Current Article

Can ACORN Fool You Twice?

By Pat Racimora on February 26, 2010 at 7:45 PM in Current Affairs

ACORN is in the process of restructuring in the wake of multiple scandals, including voter fraud and misuse of tax dollars.

So, watch out for lots of little acorns wearing funny glasses and fake moustaches.

Instead of trying to mend its broken image (and fill its empty coffers), ACORN will dissolve its national structure and split into local “independent” chapters. They will sport new names, but with underlying operating procedures remaining unchanged and retaining a lot of the same personnel.

Here is one example. The California group is operating under a new name. The remaining connection is made clear, even from its own description, and the “new” Executive Director has been with ACORN for many years. From the site: “The leadership and staff that were working with ACORN in California made the decision to break off from ACORN and launch a new organization here in California called Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).”

The Brooklyn New York ACORN Office shuttered briefly before rebranding itself as the New York Communities for Change. Other ACORN chapters are expected to follow suit.

Whether the falling Mother Oak spewing multiple rebirths on its way down is only a bait-and-switch PR scam or a sincere attempt to do meaningful work on behalf of the poor remains to be seen. Borrowing from two proverbs, will the result be “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow” or “As the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined?” Unless they start from scratch, my money is on Proverb #2.

For more, read Rev. Amy’s recent No Quarter article, “A Nut by Any Other Name” here.

And a BIG thank you to Nunly for the illustration and caption idea.

typical gram cracker

“Fool me twice, won’t be fooled again”

Never thought I’d miss Bush II, but Bush III just isn’t as entertaining.

Love the illustration. The rats scurried away, but are already on their way back.
Hank

You can put lipstick on them or those funny glasses and moustache, it will still be a rotten acorn. lol
Anonymous

Well Done Pat!
All that new little Acorn needs is a cigar!
jiminycricket

Obama shares the same glasses. He keeps trying to reframe everything he failed at over and over again in the hope that he will achieve his dishonorable goals. It is my great hope that when he attempts this in 2012, all will see him as he really is…the guy behind the glasses!
Stan Davis

Does falling for ACORN make me a sap? (Sorry…it’s Friday.)

Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Retired

I think that you are being very unfair to the baby ACORNS. ACCE in particular has been very helpful to me in helping me to establishing my sex slave business (staffed by foreign born minors who would not otherwise be able to be employed here because they have no papers and don’t speak a word of English) in downtown LA and helping me get U.S. government Small Business Administration financing for same. In a addition, they showed me how to get women owned, minority and disabled tax breaks and financing set asides even though I am a 50 year old white guy by offering to represent themselves in my businesses as partners and then taking a kickback. This is exactly the type of disadvantaged minority business environment that President Obama campaiged on helping, and he has certainly won the votes not only of myself by of all of my 14 and 15 year old employees from Asia and Latin America, partcularly now that ACCE has shown me how to register them to vote. Eat it, Republicans. as long as Obama, ACCE and other Alinsky-fueled intellectually qualified political cadres who are marching in solidarity with Bill Ayers have the will to win at any, repeat any, cost, you don’t have a chance. Long live Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof!
Peggy Sue

Great toon, Pat! Made me laugh [which I need right now].

I read about Acorn’s rebranding. I think you’re right–I’d bet on Proverb 2.
Solara 9

Retired–you are a hoot! Thanks for the laugh (although your good wit is based on a most sad situation).
tango

Cool, I like your business plan. That shows real creativity. Don’t forget, I’m sure ACCE can help you hide or launder any excess money you make from your underaged “employees” since it’s not fair that you have to declare it and then give it to the government in taxes. I mean come on, it’s not like you’re one of those horrible rich GOP backed bankers or insurance executives who constantly exploit others for their own greedy gains!
AC

Only if you sprout Stan. It’s Friday here also.
oowawa

Community Organizations International

Wade Rathke is intent on making this a worldwide organization, so emphasize the word INTERNATIONAL. Think in terms of New World Order. Out of the little Acorn grows the mighty Oak, or COI, in this case. Note the international emphasis on these primary sites:

http://www.communityorganizationsinternational.org/

http://chieforganizer.org/

Pat, I love your logo design–very interesting to the eye. And the glasses and moustache give it a friendly benign appearance. I would have been tempted to make the moustache a little more Hitlerian, but that would have made the “disguise” overtly ominous–exactly the opposite of what the name change is trying to accomplish. There’s just enough “Hitler” in the moustache you drew to provide a subtle hint of menace.
Stan Davis

Good one, AC. But at my age with a severe case of osteoporosis, I’m the incredibly shrinking man.

