Shocker: ACORN Paying OWS Protesters

Imagine our surprise to discover Obama's buddies from ACORN still meddling around. I though this criminal enterprise ceased to exist?

The former New York office for ACORN, the disbanded community activist group, is playing a key role in the self-proclaimed “leaderless” Occupy Wall Street movement, organizing “guerrilla” protest events and hiring door-to-door canvassers to collect money under the banner of various causes while spending it on protest-related activities, sources tell FoxNews.com.

The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names after undercover video exposes prompted Congress to cut off federal funds.

NYCC’s connection to ACORN isn’t a tenuous one: It works from the former ACORN offices in Brooklyn, uses old ACORN office stationery, employs much of the old ACORN staff and, according to several sources, engages in some of the old organization’s controversial techniques to raise money, interest and awareness for the protests.

Sources said NYCC has hired about 100 former ACORN-affiliated staff members from other cities – paying some of them $100 a day - to attend and support Occupy Wall Street. Dozens of New York homeless people recruited from shelters are also being paid to support the protests, at the rate of $10 an hour, the sources said.

At least some of those hired are being used as door-to-door canvassers to collect money that’s used to support the protests.

Sources said cash donations collected by NYCC on behalf of some unions and various causes are being pooled and spent on Occupy Wall Street. The money is used to buy supplies, pay staff and cover travel expenses for the ex-ACORN members brought to New York for the protests.

In one such case, sources said, NYCC staff members collected cash donations for what they were told was a United Federation of Teachers fundraising drive, but the money was diverted to the protests.

Sources who participated in the teachers union campaign said NYCC supervisors gave them the addresses of union members and told them to go knock on their doors and ask for contributions—and did not mention that the money would go toward Occupy Wall Street expenses. One source said the campaign raked in about $5,000.

Current staff members at NYCC told FoxNews.com the union fundraising drive was called off abruptly last week, and they were told NYCC should not have been raising money for the union at all.
...
Another source, who said she was hired from a homeless shelter, said she was first sent to the protests before being deployed to Central Islip, Long Island, to canvass for a campaign against home foreclosures.

“I went to the protests every day for two weeks and made $10 an hour. They made me carry NYCC signs and big orange banners that say NYCC in white letters. About 50 others were hired around my time to go to the protests. We went to protests in and around Zuccotti Park, then to the big Times Square protest,” she said.

“But now they have me canvassing on Long Island for money, so I get the money and then the money is being used for Occupy Wall Street—to pay for all of it, for supplies, food, transportation, salaries, for everything ... all that money is going to pay for the protests downtown and that’s just messed up. It’s just wrong.”

According to Fox this is an exclusive, but, um, is it really?

Obama Rails Against Oil Subsidies, Gave ACORN $3 Billion in Stimulus

Yeah, how dare those evil oil companies who produce a product we all need get money from the federal government.

President Obama lashed out at oil companies — and the tax breaks they get from the government — for a second consecutive day on Thursday and again in Saturday's address.

“Four billion dollars of your money are going to these companies at a time when they’re making record profits and you’re paying near record prices at the pump,” the president said at a Nevada town hall. “It has to stop.”

Funny, but he didn't have such objections when the criminal enterprise known as ACORN was given $3 billion in his stimulus scam two years ago.

At least $53 million in federal funds have gone to ACORN activists since 1994, and the controversial group could get up to $8.5 billion more tax dollars despite being under investigation for voter registration fraud in a dozen states.

The economic stimulus bill enacted in February contains $3 billion that the non-profit activist group known more formally as the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now could receive, and 2010 federal budget contains another $5.5 billion that could also find its way into the group’s coffers.

An Examiner review of federal spending data found that ACORN has received at least $53 million in federal money since 1994.

So glad to see the media point out his hypocrisy. Oh, nobody has?

Great News: ACORN Back in Business in NYC

New name, same old thuggery, and supported by the unions. What a surprise!

Watch out! ACORN is back -- in all but its name.

Backed by hundreds of thousands of dollars in union donations, New York Communities for Change -- a rebranded version of the controversial organization that closed up shop amid several scandals -- is acting again as labor's attack dog on controversial issues.

NYCC took over ACORN's office on Nevins Street in Brooklyn, shares some of the same board members and uses its membership lists and other resources.

The "new" organization also fights to provide and preserve affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers.

But when NYCC has to choose between low-income consumers and unions, it dances to Big Labor's tune.

Consider Walmart's bid to open in New York City. It would offer discounted prices, which would disproportionately benefit the poorest New Yorkers.

But instead NYCC has joined the campaign to block Walmart because it is a non-union shop that would compete with unionized stores. That puts NYCC on the same page as Stuart Appelbaum, head of the National Retail, Wholesale and Department Store union -- not all those low-income consumers.

"A Walmart in Brooklyn?!? NO THANKS," NYCC says on its Web site.

