ACORN videos from National City, San Bernardino cause stir [Updated]

The chairman of the Republican Party in San Diego County and a Republican member of the Board of Supervisors have joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling for an investigation into ACORN.

Tony Krvaric, chairman of the local GOP, and Supervisor Bill Horn said they are particularly suspicious of the group's voter registration efforts in a local Assembly race and a San Diego City Council race, both won by Democrats.

An undercover video shot at the group's office in National City purports to show workers willing to help someone interested in setting up a prostitution ring, possibly with girls from Tijuana. The video has been  shown nationally on commentator Sean Hannity's Fox News program.

"Coverage by the national media has put a black mark on our region and we have an obligation to find the truth," Horn said. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) has introduced a motion in Congress calling for the government to deny all federal funding to ACORN.

Meanwhile, the debate about another video purporting to show an ACORN worker in San Bernardino offering advice on how to set up prostitution businesses intensified today.

Conservative activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles pose as a pimp and a prostitute, respectively, in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday that depicts a woman who O’Keefe says is an ACORN worker in San Bernardino saying she could show them “how not to get caught.” On the video, which is edited, she also discusses killing her ex-husband and says she “laid some groundwork” beforehand by going to domestic violence shelters and saying she was abused.

But Christina Spach, the office supervisor at the ACORN office in San Bernardino, told the San Bernardino Sun that the woman on the tape knew the pair were joking but went along with it in part because she was alone in the office and was concerned for her safety. "Just to be clear, ACORN is not in the prostitution business," Spach told the Sun. "She was in an office all by herself. She felt unsafe in their company."

ACORN called on the activists to release the full tape, but declined to make the worker on the tape available to speak with reporters. A spokesman for the ACORN offices in National City and San Diego said the brief clips shown on the Hannity show were out of context and misleading. He promised a fuller explanation in two days after ACORN has a chance to interview its workers about the incident.

O’Keefe and Giles have previously released similar videos in Baltimore, Washington and New York that have appeared on websites and Fox News. In a letter to Brown released to reporters, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said the reports “concerned me greatly."

"I believe it is appropriate that your office launch a full investigation into ACORN’s activities in California,” the governor wrote. “My administration stands ready to assist in any way necessary.”

Brown spokesman Scott Gerber said in a statement that his office would review the video, "and if we think there's any wrongdoing, we'll look into it or refer it to the local" district attorney.The U.S. Senate voted Monday to block federal housing grants to the group, which has also come under fire in voter registration fraud cases, particularly during last year’s presidential campaign.The group registers voters for Democrats.

[Updated at 9:43 p.m.: In San Diego, an ACORN organizer was fired for "unacceptable conduct" in answering questions from the undercover couple posing as a prostitute and pimp. Spokesman David Lagstein made the announcement just hours after saying no action would be taken against the organizer, Juan Carlos Vera. Still, Lagstein referred to the two who came to the National City office as "unscrupulous partisan videographers."]

-- Tony Perry in San Diego and Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

Comments

[L.J Masterson]

GOD BLESS AMERICA

[karen kelly]

It's about time the tide turned in favor of good, tax-paying citizens and STOP funding these criminal organizations with our hard-earned dollars.
I am personally outraged that ACORN has been allowed to function this long without government oversight, and only underscores just how complacent and uncaring our state legislators have become.
Let's not go back to 'business as usual'.
It's time to clean house!

[Sancho]

Welcome to the coverage LA Times! Where you been all week?

[Arnette]

The subliminal, racist undertones of Supervisor Horn's statement(s) in this article are incredulous!

[Ryuuku Sakigake]

"It's about time the tide turned in favor of good, tax-paying citizens and STOP funding these criminal organizations with our hard-earned dollars.
I am personally outraged that ACORN has been allowed to function this long without government oversight, and only underscores just how complacent and uncaring our state legislators have become.
Let's not go back to 'business as usual'.
It's time to clean house!"

