ACORN

[glatt]

Originally Posted by classicman

Sorry,no - there was some thread drift there. I was referring to my taxes paying for the promises of the candidates.

Ah. I got ya now. Can't argue with that then.

[classicman]

Just found this from the
Wall Street Journal

Acorn -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- has been around since 1970 and boasts 350,000 members. We've written about them for years, but Acorn is now getting more attention as John McCain's campaign makes an issue of the fraud reports and Acorn's ties to Mr. Obama. It's about time someone exposed this shady outfit that uses government dollars to lobby for larger government.

Acorn uses various affiliated groups to agitate for "a living wage," for "affordable housing," for "tax justice" and union and environmental goals, as well as against school choice and welfare reform. It was a major contributor to the subprime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting "strikes" against banks so they'd lower credit standards.

But the organization's real genius is getting American taxpayers to foot the bill. According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been on the federal take since 1977. For instance, Acorn's American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Its American Environmental Justice Project received 100% of its revenue from government grants in the same years. EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007. Only recently, Democrats tried and failed to stuff an "affordable housing" provision into the $700 billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more to Acorn.

The Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that Acorn had submitted "a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications." Earlier this month, Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller requested a raid on Acorn's offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys). Nevada's Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications Acorn submitted weekly.

Officials in Ohio are investigating voter fraud connected with Acorn, and Florida's Seminole County is withholding Acorn registrations that appear fraudulent. New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious Acorn registrations. Wisconsin is investigating Acorn employees for, according to an election official, "making people up or registering people that were still in prison."

Then there's Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board. Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn's registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.

That's just this year. In 2004, four Acorn employees were indicted in Ohio for submitting false voter registrations. In 2005, two Colorado Acorn workers were found to have submitted false registrations. Four Acorn Missouri employees were indicted in 2006; five were found guilty in Washington state in 2007 for filling out registration forms with names from a phone book.

Which brings us to Mr. Obama, who got his start as a Chicago "community organizer" at Acorn's side. In 1992 he led voter registration efforts as the director of Project Vote, which included Acorn. This past November, he lauded Acorn's leaders for being "smack dab in the middle" of that effort. Mr. Obama also served as a lawyer for Acorn in 1995, in a case against Illinois to increase access to the polls.

During his tenure on the board of Chicago's Woods Fund, that body funneled more than $200,000 to Acorn. More recently, the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate. The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money was for "staging, sound, lighting." It later admitted the cash was to get out the vote.

This doesn't look very good either.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The problem with that article is that Acorn is a large organization involved with at least a dozen different projects through various sub-groups and affiliates.

One part of the article talks about the American Institute for Social Justice and the next sentence the American Environmental Justice Project. Then the next talks about the Acorn Housing Corporation. They talk like it's one entity where it's really a bunch of them under the Acorn banner.

Which brings us to Mr. Obama, who got his start as a Chicago "community organizer" at Acorn's side.

And the side of anyone else that was working to help the poor.

In 1992 he led voter registration efforts as the director of Project Vote, which included Acorn.

"Included Acorn", but don't bother to tell us who or how many others it included.

This past November, he lauded Acorn's leaders for being "smack dab in the middle" of that effort.

I'm sure most people, including McCain, would praise any group that tried to get people involved and registered to vote.

Mr. Obama also served as a lawyer for Acorn in 1995, in a case against Illinois to increase access to the polls.

Obama, Acorn, and others, were fighting the same fight, so working together makes sense.

It's apparent that some of the people working on getting people registered to vote, are former Enron accountants, trying to bolster their performance with phony names. But that said, it doesn't mean that everything Acorn does, or the people that work with them, are tainted.

[Pico and ME]

I am really tired of this 'association game' the McCain campaign is playing. But I guess it is a tried and true republican tactic. Its so ingrained that they do it EVEN when their candidate is guilty of the same association!

Heres McCain sitting next to Rep. Kendrick Meek at a rally that was spinsored by NAOC in sponsorship with ACORN. McCain was the keynote speaker.

[TheMercenary]

This is funny. ACORN idiots.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e43_1224086229&p=1

[Cicero]

People are pushing really hard for registrations right now (recently), and often people that are unqualified try to register. This is why people collecting registrations get paid per verifiable registrant and not unverfiable registrants. The person out there with a clipboard is not allowed to do a background check on your registration qualifications they are only supposed to get people signed up just in case.

Then they turn the paperwork into the appropriate department to fact check because they are not permitted to do so.

My point? The whole basis for the ACORN scandal is off by miles. It is only their job to collect information so people can register and not verify it. If the government has a problem with verifying registrations maybe they should not outsource to people that try to do the footwork for their lazy fucking asses. Huh? Do you think that they are going to have their own people pounding the pavement so people will register? Fucking no. They have to contract with someone because they huff and puff when real work has to get done.

If people sign up and know they are not qualified, that is on them and not the company hired to do the registration drive. All of the information is verified every time a registration drive occurs. This happens on the local level and during a national election. Why make a stink about false registrations now? Many people are hit up to just sign the clipboard and guess what? They do. And yes it is the job of the department to verify everyone's registration status when they indicate their intention to vote. Ab so fucking lutely. And. I like ACORN. They sponsored some projects with a group I was with about 3 years ago, and they were fantastic. Oh the scandal.

