You can read the article at the Telegraph if you wish, but let’s just get this out of the way and set the record strait for those of you that don’t understand, or sense a tiny bit of hypocrisy…

This is funny!

This is funny!

This is funny!

This is funny!

This is funny!

This is funny!

THIS IS RACIST! GOT IT?

"The concensus is in! There is no debate! Why won't you listen?"

Straight from the Times Online: “There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was poleaxed by an inconvenient one yesterday.

The former US Vice-President, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, became entangled in a new climate change “spin” row.

Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore.

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming.

Mr Gore is not the only titan of the world stage finding Copenhagen to be a tricky deal.

World leaders — with Gordon Brown arriving tonight in the vanguard — are facing the humiliating prospect of having little of substance to sign on Friday, when they are supposed to be clinching an historic deal.

Meanwhile, five hours of negotiating time were lost yesterday when developing countries walked out in protest over the lack of progress on their demand for legally binding emissions targets from rich nations. The move underlined the distrust between rich and poor countries over the proposed legal framework for the deal.

Last night key elements of the proposed deal were unravelling. British officials said they were no longer confident that it would contain specific commitments from individual countries on payments to a global fund to help poor nations to adapt to climate change while the draft text on protecting rainforests has also been weakened.

Even the long-term target of ending net deforestation by 2030 has been placed in square brackets, meaning that the date could be deferred. An international monitoring system to identify illegal logging is now described in the text as optional, where before it was compulsory. Negotiators are also unable to agree on a date for a global peak in greenhouse emissions.

Perhaps Mr Gore had felt the need to gild the lily to buttress resolve. But his speech was roundly criticised by members of the climate science community. “This is an exaggeration that opens the science up to criticism from sceptics,” Professor Jim Overland, a leading oceanographer at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

“You really don’t need to exaggerate the changes in the Arctic.”

Others said that, even if quoted correctly, Dr Maslowski’s six-year projection for near-ice-free conditions is at the extreme end of the scale. Most climate scientists agree that a 20 to 30-year timescale is more likely for the near-disappearance of sea ice.

“Maslowski’s work is very well respected, but he’s a bit out on a limb,” said Professor Peter Wadhams, a specialist in ocean physics at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Maslowki, who works at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California, said that his latest results give a six-year projection for the melting of 80 per cent of the ice, but he said he expects some ice to remain beyond 2020.

He added: “I was very explicit that we were talking about near-ice-free conditions and not completely ice-free conditions in the northern ocean. I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this,” he said. “It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at, based on the information I provided to Al Gore’s office.”

Richard Lindzen, a climate scientist at the Massachusets Institute of Technology who does not believe that global warming is largely caused by man, said: “He’s just extrapolated from 2007, when there was a big retreat, and got zero.””

ACORN

Straight from Fox News: “A private investigator says he found tens of thousands of sensitive documents dumped outside a California ACORN office just days after the state attorney general announced an inquiry into the community organizing group.

Derrick Roach, a licensed investigator based in San Diego, told FoxNews.com he paid an impromptu visit to the city’s ACORN branch on Oct. 9 and watched from his car as a man tossed bags of files into a Dumpster outside the building.

After ACORN staff left for the day, he says, he searched the trash bin and discovered more than 20,000 documents he believes point to illicit relationships between ACORN and a bank and a labor union — as well as confidential information that could put thousands at risk for identity theft.

“We’re talking people’s driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, tax returns, credit reports” — all tossed in public view in the Dumpster, he said.

In one document shared with FoxNews.com, an ACORN employee’s name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and driver’s license number were revealed, and photocopies of the employee’s license and Social Security card were also included. Another document showed bank account information for a woman paying an ACORN membership fee by check.

“It was just a careless disregard for the people that ACORN claimed to be helping,” Roach told FoxNews.com. “They put these people at risk.”

Roach said that data breach laws bar dumping like the kind he uncovered at ACORN’s office. Tossing the documents into a Dumpster, he said, constitutes a crime in California.

“So if someone wanted to, they could bring legal action against ACORN for doing this,” he said.

A top ACORN official in California apologized for the lapse Monday, saying that some confidential information might have been thrown away during a massive clean-up of their offices last month.

“In early October, when our San Diego staff were doing an office clean-up in preparation for a major 10-station phone bank program being set up in our offices, it appears that included in the piles of garbage being thrown out may have been some documents containing private information,” said Amy Schur, state head organizer for California ACORN, in an e-mailed statement.

Schur implied that “this guy” Roach, a former Republican candidate for statewide office, may have had political motivations for unearthing the documents. She said ACORN would seek the return of the documents “so that we may give proper notice of the compromising of the information as required by law.”

Roach told FoxNews.com he has been going over the trove of ACORN files and has found connections to the California Teachers Association and to Citibank.

“ACORN was acting as an agent” for Citibank, Roach charged. “They had mortgage information for homeowners … who were in foreclosure, who were in default.”

Roach says that the documents suggest that ACORN staffers would go out on “assignments” to take pictures of some residences or even to “go out and actually make contact” with people living in homes financed by Citibank loans.

He said he believes Citibank will have to report to its customers that their information may have been at risk when ACORN threw it away. “They took information and they just dumped it in the garbage,” he said.

Citibank ran an outreach program through ACORN that utilized the group’s local staff to encourage homeowners at risk of defaulting on their mortgages to contact the bank and work on avoiding defaults. That relationship has since been severed, a spokesman for Citigroup told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

“Over time, Citi has worked with a variety of not-for-profit partners, including ACORN, to provide financial education, meet affordable lending needs, promote stable homeownership for low- to moderate- income consumers and help in foreclosure prevention,” the spokesman said.

“We are deeply concerned about the recent media reports regarding ACORN. We recently suspended our charitable financial support and program relationships with ACORN, and we are waiting for the results of the independent audit of ACORN’s activities now underway.”

Roach also charged that the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, was “funneling information to ACORN for political activity” — a relationship that he said would not be illegal but would require ACORN and the CTA to disclose fully.

