ACORN Scandel (New)

[Count Chocula]

What's this supposed substance? That there were some corrupt employees that these blatantly biased and agenda-ridden no-names caught, and that they still have little-to-no credibility to not simply edit the videos, cut out anything not to their liking, etc.. Is that the substance? That corrupt employees were fired and canned is a matter of fact, no sense debating those. You, however, posting this 'BigGovernment' link like it's more than Conservative Conspiracy Site #38524 are the height of ridiculous.

Going by the article you cited, and the videos, this gag was pulled at eight ACORN offices (I'm counting New York twice, although I probaly shouldn't since ACORN's statement came out before the New York video). By those stats, staffers at 3 out of 8 offices, 37.5%, suborned felonies to help a pimp and his whore plan ways to buy a HUD house, cheat on taxes, and keep underage Latin American illegal alien prostitutes under the radar. There's your substance.

[General Zod]

What's this supposed substance? That there were some corrupt employees that these blatantly biased and agenda-ridden no-names caught, and that they still have little-to-no credibility to not simply edit the videos, cut out anything not to their liking, etc.. Is that the substance? That corrupt employees were fired and canned is a matter of fact, no sense debating those. You, however, posting this 'BigGovernment' link like it's more than Conservative Conspiracy Site #38524 are the height of ridiculous.

Going by the article you cited, and the videos, this gag was pulled at eight ACORN offices (I'm counting New York twice, although I probaly shouldn't since ACORN's statement came out before the New York video). By those stats, staffers at 3 out of 8 offices, 37.5%, suborned felonies to help a pimp and his whore plan ways to buy a HUD house, cheat on taxes, and keep underage Latin American illegal alien prostitutes under the radar. There's your substance.

You realize corruption isn't something you can extrapolate an exact or even useful value from right? The idea that your 37.5% means anything at all is laughable. Why don't we apply that same fuzzy math to the number of Republican politicians who have been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar in the same manner just for lulz?

[Terralthra]

Going by the article you cited, and the videos, this gag was pulled at eight ACORN offices (I'm counting New York twice, although I probaly shouldn't since ACORN's statement came out before the New York video). By those stats, staffers at 3 out of 8 offices, 37.5%, suborned felonies to help a pimp and his whore plan ways to buy a HUD house, cheat on taxes, and keep underage Latin American illegal alien prostitutes under the radar. There's your substance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_generalization

[Count Chocula]

Zod, Terralthra: I realize that. That's why I said earlier I'm looking forward to more statistics on the fuck-off to go-along ratio.

[General Zod]

Zod, Terralthra: I realize that. That's why I said earlier I'm looking forward to more statistics on the fuck-off to go-along ratio.

You don't need infantile "gotcha" tests to determine whether a company is following the law.

[Beowulf]

The fact that they're going around asking it at all is dubiously legal. Look up entrapment sometime.

Entrapment doesn't apply. The documentary makers are not law enforcement, and not working for law enforcement.

[Count Chocula]

Well whaddaya know, here's videotape #4!

Fourth Videotape Reveals ACORN Advising 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in California

A fourth video by an independent filmmaker posing as a pimp along with a purported prostitute has surfaced depicting an ACORN staffer in California assisting the couple in their quest to obtain housing for their illegal sex business.

Much like in their previous undercover stings at the group's offices in Baltimore, Washington and Brooklyn, N.Y., filmmaker James O'Keefe, 25, and his 20-year-old partner Hannah Giles, who posed as a prostitute named "Eden," were given assistance on Aug. 17 from a staffer at ACORN's office in San Bernardino on how to avoid detection by law enforcement. The couple even tell ACORN staffer Tresa Kaelke — who admits on the videotape to previously having sex for money — that they plan on bringing in 12 girls from El Salvador to work in a home they hope to acquire via the community organization.

Link to Video.

