This week, video blogger and conservative activist James O'Keefe released videos of two successful undercover investigations carried on this summer where he went to ACORN offices, one in Baltimore and one in the District of Columbia, and found the employees eager to assist him in committing and covering up multiple crimes, including tax fraud, prostitution, human trafficking and defrauding the federal government.
In both cases, O'Keefe presented himself as a pimp and his associate Hannah Giles as a prostitute looking for assistance in qualifying to get a federal low income loan so that they could purchase a house to use as a brothel to which they would be bringing underage Salvadoran girls smuggled into the country illegally to work as prostitutes. The ACORN workers seemed completely unsurprised when confronted with this scenario and in both cases gave him extensive advice on how to conceal profits from the illegal business, how to avoid paying taxes for their underage sex workers, how to keep from being harassed by the police and other pimps, how to launder money from prostitution and how to obtain public assistance for underage sexworkers claimed as dependents. They were even willing to fill out fraudulent tax forms for him.
O'Keefe's presentation of his intent was completely unambiguous, repeatedly referring to the business as prostitution, leaving no room for any claim that the ACORN workers didn't know what they were discussing. O'Keefe also presented himself as a law student with political ambitions and got excellent advice from the ACORN staff on how to distance himself from the prostitution business to protect his reputation for his future political career.
Major media outlets had been largely ignoring this story until today's announcement that the Census Bureau would not be following through on a plan to use ACORN workers as data gatherers, specifically because of this scandal. O'Keefe's work is now getting considerably exposure, but some outlets like the New York Times remain strangely silent on exactly why the Census Bureau decided to fire ACORN. This scandal may also have repercussions for the eligibility of ACORN to receive additional federal funds from the federal Stimulus plan.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - volunteer
Obama used to represent and work with ACORN and has been protecting them since his election in order to continue building him a larger base of voters (legal or not)
2 - Arch Conservative
The leftist whackadoos are already claiming this means nothing and that Acorn was set up.
3 - Christine
Dave, glad to see this here. My kudos to James and Hannah for their concern, creativity and bravery. We need more like them!
4 - Dave Nalle
Arch, the spin on this is that O'Keefe went to a number of other ACORN offices and only these two helped him out. IMO that's a pretty weak argument, because the honesty (or caution) of a few groups of ACORN workers who may even have been tipped off, doesn't lessen the guilt of these ones.
Meanwhile, this week another 11 ACORN workers were arrested in Florida for voter registration fraud. This time the FBI was involved, which might finally lead to action against the organization as a whole.
At what point does ACORN management lose the protection of plausible deniability? How long can they keep blaming the workers, fire them and then hire them back? At some point it has to be classed as a conspiracy case and a smart prosecutor will go after the leaders.
Dave
5 - Baronius
Dave, they didn't just tell him how to distance himself from the prostitution for political reasons. The ACORN people told him how to launder her prostitution money into a campaign fund. The damage from this would be huge if some federal prosecutor pursued ACORN as a criminal enterprise under RICO. I imagine the Obama camp will make 100% sure that doesn't happen.
6 - Ruvy
Dave,
The idiots on another thread managed to ignore the very same story you have as an article that I posted as a link. I see they are being awful quiet here. The sorry faker you elected is being shown for the smelly beast he is, by the associations he keeps.
Obama still hasn't quite fulfilled the purpose I hoped he would in convincing Israelis that the Israeli scum who bow down to him ought to be ejected from office and hung for treason - so in my eyes, he is still useful. But every news story that cuts the bastard's credibility is a pleasure to read.
7 - roger nowosielski
It's comforting to know, Ruvy, that all those who don't see the world exactly like you do are idiots.
Carry on.
8 - Dave Nalle
Ruvy is not known for his promotion of civil discourse. However, I agree that anyone who is still trying to defend ACORN at this point is some kind of idiot, useful or not.
Dave
9 - roger nowosielski
I have been doing nothing of the kind, Dave. And Ruvy's reference seem to be directed not at the defenders of ACORN but rather all those who thus far have not commented on the article - a different matter entirely.
