ACORN has suspended getting new clients. Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger is urging Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to do a full investigation. NY Atty General Andrew Cuomo already has started one.
And more videos are coming.
My thoughts: ACORN is not defensible. Liberals and progressives should not try to defend them and instead should join in on the investigation. Corruption needs to be stopped wherever it occurs. By being part of the process of finding out what happened, rather than vainly fighting against it, we can also blunt and deflect any excesses from the right.
Most importantly, fighting for clean government and clean politics is not a partisan issue.
Bob, I’ve been a big fan for many years…
I’ll not visit here again.
By ‘here’ I guess you mean an ACORN website, right? ’cause all that Bob is doing is asking everyone, the Left especially, to show some freakin’ decency.
Was it all a setup from a right-wing loon looking to demonize a whole movement, probably a race? You bet it was. BUT, the fact that they fell for it, or even played along with them, is so much worse.
All the ACORN douches-that-were-caught had to do was call the police as soon as someone asks them for help for bringing in prostitutes from El Salvador or whatever other illegal activity. Not the “I’ll play along so the joke’s on you” kind of games ACORN is now alleging. It should have been a “No B.S.” attitude.
The real question is Why? Why were ACORN employees giving out such fraudulent advice? Were they referring clients to their approved tax handlers, mortgage brokers, etc.? Because there has to be a financial motive. No one tells people walking in off the street to break the law unless they have a solid reason, probably financial, for doing so.
If you change your mind, feel free to return.
ACORN has thousands of employees and yes a very few of them may be idiots, grifters or no goodniks but let there be no doubt there will be no blunting or deflecting any of the right wing excesses by going along with them. Mr. Morris, I stand with Bertha Lewis 1000% because I believe in the real work that ACORN does. Ms Lewis advocated for her position strongly on Campbell Brown’s show(Ric Sanchez was filling in)this evening. ACORN is not defensible: I suspect you mean that in a political sense and Bertha Lewis gave a good accounting tonight. Slightly off topic here, I wonder about our country’s priorities when companies that have charges of murder, and mayhem attributed to them (XE/Blackwater KBR etc ) in sworn testimony receive less media glare than a catch all of community organizers who in the main do good work?? Yes some house cleaning is in order appoint a oversight board, have a blue ribbon panel, even prosecute anyone found guilty of criminal activities by all means and definitely fight for clean government but a sense of proportion in this story is greatly lacking by those on the attack including you sir but I do like reading yah(big smile) thanks for the Saul Alinsky “Rules for Radicals” primer; great stuff.
When I say ACORN is not defensible, I mean it in the sense that Jon Stewart did in his video, that “ACORN appears to be a corrupt organization.” But if you want to go down swinging with them, have at it.
More on Alinsky coming Thu. and Fri.!
Is this really a controversy? It’s corruption. Investigate. Duh?
I don’t think people are taking issue with the idea of doing an investigation. I think people are taking issue with folks like Bob that are advocating closing down the whole organization because a few employees (out of thousands) were “caught” saying stupid things.
I’m leaning toward turning the RSS feed off here as well, not because I disagree that investigation is needed, but because of the constant harping on the topic and the insistent call to throw the baby out with the bath water. One or two posts, fine. 8 inside of a week? I can get that from Fox if I wanted it.
I think the ACORN scandal will be having huge and lasting impacts on the left and that we better be paying attention to what’s happening. Also, I think ACORN is dirty. But unless some bombshell hits, I doubt I’ll post much more about it.
But as a practical matter, ACORN has been closed down. The Feds aren’t funding and I can’t imagine any foundation / business trying to justify to their board of directors continuing their contributions to ACORN.
Yes, the right did a devastating hit job on ACORN. We need to understand how they did it (and maybe do the same thing back, if we can find the appropriate target)
I agree with Bob: this story is huge– not because some left wing organization got caught with its hand in the cookie jar, but because of the way it happened. Sure, it’s a horrendous story. Sure, if offices of Focus on the Family or the LDS Church got caught like this, you guys would be frothing at the mouth. But that’s just partisan bickering.
The real story here is the methods the Right used. As a wise man once said, “Know your enemy.” Ignore this story at your peril, because they’ve just demonstrated a capability no one knew they had.
Good point. The ACORN videos were well planned and executed. hardly the work of goobers living in double wides, as blogs like FireDogLake like to imply about the teabaggers.
I’m just happy that congressional action to cut off Blackwater and KBR was as prompt and decisive as that against Acorn.