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ACORN fires 2 after hidden-camera footage aired

Published - Sep 10 2009 08:53PM EDT



The group ACORN has fired two employees who were seen on hidden-camera video giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman who pretended to be a prostitute.

Fox News Channel broadcast excerpts from the video Thursday. On the video, a man and woman visiting ACORN's Baltimore office asked about buying a house and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. An ACORN employee advised the woman to list her occupation as "performance artist."

The pair also claimed they planned to employ teenage girls from central America as prostitutes, and an ACORN employee suggested that up to three of the girls could be claimed as dependents, according to transcripts of the video posted online by conservative activist James O'Keefe.

O'Keefe told Fox he posed as the pimp and that he was shocked by the ACORN employees' helpfulness.

In a statement, ACORN Maryland board member Margaret Williams said the video was an attempt to smear ACORN, and that undercover teams attempted similar setups in at least three other ACORN offices.

Williams said no tax returns were filed and no assistance was provided.

ACORN _ which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now _ advocates for poor people. It conducted a massive voter registration effort last year and became a target of conservatives when some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as "Mickey Mouse." ACORN has said only a handful of employees submitted false registration forms and did so in a bid to boost their pay.

On its Web site, Fox News reported that the videotape was made public Thursday on a political blog, BigGovernment.com.

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On the Net:

Baltimore ACORN: http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id7910

http://www.rr.com/news/news/article/rr/1...ired/full/

Another video just came out today of someone catching the D.C. ACORN office showing someone how to lie on a form for a housing loan. Love these a-holes.

ACORN -- Ostalin's roots.

And now a third video from the New York office has just been released. Same deal....same advice by ACORN on how to lie to get the loan.

I might be dense, but I sense a trend. Me thinks there was a training session on how to fib, bend the truth, and fabricate to get loans for the disenfranchised and downtrodden.

Rath, ACORN employees -- they are NOT volunteers -- are paid a bonus for reaching certain "goals". This was admitted to by ACORN when the issue of registering ficticious voters arose. In other words, they are incented to lie/cheat/steal.

What a country!!!!

This is actually a huge story being ignored by the usual suspects of the media.

And now a 4th tape from California has been released. Same deal. How to lie to get a loan.

gosh! those darn republicans. trying to cut off fed funds to the single most corrupt voting fraud entity since daley number 1 in chicago. heck, they got mickey mouse registered and exchanged crack for false id's. what is the big deal?

Quote:GOP seizes on ACORN funding


Seizing on an issue that has been trumpeted by conservative media, Republican congressional leaders have launched an all-out campaign to choke off any federal dollars from going to ACORN, the scandal-plagued anti-poverty group.


After the Senate voted on Monday to bar any new federal money for ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — from the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other top Republicans began pressing President Barack Obama to use his executive authority to extend the ban to all federal agencies.


“It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law,” Boehner and the other Republicans told the president. “Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers’ money.”


One ACORN insider estimated that the group, and groups affiliated with it, receive $1.5 million to $2 million annually from the federal government, with the bulk of the groups’ money coming from state and local governments.


A recent investigation by the office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — another vocal ACORN critic — concluded that the organization had gotten at least $53 million from federal agencies since 1994. GOP aides said that total “does not count the untold millions more that ACORN has received indirectly through state and local agencies that receive federal block grants.”


Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, said that the lion’s share of the federal money went to the ACORN Housing Corp. for its work on first-time home buyer counseling and, more recently, foreclosure prevention.


The GOP letter to Obama is only one facet of a much broader Republican offensive against ACORN, a campaign that moved into high gear following the recent release of a video in which employees of ACORN and an affiliate group in Baltimore, New York and Washington were secretly recorded giving tax advice to two conservative activists dressed up as a pimp and a prostitute.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/090...z0RHCCLFVz