Louisiana Watergate: Landrieu Makes a Statement

Via Bayou Buzz, Senator Landrieu has issued a statement regarding the James O'Keefe arrest:

This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff. The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward.

Additionally, the Louisiana Democratic Party has issued an odd statement in which they seem to implicate Senator David Vitter in some nefarious doings:

This is a Louisiana Watergate. Louisiana families are shocked and outraged that these men would break the law to carry out their political agenda with this Watergate-like break-in and attempted wiretapping. Given his ties to some of the players involved, Sen. Vitter should immediately denounce the actions of these four men and anyone who may have instigated, supported or assisted them. We call on U.S Attorney Jim Letten to conduct a thorough investigation and to prosecute any wrongdoers to the fullest extent of the law.

The "ties to some of the players involved" remains unspecified, however blogger Lindsay Beyerstein reports the following:

One of the four men arrested for allegedly trying to bug Mary Landrieu's office interned for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in 2007, according to his LinkedIn profile. The following year, Robert Flanagan worked as a paid intern for Republican Rep. Mary Fallin of OK. His duties included "brief[ing] legislative staff on issues of national security and international relations." In the summer of 2008, Flanagan volunteered for Chris Gorman's campaign in Shreveport, LA.

The link to David Vitter remains unclear.

Politico points out that "There's no mention of wiretapping or "bugging" in the complaint or press release from the U.S. Attorney's office, and it isn't entirely clear what the foursome were up to." The affidavit only says that they were entering government offices under false pretenses. However, it also says that the four were entering "for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States of America." (PDF here).

That's pretty much the same thing as "bugging" and wiretapping to me.

If O'Keefe and friends are in fact guilty then they deserve to be punished as the law requires. That said, it doesn't negate the work O'Keefe did to expose ACORN for the fraudulent organization it is. ACORN was caught on tape attempting to help set up brothels and teenage prostitution rings, among other things. O'Keefe's guilt, or innocence, in this case does not absolve ACORN for their sins.

As they say, developing!

Oh, No They Didn't!

Oh my, you've just got to laugh, sometimes!

Via Fox News, Rep. Steve King at Monday's White House Christmas party ... with his ACORN shaped cookie. ROFLMFAO!



Amateurs!

Good Old-Fashioned Cronyism

I'm no lawyer and I'm no expert in constitutional law, but from where I'm sitting, Rep. Darrell Issa sounds pretty reasonable when he says that the DOJ judgment to keep funding ACORN is "old-fashioned cronyism."

This decision was made a month ago and was posted online last week.

It appears that the acting assistant attorney general, who broke out a dictionary AND a thesaurus to look up "provided to," is interpreting the language in what he calls a "discretionary" manner to avoid being sued (again) by ACORN:

Mr. Barron said he had based his conclusion on the statute’s phrase “provided to.” This phrase, he said, has no clearly defined meaning in the realm of government spending — unlike words like “obligate” and “expend.”

Citing dictionary and thesaurus entries, he said “provided to” could be interpreted as meaning only instances in which an official was making “discretionary choices” about whether to give the group money, rather than instances in which the transfer of money to Acorn was required to satisfy contractual obligations.

Since there are two possible ways to construe the term “provided to,” Mr. Barron wrote, it makes sense to pick the interpretation that allows the government to avoid breaching contracts.

Since ACORN has already sued the United States government over the October spending bill which "included a provision that said no taxpayer money — including money authorized by previous legislation — could be 'provided to' the group or its affiliates," there is no reason to think they wouldn't continue to pursue the issue if they don't get their contractually promised cash.

So who is running this show, anyway?

It appears ACORN is.

Jake Tapper has Rep. Issa's statement:

"The bipartisan intent of Congress was clear – no more federal dollars should flow to ACORN," Issa said. "It is telling that this administration continues to look for every excuse possible to circumvent the intent of Congress. Taxpayers should not have to continue subsidizing a criminal enterprise that helped Barack Obama get elected president. The politicization of the Justice Department to pay back one of the president’s political allies is shameful and amounts to nothing more than old-fashioned cronyism.”

It's just beyond belief to me that an organization with such a large number of criminal indictments and charges and investigations (oh my) would continue to get checks from the U.S. Government. Only in Eric Holder's justice department could this happen.

H/T: Memeorandum

NY-23: Election Day

I'm joining Stacy McCain in hoping that "it ends tonight" with regard to NY-23. But, it won't. At least, not if Anita Moncrief is correct. ACORN is already gearing up to protest the election.

