Facing intensifying scrutiny after the release of several disturbing hidden camera videos, the community organizing group, ACORN, is threatening to sue Fox News, the website Breitbart.com and the two conservative activists who produced the exposes.
ACORN is alleging that the filmmakers committed a felony by shooting the footage of ACORN employees in the act of providing advice on how to falsify tax forms and set-up a child prostitution business--to a man and a woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute.
A lawyer for ACORN said Monday that statutes in Maryland and the District of Columbia made the undercover filming illegal and that the same laws should prohibit the rebroadcast of the tapes by the Web site BigGovernment.com, where they were first posted last week, and on Fox News, which aired clips of the videos.
This should be fun. After all, the Census Bureau cut ties with them for the 2010 census, and the Senate just voted to cut their access to federal housing funds for the poor.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I think Fox is basically saying: Go ahead - make my day. Discovery can be a real bitch (and not the good kind either).
#4
Question for the 'Burg's unofficial legal team...haven't the courts previously ruled that the mere broadcast or reporting of information, regardless of how it was obtained, is protected by the First Amendment as long as the media outlet had nothing to do with the actual "crime"?
I remember hearing such an argument put forth when Sarah Palin's personal e-mails were posted on the 'net and some media outlets quoted them verbatim. The website owners and the media were never charged, just the putz who hacked her.
Wouldn't that apply here if there was no proof that Breitbart, Fox, etc., had nothing to do with bankrolling or providing material assistance to the two who did this sting?
#5
The kids appear to have broken the law with the filming. If tried, the DA will have to really pack the jury to get a conviction though, and might well end up tossing jurors in jail for 'jury nullification' - which would open up a really exciting avenue of legal investigation. Breitbart and Fox are ok as far as I can tell, on any criminal grounds.
The civil suit might very well rope in Breitbart and Fox along with the kids though. As pointed out, discovery would be a b*tch.
This could all get extremely messy but I suspect orders from on high (The One) will cause everything to be dropped, with a few sacrifices to the undercarriage of the bus (and recent events in Chicago concerning aspirin overdoses would serve as a warning to follow orders - even if that death was actually accidental or suicide.)
#8
RICO? Makes sense. AND by making a federal case out of it, the kids could end up with some kind of whistleblower protection. But would Holder go for it (seems unlikely)?
#11
Lawhawk is following the story. It seems the Brooklyn attorney general is preparing to file charges against ACORN. The Nevada attorney general is working up a case of fraudulent voter registration, as are several other states, if I recall correctly. We may be seeing the destruction of ACORN in our time.
#13
ACORN attacking Fox is the same thing as Saddam launching Scuds at Isreal in GWI. If you're in deep doo-doo, pick a fight with someone your co-conspirators friends all hate.
#16
Jaw-dropping. The new one has the Acorn employee admiting to murder, threatening Homocide, Admitting Tax Evasion from Pimping out Girls herself, Giving advice on Tax Evasion. This is the best one of the lot so far. I mean that in a bad way for ACORN. When this gets around, and it will, it will only re-enforce distrust of the MSM.
I can't wait to see where this goes in the coming weeks.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/15/2009 18:51 Comments ||
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#18
ACORN is probably deciding on whether they can get more money by keeping their mouths shut or to go for the banzai charge and get their heads lopped off after they "win", which isn't sure.
And I, for the life of me, still can't figure out why secret recordings like this are illegal, other than lawyers don't like it when their jobs are cut short.
#1
OK, so they've hit Maryland, DC, NY and Caliphornia. Kind of makes you wonder how tight the sphincters are of the ACORN employees in Massachusetts. Gotta be a lot of Come to Jesus calls being made from the ACORN HQ. Heh.
I'll bet you couldn't get a greased BB up their a$$ with a jackhammer. This one has already been posted. According to ACORN, the gal knew it was a setup and was just playing along with what she thought was a joke per their request. They have asked for the original unedited footage. They also better be careful of what they ask for. They may get it.