[Pico and ME]

[Shawnee123]

Hey, why you not on the hatin' bandwagon, Cic?

Nice post! I second Pico's thumbs up!

[Cicero]

I'm sorry, I was still editing when you guys commented. Heh. Sorry. The post is a little more "detailed" now. You may put your thumbs down if you wish. lol! Value added cussing happened because Cicero got tired of hearing about the third party utilized in a political scandal because it is the first thing people do. Pick on the the third party contractor doing the work as they are usually a little squemish non-profit. That just happened during the last job, then trickled down to me and I have a knee jerk when I see it happen to someone else. I got played. And so is ACORN. They are not contracted to verify the information because that is against the law. And the job of your voting offices and whatever lazy ass is hating the fact that they have to do their job right now.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Cicero

I'm sorry, I was still editing when you guys commented. Heh. Sorry. The post is a little more "detailed" now. You may put your thumbs down if you wish. lol! Value added cussing happened because Cicero got tired of hearing about the third party utilized in a political scandal because it is the first thing people do. Pick on the the third party contractor doing the work as they are usually a little squemish non-profit. That just happened during the last job, then trickled down to me and I have a knee jerk when I see it happen to someone else. I got played. And so is ACORN. They are not contracted to verify the information because that is against the law. And the job of your voting offices and whatever lazy ass is hating the fact that they have to do their job right now.

I can't blame the people working for ACORN for scaming the system. Looks like they have either been encouraged to do it or are motivated by the income. No one should be faulted for that. But you would think they might have a little bit of ethics and morality, considering they are dealing with an election, to not go back to the same guy 72 times.

[Cicero]

What's to scam? Fake registrations they don't get paid for? Come fucking on. That's how these numbers got out, because all of it is supposed to be validated. Who probably noticed the issue first? ACORN. No matter who contracts to do a drive there is always a voter asshole, or several. ACORN can't judge and not allow a tranny to register. ACORN isn't even allowed to ask for a fucking id. Get REAL.

ACORN is not allowed, to disallow the same person from registering 100 times or a thousand if they want to. They supply names, addresses, signatures, party affiliation, and that is all they are fucking there to do. That's it. That is all. They are not allowed to validate shit because of the liability of your information being supplied to one of their peasant registrars. That's why it is the job of the registration office to do their job. ACORN did theirs. Collect information. Good or Bad. They collect information. They are not responsible for the dumb ass people that try and register 200 times. Their only job is to collect the data for verification. Someone can write BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA is my name and I live at 55 Dope Ln. in Chattanooga fuckedville, AK 80097, and I am voting with Martian Party @$#$%^%^. And ACORN has to supply it for verification. They are contracted to do their job and they have. They didn't hide the information the public gave them which is why it's so fucking easy to blame them. They did their job. Which is why you, Merc. Even found out about it.

They said hey! We have collected this name 70 times mmm'kay? And submit. Their job, that's it.

So say they are scammers, whatever. It just says more about the American Public and the crazy shit they do and say, than ACORN.

A four time felon can say yes I want to register, and ACORN says sign here..They are not allowed into that guy's records. AT ALL. It does them no good to get bad signatures. But 14 percent of signatures are bad for one reason or another. That's the public for you. And it happens every time. Not just this election, but for every local or state or any other initiative, where you have people signing a clipboard, people are going to write bullshit. Unusable bullshit. This happens all the time Merc. Not just ACORN and not just this election.

That's right, get random registrar with random John Q., and a lot of your information is going to be unusable for various reasons.

Do you know what ACORN is allowed to check? Whether the information supplied was legible (outside of the signature), and to ask that they sign again if it was not.

I know these elections are getting heated, but let's not lose sight of basic, really basic facts. ACORN did their job and I am sticking to that. I have no political MO for saying that either. None.

Oh and this doesn't mean that you aren't my awesome Merc. mmm k?

[classicman]

I'm just asking here, How do you know the peeps on the street are not paid based upon the number vs. quality?

[Shawnee123]

Probably from a news source, I mean other than the Cellar:

Levenson "also strenuously denied suggestions that the group pays canvassers by the number of names they sign up, and that they have quotas," which has been otherwise misreported by many, even as a quick check of Acorn's fact sheets note that "Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card," and that "Acorn has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement".

AND

Those who wish to believe in the hoax, however, attempt to link to article after article about allegations of voter fraud carried out by Acorn. And yet, the articles themselves - if one bothers to actually read them - reveal that either 1) They describe allegations and investigations brought by Republican agents, with little or no evidence of any wrong doing, and certainly no "voter fraud" 2) Where voter registration fraud has occurred it has been by rogue Acorn employees, originally reported to authorities by Acorn themselves, or 3) Smoke and mirrors are used to cloud the fact that not a single fraudulent vote has actually been cast by anyone associated or registered by Acorn.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I can't blame the people working for ACORN for scaming the system. Looks like they have either been encouraged to do it or are motivated by the income. No one should be faulted for that...

So are you saying that 85% of ACORN's problems are directly traceable to top management?

[Shawnee123]

Sheesh...