Meanwhile the United Federation of Teachers gave NYCC more than $200,000 last year -- a big chunk of the advocacy group's budget -- to help organize child-care workers and parents.

NYCC's views on education mirrors the UFT's.

The UFT last year opposed the city's attempt to close 20 failing schools and replace them with new schools with new principals and teachers.

NYCC agreed. "Fix Our Schools, Don't Close 'Em," it declared.

I'm glad we can help people who provide a valuable service. I'll take help wherever I can get it to help working people. God knows the mayor isn't looking after them," UFT president Michael Mulgrew said.

I guess the fact the First Lady has teamed up with Wal-Mart hasn't helped their image yet. You would think giving "working people" shopping options isn't in the best interest of the unions. Well, not everybody is looking the other way.

Lawyer Randy Mastro, who has battled leaders of the ACORN-tied Working Families Party in court over alleged campaign finance violations, said, "It takes more than a name change to avoid the stigma of ACORN. Nobody is going to be fooled."

Well, most of the media will be. Or they'll just ignore this story. As they do with Walmart philanthropy that does far more to help New Yorkers than these union goons do.

Walmart has spread its philanthropic wealth to local community groups ahead of its campaign to open its first megastore in New York City, The Post has learned.

The Walmart Foundation has contributed $9 million to 40 Big Apple organizations over the past three years.

And the Walton Foundation -- a separate arm of Walmart's founding family -- has contributed more than $3 million to New York charter schools and education-reform groups in recent years, records show.

No wonder the teacher's unions so desperately want to stop them.

Heh: Corrupt WFP Wants Alec Baldwin to Run for Governor of NY

Staring at the prospect of losing their spot on future ballots, the scandal-ridden, ACORN-tied Working Families Party in New York is so desperate they're actually considering asking kook actor Alec Baldwin to run for Governor of New York.

The Working Families Party is so panicked a federal probe might keep Andrew Cuomo from accepting its ballot line in November, leaders are quietly mulling replacement candidates - even floating "30 Rock" star Alec Baldwin.

The labor-backed party will seek a "superstar" liberal to head its ticket if Cuomo declines its support, according to sources with knowledge of its plans.

The stakes are high: The party, which was flush with success only last year, needs to get 50,000 votes or else it loses its place on the ballot in the future.

Baldwin would fit the bill. He's not only a celebrity with a lefty ideology, he has also has been politically active as a founder of the Creative Coalition, a social and political advocacy organization for the Hollywood set. He grew up on Long Island and even has upstate cred - his mother and sister live in the Syracuse area.

Baldwin has expressed an interest in running for office and was mentioned as a potential primary challenger to Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman in 2009.

In 2006, the Manhattan resident told The New York Times: "If I ever run for anything, the thing I would like to be is governor of New York."

As if the state's not enough of a mess already.

The Working Families Party has been under investigation by the Manhattan U.S. attorney since last winter for work done by its for-profit arm, Data and Field Services, in the 2009 elections.

Cuomo, all but guaranteed to get the Democratic line at the state party's convention this week, has yet to decide whether he will accept the Working Families line. Yesterday, Cuomo said it's too "premature" to say if he would accept the support of the Working Families Party. "We'll address that situation down the road," he said.

It would be difficult for Cuomo to run on his reform and ethics platform and also accept the Working Families line if the investigation is ongoing this fall.

The WFP, of course, is joined at the hip with ACORN and assorted far-left unions. Cuomo should take some advice and steer clear of that odious crew.

'We're on Life Support'

Aww. In that case, it's time to pull the plug.

The head of activist group ACORN came to a federal court Tuesday to observe a legal fight over its funding and said the group was on "life support" after waves of bad publicity and an attempt by Congress to cut off its money.

Bertha Lewis, the chief executive officer for the group, said ACORN was getting by on about $4 million annually rather than its one-time $25 million budget and had reduced its staff to four, down from between 350 and 600 employees.

"We're still alive. We're limping along. We're on life support," Lewis said in an interview just after a government lawyer asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block a judge's ruling that it was unconstitutional for Congress to cut funding to ACORN.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan did not immediately rule on the request after hearing arguments. If granted, a stay of the lower-court order would remain in place until full arguments on the issue can be heard during the summer.

Attorney Mark Stern argued for the Justice Department that Congress did nothing wrong when it took action last year against ACORN after it identified "widespread mismanagement."

Heartbreaking, isn't it?

May a death panel be in their future.

A series of secretly taped videos filmed at ACORN offices around the country caught employees giving bad advice, sparking a national scandal and helping drive the organization to near ruin.

Lewis said the controversies had left a stain on the group, "sort of like a scarlet letter," forcing ACORN to spend money defending itself against "one investigation after another."

She said money from large foundations and private individuals had largely dried up in the wake of the controversy.

"That was the point: to demonize the ACORN name and break the organization," she said.

And a job well done.

