So the GOP’s brilliant new plan to derail health insurance reform is to “ACORN” the AARP. (Pausing while that sinks in a moment)
You know, the AARP, the really, really powerful lobby that is really really powerful and represents the group of Americans who vote the most–seniors.
The slime is already pouring from the right-wing noise machine, a sure indicator of impending wingnut baying and howling.
But wait, it gets even better. One of the GOPoodles leading the charge is none other than Rep. Dave Reichert, R-WA 08. From TPMDC:
The GOP has gone further than rhetoric as well. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) claims to have launched an investigation into AARP in his home state. Reichert says his “ongoing” investigation focuses on whether AARP should be classified as an insurance company because of its revenue from royalties the group gets from licensing its brand for insurance products. AARP says it’s not aware of the investigation, and Reichert suggested to reporters Monday that it was essentially stalled. But the question of whether AARP is an insurance company or not is at the center of the GOP messaging on the group.
I didn’t know a Congressman could make such determinations at the state level. My guess is he can’t, which is probably why his “investigation” is stalled.
Meaning, of course, Reichert is just being a grandstanding fool. People who have followed recent elections in WA-08 won’t be surprised by this, unless they’re political reporters from The Seattle Times. In that case this is a shrewd move by a sensible moderate who has grave concerns blah blah blah blah blah diploma.
For everyone else it’s a sign that Reichert has now performed a triple-shark jump, replete in leather jacket with Pinky dressed as Santa Claus. The crowd goes wild, folks.
Hey, here’s an idea, Dave. If you want to “ACORN” the AARP, why don’t you dress up in a mini-skirt and go filming yourself at some AARP offices? I bet you’ll get on Fox!
Many of the righties I know have been badmouthing AARP for years.
Expect the tactics used against ACORN to be applied to any and all organizations that work against the Balkanization of all but the hoitiest of the toity. It isn’t just about votes–the upper class wants as many of us as possible to be desperately poor, so they can count themselves as richer by comparison.
Eventually, they’ll be going after the likes of Catholic Community Services. Remember, I told you first.
A change the hair color to silver and it’s not hard to imagine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4
Eeeyyy!!!
Is that Joe Lieberman as Richie Cunningham?
I wouldn’t characterize Reichert as being in the same sleazy ballpark as Hannah Giles and her partner in crime, the racist James O’Keefe.
But no doubt he’s pretty dumb and a crappy detective and won’t get anywhere with his “investigation”.
The triple shark jump metaphor is apt. Classic Reichert.
Apparently Dave forgot to read his talking points from the GOP hog trough??
Wow, the GOP sure is full of stupid. Didn’t touching the third rail 4 years ago teach them anything?
I make sure my pets go to the vet when they need to and I pay for it. In return they have to kill rodents and bark at intruders.
I must be an insurer as well.
Yeah, thats why tens of thousands of seniors have cancelled their membership. You tards are dumber than I realized. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
@8 And for every one who cancelled, 10 have joined.
“Approximately 60,000 AARP members quit AARP between July 1 and August 18, 2009 …. However, … AARP gained 400,000 members during the same period ….”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....ontroversy
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So let me get this straight: The wingnuts are upset because they think socialized medicine (i.e., Medicare) will be cut …
Poor poor wingnuts. Can’t live with their government-run health care.
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correction “without” not “with”
Reichert is the Nelson Eddy of WA politics.
@14 Hannah Giles is waging class warfare against the poor:
“Joe Conason, a liberal political commentator and journalist, commented that Giles ‘idea of getting housing assistance for a brothel was clever,’ but directed attention at what he saw as exaggerated and unfair attacks against an organization which serves the ‘dispossessed and impoverished.’ Stated Conason: ‘Like so many conservative attacks, the crusade against ACORN has been highly exaggerated and even falsified to create a demonic image that bears little resemblance to the real organization. Working in the nation’s poorest places, and hiring the people who live there, ACORN is not immune to the pathologies that can afflict institutions in those communities. As a large nonprofit handling many millions of dollars, it has suffered from mismanagement at the top as well — although there is nothing unique in that, either. Yet ACORN’s troubles should be considered in the context of a history of honorable service to the dispossessed and impoverished. No doubt it was fun to dupe a few morons into providing tax advice to a ‘pimp and ho,’ but what ACORN actually does, every day, is help struggling families with the Earned Income Tax Credit (whose benefits were expanded by both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton). And while the idea of getting housing assistance for a brothel was clever, what ACORN really does, every day, is help those same working families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.'”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Giles
Of course, Giles isn’t a legitimate journalist. What she did was akin to leaving a wallet on a bench at SeaTac Airport to tempt passersby into picking it up so she could write a story about airport “crime.”
