So it seems that one of the Washington, DC offices of ACORN was not one of the offices where “this film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed.” This morning on BigGovernment.com O’Keefe sprung his next surprise on ACORN. Having successfully gotten advice on how to start an international child prostitution ring from the Baltimore office, they move to DC and upped the ante. This time James said he was planning to use Hannah’s “profits” to run for Congress. Once again, the ACORN employees didn’t bat an eye that he was asking for help getting a mortgage to establish his brothel. In fact, I’d say the ACORN employees in DC upped the outrage because unlike their partners in DC, they insisted that James tell them that she was a prostitute before proceeding to explain how to circumvent laws. The ease with which they explain that Hannah turning tricks “just a business” suggests to me that they do this so frequently they have lost any sense of right or wrong, the only thing they care about is figuring out how to ’stick it to man.’

Meanwhile ACORN has fired the two people from Baltimore, because they “did not meet ACORN’s standards of professionalism.” So Beck’s supposition on his program yesterday was correct. “They’ll definitely fire these two women,” he said as he dramatically crumpled a piece of paper and threw it away. But the context in which he said it is even more important:

Let me make one thing clear: This is not about these two women at ACORN. If the media does what they did to Van Jones, the real message will be lost. It’s not about these women — not even ACORN.

It’s about the power behind ACORN. The power of Wade Rathke. He and his brother run, out of New Orleans, ACORN and SEIU. Those two organizations are in the inner circle of the president of the United States.

They’ll shut ACORN down if they have to. They’ll definitely fire these two women. But this is a shell game: Rathke will just keep doing the same thing under something else.

This is about who the president surrounds himself with.

from ACORN Corruption Caught on Tape

I can feel corruption fatigue starting to set in already, but there’s more. Last night on Beck’s show Hannah started to tell her part of the story. Yesterday most of the focus was on James, and by some postings it sounded like it was his idea. But while they are full partners in the project, she was the one with the ridiculous idea that started it. Armed only with the idea, she called James, and as he immediately recognized its genius, he jumped on it. Today she expanded on it, once again on BigGovernment.com. Please check out her story as well. She wants to be a journalist (her words, not mine; I’d be more inclined to call what she wants to do reporting, or possibly muckraking, but then I rank journalists as a regression past the most primitive form of life) and if she can produce something like this so early in her career, we should all try to see that she is a successful one. I think her best lines are:

We connected with these people on a level they were comfortable with. We came off as troubled, torn, innovative and devoted individuals who couldn’t skirt the system unless the system helped us along our journey.

Our presence screamed, as James puts it, “unique situation.” And so when we sought council in regards to tax evasion, obtaining a house for use as an underage brothel, the avoidance of an abusive pimp, and establishing illegitimate congressional campaign funds, they were ready and unfazed by the direction our conversation took.

James and I saw the ACORN Housing location in Baltimore as a target–the den of a giant corrupt lion. We wanted to get a reaction and gauge the corruption. We came armed with the things necessary to cause a reaction; we came equipped with the things necessary to capture the reaction.

Meanwhile the MSM (or State Controlled Media as Rush likes to call them) used this as their leads across the board right? Nope, cue the crickets instead. At 3:42 PM today I ran a Google search that reported 59 hits for “ACORN prostitution” out of the big three only ABC had a story, and it’s not clear they ran anything on tv. Note their closing paragraph:

We’ve learned the pair tried to pull off the same undercover act at ACORN offices in LA, New York and Philadelphia but were turned away. Merchant-Jones admits it looks bad for Baltimore, so employees will work harder to enforce their own policies. As for the taping, it is illegal in Maryland to record someone’s voice without his or her permission so acorn may be pursing legal action.

Way to stand up for the People’s Right Need to Know, eh?

Meanwhile over at CNN, they did their best job to cover for The Big 0’s water carriers. They trotted out the ever handy adverb “allegedly” to modify their description of statements that are clearly made on the audio, then follow it up by prominently quoting an ACORN official:

Sonja Merchant-Jones, chair of Baltimore City ACORN, told CNN affiliate WMAR-TV that the fired workers were seasonal, part-time employees and that no senior ACORN staff members were in the building at the time the film was made.

You know, the “What me worry?” shtick might work in Mad Magazine but it is a poor response for a non-profit corporation slated to get 7-9 billion dollars from the government, and which is suppose to be playing a major roll in collecting data for the next census. There should be some serious cross-examination of the people offering such a lame excuse.

But CNN wasn’t quite finished yet. It seems that after their lame coverage, they decided to ask James to appear for one of their shows. Needless to say, he was not amused, and like me does not tolerate fools gladly. He has posted his response at BigGovernment.com and Rush read it on his broadcast this afternoon (heard in the car as I was on my way back from getting supplies for tomorrow’s 9/12 March). In it, he thew down the gauntlet, although I expect we will again hear only crickets in response:

Now that ACORN lied to you, Jonathan Klein, what are you going to do?

Maybe Democrat Presidents should stop lying to the American people. It seems to be setting a universally bad precedent.

Update 9/11/2009 10:30 pm Shortly after Beck’s program was over, Fox News announced that the Census Bureau has sent official letters to ACORN national headquarters and the appropriate Congressional committees stating that ACORN will not be involved in any 2010 census activities.

—————

Yes, after yesterday my outrage is again finding words that while not fully adequate, at least begin to convey its full fury.

H/T Moe, who posted before me today.

