despite a revision, obama’s fight the smears site still hides the fact that he trained ACORN leaders

in plain english, why is acorn so darn important to know about?

1) acorn has been notoriously known for using intimidation tactics on banks to get them to give subprime loans to people with poor credit. this activity (called ‘direct action’ by community organizers) is the bedrock of the current financial crisis we find ourselves in. yes, acorn contributed in a BIG WAY to the crash of the american economy.

2) acorn is suspected of voter fraud in at least 12 states and the fbi is currently investigating this.

(five excellent pieces telling of obama’s deep involvement with acorn: source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5)

so, what does this have to do with senator barack obama?

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obama claimed he did not train acorn, but…well, that’s untrue

(the following is taken from: “obama campaign makes some revisions to its candidate’s resume” | tuesday, october 14, 2008 | by brit hume, fox news)

now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine: truth hurts

barack obama’s fight the smears web site had to make some adjustments when one of the alleged “smears” turned out to be true.

the political blog gateway pundit reports that thursday the web site read, “fact: barack was never an acorn trainer and never worked for acorn in any other capacity.”

but the cleveland leader newspaper discovered documents proving that obama did work as a trainer for the voter registration group. the obama camp claims its candidate trained for the position but was never hired.

the web page now reads, “fact: acorn never hired obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee.”

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what the acorn-obama connection translates to

so, again what does acorn’s intimidation techniques on banks and widespread acorn voter fraud have to do with senator barack obama?

first, barack obama’s intimate ties to acorn, which included training acorn leaders, leaders who engaged in ‘direct action‘ intimidation tactics on banks to force them to give subprime loans to people with poor credit (the cause of our current financial crisis), means that obama actually contributed to the current subprime financial crisis. call it lack of knowledge, lack of judgement, or deliberately planned .. who knows. there’s even evidence obama was no stranger to ‘direct action‘ intimidation techniques himself.

read about how both obama and acorn intimidated banks into giving bad loans HERE.

secondly, concerning acorn’s widespread voter registration fraud, all that can be said here is that barack obama closely aligned himself with acorn his entire career. he made friends. he gained followers. he networked. it’s not rocket science to figure out that obama organized a strong grassroots network through acorn before his polical career began. and this close tie to acorn continues to this day. why is acorn responsible for widespread voter registration fraud this election? is it misguided zeal on the part of devoted followers? who taught them, who inspires them? why is acorn voter registration fraud prevalent in key swing states? connect the dots.

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who says obama trained acorn leaders?

“since then, we have invited obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office.” (source)

- toni foulkes, chicago acorn (2004)

“obama continues his organizing work largely through classes for future leaders identified by acorn and the centers for new horizons on the south side.” (source)

- the chicago reader (1995)

“i’ve been fighting alongside acorn on issues you care about my entire career…” (source, source)

- senator barack obama (2007 speech to acorn after acorn endorsed obama)

“‘he got people to vote with their feet’ on the issue, organizer madeleine talbot said. at the time, talbot worked at the social action group acorn and initially considered obama a competitor. but she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff.” (source)

- la times (2008)

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oh and by the way…

…there’s the small issue of obama’s campaign giving over $800,000 to an offshoot of ACORN (citizen services inc) for ‘get-out-the-vote’ projects. but there’s more:

“u.s. sen. barack obama’s presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal association of community organizations for reform now for services the democrat’s campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.

an obama spokesman said federal election commission reports would be amended to show citizens services inc. — a subsidiary of acorn – worked in ‘get-out-the-vote’ projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in fec finance reports filed during the primary. fec spokeswoman mary brandenberger said it is not unusual for campaigns to amend reports, even regarding large sums of money.

but, said blair latoff, spokeswoman for the republican national committee: ‘barack obama’s failure to accurately report his campaign’s financial records is an incredibly suspicious situation that appears to be an attempt to hide his campaign’s interaction with a left-wing organization previously convicted of voter fraud. for a candidate who claims to be practicing ‘new’ politics, his fec reports look an awful lot like the ‘old-style’ chicago politics of yesterday.’” (read the rest of the pittsburg tribune-review article HERE.)

