EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Legal Memo Confirms Depths of Troubles
by Matthew Vadum“But whether you try to implement some or all of these recommendations, there must be someone committed to follow-up. There must be a review mechanism, and a means of holding people accountable after any final decisions are made. If you do not make some hard choices now and ensure they are carried out, they almost certainly will be made for you.”
–Elizabeth Kingsley of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg Eisenberg LLP, in a prophetic legal memo to ACORN dated June 19, 2008, the day before ACORN’s national board ousted ACORN founder organizer Wade Rathke
ACORN’s lawyer warned ACORN 15 months ago to begin fixing its massive internal problems or face certain catastrophe. It chose to do nothing.
The advice from Elizabeth Kingsley of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg Eisenberg LLP came in the form of an eerily prophetic legal memo to ACORN dated June 19, 2008, the day before ACORN’s national board fired disgraced founder Wade Rathke.
Vadum_TheKingsleyMemo_CapitalResearchCenter –
The memo is a kind of Holy Grail for ACORN researchers. One source of mine keeps a copy in a safety deposit box. I’ve lost track of how many people have asked me over the last year if I knew how to get ahold of it. One source told me that there are many people who would “kill” to gain possession of it. This is a bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but not much.
Having read this categorically damning memo, I now understand what all the fuss is about.
Full story on the ACORN memo is at American Spectator, here.
(ED: The memo consists of sequentially numbered pages, but one page –page 14– is missing, so in the record of the file page 13 abruptly jumps to page 15. The source for the memo, who insists on anonymity, says the document arrived in that form via a fax machine. It has not been retouched or altered in any way except where Capital Research Center superimposed their logo.)
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by AZ grassroots. AZ grassroots said: EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Legal Memo Confirms The Left’s Worst Fears http://bit.ly/VhAUe #dripusa #ocra #tcot [...]
Yes! "Deep Throat" has entered the fray and he's on our side!
Keep it up guys……remember don't stop here. We have a long way to go but momentum and the right is on the side of the good guys and we be them!
INTERESTING – one of the groups in the "TO:" section is none other than PROJECT VOTE. Isn't that the organization that BO spearheaded when he was a Community Organizer? The one he swore was not involved with ACORN?
More right wing conspiracy.
just plain WOW
fantastic the dark is being exposed bt the light of the world JESUS CHRIST
ACORN felt it was too big to fail, which meant they were too successful to be taken down.
My prayer is that it goes the way of moldy bread…. straight to the garbage can.
I wonder how many ACORN mortgages lie at the heart of the toxic assest problem that caused so many banks to fail resulting in the bailouts?
This site is swirling and swirling, when are going in for the kill?
The death by a thousand cuts. And it will take that many to bleed out this bloated monstrousity. Keep slicing.
Excellent work Matt! Keep chipping away, every day another branch of the sewer that is ACORN is being discovered–well done.
ACORN: Anyone Can Observe that this is Rank Nonsense
ACORN: Ascent by Creepy Operation / Resented in the Nation
ACORN: Almost as Commendable as an Outflow of Rectal Necrosis
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Vadum and Ron Michel. Ron Michel said: @bodiegroup EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Legal Memo Confirms Depths of Troubles http://is.gd/3QJyd [...]
I dont think that is as big a problem as the funny money loans which were given to home buyers of all socio economic levels.
I'll give you an example of something I saw when I was working in Vienna Va. Million dollar mansions on postage size lots, no landscaping, no view, busy highway fronting the development. The houses were so close together that your view our of your side window would be a wall. I was a amazed that anyone would buy such a monstrosity. The only reason the houses sold was that the first two years mortgage was 1% interest only. But, the buyer's were not qualified on the real payments. They were qualified on this teaser payment. So, when the mortgage went to amortize $1 million at 7%, the payments went up so high that none of the buyers could afford them.
