NBC News to Americans for Limited Government: 'Bite Me, Jew Boy'

Just in from Americans for Limited Government, "ALG Statement in Response to NBC “Bite me, Jew Boy” Email":

Americans for Limited Government is appalled that an employee of the NBC news network apparently felt it was appropriate to send an email to an ALG employee, in response to a standard news release, saying, “Bite me, Jew Boy.”

According to ALG records, the email came from the Blackberry and email address of Jane Stone, a producer for NBC’s Dateline. The email was sent to Alex Rosenwald, the ALG Director of Media Outreach. The news release to which Ms Stone apparently responded was one in which ALG called upon Congress to defund ACORN.

Americans for Limited Government does not contend that NBC or its parent company GE, are anti-Semitic. What is highly disturbing, however, is that there clearly is a culture at NBC that has allowed this person who clearly has issues to go unchecked.

Ms Stone claims she did not send the offensive email. If that is not the case, we at ALG call upon her to help ascertain who did send it using her Blackberry and her email address. If Ms Stone did, in fact, send it, we at ALG call upon Ms Stone to apologize to Mr. Rosenwald, and we call upon the NBC hierarchy above Ms Stone to join her in issuing that apology.

Attachments: Anti-Semitic email from NBC to ALG, September 24th, 2009.

See also, Matthew Vadum, "NBC Producer to Anti-ACORN Group: ‘Bite Me, Jew Boy!’":

Apparently NBC “Dateline” producer Jane Stone or someone else who has access to her Blackberry has a problem with groups that oppose ACORN and with an ethnocultural minority.

Naturally, NBC circles the wagons: "NBC News Prez Blasts ALG: 'Reckless' and 'Defamatory'." (Via Memeorandum.)

Harry Reid Rejects Calls for ACORN Hearings

From CQ Politics, "Reid Rejects GOP Call for ACORN Hearings":

Majority Leader Harry Reid rebuffed a Republican request that he call Senate hearings and an investigation into recent allegations against the scandal-tainted community organizing group ACORN.

Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that he would not ask the Senate committee chairmen or Congress “to do anything that would distract from efforts to address” health care, climate change, an overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system and oversight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid made the comments in letters to 28 Republican senators, who had asked for the investigation into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The liberal-leaning group has faced heavy criticism following the release last week of a video showing ACORN employees apparently advising a couple, posing as a prostitute accompanied by her pimp, about how to conceal their line of work, evade taxes and handle undocumented, under-age sex workers.

Reid called the actions of ACORN employees and contractors captured on the video “shocking” and said he shared the concerns voiced by Republican senators.

But Reid noted that federal and state authorities are investigating ACORN and warned about politicizing such probes. “I am sure you would join me in praising the effectiveness, honest intentions and impartiality of our nation’s law enforcement communities and inspectors general,” he said.

See also the Las Vegas Review Journal, "Reid Blocks ACORN Probe: Tracking Abuse By Political Allies Could Be 'Distracting'." (Via Memeorandum.)

Video Credit: Kenneth G. Davenport.

The Glorious Grassroots Conservative Comeback

Charles Johnson, who has launched a jihad against anyone not capitulating to his own ideological supremacism, linked the British blog Harry's Place the other day. Note this quote there, from a post entitled, "Out of Power, Going Bonkers":

Demoralised by defeat, the moderates appear to have utterly lost control of their movement, which has become a caricature of its worst aspects: delivering up a cocktail of vicious preoccupations, from an extreme position on abortion, through to support for creationism, and right up to the promotion of racist fears.

The only thing arguably agreeable here is "demoralized." Yeah, it's a bummer losing, but dejection was temporary; and it doesn't follow that this year's grassroots mobilization against the Obamanation is automatically unhinged and racist.

What's interesting to me is that now that the GOP's out of power, folks like Charles Johnson and his newfound allies on the left are excoriating conservatives for the very same grassroots activism that helped bring the Democrats to power in 2006 and 2008. Indeed, Little Green Footballs was the go-to site for the latest inside scoops on radical left-wing extremism. Now, of course, Johnson's been permanently revealed as a "smear merchant who traffics in half-truths, distortions, and outright lies, and whose testimony on any particular point is not to be trusted."

Note, though, that as totally unhinged as Johnson is, his views are echoed by purportedly mainstream conservative commentators. Check out David Frum's essay yesterday, for example, "Scorched Earth Conservatives." The post is a response to David Horowitz at FrontPage Magazine, and Frum argues that "the conservative intellectual movement has become subservient to the political entertainment complex." Frum is particularly incensed by Glenn Beck's ascendancy, but Frum has had Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin in the gunsights all year; and he lumps all those heavy-hitters together to allege that they are " inviting the Ron Paul contingent to take over as the new base and face of conservatism and Republicanism."

This is so patently stupid it obviously strains credibility. Indeed, the big deal last week was the potential feud between Beck and Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin has frankly emerged as the most prominent advocate for the U.S. military on the political right today (see, "Remembering 9/11: We Are Americans"). Ron Paul's hardly a Palin ally.

