Concern trolling ACORN = racism. Period.
I’m constantly amazed by the capacity of the right wing to obsess over matters they know nothing about. The best way to understand this phenom, particularly in this election, is to figure out what dog whistle they are trying to blow, and there’s your answer.
ACORN is a perfect example. Never heard of ACORN before this year? Neither did they. Until they saw this.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.
BLACK PEOPLE! AH HAAAAA! Now that’s something the right wing can sink their teeth into. Just scroll through ACORN’s site – black people everywhere!
I’ve worked with ACORN in the past, mainly on voter registration efforts, and I can tell you with total confidence that these are very good people. They are committed activists, in their own communities, they work hard, and they are aggressive organizers. And yes, their staff is largely African-American, mainly because ACORN is what community activism should aspire to be – local, with local ownership of their destiny.
Unless, of course, you’re a bigot.
Front page Metro section, above the fold, today’s PD.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has turned in at least 65,000 cards to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in the last year. The board has investigated potentially fraudulent cards since August….Cuyahoga election workers flagged about 50 names on suspicious cards.
FIFTY cards. Out of 65,000.
For comparison, I have probably downed at least 65,000 beers in my life. I think I spilled a little down my shirt 50 times. Probably more. You, dear reader, have probably done the same.
In fact, in every PD, there are corrections. I doubt it would take 65,000 stories in the PD to tally up 50 corrections.
If you did ANYTHING 65,000 times, you’d screw it up at least 50 times.
But if you are BLACK, and a BLACK ORGANIZATION, registering BLACK VOTERS, if you screw up 50 voter registration forms, Terrence Egger puts you at the top of his priority list.
So when you read all this ACORN concern trolling from the usual suspects, just remember that.
Tags: acorn cleveland, acorn ohio, acorn voter registration, egger, pd
October 8th, 2008 at 10:18 am
.07%
Again, Honda would call this “zero error rate”. GM would call it unattainable.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I worked for ACORN in MPLS/StPaul. Spent most of my time organizing communities against crime and uneven/arbitrary enforcement of housing codes. Also spent a fair amount of time selling chicken dinners to area businesses to help pay office salaries. We were a dedicated staff of about six who worked our asses off to make sure low and moderate income people felt empowered to make positive changes in their neighborhoods.
Whenever I see MSM coverage of ACORN (almost every election cycle anymore), it makes me wonder what organization they are talking about.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:14 am
The only racism present here is that of the blogger. Period. As usual, once anyone is criticized for anything who is black, the screams of racism and injustice begin long before an analysis of the facts. In just one state alone of the many in which there have been indictments, Missouri, there were 1492 fraudulent voter registrations. If these are innocent mistakes, then why did Acorn fire the people responsible?
Stop spreading misinformation to promote your agenda. If you want to give your opinion on something, do it on something factual and spare us the race card.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Yo Bob,
You have to look at things in historical context. Racism is about power, and whites are in power. I guarantee you it’s not a black man who is racing the scream about fraud. If you are going to look at one party’s registration roll, look at both equally and see how many you find in both.
Why did Acorn fire the people responsible, because that is the job of the organization – when people violate the rules of the job, they get fired. That Bob was the right thing to do, and makes Acorn correct in their actions. We all know there was fraud in play by Republicans during the Gore election, heck I used to be a Republican until I saw all of what they resorted to, and until I started evaluating and critically thinking with my my own eyes and brain, and not what I was just being fed. That’s when your eyes really open up.
The fact is the fact, going after racial minorities is a sign of racism. White men still give white women less pay and make derogatory comments behind their backs. That’s still harassment, or a form of harassment when you really think about it. It’s just the context in which it plays out has changed.
There are always going to be people who try to cheat. It doesn’t necessarily make an organization bad, it only makes the person bad.
But let’s clear something up – when whites in power go after a specific demographic, blacks, then it is racism. It’s just not about drinking out of the same water fountain or where someone sits on the bus anymore.
