ACORN 8 Supporter Tries to Disparage Michelle Malkin and Anita MonCrief in Halloween Hit Piece
Volpe is being used by the ACORN 8, because Ms. MonCrief revealed some ugly truths about them and they found a gullible fool (or worse) who either, deludedly or despicably, wrote ridiculously in his Halloween piece, "I am telling a story. No one, and I mean no one, has challenged the story. All of my assertions and opinions are based on verifiable facts"
Jesus: "Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
St. Matthew: "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven."
But, on earth, some will try to make a truth teller's life hell, because, for them, general knowledge of the truth will not go well.
In "Why Obama and ACORN Fear Anita MonCrief" (October 29, 2008), I began: "Anita MonCrief is likeable as well as brave, bright, young, maternal, passionate, artistic and black. But now ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and the Obama campaign need to destroy her because Anita's not an ACORN slave and Anita decided to reveal what ACORN and the Obama campaign want to conceal."
That was all true then and remains true.
What now is also true is that Ms. MonCrief no longer supports the ACORN 8, a tiny dissident group of other radical Obama supporters who tried to use the Dale Rathke embezzlement scandal and cover up as a lever to take control of ACORN, but call for "truth, transparency, and accountability" only "within ACORN" and protect President Obama, promote his radical agenda and protect Obama favorites too.
So add the ACORN 8 and their minions to the "Get Anita" gang.
With the blogger known as "MsPlaced Democrat" dead, a blogger named Mike Volpe who calls his blog "The Provocateur" is fronting for ACORN 8 leader Marcel Reid (usually without identifying her as a source or mentioning her name). Since Michelle Malkin not only inspired Ms. MonCrief last year, but also has publicized Ms. MonCrief's inspirational story and lauded her this year, at Ms. Malkin too, Volpe has taken aim. (Full disclosure: He's targeted me too.)
Wikipedia:
"Michelle Malkin...is an American conservative commentator, blogger and author. Her weekly, syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites nationwide. She has been a guest on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN, and national radio programs. Malkin has written four books...."
"Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, Malkin's fourth book, was released on July 27, 2009, and attained #1 best seller status by August 5, 2009.... Malkin described an objective of the book in a July 27, 2009 interview with Sean Hannity, saying 'what I have done is to help shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington by scouring every nook and cranny, every inch of this administration, and showing how in a very short span of six months they have betrayed every principle and every promise that they have made by installing these influence peddlers, power brokers and very wealthy people'. Discussing her theme of corruption Malkin said: 'you have to judge them by their rhetoric, and if you look at the gap between the rhetoric and the reality, this has to be one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory.'"
Anita MonCrief is the ACORN whistleblower who worked with New York Times national correspondent Stephanie Strom on exposing ACORN and the illicit relationship between ACORN and the Obama presidential campaign last year and the discovered that The Times preferred to cover up instead of cover an Obama/ACORN expose before 2008 Election Day.
Blogger Mike Volpe celebrated Halloween by posting (at 5:29 AM) a scurrilous, error-filled hit piece titled "The Culture of Curruption Between Michelle Malkin and Anita Moncrief II."
A trick for his readers and a treat for the ACORN 8.
The actual facts did not fit the story Volpe obviously wanted to tell, so Volpe apparently followed the scoundrel's strategy: "If it doesn't fit, just...MAKE IT!"
In addition to trying to minimize Ms. MonCrief's importance as a New York Times source (New York Times national correspondent Stephanie Strom called Ms. MonCrief "a gold mine") and falsely claiming that Ms. MonCrief has not broken news since "last year and the beginning of this year" (see her posts at www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.com, for example her post of the notice of the ACORN 39th anniversary gala last June; Glenn Beck then showed the notice on his television program, crediting HotAir.com, but not Ms. MonCrief, and covered the gala), Volpe even changed key dates, creating an utterly false impression.
Volpe: "[I]n the middle of May, Project Vote sued Anita Moncrief in an action that was described by many, including myself and Michelle Malkin, as a means of silencing Moncrief. In fact, Moncrief would have been silenced had it not been for Malkin. Malkin began writing obsessively about Moncrief right after the suit."
Wrong! Actually, the Project Vote complaint is dated June 17, 2009 and Ms. MonCrief was diligently writing with the benefit of Ms. MonCrief as a source since late May 2009.
Volpe: "Conv[en]iently, [Ms. MonCrief] overcame this fear [of Ms. Malkin] right at the moment when she was about to be silenced by the lawsuit of Project Vote against her."
