# Thank You, Glenn Beck; Buh Bye, ACORN! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 11, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754 "2009-09-11T23:10:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/41 "2009-09-12T03:09:26Z")
Obama’s speech to ACORN workers: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WMQ20wNhB_M/hqdefault.jpg "Obama Speech for ACORN Community Organizers") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQ20wNhB_M) “During the transition, we’re gonna be calling on all of you to shape the agenda…” “We’re gonna be having meetings all across the country, with community organizations, so that you have input for the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America…” Yeah, Obama has no close to ties to ACORN…his own words, folks. Let me try to predict the sputtering left-wing responses…um, “Karl Rove!” or “Fox News!” ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/42 "2009-09-12T03:10:00Z")
OK, I’ve done a minimal bit of research based what is publically available so far on this story, and feel I’ve seen enough to say that those who are currently creaming their jeans over this whole sorry episode are likely to end up highly embarrassed when it turns out to either a complete fabrication or considerably different from what the very limited video released so far purports to show. There certainly are a number of curiosities. Firstly, there is next to no coverage of this story outside of FOX News and the usual right-wing blowhards. AP has had a couple wire stories on the dropping of ACORN from the census program, and apparently CNN has had a bit of coverage. That’s about it, apparently. Sure, that’s just the mainstream media suppressing inconvenient facts, right? Well, maybe so, but it could equally be that other news organizations, which unlike FOX actually adhere to standards requiring the confirmation and vetting of sources, have found that they simply cannot get sufficient supporting information as to time, place and unedited source material to justify running a story at this time. I will also mention that I have not bothered to review any blogs at all as yet, as too many seem all too willing to publish rumor or hearsay without elementary fact-checking. Secondly, while I have not seen the original video from ACORN’s Baltimore office, I have seen excerpts from the Washington tape, and while it may turn out to be perfectly legit, there are some oddities: thoughout nearly all the clip, the camera is aimed so high that it is impossible to tell whether any of the dialogue on the sound track is actually coming out the ACORN staffer’s mouth; and while the tape is time-stamped, the date very clearly is marked as “ **2005** 07 22”. What’s up with that? These supposedly professional documentarians can’t figure out how to set the date on a camcorder? Thirdly, ACORN itself was the apparent source of the report that the monkeywrenching team has attempted their ruse at multiple ACORN offices in multiple cities. If so, this could only have occurred over several days or weeks. One certainly can say that they are not a very well-run organization if no one noticed a sudden recent surge in pimps and hoes asking for tax advice in a half-dozen cities, and I refuse, absent evidence, to beleive that this is some sort of everyday occurrence. Lastly, I’ve asked this twice in the ongoing GD thread and been completely ignored, but still would happily entertain a plausible explanation: why on earth would part-time, female ACORN staffers willingly agree, for no apparent benefit to themselves, to give advice on avoiding taxes to two strangers who blithely announce (or supposedly do, since the audio isn’t all that clear) that they are a pimp and a hooker? I’m sorry, this simply makes no sense to me. Right now, this whole thing stinks like three-day-old fish. **Stephe96** , **Magellan01** , you are free to ignore me as you like, but IMO you are letting your partisan blinders get the better of you. IMO, you are very likely being sold a bill of goods by charlatans who have a vested interest in manufacturing controversy. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/43 "2009-09-12T03:14:41Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Yeah, I’m not sure why Glenn Beck would care about child prostitution, seeing as how he raped and murdered a young girl in 1990. He has definitely never publicly denied it, either. What’s he got to hide? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/44 "2009-09-12T03:15:42Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > So, Glen Beck “broke the story”, then? Any reason given why the documentary filmaker chose him? Why not Rush, or Hannity? Was this done on a freelance basis, they did what they did and then brought the results to Fox News? By any chance, did Fox News or Mr Beck have anything to do with financing the effort? > > Might just be my leftynoia talking, but I smell a faint hint of rodent in the air… Oh, why not just go for it? Just say that FOX News hired actors to pose as ACORN workers and they were just following along with a script that was written by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. What else? Oh yeah. Karl Rove hopped into the Halliburton Hurricane Machine and went back in time to falsify records in order to show that Obama worked for ACORN a few years ago. Is this really any less plausible than what Obama’s Truther buddies believe? ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/45 "2009-09-12T03:20:01Z")
That’s nonsense. Everyone knows Cheney hogged the Halliburton time machine so he could spend his free time hanging out in 15th century Wallachia. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/46 "2009-09-12T03:28:23Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I thought he shot Janet Reno, just to watch her die. If only he had used garlic and a stake…then it might have taken… ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/47 "2009-09-12T03:30:27Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Well, excuse me if I find Obama’s pet organization promoting _underage prostitution_ to be “sensationally disgusting.” :mad: ACORN was promoting underage prostitution or was a member of that organization promoting underage prostitution? My beef with ACORN is that I went to a magnet school and they picketed my school to get it shut down because there weren’t enough non-Asian minorities that got in but now it sounds like maybe they were just scoping out my high school looking for kids to turn out. I share your genuine and justifiable outrage at ACORN. :rolleyes::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/48 "2009-09-12T03:36:29Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > I love it. All of a sudden, just like Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, Obama has _nothing to do_ with ACORN! You moonbat libs are priceless, I say…absolutely priceless. Is there no middle ground between “close ties” and “nothing to do with”? Perhaps someone is asserting his relationship is somewhere between the two, making your assertion false but not asserting that he had “nothing to do with” ACORN. Think before you post. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/49 "2009-09-12T03:39:23Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > Think before you post. Are you kidding? This is the SDMB, not Magical-Bizzarro-Implausible-Land. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/50 "2009-09-12T03:41:08Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Obama’s speech to ACORN workers: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQ20wNhB\_M](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQ20wNhB_M) > > “During the transition, we’re gonna be calling on all of you to shape the agenda…” > > “We’re gonna be having meetings all across the country, with community organizations, so that you have input for the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America…” [ol] [li]Was this before or after the individucal ACORN employees were fired?[/li][li]Was Obama aware of any of this?[/li][li]ACORN had a pretty good reputation in the 80s as a community organization that accomplished a lot of good for the urban poor. What all is there counted against them? These few individual employees?[/li][li]Again, what are the dates involved? Was Obama dealing with, as far as he knew, the respectable community organization that I knew in the 80s? or was he knowingly dealing with their more recent incarnation, which, again, I remind yoy, fired the employees who had behaved badly?[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/51 "2009-09-12T03:46:45Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Weren’t you listening? According to **Stephe96** , not only was ACORN pushing child prostitution, the current President of the United States is their pimp. Do try to keep up. And a damn sneaky one at that. No fur hat, no ostrich feathers, no gold-tipped cane, no diamond grills… The man ain’t even got bling ! You’d think he was some sort of respectable lawyerly type or some such. Devious fucker. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/52 "2009-09-12T03:48:29Z")
By the way, the Baltimore state attorney’s office is taking this ACORN story very seriously…it’s thinking of prosecuting those _who filmed the ACORN workers_!!! You really can’t make this stuff up! I mean, Mike Wallace wouldn’t even have a career without these undercover tactics! [http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2](http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2) Oh please, oh please, oh please prosecute these two under the full extent of the law! Hammer away, night after night, exactly what these two undercover filmmakers captured via their “illegal” techniques! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/53 "2009-09-12T03:53:40Z")
