that co-hosts on the network and she was tearing into ACORN before she took leave to have a baby. Looks like she is coming back with an independent investigative special.
The Truth About ACORN
FOX News Reporting: The Truth About ACORN
Friday, October 2 at 9 p.m. ET (repeats 12 a.m. EST)
Hosted by Megyn Kelly
Fraud; corruption; undercover tapes ? we brought it all to you.
Now, could ACORN face new scandals? It's our in-depth investigation.
Plus, for the first time, the founder of ACORN in an explosive interview.
Watch as Megyn Kelly hosts, "The Truth About ACORN."
Megyn Kelly is an attorney that co-hosts on the network and she was tearing into ACORN before she took leave to have a baby. Looks like she is coming back with an independent investigative special.
The Truth About ACORN
FOX News Reporting: The Truth About ACORN
Friday, October 2 at 9 p.m. ET (repeats 12 a.m. EST)
Hosted by Megyn Kelly
Fraud; corruption; undercover tapes ? we brought it all to you.
Now, could ACORN face new scandals? It's our in-depth investigation.
Plus, for the first time, the founder of ACORN in an explosive interview.
Watch as Megyn Kelly hosts, "The Truth About ACORN."
Welcome to P&N 2009.
2000-2008 were pretty much the same way, just the other way around.
It's all rather amusing really...
- Feb 8, 2001
- 4,822
- 0
- 0
It looks like the problems at ACORN are getting deeper and crazier. The only question left is why has this organization been allowed to steal so much for so long. If they are not stealing from the government and the taxpayer, they are stealing from themselves.
BTW, the former ACORN headquarters at 1024-26 Elysian Fields Ave. in New Orleans is up for sale; the organization, which was founded in the New Orleans area, has moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C.
I think they figure they will be right at home there.
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says
By Robert Travis Scott
October 05, 2009, 7:46PM
The Times-Picayune
Louisiana's attorney general has broadened the scope of an investigation of ACORN to include a possible embezzlement of $5 million a decade ago within the community organization, five times more than previously reported.
ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new reported amount is "completely false."
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has been conducting an investigation of ACORN since June. He issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to former ACORN International President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books. Those subpoenas were focused on possible ACORN violations for non-payment of employee withholding taxes, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act. No charges have been made.
The attorney general had inquired in June into an alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.
Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. The subpoena issued Monday changed the tone of the investigation and put a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue.
"Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million, " the new subpoena says.
The subpoena says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds."
The subpoena requests documents from Citizens Consulting Inc., a financial arm of ACORN, and from various accounting and legal consultants in New Orleans. Investigators are trying to verify the issues raised in the subpoena.
"We're going to follow the evidence where it leads us and try to do the right thing," said David Caldwell, head of the attorney general's public corruption and special prosecutions divisions. "We are actively investigating the case, whatever the outcome might be. This is something we are devoting our full attention to."
Wade Rathke, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, referred questions to ACORN officials. Lewis said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys had a chance to review the subpoena.
ACORN board member Vanessa Gueringer, chairwoman of the Lower 9th Ward Chapter, said she had not seen the subpoena but that the accusation about the larger embezzlement was untrue.
"I believe it is another lie, another witch hunt, " Gueringer said.
ACORN, which provides counseling on housing and other assistance to low and moderate income families, has been reeling from national negative publicity in recent weeks. Actions have been taken on the federal level and by many states, including Louisiana, to end public contracts with the group.
BTW, the former ACORN headquarters at 1024-26 Elysian Fields Ave. in New Orleans is up for sale; the organization, which was founded in the New Orleans area, has moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C.
I think they figure they will be right at home there.
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says
By Robert Travis Scott
October 05, 2009, 7:46PM
The Times-Picayune
Louisiana's attorney general has broadened the scope of an investigation of ACORN to include a possible embezzlement of $5 million a decade ago within the community organization, five times more than previously reported.
ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new reported amount is "completely false."
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has been conducting an investigation of ACORN since June. He issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to former ACORN International President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books. Those subpoenas were focused on possible ACORN violations for non-payment of employee withholding taxes, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act. No charges have been made.
The attorney general had inquired in June into an alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.
Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. The subpoena issued Monday changed the tone of the investigation and put a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue.
"Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million, " the new subpoena says.
The subpoena says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds."
The subpoena requests documents from Citizens Consulting Inc., a financial arm of ACORN, and from various accounting and legal consultants in New Orleans. Investigators are trying to verify the issues raised in the subpoena.
"We're going to follow the evidence where it leads us and try to do the right thing," said David Caldwell, head of the attorney general's public corruption and special prosecutions divisions. "We are actively investigating the case, whatever the outcome might be. This is something we are devoting our full attention to."
Wade Rathke, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday, referred questions to ACORN officials. Lewis said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys had a chance to review the subpoena.
ACORN board member Vanessa Gueringer, chairwoman of the Lower 9th Ward Chapter, said she had not seen the subpoena but that the accusation about the larger embezzlement was untrue.
"I believe it is another lie, another witch hunt, " Gueringer said.
ACORN, which provides counseling on housing and other assistance to low and moderate income families, has been reeling from national negative publicity in recent weeks. Actions have been taken on the federal level and by many states, including Louisiana, to end public contracts with the group.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 22K
-
News NVIDIA and Intel to Develop AI Infrastructure and Personal Computing Products- Started by poke01
- Replies: 392
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
Facebook
Twitter