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September 15, 2008
Voter fraud allegations once again plague Obama-related liberal group ACORN ( A lesson in the Obama kind of community organizing)
Topics: Political News and commentariesACORN, the group that Obama "cut his ideological teeth with working with as a 'community organizer' and legal representative, is back in the news for what it is now infamous for - voter fraud. From the Detroit Free Press via Sister Toldjah:
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.As Curt Mercadante (also via Sister Toldjah) points out, the Democrats have touted that Obama started his "career" as a community organizer and in recent weeks there has been much discussion about the definition (and responsibilities) of the "community organizer." Obama's close ties and the fact that he has an intimate and long-term association - with one of the largest "community organizer" organizations in the country - ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the largest radical group in America, gives America insight into what a community organizer is and does, and should give pause to the idea that Barack Obama offers any real experience other than experience in radicalism and corruption and even remotely the kind of "Hope and Change" that America would be willing to tolerate. Like Curt points out, Sarah Palin sarcastically hinted that community organizers don't have any "actual responsibilities," and they don't, other than to ferment and instigate victimhood and corruption. It's simply what Barack Obama and ACORN know best how to do.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.
"There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications," said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office. "And it appears to be widespread."
Chesney said her office has had discussions with ACORN officials after local clerks reported the questionable applications to the state. Chesney said some of the applications are duplicates and some appear to be names that have been made up. The Secretary of State's Office has turned over several of the applications to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The U.S. Attorney's Office on Friday declined to confirm whether an investigation was taking place.
In recent years, ACORN's voter registration programs have come under investigation in Ohio, Colorado, Missouri and Washington, with some employees convicted of voter fraud.
As Michelle Malkin pointed out in June of this year, ACORN, a strong supporter of Obama as the candidate they believe "best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about" -- like ensuring their massive pipeline to your hard-earned money - has a history of being waist-deep in corruption and in making a mockery of the voting process:
[...] Naturally, ACORN's political action committee has warmly endorsed his presidential candidacy. ACORN head Maude Hurd gushes that Obama is the candidate who "best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about" -- like ensuring their massive pipeline to your hard-earned money. Let's take a closer look at the ACORN Obama knows.[...] Last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State. Seven ACORN workers had submitted nearly 2,000 bogus voter registration forms. According to case records, they flipped through phone books for names to use on the forms, including "Leon Spinks," "Frekkie Magoal" and "Fruto Boy Crispila." Three ACORN election hoaxers pleaded guilty in October. A King County prosecutor called ACORN's criminal sabotage "an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls."
The group's vandalism on electoral integrity is systemic. ACORN has been implicated in similar voter fraud schemes in Missouri, Ohio and at least 12 other states. The Wall Street Journal noted: "In Ohio in 2004, a worker for one affiliate was given crack cocaine in exchange for fraudulent registrations that included underage voters, dead voters and pillars of the community named Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Jive Turkey. During a congressional hearing in Ohio in the aftermath of the 2004 election, officials from several counties in the state explained ACORN's practice of dumping thousands of registration forms in their lap on the submission deadline, even though the forms had been collected months earlier."
In March, Philadelphia elections officials accused the nonprofit advocacy group of filing fraudulent voter registrations in advance of the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. The charges have been forwarded to the city district attorney's office.
Under the guise of "consumer advocacy," ACORN has received money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD funds hundreds, if not thousands, of left-wing "anti-poverty" groups across the country led by ACORN.
Under the guise of "consumer advocacy," ACORN has received money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD funds hundreds, if not thousands, of left-wing "anti-poverty" groups across the country led by ACORN. Last October, HUD announced more than $44 million in new housing counseling grants to over 400 state and local efforts. The White House has increased funding for housing counseling by 150 percent since taking office in 2001, despite the role most of these recipients play as activist satellites of the Democratic Party. The AARP scored nearly $400,000 for training; the National Council of La Raza ("The Race") scooped up more than $1.3 million; the National Urban League raked in nearly $1 million; and the ACORN Housing Corporation received more than $1.6 million.Sol Stern's 2003 piece in City Journal described ACORN as the key modern successor of the radical 1960's "New Left," with a "1960's-bred agenda of anti-capitalism"As the Consumer Rights League points out in its new expose, the ACORN Housing Corporation has worked to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens in partnership with Citibank. It relies on undocumented income, "under the table" money, which may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Moreover, the group's "financial justice" operations attack lenders for "exotic" loans, while recommending 10-year interest-only loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and risky reverse mortgages. Whistleblower documents reveal internal discussions among the group that blur the lines between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive electioneering activities. The group appears to shake down corporate interests with relentless PR attacks, and then enters "no lobby" agreements with targeted corporations after receiving payment.
It promotes a 1960s-bred agenda of anti-capitalism, central planning, victimology, and government handouts to the poor. As a result, not only does it harm the poor it claims to serve; it is also a serious threat to the urban future.Borrowing a point from Michelle Malkin, need you wonder where the candidate of Hope and Change -- the candidate of Reform and New Politics -- stands on the issue? "Barack Obama, ACORN's senator, is for more of the same old, same old subsidizing of far-left politics in the name of fighting for the poor while enriching ideological cronies." After all, "it's the Chicago way."It is no surprise that ACORN preaches a New Left-inspired gospel, since it grew out of one of the New Left's silliest and most destructive groups, the National Welfare Rights Organization. In the mid-sixties, founder George Wiley forged an army of tens of thousands of single minority mothers, whom he sent out to disrupt welfare offices through sit-ins and demonstrations demanding an end to the "oppressive" eligibility restrictions that kept down the welfare rolls. His aim: to flood the welfare system with so many clients that it would burst, creating a crisis that, he believed, would force a radical restructuring of America's unjust capitalist economy.
Update: Other coverage - ACORN Watch: The community organizing fraud continues
Posted by Abdul at September 15, 2008 10:30 AM
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- Voter fraud allegations once again plague Obama-related liberal group ACORN ( A lesson in the Obama kind of community organizing) - Sep 15, 2008
