Yesterday, another ACORN video was released showing that ACORN’s West Coast officials are just as gullible and corrupt as their Eastern branches. The fourth installment of James O’Keefe’s—an independent filmmaker—undercover footage exposes ACORN consultant, Tresa Kaelke, endorsing prostitution from their office in San Bernadino, California. Glenn Beck heavily promoted the audio and video on his radio and TV show.
Usually, a new tape triggers two immediate responses from ACORN headquarters: 1. Employees fired. 2. Empty lawsuit threats launched at Fox News and O’Keefe.
Kaelke not only advised O’Keefe on how to evade the IRS, but also struck a common bond with ‘Eden’ as a former owner of an escort service. This time, however, ACORN is standing behind Kaelke because they believe she was clever enough to detect O’Keefe’s charades were a scam and her responses were provoked for shock value. At one point during the consultation Kaelke states, ” … If I didn’t know better, and I don’t, but I would think this is a total setup.”
In a written statement ACORN reasons, “She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios.” But Kaelke’s suggestions that O’Keefe and Giles use a massage spa or vitamin distributor as a front for their brothel certainly sounds like it could be construed as legitimate advice. ACORN also said the duo, “Were not believable.” In fact, they were so not believable they’ve only managed to fool ACORN offices in four cities. Or, perhaps, Tresa Kaelke is smarter than your average ACORN employee. We hope ACORN isn’t counting on the latter.
Whether or not Kaelke’s responses were in jest, at no point does she turn the couple away or lead them to believe her advice for covering their prostitution ring’s tracks wasn’t in earnest.
Honestly.
If your organization’s defense rests on one employee who may have been smart enough to suspect a rouse related to smuggling underage prostitutes into the country, but not smart enough to tell the scammers to leave, then you’ve got some problems.
We would suggest stop grasping for excuses and find some new employees who don’t condone sex slavery. More videos are going to break and these pitiful attempts to excuse your behavior are only going to look more pathetic.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Did you watch the video? If you did you saw her say at the beginning and the end that what she was saying had nothing to do with ACORN and that they had no idea about her past etc… What you saw on the tape was a kinda crazy lady who I’m sure was a low wage employee not responsible for a whole lot. It’s the same story every time against ACORN. A low wage employee gets caught doing something stupid and the whole right side of the political spectrum goes into a frizzy.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am
@ck, The problem is that heretofore that “crazy lady” has had a portion her wages (however low they may be) paid in part by the tax dollars of hard working, honest Americans. If this was an isolated incident, your comments may hold water, but this is the fourth ACORN office wherein at least one ACORN representative encouraged people to break the law. If these people are so willing to lie and cheat to skirt the system, all of their efforts in their respective communities are suspect, including voter registration efforts. To condone such behavior because someone is a “low wage employee” is just obtuse and shows the true colors of ACORN as a whole.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Fairly revealing that you don’t mention her claim in the video to have murdered her husband, and the police’s confirmation that she hadn’t, both of which support her claim to have been giving the video makers the same level of bull they were giving her.
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
@James Dobbs, maybe, but it’s quite possible that this woman was a total [expletive]-ing insane moron who forgot to take her meds that day, or had some pot and was experiencing a bad trip. No, if this woman actually figured them out, then she would have said so. It looks to me like Acorn frantically watched that video, and reasoned they could have her say she figured it out. Then, they grabbed this dimwit, and told her what to say. At any rate, two things are clear in reality. One, you don’t tell total strangers that you murdered someone… and not say “just kidding!” That is beyond stupid. Two, if this woman really did figure them out, then with a righteous stance she could’ve called the police, and had them exposed. Doing so would make Acorn look wonderful. But instead of the ACORN employee doing the right thing, she babbles about health spas and vitamins. No, I don’t believe her.
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September 16th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Acorn is a sign of past politics and corruption that exists in large cities and certain counties such as counties in NJ and State Politics.
Very few prosecutions will be coming since Congress needs organizations such as Acorn to keep them in power. If this was a republican organization 1000 indictments would be filed by now.
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
“. . . Kaelke’s suggestions that O’Keefe and Giles use a massage spa or vitamin distributor as a front for their brothel certainly sounds like it could be construed as legitimate advice.”
You justify your criticism of this Acorn employee’s remarks on your personal perception that her advices “sounds” legitimate, yet you raise no concern about O’Keefe and Giles misrepresenting themselves and secretly filming this employee without her permission.
