James O'Keefe Pays $100,000 To ACORN Employee He Smeared

reply to post by Southern Guardian



"Did O'Keefe's investigation have merit?"


Validate. On me. To invalidate? On you.

Still game?

reply to post by beezzer


I'm not interested in your little games. What I am interested in are these merits you speak of that O'Keefe's investigation produce again? Considering that you feel these merits outweigh the fact he mislead people? If you can let me know, I'd happily respond.

reply to post by Southern Guardian

Are you saying Gary Johnson is a liberal? Interesting

OMG, so you are ASSuming that because I am not a right winger and because I voted for Gary Johnson, that I assumed HE is a liberal??? I'm sorry, but you my friend are so out of touch and politically biased, that you are one of those folks whom have no hope!

Do two wrongs make a right Seeker? I'd like a response from you on this.

Okay, I will grant you your wish on my response. "NO I DO NOT!", but you are claiming the moral high ground just because you were the FIRST to bring it up! Since that point, you still insist that you STILL are right and anyone who disagrees with you is either a "Right winger" or they are trying to derail your thread!



Can you say Saul Alinsky?

where did I claim this?

So are you defending an organization that is bad?

reply to post by seeker1963

"NO I DO NOT!"

No they do not, clearly you understand this, then why bring up the 2008 voter fraud committed by ACORN staff members to excuse the fact O'Keefe was clearly misleading people through his investigation? hmm

Originally posted by Southern Guardian
reply to post by beezzer

 

I'm not interested in your little games. What I am interested in are these merits you speak of that O'Keefe's investigation produce again? Considering that you feel these merits outweigh the fact he mislead people? If you can let me know, I'd happily respond.

There were no games.

I will provide the merits in which you ask, in your own thread.

I will assume that you wish not to formally debate on the subject.

Good.
Dirty Bastard deserves worse.

reply to post by Southern Guardian

No they do not, clearly you understand this, then why bring up the 2008 voter fraud committed by ACORN staff members to excuse the fact O'Keefe was clearly misleading people through his investigation? hmm

That's it? I already explained this to you. Yet that is all you can bring up?



kk, I see how your deflections point out your agenda! I am done with you.

reply to post by beezzer


Why not simply tell us the merits here? In this thread? Considering that the excuses of O'Keefe's actions so far have been that these supposed merits outweigh the fact he lied and mislead people.

If you really don't have much in the way of merit to show for his investigation then simply admit it.

Originally posted by Southern Guardian
reply to post by beezzer

 

Why not simply tell us the merits here? In this thread? Considering that the excuses of O'Keefe's actions so far have been that these supposed merits outweigh the fact he lied and mislead people.

If you really don't have much in the way of merit to show for his investigation then simply admit it.

I will use your thread, then.

Just wanted to make it fair.

Pending future posts. . . . .

reply to post by Kali74


He does. I don't think the $100,000 figure did much in the way to hurt him, he must have made at least $1 million through his little smear job from appearing on Fox, selling his tapes, etc. At least though Mr Vera got something out of it.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


Yeah, I don't what the guy's salary was at ACORN or how successful he was at finding employment elsewhere but I don't think 100k would cover lost wages. Funny how all these guys scream that you can't determine how another lives yet somehow feel perfectly justified in robbing others of how they live their lives. But it's only an (was) organization partially funded by the government so that makes it okay to judge and tell people they're evil and cost people their dreams and livelihoods.

Speaking of ACORN mishandling money again,

A preliminary probe of now-disbanded community organizing group ACORN has found no sign the group or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years, congressional investigators reported Monday.

A review of grants by nine federal agencies, mostly for housing issues, found problems with only one award -- and in that case, the separately administered ACORN Housing Corporation quickly provided a missing piece of documentation, the Government Accountability Office reported.

edition.cnn.com...

People post stuff with little to nothing to show for it, and what? They just move on to the next lie. Deny ignorance, huh? ACORN is gone now, what have these lies gained people, aside from O'Keefe himself and the money he profited?

reply to post by Kali74


These people defending O'Keefe and his actions are completely oblivious to the negative impact his lies had on other people. Mr Vera was wrongly fired from his position because of the misleading smear job from O'Keefe. He was wrongly potrayed to the public, imagine what psychological impact this had on his personal life, his family? It's been what? 3 years since O'Keefe's little smear job? How many people were hurt because of this? But do any of these people defending O'Keefe care? No they don't, it's all about this political fixation of theirs against Obama, it is pathetic.

I don't know what other people are getting so worked up over. ACORN never did anything wrong as was proven well after the fact Glenn Beck said they did.

Libertarianism is a right wing ideology.

I'd just like to introduce a few facts into the discussion:

Fraud allegations?

Following the publication of the videos and withdrawal of funding, four different independent investigations by various state and city Attorneys General and the GAO released in 2009 and 2010 cleared ACORN, finding its employees had not engaged in criminal activities and that the organization had managed its federal funding appropriately, and calling the videos deceptively and selectively edited to present the workers in the worst possible light.

Voter registration fraud?

ACORN has conducted large-scale voter registration drives since at least the 1980s, focusing primarily on registering poor and minority citizens. 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. 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.

Both excerpts are from Wikipedia: ACORN

I know, 'its only Wikipedia, blah, blah, blah". Wikipedia is a summary from primary sources and is, like most Wikipedia articles, is extensively footnoted with references to those primary sources.

