My email to CNN on their ACORN reporting

[underpants]

Regarding your reports on ACORN:

Your "Investigative Reporter" has been repeating basically the same misleading report on ACORN for the last few days. He included footage of ACORN offices in Gary Indiana and Milwaukee that had been "closed down". This implies that they scurried out of town or where fly-by-night operations when in fact common sense (and full reporting) would have lead him to the realization that they aren't going to continue paying rent on these offices AFTER registration was over. His report was laden with "allegations" and "investigations" without pointing out that ACORN has never once been charged or indicted let alone convicted of anything. In fact ACORN itself turned in one paid employee when they determined that this worker had acted illegally and that they fully complied with investigations into another former employee.
FACTS on ACORN
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/acorn_rallies_its_troops.php

Common sense should have also lead to a consideration of the frequency of actual "voter fraud" (not to be confused with "registration fraud" or "election fraud") and the limited benefit in comparison with the cost. Since 2002 in Ashcroft and Gonzales lead Department of Justice there have been exactly 95 indictments of ALL voter/registration/election frauds in the entire United States.
In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
What is to be gained by one person trying to create one fraudulent vote? Fine and imprisonment to create one fake vote at one precinct?
It doesn't make sense and it rarely happens.

What DOES happen is voter suppression which you have completely failed to report.
From the 50,000 voters illegally disenfrachised in Florida in 2000
to caging (including active duty military in the Jacksonville Fla. area in 2004)
to mailers telling people to vote on the wrong date or to pay up their utility bills
to the wild changes in registration standards by Ken Blackwell in Ohio in 2004 (he both officially counted the votes and ran Bush's election campaign in Ohio) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Blackwell#Involvement_in_the_2004_U.S._presidential_election_controversy
to phone calls telling people that their voting place had changed (Virginia 2006)
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/16105
This is only a short list. All of these operations have been from the Republican party either nationally or locally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression#United_States_Senate_election_in_Virginia.2C_2006

Have you completely forgotten about WHY David Iglesias was fired as US Attorney in 2006?
It was because he (and another later fired US Attorney) would not file charges just prior to the mid-term elections.
CHARGES AGAINST ACORN
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3854.shtml


Only now is this initial report slowly falling apart. I see now that you are finally pointing out that ACORN was contracted during the Democratic primaries by the Obama campaign.

Why does ACORN have to file all registrations that they collect? Because of a 2002 US law changed (when Democrats briefly had a majority in the Senate) as a result of Republican/RNC shadow groups collecting registrations and then dumping them. The person who had thought they registered would show up at the polls to find out that they were not on the rolls.

Report the whole story not just part of it.

PLEASE NOTE-the wikipedia links are the quickest way to provide the beginning of an investigation trail for your "Investigative Reporter"

[amdezurik]

1. too rational for CNN

[Supersedeas]

19. CNN with its hand out -- we can't hear you

[Sukie]

2. A big thanks to people like you,

who keep on top of things and try to keep the media honest!

[Parche]

3. Run Forrest Run!!

:hi: :woohoo:

[cascadiance]

4. He should be told to talk to Brad Friedman, who really puts this into realistic perspective!

The problems are that voter registrations, are potentially going to have either voters trying to fraudulently register, or some individual volunteers trying to "pad their list" of registrants for whatever reason. Those two possibilities ARE NOT ACORN's fault. It's just something that exists, though as many point out, VERY RARELYP does this happen, as there really is no valid incentive to do this sort of voter fraud that would justify the risks of the consequences of getting caught.