To be fair, employee’s giving serious advice aimed at masking prostitution operations should have been fired.
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
@James Werner, Yeah, why don’t you raise a concern about how this dimwit didn’t call the police and report: 1. a prostitute. and 2. their intent to bring illegal immigrants there for child sex trade? I mean, if you were her, and you figured out they weren’t real… wouldn’t you say “excuse me, I have to potty,” go diall 9-1-1, and then keep them there until the police arrived? Wouldn’t you at LEAST kick them out? Yes, you would. But no, she did not. Now, I ask you… WHY?
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September 16th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
@Common Sense, If I had been her and I had figured out they weren’t real, I would not have called 911. What crime would I report?
Personally, if I had been her and decided they were scamming me, I might have kicked them out or I might have asked for their credentials and other identification and I might have asked them if they were filming me and whether they would me asking me to sign a release – in effect reminding them that secretly filming anyone could be considered an infringement of legal rights.
However, I think you meant to say that if she believed their story she should have called 911 to report a crime. I agree with you on this and believe her firing by ACORN was justified, assuming there are not other relevant facts that have not been reported.
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September 16th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
@James Werner,
Oh, excuse me, I’d like to videotape you giving me advice on how to cheat the government out of taxes while you set up a brothel. Would you sign this release please? Thanks.
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Somebody wrote: “It’s the same story every time against ACORN. A low wage employee gets caught doing something stupid and the whole right side of the political spectrum goes into a frizzy.”
What’s truly amazing is that someone can walk in off the street, in 4 different ACORN offices, and the counselors assigned to them all “just happen” to be “rogue employees.” We’re supposed to believe that’s sheer coincidence? No investigative journalist has that kind of luck!
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September 16th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
The San Bernadino ACORN woman, Tresa Kaelke, claims to be in a leadership position on the Linkedin website:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tresa-kaelke/14/750/27b
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September 16th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
What don’t you moronns defending acorn understand??? The reality here is that this (AOCORN) is nothing but a criminal organization stealing untold sums of money from the American taxpayers. This lying con-artist some of the country elected as president is helping them, and they ALL need tried for racketeering and corruption charges….and thrown in a Mexican jail to rot. When in Gods name are you brain dead idiots going to accept the fact you got conned by this Chicago lawyer and his band of thieving liars??? Just admit it and start helping the rest of us get this thief and his helpers tossed out and in jail. The one good thing about all of this is that what is now going on GUARANTEES that it will be decades before another Democrat is elected president again..and there will NEVER be another black president elected…ever. He is living proof of the criminal mind set too many people in his position have (and that goes for az LOT of whit republicans too…).
The revolution is coming.
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September 16th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
It appears the stingers got stung…
According to the San Bernardino Sun…
“”They were not believable,” Kaelke said in ACORN’s official statement. “They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me.”
Amy Schur, ACORN’s top California organizer, said Kaelke exercised bad judgement in “messing with” the undercover bloggers.”
http://www.sbsun.com/search/ci_13345649
“Detectives Investigate Homicide Claims
Investigations Lt. D. Keil explains that an undercover video reportedly filmed in the San Bernardino office for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was recently released on the Internet. The film depicts a worker talking about her past involvement in prostitution and the alleged self-defense killing of her former husband.
The San Bernardino Police Department is investigating the claims made regarding the homicide. From the initial investigation conducted, the claims do not appear to be factual. Investigators have been in contact with the involved party’s known former husbands, who are alive and well.”
http://www.ci.san-bernardino.ca.us/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=1124&TargetID=6
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September 16th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Well, ACORN doesn’t just give advise. They have all the appropriate forms for people seeking housing to fill out, and they offer assistance in doing so. O’Keefe and Giles don’t really have the goods unless they produce some kind of physical evidence beyond the video footage. They haven’t produced any paperwork that would suggest that they were actually assisted by ACORN employees.
The ACORN employees have stated that they knew from the start the two youths were not a pimp and a prostitute. They claim that they played along with the two for fun. While this may sound absurd after seeing the videos, it actually holds more water than the claims of O’Keefe and Giles until the two release the recordings in their entirety and unedited, and/or produce physical evidence, such as housing/tax related paperwork, which would show that they actually received assistance from ACORN in their faux scheme.
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