Stand Up For ACORN, Cut Blackwater And Halliburton
The right wing is launching an attack on ACORN. Not because ACORN is a corrupt or a negative organization, but because ACORN stands for things that they oppose. ACORN involves itself in issues such as making housing affordable for working class people, living wages for poor and working class people, education, voter's rights and gun control.
ACORN is an organization that represents the interests of poor and minority communities. These are interests that the Republicans have traditionally voted against.
The right wing made an enemy of ACORN during the election, because it registered minority voters in urban areas (voters who typically vote Democrat) and has continued its smear campaign against the organization.
The filmmakers who made the YouTube videos "exposing" ACORN are James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. Giles' father is conservative Christian commentator Doug Giles and she interned at the National Journalism Center, a training center for conservative journalists.
The L.A. Times reported that O'Keefe said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos to cast ballots against Republicans.
What O'Keefe and Giles did was clearly an attempt to slander ACORN. Their videos are heavily edited and only reflect the character of a few low level employees. Despite the fact that they said that every ACORN office they visited played along with them, the Philadelphia ACORN office filed a police report against them.
Another ACORN worker in California said she quickly saw through O'Keefe and Giles act and decided to play along with them, even making up a fake story about how she killed her husband.
Prosecutors in Maryland are even considering prosecuting O'Keefe and Giles for illegally taping ACORN employees.
In what world does a politically motivated, possibly illegal investigation that was edited to make an organization look bad force congress to stop funding an organization that helps the poorest people in the nation?
If the GOP wants to let a few low level employees' statements taken out of context decide on public funding for organizations, they need to answer for their support of Halliburton and Blackwater.
Blackwater employees have killed numerous innocent civilians in Iraq. They have also been charged with child prostitution in Iraq for bringing in child prostitutes to the green zone. A former United States Marine reportedly filed allegations in a federal court in Virginia that Blackwater CEO, Erik Prince, murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals cooperating in a federal investigation of Blackwater. He also said that Prince "'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Blackwater encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.'"
Overall, Blackwater has received over $1 billion in government contracts, which accounts for 90% of their revenue.
Another favorite right wing company, Halliburton, has their own scandals from both low and high level employees. Jamie Leigh Jones, a contractor for Halliburton claimed she was gang-raped by Halliburton employees and then imprisoned in a shipping container after she reported the incident. After years of Halliburton trying to seep the incident under the rug, the case is finally going to trial.
Halliburton's former chairman has been convicted of bribing Nigerian officials. Halliburton has also been accused of defrauding the U.S. government. Still, Halliburton has been given upwards of 9.6 billion dollars for work in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While Halliburton and Blackwater are multi billion dollar companies, who have received billions from the government, ACORN has a budget of 25 million dollars a year, of which, only 2.5 million comes from the government. While a few low level ACORN employees have made bad judgments in giving advice to a right wingers posing as a pimp and a prostitute (some in jest, some to keep a white pimp out of jail), Blackwater and Halliburton employees have killed innocent civilians and have been accused of child prostitution and defrauding their own government.
ACORN is a good organization that does good work for America's poorest. It is guilty of having low level employees with bad judgment. None of its workers have been convicted, or even accused of a crime. They are victims of a right wing media onslaught being led by Fox News. If the government decides to cut funding of organizations due to the actions of low level employees, they must apply the same rules to the GOP's favorite government funded organizations. Blackwater owes the government 55 million dollars, which is enough to fund ACORN for 25 years.
The right wing's attack on ACORN has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with votes. If the right was concerned with funding "immoral" organizations, they would've have abandoned Blackwater and Halliburton years ago. Blackwater is still getting money from the government under the name Xe and Halliburton still is receiving money from government contracts. The government funding and the crimes of Halliburton and Blackwater by far eclipse those of ACORN. I propose we use the funding from Blackwater and Halliburton to fund ACORN and other agencies with similar agendas.
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I would be happy to have Acorn "defunded" by the government as long as every other entity that does business with the government is held to the same standards. And that includes the military industrial complex and lobbyists.
In short, bring it on!
If the standard is any organization where multiple low level employees act illegally while first level supervisors do nothing, we must add another org. Blackwater & Haliburton supersede this std, because their crimes and cover-ups go very high in the org. ACORN is at an end level and all high level actions were consistantly to clean house. I'm of course referring to the Cathlc chrch. We know that crimes were done by low level employees, with knowlege creeping only a level or two up the command chain. As such, all federal funds for hospitals, adoptions, orphanages, etc must be cut. And I expect Louisiana, Minnesota, and a host of other states to fall all over each other to similarly cut funding (even if they have not provided any funding).
This blog, and the one today by Jeremy Scahill, show how liberals are helping Republicans reclaim the national agenda and ultimately control of government in 2012.
