Who is Anita MonCrief?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Fired woman says ACORN ally had Obama donor list

PETER JACKSON

The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Pennsylvania Republican Party's lead witness at a hearing on its lawsuit against the community activist group ACORN on Wednesday criticized the group's national leaders for failing to provide adequate training for the people it hires to recruit new voters.

But Anita Moncrief, who worked for ACORN affiliate Project Vote in Washington from 2005 until this year, was vague on many details during her nearly two hours on the witness stand in Commonwealth Court.

On cross-examination, she admitted that she had never visited ACORN's Pennsylvania operation , the ostensible focus of the hearing , and was not familiar with the state's voter-registration laws.

Moncrief, 29, also acknowledged that she had been fired from Project Vote in January for using its credit card to cover as much as $3,000 in personal expenses.

"When they asked me about it, I lied," she said, calling the incident "a bad mistake" she is trying to resolve.

Moncrief said she believes ACORN and its affiliates did not provide adequate training about voter-registration laws for prospective canvassers, but cooperated with authorities in prosecuting those who get caught trying to falsify registration forms. She said the practice was known as "throwing them under the bus."

"They don't support you," she said.

Under cross-examination by ACORN lawyer Kathryn Simpson, Moncrief acknowledged that canvassers must sign a form before they are hired acknowledging that they could be prosecuted for any violations of the law.

"How's that `throwing somebody under the bus' when they do these things?" Simpson asked.

(snip)

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20081029_ap_firedwomansaysacornallyhadobamadonorlist.html

Don't train the people to do the job correctly, thus they are ignorant (management and employee) when there is a problem. 

[WhiskeyGirl]

(snip)

Moncrief, 29, who now lives in Virginia, also said that she had taken a call from an Obama campaign worker inquiring whether it was the same organization Obama had worked with in the 1990's.

Moncrief said she had received repeated warnings to "back off" from testifying today by people she knows at ACORN.

"I thought it was powerful testimony. She took a great personal risk," said Heather Heidelbaugh, an attorney representing the state GOP.

On cross-examination, Moncrief admitted that she had no personal knowledge of how Pennsylvania ACORN registered voters.

(snip)

An ACORN spokeswoman said the group sets aside problematic voter registration forms and turns them over to authorities.

The spokeswoman, Carol Hemmingway of Philadelphia, called the lawsuit "an attempt to suppress voters."

Hemmingway said Moncrief was not part of "senior management" at ACORN and can't speak for them.

Moncrief said she does not have a vendetta against ACORN.

"I do not think it is a bad organization," she said. Moncrief said she came forward and contacted Heidelbaugh because she believes low-income vote canvassers were not trained and then were "thrown under the bus"-- facing criminal prosecution -- for frauduent registrations. She said there were quotas of voter registration forms for workers and that some were fired for not meeting them.

"The (voter) cards are tied to money. The more cards you get the more money you get," Moncrief said.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/breaking/s%5f595810.html

They can't all be bad, and I have to believe someone had good intentions.

[WhiskeyGirl]

(snip)

In her testimony, Ms. MonCrief says she was upset by Acorn's "Muscle for Money" program, which she said intimidated businesses Acorn opposed into paying "protection" money in the form of grants. Acorn's Brian Kettering says the group only wants to change corporate behavior: "Acorn is proud of its corporate campaigns to stop abuses of working families."

Ms. MonCrief, 29, never expected to testify in a case brought by the state's Republican Party seeking the local Acorn affiliate's voter registration lists. ...

She says she became disillusioned because she saw that Acorn was run as the personal fiefdom of Wade Rathke, who founded the group in 1970 and ran it until he stepped down to take over its international operations this summer. Mr. Rathke's departure as head of Acorn came after revelations he'd employed his brother Dale for a decade while keeping from almost all of Acorn's board members the fact that Dale had embezzled over $1 million from the group a decade ago. (The embezzlement was confirmed to me by an Acorn official.)

"Anyone who questioned what was going on was viewed as the enemy," Ms. MonCrief told me. "Just like the mob, no one leaves Acorn happily." She believes the organization does some good but hopes its current leadership is replaced. She may not be alone.

Last August two of Acorn's eight dissident board members, Marcel Reed and Karen Inman, filed suit demanding access to financial records of Citizens Consulting Inc., the umbrella group through which most of Acorn's money flows. Ms. Inman told a news conference this month Mr. Rathke still exercises power over CCI and Acorn against the board's wishes. Bertha Lewis, the interim head of Acorn, told me Mr. Rathke has no ties to Acorn and that the dissident board members were "obsessed" and "confused."

