Congressman Asks For Probe Of ACORN

[sabra]

Source: MyStateLine

(Baltimore, MD) -- A Republican congressman from Western Maryland is calling for an investigation of ACORN after a second video surfaced appearing to show its employees offering tax advice for criminal activities.

Last Thursday, a hidden-camera video shot in ACORN's Baltimore office became public, showing a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute seeking counsel.

On Friday, another video depicted a similar scenario at the organization's Washington, DC office.

Representative Roscoe Bartlett wants a congressional investigation into ACORN's activities.

There also is concern the secret taping could represent a violation of Maryland's two-party consent laws for recording conversations, although a formal complaint would need to be filed.

Read more: http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=99342

[Nederland]

1. I have to say

I watched those tapes and was deeply disturbed. I'm glad they fired the employees involved, and I know that O'Keefe visited many ACORN offices and got thrown out, but I fear ACORN's reputation has been permanently damaged.

[Spoonman]

3. ACORN's reputation was already permanently damaged

by the dozens of indictments and convictions of voter fraud over the past few years.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Any group which hires thousands of people to help register voters...

...has a problem with employees who write in fake names instead of helping to register real people.

It's a crime against ACORN, not the public.

The fake people don't get registered in the state database. ACORN flags and separates the bogus forms before sending the forms to the state.

[DURHAM D]

5. And where does ACORN get a major portion of their funds? Us.

[Eric J in MN]

6. ACORN doesn't want employees to write in fake names.

They want real people to get registered.

It doesn't help ACORN to have fake names on forms.

[ingac70]

9. .....

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=17857&tx_irfaq_pi1=161&tx_irfaq_pi1=P2lkPTE3ODU3&cHash=3b5f677fec

[No Elephants]

23. And? The salary of Cunningham came from us, too. Does that mean Congress is a criminal

enterprise? (In the literal sense, not in the wisecrack sense.)

Or maybe the people who elected Cunningham should be locked up since they hired someone who did not do a good job for them? Or maybe all of us are criminals because we all paid his salary, and the salary of every other corrupt legislator.

Come on, now.

[ShortnFiery]

8. "It's a crime against ACORN, not the public."

Amen! :thumbsup:

ACORN, like any other LARGE organization, needs to tighten up their quality controls but they do alright by many many people who would otherwise fall through the cracks.

[JDPriestly]

18. ACORN is like a lot of churches and non-profits who do social outreach

to underserved, low income or no income people. They all, churches and secular non-profits hire people at low wages just to try to get them working. I know this because I used to work for a non-profit that served homeless people. Most homeless people are trustworthy. It's like any other sector of society. Think any of the large financial institutions that have had to fire people involved in financial scandals. Think Bernie Madoff for that matter. No matter how carefully you try to screen people, you will hire a few who are dishonest. The larger the percentage of those that you hire who come from troubled communities and who have poor histories when it comes to employment maybe even criminal records, the large the percentage who will prove dishonest.

Of course, the right-wing wants to just exclude these troubled people from society. The right-wing would just as soon they starved to death. The right-wing needs to take the stone out of its own eye. Abramoff is an example of a right-wing crook. So is Ken Lay of Enron. The list is extremely long. The harm done by the ACORN crooks is minor compared to that done by Ken Lay or Abramoff and their many, many right-wing friends.

And let's don't even begin to talk about the child molestation in the various churches. This ACORN scandal is nothing compared to that.

[karynnj]

29. This is the best thing I've read on this as it does put

in perspective the various problems that ACORN has had. It does make sense that you hire people from the community you are doing outreach to both to provide jobs and because they might be able to reach people that volunteers and employees from other backgrounds can't.

From your perspective, could more diligent supervision have made a difference? Are there other outreach groups doing similar work that do not have these problems? (If there are, it would be reasonable to try to understand how they avoid these problems - so ACORN could adopt some of their practices. It would seem better to fix ACORN, than to eliminate it.)

[JDPriestly]

35. We kept our organization small and supervised pretty carefully considering

the kinds of wages we could afford to pay. We still had serious problems. Among your hirees will be ex-felons, lots and lots of recovering addicts of various kinds, outright schizophrenics . . . . There will be lots of wonderful people to. And there you are trying to make judgments. Your assessments are confused by the fact that, as I have learned over the years, ex-felons and recovering addicts are often very good at fooling the world. Recovering alcoholics that I have known were often particularly likable, congenial. Schizophrenics I have known would go through periods in which they seemed quite normal -- and then suddenly, oh brother!

