The RNC isn’t even trying to pretend like they are independent from their media arm, Fox “News”, anymore, apparently.
Here’s today’s RNC press release. It’s, quite literally, a transcript of this morning’s Fox & Friends, wherein the FNC/RNC clowns “report” on yesterday’s PR stunt/raid on a Las Vegas ACORN office and then, for good measure, prime the pump for yet another similar raid in Missouri (another swing state, go figure.) Needless to say, it’s utter stuff and nonsense, with zero evidence of “criminality” by ACORN — as explained in our coverage yesterday, all civic organizations are required by law to turn over ANY signed voter registration applications even when they are known to have problems — and includes plenty of unsubstantiated hearsay and garbage, as if it were actually fact. So, naturally, it’s been released as a press release by the RNC, as is.
Unless they find that yesterday’s PR stunt in NV has blown up on them (and it might, as folks, even some in the corporate media, are beginning to understand what a desperate scam this GOP “voter fraud” hoax really is) we’ll expect a similar stunt or two, akin to the one in Vegas, soon in MO, OH, and anywhere the GOP feels they need a phony reason to challenge elections, intimidate voters, and otherwise cause havoc at the polls before, during and even after Election Day.
Earlier today, I was reminded that similar nonsense occurred just days prior to the 2004 Presidential Election, when the wingnuts falsely reported that ACORN had registered a terrorist to vote in Ohio. And, of course, the DoJ famously violated it’s own written rules when it brought similar “voter fraud” charges against ACORN workers just days before the ’06 election.
Why do these people hate democracy? Oh, yeah, because if legal voters are actually allowed to vote, and to have their vote counted accurately, the Republicans will lose. At least this year. So, let’s hear it one more time for modern-day Republican Deity Paul Weyrich who sent out this year’s marching orders some 28 years ago (the video is 40 seconds, but it should tell you just about all you need to know)…
It shouldn’t be necessary — at least if we had a corporate media which did their Constitutionally-protected jobs — but since ACORN doesn’t have the budget of FNC/RNC, here’s an ACORN press statement, issued late this afternoon, concerning the bogus Vegas raid/PR stunt yesterday…
ACORN Statement Regarding Las Vegas Voter Registration
Over the past year, ACORN has worked hard to help over 80,000 people in Clark County register to vote.
Hundreds of canvassers and volunteers have worked for months talking to citizens from Nevada’s most disenfranchised communities and encouraging them to exercise their right to participate in our democracy. Their work has been tireless-they deserve a great deal of credit for spending days in the hot sun at public places from parks to community centers to shopping centers helping citizens complete voter registration applications. Most of the 80,000 registrations they have collected and turned in to election officials come from young people, low income people and minorities – the very people whose voices are too often left out of our electorate.
As part of our nonpartisan voter registration program, ACORN staff reviews every single application submitted by our canvassers. Special, dedicated staff makes up to three phone calls attempting to reach the voter listed on EVERY SINGLE CARD before they are turned in to verify the information. Our callers verify the information on the cards before turning them in to election officials to make sure that as many new voters as possible get on the rolls and to make sure that all of our voter registration workers are doing the high quality work they are trained to do.
While the vast majority of our voter registration canvassers do a great job, there have been several times over the past ten months that our Las Vegas Quality Control program has identified a canvasser who appears to have knowingly submitted a fake or duplicate application in order to pad his or her hours.
Anytime ACORN quality control staff has identified a suspicious application, we have separated that application out and flagged it for election officials. We turn any suspicious applications to election officials separately, along with a cover sheet identifying the nature of the problem and an offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual. (Note that civic organizations are required by law to turn over ANY signed voter registration applications even when they are known to have problems). We immediately dismiss any employees we suspect of submitting fraudulent registrations.
It was surprising that law enforcement officials appeared suddenly at our Las Vegas offices yesterday, because ACORN and its attorneys have already been proactive in providing information about problematic cards and any employee suspected of misconduct. In July, ACORN staff and our attorney set up a meeting with Clark County elections officials and a representative of the Secretary of State’s office to urge them to take action on information ACORN had provided. Since then, and as recently as September 29th, ACORN has provided officials with copies and-in some cases-second copies of many of the personnel records and the “problem card packages” and cover sheets with which we originally identified the problem cards.
ACORN is a community organization dedicated to making everyone’s voice count in the vital public policy debates in our country. Helping citizens become active voters is a crucial part of our work to help build a fairer and more inclusive democracy. We will continue with this important work by encouraging every eligible voter to the polls this November.