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an abundance of evidence obama has intimate ties to acorn

we know obama not only did in fact TRAIN acorn staff, but that he also has intimate ties to acorn. here’s documentation to prove it:

»  toni foulkes, a chicago acorn leader, says obama trained them in this 2004 article: case study: chicago – the barack obama campaign
»  in case the toni foulkes article is removed (which it has in the past), here is a pdf of the same article
»  view the original obama fight the smears acorn statement: “barack was never an acorn trainer and never worked for acorn in any other capacity.” HERE
»  view the new obama fight the smears acorn statement: “acorn never hired obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee” HERE
»  obama has decided to remove the acorn section from his fight the smears site
»  the facts
+ obama trained acorn staff
+ obama was acorn’s lawyer
+ according to chicago acorn leader, toni foulkes, obama worked with acorn so closely that, “by the time he ran for u.s. senate, we were old friends.”
+ obama taught “classes for future leaders identified by acorn”
(read more here)
»  obama and acorn: you can run but you can’t hide
»  clever obama tries to bury acorn past
»  world net daily article: “obama website lies about acorn ties – campaign tries to distance senator from group convicted of voter fraud”
»  acorn’s senator
»  obama’s campaign gave over $800,000 to citizen services inc (csi), a front of acorn

“in february, after the groups political arm endorsed obama, an acorn affiliate received $800,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts. the campaign initially listed the purpose as event activity – a discrepancy the gop argues was to hide the intent.” (source)

“wnd reported in august obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to citizen services inc. (csi), a nonprofit organization that is an offshoot of acorn. according to federal election commission records reviewed by the tribune-review, the obama campaign paid csi $832,598.29, from feb. 25 to may 17, including $564,342.21 for “stage, lighting and sound.” the payments stood out since csi does not offer services for stage, lighting or sound.” (source)

»  the complete guide to acorn voter fraud
»  state by state, fraud by electoral fraud
»  why is obama trying to limit what is said about his relationship with acorn instead of letting the public know the whole truth?
»  barack obama’s ACORN tree
»  obama forged path as chicago community organizer

“‘he got people to vote with their feet’ on the issue, organizer madeleine talbot said. at the time, talbot worked at the social action group acorn and initially considered obama a competitor. but she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff.” (source)

»  the acorn obama helped mold

“important as these questions of funding and partisanship are, the larger point is that obama’s ties to acorn – arguably the most politically radical large-scale activist group in the country – are wide, deep, and longstanding. if acorn is adept at creating a non-partisan, inside-game veneer for what is in fact an intensely radical, leftist, and politically partisan reality, so is obama himself. this is hardly a coincidence: obama helped train acorn’s leaders in how to play this game. for the most part, obama seems to have favored the political-insider strategy, yet it’s clear that he knew how to play the in-your-face “direct action” game as well. and surely during his many years of close association with acorn, obama had to know what the group was all about.”

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mortgage crisis? blame ACORN

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other popular posts

»  taxes – understanding the tax plans: mccain versus obama, or, creation of wealth and jobs versus money handouts and inspiring laziness
»  acorn – despite a revision, obama’s fight the smears site still hides the fact that he trained ACORN leaders
»  joe the plumber – joe the plumber helps obama define his socialist economic policy
»  administrative jihad in the usa – senator obama, why does it appear you are administratively assisting al-qaeda and worldwide terrorism?
»  administrative jihad abroad – administrative jihad up close and personal
»  global jihad – a global jihad without guns or military conquest described by libyan muammar gaddafi himself

as a community organizer obama trained ACORN staff, ran leadership training seminars for ACORN leaders and funded ACORN

first off, it can’t be said any better than this:

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three facts everyone needs to know about the current financial crisis:

fact 1: obama supported acorn through staff and leadership training and through the funding of acorn by the wood’s fund and annenberg challenge. acorn has a rich history of intimidating banks to lower their credit standards and issue subprime loans to customers with poor credit, which is the cause of the world financial crisis we find ourselves in. also, as an attorney in 1994 obama was involved in a lawsuit against citibank to force it to make a bad loan, charging the bank was ‘discriminatory’.

fact 2: senator mccain did everything in his power in 2005 through the federal housing enterprise regulatory reform act of 2005 to both warn and legislate against the current subprime loan financial crisis

fact 3: the root of this whole mess is a) the clinton administration for putting teeth into the community reinvestment act where they both gave out and made popular subprime loans to people who had little ability to pay them back, and b) democrats who later repeatedly blocked regulation reform, including c) barack obama, who thought fannie mae and freddie mac buying subprime loans was a good idea as he thought they would distribute risk more broadly throughout american and world markets

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fact 1: obama supported acorn through staff and leadership training and through the funding of acorn by the wood’s fund and annenberg challenge. acorn has a rich history of intimidating banks to lower their credit standards and issue subprime loans to customers with poor credit, which is the cause of the world financial crisis we find ourselves in. also, as an attorney in 1994 obama was involved in a lawsuit against citibank to force it to make a bad loan, charging the bank was ‘discriminatory’.