Last week, we saw some pretty disturbing activities revealed in the undercover footage from ACORN HousingÂ’s Baltimore office. By any measure of conduct, the actions of ACORNÂ’s employees should never have happened. It turns out the actions shouldnÂ’t have happened for another, very simple, reason: ACORN canÂ’t legally operate in the state of Maryland.
According to the following documents, ACORN, Inc.–the parent organization of all things ACORN–forfeited its corporate charter in Maryland in 2006. ACORN Housing forfeited its corporate charter in 2008. Any ACORN office in the state of Maryland is potentially operating illegally.
The Maryland Attorney General has made noise about prosecuting the intrepid journalists who undercovered the misdeeds of ACORN employees. Perhaps he should focus instead on how ACORN was able to operate without a license in his state.
"How much does it cost to register a business with the State? Depending on the business entity type the cost can start at $11 and range to $100 or more. Costs include, but not limited to, Trade name application, trade name holding for one year, Articles of Incorporation/ Organization, Certificates (LP,LLP) and any other circumstantial costs. A current fee schedule can be found on the Department of Assessments and Taxation Web site."
Somebody have the time (and energy) to register the name? I'll help front the costs. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/15/2009 20:19 Comments ||
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Link may be down. Someone certainly needs to look into this bs.
September 11, 2009 (San Diego) – “Long-range acoustic devices [LRADs] for crowd control can be extremely dangerous. These are used in Iraq to control insurgents. They can cause serious and lasting harm to humans…We want to know WHY our Sheriff Dept has this weapon,” Sal Magallanez of San Diego-based Liberty One Radio said in an e-mail sent to East County Magazine, prompting a joint investigation.
The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups.
A public records search conducted by East County Magazine has confirmed that the device is an LRAD 500-x manufactured by San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATC). Capable of use as an effective loudspeaker, the LRAD also has the ability to emit a deafening tone aimed at incapacitating and dispersing a crowd without use of lethal force.
“It’s very concerning,” Kevin Keenan, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. “ It is fine for the Sheriff’s Department to have new less-than-lethal weapons, but for their interactions with individuals these still-dangerous weapons need to be used only as substitutes for firearms. They can’t be used as just another tool on the tool belt. As we’ve seen with tasers and pepper spray, these types of weapons are being used to subdue people even though they pose the risk of serious physical harm.”
...
Liberty One Radio host Mike Copass, a former Democratic Congressional candidate who ran against Davis, tried to interview the Sheriff’s officer who appeared to be in charge of the device, which was mounted on a Rhino all-terrain vehicle. But Magallanez said the official “acted as if he didn’t know what it was.”
East County Magazine contacted Lieutenant Anthony Ray at the Lemon Grove sheriff substation. “I was the incident commander,” said Ray, who confirmed that the device was an LRAD but was not sure of the model. “It’s a really loud speaker,” he said, adding that the device is used to assure that announcements can be heard over the din of a crowd. “We’ll often use a helicopter, but this is something portable,” he explained. The device has also been present at a sand-castle building competition in Imperial Beach and could be deployed at any large event locally, since the Sheriff’s office is sometimes subcontracted by other cities within San Diego County to provide security.
Asked if he was aware that the device had a deterrent capability that includes a directed sound loud enough to cause hearing loss, he replied, “You mean like they use in Iraq? I can’t imagine we’d do that, because it would hurt our own people at the same time…I can’t believe that we would use the kind of thing on a crowd that the military does,” he said, adding that the deputy on the Rhino was not wearing protective earphones. “There were deputies right in front, too,” he observed, but added that he would have to “go home and look this up on Google” to learn more.
#3
The irony here is, the employment and use of acoustic devices in Iraq was a highly sensitive and very limited program which had legitimate political and host nation implications. This is most disturbing.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A poverty-rights group that has drawn the ire of conservatives suffered another setback in Washington on Monday when the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to deny it access to federal housing funds.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which helps poor people fight foreclosures and fix tax problems, has received more than $53 million in U.S. funds since 1994, but conservatives' charges of widespread fraud have begun to impact its reputation in the capital.
