Tag: acorn

Democratic election fraud in Troy, NY: a follow-up.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers. And Big Government readers, too.

(Via Atlas Shrugs) For the next time somebody tells you that Democrat/ACORN/WFP election registration fraud does not equal election fraud, feel free to point this story coming from Troy, New York, where the one led seamlessly to the other.  Feel free to also point out that it doesn’t take all that much to flip some races:

Thirty-eight forged or fraudulent ballots have been thrown out — enough votes, an election official admits, to likely have tipped the city council and county elections in November to the Democrats. Candidates would have been able to run both on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines in two weeks, and that could have given the Democrats the general election.

A special prosecutor is investigating the case and criminal charges are possible. New York State Supreme Court Judge Michael Lynch ruled that there were “significant election law violations that have compromised the rights of numerous voters and the integrity of the election process.”

[Bolding mine.]

Continue reading Democratic election fraud in Troy, NY: a follow-up.

Actually, Patrick Gaspard IS affiliated with ACORN.

Matthew Vadum had precisely the same reaction that I did when I read the Ben Smith Politico article that published ACORN founder Wade Rathke’s denial that White House Director Political Director Patrick Gaspard was affiliated with his group: Umm.  No.  It’s not Ben’s fault – this is all deliberately designed to be confusing – but there are a clear set of links.  It goes like this:

First, ACORN has long been known to have The Working Families Party as one of its front organizations.  As Discover the Networks notes:

Currently composed of some 30,000 members, the Working Families Party (WFP) is a front group for ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). WFP functions as a political party in New York State and Connecticut, promoting ACORN-friendly candidates. Unlike conventional political parties, WFP charges its members dues — about $60 per year — a policy characteristic of ACORN and its affiliates.

According to the party’s website, WFP is a coalition founded jointly by ACORN, the Communications Workers of America, and the United Automobile Workers. However, ACORN clearly dominates the coalition. New York ACORN leader Steven Kest was the moving force in forming the party, and WFP headquarters are located at the same address as ACORN’s national office, at 88 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

Second, as Matthew Vedum reported, the link between Gaspard and the WFP is clear: he himself identified with the political party.

Third, as I mentioned earlier today, Gaspard is continuing to assist the WFP in local elections.

The Working Families Party and its secretive private company are apparently not alone in helping out Bill de Blasio’s campaign behind the scenes.

De Blasio, who is a candidate in the four-way Democratic primary for public advocate, has also has been getting a helping hand from Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director, and from the deputy director of the New York State Democratic Committee.

So. ACORN = WFP = Patrick Gaspard. Wade Rathke’s sudden performance to the contrary.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

WFP/ACORN Voter Fraud in Troy, NY.

Not voter registration fraud – which is, by the way, voter fraud – but actual, no-fooling, they-forged-absentee-ballots voter fraud:

Affidavits: Ballot abuse rampant

Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy, the Times Union has learned.

[snip]

Documents at the county Board of Elections show the fraudulent ballots were handled by or prepared on behalf of various elected officials and leaders and operatives for the Democratic and Working Families parties. A Troy housing authority employee, Anthony Defiglio, who sources said oversees vacant properties for the Troy Housing Authority, also handled many of the fraudulent ballots, according to public records and interviews with voters who said they were duped.

Via Big Government, which helpfully points out that the Working Families Party is another facet of ACORN, to the point where they share current officers like Bertha Lewis and former affiliates like Patrick Gaspard (who is actually working even now with the WFP in local NY politics).  This should surprise fewer people than it will; it’s long been an open secret that most of these groups live in each other’s pockets.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Patrick Gaspard = ACORN = SEIU = White House political affairs director.

Just to repeat some of the things alluded to in this article (with some additions):

Or whether this administration has ‘full confidence’ in Patrick Gaspard.  Which is Dizzy City-speak for ‘He’s cleaning out his desk right now.’

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

A roundup of the NEA propaganda scandal.

here’s not much to say about the NEA propaganda scandal that hasn’t been said by others, but a link round-up will be hopefully useful for those getting up to speed.

