6
POPSBREAKING: ACORN’s New Orleans Office Raided by Louisiana Attorney General
According to NOLA.com: Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts. The large office building sits at the corner of Dorgenois and Canal. ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said. From WDAM in New Orleans: Caldwell said investigators will copy records and hard drives, then return them to ACORN. He said the original allegations of embezzlement were made last year by ACORN board members who were fired after they asked for a forensic examination of the group’s books. ACORN fired the longtime director of its Louisiana chapter last month, citing a lack of accountability. by Capitol Confidential Big Governm
7
POPS Keith Olbermann Helps Raiise $1.2 Million For Free Health Care Clinics 
Wednesday night on "Countdown," Olbermann announced that, thanks to the generosity of "Countdown" viewers, a health fair would take place in New Orleans on November 14. This is on top of health fairs already planned for November 9-10 in Kansas City and November 21 in Little Rock. How did this idea come about? "We were looking for something to relieve the frustration so many people felt," Olbermann told the Huffington Post. "I thought of an insurance strike, but insurrectionist as that might sound, it would endanger lives. So Rich Stockwell, one of my Senior Producers, suggested that the Free Health Clinics group turns every dollar donated into five in services. Thus if we helped them stage clinics in the key cities, we'd get help to thousands of people, we'd relieve that sense of near-paralysis, and we might even put some pressure on those Democratic Senators who won't even commit to precluding a filibuster. So this one was Rich's."
6
POPSPoll: Obama Personal Popularity at New Low Gallup points out that in this latest survey, Hillary Clinton is now more popular than Obama. Sixty-two percent say they have a favorable impression of the Secretary of State, versus 34 percent who have an unfavorable impression. That's a big change from the height of the battle for the Democratic nomination last year; in February 2008, just 48 percent had a favorable impression of Mrs. Clinton, versus 49 percent who had an unfavorable impression. By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent 10/15/09
5
POPSUSS New York Sets Sail: Commissioning Ceremony in November --photos, slideshow, video The USS New York will soon be defending freedom and combating terrorism around the globe, while also ensuring that the world never forgets the evil attacks of September 11 and the courage and strength New Yorkers showed.” This morning, the ship departed the Mississippi River to make her first journey. The ship departed from Avondale this morning at 7:00 a.m. and headed for the Gulf of Mexico. The ship’s journey has been met with fan fare, salutes, and glorious praise. Beginning with a New Orleans style farewell, the ship passed through Gretna and was met by firefighters and a police honor guard who sowed their honor and respect to those who died heroically on 9/11. As the ship continues to make its way to New York, she will be greeted by those who choose to remember and honor the nearly 5,000 who tragically lost their lives on September 11, 2001. The ship’s motto is “Strength Forged Through Sacrifice. Never Forget.” View photos-slideshow and videos at website
6
POPSU.S. Fails To Make Top 10 Quality of Life Index Sure, it's easy to claim a higher quality of life when you live in a place like France, where you get 30 days of paid vacation every year. Never mind that their productivity numbers nearly equal ours. Where's the index for rugged individualism and personal responsibility? How good do ya think them Frenchies would do on that, huh? They just don't have the stuff to accept a shorter life expectancy and crappy health care. (The lifespan for African-Americans in the former French city of New Orleans is about the same as that of people living in North Korea.) But, hey, they're not who we mean when we talk about Americans, anyway. I don't want your damn pinko health care. And keep your hands off my gun. Oh, and, U.S. outta the U.N., dammit!
3
POPSACORN Awarded $1M Grant Over Firefighters NEW ORLEANS -- Louisiana's attorney general said Tuesday he has stepped up an investigation into embezzlement at ACORN nearly a decade ago, but the prosecutor and community activist group clashed over how much money was taken. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell claimed the figure was $5 million, but ACORN said the sum hadn't changed from slightly less than $1 million. ACORN said its chief executive officer estimated it could cost up to $5 million to "get everything together" in the aftermath of the embezzlement, but the group's leaders claim only $948,607 was stolen.
8
POPSAcorn Embezzlement 5M NOT 1M
Caldwell issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to ACORN International then-President Wade Rathke and his brother, Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books. Those subpoenas targeted possible violations of state employee tax law, obstruction of justice and violations of the Employee Retirement Security Act. The attorney general made inquiries in June into alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. Rathke's brother and a donor repaid the money. But Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations prevented prosecutors from taking action on the alleged embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. The subpoena issued Monday puts a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue. It appears to be in reaction to documents gathered from ACORN's board as
5
POPSACORN Embezzlement Was $5 Million, La. Attorney General Says .......had inquired in June into an alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The brother and a donor repaid the money. Caldwell said last month that the statute of limitations presented obstacles to prosecutors taking action on the embezzlement, and that his investigation was not focused on that issue. The subpoena issued Monday changed the tone of the investigation and put a new emphasis on the embezzlement issue. "Current high-ranking members of ACORN have publicly acknowledged that embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown until it was recently acknowledged in a board of directors meeting on Oct. 17, 2008, by Bertha Lewis and Liz Wolf that an internal review had determined that the amount embezzled was $5 million, " the new subpoena says.
1
POPSHow to Send Donations to Victims of Typhoon Ondoy Hurricane Katrina poured 250 millimeters of rain over New Orleans in 2005 with catastrophic results… but compare this to Typhoon Ondoy (international code name: Ketsana), which dumped a record 455 millimeters of rain in Quezon City over a 24-hour period. As a result, a large portion of the metropolis were flooded, with the waters reaching six meters in depth in some areas. Our kababayans desperately need your help. Every little bit counts.
1
POPSACORN Plans "Internal Investigation" Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said he's asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repeal a nearly $1 million grant it awarded to ACORN earlier this month. FEMA awarded $997,402 to ACORN in New Orleans on Sept. 4 as part of its Fire Prevention and Safety Grants program. The group plans to use the money to assess fire safety in the homes of low and moderate-income families and hand out smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and other fire prevention gear, ACORN's Brennan Griffin said. FEMA had no immediate comment on Bilirakis' request. The video released Monday was among several that have prompted the firing of at least four ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington. It was created by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles and posted on BigGovernment.com, where O'Keefe identifies himself as an activist filmmaker. In the film, O'Keefe and Giles enter an ACORN office in Brooklyn and O'Keefe can be heard stating that "we have a unique life situation" and asking . . .
4
POPSVitter Wants To Bar Federal Funding of ACORN Vitter has been an outspoken critic of ACORN and has offered multiple amendments to bar the organization from receiving federal funding. He also block the nomination of Census Director Robert Groves in the hopes of receiving written assurances from the White House that ACORN would not be involved in the 2010 census. Vitter described the Census Bureau's decision last week to drop ACORN as a partner, "a good, common sense move."
7
POPSACORN’s Lifeblood They just oozed seamlessly into conjecture about whether or not a child prostitute could be considered a “dependent” for tax purposes. What do these employees hear on a daily basis that this scenario was just another problem that needed fixing? But even these videos, no matter how disturbing, are just part of the ACORN story. As, too, is the pattern of problems with the voter registration system. This past weekend, Brandon Darby discussed his experience with ACORN when he was coordinating relief in post-Katrina New Orleans. ACORN saw New Orleans as their “turf” and targeted Brandon and his colleagues, trying to intimidate them to either submit to their “leadership” or leave. This is a pattern readers of Big Government will soon hear more about. In fact, in the coming days, you’ll learn a lot about the full ACORN story. It is an amazing story, in its own way. After waiting years for the mainstream media to finally peel back the ACORN layers, Big Government will have
5
POPSACORN: No Business Like Poverty Business ACORN proves the axiom of the modern welfare state " that there's no business like the poverty business. Although ACORN runs a large conglomerate of social-activist anti-poverty front groups out of a New Orleans hub, it is registered as a nonprofit corporation in Arkansas, which does not require financial disclosure. This has allowed it keep its own finances shielded from public scrutiny, while demanding transparency from all others. The group's nonprofit status refers only to its corporate form. That is, ACORN must be organized for a public purpose and have no stockholders, unlike a regular corporation. However, it is not tax exempt under federal law, since it does advocacy and lobbying that would run afoul of IRS restrictions, such as endorsing political candidates. ACORN was started in 1970 by Stephen Wade Rathke, a former SDS radical and Boston-based community organizer. The group now consists of so many interlocking associations, corporations, and affiliates . . .
2
POPSMother Nature vs.The Automobile I am a weather fanatic. I'm posting this to share some of it with you. I had to leave out some interesting captions, because of the char. limit. Some of these pics are not as obvious as they look. I was unable to undo the captions I first clipped, because it is a slideshow on separate pages. You may click on any picture for details though.The last one looks b&w but, it is really an ice covered tree on top of a car.
2
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update