The Real ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now-the myths exposed!

ACORN Voter Fraud hurts who? The Democrats!!

2008-10-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Liberals and Democrats dump and continue to dump tens of millions of dollars into ACORN's pockets for?

Registering New Voters. NEW!!!! Voters

Nothing drives me crazier than listening to FOX news blither on about ACORN Registraion Fraud

I managed a massive Voter Registration crew for ACORN along with my other duties. The validity rate of that office was exemplary. I also know that I had quite a few lazy con artists working for me that would go and get theire friends to register over and over again etc....

The people who should be in the media raising indictments and hell about registration fraud are the liberal foundations that fund them. Why? They are not getting what they pay for. ACORN's sub-standard hiring and traing. The low pay. The long hours. The lack of conviction gaurentees that the workers will try fraud.

ACORN doesn't care. The quality control people they hire stink, the managers are almost always college kids with no experience in the field, the whole operatin favors mediocrity.

Liberals and Democrats should consider spreading their operations out to a broad range of organizations that have seasoned staff on board. They sould develop a volunteer registration aparatus. Voluteers are much more likely to do a good committed job.

Now lets be clear. The people you are seeing on FOX news saying I registered "73" times will only get to vote once. But, ACORN got paid 73 times for those registrations. SO is getting ripped off. John McCain? NO, The American people? No. Who is getting hurt?

LIBERALS WHO PAID FOR 73 REGISTRATIONS

LOCAL SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS OFFICES THAT HAD TO COUNT THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN who have strapped budgets. Local offices that are probably liberal controlled areas.

ACORN is ripping off the movement for social justice. More later.

ACORN HEADLINES- The Ghost of Rathke Lingers On while Board Members File Suit! First Reported here!!

2008-09-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

ACORN HEADLINES: Members File Suit!

I stated here two months ago that Rahtke was refusing to go! NY TIMES REPORTS:

Lawsuit Adds to Turmoil for Community Group

By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: September 9, 2008
Correction Appended
In the wake of an embezzlement scandal that rocked the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, two of its board members are seeking a court order to force it to hand over financial documents.
They also are seeking to sever what they describe as continuing ties between Acorn and its founder, Wade Rathke, who resigned after it became public this summer that his brother had embezzled almost $1 million from the organization eight years ago. They contend that Mr. Rathke continues to direct the staff and expenditures.
“Acorn will suffer irreparable harm if the defendants are not restrained from contact with employees, expending and receiving, destroying or prohibiting the review of accounting and other data necessary to fulfill the fiduciary responsibility of the interim management committee,” the board members, Marcel Reid and Karen Inman, stated in the petition. Both serve on a committee established to lead Acorn.
The suit cites their concerns that money is being spent improperly and that important documents are being destroyed. It was filed on behalf of the entire 51-member board, but Acorn executives and some board members say Ms. Reid and Ms. Inman had no authority to file the suit or to claim to represent the board.
Acorn contends that Ms. Reid and Ms. Inman are trying to engineer a takeover, and on Tuesday, it demanded that the petition be withdrawn.
“We found ourselves after the fact having filed a lawsuit against ourselves,” said the Rev. Gloria Swieringa, a board member who leads the Maryland affiliate. “It was not authorized nor did we know anything about it until this firestorm over it erupted.”
The suit is a sign of the turmoil that has rocked Acorn since the embezzlement by Dale Rathke, Wade Rathke’s brother, was revealed to the board in June.
The embezzlement, which Acorn said involved $948,607.50, was discovered in 2000 but concealed by senior executives until a whistle-blower told a foundation leader about it in May.
Wade Rathke was forced to step down as chief organizer, the top executive position. However he remained the chief organizer of Acorn International, which shares offices in Acorn’s headquarters in New Orleans. The Rathke family pledged to repay Acorn.
“Even though his relationship with Acorn has been terminated,” the petition says of Wade Rathke, “he continues to meet with staff members regarding this” — the embezzlement — “and other governance issues which impeded the ability of the interim management committee to perform its function.”
Bertha Lewis, who was appointed interim chief organizer when Mr. Rathke stepped down, said the lawsuit was unnecessary. But Ms. Lewis echoed concerns about Mr. Rathke’s continued involvement, saying Acorn had asked him to leave its offices.
“Mr. Rathke stubbornly refuses to do that, so he sort of haunts that office, tries to talk to folks doing their work,” she said.
Mr. Rathke said he had no role in managing Acorn. “I was with the organization for 38 years, and there are many people I hired and supervised, and I have great relationships with them,” he said. “I haven’t been involved in supervising them. Are they saying that simply because I breathe, I exist, they have a problem?”
The suit put the extent of Dale Rathke’s embezzlement at “an amount that may exceed one million dollars,” more than the amount disclosed this summer.
James Austin Gray II, the lawyer who filed the petition, said the board had passed two resolutions in the summer authorizing the management committee to hire legal counsel. “The board is just trying to do its fiduciary duty,” Mr. Gray said.
Ms. Reid declined to comment, and Ms. Inman did not respond to messages on her mobile phone.
Coya Mobley, a board member representing Ohio, said that she recalled those resolutions and that in her mind, they gave Ms. Inman and Ms. Reid authority to file the petition for the board.
Acorn executives and some board members, however, said the resolutions did not give permission for a lawsuit. Over the last couple of weeks, Ms. Lewis has worked to get board members to withdraw the petition through a process under Acorn’s bylaws that allows polling by phone. She said 35 members had submitted written forms ordering the petition’s withdrawal, while 12 elected to continue seeking court intervention. Three members could not be reached, and one refused to cast a vote.
“I want answers,” said Ms. Mobley, who first opposed the suit but then voted to continue it. “Why are they still negotiating with Wade Rathke? Why are the people on staff who knew about this embezzlement still on the staff?”
Ms. Lewis said that she understood that some board members were impatient but that the committee and board were working as fast as they could.
“I think the people who filed this petition probably had very good intentions,” she said, “and I lay this at the feet of a lawyer who acted precipitously.”

ACORN Headlines and News: ACORN's former CPA Speaks Out!!! Says-The embezzlement could have started long before 2001!

2008-08-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

From Comment page of Rick Cohen Non Profit Quarterly:

Dear Rick: I was the only CPA for ACORN from inception until 1995. Since reading your report and comments I have become confident of your good intentions. Therefore I have decided to open up with regard to any questions that you or your subscribers may have.
Yes, it is quite possible that the “misappropriations” go back before my retirement. So I have great sympathy for Wade’s torment. Even before 2001. Wade knew before I left that Dale had total domination of accounting and banking functions of all the 50-75 separate corporate entities. Each corporation had a bank account at Whitney. Dale got a consolidated daily bank statement that gave him the debit or credit balance of each account and net total. Dale was a check signer on every account. Wade was not. That’s about all anyone knew after their only competent bookkeeper resigned about 1988. Accounting decended into chaos and I was in a constant helpless depression after that until 1995. Hearsay from a former insider informed me in 2001 that Dale got caught making $1 million improper payments to American Express but they would recover from his inheritance some day and my successor auditors were all over it. I thought, thank God, not on my watch. I perked up but held my tongue.
After thinking it over, I think I agree with the cover up strategy in 2001. I guess I participated in it by remaining silent. I believe that it’s the only way ultmate restitution was probable at the time. But I remain curious. Why shouldn’t restitution be made for the $38,000 per annum paid Dale since 2001? Surely the firing would have taken place in 2001 except for the cover up.
I should confine my comments to the situation as I knew it prior to 1995. I defer all other questions as to subsequent events and transactions to my successors who were emminently qualified and informed of all problems that needed attention after my departure. I believe that they know every thing that is significant about this matter. I wish they would get permission to publish a case study on this matter. I have had no communications with them since 1995.
Somebody said “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

