IMHO VBG

IMHO=In My Humble Opinion VBG=Very Big Grin

This blog is devoted to topics that interest me and perhaps I'll post information that "the mainstream media" chooses to ignore or deemphasize. The point here is not to debate what I post, just consider it another point of view if you disagree with it, you know, be "open minded" and "tolerant."

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

ACORN

From little nuts mighty ACORNs do grow


This is the third sting: 'Pimp & hooker' catch B'klyn ACORN staff

September 14, 2009

surrounding the left-wing activist organization ACORN has spread to New York, with employees at its Brooklyn office caught on video helping supposed ladies of the night get loans for their dream houses of ill repute.


Rather than reminding the women that prostitution is dangerous and illegal and advising them to change their careers, counselors at the social-services group shockingly offer suggestions on how they can launder their earnings.


"Honesty is not going to get you the house," a loan counselor at the offices told two activists posing as a mortgage-seeking pimp and prostitute.

"You can't say what you do for a living."


ACORN workers in two other cities, Baltimore and Washington, DC, had already fallen hooker, line and sinker for the hidden-camera sting operation by two conservative activists.


Four ACORN employees have been fired as a result of the earlier videos, and last Friday the Census Bureau severed its ties with the group, whose members had been hired to do canvassing during the 2010 census.


In an unrelated outrage, ACORN was accused of widespread voter fraud during the 2008 presidential election by helping unqualified voters to register...


...The ACORN workers were not the slightest bit judgmental or put off by the request for help in getting financing for a brothel.


Counselor Volda Albert freely offered financial advice to the young couple, and held back on giving out any life advice.


"I can't tell you don't do it, because you won't listen to me," Albert said.


For tax and banking purposes, and to establish a legitimate income and credit history, Giles was told she needed to start saying she was a "freelancer."


"Don't say that you're a prostitute thing or whatever," she said.


Albert also suggested that Giles open two accounts at separate banks, depositing no more than $500 each a week to ensure few eyebrows are raised.


As for the rest of the money she earned from turning tricks, Albert told her to hide it away.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/pimp_hooker_catch_staff_Js4YPEcsCcxLZhAEehLhmL


Time for IRS to review all ACORN-prepared tax filings
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/time_for_irs_to_review_all_aco.html


Lawmakers Turn Up the Heat on ACORN
September 14, 2009

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are calling for congressional hearings and IRS audits of ACORN following the release of three videotapes that show the group's employees offering advice to a "pimp" and a "prostitute" on how to skirt the law.


Rep. Steve King, R-IA, said a video released Monday that shows filmmaker James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20, getting advice from ACORN employees in Brooklyn, N.Y., on how to launder their earnings and avoid detection while running a prostitution business is "another reason to turn it up" on ACORN...


If you see that it's endemic, that it's at least three cities will help support and organize and provide for lending to homes of prostitution for underage girls that come from foreign countries that are likely illegal, how many drugs are being dealt out of houses facilitated by ACORN?" King told FOX News on Monday.


"What would they not do?" he asked of the ACORN workers. "Where would they reach a moral revulsion?"


King called on Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold investigations into ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, which also has been accused of widespread voter fraud during the 2008 presidential election. King also asked for a full "financial forensic analysis" into the group on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service.


"We saw into the offices of ACORN, we saw the faces of ACORN in Baltimore, in Washington, D.C., and in Brooklyn, and you have to imagine that's going on in every inner city across America where ACORN is set up," King said. "We've got to shut off every federal dollar to ACORN and we've got to investigate them thoroughly."


Calls to Conyers' office in Washington were not immediately returned on Monday. Officials at the IRS did not respond to messages seeking comment, and the Department of Justice declined to comment.


A spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said ACORN'S tax status as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization should also be probed.


"We've already seen the Census Bureau severe its tie with ACORN," the spokesman, Kurt Bardella, told FOXNews.com. "Certainly, as an organization being subsidized by taxpayer dollars, their relationship with other government entities should be called into question, and whether or not it's appropriate for them to receive taxpayer dollars."


...In response, ACORN officials blamed FOX News and conservatives for fueling the controversy.


