Discussion:ACORN advice

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/09/acorn-gives-tax-.html

Personally, they should win. After watching the video, I just could not believe what I heard.

Tom

It's deplorable. I agree that if the DNC or any candidate associates with these people, they deserve what they get.

How did 8k a month keep making it down to 800.00? Where did the $7,000.00 in expenses come from, thin air? Is this a criminal conspiracy to evade taxes? This has it all, underage minors, potential kidnap victims...

What would they do with a contract killer?

ACORN essentially preys on the poor (and the outcast types, let's add criminals), and ACORN collects money from non-profit agencies and other non-profit front agencies to deliver votes (at least that's how I see it). At the root of it is money.

Yet, there is another industry at the very top, with fine office furnishings and china coffee cups that is also steering taxpayers into foreign bank accounts to evade tax, and sophisticated highly suspect tax dodges.

Whereas the people in the middle and upper middle class are the slobs trying to obey the law and pay their tax.

.*Though at $8,000.00 supposed dollars per month, it would be hard to call the "performing artist" poor. Oh, but it was just $800.00.....

P.S. The news media is being careful and saying that ACORN is alleged to have done this, so I amend all my above remarks to state that ACORN is alleged to have done all this.

Discussion: Maybe she taught Geithner?

I would not rely on CNN or the other major media then, either. Just look at what CNN aired today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_sFaDJ2pz8

It turns out CNN was dead wrong. It was an exercise by the Coast Guard. Not the brightest move by the Coast Guard on the anniversary of 9/11, I must admit.

Fox wasn't wrong. Those idiots at ACORN were and deserved to be fired.

Tom

As far as objective news, day in and day out, you won't find it on FOX or CNN. They are pretty much entertainment in my opinion.

Agreed. No news channel is objective anymore. I am tired of all of them frankly.

I read and listen to all different perspectives, when time permits. Honestly, each one has a corner on stupidity covered very nicely, I guess I am jaded from living and working in the DC area for years. I have too many personal stories and from contacts inside the Beltway to share with the board that would make you wonder what the heck really goes on in this town.

Census Bureau announced today they are cutting ties with ACORN. That's no surprise.

Forget these bozos. Remember the heroes of today's anniversary.

Tom

wow

When the DC video showed up, it reminded me of something. Twenty-plus years ago at my first CPA firm, I used to do audits in a DC neighborhood known to have, shall we say, "ladies of the evening." These women in no-way, shape or form, looked anything like this young lady. I doubt they do still.

Advice to ACORN employees: STREET PROSTITUTES NEVER LOOK AS GOOD AS THAT GIRL AND PIMPS DON'T DRESS IN THAT CLOWNISH ATTIRE!

No, I don't know from personal experience. It's just an observation.

Now back to our regular scheduled programming.

Tom

PS: Kevin, check your math.

I didn't see that until now. Sorry about that. I was laughing too hard at the time. I lost it at the search through the business classifications. Thetax expert" comes up with "performance arts" and tells her "which is what you are, performing arts." That's when the money comes into the discussion.

The outright fraud discussed openly on the tapes is just too rich. Of course, now ACORN is claiming they were the victims.

Go figure.

Tom

This is not about Fox News. Read the above posts. Again, Fox News did not start the investigation. You are a smart guy. Read some background information before you jump to conclusions.

FYI, at least one ABC journalist covered it and here's what he reported:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/census-severs-relationship-with-acorn.html

The reason the mainstream media hasn't picked up the story is simple: they don't want to give Fox News their due. By doing so, they would legitimize them as a news organization. The "Big 4" are happy to allow them to be bashed as the "network of the right-wing lunatic fringe." The Van Jones story was a fabulous example and Judy Miller, a former NY Times reporter and Fox News analyst chided her former employer for not covering it.

However, there are legitimate concerns in this story that should alarm you and everyone here as professional tax preparers. The level of fraud being openly discussed by these "tax experts" of ACORN is astonishing. Watch those tapes and tell me you are not disturbed by what you hear. While I laughed until I cried, I was stunned at the outright fraud discussed on the tapes at all three locations.

You should be as well.

Tom

This guys name is James O'Keefe (the "Pimp" and supposed instigator) who is behind this, there's some more information on biggovernment.com about him. He's done some other things, like tried to get Lucky Charms taken out of his college cafeteria due to Irish discrimination.

The tapes do appear to be edited. Mr. O'Keefe provides a transcript for some of this to his credit, and to me, it does not always match up.