Stan
Rabble Rouser Rev. Amy

Agreed, Pat, you did an outstanding job, as always!

I find it jsut a TAD disconcerting that ACORN/COI wants to take their act on the road, so to speak. Holy smokes!
oowawa

Probably, most NQ readers are familiar with who Wade Rathke is (Glenn Beck once had a whole program on his connections).

Anyway, he is not only the founder of ACORN, but also of the SEIU:

Departure from ACORN

The New York Times reported on July 9, 2008, that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000.[1] ACORN executives decided to handle it as an internal matter, and did not inform most of the board members or law enforcement, and instead signed an enforceable restitution agreement with the Rathke family to repay the amount of the embezzlement. Wade Rathke told the Times, “the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a ‘weapon’ into the hands of enemies of Acorn, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to ACORN’s often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers.” A whistleblower revealed the embezzlement in 2008. On June 2, 2008, Dale Rathke was dismissed, and Wade stepped down as ACORN’s chief organizer, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C. (Wikipedia article)

So now Wade Rathke is the chief organizer of the new COI.

ACORN, SEIU, and now COI

Man, this guy is an operator!
Euclid

An acorn fell to the ground where it slept for a long time. One day it finally woke up, looked around, and said “Gee, I’m a tree.”
oowawa

Probably, most NQ readers are familiar with who Wade Rathke is (Glenn Beck once had a whole program on his connections).

Anyway, he is not only the founder of ACORN, but also of SEIU Local in New Orleans:

Departure from ACORN

The New York Times reported on July 9, 2008, that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000.[1] ACORN executives decided to handle it as an internal matter, and did not inform most of the board members or law enforcement, and instead signed an enforceable restitution agreement with the Rathke family to repay the amount of the embezzlement. Wade Rathke told the Times, “the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a ‘weapon’ into the hands of enemies of Acorn, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to ACORN’s often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers.” A whistleblower revealed the embezzlement in 2008. On June 2, 2008, Dale Rathke was dismissed, and Wade stepped down as ACORN’s chief organizer, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C. (Wikipedia article)

So now Wade Rathke is the chief organizer of the new COI.

ACORN, SEIU in New Orleans, and now COI

Man, this guy is an operator!
TeakWoodKite

Retired, were you looking to issue an IPO and go public?

TGI ?
TeakWoodKite

They are taking it on the road. They will now infest as many unions that have not been “absorbed”. They even have the SEIU headlock on the WH, with Andy Stern being appointed to BO’s “commission” on the debt. What financial backround does he have?

What a clown car.

Well done Pat
TeakWoodKite

They ran a scam like that at SFO airport during the end of Willie Browns term as Mayor. Having minorites as fronts made a tidy sum for some “companies”.
don x

Well done, as usua, Pat.

An Acorn by any name would smell as…..bad.
jbjd

PR, this cartoon is absolutely fabulous. You could post just this image and have people compose captions. (I cannot draw but, have you seen this visual roadmap of the election fraud in Texas put together by ericathunderpaws, one of my readers, and me? http://jbjd.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/roadmap-tx-election-fraud-2008/)
Hank

jbjd your link has an error
jwrjr

ACORN/COI/ACCE/Rathke all have the same outlook as their mentor (Obama). I.E. “they’re stupid, the infidels will never figure out what we are up to.”
mortuus lark

Pat enjoy the adulation of these nice group of fans you have here. I am not going to join them in their accolade based on that primitive drawing. But don’t take that as a rejection of you and your valuable talents and very fine skills and dedication with my very best wishes always.

But I have to ask you, why did you choose to smear these new organizations without cause or reason?