"We're bringing these girls from overseas, but we are going to take a cut of the profit and intend to use the profit from the tricks the girls perform to fund my political campaign and the advertising," O'Keefe tells Kaelke, adding that it'll fund at least 50 percent of his planned run as a Democratic congressional candidate.

Kaelke, who told the couple that she once worked as a paid escort herself, at one point admits she was unqualified to counsel but stops well short of reporting O'Keefe and Giles to authorities.

"You know you are breaking the law if you have these girls in your care and they're minors," Kaelke said on the videotape, which was provided by O'Keefe and can be viewed on BigGovernment.com. " … If I didn't know better, and I don't, but I would think this is a total setup."

ACORN issued a statement Tueday evening saying that Kaelke, indeed, suspected she was being set up and only responded as she did to play along with the obviously fake pimp and prostitute.

"She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios," ACORN said in its written statement.

In the video, Kaelke tells the couple, "As far as getting a place, I don't know why you don't go out and rent a place," adding that the couple could classify it as a "group home" to avert detection.

Earlier on the video, O'Keefe tells Kaelke that they've been discriminated against by banks and other institutions in their search to land a home.

"ACORN will tell you the same thing, they will," Kaelke said. "You might get an old-timer like myself who really knows what's up and who could care less."

Kaelke said her supervisor "would shoot this down faster than a bat out of hell" but advised the couple to conceal the prostitution business by calling it a massage parlor.

"What do you think about my idea about disguising it as a spa?" Giles asks.

"That's exactly what I would do," Kaelke said. "And they're all over the place — Thai massage, Swedish massage, I mean, there's just a bunch of them."

Kaelke also suggested the pair "invest in a line of vitamins" to disguise the location's true purpose.

But ACORN, in its response to the new video, quoted Kaelke as saying the O'Keefe and Giles "were not believable."

“Somewhat entertaining, but they weren't even good actors. I didn’t know what to make of them," she said. "They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me ... saying the most outrageous things with a straight face.”

Among the "outrageous things" she told them was that she previously worked as a "paid escort" in the Bahamas.

"We did trips to the Bahamas for big businessman on yachts," she says in the video. "It was absolutely individual preference, you didn't have to [have sex] … I was the one who did the bookings. I had sex one time because I wanted to."

Earlier in the hour-plus videotape, Kaelke also mentions lobbying local legislators, particularly on health care. And according to the ACORN of Inland Empire's Facebook page, Kaelke met with California State Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod on July 10.

Earlier videos taken at ACORN offices in Washington and Baltimore led to the firing of two employees at each office, and a third tape shot in the group's offices in Brooklyn, which was released on Monday, led to the launch of a criminal investigation.

Jerry Schmetterer, director of public information for the Kings County District Attorney's Office, told FOXNews.com that officials will be "taking a look" into Brooklyn's ACORN office.

"We are going to be taking a look at the situation," Schmetterer said Monday.

Later Monday, the Senate voted 83-7 to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, meaning the organization would not be able to win HUD grants for programs such as counseling low-income people on how to get mortgages and for fair housing education and outreach.

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., said that ACORN has received $53 million in taxpayer funds since 1994 and that the group was eligible for a wider set of funding in the pending legislation, which funds housing and transportation programs.

The U.S. Census Bureau severed ties with the group on Friday in the wake of the controversy.

ACORN — Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now — has been accused of widespread voter fraud during the 2008 presidential election by assisting unqualified voters to register.

The organization's chief organizer, Bertha Lewis, released a statement on Saturday saying that while she could not defend the actions of the terminated workers, O'Keefe may have committed a felony during the sting operation. She also threatened legal action against FOX News, which has aired the videos.

"It is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist 'filmmaker' O'Keefe and his partner in crime," Lewis said. "And, in fact, a crime it was — our lawyers believe a felony — and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators," she said.

O'Keefe, meanwhile, told FOX News he wants an apology from media outlets "covering for ACORN" and the organization itself.

