ACORN’s friends, with a fresh court ruling backing the organization, are finding new ways to send taxpayer dollars to it.  The Weekly Standard exposed an amendment offered by Sen. Rolland Burris (D-IL), President Obama’s replacement in the Senate, to the main piece of legislation enacting ObamaCare.

Specifically, Burris’ amendment would require an “Office of Minority Health” be established in several different agencies.

On page 241 of the amendment (yes, the amendment is over 241 pages):

In carrying out this subsection, the Secretary … shall award grants, contracts … with public and nonprofit private entities, agencies, as well as Departmental and Cabinet agencies and organizations, and with organizations that are indigenous human resource providers in communities of color. … Such measures shall evaluate community outreach activities, language services, workforce cultural competence, and other areas as determined by the Secretary.

Can you say ‘ACORN?’

Additionally, according to the Weekly Standard, the original bill itself contains language creating funding opportunities for “community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups” to “conduct public education activities to raise awareness of the availability of qualified health plans.”

And what if another judge overturned Judge Nina Gershon’s ruling declaring the congressional action to ‘defund’ ACORN?  They needn’t worry: funding provided by the health care legislation would go through exchanges, which aren’t covered by the ‘Defund ACORN’ bill.

Whew!  That was close, wasn’t it ACORN?!?

This all underscores the fact that like the stimulus bill, socialized medicine is just another giveaway to liberal groups.  That’s change we can believe in!

The socialist wing of the Democratic Party must have thought the brass ring was within its grasp when Barack Obama was elected president, a larger Democratic majority was returned to the House and a filibuster-proof majority was secured in the Senate.

But with the exception of massive new spending, little, if anything, has been delivered to satisfy the liberal base of the party.  Health care reform is a perfect example.  When the political stars began to align, leftists began moving swiftly to enact their agenda.  After all, a government takeover of health care has long been the ultimate goal for the socialist base of the party.

Despite polls that show solid majorities of Americans opposed to ObamaCare, Congressional Democrats trudge ahead.  Common sense would say they should pull the plug, in order to appease voters.

But special interest groups, such as the Service Employees International Union, have sent members of Congress out to battle and ordered them not to return without victory scalps.  Consider what SEIU president Andy Stern wrote in the November 10^th Washington Post:

They will be judged for what they deliver. If at the end of the day Americans can’t afford health care or if the standard of care declines, every single Democratic senator will pay the price. 

And Robert Creamer, arguably the architect of the political campaign to obtain socialized medicine, made a similar statement on a talk radio show March 18, 2008:

We need a national movement that says to these members of Congress, if they don’t deliver what we want, you’re not going back.

That national movement already exists, in the form of Healthcare for America Now, which is led by ACORN and SEIU. It’s been putting enormous pressure on Congress to support Obamacare,  complete with a robust “public option” and nothing less.

 But perhaps another statement by Stern in his Post column truly sums up the situation:

 Our elected leaders will be held accountable for the choices that they make.

He is exactly right. The problem is, Democrats in Congress and the White House are beholden to SEIU and other entrenched interest groups that put them in power in the first place. That leaves them dangerously out of step with the majority of American voters.

So Democrats are marching off the cliff for the benefit of Andy Stern and the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.

At some point along the way, Democrats in Congress and the White House must have come to the conclusion that they are likely going to get butchered in next year’s mid-term election.  Author and political analyst Dick Morris has already predicted that Republicans will re-take both the House and the Senate.  Like a criminal on the verge of his third strike, Democrats are acting as though they have nothing to lose.

They bow to Andy Stern, SEIU and the Democratic fringe at their own peril.

To me, one of the most disturbing – and starkly honest – one-liners that came out of the 2008 campaign was this: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”  It was delivered by Sen. Barack Obama while rallying a crowd at the University of Missouri on October 30, 2008.

That definitely was not the standard message that Obama conveyed to the masses. “Change” is a much different concept than “transforming America.” We wonder how many voters would have thought twice if they knew they were voting for a revolutionary transformation of our nation’s economy and the government’s involvement in private affairs.