Suppose that they have changed and they have learned from their mistakes. Couldn’t that be possible?

Just recently here everyone was so sure Laura Silsby and the 9 other American Baptist missionaries were guilty of kidnapping, child traffiking and conspiracy. Now the judge has said he found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Do you have to smear them just because you know they are prominently Black and will eventually turn out to support Obama on his re-election campaign? Can’t Obama have Black organizations that support his campaign just like any other candidate have campaigns that support them?

What exactly is the joy in hurting Obama’s supporters just because they are Obama’s supporters. I simply don’t understand that.

In the mean time Hillary Clinton, our good and faithful Secretary of State have been saying some silly things about her agency, asking 60 billion for a budget, crying about her poor decisions in her past, undermining her ability to exercise leadership at diplomatic levels, and being severly criticized for running her Department of State with very poor public relations skills. Why don’t you hit on her?

Leave the Black people alone for a while. They have to figure out by themselves where is the top and where is the bottom.
mortuus lark

And by the way, Pat, that cartoon of yours have a striking similarity to Larry Johnson on his picture on the right of the cartoon.

And I find that extremely funny. Congratulations for a fine caricature of our beloved patron.
mortuus lark

And by the way, Pat, that cartoon of yours have a strange similarity to Larry Johnson’s picture to the right of the cartoon.

And I find that extremely funny. Congratulations for a fine caricature of our beloved patron.
mortuus lark

Pat, that cartoon of yours have a strange similarity to Larry Johnson’s picture to the right of the cartoon.

And I find that extremely funny. Congratulations for a fine caricature of our beloved patron.
mortuus lark

Pat, that cartoon of yours have a strange similarity to Larry Johnson’s picture to the right of the cartoon.

And I find that extremely funny. Congratulations for a fine caricature of our beloved patron.
mortuus lark

Pat, that cartoon of yours have a strange similarity to Larry Johnson’s picture to the right of the cartoon.

And I find that extremely funny. Congratulations for a fine caricature of our beloved patron.
jbjd

Thank you, Hank.

PR, this cartoon is absolutely fabulous. You could post just this image and have people compose captions. (I cannot draw but, have you seen this visual roadmap of the election fraud in Texas put together by ericathunderpaws, one of my readers, and me?
http://jbjd.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/roadmap-tx-election-fraud-2008/ )
Rich

Wonderful cartoon that can stand alone in its message.
Unfortunately, I believe it will work. When other products have been renamed, all of a sudden they became acceptable. Since the public, especially those much younger than let’s just say 40 or 50, are so influenced by advertising, and in advertising product name or choosing a good name is important, then why would anyone doubt that this will work for ACORN?
The other thing this reminded me of is a terrorist organization. It seems with them also, when we get rid of the head of a terrorist organization, than many little groups are created headed by many of the same people. I find it interesting to think about the similarities terrorists and ACORN. Now I am not saying that ACORN is a terrorist organization, just that both take advantage of the people they come in contact with. Both do not really care about what is good for America but only what is good for their own needs. Both are interested in raising large sums of money. Both like the idea of taking advantage of our government and using the governments own overly trusting attitude against it.
Rich
Tex-Mex Soup

they should rename themselves : ACIBP
A Corn in obama’s Poo
carol haka

Can I open a franchise in Texas?

:rofl:
carol haka

Can I open a Franchise in Texas?

:-$
kenoshamarge

Great cartoon as usual Pat.

ACORN seems to be like one of those Sci-Fi creatures that splinters into a thousand evils when you attempt to stomp it out.

As long as someone gets the information to the public that COI or ACCE or whatever is the newest brand name only the foolish will be fooled. Again.
carol haka

More corruption! Throw the bums out!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022602864.html

:-$ :-$ :-$ :-$ :-$ :-$ :-$
ProudMilitaryMom

Congrats on another great cartoon Pat!
And watch for the Acorns under their new names to be up to thier eyebrows in the Census- they can jsut pull out the voter registrations they did and – Voila! new districts!
candymarl

Bravo Retired! This comment is a thing of beauty.
mortuus lark

Pat enjoy the adulation of these nice group of fans you have here. I am not going to join them in their accolade based on that primitive drawing. But don’t take that as a rejection of you and your valuable talents and very fine skills and dedication with my very best wishes always.

