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FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

OCT 08, 2008 03:42 PM

In what may be the most pathetic villain campaign since the War on Christmas, Republicans have picked a new bad guy: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. You may know them as ACORN. As you can see in the name, they are community organizers, those horrible people Sarah Palin mocks for trying to help the poor. I’m sure Jesus would hate them, too. ACORN has been busy signing up new voters, which means they are largely poor, minority voters. That means Democrats. That means Republicans have to portray another group working to better our country via democracy as evil.

This recent hate barrage against ACORN started when the press began writing about the huge number of people the group was registering.

Since the last federal election in 2006, volunteers like Graham combined with the enthusiasm generated by the Obama-Clinton struggle to add more than 2 million Democrats to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 voters in the same states.



So, what to do? Accept that your party is quickly becoming the second fiddle of American politics and adapt to the situation by changing your platform, or attack the people taking part in democracy? Well, if you’re a Republican, the answer is obvious.



Yes, attack the community organizers! And tie in Obama, even though his connection is tenuous at best. So tenuous that it is not even worth discussing.

This isn’t new; Republicans have been after ACORN for years. It’s kind of like watching a CEO beat up a homeless woman. Expect the next month to be filled with attacks from sexual harasser Bill O’Reilly, drug addict Rush Limbaugh and anti-Semite Sean Hannity. Maybe when they are done, they can kick a nun in the face.

ACORN hires low-income people to register other low-income people. They get paid per registration, so you can see how the operation would be susceptible to scumbags looking to make a few bucks without doing any work. It’s the nature of the beast. But, here’s the exciting thing: Fraud such as this does not in anyway effect elections. Why? Because filling out a fake registration cards to make a few bucks does not mean that someone will be voting. It means that person does not exist and therefore cannot vote. You actually have to exist to vote. There have been zero instances of this type of “voter fraud” occurring. This is what the Attorney General scandal is about. The Bush Administration wanted US Attorneys to go after these people, but the prosecutors found zero evidence of fraud and those who refused to prosecute because of the lack of evidence were fired.

That being said, ACORN does everything it can to stop this type of criminal activity. The organization attempts to authenticate every registration submitted by workers but our laws force them to turn in every registration form, whether fraudulent or not. See a problem there? ACORN flags the registration forms they believe are fraudulent, but still, they must turn them in. Then Republicans scream their asses off like a bunch of douchebags, “ACORN is committing voter fraud! They've turned in thousands of fraudulent registration forms!”

Lake County Republican Chairman John Curley wants a federal investigation into hundreds of voter registrations bearing fictitious signatures or the names of dead and underage people.

"Fraudulent applications are the workings of ACORN groups operating from Milwaukee and Chicago who are getting out the vote for Obama. I'm Republican, but I want everyone who should vote to vote. But I want a clean election," Curley said at a Wednesday news conference.



John Curley is a douchebag. Deep down he knows that and it causes him internal pain. Hopefully he works that out before he dies. It’s really wretched stupidity and an affront to Democracy. Our system was set up to deal with these sorts of occurrences.

Curley acknowledges the work of the county elections board to weed out obviously invalid applications.



No shit? Who would have known? This is exactly what happened in Nevada this week. The Vegas chapter of ACORN was about to have a potluck dinner (elitists) to celebrate signing up 80,000 new voters, when they were raided.

Instead, their office was raided Tuesday morning by agents of the Nevada Secretary of State and Attorney General who alleged in an application for a search warrant that ACORN had hired 59 felons through a work release program as canvassers and submitted nearly 300 apparently fraudulent voter registration cards as part of the drive.



Let’s see. Getting my calculator out here. 80,000, 300, uh…that’s .3%. Holy shit! Put them in jail! And ignore the fact that the system is set up to catch problems like this! And ignore the fact that 79,700 people were legally registered by this group. And ignore the fact that ACORN was forced to submit those forms BY LAW and flagged them as fraudulent!

ACORN's internal checks, Mellor said, included tracking forms assigned to canvassers using serial numbers and worker sign-offs on each form and following up with listed voters by phone to verify they had taken part in the registration drive. The search warrant mentions those procedures.

That cooperation and meetings with state officials also are mentioned in the search affidavit, as is a subpoena from the state that was delivered to ACORN in September asking the group to resubmit information on several employees it had previously turned over to county elections officials. The forms were resubmitted, Mellor said.