Well Steve Douchie said that poor people shouldn’t be allowed to vote anyway, right?
Where are the state attorneys in these fiascos???
They’ve got your shirt now 99
[It was only a matter of time…. 😛 –99]
Acorn’s paid to sign up a specific quota of people a day/week/month.
If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not have incoherent crackheads voting.
And #1. absolutely right, if someone is living on welfare or foodstamps, they have no right voting. It’s only fair.
My BA and MBA are paid by me and no financial aid. I live off Raman noodles somedays. I don’t ask for public assistance and I don’t have kids I can’t support because I’m an American.
It appears that you might not be an American, dood:
Link
The Republican Fixed News network, RFN: Fony news for partisans.
I hear on Fox, Uncle Sam needs volunteers to stop the Afghanistan crack production.
Hi Brad, I’m a first time visitor, found you via a search for raw story. They are down again. Any news? Thanks!
gr8lakesgrl, You might try proxy.org, cause RawStory is not down (as in their http server being down.)
Also you might have to cut and paste several times to find a good proxy. About three times is what it usually takes me.
#5. How on Earth does that refute what I said?
I said “crackheads” it doesn’t matter to me what race they are. Crackheads are more prone to vote for Obama.
Second, Obama is not BLACK. He’s mixed.
You immediately associated the term “crackhead” as having something to do with race? It seems to me that’s the racist position to be taking.
It’s splattered all over the news today that ACORN officials in Ohio have admitted to fraudulent procedures.
I registered to vote by going to my local municipal facilities. They are offered in every town across the nation. ACORN is an idiotic waste of taxpayer money.
And that’s the scary thing. Years before ACORN, people knew how to register. So now, we send ACORN out to people who virtually have all the time in the world to go sign up to vote (since they don’t work), we pay ACORN to do this, and fund the stupidest jobs known to man…
Two conclusions can be drawn here:
a.) those voters are lazy.
b.) those voters are stupid.
In either case, I’d prefer them not having a voice on selecting the next leader of the free world.
Has nothing to do with race. Has to do with my intolerance of idiocy and laziness.
COMMENT #10
“Crackheads are more prone to vote for Obama.”
What the hell are you on, bro? Crackheads voting? That’s truly revolutionary…how did you come up with this theory? I’d really love to hear more.
Obama not Black…I guess you’ve never heard of the “One Drop” rule.
Are you willing to state that you don’t believe that voter disenfranchisement exists? That has NOTHING whatsoever to do with being “lazy or stupid”; rather, it has to do with turning up at a polling station, and the poll worker telling you that YOU CAN’T VOTE.
Even a guy eating Ramen noodles can grasp that.
And your MBA? You can wipe your tuchis with that – an MBA is the most USELESS DEGREE IN EXISTENCE.
I’ll tell you why.
No two businesses are the same, and it takes someone who know how certain industries are run to make a business flourish.
I’ve seen too many instances (many in PERSON) where some douchebag with an MBA comes in, changes a bunch of rules (the 1st rule in every idiot manager’s handbook is to CHANGE SOME RULES), and then good employees get disgruntled, they quit, and the business GOES TO HELL.
All because some douchebag with an MBA thinks that ANY BUSINESS CAN BE RUN LIKE ANY BUSINESS.
So…just look in the mirror, pal…and say to yourself,”I’m barely one step on the evolutionary ladder above a crackhead, so maybe I should keep my stupid mouth shut.”
Now…back to the subject at hand – you’re comfortable with propaganda obfuscated as NEWS?
That’s your ten-dollar word for the day.
Mike Papantonio of GoLeft TV did a great analysis of the debate coverage here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xvb_gtkqg8
Terminator
c.)Those voters are Citizens.
ACORN reaches out to people who feel so powerless it doesn’t even occur to them to vote, and people so consumed by the effort to “put food on their family” and a roof over their heads they don’t get to it. Some of them may be stupid, and some of them may be lazy, but most of them are just struggling their asses off to survive. In the United States of America struggling one’s ass off to survive comes with ALL the rights and obligations as those born on third base and think they hit a home run. Equals. Look it up.
So Floridiot has a point the size of Jupiter. You ain’t no American, and he could hardly be blamed for thinking you are racist since you’re using all the code.