Race is completely irrelevant here. This type of loan is just totally insane. A home buyer has to be qualified on the amortized loan payment, not a teaser loan payment. This was a huge problem and probably the majority of toxic loans are these funny money loans.
The issue is far worse for people in poor neighborhoods because their amortization rate is not 7% but more like 10% or 15%.
I have no problem with ACORN wanting people in the inner city to have access to loans. The problem was that a lot of these loans were just downright fraudulent. If a home buyer has never had a mortgage before and is relatively unsophisticated how are they going to dig through all the fine print to figure out what their loan really is going to do to them? They aren't.
I blame Congress for this mess for allowing banks and mortgage companies to make loans like this in the first place.
I was talking to a lady from Singapore about these funny money loans while she was waiting for a cab and she was wondering how this mortgage crisis happened. She was shocked and said that in Singapore if you want to buy a condo or an apartment or a home you pay 20% down and have a fixed rate 15 year loan. That's it. And if you can't afford that then you don't buy the home.
Gee, imagine that, fiscal sensibility.
they didn't do anything because they didn't feel threatened…
As is the case with their partners in crime SEIU. Andy Stern is quoted as saying 'there is the power of persuasion- and then there is the persuausion of power' Let THAT roll around in your mind for awhile. This is an arrogant lot, because they truly believe it is THEIR time.
We must disabuse them of that notion…
they didn't do anything because they didn't feel threatened…
As is the case with their partners in crime SEIU. Andy Stern is quoted as saying 'there is the power of persuasion- and then there is the persuasion of power' Let THAT roll around in your mind for awhile. This is an arrogant lot, because they truly believe it is THEIR time.
We must disabuse them of that notion…
Why does the fax date indicate 2004?
ACORN = A Crazy Organization of Radical Nincompoops
ACORN = A Critical Overlay of Radical Nepotism
I'm looking for the big crisis to make all this go to the back burner… He's working on somthing, be it letting Iran have nukes (major issues) or create his own major crisis
Man oh man do we need to find that info – Dodd needs to fall and fall hard !!!!
Oh of course he'll make up some excuse about how he was out of the office the day the manuals were distributed or something to that effect.
It's evident that Obama can be linked DIRECTLY back into this spiderweb of corruption, deceit, money-laundering, tax fraud, etc…
We all knew "it" was out there, how much more is there?
Someone send this link to the NY Times …. I don't want them to get "smacked" again
Likely because no one bothered to set the date/time on the machine to begin with, or did not reset it after a power-failure.
Funny, but none of your friendly borrowers know how to read the rate of increase, the timeline of the increase and the maximum caps of the increase? It was ll there on the paperwork. You know, if you really had brains, you would blame the person taking out the loan, and not the banks for making the loans. If you had real brains that is. It is called personal responsibility. It trumps your lame nonsensical fiscal la la land that you so thoughtlessly proposed.
Most excellent!
Daxter, I have posted many acronyms in this comment section already (those three were new), and don't want to repeat them too much or inadvertently become a spammer, but I'll share them once more with you directly since you may not have seen them:
ACORN: Alien Children Offered Regularly Nationwide
ACORN: Authorities Caught One Registering “Napoleon”
ACORN: Assembly of the Complacent: Organized, Registered & Non-productive!
ACORN: Association of Criminals Obama Represented in the Nineties
ACORN: Assorted Crazies, Oddballs, Reprobates, and Nincompoops
ACORN: “Audacity” and “Change” that Obama Represents Nationally
ACORN: A Crooked, Offensive, Repulsive Nut
ACORN: Agitators, Cheats, Offenders, and Repugnant Nonentities
ACORN: Association of Crooks O’Keefe Revealed in a Nanosecond
ACORN: Advising Criminals, Organizing Radical Nutjobs
ACORN: Assisting Call-girls, Obama, Reid & Nancy
ACORN: Advancing Collectivism, Obamamania, Reparations Now!
