The Real Targets of the GOP's ACORN Smear Campaigns: Verifiable Truth, American Democracy

[BradBlog]

The Real Targets of the ACORN Smear Campaigns: Verifiable Truth, American Democracy
The truth behind the hoax was 'hiding' in plain sight, if only the media and Congress had bothered to seek it out...
-- Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

In a society increasingly dominated by dictatorial and corrupt corporate wealth and power, a collection of community organizations, The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), steps forward to become the voice of the most vulnerable of our citizens --- the poor and lower-middle class. It is a national coalition which not only strives to insure that these otherwise atomized and powerless masses retain and exercise their equal right to vote, but a caring organization which seeks a living wage for all citizens; that tries to protect them from predatory lenders and phony foreclosure assistance scams.

At a time when the heartless and uncaring Bush/Cheney cabal left thousands of our fellow citizens to sink or swim in a toxic soup of petrochemicals, flood waters and decaying bodies, ACORN, according to the Congressional Research Service, stepped forward to assist "in the clean-up of 1,850 homes and" organized "10,000 hurricane survivors into the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association."

So it comes as no surprise that ACORN has become the target of a years-long relentless right-wing assault, most recently spearheaded by the likes of accused federal felon James O'Keefe and his serial dissembling employer and publisher, Andrew Breitbart. Neither is it a surprise that the phony pimp's video hit pieces emerged on Rupert Murdoch's own Fox "News" Channel.

It is, however, slightly more surprising, and certainly most noteworthy, that now that they've been exposed as hoaxes, even Murdoch's own New York Post was forced to describe the doctored tapes as a "'heavily edited' splice job that only made it appear as though the organization's workers were advising a pimp and prostitute on how to get a mortgage... many of the seemingly crime-encouraging answers...taken out of context so as to appear more sinister."

What is truly disturbing, however, is that this concocted tale would be unquestioningly accepted as legitimate by the corporate media and by Congress, which, in their rush to mollify the noisy hard-right, displayed a profound ignorance of basic concepts of fundamental fairness and due process of law.

ACORN was prematurely and inappropriately tried and convicted in the press and in Congress, without so much as a single hearing, vis a vis a grotesque and shameful word-of-mouth propaganda lynch job unseen since the days of Joseph McCarthy -- and all while the truth was in plain sight for both Congress and the media…had any of them bothered to look…

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7707

[BradBlog]

1. Self kick, cuz someone's got to... nt

[NewJeffCT]

2. That was the most disheartening part

it was like 89-6 to strip them of their funding - meaning only 6 Democrats out of 58 voted against stripping the funding with no hearing or investigation.

[sabrina 1]

4. 172 Democrats voted for a Bill of Attainder, which is

against the Constitution. 173 Republicans joined them.

Only 75 Democrats had the courage to vote against that political smear and unconstitutional bill. A Court has ruled in favor of ACORN on the issue now. Yet, there has not been a peep out of those who violated the Constitution for political reasons.

The list is in the link below and it's a shameful statement about this government that they do not even know, or care maybe, about the Constitutional Rights of U.S. citizens, that they swore to protect. And we are asked to trust them with our Healthcare?

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll718.xml

This is the list of the 75 Democrats who voted against the Bill of Attainder. This vote basically tells us what we are up against. Considering who promoted this bill, Daryl Issa, and considering the source of the smears, surely well known to Democrats, it is beyond comprehension that so many Democrats rushed to join the Republican Noise Machine to help destroy and Agency without whose efforts many of them would not be in office. I find it hard to believe that they are all cowards, afraid of what Republicans might say. I'm beginning to think there is a lot more to these constant betrayal.

Kudos to the 75 who stood for what is right, but as always, there are never enough of them. One name missing from the list below was Rep. Grayson. That was a surprise, since afterwards he joined Jerry Nadler in informing the public of the unconstitutionality of the bill. Yet, I have not heard him explain his vote. Maybe I'll call his office and ask.

Baldwin
Becerra
Brady (PA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capuano
Carson (IN)
Castor (FL)
Cleaver
Clyburn
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (IL)
DeGette
Delahunt
Doyle
Edwards (MD)
Ellison
Engel
Fattah
Filner
Fudge
Green, Al
Grijalva
Hinchey
Hirono
Holt
Honda
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson, E. B.
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kucinich
Larsen (WA)
Lee (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lynch
Markey (MA)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
Meeks (NY)
Mollohan
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Nadler (NY)
Neal (MA)
Olver
Pallone
Pascrell
Payne
Polis (CO)
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Sánchez, Linda T.
Schakowsky
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sherman
Sires
Slaughter
Stark
Thompson (MS)
Towns
Tsongas
Velázquez
Waters
Watson
Waxman
Wexler
Woolsey

[BradBlog]

5. Thanks for calling them out, Sabrina...

...They should all be held accountable!

[sabrina 1]

10. I wish I knew how we could do that, Brad.

Thank you for not allowing this story to go away. The media is a disgrace also. Your work on this has been fantastic and has helped so much to get the truth out.