Like his off-the-cuff remark to Joe the Plumber about “spreading the wealth around,” Obama opened a little window into his soul with that statement.

His words have proven to be prophetic. We have seen the “fundamental transformation” begin to unfold in just 11 short months, with major shifts in traditional policy. We have auto and bank bailouts, federal ownership of major corporations, a massive $787 billion stimulus package, a dangerous cap-and-trade proposal, radical health care legislation, new EPA rules, and the continued threat of card check, just to name a few examples. And the president has three years left in his term.

But the frightening notion of “fundamentally transforming America” was first uttered about three months earlier.

ACORNcracked.com has obtained another recording of Robert Creamer, the convicted felon who wrote the blueprint for health care reform while in prison, explaining to a talk show host about his vision for the Obama administration and the huge Democratic majority about to be elected to Congress.

“If Barack Obama is elected president, then we have the opportunity to fundamentally transform American politics and the economy — progressives do – for the first time in really in my lifetime…”

So far, I have been unable to find a single other reference to the idea of “fundamentally transforming” our country.  But Creamer, Obama and their entire leftist crew were probably of the same mindset. Is it possible Obama got the mantra from Creamer?  After all, in a clip that will be coming tomorrow, the talk show host mentioned above mentioned says he was talking to the right source, because “Robert Creamer knows Barack Obama.”

Read about Creamer Audio Drop, Part 1, in which he discusses the strategy for “taking it to the enemy” (ie. health insurance companies) to win a government-takeover of health care.  Glenn Beck used this recording on his December 10th Fox News broadcast, as well as his December 11th radio show.

File this one under the category of Predicable News of the Year: A Brooklyn federal judge, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, adopted the argument of hometown Congressman and ACORN apologist Jerrold Nadler that Congress’s efforts to “defund” ACORN amounted to a bill of attainder, and thus were unconstitutional.

Judge Nina Gershon imposed an injunction on the Congress to prevent it from cutting off funds, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit in Brooklyn federal court on behalf of ACORN.  That’s curious, given that ACORN is now headquartered in Washington, DC.  Not to mention the Congressional action, of course, occured in Washington, DC.

Brooklyn is home of ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis.  It’s also home to the Working Families Party, the political party co-founded by ACORN.  Brooklyn is also the district of Nadler, who runs on the Working Families ticket and has been the group’s most strident supporter in the Congress.

Back in October, the American Spectator’s Matthew Vadum revealed on BigGovernment that Nadler had contacted ACORN’s attorney Arthur Z. Schwartz to “discuss the group’s legal strategy.”

Is it possible Nadler could have told Schwartz something along the lines of, “have I got a federal court for you…!”  Is it?

The reality is, as with ACORN’s sham “independent” investigation and subsequent report, ACORN is calling on its friends and allies in its time of need and peril.  And man, are they delivering.

Bill Quigley, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, was quoted by Fox News as saying, ”It’s a resounding victory for ACORN.  I’d be surprised if the government decides to appeal.”

The Obama administration, headed by an ACORN alumni and filled with ACORN alumnus, of course, won’t appeal.  And don’t expect the ACORN-friendly Democrats in Congress to do much either.

One way or another ACORN will continue to find ways to latch back onto the taxpayers’ teat.  It clearly has enough friends in high places willing to help with that endeavor.

Professor Peter Dreier, an ACORN apologist who portrays himself as an independent analyst, is really anything but.

As Andrew Breitbart articulated on BigGovernment November 25th, regarding a “study” Dreier produced critical of media coverage of ACORN:

At the end of the piece Professor Dreier offers the following biography: Peter Dreier, E.P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College.

Why did Professor Dreier choose to leave out the critical information regarding his advisory relationship to ACORN? Isn’t sitting on an advisory committee of ACORN the definition of a conflict of interest in writing a fair and balanced piece on the organization? In fact, Dreier has been shilling for ACORN at least since 2003.