Yes, raid a community organization that is cooperating with you. That’s some quality law enforcement. And, hey, as a by-product, there’s no good news in the papers about 80,000 new registrants. What a shock. But there are a few tidbits indicating law enforcement officials knew this was a case of individual fraud and not the entire organization.

The submitted voter cards included addresses and names that do not exist in Nevada, duplicate registrations, names culled from telephone books and names of Dallas Cowboys players, an investigator for the Secretary of State alleged in his affidavit for a search warrant.

One ex-employee of ACORN reached by the state investigator told him she began making up names for her forms on days when it was too hot to work outside. ACORN canvassers are paid by the hour.



Now, Republicans will explain this was not a partisan attack because the Nevada Secretary of State and Attorney General are Democrats. Uh huh.

In July, the two Nevada state agencies involved in the raid, along with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for Nevada, formed a task force to target voter registration and election fraud and complaints over voter registration practices, potential voter fraud, and enforcement of laws regarding voter intimidation.



The US Attorney’s Office –– here we are, back at the Republican machine and the root cause of the Attorney General Scandal. The scandal in which employees of the White House still refuse to honor Congressional subpoenas.

This vilifying of community organizations has led to heinous voter ID laws in states like Indiana and massive Republican intimidation at the polls. Republicans will use ACORN to cause chaos at the polls and challenge voters when they show up. Because what ACORN has done is reprehensible, while Republicans around the country do what is right.

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.



Thank God they care, or those .003% of registration cards flagged by ACORN would have gotten through and people who lost their homes in Michigan would be able to vote.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for more from FearTheReaper and read his blog, Stop All Monsters.

unfiltrator

unfiltrator

San Francisco, CA
April 2004

OCT 09, 2008 08:10 AM

But that's not what stockula said. He said:


Yet another shady associate of Obama is in trouble with the law. Probably just a coincidence.

alaric

alaric

I'm lost
June 2005

OCT 09, 2008 09:49 AM


The economy has trumped all else and these tactics are unlikely to work because, as the polls very clearly show, most people trust democrats including obama more with the economy. He wins by virtue of not being a republican.

That said, McCain has launched a two prong strategy. Phase one consists of assuring Americans he can handle the economy; i don't know that phase one is really working.

Phase two consists of undermining obama's credibility in general to destroy people's confidence in his ability to handle the economy. That might get McCain some points but I think it will fail overall unless McCain can pin the economic mess on democrats which is also not likely to work.


realistic67

realistic67

Vancouver, BC
August 2005

OCT 09, 2008 03:16 PM

Someone should do a story on the link you provided. About the GOP in Michigan trying to stop people from voting, who have lost their homes to forclosure. To help stave of the state from falling to the democrats

That's real Fuckface Asshollery right there...

djh1976

djh1976

I'm lost
August 2004
nicole_powers

nicole_powers

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

OCT 09, 2008 06:04 PM


If you're not worried about voter fraud, you should be. Though it's not ACORN or aliens we have to worry about, it's the Republicans. Check out Greg Palast's homage to Bush's Election Fraud (click HERE to view). In this 15 minute short he succinctly explores the statistical anomalies of the "spoiled" and simply "not-counted" 2004 votes, and shares with us some misdirected emails from Rove to Bush which indicate the not-so-dynamic duo are plotting to use illegal caging-list techniques to steal the election in '08.

sick

sick

Minneapolis, MN
June 2003

OCT 09, 2008 06:18 PM

Can I once again extol the virtues of same-day voter registration?

MrMuller

MrMuller

Detroit, MI
March 2004

OCT 09, 2008 06:54 PM

Ah, you've hit the nail on the head again. Keep it up man.

Jace

Jace

San Francisco, CA
February 2004

OCT 09, 2008 07:53 PM

Anything to keep their people in power and keep making money. If they can paint it in any other light than a crime, they'll do it no matter how shitty, shady, or questionable it might be.

leopold

leopold

Oakland, CA
January 2005

OCT 09, 2008 07:59 PM

cnn is reporting on this right now. in indiana office 5,000 new registration, at least half of the new registration are fraudelent, lol one was register to pizza shop name, the head of the office is a democrat and she seems pretty pissed that this just makes their job harder. at the very least gives the GOP something to complain about

NewSpectre

NewSpectre

Baltimore, MD
March 2005

OCT 09, 2008 08:03 PM

These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

USA
May 2006

OCT 09, 2008 08:05 PM

NewSpectre said:
These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.



Documented events and activities =/= paranoia

BatAttaK

BatAttaK

Tacoma, WA
OLD SKOOL

OCT 09, 2008 08:06 PM

NewSpectre said:
These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.




