02-20-2009, 11:08 PM
Got a better source, swampy? I'm sure you're big enough to admit that this one's not credible, as it's based on information from "Consumer Rights League" and treating it as a solid source.
The Consumer Rights League (CRL) appears to be a front group for the credit card industry that was created to do battle with industry critics such as the Center for Responsible Lending and ACORN.
On July 17, 2008, CRL ran a full-page advertisement on page 5B of USA Today, arguing against a bill before Congress that it claimed would "pickpocket consumers" at the gas pump. The ad implied that the bill, the "Credit Card Fair Fee Act" (H.R. 5546) is anti-consumer (the same position taken by the Visa International credit card company.[1]
The "Consumers Rights League" does not disclose on its Web site that it was started by Terry L. Kibbe, a former chief fundraiser for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute. A March 2008 article in Forbes omits the details about Kibbe's background, while quoting her Kibbe's criticism of Self-Help Credit Union,[2] the North Carolina-based relative of the Center for Responsible Lending,[3] which advocates against payday loans. According to Forbes:
Terry L. Kibbe, a former think tank fundraiser who last year started a libertarian consumer advocacy outfit, Consumers Rights League, notes that Self-Help's high delinquency rate--it's seven times that of the typical credit union--proves that Eakes is as bad at judging borrowers' ability to pay back loans as anybody else. Self-Help says less than 1% of its loans ultimately default.[4]
CRL's website contains several examples of anti-consumer-group rhetoric, but discloses no information about the group's own funding, the site's origins or who runs it.[5]
A research report[6] on the site appears to argue on behalf of the credit card industry, stating, "Most importantly, credit cards can provide inexpensive access to credit for low-income Americans, many of whom take advantage of 0% and low-interest rates to pay down debt." [/qoute]
swampy wrote:
[quote=Gutenberg]
ACORN does not get federal grants and does not have nonprofit status because its activities are often political. Can anyone show me a federal grant that went to ACORN?
ACORN Housing does not count. It is a nonprofit, has separate governance and administers low income housing.
So. Can anyone show me a federal grant that went to ACORN? Anyone? Bueller?
"The ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC), an ACORN affiliate, receives more than 40 percent of its funding from government sources, ostensibly to promote affordable housing to low- and middle-income families.
But according to CRL, internal documents obtained from whistleblowers suggest that ACORN has failed to maintain the proper distinction between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive political activities.
“ACORN and its offshoots take in millions of dollars in government grants under the guise of ‘consumer advocacy’ to line their own pockets,” said Jim Terry, CRL’s chief public advocate.
The new testimony, from four former ACORN and AHC employees, provides “hard confirmation” that ACORN and its affiliate are in fact one in the same, Terry told Newsmax.
“Here are people who have been in the room, testifying to the criminal intent of the people involved” in shuffling ACORN resources from tax-exempt purposes to political activities, he said.
“Everything they do and say, with the exception of filing their government reports, treats this family of organizations as one cohesive unit. They operated as one organization, controlled from the top down,” Terry said.
One former employee, who was with ACORN for six years, including in a management position, testified that she has “knowledge that AHC has subsidized and believe that AHC continues to subsidize ACORN activities,” in apparent violation of the law.
“AHC subsidies to ACORN include office telephone service, fax, supplies and rental space paid for by AHC funds,” she added.
In addition, AHC management routinely treated federal grants as money that could be shared with ACORN, Terry told Newsmax.
“Between 2004 through 2006, AHC transferred $4.6 million to ACORN in grants and fees, according to their tax returns. This is inherently wrong.”
Since 40 percent of AHC funds came from government grants, that means that U.S. taxpayers were in effect paying for ACORN’s partisan political activities, he added.
AHC required employees to “solicit funds and cash from clients and real estate professionals to pay for AHC operations,” one of the whistleblowers said, detailing what amounted to a “shakedown” operation.
Another former AHC employee said he would testify in court to the fact that “AHC and ACORN have operated as one entity,” and quoted internal e-mails detailing how federal grants were shared between the organizations. "
http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/acorn_v...40131.html
You conveniently want to exclude AHC from the mix don't you, Gutenberg? AHC gets ton's of federal grant money then filters it on to the other branches of ACORN. Why do you think ACORN is under investigation, Gute?