[Overseas]

3. Long before the fake pimp smear, I thought attacking ACORN for alleged voter fraud

was indeed mostly to distract us from the GOP's multi-method election manipulation tactics. In addition to modern electronic data fraud, they were doing the tried and true voter misdirection, intimidation and finagling the distribution of voting machines to create discouragingly long lines in Democratic districts.

Compared to the ethics of the GOP, the people at ACORN are angels.

And yes it was disturbing to see so many Democrats jump on the bandwagon to condemn ACORN, without even stopping to wonder whether the right wing "evidence" might be tainted.

That's really giving the New Super Right GOP some extraordinary power-- so I guess now, if they want to defund another noble community group or government program, all they need is some cheapo amateur video to do a smear movie and they're good to go. Maybe O'Keefe was dreaming of Reagan's Welfare Queen and her Cadillac. Worked on those "New Democrats" back in the 90's.

If Democrats were that skeered of the ethically bankrupt GOP they might even have pushed the best public option, Medicare for All, off the table before discussions on health reform even began, even after the Bush Crash and Bush Bailout! Oh, whoops.

[jotsy]

6. ACORN is the kind of organization that might have helped me save my home, but.

I'm sure their year has been tougher than mine.

My state's department of justice hosted a 'foreclosure fraud symposium today, I went to cover it as part of a community radio station news crew. It had a bit of an uplifting moment when, after the speaker explained in some pretty lengthy detail as to some of the discouraged practices and the consequences, he had something of a heckling mob. The audience was full of real estate agents who clearly felt persecuted for having been called out on their culpability.

Congrats on the byline for Hustler!

Edited for P.S.

P.S. Sorry I wasn't home at the computer to kick your awesome thread first.

[sabrina 1]

8. I'm sorry about your home, really I am.

A friend of mine lost hers after trying for over a year to renegotiate her loan. Wells Fargo ignored all her attempts to contact them even after she managed to get a lawyer to help her.

She contacted ACORN, but it was too late. However unlike Wells Fargo who were the recipients of two bailouts airc, she heard from ACORN right away, and it was in the middle of the smears against them by the O'Keefe/Giles gang.

On their site, they said that the attacks which resulted in a loss of funds for them, made it impossible for them to help as many people as they used to help.

And I believe that was the goal of the constant attacks against them.

Glad you went to the meeting. Something needs to be done about all of this. My friend may sue Wells Fargo after she gets settled. I will be helping her if she does, and hope that others will do the same.

Hope everything is alright with you ~ :hug:

[jotsy]

14. Wells Fargo for me too.

We have found an apartment, won't much like it, but it sure beats being nowhere. I expect big banks to act like the monsters they are. But the local folks who purchased at auction, (Which WF said wasn't going to happen, BTW) are local two locally owned real estate companies who only intend to turn it for a profit. I've made $100,000 in payments on a home that cost $73,000 over 15 years and it all gets undone over a lapse in employment. It was only six months, but enough to take us down.

We tried a loan mod as well. We had the gaul to ask why their math didn't add up. They responded with a position that we broke our repayment agreement.

We'll be okay, thanx.

[OnyxCollie]

7. K&R. nt

[Swamp Rat]

9. k&r

[Judi Lynn]

11. Thank you for this post. It should be widely read. Rec.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[democracy1st]

12. K & R

[mojowork_n]

13. To put this into context,

I looked up "Bill of Attainder" --

Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial.

The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 provides that: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed."

"The Bill of Attainder Clause was intended not as a narrow, technical (and therefore soon to be outmoded) prohibition, but rather as an implementation of the separation of powers, a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function or more simply - trial by legislature." U.S. v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 440 (1965)...

..."Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. ... The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less-informed part of the community." James Madison, Federalist Number 44, 1788.

Madison could have been writing to the tea-baggers.

http://www.techlawjournal.com/glossary/legal/attainder.htm

But this is hardly the first time the news media acted -- collectively, like a symphony orchestra -- as an instrument of disinformation. Dan Rather and Mary Mapes, for instance, had the story pretty straight, about The Chimp and his days in the Texas Air National Guard. But we couldn't be allowed to focus on the facts. For that matter, the Vietnamese "attack" in the Gulf of Tonkin is still presented as fact in school history texts, the genocide in East Timor (and the complete lack of news coverage on it, at the time), and any number of other "too hot for the truth" topics are banned from media attention... No News is Old News.

Edit P.S. --

It's not just "progressive" news stories/narratives that are under-reported. The half a million (700,000? who knows how many?) Iraqi Christians that have been terrorized and forced to flee Iraq since the U.S. invasion hardly ever make the news. (One of the relatively few good things Saddam was responsible for was keeping them safe from their fellow citizens.) Keeping the Right and Left permanently at each other's throats seems like one of the permanent goals of our media overlords. 'Manufactured consent' includes a divide-and-rule strategy.