Activist filmmaker who exposed ACORN is arrested

[kcshocker11]

He was trying to prove that voters in her district and other people who had her office number couldn`t get anyone to answer the phone so that they could voice their opinions on health care.

This wasn`t a person out to listen to phone calls being made and received. Basically trying to prove a point that politicians are doing what they want and not listening to the voters.

Oh thats why they posed as telephone repairmen, not to bug. I do that all the time when my friends and I get together and I'm sure you and your friends do also!

Ridicules

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_re_us/us_senator_s_office_arrests

The two posed as telephone repairmen in hard hats, fluorescent vests and tool belts and asked to see the phones at Landrieu's office; one of them had a tiny camera in his helmet. The fourth is alleged to have waited outside in a car with a listening device to pick up transmissions.

8)

[kcshocker11]

No just want to know how one makes a giant leap to a criminal empire! Anyone (not ordered by a warrant) who thinks its kosher to bug a fellow citizen is an idiot, and one who does is a criminal! Period! 8)

kc, you're really not that dense, are you? ACORN employees were TAPED telling people how to defraud the tax payers....many times. It's obvious to any sane person the people at ACORN are not smart enough to formulate an original thought. They were instructed. When you involve other people, that's a conspiracy, and I'm not a lawyer but, and I think the RICO laws might call that a criminal empire.

Certainly there are an abnormal amount of criminals employed at ACORN.


Again, why did you classify this guy as an idiot before this incident?

Really Doc wheres the criminal empire? Oh I see it, its in your head. oh there it is in Glenn Becks too! 8)

[WuDrWu]

Ok, got. Numerous offices that routinely suggest and direct people on how to get tax payer money that they are not entitled to, all falling under the same national leadership (ACORN), basically defrauded the tax payers of the country, isn't a criminal empire.

Got it.


I'll try to remember that the next time some fat cat gets caught in the grey area of the tax code and you're screaming like a stuck pig "Put together a special council, put together a special council to investigate!!!!!!"

Kc, you are a total hypocrite.

[WuDrWu]

Oh, I almost forgot. It's George Bush's fault!!!!

[ISASO]

It is a little of Bush's fault - he should have destroyed the George Soros-ites at ACORN when he was in power. Instead he let them hang around allowing Obama to unleash the evil within. He is a big fan, you know.

[Maggie]

He was trying to prove that voters in her district and other people who had her office number couldn`t get anyone to answer the phone so that they could voice their opinions on health care.

This wasn`t a person out to listen to phone calls being made and received. Basically trying to prove a point that politicians are doing what they want and not listening to the voters.

Oh thats why they posed as telephone repairmen, not to bug. I do that all the time when my friends and I get together and I'm sure you and your friends do also!

Ridicules

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_re_us/us_senator_s_office_arrests

The two posed as telephone repairmen in hard hats, fluorescent vests and tool belts and asked to see the phones at Landrieu's office; one of them had a tiny camera in his helmet. The fourth is alleged to have waited outside in a car with a listening device to pick up transmissions.

8)

James O'Keefe charged in alleged phone tampering of Senator Mary Landrieu's office

Earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported that James O'Keefe faced charges in an alleged plot to bug the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu. The charges were related to an alleged plot to tamper with a phone system. The headline incorrectly referred to a plot to bug the phone and a caption incorrectly referred to an alleged wiretap scheme. The story also incorrectly reported that Landrieu had proposed a replacement for William Flanagan. Landrieu had proposed a replacement for the U.S. attorney, but Flanagan did not hold the post at that time.

I don’t know what O'Keefe and his cohorts were doing but I do know this: Both you and this reporter from the Washington Post shouldn’t be so eager to pass judgment.

I hereby apologize and retract my own reference to wiretapping (even though I was joking around).

[kcshocker11]

Ok, got. Numerous offices that routinely suggest and direct people on how to get tax payer money that they are not entitled to, all falling under the same national leadership (ACORN), basically defrauded the tax payers of the country, isn't a criminal empire.

Got it.


I'll try to remember that the next time some fat cat gets caught in the grey area of the tax code and you're screaming like a stuck pig "Put together a special council, put together a special council to investigate!!!!!!"

Kc, you are a total hypocrite.

No Doc its you who tend to rant and rave and exaggerate.

ACORN

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocate for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. ACORN has over 400,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters[3] in over 100 cities across the U.S.,[4] as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and Peru.[5] ACORN was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado.[6] Maude Hurd has been National President since 1990; Bertha Lewis was appointed CEO in 2008.
ACORN's priorities have included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, and other social justice issues. ACORN pursues these goals through demonstration, negotiation, lobbying for legislation, and voter participation.[7] ACORN comprises a number of legally distinct non-profit entities including a nationwide umbrella organization established as a 501(c)(4) that performs lobbying; local chapters established as 501(c)(3) nonpartisan charities; and the ACORN Housing Corporation. These entities support labor-oriented causes.
Since the 2006 mid-term elections,