Get the hell out of here with that nonsense. You know this is a Republican-led attack. They are taking the actions of a FEW members of an orginization that does loads of good for underrepresented people. Trying to remove them just helps the GOP because it underminds minority voters, who mostly vote progressively. But it won't work. ACORN is fighting back. They will get themselves reinstated, and I know of SEVERAL orginzations that are rallying to their aid. We will donate funds and supply manpower. You will not stop our Change. Not now, not ever. Welcome to the new USA my friend.

[tom]

Outraged? Yup.

Surprised? Nope.

[Mark Stouffer]

Republicans are attacking this because it represents the worst of everything they fight against. Well, everything Libertarians fight against. It shows how "Give your money to the government because it knows what is good and right for this country better than you" turns into "help pimps import underage sex slaves and avoid taxes by giving them a home." How helping the underprivilaged turns into "make the government bigger so we employ more supporters of big-government."
The entire idea that centrally controlled spending is somehow more ethical than this messy free-market stuff is what is under attack.
The goal for liberals? Pretend that this is NOT the net result if their ideology.

[Richard Ivey]

While folks are getting out their vigilante ropes to hang ACORN members and their sympathizers, let's all cheer California Penal Code section 632(a). It appears that conservative activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles may have violated criminal law by making secret recordings of conversations. However, if their guys violate criminal law, it seems OK with Congressman Darrell Issa and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[CDEvansJr]

RE: Posted by: Ryuuku Sakigake | September 17, 2009 at 01:15 PM
Time tells all & it LQQKs like acorns time is here.
There will be NO reinstatement.

[NH]

I am glad that the LATimes has stepped up to the plate and start reporting on this mess called ACORN.

do I believe the following statement? - NO:

"that the woman on the tape knew the pair were joking but went along with it in part because she was alone in the office and was concerned for her safety"

I saw the whole tape, if the woman was scared - she should have walked out the door and called 911! which she should have done NO MATTER WHAT!

[Eric Bressler]

You people are going crazy over a group that has gotten about $3.5M/year over the last 15 years from the government.
Where was your outrage when Paul Bremer literally LOST $9BILLION in Iraq during his tenure as viceroy or whatever he was (Czar of Iraq perhaps?)? What about your outrage over dead US soldiers electrocuted by shoddy wiring performed by KBR, again for BILLIONS of dollars?
Talk about stepping over dollars (millions of dollars?) to pick up pennies. Get a friggin' grip.

[M. Aalaee]

There's no bottom to the depths to which the far right will go to claim this country and turn it into the theocratic police state they envision as their heaven on earth. Their values are supposedly rooted in Christian altruism, yet a perpetual war economy and a system designed to benefit the few at the expense of the downtrodden are par for their course. They scream about the constitution even as they undermine every basic aspect of its philosophy on equal rights and personal freedom. These days, they freely excercise doublespeak and execute a campaign of gross misinformation about the central role of Republican's party policies in the current financial disaster. Targeting an organization that's succeeding in giving the disenfranchised a voice is simply a bullet point in their agenda. The saddest part is how their support base of the pious and the poor help lubricate their sick version of what human society is to be. To use their own mode of thinking, by all accounts they're shaping up to be the locusts set loose as a scourge upon the earth.

[Andy K]

Ryuuku,

Sure, I agree that the people pushing this point are right-sided wingnuts. I completely disagree that this organization deserves a free pass for their past behavior. The head of this organization let 8 of their top management positions go last year because they wanted an investigation into rampant corruption.

Go listen to what the prior Acorn management says about their organization, this is not manufactured solely by Republican attack dogs. Irregardless of who takes them down, it is well deserved.

[Michael Kennedy]

The lefties response to this is hilarious. Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq,Iraq

If that makes you feel better about your support of an outfit that seems to have a lot of experience with criminal enterprise, go for it.

[Jordan]

This statement posted by M Aalaee is one of the best I've ever read on the subject.

