Image via Wikipedia

Boy that James O’Keefe sure is something isn’t he?  He’s become the poster child for the angry, privileged white conservative.  After his tasteless victory against ACORN– mocking and framing a thirty year organization committed to helping the poor– O’Keefe’s wet beak searched and plotted frantically for his next big take down.  With the aid of his financial and political Svengali Andrew Breitbart, O’Keefe and his Project Veritas organization trained their sights on Senator Mary Landrieu, secretly trying to bug the senator’s office.

I find the title of O’Keefe’s organization quite apt, because  in reality there is nothing “truthful” about what this hack does.  I don’t know what is more galling:  his lack of intellectual honesty, or his overall lack of ethics, morals, and shame.

I suppose trying to scam Abbie Boudreau seemed ethically cleansing to him–as if he were righting some perceived malevolence perpetrated by the liberal media elite.  Unfortunately his methods–disgustingly juvenile and bordering on illegal–never seem to cause him any consequence.

It was not enough to disgrace an organization that was more relevant, productive and necessary than he could ever hope to be, nestled in his bigoted cocoon of privilege.  What O’Keefe has now perpetrated is morally and ethically repugnant, leaving no doubt to his worth as a human being.

Today I’m fueled by disgust.  James O’Keefe tried to commit a crime.  He attempted to commit a felonious act, solely for the purpose of “exposing hypocrisy.”   Since when has it ever been justifiable–legally, ethically or morally–to premeditate a felonious act to prove some asinine political theory?

How was O’Keefe not arrested for this outrage?  Was this not a case of premeditated  kidnapping and assault?  I’m sure Ms. Boudreau would not consent to being trapped on a boat with a lecherous young deviant such as O’Keefe.  And this is the problem:  The trappings of arrogant privilege leak profusely from O’Keefe’s water-logged head.  He never, ever thought twice about the legal ramifications of such a stunt if it worked to the desired affect. He tried to make a point about respectable journalism– by being a rapacious half-wit.  He ended up making a bigger point about irresponsible hack reporting.  Kudos to him.

I’m tired of the false, self-righteous indignation these lunatic conservatives engage in.  I’m sick of the whiny, incoherent, patriotic drivel spewing from losers, who’ve become disillusioned with the process because they don’t get what they want.

James O’Keefe is exactly what is wrong with illiterate dissent.  He’s a craven coward, who’s become a prop for the conservative white male elitist power structure–and who’s just dumb enough to manipulate– and provide fodder for conservative sycophants, who have not an ounce of common sense.  The blind leading the even more blind right to the precipice of a phony revolution.  His fifteen minutes ended fifteen minutes ago.

Image via Wikipedia

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Late last year I wrote a piece about the vilification of ACORN, and their work in impoverished communities.  Some weak-kneed Democrats capitulated to Republican demands to ban federal funding for the group– effectively initiating a modern day witch hunt which succeeded in dissolving the community organization.  Today brings word that ACORN has been absolved of all wrongdoing–which included voter fraud, and the misuse of federal funds:

The GAO found in a report released Tuesday that nearly $40 million in contracts awarded ACORN by a myriad of federal agencies was spent properly. The report also revealed that the group had not violated any federal campaign laws related to voter registration, an oft repeated claim of the right wing media critics like Beck and Limbaugh.

The report was commissioned by Congress as both parties voted to ban federal funding for the group after selectively edited videos were released depicting ACORN employees counseling two right-wing provocateurs posing as a college student and a prostitute.

This report buoys the argument that Republicans consciously tried to neutralize ACORN’s efforts to register poor and minorities to vote.  Not shocking, considering the poor have been scapegoated and vilified in the political process for years.  The trumped up charges against ACORN just prove that.  The insidious war against the poor will continue unabated without the help of organizations like ACORN, that seek to empower those who do not have it.

Some in Washington and conservative talk radio discourage this type of civic responsibility.  Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, et al. have managed to savage the reputation of an organization that had been doing what most others could not or would not do for 35 years.  They’ve managed to sow enough mistrust and anger to suppress democracy, and silence the dissent of the lower class.

