UPDATED: The real reason they hope ACORN fails
UPDATED: The real reason they hope ACORN fails
There's been a lot of hoopla about secret hidden-camera videos of low-level employees of the anti-poverty group ACORN lately -- some of them quite embarrassing. I haven't seen any video yet from "real reporters" James O'Keefe or Hannah Giles of an ACORN employee who works in the agency's Charlotte, N.C., office by the name of Hector Vaca. And don't hold your breath waiting for Vaca to appear on the Fox News Channel anytime soon, because he doesn't fit the story line.
Vaca was one of eight ACORN employees in North Carolina who was just laid off because of funding problems -- problems closely related to the recent exposes by the right-wing media. His work had nothing to do with what millions of folks with the time and the money to be sitting on a couch watching TV at 5 p.m. when Glenn Beck comes around think ACORN mainly does, i.e., advising garishly dressed prostitutes and pimps. Vaca was actually helping folks in Charlotte who are battling the worst economic crisis in our lifetime and fighting for them to stay in their houses, a project so "radical" that Citigroup and Bank of America (just the kind of folks you'd expect to partner with ACORN in its vast "socialist" conspiracy) are backing it. It is work that is so important that Vaca is continuing to do it now, even without a paycheck:
In Charlotte, head organizer Hector Vaca spent time this week driving through neighborhoods, visiting homeowners who are struggling with their mortgage payments. The program, in partnership with Citi, aims to offer free advice to residents who could be facing foreclosure. Vaca, 35, said he hands out fliers and will offer his cell phone, too, to homeowners who want to call for free assistance right away.
Vaca, who said he grew up poor as the child of an immigrant, has been an ACORN organizer for three years."I love my job," he said. "I get to help people who have never been able to get the help they need."
This, in a (pardon the awful pun), nutshell, is what the ACORN scandal is really all about. Forget the videos, forget the "pimp." The reason that Hector Vaca loves what he does is the reason that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and their dittoheads hate what Hector Vaca does. He is helping people who were have never been able to get the help they need...before he pulled up to their driveway.
Even in a media world where 24 hours of daily cable blather is so rarely tethered to the real-world concerns of Americans, the ACORN saga stands out as a story that everyone is talking about but no one is stepping back to even try and comprehend or place into any kind of rational perspective. The conservative dwellers of Glennbeckistan who've been flooding newsrooms across America -- including here at the Daily News -- with calls complaining that we're not covering the ACORN story know next to nothing about the anti-poverty group other than their belief that it single-handedly elected Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States (it didn't) and that it receives billions of dollars in taxpayer money (it doesn't).
At the same time, I would encourage the handful of fellow progressives who see the story solely as a Fox News witch hunt to acknowledge this part of the bigger picture: That ACORN is a large non-profit that is very poorly run, and in need of some major reform. It would be good, in a way, if that's what this story were really about -- making things work better. But conservatives don't want to reform ACORN, nor do they want another, better-run outfit to come along and do some of the things it does -- helping the urban poor find better housing or increasing voter registration. They want to destroy ACORN and the things it does. Period.
I'm not not going to bog this down with a long history of ACORN, which grew out of 1960s' activism working with welfare recipients in the nation's battered cities -- you can learn a little more about it here. The group has had a number of successes in areas that matter in American life, including fair-housing issues, voter registration (it was a key backer of the Motor Voter law), helping Hurricane Katrina victims and even fighting for Vietnam veterans during a time when that was not a popular issue. So why is it poorly run? Well, the videos now in heavy rotation on Fox show that some of its lower level workers are either under-trained or unethical or both, while ACORN has also been rocked by wrongdoing at the top of the organization. So have a number of well-known non-profits that aren't under regular assault from the right-wing media -- but that still doesn't make it right.
Beyond that, there is evidence of major structural flaws within ACORN -- generally, a group that has both an advocacy side and a political side that supports candidates is a recipe for trouble. Then there is the serial wrongdoing by workers that ACORN hired to do voter registration, the episodes that are regularly described as a "voter fraud scandal." But no actual voter fraud -- that is, people who were unlawfully registered casting real ballots and influencing the outcome of election (as happened in this case, for example) -- took place. In fact, it was ACORN itself that was defrauded by hiring workers who tried to get paid extra money by signing fake names like "Mickey Mouse," which may explain why it was ACORN officials who reported these crimes to the authorities. The significance of this scandal -- which is really more like embezzlement than voter fraud -- points back to the notion that ACORN needs to be better run...a lot better.
