James O'Keefe, a conservative activist who had posed as a pimp in order to set up ACORN has been arrested by the FBI for having attempted to commit a felony. O'Keefe and two others, wearing telephone company uniforms, were busted last night for allegedly wiretapping the phones in Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office.
Landrieu said: "This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff. The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."
Brace yourselves folks as the list of Texas Republicans who honored James O'Keefe is quite long. My U.S. House Rep. John Culberson is on the list. Is your representative? See the list below the fold.
By recruiting and mobilizing hundreds of poor and working-class Houstonians such as Olvera in the past two years, the Houston chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has raised its profile and earned the respect of local officials.
Its aggressive advocacy for affordable housing, tenant protections and other causes is making a difference.
The group's proudest moment came last week when Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill that makes important changes in the use of contracts-for-deed, a form of home lending that withholds a title from buyers until they have fully paid their loan.
Passage of the law, which will make it possible for buyers to convert their loans to traditional mortgages, was this year's top Texas legislative goal for ACORN, which represents 175,000 low- and moderate-income families in 51 U.S. cities.
Rick Perry has been stirring up the crazies this week by critiquing Senator Hutchison for not voting against ACORN in Congress. From Wayne Slater at the Dallas Morning News:
The Senate voted Monday to cut off funding for ACORN, the anti-poverty group that has become a target of the conservative talk radio and Fox TV. The vote was overwhelming, but Kay Bailey Hutchison didn't vote. And Rick Perry's campaign wants to know why.
Says Perry spokesman Mark Miner: "Less than one week after the Senate returned to work, Senator Hutchison skipped a key vote to prevent ACORN from receiving taxpayer funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is yet another example of Senator Hutchison failing to protect the taxpayers of Texas. The Senator made time to vote for a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, but when it came time to prevent tax dollars from going to a liberal activist group, she was nowhere to be found."
The Texas Republican primary: your never-ending source for absurdity.
This has been a very long election cycle that started almost two years ago. As an outside observer, while cruising alongside this very long and winding road in politics, I have to say I have learned an awful lot about so many things. I have seen inspirational and electrifying candidates and I have witnessed some mighty disingenious and dishonest ones.
The political pundits informed me about their notions of political history and demographics. I did not know another state of Alabama existed between Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. Nor did I know New Hampshire is the Alabama of New England. I think it was Joe Scarborough who informed me about the coastal regions of Alabama, Mississippi and some of northwestern Florida. This area is known as The Redneck Riviera.
I had to scratch my head a few times when Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan would refer to working class "ethnic whites" in the northeastern U.S. Then my memory took me back to a 1970's sitcom called All in the Family whose central character was Archie Bunker, a bigoted white working class guy who lived in Queens, NY. Archie must be the guy they are talking about, I thought. Archie referred to his fictional Polish-American son-in-law as "Meat Head" and "Pollock." He had other choice names for his daughter and son-in-law's ethnically and/or racially mixed friends as well. The creator of All in the Family had intended for the show to be a comical satire but this was lost on much of the viewing public.
I never knew a place like Wasilla existed nor did I know there is fringe political independent parties scattered across the U.S. from Wasilla, Alaska to Georgia (that would be U.S. Georgia) that want to secede from the U.S.
I learned a lot about narratives, closing the deal, pie, orange juice, coffee, hair styles, make up, gender, age, one's disposition, mavericks, mavericky, SNL, non-mavericks, a family in Texas who are the true Mavericks, Joe Six Pack and Joe the plumber who is worried about the 250K he saved to buy his boss's plumbing company. Since I have a brother-in-law in Ohio who is a plumber I called him to ask if he had socked away 250K in his piggy bank. Karl the real plumber in Ohio asked me if I was on drugs. Next I learned that Joe is not a plumber and Joe's first name is Sam. I also learned that there is a pastor in Alaska who will perform witch exorcisms. I learned the straight talk express alternates between a virtual hate talk express and/or lying express, depending upon on McCain's polling numbers and his and his campaign mangers' mood swings or the media spin cycles.
Over 1.3 million new low-income, minority, and young Americans registered nationwide!
Yesterday, as voter registration deadlines passed in most states, Project Vote, the nation's leading nonpartisan voter participation organization, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the country's largest community organization, held a news conference to announce the completion of a joint nonpartisan voter registration drive, which has succeeded in helping over 1.3 million Americans register to vote. To listen to the conference in its entirety, please click here
In the wake of common sense, economic justice and plain ole democracy triumphing in Chicago, Illinois, big business has stepped up to the plate in an effort to derail a progressive triumph once again.