This report is welcome news.  Unfortunately, it comes too late for ACORN.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I suppose this James O’Keefe, a maverick soldier of truth to some on the right, will get more time in the spotlight for being a complete asshole. Yes I realize he quite possibly committed a felony in what can turn out to be the greatest case of karmic gotcha in political history. But honestly, I just wish the guy would crawl back into his dung hole with his pimp cane, and his whorish, puerile schemes:

The FBI, alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in downtown New Orleans, arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.

What a fool.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Anyone familiar with George Hutchins?  I wasn’t either.  Not until I came across his new website.  Now, I’m wishing I could pluck out my eyes.  Mr. Hutchins is running for congress in 2010, in the fourth district in North Carolina.  His opponent, Congressman David Price (D), represents North Carolina’s “triangle”– a prosperous, well-educated section of the Tar Heel state which encompasses Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.

George Hutchins is one of those brilliant Birthers. He is a neo-conservative who believes the Civil Rights Act is un-American.  He believes Sanford and Son became successful without the aid of Affirmative Action, so why can’t others? (Yes, I realize “Sanford and Son” is fictional, but I don’t think he does).  He has not only created the most visually hideous website– dedicated to distortion, venom, and outright hatred– he’s managed to craft something that is a total piece of shit.  I mean seriously, you’ve got to look at this thing.  It looks like a child scribbling with crayola crayons in a Glidden factory, after there was an explosion of all their red paint.  Just awful.  Then there’s the poor editing, and mangled metaphors.  I can’t really do it justice.  Please see for yourself.

The tea party movement has become potent.  It should not be dismissed cavalierly.  Some of these protesters are honest, decent, hard-working people, concerned about how their money is being spent by those in Washington.  I don’t find fault with those willing to express their right to protest.  But there’s a fringe element.  These are the people who have no qualms about linking President Obama to the massacre of the Jews during the Holocaust, while orchestrating his ascent up the American political hierarchy from his hut in Kenya.  These people, if left unchecked, would almost assuredly poison every last democrat, then blame their deaths on the President’s “socialist” policies.  This is the element that has spawned George Hutchins.

America has a real problem with kooks like this.  Hutchins, while I’m sure is an… interesting fellow, is not someone I would feel comfortable casting my vote for if I were a conservative in North Carolina.  Okay, that’s putting it mildly.  The guy is a frosted flake.  Anyone with the temerity to attach his name to that abortion of a website has got to be ingesting some really smooth hooch.  Most sense-loving Americans don’t indulge in the vitriolic babble that has enraptured most far-right conservatives– at least not the ones I know.  They’re more concerned with the economy and job creation.  If Mr. Hutchins created a site for his campaign focusing on these issues, and his plan to combat President Obama on them, then I would welcome that.  He did not.  He decided to pander and wallow in the gutter like a rat.  A rat that can’t think one coherent thought.  Check out this beauty here.  I apologize in advance for the technicolor:

“IF, I were to be compared to AL BUNDY of “Married With Children,” or the BEATLES‘ Drummer, RINGO STAR, or the BEATLES‘ guitarist, GEORGE HARRISON, by the Left-Wing Liberal Democrats, who some say, I resemble, No One would say NOTHING either.”

Yes… he did mention Al Bundy, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison in one sentence.

Look, I don’t expect this clown Hutchins to sniff the night air of our nation’s capitol, but this political climate is breeding thousands of these people everyday.  People who believe that America’s promise should only be gifted to some of us, and those who don’t receive it are not welcome.  I have no interest in discussing anything cogent regarding politics, with people who’d rather talk about Nazism, border passes for our president, and the illegality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Spare me the freedom of speech talk.  This is out- and- out hatred and ignorance, disguised as “American patriotism.”

If this is what passes for modern conservatism now, then keep sending me my liberal access card.  Hutchins, and his fellow teabag wackjobs, can continue to trample the Mall’s hallowed grass.  I just hope they make sure to scoop all the shit they’re dumping.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard once served as the “right-hand man” for Bertha Lewis, who heads up ACORN.