Dear Rick (of your comment of 8/19 at (9:08 pm): Answers to two questions: (1) After 1988, with the resignation of the very competent Sue B., the accounting system quickly disintegrated. There were no computers. It had all been done by hand. Sue had trained a payroll clerk and bank reconciler, JoAnn B., who had learned to make payroll tax deposits, quarterly payroll tax reports, individual earnings records and annual W-2 forms and reports. But all cash and general journals and ledgers fell behind and contained thousands of uncorrected errors due to inability or failure to hire enough accountants with the capacity to cope with the challenges. Forget the usual forms of internal control. There were virtually none possible. Dale trusted no one but himself. Or trusted completly in those incompetant for the task. Forget transparency and disclosure on a timely basis. It was not possible. Don’t ask me, I still live in Little Rock where the whole thing started. Sue B. started in Little Rock under Wade and moved all the financial records to New Orleans when Wade moved. Dale started later in New Orleans, with quickly increasing financial authority, after graduating from Yale (Phd.English), but before Sue B. left. Sue B. and Dale finally had issues which could not be reconciled. She told me, “I hate my job and I hate my life” and always had a headache, but could do or find anything I needed . After Sue B.’s departure in 1988 the bank statements and cancelled checks and check book stubs and bank reconciliations were the only reliable records. When it came time to prepare annual federal and state forms 990 and 1120 it was up to me. If financial statements had to be reconstructed from the bank statements and cancelled checks I did the minimum necessary one entity at a time. I had about 50 file boxes with working papers that I carted back and forth between Little Rock and New Orleans until finally Dale provided some used filing cabinets for me in New Orleans. Extensions were filed when necessary but the task of filing often fell 2-3 years behind. By the time I got finished the reports and returns were ancient history. The IRS never examined. No taxes were ever due so there were no penalties or interest. If anybody was dissatisfied they never contacted me. My name and signature were on all reports and returns. There were very serious deficiencies which I could not correct. They had to do with obvious comingling of funds between the separate corporations, much of which was impossible to correct retroactively if not discovered immediately. Some probably innocent errors. Some probably deliberate and unauthorized cash transfers. I had nobody to tell but Dale. I wanted to resign or be fired. My commuting time and expenses were unbearable. Dale was up to a year past due in paying my monthly invoices. My capital was way inadequate for this. I was financing my life with credit cards. They needed to get a New Orleans CPA firm to take over. But with this mess who would accept it? About 1990 Dale agreed to meet with Arthur Andersen consulting experts I talked into coming down from Chicago to tell us what to do. Hey, that was cool, they even had a New Orleans office who could take over all the audit and tax work when new systens got things under control. Andersen spent one day in New Orleans talking to Dale and me and knew exactly what to do. A few days later Dale called and said Andersen had submitted a detailed proposal with a fee estimate of $100,000 for installing a computer system. He said no, too expensive. I should have resigned immediately, but I could not resign without getting paid. Everybody knows what later happened to Andersen for not resigning from Enron when they had conflicts regarding material differences of opinion and judgement affecting the audit reports, disclosures and transparency. Next thing I knew, Dale allowed a Great Plains computer accounting system to be installed. How they got it up and running I’ll never know. What I was interested in was the output. I quickly learned the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”. The first thing that had to be created was a chart of accounts and account numbers. I think Dale did it all by himself. With abont 75 corporations and who knows how many restricted and unrestricted funds it must have been a daunting task. The chart was about the size of the N. O. phone book and growing daily. If the first coding of an entry was incorrect, too bad, it could not be deleted and reentered correctly. Instead a new entry had to be made transferring the transaction from the incorrect account to the correct account. And if that correction was not done correctly yet another correcting entry had to be made. I just could not enjoy this. I hated my job and hated my life. Yup, depressed. After a couple of years like this, I discovered the very fine old N. O. CPA firm of Duplantier et al. They had some expertise with the Great Plains system and were willing to come in and survey the situation. Dale agreed. Right away I gave them complete access to all my files and even gave them all the tax returns to prepare. Whatever they wanted to do. They did a lot of tax work in a few months while I finished up a couple of audits. I asked them if they were getting paid for what they had done so far. They said yes and they had the ability to go do something else if not. I told them that my unpaid bills were substantial but that I wanted out. One day in Decenber, 1994, I was in Dale’s office briefly and at a glance I saw a whole pile of Engagement Letters on his desk. I knew immediately they were from Duplantier and a separate letter for each corporation. Hallaluia, I had been delivered. In January, 1995, Dale ordered me out of his office and we haven’t spoken since. Neither have I heard from Wade. In 1996 I sued to collect the balances due on my accounts. The defense had no defense and I was awarded a judgement of $200,000. The next step, to collect the judgement, was disappointing. I was persuaded to settle for $140,000. This enabled me to pay off all my secured creditors, but I wrote off $60,000 and was done with it. Easy come, easy go.
(2) I think I approve of the “cover up strategy” because I knew that the Duplantier firm was on the job and had seen the evidence and chose to join in. My source said that Wade had seen a report that caused him to question why the payments to American Express were so high? So they searched for the American Express statements and found that Dale had them all in his possession. He still must have had the power to pay without restrictions by anybody. He agreed to restitution that was probable someday. His motive may never be known. If Dale were fired in 2001, Wade probably would have been forced to resign at the same time. I don’t know when Acorn International was formed. At least there has been 8 years to prepare for both departures at once. I think that the life of the associated organizations bearing the ACORN brand is more likely to survive after these preparations than if both departures were sudden and without warning in 2001. There are about 500,000 members that probably want them to survive too.

ACORN NEWS- Whistle Blowers Multiply

2008-08-17T17:31:00.001-07:00

ACORN Whistle Blowers Multiply, Drummond Pike Buys Off Embezzlement, Rathke takes leave of absence from Tides Foundation

Head of Foundation Bailed Out Nonprofit Group After Its Funds Were Embezzled
New article from NY TImes revelas multiple Whistle Blowers working to shed light on Rathke attempt to avoid the Embezzlement issue:
By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: August 16, 2008

When the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of the founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as Acorn, surfaced last month, the organization announced that an anonymous supporter had agreed to make it whole.That supporter was Drummond Pike, the founder and chief executive of the Tides Foundation, which channels money to what it describes as progressive nonprofits, including some Acorn charitable affiliates.Mr. Pike is a friend of Wade Rathke, the founder of Acorn and its leader until the scandal broke, and he agreed to buy the promissory note that required the Rathke family to repay Acorn the money that Mr. Rathke’s brother, Dale, had stolen.Mr. Rathke is a member of the board of the Tides Foundation and other Tides-related organizations.Since 2000, the Tides Foundation has provided more than $400 million to nonprofit groups, with much of that money flowing out of donor-controlled accounts it manages in the same way that the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund or a community foundation does.John A. Powell, board chairman of the Tides Network, the umbrella organization for various Tides affiliates, wrote in an e-mail message to The Times that Tides had no involvement in the matter and that none of its money was used to buy the Rathke family’s debt to Acorn.He said Mr. Rathke was on a leave of absence from all Tides boards.In 2000, Acorn discovered that Dale Rathke had embezzled $948,507.50 from it and affiliated charitable organizations. The management committee that controlled the organization decided not to alert law enforcement officials, and negotiated an agreement with the Rathke family to repay the money.That agreement was carried on the books of an affiliate, Citizens Consulting Inc., as a loan to an officer. Sometime in June, Mr. Pike bought the loan from the affiliate, according to e-mail messages between senior executives at Acorn that were provided to a reporter by Acorn employees, who requested anonymity because they feared losing their jobs.Mr. Pike refused to confirm or deny that he had bought the note. “As a rule, I do not comment on my personal finances,” he wrote in e-mail messages in answer to questions about the deal.But e-mail messages among Acorn’s senior executives discuss how to keep Mr. Pike’s identity secret, even as they acknowledge that some of the foundations and philanthropic advisers that have supported Acorn and its affiliates know that he bought the note.“Does Drummond know the word is out?” Steven Kest, the executive director of Acorn, wrote on July 4. “If not, shouldn’t someone tell him?”In a July 12 e-mail message to Mr. Kest, Acorn’s political director, Zach Pollett, wrote: “I talked to Drummond on this yesterday and had Beth Kingsley” — Acorn’s lawyer — “prepare a ‘keep your yaps shut’ confidentiality memo to people at Acorn and CCI.”Charles D. Jackson, a spokesman for Acorn, said the organization would not comment on the purchaser of the note.Acorn’s board members and senior executives have signed confidentiality pledges that forbid them from disclosing Mr. Pike’s identity or discussing the purchase agreement, according to three Acorn contributors who asked to see the agreement but were told they would have to similarly pledge confidentiality. They declined.But a handful of executives at foundations that have contributed to Acorn and Tides have learned through connections at those organizations that Mr. Pike was the buyer.

