I've long been amused by the GOP's hatred of ACORN. You don't remember what ACORN
is was? Well, here is a description of that now-defunct organization (via
Wonkette):
ACORN was a community organizing group that became the locus of phantasmically baroque conspiracy theorizing in the build-up to the 2008 presidential election, first by the usual sad idiots, but inevitably by the seemingly rational journalists who must cover the sad idiots to pay their mortgages. ACORN attracted this negative attention, in part, because of its large and effective voter registration drives, which enfranchised record numbers of minority and low-income voters, who are demographically likely to vote for Democratic Party candidates. The sad idiots believed there was a collusion scheme between ACORN and a former employee of the group, who happened to be that year’s Democratic Presidential candidate: a ferocious IRA terrorist-sympathizer named Barrance Hussein O’Malley.
In reality, ACORN’s decades-long campaigns to raise the minimum wage and their battles against predatory lenders had simply invited the animus of powerful business interests—who fund the media activities of sad idiots and rule the planet for like-minded reptilianoid pedophile Illuminatus from the 4th Dimension.
In short, the Republicans hated ACORN, so much so that conservative activist James O'Keefe actually dressed up like a pimp and walked into an ACORN office in order to secretly film the group's employees giving advice on how to avoid legal consequences from an imaginary scheme involving tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution (no, I am not making this up).
When O'Keefe's efforts failed to film these employees making incriminating statements, he did some selective editing of the video in order to make it appear that ACORN was engaging in criminal activity, and Fox "News" and other GOP propaganda outlets dutifully ran the story. Due to this and other bullshittery, ACORN filed for bankruptcy in 2010, and the organization's existence came to an end as a result.
But the mere fact that ACORN
actually ceased to exist did little to slake the GOP's thirst for vengeance against this particular evil-doer. In fact, Republican hatred for ACORN remains so intense that the GOP
continues its attempt to defund it, even though the group disbanded years ago:
A new short-term budget bill introduced on Monday by House Republicans includes a bizarre provision banning federal funding to anti-poverty group ACORN, despite the fact that the group has already been stripped of federal funding -- and has been defunct for nearly three years.
Anyway, I guess that, since the remains of this organization aren't physically buried six feet under somewhere, this is the closest the GOP can come to pissing on ACORN's grave. Or maybe Republicans just want to send a signal to any group that might have the gall to push for a higher minimum wage or [
gasp!] try to get more minority and low-income voters to the polls.
But as funny as that whole thing is, its hilarity pales in comparison to the fact that the aforementioned O'Keefe just agreed to pay one of the ACORN employees he secretly filmed
the sum of $100,000 in order to settle a lawsuit. Hunter at Daily Kos
explains it this way:
[H]ead tape-faker James O'Keefe, he of the pimp outfit and the heavily edited video clips accusing ACORN employees of everything from tax fraud to assisting in imaginary child prostitution rings, has agreed to settle a lawsuit by one of those employees for the not-insubstantial sum of $100,000. ***
Juan Carlos Vera was one of the ACORN employees secretly filmed by O'Keefe and an accomplice as they pretended to ask advice on how best to hide their imaginary child prostitution ring or some such. O'Keefe edited the tape to make Vera appear to be sympathetic to their queries; unbeknownst to the tapers, however, Vera afterwards had immediately contacted police to report the possible "human smuggling." ACORN employees in other offices also either contacted police or found their story to be so obviously ridiculous as to be an obvious scam. Nonetheless, O'Keefe's edited, Breitbart-peddled tape made quite the splash in the media, with O'Keefe donning a "pimp" costume to conduct interviews as to how the nasty advocates for the poor were really criminal masterminds.
That the tape was faked, however, didn't matter: Vera lost his job as a result of the tape and surrounding media hoopla.
This whole thing reminds me of the OJ Simpson situation -- it took awhile, but at least a little bit of justice has finally been done. And although I can't wait to see it, I have a feeling I'll be waiting a very long time for Fox News' report on this settlement.
