Shielding Georgia Appleseed Inc; The AJC PolitiFact column scores “PANTS ON FIRE” on their own “Truth-O- Meter”

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Once upon a time from Willoughby Mariano , PolitiFact researcher: “…And Georgia Appleseed doesn’t aid illegal immigrants. It fixes systemic legal problems…”

Like newspapers in other states, the struggling Atlanta Journal Constitution has been running a “PolitiFact” fact-check column for several months complete with “Truth-O-Meter rulings” that allege to verify the veracity of statements made by elected and appointed public officials. It is self-described as “a scorecard separating fact from fiction” and “sorting out truth in politics.”

The AJC Truth-O-Meter registers “True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False and Pants on Fire.”

The staff even publishes/posts the reference material and sources from which the AJC version of “truth” is derived. It is not clear if they actually read it.

Like so many other one-time AJC readers, I have had all I can stand of the incomplete, inaccurate and agenda-driven reporting and accompanying phony, mindless excuses and inventive explanations from reporters and editors. I said as much to management and cancelled my twenty-seven year subscription in June. I seldom even read the newspaper online unless I get a Google alert on an immigration related news piece.

But a few readers/supporters here still send me “Hey D.A. – did’ja see this…? ” email on stories they catch in fading AJC. One that recently assured me of the wisdom of my decision to eliminate the newspaper from my daily irritations was a truth “ruling” from the PolitiFact column on a Republican Governor’s Association “attack” on former a Georgia governor and current Democrat candidate for the same office, Roy Barnes.

The RGA apparently pointed out Barnes position as a member of the board of advisors and former spot on the board of directors of an outfit here that usually escapes inspection: Georgia Appleseed Inc; which is part of a national network of Appleseed non-profits.

Quoting from their recent press release prompted by the AJC attention, Georgia Appleseed’s heavy hitters include “a state board of directors that includes a former Supreme Court justice, a past state governor, a state representative and a university president…” And “leaders from both political parties, including a former chair of the State Republican Party who also served as a state senator, a former general counsel for the State Republican Party, a former Democratic Governor, and a current Democratic state representative, have served on its Board of Directors and Board of Advisors. Georgia Appleseed is determinedly nonpartisan in its approach to its projects and benefits from the wisdom that its diverse Board brings to problem solving.”

As part of a campaign claim about Barnes fighting to aid illegal aliens in voting by showing a bank statement as voter ID, the RGA said that candidate – and prominent attorney – Barnes helped illegals open bank accounts without Social Security numbers because of his involvement with the Georgia Appleseed organization which posts on its Website numerous publications aimed at doing exactly that.

For the majority of readers who have never heard of the national Appleseed Network, here is an outline of the ever-so- enlightened Georgia Appleseed to get you oriented.

The Mission of Georgia Appleseed, from their Website (grab a Kleenex): “To listen to the unheard voices of the poor, the children, the marginalized; to uncover and end the injustices that we would not endure ourselves; to win the battles for our constituency in the courts of public opinion or in the halls of justice that no one else is willing or able to fight.”

Remember that little tear-jerker nugget when you see the list of publications taken from the Georgia Appleseed Website outlined below. And remember this from these oh-so noble, enlightened community leaders who are “sowing the seeds of justice”: The money flowing from the United States to Mexico currently represents the largest remittance market in the world.

As I have been trying for years to expose the well-heeled Georgia Appleseed gang for the nauseatingly phony hucksters they are, I had high hopes when I began to read the AJC fact check. Alas, unbiased reality was as elusive for the AJC PolitiFact reporter, Ms. Willoughby Mariano, as it usually is for so many of the AJC reporters and editors.

Willoughby Mariano gets a big Pants on Fire from here on her transparent, incomplete, lazy, and inexcusable biased reporting so typical of the AJC.

FACT CHECKING CAMPAIGN STATEMENTS

In a dual topic Friday, September 24th, 2010, a AJC PolitiFact “ruling” (“GOP said candidate Roy Barnes fought to give illegal immigrants the chance to vote – This election season, illegal immigrants stand alongside President Barack Obama and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as among the Republicans favorite bad guys) HERE
Willoughby Mariano wrote – and her editors let pass:

“…We also took a look at Barnes’ connection to Georgia Appleseed, which the RGA said “specializes in efforts designed to aid illegal immigrants.” If Barnes were indeed on the board of advisers of such a group, a more general claim that he supported advocacy work to aid illegal immigrants might contain some truth.

Executive Director Sharon Hill confirmed that Barnes served on the group’s board of directors from 2005 through 2008 and now sits on its board of advisers. Georgia Appleseed issued a news release in response to the ad saying its work is being “mischaracterized.”

Chuck Clay, a member of Georgia Appleseed’s board of directors as well as a former chairman of the state Republican Party and Republican minority leader of the Georgia state Senate, said the group in no way specializes in helping illegal immigrants.

