UN Affiliate To Monitor Conservatives During U.S. Elections‏ – OpEd

By

United Nations-affiliated Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will deploy election monitors from Europe and central Asia to polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week, according to a report on Saturday.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), among other groups, warned this month in a letter to Daan Everts, a senior official with OSCE, of “a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.”

“This is almost comical on its face. Did conservative groups stand outside polling places dressed like Storm Troopers with clubs intimidating voters the way the Black Panthers did in 2008? Are groups who registered illegal aliens and deceased people conservative groups or are they organizations such as ACORN with whom Obama once worked?” asks political strategist Mike Baker.

“If anyone is being disenfranchised — a word the far-left loves to use — it’s the American conservative whose vote is canceled-out when an illegal voter casts his or her ballot on Election Day,” Baker contends.

While the Democrats and their news media echo chamber are telling Americans that the notorious and disgraced activist group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), is a thing of the past, a Washington, D.C.-based public-interest organization claims it blew the lid off that myth. Truth be told, ACORN still exists under the guise of new agencies doing business in new locations, Sirius XM Patriot radio talk show host and Fox News political analyst David Webb told the Law Enforcement Examiner.

Webb is best known for exposing, among others, Fox News contributor Jehmu Greene as being a former director at Project Vote, one of the spin-offs of ACORN.

“As Americans deal with the fallout of having an ACORN community organizer running the country, the scattered ACORN alums continue to infiltrate other trusted institutions. Jehmu Greene, former National Director of Project Vote currently spends her days undermining Conservative principles from her position as a Fox News contributor,” stated Webb.

In addition, Judicial Watch, a well-known non-profit that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, released “The Rebranding of ACORN,” a special report regarding the “ACORN network,” following an extensive investigation of the organization’s transformation into various “spin-offs” and affiliated organizations earlier this year.

After several scandals involving ACORN staff, including a case covered by this writer for Accuracy in Media, the organization quickly dissolved, or so the American public was told.

In this writer’s AIM column, in November 2010 “a supervisor for the now defunct political advocacy group ACORN, has entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors in a case alleging that canvassers were illegally paid to register Nevada voters during the 2008 presidential campaign.”

“Amy Busefink, 28, pleaded no-contest in a Nevada court to two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters. Her nolo contendere plea acknowledged the state had sufficient evidence for a conviction if the case went to trial.”

Obama’s spokespersons claimed he had a limited relationship with ACORN. However, the record shows that: “[Obama] says he is drawn to politics, despite its superficialities, as a means to advance his real passion and calling: community organization. In 1992, Obama took time off to direct Project Vote, an ACORN program said to be the most successful grass-roots voter-registration campaign in recent [Chicago] history.”

ACORN officials admitted to submitting fraudulent voter registration forms in Ohio and press reports confirmed that ACORN submitted hundreds of fraudulent voter registration forms in Kansas City, forcing local officials to wade through fraudulent voter registrations, potentially disenfranchising legitimate voters.

The ACORN-affiliated groups existing today are ACORN in all but name. These groups tend to occupy ACORN’s former offices, are staffed in many cases with former ACORN employees, and remain committed to ACORN’s mission. Overall, Judicial Watch attorneys have documented 17 ACORN-affiliated organizations in the following states/regions: Arizona, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New England, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.

At its peak, ACORN had upwards of 400,000 members and 1,200 chapters in more than 100 cities. Linked to serious scandals involving misuse of taxpayer funds, embezzlement, intimidation tactics, employee abuse, questionable hiring tactics, and fraudulent voter registrations, ACORN’s corrupt activities finally caught the attention of the American public and members of Congress, the final blow coming after explosive journalists’ videos were released showing ACORN employees advising undercover reporters on how to evade immigration, housing, and child prostitution laws, as well as taxes.

After the videos created a media feeding frenzy in October 2009, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Defund ACORN Act which effectively prohibited the federal government from funding “ACORN and any ACORN-related affiliate.”

ACORN subsequently filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 2, 2010. However, long before its bankruptcy filing, ACORN’s leadership implemented a plan to ensure the survival of ACORN as independent state corporations and affiliated organizations. The Judicial Watch report provides details on the individual organizations and their officers.

“As this report clearly shows, rumors of ACORN’s demise are vastly overstated. ACORN and its partner in crime Project Vote are both alive and well and operating across the country,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “Given the corrupt activities of these organizations, there is no question they pose a threat to clean and fair elections in 2012. And the fact that the Obama Justice Department will take no action to address the corrupt activities of ACORN and its thinly disguised spinoffs is a scandal in and of itself.”

Barack Obama served as the Illinois executive director of the ACORN partner Project Vote in 1992. His presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN organization to help “get out the vote” in his successful primary campaign against then-Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2008.

In November 2007, then-Senator Obama addressed ACORN and thanked the organization for its work. “I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career,” Obama boasted.

“Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drives in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work,” he said.

Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP, formerly Fifth Vice-President, is currently a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, an editor for ConservativeBase.com, and he's a columnist for Examiner.com. In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *