ACORN Files Suit Against Conserative 'Pimp' - And May Give Us A Look At His Funding
This is going to be interesting, because under discovery, ACORN's attorney will have the right to look into videographer O'Keefe's financial records. Gee, I wonder if anyone else was funding him - and if so, who?
ACORN, the community organizing group embarrassed recently in a video sting, said Wednesday that it needs to determine whether it has major internal problems, but it also struck back, filing a lawsuit against the people who conducted the secret investigation.
Bertha Lewis, head of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, told reporters in a conference call that ACORN does not support criminal activity and that it thinks the filmmakers should have obeyed Maryland laws. In the state, where one video that embarrassed ACORN was made, the act constituted illegal wiretapping, the suit says.
The videos airing in the past two weeks show ACORN housing counselors advising two young conservative activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to conceal their criminal business.
Lewis said she wants a newly hired investigator to find the organization's weak spots, and she said she will make public the findings. Scott Harshbarger, a former Massachusetts attorney general hired for the investigation, vowed a "robust, no-holds-barred" review that would be "transparent." Lewis said ACORN in the meantime will have to turn away many low-income clients it normally helps with threatened foreclosure or tax preparation.
"We want to be sure that before we start helping people with services that our operation is running well," she said. "It doesn't hurt us financially. It does hurt the poor people we have served for many years."
Congress voted last week to ban federal funding for ACORN, and the organization hired Harshbarger to investigate and recommend changes.
On Wednesday, the new head of the federal Census Bureau revealed his reason for dropping ACORN as an agency partner. He said the bureau's link to ACORN was hurting efforts to get Americans to participate in the count. And Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Wednesday asked the House Judiciary Committee to summon Lewis, ACORN founder Wade Rathke and other ACORN officers for a hearing on its activities.
Discovery is not likely to be ACORN's friend.
been working on your JD during the break in posting? Inside info on the case?
me-oww!
Greta Wire, miss_kitty.
wait I looked it up. FOX 'News'
Really, dennis, you are parroting the ACORN hate machine? Think they're fair and balanced, then?
me-oww!
oh noes! Dennis is back...
if he came hungry he got to leave Chock Full 'O Nuts.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Dennis will need speak for himself if he is able. There are reasons to NOT bring an action. Not the least of which are the previous actions you will be relying on.
Here are two well considered discussions by Jonathan Turley on the rather ignoble company ACORN will be keeping in previous similar actions against journalists and others.
from 9/14/09:
Jonathan Turley here
from 9/24/09:
Jonathan Turley here
---
And there is this:
Ryan Grim c/o HuffPo here
The law written to de-fund Acorn may well de-fund the MIC at the same time. It de-funds:
We can dream can't we?
Glenn Greenwald picks the story up here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
.
School of Law and Janitorial Sciences. Where else?
or the Holy Nugget at Elko?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
how did he get out of Nam????
that a service organization which helps the poor and disabled has been found guilty without a trial.
But you, a man with two daughters - defends Halliburton, a business that hires child prostitutes for it's "contractors" and shields rapists.
She probably asked for it, right pennis?
with me, Mick Piobr. Whistleblowers from ACORN said they went there for that very reason, to help the poor and disabled, but over years saw the filth and corruption that pervaded that place, and were fired for voicing their opinions. Now they've set up operations on their own with their same goals in place. If you condone an environment where multiple offices easily, readily and enthusiastically were willing to help two people set up an illegal underage prostitution ring, and not even feel like they had to hide it at the time, then fine with me.
Just lay off the bullshit guilt trip crap because I don't condone my tax dollars going to fund it.
You lost even your hero, Barney Frank, Mick. Ask him if he doesn't care about the poor and disabled.
Idiot.
anger, Dennis?? and such a quick start on the name-calling too... What's the matter? Head up your a$$ again?
FOX 'News,' and we know what they're about.
me-oww!
I'd think you knew me better than that. Even when I do watch tv, and even when I might have Fox on, I'm constantly changing channels to see what someone else is saying.
I just happened to hear Greta this morning on the way into work discussing the various scenarios of discovery. But truthfully, I did more reading of it yesterday than anything else.
I have no way to know better. You're comments are right out of FOX 'News' talking heads' mouths.
I don't expect you to see that though. I'd be embarrassed about it too.
me-oww!
do you really think your comments here are ever any more than the standard fair one would get looking at Think PRogress or watching Keith Olbermann, miss kitty. Do you consider yourself more informed and more of a free thinker that has a good feel for what's right and wrong what the other side is thinking and why.
That mat very well be in you, but I've never seen it come out in your comments here. You were impressive with your knowledge of chemicals and Monsanto on that thread a while ago with the PR rep, but you were a jerk to him the whole while. You can't get past thinking anyone you disagree with is a complete asshole and any reason he thinks differently than you is because he's an asshole. You've always been that way.
assessment, but I won't be losing sleep over it. :D
I don't watch Olbermann, or any 24 hour news station, FYI.
me-oww!
I don't get all my information from Fox, either. What the hell kind of charge was that, anyway?
Where were you "reading up on" discovery yesterday? Huh?
ol' Dennis says that discovery will be bad for ACORN but he seems rather upset that it will occur. I think they call this "concern trolling". Trying to turn people against their own best interests. A Rethug trick from Atwater. And one of the many reasons the Rethugs are history.
your employer's gonna be happy to know this, huh?
They are very happy with me this year, yes.
on the number of wackadoodle comments rather then the substance of them?
something?
Turn the TV off entirely.
It is Corporate Propaganda.
You could input every purported news channel and not come up with any information that the Corporations do not WANT you to come up with.
Journalism is about uncovering that which the powerful do not WANT uncovered.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
help anyone set up anything of the sort!!! If they had they would have been arrested and facing federal charges MORON!
from? Those two high schoolers could not have done ANYTHING for "years." Except maybe breathe and gossip about others. Let's see how smart they are when they have to go to jail with some of the people they screwed over.
FOX 'News'
me-oww!
that the ACORN employees were jerking around the obvious idiots who did the filming.
It never ceases to amaze me how the anti-American wingers just love licking scoury shit out of Beck, O'Lierly, and Limpdicks asses.
Why was ACORN defunded. Why were they dropped from the census. Why did the IRS sever ties with ACORN. Why did Obama pretend he didn't know how much money ACORN got and lie that he hadn't been following the story?
dennis I really feel you are being disingenuous here. Either that, or you are seriously deluded.
Watching Beck now, are you? I will assume yes.
me-oww!
of the Katie Couric interview recently, miss_kitty. I'm usually just getting home from work when Beck's show is on, and turning on the tv is not something I particularly want to do at 5:00. Too much going on around the Dennis household.
He seems to get an awful lot of play time around here, though.
Like every day.
I think you guys have gotten him where he is today.
Color of change had something to do with that too.
me-oww!
well done...
Look where it got him.
Obama had to throw him under the bus, too.
And now ACORN.
And the NEA.
I think Glenn Beck is probably doing ok. I don't follow him all that much but I did read that his sponsors just moved to other time slots on Fox. Whatever though, I don't care and don't follow sponsor and ad revenues; I have enough things I have to worry about right now.
generalities, don't you denis? Be warned: you get what you give.
What if Fox goes off the air? Then who will tell you what to think and say?
Jones made a choice. He did not want people distracted by responding to Faux Noise BS, rather than doing the work required to get this country working again. He really is a very smart man, loads of compassion and empathy, which made him a target for the RW.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
Political pressure from right wing radicals might make weak kneed Dems tremble but it doesn't create crimes that never occurred. IF they "set up an illegal underage prostitution ring" where is this prostitution ring?? And why haven't they been arrested?? IDIOT!
Who knew. WTF are you talking about, denis?
IRS, ACORN Sever Ties Over Scandal
Try to keep up, savannah.
Or go away, one of the two.
I am not going away. I am going to ride you with vigor, and I have my spurs on. Answer the questions, or it shall be assumed that you do not know what you are talking about. Is that too much to ask?
Because people are stupid and jump to conclusions (look in the mirror).