Do you even read these posts or do you just blindly type words?

_kungfoo_

_kungfoo_

Los Angeles, CA
April 2005

OCT 09, 2008 08:16 PM

NewSpectre said:
These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.



YES, CONSPIRACY! THERE IS NO PROOF TO SUCH CLAIMS:

zoom image

Mr. Raymond has now written a book about his experiences, %u201CHow to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative.%u201D In it, he paints a picture of the corruption of modern politics that should leave no doubt about the creativity and cynicism of operatives like Mr. Raymond or the need for tough new election-reform legislation.

Mr. Raymond, whose great-grandfather founded the Underwood Typewriter Company, was a privileged kid drawn to politics at a young age. He moved from small campaigns to larger ones, eventually working for the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

It was a world in which, he claims, dirty tricks were the norm. When Mr. Raymond opened a political telemarketing firm, he was hired by a Republican challenging a New Jersey Democratic congressman. Mr. Raymond%u2019s company %u2014 in a plan he says he hatched with the challenger%u2019s advisers %u2014 called liberal Democrats and urged them to vote for the Green Party candidate.

Those same advisers, he says, gave Mr. Raymond another assignment: to call white households asking them to vote for the Democrat, using the voice of, as he puts it, a %u201Cghetto black guy.%u201D He also called union households, using voices with thick Spanish accents.

No one is suggesting that Mr. Sununu knew anything about the phone jamming. Mr. Raymond says his instructions came from James Tobin, the northeast regional director of the Republican National Committee. And he says a top official of the New Hampshire Republican Party provided the phone numbers of the Democratic get-out-the-vote banks. Mr. Raymond jammed the lines %u2014 placing hundreds of hang-up calls an hour %u2014 to five Democratic offices across the state and a phone bank run by volunteer firefighters.



HA HA, LIBERALS AND YOUR WACKY CONSPIRACIES THEORIES.
KOO-KOO!! KOO-KOO!!

attn_ho

attn_ho

Brooklyn, NY
February 2004

OCT 09, 2008 10:18 PM

NewSpectre said:
These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.



every time i look at you I think empty head, empty suit.

xfinitex

xfinitex

East Lansing, MI
August 2005

OCT 09, 2008 10:33 PM

NewSpectre said:
These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.



Your ability to use punctuation clearly does know bounds however.

In all seriousness though, sitting down and typing out a response like that which in no way contributes to intelligent conversation just makes me want to click that silly little ignore button.

As someone from Michigan, I'm kind of disgusted by how things are going with that regard. I really hope they don't get away with that ridiculous garbage.

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

OCT 09, 2008 10:36 PM

NewSpectre said:
These threads give me much lulz

SG's paranoia knows no bounds

hey look over there, on the grassy knoll.



I feel the same way about trolls.

SergeantPsycho

SergeantPsycho

USA
January 2007

OCT 10, 2008 02:34 AM


80,000, 300, uh…that's .003%. Holy shit! Put them in jail! And ignore the fact that the system is set up to catch problems like this! And ignore the fact that 79,9700 people were



I know I'm a retarded racist asshole for pointing this out, but 80,000 - 300 equals 79,700 not 799,700.

bender47

bender47

Huntsville, AL
April 2005

OCT 10, 2008 07:07 AM

not that it's that important and at the risk of exposing myself as a geek, but 300/80,000 is 0.3%.

Katieesq

Katieesq

USA
June 2008

OCT 10, 2008 09:46 AM

SergeantPsycho said:


80,000, 300, uh…that's .003%. Holy shit! Put them in jail! And ignore the fact that the system is set up to catch problems like this! And ignore the fact that 79,9700 people were



I know I'm a retarded racist asshole for pointing this out, but 80,000 - 300 equals 79,700 not 799,700.




zoom image

durbustweeb

durbustweeb

Alpharetta, GA
December 2004

OCT 10, 2008 10:17 AM

Pay no attention to the bullshit ACORN has pulled. Pay no attention to their contribution to the housing fiasco. Pay no attention to Jimmy Carter and the democratic congress' MAJOR contribution to this clusterfuck through CRA, nor to Mr. Raines, a Carter advisor close to CRI, Clinton's U.S. Office of Management and Budget chief when the administration started aggressively enforcing compliance while Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought bundled mortgages they knew were bad then proceeded to sell them to other countries. Ignore that Raines is a very tight Obama insider who was in charge of the VP selection team, who walked way from the meltdown at Freddie Mac with a $91.1 million dollar wad of cash, many millions of which were gained through cooking the books. Forget that ACORN was in the thick of it, with Obama as their legal counsel.

