ACORN considered name change – how about NROCA (Nationwide Republican Opportunity Council of America)?
Editors note: The Nationwide Republican Opportunity Council of America? (ACORN spelled backwards), was founded in 2009 as an activist organization to deliver information about voting and to do outreach with full disclosure and transparency – something the Democratic Party has forgotten about. To find out more information click here.
The original title to this article is: ACORN considered name change…
By JAKE SHERMAN | Origianally Posted at POLITICO
ACORN has been tripped up by voter registration fraud allegations and an undercover investigation which had its employees offering advice on how to set up a brothel and evade taxes.
ACORN, the troubled community service organization, recently considered changing its name in a bid to rehabilitate its image, according to an internal memo obtained by POLITICO.
The document, which will be released Tuesday as part of a Republican congressional forum on ACORN, illustrates the internal deliberation the group has undergone after a year of embarrassing scandals.
The document was found in Dumpster outside of an ACORN office in San Diego, a House Republican aide said. Derrick Roach, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for statehouse in California, took thousands of documents last week from the trash outside the office. An ACORN spokesman confirmed the veracity of the document.
ACORN has been tripped up by voter registration fraud allegations and an undercover investigation which had its employees offering advice on how to set up a brothel and evade taxes. Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, a law that cut off much of the organization’s federal funding.
“Our members are having a vigorous discussion about how to move forward most effectively to help working families win living wage jobs, stop foreclosures, and strengthen neighborhoods,” ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson said in a response to inquiries from POLITICO.
In an emailed statement, Levenson brushed off Tuesday’s Republican hearing.
“We believe their time would be better spent solving, as ACORN is doing, the foreclosure crisis,” Levenson said.
The memo addresses, in bullet-point format, the pros and cons of a new brand, saying that it has “spent 39 years building the reputation and track record of ACORN.” ACORN officials write that the bad image would “blow over” in the next year or two. And they believe that even with a name change, “right-wing attackers will say we are ACORN in disguise – so do we really gain much by going with a new name?”
The group does acknowledge that working with elected officials “is much harder now” and “while some foundations are still will to fund us, more are not.”
The one-page document also discusses the optics of a name change, saying it “should be very obvious that we are not going to choose a new name because funders or politicians want us to.”
The memo also acknowledges that it has encountered organizations and individuals who want to work with group but “can only do so if [ACORN changes] its name.”
“(We) should probably think through this problem carefully and figure out what it all means for our ability to survive and thrive without losing a lot of ground over the next year or two,” the memo reads.
This week, Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of California and Lamar Smith of Texas are holding a forum on the ACORN, which will include state government officials and a former ACORN employee.
“The more we learn about the inner-working of ACORN and its affiliates, the more apparent it becomes that this organization is intentionally structured to deceive and mislead the American people,” Issa said in an emailed statement.
Congressman Ellison – “Where are you?” National Urban League Writes National Leaders on Behalf of 27 Million Underemployed Americans!
Today at 11:35 a.m. on Facebook, the National Urban League delivered the following message:
The below letter outlining National Urban League’s plan for putting Americans back to work was sent to the following National Leaders:
Mr. Lawrence Summers, Director, National Economic Council
Honorable Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
Honorable Barbara Lee, Chair, Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives
November 24, 2009
Dear National Leaders,
I am writing to you on behalf of the over 27 million underemployed Americans in desperate need of full-time employment. This includes not only the 
unemployed, but also the marginally attached and those working part-time for economic reasons, all of whom are struggling to make ends meet during these difficult economic times. As you are well aware, the news that in October, the national unemployment rate exceeded ten percent for the first time since the early 1980s was a sobering wake-up for the leadership of this country even to the point of soliciting a call for a Jobs Summit to be held after the Thanksgiving holiday. While I applaud the Administration for publicly acknowledging the gravity of our nation’s employment situation, I would add that double-digit unemployment has been a reality for communities of color since last summer –for African Americans since August, 2008 and for Latinos since February, 2009.
As President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream, I have firsthand knowledge of the tremendous obstacles these families have been facing, not just since national unemployment reached 10.2% in October, but for over a year now. In fact, demand for workforce development, business development and housing counseling services through the Urban League’s more than 100 affiliates located in 35 cities and the District of Columbia increased by 74 percent between 2006 and 2008. Our local affiliates are on the front lines of this jobs crisis and witness the devastating impact it is having on the individuals and families that walk through their doors. In response, the National Urban League went on record last fall drawing attention to the deepening unemployment crisis in urban America and calling for a second stimulus plan that would invest directly in job creation and training for the very communities we interact with and serve every day.
