Every year, ACORN hosts a “Year End, Year Begin” (YEYB) meeting for its organizers. We’ve obtained the detailed agenda for the YEYB conference for 2007. Special dinner speakers for the conference include Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice-Presiden of SEIU and Mark Ernst, CEO of H&R Block. As you can see, the conference covers all aspects of ACORN’s or its affiliate’s work. And, that could be a problem for ACORN.

yeyb agenda –

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As part of its strategy to build membership from the ground up, ACORN often first focuses on very local, neighborhood issues. ACORN correctly recognizes that if people can successfully organize for change in their own neighborhood, they will be more willing to organize for greater change in the overall community. A manual it provides its organizers suggests focusing on items like speed bumps, street lighting and vacant lots, as examples.

The manual provides a bit of background on the issue, some suggested actions and, helpfully, identifies “targets” for these actions.

Basic Issue Development for Organizers –

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Give credit where its due, ACORN builds its organization from the ground up, with old-school hard work and shoe leather. Its organizers are instructed to spend at least three hours a day going door-to-door in neighborhoods, recruiting members and–importantly member dues. ACORN even provides its organizers with a very illuminating and well-though-out manual on “doorknocking basics.” The document is below

DOORKNOCKING BASICS –

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ACORN’s San Diego office isn’t the only place its been careless with sensitive documents. Late last year, ACORN abandoned an office in Oklahoma. In its haste to vacate the office–and skip out on the landlord’s claim of back-rent–ACORN abandoned piles of documents, as well as a computer. Below is a copy of ACORN’s “Oklahoma Power Plan,” a long-term political plan to reshape politics in the Sooner State.

OKlahoma Power Plan –

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Banks, businesses and organizations like ACORN who receive individual’s personal financial records are bound by strict federal and state laws to protect that information. The law is chiefly enforced through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLB), which was a previous attempt by Congress to restructure the financial sector.

While chiefly focused on banks and financial institutions, GLB also covers groups like ACORN who are “non-bank mortgage lenders, loan brokers, some financial or investment advisers, tax preparers, providers of real estate settlement services, and debt collectors.”

We know ACORN provide tax preparation and other financial counseling. We leave to others whether or not ACORN falls under the letter of GLB. They certainly fall under the spirit of what legislators were trying to achieve. At the very least, the were trying to prevent credit reports, for example, from being thrown away in a public dumpster:

ACORN – Credit Report _Redacted_ -

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Dumping 20k sensitive documents in a public dumpster isn’t anyone’s idea of smart. Even though the Attorney’s General office was about to visit the ACORN San Diego office, ACORN employees should have taken some steps to protect the information they were dumping. There are extensive federal and state laws in play here, with very serious civil and criminal penalties.

But, one shouldn’t take this to mean that ACORN is always and everywhere incompetent. You don’t build an international organization with offices in hundreds of US cities through incompetence. Part of ACORN’s secret is that it is really shrewd politically. Below is a plan for a 2-year ACORN campaign to repeal California’s Prop 13. That initiative, passed in 1979, restricts government’s power to increase taxes. One of its toughest provisions requires a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to raise taxes. ACORN, naturally, wants to scrap that.

ACORN – CA Budget Campaign -

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Big Government’s first post about the San Diego Document Dump showed a bank authorization to automatically pay monthly membership dues. That particular individual committed to paying ACORN $10 a month. Thousands of California residents have made similar commitments, adding up to substantial monthly revenue for ACORN. How an organization chooses to spend its members money says a lot about that organization.

Below is a monthly credit card statement for ACORN employee David Lagstein’s corporate credit card:

ACORN – Credit Card _Redacted_ –

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Since the first undercover ACORN video was released two months ago, ACORN’s few remaining defenders have fallen back on the talking point that, whatever the misdeeds of some of its employees, the organization provides important services to poor and low-income families. Without ACORN, we are told, many underprivileged families would lose an important voice for their needs.

Really?

