ACORN defends efforts

[caesu]

Obama Camp Connects ACORN Probe to US Attorneys Scandal
By Zachary Roth - October 17, 2008, 3:01PM

Add the Obama campaign to the growing list of players who think that DOJ's election-eve investigation into ACORN is a repeat of the politicization of the department that we saw in the US attorney firings scandal.

"With this voter fraud [investigation], we're seeing an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics," Bob Bauer, an elections lawyer with the Obama camp, said on a conference call with reporters just now. Bauer compared the decision to launch the investigation with the US attorneys scandal, in which several US attorneys were fired for their unwillingess to pursue politically charged cases, including voter fraud, with sufficient aggression to satisfy the Bush administration.

Bauer released a letter sent to Attorney General Michael Mukasey calling on him to have the issue taken on by Nora Dannehy, the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the US attorney firings.

Bauer went on to accuse John McCain of "trying to create a much greater doubt about the electoral process altogether," by alleging that ACORN voter fraud could threaten the fabric of our democracy, as McCain claimed in the debate Wednesday night.

House Judiciary chair John Conyers, as well as David Iglesias -- whose firing as US attorney was a direct result of his reluctance to pursue GOP-pushed claims of voter fraud, according to the recent OIG report -- have also connected the FBI's ACORN investigation to the kind of politicization exposed in the firings saga.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/obama_camp_connects_acorn_prob.php

i fully understand your point, crazybabyborg.

but i just happen to object to GOP efforts to use the judicial branch to make political gains.
there is a record of that with Bush administration - for example the firing of the US attorney's.

i fear this is starting to turn ugly very quick... don't like where this is going at all.

[Slogger]

It's been looking ugly for a while, now we have an ugly breakout.

Surprise, some of ACORN's computers mysteriously disappeared.  Oh, by golly, geewhizzz.  How'd that happen?

Well . . . they must have been stolen.

[crazybabyborg]

caesu wrote:
I fully understand your point, crazybabyborg.

but i just happen to object to GOP efforts to use the judicial branch to make political gains.
there is a record of that with Bush administration - for example the firing of the US attorney's.
i fear this is starting to turn ugly very quick... don't like where this is going at all


******************************************************************

If there were no evidence that there is legitimate reason to turn to the judicial system to stop fraudulent practices in this election, the GOP wouldn't have the opportunity. The courts are the appointed and appropriate place for Americans and American entities to turn when injustice is the issue. In this case there is enough evidence that the FBI has deemed it appropriate to conduct an investigation into Acorn which will determine criminal merit, but that won't prevent the election from being tainted.

My adament opinion about this will not change one inch if McCain wins, or for that matter, if Obama wins. I just happen to object to a LOT of things that have made this election process one that Americans cannot trust. The matter of it all being placed in the courts is not one of them. I've been through this elsewhere, but I object to:

* Acorn receiving public funds
* Acorn endorsing either candidate
* Obama giving money to Acorn
* Same Day voting as Registering
* Non-verification of mismatched data
* Slack proper photo ID requirements and residency requirements
* State election representitives being non cooperative with local election boards

The GOP in Ohio may very well have sought judicial intervention thinking it would likely cause fewer votes cast for Obama. If so, and if that, by process, also grants some surety that only legal votes would count due to verification, then my objectives are paralell to theirs, regardless of motive. Imposing a strict verification process wouldn't throw out any legal vote. Legal votes would withstand the verification, but the illegal ones would not. The GOP should never have had to go to the courts to impose that process. The Democratic Secretary of State should have viewed it as her duty to make the list of "mismatched data" registrations available to the election boards for verification, and helped them check each one. You bet your butt there is politics at play, but there's a lot more of it on the Obama campaign and democratic side than there is on the GOP.

[crazybabyborg]

It's been looking ugly for a while, now we have an ugly breakout.

Surprise, some of ACORN's computers mysteriously disappeared.  Oh, by golly, geewhizzz.  How'd that happen?

Well . . . they must have been stolen.

I'm shocked! 

[caesu]

It's been looking ugly for a while, now we have an ugly breakout.

Surprise, some of ACORN's computers mysteriously disappeared.  Oh, by golly, geewhizzz.  How'd that happen?

Well . . . they must have been stolen.

or they were stolen by McCains pals Gordon Liddy and Joe the Plumber 

Obama camp requests special prosecutor for fraud investigation
Posted: 08:40 PM ET

From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
Sen. Obama's campaign requested Friday that an independent special prosecutor handle any federal investigations into voter irregularities during the upcoming election.

(CNN) – The Obama campaign announced Friday that it is asking Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over any investigations of voter fraud or voter suppression to Special Prosecutor Nora Dannehy, the same special prosecutor recently appointed to investigate the U.S. attorney firing scandal.

It’s the latest salvo in an escalating war over allegations of possible voter irregularities during the upcoming presidential election.

“What they’re actually about is the unprecedented effort to essentially sap the American people of confidence in the voting process,” Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign’s general counsel, said Friday on a conference call.

Bauer said partisan politics was behind Thursday’s leak from senior governmental officials about a preliminary FBI investigation into the voter registration activities of ACORN, the embattled community organizing group that has become the focus of Republican efforts to highlight voter fraud as the election approaches.

“ACORN is a tool for attacking voters,” Bauer also said.

“We need to have these matters removed from the day-to-day department’s direct control and put into the special prosecutor’s independent hands,” Bauer told reporters Friday. “She should have responsibility for reviewing any and all matters involving allegations of fraud and suppression in this election,” said Bauer.

The McCain campaign responded suggesting that it was Sen. Obama and his campaign who were engaging in partisan politics by requesting the special prosecutor's involvement. In a statement issued Friday night, McCain-Palin spokesman Ben Porritt called Obama's request "absurd" and said it was an attempt to "criminalize political discourse."

"Rest assured that, despite these threats, the McCain-Palin campaign will continue to address the serious issue of voter registration fraud by ACORN and other partisan groups, and compliance by states with the Help America Vote Act's requirement of matching new voter registrations with state data bases to prevent voter fraud," Porritt added.

Since ACORN’s extensive voter registration drive ended recently, allegations of voter registration fraud relating to the group’s activities have surfaced in several states. The McCain campaign recently targeted ACORN’s ties to Barack Obama, and Republicans in Congress called for a federal investigation of the group and an end to any federal funding going to the group. McCain himself personally called for an investigation into ACORN last week during a campaign event.

At the final presidential debate, McCain also said ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

The Obama campaign has said that ACORN has no role in its general election voter registration efforts, and that it has never paid ACORN to register voters.

In a statement issued Thursday, ACORN said it was confident it “would be exonerated” in any federal investigation into its voter registration activities.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/17/obama-camp-requests-special-prosecutor-for-fraud-investigation/#comments

is this a good idea?

[crazybabyborg]

It's been looking ugly for a while, now we have an ugly breakout.

Surprise, some of ACORN's computers mysteriously disappeared.  Oh, by golly, geewhizzz.  How'd that happen?

Well . . . they must have been stolen.

I'm shocked! 

Perhaps the computers were accidently taken when the exodus took place from Acorn's offices? Link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkUKOSnv2zY