Everyone
The Republicans are desperate and they will be doing and saying all kinds of trash. I imagine it’s going to be so ugly by election day I will be ready to shoot myself, so PLEASE do your best to keep it from getting out of hand.
Thank you.
MBA (in his case) Mouth Breathing A_______.
Democracy Now has a good show today
#13.
Those “citizens” (like dead people and made up names) can walk to the local municipal buildings like this one did.
They aren’t too proud to whip out a link card, are they? (Food stamps)
They aren’t too proud or embarrassed to cash a welfare check, are they?
They don’t feel so powerless in terms of walking into a welfare office to apply for their share of aid under the state programs to help them, do they?
But those same folks are too “powerless” to fill our a simple application and go to the polling stations and take responsibility for their own rights? Are you serious!?
Next – the MBA blather out of you all is meaningless. I havea four year degree and I am obtaining an MBA. The point was not where its going to get me or how much money I will make.
The point is that it takes work, it takes my own money to pay for the education, and ITS MY CHOICE TO DO IT.
Nobody else owes me an education. I do it all alone.
Understand the bigger picture now?
Say, Mr. MBA, has it ever occurred to you that if more of the economically disadvantaged — aka most of us — voted that we’d have a better country, with more opportunity for everybody, even you? It’s clear you can’t even see the bigger picture, let alone understand it, and it’s also clear you don’t mind spewing your greedy, unAmerican, wrath in public.
You did NOT do it all alone. It took luck to even get the chance for that education about which you brag and I’m beginning to doubt you have.
Wilburrr… Perhaps if a few more “Crackheads”(like bush) voted in 2000 we would not be in the Fuckin financial mess the republicans (1929) put us in …
Yeah #16 that’s generally what a lazy person says.
Was it luck that cost me $80K for all of this education? How incredibly lucky for me! Making huge payments per month, cutting off entertainment expenses, vacations, etc. was just too easy for me!
Is it luck that keeps me working 50-60 hours a week for a job that knows I will fulfill my daily responsibilities regardless of a headache I might have, or a slight cold, or how tired I may be? How incredibly lucky for me!
Is it luck that keeps me up until 3am in front of my computer submitting term papers, studying for final exams, and taking a quick sip of diet coke to sever the extreme nausea one gets from that kind of exhaustion? How incredibly lucky for me!
Voting Obama gets us a promise of 40% of taxpayers who don’t pay tax as it is getting a welfare check once a year. Then it gets us a promise of slight tax cuts to some of us all wrapped up as part of a trillion dollar spending spree he has planned.
When businesses and corporations are taxed more than their already 35% that is driving them to other countries now, they do two things to fix it:
a.) They raise the costs of goods and services to compensate for it.
b.) They cut payroll, they toss out the idea of new jobs, the cut hours on current employees, and even cut jobs altogether!
Both scenarios affect whom? THE PEOPLE LIVING ON “MAIN STREET!” that is who!
Are the alleged “tax cuts” going to compensate for the increases in gas, services, and goods that will be imposed on us? Will the welfare checks account for “Main Street” Americans who will lose their jobs?
I certainly hope so, and I am thrilled you think so. Because if you really do believe that then you could never be the type of person who knows what it’s like to use the free opportunity this country offers and your own efforts to work harder regardless of your background to better yourself. It takes courage, it takes sacrifice, and it doesn’t come easy.
You are one of the many who think Government is going to hand these things to you. They’re going to come easy because college, homes, money, food are “rights” that you have because you live here. It never crosses your mind that these are things we have to work for.
That’s why you support Obama taking $1 Trillion out of the economy now. That’s why you’ll allow him to assign you with a certain amount of health care and welfare. You’re a number to him and your worth to him will never change.
It’s why you support Obama and Biden using their big-government minds and hearts to establish matters which belong in the prerogatives of the American people.
The difference between you and I is not that one of us is rich and one of us is poor, it’s that I have what it takes to use my own fishing pole to reel in as much of that pie as I desire while you’ll gladly stand in line for your cut of Obama’s metaphorical whale hand-out.
In the end, I belong to myself and you may as well have “PROPERTY OF OBAMA GOVERNMENT” tattooed on your back side.
Be a man.
Yes.
It was absolutely luck. That you could get the job or the loan that allowed you to work so hard, that you were born into a situation where these were even within your grasp…. What in the fuck makes you think there aren’t millions as enterprising, energetic and even smarter than you who wouldn’t give limbs for your LUCK?