What a moronic bunch of propaganda from FTR. But then that's all he knows.

Stiles

Stiles

Oakland, CA
November 2002

OCT 10, 2008 10:25 AM

durbustweeb said:
Pay no attention to the bullshit ACORN has pulled. Pay no attention to their contribution to the housing fiasco. Pay no attention to Jimmy Carter and the democratic congress' MAJOR contribution to this clusterfuck through CRA, nor to Mr. Raines, a Carter advisor close to CRI, Clinton's U.S. Office of Management and Budget chief when the administration started aggressively enforcing compliance while Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought bundled mortgages they knew were bad then proceeded to sell them to other countries. Ignore that Raines is a very tight Obama insider who was in charge of the VP selection team, who walked way from the meltdown at Freddie Mac with a $91.1 million dollar wad of cash, many millions of which were gained through cooking the books. Forget that ACORN was in the thick of it, with Obama as their legal counsel.

What a moronic bunch of propaganda from FTR. But then that's all he knows.



Back that up with facts, please. Otherwise, it's just more ill-informed spew.

smithers_jones

smithers_jones

I'm lost
November 2003

OCT 10, 2008 10:41 AM

durbustweeb said:
Pay no attention to the bullshit ACORN has pulled. Pay no attention to their contribution to the housing fiasco. Pay no attention to Jimmy Carter and the democratic congress' MAJOR contribution to this clusterfuck through CRA, nor to Mr. Raines, a Carter advisor close to CRI, Clinton's U.S. Office of Management and Budget chief when the administration started aggressively enforcing compliance while Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought bundled mortgages they knew were bad then proceeded to sell them to other countries. Ignore that Raines is a very tight Obama insider who was in charge of the VP selection team, who walked way from the meltdown at Freddie Mac with a $91.1 million dollar wad of cash, many millions of which were gained through cooking the books. Forget that ACORN was in the thick of it, with Obama as their legal counsel.

What a moronic bunch of propaganda from FTR. But then that's all he knows.


Not surprisingly, you failed to address any of the substantive points raised in the article. Your trail of half-baked assertions and links by association would make a conspiracy theorist proud. Good job!

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

OCT 10, 2008 10:43 AM

durbustweeb said:
Pay no attention to the bullshit ACORN has pulled. Pay no attention to their contribution to the housing fiasco. Pay no attention to Jimmy Carter and the democratic congress' MAJOR contribution to this clusterfuck through CRA, nor to Mr. Raines, a Carter advisor close to CRI, Clinton's U.S. Office of Management and Budget chief when the administration started aggressively enforcing compliance while Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought bundled mortgages they knew were bad then proceeded to sell them to other countries. Ignore that Raines is a very tight Obama insider who was in charge of the VP selection team, who walked way from the meltdown at Freddie Mac with a $91.1 million dollar wad of cash, many millions of which were gained through cooking the books. Forget that ACORN was in the thick of it, with Obama as their legal counsel.

What a moronic bunch of propaganda from FTR. But then that's all he knows.



Yes, Everything is black peoples fault.

Good point. Racist, but good.

I mean, they run the country, so why wouldn't it be?

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

OCT 10, 2008 10:57 AM

durbustweeb said:
Pay no attention to the bullshit ACORN has pulled. Pay no attention to their contribution to the housing fiasco. Pay no attention to Jimmy Carter and the democratic congress' MAJOR contribution to this clusterfuck through CRA, nor to Mr. Raines, a Carter advisor close to CRI, Clinton's U.S. Office of Management and Budget chief when the administration started aggressively enforcing compliance while Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought bundled mortgages they knew were bad then proceeded to sell them to other countries. Ignore that Raines is a very tight Obama insider who was in charge of the VP selection team, who walked way from the meltdown at Freddie Mac with a $91.1 million dollar wad of cash, many millions of which were gained through cooking the books. Forget that ACORN was in the thick of it, with Obama as their legal counsel.

What a moronic bunch of propaganda from FTR. But then that's all he knows.



You need to school me on your new formula for drawing data across extensive periods of time, stringing those events together with insignificant amounts of capital too explain a multi-trillion dollar problem because neither my staff or the firms we work with have been able to describe the problem with such succinctness and absolutely devoid of understanding.

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