Tax Advice from ACORN

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FROM: Acorn Who? - WSJ.com

"Given his longstanding ties with Acorn, President Obama's protestations of ignorance or disinterest in the group's latest scandal seem preposterous."

Acorn Who?

Obama heads for the high grass.

By JOHN FUND
Only one of the five television networks that interviewed President Obama for their Sunday shows bothered to ask him about Acorn, the left-wing community organizing group whose federal funding was cut off last week by an overwhelming vote in Congress.

"Frankly, it's not something I've followed closely," Mr. Obama claimed, adding he wasn't even aware the group had been the recipient of significant federal funding. "This is not the biggest issue facing the country. It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to," he said.
Mr. Obama added that an investigation of Acorn was appropriate after an amateur hidden-camera investigation had found Acorn offices willing to abet prostitution, but he carefully declined to say whether he would approve a federal cutoff of funds to the group.

Mr. Obama took great pains to act as if he barely knew about Acorn. In fact, his association goes back almost 20 years. In 1991, he took time off from his law firm to run a voter-registration drive for Project Vote, an Acorn partner that was soon fully absorbed under the Acorn umbrella. The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary.

Mr. Obama's success made him a hot commodity on the community organizing circuit. He became a top trainer at Acorn's Chicago conferences. In 1995, he became Acorn's attorney, participating in a landmark case to force the state of Illinois to implement the federal Motor Voter Law. That law's loose voter registration requirements would later be exploited by Acorn employees in an effort to flood voter rolls with fake names.

In 1996, Mr. Obama filled out a questionnaire listing key supporters for his campaign for the Illinois Senate. He put Acorn first (it was not an alphabetical list). In the U.S. Senate, Mr. Obama became the leading critic of Voter ID laws, whose overturn was a top Acorn priority. In 2007, in a speech to Acorn's leaders prior to their political arm's endorsement of his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama was effusive: "I've been fighting alongside of Acorn on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote in Illinois, Acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."

But the Obama campaign didn't appear eager to discuss the candidate's ties to Acorn. Its press operation vividly denied Mr. Obama had been an Acorn trainer until the New York Times uncovered records demonstrating that he had been. The Obama campaign also gave Citizens Consulting, Inc., an Acorn subsidiary, $832,000 for get-out-the-vote activities in key primary states. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Obama campaign listed the payments as "staging, sound, lighting," only correcting the filings after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.

Given his longstanding ties with Acorn, President Obama's protestations of ignorance or disinterest in the group's latest scandal seem preposterous. Here's hoping White House reporters will press the president to clarify just how much he really knows about Acorn and when he knew it.

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ACORN’s mysterious sugar daddy

posted at 5:15 pm on September 22, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

When life hands you lemons, find a sugar daddy to turn it into lemonade. That appears to be the axiom in play at ACORN today, which has sent out an e-mail blast hoping to turn videos of several offices offering assistance for child-prostitution and tax evasion into a bountiful fund-raising opportunity. Two sources have forwarded the fundraising e-mails to us today, one of whom is our old friend John Ziegler. John says he has no idea how they got his name and e-mail address, except that he donated money once to a Democrat Congressman, a friend of his who is still serving in Congress now. That certainly seems interesting in terms of connections to this political scandal.

Bertha Lewis informs the potential donors that an unnamed individual will match donations up to $20,000 for the privilege of continuing to assist people with the kind of legal advice seen in action:

Dear John ,
I know I speak for everyone at ACORN when I tell you that we are humbled by the outpouring of support, and we are deeply grateful.
I have an exciting update to share with you. An anonymous donor has offered to match all new donations to ACORN — dollar-for-dollar — up to $20,000.
There will never be a more important moment to donate to ACORN — we are in the fight of our lives. And now, when you donate, your gift will be worth TWICE as much, up to $20,000.
Thank you for everything you do to help people in need,
– Bertha Lewis
PS: Did you see the message below? Please take a moment to read it if you haven’t yet.

Yes, it was that dastardly Fox News that made Congress - including most of the Democrats on Capitol Hill — stop funding for ACORN. It had nothing to do with the fact that multiple ACORN offices felt comfortable in instructing self-described purveyors of child prostitution in how to evade taxes and detection. No, Fox News snaps its fingers, and Democrats do their bidding. Uh … sure. It’s not for nothing that I call Bertha Lewis the Baghdad Bob of ACORN.

