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Cracked…

acorn

Well, well. Looks like ACORN is well on the way to getting itself defunded after a series of embarrassing hidden camera revelations. I know you know this. I have to give all the background in the first graph, otherwise I come back in a year or two and think what the holy poo was I talking about? This stuff fades fast.

Now, ACORN is chock full of villains and bad actors, all of them up to their nipples in duff mortgages and voter fraud. So, you know, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. But I confess having just…just a little teeny tiny touch of sympathy with them over the actual sting.

I flipping hate hidden camera stuff. And that thing Dan Rather used to do on 60 Minutes, where he’d run across the employee parking lot at seven in the morning, shove a microphone in some dude’s face and scream, “do you eat babies?!” And that confused, hasn’t-had-his-coffee-yet moment you can see the man thinking, “Wait! Aw, shit! Do I?”

Fluffy baby bunnies look shifty on shaky-cam.

And the people who work in urban help centers are not fluffy baby bunnies. Pretty much nobody but down-and-outs really want to spend their days working with down-and-outs. Just the way it is.

I know, I know. They thought they were helping set up a child sex ring.

Maybe. I’m not sure.

If I’m a grizzled inner-city aid worker, and these two skinny goofy-ass middle-class white kids come in asking for help getting a start in organized crime…I am SO TOTALLY going to play along and screw with their heads.

Or is it just me?

Comments


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: September 17, 2009, 6:20 pm

It’s you.


Comment from Tesla
Time: September 17, 2009, 6:48 pm

Yeah, it’s you. You are a thinking, caring person not an excon or soon to be con who will do anything for $$. As far as the stings go, the 1st might be someone goofing around and messing with some white kids heads. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th time it happens is a for sure pattern. AND there are reportedly more stings to come. Think Chicago. It looks like a couple of people made an around the country trip knocking on ACORN’s door. Is it just me or does going from the east coast to west coast seem to leave out a huge chunk of the USA? Did the stingers just forget about flyover country? I’m betting (and hoping) they hit 10 or more offices. This is straight out of Alinsky. KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!!


Comment from BuckNutty
Time: September 17, 2009, 6:51 pm

It was 5 offices. If it was just one I could see that maybe they were just screwing with them – but all 5? I don’t know.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 17, 2009, 6:58 pm

For reasons that I — come to think of it — have never really examined, I’ve spent a not inconsiderable portion of my life around various kinds of losers and low-lifes. There are thoroughly evil people, and then there are people who…aren’t evil, but don’t really have the gifts to rise above the bottom rungs. I have a sneaking sympathy for them.

But ACORN was a train wreck waiting to happen, for just that reason.


Comment from Spad13
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:01 pm

Tesla, I read an interview today with Okeefe’s father,in I think the Trentonian. He said that the kids (O’Keefe and Giles) had spent the entire summer traveling around the country. So I’m pretty sure there is more to be seen.


Comment from JJC
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:06 pm

Sorry. It’s just you.

This is a pattern, across the country, in numerous offices. The Acorners offered assistance to self-identified criminals. I have zero, zip, NADA sympathy for any of them. I hope there’s a huge RICO investigation, one that gets so large that Holder and his race-obsessed looney-tuners in Justice can’t control it. We need total annihilation of Acorn, scorched earth, no survivors.

….. and it’ll never happen. Didn’t you know? There is no more “Acorn.” The new corporation’s name is “COI”: Community Organizations International. And just how many subsidiaries of “COI” are there right now? Estimated 400+. There is no way to kill all these cockroaches, not even with a liberal dose of napalm. Pun intended.


Comment from Dawn
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:07 pm

Yesterday, the Louisiana Attorney General’s office subpoenaed the books of Acorn’s national headquarters in New Orleans.

Oh and Juan Carlos from San Diego….total slime!


Comment from The Dread Pirate Neck Beard
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:16 pm

I concur: shaky-cam should be a crime. And before we dump the bloated ACORN fruitcakes into the briny deep we should give them a hug.


Comment from rickinstl
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:16 pm

Just you.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:21 pm

You know, there’s a theory that some of the weird shit Margaret Mead and other anthropologists came up with was because they walked up to primitive tribesmen and asked, “do you know where babies come from?” and the tribesmen, naturally, gave them the most ridiculous smartass answers that came into their heads.

I can’t find the link, but Allah over on Hot Air (who’s a bit of a religionphobe) was getting all flexed at the poll data from New Jersey that reckoned 8% of those surveyed thought Obama was the Antichrist.

Me, I think that’s a sign 8% of the population of New Jersey are hard-line smartasses.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:22 pm

But I’m getting a distinct “just me” vibe here 😛


Comment from Tesla
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:29 pm

BuckNutty, thx for the 5. My brain cell ain’t what it used to be. Spad13, thx for the tip. I took a quick glance at the Trentonian and didn’t see anything. Gonna go out to the intertubes and dig around. Will post a link if found. Could you do the same? It would be really appreciated.


