The investigative journalism of James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles has opened yet another chapter in the corruption-tinged history of ACORN. For most Americans, ACORN is a political organization, running voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote efforts at election-time. With a rather alarming regularity, the pop into the news cycle with allegations of fraudulent voter registrations and, even, voter fraud.
No doubt, the recent undercover videos from ACORN Housing offices in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and, now, New York, are shocking. I’m a long-time observer of ACORNapalooza, and I found myself in stunned, silent disbelief as the interviews unfolded. It wasn’t just the subject-matter. No, it was the fact that not one ACORN employee seemed to even flinch when presented with the ridiculous scenario of a pimp and a prostitute trying to get a mortgage to house a dozen or so underage El Salvadoran child-prostitutes. They just oozed seamlessly into conjecture about whether or not a child prostitute could be considered a “dependent” for tax purposes. What do these employees hear on a daily basis that this scenario was just another problem that needed fixing?
But even these videos, no matter how disturbing, are just part of the ACORN story. As, too, is the pattern of problems with the voter registration system. This past weekend, Brandon Darby discussed his experience with ACORN when he was coordinating relief in post-Katrina New Orleans. ACORN saw New Orleans as their “turf” and targeted Brandon and his colleagues, trying to intimidate them to either submit to their “leadership” or leave. This is a pattern readers of Big Government will soon hear more about.
In fact, in the coming days, you’ll learn a lot about the full ACORN story. It is an amazing story, in its own way. After waiting years for the mainstream media to finally peel back the ACORN layers, Big Government will have to take it upon itself to do so.
To start this, we are publishing an internal quasi-employee manual Big Government has obtained. Given to all ACORN employees, it isn’t your normal manual. It doesn’t discuss things like sick leave or vacation time, but, rather, as the title states, the “Principles and Foundations of ACORN.” How an organization communicates with the public is important. How it communicates to its own employees, however, provides a richer understanding of an organization’s nature.
The whole thing is worth a read. I draw your attention to just one sentence (ACORN emphasizes it with italics):
ACORN’s lifeblood is conflicts with targets outside the organization.
Think about that. ACORN’s lifeblood isn’t empowering disadvantaged communities nor lifting people out of poverty. It isn’t concerned about increasing economic growth to improve the lives of its members. It’s lifeblood is conflict. Conflict with targets. It actually thinks of the world outside itself as targets.
It explains a lot:
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.