The problem with this, of course, is that both the crime and the story are manufactured. The law has a term for this: Entrapment. When SeaTac Police tried this wallet stunt a few years back, the courts threw out the charges against the airport patrons they arrested for picking up the wallet.
Giles didn’t conduct a daring investigation or accomplish a brilliant expose. All she did was entrap people. Preying on human weakness in this manner isn’t laudable, it’s despicable. As a former journalist myself, and as the offspring of a highly respected journalist, I hope she never finds employment in the legitimate news media because she doesn’t fit into that profession. She’s nothing but a propagandist.
the criminal group known as ACORN gets ousted, and like good little lap dogs, you come to their defense.
Now, had ACORN been a conservative group, you would be asking for their heads.
Hypocrisy, its a wonderful thing, eh rabbit?
I’m really curious about how much damage ACORN’s “crimes” have done compared to oh..
Contractors in Iraq?
Let’s see, from that one google search:
A former Army contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing nearly $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from a U.S. Army base in Iraq and selling it on the black market.
and
A document — part of a whistleblower lawsuit obtained by CBS News — alleges a blueprint of contractor abuse in Iraq, detailing how the government was billed 10 times more than it should have been when U.S. troops used a recreation facility in Iraq.
and
Maj. Gloria Davis allegedly told Army investigators before her death in December 2006 that she received $225,000 (151,934) in bribes from Kuwait-based businessman George H. Lee and his son. Army investigator also said she knew of other payments by the Lees to U.S. contracting officers. No charges filed, but military seized Davis’ bank accounts and suspended Lee and his company from doing business with government.
It goes on and on and on – BILLIONS of dollars in fraud to run their fantasy war they watch on Faux News and the right wing bellows about an organization run on a shoestring by comparison to help the poor.
These right wing fiends are too sick for words.
ACORN according to right wing sources has received an average of 3.5 million a year of taxpayer money for the last 15 years to run their various programs.
The right wing also fantasized about them getting 8 BILLION dollars from the Obama administration but I digress.
How does the 53 million ACORN received over the last 15 years compare to this Iraq contracting abuse:
According to the Associated Press, which obtained an early copy of the commission’s report, “billions of dollars” of the total paid to KBR “ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies.”
KBR is at the center of a lethal scandal involving the electrocution deaths of more than a dozen U.S. soldiers, allegedly as a result of faulty electrical work done by the company. The DoD paid KBR more than $80 million in bonuses for the very work that resulted in the electrocution deaths.
and
Mr. Grayson has filed dozens of lawsuits against Iraq contractors on behalf of corporate whistle-blowers. He won a huge victory last month when a federal jury in Virginia ordered a security firm called Custer Battles LLC to return $10 million in ill-gotten funds to the government. The ruling marked the first time an American firm was held responsible for financial improprieties in Iraq. But it also highlighted the limits of the broader efforts to stem contractor abuses there.
I can go on all night about this. It just doesn’t compare. Any ACORN faux pas are small potatoes.
Wars stink with corruption. And right wingers love ’em.
@18….well with that logic, lets not prosecute anybody who only murders ONE person, because we know there are people who have killed numerous people.
corruption from any company at any level needs to be rooted out and those involved should be punished – and that includes iraq contractors.
among many other things, this one items is what sets you and I apart. I want to string all the crooks up, while you think only the crooks on the right should be punished.
ACORN has repeatedly demonstrated that they are a disfunctional, crook filled organization – involved with everything from vote fraud to outright monetary theft -but hey, they are on the left, so its OK…..and its people like you that make it possible for them.
way to go lazy ass…..maybe if you actually paid some taxes, you would care.
