Sometimes you feel like a nut…
Bad week for ACORN. The left-leaning quango has been the subject of voter fraud investigations in at least seven states over the past few years and now, in a three-punch combination blow, is finding itself in what might, hopefully, be a day of painful reckoning. The bad news started on the 9th with the revelation that 11 ACORN workers were being charged with voter fraud in Florida. ACORN initiated the investigation with investigators, but I wonder if they knew this was just the tip of the iceberg of reckoning?
Thursday came the video of Baltimore-area ACORN workers giving advice to an undercover filmmaker on how to evade tax charges, run a whorehouse out of the home, and house illegal underage girls as child prostitutes. Sounds like the makings of a bad foreign film, I know – but it’s the real, nasty, unscrupulous deal. When the film came to light, ACORN played it off as either a) motivated by race, b) no big deal, it was an isolated incident, or c) the filmmaker’s fault – sometimes it seemed like the response was one of all-the-above. Reality, she is a cold lover.
Friday was a double-whammy. First came the revelation that this kind of illegal advice was given out in ACORN’s Washington office as well. Then, the US Census Bureau sent a letter saying it no longer wanted ACORN’s help with the 2010 census. Sort of a bureaucratic, “Don’t call us, umm, don’t call us” letter. How much money did ACORN receive from the Porkulus bill? What’s their annual take from the taxpayers? How soon can we get that back?
ACORN got $1,628,829 from US taxpayers (PDF file) for mortgage counseling services. Huh. Like telling a pimp how to classify child hookers in America as dependents?