---

"There's no bottom to the depths to which the far right will go to claim this country and turn it into the theocratic police state they envision as their heaven on earth. Their values are supposedly rooted in Christian altruism, yet a perpetual war economy and a system designed to benefit the few at the expense of the downtrodden are par for their course. They scream about the constitution even as they undermine every basic aspect of its philosophy on equal rights and personal freedom. These days, they freely excercise doublespeak and execute a campaign of gross misinformation about the central role of Republican's party policies in the current financial disaster. Targeting an organization that's succeeding in giving the disenfranchised a voice is simply a bullet point in their agenda. The saddest part is how their support base of the pious and the poor help lubricate their sick version of what human society is to be. To use their own mode of thinking, by all accounts they're shaping up to be the locusts set loose as a scourge upon the earth."

[Loonesta]

Everyone concerned over this seems to be a Republican. You'd think the Republican party wasn't the dwindling minority party these days, relegated to the lowest fringe, that more than 20% of registered voters were Republicans, that a Republican won the 2008 Presidential Election, the way these people still seem to have power and an influence over the day to day machinations of our lives. Or at least of our media, which keep giving these people attention every time they decide to use their propaganda network to frame an organization they expressed dislike for during that presidential campaign, in an scripted setup entrapment video.

[cv]

ACORN has made the same claim about illegal taping but it has gone no where. The news channels do the same thing all the time. I think they are confusing telephone calls with conversations.

[Maria]

Why did Bush not do anything about ACORN during his whole 8 years in office? Why was he so complacent during all of those 8 years? Why did he fund these people you call criminal for 8 years? Is it possible that Bush was getting support from ACORN on how to start up his own prostitution ring? Where was Foxs' watchful eye then???
Oh yeah, the Republican approved 'blinders' were on during those 8 years...and they're only coming off now that a Democrat is President.

[atilla]

it just seems to me that when the conservative camp gets caught with its pants down - speaking figuratively of course - they seem to do a much better job of pleading mea culpa and getting on with fixing the problems.

it seems here that the left wing liberals are redirecting, obfuscating and otherwise attempt to excuse absolutely reprehensible behaviour.

it shouldn't matter WHO exposed the behaviour purported to be at least reasonably widespread at ACORN, nor WHY. it should only matter that it happened and that it needs to be investigated. unless of course you don't care that the country slips quietly into anarchy. this while handing billions of dollars to a group that seems to have no problem advising on how to run a child prostitution ring while avoiding detection.

as for the clown that feels there is moral equivalency between billions being used to support the war in iraq, and soldiers dying in iraq for a just cause, and those supporting child prostitution, i can only shake my head.

[MikeN]

Arnette writes: "The subliminal, racist undertones of Supervisor Horn's statement(s) in this article are incredulous!". Actually, your complete lack of grasp on teh English language seems to be more the issue. Otherwise, how is such an ignorant statement made? The lady in the video isn't even black. Please, if you have already completed your lobotomy procedure, it's best not to prove it by making such ridiculous comments.

Oops! I said "ridiculous". Does that make me racist, too?

[Tax Payer]

"and if we think there's any wrongdoing, we'll look into it or refer it to the local district attorney"

So Jerry Brown is afraid of ACORN?

[sethook]

Anyone found the difference between ACORN and the Rainbow Coalition other than the degree of extortion used to gain funds?

[Shane Champion]

To Mark Stouffer - in response to your post, please allow me to quote the chicken rancher in the movie Napoleon Dynamite: "I don't understand a word you just said." Thank you.

[working woman]

Wait a minute. This woman "went along" because she was scared, because she was outnumbered two to one, and you're telling her she should have walked out of the office and called 9-1-1? Have you ever been a working woman alone in an office and been confronted by two strangers who you thought might be nuts?
I have no idea what the truth of the matter is, but dismissing the defense out of hand, in the absence of further information, is just as wrong as the conduct being alleged.

[Barry Watkins]

Obamacare will operate in similar ways. This is what happens when a vast amount of taxpayer's money gets sent to DC and then redistributed. Corruption, waste, no accountability and zero incentive. Wake up America.

[DA in LA]

So, when it's an community organizing group for the poor, you hold the entire organization responsible for the actions of a couple lower level employees, but when it's anything else, like a business, or government, you don't.

Good to know and keep it up, right wing, you totally don't get more pathetic every day.

Oh, and we'll be getting our 'hidden camera' ready as well.