The 3 charges against ACORN and results

2008: Presidential campaign
ACORN was a political issue in the 2008 United States Presidential Election over allegations of conflict of interest and voter registration fraud. During the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary ACORN's national political action committee, ACORN Votes, endorsed Barack Obama. Obama, with several other attorneys, had served as local counsel for ACORN in a 1995 voting rights lawsuit joined by the Justice Department and the League of Women Voters.[58][59] Obama's campaign hired an ACORN affiliate for $800,000 to conduct a get-out-the-vote effort during that primary,[60][61] but did not retain ACORN for the general presidential election.[60][61]
Throughout the election season, supporters of Republican candidates portrayed ACORN's submission of invalid voter registration applications as widespread vote fraud. In October 2008, the campaign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain released a Web-based advertisement claiming ACORN was responsible for "massive voter fraud," a point that Sen. McCain repeated in the final presidential debate. Factcheck.org called this claim "breathtakingly inaccurate," but acknowledged that ACORN had problems with phony registrations.[62] The ads also claimed that home loan programs ACORN promoted were partly responsible for the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Newsweek and Factcheck.org also found these claims to be exaggerated and inaccurate.[63]
A poll released in November 2009 by the Public Policy Polling organization found that 52% of Republican Party members it surveyed, and 26% of respondents overall, believed in a conspiracy theory that ACORN "stole" the election for Barack Obama. The Democratic polling organization commented that this was somewhat higher than belief in the birther conspiracy theories.[64]


[edit]2008-2009: Investigation of embezzlement
The New York Times reported on July 9, 2008 that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN's founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000.[8] ACORN executives decided to handle it as an internal matter, and did not inform most of the board members or law enforcement, and instead signed an enforceable restitution agreement with the Rathke family to repay the amount of the embezzlement. $210,000 has already been repaid, and a donor, Drummond Pike has offered to pay the remaining debt.[1] The Times reported that, according to Wade Rathke, "the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a 'weapon' into the hands of enemies of ACORN, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to ACORN's often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers." A whistleblower revealed the embezzlement in 2008. On June 2, 2008, Dale Rathke was dismissed, and Wade stepped down as ACORN's chief organizer, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C.[65]
In September 2008, following revelations of Dale Rathke's embezzlement, two members of ACORN's national board of directors filed a lawsuit seeking to obtain financial documents and to force the organization to sever ties with Wade Rathke.[66] ACORN's executive committee voted unanimously to remove the two, "because their actions – such as releasing a confidential legal memo to the press – were damaging the organization."[67]
In October 2009, Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell claimed in a subpoena that ACORN's board of directors found that a larger amount—$5 million—was embezzled from the organization. Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO said the allegation is false.[68] On November 6, following up on the subpoena, Caldwell served a search warrant at the ACORN headquarters in New Orleans.[69] Caldwell stated, "This is an investigation of everything — Acorn, the national organization, the local organization and all of its affiliated entities."[70]


[edit]2009: Undercover videos controversy
Main article: ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy
On September 9, 2009, conservative activists Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe released an edited hidden-camera video in which Giles posed as a prostitute and O'Keefe posed as a pimp in order to elicit responses from ACORN. In the video, two employees in ACORN's Baltimore office appear to advise the two regarding home loans, tax evasion, and disguising the identities of underaged sex workers trafficked from El Salvador. Additional videos followed, filmed in Washington, D.C., Brooklyn (New York), San Diego, California, San Bernardino, California, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, California. Not all the videos show staff advising the pair and none show forms for loans or taxes being filed.[9][71]
A spokesman accused O'Keefe of dubbing the audio on the videos.[72] Tresa Kaelke, one of the ACORN organizers interviewed, states she believed the actors were joking and made a variety of absurd or joking statements to them;[73][74] another interviewed employee, Juan Carlos Vera, contacted a police officer a few days after the incident.[75] ACORN fired the Baltimore employees, but also called the first video "false" and "defamatory," and noted that undercover teams had failed in similar attempts elsewhere.[76][77] On September 16, 2009, ACORN suspended advising new clients, and began an internal review process, headed by Scott Harshbarger, who concluded on December 7, "there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers."[78][79]
After the videos were made public, ACORN's partnership in the 2010 United States Census was terminated.[80] The United States House and Senate voted to exclude ACORN from federal funding.[81][82] The New York Attorney General announced an investigation to ensure that state grants given to ACORN were properly spent.[83] The New York City Council suspended all ACORN grants while Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes conducted an investigation.[84] On September 23, the Internal Revenue Service removed ACORN from its volunteer tax-assistance program.[85] On September 28, Bank of America suspended programs with ACORN Housing pending a bank review of the organization.[86]
On September 23, 2009, ACORN and the two workers depicted in the Baltimore video filed suit in a Baltimore court against the filmmakers and stated intent to file against Breitbart.com and Fox News who posted and aired them,[87][88] citing emotional distress and violation of wiretap laws.[89]

Is there some corruption yes but this is a huge organization, to call it a criminal empire is a best exaggeration. Doc when it comes to to you I understand and consider the scource. 8)