"They don't have any leg to stand on, so they're saying I dubbed in my voice, which is completely absurd," he said. "When the truth comes out in the end, they're going to be apologizing to us."

O'Keefe said he was merely trying to hold the ACORN offices accountable.

So counting this as a second California office, we now have ACORN staffers advising this couple on lawbreaking techniques. We're up to four of nine (again counting CA and NY twice) offices giving, um, questionable advice. ACORN has 100 offices, so we have a 9% sample size. A small sample, but possibly enough to see a trend.

The time stamp on the video says August 2005, but ACORN has a statement accredited to the staffer in the San Berdoo office and hasn't contested the date, so it's probably a goof in the camera setup. Plus, Kaelke refers to President Obama.

The interesting part of ACORN's reaction to this video was a statement that Kaelke was just playing along with them (see Fox news story above). If this is true, Tresa Kalke is a brilliant improvisationist, and her talents are wasted in an office. I mean, admitting to being an escort and shooting your husband in cold blood, well, who wouldn't think of those in the context? "I'll see your kiddie sex ring and raise you a murder!"

Here's a list of my favorite Kaelke quotes from the video:
"I'm a '60s hippie."
"Heidi Fleiss is my hero."
"They'll be a client, but they won't set you up."
"I'm just telling you how not to get caught."
"I was an escort."
"..and then I just picked up the gun and said 'fuck you.' And I shot him. And he died. Before that, I laid some groundwork, I went to a shelter, and I pleaded my case with them, so everyone in town knew what was happening..."
"You could call it a group home.(referring to what to do with the El Salvadoran illegal teenager hookers)"
"This is all going in the book. I'm writing a book. This is just another chapter."
"I would just stand up in a court of law and say, 'I never said that.'"
"When you remember me, be kind."

Damn, she's a brilliant actress.


And just for fun, here's a different take on ACORN:

09/09
Isolated Incidents or Is there A Tie that Binds? 2 Financiers, 2 Suicides in one Week
01:15 by Administrator. Filed under: Whatever
by John Galt

September 15, 2009

Glenn Beck asked us all to be watchmen. Ok, I think I’ve been doing my part but our paths crossed when he asked us to look into ACORN. I looked at the financial side of things, but now I’m a wee bit spooked. Two financiers, two suicides, too unusual.

Here are the stories:

Rockefeller & Co CEO dies in apparent suicide

BOSTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – James McDonald, a prominent
adviser to wealthy families as chief executive of investment
management group Rockefeller & Co, died in an apparent suicide,
on Sunday, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Then add this:

http://www.inquisitr.com/36737/financie ... t-suicide/

Category: News Author : Kim LaCapria Posted: September 9, 2009

Financier Finn Casperson dead in apparent suicide

Ex-CEO of Beneficial Corp. Finn H.W. Casperson was found dead in an apparent suicide behind an office building in Westerly, Rhode Island.

Casperson, 67, was discovered dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound on September 7th, after police were asked to “check on” him. Casperson came from a wealthy family and moved with powerful people, and he was known for his political influence, fundraising and philanthropy.

**************************************

Now add this:

HOME EQUITY LOSS PREVENTION PROGRAM (HELP)
If you are behind on your loan, a housing counselor may be able to intervene on your behalf with your lender in order to come to a resolution that will ultimately bring your loan current. Our HELP program has established relationships with 43 major lenders in the U.S. in order to better serve our clients in getting their loans out of foreclosure. Last year, we assisted over 4800 families in working out repayment plans, forbearance plans, loan modifications, refinances and partial claims, which allowed these families to keep the equity that they built in their homes!!!
ACORN Housing’s mortgage delinquency counselors are here and ready to review your situation to find out if you would be suitable for a resolution. Contact our toll free HELP line today at 888-409-3557 or download our intake form and fax it to 312-235-4995.
Last year we saved over 9,800 families!!!

