I had a couple of family members work for ACORN several years ago. They both went door-to-door, made signs, etc. But they quit after a year due to “shadiness”. Both of them said there were many good people working for ACORN but there always seemed to be some secrets among the local leadership and special sub-organizations that did weird “things”. I never really followed up on that since honestly I didn’t care much about ACORN. In my black nationalist days, I just viewed ACORN as a “tool of the man trying to keep black folks dazed and confused” (wasn’t I cute?). But now it seems now that ACORN has been “cracked” and is being “roasted”. Via the Wall Street Journal:
Acorn Runs Off the Rails
‘We’re just community organizers, just like the president used to be.’By JOHN FUND
On Monday, the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 to strip Acorn, the premier community organizing group on the left, of more than $1.6 million in federal housing money meant to assist low-income people obtain loans and prepare tax forms. This dramatic step followed last Friday’s decision by the U.S. Census Bureau to sever its ties with the organization, one of several community groups it was partnering with to conduct the nation’s head count.
Both of these actions came after secretly recorded videos involving employees in Acorn’s Brooklyn, N.Y., Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Md. and San Bernardino, Calif. offices were televised on Fox News. The videos were recorded by two independent filmmakers who posed as a prostitute and a pimp and said they were planning to import underage women from El Salvador for the sex trade. They asked for and received advice on getting a housing loan and evading federal taxes.
In response, Acorn has so far fired four of the employees seen on the videos. But it claimed the videos were “doctored” and accused critics of a smear campaign and “racist coverage” of the incidents.
Such rhetoric in the past has deflected scrutiny of Acorn tactics, such as street demonstrations and boycotts against banks to force lower credit standards for home loans, which a congressional report found contributed to the subprime loan mess. But now Acorn may be finally running off the rails.
Please read the FULL ARTICLE. California ACORN is firing back accusing Big Government.com (the group hosting videos of “illicit” ACORN activities) of fake journalism. Via the San Bernardino Sun:
UPDATE: ACORN organizer rips video
By Andrew Edwards
Posted: 09/15/2009 05:42:16 PM PDTSAN BERNARDINO – The head organizer for California ACORN says a new video that appears to show a staffer at the organization’s San Bernardino office is fake journalism.
The video, which was posted shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday on a Web site called Big Government.com, shows a female ACORN employee talking to a man who claims to be a pimp interested in establishing a brothel where underage immigrant prostitutes would turn tricks in order to raise money for political activity.
The woman, identified on the video as Tresa Kaelke, appears on posted footage to be interested in cooperating the plan. However, California ACORN head organizer Amy Schur said the video is a gross misrepresentation of what actually happened.
“In this video, there are two actors who come into our office and who were messing with us. And our employee was messing with them,” Schur said.
She said that the complete and unedited video needs to be released to the public.
Schur said that in a moment not shown on the edited video, Kaelke asked the undercover “pimp” if he was joking and then proceeded to play along with the joke.
Please read the FULL ARTICLE. As expected, conservative bloggers are all over this story via Memeorandum. I would be a fool to tell them not to. ACORN is a favored foe of conservatives and regardless if the video is fake, ACORN is under the fire. I’m going to follow the Senate’s lead here and say that ACORN should be stripped of federal funding. And I feel President Obama should rebuke ACORN as well. Uh oh! I can feel it. The inevitable:
1. Where were you during the Bush Adminstration?
2. What about conservatives and there shadiness?
My answer to both questions is this: President Obama is the POTUS and Democrats control the House and Senate. They are the power base now. And ACORN helps Democrats. So Democrats should but the hammer down on them to show that they won’t tolerate this type of shadiness. I am not “living in a pastime paradise… glorifying days long gone behind” (thanks Stevie Wonder for the lyrics) regarding the fight against Dubya. That wagon has rolled through town. How about Democrats seting an example? I know it’s tough since ACORN has added much value (take that how you want) to many of Democratic Party campaign. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and keep on rolling. The party would be better for it.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.