Secondly, ACORN and other groups that help register votes in most states are REQUIRED BY LAW to turn in ALL registration forms they receive. Otherwise, they become the filter, which IS potentially violating a real voter's attempt to register if they make a bad decision on who to "throw out" if they themselves get involved with pruning the registration applications. As Brad notes, ACORN is very diligent about corroborating their registrations, and if some don't check out or have questionable validity, they FLAG these as such when they turn them in. What appears to be happening is that ACORN isn't committing fraud, but the voter registration offices ARE COMMITTING ELECTION FRAUD THEMSELVES, if they are in fact taking away these flags that ACORN attaches to their forms and therefore FRAUDULENTLY alleging that ACORN is trying to get bad registration forms registered, when in fact they were telling the registration offices they weren't valid. These offices are FRAUDULENTLY impugning ACORN's reputation, and THAT is what folks like CNN should be investigating instead of taking the spoon fed crap they are getting from these offices committing the fraud themselves. Otherwise they are becoming part of this Republican fraud themselves in perpetuating these false libelous lies about ACORN.

In fact it was a lot of Republican registration agencies in the past that had been found to tear up/shred Democratic registration forms, or change them to Republican (like they did in Orange County a year ago), and perhaps even tweak addresses, so that they would get thrown out in validation checks against the DMV (which I"m convinced why this program was throwing out an abnormally high number of voter registrations in L.A. before Debra Bowen took over last election) when the Orange Counhtry fraudulent Republican registrations were taking place.

These FACTS should be given to CNN to let them know that they are in fact screwing up and potentially a part of these Republican's group's LIBEL and SLANDER against ACORN by spreading their lies unchecked!

[tom_paine]

9. Their paychecks depend on them not understanding the very clear and logical point you made

therefore, they will not understand, no matter if they get a million million e-mails as cogently constructed as Brad's, underpants, or your thoughts.

You can lead a horse to water, but if it's a Nazi/Bushie horse and the water is Jewish/DU water, you simply CAN-NOT MAKE IT DRINK!

And that goes not just for Nazi/Bushie "horses", but also the great mass of "befuddled, intimidated, neutralized, parasitized horse who juts want to do their jobs with the path of least resistance and go home - and that most definitely NOT include going up against the Nazi/Bushie "horses" who are mean and ruthless and hit so hard at people's livelihoods and careers and sometimes lives when they are crossed. When someone fails in ANY way to assiduously and ethusiastically Catapult the Propaganda.

[tom_paine]

5. Admirable actions, underpants. But as effecftive as telling the 1938 German Media to report fairly

They simply do not fear nor care about the Amerikan Subject Populace.

Their organization is shot through with Psyops and Bushies and isn't much more than a celbrity infotainment channel anyway.

Don't get me wrong. Keep on keeping on. Document for posterity that they may learn we were not all fools and slaves. By all means.

But, knowing what I know about totalitarianism. Knowing what I know about Plausible Deniability and the modern Bush/Putin/Chinese model of capitalist-based Inverted Totalitarianism, I can say with 100% certainty that your e-mail, excellent as it is... an example of a Free Citizen redressing a wrong using clarity, brevity, logic, and facts to bolster his case, will have all the impact of a banana cream pie dropped from a distance of three feet onto the Glen Canyon Dam.

Unfortunately, one cannot stop, in an Inverted Totalitarial Nation, a Propaganda Op by the Fuhrer/President's operatives. Doubly so now that we have apparently large amounts of criminally Bushified local and state law enforcement apparatus.

(shout out for Naomi Wolf connecting the dots on how Homeland Security Money = Bushification/Criminalization of our state and local law enforceemnt who take the Bushie Lucre and sell their collective souls, plus those moneis are often used to hire Loyal Bushies, who start the proess of neutralization/parasitization of state and local law enforcement agencies)

I am not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, and I STILL think what you are doing is a good and worthwhile thing, for other reasons. (I am bookmarking this thread and may turn it into an e-mail later, if I have your permission)

But the sad reality we both know...

[underpants]

7. Full permission

I just picked up "The Shock Doctrine" at the library a few days ago

Currently reading Allen Raymond's "How to Rig and Election" highly recommend it

[tom_paine]

11. That's Naomi Klein. Also great.

This is Naomi Wolf:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI

[mzmolly]

6. I was not aware of the law requiring ACORN to submit ALL registrations?

Wow. I do think they should be allowed to distinguish between those they feel are legit vs. those that are not however.