Wrong again! As a radical, Ms. Malkin found Ms. Malkin "scary" and told me so in October 2008, both orally and in email. But as the Age of Obama unfolded and the change for which Ms. MonCrief had idealistically hope did not materialize, Ms. MonCrief and Ms. Malkin finally connected--BEFORE the Project Vote lawsuit.
See Document drop: What NYTimes reporter Stephanie Strom really knew about ObamACORN (may 28, 2009), at www,michelle malkin.com:
"Here are just a few of the exchanges between NYTimes reporter Stephanie Strom and ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief last summer and fall over the increasingly obvious links between ACORN, Project Vote, and the Obama campaign. (Both Strom and MonCrief used pseudonymous e-mail addresses while communicating). It was my blog post on the ACORN/CSI money-laundering scheme that prompted MonCrief to push the story with Strom. Thanks to MonCrief’s continued campaign to get the truth out and aided by investigative crowd-sourcing predominantly on the right side of the blogosphere (in addition to MonCrief’s testimony for Pennsylvania lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh), a plethora of documents and information continue to pour across the web. I’ll have much more on this tomorrow and in coming days. But read these and compare with NYTimes public editor’s smug dismissal of the “Tip that didn’t pan out.”
"To quote Strom: 'The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what…'
"How you like these apples now, Mr. Hoyt?"
About as much as Volpe and the ACORN 8 like the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
Volpe is being used by the ACORN 8, because Ms. MonCrief revealed some ugly truths about them and they found a gullible fool (or worse) who, either deludedly or despicably, wrote ridiculously in his Halloween piece, "I am telling a story. No one, and I mean no one, has challenged the story. All of my assertions and opinions are based on verifiable facts."
Admittedly, Volpe's feelings were hurt by Culture of Corruption exposer Michelle Malkin, so Volpe called Ms. Malkin "petty."
No, I'm not making this up. The truth is strange enough. No fakery or even exaggeration needed.
What did Ms. Malkin supposedly do to (in Volpe's words) "rub" him "the wrong way"?
Volpe:
"As for Malkin, here's why she rubs me the wrong way. Back in June, when the media falsely reported that ACORN changed its name, I wrote this article with a very provocative title. That article was finished at about 11PM Central Time. I called out major media for getting the story wrong, and that included Malkin. It was falsely reported by many that ACORN had changed its name. In fact, it was ACORN International that changed its name to Community Organizations International. I called out Michelle Malkin by name. The next morning at just after 5 AM, wherever Malkin lives, Malkin [posted a clarifying statement without mentioning Volpe]."
Volpe: "I certainly don't believe that Michelle Malkin discovered early one morning that she got a story wrong that I happened to also point out the night before. All that was warranted was a Hat/Tip but Malkin couldn't even bring herself to do that. The corruption has continued since."
In the absence of a "hat tip" to Volpe, Volpe lost it.
Why did Volpe think he earned a "hat tip"?
Volpe: "At the time I wrote my piece, 99% of the media was reporting it wrong. I have no proof that Malkin figured this out from my piece. It was either that or she had an ephiphany in the middle of the night while reporting it wrong herself and the whole media still reporting it wrong. (I put that piece on reddit.com a fairly liberal sharing site and it exploded and went viral. If you read the title, you'll know why liberals loved it) Malkin conveniently never explained how, in the middle of the night, she came to the realization that she got the original story wrong. If it wasn't me, it's hard to know how she knew. After all, Glenn Beck was on O'Reilly reporting it wrong the night before. Her source, Anita Moncrief, wouldn't have the first clue. So, either Michelle Malkin had a moment of clairvoyance in the middle of the night, or she's petty and couldn't bring herself to credit me for pointing out her mistake. If she's petty enough to do that, is it really all that difficult to believe that she'd systematically mislead her audience about her source in an attempt to repair said source[']s image?"
Assuming arguendo that Ms. Malkin was supposed to give a "hat tip" to the first person to point out the mistake, Volpe still doesn't have a case...and his Internet temper tantrum is an utter disgrace.
Volpe's article was posted on June 23, 2009.
I emailed Ms. Malkin making the same point THE DAY BEFORE!