acorn is known for it’s militant tactics of intimidation and disruption in forcing banks to issue subprime loans to uncreditworthy customers. when obama was a young community organizer, madeline talbott of chicago’s acorn had obama train her personal staff. he later did legal work for acorn in the illinois ‘motor voter’ case, led ‘project vote’ in 1992, ran leadership training seminars for acorn leaders, funded acorn though the wood’s fund which he supervised, and as leader of the chicago annenberg challenge he channeled more funds to madeline talbott and acorn. obama’s lack of knowledge and judgment in supporting acorn’s push to get banks to lower their credit standards actually contributed to the financial mess we find ourselves in.

stanley kurtz of the washington post in “o’s dangerous pals – barack’s ‘organizer’ buds pushed for bad mortgages” writes:

“when obama was just a budding community organizer in chicago, talbott was so impressed that she asked him to train her personal staff.

he returned to chicago in the early ’90s, just as talbott was starting her pressure campaign on local banks. chicago acorn sought out obama’s legal services for a “motor voter” case and partnered with him on his 1992 “project vote” registration drive.

in those years, he also conducted leadership-training seminars for acorn’s up-and-coming organizers. that is, obama was training the army of acorn organizers who participated in madeline talbott’s drive against chicago’s banks.

more than that, obama was funding them. as he rose to a leadership role at chicago’s woods fund, he became the most powerful voice on the foundation’s board for supporting acorn and other community organizers. in 1995, the woods fund substantially expanded its funding of community organizers – and obama chaired the committee that urged and managed the shift.

that committee’s report on strategies for funding groups like acorn features all the key names in obama’s organizer network. the report quotes talbott more than any other figure; sandra maxwell, talbott’s acorn ally in the bank battle, was also among the organizers consulted.

more, the obama-supervised woods fund report ac knowledges the problem of getting donors and foundations to contribute to radical groups like acorn – whose confrontational tactics often scare off even liberal donors and foundations.

indeed, the report brags about pulling the wool over the public’s eye. the woods fund’s claim to be ‘nonideological,’ it says, has “enabled the trustees to make grants to organizations that use confrontational tactics against the business and government ‘establishments’ without undue risk of being criticized for partisanship.”

hmm. radicalism disguised by a claim to be postideological. sound familiar?

the woods fund report makes it clear obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by acorn’s madeline talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. yet he supported talbott in every conceivable way. he trained her personal staff and other aspiring acorn leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts.

and, as the leader of another charity, the chicago annenberg challenge, obama channeled more funding talbott’s way – ostensibly for education projects but surely supportive of acorn’s overall efforts.

in return, talbott proudly announced her support of obama’s first campaign for state senate, saying, ‘we accept and respect him as a kindred spirit, a fellow organizer.’

in short, to understand the roots of the subprime mortgage crisis, look to acorn’s madeline talbott. and to see how talbott was able to work her mischief, look to barack obama.

then you’ll truly know what community organizers do.”

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obama and ACORN have worked closely forcing banks into giving loans to those who cannot afford them, which led to our current economic disaster. bank intimidation is a primary goal of acorn and its members. what is obama’s goal?

while an attorney with the chicago law firm davis, miner, barnhill and galland, obama was part of a team of lawyers that sued citibank for practicing ‘redlining’ (loan discrimination) in the case ‘buycks-roberson v. citibank fed. sav. bank‘. they won and it essentially forced citibank to give a bad loan. this kind of loan practice is the root cause of the current financial crisis we find ourselves in. ACORN specializes in intimidating banks to give bad loans, abusively using the CRA (the community reinvestment act) to scare banks to comply. in a november 2007 meeting with ACORN, obama said: “i’ve been fighting alongside acorn on issues you care about my entire career. even before i was an elected official, when i ran project vote voter registration drive in illinois, acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.“

obama on record: a lawsuit against citibank forcing it to give a bad loan .. the details:
»  learn more about barack obama and acorn
»  civil rights litigation clearinghouse – buycks-roberson v. citibank fed. sav. bank
»  barack obama was acorn’s attorney (a rare list of obama’s case history)
»  “obama represented calvin roberson in a 1994 lawsuit against citibank, charging the bank systematically denied mortgages to african-american applicants and others from minority neighborhoods.”
»  obama sued citibank under cra to force it to make bad loans – updated
»  google query: buycks-roberson v. citibank fed. sav. bank defendant’s history
»  google query: obama sued citibank
»  “even though barack obama is still denying his role and involvement with acorn and the root causes of the subprime mortgage crisis, the proof is in the pudding, as they say.”