One of the guys fired actually strung the supposed pimp and ho along to get as much info out of them as possible and then REPORTED them to the feds..It should be obvious by now that the one woman really didn't kill her husbands..
Do you know the amount of your 'tax dollars' that go to ACORN?
According to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R - Ohio) from this source:
"...initial review of federal records shows ACORN affiliates have received at least $31 million in direct federal funding from American taxpayers over the past 10 years"
$3.1 million per year. Dude, they're spending that much of your 'tax dollars' to kill brown people per minute.
But you DO condone the rapists and murderers of Halliburton and Blackwater/Xe!
Conservative.
It once meant something decent. He's nothing but another right-wing radical wack-job.
Now it means "willing slave to the wealthy."
It just won't be money.
with that.
tell me one thing I've said that is radical wack-job. You guys spend all your time seeing who can outdo the previous post and go further and further down the sinkhole, then anyone who tries to interject some common sense into the conversation you label a wack job.
I don't get it.
I just offered my opinion that discovery is not likely to be ACORN's friend.
And as I asked you earlier, where did you get your law degree? How do you know what discovery entails?
"an environment where multiple offices easily, readily and enthusiastically were willing to help two people set up an illegal underage prostitution ring, and not even feel like they had to hide it at the time"
Is nothing but inaccurate radical right-wing wack-job hype of what actually occurred!!!
with common sense, we acknowledge it.
the wack jobs, we label as wack jobs.
ya wack job.
I've never condoned any rapes or murders, Mick.
Just not my nature.
I'm funny that way.
Just the other day you had your bowels in an uproar that we had terrible things to say about Halliburton -
when Acorn was so much worse.
Isn't it time for you to go inbreed and make some more republicans?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/user/9948/comme...
Right, Shadow....etc
of all places and she ended up voting for Obama.
Can you imagine that, Mick?
And I was even happy for her. It was her first time that she could vote and she knew how much time I had spent on the computer the last few years fighting liberals for truth and the American way.
truth and the American way..
You have not been fighting for truth or the American Way at all. You've been fighting for the banshees, the petty, the short-sighted and small-minded.
me-oww!
miss_kitty.
Quite impressive.
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 12:24 — miss_kitty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqKzQ8yeL4Q
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
other than her father.
seriously... you've been buying into that republican(t) nonsense for far too long! I'm thrilled your little girl has a mind of her own though... good for her!
what do you know, Dennis?
Seriously. I really wanna know what you think it is. And how it applies to "fighting liberals" for it.
fighting liberals for truth and the American way confused with trolling for the fascist corporate-owned politicians that don't give a damn about him or America.
doesn't he?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
today. A real nasty bigot.
.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Do you know what IRS stands for? Where did you garner this information from, denis?
.
has been hitting home a lot lately.
And I know many others much worse off.
He declined to answer in order to focus on other comments that helped further his agenda. I was actually hoping for answers as he seems very eloquent.
I just don't agree with his opinions. But I like that we can have guy here who doesn't hold the exact same opinion as the majority here
:)
me-oww!
miss_kitty, actually. Just knock off the stupid stuff about where I get my news. I get it from a thousand places and I'd be willing to bet you that I've spent a lot more time on liberal blogs than you have reading conservative blogs the past four years. I'd come here more often but all my buds are gone.
for the discovery was some FOX 'News' mouthpiece. That's why.
As for your claim about our respective website visitation, I will not argue with you there. That's because I have no time for liars and manipulators and whinging bastards that occupy that which we now refer to as the right. I was never exposed to that shit growing up, and I see no reason to try to wrap my head around the false arguments and distraction from the issues those people revel in.
You are so cute when you feel you've been niggled, dear.
me-oww!
Which is what exactly dennis?
I would really like to hear your take on that one.
The Justice League?
Too little of me.
Gotta get back to customers, sorry.
run along now...
libbenMod. Longer than my usual alloted time, anyway. Besides, if you and I get going you usually get all upset, and I'm not that way any more.
you've stomped out of here a few times, yourself.
me-oww!
but maybe I did, who knows. I only remember the laughs and I had a lot of them. Some of my biggest foes became good friends, or at least people who I now have a great deal of respect for. There's nothing I wouldn't do for a couple them right now if they asked me.
you have to tell yourself to keep up your self esteem.