I wrote:
"Wade's ACORN INTERNATIONAL changing name does not necessarily mean that other ACORN entities will. (Although the name is tainted, so changing makes good sense)
"See minutes or notes of that ISM Committee Meeting in Chcago July 29th 2008, Action Steps Based on the Meeting, Item 4: 'Maude Meeting with the internal boards and if they cannot respect the decision and terms regarding working with Wade--they would need to remove the ACORN name from all efforts and work and remove themselves from the "union"'"
In addition, in "ACORN 8 Played Glenn Beck Very Deftly," posted on June 23, 2009, I reported in detail that Glenn Beck had been fooled on the ACORN International name change, as follows:
"This week Glenn Beck discovered ACORN International and reported it on his television show as something new!
"But ACORN International has been at work for five years.
"www.acorn.org/index.php?id=2617:
'After 34 years of successfully building power for low and moderate-income families in the United States, ACORN is expanding. We have begun a new program to build partnerships with grassroots organizations in other countries. Through these partnerships, ACORN will help to strengthen democratic movements for social change abroad, while continuing our efforts building power for immigrant communities in the United States.'
'ACORN International has offices in Argentina, Canada, Peru, and Mexico, and facilitates the India FDI Watch Campaign. We are establishing direct membership chapters in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Kenya, and Nigeria and are exploring partnerships with established membership-based organizations in Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea.'
"Beck also reported that ACORN International had changed its name.
"That's true!
Beck thinks of that as evidence that ACORN is about to rebrand itself.
"Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center, an ACORN expert and a Beck guest:
'ACORN About to Rebrand Itself?
'ACORN, famous for its voter-registration fraud initiatives and its aggressive advocacy of disastrous subprime mortgages, may be about to embark on a huge rebranding effort in order to regroup and reinvent itself, or so TV talk-show host Glenn Beck believes.
'This effort may also indicate that the ACORN network is finally collapsing under the weight of its numerous scandals.
' * * *
'The recent revelation that Wade Rathke, the disgraced founder of ACORN, has renamed ACORN International, which is ACORN’s international consultancy, is at a minimum a sign that Rathke is trying to dissociate the ACORN affiliate from the oceans of bad ink which ACORN has received in the U.S. over the last year.
'It appears that the ACORN brand is so tarnished that Rathke no longer wants to be associated with it because of all the problems that he, ironically, is responsible for, the Washington Times reported.
'The new name for ACORN’s international affiliate is Community Organizations International.
'ACORN International is a nonprofit group that aspires to spread the gospel of the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky across the globe.'"
"But this appears to be wishful thinking, an ACORN 8 tactic, or both."
Did I complain that neither Volpe nor Ms. Malkin gave me a "hat tip"?
NO!
Was Volpe also wrong in reporting that ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief did not know the truth about the matter before Volpe posted his piece?
Yes.
On October 11, 2009, in an earlier hit piece titled "The Unholy Alliance of Michelle Malkin and Michael Gaynor," Volpe asserted, "I've always said that the ACORN story must be reported as it is not as someone wants it to be. Malkin and Gaynor are not reporting this story as it is but as someone wants it to be."
Actually, we've been reporting the truth, regardless of who likes or doesn't like it, and Volpe's been reporting what the ACORN 8 wants him to report, the facts be damned.
In his Halloween piece, Volpe wryly wrote: "As Jethro Gibbs would say in NCIS, 'I don't believe in coincidences.'"
There really are coincidences, but is it a coincidence that the day before Volpe's Halloween hit piece Ms. MonCrief posted (at www.anitamoncrief.blogspot.com and in the Green Room at www.hotair.com) an article titled "How I Overcame Fear and Rejected the ACORN 8 Alternative"?
In that article, Ms. MonCrief wrote:
"I will always wonder about the timing of the release of the Kingsley report (a report by an ACORN lawyer that showed huge problems within the organization related to the connection between the ACORN entities) to Strom when she was hot on the story of ACORN and Obama campaign corruption and about to be made to 'stand down' on it by 'higher up.' I began to suspect that the same group who had decided to wait until after the election to go after Wade Rathke, and whose representative had warned me about going on Fox the weekend before the election may have had an ulterior motive for releasing the report to Strom right before a potentially damaging expose on ACORN/Obama.
"A screen shot of the July 29th 2008 meeting by the ACORN Interim Staff Management Committee (ISM) details the efforts that ISM members including Karen Innman and Marcel Reid to protect Obama by not exposing Rathke before election day 2008."
"As an ardent Democrat, I listened to Reid and continued to work with the ACORN 8 but the questions returned after I was shown a copy of the same Kingsley report by Reid of the ACORN 8 on the eve of my first interview on Fox News with Eric Shawn, on Mother's Day morning."
