The ACORN Sting Gives Me Hope for Journalism

Did somebody piss in your cheerios this morning?  It surely was not me. I thought we were having a conversation.  I did not apologize for ACORN I simply asked are you willing to say that ALL government contractors should be held to the same standard? I presented you with the FACTS I KNOW about ACORN from my own first hand knowledge of what they have done and I said at least in Baltimore which is the chapter I have knowledge of.  I have taken their classes.  I sat through numerous presentations by them as a part of the eldery and homeless ministries our church ran.  I went along to help those who maybe could not read or had other challenges. Where in the h*ll does the Hitler crap come from?  If there has been swift action against the Blackwaters and Haliburtons of the world I cannot find it.  I would appreciate links to those actions becuse ACORN funding from taxpayers is in the millions I think around 2 or 3 but Haliburton and Blackwater is up to around 20 BILLION each so I really really would like those links.  But only after you have a nap or a drink or whatever it takes to help you have a civil conversation.

Same question applies:  Are you willing to say that if ACORN is defunded then so should all those other organizations? 

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

Hitler was nice to animals so he wasn't all bad.  So go ahead, apologize for ACORN, they still are being dragged to courts for voter registration and their name is mudd as far as the members of the congress are concerned.  It's good to know that they still think it's heinous to traffic in sexual slavery.  And just so you know, ACORN is a non-profit which means that they use the people's money.  Is more expected from them because of that...YES.  Blame ACORN for dragging everyone else down with them because of those individuals who got caught on camera.  Blackwater and Haliburton are companies, they work for a living; if they weren't effective they wouldn't have been hired.   When they commit fraud and get caught you can bet that the ramifications are swift and there are no exceptions and no apologists.

 (My blogs are http://flightkeeper.blogspot.com and http://cutefuncool.blogspot.com)

Read this ( http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/acornstudy/ )

 Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

Maybe you should mosey your little self right on down to an ACORN office and actually see what they do.  They have helped to write laws to fight the very same lending practices that sent our entire economy into a tail spin.  They have Kept many people me included from taking interest only loans.  They offer classes and workshops on home ownership.  SO maybe you should try getting some actual facts.  ACORN at least in Baltimore does not deal with renting their goal is homeownership with a loan and budget that will ensure you stay that way.  They also work on improving neighborhoods bringing in funding for parks and rec services into under served neighborhoods.   But in actuallity I do not think you want any real information on ACORN you are just happy in your comtempt I am better than them mood.  No one has to tell you the right leaning organizations that have been accused of fruad you know exactly which they are but as always there is some excuse for your side.  Becuse focus on the family, Haliburton, Blackwater, are not responsible for what their employees do as long as they fire them when they find out about wrong doing.  Oh that's what ACORN did.

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

A lot of those companies on that list will stay in business but not all.  Most of those companies esp defense contractors live on their Gov't contracts.  ACORN local offices will in fact stay in business.  They are funded by many different sources.  Haliburton will stay in business doing what exactly?  All of their work is in some way shape of form federally funded.  From the building contracts to the mercenaries security forces they offer.  But as I said do we agree that all of these companies should be defunded if ACORN is defunded?  I have been a benefeciary of ACORN's programs and KNOW that this is a witch hunt.  But if they are hunted then so should all of the companies on that list.  Corruption is corruption.

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

If the "journalists" who made this tape went to multiple Acorn offices around the country and caught no one doing anything wrong, then presented only the two most egregious examples of wrong doing as typical of everything they observed, how is this investigative reporting?  It is presenting only a part of the picture that happens to support the conclusion that the "reporters" wanted.  Sorry, but I call bullshit.

Journalism looks at the bigger picture of things.  In this case, the bigger picture showed that most Acorn staff and offices acted within the law.  The ones that didn't were rightfully fired.  So why is this a story at all?

Suzanne Reisman ( http://www.blogher.com/member/suzanne-reisman ), Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender ( http://blogher.org/topic/feminism-gender ) Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Oth ( http://cussandotherrants.com/ )

It just confirms the empty accusations.