Below is one family’s application for food stamp benefits that ACORN threw out with its trash, in advance of a visit from officers of the Attorney’s General office.

ACORN – Food Stamp _Redacted_ –

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Everyone knows that things in Springfield, Illinois are broken. Everyone knows that the government of the State of Illinois is inefficient and corrupt. That’s all true, however, to truly understand the problems in Springfield, we must look at the structure of the legislature.

By its design, the legislature in Springfield consolidates all power in the hands of four people: Tom Cross, Christine Radogno, Mike Madigan and John Cullerton. Those are the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. Power is consolidated through the process by which bills see the light of day. In the Illinois legislature, there’s only one way for a bill to be heard and debated: the rules committee. Not surprisingly, each of those four folks are head of the rules committee for their side in the House and Senate. As such, the head of the two rules committees have carte blanche over what bills will and won’t see the light of day. So, if any legislator wants their bill to get a hearing in the House, Michael Madigan must approve. You can see how such a process could corrupt, and does.

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SEIU has made a good living off the law of unintended consequences.  Or so the labor union would have you think. The reality is, there’s nothing unintended about the consequences they reap.  And when it comes to local, state and federal lawmaking, SEIU banks on the propensity of the American people to respond to emotion rather than logic, and orchestrated concern that becomes a popular mantra.  Even some SEIU members (those brave enough to say so) plead for the public to investigate the union’s true intentions. But if you’re just an average citizen disengaged from the issues, before you know it, you’re ignoring the consequences staring you right between the eyes.

This past September Lisa Snyder, a 35 year old Michigan mother,  made the news when she received a disturbing letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services.  In it, the letter warned her that she was in violation of the law.  Her offense?  Watching a handful of neighborhood kids  each morning for about 20 minutes as they waited at the end of her driveway for the school bus to arrive, with the blessing of their parents. State law in Michigan prohibits the home supervision of unrelated children for more than four weeks in a year without a child care provider license.  Turns out a neighbor had complained and the Michigan Department of Human Services, the watchdog for home child care licensing, intervened by sending the warning letter.  In Michigan, state employees for the DHS are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union.  Coincidentally, the union that represents the state’s home child care workers?  Also the UAW.

AFSCME: American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
FCC: Family child care   |   FNN: Family, friend and neighbor
” Building a Union of Family Child Care and FFN Providers”
by SEIU & AFSCME members to the National Women’s Law Center

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Today, in 1859, Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species” was published.

Yes, it is an important anniversary in the Western canon.

From FoxNews.com:

A union leader in Pennsylvania has resigned after being criticized for threatening legal action over an aspiring Eagle Scout’s volunteer project.

Nick Balzano, president of the Service Employees International Union’s Allentown chapter, submitted an unexpected resignation letter Thursday, along with a few other employees, SEIU spokesman Matt Nerzig told Foxnews.com.

The resignations came one day after FoxNews.com reported that Balzano had come under fire for saying earlier in the month that the SEIU might file a grievance against the city of Allentown for allowing 17-year-old Kevin Anderson to voluntarily clear a walking trail in a local park, instead of paying union members to do the work.

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From the New York Post:

A parody of Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue: An American Life” has been causing huge confusion — forcing Palin’s publishers HarperCollins to take out ads to direct buyers to the official version.

The rival book, “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare,” was released on the same day as Palin’s memoir and features an almost identical cover.

Colin Robinson, co-publisher of the book, compiled by Nation magazine staffers Betsy Reed and Richard Kim, told Page Six: “We have been contacted by numerous media outlets across the country asking for interviews with Sarah Palin, or companies offering security for her while on tour.

One Web site not only thought we were Ms. Palin’s publishers but called the book ‘Going Rough.’

“We’ve noticed that someone, presumably HarperCollins, has been buying ads on Google redirecting people looking for ‘Going Rouge’ to ‘Going Rogue,’ which seems very unsporting of them.” (more…)

From NBClosangeles.com:

When reached for comment, Amy Schur of ACORN’s state office, explained why the paperwork was in the trash.