ACORN history of intimidating banks to give bad loans .. the details:
»  planting seeds of disaster – acorn, barack obama, and the democratic party
»  o’s dangerous pals – barack’s ‘organizer’ buds pushed for bad mortgages
»  google query: acorn forces banks
»  obama – acorn root causes of mortgage crisis?
»  consumer rights league, obama, acorn and the subprime mortgage (updated)
»  obama, acorn, and the churches
»  human events search query: obama acorn
»  what does a community organizer do? pressure banks to make bad loans
»  a great example of how we got to the credit-market meltdown
»  why the mortgage crisis happened (a chronology of all key events)
»  how did the biggest financial scandal in history happen?

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fact 2: senator mccain did everything in his power in 2005 through the federal housing enterprise regulatory reform act of 2005 to both warn and legislate against the current subprime loan financial crisis

senator mccain’s effort to address what he foresaw as an impending financial crisis was set forth way back in 2005. it was introduced by sen. charles hagel [r-ne] and senator mccain was a co-sponsor of the bill. it was called:

“s. 190 [109th]: federal housing enterprise regulatory reform act of 2005 – a bill to address the regulation of secondary mortgage market enterprises, and for other purposes.“

it’s summarized on the govtrack.us site as follows:

1/26/2005–introduced.

federal housing enterprise regulatory reform act of 2005 – amends the federal housing enterprises financial safety and soundness act of 1992 to establish: (1) in lieu of the office of federal housing enterprise oversight of the department of housing and urban development (hud), an independent federal housing enterprise regulatory agency which shall have authority over the federal home loan bank finance corporation, the federal home loan banks, the federal national mortgage association (fannie mae), and the federal home loan mortgage corporation (freddie mac); and (2) the federal housing enterprise board.

sets forth operating, administrative, and regulatory provisions of the agency, including provisions respecting: (1) assessment authority; (2) authority to limit nonmission-related assets; (3) minimum and critical capital levels; (4) risk-based capital test; (5) capital classifications and undercapitalized enterprises; (6) enforcement actions and penalties; (7) golden parachutes; and (8) reporting.

amends the federal home loan bank act to establish the federal home loan bank finance corporation. transfers the functions of the office of finance of the federal home loan banks to such corporation.

excludes the federal home loan banks from certain securities reporting requirements.

abolishes the federal housing finance board.

compare the two camps now on the issue of the economy. senator obama actually sued banks because they were not giving away enough subprime loans, while senator mccain foresaw a financial crisis based on out of control subprime lending and did something about it. who is ready to lead? are you still going to listen to obama rhetoric?

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fact 3: the root of this whole mess is a) the clinton administration for putting teeth into the community reinvestment act where they both gave out and made popular subprime loans to people who had little ability to pay them back, and b) democrats who later repeatedly blocked regulation reform, including c) barack obama, who thought fannie mae and freddie mac buying subprime loans was a good idea as he thought they would distribute risk more broadly throughout american and world markets

it’s all here documented in this transcript of a short video report by brit hume of fox news:

brit hume, host: in the recent spate of government bailouts, buyouts and rescues, the federal takeovers of mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac are arguably the biggest of them all. and those two firms are also arguably the biggest reason for the credit crisis in the first place. so the question arises — how did this come to be? chief washington correspondent jim angle reports.

(begin videotape)

jim angle, chief washington correspondent (voice-over): there is one nagging question behind all the debate over how to get out of this mess.

chris dodd (d-ct), senate banking committee chmn: american taxpayers are angry and they demand to know how we arrived at this moment.

elizabeth dole (r), north carolina senator: my constituents, and indeed taxpayers across the nation are asking how we arrived at this crisis. it is infuriating.

angle: but senator dole and others think they know the answer, and it’s something the senate tried to fix three years ago but was thwarted.

dole: to the mismanagement of fannie mae and freddie mac, which was made possible by weak oversight and little accountability.

mel martinez (r), florida senator: a lot of what we’re dealing with today has its origins in fannie mae and freddie mac.

angle: fannie mae and freddie mac, backed by the federal government, buy mortgage loans from the lenders who make them. but four years ago, both were in trouble over shoddy accounting. fannie mae chief franklin raines, president clinton’s former budget director, was fired. to placate those in congress who watched over them, fannie and freddie promised to do more to help poor people get mortgages. that led them to buy riskier and riskier home loans from private lenders creating incentives for everyone to make shakier loans.

