ACORN explained that this was an “isolated” incident, yet similar stories have been reported in Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Colorado — all swing states, by the way. ACORN members have been prosecuted for voter fraud in a number of states. (See http://www.rottenacorn.com.) Their philosophy seems to be that everyone deserves the right to vote, whether legal or illegal, living or dead.

Mona Charen at NRO

The Democrats 5th 6th column.

electric-rascal on October 1, 2008 at 12:36 AM

Dave Ramsey also said this morning that if the bailout passes, McCain loses the election.

Also… this isn’t a bad idea at all: Dave Ramsey 3 Steps

Basics are in the PDF file.

This statement appears on the home page of ACORN to describe their mission. The organization, which was founded in the early 1970s, consists of some 350,000 families and is located in approximately 100 cities in the US, Canada, Dominican Republic and Peru (Take Back America 2007 website). Under the leadership of its president, Maude Hurd, this group is involved in numerous activities including amnesty for illegal aliens and attacking Walmart. More importantly, however, they are involved in housing issues, voter registration, and advocating for sub-prime motgage loans to low-income home buyers.

Maude Hurd is a long-time community advocate for the poor. She has been active in recent years negotiating with banks to re-invest in low-income communities and to provide loans to first-time home buyers.

In reality, ACORN is pretty much an arm of the Democratic Party-especially when it comes to voter registration. That portion of their activity has led to numerous accusations in many states of fraudulent voter registration-a charge ACORN denies. In addition, ACORN has, over the years, been linked to radical left political ideology.

This is what Michelle Malkin has to say about ACORN:

“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.”

And there is this:

“In recent months alone, the chief organizer of ACORN was forced to resign over the cover-up of a $1 million embezzlement scandal involving his brother. As internal whistleblower documents recently revealed, ACORN and its offshoots may have reaped substantial financial gains by misusing taxpayer dollars for political ends and by attacking lending corporations for the same so-called “predatory” lending practices ACORN regularly engages in. In 2008 alone, ACORN’s voter registration activities have spawned investigations in almost a dozen states, sometimes involving tens of thousands of invalid or fraudulent registrations.”

James Terry, Chief Public Advocate
Consumer Rights League
9-29-08

The above statement is in reference to Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder, Wade Rathke. On July 9, 2008, the New York Times reported that in 2001, Dale was found to have embezzled just under 950,000 dollars from ACORN and affiliated organizations. The incident was covered up and not reported to law enforcement authorities. Wade Rathke told the Times that the incident was kept secret so as not “to put a weapon into the hands of conservatives” (who opposed ACORN’s activities). The funds were returned, and both of the Rathke’s have since left the organization.

Of course, with the bailout mess in progress, largely due to sub-prime loans made to individuals who could not afford to repay them, ACORN’s name has surfaced in recent weeks since they have been an active lobby for such lending practices. ACORN’s current position is that the financial scandal is due to “predatory lending practices”.

In terms of voter registration, ACORN has been accused of engaging in fraudulent registration in several states. The Wall Street Journal reported on November 3, 2006 that in the week prior to the mid-term elections, four ACORN workers were indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter registration forms to the Kansas City Election Board. According to the article, other ACORN workers have been convicted in Wisconsin and Colorado for similar offenses, while investigations were on-going in Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsyvania, as well as on a national level by the Justice Department.

In addition, last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State. In this case, seven ACORN workers submitted approximately 2,000 fraudulent voter registration forms. It was revealed that ACORN personnel had literally let their fingers do the walking through the white pages looking for names and submitted some imaginative names to boot, such as Leon Spinks. Three ACORN members pleaded guilty. A King County prosecutor termed it as, “an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls”. (“The Acorn Obama Knows” by Michelle Malkin, which was posted on Real Clear Politics 6-25-08)

What is really astounding, given the organization’s claim of being non-partisan-they claim to get no government funding and are not tax-exempt-is that ACORN’s name arose in the draft version of the bailout bill.

“The draft bill includes a left-wing giveaway that would force taxpayers to bankroll a slush fund for a discredited ally of the Democratic Party,” reads one leadership alert. “At issue is ACORN, an organization fraught with controversy for, among other scandals, its fraudulent voter registration activities on behalf of Democratic candidates. Rather than returning any profits made in the long-term from the economic rescue package, Democrats want to first reward their radical allies at ACORN for their (often illegal) help in getting Democrats elected to office.” (CBS News website quoting Republican sources)

(In the face of Republican outrage over this provision, it was removed.)