That is not a misprint; I said "Republicans."
Liberals must stop attacking Blackwater and Haliburton (you may as well attack christianity from inside a church,) and comparing their funding to Acorn's and start defending Acorn's funding.
The cave-in by Democats on Acorn is just one more example of how the Republicans are already setting the agenda for the country and may be more powerful now than prior to 2006 when they were in the majority.
Where are the Dems standing up for poor/working/urban people's right to vote. Where are they defending Acorn's legitimate voter registration drives?
Where are they with the argumnt that we don't judge the many for the actions of the few.
This tit-for-tat patty cake that liberals do where they prefer to attack the other guy (out of some foolish notion of consistency or equivalency) rather than defend what they believe in and their principles makes Dems and liberals look like whining cry babies.
Stand up for what YOU belive in, support it, vote for it and live with the results.
Addition by subtraction leaves you with nothing in the end.
Great article
What!!! Cut funding off to XE and haliburton ? Dont you know they are regarded as crusaders?.....or, at least thats how they consider themselves. By the way, whats ACORNs body count?...what, you mean they havent shot any innocent civilians and damaged our reputation in the middle east. Thats why they deserve their funding revoked dont you think? Who the hell needs more people involved in the democratic voting process....voting is overated anyway....boring. Now, lets discuss the illegal affairs sorrounding XE and haliburton..thats way more interesting and while we are at it, lets extend their contracts...
The wingnut's biggest problem with ACORN is that it helps register minority voters. That just makes the Republican Party's ongoing voter supression efforts all the more difficult.
O'Keefe stated that he wanted to use "the enemy's" own tactics against them. He repeatedly has called liberal organizations, and dems, "the enemy". O'Keefe, you sound like you are with the terrists. what's the difference between o'keefe and osama, or o'keefe and the guys arrested over the last few days for terrists plots? name and skin color?
The punishment for ACORN must give it a stronger spine and I believe it was necessary. These revelations are necessary to raise our disgust and anger against what we have done in the past - that is to elect rightwing corrupt and immoral politicians who would prostitute, bribe, humiliate, torture or kill for profits and personal gains. This will become a stronger reason for minorities and poor along with the intellect and some sensible rich to regroup and vote them out of the offices - everywhere.
One difference: the charges against ACORN are pretty much due to a smear campaign that the msm bought hook, line and sinker. See this clip from Thursday's Rachel Maddow show:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33013202
The charges against Blackwater et al., although worthy of further investigation, seem to be well-documented, if underreported by the same msm.
So, Congress defunds an organization that serves the poor & lower middle class based on smears, while ignoring the transgressions of mega-bux corporations whose CEOs are some of the wealthiest people in the country. This is absolutely sickening!
it's like a movie plot that you think can never really happen. and right in front of our eyes. in our country. by the federal employees with government-supplied everything, whom we the people pay to govern.
The bill is a bit of a roadblock for the military companies. They've been corrupt and indicted on all kinds of stuff. Now they're banned, no?
Excellent post.
Blackwater, and Halliburton are allegedly war criminal terrorist organizations which should not exist. Their leaders should be sent to the International Court of Justice to be judged appropriately for crimes against humanity.
Seriously. This anti-acorn stuff is a bit over the top, considering the kind of real corruption we have witnessed at the highest levels of government and business.
"The government funding and the crimes of Halliburton and Blackwater by far eclipse those of ACORN. I propose we use the funding from Blackwater and Halliburton to fund ACORN and other agencies with similar agendas."
Excellent point. Thank you for bringing this to light.
Interesting that the rethugs keep finding ways to change the subject. You'd think the dems would get wise to these tactics and do some counter charging, such as suggested above about Blackwater and Halliburton. Cutting their funding would also cut into Cheney's income which he still gets from Halliburton. And while we are at it, put all the culprits from those two agencies, along w/ Cheney, in jail for the criminal atrocities they have committed.
Why did the Democrats in Congress roll over so fast for?
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
That wasn't a roll over - that was a bend-over. The Dems in Congress seem to be expert at bending over for the GOP criminals. -- Why?
I have now watched two of these videos -- San Diego and NYC -- and have yet to see anything illegal. So far, all I see are ACORN workers being smeared by the pretext O'Keefe and Giles used.
http://www.osborneink.com/2009/09/acorn-san-diego-mucha-dificultad-sobre.html
"James O’Keefe, one of the two filmmakers, said he went after ACORN because it registers minorities likely to vote against Republicans: "Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization," O’Keefe told The Washington Post. "No one was holding this organization accountable."
There you have it. Huggie Bear aka James O'Keefe wants everyone to vote Republican.
Thank you for setting the record straight.
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