ACORN stuff.

William Brafford

William Brafford grew up in North Carolina, home of the world's best barbecue, indie rock, and regional soft drinks. He just barely sustains a personal blog and "tweets" every now and then under the name @williamrandolph.

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26 Responses

  1. EngineerScotty says:

    Why is ACORN even relevant, other than as a bogeyman in an Obama-was-fraudulently-elected conspiracy theory?Report

  2. Zach says:

    The only thing I really have to say about this is that the two people in Baltimore were either just fooling around (which should still be a firing offense given criticism of their organization) or they’re the two stupidest people in Baltimore. Odds of those two being mistaken for actual sex workers in Baltimore by anyone other than Johns Hopkins freshman: zero.Report

    • William Brafford in reply to Zach says:

      Yeah, I’m with you there. It’s just — you’d think they’d stop fooling around after a certain point… but they just keep going. It’s weird.Report

  3. Will says:

    Quick thought – it occurs to me that this story would have gained more traction sooner if movement outlets hadn’t been howling about Cass Sunstein and other ridiculous subjects for the past month or two. Crying wolf has its downsides.Report

    • Michael Drew in reply to Will says:

      Also if they hadn’t already demonized ACORN before they had the goods, making the (ill-gotten) goods irrelevant when they finally got their hands on them, because no one’s listening to what they Right has to say about ACORN at this point anyway, since they’ve sounded unhinged on the subject for most of a year now.Report

  4. Bob Cheeks says:

    Wasn’t His Magnificence some sort of official or trainer or lawyer, mouth-piece for ACORN? Does anyone know if he’s involved in any of the corruption? How much did the commie-dems allocate in the ‘stimulus’ bill for ACORN. Should the commie-dems be impeached if they knew that ACORN is corrupt?Report

    • William Brafford in reply to Bob Cheeks says:

      In order: lawyer, I don’t know, I don’t know, if they knew of specific illegal activities their constituents should vote them out.

      (In my opinion, Mr. Cheeks, “His Magnificence” and “commie-dems” aren’t helpful phrases. They make it harder for me to have a conversation. Just saying.)Report

      • Bob Cheeks in reply to William Brafford says:

        William, thank you for your kind response. Re: my less than helpful phrases, I do apologize, but I do love to come here and vent/rant, it helps the digestion. In the future I’ll leave my smart assed comments for E.D. who I love as a son and Freddie who is sensitive, concerned, and a damn good Democrat.Report

    • Jay P in reply to Bob Cheeks says:

      Obama was a junior attorney at a law firm representing a client and ACORN in a case against Citibank in chicago over redlining.Report

    • ChrisWWW in reply to Bob Cheeks says:

      Yes. We should impeach Obama over his ties to ACORN. Meanwhile, the warrantless spying and torture ordered by the former President should be applauded.

      This world makes no sense to me.Report

  5. E.D. Kain says:

    I’d say we’re way past making excuses for ACORN at this point. Writing this off as people just “playing around” won’t do anybody any good. I don’t buy it. And there’s footage from several ACORN offices, regardless.

    Great post, William. I think you’re right – this does deserve the scrutiny of real, practiced journalists who can frame this in a larger narrative. And Jon Stewart is also right – where the hell were they?

    (Will – also a good point. Unintended consequences of silly behavior, I guess…)Report

  6. JosephFM says:

    Speaking as someone who has had very close friends work for them last year…all of this really bothers me.

    That said, if someone offered to pay you to do something you wanted to do anyway (like help people register to vote), wouldn’t you take it? Especially if you were a poor student?Report

  7. Kevin says:

    Media matters (consider the source) is saying that Fox may have been punked by Acorn. If that is the case, and they were really just catching Fox in a smear, then it would make sense to me as to why they kept going with the joke. When I heard the tape on John Stewart I found it pretty astonishing myself.Report

    • William Brafford in reply to Kevin says:

      I think it was just the last video that was supposed to be a punking, where the woman told a story about killing her husband. The ex-husband in question so far appears to be alive.Report

  8. Bob Cheeks says:

    Ya lost my ‘comment,’ never happened here before!
    Anyway, does anyone know Obama’s specific connection to this criminal organization?
    Does this mean The Enlightened One will be impeached for carousing with a criminal organization?
    How much money did the Commie-Dems give ACORN in the stimulus bill?
    Do you guys think ACORN should be prosecuted, or should it just go away? I here the stoopid Republicrats knew of this business via the banking system. Why didn’t the mainstream media investigate this criminal/political enterprise? Glenn Beck, entertainer, is a better journalist than the entire NBC staff.Report

  9. Jay P says:

    While I agree that investigations and scrutiny are necessary at this point, I think its unfair to claim the media “dropped the ball” on this particular scandal. Why on earth would any media outlet suspect that ACORN of helping prostitutes and pimps cheat on their tax forms? There was no prior evidence of that happening that would justify an in-depth investigation. Also, consider the video’s author’s main reason for the prank on ACORN was to “Expose Liberal hypocrisy” (his words). This was not investigative journalism; though they definitely struck gold.Report

    • William Brafford in reply to Jay P says:

      I didn’t mean to claim that the media dropped the ball, even though that’s what John Stewart said. It seems like the story crossed over at about the right time, once it was clear that there were several videos and not just an isolated fluke. The difference between what O’Keefe did and what I consider to be professional journalism was part of what I was trying to get at towards the end of the post.Report