ACORN Support Is Nuts

Monday Senator Mike Johanns,(R-Neb)offered up an amendment to cut federal funding to ACORN. The vote in the Senate was 83-7. Finally, a member of Congress was able to bring about a strong rebuke of this scandal riddled group. For several years, investigations from both sides of the aisle have been stopped by the House leadership and not successful in the Senate. Even Rep. John Conyers tried to bring about an investigation in his committee after the last round of voter registration fraud charges, then convictions, in 2008. He said he was stopped by "the powers that be."

You would think, in light of the latest round of videos showing ACORN workers mentoring a young woman and her pimp about the best way to set up a house for prostitution, using underage girls brought in from Central America. These videos were produced by a young film maker and a young woman who is politically active. The fact that these two people are conservatives seem to now lessen the severity of the fraud being committed by ACORN. In the minds of some, being conservative is worse than being a mentor - paid for by tax dollars - to a young pimp and prostitute.

FOX News is leading the way on ACORN investigations so most on the left feel entitled to brush off the whole mess. The only fair and balanced news coverage they acknowledge is that of every other network - meaning standard liberal leaning news coverage. That they are so blind remains a mystery.

From the Examiner.com:
"President Obama, who was once an attorney for ACORN, has not commented publicly on the embattled group's growing troubles.Speaking to ACORN before last year's presidential election Obama promised to call on them during the transition and promised they would have "input into the agenda of the next Presidency of the United States of America".

If Obama bothers to speak about ACORN, no doubt they will be thrown under the bus with all the other former associates of Obama that became politically difficult. Even his own white grandmother, the woman he credits with raising him, was thrown under the bus as he attempted to make a major speech on race. The dupes on the left ate it up.

ACORN is full of fraud and criminal activity from the top down. Their rallying cry is, "We're just community organizers, just like the president used to be." That was the quote from Bonnie Greathouse last May. She is ACORN's chief organizer in Nevada. Obama was proud to tout his relationship with ACORN during the campaign. He was a lawyer for their voter registration drive in Chicago. He is proud to say he led the operation. After he was elected President, he told them they would be a strong voice in his agenda.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was a driving force in Obama's election to the presidency. ACORN was founded by two brothers, Wade and Dale Rathke. Wade Rathke filed a lawsuit in 1995 against the state of California for exemption from the minimum wage. According to The Wall Street Journal, Rathke claimed "the more that ACORN must pay each individual outreach worker...the fewer outreach workers will be able to hire." Rathke has since been forced from the reins after it was discovered he covered up for brother Dale's embezzlement of over $1 million dollars from the organization. Dale was the chief financial officer. For whom did Rathke become the chief organizer? SEIU, of course. He is based out of New Orleans.

You may be familiar with SEIU in recent press coverage - they are the paid thugs who show up at town hall meetings to cause trouble, to cause distractions and disrupt the meetings of members of Congress not on board with the government takeover of national health care.

Some former employees are coming forward with their stories from ACORN. Marcel Reid, according to the Wall Street Journal piece, was "one of eight national ACORN board members who were removed last year after demanding an audit of the group's books. She notes that Relations Board in 2003 for illegally firing workers trying to organize a union." ACORN received $7.4 million in contributions from the SEIU between 2005 and 2008 but actively fights unionization efforts by its own employees. Ms. Reid also notes ACORN was sanctioned by the National Labor Relations Board in 2003 for illegally firing workers trying to organize a union."
These are the seven Senators voting to allow ACORN to continue to receive federal money: Whitehouse of Rhode Island; Casey of PA; Gillibrand of NY; Sanders and Leahy both of VT; Durbin and Burris both of Illinois. All Democrats.

Multi-state investigations are ongoing on ACORN. These seven Senators should be told that their ideology is showing in an unfavorable light.