# ACORN workers caught on tape apparently advising on child prostitution **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 11, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681 "2009-09-11T13:19:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![wolf11469](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf11469/32/12464_2.png) [@wolf11469](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf11469)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/341 "2009-09-15T00:49:26Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > . Also explain why it took the ‘investigators’ so many tries before they found someone willing to follow policy. > > . Just out of curiosity, has Acorn offered any proof of multiple scam attempts ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/342 "2009-09-15T02:06:59Z")
The scammers themselves admitted it took them a bunch of tries, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/343 "2009-09-15T02:22:17Z")
Interesting thread evolution. We started with child prostitution, ended up with mortgage application advice. Might be guilty on that one. I suggest a thorough cleaning, to save ACORN’s future. Lets clear out the whole chain of command…(gimmee a second, that one still cracks me up…tofu lefties with a chain of command!..oh, my…) from the very top! Lets purge the top positions and replace them with public servants of proven ability and impeccable moral fiber. Alberto Gonzales, for instance, needs a job. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/344 "2009-09-15T02:46:43Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Wow…I see there is no more substance in this debate. Typical far-left tactics…when losing a debate start insulting the other side. > . . . > > Pathetic… So, you identify yourself on the far-left? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/345 "2009-09-15T02:48:58Z")
Icckkkh! If there is not some substance posted to this thread, shortly, it will be closed and you can all move over to the Pit to gnaw on each others’ legs. [/Modding] ---
**Author:** ![wolf11469](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf11469/32/12464_2.png) [@wolf11469](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf11469)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/346 "2009-09-15T03:34:22Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The scammers themselves admitted it took them a bunch of tries, I believe. Really?? I didn’t see that. In the link in post 214 he seemed to deny it. "First CNN pushed the false ACORN line that “[t]his film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed.” ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/347 "2009-09-15T03:55:48Z")
> [@wolf11469](#): > > Just out of curiosity, has Acorn offered any proof of multiple scam attempts No. In fact, ACORN listed the NY office as one that the crew tried to bait but failed. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/348 "2009-09-15T04:13:08Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Firstly, none of those except maybe #6 are “lines of defence”, they are aguments raised at various times in the discussion. One does not replace another; they are all arguable. > > I for one would like to hear your opinion on why ACORN, as an organization, would agree to tell anyone, much less persons supposedly already engaged in illegal activity, on how to dodge taxes. > > The only explanation I’ve heard from people who seem to share your views is that ACORN is seeking to sow chaos any way it can. If that your view as well? I ask because it seems utterly childish and silly as an explantion for anything. If this is not your view, what would the organization have to gain by advising prostitutes on ways to avoid taxes? I’m really not seeing the advantage to them here. I don’t believe that ACORN was set up as an ideological group. Their far-left work is incidental. I believe it is just a criminal enterprise designed to make money for the top tier guys. Remeber Wade Rathke and his million dollar embezzlement. My guess is that the Rathke’s and maybe others set up an umbrella organization in order to get grant money from the government. They probably pocket a percentage and spend the rest on these community outreach programs. I assume they are minimally involved in the day to day operations of the various projects and function as little more than absentee landlords. They hire ex-convicts and other idiots that they can easily throw away if the going gets tough. I assume the different projects are run by someone higher up than the streel-level people (regardless of what elucidator says there has to be someone organizing this group of idiots). When laws are broken the top guys have plausible deniability and probably can not be convicted for any crimes committed by the street-level guys. Contrary to what others belive, I do not think that ACORN is trying to sow chaos for nefarious left-wing purposes. This is merely a side effect of the type of people employed and the type of programs offered by ACORN. I don’t think the Rathke’s have a political persuasion…all they care about is the money. Of course this is all IMHO. Regardless, they should not receive another penny of taxpayer money until they are investigated by Congress. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/349 "2009-09-15T04:20:13Z")
By the way, the Senate voted 83 to 7 to prohibit use of funds for ACORN (amendment 2355 to HR 3288. It’s a good start! [http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll\_call\_lists/roll\_call\_vote\_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00275](http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00275) ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/350 "2009-09-15T04:35:10Z")
