Is This McCarthyism 2.0? Inside the Right's Battle with ACORN (Esquire)

[struggle4progress]

The head of the group that became Fox News' favorite bogeyman on the campaign trail speaks out on why the conservative obsession with suppressing even ACORN's best intentions just won't go away

By John H. Richardson

Remember all the slanderous things you heard about ACORN in 2008 and 2009? Republicans accused the group of "massive voter fraud," kicking off what literally seemed like a million headlines along the lines of "More Acorn Fraud Comes to Light" and "Bill O'Reilly Asks if ACORN Voter Fraud Got Al Franken Elected." Eventually, the drumbeat of scandal got so bad that Congress pulled ACORN's funding.

Well, heading into 2010, the Congressional Research Service has — surprise, surprise! — issued a report saying that it found "no evidence of fraudulent voting or of violations of federal financing rules by the group in the past five years" ...

... Bertha Lewis, the group's CEO ... says the trouble started in 2000, when ACORN began to register massive numbers of voters. "If we had been a nice little community group that maybe registered a couple thousand people, there would not be this furor." Often, ACORN registered those voters around explicitly progressive issues. "In 2000, we registered almost a million people in Florida around raising the minimum wage," she notes.

ACORN also became aggressive about fighting voter suppression. "They were doing it very unabashedly," Lewis told me. "You go to the poll and you're not on record, your name's not on the rolls, you didn't re-register, you didn't vote in this last election cycle, you used to be a felon. Voter lists were purged and folks were turned away or asked for multiple forms of identification. It was all about suppressing black and brown and poor votes" ...

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/acorn-group-vs-fox-news-010510?click=esq_new

[sabrina 1]

1. Democrats let ACORN down. They went along with the witchhunt

and passed a bill introduced by Darrell Issa of all people to defund ACORN. How embarrassing and revealing to find out that a majority of Members of Congress do not know the Constitution. Democrats, led around by their noses by ignorant Republicans on a witchhunt, have been thoroughly embarrassed regarding their knowledge of the Constitution, and their weakness in not standing up for what is right.

ACORN filed a suit against Congress in November and was handed 'a resounding victory' by the court, agreeing with the two Democrats who actually DID know the Constitution, Alan Grayson and Jerry Nadler, that Congress cannot single out a business and punish it without due process.

http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2009/12/acorn-wins-federal-lawsuit.html

"It's a resounding victory for ACORN," he said. "I'd be surprised if the government decides to appeal."

"Today's ruling is a victory for the constitutional rights for all Americans and for the citizens who work through ACORN to improve their communities and promote responsible lending and homeownership," ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement.

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is an organization that advocates for low-income and minority homebuyers and residents in communities served by its offices around the country.

.......


Quigley said millions of dollars in funds should begin to flow again to ACORN next week. Judge Gershon said the "public will not suffer harm by allowing the plaintiffs to continue work on contracts duly awarded by federal agencies."

Justice Department spokeswoman Beverley Lumpkin said the agency was reviewing the decision and declined to comment further.

Where is their apology? From Congress, from Fox and that hateful, supremely intellectually challenged and disturbed liar, Breitbart and his two 'hero' :rofl: friends, who appear to be hiding from the media ever since they were sued.

Shame on Democrats, and shame on the media that published every lie told by the rightwingnuts about ACORN and didn't have the decency to publish these two victories.

Every time the right goes after ACORN, even though they lose in court, poor people lose desperately needed services.

Any further harrassment by the right against ACORN, should be reported to the authorities and then immediately start filing lawsuits. AFter they lose enough money, maybe then they'll get the message.

And there is no doubt in my mind that much of the anger directed at ACORN by the rabid right, is the result of racism.

[tblue37]

3. It's always like this. The false accusations get Page-One

publicity. Th retractions are buried in the back of the paper--or not issued at all.

[sabrina 1]

6. Yes, CNN eg, who at first went along with the

videographer's story, and had them on when they were willing to go all over tv telling, what turned out to be mostly lies.

CNN did begin to catch on and started to look like they were beginning to question the whole stunt. At which point Giles and O'Keefe decided not to speak to anyone in the media other than Fox. And CNN just dropped it. There is a big story behind all this, apart from ACORN itself.

Eg, Morton Blackwell was mentioned as someone who has been funding O'Keefe, said by O'Keefe himself on his blog, which has since been scrubbed. If he funded this stunt in any way, it could lose him his tax exempt status. So O'Keefe now has to stay away from legitimate reporters who might ask him the queston again. Since ACORN is suing both of these wingnuts, I hope the question is asked where they cannot lie.

If we had some real investigative reporters around anymore, it was a perfect opportunity to dig deeper into the activities of the tax exempt, rightwing think tanks, responsible for so much of the smearing of decent people in this country. But the media dropped the story, even though they knew there was something wrong with what happened, leaving in the minds of the public, the perception that ACORN has done something very wrong. And that's all they wanted.

I am really looking forward to the lawsuit against Giles and O'Keefe. It will be interesting to see two pathological liars in a setting where if they lie, they could actually suffer some consequences for a change.

[ck4829]

2. Kick

[Qutzupalotl]

4. Okay... someone's going to ask, so I will...

This sentence stood out for me:

...the Congressional Research Service has — surprise, surprise! — issued a report saying that it found "no evidence of fraudulent voting or of violations of federal financing rules by the group in the past five years" ...

This makes it sound like there *was* fraud more than five years ago. I hope it's just a poorly-worded way of saying that the CRS only *looked at* the last five years. Please tell me that's the case.

Still, considering all the accusations I've heard from my RW friends, this is helpful.

[struggle4progress]

5. You can find the report here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24424725/Congressional-Research-Service-Report-On-Acorn

<edit:> CRS was asked to investigate federal funding and fraud within the last five years

[southernyankeebelle]

7. The democratic party has let ACORN down and the people who wanted real

reform on healthcare. Shame on them all. The democratics don't deserve to win but the alternative is even scarier. To honest congress the senate and the white house of both parties have let this country down.