That is a terribly bad cartoon Pat and shows a mean bias in your soul.

But I have to ask you, why did you choose to smear these new organizations without cause or reason?

Suppose that they have changed and they have learned from their mistakes. Couldn’t that be possible?

Just recently here everyone was so sure Laura Silsby and the 9 other American Baptist missionaries were guilty of kidnapping, child traffiking and conspiracy. Now the judge has said he found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Do you have to smear them just because you know they are prominently Black and will eventually turn out to support Obama on his re-election campaign? Can’t Obama have Black organizations that support his campaign just like any other candidate have campaigns that support them?

What exactly is the joy in hurting Obama’s supporters just because they are Obama’s supporters. I simply don’t understand that.

In the mean time Hillary Clinton, our good and faithful Secretary of State have been saying some silly things about her agency, asking 60 billion for a budget, crying about her poor decisions in her past, undermining her ability to exercise leadership at diplomatic levels, and being severly criticized for running her Department of State with very poor public relations skills. Why don’t you hit on her?

Leave the Black people alone for a while. They have to figure out by themselves where is the top and where is the bottom.
mortuus lark

Pat, that cartoon of yours have a strange similarity to Larry Johnson’s picture to the right.

And I find that extremely funny. Congratulations for a fine caricature of our beloved patron.

I hope you didn’t use that picture of Larry under the sketch pad to draw it. It just wouldn’t be fair to Larry.
mortuus lark

Pat enjoy the adulation of these nice group of fans you have here. What are they?

I am not going to join them in their accolade based on that primitive drawing. But don’t take that as a rejection of you and your valuable talents and very fine skills and dedication with my very best wishes always.

That is a terribly bad cartoon Pat and shows a mean bias in your soul.

But I have to ask you, why did you choose to smear these new organizations without cause or reason?

Suppose that they have changed and they have learned from their mistakes. Couldn’t that be possible?

Just recently here everyone was so sure Laura Silsby and the 9 other American Baptist missionaries were guilty of kidnapping, child traffiking and conspiracy. Now the judge has said he found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Do you have to smear them just because you know they are prominently Black and will eventually turn out to support Obama on his re-election campaign? Can’t Obama have Black organizations that support his campaign just like any other candidate have campaigns that support them?

What exactly is the joy in hurting Obama’s supporters just because they are Obama’s supporters. I simply don’t understand that.

In the mean time Hillary Clinton, our good and faithful Secretary of State have been saying some silly things about her agency, asking 60 billion for a budget, crying about her poor decisions in her past, undermining her ability to exercise leadership at diplomatic levels, and being severly criticized for running her Department of State with very poor public relations skills. Why don’t you hit on her?

Leave the Black people alone for a while. They have to figure out by themselves where is the top and where is the bottom.
creeper

Good ‘toon, Pat. It’s a shame the acorn had to be red. It would clash with the rose color those glasses could have been.

Only slightly OT…Barry’s at -21 in the Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll. That ties his lowest-ever rating. If I were a gamblin’ woman I’d say it’s going lower in the next couple of days as the HC “summit” is reflected in the rolling numbers.
creeper

Oh, that’s just disgusting! They’ve pulled out all the stops. It’s katie-bar-the-door on corruption now and they don’t even need to attempt to hide it. Our government is now officially and undeniably crooked.
Dbb

Yeah, “Pat”, you are truly the greatest political cartoonist since Thomas Nast putting Pat Oliphant and Herblock in the shade. I mean look at your latest offering, the draughtsmanship and wit are beyond compare. Now would you mind telling me how ACORN which took a white pencil-necked pizza faced dweeb for a pimp because of his ridiculous costume is the same outfit stole the Democratic nomination from the Clintons and churned out enough fraudulent votes to give Obama a 53-46% win over McCain?
Diana L. C.