ACORN Whistle Blowers Multiply, Drummond Pike Buys Off Embezzlement, Rathke takes leave of absence from Tides Foundation

2008-08-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

Head of Foundation Bailed Out Nonprofit Group After Its Funds Were Embezzled

New article from NY TImes revelas multiple Whistle Blowers working to shed light on Rathke attempt to avoid the Embezzlement issue:

By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: August 16, 2008
When the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of the founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as Acorn, surfaced last month, the organization announced that an anonymous supporter had agreed to make it whole.
That supporter was Drummond Pike, the founder and chief executive of the Tides Foundation, which channels money to what it describes as progressive nonprofits, including some Acorn charitable affiliates.
Mr. Pike is a friend of Wade Rathke, the founder of Acorn and its leader until the scandal broke, and he agreed to buy the promissory note that required the Rathke family to repay Acorn the money that Mr. Rathke’s brother, Dale, had stolen.
Mr. Rathke is a member of the board of the Tides Foundation and other Tides-related organizations.
Since 2000, the Tides Foundation has provided more than $400 million to nonprofit groups, with much of that money flowing out of donor-controlled accounts it manages in the same way that the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund or a community foundation does.
John A. Powell, board chairman of the Tides Network, the umbrella organization for various Tides affiliates, wrote in an e-mail message to The Times that Tides had no involvement in the matter and that none of its money was used to buy the Rathke family’s debt to Acorn.
He said Mr. Rathke was on a leave of absence from all Tides boards.
In 2000, Acorn discovered that Dale Rathke had embezzled $948,507.50 from it and affiliated charitable organizations. The management committee that controlled the organization decided not to alert law enforcement officials, and negotiated an agreement with the Rathke family to repay the money.
That agreement was carried on the books of an affiliate, Citizens Consulting Inc., as a loan to an officer. Sometime in June, Mr. Pike bought the loan from the affiliate, according to e-mail messages between senior executives at Acorn that were provided to a reporter by Acorn employees, who requested anonymity because they feared losing their jobs.
Mr. Pike refused to confirm or deny that he had bought the note. “As a rule, I do not comment on my personal finances,” he wrote in e-mail messages in answer to questions about the deal.
But e-mail messages among Acorn’s senior executives discuss how to keep Mr. Pike’s identity secret, even as they acknowledge that some of the foundations and philanthropic advisers that have supported Acorn and its affiliates know that he bought the note.
“Does Drummond know the word is out?” Steven Kest, the executive director of Acorn, wrote on July 4. “If not, shouldn’t someone tell him?”
In a July 12 e-mail message to Mr. Kest, Acorn’s political director, Zach Pollett, wrote: “I talked to Drummond on this yesterday and had Beth Kingsley” — Acorn’s lawyer — “prepare a ‘keep your yaps shut’ confidentiality memo to people at Acorn and CCI.”
Charles D. Jackson, a spokesman for Acorn, said the organization would not comment on the purchaser of the note.
Acorn’s board members and senior executives have signed confidentiality pledges that forbid them from disclosing Mr. Pike’s identity or discussing the purchase agreement, according to three Acorn contributors who asked to see the agreement but were told they would have to similarly pledge confidentiality. They declined.
But a handful of executives at foundations that have contributed to Acorn and Tides have learned through connections at those organizations that Mr. Pike was the buyer.

The Headlines for July 30th 2008- My thoughts on ACORN as a member run organization

2008-07-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

Is ACORN a member run organzation? Is the board in control of ACORN or the other way around!

Well personally, if what we are being told is true The Staff caught this problem and shared it with one Board member, Maude Hurde who agreed after being talked into it by the management team into keeping it quiet.
As far as more fiduciary oversight? Wade organized his board to be a board that acted on his recommendations from day one. It is interesting how for years we were told to tell people “4 african American women from Little Rock Arkansas founded ACORN”.
Today Wade has finally owned up to the truth, he a white, wealthy, upperclass, hack went to Arkansas and after his friend George Wiley passed on proceeded to found, shape, and design ACORN to serve him. He brags that he founded ACORN today. Well guess what? The reputable true grassroots orgs I know of were indigenous developments that were started by residents of directly affected communities. They weren’t founded by some carpet bagger that picked a spot on a map and said I think I will organize this community to build a non-profit. As sad and prophetic as it it might be of what came to pass over 38 years, the modus operandi never changed.
My first drive went down like this. I was told to pick a block of 1000 households and go there and begin recruiting members who would work with me to organize an ACORN chapter. They had never heard of ACORN and they never got a chance to hire me. They had no say in who or how the drive would be structured because Wade designed the drive to be a certain way over a 10-12 week period. THe members would have 4 organizing committee meetings. If the members wanted to have six I was told by my supervisor to cut it off at four. To organize the “members” to want to do it in 4 or 5 tops. I was told to get them to identify an issue that was winnable and small. When they wanted to go for something that was a systemic big issue I was told to get them to do something like a speed bump or a stop sign. Then I was told they would do a big meeting and then they had to do an action. Regardless of how they felt about it. Regardless of what was going on inthe community. I was told to have the officers identified before they were elected so even though at the big meeting elections were called for, it was really to be an acceptance of predetermined outcomes. This is the big rub abd it has everything to do with why the board did not have oversight. ACORN has always been about predetermined outcomes. Go and read Gary Delgados book about ACORN. It was that way when he left and it is that way now. How can that be considered a member run organization. It isn’t it never was. Iwas organizing a year before my mmembers were asked if they wanted to hire me.. That is a little ridiculous. I organized them for a year and then asked the bord to hire me? Seems like I was hired whether they liked it or not.

ACORN HEADLINES July 27th 2008

2008-07-26T23:06:00.001-07:00

Rathke CHIEF ORGANIZER OF THE WORLD, Untouchable Unless indicted

US ACORN WANTS RATHKE GONE, IN USUAL STYLE RATHKE STRUCTURES INTERNATIONAL ACORN SO HE CAN'T BE REMOVED!

MEMBERS WANT REFORM OF ACORN, RATHKE HARDLINERS DUG IN LIKE THE TALIBAN

FORMER HO's BANDING TOGETHER TO BRING NEW LIGHT TO ACORN

ACORN GET'S 7.8 MILLION TO SQUANDER AWAY ON HOME FORECLOSURES WHILE PROBLEMS ARE NOT FIXED!!

SEXUAL HARASSMENT RAMPANT AT ACORN FOR DECADES, STAFF TOLD TO SHUT UP OR LEAVE

Rathke Chief Organizer of the WORLD!!!!

SO as has been laid bare by recent insiders from ACORN and based on what we have known for sometime:

Rathke has been laying his plan to leave ACORN for 8 years. Now we all understand his obsession with building ACORN INTERNATIONAL.

AI is set up with a seperate board outsid US boundaries.

AI has offices in countries with no extradition treaties to the USA.

THINK ABOUT IT ACORN NUT HEADS.

Wade up in front of the room with his little slide shows and everyone sitting there thinking "our offices are struggling here why is he expanding.

Wade can move to India or Argentina with impunity and run WORLD ACORN the WALMART OF ORGANIZING.

Meanwhile back at the ranch members are pissed and many staff are more pissed.

WADE IS EATING LAMB VINDALOO AT THE TAJ ! Dale is carrying his bags and setting up an accounting firm.
Helene is browbeating some poor organizer in LIMA and telling her if she doesn't get her numbers up they will have to close the TIKI hut office they built from scratch because the price on thatch has gone up.

Then Wade will be beamed by satellite to the Annual ACORN Year End Year Beginning Meeting With a Yak carrying his laptop and Sat phone into Hindu Kush where he is positioning himself to make an organizing deal with the Taliban on the Paskistan Afghan border. He is pretty sure he form an alliance with OBL to buy the Taliban.

Thus bringing about world peace and gaining a rise in pay for Sherpas working on Everest.

Wade Rathke is thought to be the father of the organizing technique of just buying up every union and organzation in the world and changing it's name to ACORN.

Rathke Hardliners Dug Into Caves in Arkansas like Taliban refusing to give up control!

Refusing to give up control of ACORN Rathke's innner circle have holed up in a cave in Arkansas intent on waiting out any possible decision to move forward. ACORN USA in an effort to lure them into the open left a stack of bankdrafts from uppermiddleclass communities with checks stapled to them hanging in trees outside the caves. The hardliners refused to come out though in a rare display of common sense they are hoping that a hurricane as big as Katrina will hit New Orleans and people will forget the current conflict in the chaos. Then they will come back in to scrub streets abandoned by residents in an effort to scarf up some juicy federal grants.

Former ACORN HO's Banding Together:

Email lists, phone lists, mailing lists, funder contacts, International network of contacts, allied orgs pissed about the way they were treated.
More coming. Lawsuits

Interchange

2008-07-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

This fine individualo has challenged me and is going to some length to show that Rathke is gone and things are changing. I want to give him the chance to state his case. Below is the letter and following is my response.