(snip)

"Acorn needs a full forensic audit," Ms. MonCrief says, though she doesn't think that's likely. "Everyone wants to paper things over until later," she says. "But it may be too late to reform Acorn then." She strongly supports Barack Obama and hopes his allies can be helpful in cleaning up the group "after the heat of the election is gone."

Acorn's Mr. Kettering says the GOP lawsuit "is designed to suppress legitimate voters," and he says Ms. MonCrief isn't credible, given that she was fired for cause. Ms. MonCrief admits that she left after she began paying back some $3,000 in personal expenses she charged on an Acorn credit card. "I was very sorry, and I was paying it back," she says, but "suddenly Acorn decided that . . . I had to go. Since then I have gotten warnings to 'back off' from people at Acorn."

Acorn insists it operates with strict quality controls, turning in, as required by law, all registration forms "even if the name on them was Donald Duck," as Wade Rathke told me two years ago. Acorn whistleblowers tell a different story.

"There's no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances," says Nate Toler, who worked until 2006 as the head organizer of an Acorn campaign against Wal-Mart in California. ...

Gregory Hall, a former Acorn employee, says he was told on his very first day in 2006 to engage in deceptive fund-raising tactics. Mr. Hall has founded a group called Speaking Truth to Power to push for a full airing of Acorn's problems "so the group can heal itself from within."

To date, Mr. Obama has declined to criticize Acorn, telling reporters this month he is happy with his own get-out-the-vote efforts and that "we don't need Acorn's help." That may be true. But there is no denying his ties with Acorn helped turbocharge his political career.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122533169940482893.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[WhiskeyGirl]

November 9, 2008

Obama win does not excuse ACORN sin

By Michael Gaynor

"A forensic audit and the investigations will aid in proving my allegations. I also have documents to back up my claims. I have put myself out there in order to keep other poor working moms from having to make hard choices and to keep the promises that ACORN made to its members."

ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief's vote for Obama signified a desire for change and an expression of hope, but not a willingness to whitewash ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

Ms. MonCrief's latest post — "Exposing the Truth About ACORN" — proved that.

Ms. MonCrief:

"Many of you have seen the posts that I put on the March of Dimes website regarding my daughter, Addie. What most people do not realize is that I was employed at ACORN/Project Vote during this time. I was making so little that I was on WIC and Medical Assistance. The health plan that ACORN used as part of the cover up of the embezzlement of Dale Rathke did not cover some of the basic things I needed as a pregnant mom. In fact, I still have medical bills from that time that were not paid by ACORN and the Council (covered procedures). I was not only fighting for the poor, I was of one of them — the working poor — and I truly believed that I could make a difference and change things for the better.

"From the beginning ACORN has abused the trust of its people. ACORN pretends to fight for the interests of people but they are really for hire. It seems like their motto is 'have protesters, will travel.' I have seen ACORN members organized for protests at the behest of organizations like SEIU and often the interests served were not that of the members. I find it hard to understand how so little of the money collected after a series of protests from organizations like H&R Block actually trickles down to the community.

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/gaynor/081109

Is Anita suggesting that trickle down economics do not work?   

[WhiskeyGirl]

Commentary 
 
Published: Dec 5, 2008 Share It | Most Popular | Send A Tip 

Anita MonCrief v. ACORN
by Michael J. Gaynor

The 2008 presidential election is over, but the battle between ACORN idealists and the ACORN control group is not and the whole truth about ACORN is still not public knowledge.

"In her testimony, Ms. MonCrief says she was upset by Acorn's 'Muscle for Money' program, which she said intimidated businesses Acorn opposed into paying 'protection' money in the form of grants...."

The election is over, the presidential candidate for whom Ms. MonCrief voted won, and Ms. MonCrief is still idealistic and still upset with ACORN's sinister machinations.

No longer torn between her desires to see now President-Elect Obama elected and to share the whole truth about ACORN with the public, Ms. MonCrief is revealing more.

On December 1, 2008, Ms. MonCrief posted her first article since the day after the election, titled "The Great ACORN Bank Heist: Part Two."

"Moreover, ACORN's history with the banks dates back decades and began with ACORN abusing the provisions of the CRA. Stanley Kurtz in his National Review Online article Planting Seeds of Disaster ACORN, Barack Obama, and the Democratic party explains the process:

'At first, ACORN's anti-bank actions were relatively few in number. However, under a provision of the 1989 savings and loan bailout pushed by liberal Democratic legislators, like Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, lenders were required to compile public records of mortgage applicants by race, gender, and income. Although the statistics produced by these studies were presented in highly misleading ways, groups like ACORN were able to use them to embarrass banks into lowering credit standards. At the same time, a wave of banking mergers in the early 1990's provided an opening for ACORN to use CRA to force lending changes. Any merger could be blocked under CRA, and once ACORN began systematically filing protests over minority lending...'