Start your critical thinking with that, and maybe your eyes will open up too.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
So Tim, are we supposed to look away and ignore when an organization is violating federal election and labor laws, just because a lot of African Americans are involved? I think not! African Americans should be required to follow the laws in the same way as all U.S. citizens are required to do so. Are you enabling dysfunction because you sympathize with dysfunctional individuals like yourself or are you simply ready and willing to violate the law for whatever desire or cause you decide is OK to skirt the law?
October 9th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
This seems to be about duplicate voter registration applications. It’s worth noting that duplicate registrations do not equal multiple votes per person. And there don’t seem to be any allegations of actual vote fraud, or plans to commit it.
Breaking the law is bad, but let’s put it in perspective. I recently moved to California. My wife tried to register three times before her registration got into the system, with the result that she had to cast a provisional vote in the primary. It shouldn’t be that hard.
We’re facing a perverse reality: Our voting system is not designed to work when all eligible voters actually register and vote.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Bob and Abbey,
Why even bother to comment when you clearly don’t understand the original post in any sort of national context? The number of errors discovered in Acorn’s efforts constitutes .076% of the number of voters registered. Mathematically, that’s a ZERO error rate. That error rate would fall well within the range of human errors that could arise from mistakes like, say, typos or misspellings.
So please, please try to calm your own racial biases. It doesn’t mean that the Black organization was skirting the rules, Abbey. It means that the Black organization was nearly FLAWLESS in its registration practices.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Bob and Abbey,
See how nice you are treated here. Notice there was no name calling. No shouting. Now, go over to some of the right-wing blogs where comments from outsiders are not immediately deleted and notice the hate toward the left-wing posters. This contrast should tell you something about your movement.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
To all, including the creator of bloggerinterrupted:
I disagree about ACORN being treated the way they were because of the race of most of the people working/volunteering for them. I heard about this before most, and I actually did research on ACORN, including going onto ACORN’s website. Nowhere do they mention the race of most of their volunteers or workers. I wasn’t even aware of the fact that most of the ACORN members were black until I read this blog. I seem to think that the race card was only brought up now, in this blog and by those defending ACORN, as a means of trying to hurt those who disagree with what ACORN did. Sort of shoving the race issue into those who seem to be racist (and some, if not most, may very well be). However, it’s not just those who are right wing that now disagree with ACORN. There are tons of people, including moderates and those who don’t affiliate themselves with a party or specific line of thought, who now disagree with ACORN and their actions.
Now, let’s put some things into perspective. As of now, there are 50 false voter registrations and votes for Obama. Not that there are just 50, but that as of now, which is just a few days into this, there are only 50. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t more. Also, this was no “error” on ACORN’s part. Someone (or a few) actually fraudulently tried to register the players of a football team (the Dallas Cowboys) and cast fake votes for Obama.
I’d like to say one thing more, and this applies to all sides. I believe that in order to effectively get people into politics, when they go to register to vote, the people who are trying to get them to register to vote should not show any affiliation– at all– to any of the candidates running. Perhaps those who registered with ACORN decided later on to change their minds and not vote for Obama because now they have more evidence. What can be done? Nothing. The vote is already cast.
Suppose the same exact scenario happened with McCain or an Independent. The people registering to vote were of low-income and had the choice to vote for McCain on the spot, as they registered to vote. (Please don’t think about political parties or political ideologies right now. Think of all the candidates as the same.) Then, suppose, there was deliberate fraud of making up false registrations and votes for McCain or another candidate, or the people who already voted for McCain on the spot decided to change their minds about who to vote for? In all honesty, would you feel the same way about the situation? I can hope you would, and you may reply and say that you would, but would you? Most wouldn’t.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:06 am
If the average person had been drinking beer for twenty years they’d have to drink 8.9 beers each and every one of those days. If you had indeed downed 65000 beers in your life I’d expect you to have spilled a few more than 50.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Just to update– the number is now well above 50, because someone registered themselves to vote and voted for Obama 72 times in return for money and cigarettes.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Soji,
If a nation that consisted mostly of blacks with a government that had mostly blacks did this to a candidate that was white, would that be considered racism?