The Senate measure, which passed 83 to 7 in the Democratic-led chamber, [the pro ACORN votes came from:
* Dick Durbin (D-IL)
* Roland Burris (D-IL)
* Robert Casey (D-PA)
* Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
* Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
* Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
* Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)]
was included in a must-pass spending bill that funds housing and transportation programs for the fiscal year that starts October 1.
The House of Representatives passed a similar spending bill without restrictions on ACORN. The House and Senate must resolved differences before a final measure can be sent to Obama to sign into law.
Republicans say ACORN engaged in widespread fraud during the 2008 presidential campaign when it launched a massive voter-registration drive in minority communities, which typically support Democrats and ended up voting overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama.
ACORN says less than 2 percent of its 1.3 million voter applications were fraudulent, stemming from canvassers who sought to boost the number of forms they turned in.
How would ACORN know? It's not as though they actually double checked.
Independent analysts say any actual impact on the election was negligible.
Again, mostly the applications weren't checked, as the piles of the things were dumped on the registration desks just before the deadline as a matter of principle. So nobody actually knows whether there was a significant impact.
The group has also suffered an embezzlement scandal involving the founder's brother.
ACORN more recently has been embarrassed by conservative activists who secretly taped employees in several cities giving tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute.
The group has fired several of those taped while denouncing the actions as a smear campaign.
So it is, and quite effective too, given that all the claims are verifiably true.
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/15/2009 00:00 ||
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The long awaited fall of the Barry's Sturmabteilung...I hope. I'm still waiting for an overseas Mooslim connection to surface. This may drag on for a while, even with the recent revelations. The question of the Community Organizer in Chief signing it is yet another issue.
#9
Those that didn't vote could have been out of town. The Usual Suspects are the ones who voted No, though there would have been eight Nos if circumstances had been a little different.
Barack Obama (D-IL)
Posted by: ed ||
09/15/2009 9:08 Comments ||
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An alternative reason for some of those Repubs not voting for it is that they may be seeking an even stronger cut to ACORN - there is, I think, a bill in the House that would do that.
#15
McShame and Grahamnesty were together doing a town hall in SC.
Byrd is very ill.
Vitter probably wants to stay as far away from anything involving a prostitute as he can.
#16
We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph! - Governor William J. Le Petomane
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was asked about his failure to disclose about $700,000 in assets this weekend in Harlem by my pal Azi Paybarah of PolitickerNY -- and responded by saying he was a victim of a New York Post smear campaign.
The charming, churlish House Ways and Means chairman, who is the subject of several ethics committee probes, blasted away at the Murdoch-owner tab -- even though the disclosure story was reported by POLITICO and other news outlets.
"I think it's totally unfair for the New York Post to send investigative reporters to my family's homes and to do that type of thing," he said during a rally in Harlem over the weekend. "I guess it's all selling papers."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2009 00:00 ||
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"I guess it's all selling papers." It's about 7,000 Benjamins, dude.
The National Rifle Association announced its endorsement of Republican Bob McDonnell for governor of Virginia.
Four years ago, the NRA endorsed Democrat R. Creigh Deeds over McDonnell in their race for attorney general. There was no immediate comment on Monday's endorsement from Deeds' campaign.
"The Second Amendment rights of law abiding Virginians must be respected and protected," McDonnell said. "That is what I did while serving as Virginia's Attorney General."
McDonnell and Deeds, an outdoorsman who represents a mountainous, rural stretch of western Virginia in the state Senate, both have legislative track records that are mostly favorable to gun rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2009 00:00 ||
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The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases. The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.
The Senate's move would mean that ACORN would not be able to win HUD grants for programs such as counseling low-income people on how to get mortgages and for fair housing education and outreach.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2009 00:00 ||
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The Senate's move would mean that ACORN would not be able to win HUD grants for programs such as counseling low-income people on how to get mortgages and for fair housing education and outreach.
Home values may soon be trending upward on this news.
As many as one million people flooded into Washington for a massive rally organised by conservatives claiming that President Obama is driving America towards socialism.
Five hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand is the estimate from Rantburg's own Old Patriot based on published photos.