“I’ve done some checking into the reports that have been filed for the CTA, for ACORN, and I’m not finding any of this information being disclosed,” he said. He did not provide any documents illustrating the relationship to FoxNews.com.

CTA spokesman Mike Myslinksi said the union had no comment on documents it had not seen. “That’s out of left field,” he said.

Roach’s accusation comes in the wake of a national scandal for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Staffers were caught on tape this summer in six cities offering to help a pair of filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute to lie to the IRS and acquire illegal home loans.

ACORN fired an employee in its San Diego office, Juan Carlos Vera, after video surfaced of him offering to help the “pimp” and “prostitute” smuggle in girls from Tijuana, Mexico, noting that he had many contacts in the city who could assist in smuggling them across the border.

The group is now under investigation by a number of city, state and federal agencies, and Congress has cut off funding for the group.

On Oct. 1, California Attorney General Jerry Brown launched a state investigation of ACORN. It was just eight days later that Roach says he retrieved the sensitive files — timing he says he finds fishy.

“I think if you look at the timeline of events when the attorney general made the announcement, when the documents were dumped, I think that it’s highly suspicious.”"

I invented Global Warming!

Straight from the Palm Beach Post: “Confused Palm Beach County voters helped thwart Al Gore’s 2000 bid to become president of the United States, but he was introduced as “president of the planet” when he returned here Saturday night to deliver an environmental lecture.

The former vice president spoke on climate change at the Mizner Park Amphitheater to a crowd of about 800. More than 200 protesters gathered across the street from the event, and their boos and chants could be heard inside the amphitheater as Gore began his presentation.

Gore lost Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes to George W. Bush in a 2000 as many Palm Beach County Democrats said they mistakenly voted for conservative Pat Buchanan because they were confused by the county’s “butterfly ballot” design.

After losing the presidential race, Gore became arguably the world’s most famous advocate for curbing carbon emissions, gaining eco-celebrity status with the film An Inconvenient Truth and winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

“It’s an interesting twist of fate here in our own backyard that former Vice President Al Gore has taken on a new platform and is now a catalyst for world change,” said Marci Zaroff, an “eco-entrepeneur” who introduced Gore.

“So, in essence, he’s president of the people. He’s president of the planet. And the work that he’s doing is more important than any other work that could possibly be done.”

Tickets for the event sold for $44 to $339, with proceeds going to the nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection that Gore chairs.

Gore began his remarks by calling climate change “the most dangerous problem we’ve ever faced. But it is also a tremendous opportunity for us to solve problems that have been neglected for a long time.”

Organizers allowed the media to cover only the first few minutes of Gore’s presentation.

In addition to his nonprofit advocacy, Gore is a partner in a venture capital firm that finances “sustainable” and alternative energy businesses, prompting some critics to accuse Gore of promoting environmental policies that will fatten his bank account.

“Cap & Tax — Don’t Be Fooled: Al Gore Will Make billions,” read a sign carried by Alan Tudor, who drove from Tampa to attend Saturday’s protest.

“Gore’s Favorite Green Product? Your money in his pocket,” said another sign.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said Gore’s investments are consistent with positions he has held for decades.

“Former Vice President Gore has made long-term investments in ’sustainable’ companies, the vast majority of which are not directly involved with efforts to solve the climate crisis. He has also invested in some companies that have attempted and will continue to help solve the climate crisis. These are a reflection of his values,” Kreider said in an e-mail.

“If he did not invest in technologies that he supported, these very same people would accuse him of being a hypocrite,” Kreider said.”

Obama's Hope & Change

Straight from Dvorak Uncensored: “Forget everything bad you’ve ever heard about President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus. Combing through the data on the $18 million Recovery.gov website, you’ll find tons of Obama stimulus success stories from across the country. In Minnesota’s 57th Congressional District, 35 jobs have been saved or created using $404,340 in stimulus funds. In New Mexico’s 22nd Congressional District, 25 jobs have been saved or created using $61,000 in stimulus cash. And in Arizona’s fighting 15th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending.

The it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren’t-our-tax-dollars-at-stake punch line here is that none of the above Congressional Districts actually exist. Yet those jobs “created or saved” claims still sit on the Obama administration’s official “transparency and accountability” website Recovery.gov. As the Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso points out, it would have been nearly costless for the Recovery.gov site designers to limit the input fields so that non-existent Congressional Districts never made it into the public domain, but for whatever reason the Obama administration chose otherwise. Defending the fake data on his website, Recovery.gov Communications Director Ed Pound told ABC News: “We report what the recipients submit to us.”

Obama wants you to be healthy!

Straight from Fox News: “The health care reform bill awaiting debate in the House assumes millions of workers and employers would rather pay $167 billion in fines than purchase or provide adequate coverage, according to a recent analysis, raising questions about whether the plan does enough to make insurance affordable.

Though the bill is estimated to expand coverage from the current 83 percent to 96 percent of legal U.S. residents, the windfall of projected penalty payments also exposes a potential contradiction in reform. A significant part of the plan to expand coverage relies financially on fines from the uninsured.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in its study last week that the House bill would bring in $167 billion over 10 years — $33 billion from fines paid by individuals who decline to buy insurance, and the rest from employers who don’t offer insurance to workers or contribute enough toward premiums.

Ernest Istook, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma who is now a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, calculated that anywhere between 8 million and 14 million people would end up paying the fines.

This raises a few problems, he said. First, if those millions somehow get covered and don’t pay the fine, then the health program is faced with a budget hole.

Second, he said, it speaks to a flaw with the insurance packages that are being offered. “If you say people would rather pay $167 billion in penalties rather than buy insurance under your new plan, what’s wrong with your new plan?” he asked.

The answer, Istook said: “It’s expensive.”

The House plan would create a government-run insurance program intended to help extend coverage. But the plan would allow the government to negotiate rates with providers rather than set artificially low Medicare-style rates — as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other liberal Democrats were hoping to do.

While the negotiated rate structure somewhat assuages the concerns of moderate Democrats and others who projected that a system based on Medicare rates would create an irresistibly cheap public plan that would draw millions away from private coverage and hurt doctors, it also does much less to address cost concerns.

