10 July 08 - 12:58How deep does ACORN run ?
This post is to show how deeply ACORN is involved in US politicsFirst off is a video of ACORN in New Orleans involved in the forclosure mess
Then is this story of ACORN spending $40 million dollars to get universal health care
Times Picayune
Campaign urges quality health care
Goal is to bring services to everyone Wednesday, July 09, 2008From staff reports
Gathered near the entrance of a shuttered Charity Hospital on Tuesday, representatives from local grassroots organizations in New Orleans announced their commitment to a multimillion-dollar national campaign to promote affordable health care.
The Louisiana Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN, has joined forces with Health Care for America Now in a $40 million campaign to push for quality health care for all Americans.
The money will spent on television and radio public service announcements and lobbying efforts to put pressure on the presidential candidates as well as local, state and national elected officials.
ACORN was joined Tuesday by local allies, which included the United Teachers of New Orleans, the Committee to Reopen Charity, the Louisiana Justice Institute and Pax Christi of New Orleans.
"The idea here is to revamp the health care system to make it more affordable," said Tanya Harris, an ACORN spokeswoman.
New Orleans was one of 44 cities across the country to announce its commitment to the Health Care for America Now campaign Tuesday. Other major cities involved include Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
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Finally is a story of the Minnesota ACORN getting Kickbacks from Minnesota's Attourney General's office
AP News
’06 Minn. AG settlement terms draws auditor’s eye
By BRIAN BAKST | Associated Press Writer
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ST. PAUL — A Minnesota government investigator has questioned whether former Attorney General Mike Hatch was out to aid a political ally in a 2006 settlement with a credit card company that steered nearly $500,000 away from the state treasury and toward nonprofit groups.
According to an inquiry by the legislative auditor made public Monday, Hatch’s office agreed to drop its deceptive-advertising case against Capital One Bank that February in exchange for $749,999 — a dollar short of a statutory threshold for automatic deposit of settlement funds into state coffers.
Instead, Hatch’s office and the defendant were able to pick other recipients for two-thirds of the proceeds: the Minnesota chapters of the Legal Aid Society and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN. The state got $250,000 to cover its investigative costs.
Less than a month later, Hatch appeared as a gubernatorial candidate at a news conference to accept the endorsement of ACORN’s Minnesota-based political action committee, which is legally distinct from the nonprofit group’s official work.
Hatch vigorously denies crafting the arrangement to further his political campaign, which ended that fall in defeat to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Questions about the case surfaced during Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles’s recent examination of alleged loose ethics in the attorney general’s office under Hatch and the successor, fellow Democrat Lori Swanson. She has dismissed the allegations as motivated by a faction of employees attempting to unionize; Nobles said his probe is now dormant.
He justified the financial arrangement as vital to winning Capital One’s approval because the company wanted to avoid paying a civil penalty to the state; it would only agree to pay the attorney general office’s costs. Hatch insisted that ACORN was chosen by Capital One.
Hatch said there was “no linkage” between the ACORN PAC endorsement of him and the settlement.
“I think that most political commentators will tell you the last organization that could be influenced with money is ACORN,” Hatch wrote to Nobles. “If somebody truly believed such an allegation, they would not have waited 27 months to make the claim.” No comments No trackbacks
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