ACORN is not as dead as we had hoped...

174 ACORN are still around. they just changed their names.President Obama is most pleased...

Via Washington Examiner:

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN famously came under fire a few years ago because its political affiliates engaged in electioneering and lobbying. There was also an embezzlement scandal, allegations of facilitating voter fraud and a notorious video sting by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe. The organization officially announced the closure of its offices in 2010 after losing government funding due to the controversies.

But that doesn’t mean it vanished from the landscape altogether. The nonprofit watchdog group Cause of Action published a list today of “still-active ACORN entities, ACORN allies, and rebranded ACORN organizations.”

The connections between these groups and the old ACORN groups include: having the same physical location, sharing leadership or staff or having the same tax ID number.

Keep on reading…

Judicial Watch: Obama administration working with Acorn affiliate Project Vote

Don't you just love it when two corrupt organizations work together? Project Vote employees have been convicted in case after case of voter registration fraud.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has received additional documents about meetings held between Estelle Rogers, Director of Advocacy for the ACORN-affiliated organization Project Vote, and officials from the Obama White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Judicial Watch is investigating the extent to which Project Vote, which once employed Barack Obama, has been working with the Obama administration to use voter registration laws to register greater numbers of low-income voters, widely considered to be an important voting demographic for the Obama presidential campaign.
The additional documents, provided in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch on August 19, 2011, detail email communications between Rogers and high ranking officials from the Obama White House and DOJ. The following are highlights from the records:

• On April 27, 2009, Estelle Rogers wrote to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sam Hirsh regarding an upcoming meeting on April 30, 2009. In addition to Rogers and Hirsh, other  attendees included: Nicole Kovite, Director of Public Agency Project for Project Vote; Spencer Overton, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy; and two officials from the Obama White House: Celia Muñoz, then-Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and recently promoted to Director of the Domestic Policy Council; and Tino Cuellar, Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy.

In her email, Rogers references documents she forwarded in preparation for the upcoming meeting on the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), to which Hirsch replies that he looks forward to “reading these materials” and to “seeing everyone on Thursday.”

• On February 23, 2011, Rogers wrote to Associate Deputy Attorney General Robert Weiner, asking him to “make some headway with Attorney General [Eric] Holder in enforcing Section 7 of the NVRA.” The email notes that the DOJ had not yet filed any Section 7 lawsuits, which Rogers dubbed “deeply disappointing.”  The first such DOJ lawsuit (against Rhode Island) was filed on March 18, 2011, less than one month later. Of particular note, is Rogers’ comment that “We have received oral assurances from [Assistant Attorney General Thomas] Perez on several occasions that enforcement action was imminent,” suggesting that Rogers was privy to internal discussions inside the DOJ regarding pending legal action.

• On March 29, 2011, Rogers wrote to Associate Attorney General [Thomas] Perrelli, urging him to review and “make improvements” to a document she was sending following another meeting held on March 17, 2011 between Project Vote and the DOJ on Section 7 compliance with the NRVA.  Accompanying the document was a previous letter she had sent to the Civil Rights Division plus “additional comments on the Q and A.” Keep on reading...

Obama Administration Ignored Law Prohibiting Funding to Acorn

The most criminal administration ever?

A newly released internal audit appears to indicate that the Government Accountability Office and President Barack Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development incorrectly argued that a specific organization wasn’t ACORN-affiliated.

HUD’s office of general counsel and the GAO have both claimed that Affordable Housing Centers of America, or AHCOA, is not affiliated with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. AHCOA formerly called itself ACORN Housing, but changed its name after the 2009 ACORN meltdown.

The Obama administration has awarded more than $700,000 in taxpayer funds to AHCOA despite a 2010 law stipulating that no taxpayer funds could be awarded to ACORN “or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations.”

Keep on reading…

Revamped ACORN in panic mode after being exposed as behind Occupy Wall Street

Revamped ACORN is in panic mode after being exposed as behind Occupy Wall Street. They are firing people and have the document shredder in high gear.

(Fox News) — Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York — operating as New York Communities for Change — have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources.

NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources said.

“They’re doing serious damage control right now,” said an NYCC source.

NYCC Executive Director Jon Kest has been calling a series of emergency meetings to discuss last week’s report—and taking extreme measures to identify the sources in their office and to prevent further damage, a source within NYCC told FoxNews.com.

Two staffers were fired after NYCC officials suspected them as the source of the leaks, a source told FoxNews.com. “One was fired the day the story came out, the other was fired on Friday. (NYCC senior staff) told everyone that they were fired because they talked to you,” a source said.

Shameful: Acorn affiliate gets another $300,000 in taxpayer funding

This is against the law. Congress passed a law in 2010 banning taxpayer funds could be ACORN “or any of its affiliates. Of course, the Obama administration is above the law.

(TheDC) — An affiliate of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) received another $300,000 in taxpayer funding in early August, The Daily Caller has learned.

President Barack Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the $300,000 grant to the post-ACORN ally: The Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA). The Obama administration awarded the money despite a 2010 law saying no taxpayer funds could be issued to ACORN “or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations.”