"ACORN's own archives describe the process as:

'The ACORN convention in New York in 1992, the "ACORN-Bank Summit," was organized to hammer out deals with giant banks like Continental, First Fidelity, Mellon, PriMerit, and Chemical. Representatives signed agreements to establish programs for low- and moderate- income people to qualify for mortgages in their communities. Citibank, the nation's largest bank, did not participate. In response, the conventioneers held a lively action at Citibank's downtown Manhattan headquarters, and won a meeting to negotiate for similar programs. The meeting also led to increased Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac funding from the secondary mortgage market to ACORN neighborhoods. These efforts led to billions of dollars of primary and secondary mortgage money flowing into ACORN communities over a period of several years."

...ACORN also became the recipient of sizable donations from organizations like:

JPMorgan Chase Foundation ($5,007,500 plus at least $300,000 to separate state-level ACORN-affiliated housing nonprofits), Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc. ($1,405,000), US Bancorp Foundation ($285,000, plus $470,000 to ACORN Housing Corp. of Illinois), PNC Foundation ($95,000), Wachovia Foundation ($5,000), Provident Bank Foundation Inc. ($5,000 to 'New Jersey ACORN')

"ACORN has an interesting habit of going after the enemies of their coalition partners. For example ACORN formed a partnership with Bank of America in 1990 and has seemingly attacked Bank of America's competitors including Countrywide, which was acquired by Bank of America this year.

imagine what kind of shape the country would be in if...there were no 'liar loans' or so many bogus subprime deals requiring a bailout...   

"ACORN must be stopped, it is not okay to use the mortgage crisis and government bailouts as an excuse to extort money from banks. The banks themselves must be willing to stand up and tell ACORN that they will not pay them off this time and will report any offers for a side deal to the Justice Department. Also, it might be time for the Department of Labor to look into some of SEIU's activities regarding their association with ACORN."

strong words - jmho

"'Acorn needs a full forensic audit,' Ms. MonCrief says, though she doesn't think that's likely. 'Everyone wants to paper things over until later,' she says. 'But it may be too late to reform Acorn then."'She strongly supports Barack Obama and hopes his allies can be helpful in cleaning up the group 'after the heat of the election is gone.'

Maybe this is the kind of reform Barack was talking about?

Was the USCCB gulled by ACORN and, if so, why?

Did the USCCB deliberately funnel millions of dollars (and the appearance of respectability that comes with being a USCCB donee) to an unofficial arm of the Democrat Party?

Remember the "When E F. Hutton speaks, people listen" commercial? When Ms. MonCrief speaks or writes about ACORN, we should listen or read carefully and demand the truth.

http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_212191124.shtml

My next query is to find Anita's web site... 

[WhiskeyGirl]

In the book's acknowledgements, Ms. Malkin gave "special thanks to Anita MonCrief for her enormous courage and vigilance on ACORN corruption."

During the Beck television interview, Ms. Malkin not only again lauded Ms. MonCrief as the key ACORN whistleblower, but also deftly distinguished Ms. MonCrief from the ACORN 8 (a tiny group seeking to replace ACORN's current control group and regularly praised and promoted by Beck). Ms. Malkin pointedly noted not only that Ms.MonCrief has been sued by ACORN affiliate Project Vote for publicizing the ugly truth, but that Ms. MonCrief (a single mother of a three-year old) is an individual who became an ex-liberal and is not seeking to control of ACORN.

The sharp contrast between Ms. MonCrief and the ACORN 8 is made easily understandable by ACORN 8 statements in their latest press release.

That release, titled "ACORN 8 has the Power - House Oversight Committee Report Vindicates ACORN 8 and their RICO Claims," is billed by the ACORN 8 as their response "to a blistering report released by Rep. Darrell Issa (CA), the Ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which presents compelling evidence that ACORN has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in racketeering, and created a conspiracy to defraud the United States" and that report is characterized as confirmation of "the criminal violations of ACORN 8 member's constitutional rights" and cause for "the Justice Department to take this matter seriously and promptly move to prosecute" and "the federal government and large private donors to pursue injunctive relief so that ACORN assets and records are not dissipated or destroyed until the group undergoes a forensic audit."

read more here - http://www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=090729