RealTown's RealTalk

....>>I have no clue why the group suddenly is overtaken by this propaganda
campaign<<
It is so obvious why there is so much propaganda in regard to ACORN.
Because there is one side of the election equation that at each election
cycle works to suppress votes, while the other side of the equation works to
make sure everyone gets to vote. Voter suppression is something that
actually happens often, especially in poorer neighborhoods, while voter
fraud is actually quite rare. Any research at all will show you this. I'll
let you figure out which side likes to suppress votes. I do not have a very
high opinion of them.
In ACORN's case, ACORN hires poor people to do voter registration as a way
of helping these people get some cash in their pockets. As a result, some
of the people they hire take advantage of ACORN and fill out false
registrations just to get the money that ACORN pays for their quota of
registrations. ACORN is the loser in this situation, and the election
process is NOT affected because the fraudulent registrations are not people
-- the registrations are just pieces of paper. "Mickey Mouse" does not turn
up to vote! ACORN is the first to point out when the registrations are
fraudulent, but they are required to turn them in anyway. There is voter
registration fraud (mostly against ACORN) but NOT voter fraud.
This is a big media hype job, promulgated by the corporate media just to
throw more sand in our eyes. Don't you all just get sick of it? Look how
much energy this hype job has taken on this list, wasting time. I wish
people would smarten up.
Kedda Keough

---

I agree... I was being sarcastic... something I do from time to time...

;-)

Paul Silver
Focus Professionals, Inc.

James Snow wrote:

>From Paul:
"I have no clue why the group suddenly is overtaken by this propaganda
campaign"
I have been a long time reader of Real Talk, but have never posted before. I
cannot let this pass. The real propaganda come from posts like Paul's. For
those of you who like to read the other side of the story, here is a link
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122394051071230749-lMyQjAxMDI4MjEzNDkx
NDQwWj.html

---

You realize that this is an opinion editorial from a rightist news
organization, right?

So you realize that this article is as much propaganda as it is fact, right?

Get some facts, and we can talk...

Paul Silver, Esq.
Focus Professionals, Inc.

You know, the way some of you "bend" the truth to hopefully get your way is
making me tired. I mean really.
"ACORN: McCain And GOP Used To Be Supporters" along with photos of many
notable Republicans including a photo of John McCain attending its March
2006 rally. From
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/13/acorn-mccain-and-gop-used_n_134284.
html - here are some excerpts.
The huffingtonpost? Gee, do you suppose that's a liberal resource? Give me a
break.
Well, if Senator Obama get's elected, I will have 4 years to tell you, "I
told you so".
Jacquie Graham

---

Huffington Post is for sure a liberal publication... but it is a fact that
McCain was a supporter for many years, as were many Republicans... why deny
this? The organization is not a bad thing and its goals are worthy of
support from both parties, unless I suppose you disagree with helping
disadvantaged people get a voice and start in life, and think that they
should be without representation, as with other interest groups...

Paul Silver, Esq.
Focus Professionals, Inc.

The reason that the fraudulent registrations are such a massive problem is that once they are on the voter roles, they can then be used by anyone posing as that person to cast a "fraudulent vote".  Thus, allowing for the possibility of people voting in multiple locations posing as multiple people. 

This basically "steals" the legitimate votes that the honest people cast.  It dilutes the legitimate votes.  I worked as a  "Pole Watcher " in the 2004 Presidential Election in Milwaukee, Wi   I witnessed an abundance of vote fraud.  There were so many people that were bussed in,  came up to vote, with an envelope in their hand.  When asked who they were and their address they had to READ from the envelope and I even heard several mispronounce the city name....  You'd think you'd know where you live??????   They would go through the line,  ask a pole worker to show them how to vote for Kerry and not vote for anything else.  Then, they made a big deal about getting their "I Voted sticker".  We found out that guys were paying them $10 for each time they voted... 

I will be a pole watcher this year again, and fully expect the same blatant Voter Fraud.   Sure makes me furious that these people think there is nothing wrong with putting dead people, and who knows what on these registrations.  And then the Democrats scream that the Republicans are trying to suppress the vote!!!!  OMG   I'm so very glad that ACORN is finally getting investigated,  but I'm sure they have "orders from the big guys" to get more registrations to make up for the ones they got busted on.....

Get involved in a campaign,  it will truly open your eyes.

I for one am praying that John McCain and Sarah Palin are the ones on top on Nov 5th.

Karen Wenzel

Realty Executives-Integrity

Brookfield, WI   

www.GoPackerUp.com

414-750-1989

Paul Silver says:

ACORN has been accused of the same thing, and in each case the Attorney General (including last time, Alberto Gonzales) have found no wrong doing. So what you are complaining about I have no idea. Of course, this would be a good tactic to gloss over and distract the public from the actions of voter role
purges that are currently still underway in Florida, Ohio and Colorado. These, by Republican administrators.

So while ACORN acts according to law, and is attacked without basis, the purges continue. Those are the facts.,. do with them what you will.

=============================================== Paul And the purposes of the "voter role purges" is to? Can we presume these are being done IAW procedures established in the election laws? JIM
The Jim Cummings Team
CRS, GRI, RECS, e-Pro 500
Real Estate Consultants
512-633-3853 mailto:Jim@AustinTxMls.com
AVALAR Austin On Bee Caves, Austin, TX 78746
512-732-7001 Office 888-633-3853 Toll Free

Website: http://www.AustinTxMls.com

Paul,
It is interesting you would discount what representatives of ACORN say in
person (videos of them saying it) and that you would put more faith in
written documents that obviously have been written and cleaned up by third
parties. As an attorney you surely are aware that the written word by a
third party is not nearly as reliable as the spoken word by the actual
representatives of the organization.