So when Dreier proclaimed ACORN “Not Guilty” in one of his recent columns on TalkingPointsMemo, I must admit I threw up a bit in my mouth.  Some of Dreier’s most pathetic conclusions:

ACORN is getting a bum rap — in the news media, among politicians, and even by some foundations. That’s the conclusion of an independent report released Monday, which acknowledged that ACORN needs to improve its management structure, but that it did not engage in illegal activities. . .Since last year, ACORN has been under attack by conservative media outlets like Fox News, Republican Party operatives, and business groups.

That’s a tenuous conclusion, considering the fact that ACORN’s Las Vegas office was raided by Nevada’s Democratic Secretary of State and was put on trial by the state’s Democratic Attorney General. Additionally, ACORN’s New Orleans office was raided by Louisana’s Democratic Attorney General. But those inconvenient truths probably slipped Dreier’s mind.

ACORN is now well known, but what most Americans know about it is wrong, based on controversies manufactured by the group’s long-time enemies, Drier wrote.

Does he mean the pesky Democratic state officeholders who keep hauling ACORN into court?

According to Dreier, the Harshbarger report is having the intended effect, providing a thin cover for ACORN’s radically liberal allies to welcome it back into the fold.

After Harshbarger released his report, various progressive groups — including SEIU, People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, the Campaign for America’s Future, NAACP, U.S. Action, and others — expressed support for ACORN and for the recommendations in the Harshbarger report.

In fact, SEIU president Andy Stern said, “What Mr. Harshbarger did find is something the media should have caught: the freelance ’sting’ operation that did so much damage to ACORN’s reputation last fall is deeply suspicious and deserving of increased scrutiny.”

For those on the left, ACORN is too big and important to fail.  And with the stubborn support of Andy Stern and others, ACORN isn’t going away any time soon.

“The media and Congress, which made an ill-informed rush to judgment based on incomplete or suspect evidence, should take their time to assess this report and give ACORN the impartial assessment it deserves,” Stern said.

Impartial assessment? Based on what? The work of Drier and Harshbarger, two unapologetic ACORN cheerleaders?

ACORN critics will only pay attention when a truly independent source, who isn’t being paid by ACORN, does a thorough investigation of the situation.

ACORNcracked.com recently obtained an audio recording a speech by Robert Creamer, given at the Take Back America 2008 conference in Washington, DC, that was hosted by Campaign for America’s Future, an ultra-liberal organization.

In a March 19 session entitled, “Health Care: The Politics of Winning,” ex-convict Creamer and husband of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), laid out his vision for health care reform.  Of Creamer’s 10-point plan, number 5 is:

To have a movement that both deals with that fact [that health care reform should be personal] and creates a movement we have to have two elements.  In a lot of campaigns we run are either about a populist kind of message and feel because it’s about people’s pocketbooks and needs directly.  Or it has a moral dimension that is inspirational and empowering – the civil rights movement, for instance.

This movement needs to have both.  To have a movement, to mobilize people, to inspire people, you have to appeal to their sense of meaning and purpose and something important.  So we have to create a sense that this is a historic battle.  This is about you’re being part of something that will make you meaningful. (emphasis added)

If there is a legitimate crisis, does the “sense” really need to be “created?”  Or are Creamer, Healthcare for America Now, SEIU, ACORN and others creating a problem to suit meet their ends?  Then he talked about the campaign and how to defeat their opponents.

We have to spend a lot of time particularly now, in this next year, going after our principle adversary here: the private insurance industry. … We need to reduce the credibility of the private insurance industry as, I mean, let’s be honest, right?  Twenty five percent of America’s health care costs go to administration and advertising.  …  This is a political campaign.  We need to bring down the positives and bring up the negatives of our opponents.  And the private insurance industry is our opponent in this battle. (emphasis added)

In analyzing the defeat of HillaryCare in 1993, Creamer identified then opponents then and ways to make them allies now.  He specifically mentioned major businesses with huge legacy costs (ie. General Motors), small businesses, and the American Medical Association.