  • We begin here with the Big Government articles themselves.  Summary: transcripts and audio reveal that the conference call of August 10th involving the federal agencies NEA, United We Serve, and the Office of Public Engagement; and various artist groups‘ involved the explicit recruitment of said artists’ groups to assist in pushing the administration’s legislative agenda.
  • This despite claims by the NEA that said call did not pursue any legislative agenda.
  • Note also that OPE Deputy Director (and Valerie Jarrett crony) Buffy Wicks has long-standing ties with ACORN.
  • Patterico points out the obvious: that both the NEA and the administration lied when they claimed that no legislative agenda was addressed.  Despite the fact that this call was ostensibly hosted by Michael Skolnik, Skolnik explicitly stated that he was working on the behest of the NEA and the White House – a claim that was not refuted either by Deputy Director Wicks or at-the-time NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant (both of whom were on the call).  For that matter, the primary interest of Nell Abernathy, director of outreach for United We Serve (also on the call) is to make clear that Skolnik is the cutout between the artists’ groups and the government.
  • I should point out at this point that Sergant is, of course, linked with Shepard Fairey, who had his own representative on the call.
  • Ace of Spades notes that Winner & Associates were on the conference call as well.  You may remember them; they were a Axelrod-affiliated PR group that got traced back as being behind some rather nasty anti-Palin fake grassroots astroturf during the election last year.  They were apparently on the call at the invitation of OPE Director Wicks.
  • You can refresh your memory of the Winner Incident here at The Jawa Report.  How interesting that they were there, and invited by an administration official, no less.
  • Ace of Spades, again, quotes Slublog on the Hatch Act.  As in, this is actually technically forbidden by federal statute (I personally note ‘technically’ because Hatch Act prosecutions are few and far between).
  • Ed Morrissey has what is probably the line of the day (“We do not fund the NEA for it to produce Leni Riefenstahl-type art”), and notes that the Washington Times would like help tracking down some of the call participants.
  • And finally, I would like to remind everybody reading this that groups involved in pushing the administration’s health care agenda had racked up roughly 2 million dollars in grants from the NEA prior to it.

So… the administration lied about their role in a conference call that was nakedly about using NEA client groups to pursue an explicitly pro-administration agenda – a call that, when revealed, resulted in an immediate reassignment of an NEA staffer and an attempt to scrub the record.  Of the groups involved, at least one was not an actual artist organization, and it was made clear throughout the call that the goal was to create partisan political materials, not nonpartisan art.  And, of course, the players involved were all of them affiliated with each other in various, sundry, and in some cases non-artistic ways.

But sure, other than all of that we have nothing to worry about.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Clearly, Nancy Pelosi is a New York Times reader…

…because she hadn’t a clue about the Senate ACORN defunding amendment.  Note that the New York Post is a little more forceful than me; they called Speaker Pelosi ‘clueless.’  Which is not actually unfair of them: keeping track of things like this is part of the Speaker of the House’s job.

Then again, so is paying attention to what happens on the House floor.

(Via JammieWearingFool, via Instapundit)

Crossposted to RedState.

Are you a Democratic legislator in a Republican-leaning seat?

Because if you are, here is an advisory: as of this moment, if the Right catches you or your staff within 100 yards of an ACORN office or worker we will cheerfully crucify you with that organization. And by ‘crucify’ I mean ‘take the metaphorical and rhetorical equivalent of long iron nails and permanently attach you to ACORN with them.” As the above link to Jon Stewart’s appalled reaction to all of this shows, public perceptions of the group shifted, and not to the benefit of the people that like to use ACORN. Now would be a good time for individual Democratic politicians to start publicly breaking with the group, in fact.

Seriously. The San Diego video is out, and this one involves a guy talking about why Tijuana is the best place to smuggle underage El Salvadoran hookers across the border (because he has contacts there). Continue reading Are you a Democratic legislator in a Republican-leaning seat?

*How* much trouble is ACORN in right now?

Let me put it this way: after seeing the first part of the San Bernardino ACORN video – the one where the ACORN stooge is bragging about her husband’s death, her running of her own brothel, and the way that she knows Senator Barbara Boxer – GayPatriot called up Boxer’s office*. He’s reporting that the Senator’s staff is pointing out in their responses that their boss voted to defund ACORN.  When Senator Barbara Boxer can see the writing on the wall…

DOOM.

Wonderful, wonderful DOOM.

*H/T Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: One of my colleagues has noted privately something to the effect that the problem with all of this is that Andrew Breitbart has raised the expectations of what constitutes a successful website launch to totally unsustainable levels.

Crossposted to RedState.

Joe Wilson should sponsor House version of Johanns Amendment.

Yesterday, the Senate surprisingly adopted the Johanns Amendment (which denies ACORN HUD/transportation funds), 83-7. Obviously, House Republicans will need to introduce (and presumably pass, in a similarly lopsided manner) their own version, in order to make it clear to the Democratic-controlled reconciliation committee that this is not to be reversed when they think that nobody’s looking. This amendment will need someone to formally offer it – and clearly the choice must be Rep. Joe Wilson (R, SC).

Discuss.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.