ACORN Contradictions in Tax-Evasion/Prostitution Advice Scandal.

Jim O'Keefe released a video through www.biggovernment.com that shows himself and a young, attractive woman disguised as a pimp and prostitute trying to get advice from a pair of ACORN "community organizers" on how to buy a house in order to lodge over a dozen young females from El Salvador. During the conversation, the undercover couple let the following "facts" be known to the ACORN workers:

1. Their business was prostitution.
   
2. They would be housing 13 young women from El Salvador.
3. They weren't paying income taxes.
4. If they were to start paying taxes, what should they claim in terms of income, occupation and dependents.

The response from the ACORN representatives is truly stunning. They tell the undercover couple that they can file under the classification of "Performing Arts". They tell them that since the 13 young girls don't have Social Security numbers, don't worry about them. They completely ignore the implication that the girls are probably illegal aliens, that they are underage, and that they will be working in their "business". The advice received concerning how to avoid paying taxes given is "Don't file." Even though the undercover couple indicate that their annual income would be about $96,000, they are told to declare $9,600 in income since they are probably doing mostly a cash business.

If it weren't as grotesque as I've just described it, this would be hilarious. But it gets better.

On Wednesday, ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson said "The portrayal is false and defamatory and an attempt at 'gotcha' journalism." The national headquarters also stated that there would be no further comment until they saw the "entire" video. This notwithstanding the "entire" video is currently available for download at www.biggovernment.com right now and has been since September 5th.

On Friday it was reported by ACORN Maryland chapter leader Stuart Katzenberg that the two employees were fired because "they did not meet ACORN's standard of professionalism." Whoa. I though ACORNs position was that the video was misleading, "false and defamatory". Yet two employees were fired? Seems contradictory to me.

Oh wait, it get's even better! (Or sicker, depending on your point of view.) Fox News is now reporting that in addition to the Baltimore office being "stung" by Jim O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, they managed to pull the same stunt off at an ACORN office in Washington, D.C. as well. In this NEW tape Lavernia Boone, an ACORN "mortgage consultant" and Sherana Boone, an ACORN "housing employee" (are they related?) allegedly give the undercover couple similar advice as the Baltimore office did.

So... I think we've got some contradictions here.
ACORN believes the videotape is "false and defamatory" and yet two "community organizers" lost their jobs because of their "unprofessional standards". ACORN would also have you believe that the Baltimore employees were part-time temporary help and that no senior staffers were in the office at the time. This is clearly intended to get people to believe that the situation was unique to "Tonya" and "Shira" at the Baltimore office and that they were acting beyond ACORN rules and regulations. And yet... here comes the DC video! And what advice does the DC office give? The exact same advice as in Baltimore. To wit; lie on your taxes, tell the kids to shutup, keep your prostitution business low-key or somebody will get nosey and call "Fox".

ACORN Offers to Help Setup a Brothel.

Wow. I thought I'd seen it all...

Then I see a video on www.biggovernment.com that shows two young white students posing as a prostitute and her pimp in trying to use ACORNs consulting services to secure a loan to purchase a house. The video completely speaks for itself and every American should be casting severe distrust against this organization.

ACORN responding by saying that the video was "false and defamatory" and an attempt to "smear" their organization. False? How? This was a video of two of their employees providing the following advice:
1) Run a prostitution brothel under the IRS classification of "Performance Arts".
2) Avoid paying taxes by using the following tactic: "Don't file."
3) Continue to assist with tax form preparation even when the couple states that they will also have numerous young girls from El Salvador working for them "in the trade" and living in the house.

What should have happened at that point is that the ACORN employees (or representatives or whatever) demand the couple's identification or even make a citizen's arrest. What this couple were "pretending" to setup was a child pornography/sex slave operation working out of the house that ACORN was going to assist them in purchasing with falsified tax documents.

And President Obama wants to use these same people to collect 2010 census information and funnel them 8.9 billion dollars?!?

I agree with Glenn Beck. This is not a Democrat/Republican issue. This is a corruption issue. And it is clear that ACORN and the politicians that support/protect them are about as corrupt as it gets.

Guns in Bars??? Welcome to the Wild, Wild West.

So today the Arizona legislature passed a law that will permit concealed carry permit holders to carry their weapons into bars and restaurants.

Restaurants? I guess I can almost see the sense in that. Bars? No freakin' way! You've gotta be kidding me! Even the most diligent person occasionally let's their hair down. The idea of a concealed carry permit holder packin' heat while also sluggin' down whiskey or whatever their personal choice of poison is scares me to death. It should also scare all the other bar patrons as well as the bar owners.

Good intention. Bad idea. Horrendous execution.

Governor Brewer, please do NOT sign this legislation!

Pirate Bay Goes Legit.

CNN reports today that the Swedish torrent website, "the Pirate Bay" is being sold to Global Gaming factory for millions. I'm pretty sure that I've no clue what Global Gaming Factory is going to do with this website/torrent filesharing system, but it sounds like "the Pirate Bay" will soon be out of the business of hosting seed files that point to networked systems that host copyrighted files.

What got me was the comments on the blog for this article. Most of them were from nerd or nerd wannabees who feel that their "right" to access copyrighted material at no cost to them and no compensation to the original authors of the programs is being violated. I'm amazed that supposedly educated people could even believe such an assertion, much less actually voice it.

Here's an example. Jake commented that "The cost of software these days rival car payments and rent payments. I don't blame them for downloading illegal software." First, Jake, they are not downloading illegal software. They *are* downloading software illegally. Huge difference. He later states "If prices were reasonable I’d probably buy every piece of software I used or had to evaluate and recommend to people. The simple fact is they are not."

Jake, that's a little like saying that if Lamborghini would only sell their Mucielago supercar for only ten thousand bucks you'd buy one.

Why is it that if you apply this same argument to every other industry, what you get is front row seat at your own trial, but somehow when it's digital software that's being stolen the thieves get a pass?

Without regard to whether the software is developed and sold by a large corporation like Microsoft, Symantec or Oracle or it's shareware being offered on cNET, the software that was developed at a cost in terms of both time and money and the developer deserves to be compensated for it. This is the essence of copyright laws. Without them, there's nothing to prevent people from reverse-engineering or stealing ideas developed at a high cost or effort, with the innovator receiving no benefit from their work.

The consumer does not have a right to steal something that they did not legally purchase simply because they do not desire or cannot pay the MSRP for it. That's stealing. Pure and simple. The marketplace will determine whether a company's product is any good. If it is... people will continue to purchase the product. If it isn't... then the company will fail. Period.

I wonder how Jake would feel if he spent several years and thousands (tens or hundreds of them) of dollars developing some really cool software, only to have it downloading tens of thousands of times from a site like "the Pirate Bay" without any compensation whatsoever.

In summarization, if people like Jake have his way then all software would be free of charge. Which will result in a stagnation in the computer programming industry because I know very few programmers that are willing to write code for free. Those that do, frankly, aren't very good programmers.