Jerry Brown: ACORN Engaged in 'Highly Inappropriate Behavior'

According to Attorney General Moonbeam, "highly inappropriate behavior" doesn't amount to criminal behavior. I guess the leftwing thugs who support the criminal enterprise formerly known as ACORN will consider this a victory or something.

Some members of the community organizing group ACORN engaged in "highly inappropriate behavior," but did not break any criminal laws, according to a report released Thursday by Attorney General Jerry Brown that includes newly obtained videotapes.

The report also uncovered "likely violations" of state civil laws designed to protect personal information, including dumping 500 pages of confidential records into a Dumpster, failure to file a 2007 tax return, and four instances of possible voter registration fraud by ACORN in San Diego in connection with the 2008 election, as well as other irregularities in the group's California operations.

So there are "likely violations" os state civil laws but nobody will be prosecuted?

Those irregularities have been referred to the appropriate authorities, Brown said.

"A few ACORN members exhibited terrible judgment and highly inappropriate behavior in videotapes obtained in the investigation, but they didn't commit prosecutable crimes in California," said Brown, the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

I guess Brown doesn't want to alienate his future campaign workers.

ACORN Disbanding, Still Whining Over Video Sting

That sound you hear is the world's smallest violin playing taps for this criminal enetrprise.

The once mighty community activist group ACORN announced Monday it is folding amid falling revenues — six months after video footage emerged showing some of its workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.

"It's really declining revenue in the face of a series of attacks from partisan operatives and right-wing activist that have taken away our ability to raise the resources we need," ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said.

Several of its largest affiliates, including ACORN New York and ACORN California, broke away this year and changed their names in a bid to ditch the tarnished image of their parent organization and restore revenue that ran dry in the wake of the video scandal. They will continue to operate under their new names and aren't affected by ACORN's decision to shut down.

ACORN's financial situation and reputation went into free fall within days of the videos' release in September. Congress reacted by yanking ACORN's federal funding, private donors held back cash and scores of ACORN offices closed.

Earlier this month, a U.S. judge reiterated an earlier ruling that the federal law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional because it singled them out. But that didn't mean any money would be automatically be restored.

Bertha Lewis, the CEO of ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, alluded to financial hardships in a weekend statement as the group's board prepared to deliberate by phone.

"ACORN has faced a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era," she said. "The videos were a manufactured, sensational story that led to rush to judgment and an unconstitutional act by Congress."

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Rumor has it they new name for the remaining ACORN branches will be known at The Democratic Party.

Good News: ACORN Going Bankrupt

They've been morally bankrupt for some time and now they're going under financially. It wouldn't surprise me if Obama sweetened his healthcare plan to throw his pals a few billion.

The U.S. liberal grass-roots group ACORN is on the brink of bankruptcy and its leaders will hold a teleconference this weekend to discuss the group's future, The New York Times reported on its website on Friday.

Citing two leaders of the group, the Times reported ACORN is suffering from "mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and membership funds."

The organization has been reeling since a secretly recorded YouTube.com video was disseminated last September showing ACORN workers giving advice on how to flout the law to two conservative activists who posed as a pimp and a prostitute.

Employees involved in the incidents in New York were fired from the organization but have been cleared of criminal prosecution.

Since September, at least half of ACORN's 30 chapters have disbanded, the Times said. The group's large New York and California chapters have set up fresh organizations.

Congress voted by wide margins to prohibit the federal government from funding ACORN and the Census Bureau ended its partnership with the group.

Republicans have long accused the group of fraud in registering voters and improperly mixing political and nonpolitical activities. ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has denied the allegations.

ACORN plays a significant political role in low-income neighborhoods and in 2008 signed up 1.3 million people to vote in areas where Democrats poll well.

'The ACORN Brand is Probably Ruined for Life'

The New McCarthyites

Heartbreaking, isn't it?

A former leader of Maryland's ACORN chapter said Monday the group will no longer operate in the state, doomed by an embarrassing national scandal six months ago from which the organization never recovered.

Sonja Merchant-Jones, former co-chairwoman of the state chapter of ACORN and a board member since 1999, said there are no plans in Maryland to rebrand under a different name, a move undertaken Monday by several ACORN affiliates across the country.

Maryland ACORN ceased operations late last year, Merchant-Jones said, and all the offices in the state have closed. The group has not held a board meeting in Maryland since November, she added.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now came under scrutiny in September, when videos recorded in Baltimore showed workers counseling two conservative activists pretending to be a pimp and prostitute. Two staff members of the Baltimore office were fired because of the video, which was broadcast on major networks throughout the country and showed the employees giving tax-evading tips to the man and a scantily dressed female partner.

The incident effectively shut down local and state offices, Merchant-Jones said, and the branches were forced to cease operations after dues-paying members fled.

Congress reacted to the video by stripping ACORN's federal funding. Last week a federal judge upheld a ruling that a law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional, but observers doubt ACORN will recoup any money.