Read Anita's concerns at Hot Air's Greenroom. She says, "Multiple sources on the ground in New York’s 23^rd Congressional district confirm that ACORN is expected to be actively protesting the election results in Clinton County, New York tomorrow. This move comes on the heels of a legal win for the Hoffman camp today as it was ruled that all poll watchers would have to be registered voters of NY 23."

During the ACU PAC conference call Sunday night these concerns were also expressed by Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan. He said, "We want a clean, legal election because if that's the case, we win."

Please, God, let it be so.

Clean. Fair. Over.

(More at Memeorandum)

David Vitter, Harry Reid, and RICO

The Dead Pelican is reporting that Sen. David Vitter is requesting a RICO investigation of ACORN. He has written a letter to Eric Holder in which he says, "Now that both chambers of Congress have agreed to cut off funding for ACORN, the Justice Department should use all of the current legal tools at its disposal - like the RICO Act - to ensure that the taxpayer dollars that ACORN receives are being used properly."

On Tuesday Harry Reid dismissed Vitter's calls for a congressional investigation, basically saying that Congress had better things to do, like health care reform. This is an incredibly irresponsible response from Reid, but why should we be surprised?

The Hill had Reid's rebuke of Vitter. Reid said "As the U.S. Attorney firings and DOJ hiring scandals remind us, we should be very careful about any activities that could be viewed as politicizing investigations and law enforcement decisions," Reid said. "Toward that end, it is unfortunate that in your letter you thought it relevant to note reports claiming ACORN's ties to 'liberal research and training institutes.'" "The recent history cited above demonstrates it is very harmful to conduct any investigation... based on the political leanings of a group," he added.
Right. As long as it suits your own political side, that is. Investigating the CIA isn't political at all, right? Reopening a four year old, closed investigation wouldn't have any political meaning behind it at all, right? Got it.

You can read Vitter's letter at The Dead Pelican. I'm off to check out Reid's latest polling numbers.

ACORN Files a Lawsuit

I'm trying to figure out the benefit for ACORN in this lawsuit they've filed. Via Politico: The complaint: "The video and audio footage was taken without the knowledge of Williams and/or Thompson and in violation of Maryland's Courts and Judicial Proceedings Code §§ 10-402(a) and 10-410, which requires two party consent to all electronic surveillance. Violation of the law is a felony, and entitles parties whose rights were violated to sue."

ACORN has admitted the guilt of the employees involved, fired them, and says they're retraining and cleaning up their act (right-o), all but admitting that the Giles and O'Keefe findings are accurate. How can filing a lawsuit at this point help them?

Allahpundit points out the obvious - maybe too obvious for ACORN - in that this only serves to keep the scandal in the spotlight: "In one fell swoop, the lawsuit (a) gives Fox a reason to keep covering the story, (b) presents a thorny legal issue that’ll attract media to the scandal who might not otherwise have touched it, and (c) makes ACORN look like they’re trying to punish people who exposed taxpayer-funded corruption. Which, of course, they are."

I mean, they've even lost Barney Frank; how low can they go?

Seems to me that a lawsuit of this nature will open ACORN up to even MORE investigation and not just by undercover filmmakers this time. So what's in it for them? Publicity? It can't be good, so I'm saying no, there. Financial gain? Is a jury really going to award ACORN big bucks on this one? Doubtful.

I'm guessing they drop the suit after they make their point. Whatever that is.

Follow the story on Memeorandum.

Lying or Inept, or Both?

Obama playing dumb on ACORN is beyond belief:

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.

OBAMA: You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re not committing to — to cut off the federal funding?

OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to.

I'm getting his point that ACORN "is not the biggest issue facing the country" right now; his domestic agenda is much more on his mind. Afghanistan is pretty important. So is Iraq. I get that ACORN isn't at the top of his list, but pretending that he hasn't followed the story is lame.

As Michelle Malkin points out, Obama and ACORN are inextricably linked and I'd bet my very last dollar he knows what's going on. He's savvy enough in the art of self-preservation that he'd be keeping an eye on the story.

He was okay as long as he stuck with the "not something I've followed closely" line. But when he claimed he didn't know ACORN is getting a lot of federal money, he lied. Did he not read the Porkulus bill? Oh, wait! Nobody did! D'oh! Did he not know ACORN was in line for a census gig? If all that is the case and he is in fact accurate in his colossal ignorance of ACORN, he's far too clueless to be in this position.

So, he's either lying, or inept. Or both.

(H/T: Hot Air)

Jindal Bans State Contracts with ACORN

From WAFB in Baton Rouge:

Gov. Bobby Jindal has banned state offices from entering into contracts with ACORN, the community organizing group that is accused of wrongdoing. Jindal administration officials acknowledged they didn't know of any planned spending for the group.