(My blogs are http://flightkeeper.blogspot.com and http://cutefuncool.blogspot.com)

of the right wing tanks and what they've done.  Just empty accusations.  It's kind of ironic how you accuse other people of throwing around accusations when you've been doing that yourself.

(My blogs are http://flightkeeper.blogspot.com and http://cutefuncool.blogspot.com)

no more blatant than the universal contempt that the Right has for ACORN. 

There have been a lot of accusations thrown around. The fact is that plenty of conservatives would just like to see poor people disenfranchised. Roadblocks are constantly being put up including longer waiting lines because of fewer machines and voter intimidation.

What right wing tanks are you referring to?  Have they been investigated for voter fraud like ACORN has been.  Have they been convicted for voter fraud?

You don't think the Left absolutely hates and would love to disenfranchise poor people so they vote democrat?  Enabling them to look as themselves as victims who need the organization's help to continue to be poor and helpless so that they can continue to be renters instead of homeowners.

(My blogs are http://flightkeeper.blogspot.com and http://cutefuncool.blogspot.com)

Quite frankly right wing think tanks do as much to "skew" elections as do organizations like ACORN. Yes, they have received money from the government in order to pay workers to register people to vote. I don't see anything wrong with that except that poor people tend to vote Democratic. The Right absolutely hates that and would love to disenfranchise as many poor people as they can get away with. Yes, a few workers used bad judgment. Some apparently thought the whole thing was a big joke. Judging from the way the pimp and prostitute were dressed, I would have thought it was a joke also. ACORN does a good job in helping people know what their rights as renters are. That's another thing that the Right absolutely hates. The less people know their rights the better as far as many are concerned. 

I'm not getting into this anymore. Obviously like so many on the Right, you can give it but you sure can't take it.

They depend on the government for money in order to advise pimps and prostitutes how to traffic women into sexual slavery and to make up people and have them sign up as voters and vote to skew the election (several chapters have been brought to court for voter registration problems).

Halliburton and all the rest are for profit companies.  They probably do have the government as a big customer, but it is not their only one.  If the government ceases to buy their product, they will continue to stay in business, you can't say the same for ACORN.

(My blogs are http://flightkeeper.blogspot.com and http://cutefuncool.blogspot.com)

Norma --

Re your statistics -- see Wikipedia :

"The seasonally adjusted unemployment ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment ) rate [ed note: under BUSH] rose from 4.2% in January 2001, peaking at 6.3% in June 2003 and reaching a trough of 4.4% in March 2007. After an economic slowdown, the rate rose again to 6.1% in August 2008 and up to 7.2% in December 2008. [55] ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_th... ) From December 2007 when the recession started to December 2008, an additional 3.6 million people became unemployed. [56] ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_th... ) And, in January 2009, his last month in office, the nation lost 655,000 jobs, raising the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest level in more than 15 years. [57] ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_th... )"

I agree that blame on its own doesn't get us anywhere, but I am weary of people avoiding taking responsibility (and learning from it) by saying "blame doesn't get us anywhere" -- then they point the blaming fingers at Obama to deflect responsibility away from Bush.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool ( http://timesfool.blogspot.com ). BlogHer is non partisan. Mata as an individual has plenty of partisan opinions.

Under the Defund ACORN bill all of these companies and many many more will not get any public funds.  YAY college students with a camera!

The bill ( http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3571/text )

The list of the top 100 ( http://www.contractormisconduct.org/ )

Interesting to see if they will leave it as is or see if they just go ahead and name ACORN but keep Lockheed Martin and Boeing.  Several of my former employers or on this list.  I am glad getting ACORN did not happen a few years ago I would have been out of a job.  These are some pretty large companies I wonder how many of the I hate ACORNers will potentionally end up being out of a job because of this sting? Of course we all know this is a way to go after ONE organization.  Not really get fraudalent contractors of the taxpayers dime.  If it was Haliburton would have been gone a LONG time ago!