And, uh, I’ll pass on the man part, okay? Even if I were inclined, I can’t afford the operation.
So… not just unAmerican, but an ingrate, too.
And what makes you think poor people want government to hand them things? Just your resentment and ingratitude about forking over a small part of your income so that others don’t starve? You and your ilk have made a cutthroat society full of crime. It does NOT have to be this way. When the middle class is big enough, there is hugely less crime. When the society, the government and the social leaders, work for everyone’s benefit, everyone’s benefitting. Everyone includes you, too, unfortunately.
Agent, you are lying! Moreover; you have no idea what you are talking about.
The “poor people” have financial aid to turn to, pell grants and Stafford Loans. YES THEY DO!
The “poor people” can obtain student loans like I did. YOU CANNOT BE TURNED DOWN for federal loans UNLESS AND ONLY UNLESS you are in default of a previous student loan.
The problem comes in when students going to school on Financial Aid don’t take their education seriously because they didn’t have to pay for it like I have to pay for mine.
It’s funny you keep going with the “luck” stick as if there were some spotlight of privelege shining over my head.
I am not privileged financially or with intelligence.
WE AGREE on that point. The only difference is you use it to insult while I use it to point out that no potential in this country is stronger than they other.
You can be the smartest man in the world, but if you’re not going to utilize efforts to help yourself, it’s pointless and a waste. It’s like using the sharpest knife in the kitchen drawer to slice jelly.
But in the end, you’ll make excuses to feel better about the kind of life you are leading. We both know the truth though, and it only makes my point of your weakness.
I can take your lies and keep moving forward with my life, but it only holds you in the same place you are today much like every other sad excuse you could ever come up with.
Terminator ~ Whatdya want a medal
You musta been craving someone’s approval
Ok ~ Now Ya got it !
Now Whatta are ya gonna do with it chief ?
It’s true, Ed, that some guys think they deserve a medal for taking advantage of the opportunities that have come their way, or they’ve been lucky enough to scare up for themselves. They just do not grok that life is at least this hard for everyone else, and so we’re not inclined to reward them on top of the rewards they already enjoy.
My cousin has an MBA, that my uncle bought for him, and it got him a job repairing pay phones. Seems the Terminator, here, got himself a job at a shill mill with his. Both of them fantastically lucky to have gotten that far in life; neither, unfortunately, even aware that at least three billion people out there are stupidly and lazily living on under two dollars a day because they did not have the luck to land where our MBAs did. They seem only to be aware of the growing multitudes of fellow citizens who require food stamps to eat at all, and the only way they seem to be able to think to help alleviate this problem is to blame those who, for whatever reason — through bad luck, bad timing, laziness, stupidity, just plain circumstances beyond their control, whatever — find themselves scrambling to stay alive.
And then when you point to the error in their thinking, they accuse you of lying.
Fucking inconceivable laziness of mind!
Breathtaking in fact.
Bamboo, how can you ask that after reading what I just said?
I do not require a medal or special attention. I am merely saying that if I can do it, anyone can! And they have those opportunities.
Agent’s response is typical that its easier for him to sleep at night by convincing himself that I am privileged or “lucky” as if we as Americans are not capable of turning our lives around. Thus his need to rely on big government and to want it.
I find it hard to believe that you as well are no worse off than I am.
Hear me again. You; like me, are an American. There is $1 Trillion at stake here that McCain will leave in the economy. Barack Obama wants to take it from businesses and corporations to re-distribute it to people who don’t pay taxes now as it is.
First, that won’t work as I explained before. Jobs will suffer, businesses pay the second highest taxes in the world here and they are re-establishing their businesses as foreign entities and pulling all their money out of our economy (taxes) to not pay taxes here. You think a tax hike is going to make the remaining corporations stay?
Prices for people like you and me (Main Street!) will increase for energy, goods, and services. Wages will suffer for main street. The $1 Trillion Obama will have control of, ONLY A PORTION is being returned as tax cuts and welfare. He has the rest earmarked for spending sprees.
So, in the end, Americans get less and we pay more for everything while our wages are comprimised. All in the middle of an economic crisis stemming from big government spending as it is.
I am asking you to think twice before allowing this man to put a price on you. I am totally with you if you’re willing to use your efforts to work harder. You are the one who decides how much of that money is yours, not him.
Or we could just go through 4 years of this and have Carter-like economic conditions that gave us two terms of Reagan landslides.