The varieties of troubled personalities you are dealing with is further complicated by your own personality and values. People who work for non-profits are, in my experience, of two kinds: cynics out to make a living who may themselves be quite troubled (An executive director who is herself a recovering alcoholic or a gambler for example) or idealists whose idealism and optimism and hopes may blind them to what is going on.

It took me a long time to learn that we live in our own human ecology.

[JDPriestly]

36. I have to add that the alternative to having organizations like ACORN

hiring the marginally employable is becoming a society with even more beggars than we now have. We have to provide opportunities for people in our society. Contrary to the right-wing mythology, we are not a welfare society. I have several good friends who suffer from disabilities. (Yes. I've always drawn needy people to me. That's what you get for being raised by compassionate parents in a genuinely Christian home. You pick upon the compassionate and draw needy people like a yellow flower draws bees.) One of them in particular is intelligent, well educated and emotionally damaged to the point that no one will hire here. Her talents which are immense, are wasted. She has been hospitalized. It didn't help. She needs a good job. But when she gets one, it never works out for long. There are no simple answers to this problem.

[Canuckistanian]

39. Perspective

What actual harm has ACORN done versus the GOOD they've done?

If ANY organization has that strong a lens focused on their every activity, then NONE OF THEM would come out looking good.

Let them do their probe. They'll find nothing illegal, immoral or even threatening to society.

[No Elephants]

22. I call bs. There have been dozens of allegations, especially since Obama became

known nationally for his anti-Iraq war speech and his 2004 convention speech. There have not been dozens of convictions of ACORN. In fact, I am not sure there have been any indictments or convictions of ACORN. Several individual employees have been convicted of wrong doing that defrauded ACORN more than anyone. That does not make ACORN criminal.

[Nederland]

32. So ACORN itself is not criminal...

...they just have a habit of employing criminals?

[wtfci]

37. How do you know O'Keefe visited other offices and got thrown out?

The only source I have seen for that information is ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson. Levenson, after the first report, said exactly what you have said. But since then we have seen the DC video, the Brooklyn video, and now a San Bernandino video.

It sure looks to me like Levenson is really standing on solid ground with his initial statement.

Is there more evidence that I haven't see? If so, please share.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. Acorn should be called Athorn - in the President's side

but then again, set up a few hidden cameras at Fox News and see what you catch - it would easily be more shocking than this.

[saigon68]

14. Right Wing Racist Glenn Beck's favorite punching bag

To distract the sheep and get them to hate (insert racial epithet here)

[Proud Liberal Dem]

30. Set up a few hidden cameras

well, gee, just about anywhere and see what happens. Prisons, Airports, Police Stations, Schools, Halliburton, Anthem BC/BS, United Health........................................................................................... I suspect that if we really "turned over the rock" and saw everything that is actually going on in most organizations, agencies, and businesses in this country, we could probably easily find all kinds of illegal and/or unethical conduct going on every day right under our noses. However, that does NOT mean that they should be summarily discredited.

[elleng]

7. Should I THANK my new Representative?

Just moved into his district, after VanHollen's, and wasn't too happy to learn who's my Rep!

[tularetom]

10. When you pay soliciters by the signature you are inviting fraud.

But that doesn't mean that ACORN itself is evil maybe a little disorganized.

This whole thing smells pretty bad.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. From what I understand, they were not paying by the signature, but

they did impose hourly quotas.

[No Elephants]

25. Please see Reply 24.

[No Elephants]

24. Fact Check says ACORN pays by the hour....

"McCain: The ACORN Fables

In another attempt to paint groups and people with whom Obama has some connection in as unsavory a light as possible, McCain has gone after the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. And we've gone after him, for an ad accusing the group of "massive voter fraud" and for saying in the final presidential debate that ACORN is "now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

Both claims are breathtakingly inaccurate. There's a huge difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud. And while ACORN, which hires part-time, $8-an-hour canvassers to go door-to-door and register people to vote, has had widespread problems with phony registrations invented by employees who don't want to work, the problem has never been that it sent people to the polls using bogus identities or to vote in any other fraudulent manner. Even the Republican prosecutor of the largest ACORN case to date said the shenanigans of ACORN workers were "not intended to permit illegal voting."