It appears that ACORN’s claims of receiving no government funding are a bit of a stretch. One of their subsidiaries, the ACORN Housing Corporation, has reportedly received $1.6 million from the Dept of Housing and Urban Development (Malkin). It also appears that their claims of non-partisanship are a joke, to put it mildly. Ms Hurd has been publicly quoted as saying,

“Obama is the candidate who “best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about”.

The attempt by the Democrats at directing money to ACORN in the bailout bill puts the lie to the sanctimonious claims of people like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that Republicans have inserted partisan politics into the crisis.

Finally, it might also be noted that much of Barack Obama’s mysterious years as a community organizer in Chicago are tied to ACORN, with whom he worked and to whom he gave training classes during those years.

Stanley Kurtz, in National Review Online, has spelled out Obama’s past relationship with ACORN. According to Kurtz’s article, Obama was brought into a relationship with ACORN by Chicago community activist, Madeleine Talbot. Ms. Talbot was one of six people arrested on July 31, 1997, when about 200 ACORN protesters tried to storm a session of the Chicago City Council. She reportedly recruited Obama to provide training to ACORN leaders. This relationship with ACORN continued during Obama’s years in the Illinois State Senate.

In addition, the New York Times reported on May 11, 2008 that while Obama served on the board of the Woods Foundation and the Joyce Foundation, he helped direct tens of millions of dollars to ACORN and other community organizations. (NYT article by Jo Becker and Christopher Drew dated May 11, 2008). It was on the Woods Foundation that Obama worked with former Weatherunderground radical William Ayres.

In summary, it is crucial that voters know about this organization, its questionable activities, and its historical relationship with Barack Obama before they go to the polls in November. Who knows how many bogus voter registrations have already been submitted in preparation for getting Obama elected?

The public should also ask itself why the Democratic Party was so intent on getting ACORN into the receiving line for government funding in connection with the (still-pending) bailout bill? It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to connect the dots.

gary fouse
fousesquawk

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have just made an announcement that, dry as it sounds, may mean a great deal: “When an active market for a security does not exist, the use of management estimates that incorporate current market participant expectations of future cash flows, and include appropriate risk premiums, is acceptable.”

The SEC is not telling holders of hard-hit mortgage-backed securities that they can willy-nilly slap any value on them they want.

What the SEC is saying is: You can take other factors into account when valuing them.

Sounds like they are relaxing on mark to market, at least to some extent. That is a substantial factor in the liquidity problem.

Reagan 101: Government is not the solution it is the problem.

Like the Shanklin parody song: “Where have all the conservatives gone?”

A number of Republican House members and staff, along with others who are plugged in, are telling me that Nancy ……

Anyone have any popcorn? My supply was all used for ethanol.

N4646W on September 30, 2008 at 12:57 AM

Now that’s funny. Good one.

basing economic policy on the fits of the stock market is wrong. both on up days and down days.

i refuse to held hostage by the fits of the wealth class.

Stev0 on September 30, 2008 at 11:01 AM

Yeah.

So AP, if the stock market gains 500 points today, will you make a post that 800 billion dollars were made today?

I didn’t think so.

FOr you $1.1 trillion “lost” folks from yesterday, just wanted to let you know that without ANYTHING from Congress ttoday, $337 billion was created this morning by the surge in the Dow.

Birdseye on September 30, 2008 at 3:54 AM

and that should continue throughout the elction and its aftermath – especially if McCain wins… we know how much the left likes their meds. Especially the ones that quiet paranoid delusions.

the market had a hissy fit today. they had a riot. the problem is not that there isn’t any credit. the problem is that credit is getting expensive. Wall street is facing what middle class has faced over the last couple of years. we had our main commodity go up in price. gas. we need gas to get to work, to live our life. It is our lifeblood. when gas went from $1.5 to $4.00 the middle class had to downsize, we had to cut back, get a new job, etc.

the credit crunch is that the price of credit is going up. Credit is the Street’s lifeblood. Instead of doing what the middle class did and tighten its belt, cut back, change business practices etc the Street decided to act like the poor. They had a riot.

that is what this boils down too. Credit is out there you just have to pay more for it which means that there will be less of it. yes it will hurt companies expansion plans, it will hurt day to day operations, it will require cutting back in employees and it extra’s. it will require companies to use its own cash more and not charge everything. I wonder what would have happened to gas prices if the middle class had a riot. would the gov have come in and bailed us out? would they have given us $700b so we could buy more gas? or would they have sent in the army?

For some reason i don’t think it would be the former but more like the latter.