What we're seeing on the left - and the Charles Johnson/David Frum condominium is fundamentallly a left-wing project - is fear and horror that conservatives are making a comeback. And what's also interesting is that the right's unapologetic partisan pugilism isn't really new at all.

Folks might take a look at Ronald Brownstein's book from last year, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America. Brownstein's introduction compares former House Minority Leader Tom Delay to Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos. Under Delay, GOP partisanship was no less sharp and uncompromising that what we're seeing in today's tea party movement and anti-ObamaCare activism:

DeLay operated with a broad vision and a precise attention to detail. he worked relentlessly to tighten the links between the Republican majority and the business community by providing the latter greater access and ability to influence legislation, but he also pressured them to tilt their pollitical contributions more toward the GOP, and to hire more Republicans as lobbyists. Inside the House, his principled priority was to maximize Republican unity and minimize opportunities for Democratic influence. Delay's overriding goal was to advance the most conservative agenda possible in a manner that framed the differences between the parties as sharply as possible. He did not fear passing legislation on razor-thin party-line votes; indeed, it often appeared that he preferred bills the pushed to the right so far that they attracted only the bare minimum of votes required to pass. Anything less meant legislation conceded too much to those resisting the conservatives agenda, not only Democrats but moderate Republicans. He was a meat cutter who prided himself in his ability to slice closer to the bone than anyone else.

DeLay succeeded to a remarkable extent in imposing his vision. Even though House Republicans operated with a narrow margin of majority throughout DeLay's years in the leadership, they moved their agenda through the institution much more smoothly than Democrats had with larger margins in the years before the GOP takeover. DeLay was so central to those efforts, he earned the nickname "the Hammer" for his ability to nail down winning coalitions. [Emphasis added.]

While Brownstein decries the "polarization," it's the case that an aggressive agenda against Democratic-socialism has long been in place on the hardline conservative right. And while the Johnson/Frum types endlessly denounce alleged "extremism" and "racism," the truth is that the grassroots right is winning the debate. As Matt Lewis noted Tuesday, "From ACORN to Van Jones, the Online Rightroots Flexes Its Muscles." Plus, see Lawrence Kudlow, "Hey, Conservatives, We're Recovering." And recall from Peter Ferrara's earlier article, "2010":

Next year's elections are going to produce a political earthquake. That is because we currently suffer the most left-wing government in our nation's history. After just 6 months in office, the flower children that rule Washington in overwhelming numbers are already smashing through all records regarding federal taxes, spending, deficits, and debt. Obama and his ultra-left Democrats adopted a so-called stimulus bill raising spending a trillion dollars that never had a prayer of actually creating jobs and promoting long-term economic growth, because it was based entirely on old-fashioned, brain dead, proven to fail, Keynesian economics. Though we would have to double federal taxes to finance the entitlement promises we have already made, the ruling Washington Democrats completely ignore that and focus instead on adopting yet another entitlement -- national health insurance -- that would be the biggest of all ...

This is the political reality today, and the truth hurts. Charles Johnson's gone literally insane in his universal demonizations against anything outside the microscopic LGF wasteland. And David Frum's simply a quixotic figure and a travesty of any real past prominence he may have enjoyed. These folks - along with so many other confused souls who have joined them - don't have a lot of heavy firepower to defend the big-government juggernaut that's taken over D.C. They're left with crazed screams of "racism" to any and all opposition to Dear Leader Obama. See Mark Steyn for more on that, "Dislike Obama? You Must Be Racist."

Meanwhile, radical left historian Eric Alterman's keeping the race-baiting going at the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, "Think Again: Falling for the Far Right’s ACORN Agenda." Expect lots more of the same all though the remainder of this year and next.

We are in the midst of a glorious grassroots conservative comeback. The "moderate" conservatives have made common cause with the left's communist establishment to excoriate concerned citizens protesting for a return to limited goverment and political effectiveness. The real crazies in America are those at the center-left who've been hoodwinked by "Hope and Change" and are now implicated in the attempted radical takeover of the United States.

Yosi Sergant Out at NEA

At Big Government, "BREAKING: Yosi Sergant Resigns From NEA." Plus, from ABC News, "Yosi Sergant Resigns" (via Memeorandum). And from Moe Lane, "Breaking: Yosi Sergant Fired in NEA Payola Scandal":

The firing is not surprising, considering the way that Sergant was hung out to dry by his superiors. No word yet whether ACORN / Obama for America crony Buffy Wicks will suffer a similar sanction – or, indeed, any punishment at all for attempting to set up a shadow Ministry of Propaganda within the American governmental system.

It’s supposed to look ominous when written out like that. That’s because it is.

See also, Patrick Courrielche, "RESPONSE TO NEA CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT: Throwing Yosi Sergant Under the Bus Isn’t an Answer."

Image Credit: LA Weekly, "Kofie'One's Obama Mural."

See also, Keep Drafting, "Barack Obama Mural":

‘HOPE’ Acrylic on 5 stretched 3′ x 5′ canvases. Commissioned by Yosi Sargent of Evolutionary Media Group to hang in Barack Obama’s Los Angeles Campaign Headquarters ...