…
ACORN: After Clinton, Obama Retards a Nation
ACORN: Alike Carter, Obama is Regretful and Negative
ACORN: America, Could Obama Resign Now??
ACORN: Against Conservatives, Order, Republicans, and the Nation
ACORN: American Cash Outflows to Rathke’s “Nonprofits”
ACORN: Apparently “Community Organizing” Really is Nefarious
ACORN: Awarding Capital to Objectionable Rent-seeking Noncontributors
ACORN: Apathetic, Crybaby, Odiferous, Rejected Nothings
ACORN: Andrew Clearly Outplayed the Resentful NYT
ACORN: Always Cheating, Often Ruining Neighborhoods
ACORN: Addled Crack-heads and Obnoxious Race-baiting Neurotics
ACORN: Appalling Cesspool; Obscene Revolting Nightmare
ACORN: A Clan of Odious, Ridiculed Nitwits
ACORN: Another Corrupt Obama Run Network
Acorn and all its key leadership, including Obama and his friends, were pretty much known socialists and there is plenty of proof of that with some simple research. Socialism never has worked and never will work. Part of the radical socialist plan is simply to destroy the nation in question (USA) and then have it come begging to loudmouthed elitist liars that have developed a smooth lying technique. The father of all lies is pleased with the likes of Obama, Bertha Butt, head of ACORN and the slimy white communists that started Acorn with the help of hapless uneducated unhappy black folk.
At least we now know what those more important things are that Obama has been working on instead of knowing anything about ACORN – getting Chi the olympics.
Hi Dback.
That is a fair question.
I assume it is a matter of somebody not keeping the date stamp current on their fax machine. You can see from reading the memo that it refers to events that had not occurred and/or been discovered as of the fax date displayed. The fax date stamp does not discredit the memo, but I'm sure useful idiots (I'm not saying you are one of them) will raise that argument.
-Matthew Vadum
Step by step, inch by inch,,,
Keep this wound open, never let it heal
Probably the same reason 95% of VCRs flash 12:00.
Democrats have a history of using and abusing black people. It goes way way back. When they decided they could not control them as slaves they ended up trying to hang them into submission. 3400 blacks were lyn-ched by democrats, along with 1400 white conservatives that tried to help blacks. Eventually this turned out to be a lost cause for democrats so the likes of LBJ decided to try to deceive blacks with promises of free governmental handouts. This plan has been the most successful. The uneducated and angry blacks are easy pawns for the mostly white democrat leadership. LBJ put it this way in 1956; "The ne-groes are getting uppity. But they have a right to be uppity because they are gaining political sway. So we have to give them something. Not enough to make a difference but enough to keep them quiet." This idea of democrats tossing the blacks some bones now and again, with the distinct proviso of not enough to help them but enough to keep them quiet has been going on ever since. Socialists/Marxists/Communists/Nazis/Obamaists the world over are keenly aware that in order to control a country for the sake of being in control you need to scare the masses and convince the angry uneducated ones (since they are the easiest and cheapest prey) that you are on their side.
Keep 'em going in circles! They are in disarray – time to take this corruption DOWN!
[...] via Big Government » Blog Archive » EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Legal Memo Confirms Depths of Troubles. [...]
Wow! It appears that ACORN just set up a bunch of entities for the one purpose of laundering money and getting Democrats elected. Bunch of amateurs sat in a room and said, "Oh, let's form another corporation to do this or that and borrow this money to pay that loan…"! What a mess and you and I have paid for it!
I do!
Uno mas…
ACORN: Associated Congressmen Ought to be Replaced in November 2010
Another Corrupt Obama Run Network
Ohhhh…I think I like that one best!
We need to tell Hollywood stop defending this rapist…
SIGN THE PETITION TO EXTRADITE ROMAN POLANSKI NOW!
Email your friends the link, let them know.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi...
I haven't yet seen this link on Big Government…found it interesting.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjJmNjY4MjA2...
