ACORN wins a big one against right-wing attempts to defund it

ACORN won a big battle in its struggle to overturn the unconstitutional congressional provisions specifically naming it for defunding. According to The Center for Constitutional Rights,

Yesterday, Wednesday, federal judge, for the second time, granted an injunction against Congress’ unconstitutional de-funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to apply to federal budget provisions signed into law by President Obama in December 2009 and ordered the United State of America and several named agencies to rescind orders cutting off funding to ACORN and its affiliates and allies. A preliminary injunction was won in December 2009 in the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) case charging Congress with violating the U.S. Constitution’s protections against Bill of Attainders and the First and Fifth Amendments in several recurring resolutions. Today’s opinion extends that protection by ordering a permanent injunction and directing agency heads to disregard the provisions denying funding and to rescind the memos that implemented the Congressional action.

I think the best way to understand the congressional attack on ACORN is to ask, who's behind it? Or maybe, why is ACORN being targeted now? The answer is simple. The Republicans and their right-wing allies (the line between these two is getting more and more blurred) are deathly afraid of the enfranchisement of poor people and mostly people of color. That's exactly who ACORN is organizing. ACORN has fought for the last 40 years to get poor people, working class people and people of color access to the American dream. In very simple terms that means enfranchisement, education and a good job and home of one's own. These are hardly radical ideas. But they do require some changes, which the Republicans and their right-wing allies are ideologically against. They are opposed to broader enfranchisement, greater access to education and to home loans because securing access to these rights requires government intervention, the great bugaboo of the right.

ACORN is being targeted by the internal enemies of democracy because above and beyond everything else they are scared to death of the enfranchisement and empowerment of poor people and working people, particularly people of color. It's not accidental that this anti-ACORN attack follows the election of a person of color to the what is still to them the aptly named White House. It has not been missed by these people that if only the votes of white people were counted in 2008, John McCain would now be president. So the enfranchisement of poor people, people of color and young people does not bode well for the future of Republican/right wing power. And the primary goal of ACORN has always been the expansion of voting rights. But not just to expand the franchise, but to educate people how to exercise their power - the vote is only a part of that struggle. The struggle continues between the power of bribery (oops, I mean campaign contributions) and the power of the vote of an ORGANIZED constituency. And that's what ACORN does, it helps people to organize so that they can exercise their power. Human centered social change has never happened unless people were organized. And prepared to exercise their power both inside and outside the electoral process. Resistance is key and it takes many forms.

Dec. 22, Hearing in ACORN v. U.S.A.

Hearing in ACORN v. U.S.A.

Tuesday, December 22, 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM
(Arrive early for security and seating)

United States District Court Eastern District of New York,
225 Cadman Plaza East, (Room 6D)
Brooklyn, New York



Last week the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) celebrated a major victory in our case on behalf of ACORN over congressional de-funding, but we have to go back to court tomorrow and we hope you will come show your support if you can.

The case charged Congress with violating the Bill of Attainder provision in the U.S. Constitution by singling out an organization for punishment without a fair investigation and trial, violating the Fifth Amendment right to due process, and infringing on the First Amendment right to freedom of association by targeting affiliated and allied organizations as well. And the judge agreed. Two days later, Congress passed a new budget that included three specific references targeting ACORN for de-funding, and we are asking the judge to amend her decision to include these new violations of the law. Join CCR tomorrow, Tuesday, December 22, 2009 to pack the court to make it loud and clear that Congress cannot act as judge, jury and executioner.

The U.S. Constitution forbids lawmakers from singling out a person or group for punishment in order to protect against political retribution without due process. We asked the judge to amend her decision granting an injunction against Congress' unconstitutional de-funding of ACORN to apply it to the new federal budget provisions that President Obama signed into law last week. The United States has also filed papers asking the judge to reconsider her December 11 ruling and set it aside.


For more information on ACORN v. USA, please visit CCR's website. Join us to show solidarity with ACORN and to make sure the right does not continue its unconstitutional targeting of progressive organizations.

We hope to see you in court.

"Pawlenty yanks ACORN funding," Oh! Minnesota doesn't fund ACORN

In case you were wondering, here's the latest notice from NewsMax, an extreme-right wing web site:

Eyeing a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has moved to the right to better appeal to the conservatives who will likely select the GOP candidate.

Pawlenty has been viewed during his two terms as fairly close to the center. But in recent weeks he has made several moves to burnish his right-wing credentials.

Among them: He yanked state funding for the ACORN community organizing group, termed fears over so-called death panels "legitimate," called President Barack Obama's address to schoolchildren "uninvited," suggested he could assert states' rights to block federal healthcare reform, and called Obama's reform plans "a joke."

Well there are a number of problems with Pawlenty's actions. A good right-wing extremist does what's expected of him, but while

Gov. Tim Pawlenty today joined the chorus of disapproval aimed at the ACORN community organizing group, ordering that state agencies "stop all state funding" of the group.

... a local spokesman for the group said there's no state funding to stop.

But one thing that never gets in the way of a good right-wing action is reality. This is just one example.

Rachel Maddow on ACORN, Part II

Here is Part II of Rachel Maddow's multi-show comment on the Republican "Defunding and demonizing" of ACORN. But as angry as she is about it, and I fully agree with her response, she still doesn't get to the reason for the Republican action. The GOP may be racist and dishonest, but they are not stupid. Why attack a 40-year-old community organization? The reason, as I suggested in the previous post, is that if more and more poor Black people are registered to vote (ACORN's main work) the Republican Party will go the way of the pre-Civil Rights South. Remember that only 43% of the white electorate voted for Obama. The votes that elected him had to come from somewhere. Get it? Registering Black people = Republican defeats. The real question is: why did so many Democrats cast self-defeating votes to defund ACORN? And, of course, as always the other question is: Why does the mainstream media just buy into the Republican lies about ACORN?

Tonight's Rachel Maddow comment on the "defunding and demonizing" of ACORN co-stars Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater
(If you are viewing this on FaceBook click here to see the video)

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Right attack on ACORN reminiscent of pre-Civil Rights South

I think it would be a serious mistake for us to underestimate the Republican attack on ACORN. We really have to take it very seriously. It's very much a part of the right-wing racist attack on Obama and democratic voting rights. The attack on ACORN is reminiscent of the pre-Voting Rights Act (1965) Southern determination to prevent the voting registration of Black people. Once upon a time before the civil rights movement (SNCC, etc.) went below the Mason-Dixon Line to register African-American voters, the powers-that-be in the South did everything they could to prevent people 0f color from voting. The powers that were feared that if Black people voted they would lose control of the political process in their states. And that, of course, is what happened.

The Republicans, with the help of the mainstream media and Democrats, have promulgated outright lies about ACORN. Their purpose has been to defund the one organization doing more to register people of color to vote. And that, of course, is exactly what the Republican Party wants to accomplish. Just like their ancestors in the South, they know that if poor people, particularly poor Black people, register to vote their percentage of the vote will continue to shrink. Remember in the 2008 election Obama was elected by 53 percent of the broad electorate but only 43 percent of the white electorate voted for him and that's what scares the hell out of the Republicans.

Here's Rachel Maddow last night discussing the Republican attempt to "defund and demonize" ACORN and particularly the mainstream media's failure to report the story accurately, thereby enabling the Republican Party's attempt to increase the white percentage of the voting population. (If you are viewing this post on FaceBook, please click here to see the Rachel Maddow video).

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