In fact, the CBO report said such a public plan “would typically have premiums that are somewhat higher than the average premiums” for private plans in the newly created insurance marketplace. This is partly because the public plan would likely attract less healthy, and more expensive, enrollees.

In addition, many analysts and lawmakers have warned that private premiums will go up as well as a result of new requirements.

Though the government is offering a bevy of subsidies to make coverage more affordable under the plan, it apparently would not be enough to lure everyone into the system.

Suggestions for reducing the number of people who are insurance-averse are wide-ranging.

Some don’t want any fines, emphasizing incentives over penalties. But political momentum in Washington has long since shifted in favor of a requirement to get coverage. President Obama, who opposed such a mandate during the presidential campaign, reversed and supported it during his September address on health care reform to Congress.

Others, especially the health insurance industry, want the fines to be increased.

“If you don’t get everybody in, the market reforms don’t work and premiums skyrocket for everybody,” said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman with America’s Health Insurance Plans, which opposes the House Democratic plan.

Zirkelbach warned that those who choose to pay the penalty will just wait until they get sick to get covered, driving up premiums across the board. “More needs to be done to make coverage affordable.”

Zirkelbach dismissed the claim that less penalty revenue would leave the federal government with a budget hole. He said getting more people covered would help bring down health care costs overall and balance out in the end for the government’s books.

He doubted, though, that the government plan would have higher premiums. He said the so called public-option would ultimately negotiate rates down to Medicare levels.

Third Way, a think tank that describes itself as part of the “moderate wing of the progressive movement,” also released a study saying the mandate cannot be weakened. But it said several changes can be made to expand coverage. The group suggested, among other things, allowing young people to pay lower premiums and allowing people to meet the coverage requirement with even leaner insurance plans.

Democrats are standing by the mandate provisions, though, arguing that some relatively small group of uninsured people is inevitable.

“There’s just going to be some people who choose rather to pay (the fine) than to pay for health care,” said Stephanie Lundberg, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “There’s going to be some people that just philosophically don’t want to buy health care.”

She said individual responsibility has to be a part of the plan, but that 96 percent coverage is still pretty admirable.

“It expands coverage substantially,” Lundberg said.”

I invented Global Warming!

Straight from the Examiner: “In a study sure to ruffle the feathers of the Global Warming cabal, Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT has published a paper which proves that IPCC models are overstating by 6 times, the relevance of CO₂ in Earth’s Atmosphere. Dr. Lindzen has found that heat is radiated out in to space at a far higher rate than any modeling system to date can account for.

Editorial: The science is in. the scare is out. Recent papers and data give a complete picture of why the UN is wrong.

The pdf file located at the link above from the Science and Public Policy Institute has absolutely, convincingly, and irrefutably proven the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming to be completely false.

Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT’s peer reviewed work states “we now know that the effect of CO2 on temperature is small, we know why it is small, and we know that it is having very little effect on the climate.””

Straight from the Wall Street Journal: “We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama’s stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.

The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don’t have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. “The purchase of some models could be absolutely free,” Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. “Is that about the coolest thing you’ve ever heard?”

The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour.

In South Carolina, sales of these carts have been soaring as dealerships alert customers to Uncle Sam’s giveaway. “The Golf Cart Man” in the Villages of Lady Lake, Florida is running a banner online ad that declares: “GET A FREE GOLF CART. Or make $2,000 doing absolutely nothing!”

Golf Cart Man is referring to his offer in which you can buy the cart for $8,000, get a $5,300 tax credit off your 2009 income tax, lease it back for $100 a month for 27 months, at which point Golf Cart Man will buy back the cart for $2,000. “This means you own a free Golf Cart or made $2,000 cash doing absolutely nothing!!!” You can’t blame a guy for exploiting loopholes that Congress offers.

The IRS has also ruled that there’s no limit to how many electric cars an individual can buy, so some enterprising profiteers are stocking up on multiple carts while the federal credit lasts, in order to resell them at a profit later. We should note that some states, such as Oklahoma, have caught on to the giveaway and are debating whether to cancel or limit their state credits. But in Congress they’re still on the driving range.

This golf-cart fiasco perfectly illustrates tax policy in the age of Obama, when politicians dole out credits and loopholes for everything from plug-in cars to fuel efficient appliances, home insulation and vitamins. Democrats then insist that to pay for these absurdities they have no choice but to raise tax rates on other things—like work and investment—that aren’t politically in vogue. If this keeps up, it’ll soon make more sense to retire and play golf than work for living.”

Run free! Run free!

Straight from Fox News: “Suspected enemy combatants held at the Guantanamo Bay prison can now be transferred to U.S. soil for trial.

Handing President Obama a partial victory in his effort to close the military prison, House Democrats on Thursday repelled a Republican effort to block transfer of any of the detainees to the U.S.

Instead, by a 224-193 vote, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at the controversial Guantanamo facility to be shipped to U.S. soil — but only to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes.

The Guantanamo restrictions were attached by House-Senate negotiators on a $42.8 billion homeland security appropriations bill.

Obama has ordered the closure of the prison but congressional Democrats have refused to spend any money on the project until the president assembles a plan to shut down the facility and move the prisoners.

The top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, charged that Democrats have “turned a blind eye to the dangers that these prisoners of war pose to the American people.”

He went on to call the detainees “enemies of the state.”

Democratic leaders had to push hard to win the vote because many Democrats two weeks ago had cast a nonbinding but politically safe vote against any Guantanamo detainee transfers. But several Democrats from swing districts said they saw little political risk on Thursday’s vote.

“It’s a non-issue. Inside the beltway stuff,” said first-term Rep. Dan Maffai, D-N.Y. “People care about jobs, the economy, health care.”

“I haven’t had one person ask me about Guantanamo,” said Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind. He added that he does “not in the least” fear it as an issue in next year’s elections.

Permitting Guantanamo prisoners to be transferred to U.S. soil to stand trial had been a bipartisan compromise earlier. It mostly tracks current restrictions put in place in June and is similar to a version backed by Republicans earlier in the year. In fact, Republicans such as Lewis helped fashion the compromise.

