That it was done via a juicy morality violation was a brilliant stroke of PR. Find out who was behind the plumbers reporters, and we’ll have a story.

The silly advice to hide earnings from illegal activities was the same policy that has destroyed many a crime syndicate. The IRS doesn’t care how you get your money, so long as you tithe. Tax Evasion has put many a violent crime lord behind bars, those who were legally untouchable for their obvious predations.

Imagine the screaming if we suddenly had a new amendment to the constitution making it clear that similarly situated people and companies MUST be treated similarly. No exceptions. No special tax breaks. Prosecutors could not exercise discriminatory discretion to overlook fraud by big contributors. No more special funding for companies who commit massive fraud. No handouts to companies that are “too big to fail,” letting the little companies shrivel and die. No more government deals for those who are contributors. No more easy access to our politicians by those who are contributors.

Just listen to the shrill cries when Elizabeth Warren seeks to create an agency to make sure that the financial corporations play fair with consumers! http://dangerousintersection.org/2009/09/06/elizabeth-warren-faces-fierce-resistance-to-regulation-of-non-bank-lenders/ and see here: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/25-4 . Yet the financial institutions write their own regulations, put the entire country in great (continuing) jeopardy, pressure the taxpayers for a bailout and (in many cases) pay their bigshots millions and billions in bonuses.

Just compare the damage caused to the US by ACORN v. the financial institutions. There’s no comparison. Now it’s time to go after the banks, making sure that the penalty is proportionate to ACORN’s penalty and proportionate to the harm they caused.

Mr. President, just to reiterate, a few weeks ago, this Senate voted to strip funding for an organization called ACORN, which received $53 million in federal funds over a period of 15 years. The basis of that decision was a video tape shown repeatedly on national television in which several ACORN employees were involved in a totally absurd and reprehensible discussion. Those employees have since been fired, and should have been fired, and ACORN should be extremely ashamed that people like that were employed by them.

But now, we are involved with an issue of far greater consequence than ACORN. Not of $53 million of federal funds over 1 5 years but of hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to large corporate defense contractors who year after year after year engage in illegal behavior and rip off the American taxpayer. One has got to be pretty blind not to perceive that this type of behavior is systemic to the industry and that it is part of their overall business model. And, let me just add, what I’ve described now is just some of what these companies have been caught doing. Who knows what other illegal activities have taken place which have not yet been discovered.

A lot of the satire in the movie reminds me of recent events in the news. Several quotes from the film can be found here.

I bet you’re fun at parties.

To think that one party is any less beholden to large corporate interests or big money is the first fallacy of living in a dual party system. To think that the DEM is any less in the grips of Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, AFLCIO, NEA, ABA, or for that matter Major League Baseball is self-delusional.

Are the GOP a bunch of money-grubbing crooks? Hell yes. Are their democratic cousins any less so? Maybe, but only ever so slightly because they are fresh into power. Give them a few years to rot out fully (remember Tip O’Neil?)

But anyhoo… I have a problem with the logic that seems to underline Brynn’s article. Is it that ACORN ain’t so bad because huge companies also steal our tax dollars? Comparing evil to greater evil doesn’t get anyone into Heaven. Is the argument that Congress has uneven rules and/or subjective amnesia when certain offenders give sufficient contributions? If so, then I would ask: which party is in majority, and how are they any cleaner this time around?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/tripp070898.htm

I find it very misleading for the press and the right to never mention in any reports that the police were called, and these folks were kicked out many times, before their stinky bait caught some bottom-dwelling little fish at ACORN.

The whole thing appears to be an adjunct of the anti-Obama witch hunt of the far right racist fascist corporatist Republicans who will stop at nothing to defeat President Obama and health care reform.

I’ll bet these guys spend over $500 million to defeat healthcare reform.

If reform passes, and works, the political landscape will favor progressives for the next generation or more. The GOP/Right cannot tolerate such, and the GOP/Right will get all the money it needs from its fascist corporate masters to defeat eform.

How about cutting funding (TARP, TALF, etc…) to some of the major banks?
See Bank of America.

How about AOL(Time-Warner), Broadcom, Nortel, Apple, Delphi, HealthSouth, KPMG, ….. nevermind, it’s too depressing for me to continue. Google “fraud” and your favorite governmental agency (I used the SEC for this list).

As Erich suggests also, there’s a link to campaign finance– Time-Warner contributed $1.75 million to incumbent congressional candidates last year.

A lack of financial loss to the government does not equate to a lack of social harm.

When confronted with the undercover tapes, what in your mind should Congress have done? Let Acorn conduct the census? You describe Acorn as a humanitarian organization. In your opinion, is it a nonpartisan organization or does it work to the political advantage of the democratic party with taxpayer funds?

You’re right, a lack of financial harm does not equal a lack of social harm. But consider this: perhaps ACORN employees are used to dealing with lots of uncomfortable issues. Perhaps lots of very poor people come to them seeking help, and perhaps some of these very poor people are involved in illegal activities in an attempt to make ends meet, such as prostitution or drugs. Perhaps after years of hearing the same questions from what seems to be a permanent underclass, these questions are not so shocking to ACORN employees anymore.

In my opinion, it appears to be a non-partisan organization. I would submit that so many on the right consider them partisan because they cater to the poor and disenfranchised, who tend to lean Democratic when they vote. I can’t explain why that is, since the poor seem to get sold out just as often by the Democrats as by the Republicans. But really, whether they are or are not partisan is a side issue. The real issue, as always, is class. As I said in the post:

I’m not saying don’t be upset at ACORN if there was, in fact, wrongdoing. All I ask is that we apply the same standards to the wealthy. Because while an ACORN employee may have been advising someone how to get a tax break on a brothel, the real criminals have been hiding their taxes out of the country, exploiting their political connections, committing actual fraud, and getting richer all the time.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to cut off funding, or whatever you want to do. I’m all for ending corruption, and if ACORN is involved in corruption, then that should be corrected. The big point is that if we are going to be anti-corruption, then let’s enforce the same rules for everyone–including defense contractors and big-money interests who, as Erich points out, have the resources to be able to flaunt the laws at will, or secure friendly legislation. That’s the larger point, and one that I think is getting missed in much of the ACORN controversy.

The government is leaking taypayer money like a sieve. It needs to be plugged all over the place. Just because more money is hemmorhaging elsewhere is no reason to give Acorn a pass.

You’re right, to a point. If there’s wrongdoing, nobody should get a pass. But we’ve been ignoring literally billions of dollars in actual, proven fraud while scrambling to de-fund an organization that receives an infinitesimal amount of funding in comparison. The defense contractors I profiled have actually been convicted in court of defrauding the government (ultimately the taxpayers) of literally billions of dollars. Why isn’t there at least an equivalent level of outrage?

He also apparently thinks a pair of bitch slaps is worth over $400,000.00, that is why he is for tort reform, so others don’t get his paycheck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrX9Ca7LSyQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stossel#David_Schultz_incident

Of course he doesn’t have an extensive history of cherry picking.

/rant