“In early October, when our San Diego staff were doing an office clean-up in preparation for a major 10-station phone bank program being set up in our offices, it appears that included in the piles of garbage being thrown out may have been some documents containing private information,” Schur wrote in an e-mail to NBCSanDiego. “To the individuals whose paperwork was pulled out of the dumpster by this guy Derrick Roach – unsuccessful Republican candidate for State Rep in San Diego – we truly apologize. We will seek return of this information so that we may give proper notice of the compromising of the information as required by law.”

When asked about ACORN’s policy for disposing of sensitive documents, Schur said, “It is ACORN’s policy to shred documents with personal information at the point when they no longer need to be retained.” (more…)

If President Obama is really serious about education reform, he ought to consider putting D.C. school Chancellor Michelle Rhee in charge of the effort.

This lady is not afraid of a major challenge, as evidenced by her latest brawl with the AFT.

Rhee is courageously targeting the sacred cow of teachers unions – tenure. It’s the system that pretty much guarantees a teacher a job for life, if he or she can make it through the first few years. It doesn’t matter if they go on to become good, mediocre or bad teachers. With tenure, they are pretty much protected until retirement.

But Rhee understands that such a system can no longer be tolerated in Washington D.C. schools, which have a dropout rate of nearly 40 percent. She knows that the school district must have the power to sift through the teaching staff, keep the good ones, work with the middle-of-the-roaders, and get rid of the bad apples.

She also understands that it has to work both ways. She’s willing to develop a compensation system that would offer teachers much higher pay, in exchange for the union abandoning, or at least reforming, the concept of tenure.

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The case for global warming alarmism continues to take a major hit after sensitive documents were lifted from the Hadley Climate Center. Enjoy our latest cartoon:

Learn more here:

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Washington News Observer recently sat down for an exclusive interview with acclaimed author and commentator Ann Coulter. As always, Ann Coulter is blunt about her opinions of President Obama and the War on Terror.  Ann Coulter is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers. This interview is part one of a two part series.

Lawmakers in New York and Illinois were quick to recognize that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial offered a new opportunity to secure billions of additional taxpayer funds.

Both states are reeling from the combined effect of economic slowdown and years of profligate spending on government, grown far beyond what the tax base will support.   Thanks to President Obama’s decision to transfer terrorists from GITMO to U.S. soil, both states, and the city of New York, are going to be paid almost $3 billion dollars to secure, transport, administer, house, and contend with the requirements associated with having these terrorists in the United States.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the four other terrorists and all Americans associated with the trial, will require rigorous, differentiated security measures: twenty-four hour a day surveillance, transportation, housing and judicial security.  Certainly, New York will be required to raise its threat level to better prepare and respond to the new threat of  sympathetic  jihadists using the trial, as a showpiece of their own, to make a violent, retaliatory public statement.

Federal security and law enforcement agencies, such as DHS, FBI and US Marshals  will be working round the clock to provide the appropriate security, but will be unable to do all of the work required. New York, state and city, law enforcement officers will be required to share the burden, and will expect compensation from the federal government to provide this level of support.  Heavily-unionized, public employees in both states, are about to receive the most coveted of all Labor Union prizes, unlimited overtime that extends for years.

Bringing KSM to trial will be hugely expensive and will essentially represent a federalization of much of the New York state and city law enforcement and public services for the 5+ years that the trial process is likely to run.

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The last two months of the growing ACORN scandal have focused on the damning videos shot by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

In seven out of eight offices, ACORN employees attempted to aid and abet O’Keefe and Giles’ illicit “scheme” to establish a brothel for underage illegal-immigrant prostitutes from Central America. .

That phase has been tabled for a future date, as I forthrightly stated last Thursday evening to Attorney General Eric Holder on FOX NEWS’ Hannity show.

The next phase will be the evidentiary phase.  Starting with, but not limited to an extraordinary document dump at the San Diego office that was one of the offices  O’Keefe and Giles exposed, causing the firing of a single employee.

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