These lenders include:
ABN Amro/LaSalle Bank
American Home Mortgage
Americas Servicing Company (ASC)
Ameriquest
Bank of America
Beneficial Finance
Carrington Mortgage Services
Centex
Chase
CitiFinancial
CitiMortgage
Countrywide…..etc.

from this web page: http://www.acornhousing.org/TEXT/fap8.php

Then from CapitalResearch.org’s story:

ACORN: Who Funds The Weather Underground’s Little Brother

From November of 2008 on page 11 of the PDF:

Donations to ACORN Project Vote:

Rockefeller Family Fund $4,047,500

I’m not saying there are ANY ties, but you have to start asking questions.

WHEEE!! This is more funner than Rangel's tax cheating goofs, Pelosi denying she knew about the CIA memos, a New Orleans Congressman with a freezer full of cold cash, Larry Craig's airport footsie, or Representative Wilson expostulating "You lie!"

[General Zod]

The fact that they're going around asking it at all is dubiously legal. Look up entrapment sometime.

Entrapment doesn't apply. The documentary makers are not law enforcement, and not working for law enforcement.

Maybe not, but rather the fact that they're trying to talk people into committing a crime is the part I was referring to legally dubious.

[Covenant]

Yeah, that lady who said she shot her husband was going along with the sting intentionally--the police have already investigated that:

However, the San Bernardino Police Department investigated the matter and concluded that the claims made by Tresa Kaelke -- the ACORN staffer in question who said she fabricated the story because the actors filming her "were clearly playing with me" -- "do not appear to be factual," and that her "known former husbands" are "alive and well."

You can find the police report linked to at Media Matters. As much as Chocula's dumbass worldview is normally an affront to common sense, even without a murderous staffer the ACORN staffers they shopped around for were still terrible enough to warrent the condemnations from congress. This shit's not okay.

However, it doesn't mean a damn thing with regards to the previous election.

[SirNitram]

Because they give a damn about whether their ranks are full of criminals and the like(Unlike some groups), ACORN is launching an internal investigation anyway: Link

WASHINGTON — An advocacy group under fire after employees were caught on camera appearing to advise a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp to lie about the woman's profession said Wednesday it is ordering an independent investigation.

The group also said it is refusing new admissions into its service programs.

ACORN will work with its advisory council, which includes prominent supporters of President Barack Obama, such as John Podesta, president of the nonprofit Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to name an independent auditor and investigator, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement.

The investigation will examine all the systems and processes called into question by the video, Lewis said.

In addition, ACORN won't accept new admissions into its community service programs, effective immediately, and within the next few days will conduct staff training, she said.

Lewis said the steps were being taken in response to "the indefensible action of a handful of our employees."

The moves by ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, come as some Republicans urge the Justice Department to investigate the group. In addition to the hidden-camera video, is under scrutiny for several voter-registration fraud cases.

The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN.

The video released Monday was among several that have prompted the firing of at least four ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington. It was created by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles and posted on BigGovernment.com, where O'Keefe identifies himself as an activist filmmaker.

In the film, O'Keefe and Giles enter an ACORN office in Brooklyn and O'Keefe can be heard stating that "we have a unique life situation" and asking if the pair qualify for housing help.

The ACORN housing coordinator and office administrator apparently urge the couple to lie about the woman's profession, with the housing coordinator suggesting that the woman launder the money.

"We have all been deeply disturbed by what we've seen in some of these videos," Lewis said, adding that the group "will go to whatever lengths necessary to reestablish the public trust."

A positive move, considering it's such a blatant peice of shopping around for scandal and idealogy.

[Count Chocula]

It will certainly cull the stupid and venal, and that's a good thing.

[Elfdart]

Yep, and the filmmaker said he expected to have the cops called on him, or get arrested.

Then he's almost as much of a drama queen as you are.

The ACORN people are clearly fucking with these morons because these right-wing mouth breathers are so ridiculous. They're also racist as hell. Why exactly would they pretend to be pimps when "infiltrating" a group that just happens to register a large number of black voters?

