The Truth About ACORN

30 Sep

Rachel Maddow did a great job last night boiling the ACORN smear campaign down to its essence.  Enjoy.

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29 Responses to “The Truth About ACORN”

  1. STEEL September 30, 2009 at 12:48 pm #

    RM is so good!

    Reply
  2. Brian Castner September 30, 2009 at 12:57 pm #

    Wrong – Rachel Maddow does a great job in a reverse smear campaign. “The Right hates ACORN because they are so good at helping working families earning a living wage.” Right. And in related news, the Left hates the AEI because it does such a good job defeating dictators and defending American democracy.

    Is it so difficult to believe that the Right doesn’t like ACORN because it engages in systematic illegal activity? Is it hard to believe that the reason Congress voted to defund it, and the reason Dems won’t defend it, is because it engaged in illegal activity? Fake prostitutes aside, this is about tax fraud, systemic voter fraud, etc etc: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_13403924

    BTW, this whole talk from Maddow about “who’s next” sounds a lot like the Freeners screaming about which civil liberty Obama is going to take away next.Perhaps fear mongering is on each side?

    Reply
  3. Christopher Smith September 30, 2009 at 1:56 pm #

    Yes, it is hard to believe. The selective outrage about alleged impropriety is notable for whom they have chosen as a target and from where the outrage initially sourced.

    It’s not fear mongering when one of the leaders of the anti-ACORN movement who has made numerous speeches on the floor of the House tells a reporter he intends to go after SEIU next.

    Reply
  4. The Humanist September 30, 2009 at 2:00 pm #

    @ Brian – “systematic illegal activity…”

    Uh, don’t you have to be convicted of something before you can be described as “engaging in systematic illegal activity? And, no….a few crooks signing up Mickey Mouse and Daffy Duck to vote does not equal ACORN committing voter fraud.

    Reply
  5. realbuff September 30, 2009 at 2:01 pm #

    So raising pay by a $1 and hour is raising the quality of life? Huh?

    Reply
  6. Tbone September 30, 2009 at 2:13 pm #

    Brian,
    Fearmongering is a tool that all politicians use. Obama and the McCain both used it in the last election, it was not the election of hope vs fear, but rather an election between fear of terrorist and fear of economic collapse/fear of what an old senile man would do as president. Likewise the President has used fearmongering just as expertly as Bush did.

    Reply
  7. Christopher Smith September 30, 2009 at 2:23 pm #

    @realbuff, for many people it’s the difference between eating and not.

    Reply
  8. Brian Castner September 30, 2009 at 2:49 pm #

    @ Chris – The fearmongering is Maddow’s guest saying that other unions and the Sierra Club is next. And when you blame the accuser and outrager, and don’t rebut the claim itself, that says more.

    @ Humanist: Does the lack of a criminal presecution ever get you to stop saying Bush and Cheney are war criminals? And yes, signing up Daffy Duck is illegal activity by ACORN. How can it not be, when ACORN employees are doing the fraud?

    @ Tbone: My point exactly. I get annoyed by selective outrage and liberal hypocrisy more than anything else. At least I admit when my side is trying to scare you into voting for us.

    Reply
  9. STEEL September 30, 2009 at 2:59 pm #

    The difference is when you claim it is systematic fraud. That means the organization its self has these illegal practices as its policy. There is nothing at all to suggest that ACORN has as policy to use illegal tactics.

    If you saw the Maddow show from the night before you would have seen one of the Prosecutors fired by Bush for political reasons. The prosecutor was fired BECAUSE he would not prosecute the phony unsubstantiated ACORN voter fraud charges cooked up by the Bush administration.

    Just saying something does not make it true and a story about a fired disgruntled board member does not make it true either.

    Reply
  10. Brian Castner September 30, 2009 at 3:10 pm #

    @ STEEL: How about we trade the word “systemic” for “rampant,” or “regular,” or multiple cases of in multiple cities?” And to continue your truth investigation, just because you say something bad about the Bush Administration doesn’t make it true either.

    Reply
  11. The Humanist September 30, 2009 at 5:26 pm #

    @ Brian – I don’t need a criminal prosecution to brand Bush and Cheney war criminals – they’ve admitted it themselves

    Tell you what – let’s compare ACORN’s convictions for the heinous crimes you accuse them of with actual convictions of Republican Party contractors and operatives for voter registration fraud, election tampering, voter fraud, tax fraud….whatever. I’ll go first – the curious case of Young Political Majors. Here’s a summary courtesy of Joe Conason:

    “If only the Republicans who have worked up a frenzy over ACORN’s alleged crimes were so indignant about real and damaging voter fraud — such as the amazing case of Young Political Majors, the firm that ran GOP registration efforts in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and elsewhere before the authorities in Orange County, Calif., busted its president, Mark Anthony Jacoby, and sent him to jail last year. He had built a lucrative partisan career by teaching his minions to deceive thousands of voters into registering as Republicans rather than Democrats, among other scams. Of course, the only on-air mention of the Young Political Majors scandal on Fox News was made by blogger Brad Friedman — and the national media, mainstream and conservative, generally ignored it. They were too busy generating “controversy” over ACORN.“

    Reply
  12. STEEL September 30, 2009 at 5:41 pm #

    BC

    I don’t think there is any evidence of rampant or regular anything here. Multiple is any number more that one. So what is the point?