“That would be 100 percent incorrect,” Clay said. “It [the accusation] does make you scratch your head and wonder whether the people saying that looked up the [Georgia Appleseed] website.”

Georgia Appleseed is a public-interest law group that works to fix systemic issues in the law. The group of lawyers, civil leaders and other professionals includes leaders from both sides of the aisle. They’re currently working on projects that focus on juvenile justice, effective student discipline, public education, and property passed down to heirs without a will or probate, the group’s leadership and news coverage confirmed.

Hill confirmed the nonprofit did run the Financial Access for Latino Immigrants project from 2005 through June 30, 2009. The financial literacy project helped newcomers avoid being victims of violent crime by keeping their money in the bank instead of in their pockets, avoid predatory lending and build economic stability. (Between 40 percent and 60 percent of Latino immigrants do not have a bank account, according to project literature.)

Barnes was not directly involved in that project, Hill said.

A review of the project’s publications found no instance in which Georgia Appleseed gave advice to illegal immigrants on how to get a bank account without a Social Security number. One brochure did mention that the ID might not be necessary for non-U.S. citizens. But “noncitizen” includes green card holders, foreigners on work visas and international students. It’s a far cry from “illegal immigrant.”

So not only did AJC PolitiFact Georgia find no evidence Barnes fought for the radical notion of giving illegal immigrants the right to vote, we also found that Barnes gave none of the support to illegal immigrants that the RGA claimed.

Barnes’ voter ID suit had nothing to do with illegal immigration. Georgia Appleseed, where he serves on an advisory board, is a group of lawyers and other professionals who perform public-interest work on a wide range of topics and does not “specialize” in aiding the activities of people who are breaking the law by entering the country. That group’s program on financial literacy for Latino immigrants, which ended last year, dealt with noncitizens, not illegal immigrants. Barnes had no direct involvement in it.

It would take a leap of conspiratorial proportions to believe that Barnes had fought for such an extreme position as giving illegal immigrants the right or ability to vote. The claim is silly.

Pantalones en fuego.

Pants on Fire.”

Note the word “specializes” at the top. She had to omit a lot of obvious facts to get this far.

Two days later, a Sunday, the AJC published a weekend “Round-up” of the rulings from the PolitiFact Truth-O Meter (“Truth-O-Meter travels back in time”) HERE .

Again we are treated to Mariano’s partial detective work. But this time, she confidently ends the word games:

“…Since Barnes served on the board of Georgia Appleseed, a nonprofit the RGA said helped illegal immigrants get bank accounts without Social Security numbers, he’d be helping illegal immigrants vote, the RGA claimed.

But experts called the RGA’s characterization of Barnes’ suit “outrageous” and a “misrepresentation.”

And Georgia Appleseed doesn’t aid illegal immigrants. It fixes systemic legal problems. It did run a financial literacy initiative for Latino immigrants. But a noncitizen is a far cry from a person who crossed the border illegally.

Pantalones en fuego. (Pants on Fire).”

“Misrepresentation” indeed. Either Mariano didn’t read the Georgia Appleseed material she outlines, or she discarded what didn’t fit her agenda. And she plays dumb to the fact that the anti-enforcement lobby, particularly the banksters, constantly uses the term “immigrant” and “non-citizen” to blur and camouflage their pro-illegal alien actions.

USING YOUR OWN TRUTH-O-METER

Note the Georgia Appleseed publications below and see if you agree with the AJC and Willoughby Mariano that “Georgia Appleseed doesn’t aid illegal immigrants”.

From the Georgia Appleseed (“Sowing the seeds of justice”) PUBLICATIONS page:

“Forcing Our Blues Into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement; A Legal Guide for Advocates – Revised and updated (2008), Forcing Our Blues Into Gray Areas contains legal and practical guidelines to combat local anti-immigrant ordinances.”

( Note from D.A -This helpful manual that missed getting mentioned by the AJC’s Mariano instructs the reader on how to impede or stop the far- too-successful federal 287(g) program that trains and authorizes local law enforcement to help enforce federal immigration laws. A quick look at the “Acknowledgements” (page 2) illustrates the sources of the tome. Note the ACLU, the Immigration Law Center, the Center for Community Change and the National Council of La Raza (The Race). And the other usual well-funded suspects in the anti-enforcement, amnesty-again mob. It is very similar to an ACLU publication created for the same purpose, but slightly toned down so as to be better suited to cocktail parties at the club)

And this one: “Access to Higher Education in Georgia for undocumented Students: “Visiting the Sins…” by denying In-State Tuition Eligibility.” As you may guess, the “White Paper” explains how Georgia would be more virtuous – and better off – it we granted in-state tuition to illegal aliens and laments the state law that prevents that affront to real, legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. Not mentioned by the AJC reporter.

THE “UNBANKED” … or follow the money and try hard to remember what they tell you: “Georgia Appleseed is a public-interest law group.”