[Tim_CA]

wow...someone from the LAT actually wandered outside and tripped over the story huh?

Nice of the new media to tee it up for ya wasn't it?

Any wonder these guys are circling the bowl?

[Doug]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/17/acorn_hysteria/
"ACORN has received a grand total of $53 million in federal funds over the last 15 years -- an average of $3.5 million per year. Meanwhile, not millions, not billions, but trillions of dollars of public funds have been, in the last year alone, transferred to or otherwise used for the benefit of Wall Street. Billions of dollars in American taxpayer money vanished into thin air, eaten by private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, led by Halliburton subsidiary KBR."

[Richard]

When the US Army is caught torturing prisoners, that's the act of a few bad apples. When a couple conservatives get some idiots to say stupid things on camera, ACORN is a criminal enterprise. This is a hatchet job by crazed wingnuts, and that's it.

[Nancy]

ACORN should be shut down immediately for their apparent flexibility to support all illegal means to finance political campaigns of Democrat candidates. Today, the House voted 345-75 to stop all payments to ACORN. Unfortunately, CA Democrat Reps. Linda Sanchez, Maxine Waters and Bob Filner (PhD) of San Diego, among other Democrat reps, voted against this measure. Their votes on behalf of ACORN indicate a lack of character.

[Scott SD]

Arnette - What are you talking about? "Subliminal" means "beneath the threshold of perception".

[Michael]

I'm not a Republican (voted for Obama), and while not particularly "concerned" about this, I fail to see why so many on the left are defending an organization that, objectively speaking, is a den of corruption and pretty flagrant criminality.

And no, chanting "Iraq" as a mantra doesn't constitute a response.

Is this a huge deal? No, but there's no reason to defend ACORN either. Shut it down, and move on.

[robert]

jordan wrote:

"There's no bottom to the depths ..."

the only problem with this ridiculous rant is that it is precisely those right wing religious people that fought to end slavery, built most of the early public schools, started the largest most successful charities, built most of the universities, fought the hardest to defend the weakest in pretty much any war you care to mention, and it is ONLY in ostensibly christian based western civilization that protection for individual freedom and privacy rights exist.

in EVERY socialist (marxist), irreligious 'utopia' ever built freedoms have been eroded and tyranny has thrived and in the worst of them murder, mayhem and pogroms have been the order of the day.

it isn't the right wing nuts suggesting telling people what they can and can't eat because it makes them obese, telling them what health care insurance they MUST have, which schools they MUST go to, what to think and how to act. when liberals want 'freedom of choice' for abortion its acceptable, but when conservatives want freedom of choice its unacceptable. say what ? who is enforcing restrictions here ?

it was a democrat that was in the white house when the most unpopular war of all time was started (vietnam).

you need to do a little more historical research before posting ridiculous rants jordan.

[JD]

"You will not stop our Change. Not now, not ever. Welcome to the new USA my friend," says Ryuuku.

No, sister, we won't stop your Change.

With groups like ACORN, you will.

[no sanctuary]

Ryuuku: 'ACORN is fighting back. They will get themselves reinstated'
By 'reinstated', do you mean sucking in tens of millions, or is it hundreds of millions, in tax payer dollars to fund voter fraud, housing fraud, tax evasion counseling, thug street forces and various other corrupt or just plain criminal behavior?
Hugo Chavez has used government financed street forces to attack the opposition in the streets. Does ACORN and SEIU intend to fulfill the same role for Dear Leader?
Just askin'.

[Serge]

I'm having a hard time with this. Not that people have the capability of being as evil as the videos suggest--I believe that--but that an organization that has flown below the radar for decades suddenly turns out to be staffed with nothing but workers willing to talk openly about what they can do to help smuggle underage prostitutes into the country and help kill people's spouses.

Do those two things really go together?

[Hilary]

Legislation specifically targeting one particular group or one particular person is called a "bill of attainder" and it's expressly prohibited in our Constitution. If this is the sort of thing you support you are NOT a patriot.

[Beyond Party]

Congratulations to Honest Democrats for Waking Up and Taking our Party Back from ACORN!