At the top of each page it says: ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION, PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL.
How much you wanna bet that the headline will read that this letter was illegally diseminated and is therefore not to be used against any of the member companies mentioned?
It is all there, but first time buyers don't know how to translate the legalese, and even more importantly, they don't even know to ask the question.
A lot of people have personal responsibility, but are ignorant. Ignorance can be cured, but it takes responsibility from both parties. Omission on the part of the lenders is still misleading the lendee.
Will this ripple as far as Watergate did?
Everyone involved up the chain of command should go to jail b/c it cost all of "We Americans" Billions even bordering on Trillion's.
I think you're dead on. That's all it is- A great big money laundering scheme.
These people were not amateurs – they followed the path set forth by advisors with the ultimate goal of gaining a position at the political table – after he was elected Barack Obama actual told an ACORN gathering he would give them a seat at the table and they would be involved in his decisions. We the People were on the verge of being taken over by this incredibly corrupt element – and Obama was the in. Yet he said he was not really aware of all the government money going to ACORN, etc. etc. – such a brilliant man – knew nothing about Rezko, nothing about Rev Wright, nothing about ACORN – nothing about anything – one thing we now know – he knows nothing about being a good President.
ACORN and the Chicago political muck was Barack Obama's career incubator – we still do not really know what part the dishonest voter registration scam played in the election of this inexperience, unqualified President.
This is Obama's baby Acorn…the weather underground and all them straight shooting boys…lets see Holden try and stop this crash on all his buddies in Acorn.
(1) MAKE OBAMA FORFEIT ANY AND ALL COMPENSATION THAT HE RECEIVED DURING HIS TIME AS ACORN'S COUNCIL
(2) THE FEDS SHOULD RETROACTIVELY CONFISCATE THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN RECEIVED FROM ACORN AND IF HE HAS NONE LEFT, THEN HE SHOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE AND BE MADE TO COME UP WITH THE FUNDS (the feds LOVE retroactive action, remember the CEO retroactive taxes?)
(3) INVESTIGATE ALL TIES AND SUSPECTED TIES THAT THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE HAS WITH ACORN
The fax date is dependent on the receiving fax machine. If the internal clock of the receiving machine is inaccurate, then the time stamp will be inaccurate.
If this ripples as far as Watergate did, which it could very quickly, Pelosi becomes President by 2010.
Unless the GOP has a miracle or the Kool-Aid drinkers of 2008 turn around en masse, there's no way that Pelosi will lose her #3 position. But then what are the chances that this ACORN empowered anti-Constitutional Congress or Judiciary would follow the Constitution to impeach and convict. Their ilk seldom resign so…
Maafa21.com
I wonder how this development is going to help the criminal org know as ACORN in their lawsuit against the nation's latest true hero James O'Keefe? Be on the lookout for liberal Dem trash contributing big money to ACORN's legal team for this case. Maybe lib Dem trash thinks promoting child prositution is one of the noble services ACORN provides and therefore must be supported.
In the accompanying article, Vadam says: "Citizens Services Inc. (CSI), an ACORN affiliate that received $832,598 from the Obama campaign for get-out-the-vote work during primary season, is a prime example."
Why in the world do you think Obama would pay ACORN close to a million dollars for "get-out-the-vote work."
Hmmmm…..let me think…….
wonder when Acorn is going to get a bailout?
Oh, snap. Will Obama tell ACORN that it "acted stupidly"?
AntiObamaSticker.com
I know nothing about Elizabeth Kingsley’s pedigree, but what an atrocious piece of writing. The memo is littered with clichés and buzzwords, and prepositions end countless sentences. Additional note to the author: a comma is not interchangeable with a period.
How could a well-paid professional spend four years as an undergraduate, three years in law school, and not learn what most of us mastered by tenth grade?
Oh yeah, it looks bad for ACORN too.
