Craven And moderate Republican are synonymous.

But then again, Reality and base Republican are antithetical.

Lately, whenever I click on The Onion I get redirected here. . .

i like all these blind pig right wing nuts stumbling around looking for scandal-acorns to try to demonize obama -- even wingnut wannabes like this pawlenty twerp...

it keep 'em busy in the gutter and out of the way...

Reminds me of a wonderful line from In The Loop:

I talked to him. Whether I did or not is irrelevant. It is TRUE.

It doesn't matter if it's true; it matters if it impresses the base.

Yep. It's just marketing at this point. It's been just marketing for quite some time.

Now, if only timmy could get caught with a call girl dressed up as a squirrel eating acorns.
Well, I thought of it, so then by republican logic, it must be true. Timmy is a rodent fucker.

I've decided to strip the Political Animal budget of all ACORN funding.

Racist!

Okay ... I watched the video, and a few thoughts:

1. The woman was obviously joking. Dear god, it plays out like a bad college Videography 101 project by some rightwing clown.

2. The fact the police have verified that her ex-husbands are, in fact, ya know, still alive, proves #1 above.

3. If Republicans (and even a few Dems, which is ricockulous) want to cut off funding for ACORN because one woman didn't break any laws, why don't they propose cutting funding for Blackwater? Their folks have, in reality, broken lots of laws.

4. The media has, once again, fallen for some rightwing freakout about absolutely nothing -- which should, once and for all, kill the "liberal media" myth. If it's on Drudge, it'll be on the 6 o'clock news.

It's simple:

Does ACORN have a few nuts?* I'm sure they do.

But so does my company! And so does every single other company or organization. It's a big country, full of millions of silly/stupid/short-sighted people. So, yeah. It happens.

It's sad and pathetic that a group that does so much good is getting slandered like this. It really, really is.

(*Sorry. Couldn't resist. :-] ).

Whoops! Wrong thread!

Can a mode please delete my 9:57 post ... and this one?

Thanks, and sorry -- I'll grab my dunce cap and go sit in the corner.

I have a feeling this is going to work for Timmy, because there is NO journalism any more.

Look how well "I said thanks but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere" worked for Palin. No matter how many times that was proven to be completely false, she kept repeating the lie and people kept believing her.

Besides, IOKIYAR.

This is about half a step from the Marx Brothers:

Chico: So what do we do about this ACORN?

Groucho: What's wrong with them?

Chico: They're nuts.

Groucho: Well, we'll cut off the money we're giving them.

Chico: We don't give them any money.

Groucho: Well, start giving them money and then cut them off. I really can't be bothered with these things.

Pawlenty isn't the only one. Our brave Governor Schwarzenegger requested yesterday that Gerry Brown open an investigation into ACORN in California as well.

Brown announced today that instead, he's opening an investigation into the credit ratings agencies for the role they played in the economic meltdown.

Roddy McCorley@9:41: Yep. It's just marketing at this point. It's been just marketing for quite some time.

This is the disconnect between the two parties. Democrats are typically politicians and continue to play the same "gentlemen's game" that politicians of all (most) stripes have played for centuries.

The Republican Party has been condensed down to those who are either complete corporate shills, or those who are directly tied to the private sector (former CEOs abound).

Marketing is the only game they know and you'd be laughed out of any corporate boardroom to suggest that honesty, principle, or ethics should play *any* part whatsoever in the selling of products.

Modern conservatism is itself a product; a product that clears the way for the unimpeded selling of other products.

Q. "Governor, why do you keep clapping those two sticks together?"

A. "To keep the polar bears away."

Q. "Governor, there are no polar bears in Minnesota, are there?"

A. "You see? It works!"

Gov. Pawlenty was silly to do this. He should have asked if any state money goes to ACORN, then held a press conference to assure the people of Minnesota that none does. To me, he mostly just looks uninformed.

However, as much good work as I believe ACORN does now and has in the past, this episode is troubling. I think ACORN should be treated like a corrupt defense contractor and investigated and audited by the federal agencies that provide the funding. My guess is that some questionable uses of funds will be found but, by and large, they will turn out to be clean, if a bit sloppy at times with record keeping. Since I think a defense contractor's questionable behavior should be investigated when exposed, then I have no problem with a national anti-poverty organization's behavior being scrutinized either. They should not have "played along." They should have said "We cannot help you. Go see Bernie Madoff's accountant instead."

Did anyone here catch TDS Tuesday night? They did a bit on Acorn and how their offices were infiltrated by a couple of young Republicans masquerading as prostitute and pimp. The whole point of their "exposé" was to expose a lack of inquiry into the supposed careers of those seeking Acorn's assistance.

They succeeded on that front. The whole operation looked, well, like just what a ragtag, cobbled-together and underfunded community organization might look like.

Then, I remembered that this is the organization that helped decimate the U.S. econonmy, and is plotting to take over the country and enslave us all. I feel a little better about that now. ;o)

As I said before: there's a big double standard about ACORN, since employees and managers at eg fast food are show selling burgers picked off the floor etc. - and then there's the execs at health insurance companies paid to be death panelists, suppressing payment to their customers.

We have a local ACORN? Well, of course we do. I should have thought of it before. I know who's getting some of my hard-earned money so they can continue their quest to populate America with Islamofascistsociocommie voters!

Put another way, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has just multiplied ACORN's state funding by 10!

"It doesn't matter if it's true; it matters if it impresses the base."

Precisely why (7) Democratic Senators voted to continue taxpayer funds flowing to this massively corrupt crowd...

...gotta keep the 'base impressed' - in spite of their vote going against any common sense whatsoever...

jpeckjr said:I think ACORN should be treated like a corrupt defense contractor and investigated and audited by the federal agencies that provide the funding.

And then given a bonus and more and bigger contracts?

@martin: No, no, no, not like THAT corrupt defense contractor. Like the other one, the one who got their contract renewed at the same amount!

My point is receiving federal grants or contracts puts an organization or corporation into a relationship that by its nature entails a level of scrutiny to assure the funds are being used according to law and regulation, which are presumably in the public interest.

If liberals and progressives want defense contractors scrutinized, then we can't oppose scrutinizing anti-poverty community organizations or other entities we support.

Besides, given the lax enforcement of the last eight years of almost all federal laws and regulations, if ACORN did anything illegal it probably happened during the Bush Administration.