Revealed: Obama’s secret agenda

The Boston Globe‘s Leon Neyfakh quotes me in a feature article today, “Revealed: Obama’s secret agenda.”

In my view Obama’s agenda isn’t exactly secret but perhaps I’m quibbling.

Here’s the relevant passage:

Rebrand 9/11. One secret White House plot that has yet to be realized has to do with an attempt to change Sept. 11 from a day reserved for memorializing those who died in the terrorist attacks into a “celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.” This plan was first outlined in an August 2009 report published by The American Spectator under the headline “Obama’s Plan to Desecrate 9/11.” Written by Matthew Vadum, a conservative watchdog who investigates left-leaning advocacy groups, the article cited a source who had participated in a “White House-sponsored teleconference call” during which representatives of 60 “far-left, environmentalist, labor, and corporate shakedown groups” discussed the need to transform 9/11 from something that “helps Republicans” into something new. Vadum reported that the Obama administration was collaborating with a number of organizations, including the community activist group ACORN, on a “cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.”
Vadum described the plot last year in his book “Subversion, Inc.,” which outlined the numerous ways Obama was using ACORN as a secret army to enact his national goals. The group is now defunct, and in an interview last week, Vadum said he believes the 9/11 proposal has become less of a priority, as he has not come across any mention of it recently.

The bizarre plan to use 9/11 for left-wing purposes was indeed detailed in my book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

ACORN unit Project Vote represents PA ACORN offshoot in lawsuit

Project Vote, the branch of ACORN that President Obama used to work for, filed suit against Pennsylvania claiming the Keystone State isn't doing enough to help welfare recipients vote themselves greater taxpayer-funded benefits.  (View the complaint here.)

Not surprisingly Project Vote is acting for Action United, a rebranded state chapter from the old ACORN network of activist groups.  Action United is a business name for Pennsylvania Communities Organizing for Change Inc. (PCOC).  PCOC is run by the same old Pennsylvania ACORN activists and its headquarters is in the same office as the old Philadelphia branch of ACORN.

I warned in my book Subversion Inc. that ACORN would resurface and I was right.

ACORN constitutional challenge of Nevada law pending

ACORN executive Amy Adele Busefink, convicted of a variety of voter fraud, is appealing her conviction.  Oral arguments were heard last month by the Nevada Supreme Court.

ACORN affiliate Project Vote filed a friend of the court brief in favor of Busefink. Busefink's brief may be found here.  The State of Nevada's brief is available here.

Busefink is challenging Nevada's voter registration laws on constitutional grounds.   It seems like a dubious appeal but who knows what the court will do.

ACORN Housing Finally in Foreclosure

My Front Page Magazine article from July 3:

ACORN Housing Finally in Foreclosure

By Matthew Vadum

The largest branch of ACORN – ACORN Housing Corp.— has finally kicked the bucket despite cash injections from the Obama administration.


Like a con artist trying to escape his past, ACORN Housing legally changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) two years ago after the devastating “pimp and pro” videos surfaced in 2009. In those undercover videos created by conservative activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles ACORN and ACORN Housing employees were shown offering helpful advice on setting up a brothel for pedophiles and breaking other laws. A year later the controlling entity in the ACORN network, ACORN Inc., filed for bankruptcy after Congress cut off its taxpayer funding and left-leaning foundations ran away from it.


After a reliable source in the progressive movement confirmed the demise of AHCOA to this writer, Chicago-based writer Mike Volpe (who blogs as The Provocateur) visited the group’s headquarters at 209 West Jackson Boulevard in the Windy City last week. Volpe confirmed that the nonprofit corporation is no longer there. Building management advised him that the last AHCOA staff members vacated the premises almost two months ago.

New ACORN Front Group: Home Defenders League

Home Defenders League is a new ACORN front group formed around the time of the collapse of the lead entity in the ACORN network, ACORN Inc., in November 2010.

Many new groups have been founded by ACORN operatives. The typical new ACORN group will have the same employees as the old ACORN group. Often the new ACORN group will use the same office address that was used by the ACORN affiliate or state chapter it replaced. The new Saul Alinsky-inspired groups all have the same radical left-wing political objectives.

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) is also a new ACORN offshoot created by longtime California ACORN leader Amy Schur. ACCE created Home Defenders League as a project. As of July 1, 2012, it was unclear if Home Defenders League has been formally incorporated or is a business name adopted by ACCE.

The Internet domain name, www.homedefendersleague.org, as this document shows, was registered by longtime California ACORN operative David Lagstein, now an ACCE employee.

New ACORN Front Group: Home Defenders League

Disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke is urging Catholics to quit their church

President Obama isn't the only leftist to declare war on the Catholic church.

Disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke is urging Catholics to quit their church:

In the fall from grace of one institution after another, religious bodies have been on a steady decline for a generation.  No institution claims more members and fills less pews now that the Catholic Church on any given Sunday, nor has any outfit taken more of a licking in the public perception.  The inability to effectively manage the staff at the boundary lines between practice and principle has led to some dioceses declaring bankruptcy, multi-million dollar damage settlements, and a general uneasiness about how faith and flock have been stewarded by priests.  Couple all of that with a rigid hierarchy that seems committed to resisting change, pushing back the clock, some verifiable degree of misogyny, and a hardening attack on the victims of priestly misconduct and venerable institutions like the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and anything that still carries the torch of the Church’s long historic leadership in the fight for social justice.
What’s to be done?  Finally, it has become crystal clear.  It’s time to leave the church and follow the nuns! [emphasis added above]

That's rich. Wade is one of the worst managers in the history of nonprofit activism. His brother Dale embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN in 2000 and Wade covered it up for eight years. Wade's actions laid the groundwork for the collapse of ACORN. All ACORN needed was a push -- and that push was provided by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles the next year when they caught ACORN employees on undercover video offering helpful advice on setting up a brothel for pedophiles. The video sting caused Congress to cut off funding for ACORN and scared away remaining institutional funders. ACORN filed for bankruptcy on Election Day 2010.