But in the absence of a plan from the administration for closing the facility, Lewis has toughened his talk, calling the administration’s plan misguided and potentially dangerous.

“Terrorists should not be treated like common criminals in federal court,” Lewis said. “These detainees are enemies of the state, and should be treated as such by being held and brought to justice right where they are — in Guantanamo Bay.”

Democrats say that Republicans are simply seeking a political opening.

Still, the public is mixed at best on the idea of closing Guantanamo and transferring some of its prisoners to the U.S. Respondents to an AP/Gfk poll in June found Americans evenly divided on whether they support Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo. A Gallup poll taken around the same time — but with the question worded differently — found that respondents opposed closing Guantanamo by a 2-1 margin and rejected the idea of moving detainees to their states by a 4-1 margin.

Several of the fiscal 2010 funding bills contain varying restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo detainees, reflecting widespread opposition among voters. The Senate-passed defense appropriations bill, for example, contains an outright ban on releasing Guantanamo detainees into the U.S., including for trial or incarceration.

The underlying spending bill also backs the Obama administration’s refusal to release new photos showing U.S. personnel abusing detainees held overseas. The measure supports Obama’s decision to allow the secretary of defense to bar the release of detainee photos for three years.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to obtain unreleased photos of detainee abuse under the Freedom of Information Act and won two rounds in federal court. The measure would essentially trump the ACLU’s case.

In response, the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court and Obama has said he would use every available means to block release of additional detainee abuse photos because they could whip up anti-American sentiment overseas and endanger U.S. troops. His powers include issuing an order to classify the photos, thus blocking their release.

But the detainee photos provision earned a sharp rebuke from Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., normally a leadership loyalist from her perch as chairwoman of the powerful Rules Committee. She said that “the people’s right to know is more important than the government’s desire to keep things secret.”"

ACORN

Straight from Fox News: “ACORN, in response to an undercover expose of potential wrongdoing by some employees, pledged Wednesday to follow through on plans to conduct a thorough internal review of its practices — on the same day that the organization filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers whose hidden-camera sting brought the community organization to its knees.

The lawsuit, filed in a Baltimore court, stems from an undercover video showing ACORN employees Shera Williams and Tonja Thompson providing advice to two filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute on how to skirt tax laws.

The filmmakers, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, are named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with Breitbart.com, a Web site managed by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, which posted the videos. Breitbart released five similar videos that O’Keefe and Giles recorded in ACORN offices in Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; San Bernadino, Calif., and San Diego, as well as the Baltimore office.

The videos prompted the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office to launch a criminal investigation, the U.S. Census Bureau to several ties with ACORN and ACORN to fire four of the employees shown in the videos. And on Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service announced it also was severing ties with the organization.

The IRS said it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program. The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring. ACORN provided help on about 25,000 returns, the IRS said.

Darrell Issa, R-Calif., issued a statement following the announcement, saying “ACORN’s failure to institute firewalls between its charitable and political activities have raised significant questions surrounding its management of federal dollars. Cutting ties is the first step, but cannot be the last one.”

“Self-investigation is not a sufficient substitute for action by the Congress, which is why I have written to the Chairman of the Oversight and Judiciary Committees to request that they convene immediate hearings into ACORN’s activities.”

But ACORN says no tax returns were actually prepared at the Baltimore office, and that the audio portion of the video recorded there was obtained illegally, since Maryland requires two-party consent for sound recordings. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit cites “extreme emotional distress” on behalf of two workers who were fired after the video was posted online.

The videos were “clear violations of Maryland law that were intended to inflict maximum damage to the reputation of ACORN, the nation’s largest grassroots organizer of low-income and minority Americans,” said ACORN attorney Arthur Schwartz. “Unfortunately they succeeded.”

At the same time, ACORN is moving forward with its pledge to review its operations. The Boston attorney hired by ACORN to conduct an independent probe of the group vowed a “no holds barred” investigation on Wednesday.

“My name is on the line and so is the name of my firm, so we will call this as we see them,” Scott Harshbarger told reporters on a conference call.

Harshbarger, the former attorney general of Massachusetts now serving as senior counsel at Proskauer Rose LLP, was hired Tuesday to lead an “independent and comprehensive” internal investigation into ACORN’s activities — a decision that was met with skepticism from some members of Congress, including one lawmaker who has repeatedly called for hearings into the use of taxpayer funds.

Harshbarger said the probe had not yet begun as of Wednesday and said there was no “specific timetable” for its completion.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, who joined Harshbarger on the conference call, said the organization was “very, very serious” about the review and vowed to “set things straight” following the release of five hidden-camera videos.

“We were just as shocked and horrified as the American public was,” Lewis told reporters of the conduct seen on the videotapes. “I will not tolerate such behavior. It is incumbent upon me and my board to set things straight.”

Lewis said ACORN officials are cooperating with law enforcement agencies, adding that no subpoenas had been received by the organization as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and House Oversight and Issa called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether ACORN misused federal funds.

In a letter sent to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro on Wednesday, Smith and Issa expressed concern that millions of taxpayer dollars may have been used to support criminal efforts by the organization.

“Congress cannot ignore allegations that federal funds are being used by an organization involved in criminal conduct,” the letter read. “American taxpayers are rightly outraged and Congress has a responsibility to act. We need a full investigation into ACORN’s use of federal funds and we need the Democratic-led Congress to put a bill on the President’s desk to ensure that no future funds are received by ACORN.”

The letter continued, “ACORN has a long history of ignoring federal laws. No organization with that kind of a record should benefit from American taxpayer dollars.”

ACORN said on Sept. 16 it would stop any “new intakes” — essentially closing its doors to new clients — until it completed an internal investigation prompted by the release of five hidden-camera videos that depicted workers advising a fake pimp and prostitute to lie to get loans for a brothel.

The scandal drew criticism from the Obama administration last week as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the conduct depicted on the four videos “completely unacceptable.”

“The administration takes the accountability very seriously,” Gibbs told reporters.

In addition to a Justice Department watchdog’s probe into whether ACORN has applied for or received DOJ grant money, ACORN announced on Monday that it has suspended all 2009 tax preparation services.”