**Senate Votes to Cut Off ACORN Housing Funding** [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/14/senate-votes-cut-acorn-housing-funding/](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/14/senate-votes-cut-acorn-housing-funding/) > [@](#): > > The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/351 "2009-09-15T04:40:28Z")
Funny…no one voted to cut off funding for Blackwater until an investigation was conducted on all those mysterious civilian deaths. No one voted to cut off funding for Halliburton until an investigation was conducted on the soldiers they electrocuted. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/352 "2009-09-15T04:58:48Z")
Those are _legitimate_ criminal conspiracies! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/353 "2009-09-15T05:08:47Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Funny…no one voted to cut off funding for Blackwater until an investigation was conducted on all those mysterious civilian deaths. No one voted to cut off funding for Halliburton until an investigation was conducted on the soldiers they electrocuted. Hmmm… seems like the wealthy people get a pass, but the poor people get fucked over. What a surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/354 "2009-09-15T05:48:48Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Hmmm… seems like the wealthy people get a pass, but the poor people get fucked over. What a surprise. Yeah, I’m not sure why the Right is crowing over this “victory”, since all it does is raise questions as to why their pet projects weren’t investigated and castigated for doing far worse. If anything it just makes them look like total hypocrites. I guess they have to get their little victories where they can. Cognitive dissonance FTW. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/355 "2009-09-15T06:46:20Z")
ACORN is important because it plays to the ceaseless tighty righty certainty of their own persecution, by dark and sinister forces. They know that those US attorney investigations of the dreaded voter fraud were totally legitimate. That they concentrated on Democratic candidates is only to be expected, since the Dems are so closely associated with the cackling coven of Satanic socialists - ACORN! There’s hardly a member of ACORN who has a Bill Ayers number larger than two! That such sterling public servants as Alberto Gonzales found themselves in hot water over this patriotic exercise is further proof of oppression. Why, the lefties had twisted things around so that prosecuting voter fraud was somehow against the law! Well, OK, they had to bend the rules a little, cut a corner or two. Ten, maybe, tops. But that’s how it is in the rough and tumble world of voter registration! This is mostly how ACORN got such an exaggerated importance for the tighty set: not that they were powerful or important, but that they were prominent, they stood out. Because ACORN helps them explain the inexplicable: how a center right country with an overwhelming majority of people who think like they do, how such a country could vote so wrong. They have to choose: either they are wrong about America, or they wuz robbed. And so, ACORN, gnawing rat-like on the vitals of the Republic, so insidious that hardly any lefties had ever even \*heard \*of them! Now that’s _sneaky_, when your own team doesn’t know what you’re up to! What they cannot confess even to themselves is that voter registration is what hurts them, its why they resist any effort to make it easier. They cling to their dream of majority even as they resist any effort to expand the voter rolls. I mean to say, if you really believe you are the natural majority, you _want_ more people to vote, yes? Unless you don’t really believe that. Hardly matters. For the same reasons so few lefties had ever heard of ACORN, it will be easily replaced. Its mostly a collection of sub-groups anyway, a change of letterhead would be pretty much all that would be required if they actually hanged ACORN. And, on balance, a delightful precedent has been set for independent amateur investigators to provide proof, once again, of that eternal verity: that whatsoever shall go around, therefore shall it come around, and bite you in the butt. Verily. ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/356 "2009-09-15T21:40:59Z")
More stuff. [http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/15/acorn-prostitution-scandal-california-here-we-come/](http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/15/acorn-prostitution-scandal-california-here-we-come/) This is part one. From Cali-forn-ya, the land of uh uh… Enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/357 "2009-09-15T21:52:07Z")
This O’Keefe guy would seem to have conspired with some fair number of people to break the laws in multiple states, wrt recording others without consent. I’m guessing that he has already started a defense fund and has been accepting “donations” for a while now, since most of these seem to have been recorded months or weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/358 "2009-09-15T22:14:40Z")
Nothing involving adult prostitution is newsworthy. I don’t even know what that woman killing her abusive husband (good for her) even has to do with ACORN. The right wing’s blissed out, drooling glee over this scammer’s unimportant little Borat stunts is lost on me. What exactly do they think they’re proving? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/359 "2009-09-15T22:52:17Z")
Man, that guy shot a lot of film. I mean… how much O’Keefe do we have here, Crow? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681/360 "2009-09-15T23:13:51Z")
> [@e-sabbath](#): > > man, that guy shot a lot of film. I mean… How much o’keefe do we have here, crow? Miiiiiiiiiles O’Keefe! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acorn-workers-caught-on-tape-apparently-advising-on-child-prostitution/509681.md?page=19)