Please see below for Jeremy Scahill at The Nation who, last week, covered the outrageous hypocrisy of federal legislation targeting ACORN (who committed no crimes), while the top 100 government contractors, who made “nearly $300 billion from federal contracts in 2007 alone” paid some “$26 billion in fines to settle cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse”.
By way of contrast with the federally favored criminal corporations, Scahill notes, “Over the past fifteen years, ACORN has received just $53 million in federal funds, much of it for low-income housing.” Despite that, “In mid-September all but seventy-five House Democrats and seven senators voted with their Republican colleagues to bar the group from receiving federal funds.”
The corporate welfare queens, of course, face no punitive legislative by Congress and are allowed to carry out their waste, fraud, abuse and often extraordinarily criminal behavior while on the tax-payer dole and nobody — Republican or Democrat — bats an eye.
Following the Scahill quotage on these points below, you’ll find a must-see video clip of Florida’s tenacious Rep. Alan Grayson, handing it to his Republican colleagues in a committee hearing this week, for their attempt to pass an “unconstitutional bill of attainder” meant solely to punish the GOP’s favorite stalking-horse, ACORN. (See Rachel Maddow’s expert coverage on the unconstitutionality of such bills, as posted late last month, for more details.)
Grayson’s flat-out, apologetically cold-hearted unwillingness to yield the floor to the disingenuous wingnut cabal, and his shaming of them for pushing such an outrageously unconstitutional bill, is something to behold. Would that he were the model for what all Democrats sounded and acted like on behalf of the people. [Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG reader David Lasagna for the heads-up on that video. Now go watch it below!]
First Scahill:
…
Unfortunately, [none of those contracors] are targets of significant Congressional action. Instead it’s ACORN, a community organization that trains and advocates for poor and working-class Americans. Over the past fifteen years, ACORN has received just $53 million in federal funds, much of it for low-income housing.
…
In mid-September all but seventy-five House Democrats and seven senators voted with their Republican colleagues to bar the group from receiving federal funds.
…
Those Democrats who voted for the “defund ACORN” bill should be required to explain their reasoning to their constituents, particularly when so few of them have taken substantive actions to apply the ACORN standard to corporate criminals with real rap sheets.
…
Florida Representative Alan Grayson is spearheading calls for fraudulent military contractors to be defunded under the anti-ACORN legislation. He points to Halliburton’s misconduct and its “extreme and gross negligence…putting in showers in Iraq that end up electrocuting soldiers, and feeding them poisoned water.”
The federal funding ACORN has received over the past twenty years, Grayson says, “is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq.”
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) — feel free to support him at CongressmanWithGuts.com — fearlessly schools Republicans, and fellow Democrats in the bargain, on the unconstitutionality of legislation designed only to punish ACORN (who committed no crimes)…
Recently related BRAD BLOG articles:
- Maddow: ‘The Truth About the Lies About ACORN’
- Maddow on ACORN Again: Details Actual Fraud, Child Prostitution, Murder by Federally-Funded Organizations NOT Defunded by Congress
- Maddow Continues Report on GOP’s ACORN Witch-Hunt: The Phony ‘Voter Fraud’ Charges at Heart of the U.S. Attorney Purge Scandal
- Brad at the UK Guardian: The ACORN Idiocy…
- Conason’s ‘Defense of ACORN’ at Salon
And of course…as compiled during the height of the GOP’s phony ACORN furor during the 2008 election:
Mr. Grayson goes to Washington. How about that!
Woo-hoo! Go Grayson! Nice pair!!!
OMG Grayson is fabu! The Democrats would do well to follow his lead.
“I yield my remaining 5 seconds.”
“My time has expired.”
LO fucking L. That was worth more than a walnut sized diamond, I’ll say. Nothing more powerful than the truth.
I have to admit, though, I didn’t expect Broun to be able to tell what a Bill of Attainder was. Did he have something in his ear, I wonder?
Soul Rebel,
I think he was handed the definition to read. That’s why it took him so long to answer. Grayson asks him the second time, there’s a big silence, you hear a little rustling, then when you see Broun again he appears to be reading what he’s saying. The wait was for someone to find the definition to hand it to him so he could know the answer.