This grand peur is just part of a campaign to stifle black voting by making it seem that black votes are not legitimate because a godless commie organization helped them register (and a handy excuse for another voter purge). It's just like the Teabaggers pretending Obama isn't the legitimate President because of his birth certificate. It's pure paranoid racism by people who are too fucking stupid to know how foolish they look.

And they want their country back.

[Count Chocula]

Hey, now there's a fifth ACORN office, this time in San Diego (link is to part one of two)! And this time the ACORN rep, who says he's a lawyer who was educated in Mexico, gives the pimp and the ho tips on the best place to smuggle in the teenage El Salvadoran hookers! He recommended Tijuana, by the way. Because he has contacts in Tijuana. Annd then he asks the ho what she would charge for the weekend...hypothetically of course. Funny how ACORN hasn't riposted saying that Juan Carlos knew he was being shined and led them on for kicks.

So we have ACORN staffers suborning felonies at, charitably, 5 out of 10 offices now, out of 100 offices in 45 states and D.C. I'm calling this a trend. And there's MORE video coming.

So here's a quick summary:

• 2008-2009 investigations of ACORN for voter registration fraud in seven states
• Investigations, arrests and convictions in ten states, going back to 2004
• The Senate, in a bipartisan vote, defunds HUD disbursements to ACORN
• The House, in a bipartisan vote, defunds ACORN (as a rider to an student loan bill that federalized ALL student loans)
• The mayor of Houston has asked his staff for a report on the city's relations with ACORN
• ACORN's apparently operating illegally in Maryland, and has been since November 2006
• ACORN has halted hiring and is ordering both internal and external audits, as SirNitram noted above
• The White House is calling ACORN employees' behaviour unacceptable
• Charlie Gibson, ABC news anchor, says ACORN? Whozzat?
• The Brits are chastising the American media for ignoring this story, while two kids make the networks look like chumps Fuck, even Jon Stewart called out the networks: "Where were the real reporters on this story? I’m a fake journalist and even I’m embarrassed."
• These five damn videos, where two kids dressed outrageously as a pimp and a whore still get advice on committing crimes from ACORN staffers

If Bertha Lewis, ACORN CEO, and Wade Rathke have any smarts, they'll fold the operation and slink away before any investigations reach corporate headquarters.

And oh, by the way, this is the group that President Obama said in 2007 would help shape his agenda as President. Second thoughts, maybe, are in order for the former ACORN lawyer.

Then he's almost as much of a drama queen as you are.

The ACORN people are clearly fucking with these morons because these right-wing mouth breathers are so ridiculous.

One out of five offices had someone who apparently caught on to the gag, then continued to give advice to the filming trio. Ms. Kaelke apparently didn't murder an ex-husband, although one did take out a restraining order against her. This was all covered in the prior posts, dumbass.

They're also racist as hell. Why exactly would they pretend to be pimps when "infiltrating" a group that just happens to register a large number of black voters?

This grand peur is just part of a campaign to stifle black voting by making it seem that black votes are not legitimate because a godless commie organization helped them register (and a handy excuse for another voter purge). It's just like the Teabaggers pretending Obama isn't the legitimate President because of his birth certificate. It's pure paranoid racism by people who are too fucking stupid to know how foolish they look.

Way to pull out the race card, you anal leak. I don't know if you are white, black, mulatto, Asian, Amerind, Semitic or hispanic, and I don't care because it doesn't matter. Are you so bereft of counter-arguments that you have to trot out the racist argument, you stupid little puddle of diarrhea? And I'm probably insulting the diarrhea, which undoubtedly came out of someone of higher intellectual capacity than yourself. Goddamn you're an idiot.