ACORN

Straight from Fox News: “Republicans succeeded in drawing overwhelming support from Democrats Thursday to eliminate federal funding to a now-scandalized ACORN, the community organizing group that has come under heavy fire in the wake of damaging undercover videos that purport to show counselors giving advice on tax fraud to a “pimp” and “prostitute.”

The House voted 345-75 to strike ACORN funding from a student aid bill with two voting present.

Later, the Senate voted 85-11 to eliminate ACORN funding from an Interior Department spending bill.

In the House, the Defund ACORN Act prohibits any “federal contract grant, cooperative agreement or any other form of agreement (including a memorandum of understanding” from being awarded to or entered into with the group. It also prohibits federal funds “in any other form” from being provided.

In the Senate, the Protect Taxpayers from ACORN Act blocks the group from receiving taxpayer dollars.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, suggested the House vote is essentially symbolic because the student aid bill did not actually provide any funding to ACORN.

However, the language refers to all federal contracts so it applies to any federal money.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who introduced the “motion to recommit” attached to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, said the decision followed a similar Senate vote on Monday and the Census Bureau’s decision last week to cut ties to the group.

“The battle, however, to deny ACORN federal funding is not over until the president signs the bill into law. ACORN gave significant support to Democrats and Americans must remain vigilant to avoid backtracking or efforts to water down prohibitions denying Federal funds to this corrupt organization,” said

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., applauded the vote.

“ACORN has violated serious federal laws, and today, the House voted to ensure that taxpayer dollars would no longer be used to fund this corrupt organization,” he said in a written statement. “All federal ties should be severed with ACORN, and the FBI should investigate its activity.

“This united Republican effort to defund ACORN is a victory for the rule of law and taxpayers across the country.”

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. called the ACORN measure, which he voted against “flatly unconstitutional” and said it “threatens any organization disliked by Congress.”

“Congress must not be in the business of punishing individual organizations or people without trial, and that’s what this Amendment does,” he said in a written statement. “Whatever one may think of the organization, the Constitution’s clear ban on Bills of Attainder is there for the protection of all of our liberties.”

Democrats offered overwhelming support to the ACORN measure because they didn’t want to derail the student aid bill, senior House sources told FOX News. And the measure still has to be approved by the Senate — a process that will be complicated by the differences in its bill that  blocked federal funds to ACORN.

Miller said he allowed the ACORN measure to hit the floor despite its irrelevance to the student aid bill because he was “comfortable with giving members a vote on that issue and advance the legislation.”

He also said that whether or not ACORN would be defunded was “somewhat above my paygrade.”

Whether symbolic or not, the vote gives Republicans more momentum as they continue to keep the pressure on ACORN, which is on its heels. It also gave Republicans a move to force Democrats, who control the House, to vote on an issue that may leave some of them vulnerable in next year’s mid-term elections.

Republicans now have the firepower to run ads highlighting this vote, saying: “This lawmaker voted against defunding ACORN.” The 75 lawmakers who voted “no” and two who voted “present” were all Democrats.

But at least one Democrat who did vote to strip funding, Rep. Zack Space of Ohio, said he was “outraged” by a series of videos taken by two undercover filmmakers dressed up as a pimp and a prostitute in order to get advice at local ACORN establishments on how to set up a brothel in a way that allowed them to pay taxes and get federal grants for housing.

“I am outraged at the actions of ACORN’s employees and believe they should be penalized to the full extent of the law,” said Space. “Our government must be vigilant in ensuring that organizations that are found to act fraudulently do not receive taxpayer dollars.”"

ACORN

Straight from Fox News: “Police say a worker with the activist group ACORN who was caught on video giving advice about human smuggling to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute had reported the incident to authorities.

National City police said Monday that Juan Carlos Vera contacted his cousin, a police detective, to get advice on what to with information on possible human smuggling.

Vera was secretly filmed on Aug. 18 as part of a young couple’s high-profile expose.

Police say he contacted law enforcement two days later. The detective consulted another police official who served on a federal human smuggling task force, who said he needed more details.

The ACORN employee responded several days later and explained that the information he received was not true and he had been duped.

Vera was fired on Thursday.

Meanwhile, an internal watchdog at the Justice Department said Monday he was reviewing the agency’s involvement with ACORN.

Conservatives have called for a criminal investigation of the group.

Inspector General Glenn Fine wrote Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, that his office would examine whether ACORN sought or received any Justice Department grant money, or conducted any reviews of ACORN’s use of such money.

More than a dozen state and local authorities are also scrutinizing ACORN, including Maryland’s attorney general.”

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Straight from Fox News: “Republicans are rejecting comparisons made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who came near to tears Thursday when she compared anti-government rhetoric over President Obama’s health care proposals to the debate over gay rights in 1970s San Francisco.

“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco,” Pelosi told reporters, her voice catching in her throat at her weekly press briefing.

Without making an eponymous comparison, Pelosi was referring to the 1978 murders of Mayor George Moscone and city Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist immortalized in a recent movie starring Sean Penn. Former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White was convicted in the case. He committed suicide in 1985.

At the time, gay rights activists and others said the assassinations were the result of the loud and sometimes violent debate over gay rights. Pelosi was chairwoman of the Democratic Party for northern California and friendly with Milk and Moscone.

Pelosi said Thursday that while she values free speech, a careful line must be tread between the First Amendment Right and regard for public safety.

“Our country is great because people can say what they think and they believe,” she added. “But I also think that they have to take responsibility for any incitement that they may cause.”

Pelosi’s response came to a question about whether she is concerned that the political debate and anti-government rhetoric could mimic the era of 1993-1994, when then-President Bill Clinton offered a health care option and as the reporter noted, “Around that time, we also saw acts of domestic violence, domestic terrorism.”

“I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made,” Pelosi said. Some of the people hearing the message “are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume.”

Pelosi did not offer examples of rhetoric today that could lead to violence but the House rebuked South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson for shouting “You lie!” at Obama last week. The August congressional recess was also dominated by town hall meetings in which voters vigorously stated their opposition to the president’s proposals for health care reforms.