The size of the crowd - by far the biggest protest since the president took office in January - shocked the White House.
Good. One wonders how many of those who showed up had voted for Mr. Obama last November, but will never do so again. That's the question President Obama needs to ask -- has he lost his voter mandate? A worrisome question, given that his speech on health care changed no minds, according to subsequent polls.
Demonstrators massed outside Capitol Hill after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue waving placards and chanting 'Enough, enough'.
The focus of much of the anger was the president's so-called 'Obamacare' plan to overhaul the U.S. health system. Demonstrators waved U.S. flags and held signs reading 'Go Green Recycle Congress' and 'I'm Not Your ATM'.'
The protest on Saturday came as Mr Obama took his campaign for health reforms on the road, making his argument to a rally of 15,000 supporters in Minneapolis. Saying he was determined to push through a bill making health insurance more affordable, Mr Obama said: 'I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it.
'I will not waste time with those who think that it's just good politics to kill healthcare.'
But in Washington, protester Richard Brigle, 57, a Vietnam veteran, said: 'It's going to cost too much money we don't have.' Another marcher shouted: 'You want socialism? Go to Russia!' Terri Hall, 45, of Florida, said she felt compelled to become political for the first time this year because she was upset by government spending. 'Our government has lost sight of the powers they were granted,' she said. She added that the deficit spending was out of control, and said she thought it was putting the country at risk.
Anna Hayes, 58, a nurse from Fairfax County, stood on the Mall in 1981 for Reagan's inauguration. 'The same people were celebrating freedom,' she said. 'The president was fighting for the people then. I remember those years very well and fondly.' Saying she was worried about 'Obamacare,'Hayes explained: 'This is the first rally I've been to that demonstrates against something, the first in my life. I just couldn't stay home anymore.'
Andrew Moylan, of the National Taxpayers Union, received a roar of approval after he told protesters: 'Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored.'
Republican lawmakers also supported the rally. 'Republicans, Democrats and independents are stepping up and demanding we put our fiscal house in order,' Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said. 'I think the overriding message after years of borrowing, spending and bailouts is enough is enough.'
FreedomWorks Foundation, a conservative organization led by former House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey, organized several groups from across the country for what they billed as a 'March on Washington.' Organisers said they had built on momentum from the April 'tea party' demonstrations held nationwide to protest at Mr Obama's taxation policies, along with growing resentment over his economic stimulus packages and bank bailouts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/15/2009 00:00 ||
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NPR and Juan Williams have called it latent racism just this morning. I call it a negative job review.
#2
From an administration which promised hope to the people, to a people who must GIVE to the government.
Tried to pull a couple fast ones. Federal Gov. is lucky those bills didn't pass. People giving up their 'Football Saturday' to bust ass traveling in a mass of people - they should be concerned.
#4
THE MSM claims 70,000 people. Now I have a very good methodolgy for BS detection. I call it: the Stadium methodology. Compare the traffic jams and stress on public transportation, and how much time it takes before the area is cleared after a big football match (the Stadium where the Red Skins play has a capacity of 93,000 people) and the demonstration. If tehy were much bigger during the demobnstration then you know that the MSM are lying.
#5
The size of the crowd - by far the biggest protest since the president took office in January - shocked the White House.
Obama and his crew are so out of touch that they would have been shocked if even one person showed up, I'm sure.
So my question to the Dinosaur Media is: If there were more like half a million at the rally, do you think it would be an indication that the idea of government healthcare should be reconsidered? If not, then how many would it take to pull your head out of your a$$? The people know what they want and what they need, and this is not it. Give up. Who's the boss here? The people or their elected government? Last time I checked, we still don't have an office called "Emperor".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Facing intensifying scrutiny after the release of several disturbing hidden camera videos, the community organizing group, ACORN, is threatening to sue Fox News, the website Breitbart.com and the two conservative activists who produced the exposes. 
Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was asked about his failure to disclose about $700,000 in assets this weekend in Harlem by my pal Azi Paybarah of PolitickerNY -- and responded by saying he was a victim of a New York Post smear campaign.