The only contracts that could be found with ACORN or its affiliates expired two years ago.

But a spokeswoman for the governor says Jindal wants his cabinet secretaries and all state departments, boards, commissions and agencies to scour its contracts and subcontracts to ensure no such funding exists - or was planned.

Better late than never.

Louisiana does have an ACORN investigation going on. Big Government has more on that. I wrote about it here, in August.

So, tell me again, why did those 75 nitwits (I can still say that, right?) in the House vote to keep funding ACORN?

Just Kidding!

Via Memeorandum, ACORN says they were just kidding, not serious at all, when Tresa Kaelke told Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe about killing her husband and her previous escort service.

Astute cookie that she is, Kaelke recognized Hannah and James right off as "actors."

California ACORN head organizer Amy Schur said the video is a gross misrepresentation of what actually happened.

"In this video, there are two actors who come into our office and who were messing with us. And our employee was messing with them," Schur said.

She said that the complete and unedited video needs to be released to the public.

It has. It's here.

Murder, Sex, Prostitution, Tax Evasion - You Too Could Work for ACORN

These ACORN videos keep getting weirder and weirder. Even though Tresa Kaelke is a bonafide nutcase, she is consistent with the other videos in her assistance and support of the underage prostitution thing.



Nutcase.

And the mainstream media is all over this, right? Because everyone loves a story with sex, prostitutes, tax evasion, murder...what's next? What? You mean the mainstream media isn't covering this? Golly gee.

Why the heck not?

A Congressional ACORN Investigation

In Culture of Corrpuption, Michelle Malkin opens her chapter on ACORN (the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) with the story of a woman in Baltimore who "liberates" her foreclosed house from the bank by breaking the bank's padlock off the door, moving back into the home, and installing her own lock. ACORN called the act disobedience, but the police didn't see it that way.

ACORN receives millions from the Department of Housing and Development to fight poverty. That may be about to change with last night's Senate vote to cut funding. Of course, the media isn't really covering the ACORN story, so lots of folks may not even know about it. According to Hot Air, the New York Times only covered it on the web edition, in the Caucus blog, so print customers won't know anything about the vote.

Today, The Washington Examiner has an editorial calling for Congressional investigation of ACORN citing the fact that dozens of states, including Louisiana, have charged ACORN employees with voter registration fraud and other scurrilous crimes.

What crimes?

1986: In Missouri, 12 ACORN members convicted of voter fraud.
December 2004: six St. Louis volunteers for ACORN plead guilty to registration fraud.
2005-2006: Multiple voter registration fraud charges against ACORN in Missouri.
2007: Washington state prosecutors fined ACORN for voter registration fraud.
2008: Over a dozen states investigation ACORN for voter registration fraud.
May 2009: Nevada officials charge ACORN with filing thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms.
May 2009: Pittsuburgh officials charge ACORN with filing hundreds of fraudulent voter registration forms.
August 2009: Louisiana officials investigating ACORN for embezzlement.

ACORN was actively involved in the campaign to force banks and lending organizations to make sub-prime loans which largely responsible for putting people into homes they ultimately couldn't afford. They would loudly protest banks that refused to make such loans. Kevin Mooney and Barbara Hollingsworth writing in July of this year for the San Francisco Examiner, outlined even more of ACORN's crimes, including the Muscle for Money program and the connections with the SEIU:

"Muscle for Money includes multiple techniques for creating highly aggressive, organized efforts both to pressure businesses and officials to support the activists’ agenda or to discredit and intimidate opponents of their agenda, according to present and former ACORN members."

In June 2008, Michelle Malkin wrote an article on ACORN for National Review, which outlines ACORN's funding, 40% of which comes from the American taxpayer. The question today is why has it taken so long for anyone to launch a serious national investigation into the group and why has our government continued to fund it?

And now we have the continuing appearance of these videos of ACORN employees giving advice to "pimp and prostitute" Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, on how to get a loan to fund a brothel featuring 13 year old Latin American sex slaves. ACORN was filmed giving this advice in Baltimore, but there are also tapes from Washington, D.C. and New York. There is word that more are coming today.

I stand with the Examiner today in asking "Now Will Congress Investigate ACORN"? How much more do they need? The Examiner writes:

"The time has come for Congress to stop evading its responsibility to conduct a full-scale investigation into ACORN operations. It's bad enough that dozens of ACORN employees and volunteers have been convicted in recent years of multiple election law violations. Now the O'Keefe/Giles videos provide graphic proof that an organization that supposedly uses its federal largess to counsel poor people on how to avoid foreclosure is using at least some of its federal dollars to encourage the most heinous of crimes against children. Congress can no longer ignore its responsibility to get at the full truth about ACORN, no matter how disgusting it may ultimately be."