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

You are so right about Bush.

But if he was wrong, this guy is worse. Wait til we truck around money in a cart. This stuff is nuts. Even the Chinese are bonkers on the amount of money we're spending. One thing liberals never get...a hundred percent of nothing is still nothing.

As one example: President Obama needs to have a "deliberative"
process before deciding what to do with Afganistan. More troops or not?
Glad he's thinking about it, but why not a deliberative process on
health care, especially when 85% of Americans are satisfied with what
they have?  Hmmmmm?

Kill small business...where 90% of jobs are created. Then they're totally surprised there aren't any jobs. Wealth creation is something most of them aren't familiar with. In fact, I'd love these bloggers to stand up and tell me how many jobs they've ever created. Mata? Kim? Let's hear it! When have you paid the 12+% self-emplyment tax? When have you paid the matching SS/Medicare tax for employees? The blogher founder, whose name I can't recall, perhaps she can tell us how many people she's actually paying health insurance for. (This is not to denigrate the success she is enjoying, it's just to ask if she's actually shelling out the $$ for health insurance, including her temporary workers.)

I enjoy your posts. Keep it up. I have to believe that even some of these ultra-liberal blogers don't believe their own fairy tales. Otherwise why is there such silence on so many important issues confronting us. Nothing on the defensive weapons shield. Nothing on the Bauchus bill; nothing on Isreal and the Iranian threat.; nothiing on the CIA investigation; Not a word on how the Senate bill will increase taxes up to 10-13 percent on families making $40K.

Lots on skin care, though, and organic vegetables.

Keep it up. Maybe some of them might listen.

J

Dear Mata--Unemployment under Bush was about 4 percent. It's nearly 10% now--eight months into the Obama administration and trillions of stimulus dollars later. Some economists say it's close to 16% counting people who have stopped looking.

Obama has more than doubled the deficit in one year than the entire Bush presidency.

It's not apples and apples.

Geez, you're too damn smart to rely on talking points.

We're in trouble. Blaming Bush doesn't get us anywhere.

Regards,

ACORN is a fine organization that does good work. In fact, it was supported by John McCain until so-called "Conservatives" bashed it so much because of its support of Barack Obama that he backed off. Every organization has its "bad apples." It looked to me like some of the people "interviewing" the pimp and prostitute thought it was just a huge joke. They should have called the police. It's too bad, but that doesn't make ACORN on the whole a bad organization. 

NancyShell

My question is where were the calls for fiscal restraint during the tax give back for the rich. Surely there were some but not enough to stop the flow to that gravy train. Bush said he would make home ownership a key part of his administration.  I watched the dismantling of fiscal and education  bureaus and policies inacted to keep middle America safer from the grifters in suits that populate the Washington landscape. I remember the banking scandal of  " Continental Illnois" under the Bush team number one and watched as those people in the mid west  cringed under the pancaking of their lives. 

 Homeownership as a key stone of Bush 2's  adminstration hmmm, I waited for the real deal to be revealed. Homeownership in the U.S was at an all time high during  the Bush adminstration . Bush did what he said he would do. But to quote a singer I think it was Lauren Hill. It's not what you can get it is what you can keep.

 I'm poor. Not of my own doing. I worked hard to lift myself out of the grinding poverty of my youth and early twenties. I bare the scars of that hard work. I purchased my house before all that funny financing was made available. I had to meet the critera. Illness sidelined my climb into the middle class.  Now I must watch as the middle class is shredded and the housing industry is shredded right before my very eyes. I'm poor but not stupid.This was engineered by the thousand points of light.

 The spin into the desperation of proverty of America was designer clad with credit card offers. Our countries soul was mortgaged out at  at 23.5% and we are credit card slaves. (Thank God, I didn't buy that particular coolie hat) I watched as my father had to do the reverse mortgage thing because he had brought into that line of reasoning.  He's eighty years old and trying to find a part time job to payoff 200,000 worth of debt. Now his legacy will go back to the bank.

