Joe Conason: Right-Wing Attack On ACORN Is The Far Bigger Fraud

[Hissyspit]

http://mobile.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/09/18/acorn/index.html

In defense of ACORN

The right-wing crusade against ACORN is a far bigger fraud than any misdeeds a few employees might have committed

By Joe Conason

- snip -

Like so many conservative attacks, the crusade against ACORN has been highly exaggerated and even falsified to create a demonic image that bears little resemblance to the real organization. Working in the nation's poorest places, and hiring the people who live there, ACORN is not immune to the pathologies that can afflict institutions in those communities. As a large nonprofit handling many millions of dollars, it has suffered from mismanagement at the top as well -- although there is nothing unique in that, either.

Yet ACORN's troubles should be considered in the context of a history of honorable service to the dispossessed and impoverished. No doubt it was fun to dupe a few morons into providing tax advice to a "pimp and ho," but what ACORN actually does, every day, is help struggling families with the Earned Income Tax Credit (whose benefits were expanded by both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton). And while the idea of getting housing assistance for a brothel was clever, what ACORN really does, every day, is help those same working families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.

Perhaps the congressional investigation now demanded by some Republican politicians would be a useful exercise, if conducted impartially. A fair investigation might begin to dispel some of the wild mythology promoted by right-wing media outlets.

Among the most popular canards on the right, repeated constantly by conservative pundits and politicians, is that ACORN has been found guilty of engaging in deliberate voter fraud, using federal funds. In reality, ACORN has registered close to 2 million low-income citizens across the country over the past five years -- a laudable record with a very low incidence of fraud of any kind.

Over the past several years, a handful of ACORN employees have admitted falsifying names and signatures on registration cards, in order to boost the pay they received. When ACORN officials discovered those cases, they informed the state authorities and turned in the miscreants. (That was why the Bush Justice Department's blatant attempt to smear ACORN with rushed, election-timed indictments became a national scandal for Republicans rather than Democrats.) The proportion of fraud is infinitesimal. For example, a half-dozen ACORN workers were charged with registration fraud or other election-related crimes in the 2004 election. They had completed fewer than two dozen false registrations -- out of more than a million new voters registered by ACORN during that cycle. The mythology that suggests that thousands or even millions of illegal registrants voted is itself a fraud.

If only the Republicans who have worked up a frenzy over ACORN's alleged crimes were so indignant about real and damaging voter fraud -- such as the amazing case of Young Political Majors, the firm that ran GOP registration efforts in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and elsewhere before the authorities in Orange County, Calif., busted its president, Mark Anthony Jacoby, and sent him to jail last year. He had built a lucrative partisan career by teaching his minions to deceive thousands of voters into registering as Republicans rather than Democrats, among other scams. Of course, the only on-air mention of the Young Political Majors scandal on Fox News was made by blogger Brad Friedman -- and the national media, mainstream and conservative, generally ignored it. They were too busy generating "controversy" over ACORN.

So now the overhyped voting registration tales are metastasizing into wild accusations about ACORN's finances and programs, including claims that the group will receive billions in federal bailout funding and that it is a hotbed of corruption, perhaps even murder. In fact, ACORN affiliates -- those not involved with voter registration -- have received a few million dollars annually in federal funding. The group is not scheduled to receive any bailout money (although working people would probably benefit more from subsidizing ACORN than greasing AIG and Goldman Sachs).

The fans of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck regard ACORN as a criminal enterprise that fosters tax fraud, prostitution, child prostitution and even murder (thanks to a satirical "confession" by an employee filmed surreptitiously in the San Bernardino ACORN office). But ACORN chief organizer and CEO Bertha Lewis swiftly dismissed the employees caught on those videotapes and set about reforming the flawed processes that enabled those individuals to speak for the organization. No overt acts were committed by any of the people caught on those tapes -- and so far nobody has found that any of those theoretical "crimes" ever took place.

MORE

[Enthusiast]

1. I agree with this.

But the average American will never hear it on the M$M.

