Tiassa
04-02-10, 04:35 PM
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr., yesterday released a report on the state's investigation into the now infamous ACORN scandal. From the press release (http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1888):
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today released a report, including newly obtained videotapes, that shows some members of the community organizing group ACORN engaged in "highly inappropriate behavior," but committed no violation of criminal laws.
Brown's report also uncovered "likely violations" of state law, including dumping 500 pages of confidential records into a dumpster, failure to file a 2007 tax return, and four instances of possible voter registration fraud by ACORN in San Diego in connection with the 2008 election, as well as other irregularities in the group's California operations. These irregularities have been referred to the appropriate authorities.
"A few ACORN members exhibited terrible judgment and highly inappropriate behavior in videotapes obtained in the investigation," Brown said. "But they didn't commit prosecutable crimes in California" ....
.... Videotapes secretly recorded last summer and severely edited by O'Keefe seemed to show ACORN employees encouraging a "pimp" (O'Keefe) and his "prostitute," actually a Florida college student named Hannah Giles, in conversations involving prostitution by underage girls, human trafficking and cheating on taxes. Those videos created a media sensation.
Evidence obtained by Brown tells a somewhat different story, however, as reflected in three videotapes made at ACORN locations in California. One ACORN worker in San Diego called the cops. Another ACORN worker in San Bernardino caught on to the scheme and played along with it, claiming among other things that she had murdered her abusive husband. Her two former husbands are alive and well, the Attorney General's report noted. At the beginning and end of the Internet videos, O'Keefe was dressed as a 1970s Superfly pimp, but in his actual taped sessions with ACORN workers, he was dressed in a shirt and tie, presented himself as a law student, and said he planned to use the prostitution proceeds to run for Congress. He never claimed he was a pimp.
"The evidence illustrates," Brown said, "that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality. Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."
The original storm of publicity created by O'Keefe's videotapes was instrumental in ACORN's subsequent denunciation in Congress, a sudden tourniquet on its funding, and the organization's eventual collapse.
(Boldface accent added)
One wonders about the civil rights implications of destroying a non-profit entity with a "highly selective editing of reality".
Congratulations to Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe. Although I confess I find earning the title of "Most Effective Lying Sleazebags of 2009" dubious cause for celebration.
And, of course, congratulations to all the conservatives who bit this con job hook, line, and sinker. Although I confess I find earning the title of "Most Pathetic and Desperate Hatemongers in America for 2009" dubious cause for celebration. Seriously, is honesty like, you know, poisonous to you people?
____________________
Notes:
Gasparac, Christine. "Brown Releases Report Detailing a Litany of Problems with ACORN, But No Criminality". Office of the Attorney General of the State of California. April 1, 2010. AG.CA.gov. April 2, 2010. http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1888
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today released a report, including newly obtained videotapes, that shows some members of the community organizing group ACORN engaged in "highly inappropriate behavior," but committed no violation of criminal laws.
Brown's report also uncovered "likely violations" of state law, including dumping 500 pages of confidential records into a dumpster, failure to file a 2007 tax return, and four instances of possible voter registration fraud by ACORN in San Diego in connection with the 2008 election, as well as other irregularities in the group's California operations. These irregularities have been referred to the appropriate authorities.
"A few ACORN members exhibited terrible judgment and highly inappropriate behavior in videotapes obtained in the investigation," Brown said. "But they didn't commit prosecutable crimes in California" ....
.... Videotapes secretly recorded last summer and severely edited by O'Keefe seemed to show ACORN employees encouraging a "pimp" (O'Keefe) and his "prostitute," actually a Florida college student named Hannah Giles, in conversations involving prostitution by underage girls, human trafficking and cheating on taxes. Those videos created a media sensation.
Evidence obtained by Brown tells a somewhat different story, however, as reflected in three videotapes made at ACORN locations in California. One ACORN worker in San Diego called the cops. Another ACORN worker in San Bernardino caught on to the scheme and played along with it, claiming among other things that she had murdered her abusive husband. Her two former husbands are alive and well, the Attorney General's report noted. At the beginning and end of the Internet videos, O'Keefe was dressed as a 1970s Superfly pimp, but in his actual taped sessions with ACORN workers, he was dressed in a shirt and tie, presented himself as a law student, and said he planned to use the prostitution proceeds to run for Congress. He never claimed he was a pimp.
"The evidence illustrates," Brown said, "that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality. Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."
The original storm of publicity created by O'Keefe's videotapes was instrumental in ACORN's subsequent denunciation in Congress, a sudden tourniquet on its funding, and the organization's eventual collapse.
(Boldface accent added)
One wonders about the civil rights implications of destroying a non-profit entity with a "highly selective editing of reality".
Congratulations to Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe. Although I confess I find earning the title of "Most Effective Lying Sleazebags of 2009" dubious cause for celebration.
And, of course, congratulations to all the conservatives who bit this con job hook, line, and sinker. Although I confess I find earning the title of "Most Pathetic and Desperate Hatemongers in America for 2009" dubious cause for celebration. Seriously, is honesty like, you know, poisonous to you people?
____________________
Notes:
Gasparac, Christine. "Brown Releases Report Detailing a Litany of Problems with ACORN, But No Criminality". Office of the Attorney General of the State of California. April 1, 2010. AG.CA.gov. April 2, 2010. http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1888