Check this out from their “Popular Downloads” page : “Banking Immigrant Communities – A Toolkit for Banks and Credit Unions.” HERE With such instructional gems as: “Educating unbanked and underbanked consumers about the financial system, including basic accounts, home mortgage and small business loans, and how to access them.” And it explains the potential for highly increased profits from banking the “immigrant” who cannot obtain U.S. issued ID: “Wells Fargo has now opened more than 500,000 new accounts since beginning to offer targeted services and accepting consular ID cards to open accounts. …Reaching out also includes accepting alternative identification instruments and helping Hispanic customers obtain ITINs and SSNs necessary for the opening of new accounts. Wells Fargo Bank in Austin, Texas, accepts the Mexican matrícula consular as a proper means of identification for opening new bank accounts, and permits immigrants with no SSN to be accountholders…”

Here is one of my favorite quotes from the Georgia Appleseed’s most popular downloads page concerning “those who are outside the financial mainstream” – but not mentioned by the AJC’s Mariano.” (All emphasis mine)

“There are endless possibilities for capturing unbanked market segments… Unbanked Latino immigrants present a lucrative market for financial institutions and many banks and credit unions have launched aggressive initiatives to capture that market. And: “undocumented Latino immigrants have age and income characteristics associated with potential homeownership. Undocumented Latino immigrants alone would add an estimated $44 billion in new mortgages to the housing economy if barriers were removed and they were given access to buy homes in the US (according to a study released by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals). The report asserts that nearly a quarter million of the estimated 1.5 million undocumented immigrant households in the U.S. could become homeowners if barriers such as traditional methods of customer identification, legalization, traditional credit requirements and language were no longer issues…”

And this little money making tip: “There is no law against banks issuing mortgages to undocumented immigrants, nor against their owning property in the United States. Further, there is no federal banking law that requires banks to verify the immigration status of foreign account holders.”

There are many more – most contain the word “remittances” in the message, like: “Banking in a Global Market: A Financial Institution Guide for Offering International Remittance Services” and “FAQ about Opening Deposit Accounts for Foreign Citizens” and “Su Dinero, Su Familia, y Su Futuro, Cómo abrir una cuenta de cheque o ahorro – ( Bank on Your Future: How to open a checking or savings account”), and “Enviando dinero a casa (Sending Money Back Home”) and “Protecting Assets & Child Custody in the Face of Deportation” and “Remittance Transparency: Strengthening Business, Building Community” and “The Fair Exchange: Improving the Market for International Remittances” and “Expanding Immigrant Access to Mainstream Financial Services” and more, but you get the idea.

My own conclusion and opinion? Georgia Appleseed shills for the illegal immigration profiteering banking industry in the name of “the children and the injustices that we would not endure ourselves…” And Willoughby Mariano is an amateurish and rather dim propagandist who should fit right in where she is currently employed.

There are honest reporters at the AJC. Willoughby Mariano apparently isn’t one of them.

Facts aside, it looks like she operates on what she perceives to be “hard to believe” – that “a group of lawyers sworn to uphold the law” would ever support, defend or profit from illegal immigration.”

She should go to the Georgia Capitol sometime.

Or learn about MALDEF. Or ACCG/GMA.

A reader here sent an email of complaint on her Georgia Appleseed coverage to Mariano and got the following reply:

Good morning! Thanks for your email.

I looked into that statement and found no evidence they specialized in helping illegal immigrants. Hispanic immigrants, non-citizens and illegal immigrants are very different things. The group is led by prominent lawyers from both sides of the aisle, and it’s extremely hard to believe that a group of lawyers sworn to uphold the law would risk their careers to support non-law-abiding behaviors.

But I can understand why many people would disagree with their project to help Hispanic immigrants.

Willoughby Mariano
Reporter
PolitiFact Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
223 Perimeter Center Pkwy.
Atlanta, GA 30346
O: 404-526-7213
C: 404-941-6397
http://www.politifact.com/georgia/

I have spoken to the AJC’s PolitiFact editor about Georgia Appleseed and his reporter’s incomplete and dishonest coverage three times. I also sent a request for a correction and clarification on Georgia Appleseed to him and the AJC’s senior managing editor.

No correction and no reply.

I also had a phone conversation with oh-so-arrogant Willoughby Mariano about her reporting on this. She told me I should read the first, longer version of her reports and pay close attention to the word “specialize” – as in “Georgia Appleseed doesn’t specialize in aiding the activities of people who are breaking the law by entering the country.” She was less than pleased about my having called her editor.

The whole affair in which the AJC whitewashes the Georgia Appleseed hucksters and candidate Roy Barnes connection to them is “just one of those things” Mariano told me.

Her editors should be ashamed. She isn’t.

The good news is that with the AJC reader numbers, few people read her work. It’s just one of those things.

RULING: The D.A. King ‘Truth-Meter’ on the Atlanta Journal Constitution, its PolitiFact “sorting out truth in politics” column and reporter Willoughby Mariano: Zero on credibility in shilling for Georgia Appleseed and gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes.

PANTS ON FIRE.