AHCOA was previously named “Acorn Housing Corporation,” a group that did a lot of business with ACORN. Acorn Housing changed its name to AHCOA in late 2009.

Until the end of August, AHCOA’s website boasted that it was “formerly Acorn Housing Corporation.” The organization has since removed that bit of history.

The “new” organization has the same Chicago address and phone number as Acorn Housing did. AHCOA has also been using Acorn Housing’s old Data Universal Number System (DUNS) code to apply for and receive taxpayer-funded grants. A DUNS number is unique, organization-specific and location-specific, implying that AHCOA may be no different from Acorn Housing.  Read more here...

Nevada Judge: ACORN Voter Registration Tactics 'Reprehensible'

District Court Judge Donald Mosley fined ACORN the maximum $5000 and said,

"It is making a mockery of our election process. If I had an individual in this courtroom...who was responsible for this kind of thing, I would put that person in prison for 10 years, hard time, and not think twice about it. To me this is reprehensible. This is the kind of thing you see in some banana republic, Uruguay or someplace, not in the United States."

Via FOX News:

A Nevada judge on Wednesday gave ACORN, the defunct grass-roots community organization, the maximum fine for its illegal voter-registration scheme in that state.

District Court Judge Donald Mosley was blunt and unsparing in his criticism of the discredited activist group. Citing the long history of voter registration fraud allegations that engulfed ACORN across the country, he slapped the group with a $5,000 fine for violating Nevada election law during the 2008 presidential election. Read more here...

President Obama funneled more than $800,000, through a front group, to ACORN in 2008 for get out the vote projects.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review had the story:

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat’s campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.

An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. — a subsidiary of ACORN — worked in “get-out-the-vote” projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary.

Wonderful: New DNC Executive Director is an ACORN Loving Former SEIU Hack

At least they selected someone in the Democratic Party mainstream...

(Daily Caller)- In a letter Thursday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine announced that he had selected Patrick Gaspard to serve as the political party’s new executive director.

The selection is certain to draw criticism from conservatives because of Gaspard’s past association with activist organization ACORN.

Gaspard donated thousands of dollars to ACORN, The American Spectator has reported, and worked for New York’s Working Families Party and labor union SEIU.

Video: ACORN Reconstruction MORE Assaults Chase Bank Branch to Celebrate Obama Signing Financial Reform Bill

How do leftists celebrate passage of Obama's financial reform bill? If you are a former ACORN organization with a new name, MORE, you storm a bank with bullhorns and shut it down for an hour.

From YouTube:

As President Obama signed the financial regulation bill, the remnants of Missouri ACORN, reconstituted as MORE, assault a Chase Bank sales branch in St Louis. 40 angry leftists stage a protest including children, bullhorns, signs, professional organizers, and tips to a local news crew that involved storming the AMDOCS building and shutting down business for an hour. this morning.

Video: ACORN Reconstruction MORE Assaults Chase Bank Branch to Celebrate Obama Signing Financial Reform Bill

Video: Former ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis Led Away In Handcuffs

It is not the criminal indictment you were hoping to see. Bertha Lewis was arrested at a pro-illegal immigrant rally in NYC Monday. ACORN had no respect for our laws. It is not surprising Bertha Lewis is pro-illegal. The sight of her in handcuffs does stir wishful thinking.

Supreme Court refuses to Throw ACORN a Lifeline

ACORN may still be nuts, but they won't be nuts with federal funds. The Supreme Court is refusing to throw them a lifeline and overturn an Appeals Court ruling freezing their federal funding.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has turned down ACORN’s request for help...

The high court on Friday refused to throw out a decision by the federal appellate court in New York City. That court had decided to freeze a judge’s determination that Congress acted unconstitutionally in yanking the group’s funding.

Fantastic! Appeals Court Reinstates ACORN Funding Ban!

Today's feel good story:

Human Events reported:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued a stay on the December 2009 injunction by Clinton-appointed Judge Nina Gershon that declared the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) funding ban was unconstitutional.

The result of the stay is that the Congressional funding ban will go back into effect, and ACORN will not receive taxpayer dollars...

Hat tip to bobg47 on twitter.

ACORN is Still Alive?

This is disturbing news. After receiving news of ACORN's impending bankruptcy last month, many Americans thought we had driven a stake through the heart of ACORN's fraud. Now, Bertha Lewis has said in an interview,

"We're still alive. We're limping along. We're on life support,"

AP reported:

The head of activist group ACORN came to a federal court Tuesday to observe a legal fight over its funding...

"We're still alive. We're limping along. We're on life support," Lewis said in an interview just after a government lawyer asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block a judge's ruling that it was unconstitutional for Congress to cut funding to ACORN.

Hopefully, the courts will pull the plug on ACORN's funding once and for all.

Obama Quietly Restores ACORN Funding

While America is distracted, President Obama uses the opportunity to restore ACORN's funding. Whodathunkit!

While America is distracted by Democrats’ attempts to unconstitutionally ram government-run healthcare down the throats of the American people, the Obama administration began preparing to resume funding to President Obama’s favorite community organizing group.

