First Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for ACORN, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not ACORN.
Then they came for SEIU, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not SEIU.
Then they came for the Apollo Alliance, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Apollo Alliance.
Then they came for the Center for American Progress, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Center for American Program.
Then they came for the Sierra Club, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Sierra Club.
Then they came for the National Organization for Women, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Organization for Women.
Then they came for the other community organizers, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not community organizers
Then they came for AFSCME, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not AFSCME.
Then they came for the National Council of La Raza, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Council of La Raza.
Then they came for the NAACP, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the NAACP.
Then they came for the ACLU, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the ACLU.
Then they came for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Then they came for the National Council of Churches, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Council of Churches.
Then they came for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Then they came for the AARP, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the AARP.
Then they came for the Teamsters, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not Teamsters.
Then they came for the Catholic Worker, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Catholic Worker.
Then they came for UNITE HERE, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not UNITE HERE.
Then they came for the Immigrant Solidarity Network, and, the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the Immigrant Solidarity Network.
Then they came for the National Education Association, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the National Education Association.
Then they came for the U.S. Student Association, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the U.S. Student Association.
Then they came for the American Association of University Professors, and the Democrats did not speak out -- because they were not the American Association of University Professors
Then Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for the Democrats -- and there was no one left to speak out for the Democrats.
Peter Dreier teaches Politics and directs the Urban & Environmental Policy program at Occidental College. This is based on a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), written about the Nazi regime in Germany.
For more background about ACORN, read John Atlas' article, "What Is ACORN?" , Harold Meyerson's Washington Post column, "For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din" ,
David Morris' article on Alternet, and Christopher Hayes article, "ACORN and Accountability," in The Nation.
Also, in his interview on the Rachel Maddow show, on Friday, September 25, Jeremy Scahill discusses the many corporations, like Blackwater and Halliburton, with billions in government contracts who are chronic lawbreakers, but who the Republicans are NOT trying to defund, compared with ACORN, which gets very little government funding and has not been convicted of any lawbreaking.
Robert Creamer: Time to Get Real About the ACORN "Controversy"--and Republican Double Standards
The Right wing has always hated ACORN. Partially that's because the organization has been so effective at allowing poor people to vote. The Right hates it when poor people vote.
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This is the wrong ending. It should say, "Then Big Business, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs, the Religious Right, the Wall Street Journal, Mitch McConnell, and Karl Rove came for the Democrats -- and there were no Democrats left."
Do NOT expect anything but the International ChamberofCommerce line.
(pssst 'we been had')
Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way, and ACORN had plenty of warnings along the way.
Now, even knowing how ACORN had become a target for the far-right, paid staffers were unsupervised and untrained to the point where a few of them were actually willing to assist in setting up illegal enterprises.
Any organization has a "few bad apples". The problem here is that there was such inadequate supervision that those few were able to taint the entire organization. The folks running those sting operations should have been ACORN personnel, and it should have been common knowledge that unannounced spot checks and stings would be run.
Good karma is a wonderful thing, but you cannot rely on it to replace good supervision.
********** US Constitution **********
Article 1
Section 9
No Bill of Attainder or ex post fact Law shall be passed.
==========
Bill of Attainder is a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function or more simply put - trial by legislature. See US vs Brown, 381 US 437, 440 (1965). It's intent is to keep the Legislature from adjudicating from their Chambers.
This is the same political Party that becomes incensed with their belief that liberal judges legislate from the bench. They're guilty of practicing those same tactics they abhor so much by violating the Constitution to settle a personal grudge in the same manner.
ACORN, an organization that does some very good things, has lost much of its effectiveness and may eventually fold because of a few stupid acts that were certainly not condoned by the group.
I would be surprised if they win any of the lawsuits against the group that organized the sting.
The problem is a lack of supervision and training. This outfit probably had to go to many ACORN offices to find the few that would go along with the "pimp and ho" act.
Considering that the far right has been gunning for ACORN for years, the very first time they were told "ACORN does not assist in illegal enterprises, please leave now" alarms should have rung throughout the organization.
The law is a knee-jerk reaction that will almost certainly be struck down. Congress voted for it because, Constitutional or not, they were in a position where they had to distance themselves from ACORN due to actions of a few ACORN personnel.
Hopefully, ACORN (probably renamed) will survive this. It's a good organization and it does a lot of good work. But damage has been done.