I want to see this LEFT WING LOONY GROUP go down in flames! Don't forget to vote these liberal democrats OUT OF OFFICE in the 2010 mid-terms!!!! I am hoping there will be some conservative republicans that beat out any liberal republicans as well!!!
Let alllllll the poisonssssss that lurk in the mud come out.
Did anyone notice the fax date is 2004?
Hmm – I have a new name for those of you who voted for President Obama…"Suckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"Here is a special message intended to help you feel better about your choice for President
http://tinyurl.com/yjm842
The following is a link to the Democrats 2012 Party PLatform, although there is a lot of dissent amongst the liberal elements of the party, who feel it is far too conservative
:http://tinyurl.com/48r54
death by fax
The Socialist notion of "Social and Economic Justice" is once again proven to be a fraud and a lie, and so is Obama.
They are the victimizers, not the victims. They use words to help the gullible believe what they want to believe, which is that you can get something for nothing.
I have it on good authority that the missing page eloped – and is currently shacked-up in Jakarta – with God's real birth certificate, mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm.
Yeah, let's not have the FACTS in the way of killing whitey and eating him….
well…..ahh….er….you gotta understand who she was talking "to" in her letter. Can't sound too uppity, now, can she? Cliche and buzzwords are their normal way of speaking. Just listen to BO. He's full of them!
And they thought they could get away with anything because their guy, BHO, was in the White House. They all seem to forget that "NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW" no matter what the liberal socialists say! This is what they get for taking advantage of colored Americans, who aren't educated enough to see what the liberal plantation is doing to them.
Um, wrong site. Were you looking at both Big Hollywood and Big Government articles and posted at the wrong one?
ACORN should be ashamed of itself, but then an entire organization designed to milk a corrupt network of highly-connected Democratic politicians and sycophants is unlikely to engage in self-analysis. Turn up the heat on these dirt-bags, and lets not forget BHO's roots in all of this. Obama IS ACORN and vice-versa, particularly from a policy perspective.
Someone forgot to properly set the clock in the FAX machine. It happens when out internal clocks chew up their batteries also.
here's a link to the law firms website.. http://www.harmoncurran.com/
I wish Halliburton and especially Blackwater (who's CEO is under investigation for supposedly orchestrating the death of whistle blowers within his company) were as scrutinized like ACORN. Compared to those two companies, ACORN receives pennies to the dollar.
Thanks for the history on this.
I wonder why the LeftWing GoonSquad has not tried to rebuke your post?
Amen
bush’s fault
It might be time for all conservatives to stop paying income taxes….
Oh WAIT!
The democrats beat us to it!!!!!!!!
If a fax machine was off, it probably would have said 1/1/00.
What happened to page 14 of this letter?
They already did. They are getting 6 billion from the porkulus bill (also callec the stimulus bill). Congress recently voted to cut off a few million in "housing assistance" funds, but as far as I know, they haven't rescinded any of the 6 billion.
Is there a reason Page 15 is missing? Very interesting reading. Thank you.
Does that really matter at this point? There were questions about the videos, most notably the Baltimore one, yet they yielded action.
First take them down however possible, cut off their funds. The prosecutions will come as they will, while we watch who is willing to back them with funding for their defense.
This document can be used as a reference even if not admissible in court. And it is far from the only thing to merit the launch of several very thorough investigations, so they cannot claim charges should be thrown out since this was an illegally obtained document.
They are going down. Period.
RICO baby…. RICO
The date of the letter is 2008; but the time stamp from the fax says 2004…
Yeah, "right wing conspiracy"….by their own attorney, dork.
ACORN is a system of Obama's local soviets – community organization in Russian means soviet, as in USSR. And Abu Hussein from Kenya is our Community Organizer-in-Chief; his 32 White House advisers od Czars are in fact his komissars.
the one with baked beans commercials?
So the memo basically says ACORN's structure is a confused mess that needs to be straightened out pronto for them to a legit organization.