Plus, more on Yosi Sargant at Gates of Vienna, "Be the Change."

ACORN Circles the Wagons: Our Staffers 'Are Victims'

What has been ACORN's response to the devastating undercover revelations of abject corruption, mismanagement, tax evasion, and human sex-slave trafficking? Why, blame everyone else, decry racism, and claim victimhood, of course.

Here's the ACORN CEO's previous statement:

ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis would not defend the employees in the video, but insists that the videos "are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist ‘filmmaker’ [James] O’Keefe and his partner in crime. 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."

Also, from the Los Angeles Times, "ACORN Circles the Wagons":

Critics charge that that adversarial mind-set, which helped make ACORN one of the most formidable community organizing groups in the country, may also prevent the group from conducting an honest reckoning with any flaws that the videotapes may have revealed.

"They have a very bunker mentality," said Marcel Reid, a former national ACORN board member who left the organization because she had problems with its leadership. "They perceive everyone as a threat. You're either with them or against them, and there's no space in between" ....

At the ACORN's well-worn office in downtown Los Angeles, staffers have been working overtime doing damage control, talking to reporters during the day and community members at night, said Amy Schur, the group's lead organizer in California.

"People see this for what it is," she said. "They see that there are big-pocketed forces in this nation that want to bring our organization down. Our communities are used to being attacked."

Schur acknowledges that the staffers on the tapes erred and thinks it's right that they were fired. But, she said, "the staff who fell for this ridiculous charade are victims. Since when do you indict an entire organization based on the actions of a couple of employees who were victims of what essentially was a sting operation?"

What's interesting is how vigorously the media's playing up the ACORN victimoloogy line. As Allah noted yesterday with regard to an Associated Press hit peice on Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe:

Even Jon Stewart’s sneering at big media these days for needing two twentysomething right-wingers to do their investigative work for them. And yet, not only does this piece drip with skepticism that O’Keefe and Giles did it all on their own, it’s freighted with the sense that there’d be something … untoward if conservative big media were found to be involved.

See also, Big Government, "Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections." And, check for developments at Memeorandum.

Image Credit: The People's Cube.

Two Cheers for Andrew Breitbart

At Big Government, "Two Cheers for Andrew Breitbart":

Among the many glorious things about American journalism is that no credentialing organization or regulatory body stands between an individual who wants to break a story and his public reporting of it.

In the old days, one significant barrier did deter aspiring reporters: If they couldn’t find a publisher for their piece or afford to self-publish, they were SOL. But now, thanks to the free-for-all environment created by the Web, those publication and distribution worries have evaporated. Anybody can be a journalist in the new regime, we’re told, and on some days, it seems as if everybody is.

Last week, thanks to the sponsorship of Andrew Breitbart’s new site BigGovernment.com, self-described activist filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25, and his colleague Hannah Giles, 20, brought national scrutiny to the progressive Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, with a series of guerilla videos that are one part 60 Minutes, two parts Punk’d, three parts Ali G, and four parts Michael Moore, all bubbling under a whipped topping of yellow journalism.

If you’re late to the story, Andrew Breitbart is a conservative author, columnist, Web entrepreneur, and Matt Drudge protégé. Lately, he has distributed a series of videos made by O’Keefe and Giles in which the duo visits various ACORN offices with a hidden camera, pretending to be a pimp and prostitute seeking advice on setting up a brothel. ACORN workers in Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; San Diego; San Bernardino, Calif; and Brooklyn, N.Y., took the bait, and now ACORN is on the run, firing underlings, making excuses, and responding to charges of mismanagement and fraud. On Capitol Hill, Congress is getting ready to defund the organization, which has taken in at least $53 million in federal money since 1994.

The full story is at Slate.

See my earlier essay, "ACORN, NEA, and Andrew Breitbart's PWNING of MSM."

Related: Sister Toldjah, "ACORN files suit against Breitbart.com (via Memeorandum). Also, Politico, "ACORN Files Suit Against Filmmakers."

Photo Credit: American Power, "Pasadena "May Day! May Day!" Anti-Socialism Rally."

ACORN Sues Breitbart, Filmmakers Over Undercover Video

At the Washington Post, "ACORN Sues Conservative Filmmakers Over Baltimore Video" (via Memeorandum):

ACORN, the community organizing group embarrassed recently in a video sting, said Wednesday that it needs to regroup and determine if it has a major internal problem -- but it also struck back, filing suit against the filmmakers who made undercover videos and the Web site whose publication of them prompted a national outcry.

The secretly taped videos show ACORN housing counselors advising two young conservative activists, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who were posing as a pimp and prostitute, on how to conceal their criminal business. The videos were taped in Baltimore, Washington, New York and California, and their airing in the past two weeks has sent the organization reeling.

Named in the suit, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, were O'Keefe, Giles and Breitbart.com LLC, who owns the Web site BigGovernment.com. The lawsuit asserts that neither O'Keefe nor Giles obtained consent from ACORN workers for videotaping them, as state law requires.

ACORN executive director Bertha Lewis told reporters in a conference call that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, does not support criminal activity and believes the filmmakers should have obeyed Maryland laws.

