Homeland Security Newsletter: CSIA Report: Unearthed! Obama's twisted ACORN roots Track timeline of president's ties to group immersed in scandals

Friday, September 18, 2009

Unearthed! Obama's twisted ACORN roots Track timeline of president's ties to group immersed in scandals

(Analyst's note: The dots are beginning to be connected in what is a tangled web. Absolutely must read.)

By Chelsea Schilling

ACORN (photo: Dickinson College)

While ACORN remains riddled in scandal, lawmakers have voted to cut off federal funding to the group, the U.S. Census Bureau has severed ties to the organization – and the White House has blasted its behavior as "unacceptable."

But just how extensive are President Obama's personal ties to ACORN?

The following is a timeline outlining some of the purported connections between the president and ACORN through the years:

1990s: Obama meets ACORN

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, first noticed Obama when he was organizing on the far south side of the city with the Developing Communities Project. A March 2, 2008, Los Angeles Times article by Letta Tayler and Keith Herbert, titled "Obama Forged Path As Chicago Community Organizer," explored Obama's pre-law school days as a community organizer in Chicago and his efforts to build a partnership

with Chicago's "Friends of the Parks."

"Obama's task was to help far South Side residents press for improvement," the Times article explained.

National Review Online noted, "Part of Obama's work, it would appear, was to organize demonstrations, much in the mold of radical groups like ACORN."

The Times article reveals that Madeleine Talbot, who at the time was a leader at Chicago ACORN, was thoroughly impressed with Obama because "he got people to vote with their feet."

"At the time, Talbot worked at the social action group ACORN and initially considered Obama a competitor," the article stated. "But she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff."

Talbott personally led Chicago ACORN's campaign to intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to low-credit customers, Stanley Kurtz reported.

"Long the director of Chicago ACORN, Talbott is a specialist in 'direct action' – organizers' term for their militant tactics of intimidation and disruption," Kurtz writes. "Perhaps her most famous stunt was leading a group of ACORN protesters breaking into a meeting of the Chicago City Council to push for a 'living wage' law, shouting in defiance as she was arrested for mob action and disorderly conduct. But her real legacy may be her drive to push banks into making risky mortgage loans."

Learn more about Barack Obama's early involvement as an ACORN organizer and attorney

1992: Project Vote! and training green ACORNs ....

1993: Woods Foundation ....

1994: Buycks-Robinson v. Citibank ....

1995: ACORN attorney in Illinois lawsuit ....

1996: New Party ties ....

1997-2004: Illinois state senator ....

2005: U.S. senator ....

2007: From Obama's own mouth ...

2008: ACORN endorses Obama ....

2009: Criminal case against ACORN ....

Cutting ties with ACORN? ....