[democracy1st]

2. K & R

[malaise]

3. K & R

Thank Joe

[cali]

4. must read. excellent article, beautifully said. k&r.

[Hissyspit]

5. .

[redqueen]

6. K&R

So glad to see more defense for ACORN lately.

[gratuitous]

7. And how quickly their federal funding got pulled!

It's astonishing to see how quickly the House and Senate got about bills to de-fund ACORN (or intervene in the Terri Schiavo affair), but when it comes to serving We the People? Golly, what's the rush? Sure, people are dying every day, but you gotta understand what a problem health care reform could pose for our good pals, the CEOs of the "non-profit" insurance companies!

[mzmolly]

8. Thank you Joe!

And of course Hissyspit. ;)

:toast:

[Hissyspit]

9. kick nt

[spanone]

10. the swiftboarding of acorn

[DallasNE]

11. The Unreported Story

Deals with perception. Why it is so easy to tar ACORN is because they operate in highly minority areas whereas Young Political Majors operates in nearly all-white areas. The perception is that minorities are cheaters and whites play by the rules. There is a word, or course, to describe this and that is racism. The top agenda item driving the right wing today is racism. MSM is complicit in publishing this racist agenda. Their message can be boiled down to "whites good, minorities bad". That leaves the internet as the only reliable place to get the facts out but you have to sort that out diligently because Drudge is internet based as well.

[EFerrari]

20. You'd think that knowing how many scandalous stories about ACORN

(all of them) have turned out to be untrue and remembering that this is the same media that tried to pitch Iraq and Bruce Ivins, people would be able to access a shred of skepticism before they jump on the racist right wing bandwagon whose goal is to separate working people from their resources.

[Cha]

12. Save for later..thank you,

Hissy~

[bertman]

13. One more mostly Democratic voter registration effort undermined. That's the reason

ACORN became the target for the fascists.

And what do our Democratic legislators do? Roll over and say "kick us!! kick us!! We're sorry!!"

[sabrina 1]

14. Exactly,

This vote was so similar to the Patriot Act and Iraq War votes. Democrats thought that by going along with those disastrous (for this country) votes, Republicans would not call them names, like 'unpatriotic' and 'bad on security'. But they were called all of those things and worse.

Only 75 'no' votes, with the Republicans voting as always, in lockstep. And this will be used to attack Democrats with for the next two election cycles.

So far, I have seen nothing to suggest that having a majority in both houses, has changed a single thing. Dems still have no spine, and Republicans are still calling the shots. It's mind-boggling.

[JDPriestly]

15. Sign of the times.

Remember the mortgage companies that helped unqualified borrowers get loans they couldn't handle. In some cases, the mortgage company employees may have been aiding and abetting fraud.

The problem is that, whether they work for ACORN or for a questionable mortgage company or for a tele-marketing firm that tries to intimidate elderly people into paying debts they don't owe or whatever, American workers are trying desperately to do what they think their jobs are. They are not trained -- not much of anywhere -- to refuse to do things that are unethical or even to know what is unethical (or illegal). It isn't just ACORN. It isn't just low income employees.

Do you think that the folks who got AIG into so much trouble were asking themselves about the ethics of what they were doing? Same for all the other companies involved in marketing CDOs, etc.

All that matters is keeping your job and looking like you know what you are doing.

Many years ago, I had a job handling information about employee salaries. A supervisor, a bright guy, college graduate, asked me to falsify information about one of his employee's wages -- to help the person get a mortgage. That's fraud, and I said so. But the supervisor was miffed. He thought I was being prudish. Here was a college graduate who not only did not know that lying about income in that situation was illegal and unethical but who wouldn't believe me when I told him.

The lack of ethical standards in American business across the board is horrifying.

And, by the way, when it comes to news reporting, Fox is a perfect example of unethical business practices.

[western mass]

16. the REAL scandal is the Dems who marched in line

with the right-wing marching orders to defund ACORN.

No, I don't think most of them were stupid or ignorant. They knew exactly what was going on. Just like they knew what they were doing when they supported GW's war.

