Community-organizing group Acorn said Thursday it was considering quitting its voter-registration work amid a growing political storm over its activities, a move that could hurt Democrats at the polls.
In the latest rebuke, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Thursday to block the group from receiving federal funds. Republicans attached the measure attacking Acorn to an unrelated bill that advances a top Democratic priority: making the federal government the sole provider of college loans under federal programs, forcing private lenders out of the origination market.
The Acorn measure passed with strong bipartisan support, 345-75, while the student-loan bill passed by 253-171, largely along party lines.
After the vote, Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said “Acorn has violated serious federal laws” and was a “corrupt organization.”
Acorn’s most recent problems stem from a series of secretly recorded videos showing Acorn employees offering advice on evading taxes, setting up brothels and smuggling illegal immigrants. In the past, Acorn employees have admitted to filling out false voter-registration forms.
Acorn spokesman Kevin Whelan said the group was now deciding whether to focus on such lower-profile election activities as persuading registered voters to head to the polls. Its stated mission has been to register low-income Americans to vote.
“If you do registration on a large scale, you open yourselves up to political attack because it’s inevitable that you will make some small mistakes,” Mr. Whelan said.
[More]
Dem Damage Control Off The Rails:
When Did Opposition Become ‘Racism’?
So how are all the dead people gonna register if acorn is not there to help them. And those who want to register numerous times. This is a travesty. sarc off.
Three cheers for Glenn Beck. Three cheers for the “Pimp & Ho” team.
Thumbs down to the MSM who have been willfully ignoring important things for too long.
mid island mike
Judging from Pelosi’s interview yesterday can there be any doubt that she’s no longer just half nuts, she’s certifiable. This woman is 2nd in line to the POTUS/CIC. Should the unimaginable occur, this nutcase would assume those roles automatically. If Congress has got a lick of sense they would remove this lunatic and eliminate ANY possibility of that nightmare scenario ever occurring.
Since such a large portion of the those supposedly without healthcare coverage in the US are low-income Americans who have failed to sign themselves and their children up to receive the state and federal health care benefits they are already entitled to, you have to wonder why ACORN has never bothered to try to register anyone to receive such benefits while they are out trolling for Democrat votes. Could ACORN be trying to cause the current situation in inner cities to take on the appearance of, if not actually become a crisis, so as to expand their own influence and further their agenda?
ACORN has to go into damage control mode now just to try to stop its state and corporate sponsors from bailing on it along with the US federal government. I can also imagine that some ACORN employees had no idea what was going on within the organization they work for, and just became prime whistleblower material after having watched the “Pimp & Ho” videos, but how would you like to actually have to live in an inner city neighborhood, and just be finding out now how much ACORN has been facilitating crime where your family lives? After all, not many of those who are currently forced to live in poverty stricken, crime ridden, inner cities are likely to believe that what their neighborhood needs most is more pimps, hookers, and brothels filled with underage sex slaves.
The left has had full control of inner city neighborhoods for decades now, and if the MSM is to be believed at all, the high levels of poverty and crime in most of them has not improved much if at all over that time period, so even if liberal types are not causing a crisis situation on purpose, the corruption they facilitate in order to achieve their ends is real, and nothing better illustrates just how inept they are at improving the lot of any voters who happen to live in such urban areas. The right should use this fact to soften support for the left in metropolitan areas, after all, given the choice, most people would prefer jobs and security, to the corruption inherent in trying to better your situation through gaming the system.
The right should use this fact to soften support for the left in metropolitan areas, after all, given the choice, most people would prefer jobs and security, to the corruption inherent in trying to better your situation through gaming the system.
Dream on. There’s already strong apathy in inner cities about the government, which can be seen in any number of books you wouldn’t read or heard in any number of rap songs you wouldn’t listen to. Moreover, people in these areas try to get out often by three means – sports, drugs and entertainment. All three are incredibly capitalistic, cut-throat and have relatively little regulation.
Who would the conservatives send in to convince the inner city that their destiny lies on the right? Joe Wilson? Rush Limbaugh?
Well, for sure not Rod Blagojevich, Elliot Spitzer, Charlie Rangel, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, Steny Hoyer, Marion Barry, or Maxine Waters…Need I say more?
Re: #4: “Who would the conservatives send in to convince the inner city that their destiny lies on the right? ”
Good question. I don’t know because I haven’t lived that life but it’s worth thinking about if you are one of them. My personal view is that America wanted a black man as their next president. They picked the wrong one.
Colin Powell was (and still is) a much better choice. Perhaps he wasn’t chosen because he can’t be led by the likes of Pelosi and Reid. His first order of busness would have been to fire them.
“And you can take that to the bank.”
Well Jack, I’m not one of them (inner city) but there were many good reasons to study their movement + I like their music (all forms of it, not just rap).
