Barney Frank recently reneged on his vote for the original amendment that would stop any group under indictment or convicted of voter fraud to receive federal money/tax payer grants. He reneged because ACORN is a major player on the Hill these days. ACORN has helped elect Democrats for years now, although it attempts to call itself a non-partisan organization. The corruption and fraud only exacerbate the true problems facing this country and fair elections.
We also found out this week that less than 25% of votes coming in from overseas ever get counted. Many of these votes are from expats. or military service men and women, who, more than likely, lean towards the right.
Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said the study, while providing only a snapshot of voting patterns, “is enough to show that the balloting process for service members is clearly in need of an overhaul.”
The committee, working with the Congressional Research Service, surveyed election offices in seven states with high numbers of military personnel: California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.
It said that of 441,000 absentee ballots requested by eligible voters living abroad – mainly active-duty and reserve troops – more than 98,000 were “lost” ballots that were mailed out but never received by election officials. Taking into account 13,500 ballots that were rejected for such reasons as a missing signature or failure to notarize, one-quarter of those requesting a ballot were disenfranchised.
The study found that an additional 11,000 ballots were returned as undeliverable.
Schumer’s office said that because a person living abroad must request the absentee ballot and show a clear intention to vote, voter negligence is not thought to be a major factor.
Rather, the New York Democrat said in a statement, there is a chronic problem of military voters being sent a ballot without sufficient time to complete it and send it back. He cited estimates that a ballot can take up to 13 days to reach an overseas voter.
Among the states surveyed, California had 30,000 “lost” votes out of 103,000 ballots mailed out. An additional 3,000 ballots were returned as undeliverable and 4,000 were rejected.
It’s no wonder that conservative politicians are up in arms over the obvious voter fraud that is occurring in this nation, which was supposed to exemplify free and fair elections. We have become so corrupt it seems that we may as well be a third world country. One of the heavy hitters that is lobbying to block funding for groups such as ACORN is Michele Bachmann.
Video:
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann called on Congress Thursday to block ACORN’s access to federal housing funds, citing repeated charges of voter registration fraud against the low-income advocacy group.
The Republican congresswoman, flanked by an ACORN whistleblower and an attorney who worked on an ACORN case in Pennsylvania, escalated a media offensive against the group, which is a favorite target of conservatives who claim liberals are unjustly protecting a dysfunctional organization by allowing it access to taxpayer money.
“ACORN, as you know, is no stranger to the spotlight,” Bachmann said outside the Capitol. “Yet no matter how many times prosecutors investigate and even indict ACORN and their employees, they emerge unblemished as far as the federal government is concerned from having access to federal tax dollars.”
Bachmann, who hit the same themes in an op-ed in the Washington Times on Wednesday, complained that House Democrats killed her amendment to block organizations indicted for voter fraud from receiving federal housing money. She said ACORN has received at least $53 million in tax dollars since 1994, and that she will have new legislation in the coming weeks.
“We simply believe that the bar needs to be very high,” she said.
The call for congressional action comes after Nevada officials filed voter registration fraud charges against ACORN last week, and Pennsylvania authorities charged seven local ACORN workers with forging voter registration forms.
In the Nevada case, officials alleged the group illegally based employment and compensation on a quota system for voter registration. The group required canvassers to register 20 voters per shift or be fired, officials said, and gave bonus money to canvassers who registered more than 20 people.
ACORN issued a response to Bachmann Thursday accusing the congresswoman of “partisan witch hunts.”
How can there be a partisan witch hunt against a group that is being charged with fraud in various states by state attorneys who are both Democrat and Republic – but just seem to want to do the legal and ethical thing? If we really want to talk about witch hunts maybe we should discuss the Democrats going after the Bush administration with their “truth commission.”
The good news for Bachmann is the latest backing of a very influential Republican, Michael Steele. Steele and the RNC will fully support Michele’s call to present an amendment or legislation that will block funding to ACORN.
Republican National Chairman Michael Steele urged supporters Thursday to get behind Rep. Michele Bachmann’s drive to block public dollars from going to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
I don’t know what to make of this but it seems like a pretty big deal. Will it be pushed under the rug or become a thorn in the side of those involved? You be the judge.
Whether the story is bigger than Watergate or not, it is definitely a scandal of huge proportions.
To sum it up, on April 23, 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Chris Dodd; Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank; SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro; and Chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel Elizabeth Warren.
The letter outlined how former Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke forced Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch – even though Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and the board of directors tried to pull the plug on the deal after it turned out that Merrill Lynch was far deeper in debt than it had admitted.