Comment from Joan of Argghh!
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:39 pm

I’m a grizzled inner-city aid worker and I think it’s just you. I think I would’ve called the cops on these two, or just plain run them out. His cover story of being a politician was the perfect foil to all other “tells” and it overrode the brain cells of the tax adviser and garden-variety kook, alike.

Years ago I lived next door to an inner-city couple that worked as foster parents for children and babies. Well, that’s what they were paid to do by the State. What they actually did with all the money is a shame. Yeah, the authorities were notified.


Comment from The Dread Pirate Neck Beard
Time: September 17, 2009, 7:47 pm

Weasel,

I suppose what I meant to say is that while I agree in spirit that gotcha journalism is fairly low, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of folks.


Comment from steve
Time: September 17, 2009, 8:04 pm

Well…Yours is a really fun theory and all….

But, considering that not one of them closed out even one of the interviews by screaming “PSYCHE!”….I believe that I am gonna go with….They were down with all that….


Comment from Dawn
Time: September 17, 2009, 8:20 pm

We should be clear that this attack on ACORN is part of an aggressive and sustained right-wing campaign, spearheaded by Fox and their ideological compatriots on talk radio, on blogs, and within the Republican Party, which has as its goal the destruction of the nation’s largest and most effective organization of low- and moderate income families. But these attacks are about more than ACORN: they represent an attack on the poor and communities of color; on the broad progressive agenda that we are fighting for; and on President Obama himself and the movement for change that his administration symbolizes. And because the stakes are so high, we are asking you to stand with us as we fight back. – Bertha Lewis 9-17-2009 Statement to Friends and Allies.

gag! The race card has been played and played and played.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 17, 2009, 8:24 pm

Well, fine. I was going to offer y’all a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get in on the ground floor of my new smack distribution and serial-killing racket, but if you’re going to be THAT WAY about it…


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: September 17, 2009, 8:25 pm

Good grief, Dawn. For a moment there, I thought that was high sarcasm. I really had no idea someone was mad enough to have written that.


Comment from Spad13
Time: September 17, 2009, 9:10 pm

Sorry Tesla my braincell isn’t workin too good either. I know it was a Jersey paper. The O’Keefes are local and I know he is a Rutgers grad. But Ive looked back thru some of the stuff I was reading this a.m. and I can’t find the link.


Comment from Tesla
Time: September 17, 2009, 9:21 pm

Spad13, thank you for the effort. I didn’t find anything either. Tried some of the Jersey papers cuz of the Rutgers connect but came up MT handed. Not a wasted search though. I always find neat stuff when I go poking around like this so I’ll give you a big thank you for giving me something to chase. It also gives me an excuse to lubricate the thought process (yeah, right) with a drop of Dewar’s.


Comment from Tesla
Time: September 17, 2009, 9:42 pm

Spad13, I think this it. Try www,nj,com with Okeefe in the search thingy. I r a idiot so the url is shown like it is cuz of spam filter fear. Hope this helps. It’s the top of the list.


Comment from See-Dubya
Time: September 17, 2009, 10:29 pm

Stoatenheimer, my late grandpa was (for a while) a social worker (he worked for the REE-hab) in rural Oklahoma, and I can only imagine the volcanic dudgeon he would have manifested had a couple of smarmy punks sailed in and asked him for advice on how to game the system and run a house-of-ill-repute featuring underage Pordricans (or whatever ethnic group they told him that he hadn’t really heard of).

See, the problem is that tax dollars used to pay people like my granddad, and now we’re subisdizing people like ACORN’s vanguard. Yeesh.


Comment from francis
Time: September 17, 2009, 10:50 pm

I’m actually kindof with you on this one, weasel. I don’t feel bad for Acorn in the least, but I do kinda feel bad for the poor slobs getting thrown under the bus.

Except for that violent white chick in the latest vid. That woman is ka-razy.


Comment from David Gillies
Time: September 17, 2009, 11:23 pm

If it’s bad for ACORN, it’s bad for Obama. If it’s bad for Obama it’s good for the US and by extension the World. It is vitally important that Obama be holed below the waterline before the midterms, and then catastrophically crushed in 2012. Then we can start rowing back on some of the quasi-treasonous stuff he did, and start warming up the indictments. Pretty much all tactics short of outright illegality are acceptable in this fight. As they say, this ain’t beanbag.

Whoops. Guess that makes me a big ol’ racist.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 18, 2009, 7:18 am

Hahaha…they’re sending Michelle out to sell healthcare. What could go wrong? I mean, other than the fact that woman scares me shitless? What with her fantastically toned arms, her fantastically epic butt and her fantastically whimsical fashion sense.

