Posted by Rojas @ 10:57 pm on September 14th 2009

Blogroll addition

Andrew Breitbart has a new blog called BigGovernment. They’re a little bit Fox News-y for my normal tastes.

On the other hand, if you haven’t seen the ACORN tapes they’re now releasing on a one-per-day basis, you’re missing out on some truly astonishing gonzo journalism. Journalism with a policy impact, too.

posted in: Main

23 Comments »

  1. That is interesting. I had not seen that anywhere else.

    Comment by daveg — 9/15/2009 @ 1:17 am

  2. I really don’t get what the big deal is about that exchange. They’re trying to help two people get a home loan, even though it’s clear between all of them that they’re in prostitution. It wouldn’t be any different than the advice you’d get from, say, most tax accountants.

    Comment by Brad — 9/15/2009 @ 8:33 am

  3. I think that the announcement of the participants that they intend to import underage sex workers from El Salvador, and the ACORN workers advice as to how to go about doing so without running afoul of the government, is the core of some people’s objections.

    Said practice goes above and beyond the typical behavior of most tax attorneys, methinks.

    Comment by Rojas — 9/15/2009 @ 9:35 am

  4. Ha! Guess I should have read the transcript all the way through then.

    Comment by Brad — 9/15/2009 @ 10:54 am

  5. Worth noting that BigGovernment did this at four different sites. They didn’t mention the results of the other three, but in at least one (in Philly), the pimp and prostitute were kicked out and a police report was filed.

    In the interest of fairness, maybe that was worth passing on (let me know if they did and I just missed it).

    Comment by Brad — 9/17/2009 @ 8:55 pm

  6. Last I’d seen, they’d released a total of four videos demonstrating ACORN support for the kiddie prostitution scheme at different sites.

    Congratulations to the Philadelphia ACORN office for doing the right thing. I am not sure that a record of 20% (or perhaps as high as 50%) resistance to the importation of child sex workers is anything that ACORN ought to be crowing about, though.

    The de-funding of the organization by Congress, pursuant to real and systematic reform, seems well justified. Community organizing can be a very noble thing, and it’s sad to see it tainted by this kind of overt amorality.

    Comment by Rojas — 9/17/2009 @ 10:29 pm

  7. Green eegs and ham did a post on this.
    http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/17/acorn_hysteria/index.html
    You know, considering the attention and scrutiny this outfit gets (they were at the heart of the politically motivated prosecutions before elections/attorney firing stories of 2006) the Fox Newsy types have surprising little to show for it.

    It’s an organization that gets only a few million from the government and has made many powerful enemies because it gets out the black vote instead of suppressing it and has survived since the 1970’s.

    Considering the clout of who they represent, it’s hard to imagine they’ve survived this long without doing any good for the communities they’re in. Does anyone have any information on that?

    PS> Newt Gingrich just gave an entrepreneur of the year award to a porn producer.
    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/11/gingrich-porn/
    You’d think an error of judgement is going to punch his clock?
    Nah. Some people can leave their wives to die horribly alone and still survive in public life.
    http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/09/gingrich.schneider/index.html
    Condemnation is reserved for the weak and poor among us.

    Comment by thimbles — 9/18/2009 @ 11:31 am

  8. Bertha Lewis presents her side.
    http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/17/acorn_head_bertha_lewis_vows_action

    Comment by thimbles — 9/19/2009 @ 2:36 am

  9. Not to derail yet another ACORN discussion, but I’m still reeling from this decision to voluntarily link to an Andrew Breitbart excrement production blog. Big Hollywood has to be one of the weakest, most ill-informed, ridiculous, pure partizan hackery big name conservative blogs out there, and here we are picking up his next adventure. What’s next, linking to Michael Moore for balance?

    Comment by Jack — 9/22/2009 @ 11:12 am

  10. I haven’t found the content of BigGovernmet to be excrement so far. Quite the contrary; they’ve unearthed interesting and detailed stories about both ACORN and the NEA.

