ACORN

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Even SEIU Says ACORN is Toxic

October 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In an amusing case of the pot calling the kettle, Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told Representative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that the SEIU had dumped ACORN during a Sept. 30 hearing conducted by the House Financial Services Committee. Apparently Mrs. Burger felt that ACORN was too toxic for the SEIU to associate with.

Certainly it is quite amazing that the SEIU has taken the step to dump ACORN as a vendor. Groups such as SEIU rarely reassess associations preferring to stubbornly stick to their guns in most cases.

During the hearing, Rep. McHenry mentioned to Mrs. Burger that the U.S. Census Bureau, the IRS, and even Bank of America had cut ties with ACORN because of the community organizer’s declining credibility and apparent criminal activities. Burger replied, “SEIU has also cut all ties to ACORN.”
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Even SEIU Says ACORN is Toxic”

ACORN - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Communism - Cook County - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Big Score: Springfield’s Subsidies to ACORN

October 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For a little further information on the cozy relationship between the Illinois State government in Springfield and the troubled Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the sort of corrupt bargain to which we are attempting to bring sunlight, we’ve done a little research into some of the funding distributed from our tax dollars to ACORN. In this case, we have some documents on funds given to ACORN for the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Predatory Lending Database Program (PLD) and related programs.

It isn’t just the taxpayer’s money given to ACORN that is at issue, to be sure. Not only do we see our tax dollars going to this organization that has so often been caught up in instances of criminal voter fraud across the country as well as a $5 million embezzlement controversy, but our state government has allowed this group to help it create government programs and policies, as well.

Why would the state turn to this often times criminal organization to help it create the PLD program? For the answer to that we turn to the 2008 Annual Comprehensive Housing Plan progress report.

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The Big Score: Springfield’s Subsidies to ACORN”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Communism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Speech - Free Trade - Health - Illinois - Journalism - Liberals - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Brave Mom Fights Forced Unionization and Gov. Quinn

October 15, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve been reporting to you of the outrageous under-the-radar actions of Governor Pat Quinn and his Executive Order 9-15. This EO both handed the private information of Illinois citizens to unions and set up a payoff for his union supporters by automatically unionizing hundreds of Illinois home healthcare workers whether they want to be unionized or not.

Well, one mother is fighting back. Pam Harris serves as the primary care specialist for her developmentally disabled son and in so doing receives some helpful funds from the state for that purpose. When she found out that Quinn’s EO gave her personal information to several unions she was concerned. And when she later found out that she would have to pay dues to a union even if she didn’t want to join one she became incensed.

In a report on our local Fox affiliate, Harris said, “When my doorbell rings at eleven thirty Sunday morning and there’s two people in purple shirts, one from California, one from Virginia– nice enough young people– nice enough, but that’s an invasion of my privacy.”

Harris is sure that no union will benefit her.
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Brave Mom Fights Forced Unionization and Gov. Quinn”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Smosska’s ACORN Smoke Screen

October 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is an update on a story about a company in South Carolina named Smosska that I covered back in July. At this point, it seems beyond question that Smosska is a sham organization that was set up by ACORN in order to hide “community activism” behind a false front in South Carolina.


Back in July I reported on a corporation that swept into Florence, South Carolina promising all sorts of new jobs with wonderful new benefits. Naturally none of these jobs have materialized. Looking into this Smosska, Corp. proves that the company is a sham group formed to serve the needs of the criminal ACORN organization.

Well, for an update, it looks like this sham company is getting served with an eviction notice.
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Smosska’s ACORN Smoke Screen”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How ACORN Hides Behind Fake Names

October 9, 2009 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many states have ways to look up the businesses, organizations and people with whom the state does business. Illinois has such a service on the Secretary of State’s website.

In Illinois there is a way to search the folks the state does business with on a page titled Corporate/LLC Search / Certificate of Good Standing. There you can input the name of a corporation or LLC and find out the address of its offices, its registered manager’s name, etc.

Sadly, this feature is not easy to use. The problem is you have to know the actual name of the corporation you are looking for. Of course, if you don’t really know what you are looking for you just cannot find anything useful.