Oh, and her angry, angry eyebrows.

Did you follow the Drudge link to the Washington Post having a go at her for shutting down Washington so she could buy some kale for dinner?


Comment from Princess Bernie
Time: September 18, 2009, 11:36 am

Oh, dear. I made a post and it had H-E-Double hockey sticks in it and it probably got eaten by the filter. Or maybe I can’t post properly.

I’d be tempted to spend about 5 minutes toying with them, but not an hour or so, which is what the San Bernardino worker did. Then I’d be telling them to get the heck out of my office if I thought they were just posers. If I thought they were serious, I’d have them fill out paperwork and then turn it over to the feds.

We don’t have an ACORN office hereabouts. They are registered and in good standing with the Sec of State, but no physical presence. I actually checked a few days ago. Then last night or the night before the local news featured a reporter who did the legwork to try to figure out what happened to the local office – there used to be one. Interesting that it closed up last year.


Comment from jw
Time: September 18, 2009, 11:44 am

Anyone else find it strangely ironic that the headquarters of Acorn in Louisianna address is 1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS Ave., where the historic graveyard of the same name is thought to be the resting place of heros of the poor and downtrodden, who are revived and reserected?

A graveyard for gawds sake! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!


Comment from Dawn
Time: September 18, 2009, 1:10 pm

Uncle B, I know, right? That’s some crazy talk.


Comment from Dawn
Time: September 18, 2009, 1:28 pm

And is anyone else glad Weasel is back on the politics? If she can make home canning and sewage systems fun, imagine what the next election cycle is going to be like. Woot!


Comment from JuliaM
Time: September 18, 2009, 3:38 pm

This hasn’t really been covered over here in the UK media (I doubt you could find 20 people in London who knew what Acorn was), but I have to say, I’m laughing like a drain at the web reports on it.

And I get the feeling the best is yet to come… 🙂


Comment from mommer
Time: September 18, 2009, 4:07 pm

I kinda got another perspective of the Acorn workers. I didn’t get so much that they were actively messing with the 2 goofy white kids (or trying to “help” them) as much as they were trying to dazzle them with their streetcred for lack of a better term.

Especially the one in San Berdoo. She just wanted to go on and on about how what a criminal mastermind she was. On and on. She wacked her ol man and got away with it. She made bazillions from prostitution etc. Blah blah blah.

I have a neighbor who is that womans soulmate. From the day she moved in its one tall tall tale after another of the amazing scams, robberies and thefts she has pulled off. Not to mention being a famous dancer, surfing champion, restauranteur, $5000 a night escort, singer, and base player for Hank Williams Jr. All while being a teenaged mother of 5, kingpin drug dealer and getting a masters in Sociology and the worlds greatest truck driver.

It used to be a really friendly neighborhood, nobody locked their doors……….not anymore.

I think they are all just petty chizzling criminals whose “glory days” and teeth are long gone so the like to boast to any one who’ll be an audience. Even if its a couple of goofy white kids in halloween pimp and hooker costumes.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: September 18, 2009, 4:14 pm

JuliaM is absolutely right. The Press here refuses to touch this story – notably the rabidly socialist BBC.

The degree of Obamaworship among the MSM in the UK should convince anyone who is still wavering (can there be such a person?) that your President is Very Bad News Indeed.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 18, 2009, 4:21 pm

Yeah, that’s really what I was getting at, mommer. They were just bragging and talking smack, I suspect (especially as it turns out that woman’s ex is alive and well). Still, ACORN was a real nasty enterprise higher up the chain, and I’m glad to see them in the shit.

Having been utterly scooped on the story — and not really wanting to discredit ACORN anyway — most of the big old media outlets in the US haven’t touched to story, either, Julia. CNN, ABC (except in the blog section). I’ve checked several times today.

That’s half the fun of this story. It’s one thing to go to news outlets that slant news in a way you find soothing. It’s quite another simply not to be told things. Even the leftiest lefty can’t want that.


Comment from mommer
Time: September 18, 2009, 5:17 pm

I forgot to add that my obnoxious neighbor says she was a voter register for Acorn in San Diego, Ca (before she moved up here), while she was living on the beach and made according to her “good money” or atleast enough for her crack habit.


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Time: September 19, 2009, 3:05 pm

[…] one I’d like you to look at is today’s second on the page. Tip Jar Donations (via PayPal) When I […]


Comment from geoffb
Time: September 19, 2009, 3:24 pm

Well 1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS Ave was formerly a funeral home owned IIRC by the SEIU. There seem to be a couple hundred corporate entities that have their headquarters at that rather modest looking address.


Comment from Dawn
Time: September 20, 2009, 1:32 pm

hmmmmm….

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/20/money-laundering-scandal/

curiouser and curiouser

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