It is now a year later, and I am again calling on our nation’s leaders to invest in a long overdue plan for putting urban America back to work that is targeted, temporary and timely. The National Urban League’s Plan for Putting Americans Back to Work meets these criteria. Targeted because it provides solutions for communities with the highest rates of unemployment and the long-term unemployed who often face the greatest barriers to getting a job the longer they are without one. Temporary in that the recommended investments require less than a three year commitment. Timely because the bulk of the plan involves direct job creation as a means of bringing recovery to those most in need more quickly.
Most economists agree that the pace of recovery will be slow. Yet, the individuals to which this plan is targeted are often the last to experience the effects of even a more rapid economic recovery. Therefore, the National Urban League’s Plan for Putting Americans Back to Work is a comprehensive six-point plan to make a direct investment of $168 billion over 2 years to address the most urgent needs of American families in economic crisis by investing in direct job creation, job training for the chronically unemployed, greater access to credit for small businesses and additional counseling relief for those caught in the backlog of the foreclosure process. The plan also proposes tax incentives for clean energy equipment manufacturers who employ individuals in the targeted communities. The plan proposes to do these things in the following ways:
1. Fund Direct Job Creation by offering financial support to cities, counties, states, universities, community colleges and non-profit community based organizations to hire the personnel necessary to provide critical services in communities across the nation. Eligibility for support will be based on local unemployment rates with a focus on the long-term unemployed. At least twice in American history, the government has responded to high rates of unemployment with investments in direct job creation – the 1935 Works Progress Administration, when nearly one-fourth of the labor force was out of work, and the Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974, which established Title VI of CETA as a temporary countercyclical employment program at a time when unemployment was quickly approaching 9 percent. We propose an investment of $150 billion to create 3 million jobs, a number that represents only half of the current unemployed with a high school diploma or less.
2. Expand and Expedite the Small Business Administration’s Community Express Loan Program through a reduction of the interest rate to 1 percent targeted for those businesses located in areas where the local unemployment rate exceeds the state average. A ten-fold expansion of the program (from $1 billion to $10 billion) should make credit available to an additional 50,000 small businesses nationwide.
3. Create Green Empowerment Zones in areas where at least 50 percent of the population has an unemployment rate that is higher than the state average. Manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines that open plants in high unemployment areas will, for a period of three years, be eligible for a zero federal income tax rate and a zero capital gains tax under the condition that they hire and retain, for a minimum of three years, at least half of their workforce from the local area.
4. Expand the Hiring of Housing Counselors Nationwide by investing $500 million to fund housing counseling agencies nationwide to help delinquent borrowers work with their loan servicers to secure more affordable mortgages. Over the past 18 months more than $400 million in federal funds have been invested by the Administration to help mitigate the mortgage crisis through housing counseling and, according to a recent report by the Urban Institute, borrowers facing foreclosure are 60% more likely to hold onto their homes if they receive counseling and receive loan modifications with average monthly payments $454 lower than those who did not see counselors.
5. Expand the Youth Summer Jobs Program for 2010 by investing $5-7 billion to employ 5 million teens. While the unemployment rate for African-American youth is over 40 percent, the employment population ratio makes clearer the desperate situation faced by many urban youth. Since the late 1990s, this number has declined from a high of 33 percent down to 15 percent, and labor force participation for this group is now at a record low of 26 percent. A critical factor in eliminating racial and socio-economic disparities in unemployment is providing a solid foundation upon which African American youth can build positive future labor market expectations and experiences.
6. Create 100 Urban Jobs Academies to Implement an Expansion of the Urban Youth Empowerment Program (UYEP) to employ and train the chronically unemployed. UYEP, a four year demonstration project created in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor in 2004, is a youth career preparation initiative designed for at-risk, out-of-school, and adjudicated youth and young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. With 27 Urban League affiliate sites and a total of $29.3 million, the program served 3,900 youth, 65 percent of whom either had job placements (paying an average wage of $9.32/hour) or completed their high school diploma or GED. Two hundred participants were placed in postsecondary schools or college upon completion of their secondary education. Scaling this program up to 100 sites would more than triple the program at a cost of $108.5 million.
