ACORN

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's why Jinx and I asked if it was illegal... duh.

Evidently other DAs in CA, MD, PA found the tapes to be less than complete as well, with no findings of any criminal act on the part of the employees that would merit prosecution...but potential criminal acts on the part of the person doing the taping.

[TheMercenary]

ACORN's Original Sin
Critics of the expiring activist group say it was driven by the vision of Saul Alinsky. If only that were true.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN, will shut its doors as a national operation next week. A wellspring of activism for four decades, the left-wing group has gotten more attention lately for a series of scandals, from an embarrassing embezzlement case at the top of the organization to the hidden-camera videos that captured low-level employees doling out advice on how to operate a brothel without raising red flags at the IRS. Republicans hated the group, which they loved to link to the ideas of the veteran activist Saul Alinsky, a demon figure on the right. But the primary problem with the organization—a trouble running deeper than either corruption or ideology, one with lessons for grassroots activists across the political spectrum—is that ACORN wasn't Alinskyan enough. It may have emerged from the community organizing tradition that Alinsky helped to found, but it also rejected some of his most important advice.

You wouldn't guess that from reading most of ACORN's conservative critics. Phyllis Schlafly has called the association a "Saul Alinsky-style group," while Human Events described it as "the radical group that directly applies Saul Alinsky's tactics." An article in National Review claimed that "ACORN follows the Saul Alinsky model." Meanwhile, ACORN's own founder is prone to praising the man and clearly regards him as an influence.

But while ACORN learned from Alinsky's confrontational style, there's an important difference between the Alinsky model and the ACORN model. As the liberal writer Harry Boyte put it in his 2004 book Everyday Politics, Alinsky thought the best way to build political power was to "create an organization of existing community institutions," such as churches and neighborhood associations. ACORN, meanwhile, "avoided organizing through institutions and sought out previously disconnected community residents"; as a result it was "plagued by rapid turnover in leadership and transcience of affiliates." The group's central tactic was door-to-door canvassing—to the point where, in Boyte's view, "the canvass has become the tail that wags the dog. Narrowly scripted issue campaigns come to dominate, while the more complex, vital work of public leadership development and the creation of sustainable local cultures of civic engagement disappears." The canvassers, meanwhile, were overworked and poorly paid, and on at least one occasion went on strike. Until the recent scandals hit, ACORN was best known in some circles for being the group that worked to raise the minimum wage but didn't want to pay the minimum wage to its own employees.

continues:
http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/2...s-original-sin

[TheMercenary]

God, did she stick a big ole foot in her mouth...



ACORN CEO: Tea Parties a 'Bowel Movement,' Future Will Be Worse Than Segregation

Child's play. ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis says the times people are living in now will "dwarf" all those stains on America's history. And she points to the Tea Party movement -- or "bowel movement," in her words -- as a harbinger of the persecution to come.

"They are coming. And they are coming after you," the embattled head of ACORN said during a talk last month to the Young Democratic Socialists, the youth branch of the Democratic Socialists, the U.S. branch of the Socialist International.

During the address, Lewis praised the group's members for calling themselves socialists, and warned that undefined forces are plotting their doom.

"Any group that says, 'I'm young, I'm Democratic, and I'm a socialist,' is all right with me. You know that's no light thing to do -- to actually say, I'm a socialist -- because you guys know right now we are living in a time which is going to dwarf the McCarthy era. It is going to dwarf the internment during World War II. We are right now in a time that is going to dwarf the era of Jim Crow and segregation," Lewis said.

Lewis went on to explain that she wasn't exaggerating -- just look at the Tea Parties, she reasoned.

"This is not rhetoric or hyperbole -- this is real," Lewis said. "This rise of this Tea Party so-called movement -- bowel movement in my estimation -- and this blatant uncovering and ripping off the mask of racism."

She urged the members to get as active as they possibly can to "build this institution."

The comments come as ACORN, once a massive, multi-million-dollar community advocacy group, is coming apart at the seams. The group has been beset by a tidal wave of bad publicity over the past year and attempts by the federal government to revoke taxpayer funding.

She told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the group is "on life support" -- shortly before a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a judge's ruling that it was unconstitutional for Congress to block funding to the group.

U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon has ruled twice that the congressional cutoff was unconstitutional, prompting the Obama administration to notify agency heads of the decision while it seeks an appeal.

But the court ruling this week grants a stay on the reversal until full arguments on the issue can be heard during the summer.

The group has long dealt with controversy over charges of embezzlement and voter registration fraud, but the tipping point came last year when undercover videos at local ACORN offices showed employees appearing to offer tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...arties-racist/

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

God, did she stick a big ole foot in her mouth...

In what way?

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

In what way?

Only in a way where one thinks in a warped, merc-y way.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

In what way?

So you support her comments as posted? In what way?

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

In what way?

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

So you support her comments as posted?

That's a stupid interptretation of "in what way".

[dmg1969]

So let me get this right...you can't be freedom-defending, anti-big-government, anti-socialistic agenda, pro-second amendment person without being called a racist? This from someone who worked for an organization that had their federal funding yanked because their workers were caught giving financial advice to someone claiming to be a pimp trying to obtain a mortgage for a whore-house? Give me a break.

[classicman]

Is that pronounced murk-y?

[classicman]

Toad - I think this may be what you were asking about earlier in this thread.
I'm not sure though - I have no speakers to hear what is said
Link

[classicman]

T=taxed
E=enough
A=already

And here is a breakdown on who "they" are.

Originally Posted by classicman

T=taxed
E=enough
A=already

And here is a breakdown on who "they" are.

Demographics:
The vast majority of them -- 89 percent -- are white.
They tend to skew older: Three in four are 45 years old or older, including 29 percent who are 65 plus.
They are also more likely to be men (59 percent) than women (41 percent).

Representative of most of the country?

Or...........

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Redux

Demographics:
The vast majority of them -- 89 percent -- are white.
They tend to skew older: Three in four are 45 years old or older, including 29 percent who are 65 plus.
They are also more likely to be men (59 percent) than women (41 percent).

Representative of most of the country?

Or...........

.... just the ones who feel they have been taxed enough already.
Never said they were representative of most of the country?
Apparently they are from the 53% who are paying taxes not the 47% who don't.

Originally Posted by classicman

.... just the ones who feel they have been taxed enough already.

And dont realize they are benefiting from the middle class tax cut and numerous personal and small business tax credits in the Recovery Act.

Personally, I dont think the Recovery Act tax cuts are as beneficial as the job creation spending....and many economist agree, but it was a concession to Republicans who still wouldnt support the bill....and many of whom go home and take credit for new jobs in their districts/state that directly resulted from the Act.

Apparently they are from the 53% who are paying taxes not the 47% who don't.

Yeah, that damned EITC that Reagan pumped up to historic levels (with smaller adjustments since then). BTW, most of those 47% do pay taxes - payroll taxes, state income taxes, .....

And the significant COBRA and UI extensions in the act that benefit those Tea Party followers who are unemployed.

Or the more senior Tea Party followers who are all for smaller government.....but dont touch their Medicare!

Or those who are outraged by the bank bailouts but are silent on the need for new financial services regulation...preferring a "free market" solution.

[TheMercenary]