With its federal dollars gone, ACORN's national budget went from $24 million last year to $6 million this year.

"The ACORN brand is probably ruined for life, and the only way they can operate is under a different name," Merchant-Jones said.

It's like rearranging the decks chairs on the Titanic.

Of course, despite this criminal enterprise "rebranding" itself, it's all part of the New McCarthism, according to some far-left kook. Do these people have any clue how silly they sound?

I think it's time we coined the term Breitbart Derangement Syndrome.

Stunner: Obama's 'Justice' Department Shut Down ACORN Investigation

Actually, it's not a stunner since Obama used to do some work for them.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailing federal investigations into the alleged corrupt activities of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The documents reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by ACORN as well as the Obama administration's decision to shut down a criminal investigation without filing criminal charges.

The documents include background information on two specific complaints filed in October 2008 by Lucy Corelli and Joseph Borges, Republican Registrars of Voters in Stamford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, respectively, during the 2008 election season.

According to Corelli, on August 1, 2008, her office received 1,200 ACORN voter registration cards from the Secretary of State's office. Over 300 of these cards were rejected because of "duplicates, underage, illegible and invalid addresses," which "put a tremendous strain on our office staff and caused endless work hours at taxpayers' expense." Corelli claimed the total cost of the extra work caused by ACORN corruption was $20,000. Likewise, Borges contended that: "The organization ACORN during the summer of 2008 conducted a registration drive which has produced over 100 rejections due to incomplete forms and individuals who are not citizens..." Among the examples cited by Borges was a seven-year old child who was registered to vote by ACORN through the use of a forged signature and a fake birth certificate claiming she was 27-years old.

The FBI and Department of Justice opened an investigation. However, the Obama Justice Department, while noting that ACORN had engaged in "questionable hiring and training practices," closed down the investigation in March 2009, claiming ACORN broke no laws.

ACORN's apologists at Media Matters were unavailable for coment.

Federal Judge Orders Government to Start Funding ACORN Again

Always helpful to have a friendly federal judge on your side when you're a criminal enterprise running low on taxpayer dough.

A federal judge who found it unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn't blocked.

In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. She said the harm to ACORN's reputation continues because the government never rescinded its advice to withhold funding after it was distributed to "hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients."

Of course ACORN's "reputation" is that of a far-left arm of the Democratic Party, and most recently found a couple of its members charged with felony voter fraud. ACORN's defenders, naturally, whine of alleged right-wing smears.

The legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which says it's dedicated to protecting the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, welcomed Wednesday's decision.

"The judge's ruling is a complete rebuke to the right wing's smear tactics that unfortunately Congress fell for," legal director Bill Quigley said. "This is why we have a system of checks and balances."

I guess it's a "human right"for this crime syndicate to help themselves to taxpayer money.

Gershon, a Bill Clinton appointee, is no stranger to controversy.

Gershon showed a similar contempt for the legislative branch previously. In 1999 she ruled then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani had no right to cut off city funding of the Brooklyn Museum of Art when it displayed dead animals and a painting of the Virgin Mary decorated with elephant dung. Gershon's not exactly courageous, by the way. She managed to get out of taking accused Al Qaeda terrorist Najibullah Zazi's case when a courthouse computer randomly assigned it to her.

If Gershon's absurd ruling remains undisturbed it will mean every parasitic leftist group in the country will have due process rights in the appropriations process. At worst, Congress will not be able to cut off any group for any reason. At best, Congress will have to jump through hoops in order to de-fund any group. The rights of tax eaters will become paramount to the rights of taxpayers.

DA Who 'Exonerated' Criminal Gang From ACORN is a WFP Member

Of course the Working Families Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACORN, so why should anyone be surprised the Brooklyn DA is looking the other way?

Nice to see how an unidentified source claims the tapes were edited to fit an agenda, while we're to believe the DA doesn't have an agenda himself.

Meanwhile, Patterico lays waste to the leftwing myth-makers out there defending the criminals from ACORN, including this George Soros caddie and a former John Edwards staffer, among others.

Go check out the entire Patterico piece. A masterful fisking of these drooling morons.

Surprise! Brooklyn Prosecutors Clear ACORN

Imagine my shock to find out a hack New York prosecutor like Charles Hynes cleared the criminal enterprise ACORN. You don't suppose this could be politically motivated?

Brooklyn prosecutors on Monday cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing after a four-month probe that began when undercover conservative activists filmed workers giving what appeared to be illegal advice on how to hide money.

While the video by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles seemed to show three ACORN workers advising a prostitute how to hide ill-gotten gains, the unedited version was not as clear, according to a law enforcement source.

"They edited the tape to meet their agenda," said the source.

O'Keefe and Giles - who visited ACORN offices in several cities, including its Brooklyn headquarters - stirred controversy when they posted the videos on their Web site.