The town hall meetings were followed with a rally in Washington, D.C., last weekend that brought tens of thousands of protesters.

House Minority Leader John Boehner said Thursday little if any of the rhetoric feeding the health care debate has contained an undercurrent of violence.

“Listen, I was at a tea party in Westchester, Ohio on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend with 18,000 people. I saw no signs or any indication of any kind of violence,” he said.

“Americans are saying ’stop.’ They’re scared to death that the country that they grew up in is not going to be the country that their kids and grandkids get to grow up in,” Boehner added. “And so as a result, you’re seeing average Americans who’ve never been involved in the political process taking a more active role in our society and in this debate. And so, you know, I believe it ought to be civilized, but — but Americans are speaking up and they ought to speak up.”

Boehner also chided President Carter, who this week became the highest -profile politician to say the opposition is built on racism because Obama is black.

“I reject this resoundingly,” Boehner said. “The outrage that we see in America has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with the policies that (Obama) is promoting.”"

ACORN

Straight from Fox News: “ACORN said Wednesday it will stop any “new intakes” — essentially closing its doors to new clients — until it completes an internal investigation prompted by the release of four hidden-camera videos that show workers advising a fake pimp and prostitute to lie to get loans for a brothel.

“As a result of the indefensible action of a handful of our employees, I am, in consultation with ACORN’s Executive Committee, immediately ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review,” ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement released Wednesday.

“I have also communicated with ACORN’s independent Advisory Council, and they will assist ACORN in naming an independent auditor and investigator to conduct a thorough review of all of the organizations relevant systems and processes.”

Lewis said an independent auditor will be named no later than Friday and will make recommendations directly to her, as well as the full ACORN board.

“We enter this process with a commitment that all recommendations will be implemented,” Lewis’ statement continued.

The growing scandal drew criticism from the Obama administration on Wednesday as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the conduct depicted on the four videos “completely unacceptable.”

“The administration takes the accountability very seriously,” Gibbs told reporters.

Elsewhere, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty sent a letter on Wednesday to the state’s Management and Budget Commissioner directing him to stop all state funding to ACORN unless the state is legally obligated to provide such funding. Pawlenty, a Republican, also directed Commissioner Tom Hanson to conduct a thorough review of the state’s relationship with ACORN.

Undercover videos shot by independent filmmaker James O’Keefe and partner Hannah Giles at ACORN offices in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Brooklyn, N.Y., and San Bernadino, Calif. led to the firing of four employees and the launch of a criminal investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

The U.S. Census Bureau severed ties with the group last week in the wake of the controversy, and the Senate voted 83-7 on Monday to block the Department of Housing and Urban Development from giving grants to ACORN, meaning the organization will not be able to win HUD grants for programs such as counseling low-income people on how to get mortgages and for fair housing education and outreach.

“We have all been deeply disturbed by what we’ve seen in some of these videos,” Lewis said in her statement. “I must say, on behalf of ACORN’s Board and our Advisory Council, that we will go to whatever lengths necessary to reestablish the public trust. For nearly forty years, ACORN has given voice to communities, and gotten results. Right now, our nearly 500,000 members are working their hearts out for quality, affordable healthcare for every American and to help stop the foreclosure crisis. We must get this process right, so the good work can go forward.”

The fourth video by O’Keefe and Giles, which first appeared on BigGovernment.com, surfaced Tuesday, depicting an ACORN staffer in San Bernardino assisting the pair in their quest to obtain housing for an illegal sex business.

Much like in their previous undercover stings, O’Keefe, 25, and Giles, 20, who posed as a prostitute named “Eden,” were given assistance on Aug. 17 from a staffer at the ACORN office on how to avoid detection by law enforcement. The couple even tell ACORN staffer Tresa Kaelke — who admits on the videotape to previously having sex for money — that they plan on bringing in 12 girls from El Salvador to work in a home they hope to acquire via the community organization.

“We’re bringing these girls from overseas, but we are going to take a cut of the profit and intend to use the profit from the tricks the girls perform to fund my political campaign and the advertising,” O’Keefe tells Kaelke, adding that it will fund at least 50 percent of his planned run as a Democratic congressional candidate.

Kaelke, who told the couple that she once worked as a paid escort, at one point admits she was unqualified to counsel but stops well short of reporting O’Keefe and Giles to authorities.

“You know you are breaking the law if you have these girls in your care and they’re minors,” Kaelke said on the videotape, which was provided by O’Keefe and can be viewed on BigGovernment.com. ” … If I didn’t know better, and I don’t, but I would think this is a total setup.”

ACORN issued a statement late Tueday saying that Kaelke, indeed, suspected she was being set up and only responded as she did to play along with the obviously fake pimp and prostitute.

“She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios,” ACORN said in a statement, adding that Kaelke thought O’Keefe and Giles were not believable.

“Somewhat entertaining, but they weren’t even good actors. I didn’t know what to make of them,” Kaelke said, according to ACORN’s statement. “They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me … saying the most outrageous things with a straight face.”

Among the “outrageous things” she told them was that she previously worked as a “paid escort” in the Bahamas.

“We did trips to the Bahamas for big businessman on yachts,” she says in the video. “It was absolutely individual preference, you didn’t have to [have sex] … I was the one who did the bookings. I had sex one time because I wanted to.”

In an earlier statement released on Saturday, Lewis said that while she could not defend the actions of the terminated workers, O’Keefe may have committed a felony during the sting operation. She also threatened legal action against FOX News, which has aired the videos.

“It is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist ‘filmmaker’ O’Keefe and his partner in crime,” Lewis said. “And, in fact, a crime it was — our lawyers believe a felony — and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators,” she said.

O’Keefe, meanwhile, told FOX News he wants an apology from media outlets “covering for ACORN” and the organization itself.

“They don’t have any leg to stand on, so they’re saying I dubbed in my voice, which is completely absurd,” he said. “When the truth comes out in the end, they’re going to be apologizing to us.”

O’Keefe said he was merely trying to hold the ACORN offices accountable.”

Obama wants you to be healthy!