October 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I hate Acorn. I went in for an interview to work for those people and found myself in a verbal fight with Kris. It started because of him, he told me that their goal is to go out in the community and anger people into action. Knock on doors, follow people until they listen. I told him that I did not agree with that strategy, thats when he started to swear at me and tell me I was stupid. Stupid?? really, thats such an intelligent comment. ACORN is a horrible organization, I enjoy watching their credibility disappear because of the voter fraud. and Im a Democrat!!
October 17th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Leave it to the Republicans to try to make an organization, whose goal is to register poor people to vote, into a group that is trying to bring about the downfall of democracy.
50 out of 65,000, give me a break, even if it were 650, out of 65,000, we would only be talking about a 1% error rate, and even if it were intentional it is hard to imagine that being a worse strike on democracy than the actions of the south after the civil war.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:32 am
S:
You do not know what you are talking about. Try getting some facts instead of quoting from Faux News and their counterparts.
Here ya go:
There are about 80 cards with multiple registrations out of 65,000 that ACORN submitted in Cuyahoga County. Multiple registrations – this means that someone registered to vote more than once, but that they can still only vote ONCE.
… the guy that registered over 70 times – he registered 17 times with ACORN, and the rest with other organizations, including the DMV, the Public Library, the Elections Board offices, … with the SAME INFORMATION – the guy hasn’t even voted yet … no matter how many times he registers (remember, this is a nineteen-year-old kid who has never voted before) – he can only vote ONCE. I don’t see anyone hauling librarians in to ask THEM why they didn’t catch that he registered more than once with them.
Multiple registrations do NOT equal multiple votes. By law, ALL voter registration cards with information MUST be handed in to the Board of Elections, even if someone started to fill one out, stopped and said, “Hmmm…I messed up, let me fill in another one”. If ACORN flags problem cards BEFORE giving them to the Board of Elections (as is done), and the Board of Elections ignores it and tries to process them with the good registrations – WHOSE fault is it? Hmmm…
Let’s see…ACORN helps voters register and update their voter registrations – Republican, Democrat, Independent. This work is performed by neighborhood residents, a very few who decide that they don’t want to earn their hourly wage and try to defraud their employer by taking the lazy way out. ACORN’s quality control catches these registrations, any workers caught doing this are fired, and the registrations in question are given to the Board of Elections in a separate pile marked “problematic”. ACORN also informs the Board that they will provide any and all information on these workers in the event of prosecution or investigation.
Of 1.3 MILLION registration cards submitted by ACORN nationwide in the past year, less than 1/10th of 1% have been problematic.
A Republican group out of Las Vegas is currently under investigation because they THREW OUT (into the GARBAGE) registrations of anyone that registered Democrat. We don’t see THAT on the news, do we?
SO, let’s talk about the REAL issue here, and I don’t think it’s necessarily just about race. It’s about socioeconomic status. In our “classless” society, the poor and working-class have been largely unrepresented. They don’t usually vote, because their lives are consumed merely with surviving and they haven’t felt that anyone could change anything for them anyway. Young voters, while very ideological in their rhetoric, do not seem to take much part in the voting process either. This year, these same people are coming out in record numbers to register and attempt to vote. They are going to come out in droves; if they have to take the day off work to stand in the inevitably long lines that will exist at their polling places and bring folding chairs, they will be there. If they have to cast provisional ballots because somehow their names were culled from the registration lists, they will do so. If they have to send for takeout pizza while they are waiting because they’re starting to get hungry after 2 or 3 hours, they will do so and have the Domino’s guy deliver it to them in line.
That’s a pretty scary thought to ANY politician who hasn’t been speaking to THEIR needs – and after the past 8 years, there are a lot more than there were before. People like me, who used to be a help desk technician, making a decent living, ‘downsized’,and now finding that most of those jobs have been sent overseas so someone can make $3 an hour from their house providing “support”, all due to tax policies that actually reward companies for sending our jobs overseas. I didn’t take all of those classes to find myself without a steady job for two years with two children to take care of pretty much on my own.
It’s time for the promise of the American Dream to actually have a chance of fulfillment – the American Dream that as long as you are willing to work hard, be thrifty, and dedicate yourself to your goals – that you should be able to live in a decent neighborhood, drive a decent car, have decent, affordable, benefits, keep food in your refrigerator, and pay your basic bills with some left over for savings, church offerings, or to go out to a mid-priced restaurant once in a while.