YLB’s wife is a “Bikini Barista” …about 35 lbs overweight with lots of cottage cheese to make you gag on your coffee.
Goldy—
Why should anyone trust the Obama government to do anything cost-effectively.
Let’s start looking at the numbers of other programs starting with the $8000 1st time HomeBuyers Credit that cost taxpayers $43,000/home!!
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2.....a-mistake/
Read the Brookings Institute study.
The link is in this article.
Here is another example of the COST INEFFECTIVENESS of Obamunism–
Cash for Clunkers $4500/vehicle credit cost taxpayers $24,000/vehicle according to Edmunds as published in the WSJ–
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....15225.html
C’mon Goldy.
Why should we trust any of Obama’s “fuzzy math” and inability to manage anything so far??? Now Health Care??
American’s are NOT falling for the Obama “smoke-and-mirrors” Big Government lies.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Stupak (D-MI) wants Abortion OUT of any Health Care Bill. Trying to get votes.
http://michiganmessenger.com/2.....ealth-care
Pelosi hates this guy.
Yet another example of Obamunism in action…phoney numbers about job number and stimulus.
Obama floats inflated numbers, gets caught and then says they were preliminary.
Lying bastard…everywhere you turn…Obama is a lying bastard.
From Associated Press–
http://www.google.com/hostedne.....AD9BKKBIG0
Poor right wingers: can’t detail a single crime that ACORN people have gone to jail for and any damage it did. All they bleat is “criminal organization”, “criminal organization”…
A simple google search yields dozens of examples of billions in fraud for a stinking war they cheerleaded for all the way.
The true criminal organization is the greedhead right wing. Freaking traitors.
Typical projection from the right wing. I’ve dug up examples of millions and billions of fraud that our kids will be paying off all their lives and you can’t name a single ACORN person who has gone to jail and what they’ve done.
You just “lazily” bleat the right wing line.
Could have fooled me. All right wingers talk about is ACORN.
ACORN and Soros on the brain.
Tell me logically where should more law enforcement resources be devoted – rooting out defense contracting fraud or chasing ACORN across 50 states?
Right wingers can only point to 3.5 million taxpayer dollars in a year and a handful of phony voter registrations. To my knowledge a Mickey Mouse registered by an ACORN stringer has never shown up to vote. But this keeps a right winger up at night.
Billions in Iraq War contractor fraud? Naaaah..
@16 Tell me all about hypocrisy. You guys are the experts on that subject!
Of course, you have your head buried so far down in dipshit ideology — or so far up some Republican’s ass whom you hope will trickle down some minor favors on you someday (don’t hold your breath; those guys aren’t known for rewarding loyalty) — that you’re unwilling to look at the facts of what ACORN is and what ACORN has done.
Or maybe you have such a rabid hatred of the poor, and of people of color, that you can’t stand any organization that tries to actually help the poor and make their lives better.
Criminal organization? Nope. A big organization with some bad eggs. Hardly unique in that respect. I can name other big organizations with criminals on their payroll — Boeing, the Republican Party, etc.
As for Giles, that was a cheap high school stunt, not even worthy of a campus newspaper. The only thing it proved is that when stupid people go looking for other stupid people they tend to find each other.
Oh yeah, one more thing: ACORN didn’t build showers that electrocute American soldiers.
Waytago, Republican asswipe crooks.
HEY CYNICAL!!! GOOD NEWS FOR US CAPITALISTS!!!
The latest economic data shows the economy grew at a fast 3.5% clip last quarter, and a survey shows big companies plan to lift hiring and wage freezes soon! That’s great news for stock flippers like us, because it means a big boost to our portfolios! I realize you’d rather shoot off your own balls than vote for the guy who made this possible — President Obama — but it just got a lot tougher for you and your ilk to call him a miserable failure!
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@15 What most wingnuts don’t know, because Fox Noise isn’t telling them, is that Giles and her pals tried their stunt in dozens of ACORN offices before they found someone naive enough to fall for the scam. In most of the others, they were told, with varying degrees of politeness, to take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. Personnel in several offices actually called the cops.
