Obama: Judged by the company he keeps

AE/10.14.08

 

At this stage of the game we know Barack Obama, despite what he claims, did extensive legal work for ACORN, trained their people, and worked to contribute significant sums of money over the years as well.  This WSJ article reveals more detail about ACORN’s leftist agenda, and the funding ACORN receives from you.  The government has funneled millions to ACORN over the years.  Obviously, in the minds of many on the Left, it is unacceptable for the government to fund churches doing real charitable work, but perfectly fine for the government to finance an organization involved in Leftist political activism.

 

Now, it is clear ACORN uses fraud, manipulation, and intimidation to achieve the goals of its radical Left political agenda.

 

It is also clear people like Barack Obama, William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and other Obama operatives have been in the center of ACORN activities for many years, activities routinely based on the presuppositions America is racist, sexist, homophobic, militaristic and imperialistic, not to mention capitalistically exploitive.  

 

AE

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“…the organization’s real genius is getting American taxpayers to foot the bill.”

 

” The question is whether Acorn is systematically subverting U.S. election law — on the taxpayer’s dime.”

 

“As with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, Mr. Obama was happy to associate with Acorn when it suited his purposes. But now that he’s on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties.”

 

 

Obama and Acorn

Community organizers, phony voters, and your tax dollars

October 14, 2008

The Wall St. Journal

 

EXCERPT

 

Acorn — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — has been around since 1970 and boasts 350,000 members. We’ve written about them for years, but Acorn is now getting more attention as John McCain’s campaign makes an issue of the fraud reports and Acorn’s ties to Mr. Obama. It’s about time someone exposed this shady outfit that uses government dollars to lobby for larger government.

 

Acorn uses various affiliated groups to agitate for “a living wage,” for “affordable housing,” for “tax justice” and union and environmental goals, as well as against school choice and welfare reform. It was a major contributor to the subprime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting “strikes” against banks so they’d lower credit standards.

 

But the organization’s real genius is getting American taxpayers to foot the bill. According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been on the federal take since 1977. For instance, Acorn’s American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Its American Environmental Justice Project received 100% of its revenue from government grants in the same years. EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007. Only recently, Democrats tried and failed to stuff an “affordable housing” provision into the $700 billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more to Acorn.

 

All this money gives Acorn the ability to pursue its other great hobby: electing liberals. Acorn is spending $16 million this year to register new Democrats and is already boasting it has put 1.3 million new voters on the rolls. The big question is how many of these registrations are real.

 

Which brings us to Mr. Obama, who got his start as a Chicago “community organizer” at Acorn’s side. In 1992 he led voter registration efforts as the director of Project Vote, which included Acorn. This past November, he lauded Acorn’s leaders for being “smack dab in the middle” of that effort. Mr. Obama also served as a lawyer for Acorn in 1995, in a case against Illinois to increase access to the polls.

 

During his tenure on the board of Chicago’s Woods Fund, that body funneled more than $200,000 to Acorn. More recently, the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate. The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money was for “staging, sound, lighting.” It later admitted the cash was to get out the vote.

 

The Obama campaign is now distancing itself from Acorn, claiming Mr. Obama never organized with it and has nothing to do with illegal voter registration. Yet it’s disingenuous to channel cash into an operation with a history of fraud and then claim you’re shocked to discover reports of fraud. As with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, Mr. Obama was happy to associate with Acorn when it suited his purposes. But now that he’s on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties.

 

The Justice Department needs to treat these fraud reports as something larger than a few local violators. The question is whether Acorn is systematically subverting U.S. election law — on the taxpayer’s dime.

 

Copyright ©2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394051071230749.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

 

Also:  OBAMA DISTORTS ACORN TIES, by Amanda Carpenter

http://townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/10/13/obama_distorts_acorn_ties

 

 

FULL ARTICLE WITH SOURCE MATERIAL RE: THE RANGE OF TROUBLING ASPECTS OF BHO CANDIDACY:

 

https://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/dedicated-leader-or-daddy-daycare/

 

https://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/sarah-palin-speech-yesterday/

 

https://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/obamas-chickens-are-coming-home-to-roost/