I have a suggestion for Larry. Is there anyway we can add another response to a post such as the “flag,” “like,” and “reply” responses? I do agree that m. lark has a right to post her mindless comments, so they don’t really fall into the “flag” designation. Hardly anyone ever clicks the “like” link. And to click the “reply” gets a person into the black hole of her totally illogical thought processes, as her answers are as illogical as the original posts. I would like simply to beable to go past her comments and ignore them as much as I can, but it would make me feel better to be able to click an “ignore” button.
Onofre’s arm

How about a skull and crossbones icon Diana. “Warning, reading the contents may be harmful to your health, and no amount of Pepto Bismal will relieve the resulting nausea”.
mortuus lark

I would copyright that idea if I was you. It has lots of potential, universally. And all the blogs and all the comments board all over the internet will be falling over each other to get your permission to use that idea in their programs.
oowawa

I think Pat’s comments are evocative and to the point. She isn’t trying to be Oliphant or Herblock and is not creating her images for the national media.

To answer your last convoluted question: how did the ACORN gang-who-couldnt-shoot-straight get Obama elected? Maybe they had some help from the national mainstream media who were religiously in the tank for Thee One.
oowawa

I think Pat’s images are evocative and to the point. She isn’t trying to be Oliphant or Herblock and is not creating her images for the national media.

To answer your last convoluted question: how did the ACORN gang-who-couldnt-shoot-straight get Obama elected? Maybe they had some help from the national mainstream media who were religiously in the tank for Thee One.
Diana L. C.

We need to build a list of all the rebranded acorns. I know for a fact that I would carry it with me at all time. If ever I am stopped to sign a petition, or if anyone knocks on my door, I would pull out the list, ask if the person was in any way involved with any of those organizations and then refuse to have anything to do with them if they answered “yes.”

Many of us were planning to do that in regard to the census, and they are thankfully out of the census taking loop. At least I hope so; a part of me worries that somehow they’ve been rebranded into it.
oowawa

Diana, I often read the comments on “Market Watch” (which is a Wall-Street cheerleading site, but has a lot of very contrarian commenters). Anyway, they give an anonymous thumbs up-thumbs down option for every comment. On a site like No Quarter, the opportunity to provide a simple anonymous negative vote would probably result in the infestation of a permanent bot-squad who would thumbs-down every anti-O comment without having to go to the trouble of formulating a response. Perhaps no “likes” at all would be preferable. People would all then be forced to respond verbally.
oowawa

“When other products have been renamed, all of a sudden they became acceptable.”

Excellent point, Rich. By this token, it is high time that the jihadists think of renaming Al Qaeda. It has gotten so much bad press that the name may be forever contaminated. I think an NQ contest to rename Al Qaeda might be very helpful to suggest ways of improving the image of terrorists worldwide.
Onofre’s arm

Like!
mortuus lark

Thank you very much Onofre. Can I get you anything from the refrigerator?
oowawa

Oh, you’re right, Onofre’s arm. That little button is just so damn convenient. And then I get to see my little icon come up and it seems so cozy and familiar. If I “like” enough posts, I can get a whole army of my little guys standing at attention all over the page . . .
Hank

My neighbor was allowed to vote for Obama and McCain, and without and ID.
Diana L. C.

oowawa, I see your point. I’ll just be an Emily Letilla and say, “nevermind.” (Or was that Curt Cobain?) In anycase I do like your suggestion instead.
Hank

My neighbor was allowed to vote for Obama and Hillary without any ID.
oowawa

LOL Hank–your neighbor must be a centrist!
don x

ACPRN is like an elusive lizard. When a predator grabs a lizard by the tail, the tail snaps off and the lizard gets away. The predator is left with a tail and the lizard grows a new one.
Pat Racimora

Ah, Mortuus, You are in good form today. You know the first time i was called a racist was just for suporting Hillary. Nothing else. I was wearing a Hillary tee-shirt. That’s it. The second time was scarier–I had done so much research on Obama and found him to be simply totally unprepared to lead a troubled nation that I started my cartoons. One Website of Obama thugs posted the map to my house.

What is so amusing about this is that if anyone could see my family photos, they would have to laugh (and apologize).