"By its actions, Fox is not a news outlet but rather an advocacy organization for rightwing interests that seek to defeat healthcare reform and stymie solutions to the foreclosure crisis," the group said in a statement to FOXNews.com. "That said, with regard to the Census, ACORN has always said it would encourage full participation in the decennial count, and we will continue to do so."


ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis said the videos capturing her former workers were "doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist 'filmmaker' O'Keefe and his partner in crime." (then why were those ACORN workers fired???)


Lewis said ACORN will take legal action against FOX News and those involved in the making of the videos. She said ACORN offices were also targeted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Philadelphia, among other places.


"I am appalled and angry," Lewis said. "I cannot and I will not defend the actions of the workers depicted in the video, who have since been terminated." (if it's all doctored and fabricated are you going to rehire the fired ACORN workers???)

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/14/lawmakers-continue-probes-acorn/


Maryland may charge ACORN video-makers, State's Prosecutor heads anti-child abuse group
09/12/09
...James O'Keefe, the intrepid filmmaker who teamed with National Journalism Center intern Hannah Giles in the ACORN video sting, now faces the prospect of being prosecuted by the Baltimore City State's Attorney for violating a Maryland that makes it illegal to tape an individual without their prior permission.


If he is convicted, O'Keefe could spend five years in the Maryland State Prison. Yes, you read that right. Here's the complete statement issued late yesterday by the prosecutor, Patricia Jessamy:


"Baltimore, MD – September 11, 2009 – We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation for acts allegedly committed at ACORN offices located in Baltimore. The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.


"If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to five years.”


...Let's be clear about what is happening here: O'Keefe and Giles dressed up as a pimp and prostitute and walked into the Baltimore ACORN office seeking "tax advice" for a brothel that would include the use of 13-year-old sex slaves from San Salvador. Two ACORN advisers happily provided all kinds of advice about how to deceive federal and state tax authorities about the true nature of the "business," and how to insure that the prostitutes "keep their mouths shut."


In other words, two ACORN employees appear to have voluntarily become accessories to multiple federal, state and local crimes, including child abuse, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, tax evasion, and immigration law violations. The two ACORN employees may also have thus provided hard evidence that their employer should be prosecuted as a criminal enterprise under the RICO statutes.


And the Baltimore City State's Attorney may prosecute the two people responsible for exposing this heinous operation!


UPDATE: Jessamy ignored prior 'underground' video reporting


An eagle-eyed Hot Air reader notes that Jessamy did nothing in recent years when two Baltimore media outlets used the same hidden camera technique to after stories that ultimately won professional plaudits from journalism colleagues. And in the same post, Hot Air's Ed Morrissey points to the substantial evidence of Jessamy's intensely partisan approach to the duties of her office.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Maryland-to-prosecute-ACORN-video-makers-59122807.html



Maryland ACORN Official: It’s Racism

Statement from Margaret Williams, Board Member, Maryland ACORN:

It is clear and not coincidence that FOX continues to attack and divide our nation along racial lines. We believe our country is beyond this type of attack and call on all Americans to demand that FOX stop its racist coverage.
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/11/maryland-acorn-official-foxnews-racism-behind-acorn-investigation/


ACORN fires back at critics after sting
September 13, 2009

The group has long weathered charges of criminal activity ranging from voter fraud to racketeering as well as criticism of its financial ties and close cooperation with President Obama's 2008 campaign for the White House.


"It is no coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction," Bertha Lewis, ACORN's chief organizer, said in a press release Saturday. "It is clear they've had these tapes for months."


Ms. Lewis said conservative forces were conspiring to make ACORN the "Willie Horton for 2009," referring to the convicted murderer who committed more crimes while on work release from a Massachusetts prison and was featured in a 1988 campaign ad criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis as being supposedly soft on crime.


"We are the boogeyman for the right wing and its echo chambers," Ms. Lewis said.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/13/acorn-fires-back-at-critics-after-sting-1/


ACORN Exposed
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/14/acorn-exposed


ACORN Officials Videotaped Telling 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' How to Lie
9/10/09
Officials with the controversial community organizing group ACORN were secretly videotaped offering to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents.


The videotape was made public Thursday on http://www.biggovernment.com/


...In the videotape, made on July 24, James O'Keefe, a 25-year-old independent filmmaker, posed as a pimp with a 20-year-old woman named "Kenya" who posed as a prostitute while visiting ACORN's office in Baltimore. The couple told ACORN staffers they wanted to secure housing where the woman could continue to maintain a prostitution business...