Enough said.

ACORN Claims "Relentless Attacks" by FOX

In response to the multiple ACORN videos that have come out over the past week or so, Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer for ACORN, has issued a statement in which she claims doctored video, old tapes, and blames the evil Fox News for "relentless attacks":

We are their Willy Horton for 2009. We are the boogeyman for the right-wing and its echo chambers. If ACORN did not exist, the right-wing would have needed to create us in order to achieve their agenda, their missions, their ideal, retrograde America. This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we've all recently seen. I am appalled and angry; I cannot and I will not defend the actions of the workers depicted in the video, who have since been terminated. But it is clear that the videos are 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. And, in fact, a crime it was - our lawyers believe a felony - and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators.

I'm wondering how they're going to sue Fox when they admitted wrong by firing the workers? One thing we learn from the videos is that these weren't isolated incidents; this is the rampant meme throughout ACORN.

ACORN is a criminal enterprise and it's only a matter of time before they go down once and for all.

Michelle has more.

Boustany Requests ACORN Investigaton

Representative Charles Boustany, as reported by Chad at The Dead Pelican, has called for an investigation into ACORN.

Boustany is the ranking Member of the Oversight Subcommittee for the House Ways and Means Committee and has jurisdiction over tax policy and the IRS. ACORN, as you know, was taped giving tax advice to individuals posing as a prostitute and pimp. The ACORN workers on the video were fired as were others in a separate video.

The Dead Pelican has the text of Boustany's letter to Chairman Lews of the Oversight Committee here.

If ACORN Paid Their Taxes, How Much Would That Lower The National Debt?

Update: Welcome Linkiest readers!

Steve Beatty at The Pelican Institute, (via The Dead Pelican) reports that "ACORN and several closely related groups now owe more than $1 million in state and federal taxes" as determined by Orleans Parish court filings.

The Pelican Institute report states that "groups affiliated with the Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now have 10 federal tax bills of $1 million and four state tax bills of at least $28,000. One bill to ACORN itself is responsible for more than half that amount, at more than $545,000 for tax obligations dating back to 2004. Citizens Consulting, the accounting arm of ACORN, had a state bill of more than $300,000 as recently as January of this year, though records indicate it has been paid. The organization had not paid withholding Louisiana taxes for many quarters since the fall of 2002. From 2002 to 2006, ACORN agencies have received more than $5.4 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development alone..."

You can read the entire report here, but one has to wonder why ACORN doesn't feel the need to pay taxes. You may remember that a state investigation into ACORN was recently announced. No word if this tax issue is part of that or if the state investigation will just center on the embezzlement issues supposedly focused on the brother of the group's founder.

Matthew Vadum, writing for American Spectator, also points to ACORN's troubles:

Liz Wolf of Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI), the shadowy financial nerve center of the ACORN network, has been negotiating with tax collectors on behalf of ACORN to have interest on its tax debts waived and to have some of the debts partially forgiven, Inman said.

CCI alone owes at least $400,000 in back taxes to the IRS, various states, and the District of Columbia. Collectively, the many affiliates within the ACORN network owe millions of dollars to tax authorities. The tax debts remain even after ACORN took a controversial payment from a developer in exchange for the group's support for a sports stadium and mixed-use complex in Brooklyn.

All this in addition to their various election fraud charges make ACORN one rotten nut.

Louisiana's ACORN Investigation

The non-profit Pelican Institute for Public Policy is reporting a new state investigation into ACORN. According to Steve Beatty, reporter for the Pelican Institute, La. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has opened an investigation and is asking for anyone with credible information to phone in.

Beatty reports that "The chief complaints involve a case of a nearly $1 million embezzlement by the brother of the group’s founder which was never reported to authorities; the lack of accountability for the millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars that ACORN and its related groups have received over several years; and the potential for public money to be used by partisan affiliates of ACORN."

Of the embezzlement, Beatty writes:

"Only last year did most of the 51-member governing board of ACORN learn ofnearly $1 million in inappropriate charges to an ACORN credit account byDale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder and then-leader Wade Rathke. Rather than report the incident to authorities, Wade Rathke worked with a small group of ACORN leaders to arrange for a repayment schedule by his brother. After more than $200,000 was repaid, an outside donor stepped in and repaid the balance."

See Beatty's story here for more.