To win any major social change in America that restructures a sixth of the economy, we need some Republican support.  We need it in Congress and we certainly need it in the population.  Now, that doesn’t mean we say we have to negotiate with these guys, it means, you know, we want the train to be as long as possible, we just want the progressive vision to be in the engine here.  So we’ve got to beat the crap out of the Susan – well, if Susan Collins loses, that’s wonderful – but some of the swing votes in the Senate in particular to get them with the program.  So part of our targeting has to be not just on holding Democrats with us, although that’s a problem for us, it’s also – we gotta have some of those Republicans. (emphasis added)

Creamer then suggested that liberals need to devise ways to draw conservatives into the debate.

We need to really go at their alternative but we need to establish that they have an alternative.  We need to establish as the political dialog, “everyone agrees there’s a health care crisis in America.  Here’s our plan, here’s their plan.  Now your only alternatives, public, are to choose one of the two, not the status quo.

Using language similar to SEIU president Andy Stern, Creamer articulated what is at stake:

If we get the presidency, we must deliver.  And if we do, we will create the investment of huge numbers of Americans in a revitalized commitment to the importance of the public sector and the progressive vision for the future.

Prior to Creamer’s remarks, pollster Celinda Lake gave her analysis of poll-tested phraseology that will best sell socialized medicine to an already skeptical, pro-capitalism American public.  A PowerPoint presentation, created by Lake for a similar meeting, can be seen here.

Let’s be clear: the need for health care reform (assuming for a moment there actually is a need), is seen in battle terms by liberals in power.  They need it.  They salivate for it.  It’s something they must deliver for their base and their biggest campaign contributors.

Pro-free market conservatives are dealing with an issue bigger than simple health care reform.  They’re dealing with a liberal movement hell-bent on securing a victory and delivering the bacon to the interest groups that can return them to power next year.

The “independent” investigation of ACORN has been completed, and the final report is in.

The verdict? ACORN has done nothing illegal, and most of its problems stem from the subpar leadership of its founder and former “chief organizer,” Wade Rathke. As long as Rathke and his allies are out of the picture, everything should be good to go at ACORN headquarters, according to Scott Harshbarger, former attorney general of Massachusetts.

I get the feeling Mr. Harshbarger produced exactly the type of report (which can be viewed at ACORNcracked.com) that the ACORN board of directors paid him to produce: a rationalization of the group’s behavior, designed to deflect the growing chorus of criticism and breathe new life into the organization.

I doubt that anybody will be fooled by the silly conclusions in Harshbarger’s report. But I fear that ACORN’s friends in the White House and Congress may use it as an excuse to allow the organization back into the federal government’s good graces.

One of Harshbarger’s most startling conclusions was that ACORN Housing Corp. employees committed no crimes when they were caught on video repeatedly giving advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute. He even suggests that the employees may have been represented in a false light, and were not as guilty as they appeared on video.  From the report:

While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff; in fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers.

The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O’Keefe’s and Ms. Giles’s comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions that ACORN employees were responding to. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.

The report also implies that ACORN has become a functionally sound organization, now that Rathke is allegedly out of the picture.

ACORN’s governance and managerial weaknesses are deeply rooted in the policy and philosophy of the founder and his leadership team, and stem from the errors and poor judgments they made. The reform leadership, many of whom also served in the Rathke era, is now reaping what Rathke sowed, in combination with the fallout from their own failure to question or challenge him.

There is a general consensus among leaders, organizers and observers that, under the prior administration, ACORN grew too large too quickly, and efforts were not made to grow in a reasonable, cautious manner or with an adequate infrastructure.

Harshbarger goes on to urge ACORN to take “any additional actions needed to sever ties with its founder, his external allies, as well as any ongoing board and/or staff litigation.”

So everything will be fine, as long as Rathke is gone and nobody allows him to sneak back in. Is that really your final answer, Mr. Harshbarger?

I trust that Harshbarger knows he’s really not doing ACORN any favors. The only way for that organization to reform, and clean up its sullied reputation, is to face up to all of its wrongdoing. I’m talking about the pimp and prostitute videos, the alleged voter registration frauds, the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, etc.

ACORN leaders should also be forced to reconsider their slimy tactics, like “seizing” foreclosed homes or bullying corporations into making cash contributions.