So who’s the “generous supporter” so inspired by multiple counts of tax evasion and conspiracy to obstruct justice in child prostitution and human trafficking? Shouldn’t ACORN make that plain as part of their attempt to “survive” Fox News and the “right wing”? Or is the generous supporter that embarrassed to show his face?

Let’s hope so.

Update: John’s friend is a current member of Congress, which makes his addition to ACORN’s list even more interesting. Do all Democrats share their e-mail lists with ACORN?

LINK: Hot Air Blog Archive ACORN’s mysterious sugar daddy

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Looks like this deal will be making Headlines for some time to come. ACORN shoulda quit when they could.


Via Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government; details at the Politico:

ACORN files suit against filmmakers

ACORN filed suit today in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization’s employees at its Baltimore office.
In the complaint, ACORN alleges that the filmmakers entered into the organization’s offices in July with a “hidden camera and microphone” and taped employees Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams. Both employees are listed as plaintiffs on the complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.
ACORN is seeking $500,000 for each employee and $1 million for the organization in damages.

Related: House Republican Leader John Boehner “Praises IRS Decision to End Partnership with ACORN.”
Update: The Associated Press adds:

Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings.
The two employees seen in the video were fired after it was posted online. The lawsuit says the employees, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, suffered “extreme emotional distress.”
The multimillion-dollar lawsuit seeks damages from James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the pimp and prostitute in the videos, and from conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart, who posted the videos on his Web site.

During his interview with Glenn Reynolds last week on PJTV recorded at the Quincy, Illinois Tea party, Breitbart quipped:

BREITBART: It is the elephant in the middle of the room, that everybody knows it’s a corrupt organization. And that every aspect of it is rank and awful.
I want them to sue me, so I’ll try and come up with a worse thing. I think I will be sued.
REYNOLDS: You’re looking forward to discovery? Is that what you’re saying?
BREITBART: I’m looking forward to discovery. Bring it on! Wouldn’t that be fun to move to DC for a season, and doing some discovery?”

“Developing”, as Matt Drudge would say.
Flashback: “According to the following documents, ACORN, Inc. — the parent organization of all things ACORN –- forfeited its corporate charter in Maryland in 2006. ACORN Housing forfeited its corporate charter in 2008. Any ACORN office in the state of Maryland is potentially operating illegally.”
Update: Hot Air’s Allahpundit writes:

Amazing. In one fell swoop, the lawsuit (a) gives Fox a reason to keep covering the story, (b) presents a thorny legal issue that’ll attract media to the scandal who might not otherwise have touched it, and (c) makes ACORN look like they’re trying to punish people who exposed taxpayer-funded corruption. Which, of course, they are.
Remember, Bertha Lewis told CNN she was grateful to O’Keefe et al. for rooting out those “few bad apples,” but as the boss reminds us, shooting the messenger is the ACORN way.

As Allah adds, “Here’s her gratitude.” Read the whole thing for his prediction of how this might all play out.

LINK: Ed Driscoll BREAKING: ACORN Files Suit Against Filmmakers

[Birdieman]

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 23, 8:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The IRS announced Wednesday it was severing ties with ACORN, joining a growing list of government agencies to end relationships with the community activist group.
The Internal Revenue Service said it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program. The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring. ACORN provided help on about 25,000 returns, the IRS said.
ACORN, meanwhile, said it had already suspended its tax program, raising questions about who broke up with whom.
"We had already made that decision to not deliver those services," ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said. ACORN officials provided reporters with a letter to the IRS, dated Monday, saying the group was suspending all tax services for 2009.
IRS spokesman Terry Lemons had a different take: "We announced last week we were conducting a thorough review and today we terminated the relationship. We stand by our statement that we terminated the relationship."
ACORN, which is short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has long been a target of conservative activists. A hidden-camera video surfaced earlier this month showing ACORN employees in Brooklyn, N.Y., advising a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp to lie to get housing aid. The video, produced by a conservative activist, shows employees in other cities counseling the pair on tax, banking and immigration issues.
"It is absolutely critical that taxpayers have trust in our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program partners," the IRS said in a statement. "In light of recent events, the IRS has decided to terminate its relationship with ACORN."
Lewis said the group is working to clean up its problems. The group has selected Scott Harshbarger, a former Massachusetts attorney general, to investigate its housing program and other public service projects.
"We are going to conduct a no holds barred review," Harshbarger said Wednesday.
The House and Senate voted earlier this month to sever federal funding to ACORN. The Census Bureau severed its ties with the group for the 2010 national head-count, and New York Gov. David Paterson has ordered state agencies to examine contracts with ACORN and place holds on them in the meantime.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio praised the IRS decision to cut ties with ACORN and urged President Barack Obama to break all government ties with the group.