The problem with the Illinois search system is that groups like ACORN register hundreds of different shell corporations to hide behind. They register them to their workers and their directors and then they offer them to government as a vendor or organization for the state’s use. Naturally, state funds flow like water into ACORN’s coffers as a result.
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How ACORN Hides Behind Fake Names”

ACORN - Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Illinois - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - SEIU - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Families Forced Into Unions Courtesy of Gov. Quinn

October 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Governor Pat Quinn signed Executive Order number 09-15 earlier in the year. This order gave the state government the OK to hand over the private information — the addresses, names, and telephone numbers — of hundreds of families that have developmentally disabled children and other family members with chronic medical problems in their homes. Many of these people are considered home-based healthcare workers by the state and they receive state aid to help them take care of their disabled family members.

Unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) are salivating to take some of this money out of the pockets of these needy Illinois citizens that only want a little help to take care of family members with major and costly medical problems.

Now, with the signing of EO 09-15, Governor Pat Quinn has given these unions the “in” they need to accost these citizens in their homes or on the phone in order to cajole them into joining their unions. Once these unions get done bothering Illinois citizens in their homes, thanks to being given private addresses by Quinn, they will then begin to reap the reward of millions of dollars in forced dues remittances.

Quinn has also agreed that these unions will get a portion of these citizen’s state aid whether they join a union or not.
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Illinois Families Forced Into Unions Courtesy of Gov. Quinn”

ACORN - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Illinois - Liberals - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Capitol Fax Smacks Candidate Kelly Around

October 4, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax politics blog is one of the best Illinois political blogs out there… so, there, I said that right upfront. But I found Miller’s recent posting on the admittedly quixotic candidacy of William Kelly, well, a bit quixotic in itself, if only on one small point.

Last Wednesday, Capitol Fax found itself a bit confused by Mr. Kelly’s tactics for his campaign for Illinois Comptroller. Kelly, you see, has made a point to repeatedly go after current State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias as a way to gain public attention for his own race for Comptroller.

Mr. Kelly did an ambush styled video where he was following Giannoulias, a current Democratic Party candidate for Senate, down a hallway asking the State Treasurer why he’d be seeking and accepting an endorsement from the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU), a group that is hip-deep with the criminal organization ACORN.
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Capitol Fax Smacks Candidate Kelly Around”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Health - Illinois - Liberals - President - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Join Me, Illinois, to SAY NO to ACORN!

October 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

Illinois is a bankrupt state, yet our accidental Governor Pat Quinn is handing over millions of state dollars to ACORN/SEIU and any other union that wants to put its hand out. Join me and Americans For Prosperity to Say NO to ACORN.com.
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Join Me, Illinois, to SAY NO to ACORN!”

ACORN - Business - Capitalism - Children - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Family - Freedom - Health - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

AWF: Ill. Gov. Invades Privacy of State’s Citizens

October 1, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Alliance for Worker Freedom has decided to send a letter to replacement Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois asking him how much his favoritism and goodies given to unions in the state have cost the taxpayers of Illinois. (I say “replacement gov.” because Quinn is the former Lt. Gov. that became the accidental gov. when Rod Blagojevich was indicted and then impeached from office)

Quinn is guilty of handing over the personal information of thousands of Illinois home-based support workers that receive state aid to take care of family members with severe medical conditions to several unions so that the unions could attempt to strongarm these people into a union. The executive order is #09-15, the Collective Bargaining By Individual Providers of Home-Based Support Services order.

Without regard to the privacy of the personal information of these people that receive state aid to take care of their relatives in their own homes, Gov. Quinn freely handed over their phone numbers and addresses to any union that wanted them. Many home healthcare workers have since been accosted by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) recruiters as well as operatives from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
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AWF: Ill. Gov. Invades Privacy of State’s Citizens”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Federal Recovery Tracking Website Hides $$ to ACORN

September 30, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We are discovering that Obama’s promised transparency only goes so far in reporting where stimulus money ends up going. The new tracking website, Recovery.gov, is supposed to let us all know where the federal “stimulus” money is going but apparently will not track money that goes to groups like the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

The Denver Post published a story by reporter Miles Moffeit that reveals that the stimulus tracking website will only report so far into the chain of agencies and organizations that end up receiving stimulus cash and will not report where billions of dollars actually end up.

The site will delineate which state and local governments get what amounts of money but will not report any destinations after it arrives in the accounts of state and local governments. If I read Moffeit’s article correctly the site apparently will not report the identities of the agencies and vendors that end up actually getting all the cash at the end of the line.