If you have never lived in poverty, have never lost your job and found that there aren’t any jobs out there that will pay your rent, have never skipped meals so your children could eat (even if you are working hard 40 hours a week at a low-wage job) … you wouldn’t understand.
This is a time for regular people to make their voices heard – and no matter how hard anyone else tries, by any method of voter suppression that they can think of, I think and feel and hope that they will be heard loudly, clearly, and resoundingly.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Cuyahoga election workers count the what? And determine who does what? And are registered what party?
Ask Uncle Joe.
Do you need a quote?
Yes of course!
.07%!
Their total IQ combined minus 130 points.
What about the 19%?
What about the 96th percentile?
You’re not doing the math.
Still, IB, you are forgiven.
Living in your parent’s house after the “high on the hog” Clinton years must be your own personal Hell.
Don’t worry.
Come “The Progressive World of This Tuesday™” Obama will redeem you.
*…sorry for the “hog” reference. If sny ROP bloggers are offended, write and complain to Keith Ellison.
Then again, maybe not.
Sharpest tongue? And the biggest snowcones! LOL!
October 30th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Dear author of this blog,
You accuse Republicans of “hating black people” without justification. This implies that the Republicans in question are by nature of some other racial makeup than the “blacks” you mention. By doing so, you make conscious discretion between one race and other race(s) in a visibly prejudiced way. Let me break that down for you:
You are a racist.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:21 am
So if you disagree with ACORNHOLE (Agitating Communists Organizing Retarded Numbskulls Hijacking Ohio’s Legal Election) that makes you a racist.
OK, with that logic, if you hate the late (thank God) John Wayne Gacy and what he did to little boys that makes you a Clownaphobe. Down with the racist Clownaphobes! Wait a minute, wasn’t he a friend of Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. Alright, nevermind. He was a good Democrat.
http://www.strangepolice.com/content/item/126771.html
Yes! By all means get your Thug Thizzel on!
Keep on contributing Doodad Pro and Mr. Good Will.
Three cheers for U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus!
What a novel idea. Use a park bench for a legal address. How about a passing cloud as an address? Why not? The sky is the limit when it comes to Democrat approved fraud.
Yes, this the “finest blog” when it comes to double standards and outright moonbat lunacy.
February 8th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Waiting on ACORN to start organizing voter reg. in predom. white lower income areas that usually vote republican. Not gonna happen. Tx ACORN for helping create this housing mess by harrassing banks to lend to those who have shown no dicipline in any area of their lives. “GIMMIE A HOUSE, GIMMIE A JOB (Gov one of course)GIMMIE FOOD, GIMMIE MED CARE. Bob n Abby, dont you know only WHITE MALES can be racists n bigots. (See how Soji shows her “concern” for white women to antagonize, typical ACORN tactic…”Were on your side, look how the white men have abused you too. Your one of us.” Bob, white folk like you are why 15% of the population commit 80% of the crime. Drugs, poverty and single mothers amoungst minorities. Ask SOJI she will expand your mind so u can see this clearly. Why heck,it would be only fair if you give all your belongings, job, business etc to the next minority you meet. Make sure you apologize for being a white male first.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
i couldnt believe this when i read it
July 29th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Though many who work for ACORN have good hearts and good intentions, they are the most gullable and easy to deceive. People like Rathke love you guys because you are so easy to con.
Yes, ACORN was meant to help better communities but the fact is, they are being used to launder money and cause racial conflicts between people. When you see college students being told by ACORN to vote twice, once in home towm and once at college, when you see Mickey Mouse on voter registration (which ACORN gets paid for voter registration and not for the actual vote, when you see people from their own organization asking for the books to be made public, when thugs stand outside of places to vote in a threatening manner….. there is a problem.
Unfortunately those with good hearts and poor ability to see who is taking atvantage of them are at the mercy of the organization.
The ACORN tree will be uprooted, but will probably sprout a new one under a different name. There is way to much money to be lost by those who run this very corrupt organization. But the American watchdogs will be all over them again. Someone has to try to protect the sheep that are being led to slaughter by ACORN.