10 - roger nowosielski
We really have nothing to say to one another, so let it stay that way. I should have known better to have even bothered.
Adios!
11 - Dave Nalle
That's a lot of comments for people who basically have nothing to say.
Dave
12 - roger nowosielski
Correct. The last ten, including this one, have nothing to do what the subject matter. What does it tell you?
13 - Arch Conservative
Jeez Roger hardly qualifies as a leftist whackadoo. Where are all the real ones on this post?
14 - roger nowosielski
Thanks, Archie.
Somehow I knew that if I paid you a compliment, I'd get one back.
Keep the faith. We all need to.
15 - Silas Kain
Nice job, Dave. There are many things that concern me about ACORN and none of them have anything to do with Mr. Obama. I am concerned by Mr. O'Keefe's motivations. Regrettably, Mr. O'Keefe is a distant cousin and that's about all we have in common. I respect the concept of investigative journalism but find his methodology suspect. However, what he exposes proves there is a problem within ACORN. To indict an entire organization is hardly fair. It's akin to blaming the entire GOP for the likes of Limbaugh, Wilson and Golden Boy Boehner.
When it comes to the census. I believe that the entire program should be managed, monitored and administered by the United States government by United States government employees sworn to uphold the Constitution. And if an employee of the Census is accused of wrongdoing and found guilty, he/she should receive the maximum penalties as prescribed by law. We need a WPA-type agency to help stimulate the economy. The Census is a great vehicle to accomplish the task. We are bound by our Constitution of conduct a census. We are morally bound to insure that such an endeavor is carried out on a level playing field by people who will be held to the highest account. ACORN consistently displays abuses of power and questionable tactics. In order for the organization to redeem itself, it must take a deep look inside itself and get their acts together. They owe this to Barack Obama, but ultimately they owe it to themselves.
16 - El Bicho
"That's a lot of comments for people who basically have nothing to say."
Exactly. The people who really don't give a shit shut up and move on.
It's good that O'Keefe outed these scumbags. Hope he keeps all sides honest rather than turning a blind eye to his side.
17 - roger nowosielski
El Bicho is a satirist, no doubt about it.
And that's despite Ruvy's recommendation that he had better to stick to music review.
18 - Dave Nalle
Silas, I don't see how O'Keefe's motivations are relevant. I'm sure they're as base as can be. He'd like to be the next Geraldo, practicing overblown "gotcha" journalism and digging up Al Capone's vault purely to service his ego. But that in no way alters what happened in these two ACORN offices. Those events are important on their own merit.
Dave
19 - Mark
It's good that O'Keefe outed these scumbags.
agreed
20 - Silas Kain
But that in no way alters what happened in these two ACORN offices. Those events are important on their own merit.
Oh, I agree, Dave. Notwithstanding O'Keefe's motivations what those ACORN workers did was wrong, period. Termination was appropriate and I think ACORN erred by not terminating management who was responsible for these workers. ACORN must be held accountable, as all community activist organizations. I don't dispute it -- in fact, I encourage it. It's just that when we monitor these operations it has to be on an even playing field whereby the ideology of the organization is not the motivation for monitoring.
I also feel the same about religious institutions. If a religious organization is directly involved in the body politic then it stands to reason that they should not be exempt from taxation and subject to even closer scrutiny.
Government has its purpose. I believe that it is responsible for implementing a level playing field for all the citizenry. That includes regulation of business, charitable and religious practices in cases where those "exempt" organizations exert undue influence on the secular side of the aisle.
I honestly believe that there would be no health crisis in America if we had laid a foundation whereby medicine was treated as a not for profit enterprise with strict regulation of insurance companies. If those practices were in place there never would have been a need for Medicare, Medicaid or this uncivil unrest.
21 - Jordan Richardson
It's just that when we monitor these operations it has to be on an even playing field whereby the ideology of the organization is not the motivation for monitoring.
Quoted for truth.
22 - Cindy
Good article, Dave. I'm only through the first video. I'm impressed, as usual, with the ethical souls possessed by my fellow humans.