The Post reports that payments to “grassroots-level recipients and their identities, such as subcontractors, the subcontractors’ own vendors” will not appear on Recovery.org and will remain unreported unless the states themselves decide to post the ultimate destination of the funding.
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Federal Recovery Tracking Website Hides $$ to ACORN”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Anti-Semitism - Barack Obama - Budget - Campaign Finance - Chicago - Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Why Obama Will Throw ACORN Under the Bus

September 30, 2009 by

-By Frank Salvato

The spotlight of scrutiny is shining brightly on ACORN these days and rightly so. Where ACORN’s defenders have the audacity to insist that the employees caught on undercover videotape giving advice to a perceived “pimp” and “prostitute” on how to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and internationally traffic in underage Guatemalan prostitutes were simply “a few bad employees,” anyone with a brain recognizes that the problem is systemic in the organization. But what some are misdiagnosing or not completely understanding is how President Obama could be so nonchalant about the issue in recent interviews. It’s because ACORN – for Mr. Obama – has served its purpose and just like Van Jones, Tom Daschle and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, ACORN is about to be tossed under the bus.

In past articles and in many radio interviews, I have insisted that Barack Obama is just another Chicago machine politician, albeit a very successful one (If you don’t understand the phrase “Chicago machine” read the book Boss by legendary Chicago journalist Mike Royko). And like every good Chicago machine politician, Barack Obama is following the cardinal rules:

  • Do what you have to in order to get elected.
  • Once elected, consolidate as much power as you possibly can.
  • Reward those who helped you get elected.
  • Position yourself for re-election and your retention of power.

In each of the steps Barack Obama has performed so far he has done so in a most exemplary fashion.

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Why Obama Will Throw ACORN Under the Bus”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Taxes

Your House Is On Fire, Oh, I Didn’t Notice

September 22, 2009 by

-By Dan Scott

Liberals, their plans, veracity and activities have been under a lot of public scrutiny lately. They seem to be very uncomfortable with the light of public gaze upon them, even to the point of walking on eggshells. When they can’t find what they believe is an non revealing answer which they know will anger the public to some very straightforward questions they pretend to be obtuse on the issue at hand. Feigning obtuseness seems to be the best they can do to not come clean on the issues. The point of feigning obtuseness is to avoid the really uncomfortable questions of why they failed to respond to something, which so obviously is inappropriate. It’s the old, “what did you know” and “when did you know it” quagmire. The failure to respond appropriately is a very telling disconnect of “affect” which calls into question one’s competence, motives or agenda.

The disconnect of affect was raised to the ridiculous with the growing scandals involving ACORN. Charles Gibson, an ABC news anchor was asked why the media wasn’t covering the cut off of funds by Congress to ACORN. Gibson claimed he didn’t know anything about it. How likely was his answer? Let’s add some background context to answer that question. A person working for the media doesn’t know anything (to the point of cluelessness) about an organization squandering public funds engaging in clearly unethical activity caught on video tape, the story gone viral on the internet, talked about on the radio waves and reported on by at least one media outlet and one print outlet. Furthermore, the standard procedure for all media organizations is to monitor their competitors so they aren’t scooped which would cause a loss of ratings share. A loss of ratings share means a LOSS of advertising revenue, and that’s their lifeblood. Is it likely Charles Gibson didn’t know about the ACORN story? NOT LIKELY. Why did Gibson give such a lame response? To not answer the question what did you know, when did you know about it and what was your reason to not report on it? You notice Gibson never answered the question why he wasn’t reporting on it. It makes one wonder what else the media hasn’t covered and what were their reasons.
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Your House Is On Fire, Oh, I Didn’t Notice”

ACORN - Congress - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Illinois - Liberals - Morals/Sex - Senate - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Ill. Senators Stand By Prostitution, Tax Cheat Hiding ACORN

September 15, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democratic Illinois Senators Durbin and Burris both voted to stand behind ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) in a Senate vote to defund the criminal organization this week.

A measure placed in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate to defund the group over the latest round of bad publicity of this nefarious organization.

On top of the last decade of constant convictions for vote fraud all across the country, ACORN offices have been caught in a tri-city “sting” of sorts where ACORN employees were helping to cover up what they understood to be a mortgage fraud and prostitution business by helping fudge IRS forms to disguise the activities. These ACORN employees even thought they were helping to cover up sex trafficking in underage, illegal aliens.
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Ill. Senators Stand By Prostitution, Tax Cheat Hiding ACORN”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

USA Today Hides Left Wing Sources of ‘Church’ Effort for Min. Wage Push

August 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

USA Today is attempting to pass off an effort to push a higher minimum wage law as an effort by “churches” when in reality it is a left wing effort sponsored by ACORN, unions and the extremist group American Progress headed by former Clinton front man, John Podesta.

