Tuesday, October 14, 2008

McCain no longer nuts about ACORN

John McCain was a keynote speaker at an ACORN event in 2006. This from ACORN's website:

"Senator Allied with ACORN as Recently as 2006, Now Turns Cold Shoulder
October 13, 2008, Miami, FL - U.S. Senator John McCain's recent attacks on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) are puzzling given his historic support for the organization and its efforts on behalf of immigrant Americans. As recently as February 20, 2006, Senator McCain was the keynote speaker at an ACORN-sponsored Immigration Rally in Miami, Florida at Miami Dade College – Wolfson Campus."

John McCain, what a fraud. Speaking of frauds...

What about this alleged massive voter fraud? I think it's nonsense. To have voter fraud, a living person must attempt to vote under a false name. Registrations don't vote, people do. There were some ACORN employees registering phony names to try to make a quota. This problem was handled by ACORN. This has been spun by right wing media into a democratic conspiracy to steal the vote!
ACORN has registered 2 million new voters, and 60%-70% of those new voters are black, and Democrats. Guess that makes the McCain camp kinda scared.

Here is a small part of a statement released by Bertha Lewis and Steve Kest, directors of ACORN:

"Fact: Voter fraud by individuals is extremely rare, and incredibly difficult. There has never been a single proven case of anyone, anywhere, casting an illegal vote as a result of a phony voter registration. Even if someone wanted to influence the election this way, it would not work."

You can read the facts about ACORN here: ACORN Rallies Its Troops - Marc Ambinder

I really don't think this is going to be an issue for voters. So national media, let's hear more about that Keating Five Scandal......

Photo is of McCain at an ACORN event.
Note to my readers: Mrs. D is on a national news kick right now, I just can't get enough, with the election coming up and all, but I'll be back with a post about local stuff soon!

15 comments:

Bill Villa said...

Kudos to Mrs. Dottie for covering John McCain's embarrassing ACORN flip-flop before both Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann did yesterday.

And yeah, ACORN and "voter fraud" is just another GOP misdirection and another installment in the GOPs long history (dating back to 1964 when blacks got the vote, dang-it) of trying to suppress "those people" from voting for "that one."

If Republicans really cared about putting "Country First," they would have forfeited this election. Yep. They should be so ashamed of the multi-layered mess George W. Bush made in the last 8 years that they should have gracefully stepped aside--forfeited--and told the Dems, "Look, we trust you to do a better job than we just did, good luck to you and you can count on us cooperating with you 100%."

Instead, the GOP puts up a total fraud and arguably the worst presidential candidate in major party history who is insulting our intelligence and the entire election process.

Country First?

Anonymous said...

All this ACORN nonsense is to divert attention away from the economy. It's a Karl Rove tactic. Voter registration fraud is not the same as actual voter fraud.

Anonymous said...

My mother likes to say, "the ACORN (McCain/Palin) doesn't fall far from the tree (Bush/Cheney).

Anonymous said...

McSame/Phalin'

Mrs. Dottie said...

Thanks BV, I am glad that Rachel and Keith both spent some time on this story. I found the info and some good links on the ACORN website, and the picture of McCain at an ACORN event I found at Daily Kos. I have heard that McCain plans on bringing up Ayers tonight, so I am wondering how Obama is going to respond?

Gianni keeps asking me every morning on our way to school, "why are there so many DENT signs, Charlie Dent isn't running for president!" I think he would like to see more Obama signs. By the way, Obama has won the Scholastic kids' election 57-39! Wow.

Mrs. Dottie said...

Anon 10:07.

I don't think people are going to fall for these Rove style tactics, but I am worried about the Bradley effect, and also voter suppression to try to keep minorities from voting. There could be very partisan officials ready to challenge someone's right to vote due to expired driver's license, no proper id.

Bill Villa said...

My predictions for tonite's Final Debate, and beyond ...

* McCain will be at his crabbiest, lying-est, and most desperate; we'll see droplets of sweat flying off his snow white brow

* Obama will employ a cool, calm, and calculated "Rope-A-Dope" strategy and let McCain punch himself out in the glare of the TV lights before Obama steals each round (fair & square) with a flurry of brilliant counter punches that will make McCain want to hold his breath until he passes out

* Obama will have a 15 point lead in all the major national polls by early next week

* Also by early next week: Sarah Palin will announce her candidacy for President for 2012

Sarina said...

You make a great point...registration fraud is not voter fraud. None of these people have attempted to vote yet. Tons of registrations are screwed up all the time, deliberately or otherwise. I've heard from a friend at the Obama office that lots of people keep coming in to register as new voters, but quite a few of them are already registered somewhere else. They're just really jumpy about making sure they're registered so they aren't left out of the election.

