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SELLC


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Did the ACORN grow too big? Lets see how it does without tax payer money!
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Did ACORN get too big for its own good?
By SHARON THEIMER and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers Sun Sep 20, 12:00 am ET

WASHINGTON Activist group ACORN started in 1970 to help poor people in Arkansas and by decade's end went national, expanding into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate with a mission so far-flung that schools now bear its name, two radio stations are affiliates and a man its political arm endorsed is the president. Oh yeah and it's the unwilling star of a hot Internet video featuring a couple dressed as a hooker and her pimp.

And that last bit is just one of its problems.

The organization praised for its Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and treated by federal, state and local governments as a valuable public resource has had nearly $1 million embezzled from it by its founder's brother. The openly Democratic-leaning group has seen its employees accused of voter registration fraud, and taking it down has become a cause celebre for Republican lawmakers, activists and pundits.

As if volunteers allegedly signing up cartoon character Mickey Mouse to vote didn't give ACORN enough bad publicity, the public is enthralled with new videos distributed on the Internet and aired on television news shows showing ACORN employees in Brooklyn, N.Y., advising a couple posing as a hooker and pimp to lie to get housing aid, and employees in other cities counseling the pair on tax, banking and immigration issues.

Many Democrats used to advertise their ACORN connections. Now, however, the Democratic-led Senate has voted to cut off its grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Democrat-dominated House doesn't want it to get any federal money, period.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called the conduct in the videos "completely unacceptable" and a top supporter and prominent ally of President Barack Obama, John Podesta, is on an ACORN advisory panel working to clean up the mess.

Republicans are using ACORN to portray Democrats as corrupt and distract Obama from his policy agenda, the same way that Democrats used issues involving Halliburton, the giant government contractor and ex-employer of former Vice President Dick Cheney, against the GOP during the Bush years. Top Republicans from congressional leaders to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger want criminal probes of ACORN's activities and conservative voters are pressuring news organizations for coverage.

The Census Bureau this month cut ties with ACORN for the upcoming census, and a nonpartisan watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, named senators who voted to continue financing ACORN as its "September Porkers of the Month."

New York Gov. David Paterson on Friday ordered state agencies to examine all of their contracts with ACORN over the next month and to put holds on them until the reviews are finished.

ACORN has portrayed its problems as the unfortunate work of a few employees. In the best case, that suggests it made bad hires and gave them poor training and supervision. But when the founder of a national organization admits attempting to keep quiet his brother's theft of more than $900,000, it's a sign that ACORN's problems may rise high and run deep. How did ACORN wind up in this mess? Did it simply grow too big for its own good?

The scope of government investigations into its activities is unknown. Voter registration fraud cases involving ACORN workers are pending. HUD's inspector general has acknowledged an investigation is under way. ACORN this past week announced an internal investigation into the video scandal and said it won't accept new clients into its housing program in the meantime.

ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis has pledged do whatever necessary "to re-establish the public trust." She condemned the actions of the two employees who appeared in the Brooklyn footage, but ACORN also contends segments of the video shot there and in other cities by the hidden-camera couple were manipulated to make it look bad.

Lewis called the attacks "reminiscent of the McCarthy era."

"We understand that the Republican Party is upset and the right wing is upset because they are out of power now," Lewis said Friday on New York City radio station WNYC.

James O'Keefe, one of the two filmmakers, said he went after ACORN because it registers minorities likely to vote against Republicans: "Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization," O'Keefe told The Washington Post. "No one was holding this organization accountable."

Did ACORN get too big for its own good? - Yahoo! News

-- Edited by SELLC on Friday 25th of September 2009 08:03:54 PM

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SELLC


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Well I was right about ACORN!

Take away tax payer money and they are closing down!

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0310/718547.html

ACORN was a sham! Much like Obama!

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