With a misleading headline and an artfully vague first paragraph, USA Today tries to make this effort seem to be headed up by churches and religious figures. The headline, “Churches push for $10 minimum wage by 2010,” pins this effort squarely on churches even as the first paragraph walks that claim back in an artfully vague way.

Religious leaders and advocates, not satisfied with the 70-cent rise in the federal minimum wage that went into effect on Friday, are calling on congressional leaders to hike it up to $10 by 2010.

Notice how the headline doesn’t quite match up to the “Religious leaders and advocates” of the first paragraph. Notice that it goes from “churches” to “advocates.” We all know that churches and advocates are not necessarily one and the same. And when it comes to left wing “advocates,” actual churches are rarely anywhere involved.

Right in the first paragraph we must realize that it isn’t really “churches” that are involved in this effort but it is more likely the advocates of the first paragraph that is heading this min. wage movement.
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USA Today Hides Left Wing Sources of ‘Church’ Effort for Min. Wage Push”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Conservatives - Constitution - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

CYA: ACORN, ACLU Attempt to Throw Out Penn. Voter Law

August 11, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, what do you do if you are the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and you are accused of violating state election laws? What else but hire the ACLU to try and get those laws thrown out as unconstitutional?

In Pennsylvania, six members of ACORN have been indicted for violating a state election law prohibiting groups from setting quotas for voter registration drives. The ACLU claims that this rule violates the constitutional right of ACORN to utilize “commonplace management tools” and techniques to manage its paid workers.

But the statute is clearly meant to maintain the integrity of the voter rolls, something that ACORN just as clearly violated with its illicit practices to inflate voter rolls with fake Democrat voters.

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CYA: ACORN, ACLU Attempt to Throw Out Penn. Voter Law”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Freedom - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Rights - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Some Chilling Things in Obamacare

August 8, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Larry Schweikart, author of “A Patriot’s History of the United States,” has a nicely detailed piece on the Family Security Matters site that is must reading for anyone curious of some of the worst, most chilling things in the various bills now before Congress.

Mr. Schweikart has disturbing things such as:

Pg 22 of the HC Bill mandates the Government will audit books of all employers that self insure. Can you imagine what that will do to small businesses? Every one will abandon “self insurance” and go on Government insurance. So when Obama says that there will still be private health care, it’s simply a lie: this mandate will force employers to abandon their private plans.

Or, how about the truth of rationing and the fact that government not doctors will be deciding what care you are “allowed” to have.
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Some Chilling Things in Obamacare”

ACORN - Barack Obama - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

Community Organizing President Rails Against Community Organizing

August 6, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Didn’t Barack Obama claim that community organizing was the most important part of his early political life? Wasn’t his work for ACORN presented as one of the chief qualifications for his becoming president? So, now that he’s won, how can this administration rail against Americans coming together in community organizations to oppose his healthcare policies? Isn’t organizing good?

This is the same man that during the late campaign for president told his voters to “argue” with your neighbors and “get in their faces.” Now, all of a sudden, this is a president that is urging people to turn in their neighbors for having the temerity of “getting in the faces” of Congressmen that support a government take over of our healthcare system?

Now all of a sudden Obama and his community organizing left wing say it is gauche, even “scary” and “dangerous,” to oppose Obama’s nationalized, single payer healthcare ideas by organizing against them.
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Community Organizing President Rails Against Community Organizing”

ACORN - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Health - Jobs - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

ACORN Shenanigans in South Carolina

July 13, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently, the Smosska Corporation swooped into Florence, South Carolina promising to instantly create some 400 new jobs with an assurance of 3,000 before next year is out. For an area that needs jobs this seemed like welcome news.

Last week a job fair was held in Florence by the new company at which free health care was offered those that would be hired. At that time an aptitude test was taken by applicants if, that is, they had the $40 fee to pay to take the thing. The company claimed this “fee” would be used to pay for drug tests if they were hired. This fee, however, made some people curious.

The fee and several other curious characteristics of this company caused suspicions to be raised about its legitimacy. It turns out, there is not yet an actual building in which this Smosska Corporation is housed, there don’t seem to be too many current employees, and there doesn’t seem to have been any actual products created by Smosska in the past — though the corporation is supposed to have been formed in 2001. Even the original email address given out was a Yahoo account, not an official corporate web host address.

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ACORN Shenanigans in South Carolina”