23 - Glenn Contrarian
"That tree is rotten, so that means the WHOLE forest is rotten!!!!" That in a nutshell is Dave's logic.
Dave - do you remember your diatribes against ACORN's voter registration fraud cases? Did you give ANY credit to ACORN for being the ones who blew the whistle on its workers in Nevada last year for fraudulent registrations? Did you give ANY credit to ACORN for turning in yet MORE workers in Florida for the same reason THIS VERY WEEK?
No. You linked to an article which gave ACORN NO credit for turning in its workers. In fact, the article falsely accuses ACORN of the "voter fraud" (a felony) and NOT "voter registration fraud" (usually a gross misdemeanor IIRC).
If you had done your homework, Dave, you would have seen this quote in other references: "Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle praised ACORN for its work exposing the fraudulent acts by some former employees. ``We've been very aggressive about a lot of these cases,'' she said. ``But we would not have known about these workers unless ACORN brought it to us."
But your reply gave no such credit, did it? To you, it was just another excuse to attack ACORN...never mind that NOT ONE FRAUDULENT VOTE was cast due to those fraudulent voter registrations. NOT ONE, Dave. Not a single one.
According to the Wikipedia, ACORN has about 400,000 members. That's more than the Navy had back in the 80's when there were several spy scandals, the worst of which was when a senior chief and his son were arrested for spying and putting our entire submarine force at risk.
I can personally attest there's is crime and fraud perpetrated by some active duty members in the military (some of it organized) - and every year, this includes cases of murder. It's not just the junior people, either - just a few years back, the most senior enlisted man in Naval Base Kitsap was arrested for trying to arrange a sex romp with a 12 year-old.
And on cases not known to the public, the military does its level best to keep them from public knowledge (i.e. covers-up). Does this mean that our entire military is corrupt and should be fired for the danger it presents to our democracy? Of course not - but if we applied the same logic that you imply in your articles against ACORN, that's precisely what we'd have to do.
What's the point? In EVERY large organization - including the Republican party, mind you - there are going to be some who are corrupt or even flatly evil. It doesn't matter that one organization is military and one's civilian. What matters is that every single one is comprised in its entirety by HUMAN BEINGS.
That's EVERY large organization, Dave. Why do you think I haven't been posting anything recently about how this or that Republican's dalliances or corruption is indicative of the party as a whole?
But by your article, you ARE strongly implying that the corruption videotaped ARE indicative of the organization as a whole.
"That one tree's rotten, so the WHOLE forest must be rotten!" That's your logic, Dave - because in all your rants against ACORN I have YET to see you give ANY credit for the times that ACORN has reported its own workers to the police.
And BTW - I once gave you a challenge concerning ACORN: for every vote actually illegally cast due to those illegal voter registrations, I could show you a thousand voters who were wrongfully disenfranchised by Republican and conservative efforts. A thousand to one, Dave - care to take me up on that?
No, you won't - because if you do, you'll be party in exposing the strawman you and the conservatives have made of ACORN.
24 - Ruvy
You should be paid for that fantastic commercial for ACORN, Glenn. You did a splendid job attempting to put powder on a pig's nose. You should mail that comment off to ACORN's White House Office, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I wanted to work for that outfit once. I wanted to be an activist, and get paid for it. But each time I went on an interview, my gut told me that this was a bunch of crooks, not a bunch of activists.
You saw at two samples of that crooked and criminal mentality on display in Dave's article. This was not a hatchet job - O'Keefe's efforts might fall under entrapment, but this was definitely no hatchet job. You saw the true face of ACORN in Baltimore and DC. You saw the true face of "activism", the likely face of ACORN's grunts in Chicago as well as New York.
But, rather than realize that this was the true face of ACORN, you have decided to wax wrathful with righteous indignation.
That comment was worth at least $1,000. You really do deserve to get paid for your brilliant efforts.
25 - Cindy
Does this mean that our entire military is corrupt and should be fired for the danger it presents to...democracy?
Yes, I think so.