Right, David. Then we see two different aides urgently scrambling around behind him in subsequent shots. Grayson caught him with his pants down.
Soul, Broun might have had something in his ear, but it was no match for the large stick up his butt, which is standard issue for most in congress.
I have to admit Brad, I never heard of Rep. Grayson until I read Matt Taibbi’s piece on him several weeks ago on True/Slant.
Matt Taibbi-
I agree with you, this man should be the model for the spineless Democrats that have for too long done fuck all
Matt’s Article
“Would he be the model for all Democrats…”
Yeah, then the Republicans would be back in power a lot sooner. Grayson sets new standards in moonbattery.
Damail –
I know you’re only capable of retyping what you’ve heard on Fox and friends, but the FACTS are that the GOP can’t find anybody to run against Grayson in FL. All their big hitters have decline, and the best they’ve been able to come up with is a 25 year old kid.
But as long as you think he “sets new standards in moonbattery”, and wish to remain in perpetual denial, that’s just fine by me. It’s rather fun watching the delusion continue during your party’s long-overdue death spiral.
[ed note: Comment deleted. Please do not personally attack other commenters. Thank you. –99]
Actually, I am capable of listening to Grayson’s belchings from the House floor and on the Ed Schultz show and know that he can’t put together truthful statements about the GOP’s visions for health care or about the usefulness of Fox News. And now that he has been challenged by Bill O’Reilly and others to debate the issues, he will simply pull a Keith Olbermann and refuse to debate anybody who dares to disagree with him.
Damail,
“the GOP’s visions for health care”????? Please, do go on!! Please share this vision. Cuz I think there are many, many, many who’ve been wondering what it is.
Damail
Did you read Taibbi’s piece linked above by Shortbus? Truly, you know he’d mop the floor with Bill. Even if you think he’s just belching from the House Floor, you can’t be thinking this guy would be even mildly intimidated by the loofah-wielding bag of hot airwaves. Can you?
No. Really, dear. I am positive you have a kernel of insight into the problem, however much people take pot shots at you here, and I also know you doggedly stick to your guns here, as a rule, but, pfeh, c’mon now. Whatever you think of his politics, that piece by Taibbi leaves no doubt that Grayson could clock O’Reilly and Olbermann without breaking a sweat, if he ever deigned to waste his time on them.
He’s going after the bastards Bernanke and Paulson and Geithner have rewarded so richly for criminal activities, ripping-off all of us. You can’t possibly have a problem with that. Be honest now.
You gotta admire that.
And you gotta LOVE this…. I do.
Agent 99,
That guy’s got a pretty nice swing. I’m with him. It’s pitchforks and torches time.
Oh, and by the way, there’s a new doc out called The Singing Revolution about Estonia and how they threw off the yoke of oppression after years and years of struggle. Sorta don’t think we’re as unified or as conscious as the Estonians but it’s still a model for how to pursue change with integrity. Amazing, beautiful, and inspiring.
Yup, David. He’s wonderful. A real American. Brains, brawn, heart and mouth. Not hypnotized.
Singing’s good. Let’s talk all the kids into amassing to sing for the Constitution back! Text those little cyberbrains into a big singing revolution party, just like Obama did to get those huge crowds everywhere he went. Works like a charm. So many are glued to their little futuristic gizmos, they’ll do ANYTHING you text them to. Might as well make it work for the good while there’s still a chance.
The reason almost no one is sticking up for ACORN is, ACORN represents those with the least amount of power. The only power they have is the vote. The poor can’t afford to buy legislators.
So if you take away an organization which helps them to gather the only power they have, well… Short sighted Democrats want to butter their bread with the big guys.
But please people remember, big money buys influence not votes. The big money guys only get 1 vote each! Oh, whoops, I forgot! If you control electronic voting machines without any transparency or accountability you can have as many votes as you want and always win by about 51% in a real squeaker!
Now THAT is a guy who knows how to make a point to a bunch of other legislators.
Good read here
Thanks Muriel Kane