ObamaOdrama

Nevada’s attorney general filed criminal charges against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and two of its employees for implementing an illegal quota system requiring canvassers to gather at least 20 voter registrations a day to keep their jobs.

The complaint names the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, as well as Chris Edwards, the group’s former Las Vegas field director, and Amy Busefink, who was regional director for voter registration.

In all, there are 26 charges of compensation for registration of voters and 13 charges of being a “principal” in the incident. An initial hearing has been set for 7:30 a.m. June 3 in Las Vegas Justice Court.

“In Nevada, it is unlawful for a person to provide compensation for registering voters that is based on the total number of voters a person registers,” said state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

ACORN’s canvassers, she said, had to gather at least 20 voter registrations a day to keep their jobs. There was also a bonus program, known as “blackjack” or “21 plus,” which rewarded employees with $5 extra per shift if they brought in 21 or more completed registrations.

Canvassers under pressure to keep their jobs turned in registrations with fake names and phony addresses — even, in one case, the starting lineup for the Dallas Cowboys.

“These practices are clearly a violation of Nevada law,” Cortez Masto said. “By structuring employment and compensation around a quota system, ACORN facilitated voter registration fraud in this state.”

The organization is being targeted, she added, because it shouldn’t “hide behind or place blame on its employees” when the group’s policies required “illegal acts in performing the job.”

ACORN is no stranger to voter fraud, but how does ACORN defend itself to this latest charge?

“We’re just community organizers, just like the president used to be.”

Indeed.

During the presidential campaign, stories linking Obama and the radical Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) sporadically popped up but  went largely uncovered by the mainstream media. 

Most sources seemed to agree that Obama represented ACORN in 1995 lawsuit against the state of Illinois.  However stories that tied Obama to ACORN before 1995 or training ACORN never received any serious media coverage.   Nor did stories that Obama giving ACORN $800,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts after ACORN endorsed him for the presidency merit much scrutiny.  It appeared that Obama’s own words were sufficient enough to discredit any further investigation of the allegations.

Now we have another story by the Bulletin to add to the Obama and ACORN chronicles.

Heather Heidelbaugh, who represented the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee in the lawsuit against the group, recounted for the ommittee what she had been told by a former ACORN worker who had worked in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. The former worker, Anita Moncrief, told Ms. Heidelbaugh last October, during the state committee’s litigation against ACORN, she had been a “confidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.”

Ms. Moncrief had been providing Ms. Strom with information about ACORN’s election activities. Ms. Strom had written several stories based on information Ms. Moncrief had given her.

During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.

Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to “reach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.”

Ms. Heidelbaugh then told the congressional panel:

“Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, “it was a game changer.”‘

Ms. Moncrief made her first overture to Ms. Heidelbaugh after The New York Times allegedly spiked the story - on Oct. 21, 2008. Last fall, she testified under oath about what she had learned about ACORN from her years in its Washington, D.C. office. Although she was present at the congressional hearing, she did not testify.

U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., the ranking Republican on the committee, said the interactions between the Obama campaign and ACORN, as described by Ms. Moncrief, and attested to before the committee by Ms. Heidelbaugh, could possibly violate federal election law, and “ACORN has a pattern of getting in trouble for violating federal election laws.”  

Even with ACORN’s history of voter fraud, they still managed to secure a place in the 2010 Census.  Game on!

The Working Families Party, ACORN, and media teamed up for a little AIG outrage party while 300 people were forced to have a quiet Tea Party not too far away.

Last week I wrote about how the Connecticut Working Families party was staging an outrage tour of the homes of some of AIG’s executives. Maybe, ACORN is just practicing for the 2010 Census but they decided to join in on the outrage. Not surprisingly, every media outlet was notified of the little party and showed up in force outnumbering the “activists” three to one.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Connecticut, about 300 people staged a Tea Party protesting taxation, increased government spending and the “little” bailouts that lie at the heart of the AIG scandal. Media coverage was clearly preoccupied.

Despite that these tea parties are springing up all across the nation in growing numbers, they receive very little national coverage. It makes you wonder how far the average person will be forced to go just to get some attention… maybe throw Barney Frank or Chris Dodd a house party?

The U.S. Census Bureau has enlisted the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, to help with next year’s census counting.

ACORN has an interesting history of voter fraud but you may better recall them being investigated in numerous states during the last presidential election cycle for massive voter registration fraud. Some of the noteable fraudulent voter registrations included fictional cartoon characters, inmates, and the Dallas Cowboys starting line-up in Nevada.

Despite Obama trying to distance himself from the past, I guess history is hard to ignore?