This interesting headline comes to us by way of Andrew Breitbart who started BigGovernment.com today. The lead story on the site is by an enterprising young film student named James O’Keefe, whom he describes as “Morley Safer meets Sacha Baron Cohen.”  Mr. O’Keefe partnered with an actress and went to visit an ACORN housing assistance office in Baltimore, MD. Mr. O’Keefe plays the roll of a pimp, and the actress accompanying him plays the roll of one of his underage prostitutes. They ask for assistance getting a home loan, and for information about how to classify themselves on tax forms so they can maximize the money they are making. Mr. O’Keefe makes it clear that he is running a house of prostitution, specializing in Salvadoran teens in the age ranges of 13-15. The ACORN people never bat an eye about his “business” and helpfully suggest that he classify himself as a “performing arts” business, suggesting that they should be able to write off somewhere between $7,000 and $9,000 a year.

Mr. O’Keefe’s article includes links to the full audio and a typed transcript of the exchange. You really need to watch the video to get the full impact, and as today is their first day, it seems appropriate to drive traffic to their site rather than simply link to the YouTube clips.

It isn’t often I fail to come up with words that properly convey my level of disgust and contempt for our alleged custodians of the public good, but this is one of them. Fox News is all over this one this morning. I expect Glen Beck will be all over it tonight, as his teaser last night suggested he had already seen previews of the tape.

Update 9/10/2009 6:35 PM

Glen Beck had O’Keefe’s associate on his program tonight

Her name is Hannah and she is a 20 year old journalism student. According to her statements during the program, it was her idea for the script. She called O’Keefe and they worked for 6 weeks planning how they were going to do it. When Glen Beck asked her who funded her (one his current schticks mocking astroturfing charges) she said “I drained my saving account to do the project.” She clarified that her account only covered her costs and O’Keefe covered his costs from his own funding.

Also, they had Judge Andrew Napolitano on. Beck had copies of the tape on Saturday and asked the judge to review it in preparation for tonight’s broadcast. Judge Napolitano rattled off 8 or 9 charges that he thought could be prosecuted, noting that since ACORN gets federal funding, they could be tried in Federal Courts. He also said each of the charges carried a penalty of up to 5 years in prison.

Update 9/11/2009 Wrote a better diary today with lots of updated information.

[9/10/09 10:46 AM corrected, spelling of last name]

Update: Beck is reporting Cloture passed with 63 votes in favor. So who are we sending the electronic stink bombs to?

They haven’t voted yet, so if you’ve got a Senator that can be moved, CALL NOW!

When I am upset and passionate, well it hurts when a gadfly bites. And I have generally been very upset with what I regard as the general and ubiquitous incompetence shown by most of the National Republican Campaign Committees. You’ll note the new modifier: “most.”

At the Red State gathering in Atlanta Georgia this past weekend just by chance I happened to sit at the table where John Randall was eating lunch. I listened to what he had to say, and since I’m generally anonymous, he didn’t know who I am (not that I’m important enough to know in the first place) or things I might have written at Red State. He talked passionately about beating the Democrats and taking back the House. He spoke knowledgeably about races without notes. Later at his public address he repeated some of those same things and said some things that tell me that he, and the NRCC get it. It looks like Moe just posted a link to his public speech, so I’ll just highlight a few things John said that I like (some may have been during lunch):

• He wants a Republican majority in the House next year. He doesn’t care if you don’t give to the NRCC as long as you do donate to Republicans in races against Democrats.

• He thinks the NRCC needs to be an echo chamber for the grassroots, not the other way around.

• He’ll consider himself to have accomplished one of his key jobs when Nancy Pelosi starts having nightmares about what John Randall at the NRCC is going to do to her today.

As John was rushing off to on Sunday morning, I promised him my first post on RedState would be an apology for my earlier statements. I spent about 45 minutes trying to find the most egregious one I know I have made, but was unable to locate it*, so I’m leaving the apology here. I’m including Neil because he did attempt to defend the NRCC. When we are wrong, it is important to acknowledge that we have been wrong, and then attempt to make restitution for that wrong. And on this count, I was wrong. Ordinarily, this would be followed by me sending my standard $25.00 off to a worthwhile cause, but as I was laid-off last Monday it would be irresponsible for me to do that today. I will commit to doing so after I have again found gainful employment.

And a note to the RNC and the NRSC: Look at what the NRCC is doing, and think about the damage that your actions are having on them. I may have been wrong, but there are still a lot of people out there who feel what I expressed in those earlier posts. And that hurts everybody’s chances at accomplishing what needs to be done in 2010 and 2012.

*I found this one, but there was a thread where Neil said the NRCC was different and I said something along the line of it didn’t matter they were all the same to those of us in the base who were tired of getting shafted. If anyone finds the specific exchange I will link to it and wish I could edit the comment to link to this post.

* where x is some number between 20 million and 100 million depending on whose research you quote.

I use to work in IT for a government contracting company that specializes in working government contracts related to healthcare in their IT department. On Monday afternoon July 27, 2009 I, along with 9 other coworkers got canned/laid off/riffed/whatever you want to call it. The bottom line for me is I am now unemployed and looking for work. But first, I have to dig through the mound of paperwork the HR department so helpfully provided as I was being shown the door (at least they did it right this time, my accounts were locked WHILE they were talking to me). It’s a bewildering amount of data to consume at a time when you are in a bit of shock to begin with, and I see why some people want to throw up their hands and let somebody else make the decisions. But guess what? Even facing the worst employment market in my life, I still don’t want The Big 0’s socialized medical plan!

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