They were hailed as heroes by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and their footage led several government agencies to temporarily cut funding for ACORN as the prosecutors opened an investigation.

"On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a one-paragraph statement issued Monday afternoon.

"That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found."

Of course there's editing in the process. Has Hynes seen all of O'Keefe's footage? It will be interesting to see O'Keefe's response. If there's video Hynes did not see he'll have some explaining to do. I don't see any reaction at Big Government as of yet.

ACORN is now talking tough. Let's see how long that lasts.

"Acorn is gratified that the DA has concluded something we knew all along," ACORN lawyer Arthur Schwartz said, adding it was "unfortunate" the O'Keefe and Giles used "subterfuge to convince congress and the media to vilify an organization that didn't deserve it."

A smug Media Matters thug currently feuding with Andrew Breitbart, among others, is gloating.

Update: More here with revelations about the DA's ties to WFP/ACORN.

'Warning: Do not Answer Phones Without Getting Important, New Directions from America. It Is Better to Let Them Ring!!!'

Behind the scenes at the new and improved ACORN office in Brooklyn. You think these folks are feeling a little disoriented ever since they've been exposed as a criminal enterprise?

"They're reinventing themselves," the source said. "The old brand is toxic, and so they have to reinvent themselves in order to apply for funding and start their operation all over again.

"They couldn't raise any money. All of their funders -- the money was dried up. All of their benefactors refused to give them funds under the ACORN banner."

The source said ACORN called a private meeting last month of friends and closely affiliated politicians to announce the makeover.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes launched a probe into the local ACORN branch in September after The Post revealed that two activists disguised as a pimp and a prostitute were able to solicit financial advice on starting a brothel.

Other ACORN affiliates, including offices in Baltimore, Washington and San Bernardino, Calif., were exposed in the hidden-camera sting.

A spokesman for Hynes yesterday said the investigation is ongoing.

Shortly after news of the scandal broke, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn froze all new city funds earmarked for ACORN, and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began investigating the grants state lawmakers have given the group.

Congress also shut off much of the group's public funds.

At the Brooklyn office yesterday, a makeshift sign let visitors know the office now belongs to New York Communities for Change.

A bizarre sign hung above a receptionist's phone read, "Warning: Do not answer phones without getting important, new directions from America. It is better to let them ring!!!"

Workers would not speak to a Post reporter, referring all questions to the spokesman.

ACORN last night released a statement saying that Bertha Lewis, who founded the labor-backed Working Families Party -- which is closely affiliated with ACORN -- is still the group's national CEO, but will not have a position in the new, local group.

They shouldn't be too concerned, however. They still have friends in low places.

ACORN Opens Branch in New York's City Hall

The goons are coming and once Michael Bloomberg is gone they'll probably have full control of New York City. Five years from now people will probably look back fondly on the "glory days" of David Dinkins.

The Constitution's framers held as inviolable citizens' right to petition government for a redress of grievances. So what does it say about rookie Public Advocate Bill de Blasio's opinion of himself that he thinks New Yorkers need his help to wave placards on City Hall steps?

De Blasio yesterday announced the creation of a new "community-organizing" department within his office -- purportedly to "help neighborhood activists build grass-roots coalitions."

Funny: We thought that "grass-roots" spring up naturally as concerned citizens exercise their First Amendment rights.

But perhaps the wheels of democracy turn too slowly for de Blasio. He plans:

* Workshops with favored activist groups to teach "organizing strategies."

* "Organizing toolkits" and a new Web site to teach New Yorkers how to conduct petition drives and "civic actions."

* A reworking of the public advocate's telephone hot line to tell callers how they can help change city policies.

Not that New Yorkers in search of, say, tax relief will get much help, of course: De Blasio's community "partners" are the same lefty grabbers who've been picking the city dry in the first place.

And, indeed, who put de Blasio -- a client of the far-left Working Families Party -- in office. This move only formalizes and consolidates their power.

U.S. Attorney Subpoenas Working Families Party

What a surprise that a group closely tied to ACORN would come under suspicion.

The feds are joining the numerous investigations of the Working Families Party.

Dan Cantor, the party's executive director, disclosed today that it has "received requests for information" from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, as have campaigns that have worked with the party's campaign affiliate, Data & Field Services.

Sources said it was a subpoena served Monday.

"We welcome this inquiry," said Cantor.

"(We) are confident that it will ultimately demonstrate what we have said before: our work has complied with both the spirit and letter of new York City's campaign finance law as well as all relevant state and federal election laws, tax and not-for-profit corporation laws."

Oh yes, I'm sure they welcome such inquiries and are eager to help out.

The party is being sued for its work on Staten Island Councilwoman-elect Debi Rose's campaign. A judge ruled last week that the trial can go forward.

It was also the subject of at least one complaint filed with the CFB.