Steve Doocy on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 in on Fox and Friends

Beck and others repeat claim that White House Political Director Patrick Gaspard was once the political director for Bertha Lewis, chief organizer of ACORN

At this rate, ACORN will be linked to the war in Afghanistan, and the Samoan earthquake.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Now it seems as though ACORN has “stolen” a victory from GOP senatorial candiate Norm Coleman in Minnesota.  Those Bastards in ACORN rigged the election in favor of Al Franken.  Gasp!

The Fox Nation, Gateway Pundit blog, and Mickey Kaus all highlighted a Minneapolis Star Tribune column to claim or suggest that ACORN stole the 2008 Minnesota Senate election for Sen. Al Franken (D). In fact, the column — which Gateway Pundit and Kaus falsely claimed was a Star Tribune “report” or “story” — did not contain a single allegation of a fraudulently cast vote, and the Minnesota Supreme Court stated that counsel for Franken’s 2008 opponent, Norm Coleman, “confirmed at oral argument that Coleman makes no claim of fraud on the part of either voters or election officials.”

Yours truly with Senator Franken

Okay I couldn’t resist.

BREAKING NEWS!  BREAKING NEWS!  Conservatives uncover plot about how ACORN helped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hide nuclear facilities in Iran.

Get over yourselves.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Once again, the poor will suffer

The scene has been played out for years.  Bloggers, columnists, television and radio talk show hosts, and editorial writers and their ilk, have waged a not-so secret war on the American citizen.  Their right to protest and be heard has been ridiculed and suppressed, effectively rendering them silent in the face of the ever-changing tide in our country.  The most fundamental American right, the right to freedom of speech and dissent,  is systematically being subverted in order to continue a pattern of abusive neglect on the part of an elitist minority in political life today.  No, not these so-called “Tea Party’ demonstrators.  I’m talking about those proud Americans living in our inner cities and rural areas.  If these Tea Party demonstrations have taught me anything, it is that our great strength lay in the power of dissent.  And that dissent, manifested as a ballot at any voting booth in America, is the great equalizer.

In that respect, how is ACORN, and the people they serve, any different than your average tea party protest?  ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), is a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocate for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues.  The organization was founded in 1970, to advocate for those who could not do so for themselves.  They give voice to the forgotten man, woman, and child, swept under the rug of poverty and irrelevancy.

ACORN provides the means for some in society to exercise their rights as American citizens, by registering millions to vote.  ACORN, and the poor, are under attack.  In recent days, ACORN has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons.  Having an undercover sting operation expose some of the most seedy people in your organization, is most assuredly a negative.  It diminishes some of the gains made over years of dong what others will not do.  That is a problem.  Conservatives in the media and on capitol hill, have singled out ACORN for many years, sensitive to the fact that one of the aims of the organization is to register low income whites and minorities to vote.  While those on the right may consider this a noble goal, they revile it and its intended consequences.

They view ACORN now as nothing more than a political arm of the Democratic party, and not the non-partisan entity that it is intended to be.  This is precisely the reason why conservatives have worked tirelessly to strip the organization of any federal funding they receive.  This reasoning is foolhardy.  Most in lower income communities tend to vote for democrats because that is normally who the poor vote for.  It’s the same in wealthy communities, where a disproportionate number of the rich vote republican.  Conservatives pushing this line of thought are truthfully bankrupt and hypocritical.  This is nothing more than a politically charged falsehood.

While I am in no way supporting the foolishness and borderline criminal behavior exhibited by some who work for ACORN, they still have a vital role to play in securing and promoting the liberties of those Americans who feel left out of the process.  Perhaps it’s time to truly examine the real aims of those in stark judgment of this group.  If conservatives believe that their “tea party” protests sound the clarion call for dissent, and are indignant about any inferences to the contrary, then why would they be so quick to quash the dissent of others?  Their intolerance is wrapped up in a pretty package of false indignation.  And it’s destroying Americans who already feel destroyed.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This is Lee Atwater’s quote from Bob Cesca’s column in the Huffington Post.  I am familiar with Lee Atwater and his Southern Strategy, but this puts an interesting spin on things.  Especially after watching the video clip above:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff.

