ACORN’s Maryland Chapter Shuttered

Group is undone in national scandal sparked by videos showing illegal activity

From today’s Baltimore Sun:

A former leader of Maryland’s ACORN chapter said Monday the group will no longer operate in the state, doomed by an embarrassing national scandal six months ago from which the organization never recovered.

An undated sign hangs on the entrance to the ACORN offices at 16 W. 25th St. A former Maryland ACORN official said the office ceased operations late last year.  You may recognize this stoop from this golden oldie.

Sonja Merchant-Jones, former co-chairwoman of the state chapter of ACORN and a board member since 1999, said there are no plans in Maryland to rebrand under a different name, a move undertaken Monday by several ACORN affiliates across the country.

Maryland ACORN ceased operations late last year, Merchant-Jones said, and all the offices in the state have closed. The group has not held a board meeting in Maryland since November, she added. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Maryland ACORN, Sonja Merchant-Jones
Posted Mar 16th 2010 at 2:48 pm in ACORN, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News | 9083874 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/16/acorns-maryland-chapter-shuttered/ACORN%27s+Maryland+Chapter+Shuttered+2010-03-16+21%3A48%3A20Publius

Official at ACORN Funder to Head Corporation for National and Community Service

President Obama announced he plans to nominate Patrick Corvington to be chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Big Government readers will remember that “the Corporation” assumed a prominent role on the infamous NEA Conference call, where ”the Corporation’s” Nell Abernathy joined White House and NEA officials to nudge artists to produce works supporting the Obama Administration’s legislative priorities.

Although the charity Corvington works for, Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland, has granted funding to ACORN during his tenure, it is unclear if Corvington has ties to ACORN.

Nonetheless, Corvington is part of the same cluster of organizations that provides financial and other support for ACORN which is a longtime fixture in the activist community.

Since 2001 the Annie E. Casey Foundation has pumped at least $1,705,500 into the ACORN network, according to philanthropy database information.

Of the $1,705,500, at least $850,500 was earmarked for ACORN operations in Baltimore, Maryland, home of the ACORN branch office first shown in the recent undercover videos that debuted on BigGovernment.com. Those videos show James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles pretending to be a pimp and a prostitute and receiving mountains of advice on evading laws pertaining to tax evasion and prostitution (among other things).

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a major funder of other groups on the left.

Looking at just the first letter of the alphabet, its grant recipients are labor federation AFL-CIO, abortion rights think tank Alan Guttmacher Institute, and liberal policy shop the Aspen Institute.

Although most of its grants go to groups on the political left, the foundation has funded at least one think tank on the political right. It has provided a few grants to the American Enterprise Institute.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, ACORN video scandal, AFL-CIO, Alan Guttmacher Institute
Posted Oct 6th 2009 at 9:51 am in ACORN, Obama | 1336224 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/10/06/official-at-acorn-funder-to-head-corporation-for-national-and-community-service/Official+at+ACORN+Funder+to+Head+Corporation+for+National+and+Community+Service2009-10-06+16%3A51%3A15Matthew+Vadum

Breitbart and Giles Talk ACORN Lawsuit on Fox News

In the first two of what will inevitably be a multitude of ACORN Baltimore lawsuit related media hits, Andrew Breitbart spoke with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News Channel last night while Hannah Giles (and her attorney Kelly Shackelford) spoke with Sean Hannity:

The clips give a basic overview of a lot of arguments that we’ll be seeing as the case unfolds. Breitbart chastises ACORN for infringing on free speech, Giles finds ACORN’s arbitrary $5 million dollar figure “funny,” and both make the case that it is at least a bit ironic that ACORN plans to waste more of our tax dollars in a law suit against the people who exposed the extent to which they are wasting our tax dollars….

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN Baltimore, ACORN lawsuit, Andrew Breitbart, Bertha Lewis, Bill O'Reilly
Posted Sep 25th 2009 at 7:50 am in ACORN, Justice/Legal | 843443 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/25/breitbat-and-giles-talk-acorn-lawsuit-on-fox-news/Breitbart+and+Giles+Talk+ACORN+Lawsuit+on+Fox+News2009-09-25+14%3A50%3A07Publius

**BREAKING** ACORN Sues Hidden-Camera Filmmakers, Breitbart.com

From the Associated Press:

BALTIMORE (AP) – Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.

The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings.

The two employees seen in the video were fired after it was posted online. The lawsuit says the employees, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, suffered “extreme emotional distress.” (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Hannah Giles, James O'Keefe, Maryland ACORN
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 2:36 pm in ACORN, Justice/Legal, News | 7506481 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/23/breaking-acorn-sues-hidden-camera-filmmakers/%2A%2ABREAKING%2A%2A+ACORN+Sues+Hidden-Camera+Filmmakers%2C+Breitbart.com2009-09-23+21%3A36%3A10Publius

On Why I Don’t Return Phone Calls from an Intrepid CNN Producer

As read on “The Rush Limbaugh Show”:

So far CNN has only reported on the breaking story on blatant ACORN CORRUPTION from angles that attempt to extricate the government funded “community organizing”  enterprise from the extreme crime we caught on videotape.

First CNN pushed the false ACORN line that “[t]his film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed.”

