One thing I would like to address, because the Ayers thing is sucking up all the wind in this room, is the ACORN article critter brought up.
In this article by Michelle Malkin, a conservative columnist and blogger who considers comparisons to Ann Coulter to be a compliment, we see an extremely biased, and seemingly one sided and not very well informed opinion about ACORN. She is one of the most anti-immigrant commentators out there, and has actually advocated deporting American born children of illegal immigrants (who have never been to the country of origin of their parent), using the vile term “anchor babies” to describe these innocent children. She has even served as fill in host for Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. So, one might question her impartiality in such matters, especially when she turns her vitriol in this article to the issue of ACORN helping illegal immigrants get houses.
What Malkin does do in this article is launch a full blown attack on what is essentially a non profit organization dedicated to helping people of lower and middle incomes obtain financial equality. What she does not do is back up her claims with any sort of facts. For example in the second sentence of her tirade, she states, “This left-wing group takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers ”. However, when I looked into it, I found that ACORN, in order to attain independence, does not accept government funding and is NOT tax exempt. You can find the disclaimer on their own website, and several places on the internet will corroborate this. Nothing like leading off your assault with a full blown lie. And yet, I don’t find any source for this claim…she just throws it out there and expect we will believe it. Right there, for me this would be enough to keep me from even reading the rest of the article if this were about satisfying my own curiousity. But I did indeed read the entire thing.
In fact, there have been a few instances where people who work for ACORN have submitted false voter registrations, and what Malkin has done is to find the most outrageous, ridiculous examples of when this has occurred and then make a statement that it is a systemic problem from within ACORN, when in actuality, it was the actions of 2 or 3 people in this state, 3 or 4 in another, and 7 in another, often times these people were simply padding their numbers to get paid more, not to try to skew registrations one way or another. These were actions of individuals and to say that this was ACORN’s policy is like saying that the US Postal Service encourages employees to “go postal” and shoot a bunch of people. Furthermore, providing false registration is not right, but it is also not the same as voting…no one ever exactly showed up with a fake ID with the name “Jive Turkey” and expected to vote with it after all. And then for dramatic effect she mentions lawsuits in 12 states, but really only a small handful of individuals was ever convicted of any wrongdoing, and they were acting in their own self interests, and not under the guidance of ACORN directives.
Malkin tries desperately to impugn Obama’s independence because he worked with them as a community organizer (something she had to disparage, just like the mean spirited speeches at the RNC where they made fun of community organizing) by putting quotes around the phrase…that alone should tip you off to the vitriol and contempt she feels towards anyone who tries to help the less fortunate. And yes, for the first time in their history (because they require 75% of their membership to agree), they have endorsed a Presidential candidate…Obama. But one can not expect that a person is just going to turn the other way if you endorse them and then you do something bad…she just makes that assumption.
Then she really goes off the deep end and tries to say that because they have a relationship with HUD and AARP, that this is how the money has been funnelled from the government and through them, and that these organizations are satellites of the left wing of the Democratic party. This is about the time I begin to wonder who exactly designed her tinfoil hat.
Then she references not a credible news source, but an essay (i.e. opinion piece) written by the “Consumer Rights League”, an very shadowy organization about which little is known (not even who created or finance it), which it has been suggested is little more than a front for the credit card company lobbyists. And of course in the end, she impugns Obama as being part of the dirty politics of the Chicago machine (just something she threw out there with no examples, mind you).
In actuality, you know what ACORN is? Do you know what they do? Well, my research indicates that ACORN is who you call if it’s 20 below outside and the power company is about to turn off your electricity because you can’t pay your bill, or your landlord is about to kick you out on the street.
ACORN brought a class action lawsuit against predatory lenders (before our President apparently even realized it was causing a problem), in 2002 to create a $72 million Foreclosure Avoidance Program to keep people from losing their homes becaus of these practices.
ACORN has helped pass local living wage laws in fifteen cities nationwide.
ACORN’s Home Cleanout Demonstration Program gutted and rebuilt over 1,850 homes in the wake of hurricane Katrina. They helped displaced voters get to the polls during elections. They helped more than 2,000 homeowners in one way or another after the hurricane.
ACORN has worked to get mone money for schools, textbooks, teachers, etc.
ACORN was formed in 1970 to help welfare recipients attain their basic needs such as clothing and furniture. They’ve helped institute free lunches, helped the unempployed, helped with veterancs rights, helped farmers work in environmentally friendly ways.
ACORN has been at the forefront of trying to get the government to focus on Domestic issues instead of foreign issues.
ACORN has fought banking deregulation.
ACORN has helped people move into rehabilitated houses all over the country.
ACORN has been active in registering voters, including helping pass the Motor Voter bill which allowed people to register to vote when getting their driver’s license.
ACORN has fought against redlining in the insurance industry.
And for its efforts, ACORN has become a high profile target of the right wing of American politics, who consider their actions to bring about economic and social justice to be institutionalized welfare, and as we know the trickle down economic system we’ve been living under since the days of Reagan is very much at odds with helping people, because of course anyone who needs help is just a lazy person sucking off the government teat and refusing to take “personal responsibility™”.
So, basically if you like trickle down economics, if you think people should help themselves and we shouldn’t have privately financed organizations to help out those less fortunate, then by all means, demonize this charitable organization for the acts of a small handfull of people who have worked for them over the past nearly 40 years, don’t even bother to mention the good work they’ve done, and tie guilt by association to Obama because they support his candidacy.
But in my book, we need more ACORNS, not less and it’s an incredible stretch to demonize Obama because he is supported by a community organizing group which has not had a 100% batting average when it comes to hiring.
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