There is a lot of deperate people out there. Some people  rightly so, some because lady luck didnot smile on them. But America is the land of second chances. But you can't get to that second chance with out correct inforrmation. Congress has access to it why can't I. Acorn has been a agitator for info and action for a long time. But I didn't have to use their services until recently.

What does Acorn have to do with this rant. I watched as hanging shads ( forgive spelling ) decided the election. Am I to be shocked at some other voter frauds in padding the voter rolls. I grieve for those who have  done good works been painted with a broad brush and now find them selves regurgitated into unemployement wheel. Last hired, first fired.( This sympatphy is  reserved for those who tried to make a positive difference marching on the front lines of change.)

There's a lot of anger out there.  Every body is looking for the people who did this. We will go after who we have access to. The powers that be don't care who we blame as long as we blame each other. Did you see any of these CEO handing back any of their monry to help the bottom line of the American deficit?

 I look at the money spent looking for Bin Laden but who we should be looking for is the cast of characters to made off with our pension funds and savings locked behind door of sheltered communities. Madoff wasn't the only one. He was the one they decided to make an example off. There is no way he could have done all of that wih out help and lots od it. This recession was engineered to happen. Look at the architects of this mess all of them, Republicans and Democrats. Most of them are not poor people.

Barrie Obama ain't, Jesus, Mahdi or the Messiah . He inherited a hot mess. But I think we should be careful as we route out evil that we aren't willing pawns to a darker agenda and disenfranchise ourselvesfrom the laws of common sense, and compassion and each other.

There is no excuse for how Bush callously handled spending and growth of government. Especially since he was supposed to be from the party that is fiscally conservative and favors small government. No excuse at all. I was totally angry about it then, and I still am.

But how do we remedy that? Not with a man who is printing up money faster than a million Kinkos, desperate to spend it on things that most Americans do not want. Do Democrats really look down on large deficits and massive spending? Then why aren't they demanding the opposite from the new President? If someone thinks it's a disgrace with one President, to not think about it the same way with the next is hypocritical. If McCain was McSame, then Obama is McWorse.

Who's looking out for the taxpayers? Who's looking out for those who do abide by the law? Our deficit has been quadrupled ( http://blog.heritage.org/2009/02/26/quick-observat... ), unemployment is at a 26-year high ( http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/04/unemployment... ), and here we have an organization that doesn't bat an eye at illegalities.

I assume when you said the above you were of course referring to the former Bush administration -- the deficit, unemployment and disregard for the Constitution and the law-- as just part of the wretched situation inherited by our current President.

~~ BlogHer is nonpartisan. Mata H is not. Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool ( http://timesfool.blogspot.com )

NancyShell

I guess I should enjoy the feasting on the carcasses of wrong doers. But this time I am sad. Recently my house went into foreclosure. I was scared, handicapped and out of options. I went to Acorn and they gave me wonderful sage advice on how to approach my mortgage company and what the foreclosure  paperwork ( like an act 91 ) really mean. It was not a pretty office. the desks and the carpets have long since seen better days and were in a death spiral. The receptionist was folksy rather than professional. Clearly she struggle with health problems just like I did. The green/orange florescent bulb sputtered and blinked and gave no one access to there best side the tired and poor looked even more tired and poor.  The counselor looked like she had done a stint in drug rehabbed.  But she told me she would help me get help with my utilities and she did. She said that she would call and intersede with the mortgage company which she did. Not only did she do that she called to inquire about how I was and listened to the answer. I didn't see any pimps or whores conducting business. I didn't see anybody applying for licensing to become a pimp or a whore. I sent a friend there for help and she didn't see that either. All I am saying is be careful when you paint everyone with a broad brush. I remember members of the house and senate conducting their sexual business on government time and many of them are still fully funded. Get rid of the wrong doers but don't through out compassion for the poor and downtrodden to get a decapitation high.