All of those people Brian listed off have little or no credibility within the inner city, because most or all politicians are considered untrustworthy. However, there’s a difference between
1) A guy who offers his hand, tells you what you want to hear, and cheats you behind your back
2) A guy who gets in your face and calls you inferior scum responsible for everything wrong in America
There is much debate about whether group #1 can ever be reformed or whether there are some good eggs among them. Nearly every ghetto person (black or not) and every black person (ghetto or not) can agree that group #2 is toxic and should be voted against at all times. Group #2 offends everyone, maybe even some conservatives, and so long as they continue to get a platform in the GOP and free pass from Fox etc, group #1 will continue to receive undeserved support in these communities. It’s that simple.
America did pick the wrong black man for president, IMO (frankly, Cory Booker would have done a much better job) but when he won we all cheered – recall Powell and Rice both congratulated him for his historic victory, even while Rice continued to defend Bush’s legacy. When the attacks from the right went confederate and the tea parties conveniently sprung, the Afro-Diaspora jumped to his defense. It was never meant to be an endorsement of his policies. That much the Cons will never understand. Ever.
(rant on)
And race is not even the biggest component in Obama’s defense. It’s generational, IMO. We’re tired of having our futures mortgaged on either government redistribution schemes from the left OR false “freedoms” from the right. Debts are too high and prospects are too poor for us to put our hopes in ancient morals or bureaucratic money games. The unrest will move well beyond tea parties and won’t remain to FOX/GOP’s advantage. IMO the end game will simply be exodus – the brightest minds will move to growth areas like Shanghai (as Ron Paul noted, China is technically freer than America or Canada when it comes to setting up a business) or Bangalore where it’s still possible to make a buck based on your talent.
(rant off)
To be clear — racism exists but one would be a fool to think that it only happens in white societies. China is racist (Gwai Lao) and so is Japan. Go to Egypt and you will find it…Israel is another. Everywhere you look you will find racism as minority groups are found and “picked on” by self serving politicians and media outlets. If you stand out from the crowd because of skin color or belief you will find yourself in trouble.
Thanks to the net we can debate these problems and we don’t need the “Fringe Media” to help us out. My view is that I’m color blind (true) and I was picked on by the RCMP because of that fact. Never mind that I was “color safe” and turned out to be a decent cop who followed the oath I took. I pissed a lot of people off but the win proved the point. My home county today is largely policed by the OPP. It would not have happened had I given up and moved on. The money saved — millions of dollars.
Regarding ACORN — I’m certain that most of the employees believe they are doing the right thing and you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. People need to slow down here and think.
ACORN needs to be “revamped”. That is clear but it does not mean the organization needs to be killed. And “Yes” — I know — Fox News is into that now and ACORN has asked for it but as in all things Obama I want him to slow down. He’s moving far to fast and when you move fast you make mistakes.
The right should still make the effort to run better candidates in inner city areas, even if they do lose, because at the least it would cause the left to have to raise their game by running better candidates. Many inner city voters are apathetic because one sided lefty rhetoric and scaremongering has led them into what has essentially become a one party urban system, where politicians on the left can take their votes for granted. The Chretien Liberals did little or nothing for Toronto while taking lots of tax dollars out of Ontario to buy votes elsewhere. This apathy is also the reason that the US often ends up with complete moron Democrats like Pelosi, Frank, Murtha and Reid in senior government positions.
It is not like there are no conservative voters in metropolitan areas, it is that they are outnumbered, and only slightly in some places. While the Harper Conservatives will undoubtedly lose pretty much all the urban ridings in Toronto, and therefore never make much of an effort at making gains there, many of the metropolitan ridings they do lose are actually close races. If the right made more of an effort, it may not be able to wrestle the inner cities away from the left, but could begin to make inroads into adjoining metropolitan areas, or at least cause urban voters to be less apathetic and start to demand better representation from the left while coming to expect that some tangible progress be made on their behalf in return for their votes.
Agreed.
Also agreed. Competition does force parties to step up their game. Now in Canada, Cons have a much better chance than in the USA because there isn’t a long,unique history of malice with Canadian Cons (no worse than the Liberal party anyway). The communities of note in Canada are the Chinese and the Indians. The CPC has definitely made inroads with the latter, and the former probably just requires the running of a few key candidates. It’s doable. The Toronto mind block has more to do with the deep business connections the Liberal Party has in Toronto. Definitely can’t speak more on that so hopefully nomdeblog can chip in or something.
For the USA … still no chance. Their history is nasty and judging by some of the posters at the tea parties / fox news forum posts, it’s not quite history. So there will still be a block of church-goers and urban capitalists voting against their ideological interests to keep sworn enemies out of office.