At a time of the year when we traditionally give thanks and prepare to share generously with those around us, the American people are both frustrated and disappointed. When the financial industry was hemorrhaging, there was great urgency in devising the TARP plan for its rescue. Despite the ambivalence of most Americans with regards to spending billions of dollars to bail out the very businesses they felt had previously taken advantage of them, they understood the need to take swift and deliberate action to avoid a major national, or even global, financial crisis. We ask that the same urgency be given to the people experiencing a personal financial crisis in cities throughout this country. Recognizing the tremendous amount of work that is required to implement a plan of this magnitude in the most efficient and beneficial manner, I make myself available to meet with you to discuss the ideas proposed herein.
Sincerely,
Marc H. Morial
President and Chief Executive Officer
National Urban League
Part 2 – Coverage of the 2009 Minneapolis Elections: Candidates’ statement on 2009 election for mayor of Minneapolis
By The NewDignityParty.org – Re-posted with permission.
The following statement is endorsed by Bill McGaughey, Papa John Kolstad, Al Flowers, Bob Carney, Dick Franson, John Charles Wilson – All candidates for Minneapolis Mayor in 2009.
A recent Star Tribune article is headlined, “Low-key mayoral contest depressed Minneapolis turnout, officials say”. Only 45,964 persons cast votes in the 2009 city elections, the lowest since 1902. In contrast, 161,713 persons voted in the 1937 Minneapolis city election. Hubert Humphrey received 102,796 votes when he was elected mayor in 1947. When Sharon Sayles Belton was elected in 1993, the vote total was 103,846.
Admittedly, part of the reason for the low voter turnout may be election fatigue in the year after Barack Obama ran for President. That could not be helped. However, another reason may be, as the headline suggests, that Minneapolis voters were not excited by the race at the top of the ballot, the contest for mayor. It was said that the candidates besides Rybak were political nonentities, lacking both in campaign resources and public recognition. The voters felt there was no contest and, therefore, stayed home.
As Minneapolis mayoral candidates in 2009, we apologize for our low profiles to whomever might have been offended. At the same time, we declare that most of the ten candidates who ran for mayor against Rybak ran active, energetic, and sometimes creative campaigns. We raised serious issues, posted hundreds of lawn signs around the city, distributed thousands of pieces of literature, knocked on numerous doors, appeared at the candidate forums to which we were invited, maintained campaign websites, and otherwise carried out the normal functions of a political campaign. For all that effort we received, between us, about 27 percent of the vote, compared with Mayor Rybak’s 73 percent. Read more
Technorati Tests #1
T7HJXGJUYXR7
The Repetitive Exploitation of Black Minnesota: Here we go again…
African-American Men Project; Prostate Screenings; HIV/AIDS; Breast Cancer Screenings; Dairy Queen;Tires Plus; Siyeza, Inc; NRRC; Synergy…
“Good intentions have funded projects with the same point people that continue to fail Black Minnesota. When will Black Minnesota get tired of the blatant Exploitation of their Community?” ~Don Allen
By Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN
Several years ago, St. Paul Pioneer Press journalist David Hawley wrote a story titled “Minneapolis: Study Details Problems Facing City’s Black Men,” dated January 24, 2002.
The story details, the results of a two-year study in which Hawley stated the outlook for African-American men in Minneapolis is grim. In the article Hawley wrote: “If you’re an African-American man ages 18 to 30, the odds are roughly 50-50 that you live in one of the city’s poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods and that a single mother reared you. There’s also about a 50-50 chance that you didn’t finished high school and only a slightly lesser chance that you will be arrested in the next year, most likely for a minor offense. If you are arrested, the odds are greater than 50-50 that you will be charged again within the next two years.”
In response to Hawley’s “grim” article, Gary L. Cunningham, the former Director of NorthPoint Health and Wellness and the overseer of the African-American Men Project, an organization that once had the power and respect of the community to make meaningful change, but has now has been reduced to a glorified referral service, had only one thing to say, “This report deals with what people call “wicked problems’ in our society.”