    Comment by Rojas — 9/22/2009 @ 11:16 am

  11. I’m going to go with Jack on this one. As I wrote elsewhere, this is about killing an organization who gets poor, black people to vote.
    And, as I said elsewhere, the motivation isn’t a belief in racial inferiority, it’s a belief in winning. Suppressing the vote of people who vote for your opponents is one way to win.

    And soon after I wrote that and got accused of using the race card, Mr. O’Keefe decides to tell the Washington Post:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_2.html
    Though O’Keefe described himself as a progressive radical, not a conservative, he said he targeted ACORN for the same reasons that the political right does: its massive voter registration drives that turn out poor African Americans and Latinos against Republicans.

    “Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization,” he said. “No one was holding this organization accountable. No one in the media is putting pressure on them. We wanted to do a stunt and see what we could find.”

    And when people started looking into how this guy operates, well then it got real ugly:
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/20/784620/-OKeefe-said-he-went-after-ACORN-because-it-registers-minorities-likely-to-vote-against-Republicans

    And, as I mentioned elsewhere, a site really concerned about BigGovernment might have been interested in the graft paid to Halliburton/KBR when their employees were gang raping people and causing servicemen to die from their shoddy, no-bid, billions of dollars, contract work.

    In fact, an organization devoted to Big Government issues might be interested in investigating all sorts of contract and military graft issues instead of ratfucking community organizations that help the poor.

    But no. We’re worred about a little ACORN. They may be getting 8.5 billion dollars in stimulus money after all:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_2.html
    Giles and O’Keefe have been criticized for accuracy problems. Their videos include the oft-repeated conservative claim that ACORN is expected to get up to $8.5 billion in government funds. But that’s a bold exaggeration, as it includes $3 billion in stimulus funds set aside for revitalization efforts nationwide, and $5.5 billion in federal community development grants. The number assumes ACORN would apply for and win every project and grant in the country, while ACORN says it is not applying for any of the stimulus funds.

    “I’ve not owned that $8.5 billion number and tied it to ACORN, because I’m the publisher of this story,” Breitbart said. “I ask the journalists to check their facts.”

    ‘It’s the journalists should check their facts, not editors, not Breitbart, and if the audience ends up believing falsehoods, well that’s a shame.’

    And who are these journalists?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_2.html
    Her father, Doug Giles of the radical Clash Church in Miami, had complained of what he called the evils of the Obama administration and its alliance with ACORN.

    n an online opinion piece last month, titled “What Obama’s Town Hall Charade and Pam Anderson’s Breasts Have in Common,” Doug Giles complained of Obama’s “rent-a-mobs” at a health care town hall in New Hampshire. He claimed Obama could “summon a cabal at the drop of a red fez,” including “ACORN lug nuts ready to register Mickey Mouse” to vote.

    Ron Robinson, director of Young America’s Foundation, where Hannah Giles spent the summer learning about how to be a journalist from conservative media experts, said Doug Giles has reason to be proud of how he has raised his daughter.

    The daughter of religious radical and the product of a summer’s session of ratfucker school.

    Is that the future of journalism?
    Because if it is then it’s no wonder:

    http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/seeds_of_discontent.php
    In a front-page story in today’s Washington Post, Andrew Breitbart, the conservative media entrepreneur whose Web site hosts the videos, is quoted as saying, “Everybody that is a conservative news junkie thinks that ACORN is the most important institution for us to uncover to the American public.” And why is that?

    O’Keefe offered the following explanation in his commentary accompanying the first video post:

    ACORN has ascended. They elect our politicians and receive billions in tax money. Their world is a revolutionary, socialistic, atheistic world, where all means are justifiable. And they create chaos, again, for it’s [sic] own sake. It is time for us to be studying and applying their tactics, many of which are ideologically neutral. It is time, as Hannah said as we walked out of the ACORN facility, for conservative activists to “create chaos for glory.”

    This is, on at least one point, false. According to a report produced in July by Rep. Darrell Issa, who’s no friend of ACORN, the group has received about $53 million in federal funds since 1994. And as Chris Edwards, a scholar at the Cato Institute—also no friend of ACORN—notes, the group’s “share of overall federal subsidies is tiny.” As today’s Post story makes clear, to conclude that ACORN receives “billions in tax money” requires a staggering misreading of reality.

