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GOP Nuts Throw ACORN From a Glass House
Continuing the GOP's attack on the poor people's organizing group ACORN, the House this month passed by a wide margin a provision that would bar ACORN from receiving any federal funding. Every House Republican voted 'aye' as well as 172 Democrats. Only 75 Democrats opposed it. Soon the Senate, which has already -- by a 83 to 7 margin -- barred ACORN from receiving federal housing grants, is considering its own complete ban measure.
Let's hope they enjoy their gloat and then get right back to business.
The legislation they passed in all their rush, you see, is written so broadly that it just comes in very handy.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D of Florida) has already asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to find out which other contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.
Abuse of federal funds -- Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are top of the list, with 20 fraud cases between them. And where those military contractors go, the cash for killers -- Blackwater can't be far behind. And then there's Halliburton and the magically disappeared federal cash for troop services and Iraq reconstruction.
Recipients of the $750 billion financial bailout program known as TARP are bound to show up. Earlier this year, federal investigators said they had opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax violations, insider trading and other crimes.
If the GOP can get this hot and bothered over the $50 million ACORN's supposed to have received from the federal government -- over the past 15 years -- I can hardly wait to see how outraged they'll be about the BILLIONS received by banks in the blink of a brokers' eyelid.
Not to be left out, among the bankers, brokers, death merchants and liars, let's not forget the child molesters...
Several faith based groups, recipients of federal grants, currently stand accused of misspending that cash on covering up child molesting clergy.
To name just one: Catholic Charities -- in at least two cities Catholic Charities stands accused of using federal funds to settle or cover up sex abuse charges. But that didn't stop Catholic Charities from receiving a federal government contract this August for $100 million to work with victims of natural disasters.
This could all get very interesting very fast. I just can't wait. Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck. Who's going to be first with the outrage?
24 Comments so far
Show AllExcuse me, but if we have the video then we really don't need the text.
As I pointed out yesterday, the potentially broad scope of this legislation is meaningless due to the extensive corruption of the federal judiciary.
q
Yes we do need text. Some of us can't hear well enough to understand the video, especially since they are not captioned.
Re quickstepper September 25th, 2009 9:26 am
Your pessimism is well-founded on precedent, but this does present us with a teachable moment regardless of immediate outcomes. At some point the preponderance of evidence inevitably must reach a tipping point.
The case of Blackwater is especially instructive, given allegations of murder, rape, drug and weapons trafficking, and massive fraud; the "breadcrumb sins" of ACORN don't even register on the same scale. Let's bang this tambourine for all it's worth.
Not all internet connections are created equal, quickstepper...some of us prefer to read as opposed to view and listen...and all laptop speakers are not up to the task of rendering Ms. Flanders' comments readable...a transcript of a 20 minute talk could take several megabytes of video is a few kilobytes on text...I can think of any number of valid reasons for including the text...but not that many for including the video as well...
Dream on. You actually think our corporate fascist taskmasters will turn the law upon themselves. That is the best belly laugh I've had in months. Your Orwellian attempt to turn yet another defeat into some hallow victory is laughable at best.
Does the federal government really have money for anything other than bailing out Wall $treet and pouring money military spending gravy on top of their already existent military porky spending? We're already borrowing too much too far from China as it is. I just pray that no predatory corporation or set of corporations finds some way to buy control of ACORN or it will be ruined.
Also, the title is misleading. Plenty of Democrats did this too so stop the partisan misleading. Both parties are corrupt to the core and this is why I don't vote by party !
Sorry Laura, but it isn't just the GOP nuts doing the throwing.
More Democrats (house and Senate combined) voted for this pathetic legislative knee-jerk than Rethuglicans. They have the majority in both houses of congress, and yet they voted by a wide margin with the minority to defund ACORN. So this isn't just a "GOP attack on the poor."
Thanks for the truth.
This is the only time or place we'll hear of this connection between the cowardly vote to defund ACORN and the massive fraud of "defense" contractors that should be defunded, but never will. Anybody hear about the protests in Pittsburgh at the geo-summit, now going on, from corporate media? If any of them even mentioned it, much less gave it one minute, I missed it. Even MSNBC was mute on this. And they'll be mute on this particular hypocrisy as well.
