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.

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.

'An Audacious Scheme to Violate the Law'

Color me shocked to discover the far-left Working Families Party isn't exactly abiding by the law. Next thing you know we'll discover ACORN is run by shady characters.

The labor-backed Working Families Party has engaged in "an audacious scheme to violate the law" to help the party's favored political candidates get elected, a sweeping new lawsuit charges.

The first-of-its-kind suit says the WFP created a political outfit, Data and Field Services, that it is using to "circumvent state election and local campaign finance laws."

The way the scheme works, according the suit, is that the WFP gets involved in local races, backing its favored candidates, who in turn hire DFS for vital campaign services, such as phone banking, polling and get-out-the-vote efforts.

But under the plan, the WFP-endorsed candidates pay only "a nominal sum, well below fair market value," for those services -- giving those candidates a major, unfair advantage over their opponents, whose spending is limited by law.

"This is a case about an audacious scheme to violate the law by using corporate subterfuge to hijack our local election process," says the suit, which was filed in Staten Island.

"It goes to the very heart of our local democracy and undermines the fairness and integrity of our local elections."

The suit, filed on behalf of five aggrieved Staten Island voters, highlights the relationship between the City Council campaign of Debi Rose, a WFP-backed candidate, and DFS.

The court papers provide a case study for how the WFP, which has been increasing its influence, operates.

Two WFP candidates, Bill de Blasio and John Liu, are expected next week to be elected as public advocate and comptroller, respectively, and the party scored recent wins in a number of key council races.

The lawsuit charges that he Rose campaign -- which bested incumbent Democratic Councilman Ken Mitchell in the primary last month -- paid a mere $19,000 to DFS in that contest.

The real value of the campaign services in a council race is at least $100,000, according to the legal papers.

DFS provided aid to Rose's campaign, including polling, phone banking and petitioning in the primary, according to court papers.

"Something doesn't fit. Somebody's cooking the books," attorney Randy Mastro said.

"It would appear DFS was created as a corporate veil to shield the WFP, [which is] funneling campaign contributions to candidates they support."

Since corporations are limited to giving political candidates $5,000 worth of services or cash in a calendar year, the discounted DFS rates are tantamount to in-kind political contributions that never get reported, the suit says.

How clever. It's almost as if the left didn't have faith in the public to vote for them so they have to discover ways to steal elections.

By the way, did someone mention ACORN?

A new lawsuit against the Working Families Party also hits another target -- the scandal-tarnished group ACORN, which shares office space with the party.

Pointing to a string of probes that ACORN is facing and news reports about the two groups sharing a Nevins Street address in Brooklyn, the suit seeks to flush out the overlap.

Critics of the two groups have long complained they work hand in glove -- and have found compelling evidence in Brooklyn.

"Another organization that helped found and remains closely [allied] with the WFP is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN," reads a petition filed in the case, charging that "ACORN not only shares office space with the WFP . . . but Bertha Lewis, the executive director of New York ACORN, is also a state co-chair of the WFP."

The suit goes on to say the WFP "has remained closely" tethered to the group.

The court papers cite an exclusive Post story about hidden cameras at the Nevins Street offices capturing ACORN workers counseling a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp on how to buy a home and keep authorities from catching on.

Imagine my surprise to discover Lewis is the state co-chair of the WFP.

Community organizer Barack Obama was unavailable for comment.

Voter Fraud In Upstate New York

This isn't just a case of fraudulently registering a bunch of fictitious people to vote to get a bonus from your ACORN boss. This is real voter fraud and it of course involves Democrats, whose win by any means necessary mentality continues to push their rabid Kool-Aid drinking minions to engage these types of acts.

Lambersten's lawyer, David Gruenberg, calls what happened "the worst case of election fraud that I have seen in 32 years of practice" in Troy. "It goes far beyond what I have seen before because it involves fraudulently casting votes for individuals." He says the fraud was carried out by "individuals associated and working with the Democratic candidates ... they are working to get the WFP lines for their candidates in the general election."