By the way, one of my companies was once an ACORN target. It was all about
the money. They tried to intimidate us into paying them tens of thousands of
dollars rather than receive bad press. In order to intimidate us, they filed
lawsuits against three of our franchisees in three Federal Court
jurisdictions. The day our franchisees were served, we were contacted so
they could have their attorney set up a meeting to "work things out". My
company was accused of not including enough minority photos in our
marketing. Oddly enough, when counting the people involved in the marketing
pieces, they somehow forgot to count the Hispanics, Orientals, and other
minorities pictured.

They seemed only to be interested in the number of African Americans
included. Their so called investigation amounted to next to nothing. ACORN
had not even figure out that one office was owned by a Hispanic family,
another office had 65% African Americans as agents, and the third office had
100% African Americans as agents. My in house legal counsel and a well known
African American attorney (who happened to sit on the BOD of the local ACORN
organization) defended me against the bogus lawsuits. ACORN's attorney had
the cases dismissed the day that we had the meeting in our offices in
Memphis.

What makes this so revealing is that over half of the photos in our
marketing materials included minorities, including African Americans,
Hispanics, Orentials, and American Indians. Half of our business nationwide
involved minority buyers. It became very apparent how racist the ACORN
organization could be. Based on my experience, I have to question how
sincere they about truly representing the interest of ALL minorities, and
not just African Americans.

ACORN's reported involvement in voter registration fraud does not surprise
me one bit after my experience with them.

Tom Hathaway

---

I don't discount what members of ACORN say in public, in fact, the national
director was on CNN yesterday, where she explained what the issues were
regarding what you call voter registration fraud... seems ACORN hired
canvassers to recruit and register new voters. They were paid by ACORN per
registration. Seems about 1% of the registrations submitted were fraudulent,
and were filled out by just a very few of the canvassers... these canvassers
were reported to the authorities, and the registration forms marked as
suspicious by ACORN authorities... they did miss a few, but they are
required by law to submit all the forms, even if marked as fake. This they
did.

They have never been found guilty of any wrong doing, even by Alberto
Gonzales, Attorney General at the time, when the Administration charged that
they had committed fraud. They were found innocent of this.

So I do account for what they say, and more, what is documented in 3rd party
groups, such as a resource for foundations that is used to see what sort of
grant applications were accepted by what sort of donors... this is a
resource funded by all member foundations, including the FORD, ROCKEFELLER,
Robert Wood Johnson, and many others. It does not clean up any submitted
documents, but only shows the grant applications, and the awarded grant
documents... how that would be biased I am not sure... but I have used the
resource in a capacity as a Vice Chair of a Foundation, and found the
information quite informative... it has nothing to do with what they "say"
publicly or not... just facts about their funding, and what they either
receive grants for, or award grants for to others.

If you don't like objective data sources, I can't help you.

As for your personal experience, I cannot speak to that... but it does seem
your old company had many law suits over the years, as witnessed by your
posts on this forum.

Paul Silver, Esq.
Focus Professionals, Inc.

Talk about misrepresenting an issue.

I have no personal experience with or knowledge of ACORN. I am basing my comments entirely on a check of the facts as reported by FactCheck.org and from a careful reading of the news reports relating to the voter registration activities of this organization.

It is preposterous to think that the fraudulent submission of voter registrations to ACORN by some of their contract employees in order to get paid more would be characterized by anyone, much less a �candidate for president, as one of the largest voter fraud schemes in history. There was no voter fraud here at all. It was ACORN that discovered that a small fraction of the individuals who were being paid on a per registration basis had submitted clearly falsified lists. The lists never resulted in registration but even if they had been submitted to the election board, they would have been kicked out for a variety of reasons.�

I guess if you're desperate and nothing seems to be working then you blow an example of attempted rip-off of ACORN by some of its contract employees into a case of election fraud.�

Anyone who has ever been involved in a petition drive using contract workers knows that some of these employees will do whatever they can to inflate the number of signatures they have collected. But no fraud is committed since every name is ultimately checked and verified by the Secretary of State or County Clerk before the petition is certified.

Contrast this with the verified election fraud committed against the people of the United States in 2000 and 2004 by elected officials in Florida, Ohio, and elsewhere. In these instances, wholesale purges of voters expected to vote for the democratic candidate took place. As a consequence the losing candidate was inaugurated and we now face multiple crises as a result. We are mired down in a war that should never have been waged, spending billions of dollars each month; our credibility in the world is at its lowest point in decades; and our financial and credit institutions are on the verge of collapse.

John E Cleek

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Bravo... actual facts... I like that...

It may be preposterous to think some of the things we see people saying, but alas, they still think them...

I find it amazing how far we have gone off base when it comes to our elections these days... with the web, and with the media, one would think it would be easier than ever to get real facts. What we get, and what many of us believe, is spin and propaganda. Both parties... I am not picking on just one... and more than the parties, the media too...

This is a very unsettling situation for anyone who actually cares about our democratic history and our country... democracy, as was so often stated by all the Founders of this country, depends on the transparency of the government to the people, and depends on an informed and reasonable electorate. It was for reasons of a fear of uninformed citizens in a day when communications were much slower that the Electoral College came to be... and I suppose, we would hope that by now, with technological advances, that this would not be needed any more... but it seems we may need it now more than ever... a bad thing if you ask me...

We should have come some distance by now toward a more transparent government, and a more informed citizenry, but instead we have partisan bias, spin, and misinformation... they had this back when, but even more so now...

It is unfortunate...

Paul Silver, Esq.
Focus Professionals, Inc.