Lest we forget: Barack Obama is ACORN
We cannot forget to remind folks, now that the Senate has voted 83-7 to strip ACORN of millions of taxpayer funds and the white-hot klieg lights have been turned on this bunch of goons, that President Obama was completely and utterly in bed with them throughout his entire adult life. These are his people. He was a commmunity organizer and they are the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. He trained them, he defended them as an attorney, and he paid them a pile of cash last year to help him get elected and then had to ‘amend’ the FEC filing to comply with the law.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat’s campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.
An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. — a subsidiary of ACORN — worked in “get-out-the-vote” projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary.
FEC spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger said it is not unusual for campaigns to amend reports, even regarding large sums of money.
But, said Blair Latoff, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee: “Barack Obama’s failure to accurately report his campaign’s financial records is an incredibly suspicious situation that appears to be an attempt to hide his campaign’s interaction with a left-wing organization previously convicted of voter fraud. For a candidate who claims to be practicing ‘new’ politics, his FEC reports look an awful lot like the ‘old-style’ Chicago politics of yesterday.”
Chicago politics to be sure.
It is interesting that just back in March of this year, the very same Senate voted down an amendment to strip ACORN of federal funds and the Democrats defeated it by a vote of 53-43.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), long a friend of ACORN, objected. She made a motion to kill Vitter’s amendment, saying “I think this is an amendment that has no purpose and [sic] has Draconian consequences if passed.” Senators agreed, voting 53 to 43 to kill the amendment. The only Democratic senators to vote with Vitter were Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
We can now wait for the predictable (and lame), “If I had any idea that this group was so corrupt, I surely would have voted aye in March,” excuses from the Senate Democrats, who all knew damn well what ACORN was all about and couldn’t wait to shovel cash to them for the next election cycle.
Barack Obama is not just a bystander in ACORN’s history. He is their greatest achievement.
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I may surprise you here. I agree that ACORN should be investigated. Take a look at this -
“ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis said the videos capturing her former workers were “doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist ‘filmmaker’ O’Keefe and his partner in crime.”
Lewis said ACORN will take legal action against FOX News and those involved in the making of the videos. She said ACORN offices were also targeted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Philadelphia, among other places.
“I am appalled and angry,” Lewis said. “I cannot and I will not defend the actions of the workers depicted in the video, who have since been terminated.”
On the one hand, Lewis is saying that the entire thing was a set-up by the filmmakers. On the other, she tells us she’s appalled and angry, cant defend what the workers did and that they have been fired.
So, were they set up or did they do what they are accused of?And if they were set up, why did ACORN fire them? Obviously, something wrong is here.
Now, having said all of the above, I wonder if it occurs that you could make more hay by allowing the investigation to go forward and if misdeeds are found, and I suspect they will be, let it speak for themselves in re: the relationship with Obama. Pretty much all Democrats have used ACORN at some point or another for turn out the vote campaigns. If they are now to be embarrassed, so be it.
I do wonder why writers of these types of stories feel the need to go so over the top. It kind of snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, doesn’t it? I mean, ACORN is voter turn out organization. They matter to politicians, but they are pretty far down the lists of the things a politician worries about at election time. They are important during election week, not so much in the time leading up to that week. So why the whole “they can’t wait to shovel cash to them for the next election cycle” when the point is so much better made by simply pointing out the potential that the organization was corrupt and they are used by Democratic candidates?
See, this is why the Republicans are in such disarray. There’s lots for you to legitimately complain about – things that reasonable people will hear. But by going all Glenn Beck, you just hurt your own argument. On the other hand, this kind of stuff might get you on TV.
Whew, I was pretty sure you and I were destined for nasty snark-fests in perpetuity Rick, which is fine in principle, but it gets tiresome. It is nice to have a civil conversation every now and then. You will find that I am a partisan, but unless somebody is a brainless jackass who just wants to try out their latest clever personal put-down about my mother, I am always happy to debate the merits. I don’t expect to change your mind, and you probably won’t change mine, but I dig the debate.
The thing about ACORN is that the folks on our side of the aisle were screaming until we were blue in the face about them before the election and the MSM just let it slide. Now we have been proven correct by an independent conservative film guy and his friend who were doing what the MSM should have done last year. I am simply trying to tie this in to Obama so that regular folks who may have heard of ACORN in passing last year realize that the president’s ties were in no way casual or accidental. You can say it is Beckesque, but Beck is also doing the vetting that the MSM and Obama did not. You may not care for the tone of the argument, but it is the way I do it and it works for folks who think like I do. I try to make my posts interesting, informative, provocative, and funny. I spare no politician the skewer, but readers and commenters get a fair shake.
In response to another comment. See in context »Bill,
Agreed that your side of the aisle has been attempting to bring this to the fore and has been purposely ignored. To be fair, it remains to be seen how guilty ACORN is, but I can understand the feeling of vindication as I don’t expect they will come up completely clean- and maybe far worse.
The connecting Obama to them explanation — not entirely sure I’m buying that this is an effort to help people understand, but there’s no getting around that he did employ ACORN and was involved with them as you suggest, so he will have to take whatever is coming on it.
As for the “snarkfest” – (I like that word)- nah. I only got a little crazy with you on the post i read because I felt you were really playing loose with the facts. Believe it or not, and you’ll actually see this if you read my posts, while I do “lean left”, I’m not much of an ideologist. I find it dangerous and, for the most part, not of much value. I piss of the ultra-progressives as much as the conservative. Just as Allison Kilkenny! Ultra anything rarely makes me happy.
