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GOP's Acorn fixation is downright nutty

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robinglis | Oct 13, 2008 04:45 PM

The McCain campaign -- by now looking for any dirt they can get their hands on -- has just released a web ad  attacking Obama for his ties to Acorn, the progressive community organizing group. The ad tries to link Acorn to the mortgage crisis and accuses it of trying to steal the election by submitting fraudulent voter registrations. On this point, the ad has a Western back story. Acorn's Las Vegas offices were raided last week by state officials who accused the organization of trying to register people who didn't exist or didn't live in Nevada, including some members of the Dallas Cowboys.


But here's where the story gets a little more complex. Acorn actually told state officials about many of the allegedly fraudulent voter registration forms. They were submitted by hired canvassers who had fallen behind on meeting their voter-registration quotas, and apparently got desperate enough to start filling in registration forms themselves. But third-party voter registration drives are required by law to turn in each registration form they receive -- even if that form attempts to register Donald Duck.


Nobody's disputing that some of the registration forms Acorn submitted were fraudulently filled out. What's less clear is whether these fraudulent forms reflect badly on the organization itself, or just on some rogue canvassers. What's abundantly clear is that it would be hard for these fraudulent voter registrations to have any impact on the election. Fraudulent registrations are the easy part of vote fraud. The harder part is having someone go to the polls, claim to be Donald Duck or Terrell Owens, and get shown to a voting booth before some election worker catches on. It seems that the McCain campaign and its talk-show proxies don't think that Nevada's election volunteers are very smart.

A way for ACORN to self-correct
Steve Snyder
Steve Snyder
Oct 14, 2008 12:11 AM
I don’t have a problem with it paying people to collect voter registrations.

BUT... Don’t pay off until after registrations have actually been verified. It’s like advertising; you don’t get a commission check if you sell an ad where they go bad on payment.
acorn in Nevada
Jerry Gunderson
Jerry Gunderson
Oct 14, 2008 09:54 AM
I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and am shocked by what is going on. The Obama campaign has made it dangereous to even go into some neighborhoods. The Acorn story is not only legitimate it is totally under reported by even the most right wing zealots.

Pull your head out of your behind, get out here and do some legitmate reporting. Above all, honesty has died in this election.
How Governor Sarah Palin is superior to Senator Barak Obama in leading the nation into the future
John Warren
John Warren
Oct 20, 2008 04:47 PM
Our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is the best future leader for this nation, not Senator Barak Obama. Our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is also would be better at leading our nation in the future after a McCain Presidency than Senator Barak Obama would be in leading our nation in the future starting in January 2009. There are great reasons our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin would be a better future leader than Senator Barak Obama. The greatest reason for our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin's is ideology. Our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is conservative in that she is pro life, marriage, guns, low taxes, low government spending, small government, unintrosive government, traditional and judeo Christian values, Bible reading and prayer in our public schools, and military spending. Senator Barak Obama is a liberal who is anti every thing that I have described that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is pro about or for. A second reason that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is superior is because of experience. As a governor she has two years of executive administrative governing experience that Senator Barak Obama does not have. A final reason that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is superior is because of political accomplishments. When our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin came to office she accomplished 3 major things which are as follows: she showed great leadership in the 3 following areas: government reform, the state budget and the economy, and wise use of natural resources. She reformed government by standing up to the big oil companies by breaking up the monopoly on power and resources. She insisted on competition and basic fairness which ended the control that the oil companies had on the state, and thereby returning control of the state back to the people. She also stood up to the special interest and lobbyist, and produced major ethics reform. She lead well in the state budget by generating a surplus which came about by vetoing a half billion dollars of wasteful spending, ending the abuses of earmark spending by congress, and by getting rid of the private jet, the chef, and the chuffer. Economically under her leadership she brought about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. She also suspended the state fuel tax, and when oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, she sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska . On natural resources she has shown great leadership by beginning a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. When the last section of the pipeline is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart. Senator Barak Obama has done nothing, so please vote John McCain for President and give to our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin the opportunity that she deserves leading the nation into the future after a John McCain presidency. When our soon to be Vice President does lead the nation as President after a John McCain presidency,she will be the greatest President that we have ever had. Finally she is smarter than Senator Barak Obama

  

Thank You

  

John Warren

Reply to John Warren
Barney Murrell
Barney Murrell
Oct 22, 2008 11:34 AM
Governor Palin pushed a windfall profit tax increase on the oil industry – which generated a vast amount of new revenue. Now Alaska is in the process of sending $3,200 to each resident, and the Palin family share will be over $20,000. Thus, taxpayers in the other 49 states are paying higher oil and gas prices to subsidize Palin and other Alaskans.

In a major flip-flop, before Palin was against Alaska’s infamous “bridge to nowhere” she was for it. Palin campaigned for governor on a Build-the-Bridge platform. Alaska’s congressional delegation earmarked $233 million for the bridge. Congress eventually removed future bridge funding, but the original appropriated $233 million still went to Alaska.

Palin’s self description as “pit bull with lipstick” may or may not be true but evidence proves her to be as mean as one. Palin and former Republican president Richard Nixon had something in common, an “enemies list.” Shortly after becoming mayor in 1997 Palin asked for resignation letters from six top department heads, saying they'd supported the former mayor that Palin ran against. When they didn’t resign she fired two of them and others quit later. And as governor there is her scandal of “troopergate” in which she was found guilty of abusing her power by a BIPARTISAN investigation.

The Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) has, as one of its goals, secession from the United States. Such ideas were once thought of as sedition, but now John McCain has legitimized the concept by choosing as his VP candidate Sarah Palin who has; along wither her husband, been loosely associated with the AIP for years. Palin’s congratulatory remarks to an AIP convention were removed from their web site but can still be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI.

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