They'll do it again in a heartbeat too...until liberal voters learn to punish them for it.

[sabrina 1]

18. Very well said.

I am sick of being represented by people who rarely, if ever, act like the Democrats they claim to be when running for office. I would not follow a weak leader into battle, yet year after year, the 'leaders' we support, betray us by taking actions like this, and handing victory to those we did not vote for. If this is how they operate when in the majority, we may as well vote Republican, as it wouldn't change a thing. You support people who will fight for what you believe in. This vote was a throw-back to the Iraq War Vote and I never forgot the sense of betrayal I felt as I watched, in despair and shock as Democrat after Democrat voted for Bush's lies. That was the beginning of my political education.

Shame on them.

[BlooInBloo]

23. Yep.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. AMEN! It was disgusting how gullible some people are

Since when do we believe right-wing accusations without investigating them?

What some DUers did was as bad as believing the Swift Boat accusations against Kerry or the Clinton Death List.

I tried to defend ACORN on this website the other day and was accused of defending child prostitution--never mind that there were never any real child prostitutes involved. (By the way, I volunteered with street kids for several years, so I know all about real child prostitutes.)

[myrna minx]

17. K&R n/t

[Overseas]

19. K&R. I remember as more evidence of GOP vote manipulation emerged

from the 2004 election and was documented, we started hearing the right demonizing ACORN. We heard about those staff ACORN fired because of falsely filling in the few voter registration cards. And how Rove's "justice" department was going after them.

But we didn't hear much about the different kinds of voter fraud perpetrated by GOP friendly operatives; we had to look for it on Brad Blog and other election protection websites. Or dig up the stories buried on deeper pages of our newspapers. Each GOP vote manipulation incident exposed was "minor" and "couldn't affect the outcome" of the total vote. But lookie here-- ACORN folks filled in fake voter registration cards and were fired for it. Oooh, voter fraud on the Democratic side- look look look.

The GOP friendlies engaged in all kinds of old-fashioned voter fraud-- lots of "minor" incidents like Blackwell's requiring paper on voter registration cards to be a certain weight, GOP Secretaries of State distributing far fewer voting machines to Democratic districts causing long lines, robocalls and flyers to Democratic districts telling them their polling places and voting dates had changed, voting machines left in Republican poll workers' homes overnight, etc.

And all that was going on while we were being told that those who questioned computerized voting with secret source code, run on machines made by companies who promised the GOP victory, with results that could be easily hacked (demonstrated on TV)-- were overwrought conspiracy theorists.

No no, said GOP leaders-- lookie here-- ACORN had some fake voter registration cards that were thrown out. These darn community organizers tried to slip in false registrations. Don't focus on those darn 2004 exit polls showing 51/48 Kerry/Bush-- just because we use exit polling to judge the fairness of elections in lots of other countries-- no no, don't be a conspiracy theorist. Look at these fake registration cards that were tossed out before the voting took place. And hey, Kerry was boring.

The GOP moved into "By Any Means Necessary" territory in the 2000 Appointment of GWB-- augmented by their "genuine grass roots" folks who stormed in to stop the Florida recount (many of whom were identified in the photos as Republican legislative and political campaign staff). That was some very successful astroturfing. Ted Olson even got the Supreme Court to back it up.

Once the Republican party crossed those lines, they needed lots of cover stories and diversions from their main tactic-- vote manipulation through ever-so-helpful-and-modern computerized voting, so right wing angels funded the Swift Boat Vets campaign to smear a war hero. And infused news chat on our corporate media broadcast conglomerates with discussions of style rather than substance. Kerry was so boring and dry, while Bush was a fun guy people would love to have a beer with. Never mind that the families of soldiers sent into the Bush-Cheney War on Iraq had to raise money to buy their sons armor. Never mind those revolting Abu Ghraib photos. Never mind the Downing Street memo. Don't discuss Kerry's Apollo Project to bring the US energy independence through conservation technologies and renewable energy. No no. Swift Boat. Swift Boat. And oh gosh how horrible those Swift Boaters are. And look-- Kerry's going hunting with a price tag on his jacket. Style style style.