If you know my work you know I go after anyone or anything corrupt (am careful to document all of that) or incompetent while in a position of trust or power. Ethnicity is irrelevant.

BUT, I take you compliments and thank you for them.
don x

Correction: ACORN
don x

Cut a planaria in half and you get two worms.
Onofre’s arm

Yup………………. two really pissed off worms.
Pat Racimora

What’s interesting, Dbb, is that so often the more sensitive my toons are to Obama/administration supporters, the more the illustration (or my ability) is put down but the story itself is ignored.

Oowawa is right. I stand in awe of the master political cartoonists and do not even pretend to be among them. But I do like to make a point, and I guess I poked you with it. Sorry about that.
morris1030

Another way to empower the theft of tax dollars to faux do gooders who misappropriate and steal whatever they can which is most of what they get from grants, ect. Thet pretend to do much good in poor communities, but they’d have to prove this. Now they will be harder to trace and validate spending.
oowawa

Pat, I guess that when the “story” hits home, the defenders of the faith go after what they see as the vulnerable spot in the presentation–the image. This is very counterproductive, because invariably your images communicate the primary idea of the story in a more immediate and comprehensible manner than the story itself. This is particularly true of this particular image. As Rich comments above, “Wonderful cartoon that can stand alone in its message.” If someone is image illiterate, they may well think the image is lame; but they are simply blindly missing the point. This image is elegant in its simplicity and clarity.
oowawa

I think this is a good analogy, don x. The lizard’s head is named Wade Rathke. He looks like this:
mortuus lark

Wonderful now we are all happy again.
oowawa

I think this is a good analogy, don x. The lizard’s head is named Wade Rathke. He looks like this:
PICTURES<img style=”width: 96px; height: 72px; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://js-kit.com/blob/bD0imjR1bKrnf3_MpojtfR.jpg” title=”missing tail”/>reptile missing a tail
oowawa

I think this is a good analogy, don x. The lizard’s head is named Wade Rathke. He looks like this:
Pat Racimora

Just a note to say that the comment I made to Mortuus was deleted (by Mortuus him/herself) which is why my response makes no sense really. The context is gone.

The reposnse is not to Proud Military Mom!
mortuus lark

Pat, your comments make sense even when my speech is gone.

But also if nothing makes sense then everything makes sense.

Sensemaking is a new paradigm – which is also an old paradigm.

My words are lift up by the wind and they fly away like larks who are alive.

I clean my cage daily. Sometimes twice a day. So if you go to my cage, “View details” you will find a very clean and neat cage.

I have been asked here by almost everyone to clean my cage. So I do it.
mortuus lark

Testing
mortuus lark

REPOSTED FOR SENSE MAKING PURPOSES

Pat enjoy the adulation of these nice group of fans you have here. What are they?

I am not going to join them in their accolade based on that primitive drawing. But don’t take that as a rejection of you and your valuable talents and very fine skills and dedication with my very best wishes always.

That is a terribly bad cartoon Pat and shows a mean bias in your soul.

But I have to ask you, why did you choose to smear these new organizations without cause or reason?

Suppose that they have changed and they have learned from their mistakes. Couldn’t that be possible?

Just recently here everyone was so sure Laura Silsby and the 9 other American Baptist missionaries were guilty of kidnapping, child traffiking and conspiracy. Now the judge has said he found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Do you have to smear them just because you know they are prominently Black and will eventually turn out to support Obama on his re-election campaign? Can’t Obama have Black organizations that support his campaign just like any other candidate have campaigns that support them?

What exactly is the joy in hurting Obama’s supporters just because they are Obama’s supporters. I simply don’t understand that.

In the mean time Hillary Clinton, our good and faithful Secretary of State have been saying some silly things about her agency, asking 60 billion for a budget, crying about her poor decisions in her past, undermining her ability to exercise leadership at diplomatic levels, and being severly criticized for running her Department of State with very poor public relations skills. Why don’t you hit on her?

Leave the Black people alone for a while. They have to figure out by themselves where is the top and where is the bottom.
AC

It’s you head that needs a scrubbing.