Meanwhile, ACORN's founder says many of the accusations about the group are distortions meant to undermine President Obama and other Democrats.

In an exclusive interview with The Washington Post, founder Wade Rathke said conservative claims that ACORN is a "criminal enterprise" that misuses federal and donor funds for political ends -- a claim contained in a report by House Republicans -- are a "complete fabrication." He said exaggeration and conjecture about the group are being passed off daily on cable television and Web blogs as documented fact.

"It's balderdash on top of poppycock," said Rathke, who was forced out last year amid an embezzlement scandal involving his brother. "It is a tactic they are trying to aggressively use to attack Obama . . . to paint the president and anybody else they can as radicals."

Forced out by an embezzlment scandal? Hmm, must just be one of those strange things that are totally unrelated to accusations of corruption, fraud, underage human sex-trafficking ... you know, stuff that's a complete fabrication.

Also, at Breitbart, "ACORN Sues Hidden-Camera Filmmakers."

Screencap: Via Hot Air.

No Credible Evidence? Democrats Want Fact-Finding Before ACORN Defunding

From the Washington Times, "GOP Lawyers Demand Investigation Into ACORN's Funding":

A powerful group of GOP lawyers is demanding that government officials open an investigation to determine if the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has used government funds for illegal purposes.

And, they’re making those demands directly to House Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Rep. Jerrold Nalder, New York, who has said he would consider holding a hearing “if I ever hear any credible allegations” about the group. Now that a pair of activist filmmakers have exposed ACORN workers giving advice on how to obtain federal funds to run a brothel the Republican National Lawyers Association says the evidence is piled high enough to get that hearing. RNLA put a web video out Tuesday that replayed Mr. Nadler’s remarks.

“Prostitution. Sex trafficking. Fraud. Credible enough, Mr. Chairman?” the ad says.

Plus, at CNS News, "Hoyer Wants More Facts on ACORN Before Pulling Funding."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that Congress needs to gather more facts before it decides whether to cut off all federal funds for ACORN, the liberal nationwide network of community-based organizations.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked Hoyer: “You voted a couple of days ago for an amendment which prohibited federal funding from going to ACORN. Are you committed to ensuring that a final bill which prohibits federal funding of ACORN passes this year and will you urge President Obama to sign that bill into law?”

Hoyer said: “As you probably heard [House Education and Labor Chairman] George Miller [D-Calif.] say on the floor, there was no money in that bill for ACORN. I think we’re going to be looking at what in fact are the facts here with respect to ACORN. Once we find out what the facts are then we’ll be in a better position to make a determination [on funding].”

And from Blasting Caps and Dynamite, "House Majority Leader Wants More Facts Before Defunding Acorn":

Is there anyone out there believes we taxpayers won't be funding ACORN? Why would Obama sign an amendment to remove federal funding from ACORN when he actually gained his seat behind the desk in the Oval Office because of ACORN? He owes them a humongous debt! Yes, he's great at throwing individuals under the bus, but an entire organization that he actually owes his presidency to? Highly doubtful. Besides, he's far too busy going on television shows and pissing off our allies to be signing anything. Poor man works so hard, you know.

'ACORN High School for Social Justice' -- WTF!!

I'm seriously freaking on this one, from Gateway Pundit, "ACORN Community High School: Where Your Child Can Learn Social Change Techniques to Solve Real Life Problems."

Yep, it's true. Following the links we're taken to: "ACORN High School for Social Justice."

And then, a quick Google search turns up this quote, "4 year graduation rate: 41.9%." And "0% white students" attend the school. And according to Inside Schools:

JANUARY 2008 UPDATE: Joseph Parker, principal at the time of Insideschools' visit, resigned in late December after sustained protest from parents, and ACORN, the community group that helped create the school ... they alleged that under Parker's leadership, gang violence went unchecked, students failed to graduate ...

The Inside Schools website is kinda sketchy, but it links to this New York Sun article, "Parents Press for ACORN Principal's Ouster." The piece includes this beauty of a fact:

Morale is so low, the report says, that at last year's graduation the valedictorian, Sharifa Noble, stood up and declared: "ACORN has let me down." The remark prompted a chorus of boos aimed at the principal, Joseph Parker.

Here's the long blurb from the school's website. This is the case for home schooling - I'd never send my children there:

ACORN High School for Social Justice is “A Star that Shines in Brooklyn”. In addition, our school is distinctive because it is:

• One of three community initiated NYC public schools affiliated with the powerful Acorn Organization.
• A Landmark building with turn of the 20^th century neoclassic Architecture which was once a Lowe’s theater where Jackie Gleason (a renowned entertainer) performed.
• The first NYC DOE school to have an Executive Principal.
• The first NYC DOE school to pilot an Icareers Academy.
• Selected as one of a few New York City public schools to become an AVID school. The Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) program is a rigorous college awareness and preparation program for students who will be the first in their families to attend college.
• Success in attracting and keeping teachers from the NYC Teaching Fellows.
• We also include an additional course in Social Justice, a course on the Civil Rights Movement (Sojourner Project), and double periods of English and Mathematics at the 9th and 10th grade levels.
• International Teachers Programs. We now also have a partnership with Columbia University as a site for Peace Corp Fellows to complete their teaching internships.
• Support for the development of our teachers through a unique PD model. All teachers meet for common planning daily. Their assistant principal of supervision attends the common planning sessions at least twice weekly. The school’s schedule was modified to include two preparation periods per day for each teacher instead of one per day which is the norm in most NYC public schools.
• September 2008 will be the launch of state of the art Film/Media and music recording studios that will be centers of premier art programs including a Television Show in collaboration with Entertainers4Education Alliance.
• An emerging honors program including honor level classes, Advanced Placement courses and College Now. We are working on an Associate Degree program as well.
• Unique utilization of technology to deliver instruction and to assess academic performance. All teacehers will be provided with school laptops for use in lesson planning and delivery and they all have access to LCD projectors and smart boards. A writing lab is planned for school year 2008-2009.
• Annual College Tour to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). We will be initiating Ivy League and baby Ivy League college tours as well. 98 students participated in this year’s tour.
• Implementation of an excellent library program that will bring community members, actors, singers, and leaders into the building to speak with students and to participate in events such as Black History Month, Hispanic History Month, Poetry Month and Women’s History Month.
• A diverse after school program, in collaboration with our Community Based Organization, Acorn, comprised of academics, sports, the arts, and community service experiences for our students.
• A school’s website including WebPages for all teachers to promote greater communication with students and parents.
• Administration of the Acuity periodic assessments in English and Mathematics.
• Students will have access to the world of work through partnerships with law firms and corporations through participation in our Legal Careers Academy or Icareers Academy.
• A number of sports teams including a winning PSAL Boys Varsity Basketball Team, going as far as the PSAL Division B championship this school year. Our students participate in other PSAL varsity sports as well as intramurals.
• Strong student government with a council in each cohort. The council is comprised of elected officials and other student leaders from the cohort who act as peer mentors for other members of their cohort.
• The Asset Program, a community based organization, is supporting this endeavor. Students are given opportunities to participate in all aspects of the school including working here as members of the Ladies and Gentleman Club.
• Great results with the use of School Island. School Island is a web based program that allows teachers to post assignments on line for students to complete.

ACORN's Shocking Radicalism is Nothing New

According to Matthew Vadum, "ACORN is sleazy, criminal, and dangerous and the tabloid style of storytelling is ideal for explaining what the group is all about."

He's referring to the new piece on ACORN at the New York Post, "Sowing the Seeds of Destruction: ACORN's Shady Tactics Made Headlines Last Seek. But Their Shocking Radicalism is Nothing New":

Just how nutty is ACORN?

Very, say longtime watchers of the extreme leftwing group that sprouted out of a radical 60s anti-government movement.

For decades ACORN has presented itself as a grassroots network dedicated to improving the lives of the poor.

But there's more to ACORN than its do-gooder veneer.

Just ask the banks, corporations and politicians who've been the target of ACORN's shameless shenanigans over the past 40 years.

Here's how the tiny seed of 1960s radicalism blossomed into a well-funded, national organization with political connections reaching all the way to the White House ....

Be sure to read the whole thing, which has a useful background chronology of ACORN's crooks, liars, and thugs. Can't resist the conclusion though:

THE FUTURE?

ACORN's altruistic façade came tumbling down — possibly for good — this month after a series of videos showed staffers giving an undercover pimp and hooker tips on defrauding the government, laundering money, cheating on taxes and obtaining a mortgage to open up a home-based brothel.

The damning display put ACORN on the defensive again and even rocked its once solid base of support among Democratic lawmakers.

Both the House and Senate have passed bipartisan bills calling for an immediate halt to federal funding to ACORN, which a Republican tally puts at $53 million since 1994.
Governor David Paterson on Friday placed a hold on all state contracts with the agency's local chapter, and the US Census Bureau kicked ACORN off its upcoming 2010 population count.

Yet ACORN needs more than just a slap on the wrist for encouraging people to commit mortgage and tax fraud, according to Von Spakovsky, a former Department of Justice investigator. The activist organization has yet to be held accountable for most of its actions — past and present, he said.

"Nobody knows for sure how many subsidiaries ACORN has, but many investigations have shown they're mostly shell groups, used to transfer money around," said Von Spakovsky.

"We'll only know the true extent of their wrongdoing when the Department of Justice does a forensic audit, and we find out where those millions in federal funds have gone," he said.

Check also, Roger L. Simon, "Stephanopoulos and ACORN: Obama Lies Again."

Related: "Obama's Watergate: Could ACORN Bring Down a President?"

Obama's Watergate: Could ACORN Bring Down a President?

I kinda broached the possibility in one of my Glenn Beck entries the other day.

