Laughing Through Tears: ACORN Investigates Themselves! (UPDATED)

Laughter:

From The Washington Times, via Publius at BigGovernment.com:

[ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis] said "no new intakes will be accepted into ACORN's offices for service programs, effective immediately."

She also said the group would begin "immediate in-service training for all frontline staff."

In addition, she said, "ACORN's independent Advisory Council will help select an independent auditor/reviewer no later than September 18th to review all of the systems and processes called into question by the videos."

Just so you know:

In early 2009, ACORN set up an independent Advisory Council to help put together a new management team under Lewis. Lewis was appointed to the job in the fall of 2008 after disclosure of a set of improper management decisions by the founder of the organization.

Tears:

As pointed out by Investor's Business Daily, Wade Rathke, founder of Acorn, also is the founder and chief organizer of SEIU.

A quick Google search of the names of the Advisory Council who will be helping Bertha Lewis and ACORN select an "independent auditor/reviewer" reveals the following:

• John Podesta was Co-Chairman of the Obama/Biden Transition Project. [UPDATE via There's My Two Cents: "Podesta runs the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which has been coordinating the public defense of ACORN this summer."]
• Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was former lieutenant governor of Maryland, location of the Baltimore ACORN. [UPDATE via There's My Two Cents: She "called the stories of ACORN’s frequent involvement in voter fraud a 'desperate smokescreen maneuver.']
• Andrew Stern is the international president of the purple-shirted SEIU (Service Employees International Union).
  
• Henry Cisneros was pardoned by Bill Clinton for lying to the FBI while Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
  
• John Banks is Vice President of Government Relations for Con Edison, where he is responsible for the management of the company’s government affairs activities as they relate to city, state, or federal policies.
• Eric Eve is Senior Vice President of Global Consumer Group, Community Relations, of Citigroup, which helps people facing foreclosure. (Added 8/17/09: Michelle Malkin identified Eve as a "champion of the ACORN/Citibank illegal alien loan program that openly undermines immigration laws and integrity in banking," a partnership with Citibank announced by the San Diego ACORN office designed to "secure home loans for illegal aliens" with "below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and no mortgage insurance requirements," and, obviously, no need for Social Security numbers.)

Here's the latest ACORN video, in which James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles visit a San Diego ACORN office and meet with an ACORN "lawyer":

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