In the words of Attorney General Cuomo himself:
Immediately after learning on December 14, 2008 of what Lewis described as the “staggering amount of deterioration” at Merrill Lynch, Lewis conferred with counsel to determine if Bank of America had grounds to rescind the merger agreement by using a clause that allowed Bank of America to exit the deal if a material adverse event (“MAC”) occurred. After a series of internal consultations and consultations with counsel, on December 17, 2008, Lewis informed then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that Bank of America was seriously considering invoking the MAC clause. Paulson asked Lewis to come to Washington that evening to discuss the matter.
Bank of America’s attempt to exit the merger came to a halt on December 21, 2008. That day, Lewis informed Secretary Paulson that Bank of America still wanted to exit the merger agreement. According to Lewis, Secretary Paulson then advised Lewis that, if Bank of America invoked the MAC, its management and Board would be replaced.
Meanwhile Ken Lewis has been sacked as chairman of the board at Bank of America… even though he might well have been the only conscientious and honest player in this scheme. And now the sharks have started to turn on each other: according to Cuomo, Paulson “largely corroborated Lewis’s account” and informed the attorney general’s office that he “made the threat at the request of Chairman Bernanke.” The latter has so far chosen to keep his mouth shut.
The key factor here is not that the Devious Duo forced Bank of America into a merger it didn’t want to commit to. Granted, that’s an unheard-of interference of government in the free market, but we’re quite sure that the Powers-That-Be could sweep it under the rug by invoking the “greater good.”
No, the part of the story that could really break ‘Al’ Paulson and ‘Don’ Bernanke’s necks is the failure to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as Bank of America’s shareholders, of the extent of toxic waste Bank of America was forced to accept. That’s fraud, pure and simple.
I say move as far to the left as possible Barney – this will ensure the change of power from liberals to conservatives in 2010 since progressives have horrible policy ideas and almost always overreach.
It’s also quite amusing that Barney Frank of all people is commenting on not being part of the Wall Street Democrats, the same Barney Frank who received the most money from the sub prime debacle and had corrupt dealings with Fannie and Freddie… Barney Frank seriously needs to consider seeing a psychiatrist ~ He is a pathological liar.
Two partisan heavyweights did battle Thursday over an amendment prized by conservatives, as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) withdrew backing for a bill that would have toughened regulations for community organizing groups.
Frank withdrew his support from an amendment offered by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) that would forbid groups like the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving federal grants if any of their employees have been indicted for voter fraud.
Good! Why should any groups that claim to be non-partisan receive our taxpayer funds when they are anything but non-partisan? I personally wouldn’t care if the group was conservative or liberal, I don’t want my taxpayer funds going to either.
After approving the amendment by a unanimous voice vote, Frank announced Thursday he was mistaken to back the bill, and said he’d offer a substitute that would apply the amendment only to groups with employees who are actually convicted — not just indicted. Frank’s version would also take into account the employee’s position in the organization, and how long ago the conviction had been handed down.
Frank is flip-flopping because ACORN and groups backed by George Soros have more power on Capitol Hill than most want to admit. He wants to make it appear that he is writing legislation that will not be misconstrued (funny how that’s never what Democrats want in any of their bills – they prefer being vague so they can find loopholes to help themselves). Stipulating that an actual conviction is necessary would delay the withdrawal of funds which is all that Frank is trying to do.
“Focusing on an indictment and letting an indictment be the trigger of penalties would be a violation the basic rules and fairness of American law,” Frank told The Hill. “So if one person is indicted, the whole “innocent until proven guilty, etc”� just goes totally out the window.”
When has fairness or the law ever applied to Democrats? These groups shouldn’t be getting taxpayer money anyway – especially since they are trying to pass themselves off as non-partisan when they most definitely are not!
“The temptation to indict someone you don’t like — after the Ted Stevens thing, I don’t even know how anyone could think about that,” he said.
Typical liberal counterpoint (passive-aggressive) and typical Barney Frank – lay the blame elsewhere and try to make the person asserting the statement out to be mean-spirited or bigoted.
Bachmann blasted Frank for “siding with ACORN,” a group that had stoked the ire of many conservatives for their efforts to turn out the vote for President Obama during the 2008 elections.
“Are we expected to keep forking over tax dollars to these organization when they’re under the cloud of suspicion of a public criminal indictment?” Bachmann asked in a statement.
“If nothing else, this shows us just how much influence ACORN and others have over Chairman Frank and the Democrat party,” she said. “Your tax dollars are being abused.”
Right you are Bachmann - keep on fighting the good fight!
Another funny side note:
Chairman Barney Frank accepted the amendment right there in front of the whole committee — I assumed because it was his very own language as passed under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008 — and the amendment was then passed by unanimous voice vote.
So he originally approved all of this when he wrote it – but something made him change his mind. He thinks that these facts aren’t on record and that the media will be able to cover all of the Democrats’ messes up forever. This is similar to Pelosi’s amnesiaon waterboarding.