Wicked problems” are still not solved today – even by the people who identified them 8 years ago despite an incredible amount of funding and resources. Read more
Minnesota’s African American Leadership Model–A fine example of Totalitarianism…The 2009 version of how our own will sell us back into Slavery
By Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN
The Radical may resort to the sword, (in 2009: the keyboard), but when he does he is not filled with hatred against those individuals whom he attacks. He hates these individuals not as persons but as symbols representing ideas or interests which he believes to be inimical to the welfare of the people. (Alinsky 1946: 23)
On Saturday, (11/21) I ventured to General Mills to catch a glimpse of the 170 African-American “hand-picked” leaders for the African-American Leadership Forum. (Only two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle, those with absolute power and those with none and no desire to get any.)
Headwater Foundations Trista Harris and Northwest Area Foundations Gary Cunningham’s emails stating that there was a process one could follow in order to be invited to the Leadership meeting were misleading.
Rev. Jerry McAfee and Spike Moss were both invited on the insistence of Rep. Bobby Jo Champion less than 24 hours before Saturday’s meeting. This is not the “process” detailed in the meetings.
IBNN was later contacted by several participants at Saturday’s cattle herd. One of them said, “This was nothing but a breakfast and lunch to get a bunch of names so the Headwaters Foundation can seek future funding. Nothing got done. The circus-like engagement was a dirty shame and disrespectful to all African-Americans.”
After I had a 40-minute conversation with Northwest Area Foundation’s Gary Cunningham, it seemed that we both wanted the same outcomes for Black people in Minnesota. His statements were good – but the actions that he took excluded the real Minnesota black leadership and further delayed the attainment of justice for all.
You see Mr. Cunningham is not a radical. White Minnesota feels comfortable working with him. He will do what the master says, with little resistance. (IBNN will look at Cunningham’s involvement with Pilot City- now NorthPoint Health and Wellness– and the African American Men’s Project in an upcoming story.)
Although I was not allowed to enter the guarded area at General Mills, while Gary and I talked, several people that were not on any list were granted admission to this “private formal meeting.” Yet it was impossible for the interested public to become fully informed about the African American Leadership Forum.
The sad thing about the African American Leadership forum is, organizations “self-charged” with the organizing of this model – Northwest Foundation; Headwaters Foundation and the Stairstep Foundation recognize no limits to their authority and strive to regulate every aspect of Black engagement wherever feasible.
The element of authoritarianism, according to which ordinary Blacks have no significant share in decision-making, helps to maintain these organizations in positions of political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the controlled personality cults, along with regulations and restrictions of free discussion and criticism. This is the definition of totalitarianism.
An e-mail response sent to me by Mr. Cunningham reads: Read more
Dirty Little Secrets in Black Leadership: Headwaters Foundation’s Trista Harris answer to, “Let us participate on Saturday (11/21) at General Mills”
Who are the 170 African-American leaders involved in this “work-group” tomorrow (11/21) at General Mills? I’m sure I can name some of the usual suspects that have failed the Black community time and time again. Why it is that this woman is in charge of who attends an African-American Leadership Summit? Controls are no different than Slavery in a cold Jim Crow.
Please join us at General Mills to protest the exclusion of stakeholders in the African-American Leadership Forum tomorrow at General Mills.
The following is a response from Headwaters Foundation Trista Harris:
I’m following up on our conversation this morning. Saturday’s African American Leadership Forum is for community members that have participated in previous meetings of the African American Leadership Forum. I certainly want you to know that all the people you mentioned are welcome to be a part of this effort but because this is a working meeting, Saturday’s Forum is not an appropriate place for them to become engaged.
One of the things that we set up as an entry point into the African American Leadership Forum is the need for the attendees to have a pre-meeting to become familiar with the work that’s been done to date.
We call these groups cascading groups. We have instituted this arrangement in part because we want people to become familiar with the previous work and add value in a smaller groups setting, so that we don’t have to restart the Forum every time new members come to a larger meeting.
After this weekend’s meeting if you would like to call together a cascading group of your own, we will provide facilitation assistance and food for the meeting. These have been exciting meetings where we already have 170 African-American leaders attend. People really like this approach and have gotten a lot out of the cascading group meetings. I have been heartened by this work and the need for a forum of African-American leaders to develop a shared agenda.
I also hope you understand the approach we are taking. I will make sure that they get invited to a cascading group to become part of this important work.
I look forward to working with you on this and other issues that impact low-income people in our community.
Best wishes,
Trista Harris
Executive Director
www.headwatersfoundation.org
2801 21st Ave S. Suite 131
Minneapolis, MN 55407
P: 612-879-0602 # 13
F: 612-879-0613
It’s on!