To be sure, Obama's interactions with the group have been greater than he has let on. But whether those ties can accurately be called "long and deep," as McCain's ad claims, is highly questionable. "

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/the_whoppers_of_2008_--_the_sequel.html

[madmom]

12. What about the law firms out there advising their rich clients in how to not pay taxes? Is

this not a violation of our laws? Shouldn't they also be investigated?

[harkadog]

16. They don't advise them "not to pay taxes".

They tell rich clients how to legally exploit loopholes placed in the code by Congress. Telling someone how to use the law for financial benefit is not illegal.

[mbperrin]

19. Even those who advised their clients to set up accounts in places

like USB in Switzerland?

That's tax evasion, strictly illegal. And now the chickens are starting to come home on that one.

[No Elephants]

27. I very much doubt you have actual, reliable info about lawyers giving this advice.

I've known about Swiss bank accounts since I was under 10 years old. Not because I was a financial prodigy, but bc I read my father's newspapers (after he finished, of course). I never needed a lawyer to tell me to set up a Swiss account and I doubt anyone else did. And, as I posted upthread, Rethugs have been bashing lawyers decades longer than they have been bashing ACORN. I wouldn't want to fall into either trap.

[mbperrin]

31. You're right, of course, all lawyers are wonderful people and would never dream

of breaking the law. Not like those non-lawyers John Dean, for instance. I profusely apologize for ever thinking that any lawyers anywhere did anything wrong, and I call for an end to investigations by the bar in any state of any lawyer, because they can do no wrong.

Also, since I read From the Earth to the Moon when I was 10, I can now build and fly my own mission!

Thanks so much for knocking the scales from my eyes! I've been so blind, but now I see!

Aaaaaamaaaazingggg....

[Beaverhausen]

20. check out this link

http://www.rockfordglobal.com/default.asp?c1=GAW_SE_NW&source=USA&kw=tax_havens_phm&cr5=2956536656&gclid=CK7aueb-8ZwCFQ7xDAod3Tqljw

they don't even try to hide it

[No Elephants]

26. Tax advice to a legit business is very different, wouldn't you say? BTW, the rethugs

have been more persistent in bashing lawyers for many more years than they have been in bashing ACORN. I wouldn't want to fall into either trap.

[safeinOhio]

13. Change name to

Orlytaitzorg. Problem solved, may be a couple.

[damntexdem]

15. Congress should start by investigating their own nuts.

Such a a-corny member like Bartlett.

[Wizard777]

17. This is a rescue attempt by Bartlett. Immunity = Obstruction Of Justice.

O'keefe and Giles may have commited some very serious crimes in Maryland.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

21. And of course we all know that Bartlett was so persistent in investigating corruption

When it came to Republicans and Republican organizations. No double standards here of course :eyes:

[Hubert Flottz]

28. But it's okay for David Vitter to call his whore up from the

floor of the US Senate?

[DarthPortnoy]

33. Pelosi needs to smack this down

We have the votes and we need to start smacking down these absurd amendments thrown around by the Republicans. See how they feel when someone says NO.

DOn't do it Ms Pelosi. Keep funding ACORN and let them continue their outstanding work in helping those who have been held back by the rich in this country.

[wtfci]

38. ACORN is radioactive right now

The burden of proof is going to be on ACORN to show they're good stewards of the taxpayers' money.

The Census already sees them as lacking in credibility. The Senate has already voted to deny ACORN any HUD funding.

The ACORN public statements in response to these stories are full of lies. If they want to continue to receive funds they will have to show they're books are clean.

[Beaverhausen]

41. ACORN has been around since 1970

and because of the actions of a few of their hundreds of employees, you call them radioactive and pronounce them guilty.

Welcome to DU :eyes:

[ShortnFiery]

34. Gee, now FOX news and specifically Glenn Beck runs our legislative agendas in both

the House and Senate? :crazy:

[TankLV]

40. A REPUKE?!!! - what a surprise!!!

I'm sure our "dems" will roll over and lick their assholes...