Some of my favorite American political thinkers are from the conservative side of the tracks. My friend David Kuo has one of the best minds I know and someone whom I believe gives Conservatives a very good name. While we may have different approaches to solving problems, I never question his intentions as he does the best interest of people in mind at all times. I do have an allergic reaction to those who are more dedicated to ratings than intelligence, but I freely admit that this happens on both sides of the fence.
The only thing I’ll ever get really cranky about is what I perceive to be misinformation. Disagreement is fine – you have every good a chance of right on an issue as I do. Misinformation to make a point always bugs me.
“The only thing I’ll ever get really cranky about is what I perceive to be misinformation.”
What about priorities, Rick? In what moral universe should Obama’s associations with ACORN be worthy of greater attention and outrage than his current associations with Blackwater? This is the Amerikaners’ favored strategy: manufacture extreme outrage and noise about something relatively insignificant while ignoring the larger reality.
In response to another comment. See in context »Actually, Obama might be getting a bit of a bad rap on Blackwater. As I understand it, the firm that was supposed to take over the contracted defense work informed the Pentagon that they were not ready when they were supposed to be. Blackwater was retained only temporarily until the new company can step in. Awful as Blackwater is, if nobody else was ready to step into the job, I can’t see where there was much choice but to keep them until the new company can take over.
In response to another comment. See in context »Oh wow, a bunch of stuff I heard at the NYC “teaparty.” Five months ago. I honestly want some conservative to make a coherent argument about something that matters. I went to that rally genuinely interested in what it was all about, and left disgusted at the pointless non-issues these big-government, war-loving fake libertarians were braying about. Honestly, aside from the occasional Reason Magazine article, American conservatism is not just bankrupt, it is in no way conservative. Please: substance. Address it. We’re waiting.
Could you tap your ballet slippered toes a little harder there miss prissy pants? Who owes you anything? Apparently most of the people that attended felt as though it met their needs. Perhaps you can contact the organizers and ask for a do-over in a format custom crafted to your exacting specifications. Get over yourself, you sound effete and pretentious.
In response to another comment. See in context »Mr. Dupray,
This whole “sting” is just too funny, it right out of some lame sitcom. First of all, consider the outfits “James” and “Kenya” are wearing. They are right out of the “King of the Hill” episode where Kid Rock makes an appearance as a pimp from OKC.
Let us review the cover stories of “James” and “Kenya”. She is a 19 year old hooker who wants to got to John Hopkins as a grad student and he is pimp who wants to run for congress. However, “James” is a bit concerned about the peculiar occupation of “Kenya”. She earned 200,000 USD last year, all in cash.
What advice does ACORN give “James”, why to file a federal tax return, I guess that is what all the pimps in Maryland do. This is of course incredibly stupid advice to a criminal, what would the IRS do with the 1040EZ that “James” is going to submit? 200,000 USD in income with no receipts? I suspect that they might just get audited.
Next, James asks if prostitution is illegal in Maryland. Kenya is talking about “acclimatizing” 13 Guatemalan girls and the ACORN worker tells them not to do anything not approved by the government and to make sure to send these child sex slaves to school. Yeah because all child sex slaves brought to the US are always sent to school, that will fool the child welfare folks.
Actually, if one actually reads the transcripts, aAll “James” says is “You know they could get us for these 13 Guatemalan girls they the feds could come right in? They could put us in prison for 50 years “Kenya” says “I am not going to racketeering I am going to be acclimating them to our country”. Shira responds “right but think about yourself you are 19 years old and are a pretty girl..you do not want to go to jail for something like that.”
Hardly a smoking gun.
Now ACORN should be pretty mad at their two employees, they aren’t paid to jerk-off two circus clowns like these two while simultaneously generating a few cyber-seconds of bad PR for the organization. I personally hope that these two (former?) ACORN employees sue this film maker for invasion of privacy (Pearson v. Dodd, 410 F.2d 701 (D.C. Cir. 1969) and Dietemann v. Time, Inc., 449 F.2d 245 (9th Cir. 1971)).
I means really, think this one through, you approach a total stranger for free advice on how to run a sex slave operation and she tells you to file a federal tax return, not to do anything illegal or you might end up in jail, and to send your sex slaves to school. This is perfect advice for ending up in jail. If this is how ACORN is making their living, they gotta get a new line of work. Although since the advice was free, I guess you get what you pay for.
Oh, I think you are right. ACORN will be looking for a new line of work. And maybe they’ll be eligible for work release.
In response to another comment. See in context »Mr. Dupray,
Work release? From what? What “crimes” did the ACORN folks commit, telling “James” to file a federal tax return or that the non-existent 13 Guatemalan girls being acclimatized to Maryland should go to school? Unlike 99% of the people who have posted on this topic, I have actually read the transcripts. Perhaps they should go to jail for giving really free advice to fake criminals that would end them up in jail if they had actually been criminals. /;-)
In response to another comment. See in context »I think the question is not whether Acorn committed an offense or many, but whether the overall net of their efforts have been positive. I don’t know enough to say, but I would say that I would forgive them an occasional peccadillo, if they helped get out the vote to elect Barack Obama over John McCain.