Straight from Fox News: “Health care policy researchers are contradicting President Obama’s claim that a government-run health insurance program would be self-sufficient and could rely on premiums, saying it’s not possible to insure up to 30 million people with better coverage and reduce costs at the same time.

“The numbers don’t hold up,” Grace Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a think tank devoted to health policy, said Thursday.

In his case to the joint session of Congress Wednesday night, Obama cited the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to contend that less than 5 percent of Americans would sign up for a so-called public option.

The July report by the CBO projected that 6 million people would enroll in a government-run program, considerably fewer than the 100 million estimated by The Lewin Group, a health care policy research group, or the 47 million predicted by the left-leaning Urban Institute.

The CBO offered its figure as part of an evaluation of one of the four congressional health bills floating through Congress right now. Asked whether a public plan would draw a significant number of Americans covered by private insurance, the congressional budget arm acknowledged that larger companies were not included in the assumptions.

The CBO added that because several factors are uncertain, “estimating enrollment in the public plan is especially difficult.”

Speaking Thursday, Obama repeated his claim that the cost of the plan — estimated at $900 billion over 10 years — will not add to the deficit. He also said that slowing the growth of health care costs will reduce the deficit by $4 trillion “over the long term.”

“That’s real money,” he said of the $90 billion per year price tag. “But it’s far less than we’ve spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.”

At a separate event, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that half the bill “will be paid for by squeezing excesses out of the system” by finding $500 billion in reduced waste, fraud, abuse and redundancy. The rest will be paid for in pay-as-you-go funding and cuts in other spending.

“Squeeze it out of the system, and that means out of the providers and the rest as well,” she said.

She added that despite the price tag, there’s no limit on the help people will receive.

“There’s a cap on what you pay in in premiums. There’s no cap on what you receive back,” Pelosi added.

Turner said a self-sustaining model will depend, among other things, on the cost of the premiums and who’s eligible. She added that in his assessment, the president doesn’t account for the initial $7 billion to $8 billion of taxpayer money it may cost to launch the plan or whether taxpayers would bail out the public plan if it falls into financial trouble.

“There’s too many unknowns to make a claim like that,” she said of the president’s estimates.

The renewed push for new health care legislation came as the Census Bureau reported Thursday that the number of people without health insurance rose to 46.3 million in 2008, up from 45.7 million in 2007. The bureau’s total was attributed to a continuing erosion of employer-provided insurance as a result of job losses. The number also includes illegal immigrants whom Obama insists are not covered under his proposed plan.

Robert Moffit, director of the Center of Health Policy Study at the conservative Heritage Foundation, expressed doubt that a public plan would or could be self-reliant.

“I don’t know what government program is self-sufficient,” Moffit told FOXNews.com. “It’s conceivable. It’s theoretically possible. You can imagine an alternative universe not run by [Democratic House leaders] Henry Waxman, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer where such a thing exists. But on planet Earth, it’s highly unlikely.”

Moffit also questioned the purpose of having a public plan if less than 5 percent of Americans enrolled.

“Why would we need it?” he asked. “You’re not keeping private insurers honest. At the end of the day, that is the elephant giving birth to the flea.”"

Jimmy Carter

Straight from Fox News: “Former President Jimmy Carter drew widespread criticism Wednesday for saying in an interview that Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” outburst last week was “based on racism” and that an “overwhelming portion” of similar demonstrations against President Obama are rooted in bigotry.

Obama’s supporters have attributed racist motives to some opponents of his health care plan for weeks, but Carter is the highest-profile person so far to push that claim.

While some anti-Obama demonstrators have been seen carrying over-the-top or racially offensive signs, administration critics say Carter is flat wrong to claim that those fringe protesters make up the bulk of Obama’s detractors.

“I don’t see race as an issue. It’s all about the policies that are coming out of the current administration,” said Deneen Borelli, a black conservative who spoke at the protest rally held in Washington Saturday. Much of the condemnation of Obama’s critics has come as a response to that protest, where tens of thousands demonstrated against big government and over-spending.

“I just see this as the race card being used once again to distract the American people from the core issues,” Borelli said.

Adam Brandon, spokesman for protest organizer FreedomWorks, said Carter’s comments were “absurd.” He noted that the protest featured about a dozen black speakers.

“To say this crowd was racist is absolutely absurd when black speakers were probably the most popular speakers,” he said.

“I think it’s very destructive for America to suggest that we can’t criticize a president without it being a racial act,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told FOX News.

The suggestion that race is behind criticism of Obama has been made by New York Gov. David Paterson and Reps. Charlie Rangel of New York, Diane Watson of California and Hank Johnson of Georgia, among others.

But a poll released Wednesday by Rasmussen Reports showed that just 12 percent of voters believe that most opponents of Obama’s health care reform plan are racist. The survey of 1,000 likely voters, taken Monday and Tuesday, found that 67 percent disagree with that contention, while 21 percent are not sure. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percent.

Carter, though, said in an interview with NBC that race is the driving factor.

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American,” Carter said. “I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way and I’ve seen the rest of the country that shared the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time … and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface, because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country.”

At a town hall at his presidential center in Atlanta Tuesday, Carter also said Wilson’s outburst — the South Carolina Republican shouted “You lie!” at Obama during his health care address to Congress — was racially motivated.

“I think it’s based on racism,” Carter said in response to an audience question. “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”

Wilson’s eldest son stepped up to his father’s defense.

“There is not a racist bone in my dad’s body,” said Alan Wilson, an Iraq War veteran who is running for state attorney general in South Carolina. “He doesn’t even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won’t comment on former President Carter, because I don’t know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it’s just not in him. … It’s unfortunate people make that jump.”

South Carolina’s former Democratic Party chairman said that he doesn’t believe Wilson was motivated by racism, but said the outburst encouraged racist views.

“I think Joe’s conduct was asinine, but I think it would be asinine no matter what the color of the president,” said Dick Harpootlian, who has known Wilson for decades. “I don’t think Joe’s outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth.”