Yet this reality -- that ACORN is an established group with worthy goals and some success but also poor management -- is not what's driving the story. The folks who are spearheading this investigation of ACORN -- O'Keefe, Giles, Beck, and all the others -- aren't reporting this story because they want corrupt employees and bad managers weeded out, so that the taxpayers are getting the best return on the relatively minuscule amount of money -- just $53 million over the last 15 years -- that it's received from the feds. Nor will the "fair and balanced" network ever tell you that other ACORN employees turned away the bogus pimp and prostitute -- most notably right here in Philadelphia, where employees called the cops on O'Keefe -- or bother to explain the real work of ACORN, as done by decent people like Hector Vaca.
The real reason they are after ACORN is that they don't like its core mission -- siding with beleaguered homeowners over banks, and trying to register inner-city residents to vote at the same rates as the suburbanites who've dominated American politics since the 1980s. Taking down the group's mission of urban empowerment won't strengthen America, just the Republican Party. And you don't need a Ph.D. in social work or journalism to figure this out, since O'Keefe has made it clear that ACORN's success -- and not its corruption -- is what prompted him to launch his investigation. Here's what he told the Washington Post:
UPDATE: Corrected from earlier version. See this note for an explanation.
"Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization," he said. "No one was holding this organization accountable. No one in the media is putting pressure on them. We wanted to do a stunt and see what we could find."
But O'Keefe didn't go after the voter registration unit of ACORN. Maybe that's because real investigative journalism is hard work, but more likely it's because powerful people like U.S. Attorneys, who didn't even have to dress up like pimps because they have subpoena power, already tried that angle and didn't find one single bogus vote cast. Instead, the two young filmmakers and the deep-pocketed FNC are taking down ACORN through the back door, and if what has already happened in North Carolina is any indication, they will succeed.
You know, this is all so much like the "debate" over health care. No one disagrees that the medical system here is a mess, but one party, the Republicans, offers no serious plan whatsoever -- gambling for the raw political edge they might gain by a liberal-centrist failure to pass any bill. Likewise, there is no interest here whatsoever in ending housing discrimination, stopping predatory lending, or coming as close as possible to 100 percent participation on Election Day -- the kindof things that all Americans should be inclined to support, regardless of party or ideology.
James O'Keefe's America is one where powerful banks can continue to walk all over the working poor, and where demoralized urbanites don't bother to vote. The right-wing's attitude toward fighting poverty is exactly the same as Rush Limbaugh's attitude toward Barack Obama before he had yet served one day in the White House.
They want them to fail.
---}}} it's just fine to waste millions of tax dollars on the promotion of tax evasion and human trafficking, {{{--- LOL!! So - a couple of filmmakers catch some 10 or so ACORN workers offering assistance so human traffickers. Pretty disgusting, indeed, but not only do we have no idea how many ACORN workers threw the filmmakers out or called the cops - because the filmmakers won't release any of that information - but now, we have "millions of tax dollars" being spent on "tax evasion and human trafficking." Great logic there, batboy.— Talking point sleuth- Good lord, Polman finally writes a rare concise, well edited column yesterday, and Will explodes in verbosity today. Does anybody edit these guys at all? And today Will writes: "I'm not not going to bog this down with a long history of ACORN...." Ok, he doesn't do that, but instead he bogs us down with a major defense of this corrupt organization by focussing on one good guy former ACORN employee. Will, why don't you join the Barney Frank legal team that wants to investigate O'Keefe and Giles, or you can contribute money to ACORN to help fund the lawsuit ACORN plans against those two reporters. And don't practice amateur shrinkism telling us why we "really" don't like ACORN. I have absolutely no problem with honest efforts to register voters, but that's noat how ACORN operates.— pj katauskas
- ---}}} I guess we should ignore all those pesky polls showing most Americans identify themselves as certer right.{{{--- LOL! In how many of the previous 4 presidential elections, pjsz1261, did the Republican candidate win the majority of the popular vote? It really is amusing that "conservatives" think that following lunatics like Glenn Beck is going to lead them to electoral supremacy. They actually believe than an all white party of fundamentalist extremists will equal a majority. Good luck with that, fellas, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I really wish you all success in the world in making the Republican Party nothing but white extremists.— Talking point sleuth
