ACORN Cracks Open

The Boston Herald reports Obama's buddy and fellow creature of lobbyist and Chicago Machine puppeteer David Axelrod, one Democrat Governor Deval Patrick has ties to ACORN--giving them housing funds, how familiar. It was Deval Patrick who was the Clinton administration's DOJ lawyer in the 1995 motor voter case, joining with Obama to encourage the fraud we are living with now. (Obama cites DOJ to give himself political cover on ACORN, just as he claims the CAC is some Republican effort, rather than a radical dear leader education plan pushed by him and Bill Ayers.) And after carrying the Obama campaign's water on ACORN, the NY Times finally does some investigative reporting--what a concept--ACORN voter fraud scandal cracks wide open:

An internal report by a lawyer for the community organizing group Acorn raises questions about whether the web of relationships among its 174 affiliates may have led to violations of federal laws.

The group, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been in the news over accusations that it is involved in voter registration fraud, charges it says are overblown and politically motivated.

Republicans have tried to make an issue of Senator Barack Obama’s ties to the group, which he represented in a lawsuit in 1995. The Obama campaign has denied any connection with Acorn’s voter registration drives.

The June 18 report, written by Elizabeth Kingsley, a Washington lawyer, spells out her concerns about potentially improper use of charitable dollars for political purposes; money transfers among the affiliates; and potential conflicts created by employees working for multiple affiliates, among other things.

It also offers a different account of the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of Acorn’s founder, Wade Rathke, than the one the organization gave in July, when word of the theft became public.

“A full analysis of potential liability will require consultation with a knowledgeable white-collar criminal attorney,” Ms. Kingsley wrote of the embezzlement, which occurred in 2000 but was not disclosed until this summer.

Yeah, too bad they couldn't hold off until after the election.(Do you see the hand of Hillary in this revelation?) Oh and there are demands for back taxes. They only just recently appointed an audit committee. Then there's this:

Ms. Kingsley’s concerns about the way Acorn affiliates work together could fuel the controversy over Acorn’s voter registration efforts, which are largely underwritten by an affiliated charity, Project Vote. Project Vote hires Acorn to do voter registration work on its behalf, and the two groups say they have registered 1.3 million voters this year.

As a federally tax-exempt charity, Project Vote is subject to prohibitions on partisan political activity. But Acorn, which is a nonprofit membership corporation under Louisiana law, though subject to federal taxation, is not bound by the same restrictions.

“Project Vote and Acorn have a written agreement that specifies that all work is nonpartisan,” Michael Slater, Project Vote’s new executive director, wrote in answer to e-mailed questions about the relationship.

But Ms. Kingsley found that the tight relationship between Project Vote and Acorn made it impossible to document that Project Vote’s money had been used in a strictly nonpartisan manner. Until the embezzlement scandal broke last summer, Project Vote’s board was made up entirely of Acorn staff members and Acorn members.

Non-partisan, sure. And who first headed Project Vote in Illinois? Barack Obama, surprise surprise. A little background, from Chicago Magazine, 1993:

Even after the minority-registration effort in Chicago fell apart following the death of Washington, Project Vote! opted to avoid Illinois. "The Democratic Party in Cook County was still actively using a bounty system for most registrations," Newman says, "and we didn't wish to get associated with that."

* * *

Carol Moseley Braun's upset primary victory over Alan Dixon last March altered Newman's feelings. "It's not that I wanted to influence the Senate race," Newman says. "Project Vote! is nonpartisan, strictly nonpartisan. But we do focus our efforts on minority voters, and on states where we can explain to them why their vote will matter. Braun made that easier in Illinois." So Newman decided to open a Cook County Project Vote! office and went looking for someone to head it.

The name Barack Obama surfaced.

Somehow, it just surfaced. The American Thinker has an extensive article on Barack Obama and his radical ties, including this:

Obama has spent a large portion of his professional life working for ACORN or its subsidiaries, representing ACORN as a lawyer on some of its most critical issues, and training ACORN leaders. Stanley Kurtz's excellent National Review article, "Inside Obama's Acorn." also describes Obama's ACORN connection in detail. But I can't improve on Obama's own words:

I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career (emphasis added). Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. - Barack Obama, Speech to ACORN, November 2007 (Courtesy Newsmax.)[snip]

As a community activist for ACORN; as a leadership trainer for ACORN; as a lead organizer for ACORN's Project Vote; as an attorney representing ACORN's successful efforts to impose Motor Voter regulations in Illinois; as ACORN's representative in lobbying for the expansion of high risk housing loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the current crisis; as a recipient of their assistance in his political campaigns -- both with money and campaign workers; it is doubtful that he was unaware of ACORN's true goals.

It's deliberate, and it's insidious. And this time it could crash our archaic voting system, which depends a lot on the honor of Americans. But honorable and law-abiding Americans this time could be overwhelmed. There is no ID required in 26 states. Only 6 states require photo ID to vote. That is a scandal--this hurts everyone when your vote can be cancelled out by identity theft or fraud--or swamped by totally phony votes.We show a photo ID to get on an airplane, to keep ourselves from getting blown up. ACORN is trying to blow up our democracy. As for voter suppression--ask Hillary about Obama in Nevada.

It's either ObamACORN or us. It's that simple.