Progressive Coalition Comes Out for ACORN

 

Take a moment to actually READ this article and then LOOK at the connections of the progressive groups and people within them.

By Carol D. Leonnig

Leaders of several progressive community groups stood up Thursday to defend ACORN, the community organizing group under fire and under threat of losing all federal funding, after some of its employees were caught on videotape appearing to give advice on how to conceal a prostitution business.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has hired a lawyer to investigate its internal operations in the wake of the firestorm that followed a handful of undercover You Tube videos. They aired last month and were filmed in ACORN’s housing counseling offices in Maryland, New York and California, and prompted the House and Senate to separately pass bans on future funding for the group.

The liberal groups urged that Congress step back and allow an independent inquiry to be completed before rushing to punish ACORN. They said the organization’s work, in helping low-income families get health care, stave off foreclosure, and find jobs, is critical in this recession particularly.

“Nonprofit organizations that stand up for the powerless in our society and that provide vital services in our communities have never been needed more than they are today,” said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice. “As ACORN takes steps to get its house in order, Congress should take a deep breath and give this process time to work.”

Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, said the significant turmoil within ACORN over finances and an internal embezzlement scandal must be weighed against its other contributions.

“It has won ground-breaking victories for low income communities on issues such as housing, community reinvestment, predatory lending, and living wage standards,” he said. “The world is a better place because of the work done by ACORN. For these reasons, ACORN deserves a chance to review and reform its organizational systems and processes.”

Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, urged Congress and taxpayers to “keep things in perspective” and noted that ACORN swiftly moved to retrain employees after the embarrassing videos aired but has historically been a critical resource to poor communities.

“ACORN is not the scourge that some right-wing shouting heads would like the public to believe,” he said. “It’s an organization with a valuable mission that has made some missteps and is trying valiantly to correct them. We support ACORN’s efforts to put its house in order. And ACORN deserves the chance to earn the public’s trust once again.”

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/01/progressive_coalition_comes_ou.html?wprss=44

 

Now, let’s look at the coalitions, their directors/leaders shall we?

Center For Community Change: Map of connections

Center for Community Change Connections

Note Heather Booth is a director:

• Radical organizer/activist since the early 1960s
• Co-founder and President of the Midwest Academy, which teaches tactics of direct action, confrontation, and intimidation
• Helped develop methods adopted by AFL-CIO’s “Union Summer”
• Co-founder of left Democrat group Coalition for Democratic Values
• Was Training Director for the Democratic National Committee
• Executive Director of the NAACP’s National Voter Fund
• Board member of the Center for Community Change
• Vice President of USAction

Heather Booth is a veteran activist in the civil rights, women’s rights, and antiwar movements. She was a co-founder and onetime President of the Midwest Academy and currently serves as a board member of the Center for Community Change, Vice President of USAction, and Director of the AFL-CIO’s campaign for universal health care coverage. She also is a guiding force of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Moreover, she has served as a consultant to such groups as the National Organization for Women, Campaign for America’s Future, MoveOn.org, Working Assets, and TrueMajority. Booth is a disciple of Saul Alinsky, of whom she says: “Alinsky is to community-organizing as Freud is to psychoanalysis.”

Heather Booth’s husband, Paul Booth, was a founder and national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society. He is currently an assistant to Gerald McEntee, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1641

 

Another name notable is Cecilia Munoz:

President Barack Obama’s choice to head a key office in the White House is a staunch advocate for Hispanic rights who will serve as the new president’s link to state and local officials.

Cecilia Muñoz, 46, was one of Obama’s early nominees. As the head of the White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Muñoz will be one of the most powerful policy advocates in Washington.

She’s long been influential. During 20 years with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Muñoz rose to the position of senior vice president for the NCLR Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation. Her work on immigration and civil rights won her a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2000. The Atlantic magazine website recently called Muñoz “a powerhouse who knows everyone in Washington.”

http://www.aarpsegundajuventud.org/english/issues/2008-WIN/munoz.html

 

 

NOW a LOOK at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights:

 

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Connections

 

Notables:

John Podesta, Center for American Progress and ultra-left think tank connected to the Apollo Alliance (wrote Stimulus Bill, Cap and Trade Bill, etc.) Also was the transition co-ordinator for Barack Obama’s team.

Jocelyn C. Frye: Policy and Projects Director to Michelle Obama.

Cheryl Mills: Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton.

 

Alliance for Justice

Founded in 1979 by Nan Aron, Alliance For Justice (AFJ) describes itself as “a national association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women’s, children’s and consumer advocacy organizations.” Among AFJ’s 74 member groups are the Children’s Defense Fund; the Center for Reproductive Rights; the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund; the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund; the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; the National Abortion Federation; the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL); the National Immigration Forum; the National Council for Research on Women; the National Lawyers Guild; the National Immigration Law Center; the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund; the Natural Resources Defense Council; the National Women’s Law Center; Physicians for Human Rights; the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; the Sierra Club Foundation; the Tides Center; and the Wilderness Society.

 

AFJ receives financial support from George Soros‘s Open Society Institute, the Tides Foundation, the Streisand Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Beldon Fund, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Scherman Foundation, the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, the Surdna Foundation, and the Turner Foundation.

 

TIDES FOUNDATION:  WADE RATHKE (founder of ACORN) IS ON THEIR BOARD…….

 

Why  this progressive push FOR the ACORN ? It is called CONNECTIONS to ACORN, the Obama Administration, John Podesta, et.al with funding from “money bags” Geore Soros!

Haven’t the Progressives realized yet that they have “Awakened A Sleeping Giant”?

IT IS TIME FOR A FULL RICO INVESTIGATION OF ACORN!