Secrets of the City

great thing about twitter is it provides an immediacy of idiocy, completely unfiltered. right from the horse’s ass.

maybe he’s talking about corn farm subsidies. which would explain why I have such a hardtime finding tamales around here. bob better stop t-paw before all the ethanol gets t-pawed.

I look forward to reading Max’s post re: Pawlenty backpedaling right before lunch time today!

Actually, I believe some of the state subsides to ethanol producers (the refineries) were cut this year, g rote.

Maybe we can start making cellulosic ethanol out of acorns.

Let the squirrels starve — the little tree rats stole my dog’s bone last week.

Well, just so long as he’s not cutting subsidies for Dix and he can afford to have himself a large bowl each morning for breakfast. (And generous portions for lunch, dinner and everything in between, also).

Also, we need to stop subsidizing Uggs. We need to deport them because they’re ruining America. Also, they should be taxed heavily and peddling them should carry the death penalty because it’s clearly treason.

shhesshhh…don’t tell anyone. I wear uggs in the winter and crocs in the summer.

BTW that tweet could indicate that he is blocking any potential funding moving forward. It doens’t necessarily mean he is cutting off current funding.

then what a bold apolitical statement that is!

I’m just amazed he is getting any work dont at all that doesn’t relate to running for POTUS.

Oh wait.

say what you want Acorn got caught and they have been a far left political organization for a long time. Game over. This only supports some of what the far right-wing has been saying. They are the opposite side of the extremist coin in this country. Cut the funding now.

The outfit cannot get another dime of federal money. I doesn’t matter what side of the political fence they’re on. It’s becoming obvious the operation is The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

We had one personal experience when we attended one of the ACORN “seminars” on purchasing a house. They spent a good portion of the session griping about bank CEO pay.

We didn’t know what that had to do with buying a house.

There are enough acorns on the ground at the U golf course to satisfy everyone.

I think the bigger issue is that prostitutes try to stay on the up and up by declaring their income and paying their taxes.

THEY ARE NOT CIRCUMVENTING TAX LAW.

Yeah, they are totally left wing extremists.

Acorn is helping people give money to the gov’t instead of trying to get a free ride on all of us. The same people would be mad if ACORN said, we’re not going to touch that because Acorn would be encouraging people not to pay their taxes, although, based on a TN ruling against their tax on illegal drugs (How much did TN reap during Bonnaroo alone?) Acorn would have had a plausible argument.

You know, in TN, if you deal drugs you can go declared

So, honestly, who gives a fuck but assholes who’d be mad about anything Acorn has, is, and will be doing. Even if somehow Acorn managed to cure Cancer?

Yeah Pawlenty, why don’t you calculate how much money people being pimped out contributed to state and federal taxes and give that money back to the tax payers. Also, be sure to include your salary as you’ve clearly been pimp-slapped far too many times by your various industry Johns and, now you’re going crazy because the John you wanted the most didn’t pick you to be his number #1.

Please, go tell Harry Reid that your willing to pay top dollar for him to vote against something. Anything, really, also.

Good grief. Acorn does a lot of good work including helping my mom navigate buying out house in the early 90s.

bix, the rat claims the ACORN info was useless.

I thought the complaint here was that ACORN was advising the
“prostitute” how to hide the income and evade taxes. If so, what’s wrong with that? The wealthy have entire bank divisions devoted to helping them do that. Hell, the entire banking industry of several NATIONS are devoted to that purpose.

@mnblrmkr: That’s the way I explained it to a friend, too: That there are $500/hour lawyers who give that kind of advice every day to wealthy clients. I don’t know what Republicans are complaining about. How many of them — and Teabaggers, too — don’t like paying taxes in the first place?

One of the interesting philosophical questions that provide insight into a person is, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
But philosophy isn’t about the obvious; philosophy is about the devious … thus this is an opportunity to gain insight into Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Thus the question is, “If an ACORN falls, do you cut off funding?”
Pawlenty doesn’t care that there has not been any funding during his tenure, he wants it cut.
Such a reactionary response without any factual investigative review is a severe character flaw and reflective of his judgment and leadership.