Who gave you the race card inspiration? Was it Maureen Dowd, who heard in her microcephalic little head "boy" after Joe Wilson said "You lie!"? ACORN perhaps? Follow the link; you'll see it's been pulled from the ACORN website. Maybe you got your brilliant (in a redneck "watch this" brilliant) inspiration from former President Carter, who said in his 1970 campaign for governor of Georgia that "I can win this election without a single black vote." Your pulling the race card tells me that you are out of ideas, out of arguments, and out of any possible avenue to defend ACORN's actions. Have you noticed that President Obama's White House has drawn no racial parallels to the videos, and has repudiated Carter:

Well, let’s take a look at what former President Carter said. The answer that I’m going to give is the same answer that I gave on Sunday, when I was asked this question. The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin.

Fuck. You. Elfdart. And by the way, without white people voting for him, Barack Obama wouldn't be President of the United States. Fuck you again, you deceitful sack of pus.

[Elfdart]

I didn't mention you personally nor did I have you in mind when it comes to the racism, but your hysterical reaction kinda says it all.

I could go on, but as usual, Glenn Greenwald does it better:

LINK

If Congress wants to join Obama in dancing to the tune of a deranged fucktard like Glenn Beck, that's too bad. I can't wait for this same Congress to de-fund Blackwater(whose mercenaries have committed -not-talked about- rape, child prostitution and murder) or Halliburton, a company that claims a female employee who was gang-raped by fellow employees shouldn't be allowed to sue because it was an "on-the-job injury" and her contract stipulates that workplace injuries are to be handled internally by Halliburton.

[Vympel]

Count Chocula's incessant parroting of bullshit rightwing hysteria like this irrelevant ACORN crap (an organisation with no political influence whatsoever and which happens to do a lot of good) with this "there's a trend of them subborning felonies!!!" bullshit is hardly surprising to me. It seems he mindlessly regurgitates every stupid right wing trope in existence.

Apparently, an organisation which receives the WHOPPING AMOUNT of $3.5 million per year (on average) from the Federal government is a huge crisis.

[Count Chocula]

I can't wait for this same Congress to de-fund Blackwater(whose mercenaries have committed -not-talked about- rape, child prostitution and murder) or Halliburton, a company that claims a female employee who was gang-raped by fellow employees shouldn't be allowed to sue because it was an "on-the-job injury" and her contract stipulates that workplace injuries are to be handled internally by Halliburton.

I agree with you there; if we're going to do military operations (without discussing the merits or lack thereof here), they should be done with soldiers. Saying that the occupations are jobs for "contract workers" is a weasel way out, and puts Blackwater and Halliburton in a legally ambiguous position that they have abused several times.

No mercenaries. WTF, is America now 1775 England, hiring Hessians for its overseas adventures?

[KrauserKrauser]

Well I would think that the close ties this organization has with the President does elevate the importance.

As a former ACORN affiliate, Obama is going to suffer for further revelations of ACORN's illegal activities throgh association. Them's the breaks, maybe he should have thought twice before mentioning them as a point of positive reference on the campaign trail.

[General Zod]

Well I would think that the close ties this organization has with the President does elevate the importance.

As a former ACORN affiliate, Obama is going to suffer for further revelations of ACORN's illegal activities throgh association. Them's the breaks, maybe he should have thought twice before mentioning them as a point of positive reference on the campaign trail.

Serving as legal counsel for a one time lawsuit and hiring them for a one time get out the vote job does not close ties make. Unless you're referring to something the rest of us are unaware of.

[Knife]

Fuck. You. Elfdart. And by the way, without white people voting for him, Barack Obama wouldn't be President of the United States. Fuck you again, you deceitful sack of pus.

As far as I'm aware, Obama received only something like 43% of the white vote. While it is true that without the 43% of white people voting for him he would have lost, in reality, he lost the white vote. Obama rocked most of the minority votes and gleened just enough of the white vote to get elected, but still lost the majority of the white vote. So twist it how ever you want but while he needed a minority of the white vote to win, he sure as hell didn't get a majority of the white vote and still won.