Anonymous said...
While I'm not clear on why you keep posting about all the negative stuff when the organization is clearly trying to move away from the Rathke era, I respect your desire to try to push ACORN to live up to its values.
But I do want to point out one factual error in your headlines. Wade Rathke is not currently employed by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. He _is_ still the Chief Organizer of an entity called ACORN International, but that organization is separately incorporated. This is important because under the terms of that incorporation the original ACORN, the one he "resigned" from, has only one seat on its Board of Directors. The others are filled by ACORN International members from the various countries where AI operates: Canada, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, India. While the US representative would love to fire Wade, the other Board members have a different perspective and are reluctant to move in that direction.
I think from the outside this looks like splitting hairs from the outside but from a legal stand point, the US ACORN members simply can't fire Wade from his job at AI.
However, because of the fact that from the outside it looks like Wade "resigned" but then got a promotion, there is a large faction of senior staff and a large faction of US ACORN leaders who want him gone from that position as well. That and the fact that they want him disassociated with anything called ACORN or a part of the ACORN family of organizations because of the scandal and his attempts to purge the organization of anyone who disagreed with him.
I believe that a set of negotiations around his AI situation are on-going, but I don't know the timetable for them or what demands are really on the table.
I'm hoping that at some point you might cover some of the positive changes that are coming about as a result of the current transition, rather than posting news stories from two years ago, but I'm not really expecting it.
But it would be useful to understand what a positive vision for the transformation of the organization would be from a radical perspective rather than a rehashing of past failings.
Well, a boy can always dream, right? 8-)

July 24, 2008 5:11 PM
My responseJohn Brownz Said :
To start off and for the record I busted my ass for ACORN, Hit every goal I was told to hit, my former employees hang out with me all the time and we still have a community of justice between us. I see the members I worked with on a regular basis. They are no longer members.
ACORN BASICALLY RUINED MY LIFE, Ruined the Lives of Seceral of my organizers, and MOST IMPORTANTLY FUCKED OVER THE MEMBERS. I DIDN'T DESERVE IT, I AM PISSED OFF ABOUT IT, and THAT ANGER MAKES ME WANT TO OUT ORGANIZE WADE TO MAKE SURE THAT THIS TRANSITION BRINGS ABOUT AS MUCH CHANGE AS POSSIBLE. Our MEMBERS DIDN'T DESERVE IT. MY STAFF DIDN"T DESERVE IT> THERE WAS NEVER ANY RIOT IN MY OFFICE!
I WAS LIED TO ROUTINELY AND IT COST ME SO MUCH YOU CANNOT EVEN IMAGINE. I WILL NOT GO INTO DETAIL.
Well actually i spent a big chunk of my life doing lots of positive things to advance the social justice movement and ACORN. I would love to pass on positive changes. I have nothing but respect for Bertha Lewis and I have nothing but respect and love for the field of community organizing. I've devoted my life to it. ACORN just about burned me out forever. Trust me if I wanted to post some negative things about ACORN I could. This an effort to avoid that.So, in response to your statement:

International ACORN is not part of ACORN?
You know and I know it is. Just as the AISJ is seperate from ACORN but it is an intrinsic part of ACORN's funding and structure.

Where did the start up capital come from?I know where it came from.

They do not report at Head Organzer and Management meetings?

Don't they come the end year meetings?

Why is that if they are a seperate Organization?

Now this is a website I just went and what do you call this?
http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=2683

Now on this Acorn.org website I found this?International OfficesACORN International is building community organizations of low-income families, and partnering with grassroots organizations outside of the United States. ACORN International aims to strengthen democratic movements for social change, as well as build connections between community-based organizations across borders and cultures.

ACORN International has offices in Argentina, Canada, Peru, and Mexico, and facilitates the India FDI Watch Campaign. We are establishing direct membership chapters in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Kenya, and Nigeria and are exploring partnerships with established membership-based organizations in Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea.
> ACORN Argentina > ACORN Peru > ACORN Dominican Republic > ACORN Canada > ACORN Mexico
Now what is that. I searched the site and found that.
Now when I go to this site, the offices link? I find thishttp://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=2593Now on this site the US offices, the national, and the international! I don't know if you know it or not but that is pissing alot of people off. Especially since this is linked as well:
So Sorry, we aint buyin it. Also why am I able to reach Wade's Chief Organizer page form the ACORN page?
Either he is gone or not. If ACORN is a out control freight train that has already left the station. Then USA ACORN will sue them for all resources drained from our members and will demand they change their name!
What I hear you saying is that Wade's dream of a Walmart of Organizing is coming true on our sweat and dimes. Whether the members like it or not.
Meanwhile people out here who continue to organize with no help from ACORN because we BELIEVE IN COMMUNITY ORGNANIZING are really getting tired of the daggers and razors in our backs.
I am doing this because members who were busting their asses and meeting all goals had their office yanked out from under them because there weren't any hot elections coming up. That isn't organizing, Wade thinks it is, IT IS NOT!
Wade and ACORN organize where they are preaching to the choir. They aren't in the places where the real fight is. We can build a new organization in this country that respects the individual culture of organizing of each region. ACORN has stomped all over everyone in this country's toes and they shouldn't have stepped on mine. Because I delivered way more than my paycheck and because I am in till the end and I don't give a F&&CK!I will devote the rest of my life to building true organizing, while ACORN farms you guys out as the outsourced migrant workers of whatever flavor of the day they are contracting. I have seen some awfully questionable farming out of ACORN workers and I have the paperwork from it. I haven't broke with everything I have because I would really like to see ACORN take up the cause of:

Well we will fill in these blanks soon

Ever see Brave Heart? (Stupid ass movie)

This is the scene where idiot Mel says': I've to peck a fight" rides out tells the English to "ride back to England apologizing to every home along the way for hundreds of years of oppression BUTT before they leave they must bend over and kiss their own A$$e$.

Ok that was dumb.Just tried to find an example someone from your culture would understand.

Ok the bottom line is ACORN is sucking up all the air in the bell and starving alot of great efforts for social change along the way. It is got to stop.

If I wanted to get nasty I could merge about 20 (actually 3 times more if I call a few people for their ACORN EMAIL lists and well? Then I could start merging about three thousand interorganizational contacts from Belgrade to Baton Rouge and then we can have some real fun! Bubba. WHy haven't I?/We/You? Because we actually care about seeing something salvaged here. You screwed with the wrong bunch of hombres.
You don't think some people are smart enough to have a butt load of phone numbers they could start robocalling?Right now!Lose the Whimp,Fire the management team that rubber stamped Wade saving his litlle brother's butt This means EVERY BODY!!!Maude has got to go! Implement new policies to insure low income leadership of color rise to the top in ACORN
Work your butts off to bring back some of the people who left in the past few years out of disgust who are committed to community organizing and I will take down every site and put up a very positive one about ACORN's new commitment to empowering the people from the communities we organize to become the captqains of this ship.

The ACORN Headlines, NEWS, Updates

2008-07-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

ACORN Staff in Baltimore should have been paid says Head Organizer

RATHKE REMAINS ON ACORN STAFF AFTER PRETENSE OF STEPPING DOWN

4 ACORN MINORITY STAFF FILE EEOC DISCRIMINATION CHARGES AGAINST ACORN

ACORN FOUNDER STEPS DOWN AFTER HE COVERS UP THEFT OF 1,000,000 USD BY HIS BROTHER!

Tijuana MEXICO ACORN WORKERS RIPPED SAY THEY WERE TREATED LIKE SWEAT SHOP ORGANIZERS

ACORN COMMUNITY IN COLORADO SPRINGS SAYS THE ORG STILL TAKES MONEY FROM THEIR ACCOUNTS EVEN THOUGH ACORN IS LONG GONE

Unpaid ACORN Workers in Miami Set Fire To Office

Two More Cases of Unpaid Workers

2008-07-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

Found some more stuff for you to explain the first is really good. And Wasn’t Mitch Klein one of the best HO’s. Why is he in the Baltimolre media making excuses for not PAYING HIS ORGANIZERS!!

By Charles Rabin, The Miami Herald Knight Ridder/Tribune Business

NewsNov. 17–Dozens of low-income workers who fought and helped win a battle to raise Florida’s minimum wage — but haven’t yet been paid for their work — turned a Miami campaign office upside down in anger, an agency official said.Elizabeth Andrades, who heads the Hialeah office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), said a boisterous crowd took over the Miami office at 1380 W. Flagler St., on Monday. One woman carried a bat. The kitchenette was set on fire, she said.

