ACORN, an organization with thousands of employees, who operate close to the poor and is affected by that, had a handful of employees behave badly.
Now, the reason that seems like a far bigger story in part is because ACORN has been made into a huge target by the right, fixated on it, demonizing it.
So any small wrong is viewed as if it were the cold war where the nation's greatest enemy that threatened to destroy our nation had been caught.
Being enemy #1 of the Republican 'half' of the nation makes it a big deal - I've seen more about ACORN from the right this year than about Michael Moore, George Soros and Al Gore combined. This relatively modest organizaiton has been hyped the same way candidate Obama was a 'pal of terrorists'.
Two commentators - the excellent Glenn Greenwald and also Joe Conason - have written articles on the issue about the nutty right hype.
I'd ask anyone who wants to discuss ACORN to at least read the Greenwald article, for understanding another opinion.
I won't cut and paste the commentaries here, formatting and links make it better to click and read them (there are good links for extra credit).
Glenn Greenwald
Joe Conason
One of the above columns wryly contrasts the big reaction from Democrats and Republicans to shut down the funding for ACORN for this wrongful talk about pretend prostitution, while more than one of the members of Congress who are so strongly judging them are guilty of actual prostitution scandals, but have had no such sanctions.
But I'm reminded, in contrast, of how much less attention the far worse exposure of things like the family, a radical right-wing Christian organization that idolozes the likes of Pol Pot and Hitler and has been involved in sex scandals with multiple Republican politicians, got compared to this. That really goes to show the difference the volume makes, as opposed to the substance.
It's always alarmed me to see the cognitive dissonance of the ideological - can you imagine if the Washington Times was a commited leftist newspaper in Washington, D.C. to shift thepolitical discource, founded by the Rev. Moon, a batshit nut who is treated very well by politicians of the party he supports? But the right gets almost no grief for things like that.
While I have a low rate of converting the ideological by exposing them to the facts, I remain convinced it might help with some, and so, this thread.
After the gross misrepresentaion of the facts in the previous ACORN 'scandal' when they properly vetted, identified fraudulent ballots, and identified them as fraudulent as required by law, and cooperated with the prosecution of the people who did wrong was described as ACORN being in a conspiracy to try to get those fraudulent registrations processed, I'm sure there will be low-quality replies out of ignorance and bias on this one too, unfortunately.
But there's some good information in the links for anyone with an honest interest.
Now, the reason that seems like a far bigger story in part is because ACORN has been made into a huge target by the right, fixated on it, demonizing it.
So any small wrong is viewed as if it were the cold war where the nation's greatest enemy that threatened to destroy our nation had been caught.
Being enemy #1 of the Republican 'half' of the nation makes it a big deal - I've seen more about ACORN from the right this year than about Michael Moore, George Soros and Al Gore combined. This relatively modest organizaiton has been hyped the same way candidate Obama was a 'pal of terrorists'.
Two commentators - the excellent Glenn Greenwald and also Joe Conason - have written articles on the issue about the nutty right hype.
I'd ask anyone who wants to discuss ACORN to at least read the Greenwald article, for understanding another opinion.
I won't cut and paste the commentaries here, formatting and links make it better to click and read them (there are good links for extra credit).
Glenn Greenwald
Joe Conason
One of the above columns wryly contrasts the big reaction from Democrats and Republicans to shut down the funding for ACORN for this wrongful talk about pretend prostitution, while more than one of the members of Congress who are so strongly judging them are guilty of actual prostitution scandals, but have had no such sanctions.
But I'm reminded, in contrast, of how much less attention the far worse exposure of things like the family, a radical right-wing Christian organization that idolozes the likes of Pol Pot and Hitler and has been involved in sex scandals with multiple Republican politicians, got compared to this. That really goes to show the difference the volume makes, as opposed to the substance.
It's always alarmed me to see the cognitive dissonance of the ideological - can you imagine if the Washington Times was a commited leftist newspaper in Washington, D.C. to shift thepolitical discource, founded by the Rev. Moon, a batshit nut who is treated very well by politicians of the party he supports? But the right gets almost no grief for things like that.
While I have a low rate of converting the ideological by exposing them to the facts, I remain convinced it might help with some, and so, this thread.
After the gross misrepresentaion of the facts in the previous ACORN 'scandal' when they properly vetted, identified fraudulent ballots, and identified them as fraudulent as required by law, and cooperated with the prosecution of the people who did wrong was described as ACORN being in a conspiracy to try to get those fraudulent registrations processed, I'm sure there will be low-quality replies out of ignorance and bias on this one too, unfortunately.
But there's some good information in the links for anyone with an honest interest.
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