This story is unfolding in upstate New York and it involves a group of people submitting absentee ballots for some real citizens. Citizens who did not vote or were denied their right to vote based on an absentee ballot already being on record for them.

Thirty-eight forged or fraudulent ballots have been thrown out -- enough votes, an election official admits, to likely have tipped the city council and county elections in November to the Democrats. Candidates would have been able to run both on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines in two weeks, and that could have given the Democrats in the general election.

This article is skimpy on details explaining exactly what the importance the Working Families Party is, but in if I am understanding it correctly, it is a sort of third-party which allows candidates from the two other major political parties to campaign under, even though it appears designed primarily to be a surrogate for the Democrats. What the Democrats would do is put their 'A' team candidates on the Democrat ticket and their 'B' team on the Working Families Party. The Republicans are allowed to put candidates on this party also. The Democrat's intent, and if what appears to have happened happened, is they were able to stack the deck with double the number of candidates.

I cannot figure out why, if they already had the deck stacked, they felt the need to further engage actual voter fraud. But I forget, this is Democrats we are talking about, who for so long have gotten by with so much that they no longer see any problem with the way they run elections.

"It's not the person who votes that counts, rather the person who counts the votes" said by somebody smarter then me.

JWF Updates: The Working Families Party is a hard-left socialist group joined at the hip with ACORN. Scroll down in the Fox News link for this.

The Working Families Party has recently gained strength, and controversy, in New York. Republican and Democratic candidates in the Empire State can also run on third party lines, such as the Working Families Party, as well as the Liberal, Conservative, and Independence parties, among others. The extra line means extra votes that could bring victory.

Hillary Clinton garnered 2.7 percent of her total votes from the WFP line when she first ran for Senate in 2000, which increased to 5 percent of her total vote in 2006. In September, Clinton's former campaign manager for her 2000 Senate run, New York City Councilman Bill DeBlasio, who has been endorsed by the WFP, beat two long-established politicians in the Democratic primary. Critics also accuse the Working Families Party of having a long association with the troubled activist group, ACORN. Bertha Lewis, ACORN's CEO, is one of the party's co-founders. The New York Times reported this month that "Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director, worked with ACORN in New York to set up the Working Families political party and sat on the party's board with Ms. Lewis."

The WFP has also endorsed New York Democratic Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, who was one of only seven Senators who voted against cutting federal housing funds to ACORN in September.

Is it any wonder why the White House is attacking Fox News?

'There's a Major Meltdown in ACORN'

I think we're going to need a bigger bowl of popcorn. Just sit back and enjoy the meltdown.

Beth Butler, the longtime executive director of Lousiana ACORN, was terminated by the organization's national leadership Monday amid a power struggle at the embattled advocacy group.

Butler's sacking came two days after local ACORN leaders criticized President Barack Obama's planned itinerary for a trip to New Orleans this week -- comments that drew an immediate rebuke from ACORN's national leaders.

On Sunday, ACORN Chief Executive Bertha Lewis said the remarks, which were not uttered by Butler, were "without authority and do not reflect the position of the national leadership." Lewis said she would "be personally going to New Orleans to deal with the individual involved."

Less than 24 hours later, Butler was fired. An angry Butler said Monday that the real reason for her firing was not the flap over Obama's visit, but a simmering tussle over assets that ACORN's Louisiana affiliate controls and that the national group covets.

In particular, Butler said headquarters has its eye on a land trust set up by the Louisiana branch. The trust owns five relatively modest houses, she said, and has a bank account of perhaps $60,000 intended for rehabilitation work -- nothing to sneeze at, she said, "in the nonprofit world."

As it happens, ACORN officials agree with Butler that her termination was not carried out only as retribution for the Obama critique. Rather, according to an ACORN official who would speak only on background, the episode was "reflective of a lack of accountability to process" on Butler's part.

Butler had repeatedly breached ACORN protocol, and this was the most recent instance, he said.