"I had already begun to wonder if I could really fight ACORN with ACORN, but after reading this letter forwarded by Marcel Reid of the ACORN 8, I knew that it was time to go at this alone. I believed that ACORN was a subversive organization committed to turning poverty into a profit and America into a socialist country. I also came to realize in the months leading up to March, my admitted fears had been used against me by others and I had become a prisoner of the those fears.
"When TV/Radio host's Glenn Beck's producers invited me to appear on his show in March, I turned it down. The thought of appearing on TV was terrifying. I had declined previous interviews in great part because of that fear, especially after an attempted break-in of my home, out of concern for my family, as Beck mentioned on air. I had a long talk with Beck's producers and Cleta Mitchell of the Republican National Lawyers Association, happily provided information and disclosed the circumstances of my termination from ACORN/Project Vote."
In his Halloween piece, Volpe took out his frustration with Ms. Malkin on Ms. MonCrief, the truth notwithstanding.
Volpe: "In fact, in some places in the conservative media, Anita Moncrief has turned into a sort of flavor of the month. I say some places because others in the conservative media will have nothing to do with her. That's because not only is Anita Moncrief an admitted thief and fraud, but that wasn't something she shared with some media prior to appearing. For a couple weeks, Anita Moncrief made the rounds on Fox News. Then Glenn Beck discovered that while working at Project Vote Anita Moncrief falsely applied for a company credit card and used the credit card for purchase of personal items."
Glenn Beck's so-called "discovery" was NOT news and Ms. MonCrief is not a thief or a fraud. Ms. MonCrief has explained repeatedly that she was terminated by ACORN/Project Vote purportedly for putting personal expenses on a company credit card. That was NOT theft or fraud or reported to authorities as such. Volpe would know if he did research that Ms. MonCrief testified about it in the Pennsylvania ACORN case last October (transcript available online), discussed in length with Laura Ingraham on her radio show last October (it was available to anyone as "free stuff" for months), reported in the Wall Street Journal coverage of the Pennsylvania ACORN case and written about by Ms. MonCrief at her blog last November. Ms. MonCrief has discussed it many times in many places.
Ms. MonCrief concluded her article: "Fear and outside influences kept me off Fox the weekend before the election. Fear and a sense of loyalty to Strom kept me from immediately exposing the New York Times by releasing our email exchanges before March of 2009 and fear tied me to Marcel Reid, who used those fears to manipulate and control me. In the end, fear did not prevent me from realizing that I was no longer ideologically aligned with the ACORN 8. I was no longer the far left radical who wanted to change the system, and I no longer felt that I had to stand with my Democratic party."
Sadly, instead of researching, Volpe's been drinking Ms. Reid's Kool-aid.
Finally, Volpe's suggestion that he influenced my posted articles over the last two weeks is absurd.
Volpe: "For about four months, Michael Gaynor, another blogger, could be counted on to write about Anita Moncrief two to four times a week. I thought that was corrupt and I said so. It's been nearly two weeks since Michael Gaynor has written about Anita Moncrief. For four months, he couldn't go more than three days without writing about her, and then I call him out, and he suddenly stops writing about her entirely."
Notwithstanding other time demands, I have not been missing during the last two weeks, and I did not stop writing about Ms. MonCrief.
I wrote:
Why "Mainstream Media" Isn't Covering the "Pimp and Pro" ACORN Story (October 30, 2009)
Daughter and Dad "Pit Bulls" Hannah Giles and Doug Giles and Surreptitious Recording Law (October 29, 2009)
It Ain't Easy Now Being ACORN Corruption Exposer Hannah Giles (October 27, 2009)
BigGovernment, Fox News, Surreptitious Recording by O'Keefe and Giles and Serendipity (October 26, 2009)
One-party Consent to Surreptitious Recording Should Be Lawful Everywhere (October 23, 2009)
A Primer on Surreptitious Recording for Prospective Intrepid Investigators (October 21, 2009)
Radical Norman Blizter versus ACORN Whistleblower and Ex-radical Anita MonCrief (October 19, 2009)
The Real Problem with Fox News (October 16, 2009)
I have been particularly interested in the law on surreptitious recording since the last millenium and have followed the "Pimp and Pro" story for some time. Ms. MonCrief IS included in my articles posted on October 16, October 19 and October 30. She is not included in my other articles, because they focused on surreptitious recording and she did not do any surreptitious recording.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.
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