Oct 10 2008
ACORN: The little nut that grew into the mighty fraud tree
The name of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is familiar here in Washington. While Nevada and other states are getting to know them and their fraudulent voter registration activities, we here in Washington already got our primer over a year ago1:
King and Pierce County prosecutors filed felony charges today against seven people who allegedly committed the biggest voter-registration fraud in state history.
…
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington. There has been nothing comparable to this,” state Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference with Satterberg, King County Executive Ron Sims and Acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan.
ACORN President Maude Hurd said in a statement, “It appears that a handful of temporary workers were trying to get paid for work they hadn’t actually done. While we don’t think the intent or the result of their actions was to allow any ineligible person to vote, these employees defrauded ACORN and imposed a burden on the time and resources of registrars and law enforcement.”
So they are claiming that yes their was fraud, but not intent to influence the election, just a few isolated greedy individuals.
They could be right, but at the same time, when you hear all the stories below, you start to wonder.
Then when you see the association of a certain democratic presidential candidate, you again begin to wonder.
Voter fraud allegations once again plague liberal group ACORN
Via the Detroit Free Press:
Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.
The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has a large voter registration program among its many social service programs. ACORN’s Michigan branch, based in Detroit, has enrolled 200,000 voters statewide in recent months, mostly with the use of paid, part-time employees.
Going to Michelle Malkin’s blog finds these links, among many others:
Judge rules Ohio Secretary of State violated federal election law; plus ACORN victim on tape
ACORN Watch: When it rains, it pours
The ACORN/Obama thug thizzle; new: Ohio grills ACORN workers
Ex-ACORN employee/inmate: Co-workers were “lazy crackheads”
Flash: ACORN offices in Las Vegas raided
How ACORN got a piece of the bailout pie
ACORN Watch: Wisconsin dirty deeds
Voter fraud alert: More thug thizzlin’ in Ohio
Homeless Ohioans for Obama registering in droves; Plus: Meet Mr. “Good Will” and “Mr. Doodad Pro”
Voter fraud alert: Watch Virginia
ACORN Watch: Targeting your kids
ACORN Watch: 1,100 suspicious voter cards in NM
ACORN Watch: The community organizing fraud continues
ACORN Watch, Pt II: Obama hid $800,000 payment to ACORN through “Citizen Services, Inc.”
ACORN Watch, Pt I of the day: More voter fraudsters in Milwaukee
There are more. Try this: Google ACORN VOTER FRAUD.
Now, you may ask, how bad can it get? So what if they submit a few bogus card.
Well it can get this bad:
Indiana: More Registered to Vote Than Eligible, Media Misses Story
The real question is why the media ignores this sort of thing.
We are talking about tampering with one of our fundamental principles and freedoms. Why isn;t ACORN and the other organizations committing this fraud being castigated by our media?
The cynic has to note the close connection between ACORN and Obama and wonder if this is a cover up:
Tribune-Review: The company Obama keeps
No, this isn’t another post about William Ayers, but instead about a group of what the
This is the same ACORN tainted by indictments alleging voter fraud in various parts of the United States. Given Obama’s long, deep ties with the radical reverends, unapologetic bomb-throwers and unscrupulous ward-heelers in his home base of Chicago, he might not have seen anything wrong with being in bed with ACORN.
The public would be wise to heed the words of Jim Terry, spokesman for the libertarian-leaning Consumers Rights League in Washington, D.C. It looks as if ACORN is continuing to use its “convoluted Enron-style accounting” for Obama’s political gain, Mr. Terry says.
The ACORN discrepancy is another reminder that Obama seems to be most comfortable with left-wing nuts.
Originally, the Obama campaign’s federal filings showed ACORN’s subsidiary, Citizens Services, only did polling and advance work on campaign events. Later, the campaign had to amend its reports to show that ACORN did GOTV work for them as well, adding $800,000 in payments to the group that has garnered a reputation for fraud.
Earlier this summer, the New York Times reported on another scandal at ACORN:
The brother, Dale Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000, Acorn officials said, but a small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not to alert law enforcement.
Dale Rathke remained on Acorn’s payroll until a month ago, when disclosure of his theft by foundations and other donors forced the organization to dismiss him.
“We thought it best at the time to protect the organization, as well as to get the funds back into the organization, to deal with it in-house,” said Maude Hurd, president of Acorn. “It was a judgment call at the time, and looking back, people can agree or disagree with it, but we did what we thought was right.”
The amount Dale Rathke embezzled, $948,607.50, was carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.
What kind of organization has someone on the payroll who embezzled a million dollars? The kind of organization that keeps secrets on criminal activities from its board. And here’s the really interesting part of this story — the same subsidiary that buried Rathke’s theft provides bookkeeping services to political campaigns, as well as keeps ACORN’s books.
Can we say, “Enron”? I knew we could!
ACORN’s long record of shady operations has been long known. Why would a supposed reformer hire ACORN as a partner for a campaign that promises to end business as usual? As the song goes, you can tell a a man who boozes by the company he chooses — and you can tell volumes about a politician comfortable with the likes of ACORN, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, and William Ayers.
Michelle Malkin’s syndicated column today talks more about Obama and Acorn, and is a must read:
The ACORN Obama knows
If you don’t know what ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is all about, you better bone up. This left-wing group takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers — you and me — and has leveraged nearly four decades of government subsidies to fund affiliates that promote the welfare state and undermine capitalism and self-reliance, some of which have been implicated in perpetuating illegal immigration and encouraging voter fraud. A new whistleblower report from the Consumer Rights League documents how Chicago-based ACORN has commingled public tax dollars with political projects..
It disturbs me how casually our democratic process is being dismantled, and all the while, it is being done at taxpayer expense.
Efforts underway to allow non citizens to vote, lack of accountability for fraud, absence of ID requirements to prove eligibility which are also coupled with charges of racism when they are suggested….
One would think that such a precious right, such a powerful privilege would be cherished, but it is not. It is devalued, abused and frankly, bought and sold.
The reality is that the system matters less to these people than who wins.
And much of this is being done in the name of community organization, that which Obama uses as the cornerstone of his experience.
It really does make you wonder.
Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, Cao’s Blog, NN&V, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, , third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
21 Responses to “ACORN: The little nut that grew into the mighty fraud tree”
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I think the acorn fraud in Washington would cause even Dixie Ray to spin in her grave. Booth Gardner and that arafat look-a-like lowry are probably donors to acorn so anything the say about it can be discounted.
Hey, I just pulled one out of thin air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, then there is gary locke. Nuff said about him. I served with a relative of his in Atkron 147 in the mid 80’s. My squadron-mate said most of the working members of the family couldn’t stand him.
I was stationed at NAS Whidbey in sea and shore squadrons from 1979-1985 and 1989-1993. Watching the politics was, at times, extremely amusing. I kept my residence at Home.
I even got hit up by a youngster in Oak Harbor one day shortly before I retired. The young lady asked me if I was registered to vote in Washington. My reply was no and that I was registered in my home state of Montana and that I was going back in the near future. She asked me if I still wanted to register. Didn’t sink in. So I informed her and the gentleman with her(Dad, I think) that is was their own fault for putting Yasser Arafat’s twin in the governor’s mansion. Must have been democrats. Dad wasn’t too happy. I told him that sometimes, even on a good day, you can get crapped on.
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Vicky Johnson, Gwynn Oak
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PROFESSI…
I Did Not Have Sex With ACORN…
Or something like that infamous Bill Clinton line.
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There’s only one problem: She’s 7 years old.
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I Did Not Have Sex With ACORN…
Or something like that infamous Bill Clinton line.
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On Madison Ave.
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