ACORN

I was just watching the video of ACORN employees helping a supposed pimp and his hooker and how easily fraudulent it might be.

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UOL9Jh61S8&feature=related

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgqORp48uik&feature=related

Only once does someone on-screen - an ACORN employee - mention any kind of sex work: "Don't call yourself a prostitute." All of the talk involving sex workers comes from the pimp, whom you never actually see. Basically you can take this video and replace his dialogue to make it sound as it probably was: the film-makers posing as a stripper and friend. They also get advice on an unlikely situation of their being in a house that's taking in 13 children from El Salvador, and some of the advice raises questions, but still might actually all be legal. The final segment has them discussing avoiding what sounds like a previous pimp, but instead was probably them giving advice on avoiding a menacing ex-boyfriend, etc. Of course the video's editing is very choppy.

The idea of ACORN employees calmly giving advice to a pimp and hooker importing 13 children from El Salvador to serve in a prostitution ring seems a bit ridiculous. The idea of Republicans wanting to destroy ACORN by whatever creative means necessary seems... well, it's not just likely, it's true. ACORN registers scads of people to vote in urban areas. If all they did was their other activities - finding poor people affordable housing, education, understanding government services and accessing existing government assistance, they wouldn't be such a threat. But registering poor people to vote is what has always required they be crushed.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACORN#2009:_Undercover_videos_controversy

A spokesman accused O'Keefe of dubbing the audio on the videos.[60] Tresa Kaelke, one of the ACORN organizers interviewed, states she believed the actors were joking and made a variety of absurd or joking statements to them;[61][62] another interviewed employee, Juan Carlos Vera, contacted a police officer after the incident.[63] ACORN fired the Baltimore employees, but also called the first video "false", "defamatory", and stated that undercover teams had failed in similar attempts elsewhere.[64][65] On September 16, 2009, ACORN suspended advising new clients and began an internal review process, headed by Scott Harshbarger, due to "the indefensible action of a handful of [ACORN] employees".

The whole issue is being investigated by the Brooklyn DA (ACORN is based in NYC) and ACORN is suing the filmmakers, but meanwhile they're getting funding cut left and right, and their name is now used just as easily as "socialism" and "Obamacare" and "Michael Moore" to incite fear and loathing. I'm always in love with Rachel Maddow for her ongoing coverage of all of this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/