Do-Gooder BluesEx-Employees Expose Financial Problems at ACORN
SANDRA STEWART WANTED TO BE PAID for the work she’d done. After graduating from Goucher College in May, Stewart followed a professor’s advice in obtaining a position, starting on May 22 as a $250-per-week intern at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a national social-justice group with a Maryland chapter based in Baltimore. On July 15 she wrote to City Paper, stating that she had left the job because “up until this morning it had been eight weeks exactly that I had not received any payment for my work.” That day she had received a $500 check from ACORN, she explained, but was still awaiting payment for the remaining six weeks of service.It turns out that Stewart wasn’t the only one looking for overdue payments from ACORN. At the time a City Paper inquiry began, the organization faced a Baltimore City tax-sale lien on its Charles Village property, a court judgment in Prince George’s County for failure to pay a landlord for rented office space, and complaints from several other ex-employees about paycheck problems. By ACORN’s own admission that it has been having trouble administering payments to many part-time voter-registration workers it recently hired.“I find it completely ironic that an organization that fights for social justice” has trouble paying its workers, Stewart wrote.Since arriving here in 1999, ACORN has organized efforts in Baltimore on several fronts, including downsizing the Baltimore City Council, supporting fair and safe housing for the poor, and pushing for a “living wage” for workers. Stewart’s complaint that ACORN wasn’t dealing fairly with its own employees, however, had not previously been brought to public attention. By July 21, several days after City Paper had first contacted ACORN about Stewart’s complaint, the ex-intern had been paid in full.At first, Stewart’s former bosses-ACORN director Mitchell Klein and Baltimore County coordinator Michelle Moore-blamed the situation on Stewart, saying she failed to submit necessary paperwork. But by July 21, they were accepting fault for not paying Stewart in a timely fashion: “What happened to Sandi was bad,” Klein says apologetically.After hearing of Stewart’s complaint, City Paper searched the courts to see if ACORN was having problems making other payments. It was.On June 22, a nearly $7,000 court judgment was entered against the group in favor of Bradco Realty, the owner of office space ACORN had been renting in Hyattsville.“They were not paying us,” explains Bradco principal Michael Weinberger. “And we got tired of writing letters and making phone calls. Nobody even answered the phone. So we turned it over to a local attorney.”On July 18, just as City PaperUapproached ACORN about the problem, the group paid the $7,000. Klein disputes Weinberger’s version of events, asserting that ACORN believed Bradco was overcharging them. “We lost,” Klein says. “And now we’re paying.”On June 30, another court action was filed against an ACORN affiliate, Baltimore Organizing and Support Center Inc. Short Line 2005 LLC filed a foreclosure lawsuit in Baltimore Circuit Court against the group, setting in motion a process that could have ended with Short Line 2005 owning ACORN’s building at 16 W. 25th St. Information obtained from the city’s Finance Department revealed that the support center had not paid real estate taxes, water bills, and other city-administered fees since it purchased the property in 2004. As a result, the city’s lien against the support center was sold at tax sale to Short Line 2005 in May 2005, and Short Line filed the suit in order to exercise its right to collect the money the center owed.“This is the first time I’m hearing about this,” Klein stated when asked about the lawsuit on July 19. Later, Maryland ACORN’s board chair, the Rev. Gloria Swieringa, thanked City Paper “for pointing out a tremendously erroneous situation that had not been brought to our attention.” The same day, ACORN cut a check for more than $18,000 to settle the matter.At first, Klein stated that the group’s failure to keep current on its taxes and other city bills was due to Hurricane Katrina’s disastrous impact last fall on ACORN’s national offices in New Orleans, where many of the state chapters’ finances are administered. However, after researching the matter, Klein learned that in fact the payments had not been made because the bills had been sent to the group’s old office at 825 Park Ave., Baltimore Organizing and Support Center’s address of record.After Stewart leveled her complaint about having a hard time getting paid by ACORN, three other ex-employees who recently left their jobs came forward, recalling similar problems. One, a former community organizer who claims ACORN still owes reimbursement money to him, asked to remain anonymous because the group requires workers to sign a statement that they won’t talk to the press. (Klein confirms that ACORN’s employees are to have “no contact with the media without specific prior approval from a supervisor.”) The ex-employee did not want to risk his anticipated repayment by being quoted by name in an article.“I did have to wait a number of weeks for my paycheck,” the ex-organizer says. “And I left because I decided I would no longer put up with their stuff. It seems to be a pretty routine thing.” He adds that “people have been getting angry with them for not getting paid.”“I had problems getting paid,” Zuri Barnes, 28, also claims. The former community organizer worked for ACORN for seven months, he says, and was owed money after he quit recently. (Klein asserts that Barnes did not properly submit paperwork to get paid.) “I eventually got paid after numerous phone calls and going in and confronting my former boss,” he recalls. “I’ve heard cases of people who are still waiting to get paid. It’s a major issue, and it all comes down to administration. And this is a group that does community organizing, and yet it is so disorganized.”Khary Williams, a 24-year-old former ACORN community organizer, echoes the complaints. “I got my money,” he says. “It was just very late. I left because I felt like I needed a job where, when it’s payday, I get paid.”Klein admits that ACORN “is not perfect,” adding that its payroll problems were exacerbated recently when the group ratcheted up its staff with a lot of part-time workers who are registering voters around the state.“People get paid regularly here, but there are paperwork problems, and it is not the best system in the world,” he says. “Obviously, we’re not trying to screw people over-we want people to get paid on time. But there are some problems. We try to do the best we can.”Klein, however, expresses surprise about complaints from former community organizers, because they filled salaried positions in a different pay class from the part-time voter-registration workers.“The voter-reg stuff, sure, we’ve had some problems there,” he says. “But I know that our community organizers get paid. Generally, our payroll does run on a regular basis. Maybe one or two days late, but that’s rare.”Asked if he believes the publicity about these problems will lead to more complaints to City Paper about payroll problems, Klein says it will.“I guarantee it,” he predicts. “Everyone’s going to complain. But there are a lot of people who like working for us.”

EEOC Complaints and 80 hour work weeks The Grapes of Rathke

2008-07-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

To back up My claims turns out I didn't even know that 4 ACORN employees have filed EEOC complaints against ACORN for unfair promotion of minority staff who are routinely passed over for white staff.

From the Wall Street Journal article "The Grapes of Rathke":

Still, Acorn is vulnerable to charges it doesn’t practice what it preaches. Its manual for minimum-wage campaigns says it intends “to push for as high a wage as possible.” But it doesn’t pay those wages. In 2004 Acorn won a $9.50 an hour minimum wage in Santa Fe, N.M., for example, but pays its organizers $25,000 a year for a required 54-hour week–$8.90 an hour. This year Acorn had workers in Missouri sign contracts saying they would be “working up to 80 hours over seven days of work.” Mr. Rathke says “We pay as much as we can. If people can get more elsewhere, we wish them well.”
Now you say nothing about the issue of how we staff of color have been discriminated against by ACORN in promotions yet:
Current and former Acorn employees say the problems in Kansas City and St. Louis are no accident. “There’s no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances,” says Nate Toler, currently head organizer of an Acorn campaign against Wal-Mart in Merced, Calif. In 2004 he worked on an Acorn voter drive in Missouri, and says Acorn statements aren’t to be taken at face value: “The internal motto is ‘We don’t care if it’s a lie, just so long as it stirs up the conversation.’”
Mr. Toler expects to be attacked as a disgruntled employee, and that “I may have my head chopped off for telling the truth.” Indeed, he has this year filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint alleging that Acorn has consistently promoted whites to management positions over equally qualified blacks. But his allegations are backed by three former Acorn employees who have filed similar EEOC complaints.
One of them, Sashanti Bryant of Detroit, Mich., was a community organizer for Acorn. She told me it has a problem paying employees on time and has almost no minorities in its upper echelons. Loretta Barton, until June of this year a lead Acorn organizer from Dayton, Ohio, and another EEOC complainant, told me that “all Acorn wanted from registration drives was results.”
Ms. Barton alleges that when she and her co-workers asked about forming a union they were slapped down: “We were told if you get a union, you won’t have a job.” There is some history here: In 2003, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Acorn to rehire and pay restitution to three employees it had illegally fired for trying to organize a union.
In response, Mr. Rathke says he is neutral on internal union-organizing efforts and that “when you’re dealing with thousands of employees a year you’ll have some who complain.” He also said the four complaints lodged with the EEOC had all been dismissed. When told that wasn’t the case, he said “there may be some loose ends to be tied up . . . I’m not going to impugn any of the people involved.”