YES, there is tape of ACORN employees giving advice that they should not.
BUT, is the organization to be blamed or the individual(s) ? Did the employee consult the ACORN manual to find the answer ? Did the employee consult ACORN’s management ? Did the journalist ask ACORN management for a response before publishing ?
Considering that there are reports of abuses in virtually every charity or government function tells me that ACORN is not any different than others. Humans make mistakes …the question is, is it being done by individuals or is it being done at management direction ?

Then this leads to the follow-up question, is this “gotcha” journalism ?
And, how do politicians respond to “gotcha” report ?

IMO, there is no debate that the individuals were wrong, but more alarming is Pawlenty’s public reaction to exploit a problem.

The “Problem” that Pawlenty is trying to solve is “How do I get publicity?”
Twitter ? That’s proof that this is how does Pawlenty compete for the Palin voters.

If this had been an isolated event, it would be easier to diffuse. But, apparently, the sting was carried out at three different offices in three different cities with similar results. There have been other concerns, too, wrt ACORN, including embezzlement (into the seven-figures) and falsifying voter registrations.

However, its problems are hardly unique:

“If only the Republicans who have worked up a frenzy over ACORN’s alleged crimes were so indignant about real and damaging voter fraud — such as the amazing case of Young Political Majors, the firm that ran GOP registration efforts in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and elsewhere before the authorities in Orange County, Calif., busted its president, Mark Anthony Jacoby, and sent him to jail last year. He had built a lucrative partisan career by teaching his minions to deceive thousands of voters into registering as Republicans rather than Democrats, among other scams.” [via the  Salon.com article linked above]

How many millions of federal dollars did YPM receive, nood?

noodleman, They tried this at numerous ACORN offices. Most offices called the cops on the two. We’re not seeing THOSE videos.

How many millions of federal dollars did YPM receive, nood?

Is it ONLY about the money, cubbie?

Young Political Majors was paid $7-$12 per voter registration by the California Republican Party which, last I heard, receives Federal monies in the form of public Presidential election funding.

you’re right, the CRP does receive federal dollars. and they paid the YPM from their coffers, which is a mix of federal and private money. if the accusations are legit he will be prosecuted.  but to try and equate that with the $53 million plus we’ve given to the criminals running acorn is just silly.

and yes, it’s always about the money.

@cubbie: You’re making a broad judgment regarding ACORN’s 30-year history based on the actions of a couple of nincompoops who may, or may not, have been playing around with the fake applicants.

Let’s also abolish all church outreach programs because of a few bad apples, too?

And how about Congress? Those horndogs always seem to have their pants down, or hire prostitutes, or build bridges to Nowhere… and they cost us a lot more each year than $53MM.

You just don’t like ACORN’s politics, cubbie. Even if they were angels, you’d want to deny them Federal funding.

I don’t mind their politics, but it’s plain it’s a crooked outfit.

Their intentions are good, but that’s irrelevant. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

But I’m sure it’s easier for you to point fingers in other directions, ‘Nood. That’s what the CEO of ACORN did this morning on CSPAN. Started the interview blaming Karl Rove.

That’s monumental hubris. The organization has been exposed and humiliated and she’s still after the Bush administration.

It was a perfect forum for her to get the problem in front public and take the first steps to getting it behind them. CSPAN isn’t Sean Hannity. She could have talked herself blue, which is what ACORN is going to have to do.

One of the first things out of her mouth was the Bush Administration. Unbelievable.

@noodle – i’m not making a broad judgment. according to the la times (yea yea, prolly a conservative mouthpiece) 1 in every 3 new voter registrations from the presidential election were rejected, many due to fraud. but that didn’t seem to bother anybody. it’s a shame it takes “shocking video” to get the public’s attention, but it does.