Regardless, ACORN knows that the heat is on. Yes, considering that the big banks and financial institutions of this country have basically stolen us all blind, and taken our tax dollars to boot, the smear campaign of the far right is against ACORN. The banking crisis is not really solved to this day.

ACORN has to be beyond reproach going forward, and pay for it's past sins. Too bad we did not take the same approach, and apply the same standards, when dealing with the pillars of capitalism.

CNN has covered this. The media is being careful because these are prank type events, the whole story is still coming out, and they don't want egg on their faces.

There's more coming out, or at least Glenn Beck says he's got something big for tommorrow night.

"Judy Miller, a former NY Times reporter and Fox News analyst chided her former employer for not covering it." Judy Miller, that same person who helped create Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction? Her commenting on the news is rich.

James O'Keefe said on Beck yesterday that he and Hannah had spent around $1,400 dollars on this whole affair. That defies logic, to me.

These videos are being rolled out in a well orchestrated plan. So, I want to know the rest of the story, and then I'll make up my mind. There are more videos in the pipeline, I think. I want more information on how this was put together, and how it was rolled out.

Kevin is absolutely correct we would be suspended from practice for this advice.

Crow, I read the transcripts and while I agree somethings are left out, I do believe the context of the videos are mostly accurate. I also read they are doing everything from Saul Alinsky's "left-wing" playbook, Rules for Radicals. I believe it's Rule #8, "Keep the pressure on. Never let up."

It appears now ACORN is changing its tune. They are undergoing an internal review. Smart move.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27236.html

Tom

I too get a chuckle from these videos, and I feel certain that ACORN is going to pay the price.

But, there was a lot of taxpayer money that was stolen by banks, call it what you will. The committee overseeing the TARP basically got an admission from Treasury Sec. that the first $250 billion of TARP money disappeared into the ether. I believe some of that money has now been converted from debt into equity in the banks that is held by Treasury to pay us back. If that equity becomes worthless, and there is still an excellent chance that it will, it makes ACORN look like mighty small potatoes.

Seems quite a bit of it went to the informants who ratted out Hussien. And now the US has posted a bounty of some $25 MILLION for the pelt of bin Laden in Afghanastan. Lots of money goes out with very little accounting.

It seems some of our Armed Forces, or more likely various military contractors, might have come home with more than the usual contraband associated with war time.

All of this was blamed on minor problems with "accounting controls".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrpRGZq7Z-U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JreAUzmf6VM

"The reason the mainstream media hasn't picked up the story is simple: they don't want to give Fox News their due" your quote. I guess info comes from Glen Beck, Bill O'Rielly, Shawn Hannity.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27186.html

Read the whole article and see what I mean.

What ACORN was saying before they funding started drying up was "These kids are to blame, so is Fox News, wah, wah, wah. Poor us." Then that nonsense with the former escort It's the equivalent of the politician accepting bribe money on camera two days after he's caught saying "Oh that... uh, see what I was doing there was I was investigating them."

ACORN's people put themselves in this position, not O'Keefe, Giles or Fox News.

Tom

PS: Crow - FYI, I also didn't think TARP was a great idea either. I felt that money would have been better spent elsewhere. I feel the same way about the Stimulus Plan and the Iraq War.

http://www.askbutwhy.com/2009/08/william-k-black-great-american-bank.html

I love the title of his book: The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One

And it is not just Fox but the screamers on MSNBC like Olbermann, Chris Matthews and now Maddow. They, and Fox and others have reduced news to sound bites. Can anyone imagine Chris Matthews, Hannity, Olbermann, O'Reilly and company doing a segment poking fun at themselves and their attitudes as Jon Stewart does above?

Here is a decent source of media criticism, and not Fox criticism but of WAPO, the NY Times and others: http://www.dailyhowler.com/

I have this memory of a night in June, 2006, laying in a hospital bed after a prostate operation. My neighbor played his television all night, and yes it was Fox News, reporting on the killing of a major Al-quaeda operative, Al-Zarqawi, in Iraq. Hour after hour they brought out talking heads, former military and from the administration and Dick Cheyney's bunker, telling us of the importance of this event, which would surely cripple the enemy and bring a quick end to the war. Well, that was the story that night.....what a lot of piffle, but fed to us almost like Big Brother in 1984. I doubt the other networks were any better but my neighbor did not use his remote. To escape, I found some old movie channel and turned up the volume.

Hitler was well aware of this himself, and after he used his most dispicable thugs to gain power, he...eliminated them.

This was referred to as the "Night of the Long Knives". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives

Moral: you only need the Teabaggers and the other rednecks to take back power, once you get that power back...you don't need them, they're inconvenient.

The TEA Party movement does not have anyone in power and has no military power. That makes a big difference.

Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, et. al., have host and pundits who scream. The pundits all talk over each other and it makes your head hurt. Each one has an agenda and each changes facts to fit their audience.

But I have one question: would NBC, CBS, et. al., have held up a video made by two young people, similar to O'Keefe and Giles with a similar axe to grind, of a Christian based group loosely tied with say, Sarah Palin? Just wondering...

Tom

Now to America. The Republican Party. The Party is really about money, Big Money. The people that control this party could care less about morals. In fact, the people that control the Republican party are not even politicans, for the most part.

But, there are not enough rich people to elect a candidate of the rich to office. The question then becomes in a democracy: how do you trick a large enough group of people to vote against their own economic interests and to vote for the interests of the rich?

The answer? You use: "morals", racial purity, nationalism, "religion", gay bashing, (for years, they were against women too), conspiracies, unchecked greed... you use these things to appeal to the most base instincts of the majority.

But, every once in a while, you have to get rid of the lunatics because they start going too far. Just like Buckley had to get rid of the Birchers. They serve their purpose (God forbid they blow up a federal building (the para-military wing) or do some other outrageous act), then you must get rid of them.

Most of these Teabaggers (or other hangers on) are just being used. They are puppets really. The job of Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, O'Riley etc. is to stir up this group of goons so they go on the attack. Keep their eyes on everything but that fact that they are being used. And they are well paid for doing this.

[Tom, there are some people who are Republicans because they really do believe in certain moral issues. The problem is is that they don't realize that the people that run the Party could care less. Even some Bishops have been fooled by this (Abortion example). My argument would be: let's make abortion rare through education and a fight against poverty and in favor of hope.]

Congress has acted and cut off ACORN realizing they are poisonous. It's too bad it had to come to this for ACORN.

Crow, this is the same tired rehash I've heard before about the Republican Party. I am not a Republican. I am what you consider a blue dog Democrat. I have worked for parties of political stripes. I have also worked with libertarian groups. It comes from working in DC, I suppose. I've mentioned it before, but I've seen this stuff in action first hand working for a powerful political operative in DC and yes, they were conservative. Before that, many clients at a firm I worked for were staunchly left-wing operatives and I learned much from them.

Both sides have an axe to grind. While I understand your point, I believe it's far-fetched. Look what happened when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Building. No one wanted any part of him.

The far left has its crazies just as the far right. Look at all the violence back in the 1960's and '70's. Who committed those acts? It wasn't the right-wing nut jobs, but the radical left, some of whom are in positions of power today. They have blood on their hands from that time. Before you bring up the obvious retort I know is coming about certain right-wing extremists, I am dead set against that as well (read your last sentence).

This really is not about that in the end. What about people who ACORN openly commit fraud on their tax returns? Who speaks for those poor individuals? Let's say a tax preparer at ACORN says, "Let's get you a better refund. You have two dependents, not one" or creates a phony Schedule C as a "performing artist" to take losses against income? Is ACORN going to be responsible to pay back the money? Not on your life. That's where I am mad about this more than anything else. It really has nothing to do with media coverage. Who is going to speak for the poor if they are victims of these "tax preparers" if they are willing to assist two lily-white kids masquerading as a pimp and a prostitute in committing fraud?

Tom

Toacpa, I think this is exactly why some kind of license for tax-preparers is a good thing. Make sure all preparers have a PTIN so they can be tracked and prosecuted if wrong doing and fraud has occured. Any kind of fraud in the tax prep business makes us all look bad. And we know there is a lot of fraud with "EIC".

As far as the "two lily-white kids masquerading as a pimp and prostitute", I am sure at the end of the day, when the truth comes out, they will have some kind of connection with Glen Beck and Fixed News.

I hope I've gone over the edge Snowbird. Remember, a federal building got taken out during the Clinton administration. Of course, we all know that McVeigh was a libertarian....(paramilitary right wing nut), a Republican would never do that.

You let some people get an earful of the half-baked stuff Beck spews out night after night, and some of the other right wing whackos, and you don't know what can happen.

How much less could they care?