    It’s a can of worms Rojas. It may smell like peaches now, but guys like Breitbart are a can of worms.

    Comment by thimbles — 9/22/2009 @ 12:28 pm

  12. So you don’t like the story because it’s not about Haliburton and because the criminal behavior in question only involves several million dollars in federal money. And also because the people who wrote it are mean. Got it.

    Anything we ought to know about Weird Soda Review?

    Comment by Rojas — 9/22/2009 @ 2:11 pm

  13. I can’t believe I’m letting myself get sucked into this ACORN discussion. My quick thoughts:

    1. The ACORN expose was a valid story that exposed a gross willingness on the part of some ACORN employees to not merely look the other way in law breaking, but to advise “clients” how to do so.

    2. The motivations of the journalist in question are relelvent to a limited extant, but really only important if the events are not protrayed roughly accurately. They appear to be pretty close.

    3. I don’t see how this is anymore important than any other very large organization having some seriously bad low level functionaries in it. As Brad pointed out, I’ll bet you could get plenty of loan agents or tax accountants to say the same thing. the difference is you wouldn’t have a nice stone on which to grind your political axe with those people.

    4. Yes, they deserve some negative attention, but we seem to be making this into ACORN’s watergate. Show me that the ACORN President and board of directors were in on the fix, and I’ll by the hype, until then, it’s not that big a deal. Newsworthy to a point, but not a really big point.

    5. I am willing to consider arguments that these specific ACORN incidents represent a very broad culture of corruption within that organization, but given the extensive GOP/Conservative generated smoke regarding ACORN and election fraud, and the almost non-existant fire to support it, I am skeptical. Reiterating my view on vote fraud from past ACORN discussions:
    A)Vote suppression is far more wide-spread and troubling (and in the modern era, generally abetting the GOP), than vote fraud.
    B) There is a difference between voter registration fraud, which usually occurs due to individual corruption based on monetary incentives, and vote fraud, in which an ineligable voter casts a ballot. The former may be reasonably common, the latter very rare.
    C) ACORN themselves were the ones who routinely caught voter registration fraud attempts from within their hired ranks.

    So given that historical perspective, and having watched the pearl clutching over ACORN from the last election, I am not ready at all to jump hard on the “ACORN is a criminal enterprise band-wagon.”

    As to Breibart and Big Government. OK, we shall see there long term quality, but I think it noteworthy that they had been in existance for a grand total of what, five days, before they made it to the blogroll. So all we had was ACORN and reputation, and given the quality of the much longer running Big Hollywood, it would seem, prudent, even conservative, to give it a bit of time before elevating to the exalted and highly prized status as a TCP blog roll inductee. They are no Radenko Fanuka. I can appreciate that we tend to have a lot more libertarian and liberal leaning blogs than conservative on that list, but it suprised me. I look forward to seeing there direction, but given that the TOP SIX stories on their site, by their own ranking are the following, I’m not hopeful:
    1. OBAMA TIES TO ACORN DATE BACK DECADES
    2. THE CASE FOR ACORN AS A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
    3. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAUNCHES ACORN PROBE
    4. BERTHA LEWIS DODGES CALL TO COME BEFORE CONGRESS
    5. MORE ANTI-ACORN GRAFFITI IN LA
    6. THE OBAMA/ACORN/NEA CONNECTION

    Comment by Jack — 9/22/2009 @ 2:59 pm

  14. Rojas, this bit of sarcasm:

    So you don’t like the story because it’s not about Haliburton and because the criminal behavior in question only involves several million dollars in federal money. And also because the people who wrote it are mean. Got it.

    I can say that almost say that I believe that, merely by seeing the ACORN scandal, and ACORN in general, in proper proportion. ACORN gets on average $3.5M per year in fed money. How much did Haliburton and KBR scam from out tax revenue by comparison? A hundred times that? This entire story seems more and more like classic handwaving hysteria to distract us from far greater corruptions. And your boy Breitbart is at the front of that parade.