Will the law survive judicial review? I seriously doubt it. And when it's tossed, the far right will get another round of publicity in their favor, with pundits talking about "liberal judges supporting putting prostitutes in your neighborhood".
The far right won this one. Big time.
There are no "left radicals," silly.... haven't been since the 1960's. Even the unions had an aggressive purge campaign, over several decades, to eject any "leftists" that they had. The terms "left" and "radical" -- and particularly "left radical" -- are just scare words that have very little substance. The United States really has no sizeable -- or even politically measureable -- "Left."
Today's radicals are all on the Right. From Reagan forward it has been a radical "wrecking crew" (h/t Thomas Frank) whose actual, stated purpose is to take down the federal government so that corporations -- concentrated wealth -- can reign free and unfettered
Maybe you should get your understanding of basic vocabulary tuned up.
Given the goings on of the investment houses that rebundled worthless loans as investments even the alleged crime of telling self proclaimed pimps how to obtain funding doesn't sound particularly leftist
no after all that hard work for free these dems are scared to death of the right wing yellers.
and backing down instead of standign up strong .
yea, that is how they lost in 93-94
we fight for them to get in again then they waffle around and allow the minority to runn ruff shot over them even when in majority
Is there no sin (or crime if you prefer) that can be committed where we have to say, that is not us? Don't you think such an intractable position might hurt the cause?
Right, because that's all poor people ever do, is look for tax advice in how to set up human trafficking and prostitution rings. It happens EVERY DAY.
You'll notice that nobody is saying that ACORN's employees did the right thing. You'll also notice that those employees have since been fired.
You will also notice that if we apply the standards the GOP uses for ACORN to all government contractors, we would have to cut off funding to ten of the biggest military contractor
The selective outrage on the part of the right wing is revealing.
"Unlike ACORN, many of THE EMPLOYEES of these companies have already been convicted of fraud, embezzlement, etc."
Mindlessly repeating the "news" about ACORN without any critical thinking.
Awesome!
what are u talking about on the human slavery, no evidence just false accusations.
and the right winged crazies were so bad at acting they were found out numerous times. and kick out of numerous offices.
The wholesale slaughter of 6 million-plus people, for no crime other than whom they are (Jewish, Gay, Roma, Disabled, Etc.) is likened to the defunding of a non-profit corp for the actions of it's members--including voter registration fraud and counseling to evade federal income-taxes (through the shelter of a brothel for illegal immigrant child sex-slaves).
The difference doesn't give the author a moment's pause?
What every CPA -- and tax lawyer -- in America does for a living.
"voter registration fraud"
Numerous allegation
ACORN was the fraud victim. A handful of dishonest workers -- out of several hundred -- collected pay but did not perform as per the contract. ACORN itself flagged the questionable registrations. No voter fraud occurred.
"brothel for illegal immigrant child sex-slaves"
Fiction invented by the videograph
The author is not comparing the Holocaust to the defunding of ACORN. You miss the point entirely. The author is drawing a fairly loose comparison between the thuggish behavior of Reich Wing media jackals, muggers, and goons and the similarly thuggish behavior of the Nazi jackals, muggers and goons... Reich Wing media thugs that have been in non-stop attack mode against American citizens who are simply trying to exercise their rights as citizens.
More importantly, the author's main criticism is directed at spineless Democrats who -- at best -- sit silent, do nothing, and watch impotently as all of their various groups of supporters are attacked with baseless lies and -- at the worst -- actually assist and enable the jackals and muggers and goons.
They committed voter REGISTRATION fraud, the point I made, and which even ACORN acknowledges. Not in dispute.
The videographers perpetrated a 'sting' on an operation they believed was a political pyramid scheme. Operating on that premise, they crafted a device (brothel for underaged illegal immigrants) that was so inarguably despicable, that only a truly indifferent or depraved person could countenence the artifice. Lo and behold, the systemic infiltration of ACORN by bad actors, was revealed.
The author draws an unmistakeable equivalence between the unwillingness to defend two putative "victims"-
That DEMS are weak-kneed in their "defense" of ACORN is a mark of good-character. Some BEHAVIORS are beyond the pale. They deserve neither popular sanction or financial support.
The rest is name-calling polemic. The conversation deserves better.
You know, the un-crazy Democrats.
Horribly sad.