Only clear acts of atonement, and clear changes in policy, will begin to convince the public that perhaps ACORN deserves a second chance. That will take a great deal of time and real effort on the part of ACORN’s leadership.

Unfortunately, there’s reason to fear that Harshbarger’s report may indeed pay dividends for ACORN. There are plenty of ACORN alumni in the Obama administration and Congress who are eager to forgive the organization, and Harshbarger’s report may be the excuse they’ve been waiting form.

I’ve already seen movement in this direction, even before the report was made public. Obama’s Justice Department recently weighed in with a legal opinion, saying the federal government must honor all contracts it made with ACORN prior to the Congressional cutoff of funds.

That ruling alone could put ACORN back in business, if it withstands the likely legal challenges. So hold your breaths, everyone. Despite all of the unbelievable misdeeds that have been exposed in recent months, ACORN is still alive and kicking.

ACORN has been fairly criticized for its actions that led up to the mortgage crisis, which culminated in a huge rash of foreclosures last year.  While the tide appears to be waning, it’s a problem that is still occuring.

Specifically, ACORN strong-armed of banks and worked with members of Congress, such as Barney Frank, to weaken credit standards in order for banks, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to fund risky mortgages.  Mortgages, of course, that stood little chance of ever being paid, as we witnessed last year.

But ACORN’s penchant for shaking down banks didn’t begin 2 years ago, or even 10 years ago.  Check out this article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1988.  Grant Williams was an organizer for ACORN at the time (you may remember yesterday I wrote about his new gig at SEIU), and he managed to weasle ACORN into a bank’s proposed interstate merger.  From the article:

To settle a legal challenge by a community group, Bank South has agreed to chip in another $5 million in home loans at low interest rates in Atlanta’s black and working-class areas.

In return, the community group says it will drop its challenge to the bank’s first interstate merger.

The tentative agreement was reached at a negotiating session Wednesday, according to bank officials and leaders of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. They plan a joint announcement Thursday.

The bank also has agreed to consider making a large deposit in a community credit union ACORN says it might establish in Atlanta.

The $5 million will increase Bank South’s contribution to the Atlanta Mortgage Consortium to $7.35 million. That makes it the largest supporter of the pool formed in May. The pool now has $25 million, in addition to $47 million in loan programs set up by larger Atlanta banks, for a total of $72 million.

So not to apparently be accused of implied racism, the bank joined others to meet ACORN’s demands.  But, two weeks prior to this revelation, the Journal-Constitution ran another story where Bank South put up a little bit of a fight:

“Bank South has one of the worst records on community reinvestment among all the Atlanta banks, and we just want to make sure they clean up their act before they acquire any more southeast banks,” said ACORN President Annette Wilcoxson.

A Bank South spokesman, Bo Spalding, responded in a written statement: “The comments made by ACORN are inaccurate, misleading and without merit. We are disappointed that the ACORN representatives did not give us an opportunity to meet with them before they filed these complaints and issued the news release. We have scheduled a meeting with ACORN for Friday to discuss these issues.”

So, presto: drag a corporate name through the mud and receive a hefty payoff.  It’s the ACORN way.  At what point is some American corporation going to tell ACORN to go to hell and Al Capone’s shakedown tactics won’t work anymore?

Fighting back and not rolling over is the only thing that works with terrorists and just may work with ACORN, too.

The Service Employees International Union has demonstrated a history of blatant “pay-to-play” political tactics. And “pay-to-play” is probably why the SEIU has been at the forefront of promoting ObamaCare, with a “robust” public option.

In 2002, the union spent well over $1 million and worked tirelessly getting Rod Blagojevich elected governor of Illinois.  Shortly after he was sworn in, he signed an executive order, allowing SEIU to unionize 20,000 state health care employees.  It was the first such move by any governor on SEIU’s behalf.  Dozens of campaign contributions from the SEIU to Blogojevich are compiled in a list posted on shopfloor.org, a blog maintained by the National Association of Manufacturers.

