Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Originally posted by: Craig234
Originally posted by: numark
BTW, can anyone explain to me what this "mandatory escrow fee to ACORN" thing is that "she"'s referring to? I'm not exactly up to speed on this issue, but I find the claim that ACORN somehow gains money on every real estate transaction to be unlikely at best.
Acorn is a great organization that strengthens our democracy, helping reduce the underrepresentaion of poor voters at the ballot box.
Because the poor voters are heavily Democratic, the Republicans have lied and smeared Acorn, launching a propaganda campaign against it. It's that simple.
Because of the effectiveness of the right-wing noise machine, you have people who know nothing of the poor voter issues or ACORN throwing around its name like it was "NAZIS".
:laugh:
Two words
Voter Fraud
Conyers is a Democrat, BTW. Oops, there goes your whole "MORE REPUBLICAN LIES!" agenda.
First, if ACORN were convicted of plotting with Al Queda today, it wouldn't change the history I listed as you think it would. You apparently don't know the history.
The facts are that ACORN has served the interests of democracy for a long time in getting many poor voters registered; and that they have been the subject of a lot of false attacks.
For example, the Bush administration, probably through Karl Rove, tried to pressure US Attorneys to file charges against ACORN before the 2006 elections; the US Attorneys, Bush appointees, said that there was no evidence for justifying the charges, and they were among those the administration got rid of for not following political orders in a scandal.
The way ACORN works is by paying the poor to colllect voter registration forms - someitmes people who are not in good shape. Some of these people commit fraud and turn in a bunch of forms they fill out themselves, or write 'Michey Mouse', etc. ACORN then reviews the forms turned in, and categorizes them into three groups before submitting them to the government - 'clearly false', 'unable to verify', and ones they believe are legitimate. Why do they turn in 'clearly false' forms? The law requires it. They attempt to identify the fraudulent forms they are required to turn in; they cooperate with the authorities to prosecute those who submitted them.
What some Republicans do is to take the forms ACORN clearly labelled as false and was required to turn in, and they grab that stack and use it for sensationalized stories as if ACORN had tried to turn those in as legitimate registrations - not noting ACORN had made an effort to identify them and was required by law to submit them. It sure 'sounds' bad.
So, my post stands just fine as it was; yours lacks any of the history.
Having said that, I haven't seen much news on ACORN this year, and you found a surprisingly legitimate news event. You got the 'old' version, though. Your story in March was about Conyers - who I agree is a credible source - saying that he now felt some investigation was justified. That's not a conviction, but it is a legitimate story. What you did not mention is that in May, he said after looking forther at it, he does not see a need for further investigation. So I guess you can now discredit your own star witness. Now, I can believe there can be some wrongs in the organization - many organizations have someone embezzle funds, etc. If ACORN is convicted, or credibly shown in the public discussion, to have done something wrong involving voter registration, I'll update my position.
Of course, you have no concern about the many voter suppression activities of the Republicans, the false attacks on ACORN, correct?
Conyers called the accusations "a pretty serious matter" after listening to Heidelbaugh's testimony.
"I think that it would be something that would be worth our time," he said. "We've never had one person representing ACORN before the committee. ... I think in all fairness we ought to really examine it." [...]
But it would now seem that Conyers has backed off and there will not be a congressional investigation into ACORN?s activities.
In response into inquiries about a possible investigation Conyers? office released the following statement read on CNN?s Lou Dobbs Tonight Program this past Monday:
?Based on my review of the information regarding the complaints against ACORN, I have concluded that a hearing on this matter appears unwarranted at this time."
Now, even though Conyers has apparently backed off, in looking at updated reports, I'm seeing enough reports - even if the main accusations come from one woman who ACORN terminated for abusing personal expenses - that I'm not comfortable leaving the questions out of my rosy picture in the previous post, and I'll add to it the fact that there are some accusations pending out there.
One in particular involves some potential financial embezzlement. But even if true, it doesn't change the fact of the valid registrations they've done, and the history of false Republican attacks. Indeed, when you google on this topic, you see the many right-wing noise machine outlets (the American Spectator, Washington Times (your link) and Free Republic type outlets - not much credible reporting, and those sites seem to have reported - like you - the old Conyers story but not the update.
So, summary:
ACORN has done a lot of good for our democracy in registering many poor voters, and because those are heavily Democratic voters, Republicans have attacked them for years with false attacks, attempting to get them indicted without evidence to support the indictments, in propaganda campaigns based on lies. There are allegations from some former ACORN asociates of wrongdoing yet to be officially investigated.
Your post lacked the accurate history and falsely denied the history with the argument that if they did something wrong that's proven now, it disproves other history.
You posted an out of date news item - yet one which I appreciate because it alerted me to some useful news I had not heard - which has since apparently been nullified.
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