Anonymous said...

Isn't voter (count) fraud how the Republicans "won" the White House in 2000 and 2004? Talk about paranoia and projection!

Anonymous said...

If ACORN was a pro republican group I believe you would all be singing a different tune. What ACORN has allowed to happen is wrong. Not having strict guidelines for how voter registrations are handled makes it much more difficult for the dedicated poll workers to do the important job they volunteer for on election day. This shouldn't be am Obama or McCain issue. ACORN should be admonished and both candidates should distance themselves from group such as this.

Bill Villa said...

"If ACORN was a pro republican group I believe you would all be singing a different tune." -anon 9:43pm

... you mean "whining also?"

"What ACORN has allowed to happen is wrong."

I guess ... what about what The Supreme Court allowed to happen in '00? Any beef with that?

"Not having strict guidelines for how voter registrations are handled makes it much more difficult for the dedicated poll workers to do the important job they volunteer for on election day."

Not really. A registered "Mickey Mouse" would have to show proper I.D. at the polls, just like you and I will be required to. As Mrs. Dottie and Barack Obama and every left- and right-wing news reporter in the nation has pointed out, voter registration "fraud," and voting fraud, are two very different and far apart things and voter fraud hardly ever happens anymore, not even in Philadelphia which was famous for it. Voter suppression, however, is very much alive and well. As you know. Silver lining though is that all the fear-mongering from the lunatic right has elevated everyone's threshold for fear, so thanks to youse, all reasonable and rational people can see right through ruses like this GOP red herring on "voter fraud." The Bill Ayers/Terrorist Obama red herring is outta gas too. Boo Hoo.

"This shouldn't be am Obama or McCain issue. ACORN should be admonished and both candidates should distance themselves from group such as this."

You wish ;) hey some whuppin' McCain got last night, sheesh, he must really be hurtin' today. You too I guess, eh?

Mrs. Dottie said...

ACORN voter registration fraud is not "a threat to the fabric of our democracy" like McCain said last night. Please find out the facts about ACORN, I provided a link to their website.

Last night, Obama stuck to the important issues that Americans want to hear about. He remained cool, while McCain displayed his hot-headed temper, and he constantly attacked Obama's character. How about McCain's character? Keating Five scandal? Allowing hateful racist signs like "Obama bin Lyin" and shouts of "kill Obama" at his rallies? Voting against Head Start and SCHIP for kids. Anti-women's rights. McCain was trying to appeal to his base, and Palin was chosen to excite that radical right wing base. Doggonit, I don't think that's gonna appeal to most Americans.
I'll betcha that "those people" vote for "that one."

Bill Villa said...

"McCain displayed his hot-headed temper ..."

How bout it. I didn't see any sweat droplets flying from McCain's snow white and deeply furrowed brow last night but I think I saw some foam flying off of his lips, man, he was frothing (and erratic) for 90 minutes straight.

I was certainly dead-on correcto about my "Rope-A-Dope" prediction though ;) now wasn't I ...

Anonymous said...

"Not really. A registered "Mickey Mouse" would have to show proper I.D. at the polls, just like you and I will be required to."

Mr. Villa your above comment is not true. I have yoted for 14 years and have not been asked for an ID. Most places do not have laws which require ID. I think that it is wrong not to require ID. Improper registration can lead to voter fraud. Say for example "Mickey Mouse" is a real person. He registers numerous times in different counties in Ohio. He then goes on to vote in numerous counties because Ohio doesn't require ID for voters. I bet you would be upset if he cast all those votes for McCain. Why can't people from both parties agree on simple things like voter registration fraud is bad? Instead you seem to take the position that registration fraud is alright because it isn't actually voter fraud.

As far as the 00 election is concerned I don't know. I don't know who was right or wrong. I know hundreds of lawyers from both side descended on Florida and seem to make the situation much more complicated then it needed to be. I believe every proper vote should count... once. Acorn seems to think voter registrations are something you buy from minimum wage employees they put out on the street.

Bill Villa said...

"I believe every proper vote should count... once." -anon 8:59

This is the bottom line and I agree with you 100% on this. But in all the news and blog coverage of this ACORN "issue," I haven't heard of even one instance where an improper vote was cast and counted.

On a related subject, in the 2000 presidential election, and again in the 2004 presidential election, there were stories too numerous to mention of voters and their votes being improperly not counted, or prevented from being cast.

I'm sure people from both parties can agree that voter registration fraud is bad. I certainly agree.

But I think vote suppression is a much bigger problem-- it's a problem that can indeed ruin the fabric of our democracy. I'd like to see people from both parties agreeing on this too.