    As to the Bush comment. Actually it has been proven that there were politically motivated firings in the Bush Justice department. You are not going to try to deny that are you?

    You will note by this time line that actual Republicans were calling for AT Gonzalas to resign after the political firings became known as fact

    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/usa-timeline.php

    If you are unaware of this story and its FACTUAL basis you have been living under a rock. Now, as a person that is so concerned about voter fraud I would think you would be outraged at this blatant political manipulation.

    Reply
  13. Brian Castner September 30, 2009 at 5:59 pm #

    @ Humanist: So, the lack of criminal prosecutions doesn’t stop you from saying whatever you want. Thanks for clearing that up. Since facts are not a concern of yours, what does evidence of Republican fraud have to do with ACORN? Can we stay on topic please. Do you now admit ACORN personnel have been committed of crimes?

    @ STEEL: Multiple cases in multiple cities tells me its more than just a “few bad apples,” to quote Rumsfeld. Its a larger problem. That’s the point. If any organization is engaging in illegal behavior in multiple field offices, there is something wrong at the top.

    Now, to Bush. Looking around the house, it does need cleaning, but also doesn’t appear rock-like. Justice Department lawyers were fired for a variety of terrible reasons. Most involved idiotic loyalty tests, which show the worst of the Bush Administration – loyalty over thought, policy, or general common sense. Gonzalas was one of our worst AG’s. So I used a bad example to call you on . . . the Humorist needs to remember that more than you.

    Reply
  14. mike hudson September 30, 2009 at 6:42 pm #

    humorist…there have been convictions. acorn workers were convicted of election fraud in washington state and the organization also had to pay a $25,000 fine and enter into an agreement with the state not to do stuff like that again or the penalties will be worse.

    there’s also the matter of $1.5 million in irs tax liens filed against acorn, ongoing crimial election fraud cases in nevada and pennsylvania and investigations in a dozen other states.

    rachel maddow did a fine job of proving that a right-wing writer in a magazine nobody reads got something wrong about a guy nobody ever heard of before in the obama administration.

    hooray for rachel!

    Reply
  15. Mike In WNY October 1, 2009 at 8:30 am #

    I guess the presence of several tax liens in several states totaling millions of dollars doesn’t matter to humorist.

    Reply
  16. The Humanist October 1, 2009 at 8:56 am #

    @ Brian – “Do you now admit ACORN personnel have been committed of crimes”

    Perhaps, if you spoke English, I could properly respond.

    Now, to Hudson’s reference to Washington State, six ACORN canvassers were charged with providing false information on a voter registration form and their manager was hit with an additional charge of providing false information to a public official for turning in more than 1,800 phony voter-registration forms.

    Here’s the key part of this “scandal”…..try to follow me because I’m going to go around in a sort of….circular pattern:

    “Charging papers said Debwa, who was responsible for verifying the identity of newly registered voters and submitting cards to election officials, suspected canvassers were falsifying registrations in the final weeks of the two-county registration drive but didn’t report it to higher ACORN officials for fear of losing her job./”

    So…..ACORN coordinated this massive (not quite) voter-registration fraud being committed by low-level personnel who didn’t inform their superiors of their nefarious deeds?

    And my search of teh Google didn’t turn up any resolution of these cases…they were charged, pled not-guilty and there the trail ends. ACORN did strike an agreement with officials to reimburse the local county for investigative costs and pledge to improve their screening process for canvassers so that this doesn’t happen again. Sounds like good corporate responsibility to me.

    As for Kansas City, once again we have four canvassers who submitted phony voter registration forms and were turned in by ACORN itself. It’s tough to carry out a pernicious conspiracy when you blow the whistle on yourself, no?

    Since you can’t provide an ACORN conviction yet, I’ll carry on and list GOP election fraud conviction #2 – the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal, where the state GOP hired a Virginia telemarketing firm, GOP Marketplace, to jam phone banks being used by the state Democrats and a firefighters’ union in a close election won narrowly by the GOP candidate. Four GOP crooks were convicted (or pled guilty to) of federal election crimes.

    Reply
  17. Brian Castner October 1, 2009 at 11:16 am #

    @ Hypocrist: My finger fumbles don’t change the fact that you haven’t addressed any of Mike’s points. Why the knee-jerk ACORN support? Are facts of so little relevance? And once again – yes, there are plenty of R convictions. Along with Lib and Dem convictions. Do you only care about law breakers if they are on the other side of the ideological spectrum?

    Reply
  18. The Humanist October 1, 2009 at 12:35 pm #

    @ Brian – “finger fumbles” can’t possibly explain your horrid syntax. Punctuation is your friend.