Problem being, it was made a confused mess because they only want the appearance of being legit, they know full well what they are really doing and the last thing they want is to be fully legal and readily accountable.
As others have said, probably just a settings issue.
But now, any investigatory body knows exactly what to ask for and from whom. Simply a matter of subpoenaing the original document.
I hope they follow this right to the top. I'm sure obama's fingerprints are all over some of this sham entity's very questionable and fradulent undertakings.
Oh, I agree that they're going down. There are too many different aspects of this organization being attacked at once.
My point was that any of the MSM which pick up on this debacle will only try to portray the letter as ill-gotten-gain which will not be admissable in a court of law. That's what many will hope "sticks" with the American public.
As with the James/Hannah situation, they will try to shut up the "instigator" with expensive attorney fees for frivilous litigation, etc. They're not gonna win, but they will clearly try to make anyone who want to go up against them think twice about the $$ it will cost to defend their position.
Again, I believe they are going down and it's about time. It's just that they're not going down without a fight and this legal firm will most definitely try to cover their butt by throwing up threats of lawsuits everywhere they can.
RACISTS< YOU ARE ALL RACISTS, I TELL YOU. You are only interested in this because it helps out the poor. My crimes are OK becasue they are for the RIGHT reasons. NOT____Compared to GE, Haliburton recieves pennies to the dollar.____Compared to Obama, the tax payers recieve pesos for their dollars
Starve Acorn and SIEU that is feeding the BEAST. Take them down one by one, 2010 election is coming soon.
But attitudes have changed. Liberals are generally not racist in the classic sense — just in the "soft bigotry of low expectations" sense (which is just as bad; maybe worse because it's mistaken for compassion).
Polly want a cracker?
Hey your not wrong but generalize just enough that ACORNuts could take advantage of the uneducated like they did in the elction. Look up the Whig Party on WIKIPEDIA it has a decent write up about the Whigs v Democrats and it includes Lincoln. I knew of this because my Dad, a WW2 Vet with an eight grade education told me that the Whig Party became the Democrats. I thought he was mistaken until I read this. Maybe he wasn't so uneducated after all.
“Barrack’s Got Our Back,” kind of…well fell short for them.
They misunderstood – the actual statement should have been "Barrack'll run over our back".
Under the bus is getting Very Crowded.
Anyone politician involved with or supporting all of these criminal operations ie. all community organizing groups, Acorn etc. is engaged and supporting criminal activities and should be investigated or arrested for corruption. They are all criminal organizations at the top exploiting the poor flunkies at the bottom whom they are supposed to be helping. Every government funded non profit group especially those dealing in housing and real estate are engaged in criminal activities at their very core. They get public funding that mostly winds up in the pockets of the community and project organizers while screwing over the victims they're allegedly helping. That's what Valerie Jarret was doing in her non profit housing activities in Chicago. What kind of oversight do the politicians who fund these crooks like Tony Rezko provide? Zilch, Nada niente! If Obama could not over see crooks like Tony Rezko that he provided funding for or Valerie Jarret who has not yet been investigated or charged with anything, what kind of oversight can these limp wad politicians provide over the tarp or the bailouts or any government programs. Zilch Nada niente, nothing. Obama and his cronies and the Republicans and their cronies provide zero oversight! We need to make government effective and efficient and when they know there is waste and corruption they should immediately do their jobs and clean it up. Instead they just talk about it while doing nothing. Obama has been talking about savings he could generate in Medicare – Why doesn't he start immediately! If it was his own personal money he would start immediately. If it was your money you would start immediately. That's why government efficiency and oversight is a non starter. Obama doesn't give a damn about our money being wasted, stolen or mispent.
Adios ACORN… and a whole bunch of others. Gee, I wonder if some in Washington might have some personal concerns?
They probably didn't set the date on their fax machine – this is the same reason why a lot of camcorder footage shows the wrong timestamp.
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