This is all part of the "hope and change" you all voted for. These are the kinds of groups and people the ONE has associated himself with through out his political career. And now the ONE is our freakin' leader and turning us into a socialist country. Stealing from the middle class and giving to the poor. I don't think even Robinhood would have stole from the middle class.

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The Las Vegas Reivew Journal is Nevada's largest Newspaper.




Sep. 25, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Reid blocks ACORN probe

Tracking abuse by political allies could be 'distracting'

"It's become increasingly clear that ACORN may have manipulated tens of thousands of ballots in last year's federal election -- an area where Congress has clear oversight responsibilities -- yet Harry Reid won't lift a finger," said NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh. "It's hard to see his latest roadblock as anything but another example of Harry Reid protecting his liberal allies in Washington while remaining out of touch with his constituents in Nevada."

That's a politically motivated shot, of course. Stripped of the gratuitous elbowing, however, the question does remain: Do Sen. Reid and congressional Democrats really believe that if they just ignore the big mess their pet bear has dumped in the middle of the room, it'll somehow stop stinking?

ENTIRE EDITORIAL AT:EDITORIAL: Reid blocks ACORN probe - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com

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Hanna Giles is the young lady who played the part of the Hooker in the ACORN Tapes.

Left Employing Sexist Tactics to Discredit Giles, O’Keefe?

by Dana Loesch
Word on the street is that the Left, the “equal pay, pro-women” left is desperately searching for lewd photos of Hannah Giles.
Savor that bit of irony for a moment.



The Left is seeking to employ sexism as a way to take down yet another young woman. A rationale after Ike Turner’s own heart! Leftist ideology replaces “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” as the modern-day female prison; step out of line and you will be virtually and emotionally abused by the burdensome patriarchal undercurrent that powers this political rationale. They’re only for choice if that “choice” is the genocide of the female sex; they’re only for female empowerment if it doesn’t disrupt the fragile liberal status quo – and Giles is the most recent example.

As a young woman, I can say that sexist behavior so often perpetrated by the left is a major reason why I and many other women left the Democratic party. It’s gross to know that a bunch of crusty, old, pee-paw Democratic operatives are, at this second, scouring the web for nudie Giles shots as a way to discredit her and O’Keefe’s work.

The reasoning of these ACORN supporters is that the message is only as valid as the messenger is pure. By that “logic,” nothing is reasonable, including that statement.

Thankfully, fellow conservative bloggers like RS McCain, Little Miss Attila and others recognized early on and by way of SEO made sure that their mentions of search terms involving Giles and bikinis brought searchers to their blogs, effectively lampooning those of ill will.

The heat on James O’Keefe and Giles has been such that now ACORN is targeting them for allegedly violating the state’s two-party consent laws in regard to recorded conversation; however the law appears to be murky with differentiating between audio and video recordings. Two citizen journalists exposed a taxpayer-funded group who gave advice on how to skirt the IRS and enslave children in a sex trade and the Baltimore’s city state’s attorney may target the journalists – and not those all-too-willing to facilitate the sexual abuse of minors. I’ve a feeling that if “Dateline NBC” taped their “To Catch a Predator” in Maryland, the pedophiles would be exalted as victims and the show’s producers as bad people for exposing the criminality.

No one on the Left has remarked how awful it was that not a single ACORN worker reached out to Giles and offered to help get her out of a life of prostitution instead of helping to place her into a brothel; or how her “pimp” wasn’t reprimanded for the sexist way in which he used his girlfriend to further his political agenda. The ACORN women have filed suit against O’Keefe and Giles for the “extreme emotional distress” caused when these women were forced to face the their own corrupt characters on tape. Were I Giles, I’d counter-sue for the “extreme emotional distress” brought on by the realization that taxpayer-supported, systematic sexism (by way of facilitating the sexual slavery of women) is considered less of an infarction in this country than two-way consent.