Could the ACORN scandal bring down the Obama administration? It's seems like small potatoes, really. ACORN's under the radar for most folks, but considering the importance of the group in the president's political ascendancy, yeah, it's pretty serious. And of course it's sweet to see the hard-left community organizers getting hammered. These folks are crooks and thugs, and Bertha Lewis is slapping down the race card like coins in a nickle slot-machine. Of course, ACORN's ties are clear to anyone's who's followed politics the last year-and-a-half. And things are getting hot at 1600 Pennsylvania, for sure, or we wouldn't be seeing the president lying like he was today (See, "You Lie! ... President Obama: 'I Didn't Know ACORN Was Getting a Whole Lot of Funding'").

Thus I'm getting a kick out of Brian Leach's essay, "Could ACORN become Obama’s Watergate?":

President Obama in his media blitz on September 20 claimed he wasn’t keeping up with the issue because more pressing matters were at hand. “You know, if – frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely,” said Obama. “I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.”

Watch as Obama tries to distance himself from the ACORN group over the next few weeks. He cut ties to Reverend Wright when the association no longer was politically beneficial. But the fact remains that during the election campaign and before, Obama made repeated speeches to the group and even said he would consult with them on how to reorganize the country in 2007 ....

Read the whole thing.

What did Tricky Baracky know and when did he know it?

You heard it here first!

You Lie! ... President Obama: 'I Didn't Know ACORN Was Getting a Whole Lot of Funding'

Is President Obama lying again? His statement to George Stephanopoulos today: "I didn't know ACORN was getting a whole lot of government funding." (Via Memeorandum.)

If this isn't an outright lie, I don't know what is. As one of the commenters at Lucianne notes:

Just when you thought that this mans credibility could sink no further, he makes this incredibly stupid statement:

"I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money."

The Apollo Alliance wrote the darned Stimulus Bill that has $4.19 Billion earmarked for the ACORN umbrella. You know, Van Jones’ organization Apollo Alliance, he’s a good friend of Valerie Jarrett like the BFF kind. Come on man, that statement is an insult to every American's intelligence [spelling corrections appended].

Absolutely.

The New York Times reports that Senate Democrats met with President-elect Obama in January to discuss "the proposed $800 billion economic recovery plan ... on track for passage by mid-February." The measure included funding for neighborhood stabilization and community development block grants. As House Minority Leader John Boehner noted in January, "ACORN Could Get Billions from Democrats' Trillion Dollar Spending Plan: 'Job Creation' Bill Offers Taxpayer-Funded Bonanza for Organization Reportedly Under Federal Investigation."

Plus, at the Washington Examiner, "Stimulus Bill Funds ACORN Despite its History of Corruption." And, Puma-Eyes, "ACORN Positioned for Billions of Obama Stimulus Scratch."

And this statement comes from the House conference committee bill itself:

The conference agreement provides $3,000,000,000, of which $1,000,000,000 is appropriated for the Community Development Block Grant program and $2,000,000,000 is available for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This funding is provided instead of the $5,190,000,000 proposed by the House. Funding was not provided in the Senate. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding will assist states, local governments, and nonprofits in the purchase and rehabilitation of foreclosed, vacant properties in order to create more affordable housing and reduce neighborhood blight.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis denied that her group was receiving neighborhood stabilization grants, but according to Eric Brown:

ACORN has basically denied that it has received or plans to seek the $2 billion in “neigborhood stabilization” funds provided for in the stimulus bill. The bill, however, also contains $1 billion for “community development block grants” and $2 billion for the “provision of emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes” (page 103 of the PDF). ACORN seems to be involved in this program. ACORN is hardly the stranger to public funds some have suggested; a search for ACORN-related information on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website alone yields over 500 hits, including clear indications that ACORN Housing Corp. receives public funds.

Check the full text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 here.

In February, the White House trumpeted the initial distribution of block grant funding from the bill, "Fighting Foreclosure and Homelessness":

Just a week after President Obama signed the Act into law, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today allocated 75% of its recovery funds -- $10 billion -- to create green jobs, to revive housing markets with high rates of foreclosure, and curb homelessness ....

The money opened up today includes:

$3 billion to develop, finance, and modernize public housing; $255 million for Native American and Native Hawaiian Housing; nearly $100 million for lead hazard reduction; $2.25 billion to kick-start the production of stalled affordable rental housing projects under the Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP); $2 billion to undertake much-needed project improvements to maintain the quality of critical affordable housing; $1 billion to rehabilitate affordable housing and improve key public facilities under the Community Development Block Grant Program; $1.5 billion to reduce homelessness, and prevent it among those facing a sudden economic crisis; and a temporary increase to the loan limits of mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Here's a screecap of the White House page, just in case:

All we're missing is a direct statement from the president showing that his comments today are blatantly dishonest. But for good measure, Fire Andrea Mitchell adds this:

ACORN of course received over $800,000 from Obama during his presidential campaign, has received over $54 from the government over the last 10 years or so, and was set to receive about $8.5 BILLION from the stimulus package this year. Obama also was an attorney for ACORN during the ’90s. Obama’s first big “community organizer” jobs involved ACORN in 1992. He has been working along side ACORN since before he became an elected official. Obama also trained ACORN employees. There's also a famous soundbite of him now telling Acorn how they “will have a seat at the table” once he got elected [spelling corrections appended].

