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Note: I urge readers to further research ACORN and these Voting Problems, as I have done no lengthy or intense research on this topic and am certainly not an expert.
ACORN and Obama — Possible Voting Fraud & Other Irregularities 10/24/2008
What finally got me back On Line this Election Year, was an editorial, a week or more ago, in my local daily newspaper, The Columbian (Vancouver, WA), in which they basically equated the connections of Barack Obama to those of John McCain with the organization, ACORN.
[Note: ACORN stands for: Association of Community Organizations for Renewal (?) Now]
What a disservice to the reading public and to voters!
The Columbian endorsed Barack Obama, a few days before this editorial.
If Barack Obama is your guy, fine. But newspapers still have an obligation to be honest with their readers about the underlying facts, even in an editorial. All that McCain did was to give a speech to one of ACORN’s big meetings. Politicians talk to everyone. One speech sure doesn’t cross the line over into an ‘association’ or ‘closely associated with’, or “associated over time’.
Obama appears to have had a very a long term association, and probably a very close association with ACORN:
1. As Barack Obama’s autobiography Dreams from my Father relates, Obama worked in Chicago, before going to law school, as a Community Organizer. Apparently, one of the women who founded ACORN, was associated with those community activities with which Obama was involved.
[It is actually disputed as to who helped whom more. One school of thought is that Obama was a young unknown, and these early community groups let him get the credit for their work, giving him local credentials and connections and knowing that he might help them later. The other school of thought is that it was basically like he told it in his book, i.e., they were having a hard time mobilizing as so many other parts of society had abandoned them and written them off.]
2. Obama was ACORN’s attorney. During the last Presidential Debate, Obama indicated that this was all there was to his connection with ACORN. He related that his representation of ACORN was a one time matter, was with respect to efforts to get the State of Illinois to abide by the Motor Voter Law, and was done in conjunction with the US Justice department.
3. Obama was involved as a Trainer for ACORN [The extent of this is debated.]
4. Most importantly, Obama’s Presidential Campaign has given ACORN approximately $800,000, for its Get Out the Vote activities for him. [This would definitely mean that Obama had been far less than forthcoming with his response at the last Presidential Debate.]
5. In his role as State or US Senator, Obama might have been partly responsible for some ACORN division(s) obtaining government monies. [My apologies, I am very uncertain about this last point.]
Background Basics on ACORN
In the past, ACORN has probably done some very good things for the inner cities, like in Chicago. It now has various affiliates and subgroups and activities. One general area of activity, is just trying to get some communities to organize and care about each other.
However, there appear to be two major current problems with ACORN:
1. ACORN receives government dollars for its community activities. (And ACORN is apparently a Non-Profit(?)) Thus, it is NOT supposed to engage in partisan or political activities. But, there is pretty strong evidence, including videos, indicating that ACORN has been actively and vocally supporting and working for Barack Obama. (There are probably going to be arguments that there are different partisan ACORN divisions and non-partisan divisions. Frankly, it seems that lots of organizations split themselves up this way.)
2. ACORN is being investigated by and in many states—one early example was Nevada—about its Voter Registration problems. An FBI Investigation is in progress. It is alleged that a high percentage of the voter registrations that ACORN turned into county elections offices throughout the country, were bogus. It appears that ACORN workers were being paid per registration and not by the hour, or by a set salary by ACORN. (This will probably ring a bell for Oregonians and Washingtonians, as both states have tried to deal with this kind of |
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