Also backing up my claims of 80 hour weeks:

Still, Acorn is vulnerable to charges it doesn’t practice what it preaches. Its manual for minimum-wage campaigns says it intends “to push for as high a wage as possible.” But it doesn’t pay those wages. In 2004 Acorn won a $9.50 an hour minimum wage in Santa Fe, N.M., for example, but pays its organizers $25,000 a year for a required 54-hour week–$8.90 an hour. This year Acorn had workers in Missouri sign contracts saying they would be “working up to 80 hours over seven days of work.” Mr. Rathke says “We pay as much as we can. If people can get more elsewhere, we wish them well.”

You know Wade? Your doo doo is doo doo!

2008-07-21T20:21:00.001-07:00

ACORN Fraud Rathike ACORN EbezzlementACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN Fraud Rathike ACORN EbezzlementACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN Fraud Rathike ACORN EbezzlementACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN Fraud Rathike ACORN EbezzlementACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN Fraud Rathike ACORN EbezzlementACORN ACORN ACORN

2008-07-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Colorado Springs Community Abandoned by ACORN

From Colorado Springs Gazette,

Last year, ACORN, a national organization dedicated to social justice for low-income neighborhoods, sprouted a new branch in Colorado Springs.
Its first project was a voter registration drive, followed by efforts to organize residents in unincorporated Stratmoor Valley and in the city's Wildflower neighborhood near the airport.
The voter registration effort was tainted when a temporary worker hired by ACORN was indicted by a grand jury and accused of forging 19 registration cards.
Now, there is more trouble for ACORN's Springs chapter.
Representatives in Stratmoor Valley and Wildflower have quit ACORN despite some success raising money to build parks and get streetlights for the neighborhoods.

"It all started off good," said Albert Aldaz, a leader of the Stratmoor Valley group. "But it turned out so bad."

ACORN has a long history of abandoning communities. I personally witnessed offices that had accomplished great work where ACORN just mysteriously closed the office with no warning. After residents had rasied money and paid their dues. After leaving ACORN kept taking money out of people's accounts even though they no longer had any investment in the community

"Julie Wilson of the Wildflower neighborhood is grateful for the help Wildflower re- ceived from ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which claims 850 chapters with 175,000 members in 75 cities.
"We give them credit for bringing us together and helping us," Wilson said. "But we severed ties in August. We felt it would be in our best interests to go our separate ways. We wanted more control and say-so."
Both Aldaz and Wilson said they questioned why ACORN wanted individual members to pay monthly $10 dues to the national organization.
"The dues were supposed to come back to the neighborhood," Wilson said. "So we figured, why not just keep them here to begin with? Why go through a third party?"
Aldaz said the issue of dues and how they are spent hit him in July when he was invited to spend a weekend in Washington, D.C., attending ACORN-sponsored events.
"The light bulb went on," he said. "I was at this legislative meeting. They flew me out. Put me up in a hotel. Fed me great meals. And I thought something wasn't right. We're paying for that with our dues."

It is often true that communities cannot get money invested back into their community after they have raised it. They are told the money they raise is going to help the community, but then members finding themselves on some trip to Washington on some national agenda they know nothing about.

He didn't feel good, knowing money from poor neighborhoods like Stratmoor Valley was being spent on lavish events elsewhere.
"Our money goes to the national chapter to support their agenda," Aldaz said. "They convinced us we could do something for our neighborhood when they really wanted to lure us into something larger and political in Washington."
So when he got home and thought about it, Aldaz decided to quit the group.
"We no longer are affiliated with ACORN," he said. "We started a new group. We're not forcing anyone to pay dues. If they want to make donations, we'll take them."
But it's not so easy to quit.
The Stratmoor Valley group says it can't get access to $3,000 or so it generated in fundraisers and donations for its campaign to get streetlights and a park in the neighborhood.
"We don't know where our money is," Aldaz said. "We've tried to get answers, but we can't get any. We feel abandoned."
Even worse, the group said it's being dunned for $200 in bills left by ACORN when its paid organizer, Rachel Stovall, quit in August.
Rent has gone unpaid on ACORN's office leased from the Urban League of the Pikes Peak Area. And teenagers hired to help with Stratmoor Valley cleanup were never reimbursed by ACORN, Aldaz said, adding that he and others paid them from their own pockets.
But the worst problem, Aldaz said, is the issue of dues. Many Stratmoor Valley residents agreed to let ACORN automatically withdraw monthly dues from their bank accounts.
"A bunch of people in our neighborhood are still paying dues," Aldaz said.
Stovall said it's unfair to blame her for any problems because she quit in a dispute over sick time and ACORN has not replaced her.
"I don't work for ACORN anymore," she said, "but I'm willing to help these people. They shouldn't have to pay dues if they don't want to pay dues. And they need to be seeing treasury reports and things."
ACORN's Western regional organizer, Clare Crawford of Albuquerque, blames much of the confusion and problems on Stovall's abrupt departure and on Hurricane Katrina, which forced the group from its New Orleans headquarters and snarled communications, paperwork and financial transactions.
"We've had a lot of difficulty recovering," Crawford said. "A check that is normally issued in a week now takes a month or more. We're trying to get rent checks issued. And I have at least one reimbursement check that I've processed for them."
She asked ACORN members to be patient until she can visit Colorado Springs later this month to meet with them and resolve outstanding issues. "I don't understand why they want to cancel their memberships," she said. "I have been in e-mail contact with several officers there. I have invited them to call me.
"We want to solve this situation as quickly as possible. I would really hope, based on the good work we did early on, that people will have a little bit of patience. We do have a commitment there."

Just another day with ACORN

YOUTUBE of Angry UNPAID ACORN WORKERS

2008-07-14T07:52:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6SrZODbHg

Where do we go from here? Huh Wade?

2008-07-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

Rathke and his Posse Must GO!! or ACORN WILL DESTROY THE FOREST!!

If Wade Rathke is allowed to continue to run game as "Chief Organizer of ACORN International"

The staff that empowered him to protect he and his brother from being revealed as having stolen a million dollars from ACORN are allowed to stay?

Alas nothing will change at ACORN.
some things folks should think of?

ACORN burned their financial disclosures every 5 years. Has it dawned on anyone that over the course of the last 38 years they could have gotten away with this little bit of family theft at least five times before they were busted?

Some of us have been executive directors before Wade? Some of us?

KNOW WHERE TO LOOK!

You think any of the foundations out there you stole from migth have extensive financial records?

Maybe?

Please Bertha, Please, you don't need Wade to take this ball down the field. The good Wade has done HAS BEEN DONE. The Bad is ongoing. ACORN could be reformed into a true engine of Grassroots organizing. You can make it happen.

With Wade and his junta around you will always be boxed in.

Has anyone realized that members and staff that protected him can be charged in criminal proceedings for their role?

Wade do you care for these people at all?

If you do you will take full responsibility and admit that the fact that you covered your brothers a$$ makes you complicit.

Save the Tree, @corn

As I said-Wade is no longer Chief Organizer

2008-07-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well you saw it here first. Now Wade has stepped down: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html

So here is the deal as I have pinted our for some time:

1) Wade Rathke's brother ran the money (that would be Dale)
2) His wife runs the Louisiana office.
3) He has surrounded himself with his best friends
4) He created a compliant and in many ways ignorant board thatg would do whatever he said (How long has Maude been Chair)?
5) As reported in the New York times Wade's brother Dale used the for profit entity they set up to steal a million dollars.
6)Maude and the girls have given Wade a golden Parachute and allowed him to resign as Chief Organizer and promoted him to Chief Organizer of ACORN International! He is now Chief Organizer of the world?
7) Not on my watch pal!!!!!!!

Let us be clear, I don't hate ACORN, and I am not some right winger. I am former ACORN organizer.

What I care about is the milions of dollars I have personally watched get wasted, mispent, misdirected, and that were supposed to be for the social justice movement.

What I care about is field organizers who aren't paid shit, who rish their lives, so that Wade, his wife, his brtother, John Kest, Helene O'brien, and the rest of the crew can bleed this movement dry. Jetting around the world and selling out communities instead of focusing on community organizing.

Wade Rathke is a wealthy white boy who surrounded himself with wealthy white boys who is trying ot stay wealthy while trying to look like some Mother Theresa.

The only way a person of color could rise to the top was for Wade to step down.

Berth Lewis we wish you luck!!

The Rotten ACORN Falls From the Tree or Rahtke's (Yellow Hair just like Custer) Last Stand

2008-06-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You heard it here first folks straignt from inside the rotten ACORN.