The ABC report is here, "Obama on ACORN: 'Not Something I've Followed Closely' Won't Commit to Cut Federal Funds."

Are You Freaking Stupid? has more, "ACORN Latest Group Thrown Under Bus. But Obama is Not Really Aware of Them." Also, Gateway Pundit, "Obama On ACORN Scandal: 'Not Something I've Followed Closely'," and Hot Air Pundit, "Obama On ABC This Week Reacts To The ACORN Videos."

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UPDATE: Linked at Patriot Room!

Obama Paid $800,000 to ACORN Subsidiary - Media AWOL

Where is the media reporting on Citizens Services Inc., an ACORN front-group that received $800,000 from the Barack Obama campaign in 2008? See, "Obama to Amend Report on $800,000 in Spending." And from Flopping Aces, "Connecting the Insidious Obama and ACORN Nexus":

Barack Obama’s ties to ACORN (see Memeorandum) are not incidental nor are they casual ...

The money given to ACORN through one of its front companies–CSI–was not a simple clerical error. The Obama Presidential campaign deliberately tried to hide its relationship to ACORN and funneling almost $1 million dollars to ACORN by using a group with no experience doing the task that it was ostensibly hired to do. The story is pretty simple–it is about Citizen Services Inc., a Nigerian director of CSI [Citizens Services Inc.] living in Minnesota and false campaign financing report.

If you want to understand why ACORN offices across the country are able to give crafty advice on avoiding taxes, fooling the police and setting up child prostitution businesses then you must first understand why the campaign of Barack Obama gave almost $1 million to an organization with no track record in doing the electioneering work they were hired to do.

See the full report, here.

Cartoon Credits: Wordsmith.

ACORN on Fox News Sunday: Bertha Lewis 'Outraged'; Disses Darrell Issa, Stonewalls on Firewalls (VIDEO)

A really interesting exchange here. Bertha Lewis claims to be outraged by the Giles/O'Keefe investigation, but she won't look at Congressman Darrell Issa. She exhibits classic confrontational body language with crossed-arms and demonstrably deep-breathing:

The Hill has a report, "ACORN Defends Itself; Issa Remains Critical":

Seeing its federal funding under threat from Congress, ACORN’s leader defended the community organizing group from allegations of tax fraud Sunday.

“You have an organization that absolutely pays its taxes, that absolutely has firewalls,” said Bertha Lewis, CEO of ACORN, short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Lewis was appearing on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace ....

“The bottom line is there is no transparency in ACORN,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Issa and other Republicans have investigated the community organizing group. Issa’s staff issued a report where it alleges ACORN of tax fraud, hiding its books behind a number of overlapping charity and nonprofit groups.

“You are giving an answer that your own counsel says isn’t true according to your own counsel. You don’t have firewalls. That’s from an internal memo,” Issa said.

Issa's August ACORN report is here: "Committee on Oversight and Government Reform."

See also, Patrick Ishmael, "Breitbart: Prepare for a 'Blockbuster' 'From Left Field' Next Week" (via Memeorandum).

ACORN Shuts Down Offices Nationwide: San Diego Housing Hustler-Pimp Fired! (VIDEO)

I reported on ACORN's Santa Ana office closing down yesterday. Now we have the Los Angeles Times reporting that ACORN is downsizing nationwide: "ACORN Scaling Back or Shutting Down in Many Cities" (via Mememorandum):

Stung by the recession and a string of scandals, the ACORN community activist organization has been shutting down in many of the communities it once worked to empower.

No new clients are being signed up, said national spokesman Brian Kettenring, while the group conducts an internal investigation into how its business is conducted.

The Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now had already shuttered 40% of its centers -- in cities including Chicago, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Omaha -- since its high of 105 offices two years ago, he said. The branches helped low- and middle-income clients with housing, jobs and navigating government aid programs.

Kettenring said that the closures were mostly due to the poor economy and had become more frequent in the last year.

"We're seeing the same challenges the entire nonprofit sector is seeing," he said.

But former ACORN members say the scandals that have recently dogged the organization -- including allegations of mismanagement and voter registration fraud -- have been a bigger problem.

You can say that again. Kinda funny how we're seeing all these offices closing in the immediate wake of the Hannah Giles/James O'Keefe undercover investigation.

Also, from Big Government, "San Diego: ACORN Stands By Their Employee, Until They Don’t."

And from the New York Times, "G.O.P. Checks for a Pulse, and Finds One." (Via Memeorandum.)

Orange County ACORN Office Shuts Down!

The Orange County ACORN office has shut its doors. I just spoke with the landlord at the office complex in Santa Ana, California, where local ACORN hacks provided services. The building-owner said she had just spoken with ACORN officials at the Los Angeles office. The group announced intent to vacate the premises this morning; personnel would be coming to Santa Ana to clear out their effects at an undisclosed date. The website to ACORN's Santa Ana office is here.

CEO Bertha Lewis released an earlier statement at ACORN's main page:

As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees, I am, in consultation with ACORN's Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN's service programs until completion of an independent review.