"Normally, the theory is that locals can speak for themselves, " said the official. "But this is in a time of severe challenge for us, and they were criticizing the president of the United States. If they had criticized Ray Nagin, we'd have nothing to say about it."

The "severe challenge" he described is an effort to recover from a series of scandals that have rocked the organization and threaten its survival. The most devastating was a series of videos in which two guerrilla journalists posed as a prostitute and a pimp, and received counseling from ACORN employees on how to avoid paying taxes on brothel income.

That scandal was preceded by revelations that ACORN employees had registered dozens of phony voters before the last election. And before that, it emerged that Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN's founder, New Orleans-bred Wade Rathke, had embezzled nearly $1 million from the group. Instead of announcing he'd been caught, selected group leaders allowed him to quietly repay the money over a period of years.

The last scandal resulted in the ouster of Wade Rathke, who also happens to be the longtime companion of Butler. The two have lived together for decades and raised two children together, Butler said.

Butler, who has worked for ACORN for 37 years, said her real sin in the eyes of the national organization's leaders was a failure to concede to their demands. In particular, she said, she had led resistance to a demand to turn over the land trust, called the ACORN Community Land Association of Louisiana, to the national group.

"We were told by national ACORN that we had to give it up to them," she said. "We got e-mails threatening our jobs because we didn't push the land trust people to hand over property and money to the New York people who took over ACORN."

Butler passed along an e-mail message from Lewis calling Butler's behavior regarding the land trust "unacceptable."

The national entity is also making a play for roughly $90,000 in hurricane relief money controlled by the local group, Butler said.

"It's hardball here," she said. "Our local resources are being spirited to New York. ACORN Louisiana is the most lucrative chapter in the country, and we knew they were aiming to take us over. There's a major meltdown in ACORN. They're trying to scramble all of us who would fight them."

All I can hope for is for Bertha Lewis to been seen on camera during Obama's New Orleans photo op.

It's funny. We're suppopsed to pretend Obama isn't tied to ACORN, yet an obscure staffer directs an innocuous comment toward Obama and Bertha Lewis snaps to attention and fires a chapter leader.

So ACORN Doesn't Have Tax Issues?

If you watched any of this embarrassing performance by ACORN mob boss Bertha Lewis Sunday you couldn't help by conclude the woman is a pathological liar. The most egregious lie she told was that ACORN pays all its taxes.

Whoops. Would you like to have that one back, Bertha?

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." Not true: The IRS and Louisiana's taxmen have imposed nearly $2 million in liens against ACORN for failing to fork over taxes at its New Orleans national headquarters.

The IRS recently filed a $548,000 lien against the group, and Louisiana state tax officials have slapped $334,000 in liens on ACORN since last October.

Evidence that ACORN ignored its tax obligations may be less exciting than its branch offices' eagerness to help a self-professed pimp break multiple laws, or the voter-registration fraud for which various of its workers have been convicted.

But the tax mess shows that the lawlessness starts at its headquarters. (ACORN actually has three national HQs -- in the Big Easy, Washington, DC, and New York City.)

Another New Orleans group, the free-market Pelican Institute for Public Policy, uncovered official records that confirm ACORN's deadbeat tax status. (Full disclosure: Pelican hosted my visit to New Orleans last May.)

At the Orleans Parish Clerk of Courts Office, Pelican researcher Steve Beatty found a Sept. 3 IRS filing showing that "Elysian Fields Corp., Inc., Alter Ego of ACORN" skipped five quarterly withholding-tax payments -- covering income, Social Security and Medicare levies -- in 2005-08, and made no federal unemployment-tax payments for the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008.

"We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid," reads IRS form 668(Y). So the federal taxmen have placed liens on ACORN's New Orleans offices at 2609 Canal St. and 2610 Iberville St.

This follows a $1 million invoice that the IRS already had handed ACORN, as Pelican reported last August. The group's in trouble with the state, too.

"We have a full-scale investigation into ACORN and all of its subsidiaries," Tammi Arender, spokeswoman for Louisiana Attorney General Bobby Caldwell, said recently. "No stone will be left unturned. We're still looking into their recent activities."

Caldwell subpoenaed ACORN, former ACORN head Wade Rathke and the group's financial institution, Whitney Bank. Caldwell seeks information stretching back to 1998 on ACORN and some 361 tax-exempt and non-tax-exempt outfits in its universe.

Citizens Consulting, Inc. -- ACORN's bookkeeping arm, no less -- scored a Louisiana "Notice of State Tax Assessment and Lien" on Oct. 29, 2008. It details 66 withholding-tax payments that Citizens Consulting skipped in 2002-08, totaling more than $300,000.

These documents are online at pelicaninstitute.org. American taxpayers have to struggle to pay their taxes in full and on time. Meanwhile, ACORN routinely has ignored its duty -- even as it has continued to collect millions of taxpayer dollars from the government.

Be sure to visit the Pelican Institute link and view the PDFs of the tax liens.

Bertha Lewis is lying through her teeth, that much is obvious. Why most of the media is ignoring her criminal activities remains a mystery. Watch how she can't even look at Darrell Issa. It's no wonder she's desperately avoiding appearing before Congress.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Organized Crime Syndicate Seeks to Consolidate Base in New York

Mob boss

What could possibly go wrong with the thugs at ACORN setting up permanent residence in New York.

Brooklynite Bertha Lewis is trying to make New York into ACORN's power base.

Lewis, CEO of the controversial community-outreach group, is looking to move central operations from New Orleans to the Empire State, former ACORN members say.

"They want to relocate to New York, where Bertha can consolidate her power," said Marcel Reid, an ACORN whistleblower who has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the group's mysterious finances.

Of course New York has just moved to freeze all contracts with the criminal empire, but that's probably just a cover until the recent furor dies down.

Here's Lewis on C-SPAN the other day. New York will no doubt welcome her with open arms (via Hot Air).



Meanwhile, ACORN defenders are becoming quite hysterical.

Wait, I Thought These Were Smears?

Just the other day one Bertha Lewis, CEO of Barack Obama's ACORN, weakly claimed the videos exposing their criminal enterprise were "smears" by evil right wingers, who turn out to be a couple of twenty-somethings who've already earned a Pulitzer Prize while running rings around the antique media.

Lewis squealed:

Bertha Lewis, Acorn's chief organiser, said the sting was an attempt to smear Mr Obama. "It is no coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction."

She added: "We are the boogeyman for the Right wing and its echo chambers."

Cut to today.

The embattled community organization ACORN abruptly suspended some programs and ordered new training for its workers this afternoon in effort to stem growing outrage over its activities.

ACORN announced the steps one day after top city and state officials moved to freeze funding to the sprawling community group while Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes probes questionable conduct by its employees.

The furor was ignited last week when two employees in ACORN's Brooklyn office were caught in an nationwide hidden-camera sting giving illicit financial advice to a young couple who said they wanted to start a brothel.

"We have all been deeply disturbed by what we’ve seen in some of these videos," Bertha Lewis, CEO of the national ACORN group, said in a statement. "We will go to whatever lengths necessary to reestablish the public trust. We must get this process right, so the good work can go forward."

Uh, but I thought these were smears out to derail ObamaCare, Bertha? Why are you disturbed now over the videos when you weren't the other day?

Lewis said an independent advisory council appointed earlier this year by ACORN would name an outside investigator "to conduct a thorough review of all of the organizations relevant systems and processes."

An independent council appointed by ACORN. Hmmm. Who exactly is on this council that was (ahem) appointed by ACORN?

No, what we need is a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder, who's been conspicuously silent the past week.

Meanwhile, another bomb is set to drop tonight at 9 ET.

Stay tuned.

Update: Here's their panel.

“A Soros hack, an SEIU thug, someone who pleaded to lying to the FBI, and a Kennedy.” All that’s missing are a few pimps and prostitutes for “technical expertise.”