Three days after the Nov. 3 elections, the party announced it had hired Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom to conduct a thorough review of the structure and relationship between the WFP and its for-profit arm, Data & Field Services. The review is being led by former Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

Sources say the party is paying dearly for Kaye's time and good name: Somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 an hour.

In his statement, Cantor expressed a desire for a "prompt resolution" to the investigation. It goes without saying that the longer this stretches on, the worse it will be for the party - particularly if it continues deep into the 2010 cycle.

It's hard to overstate how bad this could be for the WFP.

Does that name Data & Field Services sound familiar?

According to tax, campaign finance and other records, all four arms have been based in one office on the third floor of 2-4 Nevins Street in Brooklyn. The three co-chairs of the Working Families Party—Bob Master, Sam Williams and Bertha Lewis—were, along with now-White House political director Patrick Gaspard (a founding board member of the Party), the initial directors of the Working Families Organization, and their ongoing positions give them control over Data & Field Services. They were also, as of 2005, the respective president, secretary and treasurer of the Progressive America Fund. Dan Cantor, the executive director of the Party and of the Organization, oversees Data & Field Services, and is a former board member of the Progressive America Fund. According to records, they are not alone: nearly every person listed as an employee of one of these entities is also listed as an employee of at least one of the others. People who have visited the offices say they see no clear distinctions between desks, resources, staff and leadership.

ACORN and the WFP: Perfect together. Another name should also sound familiar.

SEIU.

Similarly, though the existence of Data and Field Services (DFS), a for-profit company incorporated in February 2007, had been mentioned in passing in prior press reports and as an ambiguous line on a dozen campaign finance reports over the last year and a half, never before have the details of the company and the extent of its ties to the Working Families Party been revealed.

The company was set up by Kevin Finnegan, then acting as a lawyer on behalf of the WFP, and currently the political director of 1199SEIU. Explaining the benefit of having a private company to the New York Post in April, Finnegan said that having a private for-profit company would allow candidates to avoid potential problems with the campaign finance laws, which put limits on the amount of money candidates can give to political parties. In New York City, that amount is $10,000.

The SEIU, of course, is famous for their goons beating up Kenneth Gladney this past summer.

All one big happy family living under that Democratic Party tent.

ACORN Changing Name, Disbursing Money to SEIU, Other Groups

The crime syndicate known as ACORN is on the run, but is getting plenty of cover from the Democrats, which comes as no surprise since they're an arm of the Democratic Party. Now since their name is radioactive they figure changing it will bamboozle an unwitting public while they work hand-in-hand with the goons from SEIU to funnel money away from themselves. How clever. Consider it one giant slush fund, all designed to aid the Democrats.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, is in the process of changing its name and has already transferred many of its resources to several other left-wing advocacy and political groups, according to a report released Tuesday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

While the Justice Department has said that federal housing funds should continue to flow to ACORN, several congressmen, in a joint hearing of the House Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee, said they want a special prosecutor to investigate the group's use of taxpayer dollars.

Several weeks back, Congress included in the Continuing Appropriations Resolution for 2010 a provision that bars federal funds to ACORN and its “affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations.”

President Obama signed the resolution. But the Justice Department’s opinion issued last week cleared the way for funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue going to the organization, a group that many House Republicans have called a “criminal enterprise.”

Which indeed it is. Now Obama may be playing it cute by signing that resolution but make no mistake. Obama is ACORN, ACORN is Obama and and Eric Holder answers to Obama. Just imagine if there was so much financial chicanery going on with the GOP. Why, the media might even be inclined to investigate.

CNSNews.com could not reach an ACORN spokesman on Tuesday for comment after attempts by phone and e-mail. But ACORN spokesmen in the past have said that any illegal or unethical incidents were isolated and that the organization is dedicated to helping the poor.

However, the House Oversight report claimed otherwise, saying, “ACORN’s own training manual reflects a business model in which money is taken from poor people and then funneled into partisan political efforts.”

“ACORN is currently in the process of changing its name and has already transferred resources to several chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and possibly Data and Field Services, the Working Families Party, Change to Win and the Council for Unity,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.

The GOP damn well better make ACORN and their affiliates a big issue in the midterm elections. Of course they'll be accused of being raaaaacist, but then again, that's nothing new. They're already whining about a partisan witch-hunt.

ACORN is in the midst of its own investigation of the undercover videos, led by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, but has also railed against what it calls a partisan witch hunt by Republicans.

“Allegations against ACORN continue to pour in—now it appears that the organization actively targeted incumbent Republican members of Congress in the 2008 election," Representative Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee, said in a statement. "This kind of political activity is a clear violation of ACORN’s nonprofit status. With more than a dozen investigations nationwide, federal law enforcement agencies can no longer ignore the shady actions of ACORN. Until then, not a single penny of taxpayer dollars should go to fund an organization that time and again has abused federal funds and the American people’s trust.”

Issa, meanwhile, pulls no punches.