To set that record straight please check the Washington D.C. tape we dropped today at BigGovernment.com, which is also being aired on your cable news competitor with curiously higher ratings.

Now that ACORN lied to you, Jonathan Klein, what are you going to do?

Here’s what I have noticed from your coverage: You brought in the damage control crowd to FRAME the story. Before even airing our damning Baltimore video. You know your audience would turn on ACORN if you showed them the evidence. So instead you put your competitors in journalism in the crosshairs instead of airing a blockbuster report making massive waves elsewhere.

You even trotted out shameless Clinton era apologist Joe Conason to challenge the ETHICS of our expose. Unreal.

What about the ethics of those at ACORN caught on tape trying to help create a brothel featuring illegal immigrant age range 13-15 from El Salvador? (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, acorn prostitute, acorn prostitute video, acorn prostitution
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 11:25 am in ACORN, Exclusives, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 1018599 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/11/on-why-i-dont-return-phone-calls-from-an-intrepid-cnn-producer/On+Why+I+Don%27t+Return+Phone+Calls+from+an+Intrepid+CNN+Producer+2009-09-11+18%3A25%3A14James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

John Fund: Time to Cut Off ACORN

From The Wall Street Journal online:

I thought I’d heard every possible charge about corruption at ACORN, a feisty, union-backed activist group that became infamous last year when it was investigated for voter registration fraud in 15 states. Just yesterday, 11 ACORN workers were accused by Florida prosecutors of falsifying information on some 900 voter registration forms.

But this morning brings a Fox News report that ACORN officials in Baltimore offered to help get a housing loan and falsify tax documents for a proposed house of prostitution that would employ underage girls from El Salvador. The episode was captured on tape by an undercover filmmaker, James O’Keefe, who wanted to see just how far ACORN would go. Watching the tape — which can be seen at Biggovernment.com — is a creepy experience. ACORN itself has told Fox News the episode represents “gotcha journalism” but wouldn’t comment further until it sees the full tape.

(more…)

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Tags: "gotcha journalism", ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Fox News, James O'Keefe
Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 7:14 pm in ACORN, News | 918139 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/10/john-fund-time-to-cut-off-acorn/John+Fund%3A+Time+to+Cut+Off+ACORN2009-09-11+02%3A14%3A20Publius

Limbaugh Makes ACORN/Obama Connection

From the transcript of today’s “Rush Limbaugh Show” show:

RUSH: Now, this is incredible.  Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, started a new website recently, BigGovernment.com.  And filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25-year-old independent filmmaker, has his own theory about how to expose people on the left and he’s using Alinsky rules.  One of the Saul Alinsky rules in dealing with your enemies is making your enemies live by their own rules will destroy them.  So O’Keefe’s theory is, hey, just calling attention to their corruption and disagreeing with it and demanding that it stop isn’t going to accomplish anything.  We’ve got to go encourage the corruption and illustrate how it happens.  So what happened was, James O’Keefe posed as a pimp with a 20-year-old woman named Kenya who posed as a prostitute while visiting ACORN’s office in Baltimore.  The couple told ACORN staffers that they wanted to secure housing where the woman could continue to maintain a prostitution business.

Now, ACORN advised the woman on two things:  how to avoid being caught paying taxis, how to avoid paying taxes on her business, how to cheat the IRS, and how to get away with running a prostitution business in Baltimore.  We have couple sound bites that illustrate this.  There’s video of this.  The whole video runs about an hour.  They got two long segments of it on O’Keefe’s site at BigGovernment.com.  This is your tax dollars at work, by the way.  ACORN employees, ACORN, four to five billion dollars in the stimulus package directly to them.  Remember, ACORN is Barack Obama’s training ground.  When he got to Chicago he became a community organizer with ACORN.  He taught them how to do things; they taught him how to do things.  We now have an ACORN-type community agitator as president of the United States.  So in this bite, this is the videotape, James O Keefe is posing as the pimp, his woman, Kenya, posing as the prostitute at the ACORN Baltimore office, and in this bite the ACORN employee advises the cameraman on how to hide a prostitution business.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Andrew Breitbart, Big Hollywood, BigGovernment.com
Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 5:11 pm in ACORN, News, Obama, Politics | 882248 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/10/limbaugh-makes-acornobama-connection/Limbaugh+Makes+ACORN%2FObama+Connection2009-09-11+00%3A11%3A29Publius

AP: ACORN Fires 2 After Hidden-Camera Footage Aired

From the Associated Press:

BALTIMORE (AP) – The nonprofit housing group ACORN has fired two employees at its Baltimore office who were seen on hidden-camera video giving advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman pretending to be a prostitute.

Fox News Channel broadcast excerpts from the video Thursday. Those excerpts showed a man and woman asking about buying a house and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. An ACORN employee advises the woman to list her occupation as “performance artist.“

Maryland ACORN board member Margaret Williams says in a statement the employees “did not meet ACORN’s standards of professionalism.”

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Fox News Channel, Margaret Williams
Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 4:05 pm in ACORN, News | 818176 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/10/ap-acorn-fires-2-after-hidden-camera-footage-aired/AP%3A+ACORN+Fires+2+After+Hidden-Camera+Footage+Aired2009-09-10+23%3A05%3A08Publius