In 2000, SEIU worked aggressively to elect Bob Holden governor of Missouri.  The reasoning?  In the words of “A St. Louis labor activist:” 

The state council here used to be headed up by Grant Williams, a former ACORN organizer who got into the SEIU by way of ACORN’s SEIU local and rose to become an international vice president in the union. His strategy was to campaign heavily for certain Democratic politicians and rely on them to hand him members. In 2000 he backed Bob Holden, who won the race for governor. One of Holden’s first acts was to sign an executive order granting the SEIU the right to have agency fees automatically deducted from the checks of state workers. After that, Williams had to keep backing Holden’s camp in order to defend the executive order.

So as SEIU is working so aggressively to pass ObamaCare with a government-run health plan, it’s not because the union gives two hoots about the uninsured.  Andy Stern wants his self-admitted $60 million investment in electing Obama to pay off. And if SEIU’s past is any indication, Stern will be at the front of the line to unionize all those new government bureaucrats overseeing ObamaCare.

ACORN’s making an aggressive move towards tackling immigration reform and needless to say, if you like what ACORN has done registering voters, you’ll love its solutions for immigration reform.

What’s curious is word has recently surfaced in a Reuters news story in which White House advisor David Axelrod said Congress is working on a immigration bill to create a path to citizenship and “could become law as early as next year.” Next year, incidentally, is in about 45 days.

While that is unlikely, it should regardless be a cause for concern.  At a book signing in New Orleans, as we chronicled on ACORNcracked.com, ACORN founder Wade Rathke explained his role in advising pro-immigration reform organizations.  In fact, he even described being a part of a White House meeting led by White House political director Patrick Gaspard.  See, Rathke and his wife Beth Butler are now free from the troubles ACORN is enduring.  In fact, Butler is now starting her organization with ACORN’s philosophy.  To aid the White House in its fight for immigration reform?  We’ll see.

So cap-and-trade has apparently flopped, card check legislation is seemingly stalled, the goal posts seem to keep moving for health care reform, and now the administration is going to throw immigration reform on its plate? Since when did Obama become Masochist-in-Chief? I digress…

For starters, ACORN has been going after hard-nosed Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, because he has been aggressively fighting illegal immigration.  That charlatan!

Then, more recently, ACORN representatives appeared at a Fontana, CA city council meeting. Fontana has apparently set up checkpoints around the city to fight drunk driving.

One of the speakers in the video below, ACORN organizer Bobbi Jo Chavarria [a Howard Dean Democracy for America Training Academy Alumni], explains:

“First I am a poet, then a human being and a world citizen then a woman – blend of California, Arizona and other states of Mexico from way back when it was all one land. Way back before man started drawing imaginary lines in the dirt and declaring imaginary separation between brothers and sisters, between family and friends. But I can recognize hate when I see it. Even when its dressed up pretty and reasonable or tries to appear as self-evident truth or rule of law. It is hate because it is not love. It is racial profiling. It is discrimination. It is unjust that members of our community are looked upon with scorn, derision and suspicion is appalling and that they must defend their presence is insane. I also brought with me copies of the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Human Rights just in case you haven’t seen them in a while…”

It goes on from there. Later in the same video clip, another speaker chastises ACORN for being an “opportunist taking advantage of people in need of a voice in order to turn a quick buck.”

Chavarria has also pushed for the absolutely nutty concept of a U.S. Department of Peace.  I should be careful bringing that up.  I don’t want to give this administration any ideas.  Again, I digress…

See, ACORN is apparently outraged that a city is using a checkpoint system around public schools to get boozehounds off the road.  And if a drunk is stopped and is an illegal alien, the city apparently is turning him or her over to San Bernardino County authorities.

And…what’s wrong with that?  Well, ACORN apparently doesn’t like it.  The ACORN rep, Chavarria, alleges in the Fontana Herald News that the police officers, are profiling based on race and are ”terrorizing the community.”

An immigration reform fight will be a huge boon to ACORN, as its an issue that could bring a major infusion of dues-paying members to ACORN.  Members, as the speaker at the city council meeting, “in need of a voice.”  But with ACORN’s financial picture dimming virtually by the day and “looking to turn a quick buck,” the group may be clearing its throat.

If you think we have weak borders now, just imagine what they’ll look like when ACORN is through with them.