I don't care, really.
Liberals must think trolls are squirrels.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
source of income at this point.
The guy who made the video has a questionable past. He called Planned Parenthood once offering to donate money to have black babies aborted so there wouldn't be so many black people. It was another sting like the one he played on Acorn to try to get someone at planned parenthood to agree with him. He taped the call.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Obama's tossing them under the bus isn't that the latest?
war crimes are protected? This is an outrage.
..sounds like he's looking for work as a faux producer!
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Academy of Cheerleading.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
is one of those right-wing pea-brained preachers who thinks that Cheezis hates blacks, immigrants and gays.
He also used to have Affirmative Action Bake Sales in college at Rutgers. There was also his ubiquitous Centurion cover with the Prophet Muhammad with the bomb turban on the front. Now if anybody really wants to hold their feet to the fire, post news bits on this kid juxtaposed with this cover on Muslim news sites :)
He took me Lucky Charms too!!! The asshole had a fake protest to ban Lucky Charms in the dining hall.
of political correctness!
Those cantservatives spending lotsa time on the IMPORTANT issues...
The other day I came across an article that had a snippet from O'Keefe's now deleted online diary:
Poor persecuted James, he just cannot imagine why he has no friends.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
cry him a river, doesn't it?! WTF?! the guy's a wiener!
has been taken away because of a stunt pulled by this thing? Shame, shame, shame. I expect this behavior from Fox and Co., but from Congress? It's worse than even I thought.
and Congress pulled the trigger.
They are a trigger happy lot.
Course the whole thing was about doin tricks.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Since I have an open circuit through a mutual friend onto his postings on Facebook, I posted one of the other diaries I found of him ogling 13 year old swiss girls, and also about how he loved to buy girls makeup. I hope I sufficiently creeped him out... such a toolbox
makes sense.
The kid is in big trouble. Real journalists know about wiretapping/surveillance laws when they pull these stunts. These knuckleheads thought they were having fun, but they're soon going to be facing felony charges in Maryland and Pennsylvania. And who knows where else.
Seems like Fox dropped those videos from heavy rotation pretty quickly, maybe this is the reason.
passed these dumb mofos by. Even I know you can't tape another party in MD w/o permission, and I've never been there.
me-oww!
They were in middle school back then.
sent me a reply today about ACORN saying: "Recent actions by ACORN employees reveal a disturbing and intolerable pattern of abuse of taxpayer dollars."
I replied: "(so called) Representative Welch,
Recent actions by Lockheed Martin, Blackwater/XE, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, etc., etc., etc. employees reveal a disturbing and intolerable pattern of abuse of taxpayer dollars. In many of these cases the amount of money the US taxpayers have been defrauded out of alone exceeds the ENTIRE funding of ACORN. A lot of Vermonters are getting the distinct impression that you don't give a sweet shit about that though!!!"
who ran to defund ACORN did nothing to defund the dept of torture during the Bush admin?
The message that sends is torture good, helping poor people bad.
me-oww!
He had to run as BOTH a Dem and a Rethug because he was so afraid of being booted out, as he should have been. It's past time for people stop voting based on party and start voting for individuals who will actually represent the constituents.
Murray voted to confirm Roberts, Cantwell voted to defund ACORN, while Murray didn't bother to commit either way.
me-oww!
nice response....may I use it if my Congressman sends ME a letter like yours did?
all it takes is all of us
And here's the list of "Federal Contractor Misconduct".
http://www.contractormisconduct.org/
And I've yet to hear of any of these being held accountable. Nor of any of them having to even pay back the millions of tax dollars they have defrauded us taxpayers out of!
Let's look at the bigger picture beyond ACORN. If Congress can act in record time without benefit of hearings, indictments or convictions to deny a group federal funds, then we need Congress to apply this one-strike policy against ALL entities that have employees crossing real or imaginary lines.