“ACORN” is becoming a dirty adjective, and I think I know why.  More on this in a later post.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Are you serious?  Do they not check facts before reporting?  This must be that new “fair and balanced” journalism they espouse so vehemently.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wVZJdBCQxY

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Minnesota's Congresswoman, or the state bird?

I'm sure the loon would do just as well in congress don't you?

Michelle Bachmann.  Where do I begin?  The 2nd term congresswoman from Minnesota’s 6th district is, to put it mildly,  entertaining.  While many in the media and outside of it may dispute her temperament and question her abilities, I will give her the benefit of the doubt.  After all, the people in her district saw fit to elect her twice to office.  To question her fitness would be akin to questioning the judgement of the people in Minnesota, and we know that I would never do that.  After all,  I love Minnesota. Perhaps, I can make a small exception in this case.  After all, the case is extraordinary.  The congresswoman’s partisanship, inflammatory rhetoric, and just plain weird behavior is not just giving me reason to regurgitate my egg whites, but it’s flustering her own “partisan” brethren.  Witness the populist “savior” Glenn Beck.  Even he’s flummoxed by her incoherent rambling about the census.  Watch the clip after the jump.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZS9UW0okY4

Her wild conspiratorial theories about the 2010 census and the involvement of ACORN, a community organizational group not without its own controversy, is dripping with political posturing and falsehoods.  Here is a rebuttal from Politifact, a political fact-checking project started by The St. Petersburg Times .  First, Bachmann’s take:

“Now ACORN has been named one of the national partners, which will be a recipient again of federal money,” Bachmann said. “And they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public. This is very concerning because the motherload of all data information will be from the census. And, of course, we think of the census as just counting how many people live in your home. Unfortunately, the census data has become very intricate, very personal (with) a lot of the questions that are asked.

“And I know for my family the only question that we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”

Politifact says:

Bachmann packs a lot of bad information into a short space there. So in this item we’ll deal with her latest claim about ACORN, and we’ll deal with her claim about the constitutional requirement with a different item.

She is wildly wrong with her chraracterization of the Census Bureau’s partnership program. Yes, the bureau does partner with organizations to help recruit workers. To date, it has 30,000 such partners.

So let’s count the ways Bachmann is wrong:

ACORN will not be “in charge” of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public, as Bachmann said. The U.S. Census will be in charge of that. Some of the 1.4 million people who get Census-taking jobs may learn about the job through ACORN. Workers who apply to the Census through ACORN have no better shot at the job than those who apply through any of the 30,000 other partners. That’s it.

And despite Bachmann’s claim, ACORN gets no money for signing on as a partner.

Once again, she is making a scaremongering claim about ACORN with facts that are ridiculuusly wrong. So we have to set the meter on fire once again. She earns another Pants on Fire.

To not give information to a federal entity mandated by the constitution is AGAINST THE LAW! What game is she playing?  Indulging in fear-mongering is beneath a representative of the 6th district of Minnesota, and it’s demeaning to its residents.

Here’s more Congresswoman Bachmann:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=axf81ck_O-E

Isn’t it anti-American to call someone anti-American?  Maybe someone can enlighten me, because I’m not sure.

Round three:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1ar9douSgE

Did she just say all cultures weren’t equal?  Shouldn’t this scare everyone?  What about this? Wait, here’s more congresslady Bachmann. I’m starting to see a disturbing trend, aren’t you?

Quite the body of work she’s got going there. Instilling fear through dumb, and dumbed-down speech is no way for anyone to govern.  We deserve better than that.  The state of Minnesota deserves a hell of alot better than that.  I think it’s time for her to join the rest of the loons on the lakes, and sail on past the sunset.  Okay, maybe I won’t give her the benefit of the doubt after all.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.