peter wallison, american enterprise institute: the problem is that they encouraged very bad mortgages to be made by banks and other institutions, because fannie and freddie would buy them.

angle: eventually, they bought trillions of dollars worth of mortgages, a substantial portion of them based on poor credit, then resold many of them to financial institutions who thought they were safe because the federal government was behind them.

wallison: as a result of this appearance that they were backed by the government, people never paid very much attention to the assets they were acquiring or the risks they were taking.

angle: and so shaky mortgages spread throughout the system. but in 2005, the senate banking committee, then chaired by republican richard shelby, tried to rein in the two organizations bypassing some strong new regulations.

wallison: which would have prevented fannie and freddie from acquiring this bad — these bad mortgages. it actually gave a new regulator for fannie and freddie the kinds of powers that a bank regulator had.

angle: all the republicans voted for it. all the democrats, including the current chairman, senator chris dodd, voted against it ( BLOG NOTE – FOR THE RECORD: DEMOCRATS FAIL RIGHT HERE ), and that was after fed chairman alan greenspan had issued a stark warning to senators that fannie and freddie were playing with fire. greenspan said without stronger regulations, “we increase the possibility of insolvency and crisis. without restrictions on the size of fannie mae and freddie mac, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the united states.”

(end videotape)

angle: which turned out to be exactly right, but because democrats blocked it, those new regulations never got consideration by the full senate and died. so that’s how we got into this mess, and how we missed a chance to avoid it. getting out of it now, of course, will be a lot more difficult — brit.

hume: oh, boy. thanks, jim.

in another interview bill clinton admits on video the democrats resisted regulatory reform the republicans were trying to legislate. wow, talk about shooting down obama rhetoric.

for a thorough examination of what exactly happened during the clinton years check out: “the trillion-dollar bank shakedown that bodes ill for cities“, by howard husock, city journal, winter 2000.

find more here about the historical behavior of democrats regarding both warnings and active reform with respect to the current subprime loan financial crisis:
»  going back to 2003, president bush, john snow, alan greenspan warned of the imminent dangers of fannie and freddie. barney frank and chuck shumer suppressed warnings.
»  explosive video, fannie mae ceo calling obama and the dems the “family” and “conscience” of fannie mae
»  obama ranks second in freddie/fannie contributions
»  obama’s connection to sub-prime crisis; crash of economy-1/3
»  shocking video unearthed democrats in their own words covering up the fannie mae, freddie mac scam that caused our economic crisis
»  obama vp vetter resigns over loan criticism
»  mccain’s early recognition of fannie/freddie crisis
»  mccain criticizes obama’s fannie mae and freddie mac connections

no doubt about it, fannie mae, freddy mac, etc and the subprime loan crisis origin RESTS HEAVILY IN THE DEMOCRATIC CAMP. it’s only frail human nature that will cause people to hold stubbornly onto party politics more than fighting for what is good for the country. remember this:

“a statesman is one who works for the next generation. a politician is one who works for the next election.”

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how fannie mae, freddie mac, aig, lehman brothers, bear stearns, merrill lynch, washington mutual and all the rest fit into the big picture.

on the 700 billion thing

bailout chronology (source 1, source 2)
»  bear stearns: 29 billion (source)
»  fannie mae and freddie mac: 200 billion (source 1, source 2)
»  lehman brothers: went bankrupt (source 1, source 2)
“since lehman’s failure, all of the remaining top investment banks on wall street have either merged with other banks, like merrill, or converted into bank holding companies, like morgan stanley, to escape the continuing fallout from stung and angry investors.”
»  aig: 85 billion (source)

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finally, another dose from a clear-thinking american telling it like it is. the big picture. check it out:

more of drinkingwithbob on youtube, veoh, his homepage.

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other popular posts

»  taxes – understanding the tax plans: mccain versus obama, or, creation of wealth and jobs versus money handouts and inspiring laziness
»  acorn – despite a revision, obama’s fight the smears site still hides the fact that he trained ACORN leaders
»  joe the plumber – joe the plumber helps obama define his socialist economic policy
»  administrative jihad in the usa – senator obama, why does it appear you are administratively assisting al-qaeda and worldwide terrorism?
»  administrative jihad abroad – administrative jihad up close and personal
»  global jihad – a global jihad without guns or military conquest described by libyan muammar gaddafi himself