Posted on Monday, 29th June 2009 by Bruce
“My 84 year-old mother’s house will be sold out from under her today, and it’s breaking my heart.”
Or so the e-mail claims. Irene Leary, son of Daniel Leary (who later refers to himself as Dennis Leary, in the same e-mail) implores the reader to “sign the petition now†to help keep some faceless Leviabank from tossing his mother out onto the street.
“Don’t misunderstand me,†the writer continues. “My mother will lose her home today unless we can convince OneWest not to sell her house. Please help her. Please sign the letter now. Click here.â€
Man, this sounds pretty serious.
Now, according to the mass e-mailing, who exactly is advocating on behalf of dear Mrs. Leary? None other than everyone’s favorite shadowy activist group, ACORN.
It’s ACORN’s logo on the e-mail. It’s ACORN’s e-mail address in the header. But who’s really benefiting from this e-mail decrying Mrs. Leary’s plight?
Embedded links in the e-mail direct to the website of an activist group, “WiredForChange,†an offshoot of DemocracyInAction’s web-based software suite, “Salsa,” and registered to the founder and Chief Technology Officer for the firm, Chris Lundberg.
DemocracyInAction, according to its staff bio page, was launched in 2003, and serves as a “mission-oriented company providing online engagement tools to political campaigns, PACs, the DSCC [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] and State Democratic parties.”
Their product, “Salsa,” is a software program which, according to the firm’s website, assists organizations in “building awareness and mobilizing donors, members and supportersâ€. And gathering that “mobilizing†data is exactly what they boast that their software is best at. Look no further than an entry on their SalsaCommons.org blog, promoting a name-gathering campaign for something called “WeWantThePublicOption.comâ€:
“Great stuff happens when you mix a tool kit like Salsa with a creative campaign concept. Case in point: WeWantThePublicOption.com. This custom-built petition page offers signers the prospect of their name appearing on an advertisement that will air in the D.C. area in favor of the public option. It’s a great way to show impact from an online petition as well as recognize the activists that sign it. And as you can see, it’s clearly all about the cause — not the sponsoring organization, which is practically invisible on the page.â€
An “advertisement that will run in the D.C. area in favor of the public option?†Yikes, that sounds a little scary. All I wanted was to make sure Mrs. Leary didn’t have to sleep out in the rain tonight. Is Mrs. Leary simply a “creative campaign concept?†Who’d stoop so low? (The same people who claim that 76% of Americans are begging for socialization of the health care system? Perhaps.)
Are these the true pleadings of a loving son, desperately trying to help his mom from being tossed out of the house “she’s lived in for 34 years,†or the misleading manipulations of an activist group sniffing around for personal contact information which it can use in future marketing endeavors? Or both?
We may honestly never know. But ACORN’s scare tactics should be called into question, and anyone who submits their personal information to an off-site third party, in this case, DemocracyInAction, should ask themselves what will become of their personal information, and for what purpose it will be used.
We can only wonder if Mrs. Leary made it through the day without a Sheriff’s knock on her front door, and hope for the best outcome. But this e-mail reeks of psychological manipulation of the reader for the sole purpose of collecting data, the true intent of which, given ACORN’s dubious history, is highly suspect.
Perhaps a more effective ACORN tactic would have been a photograph of a kitten, shotgun to its head, with the caption: “Give us your personal information, to use in our future activism, or the fuzzy-wuzzy little kitten gets it. You WANT to save the cute kitten, right?â€
Now that would be over the top, even for enlightened and compassionate liberal activists.
(Translation: There’s always next time.)
Posted in Home | Comments (7)
7 Responses to “Will the real Irene Leary please come forward?”
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June 30th, 2009 at 5:56 am
ACORN is willing to do anything to get your personal information, slugs!
June 30th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Looks like it gets worse:
“ActBlue is a nonprofit Political Action Committee, not a business, for a reason. Our only priority is the success of Democratic candidates and organizations.
We depend on your support to survive. Tip now.”
You can donate to the ad campaign (yeah, right), and then they hit you up at the end for a percentage “tip.” Hmmm, must be yet another of the hundreds of ACORN subsidiary scams.
I had to sign up to be able to read the above info. I hope my name shows up in their ad: “Love You.”
June 30th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I have blogged about this at dakotavoice.com and I received a response from someone claiming to be Irene’s son, Daniel Leary. Please check us out and comment if you like.
I am skeptical of the whole affair and basically think that if ACORN is involved it must be a scam, a lie or a distortion. One thing for sure, it is not what it purports to be.
Dr. Theo
June 30th, 2009 at 11:50 am
What’s next for the Assholes Corrupting Our Republic Now? Nigerean 419 scams? Herbalife franchise opportunities?
June 30th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
This comes right about the time two other pieces of information come to the surface about ACORN’s current activities.
First, the choice of organizations that are to be used to take the U.S. Census, which of course includes ACORN:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/12383
Second, ACORN will be protesting today in 14 Cities:
http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/06/chairman_zero_d_1.html#comments
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/06/30/caution-acorn-housing-entitlement-mob-at-work-again/
I’m not sure what this all adds up to, but I have to think this is a concerted effort towards some end. ACORN is far too “organized” not to operate strategically.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Just another Soros scam to take over America. He already has his guy in the white house and his sheeple in congress. After he bankrupts the nation he will make all of us his slaves, give us govt. healthcare and force those who are old, sick, etc. to move out of the way and die by their own hand.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
In my post at dakotavoice.com, I didn’t follow the ‘phishing’ aspect of Mr. Leary’s (i.e.,ACORN’s) heartbreaking letter. I appreciate your efforts to track down that important part of this story. It almost makes me want to sign-up just to find out where this ultimately leads.