Friday, September 05, 2008

About That Community Organizing...

Obama supporters are outraged! because Republicans have so effectively mocked the "community activist" they think is qualified to be president. But Michelle Malkin has a column explaining just who it is that Obama was "community organizing" for. He wasn't helping victims of floods or the homeless through soup kitchens and night shelters. He was helping ACORN, which specializes in voter fraud and tax-cheating.

Last month, a New Mexico TV station reported on the child rapists, drug offenders and forgery convicts on ACORN's payroll. In July, Pennsylvania investigators asked the public for help in locating a fugitive named Luis R. Torres-Serrano, who is accused "of submitting more than 100 fraudulent voter registration forms he collected on behalf of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now to county election officials." Also in July, a massive, nearly $1 million embezzlement scheme by top ACORN officials was exposed.

ACORN's political arm endorsed Obama in February and has ramped up efforts to register voters across the country. In the meantime, completely ignored by the mainstream commentariat and clean-election crusaders, the Obama campaign admitted failing to report $800,000 in campaign payments to ACORN. They were disguised as payments to a front group called "Citizen Services, Inc." for "advance work."

Jim Terry, an official from the Consumer Rights League, a watchdog group that monitors ACORN, noted: "ACORN has a long and sordid history of employing convoluted Enron-style accounting to illegally use taxpayer funds for their own political gain. Now it looks like ACORN is using the same type of convoluted accounting scheme for Obama's political gain." With a wave of his magic wand, Obama amended his FEC forms to change the "advance work" to "get-out-the-vote" work.

Dems cry "foul" at the supposedly "guilt-by-association" charges conservatives are using against Barack Obama. But when you are a "community activist" for a slimy organization like ACORN, you deserve the guilt.