"Congressional Republicans are clearly united against funneling federal dollars to the community organizing group ACORN. But surprisingly, so are many Democrats.

In a legislative surprise Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly voted to withhold all funding for ACORN. Later Thursday, a Republican senator targeted the group through yet another spending bill, also eyeing a total ban.

The House measure came as a parliamentary maneuver during debate on a higher education bill. Many expected the anti-ACORN effort would be ruled out of order because it didn’t pertain to education. But in a stunning turn of events, House Education Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) not only accepted the ACORN provision, but also encouraged Democrats to vote for it.

172 Democrats joined 173 Republicans to pass the motion 345-75. Two lawmakers voted present."

[Heather MacLeod]

Let's be clear about who is leading this attack on ACORN. Fox News has repeatedly demonstrated that they are willing to lie in order to support their political agenda.
A study comparing viewers of different news outlets found that viewers of Fox News were more likely to believe that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City - both lies that supported their agenda of a war against Iraq.
In my area, Oakland, California, ACORN is the only organization fighting for people who are facing foreclosures. Their home defense team gets neighbors out helping people who are being evicted from their homes.
ACORN has a long history of fighting for poor and working people - and Fox News represents wealthy corporations like the banks who are foreclosing on working people. You know, those banks that we gave millions to from our taxes to "save" the economy, and then they gave bonuses to their overpaid CEOs?
I'm not worried about ACORN hurting my community. I'm worried about the banks foreclosing on people, I'm worried about taxes going to kill people in Iraq instead of to health care in my community. I'm worried about Fox News' lies.

[D. Potter]

Kinda like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Congress should have denounced ACORN prior to the elections because of fraud (ie fraudulent voter registration) but then we would not have the Defacto President that we have now.

[To Rcihard at 1:59pm]

Richard Ivey

Dear Richard.

Please don’t cite to sections, which you obviously did not bother to read. Here is what 632 (http://law.onecle.com/california/penal/632.html) says:

a) Every person who, intentionally and without the consent of
all parties to a confidential communication, by means of any
electronic amplifying… device, eavesdrops upon or records
the confidential communication… shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year…

(c) The term "confidential communication"… excludes a communication made… in any other circumstance in which the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard or recorded. (I could literally drive a MAC truck through this hole… for example a conversation in an ACORN office is not confidential because you are liable to be overheard or communicate what you learned to someone else… I don’t believe O’Keefe singed an confidentiality agreements…)

[Jon-In-CA]

This whole ACORN affair is the perfect lense by which to see the INSANITY of fringe liberals.

NO ONE in their right mind would defend an organization who repeatedly promoted child-prostitution and tax evasion!!

Yet - even on this blog there are whacked-out liberals completely ignoring the UGLY truth, barking like rabid dogs. "It's a smear campaign", "They're racist", etc etc.

You all have lost your minds - an America rightly sees you for who you are... looney liberals.

[Michael]

As usual, we have selective foaming at the mouth by the right. If this bears out, the people involved certainly should suffer the consequences. I have a hard time thinking anyone took these two seriously the way they were dressed. I assume the GOP will now be demanding that Halliburton be defunded? After all, some of their people are guilty of murder, so doesn't that mean the whole organisation is corrupt?

[J.Q. Public]

"This is what happens when a vast amount of taxpayer's money gets sent to DC and then redistributed. Corruption, waste, no accountability and zero incentive." Posted by: Barry Watkins

Barry-You just summed up the financial history of Bush and Cheney's war in Iraq. And let's not forget that it was Bush who pushed through the 1st government bailout of the financial institutions. Where were all you truth-seeking conservative ideologues when all that was going on????

[Dennis]

Christina Spach: you are an out and out liar. The woman in the San Bernardino office was NOT alone. There was another man in the office to the right of the young woman posting as a prostitute. The "pimp" was off camera---actually carrying it on him. This clearly shows how much of a lying bunch of thieves these people are. Time to appoint an independent investigator of ACORN and investigate the organization all the way to the top and to the ends of the tentacles with which it reaches into the governmental purse.