    Comment by Jack — 9/22/2009 @ 3:40 pm

  15. In other words, Breitbart’s blog is no more about Big Government concerns than any other right wing hack.

    Comment by Jack — 9/22/2009 @ 3:42 pm

  16. It’s staggering how much people here want to talk about how much they don’t want to talk about ACORN.

    Usually when people aren’t interested in a thread here, it dies quietly. Not so here. It’s an alleged “red herring” that everyone seems intent on feeding until it becomes a whale. I suspect that this is so because it provides another opportunity for a bitchfest about Republican media tactics, a topic which we apparently NEVER get tired of.

    “Distract us from far greater corruptions”??? Christ almighty, you’d think TCP hadn’t spent MONTHS pounding on and on about the bank bailout and the conduct of military contractors, to say nothing of social security and medicare. And now we’re in danger of being “distracted” because I add Breitbart to the blogroll?

    Also, can we put the whole “they weren’t interested in big government when Bush was in office” meme to bed? THAT ARGUMENT DOES NOT APPLY TO THIS BLOG. We slapped Bush around for that stuff on a daily basis. I was against big government then; I am against big government now; I am well beyond sick and tired of people blathering about how Bush’s bad behavior invalidates complaints about Obama’s.

    I have consistently opposed the expansion of federal power, and I suspect I will keep doing so. When other blogs isolate on examples of misuse of federal authority, I will link to them. I will do so without engaging in comprehensive assessment of their argumentative motives, because the content is what’s relevant.

    I agreed to write for this blog in order to write about things that interest me. The willingness of taxpayer funded organizations to finance child sex slavery interests me sufficiently to merit a link. If you think it’s unimportant, read something else.

    Comment by Rojas — 9/22/2009 @ 5:29 pm

  17. And, as the author of the blog, if you don’t want people to respond, don’t write a blog.
    Disable your comments and start an online newspaper if our comments bother you.
    However, the reason why I’m venting is not because I care about ACORN, it’s because the right wing has proved once again that it can shift the narrative from healthcare and ‘You Lie’ obstruction – to ACORN, wild lies about the billions they may be getting, and democrat corruption.
    It’s mildly important that some people got caught by a partisan ratfuck.
    But not so much that it should take up front pages in major newspapers and get a esteemed spot on the blog roll.
    It’s no gang rape at Halliburton, but the focus on it makes it seem WAY bigger. “The most important institution for us to uncover”. Why? Because they get black people to the voting booth. The ‘journalists’ admit it openly.
    Sorry, but I don’t come here to read distortions and not respond to them.

    Comment by thimbles — 9/22/2009 @ 8:28 pm

  18. Oooo. Another Breitbart scandal!
    http://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/conservatives-are-outraged-over-an-actual-outrage-color-me-impressed/
    Scratch what I said before, BigHollywood needs to be added to the holiest of holy blog rolls.

    Comment by thimbles — 9/22/2009 @ 8:38 pm

  19. I was gonna just let it go, but noooo, you have to go and write a rant. Every time I think I’m out, they suck me back in.

    It’s staggering how much people here want to talk about how much they don’t want to talk about ACORN.
    Usually when people aren’t interested in a thread here, it dies quietly. Not so here. It’s an alleged “red herring” that everyone seems intent on feeding until it becomes a whale. I suspect that this is so because it provides another opportunity for a bitchfest about Republican media tactics, a topic which we apparently NEVER get tired of.

    Well since that one seems aimed pretty squarely at me: Eight days after you posted the link, following two comments from me that specifically ignored the ACORN issue, I do break down and enter the discussion. I’m don’t see how that is, as you clearly imply, hypocritical. Sadly, this is your strongest argument in the entire rant.

    “Distract us from far greater corruptions”??? Christ almighty, you’d think TCP hadn’t spent MONTHS pounding on and on about the bank bailout and the conduct of military contractors, to say nothing of social security and medicare. And now we’re in danger of being “distracted” because I add Breitbart to the blogroll?

    Silly me, I thought we were discussing Breitbart’s news blog. Guess what topic overwhelmingly dominates that site? It starts with an “A” and rhymes with “porn.” And when I say “dominates” I mean that like I have never seen: It seems to be their sole issue. Great, a one issue anti-ACORN blog!