Accusations aren't facts, and when the accusations are shown to be demonstrably false, it is time for you to "DENY IGNORANCE".

ACORN was targeted by right wing extremists because they were successful. The same right wing extremists are continuing to attempt to gerrymander districts, rig the election procedures and disenfranchise voters to this day in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, and many other states. It is cynical, dirty politics; trying to make sure that only the 'right kind' of voters can get to the polls and be counted.

The States should be backing over backwards to encourage voter turnout; not like in Florida and Ohio, close the doors early to ensure the opposite.

The right wing echo chamber is a strong thing. Those people will repeat things without doing any research and just flat out still believe them even if proven wrong.

Originally posted by Southern Guardian
reply to post by OptimusSubprime

 

ACORN is a money laundering menace to civil society.

And what sources, aside from evidently biased websites, can you cite for this? Because this is another accusation I've heard against this organization, and quick search to the source of these accusations always end up on rightwing blogs and websites. "Suspicious activity" isn't absolute proof of guilt, sorry.

I bought my house through bank of America, by attending ACORN's housing program. My realator told me I would only have to put 3% down, and no PMI, if i went to ACORN's "seminar". They are a crooked bunch. I had to sit through 3 days of their crap, and listen to their propaganda. They outright admit to strong arming banks into giving loans to minorities, threatening with charges of discrimination. I can say from first hand knowledge, they were everything they have been accused for being.

As soon as O’Keefe and his partner-in-crime left the ACORN location, Mr. Vera called the police to report the entire incident. It turns out that Vera had been playing along with O’Keefe in an effort to ensnare O’Keefe and Giles whom Vera believed were in the act of breaking the law by proposing to engage in the importing of young women to become prostitutes.

According to the Attorney General Report, Vera didn't call the police, per se, but called his cousin who was a cop and left a voice message without any significant details. His cousin didn't get back to him for roughly 9-days. From there his cousin began to organize with the San Diego Police Department's who investigate human smuggling through the city, as O'Keefe mentioned brining the girls through Tijuana. From there the police was using Vera to try to get a hold of O'Keefe. By the time all this was in motion the fact that it was O'Keefe putting ACORN on camera became apparent and Vera called his cousin stating to drop it.

A fun piece of trivia was the ACORN thing was investigated by former-Oakland-Mayor-then-California-Attorney-General-turned-Non-Consecutive-terming-Governor Jerry Brown. I bring this up, because the AG investigation conclusions put this in there:

O’Keefe and Giles received immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing the
full, unedited videotapes. As a result, we did not determine if they violated California’s
Invasion of Privacy Act when they recorded the ACORN employees. If the
circumstances meet the requirements of the Act, the ACORN employees may be able to
bring a private suit against O’Keefe and Giles for recording a confidential conversation
without consent.

What O'Keefe was sued for was violating the Invasion of Privacy, not for misrepresentation through editing, slander, libel, or any such thing.

As far as throwing out the word "illegal behavior" (as the OP article does) this was a civil case for damages, not a criminal one. Plus O'Keefe settled, which means no court found him liable of anything. Settlements prevent court decisions, so "guilty" isn't the right word either.

While I'm thinking about Jerry Brown, here's a video. It's a song written in 1979.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by Southern Guardian

 

And again, where in the OP did I mention voter fraud in 2008? This thread is about O'Keefe smearing ACORN, it is not about the voter fraud committed by individual acorn staff back in 2008, so stop derailing the thread.

If the only thing you can point negatively against ACORN is the 2008 voter fraud committed by individual staff members, then this once again demonstrates that alot of other accusations hold little to no substance.

Why the deflection OP? More importantly, why are you defending an organization who committed voting fraud? Do we not as a society have the attitude that once a criminal always a criminal? Better yet!! Would you defend a right wing organization who committed voter fraud and got CAUGHT?

But in this case, you are defending an organization that WAS proven in a court to be violating the law! You are so blinded by partisan politics that you can't even see your own nose in front of your face........

Why do you want to make a thread about Strategic Allied Consulting?

reply to post by narwahl

Why do you want to make a thread about Strategic Allied Consulting?

Or those Two Republicans Arrested for Attempted Double Voting Just 'Testing' the System, They Say. Isn't it interesting that the ONLY reported actual fraud was by Republicans who believed the horror story propaganda?

By the way, those two people were committing VOTER FRAUD, not Voter Registration Fraud. Two different things.

And isn't it interesting that SAC was operating most outrageously in Florida where the Governor went out of his way to remove legitimate voters from the rolls and then slammed the doors early on thousands of voters he couldn't manage to disenfranchise any other way?

Further discussion comparing ACORN's registration 'issues' with those of SAC's: GOP Voter Fraud Accusations Suddenly Blowing Up In Their Faces

Money Quote:

But Acorn, unlike Strategic Allied Consulting, actually self-reported its canvassers' suspicious applications -- which it was legally obligated to submit nonetheless. The ones from Sproul's groups, on the other hand, were spotted by election officials.t

So all applications MUST BY LAW be submitted to the Elections Registrar.

Can you spot the difference between the two organizations?

The ACORN offices detected suspicious applications and reported them; SAC did not.
The ACORN offices performed honestly and ethically. SAC did not.

Also, ACORN submitted all applications, suspicious or not, as required by law. GOP Contractors threw applications into the dumpster if they felt like it.