I like Laura Flanders, and she has been a true progressive even being a part of FAIR at one time, but this headline is off the mark a bit. The GOP and its huge numbers of "Democratic" enablers are the problem as part of the "bipartisan tendency, syndrome, and dogma" that has historically been the way the USA gets into one disaster after another from the Cold War to the Vietnam War to the Iraq War to all the other debacles for the USA. We need a healthy dose of partisanship for force accountability on the politicians and the power elites-- different voices and different choices, not the same old damn bipartisan BS and its rotten public policies. Partisanship makes choices available to the people thus insuring democratic government and better policies for all. Somehow this phony bipartisan dogma must end.
AD
When Dems say bipartisian, they mean getting Republican votes to ensure we don't get what they advertise.
Re AD September 25th, 2009 1:10 pm, who declares
"We need a healthy dose of partisanship..."
Strongly agreed. Exactly that is provided by the Greens, Socialists and other independent parties, which is why they're systematically excluded from debates lest they reveal how little the Ds and Rs disagree on.
This headline is only half true it should read: GOP AND DEM NUTS THROW ACORN FROM A GLASS HOUSE.
Geez, I hardly ever think of SHORTER ways to say something, but I'll go you one better and suggest: NUTS THROW ACORN FROM A GLASS HOUSE.
· Yr Obd't Servant
ACORN's primary crime is advocating to increase the minimum wage. Everything else is forgivable, but NOT that, to the people that own the country.
I thought ACORN was supposed to be a "grass roots" organization.
It would be nice to find an accurate article on the alleged transgression that started this federal defunding in the first place, namely some of their employees giving advice to right-wingers on how to avoid taxes while setting up a child prostitution ring.
Next thing we may see is some blogger creating a realistic looking video claiming to show Obama copulating with a goat. That could go viral.
Congress is having a knee-jerk reaction here due to relentless flogging by right-wing media and because ACORN has failed to actively defend itself. It evidently got too big too fast and lacks internal discipline.
There is a huge credibility deficit here.
-30-
... a realistic looking video claiming to show Obama copulating with a goat.
_________________________________________________________
Now that you mention it, I DID see a realistic looking video claiming to show Obama swilling beer with a PIG on the White House lawn!
It looked so REAL! I couldn't believe my eyes.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I applied for a job at ACORN just after college. Even though I have a degree in economics I'd rather jump in a fire than work at a typical office job. When I went in to apply there was one girl at the desk and maybe, at most, a dozen people in the office. It is a decently small organization who has tried its best to help poor people and people of color when neither political party, the media, the economic elites and, frankly, most of the middle class could give a damn about the poor. If it has been caught flat footed it is probably because they never thought that they would be targeted, especially when the economy is melting down, the environment is being wrecked and the health care system is falling apart amongst other problems, that the freaking right wing would spend so much time demonizing this relatively small organization. What sociopathic group of people will attack an organization that helps poor people DURING an economic collapse caused by the very people now attacking them? The right wing is the scum that lives off of scum. A bunch of angry, ignorant, immoral people who need to be beaten back and punched in the mouth.
The snake eats its own tail.
Milo Minderbinder hires Wackenhut to make war on Blackwater.
The pot calls the kettle black.
Cheney's curse, "Go fuck yourself." morphs into reality.
Chaos has a simple beginning.
And everybody gets a share.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Wackenhut supplies the security for the building that houses the National Archives here in NYC. Some of the men give me the creeps. It doesn't matter how careful I am about what I wear when I go there, I always set off the alarms, so that they have to use their wand on me. Some of the men are goofy!
More than likely, they provide the security for the other NARA offices in the U.S., but I don't know that for a fact.
FOX & ACORN
The stings against ACORN characterize the distortion campaigns waged by FOX News to divert public opinion away from the destructive policies of their right wing supporters; which include their deceptive indictments against health care & environmental reforms, and their manipulations of science.
Any transgretions by a few low paid ACORN employees, exposed by the doctored tapes, would be eclipsed by the trillions swindled by the money manipulators, Halliburton, et al--all of which have been downplayed by FOX.
The influence of these destructive journalistic abuses will not abate, until challenged by other media members and until their audiences gain some astuteness.
Still don't understand why ACORN evidently gets federal money.
Does Habitat For Humanity also take federal funds?
Are all those NGOs out there similarly compromised? Or compromising?
-30-
We go after ACORN which helps poor people find jobs, at decent minimum wages, But we throw billions at the banks that brought us a terrible recession.