Daniel Hannan, a conservative British politician and member of the European Parliament whose public criticism of the British health care system has drawn international attention, said Wednesday that there’s unavoidably some “element of racism” in the most aggressive criticism of Obama. But that’s not the majority.

“The overwhelming majority of critics of the president are not motivated by any personal dislike but have reached the view that he’s making a mistake and he’s indebting the country, that he’s enlarging the federal government at the expense of both of the state and of the citizens,” Hannan told FOX News. “I hope (Carter) thinks again about that phrase … It really isn’t a race thing.”

Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she, too, didn’t think Wilson’s outburst was race-related.

“I think there’s a lot of opposition, visceral opposition to his policies, but the reality is that this president won, he won with an overwhelming majority of support across the board from the American people and not not just from African-Americans, and it is time for us to move on and get down to the business of making the kind of change that the president outlined when he won the election last year,” she said.

But several Obama supporters say they worry that racism is not only at the core, but could lead to worse incidents than a shout on the House floor.

People will be putting on “white hoods and white uniforms again and riding through the countryside” if emerging racist attitudes, like those subtly supported by Wilson, are not rebuked, Johnson said.”

ACORN

Straight from Fox News: “A growing number of Republican lawmakers are calling for congressional hearings and IRS audits of ACORN following the release of three videotapes that show the group’s employees offering advice to a “pimp” and a “prostitute” on how to skirt the law.

Rep. Steve King, R-IA, said a video released Monday that shows filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20, getting advice from ACORN employees in Brooklyn, N.Y., on how to launder their earnings and avoid detection while running a prostitution business is “another reason to turn it up” on ACORN.

Four ACORN employees — two in Baltimore and two in Washington — were fired late last week after videos showed the “pimp” and “prostitute” getting similar advice in those cities. In those videos, O’Keefe and Giles told the ACORN workers that they intended to bring underage girls into the country to work as prostitutes.

“If you see that it’s endemic, that it’s at least three cities will help support and organize and provide for lending to homes of prostitution for underage girls that come from foreign countries that are likely illegal, how many drugs are being dealt out of houses facilitated by ACORN?” King told FOX News on Monday.

“What would they not do?” he asked of the ACORN workers. “Where would they reach a moral revulsion?”

King called on Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to hold investigations into ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, which also has been accused of widespread voter fraud during the 2008 presidential election. King also asked for a full “financial forensic analysis” into the group on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service.

“We saw into the offices of ACORN, we saw the faces of ACORN in Baltimore, in Washington, D.C., and in Brooklyn, and you have to imagine that’s going on in every inner city across America where ACORN is set up,” King said. “We’ve got to shut off every federal dollar to ACORN and we’ve got to investigate them thoroughly.”

Calls to Conyers’ office in Washington were not immediately returned on Monday. Officials at the IRS and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Jerry Schmetterer, director of public information for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, told FOXNews.com that officials will be “taking a look” into Brooklyn’s ACORN office.

“We are going to be taking a look at the situation,” Schmetterer said Monday.

A spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said ACORN’S tax status as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization should also be probed.

“We’ve already seen the Census Bureau severe its tie with ACORN,” the spokesman, Kurt Bardella, told FOXNews.com. “Certainly, as an organization being subsidized by taxpayer dollars, their relationship with other government entities should be called into question, and whether or not it’s appropriate for them to receive taxpayer dollars.”

In a statement to FOXNews.com, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., said the videos in Washington and Baltimore show “clearly a pattern of improper partisan or fraudulent activities.” He pointed to an amendment offered by Sens. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and David Vitter, R-La., that would ban ACORN from receiving direct or indirect federal funds under the FY 2010 Transportation-Department of Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill.

“It’s up to the Democratic majority to determine whether or not Congress will investigate ACORN or hold oversight hearings to justify any future taxpayer funding of ACORN,” Bartlett’s statement read.

Johanns’ amendment, to be introduced today, will prohibit funds to the group from several different accounts, including monies it receives through mortgage counseling, Community Development Block Grants, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

“ACORN has been in legal trouble in several states with raid after raid on their offices by officials looking into voter fraud. More than 30 ACORN officials have been convicted of fraud and new allegations of fraud are surfacing by the day,” Johanns said in a statement released Monday. “It’s wrong to give tax dollars to a group with multiple convictions of undermining our democratic process and our laws. So, I’m introducing measures to stop the federal funding of ACORN.”

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., said last week that the videos suggest multiple incidents of tax fraud, and called for a hearing to investigate ACORN’s tax filing assistance programs.

“In light of the apparent flagrant and willful attempts to suborn tax fraud, I … (am seeking) a hearing of the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee as soon as practicable to investigate ACORN’s activities,” he said Friday.

The Census Bureau notified ACORN on Friday in a letter that it was severing all ties with the group for all work related to the 2010 census.

“Over the last several months, through ongoing communication with our regional offices, it is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with the 2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 Census efforts,” read a letter from Census Director Robert Groves to the president of ACORN.

“Unfortunately, we no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your many local offices,” the letter continued. “For the reasons stated, we therefore have decided to terminate the partnership.”

In response, ACORN officials blamed FOX News and conservatives for fueling the controversy.

“By its actions, Fox is not a news outlet but rather an advocacy organization for rightwing interests that seek to defeat healthcare reform and stymie solutions to the foreclosure crisis,” the group said in a statement to FOXNews.com. “That said, with regard to the Census, ACORN has always said it would encourage full participation in the decennial count, and we will continue to do so.”

ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis said the videos capturing her former workers were “doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist ‘filmmaker’ O’Keefe and his partner in crime.”

Lewis said ACORN will take legal action against FOX News and those involved in the making of the videos. She said ACORN offices were also targeted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Philadelphia, among other places.

“I am appalled and angry,” Lewis said. “I cannot and I will not defend the actions of the workers depicted in the video, who have since been terminated.”

According to USASpending.gov, a federal government Web site for tracking government grants, ACORN Housing Corporation received $1.6 million to provide housing services to low-income communities in this fiscal year, ending Sept. 30. The Department of Housing and Urban Development Grants has given $8.2 million to ACORN between 2003 and 2006, as well as $1.6 million to ACORN affiliates.”