So as you may or may not have heard before.

The Rathke machine was built like this.

1) Put your brother and other family members in charge of the money.
2) Put your wife in charge of home office operations.
3) Become the president of a Union as part of your golden parachute.
4) Surround yourself with sychophantic caucasian staff members from elite families who will do anything to make you happy. Why? Because it is a good course up the Democrats of influence ladder.
5) Run your so-called bottom up grassroots organization from the top down.
6) Blackmail companies that do business in poor communities to give you money or you will raise bloody hell into giving you payola.
7) Set up several paralel for-profit entities, internet, radio, mortgagte counseling, so you can really cash in.
8) Laugh all the way to the bank while your employees work for less than 8 bucks an hour in unsafe working conditions out of their sense of YT guilt to build your massive 81 million dollar a year monster.

Do I have that right?

What could go wrong?

Well for starters some of your staff have a conscience. SO sorry! They start to figure out what is going on. People like me left a long time ago. Now? People who have worked there for decades are jumping ship.
Why?
Well Wade's brother just got caught stealing well over 1,000,000 dollars from the till.
The staff finally woke up and realized Wade is a crook.
Foundations want their money back.
Wade's sychophantic young liberals? Split!
Those complacent poor people you thought were so dumb?
Turn's out they aren't all dumb and they want Wade to step down!
Turn's out a bunch of people might be going to jail!
Turns out people like me don't seem sooooo crazy anymore do they Wade?
Turns out I was a bit of a prophet.

Here is my nessage to those who might be listening!

1,000.000 is that all you think they stole?
Let's see there was the Fema trailer out behind the office you used to house visiting dignitaries as well as an annex to your office.
There is all the money you shuffled from organizing itno political when you felt like it.
Need I say more?
When the forensic audit is done the only good organizing Wade will have ever done will be how he got his brother to go to jail while he kept jetting around the world.
Let's see, how about grants collected and spent on offices that were closed.
Think anyone might want to look into that?
How about? Well stay tuned you will see.........

Dangerous and unfair Work Conditions? Walmart? Try ACORN!!

2007-07-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

ACORN Organizers MUST:

Go door to door ALONE in the dark in high crime neighborhoods.

Work 10 hours a day and 11-4 on Saturday with no overtime.

Work 60 hours (sometimes more) a week for 25,000 a year. (That's 8.68 an hour which is not a living wage anywhere in the Unitied States)

Go door to door no matter the weather conditions (that includes lightning).

Get two members a day in low income neighborhoods who have bank accounts and commit to give $10.00 a month regardless of income.

Collect cash and carry it with them until the end of their workday.

Get arrested when called upon to do so.

BAIL themselves OUT!

Shake down local businesses for money.

Not carry personal protection.

Even when sick go door to door alone no matter the neighborhood.

Work while Sick.

Work without overtime.

Not organize a union.

Manipulate members when necessary.

Not complain about sexual harrassment.

Allow themselves to be the subjects of homophobia, sexual oppression, and even racism by superiors.

Lie to funders.

Lie to members.
Work with other organizers who are abusive and sexist.

Abandon chapters when the members are too poor to raise large amounts of money.

Do outsourced work for Unions at wages that are below union wages and living wages.

Wait for their paychecks for months after they resign, quit, or are fired.

Tolerate never getting reimbursed for personal expenses (mileage,cell phone,copies)

Tolerate money for community organizing being placed into accounts set aside for political action.

Allow their staff to be hired guns for whatever effort their supervisor determines important.

to be continued..............

The Rath of Wade

2007-07-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

A typical staff meeting with Rathke or any of his sychophants (Helene O'Brien, any of the regional heads, etc...), usually involves Wade rolling out his latest political brainstorm ala George Lucas with him as the emporer and Helene as Darth Vadar. He then stops at the end and says "so what do people think" "anyone have any other ideas". Some fool raises their hand (usually on staff under two years) and asks for a clarification in a way that hints critique or worse someone says "hey I've got an idea". Helene's eyes look past the person with disdain. The peanut gallery starts to chuckle and then Wade says something like "anyone else" totally ignoring the person or he rips them to shreds with some statement like "any ther creative ideas" with a smirk. You see from this point on it is as if Vadars mind grip starts to stranglke the person, everyone else stops talking ot the person, they aren't invited to lunch anymore.

ACORN is a dictatorship of the petit bourgeoisie and the select members of the trust fund inteligensia. Dilettantes at best, rich kids playing revolutionary while they can afford to. Rathke is no true "organizer" nor has he ever been. You see no grassroots organizer goes into a community and creates a groundswell to support his or her own agenda. An organizer is called on by a group indigenous and legitimately representative of it's demographic. ACORN started wrong and has been wrong ever since. ACORN has always been an alien invader. Like the Nile Perch destroys Lake Victoria in Tanzania ACORN usually creates politically brckish conditions and chokes out indigenous grassroots groups.

If Rathke wants something he will throw organizers at it until it sticks. Proclaiming either they are with us or against us. Sound familiar? He treats staff the same. ACORN organizers often joke about drinking the kool aid. Wonder what they are talking about? Lets see.

Cult characteristics:
Work for little or nothing
Put yourself in danger for the group or be pushed out
Give all connection to any former friends or family
Be willing to move anywhere your told or be pushed aside
New recruits are preferably green with no previous thoughts or experience
Recruits are sponges for the commands of others and have little impule to think for themselves

Wow sounds like ACORN.

What Wade Rathke and Rudy have in common

2007-07-11T23:42:00.001-07:00

Lets see,

Rudy was told not to put the command center in the trade centers after it was attacked and he did so anyway.

People have questioned the intelligence of the centralized power of ACORN in one office of ryears and Wade refused to listen.

A catclysmic event hit New York and Rudy was shut down and took months to get the city moving again.

Wade Rathke centralized all pay roll, benefits, bank accounts, communications (email), and operations in New Orleans. Result ACORN on it's knees for months. Paychecks for hundreds late, communication sucks, the whole organization frozen. Reaction? Let's rebuild it the same way?

Rudy flies along with America's sympathy because he happened to be Mayor during 911. Wade is bleeding the foundations dry by being the non profit that weathered Katrina. Getting all kinds of cash to rebuild. Rolling out staff members (paid staff) to speak on camera and in documentaries as affected ACORN members. In fact if anyone dares us we can point out how almost every ACORN picture consists of ACORN staff holding signs and leading the way. They actually are shit when it comes to engaging members.

Most Liberty tax protests involved staff swarming an office and releasing it as "spontaneous public anger". We know. One of the first things we ever did as staff was get ordered to go by oneself and disrupt Liberty tax site so the boss could claim it as yet another protest in the nationwide movement against Liberty.

Object as Wade has said? "Get them to give us money change a couple of corporate policies and we will go away".
What is amazing is that no one has seemed to be willing to call his bluff. I know this a gimme to the opposition but somebody tell this a$$hole NO!!. Why as a progressive do I say that? Shakedowns aren't progressive. No power is built like that. Further? ACORN has walked away winning nothing but money in the past. No moral victory. Wade should earn his paycheck.

Wade is using Hurricane Katrina to excuse away ACORN bullsh#t that happened before Katrina. Staff retention, office closures 1000 miles away? All problems before the storm.

Rudy and Wade are peanut butter and jelly.

ACORN doesn't fall far from the tree

2007-07-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

Vertical Management? How could something called ACORN be governed from the top. An ACORN gtows from the bottom up.

Not this ACORN. This ACORN mandates cookie cutter production from every orifice. Also, ACORNs sprout individual trees. Not this ACORN. This ACORN ecpects every tree to grow the same no matter the soil, availability of water, sunlight etc..

Translation? ACORN mandates all organizers go door to door and get two members a day by getting a bank acount number or 30 bucks from every member. Period. No matter the community. No matter the unemployment rate, no matter the danger, no mattter the demographic make up of the area.

All organizers must organize a chapter with 100 members, a meeting that yields 100 participants, and a victory in a neighborhood with 1000 affected households.
No matter that some communities have 25 percent unemployment, no matter that some communties do not contain neighborhoods of 1000 working class households.

Now you go and look at an area that is mostly migrant workers. These are poor people, right? These are affected people right? Well not according to top management at ACORN. Why are you organizing "those people" is the cry. "They are transient, and they don't have bank accounts". "You need to focus on homeowners and citizens."

You think ACORN will ever own up to that one in public? Not likely. In fact they brag about great work done to organize immigrant communities and then shut down the operations. Look into it. See if it is true.