Let's have a zero tolerance for any health industry provider that overcharges Medicare, for example, be banned from participating in Federal programs. Same for any war racketeer that overcharges, colludes or otherwise misbehaves: put them on the banned contractors list.
defrauding Medicare--it's already-rich doctors, and other providers. And it's not Jose and Juanita who are the foundation of the illegal immigration problem--it's the large meatpacking and other companies who hire them for cheap. Going after the little people is like arresting the prostitute but letting her clients go free. If there were no demand, there'd be no supply.
.
O'Reilly objected strenuously to anybody investigating the right wing preppy pimp and his prostitute. Where did they get the money for their little adventures?
Oh what fun it will be to discover which right wing organization funded this smear campaign.
Pass the popcorn!
Hopefully out of all this shit will come some records of the good things ACORN has done over the years. Some of the people they have helped need to come forward and tell their stories. Yes, the ladies on the videos appeared to be screwing up, but I can name some congress people who have screwed up but it didn't shut down the whole congress, republican or democrat. If someone broke the law, put them in jail, but don't punish the intire organization.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Trying to destroy an organization that helps working Americans and Americans suffering in poverty because of the actions of a couple of employees only hurts America as a whole. Lets see Congress apply that same standard to the money hogs at the pork barrel trough!!!!
How could street smart people, and they must be street smart having worked on the street, fall for those insipid costumes and stupid questions? Really!
Doesn't ACORN get most of its operating money from private donations, and relatively little from the US Government?
Proud DFH, emeritus!
they received 10% of their funding from the federal government. *sigh*
Seems they have already convicted ACORN before they even investigate them. How about they just freeze the money until they know for sure what the hell happened. The punishment has preceded the verdict.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
and the Census Bureau and IRS have severed ties with them, etc, etc.
Okay, I stand corrected. I thought the money had been cut off indefinately for the organization.
The way I understood it was that Acorn was not going to be actually out there doing the census, instead their website would be used as an informational site about the census.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
to paint and define Dems as corrupt.
a company whose criminality and corruption is demonstrably pervasive.
ACORN is being convicted based on the actions on low level employees.
If 5 or 6 Boeing mechanics shoplifted, would the entire company be indicted?
me-oww!
Let's fry some more soldiers and figger out how to protect our contractors' right to rape women.
asses.
Okay, I'm gonna pass on that one.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I'm not kidding. Rachel showed them first. YS? Help us out here?
It was an English security firm if I'm not mistaken.
money.
.
Security at the US embassy in Iraq.
Poopy flavoured vodka shots.
tequila shots from various parts of the female anatomy...but butt shots off of a sweaty dude...noooo thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M_UOghI_TU&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I'm still cleaning my TeeVee screen. Of course the butt images were blurred, but it was enough.
executives can rape little children and murder innocent people and nothing is done about it and they get a new multi-million dollar contract. A couple of low level employees from ACORN, which helps working low income Americans, fuck with a couple of right wing creepy criminal "whistleblowers" and it's the end of civilization or some shit according to the MSM and Congress. WTF????
Boy, these guys are quick to investigate crap like this. Why haven't they investigated where the missing $9B went to in Iraq. Or the BS Cheney/Bush pulled or why our tax dollars are giving Iraqi citizens free health care, etc., etc.
Because our whole system is corrupt.
the forged documents they used along with the domestic propaganda to get their war on.
pretty brazen if you ask me.
The first place I saw these videos was on Beck's show and he was damned excited about having them and showing them. There's one dot to begin with.
Beck has been hammering ACORN for a long time now. He and fox in general have been on their case, but Beck took it to another level.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
advantage to bring the Dems down another notch or two.
Cause further division what have you.
they already have to look up to see their own feet.
me-oww!
Van Jones anythings possible.
fight. They employ Beck, and the others. Rupert Murdoch is acting in a treasonous manner and promoting sedition. I call war criminal. Take Ailes as a conspirator.
what are they going to say about the Cheney/Bush administration giving ACORN 14 million dollars?
it will all somehow be blamed on Obama and community activism I suspect.
That's a part, but also to distract us from needful investigations of Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, voter caging, laws design to confuse the franchise, and to disenfranchise those who have just gotten the right, voter intimidation, and paperless, hackable voting machines.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
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