The fiscal floodgates are opening for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the president’s former employer and legal client, despite a congressional ban on funding the activist group that has long been a practitioner of election fraud.

In a March 16 memo Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Peter Orszag quietly ordered federal agencies to resume funding the group whose employees were caught on hidden camera videos last year condoning a variety of crimes including child prostitution and tax evasion.

Team Obama Shuts Down ACORN Corruption Investigation

Why is this not surprising? Judicial Watch has obtained FBI documents from the FBI that reference the Obama administration's decision to shutdown the the investigation into ACORN's voter fraud. This shouldn't be surprising. Team Obama didn't want to prosecute the Black Panthers for voter intimidation either.

From Judicial Watch:

The documents reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by ACORN as well as the Obama administration’s decision to shut down a criminal investigation without filing criminal charges....

However, the Obama Justice Department, while noting that ACORN had engaged in “questionable hiring and training practices,” closed down the investigation in March 2009, claiming ACORN broke no laws.

ACORN Workers in Wisconsin Charged With Election Fraud

ACORN workers committing voter fraud? Who would have thought it?

Miles and Clancy worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and are accused of submitting multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals, including each other, to meet voter registration quotes imposed by the community organizing group.

Andrew Breitbart: ACORN Clearing NY DA Is a Member of the Working Families "ACORN" Party

Andrew Breitbart spoke out on FOX News about the Prosecutors clearing NY ACORN workers, caught in the 'pimp' sting videos, of doing anything illegal. Breitbart responds, King County District Attorney Charles Hynes:

"Is a Member of the Working Families ACORN Party."

Breitbart said he tried to fully cooperate with the DA's office, but they weren't interested in any ACORN wrongdoing. They kept asking him who was funding him. If King County District Attorney Charles Hynes is a member of the ACORN funded ultra Left-Wing Working Families Party, the integrity of this investigation is seriously called into question. The WPA is an outgrowth of the old socialist New Party. The 'New Party" is the radical political party Barack Obama sought and received an endorsement from back in 1995 when he was running for State senate in Illinois.

Shocker! New York Prosecutor Clears ACORN Employees Caught in Sting Video

New York prosecutor Charles Hynes has cleared ACORN of committing any criminal act for advising a pimp and prostitute (aka James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles) about how to get a house loan for a prostitution business and how to hide the ill-gotten gains. The ACORN sting videos by O'Keefe and Giles caused Congress vote to end government funding to ACORN.

"On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a one-paragraph statement issued Monday afternoon.

"That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found."

How is it that advising a pimp and prostitute in methods to secure a housing loan for the purpose of running a brothel and how to stash the cash from that brothel not a crime?

Here are the videos.
Part 1

Part 2

Bye Bye ACORN

ACORN is dissolving it's national structure because of brand damage they blame on FOX News. First, kudos to FOX News. Second, they are really going anywhere. They just need a new name.

Politico reported:

“ACORN has dissolved as a national structure of state organizations,” said a senior official close to the group, who declined to be identified by name because of the fierce conservative attacks on the group that began when a conservative...

I'll bet President Obama is sure going to miss meetings like this one.

Obama Lied About ACORN Relationship

In October 2008, a reporter asked Barack Obama about his relationship with ACORN.

Reporter: Senator McCain today said there was voter fraud going on in the battleground states. ACORN has been tampering with America’s most precious right. There has to be a full investigation and he also said you need to disclose your full relationship with ACORN. I’m wondering if you have any reaction to Senator McCain’s charge?

Barack Obama: Well, first of all my relationship with ACORN is pretty straightforward. It’s probably 13 years ago when I was still practicing law, I represented ACORN and my partner in that investigation was the US Justice department in having Illinois implement what was called the motor voter law, to make sure people could go to DMV’s and driver license facilities to get registered. It wasn’t being implemented. That was my relationship and is my relationship to ACORN. There is an ACORN organization in Chicago. They’ve been active. As an elected offiical, I’ve had interactions with them. But, they’re not advising my campaign. We’ve got the best voter registration in politics right now and we don’t need ACORN’s help.

At CPAC Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) released this video of barack OPbama talking privately about his relationship with ACORN.

Oh Me - Oh My... Obama Caught in a Major ACORN Lie

“When I ran project vote, the voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it. Once I was elected there wasn’t a campaign that ACORN worked on down in Springfield that I wasn’t right there with you. Since I have been in the United States Senate I’ve been always a partner with ACORN as well. I’ve been fighting with ACORN, along side ACORN, on issues you care about my entire career.”

President Obama deserves another "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" award for his lack of honesty about his close relationship with ACORN.


H/T Jim Hoft via Big Government.

White House Records Show Private Residence Visit by ACORN CEO

According to the White House visitor's log, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis visited President Obama's residence one week before the sting videos were released. There is no record of her returning since that date.

Big Government reported:

You can scroll through the list of records on the White House site OR you can download the raw data. Interestingly, the full download uncovers almost 30,000 records, including many from outside the mid-September time-frame detailed on the White House site. In other words, only the records from the specific two week time period are viewable on the White House site. Many other visitor records were released today…they are just much harder to find.

Like, for example, the visitor records for Bertha Lewis.