So this morning, while I'm wondering about the latest ACORN smears-- our Democratic President was a community organizer, and worked for a law firm that defended ACORN years ago-- I'm also thinking about what the GOP's grander scheme might be.

I thought the astroturfing town hall storming this summer was merely private insurers paying right wing PR firms to defeat health insurance reform, and have been stridently commenting on that amoral practice. But perhaps there is more to it. Perhaps there is a larger plan to create the impression of more massive discontent among voters so that election 2010 can be manipulated more easily. The town hall storming has created a cover story that corporate media pundits can run with-- Lots of ordinary citizens in the heartland are disturbed by encroaching government control. Americans are fiercely independent; it's no wonder that they turned out in large numbers to resist that trend. And the liberal base was disappointed with President Obama not going far enough, so they stayed home.

Right wing astroturfing has already begun to combat cap & trade legislation to reduce US carbon emissions. But those "genuine grass roots" demonstrations will also include lots of generalized "anti big government" sentiment that could later be cited to explain "surprising" election results in 2010. Never mind that the Bush-Cheney Regime enlarged the size of government way back up after VP Gore had diligently reduced its size during the Clinton Administration, trying to demonstrate how bipartisan Democrats could be. Republicans said they didn't like big government, so Clinton-Gore reduced its size. Were they lauded for that? Somewhat. But it was far more important that Gore was a dork with a lock box who rolled his eyes and sighed, while Bush had winking and wisecracks.

I've heard some pundits talking about how President Obama's job performance numbers are down but his general popularity is still high. If there is more discussion along those lines, that also prepares the public for a "surprising" result in 2010. Many Americans like President Obama as a person but are afraid of his policies. They don't like Big Government. I hope the pundits are not already rehearsing their talking points to explain away 2010.

Because, truth be told, millions of Americans are not angry at Big Government, we're more upset at Big Multinational Corporations taking over our government and ruling our lives for quarterly profits. I expect that Michael Moore's new movie will drive that point home. But we can expect the film to be marginalized by the corporate media-- have him on to talk about it in little clips on liberal shows to demonstrate your "free press." But golly, he's "a controversial figure," so don't bring him back to discuss the issues in his movie without a strident "Free Market Forever" person there to shout him down with the dogma that has wrecked our economy.

[suffragette]

21. K&R

It's distressing how many quickly bought into the propaganda created by a colleague of Coulter, Malkin, Liddy, Sheffield, etc and spewed forth in full volume by Fox.

This was the newest orchestrated attack in a series of attacks against Acorn.

For the Republicans, Acorn's real crime is that they have been an effective advocate.

[Proud_Lefty]

22. I appreciate this so much

As it's all been unfolding, there's been something very unsettled inside me. Just like weapons of mass destructions, people are hearing the drum beats and not listening for anything to substantiate the claims, just rhetoric on top of rhetoric on top of more rhetoric, and the sheep are all in line, forgetting where they left their brains. I've been sending out mass emails about ACORN. They don't deserve to be torn apart by these crazy Republicans/Fox News. When are people going to rebel? If they don't, they'll just keep doing it. Just ask Reverend Wright.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. It was all Fox News and talk radio

Judging from the comments on my local paper's website, some people thought ACORN was Obama's personal mafia, founded by him.

They'd never heard of ACORN before the right-wing noise machine told them to denounce it. Mao's Red Guards couldn't have been more obedient.

[diva77]

26. ACORN is one of Karl Rove's punching bags; the destruction of ACORN fits

right into the multipronged Rovian scheme to play dirty in order to take down blue states and turn them red. The media reports regarding ACORN are so out of whack with reality - seems like the media ought to be charged with defamation of character of ACORN (if such a charge were possible) for their exaggerated reports of corruption in that organization, and then charged with negligence (if such a charge were possible) for failing to report on far greater corruption such as the Siegelman case, for example.

[mdmc]

27. ..