And wow, does Wade really hate the Catholic church.

Historical ACORN documents uploaded to Scribd

For anyone who's interested, I've uploaded some documents from my ACORN files to Scribd.

So far there are lists of affiliates, the partial contents of the court file from a messy lawsuit, and other documents of interest.

Here is a link to my Scribd page.

Strange: ACORN Housing may be closed but it hasn't filed for bankruptcy

This is odd.

ACORN Housing Corporation, which changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), has closed its doors.

Yet there is no record of AHCOA filing a bankruptcy petition or being petitioned into bankruptcy, according to the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) database. None. And as of June 30, 2010, AHCOA was in the red by almost $2.5 million according to its most recent publicly available tax return (IRS Form 990).

I know AHCOA shut down because i) a very reliable source within the progressive movement told me so ii) its Twitter feed hasn't been updated in close to a year iii) its website (ahcoa.org) is down and iv) the secretary of state in Louisiana where it was incorporated has ruled that it is "Not In Good Standing for failure to file Annual Report."

According to the Louisiana Secretary of State's office AHCOA hasn't filed any reports since March 21, 2011.


Here is the "Not In Good Standing" report:
Affordable Housing Centers of America "Not in Good Standing" according to Louisiana Secre...


Weird.

Blogger Aaron Walker sues "Speedway Bomber" Brett Kimberlin

Conservative blogger Aaron Walker is fighting back hard against his terrorist tormentor, Brett Kimberlin, the infamous "Speedway Bomber."

Walker, who blogs as "Aaron Worthing" at Allergic to Bull, was jailed at the direction of Kimberlin after daring to blog about his criminal history. Kimberlin is a practitioner of the dark art of lawfare.

Incredibly, a Maryland judge, Cornelius "Brandenburg Shmandenburg" Vaughey, ordered Walker not to blog about Kimberlin. Criminal charges against Walker for allegedly violating the gag order have already been laughed out of court but the shut-yo-mouth injunction remains in effect.

Kimberlin, who served about a third of the 50 year federal prison term he was given, terrorized the town of Speedway, Indiana for a week. One of his bombs ripped off the leg of a man who became so despondent at his loss of mobility that he committed suicide.

The litigious Kimberlin brags about the legal skills he acquired behind bars. The felon-cum-progressive activist targets people who write about him or who just plain annoy him. (For a primer on the Kimberlin saga, read one of my previous articles. For a primer on the Walker versus Kimberlin saga, read another one of my previous articles.)

Kimberlin's mischief got Walker and his wife fired from their jobs and sent blogger Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain into hiding.

Walker is now employing a two-prong legal strategy. (Or maybe it's four prongs. I'm not sure what the Prong Protocol is here.) Attorney Reginald W. Bours III plans to apply next week to have the gag order (called a "peace order") lifted. 

Bours also filed a Maryland lawsuit against Kimberlin.


Another attorney representing Walker, Bruce Godfrey, filed a federal lawsuit seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. Like Bours, Godfrey has also moved to macerate the gag order. 

That's a lot of paperwork but it's nothing compared to the 100-plus lawsuits that Kimberlin brags about filing.

It's also nothing compared to the suffering he's caused.

BREAKING: ACORN Housing is dead!

I have it on good authority that Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) is dead. Until the devastating "pimp and pro" videos surfaced in 2009 that showed ACORN employees offering helpful advice on setting up a brothel for pedophiles, AHCOA's name was ACORN Housing Corp.

AHCOA's website (ahcoa.org) is down. AHCOA's Twitter feed hasn't been updated since August of last year. View it here.


Despite apparently kicking the bucket some time ago without anyone in the media (myself included) noticing, ACORN Housing has been in the news recently. Earlier this month it was reported that the Obama administration funneled $446 million in taxpayer money to ACORN alumnus Joe McGavin, now a director at the Illinois Housing Development Authority. As Judicial Watch discovered, McGavin was “Chicago Operations Manager” at Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) from November 2008 through January 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile.


Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, a longtime ACORN ally from his days as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's housing development commissioner, steered millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to his old friends at ACORN. Donovan is just one of several Obama cabinet members who did everything but bow down and grovel before Al Sharpton at the convention his group, National Action Network, held recently in Washington, D.C.

For years ACORN Housing was the largest branch of the corrupt ACORN empire of activism.

As I wrote in my book Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN Housing grew out of crime: squatting. It emerged from a 1982 squatting campaign in which ACORN built a squatters’ tent city behind the White House.


ACORN Housing was a cash cow for the ACORN network, providing significant funding for Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizing. Since 1997, ACORN Housing shelled out more than $5.1 million in fees or grants to other entities in the ACORN network. 

These intra-network transactions are the most troubling because out of all of ACORN’s affiliates, ACORN Housing was the most dependent on taxpayers for support and had a long history of abusing taxpayer funds. In 2008 alone, over 67 percent of gift and grants to ACORN Housing came from the federal government and Bank of America.

Developing...

Note: This story has been updated since it was initially posted.