"The current administration is fast becoming, in reality, the war room of ACORN's political machine," said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. "I am concerned that the era of corruption promulgated by ACORN and protected by the White House is just the beginning."

The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said ACORN has engaged in "illegal, partisan activities designed to help individual Democratic members."

"This (action) goes from city councilmen to state assemblymen all the way to President Barack Obama," he said.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Obama's past ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) will "taint any conclusions" by any Justice Department probe into the group.

While these reports don't indicate any name change, here are some suggestions.

Brooklyn ACORN Community Organizer Accused of Fraud

After we noted the dubious ACORN HS for Social Justice yesterday you just had to know there were more layers to peel back to uncover some fraud involved. Sure enough today we discover a community organizer involved with ACORN, the New York City Department of Education and the ACORN HS for Social Justice is being accused of fraud.

ACORN and fraud: Perfect together.

The free corporate rewards gifts arrived by the dozens: $5,000 IBM gift certificates, $500 travel coupons, Broadway show tickets, tickets to Mets and Yankees games. The only problem was that, according to city schools investigators, it was all based on a scam.

Investigators on Tuesday alleged that a Brooklyn-based bookkeeper and community organizer for the beleaguered anti-poverty group Acorn improperly netted $500,000 in merchandise for a corporate rewards program with Verizon, the telephone company, through a complex scam that went on for more than four years.

“She left no stone unturned,” said Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigations for the city’s schools.

Investigators said the fraud began in 2004, when the woman, Donnett Davis, was working at the financial desk at a Brooklyn office of Acorn. She opened a corporate rewards program for Acorn’s 10 to 20 phone lines with Verizon, but put her name as the recipient in order to get the rewards herself, she told investigators, according to a report submitted to Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor, on Tuesday.

Shortly afterward, investigators allege, Ms. Davis added about 9,000 Department of Education phone lines to her rewards account. With millions of dollars in billings, the trickle of reward points became a roaring torrent of gift certificates, L.L. Bean merchandise and other freebies, investigators said.

It is not known how Ms. Davis got access to the Department of Education numbers, but Mr. Cordon said he suspects she may have had help from someone within the department or Verizon. “We’re not alleging she did it alone,” Mr. Cordon said. “Quite frankly we would be surprised if she did.”

New York Acorn terminated Ms. Davis’s employment in April 2008, Arthur Schwartz, counsel for Acorn, said Tuesday. Shortly afterward, Ms. Davis went to work directly for the Department of Education, as the parent coordinator for an Acorn-affiliated school, the Acorn High School for Social Justice in Brooklyn.

There, the scam continued until Verizon discovered the suspicious activity in October 2008 while auditing its accounts, and the Department of Education began an investigation. Ms. Davis resigned from her schools job in August, the letter to Mr. Klein said. The matter has been referred to prosecutors.

H/T Big Government.

How is it someone can be terminated from ACORN and then go directly to work for the DoE? Isn't there any vetting? Or did she have cushy union connections that allowed her to glide right in?

Now despite Klein's assertion she was dismissed in August, Davis is still listed as a parent coordinator at the School for Social Justice. There has not been a reply to an email inquiry to that address.

Meanwhile the attorney for Davis responded.

Davis's attorney Scott Cerbin downplayed the accusations. "As of this time, I'm not aware of any criminal charges," he said.

The ACORN HS for Social Justice?

You would think at a time when ACORN has as much credibility as the climate change hoaxers there would be a rush in education circles to distance themselves from the notorious crime syndicate. But no, as it turns out there exist at least three high schools in New York City associated with ACORN, and two of them have ACORN in their names. It makes you wonder if Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein are even aware of all the problems involving ACORN of late.

As long as Mayor Bloomberg is rolling up his sleeves for a brawl over the new teach ers-union contract, it's time for him to take a swing at another problem that's festered too long: the radicalization of New York's public schools.

A growing number of city schools aim to foster resentment and rage among the most uneducated students. Under the guise of "social justice," the fomenting of racial and socio-economic grievances has supplanted the teaching of basic skills. The result is an even wider gap in learning between the poorest minorities and other students.

The corruption of the curriculum is getting harder to conceal. In the wake of the ACORN scandals, it's more obviously problematic that ACORN is affiliated with three city schools -- including two in Brooklyn bearing the group's name: ACORN Community HS and the ACORN HS for Social Justice.

Karen Watts, the principal of the ACORN HS for Social Justice in Bushwick, seems sensitive to the group's bad publicity: She says ACORN no longer has any involvement with the school. But that's news to Debra Burgess, the school's parent coordinator -- who told me the school's "philosophy" is based around ACORN: "We do have to follow their philosophy, and their philosophy is 'reform and change.' "

There you go: Reform and change. I wonder if reform and change involves arranging for teenage girls to be sold into prostitution and dumping incriminating files?