MLK Breakfast Part II: Go ahead celebrate – while your having breakfast…2 Million Black Households WITH Children Face Hunger
Minneapolis, MN – Sources tell IBNN a group of “the usual suspects” are atempting to create and develop a CDC (Community Development Council) in north Minneapolis with a local Foundation.The problem is, the individuals tasked to head up this group have not had one successful long term buiness venture north Minneapolis.
Again the community is pimped, played and starved.
This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg….
1.8 million Black Households with children are food insecure – Black households with children experiencing very low food security up 92%
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported yesterday that almost one in four children living in the United States are food insecure. According to the 2009 report on Household Food Insecurity in the United States, there is a striking disparity in the prevalence of food insecurity among black children. Nearly two million black households with children were food insecure at least some time during the year, an increase of 25 percent over 2007. In 2008, there were 3.76 million non-Hispanic white households with children that were food insecure. The study also revealed that 146,000 black households with children — a 92 percent increase over 2007 — experienced very low food security, meaning that the food intake of one or more of the household children was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money. Read more
Why It’s Not Smart to Call Women Conservatives ‘Whores’
“Conservative women should be strongly criticized. But using gendered language to attack them doesn’t help progressives.”
By Tana Ganeva from the New Mother Jones Report
This story first appeared at Alternet.
When Alan Grayson called a female corporate lobbyist a “K-Street whore”—and was attacked as crude and sexist at the same time that he was lauded as gutsy and honest—he played a role in a familiar script: hero of the left (MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher) attacks female villain (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin) using sexist language. Progressive feminist’s soul-search about liberal misogyny. Mainstream media talk about sexism for 5 seconds. Then the media move on, and no one learns a thing. Repeat.
It happened again just two weeks ago, when Olbermann called Malkin a “big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it” during the “Worst Person in the World” segment of Countdown. The creepily fleshy insult followed Olbermann’s rendition of Malkin’s e-mails, which he read in a Valley Girl voice to signal her presumed Barbie-doll vapidity. Megan Carpentier pointed out at the time, “A liberal, progressive critique of Malkin need not, and should not, resort to an attack on her looks or her gender or rely on silly stereotypes or imagery that brings to mind victims of domestic violence.”
Malkin, who is actually the worst person in the world, wasted no time decrying Olbermann’s sexist remarks. Needless to say, Malkin is not usually a passionate defender of feminism. Read more
Instant Blackness with a ticket and a name badge at the General Mills Foundation’s – MLK Breakfast 2010
The closer we get to the beginning of 2010, and the possibility of Corporate America getting closer to “Blackness” in anticipation of Martin Luther King’s birthday and Black History Month, there are important questions that we must ask ourselves. Why has Black America let the commemoration of our history and achievements slip into the hands of White commercialization?
By Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN
In 1961, my birth certificate said I was born a Negro. In 2009, given the existence of a playing field that is only semi-level—and even that, only for certain blacks- black Americans as a whole are still in the “Realm of Negroism.”
On January 18 2010, General Mills Foundation and the United Negro College Fund will present the 20th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Breakfast.
The Breakfast “is an opportunity to celebrate the legacy of service of Dr. King and create an imperative to live out his legacy today in our homes, our communities and our world,” according to the MLK Breakfast website.
But wait. Next question.
Just what is Dr. King’s legacy? And how can we claim to honor this legacy, with no real engagement with the urgent issues that affect people of color every day?
Dr. King’s legacy cannot be lived and made real today over breakfast and tea, but requires grassroots organizing, protest, and activism. To fully understand this fact, we must look at the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycotts to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963.
We must realize that Dr. Martin Luther King’s words and actions were considered radical at the time. They gained popularity because he spoke Truth to the People of the United States. Dr. King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Today, Black America has become mute and non-confrontational. Read more
IBNNNEW- Apology to the North Minneapolis Community. We don’t have leaders, we have self-appointed spokespersons Donald Allen
- The Death of North Minneapolis… Donald Allen
- IBNN Exclusive Report: Youth with weapon attempts to enter funeral of Alisha “Lele” Neely (Captured on Film) Donald Allen
- WCCO 4 (CBS) Television fails in journalistic integrity with “edited and spliced” tape of the Minneapolis Police Beating of Ira Stafford…rating F- Donald Allen
- MURDERAPOLIS – Code 4, No More Donald Allen
News Services
Stumble It!