Up to you.
A Catholic Priest, an Indian Doctor, a rich Chinese businessman and Terminator were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers in front of them.
Terminator fumed, “What’s with those jerks? We’re waiting fifteen minutes between shots!”
The Indian Doctor chimed in, “I don’t know, but I’ve never seen such poor golf!”
The Chinese businessman called out, “Move it! Time is money!”
The Catholic Priest said, “Here comes the greens keeper. Let’s have a word with him.”
“Excuse me, sir!” said the Catholic Priest, “That group ahead of us awfully slow, aren’t they?”
The greens keeper replied, “Oh, yes. That’s a group of blind fire fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime.”
The group fell silent for a moment.
The Catholic Priest said, “That’s so sad. I think I’ll say a special prayer for them tonight.”
The Indian Doctor said, “Good idea. I’m going to contact my Ophthalmologist colleague and see if there’s anything that he might be able to do for them.”
The Chinese businessman replied, “I think I’ll donate $50,000 to the fire fighters Union in honor of these brave souls.”
Terminator said, “Why can’t they fucking play at night?” 😛
Put A trillion bucks in the hand of people that need it and they will spend it (in this country) and it will stimulate the real economy and will percolate up. Pour the money on top and it becomes funny money for rich folks to play with and get into trouble then we have to bail these bastards out again and again and again. Especially when the gop ties the hands of the financial police with bad laws. That’s called voodoo economics. ie phil “The Feret” gramm
Even the most successful are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and the government sooner or later … like when ya ditch ya cash when it come time to pay for the nursing home…
That me me me shit espoused by Da Terminator is going to be a son-of-a-bitch once the Republican Great Depression II hits home, there are millions like him that won’t ask for help when needed, they’ll just go grab a gun…and we have to hope that they’ll just use it on themselves, not a bunch of innocent people that the Republican Party told them to be afraid of or angry with…Some scary shit coming man.
Good stuff people:
Acorn pays a price for hiring convicts and setting hard to achieve standards. (20 registrations per shift to get paid for that shift, when 8-12 is the norm?)
ACORN is setting themselves up and should hold themselves to a higher standard. They do important work and should take WHATEVER STEPS ARE NECESSARY to avoid impropriety.
Flo ~ 28 29 That’s some food for thought!
Crap! Some people are becoming hysterical about this:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/36765
You knew that was coming, 99
These guys are pure racist and they are not going to take lightly to a non-white in the House.
Especially one as smart as “that one”.
BH what can I say? history is the future when it comes to the human condition…Good thing you’re just a pretend talking horse.
To #9 Phil, thanks, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that, how embarrassing!
Brad, I’m loving your site, thank you for doing this.
Say it ain’t so, Flo! You mean Mr. Ed couldn’t really talk? 🙁
I didn’t say that 99, Mr Ed could talk, but when he was back in his stable as the Bamboo Harvester he just did what other horses do, shit and eat. 🙂
Thank God McCain did the right thing today, he let off on the fear by saying ‘you don’t have to fear Obama being president he’s a decent person’ or something to that effect at one of his campaign stops.
Obama stopped the erratic shtick also.
The Secret Service musta had a little chat with them
Oh, whew, Flo, you had me so bummed there for a minute. 😛
Looks like he’s learned to type now, though….
As a teacher for 18 years I have seen a lot of students from all different economic backgrounds do well, and some don’t. The “luck” factor is that 100% of the success stories had somebody in their corner that was always there for them. Sometimes a single working parent just can’t swing it time-wise or financially to always be there. Sometimes that person is another sibling or relative or family friend or a teacher. Unfortunately for some people, there isn’t anybody that can always be there.
“Terminator” has no doubt worked hard for what he has achieved, but I guarantee you that he is not an island and that someone was there for him giving him their time and loving support if not financial support along the way. For those who don’t have that, there is either a community that supports people or there is social darwinism. When there is neither, I prefer to err on the side of giving people a fighting chance.
If ACORN wants to help people get registered to vote, which is their inalienable right as citizens of the United States of America, then I have no problem with that. If they work hard to make sure that the voter is not double-registered or is of a living legal age citizen, then I support what they do totally.
People who work hard to PREVENT legal citizens from voting, or who knowingly commit actual voter fraud or vote counting fraud should suffer severe legal consequences. Our democracy depends on an open and just election system for all citizens.
Thank God for Brad and all of the people who work so hard for election integrity!