ACORN Official Grabs $445 Million Grant From Obama Administration !!

story from Breitbart News

ACORN Official Grabs $445 Million Grant From Obama Admin
The former Acorn official Joe McGavin is now a director of an outfit called Hardest Hit.
(The Obama Administration established Hardest Hit in 2010)

Hardest Hit is an Illinois community group that will offer “struggling” Illinois homeowners mortgage assistance.

Of course, the "assistance" money will come from YOU and ME !!

The government has a $7.6 billion program designed to help “unemployed or substantially underemployed”.

Sounds good right ?

But wait.

McGavin is a criminal and I wonder what the odds are that most of that money will be "mis-spent", squandered, or even "donated" to political campaigns

Corruption Incorporated has a new customer !!


Breitbart story:

ACORN, the supposedly defunct organization defunded by Congress in the aftermath of James O’Keefe’s video exposing ACORN employees’ willingness to help out pimps and prostitutes attain government benefits, is back. As Judicial Watch has uncovered, the Obama administration offered $445 million to a former ACORN official as part of a $7.6 billion government program designed to help “unemployed or substantially underemployed” Americans make their mortgage payments.

The ACORN official, Joe McGavin, is director of Hardest Hit, an Illinois program that received that massive Treasury infusion. Prior to his time at Hardest Hit, McGaven was director of counseling for ACORN Housing in Chicago, and the operations manager for Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), an ACORN affiliate.

While ACORN was supposedly cut off from taxpayers, the facts say otherwise. And this is just the latest indicator. As Judicial Watch reported, “ACORN got tens of thousands of dollars in grants to ‘combat housing and lending discrimination.’ The money came via Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which awarded a $79,819 grant to AHCOA.”

Don’t be surprised to see the new, reorganized ACORN – now spread out across the country, without benefit of the ACORN label – play a role in the 2012 election cycle.

I bet Valerie Jarrett is neck deep in this one !


from Judicial Watch:

The Obama Administration has given a former director at the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) nearly half a billion dollars to offer “struggling” Illinois homeowners mortgage assistance, a Judicial Watch investigation has found.

It means the ACORN official (Joe McGavin) will go from operating a corrupt leftist community group that’s banned by Congress from receiving federal funding to controlling over $445 million in U.S. taxpayer funds. The money is part of a $7.6 billion Treasury Department program to help the “unemployed or substantially underemployed” make their mortgage payments.

In this case, JW found that a subcomponent of the state-run Illinois Housing Development Authority, known as the Illinois Hardest Hit Program received a generous $445,603,557 Treasury infusion. The Obama Administration established Hardest Hit in 2010 to provide targeted aid to families in states hit hardest by the economic and housing market downturn, according to its website.

Former ACORN Director Gets $445 Mil From U.S. Treasury

Interesting related pdf.
The Rebranding of ACORN

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3
ACORN and Its Affiliated Organizations .................................................................. 4
From the Ashes of ACORN: State Front-Groups ................................................... 10
Questions About the ACORN Bankruptcy ............................................................... 15
Voter Registration Fraud: Update on Criminal Activities by ACORN ..................... 17
Judicial Watch: Holding ACORN Accountable ........................................................ 24
Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 25
End Notes .................................................................................................................. 26

Acorn never went "Out of Business" !!!!

McGavin is a criminal and I wonder what the odds are that most of that money will be "mis-spent", squandered, or even "donated" to political campaigns

He isn't the only criminal and 7.6 billion? and $445 million I swear those people do think money goes on trees.

What nonsense.

As I have stated before... civil disobedience.

Is anyone else ready for civil disobedience? like not paying taxes so we can quit funding this corrupt organization known as the obama administration.

I'm sure we'll have to do the same under the romney admin.

reply to post by neo96


Money may not go on trees, but it is made in china!

Really though, this kind of practice should come as no surprise. It's really become the standard operating procedure for our government. If there's a problem, throw money at it. If there's an election, step up the PR (at any cost).

reply to post by xuenchen


Hmmmm, $455 Million huh? Well, that should be more then enough to pay all the people acorn gets to vote three or four times for obama in the coming election.

I love how the Breitbarts totally ignore and treat you readers like complete morons by not mentioning that James O'keefe and Hannah Giles are about to be in court defending themselves against a lawsuit brought by Juan Carlos Vera who was fired after the tapes were aired. And who by the way is innocent of wrong doing in case anyone cares or is actually interested in the truth.

After the footage was posted by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, Vera was fired. A state probe eventually confirmed Vera was simply playing along with the pimp conversation and had called police.

O'keefe barely escaped criminal charges for defying California Privacy Laws, he was granted immunity in exchange for all the videos.

O'keefe let out some interesting details back in March which *shock* was never mentioned on breitbart.com.

"He [Breitbart] said he would like to find a way for me to get paid to publish the videos," testified O'Keefe.


O'Keefe gave details about the payout. He testified that before the San Diego undercover taping, Breitbart first saw undercover ACORN videos from the East Coast and wanted to see more.
"Now we have evidence for the first time, Breitbart agreed in advance to participate in the violation of California law," said Gene Iredale, Vera's attorney.
O'Keefe said he was eventually paid $65,000 by Breitbart to blog about the video.

The trial starts this month.

10news.com

ETA and regarding the voter fraud thing where ACORN turned in thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms...they as well anyone who holds a voter registration rally or collects voter registration forms HAS to by LAW turn ALL of them in, even ones they suspect aren't correct. They flag those ones and hand them in, which is exactly what ACORN did.

Honestly, I'm sure ACORN did wrong things somewhere along the line as does any such group/agency etc...*cough ALEC* but what they've been accused of what they were defunded for was complete BS propagated by Breitbart and crew.

Aren't you guys tired of being lied to?

reply to post by Kali74


Good info.

But what does it have to do with this new corrupt Marxist criminal enterprise ?

You should read the pdf from Judicial Watch. It's informative.

The Rebranding of ACORN

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3
ACORN and Its Affiliated Organizations .................................................................. 4
From the Ashes of ACORN: State Front-Groups ................................................... 10
Questions About the ACORN Bankruptcy ............................................................... 15
Voter Registration Fraud: Update on Criminal Activities by ACORN ..................... 17
Judicial Watch: Holding ACORN Accountable ........................................................ 24
Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 25
End Notes .................................................................................................................. 26

reply to post by xuenchen


I don't have a problem with funding for helping to keep people from losing their homes, considering what has caused so much of the crisis and how much of it is completely unavoidable. ACORN it seems, should not have been defunded. Was it corrupt? I don't know, none of us will ever know thanks to so many lies. If something wasn't legit with the program I would have liked to have known exactly what and not what some random person decided what was going to be wrong.

It isn't Marxist. Stop misusing that word. It's a buzzword used to manipulate and wrongly defines everything the Right thinks is wrong with the Left.

ETA Okay I looked and it propagates the same crap. Voter registration fraud... Why do you want me to read the same lies from a different source?

reply to post by Kali74


Nothing wrong at all with helping people.

BUT.

Why does the government need to use 3rd parties that have criminal tendencies ????
(the money is going to a Chicago based outfit !!!)

It is well known that many 3rd parties will steal.

Why not create plans that are more direct and not subject to corruption ?

I say this money will end up "helping" political candidates more than people with mortgage problems.

Oh sure we'll hear a few sob stories in the media that got "saved".
(and all without any verifications of course)

Acorn and all affiliates are / were part of an international Marxist / Corporatist agenda.
(Acorn operated in other countries)

reply to post by xuenchen


The correct title of your threat would be "ACORN official grabs $445 million of taxpayer money".

The money does not come from Obama or his administrations pockets, it comes from the paychecks of hard working Americans. So this organization, founded by Obama, named "Hardest Hit" is taking money from people that are actually employed and giving it to people that are either unemployed or under employed to help them buy a home? Socialism at its best.......take from the bread winner to give to those whom can't support themselves. I am not against helping people, but does anyone have any idea how many working people can't even purchase a home? So those whom work and are unable to own a home should have a percentage of there tax money go to help un/underemployed own a home?

I don't know about the rest of you ATS'ers but this is about the most moronic thing I have ever heard of. Please explain to me how someone that is unemployeed is going to be able to pay a mortgage on a house they purchase. I guess next we will see another ex ACORN crook, I mean executive, receiving more taxpayer money to help bail out the recipients of "Hardest Hit" to help pay the mortgage payments on these homes.

This is nothing more than ACORN 2.0. Obama and his minions spreading their socialist ideology and spreading our wealth around.

Obama=One Big Ass Mistake America

reply to post by xuenchen


Okay, obviously you're free to keep misusing the word Marxist. However let's get back to ACORN and the slew of false allegations against it (By the way I agree on the third party bit). Let's say ACORN was guilty of something...what of it was way worse than anything they have falsely been accused of? What if they committed extortion, "vote for Obama and we'll give you money to save your house"...something along those lines, what if it was something that could have landed people in jail? The wing nuts muddied the waters so badly we will never know. Lies serve no one and a stance should be taken. Meanwhile Obama has actually committed Treason and here we are discussing the regurgitated lies against ACORN.

reply to post by Kali74


More about the defunding of Acorn by a Democrat Senate and House in 2009.

I will give you the MSNBC / AP article to show how slanted the story was.

The story cites the heavy support in a Democrat Congress, but still attempts to blame the Republican minority at the time.

(unless of course the Democrats were that easily led away from their own beliefs)


from Sept 2009 article:

WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to deny all federal funds for ACORN in a GOP-led strike against the scandal-tainted community organizing group that comes just three days after the Senate took similar action.

"ACORN has violated serious federal laws, and today the House voted to ensure that taxpayer dollars would no longer be used to fund this corrupt organization," said second-ranked House Republican Eric Cantor of Virginia.

The vote, on a provision attached to a student aid bill, was 345-75, with Democrats supplying all the "no" votes.

On Monday the Senate voted 83-7 to deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

Republicans accelerated their attacks on the liberal-leaning group a year ago when ACORN, in conducting a massive voter registration drive, was accused of submitting some false registration forms.

House votes to defund ACORN

reply to post by xuenchen


Are you ever going to engage in intellectually honest debate? Why do you keep going on about this voter registration stuff when it's already been proven to be a lie? By law ACORN had to turn in all the voter registration forms even the ones they flagged as fraudulent or incorrect. That is the law! Therefore in that instance, the instance that got them defunded it was wrong.

Originally posted by Kali74
reply to post by xuenchen

 

Are you ever going to engage in intellectually honest debate? Why do you keep going on about this voter registration stuff when it's already been proven to be a lie? By law ACORN had to turn in all the voter registration forms even the ones they flagged as fraudulent or incorrect. That is the law! Therefore in that instance, the instance that got them defunded it was wrong.

I'm sure you may be correct.

But can you give us some meat & potatoes like links and quotes from known sources that would be considered reliable ?

If the Congressional defunding was wrong, why did they support defunding them ?

The voter registration fraud may not have been the only criminal issue.

reply to post by xuenchen


Can you tell me how it is that unqualified volunteers should ever be able to throw out a voter registration form? What if they're wrong, do they have access to citizen databases? No. They can flag suspect ones and then leave it up to the State or Federal Election Committee to determine which are fraudulent.

ETA

Voter registration
ACORN has conducted large-scale voter registration drives since at least the 1980s,[24] focusing primarily on registering poor and minority citizens.[25][26] During the 2008 election season, ACORN gathered over 1.3 million voter registration forms in 21 states. Some of these registration forms were flagged by ACORN's internal auditors for review by election officials. It was estimated by Project Vote that 400,000 registrations collected by ACORN were ultimately rejected, the vast majority for being duplicate registrations submitted by citizens (which is also common at government voter registration services according to reports on the National Voter Registration Act by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission). An unknown number of registrations were fraudulent, but Project Vote estimated that only a few percent were, based on past years and samples from some drives in 2008.[27] No official in states where voter registration drives were conducted have come forward with substantial numbers of fraudulent registrations. It was estimated by Project Vote that 450,000 of the registrations collected by ACORN represented first-time voters, while the remainder were address changes submitted by citizens updating their addresses.[27]
As required by law in most states, ACORN must submit all registration forms collected by its workers, including those flagged by ACORN as incomplete or suspicious. Fraudulent voter registrations are investigated at local, state, and federal levels, and have sometimes resulted in criminal convictions for ACORN employees. ACORN has fired employees for fraudulent registration practices and turned them over to authorities. As of 2006, ACORN was improving its fraud detection and reporting procedures, and cooperating with authorities in efforts to prosecute violators.[28][29][30][31] Jeff Ordower, ACORN's Midwest Director, observed, "There is no scenario where those people on problematic cards would show up at the polls."[32][33] Of 26,513 registrations submitted by ACORN over a nine-month period in San Diego County, California, 4,655 were initially flagged, but 2,806 of those were later validated - a 7% error rate - compared to usually less than 5% for voter drives by other organizations, according to county officials.[34]
In a case in Washington state where seven temporary employees of ACORN were charged with submitting fraudulent voter registrations, ACORN agreed to pay King County $25,000 for its investigative costs and acknowledged that the national organization could be subject to criminal prosecution if fraud occurs again. According to the prosecutor, the misconduct was done "as an easy way to get paid [by ACORN], not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections."[29][35] In August 2008, ACORN caught, fired and reported employees Maria Miles and Kevin Clancy, who later pled guilty to repeatedly registering the names of the same registered voters.[36][37][38] In May 2009, six ACORN employees in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pled guilty to charges of a combined total of 51 counts of forgery and other violations while registering voters during the 2008 election cycle.[39]
In plea deals in a 2009 Town Square (Las Vegas)Las Vegas case, former ACORN field director Amy Busefink and ACORN official Christopher Edwards pled guilty to "conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters" in connection with a quota system for paid registration staff.[40] Edwards was sentenced to a year's probation and agreed to testify for prosecutors in charges against ACORN and against Busefink, while Busefink appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court and challenged the constitutionality of the statute.[41][42] In April, 2011, ACORN entered a guilty plea to one count of felony compensation for registration of voters, for which they were fined $5000,[43] but did not concede that the law was constitutional.[42]
In addition to registering voters directly, ACORN has worked to remove systemic obstacles to voter registration. In 2006, it brought a lawsuit in federal court in Ohio against the Ohio Secretary of State, at that time Ken Blackwell, and the Director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. ACORN alleged that, during the period that included the 2004 United States election voting controversies, the defendants had committed multiple violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The district court dismissed the case, but that decision was reversed in 2008 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.[44] After extensive fact discovery in 2009, the parties agreed to a settlement, under which the defendants agreed to implement several measures to facilitate registration of low-income voters.[45][46][47] The Dayton Daily News characterized the settlement as "accepting the thrust of [ACORN's] complaint."[48]

wiki

reply to post by Kali74

Can you tell me how it is that unqualified volunteers should ever be able to throw out a voter registration form? What if they're wrong, do they have access to citizen databases? No. They can flag suspect ones and then leave it up to the State or Federal Election Committee to determine which are fraudulent.

There ya go.

My opinion is that "unqualified volunteers" should not be allowed to engage in voter registrations at all.

Voter registration normally required some form of I.D. ?

It should remain a "government" function and qualifications need to be enforced IMO.
(similar to driver's licenses and such)

The quote reminds me a mad scramble

I always wondered if the outside voter registrations were even legal.

reply to post by xuenchen


They are legal and should remain so. The registration forms have to be checked and triple checked anyway so there's no harm in having a drive.

Originally posted by Kali74
reply to post by xuenchen

 

They are legal and should remain so. The registration forms have to be checked and triple checked anyway so there's no harm in having a drive.

That's all fine.

But how do the "checkers" and "certifiers" know if the "registrants" are real or "legal" voters ?

reply to post by xuenchen


Access to census data and other data bases I'm guessing. You know you can register to vote online or by mail without having to give ID? Why should there not be registration drives?