But teacher activism goes far beyond ACORN. Social justice is the guiding academic principle of more than a dozen city high schools, particularly in the newer crop of smaller schools started by community groups.

* On the home page of Bushwick Community HS, you'll find a large illustration of Che Guevara wearing a graduation cap.

* Last year, the principal of Vanguard HS in Manhattan hosted a "radical math" conference at his school. The event, according to the program, featured a presentation by a teacher at Performing Arts & Technology HS about "how to use the history of the Black Panther Party to fuel an algebraic curriculum."

* The city honors Columbus Day by closing its schools, but at the Bushwick School for Social Justice, students are taught a . . . different perspective. "Our commitment to providing a high-quality, college-preparatory education for our students is critical to our social-justice mission, which is alive in so many ways in our classes. For example, during a unit on the Age of Exploration, our global-history students put Christopher Columbus on trial for his crimes against humanity," wrote a senior Bushwick teacher in a recent job posting.

* At Banana Kelly HS in The Bronx, the social-justice agenda has extended into its discipline policy. The school is experimenting with "restorative justice" techniques -- in which misbehaving or truant students aren't punished but instead asked to participate in trust-building exercises to help them "acknowledge their feelings."

How well is that going? Well, one Banana Kelly student recently posted a YouTube video titled "OnePeriodinBananaKelly." Recording what appears to be a stroll around the school during the middle of the day, the nine-minute continuous clip offers a glimpse into a school utterly lacking in supervision. Bedlam reigns in the hallways, while students play dominoes in the classroom. At no point does a teacher or administrator intervene.

Here's a look at that video, which comes with this description: thiss is uh typical day in banana kelly high school (: . Needless to say, beware the foul language and casual use of the n-word.



If that's a typical day at Banana Kelly you can expect a bleak future for those kids.

By the way, Banana Kelly was not a person. For some background, go here.

Update: A little further look at Banana Kelly led us to none other than ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. What a surprise. Seems like in some Bronx neighborhoods this group of community organizers known as Banana Kelly isn't too popular. Apparently rife with corruption throughout the 1990s, theirs was a very disorganized community.

As Banana Kelly rebuilds, it now also faces the challenge of reconstructing relations with community residents. It may have a task ahead of it every bit as challenging as its original effort to reclaim the neighborhood. "Yolanda Rivera says: 'It's a new era, you're going to have to give me a chance.' But Banana Kelly has been in transition for a decade," says Marta Rivera. "You mention Banana Kelly and people want to kill you."

Meanwhile, as to the aformentioned ACORN HS for Social Justice, it worth noting their extracurricular activities page.

Our Extra Curricula Activities are endless and effective in the developemnt of our students.

Considering that's a NYC DoE page, maybe someone there could help with their grammar.

A Convenient Time for Bob Bauer?

Hmmm. This story about a raid on the New Orleans ACORN office last week didn't garner much attention at the time, but now it appears it could be more significant and have wider consequences. At least according to GOP Congressman Steve King. Some may dismiss this as conspiracy quackery, but it's worth noting.

Newly appointed White House counsel Bob Bauer is "perfectly positioned to be tasked with erasing the tracks between Obama and ACORN," one Republican lawmaker charged Friday.

The lawyer's hiring, announced this morning shortly after Greg Craig officially resigned the post, was also an attempt by the White House to deflect any fallout that may arise from an ACORN investigation currently underway in Louisiana, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) added in a statement.

“Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN, the congressman told supporters. "Bauer’s hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the White House exactly one week after Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell raided ACORN's national headquarters in New Orleans and seized paper records and computer hard drives that may lead to the White House.”

However, the link between Bauer, the president and ACORN's Louisiana office is long, winding and confusing, at best.

According to King, Bauer -- who worked for Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign -- was they key player in a politicized fight between the campaign and President George W. Bush's Justice Department over an investigation of suspected ACORN voting fraud.

While Bauer, for the most part, signaled in a letter he was unconvinced that ACORN had committed any wrongdoing, he compared the investigation itself to the partisan battle over the firing of a number of U.S. attorneys in 2008 because of their political inclinations. Consequently, he asked the Justice Department shortly after to appoint the same special prosecutor who made the attorney determination to look into the ACORN matter.

"With this voter fraud [investigation], we're seeing an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics," Bauer said in October.

King, however, believes that statement was code for "back off from interfering with ACORN's activities," according to his statement. He also said Bauer's return to Obama's team at a time when law enforcement officials just finished raiding an ACORN office in Louisiana -- part of an investigation into whether it committed tax fraud and embezzlement -- signifies malfeasance is again afoot.

Of course, malfeasance by ACORN is redundant. But you can be sure Obama's close ties to ACORN are a problem for him, even though most of his approved media continue to ignore his ties to this criminal organization. And surely I won't be holding my breath that Obama stooge Eric Holder will ever let an investigation get anywhere near his boss.

Instapundit links. Thanks!