- bill at- You and your ignorant FOX posse have successfully wounded an organization that does nothing for you or your voting demographic. Congratulations. Thanks to you and your ilk, thousands of poor people will no longer get much needed help. Awesome! But the truth is, you may have won this battle today, but you all know by that pit in your stomach, the real war is unwinnable. Whites are quickly becoming the minority. Fundy, racist, ignorant, Republicans are down to scorched-earth tactics, going after ACORN is the ultimate show of desperation, only designed to wound the people they hate or fear the most. If I were a Republican with any interest in the future of my party, I would seriously question why destroying ACORN is good. Think civilian casualties during war; you may not like their government, but these are the people you'll need to pacify and consensually govern when the debris settles.— pagoda
Comment removed.- Funny that Arthur Anderson should be mentioned above. The other Arthur Andersen...the accounting firm that was involved in the Enron scandal....was prosecuted and eventually shuttered because of what one (or maybe a small handful) of employees may have done. This cost the people and communities of the US 30,000 jobs. The guilty verdict was eventually set aside on appeal...after the damage had already been done and the firm was defunct. Liberals applauded the closure of this firm...despite the effect that it had on thousands of innocent people...despite its high degree of professionalism in doing work that is not only important, but mandated by law....for purely poliltical reasons. Since Enron was seen as being aligned with Bush, liberals were happy to see any firm associated with this scandal taken down simply due to the negative political consequences for Bush.— legatus
- Thanks bill, your concern for exploited humans is very reassuring.— pagoda
- Not fine, batboy, like I said. Seems you have just a tad of a comprehension problem there, bud. But nice way to duck the laughable bloviating of your statement that ACORN has spent "millions of tax dollars on the promotion of tax evasion and human trafficking." LOL!— Talking point sleuth
- Comment removed.
- In batboy's mind, paying someone a good wage for their hard work - so they can feed their kids - is "exploiting human beings." LOL! Touching concern there, I must say.— Talking point sleuth
- Comment removed.
- Lefty- very good point about the Congressional Democrats' guilt on predatory lending. I and many on the Left agree the Democrat Party is seriously flawed and needs to be held accountable on this and many issues. Democrats like to butter both sides of the bread and then seem to be surprised when they get fat. This upsets me since I find the Republicans to be far worse. Gotta give Republicans credit for being as brash as they are, they clearly don't care about poor minorities and they don't hide it. The Democratic party is a lot like ACORN; there are some bad apples, but overall, they are more likely than their competition to help the needy.— pagoda
- pjsz - First of all, it's "YOU'RE funny", not "your funny". If you're going to argue with an adult, please try and update YOUR grammar to a level somewhere around middle school, or you run the risk of revealing the fact that YOU'RE talking out of your rear end. Secondly, ACORN received 53 MILLION dollars in federal funding over 15 years - see, 53 MILLION is LESS than the "billions" you factlessly reference in your reply. Personally, I don't have a single problem with ACORN not receiving any federal funds. I was just pointing out that the outrage over the corruption within their organization seems to be a bit selective, given that organizations receiving much larger amounts of federal dollars (the military, Blackwater/Xe, Wackenhut, Halliburton) have been repeatedly accused, indicted and in some cases, CONVICTED of corruption on a much larger scale than anything that's ever happened at ACORN. As far as "throwing money at it until we get it right", you mean like we did in Iraq for six years? Have we found any WMD yet? Still looking for that pesky Saddam/9-11 connection? If my choice is between simply throwing money at a problem versus throwing money AND American soldiers' lives at a problem, I'll take just throwing money any day of the week.— JLB
- Comment removed.
- LOL! ---}}} Today's bad guys include those "predatory lenders" that preyed on the underclass by lending them money to purchase their own homes.{{{--- Try using the google, lefty, on the term "predatory lending," and you'll realize that you have no idea what the term even refers to. Not surprising, really, because that's why you don't understand the majorty of the work an agency like ACORN does, and why it's important. The kind of "predatory lending" ACORN has been involved in preventing is generally not "money lent to purchase homes." It's things like payday loans that are given at loanshark rates - practices that have fortunately been made illegal in many places thanks to organizations like ACORN. Tell me, lefty, why is it that you had no idea that the kinds of predatory lending that ACORN works on in poor communities has relatively little to do with mortgages - yet, you feel yourself knowledgeable enough on ACORN to make sweeping generalizations about the organization? You guys are hilarious.— Talking point sleuth
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