ACORN looses Project Vote money in an area? Offices start to close like falling dominos. Now if ACORN is going to be a move one .org or the like then fine. BUT, if they want to continue to pretend to be a "grassroots organization" THAT is BULLSH#T. What many critics say is true about ACORN being a tool of the Democratic Party. The ironic part is that ACORN is screwing the Dems and the GOP. How? They don't do a thorough job of any of the crap they sell the Dems. IF the GOP were smart they would shut up. ACORN is ripping off the Dems blind and we can prove it.

Money for organizing shuffled in to ACORN political accounts (a big no no) and money for project vote shifted to organizing (another no no). They do it all the time. Their accountants fix it later.

In the end shitty VR and Get out the vote operations and lame organizing are the result. If the Dems were smart they would invest their money in traditional grassroots orgs with a track record of performance in one geographic area that sticks. ACORN moves into Ohio or Colorado like gangbusters and promises the Dems the moon and the stars and what do they get? A bunch of idiots trading crack for fake signatures and protesting offices demanding pay. And did it win Ohio for them in 2004? I would say not.

They promised the Dems if they funded (through the back door) a minimum wage campaign in Florida in 2004 it would deliver the state. The facts? Wasn't event close. 150,000 votes? Way worse than 2000. They did raise the minimum wage in Florida and tricked the Dems into bankrolling it so I guess they can smugly claim some victory. But getting a progressive or working class liberal vote at the polls? Their Get Out The Vote Effort sucks. Vans sat in parking lots prepaid while ACORN political twiddled for three weeks becuase their logistical vertical management in New Orleans sucked. Instead of empowering the individual teams to negotiate and manage getting vehicles in their area they choose to put one idiot who had no background in procurmenent in charge. That happens all time in ACORN. People with ZERO experience doing things that should be done by professionals? Seems the Dems would want to know a certain amount of professionalism was involved.

No vehicles were stolen by staff on benders, people with no allegiance to a progressive movement hired into management positions who later show up on the Rush Limbaugh show falsely accusing ACORN of all kinds of dastardly crap. The fault here isn't the false accusations. The fault here is building a team with no training or commitment and then being suprised when they show up in the national spotlight trading crack for signatures. Do ya get it Wade? Some of us out here no what we are talking about. We lived it for ever. Wade the fault is you allow 22 year old kids with no background in this work to be catipulted into management positions in three months. Positions that require some people to training? Like Regional political Director, or Head Organizer? The crime here is the young Head organizer crying her eyes out to fellow staff saying "why am I in this position, I don't know what I am doing". Want affadavits we can get them?

The crime here is that mahy foundations have invested alot of money into trusting ACORN to build a movement. The problem is? You are tearing it down Wade. By the way, quite a liberal three decades ACORN helped to usher in. NOT!!

ACORN is like the Nick Nolte in "Thin Red Line" demanding a group of soldiers rush the top of the hill over the radio and refusing to hear the troop leader reporting back "we are pinned down, we are out of ammunition, we are dying like flies" and Nolte responding "You get the hell up that hill soldier or you will be court martialed" or better yet like the commander that sends in a airstrike that hits his own soldiers rather than the enemy. THat is ACORN, THat is Wade Rathke.

ACORN the WALMART of Community Organizations

2007-07-09T01:25:00.000-07:00

Quote from Wade Rathke 2006 at a staff meeting:

"Do you realize we could go to India and purchase a labor union with 10,000 members for 150,00 dollars". "Now you understand why I travel to South Africa, India, Hong Kong".

Justification? This is how we fight WALMART?

Rathke actually has a dream that one day thousands of radicals will follow him like Lenin into a Gulag. That is the real truth.

The real ACORN is about building power. During training organizers are told "it doens't matter what your members want to fight for as long as ACORN builds power".

Anyone in the grassroots organizing community see a problem with this?

ACORN also only sets up shop where they will have little if any power struggle. They only set up in Big Cities that tend to have liberal Democratic City governments. Why? You think the skinflint Rathke is going ot invest in Tupelo? Aint gonna Happen. Grassroots organizing was created by white people who were allegedly trying ot find the proper role for educated and privileged whites within the movement. As Gary Delgado points out (A Latino ACORN manager) for 9 years, the structure of ACORN lends itself to the organizer having supreme control through staying behind the scenes. You don't see Bill Gates out on the street peddling Microsoft and the organizer is trained to try various methods to "get the members to do what we want, even if that means manpulation". That is from an ACORN field manual.

Rathke has structured ACORN to do his bidding from the word go.

ACORN goes into cities that have long traditions of organizing and basically pretends they don't see anyone else on the landscape. They then go about the business of trying ot run the mom and pop local organizations out of existence.

How is that different from Walmart? It isn't.
When members start talking about gay rights the organizer is instructed to act behind the scenes to steer the conversation elsewhere. Talk about choice same tactic.

Just like Walmart ACORN sells itself as good stuff for cheap to the Democratic party. The fools then invest in them. Yet they garner very little results. Their voter registration campaign in 2004 where millions upon millions were syphoned from liberal sources to get out the vote.

Are the Dems happy with the results of these efforts in 04? I should hope not. Angry staff members across the country were breaking office equipment and holding press conferences about not getting paid. Rathke response? "Conservative propaganda". I wish it were true it isn't.
Police were called in offices across the country because of angry staff. Check it out, this is true. High quality? If you call thousands of VR Cards turned in across the USA toolate to vote high quality, then go ahead keep feeding the Rathke machine.

Gee sounds kind of like WALMART. Sh!tty pay, low price products, low quality products. Disgruntled staff and customers have been took, bamboozled, ya been had. Rathke looks like a pro. With his NorthFace camping clothes and his blackberry checking into the finest hotels on the planet. What a guy. His salary? Don't even ask. He and his family have syphoned off millions.

The Real ACORN

2007-07-09T00:51:00.000-07:00

What ACORN is? A sham. The call themselves direct ACTION. But they do staged events aimed only at extorting money out of their target. The second they get the cash they are sucking ass.

They claim to be a progressive grassroots member run organization. They are nothing of the sort.

They aren't pro-choice, they aren't pro gay rights, they aren't against the death penalty. The white trust fund IVY league managers of ACORN, mange members that can be manipulated. They also manage a staff that can't afford to disagree with the mangement. If they do they are run out on a rail.

ACORN is never an indigenous force. From the start it was a white guy driving to Little Rock AR and creating ACORN. A guy (Wade Rathke) the son of a wealthy accountant who has a Napoleon complex as thin as the Napster was short. From the start he surrounded himself with sycophants who did his bidding. His national management? White. Thirty years out and it is still white. It always will be.

ACORN tells foundations they have hundreds of chapters when applying for grants. Truth be told? Most of those chapters have been inactive for years. They show dots on maps where offices are and insiders know many of those offices are closed or only have a mortgage lending staff that hasd nothing ot do with organizing.

Their staff are sexually harrassed and often treated in an abusive manner that is characteristic of ACORN management. Staff are often told to lie to members in order to get money. Female and staff are forced to knock doors after dark in dangerous neighborhoods. This isn't done to build self confidence it is done to save money. We know staff members who have been forced to sleep with their managers with no reprimand from management. ACORN staff tend to be heavy drinkers. Stress drinkers.

What ACORN is is the exact opposite of what it pretends to be.
Grassroots? No! They go into communities where there is already community organizing going on and set up shop.
Direct Action? When? Where? Go leaflet Walmart till you get thrown out? please.
Pro-union? Every organizer who ever even suggested a union for ACORN staff was ran out on a rail.

ACORN for a living wage? Not for ACORN staff. 520.83 per week before taxes. That is a 60 hour week. That means ACORN organizers get paid 8.68 per hour. Wow what a living wage that is. What do Union organizers get paid? Don't even ask.

Retention of Minority staff? Dismal! How can struggling low income families take care of their kids? Thye can't? 60 hours? 11:00 am to 9:00 pm? Pick up the kids from school forget it. Make dineer for kids? Forget it? Make the choice to have kids? No way. Unless you are in the upper echelons of ACORN then you drag your screaming kid to staff meetings and expect everyone to go goo gaga and say "isn't that cute?" It isn't. It is insulting.

Meanwhile Wade Rathke is staying at the finest hotels on every continent.

ACORN is the WALMART of community organizing. If you watch this website. You will get the up to the minute inside dope on ACORN. This isn't coming from some conservative hack out to hurt the movement. This comes from the inside in hopes ACORN will grow up and learn that organizing isn't hundreds of yes men and women marching to the tune of one lone global traveller.