Everyone here knows my feeling about jobs — who wants ’em? who needs ’em? Only suckers work! Everyone should be a self-employed entrepreneur charging the same hourly rate for his/her services that other businesses get. (Even auto repair shops get close to $100 an hour.)
However, in the unlikely event there’s someone out there who’s misguided enough to want a job, here’s my take on what’s going to happen.
Now, understand that although I had a strong undergraduate minor in economics in which I earned a perfect 4.0 GPA, I’m not a professional economist and prefer to rely on people who are. So, what you’re about to read is NOT my personal opinion, but is information I’ve culled from the conservative-leaning, management-oriented, business and financial press.
1. Businesses went too far in reducing inventories and actual shortages are cropping up in some sectors.
2. In the past, very deep recessions have always been followed by very strong recoveries, and there’s no reason to believe that won’t happen this time.
In short, the business sector overreacted to the financial crisis and has to make up lost production. This points to strong hiring ahead.
Economists have said for some time that unemployment will continue upward into next year, and go double-digit. That may be true, but I strongly doubt we’re looking at years and years of high unemployment — it’s more likely a few more months, and it may even have bottomed already. That’s good news for people foolish enough to have spent themselves into servitude. You know the refrain:
I owe, I owe,
So off to work I go.
Well, that’s not me! I own, not owe, so give that job to the needy, because I don’t need it. I live like a Republican now: I don’t work, and live off the fat of the land. But for those of you who haven’t yet arrived at this happy station in life, take heart — the sun will come out soon!
Hooverism has been defeated! The economy is recovering! Capitalist bunnies can flip stocks for fun and profit again!
And righty fools still delude themselves that President Obama is a failure …
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@14 “Reichert is the Nelson Eddy of WA politics.”
Then, would that make Susan Hutchison the Jeanette McDonald?
Sorry, but I can’t resist the temptation: picture the two of them caterwauling, “When we’re scamming YOOOOO-OO-OO-OOOOO-OO-OO-OOOOOU!”
@32 Yeah, that’s exactly like the lameass Airport Police lying in ambush for the 1 passenger out of 1,000 to come along and pick up the planted wallet — so they can say they’re reducing airport crime.
The courts called that bullshit, which is what it was, and Giles is a bullshit purveyor, too.
Of course, Republican congressmen and partisan hacks are picking up the phony-contrived ACORN story and running it with, which shows once again they have no constructive program for the American people, no ideas, nothing to contribute to the well-being of this nature, only shifty trickery invented to gain a partisan advantage. P. T. Barnum said you can fool some of the people all of the time (read: wingnut fools), but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time (read: voters who ejected the GOP Ship of Fools from the wharf).
correction: nation not nature
Meanwhile, down in Texas, a screeching Republican monkey governor facing a primary challenge from within his own party is sacking forensic commissioners to cover up his execution of an apparently innocent man.
@36 Are you kidding, Roger? They had their scripted statements ready to roll the moment the first ACORN video hit the airwaves. If you think Giles really acted on her own, you must also believe “Joe” is really a plumber.
31. Roger Rabbit spews:
Hang on Rog–
I love your optimism…even if it is slightly misguided. Today is a SELLING day friend.
Read this–
http://www.foxbusiness.com/sto.....recession/
Perhaps you can seperate your political exuberance long enough to vet the numbers and what they really mean….which is not much.
Suckers rally today.
Sell.
If you have any stocks you are flipping…sell.
There will likely be better times to buy back in.
Hey Rog–
I want to thank Obama for all his lies and deceit that have artificially pumped the market.
When folks see that Kash for Klunkers cost taxpayers $24,000/car for a $4,500 credit and all it did was move car purchases up a Quarter to distort car sales (Car sales have tanked since Rog)…and that the 1st time homebuyers credit cost taxpayers $43,000 for each $8,500 credit…they will go nuts.
Also, Obama lied about the Stimulus Jobs created and saved.
I kept investing because I was confident Obama is an excellent LIAR in the short-term.
I was right, huh?
@41 Actually, I think Obama is so blinded by some vague ideals (which I remember having when I was his age) that he doesn’t even know when he’s lying.
You, Cyn, of course have no such excuse.