Looks like the termination of "new intakes" is starting right away, with the immediate downsizing of service delivery for the group. I took these photos. At bottom is the protest sign of Tawnya, one of the Orange County 9-12 protest organizers who visited the office today (that's her reflection in the first picture at the window):

(ADDED: Via Snark and Boobs, check WISTV News, "ACORN Loses Federal Cash, Vacates Columbia Office; Clyburn Responds"; plus, linked at Patriot Room.)

Andrew Breitbart: CNN 'Despicable', 'More Videos to Come'

Care of Freedom's Lighthouse, "Andrew Breitbart Slams CNN for their ACORN Coverage; Tells Megyn Kelly 'There Are More Videos to Come'":

At the viddy, Breitbart says, "We set traps for ACORN. And every time the lied, and they went to the mainstream media to lie ..."

Great stuff.

Also, Voting Female, "ABC CBS NBC – Kamikaze Media, Ignored Hurricane ACORN; not Your Grandfather’s Main Stream Media Anymore."

ADDED: From Big Government, MEDIA MATTERS: ‘On Fox, Breitbart bashes CNN’s ACORN coverage’." (Via Memeorandum.)

Why ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham

From Matthew Vadum, "Once Upon an ACORN: Why ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham":

The announcement by ACORN that it is creating a panel of inquiry consisting of its corrupt friends is a fairy tale. ACORN did the same thing last year after an internal scandal but when the honest people on ACORN’s internal panel began asking uncomfortable questions, it cast them out.

Since it’s a fairy tale, let me tell the story the fairy tale way:
Once upon a time there was a group called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). It was run, and continues to be run today, by very bad people who do very bad things while they pretend to make America a better place.

Read the whole thing, at the link.

Plus, Andrew Berman, "ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham."

Credit 'Big Government' for Defeat of ACORN

From Byron York:

Although Republicans had long fought against ACORN, it is not an exaggeration to say that none of this would have happened now without the BigGovernment undercover videos. Democrats who in the past had reflexively supported ACORN ran for cover after seeing ACORN employees encouraging tax evasion and prostitution. The BigGovernment videos mark an important moment in the development of alternative media sources, and official Washington responded before most of the establishment press did. This is truly an extraordinary series of events.

The full article is here (via Memeorandum). See also, Byron York, "Under fire, Democrats Abandon ACORN in Droves."

Also, check Big Government for all the latest.

The Glenn Beck Supremacy

You know, ever since last spring, when Glenn Beck aired his comments about "preparing for anarchy in America," there's been something extraordinarily accurate about his commentaries on the Obama administration. The Van Jones resignation certainly cemented Beck's status as the premier commentator on the contemporary right. Indeed, just last week I argued that "Beck has emerged as cable TV's Rush Limbaugh."

Well, my remarks might have been clairvoyant (or someone's reading my blog!). The Beck-Rush comparison's picking up steam. For example, there's a good buzz today over Time's new piece: "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?" And here's a key passage:

Beck is 45, tireless, funny, self-deprecating, a recovering alcoholic, a convert to Mormonism, a libertarian and living with ADHD. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for stitching seemingly unrelated data points into possible conspiracies — if he believed in conspiracies, which he doesn’t, necessarily; he’s just asking questions. He’s just sayin’. In cheerful days of yore, he was a terrific host of a morning-zoo show on an FM Top 40 station. But these aren’t cheerful times. For conservatives, these are times of economic uncertainty and political weakness, and Beck has emerged as a virtuoso on the strings of their discontent. Rush Limbaugh, with his supreme self-confidence, holding forth with “half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair,” found his place as the triumphant champion of the Age of Reagan. Macho Sean Hannity captured the cocky vibe of the early Bush years, dunking the feckless liberal Alan Colmes for nightly swirlies on the Fox News Channel. Both men remain media dynamos, but it is Beck — nervous, beset, desperate — who now channels the mood of many on the right. “I’m afraid,” he has said more than once in recent months. “You should be afraid too.”

The piece describes Becks' schtick as a combination of "entertainment and enlightenment." And the article is surprisingly sympathetic, if not fawning. Mostly, though, it's condescending toward conservative-libertarianism. Beck taps into real anxieties. And as these anxieties are dovetailing with truly monumental policy impacts, advocates of Beck's scenarios are excoriated as "fringe elements" and "racists."

What's amazing, and this is why the Time story is significant, is how quickly Beck and others on the right - like Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit (who is cited in the article) - have had a dramatic effect on politics at the highest levels. This stuff is almost like All the President's Men without Deep Throat. If President Obama were in turn to be impeached - not a far-fetched scenario, given the Bill Clinton presidency - commentators will no doubt "pin the blame" on "fear-mongerers" like Beck. Natually, Beck and others will be demonized for their "hatred," while the legacy media gives a pass to the administration's corrupt communist ties. This creates a classic feedback loop. When the press white-washes real scandals and Democratic malfeasance, the Beck-heads become even more feverishly delirious.

Anyway, Beck's only going up right now, and note how Politico's Michael Calderone's picking up on my theme of Beck's new supremacy. See, "Glenn Beck vs. Rush Limbaugh."

More at Memeorandum.