The New York Times reported on the embezzlement in July 2008, pointing out that ACORN chose to treat the matter as an internal "error" and not report it to the board. A whistle-blower forced ACORN to finally report it.

On July 31, 2009, Bill O'Reilly took some credit for forcing AG Caldwell to finally open an investigation, saying that he, along with Glenn Beck, had been pushing for such an investigation by putting pressure on Bobby Jindal.

Nobody is saying much about the investigation at this point as it is ongoing, but it should be interesting to watch.

Acorn at Obamacare Protest in Baton Rouge

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! (My first Instalanche! Woot!~)

Update 2: Charlie Buras at The Old River Road has a follow-up to the incident - a response by one of the gentlemen in the video.


Acorn is out in force in favor of shutting down the opposition to Obamacare.

Yesterday, Michelle Malkin posted this video which shows Acorn folks going off on protesters in Suffolk County NY.

We saw Acorn present in Reserve, La., also; watch the short video clip and you'll see them.

The Old River Road posted this video today of what appears to be a Baton Rouge police officer silencing protesters opposed to Obamacare. Members of Acorn can be seen standing on the sidewalk glowering at the protesters as the police officer tells the protesters not to talk to anybody. Since when did it become against the law to talk in this country?



Acorn, the SEIU and other liberal groups are out in force for Obamacare, but I'm not sure how well it's working out for them. As we saw in Reserve, La., the rally for Obamacare quicky turned hostile and Sebelius seemed caught off guard. Moveon.org was taken off guard at the protest in Dallas earlier this week when far more tea party members showed up than they expected.

Keep the heat on, folks. In fact, turn it up! Here are the Blue Dogs; and here is an email and Fax list of members of Congress. Don't let Acorn win this one.

News Flash for Nancy Pelosi

Could someone please tell Nancy Pelosi that the presidential election is not until November 4, and that her current president is George W. Bush? And while you are at it, thank her for giving us a little preview of what an Obama presidency will look like. I'm wondering if the ACORN folks will be at this meeting since Obama has promised community organizers a role in shaping his presidential agenda. If she is involving the Obama campaign in discussions, is she also involving the McCain campaign?

WASHINGTON (AP) - After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.

The bill's total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said.

The officials stressed that no final decisions have been made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement. House Democrats have announced plans for an economic forum on Monday "to help Congress develop an economic recovery plan that focuses on creating jobs and strengthening our economy."

Democrats said Obama's campaign has been involved in discussions on a possible stimulus package.

The ACORN Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree

As this financial debacle has unfolded over the past few days, I keep hearing about the controversial group ACORN. I'm no student of economics but I've been trying to read up on some of these issues because I think it's important to be informed. So I decided to read up on ACORN.

ACORN is an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Their official function is to register voters and support housing. They are all-out Democratic supporters yet have been plagued by charges of voter fraud. Ken Blackwell, writing for "National Review" reports that ACORN personnel "are facing criminal charges in over a dozen states."

As it turns out, this is one of the groups that pushed banks into making bad housing loans. This whole process goes back to Carter and the Community Reinvestment Act, which was revived by Clinton. The short version is that this legislation required banks or mortgage lenders to make loans to folks for homes that would not normally be able to afford them; if they failed to do so they would face harsh penalties. ACORN pushed to get these folks into homes that they actually could not afford. Now the irony: this group was set to receive money from the originally proposed Democratic bailout plan. And guess which famous community organizer went to work for ACORN after graduating from Harvard?

Now that Mrs. Pelosi has given her inflamatory, partisan speech before the vote today, the speech in which she blamed Republicans for the whole mess, the bailout vote is once again off the table. But Mrs. Pelosi is wrong in blaming the Republicans wholly for the whole thing. As I've said before, there is plenty of blame to go around but consider this quote from Blackwell's article (and which I have stated here before, as well):

"Republicans have tried to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Republican attempts to reform them in 1999 failed. In 2003, when Alan Greenspan testified about how Fannie and Freddie’s loose practices could endanger our financial system, it was Democrat Barney Frank who said these institutions were fundamentally sound, and should be more aggressive in getting loans to low-income people. In 2005, a Republican reform passed the Senate Banking Committee on a party-line vote, only to be blocked by Democrats from passing the full Senate. And in 2006 when John McCain spoke on the Senate floor of the need to reform Fannie and Freddie immediately, Democrats (including Barack Obama) would not respond."

My bottom line is this: those folks in Washington need to put silly partisan politics behind them and get this mess straightened out. There's lots of time later for the blame-game, but meanwhile, the stock market dropped nearly 800 points today. Quit grandstanding and take care of business!