That tells you where women lie in ACORN’s priorities; we’ll see where they lie with the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office.

That is was an investigation and not an ACTUAL “pimp and ho” who walked in to these offices is a weak defense at best and completely irrelevant to the conclusion. The end would remain unchanged regardless whether or not the means were known as subterfuge or real; the sad part is that were this an actual prostitution duo wanting to import children in for a brothel, that brothel would likely exist by now.

A defense fund was established for Giles; she’ll need all the help she can get. I love how they’re calling ACORN’s bluff and willing to drag them into a full-on trial where ACORN’s every misdeed since their inception will be scrutinized.

SOURCE: Big Government Blog Archive Left Employing Sexist Tactics to Discredit Giles, O’Keefe?

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FROM: REDSTATE EXCLUSIVE: A Review of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis’s Rolodex Suggests Strong White House Ties - Erick’s blog - RedState

REDSTATE EXCLUSIVE: A Review of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis’s Rolodex Suggests Strong White House Ties

It is implausible to think, based on Bertha Lewis’s White House contacts, that Barack Obama is not paying attention to ACORN.

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Tuesday, September 22nd at 8:45AM EDT
63 Comments




The story in a nutshell:

• Bertha Lewis is the CEO of ACORN.
• In a review of Lewis’s contacts list, which was leaked to RedState, Bertha Lewis has the office, cell phone, home number, and private personal email address of Patrick Gaspard.
• Patrick Gaspard holds Karl Rove’s position in the White House and was Obama’s Political Director during the campaign.
• In addition to Patrick, Bertha has Patrick’s brother Michael in her rolodex. She lists Michael as working at the Advance Group.
• The Advance Group is ACORN’s lobbying organization.
• In other words, besides having Obama’s political director’s contact info, the political director’s brother works for ACORN via its lobbying shop.

Here is a good profile of Patrick Gaspard.

Mr. Gaspard’s official responsibility is to provide the president with an accurate assessment of the political dynamics affecting the work of his administration, and to remain in close contact with power brokers around the country to help push the president’s agenda.

In practice, he’s something of an all-purpose fixer, if not the carte blanche policy architect that Mr. Rove was for George W. Bush, or the number-one politics guru that David Axelrod is for Mr. Obama.

And while he looks after the president’s interests in Washington, he also uses his position as a lever to manage politically messy situations closer to home.

MORE AT: REDSTATE EXCLUSIVE: A Review of ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis’s Rolodex Suggests Strong White House Ties - Erick’s blog - RedState

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The Neocons and Press just need to leave this stuff alone until ACORN can get an audit finished.

ACORN has hired an Accountant to go over their books but it just takes time.

ACORN has done some wonderful things in the past like getting Bank of America to help fund whatever they want.




Breaking News »
ACORN embezzlement was $5 million, La. attorney general says

By Robert Travis Scott

October 05, 2009, 3:36PM


The former ACORN headquarters at 1024-26 Elysian Fields Ave. is up for sale; the organization, which was founded in the New Orleans area, has moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C.

An internal review by the board of directors of the community organization ACORN determined that the amount allegedly embezzled from the community organization was $5 million, well more than the previously reported amount of nearly $1 million, according to a new subpoena in an investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell.

The subpoena, released this afternoon, says, "It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds."
ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new accusation about the embezzlement is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys have a chance to review the subpoena.


Caldwell issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to Acorn International then-President Wade Rathke and his brother Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books. Those subpoenas were focused on possible Acorn violations of state employee tax law, obstructing justice and violating the Employee Retirement Security Act.

The attorney general had made inquiries in June into alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money.

But Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the alleged embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue.

The subpoena issued today changes the tone of the investigation and puts a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue. It appears to be in reaction to documents gathered from the ACORN board as a result of the subpoenas issued in August.

"Current high ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million," the new subpoena says.

The subpoena requests documents from Citizens Consulting Inc., which assisted ACORN, and from various accounting and legal consultants in New Orleans.

Wade Rathke could not be reached immediately.