    Also, can we put the whole “they weren’t interested in big government when Bush was in office” meme to bed? THAT ARGUMENT DOES NOT APPLY TO THIS BLOG. We slapped Bush around for that stuff on a daily basis. I was against big government then; I am against big government now; I am well beyond sick and tired of people blathering about how Bush’s bad behavior invalidates complaints about Obama’s.

    No, we can’t. First, because the extraordinary damage done to our country during the Bush reign will be felt for decades, and I think it rather short sighted and excessively convenient for those who might repeat the same errors in the future. Second, it entirely depends on who we are talking about. In this case, its not you, it’s Breitbart and his no-history-on-this-issue-at-all-blog specifically, and the noise machine that is generating most of the heat on the ACORN issue generally. The hypocrisy/double standard argument does not invalidate the accusations, as I essentially admitted to at the outset of my comment #13, but it certainly is relevant to an assessment of the overall importance of the subject, and an examination of why it is getting so much attention.

    I have consistently opposed the expansion of federal power, and I suspect I will keep doing so. When other blogs isolate on examples of misuse of federal authority, I will link to them. I will do so without engaging in comprehensive assessment of their argumentative motives, because the content is what’s relevant.

    Link away! Who the hell is stopping you? But if you want to link, and more specifically, assign them to a blogroll, expect that there might be some comments that do not comply with either movement conservative or Lew Rockwell talking points. Also, if we were to write a list of the top 1000 examples of “expansion of federal power” even in the last decade, funding for ACORN would not even make an honorable mention. This is not about “expansion of Federal power.” It is about possibly criminal, certainly unethical, acts by some low level non-government employees. Guess how many of those occur every day? How many of them get entire blog’s devoted to them? What might explain the disparity? Could it be… Satan? Or maybe manufactured partisan faux outrage?
    I agreed to write for this blog in order to write about things that interest me. The willingness of taxpayer funded organizations to finance child sex slavery interests me sufficiently to merit a link. If you think it’s unimportant, read something else.
    Mmmmmm, that is some delicious alfalfa. It is a story. It is newsworthy. But after a week of saturation bombing by the usual suspects, why do you find it so outrageous that some of us might think the story overly-hyped? Your strawman (or perhaps it is a false dichotomy, you tell me, your the debate coach) is that the only two options are complacent acceptance of or opposition to government funded child sex slavery. Get real. Some of us think the story was valid, was told, but is now merely a gigantic hammer for partition attacks.

    Comment by Jack — 9/22/2009 @ 10:16 pm

  20. Lost block quote competancy towards the end of that. “I agreed…. read something else.” should be blocked.

    Comment by Jack — 9/22/2009 @ 10:17 pm

  21. Lost block quote competancy towards the end of that. “I agreed…. read something else.” should be blocked.

    It happens. To me it happens a lot. :(

    As for:

    Journalism with a policy impact

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html
    Maybe some good we can all agree on will come of this.

    Comment by thimbles — 9/23/2009 @ 12:39 am

  22. PS:

    The willingness of taxpayer funded organizations to finance child sex slavery interests me sufficiently to merit a link. If you think it’s unimportant, read something else.

    Finance? You really sure you want to stick with that wording? Because there’s a big difference between an organization offering advice to somebody claiming to be a pimp, and an organization funding someone claiming to be a pimp. Journalism is about communicating accurate information. What your words indicate is that your source is not communicating accurate information, rather it’s smearing a bunch of information together. ACORN, child sex, pimp, ho. ACORN, child sex, pimp, ho.
    Let the reader fill in the blanks “and if the audience ends up believing falsehoods, well that’s a shame”. Breitbart journalism FTW.
    After our lesson in Iraq, shouldn’t we know better about this kind of shit journalism?

    Comment by thimbles — 9/23/2009 @ 1:02 am

  23. A while ago I wrote this:

    But no. We’re worred about a little ACORN. They may be getting 8.5 billion dollars in stimulus money after all:

    Click here and be amazed:
    http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/1633/
    We’re totally missing the real story, methinks.

    Comment by thimbles — 10/28/2009 @ 2:20 pm

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