Good going Underpants! K and R.

[underpants]

8. The RNC,as noted, exploited this responsibility that ACORN had performed

so the law was changed-at the request, I think, of ACORN and groups like them.

[annabanana]

29. yeah.. THIS little tidbit isn't considered "newsworthy" for some reason...

"It's beginning to look alot like elections, everywhere you go"

[OHDEM]

10. BRAVO!

Too bad you don't work for CNN because your report was actually accurate.

It goes back to the myth of the liberal media. The media isn't liberal they're lazy and drawn to the sensational story rather than the important story.

[JeffR]

12. Well done. I've seen this "report" recycled over & over on CNN,

accepted uncritically by Dobbs and various other bloviating hosts. You've neatly cut the legs out from under it. I don't expect your letter will make anyone rethink this piece of shallow pseudo-journalism, but it should.

[underpants]

13. I have too

as I noted only now (last night) Wolf Blitzer pointed out that the $800,000 Obama used to contract ACORN was during the primaries.

ACORN is available for hire to whomever wants to register votes. I guess that would rule out the Republicans. They expend all their energy and resources to stop voting.

[sybylla]

14. Thanks - shared it with my mom who was buying it all

I forget how easily persuaded she can be by the M$M. She stopped watching FOX so much but the rest are just as bad sometimes.

[CatWoman]

15. God I love you

:hi:

:)

[underpants]

17. God loves you too

O8)

[CatWoman]

18. !!

:rofl:

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, underpants.:thumbsup:

[ShortnFiery]

20. Outstaning research efforts. Thanks.

But the Corporate News Network won't let THE FACTS get in the way of the "witch hunt" ordered by the corporate conglomeration of owners ruling over the M$M. :(

[Generic Other]

21. their tactics always projected on us!

next I'll hear bev is spearheading the attacks against ACORN as part of a fundraiser!

Thanks underpants for keeping on top of this crap!! (OK that sounded silly!)

[Triana]

22. where did you send this?

Is there a feedback URL? I have a nastygram or two I'd to send them - nice ones of course.

[savistocate]

23. sent the thread with message...still wont report SOS Ohio

reports no significant bogus regis. cards

[CitizenPatriot]

24. I sent this to all media watch dog groups

as well

Hope you don't mind!

[underpants]

27. Don't mind at all

I actually left out off duty white cops at mostly black polling area in New Jersey wearing black arm bands with "Fraud Enforcement Agency" or something like that. I think this was in 1992. I didn't look it up.

The other thing I didn't include was the foreclosure scam they have going. CNN "reported" on this too (with a different reporter) but dismissed any coordination on it because the New York Times said so and because "Republican officials in Michigan" denied that they did it (mentioned twice in the report) even though the entire story originated from internal Mich. Republican documents.

Send it to anyone you would like. Add as you wish.

[rebel with a cause]

25. That is the report that I saw and was very irrated by it.

Glad someone else saw it and took action.

[Mimosa]

26. I quit watching CNN because of all the Ayers and Acorn stuff

I swear they won't stop yammering about Ayers and Acorn.

[KharmaTrain]

28. CNN's "Populist" Agenda

A very good letter...please let me know if you get any sort of response.

I used to be a CNN junkie 24/7 in the Turner days...now I rarely pop it on...the pompous attitude has driven me away. This is the network of Lou Doobies and Glen Beck...xenophobes who claim to be "populist" and are promoted heavily by the network. They also plant a lot of "morality" stories...stories with a religious tone or some moralistic tone ("keeping them honest"). But, of course, whose keeping Chicken Noodle Nuze honest?

Be assured that CNN's been under pressure from Camp Gramps to jump on ACORN...just like Faux did...and bit at the tidbits thrown at them. It's lazy "journalism" and they bought into the narrative like they have so many times before. Too bad they don't have this same "outrage" about voter caging efforts.

:toast: