From small ACORNS grow...

[infrogmation]

You may have heard from some on the American "right wing" about the huge threat to the nation posed by the scary scary ACORNs.

Fortunately, bold legislative steps are being taken to combat the ACORN menace.

Louisiana Governor Eddie Haskell has cut off all state funding of ACORN. Before the ban, the amount of Louisiana state funding of ACORN was zero. It has now been reduced to zero. Way to go, PBJ!

I'm much more impressed, however, with Rep. Alan Grayson's "Defund ACORN Act" (H.R.3571) This is a truly remarkable and important bill. Rather than focusing narrowly on ACORN, it prohibits the Federal Government from funding, contracting with, or entering into any form of agreement with:

"Any organization that has been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration."

*OR*

"Any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency."

Okay. THIS. IS AWESOME.



Ryan Grim: "Whoops: Anti-ACORN Bill Ropes In Defense Contractors, Others Charged With Fraud"

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex.

Blackwater, Halliburton, KBR, Lockheed Martin, Hewlett-Packard, yeah sure, obvious targets of the bill.

But don't think so small. It doesn't just say contractors, it says "any organization".

Who else? The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers?
The Federal Reserve?
The C.I.A.?
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party?

This could get interesting. Hats off to you, Representative Alan Grayson of Disneyworld, American Patriot!

Help identify organizations that fit this criteria

[update]

It seems Grayson knew exactly what he was doing here

Comments

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

So does the New Hampshire Republican Party qualify? I remember that phone-jamming scandal from, what, five years ago now.

[jdquintette.livejournal.com]

I can't put my hand to it at the moment, but there's a terrific article on how quick the feds are to fire ACORN, but how slow they are to fire Blackwater.:-P

There's another organization that's received millions in federal funding over the years for 'youth work,' yet has a long history of sexual exploitation of young boys going back decades and numerous members convicted of same. It's called "the Catholic Church." I'm sure Fox will be doing an expose any day now.

By accident!

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

That this had to be unintentional was my first thought, but looking at Alan Grayson a bit more, he seems to be a pretty sharp cookie to be in with the Congresscritters.

For example:
YouTube: Representative Grayson questions Ben Bernanke (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ECLxK2YTs&NR=1)

2006 Wall Street Journal article (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114541197558329560-QnKdEe01dR1uKU9tTqR44LNkSKc_20060519.html?mod=tff_article) -- before he was in Congress, lawyer Grayson was filing Fair Claims Act lawsuits against fraudulent Government contracts.

Ah, he lets the cat out of the bag:

Congressman Alan Grayson: "I think that the Republicans' intent was to defund ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). But in the process, they defunded crooks all through the military industrial complex and I look forward to their inadvertent efforts in the future to bring about world peace and end hunger." interview with Kathleen Wells (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-wells/its-not-just-acorn-says-c_b_307999.html)

I think Grayson is someone to keep an eye on, at the very least for entertainment value...

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

Rep. Grayson is fast becoming, if he isn't already, one of my favorite people in Congress. We need more like him.