....The ACORN staffer can also be seen suggesting that the prostitute list her occupation as a freelance "performing artist."


"It's not dancing, trust me," the "pimp" says.


"But dancing is considered an art," the ACORN staffer replies. "[Exotic dancers] usually go under performing artists, or yeah, they usually go under performing arts, which will be what you are — a performing artist."


The "pimp" later says that he and "Kenya" plan to bring up to 13 "very young" girls from El Salvador to work as prostitutes. Although an ACORN staffer points out their plans are illegal, she also suggests that the girls can be claimed as dependents.


"What if they are going to be making money because they are performing tricks too?" the pimp says.


"If they making money and they are underage, then you shouldn't be letting anybody know anyway," the ACORN staffer says, and laughs. "It's illegal. So I am not hearing this, I am not hearing this. You talk too much. Don't give up no information you're not asked."


The "pimp" then asks ACORN staffers to "promise" not to discriminate against his sex worker because of "who she is and what she does," according to the audiotape.


"If we don't have the information, then how are we going to discriminate?" the ACORN staffer replies. "You see what I am saying?"


If the girls are under age 16, the ACORN staffer says on the tape, then they are not legally allowed to work in the state, regardless of what they do.


"So it's like they don't even exist?" "Kenya" asks.


"Exactly," the ACORN staffer replies. "It's like they don't even exist."


The staffer goes on to suggest that as many as three of the underage girls can be listed as dependents at the home, but a "flag" will be raised if as many as 13 are listed.


"You are gonna use three of them," the staffer says. "They are gonna be under 16, so you is eligible to get child tax credit and additional child tax credit."


The ACORN workers also appear to be promoting the group's services to the "pimp" and "Kenya."


A second ACORN employee can be heard on the audiotape suggesting that the couple join the organization for an annual cost of $120 prior to attending one of its first-time homebuyer seminars, which are underwritten with taxpayer funds.


Later, when the "pimp" asks what would happen if the organization is somehow connected to the scheme, the ACORN staffer replies, "First of all, it's not gonna damage us because we not gonna know. And with your girls, you tell them, 'Be careful.' Train them to keep their mouth shut."

"These girls are like 14, how can we trust them?" the pimp asks.


"Just be very, very careful," the ACORN staffer says. "Whatever you do, always keep your eyes in the back of your head."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,548827,00.html?test=latestnews


Second Video Shows Other ACORN Officials Helping 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in Washington Office
Friday, September 11, 2009
One day after two ACORN officials in Baltimore were fired for offering to help a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute to engage in child prostitution and a series of tax crimes, another secretly shot videotape has surfaced that shows the same couple getting similar advice from ACORN officers in Washington.


The newly released videotape, shot on July 25, shows ACORN staffers explaining to the pair how they can hide the woman's professed work — prostitution — and get a loan that will help them establish a brothel.


James O'Keefe, a 25-year-old independent filmmaker, posed as the pimp while visiting the ACORN office, accompanied by 20-year-old Hannah Giles, who posed as the prostitute. On a videotape provided to FOXNews.com, they are seen receiving guidance to establish the woman as the sole proprietor of a bogus company to mask the nature of her business.


"She's not going to put on (the loan application) that she's doing prostitution ... she doesn't have to," the ACORN staffer says. "You don't have to sit back and tell people what you do."

• Click here to see video http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549241,00.html#  .

The ACORN staffer is heard suggesting that O'Keefe can purchase a house, and as the landlord, if he is ever questioned by authorities, he can say he was unaware of the illegal business going on inside.


"[W]hen the police ask you, (tell them) you don't know where (the money is) coming from," the staffer said. "We are looking out for you."


The ACORN employee later suggests that O'Keefe, who said he had a budding political career, not linger at the house in case people "put the dots together" and leave him "smeared and tarnished" by his association with his prostitute girlfriend. She should keep her business "low key," the employee continued, saying "You have neighbors and they see stuff. Don't think that people won't get on the telephone and call Fox."


An ACORN spokesman told FOX News the group would need to look at the full tape and transcript before commenting…
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549241,00.html


David Bennett
http://www.freewill-predestination.com/