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.

Obama's 100 Days a 'Hallmark Holiday'

Maybe since they're naming it after a greeting card company they can send out some bereavement cards commemorating the death of capitalism.

President Obama starts the week of his "First Hundred Days" milestone (on Wednesday April 29) with a 69 percent approval rating, and 50 percent of the country thinking the U.S. is on the right track -- the highest rating in six years. (In October, only 8 percent of the American people thought the nation was on the right track.)

The White House calls the "100 Days" marker a "Hallmark Holiday" -- a day of little actual significance, but probably best to play along and exchange cards anyway.

Not everyone will be celebrating.

"All new presidents get the benefit of the doubt for the first three months," adds Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. "That benefit of the doubt will evaporate shortly when the impact of his policies becomes better known."

Iraqi Officers Missing in U.S.

Apparently some of them are seeking asylum, though who knows what some of those who've disappeared are up to. There needs to be some accountability here.

Iraqi officers go missing in U.S.

Numerous Iraqi military and law-enforcement officials brought to the U.S. as part of special intelligence and training programs have run away and are seeking asylum in this country or disappeared altogether, The Washington Times has learned.

Intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say nearly a dozen Iraqis fled military training facilities in the U.S., including a brigadier general who went to Canada with his family earlier this year.

Army officials yesterday confirmed that five Iraqi military personnel whom the Army had been training disappeared between 2005 and 2007. They did not know how many other Iraqis sponsored by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy may have done the same.

"Nothing that this command is aware of would suggest that any of those students who departed from their training or returned back to Iraq pose any threat to the United States," said Harvey Perritt, civilian spokesman for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), which oversees all the schools the Army has in the continental U.S.

"We don"t know the reasons why they elected not to return to Iraq," he said.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, says the national security implications are serious and the Bush administration must do more to ensure that those brought to the U.S. are properly accounted for.

"The trainees are given access to highly sensitive information intended to help in the stabilization of Iraq. Proper screening for entry into the program and strict controls during the training are necessary to protect both our national security and our soldiers overseas," said Mr. Smith, who first inquired about missing trainees last year.

Read the rest.

House GOP Alternative to Shamnesty

It's times like these when I tip to my hat to Long Island's Peter King, a man who never is afraid to be called names and generally does the right thing, most notably recently in the Flying Imams/John Doe legislation in the House (which the Democrats are trying to bottle up).

Now King and Lamar Smith of Texas have introduced a bill focused on improving security and urging President Bush to enforce the laws already on the books, Steven Dinan reports today.

Goodness, they must be taking their marching orders from talk radio. Or, more likely, they realize the overwhelming majority of Americans are opposed to Shamnesty.

Key House Republicans yesterday said they would stick with current immigration laws rather than adopt the Senate's reform bill, taking a poke at the key selling point of President Bush and Senate Republicans to try to earn conservatives' support.

"Ideally, you would have the current law plus the legislation we are proposing today, but what we want to do is stop the Senate amnesty bill in its tracks right now," said Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee.

He and fellow Republicans -- including Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee -- introduced a bill enhancing existing security and a resolution calling on Mr. Bush to enforce a dozen laws already on the books.

Mr. Bush and some Senate Republicans have argued that the current situation is de facto amnesty for illegal aliens because the laws are too difficult to enforce. They say the Senate bill -- which gives legalized status to most illegal aliens, creates a new worker program and requires stricter employer checks ? is needed to gain control.

Meanwhile, Dinan also notes the focuse of Georgia's two GOP senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, who are under tremendous pressure on both sides.

The battle for each senator's vote on immigration is at the hand-to-hand combat level now, with business groups that want the bill and grass-roots activists who oppose it fighting it out through phone calls, radio ads and personal visits at offices back home.

Georgia is the newest fight, with the state's U.S. senators considered premier prizes: Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both Republicans who appeared to back the Senate's immigration bill before distancing themselves in the face of voter opposition. But even as they try to increase the gap, the Bush administration and Georgia businesses are trying to rope them back in, telling them the state's economy needs the workers.

Michelle Malkin, as usual, is leading the charge, today highlighting an ad from 9/11 Families for a Secure America. It is the notion of us allowing undocumented terrorists into this country which is in great part driving the opposition to this legislation.

You can make all the arguments you want that we cannot deport the millions of illegals here. Fine. Still, what Americans want is our borders secure and the flow of mysterious people coming in halted. It's as if we have sat by for 40 years and watched an invasion without putting up any resistance. Nobody is implying poor Mexicans who want to come here have nefarious motives, but it isn't a stretch of the imagingation to see Al Qaeda being able to recruit Mexican gang members to work with them, is it?

Finally, if we need to reinforce to logical choice of deporting criminal illegals, Patterico, the newest addition to Hot Air, has yet another example of a criminal illegal -- who never should have been in the country -- taking lives while driving drunk.

Ironic that a drunk driver who snuffed out a life -- hello, Ted Kennedy!, is the driving force behind allowing a swarm of illegals to overrun this country.

Others weighing in include 7.62mm Justice.