    “Why the knee-jerk ACORN support“? Because the vast majority of ACORN employees are law-abiding, hard-working citizens helping low- and moderate-income families on a multitude of levels and the company now finds itself squarely in the bullseye of the mighty GOP Wingnut Wurlitzer because Republicans 1)love to distract the media and public from how empty their well of constructive ideas to solve the nation’s problems is and 2)they hate the poor and minorities. Why do you have such a hard-on for ACORN?

    “Are facts of so little relevance?” – No, facts are very relevant. Such as the fact that ACORN (the organization) has never been convicted of a single federal election crime ever but that doesn’t stop you and other wingnut clowns from calling them a criminal organization

    “yes, there are plenty of R convictions. Along with Lib and Dem convictions…” – That very well may be. I’ve listed the GOP convictions for election tampering. Where’s your list of ACORN convictions?

    “Do you only care about law breakers if they are on the other side of the ideological spectrum? – No, the law should be applied equally to anyone who tampers with elections. It’s not my fault that the most recent egregious examples of this serious crime have been committed by Republicans.

    Reply
  19. Brian Castner October 1, 2009 at 2:00 pm #

    Wingnut clown! Thanks, Humanless, you made my day. That from the guy that just said all Republicans hate the poor and minorities. If syntax is my friend (check your own run-ons, BTW), then a mirror is yours.

    Reply
  20. The Humanist October 1, 2009 at 2:34 pm #

    still waiting for the list of ACORN higher-ups convicted of a federal election crime. Don’t make me pull out the wayback machine and reminisce about CREEP.

    Reply
  21. mike hudson October 1, 2009 at 4:47 pm #

    i sent a post at 11 a.m. detailing the convictions as contained in the july report by the congressional oversight committee report, which was what actually led to the defunding of acorn by the congress. it’s an interesting document, which also lists all of the states where charges related to election led to indictments against acorn workers/officials. it also goes into embezzlement inside the organization, the tax vio,lations that led to $1.5 million in federal liens and pointed up the fact that, under it’s non-profit status, acorn if forbidden from undertaking ANY sort of political activity. previously, united states taxpayers had been subsidizing the group to the tune of $53 million.

    for some reason, that post never made it to the thread. anyway, if you want to read the report for yourself, you can download it here:
    http://issa.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=News.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=AD0751A3-19B9-B4B1-1247-42FB7B539871

    Reply
  22. The Humanist October 2, 2009 at 12:57 am #

    @ Mike Hudson – a press release from Darrell Issa? Really? The same Republican Rep. Issa who politicized Tim Russert’s death to push for more oil drilling? And called the attacks of Sept. 11th “just a plane crash”? Or cried like a fucking baby when he found out he wouldn’t be able to run for CA governor? Darrell Issa the car thief-turned-car-alarm millionaire that’s had a hard-on for ACORN since he entered Congress?

    And you boast about voting for Democrats? You are a puddle full of FAIL.

    Reply
  23. The Humanist October 2, 2009 at 1:00 am #

    Mike Hudson’s favorite member of the House of Representatives on how he felt about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

    Reply
  24. mike hudson October 2, 2009 at 2:45 am #

    ok humorist, so why did the senate and the house of represetatives — where, of course the democrats hold a substantial majorities — pass the bill issa authored and strip acorn of all the federal funding it recieved?

    the vote wasn’t even close, 345-75 in the house and 84-4 in the senate.

    Reply
  25. The Humanist October 2, 2009 at 8:58 am #

    1) Because the even though the section was named “Defund ACORN Act”, the bill was not specific to ACORN – the “Student Aid” bill (H.R. 3221) included a provision banning federal funding to any entity which has “filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency.”

    2) Most Democrats in Congress are spineless and believe that ACORN is radioactive, so of course they’ll buy into the GOP-induced hysteria and abandon ACORN

    3) Of course, the genius Darrell Issa wrote his legislation so broadly that it could be applied to more than 62 current government contractors, including Boeing, Glaxo SmithKline, Northrup Grumman…….which have received a collective $260 billion in public dollars since 2007 alone. If ACORN is defunded, then so should these longtime sucklers at the public teat.

    Reply
  26. mike hudson October 2, 2009 at 9:04 am #

    great argument humorist….NOT!!!!

    Reply
  27. The Humanist October 2, 2009 at 5:37 pm #

    Right back atcha, Hudson. Don’t you have a bottle of whiskey to crawl into?

    Reply
  28. mike hudson October 3, 2009 at 10:19 pm #

    wow…haven’t heard that one in the past day or two. the facts remain the same. acorn’s primary funding source was the federal taxpayer, who subidised this criminal enterprise to the tune of $53 million. that funding source has been turned off, and will never be turned back on. they’re screwed, and there is nothing you can do about it, asshole.

    Reply

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  1. Teabaggers vs. Downsizers | WNYmedia.net - October 6, 2009

    […] argument. It reminds me of the Rachel-Maddow-Republicans-Hate-ACORN-Because-They-Are-So-Good-At-Helping-The-Poor argument that is bunk as […]

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