You gotta watch the whole thing. Well, OK, you should \*try \*to watch the whole thing. Its got the whole _schmeer_, the Voice of Doom baritone that could read a cream cheese wrapper and make it sound like Armageddon, the minor chord tinkling of the piano. No fake Orff, which is kind of a shame… Then take a break, sane up a bit, and read some of the comments. Seems our **Stephe** represents the comparatively rational wing! Whaddaya mean, “kidding”? Thats not very nice… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/54 "2009-09-12T03:57:52Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > By the way, the Baltimore state attorney’s office is taking this ACORN story very seriously…it’s thinking of prosecuting those _who filmed the ACORN workers_!!! You really can’t make this stuff up! I mean, Mike Wallace wouldn’t even have a career without these undercover tactics! > > [http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2](http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2) > > Oh please, oh please, oh please prosecute these two under the full extent of the law! Hammer away, night after night, exactly what these two undercover filmmakers captured via their “illegal” techniques! > [@](#): > > Upon review by this office, the video **appears to be incomplete**. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent. > > ``` > If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years. > > ``` As they say, ignorance of the law is not a valid defense. BTW I agree with the firing of the workers, but the filmmakers AFAIK failed to get the response that they were looking for in 3 other Acorn offices. IMHO the pattern on cases like this is that the right always overreaches and makes a caricature of what the whole picture is, As Acorn is just one of 80,000 organizations helping in the census, I do think that at least the Right crowing for such a small pray is silly. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/55 "2009-09-12T04:06:19Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Was this before or after the individucal ACORN employees were fired? Although not dated in the clip linked by **Stephe96** , and for some reason I can’t get it to reload after viewing it once, but another Youtube link apparently taken from the same speech is stamped with a date of December 1, 2007. Not sure where the speech took place as yet. > [@](#): > > Was Obama aware of any of this? Nothing in the sketchy news items I’ve seen suggest that he knew about it prior to FOX moving the story, and a quick search of the White House web site shows no recent comments on ACORN by the President or staff. > [@](#): > > ACORN had a pretty good reputation in the 80s as a community organization that accomplished a lot of good for the urban poor. What all is there counted against them? These few individual employees? Don’t know enough about the organization to say. > [@](#): > > Again, what are the dates involved? Was Obama dealing with, as far as he knew, the respectable community organization that I knew in the 80s? or was he knowingly dealing with their more recent incarnation, which, again, I remind yoy, fired the employees who had behaved badly? Impossible to say at this time. As I mentioned earlier, the D.C. clip is stamped July 2005 (probably erroneously), and not a single item I’ve read on this story gives a date when the films were supposedly made; not even the year. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/56 "2009-09-12T04:15:07Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > By the way, the Baltimore state attorney’s office is taking this ACORN story very seriously…it’s thinking of prosecuting those _who filmed the ACORN workers_!!! You really can’t make this stuff up! I mean, Mike Wallace wouldn’t even have a career without these undercover tactics! > > [http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2](http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2) > > Oh please, oh please, oh please prosecute these two under the full extent of the law! Hammer away, night after night, exactly what these two undercover filmmakers captured via their “illegal” techniques! Dude, do you have the slightest clue what a fool you are making of yourself here? Did you not even read the article you linked to? Audio recordings require the consent of both parties in Maryland. A legitimate filmmaker would know that. Your hero Mr. G. Beck is fleecing you, you dumb bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/57 "2009-09-12T04:20:12Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Dude, do you have the slightest clue what a fool you are making of yourself here? Did you not even read the article you linked to? Audio recordings require the consent of both parties in Maryland. A legitimate filmmaker would know that. Your hero Mr. G. Beck is fleecing you, you dumb bastard. Oh, I understand that. I _want_ the filmmaker prosecuted. I _want_ all networks covering just what’s on those illegally-obtained tapes night after night after night. I hope the ACORN/Underage Prostitution Ring/Obama trial goes on for months! Oh, and by the way…from the Washington Post: \*ACORN’s political action committee endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama for president, and Obama’s campaign said last fall that it had paid a group affiliated with ACORN more than $800,000 to conduct get-out-the-vote operations during the Democratic primaries in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. \* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR2009091003644\_pf.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR2009091003644_pf.html) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/58 "2009-09-12T04:26:50Z")
> [@](#): > > …The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete… - from the State’s Attorneys Office statement, linked above Not quite sure what they’re getting at with that “incomplete”. And do I read that right, they uploaded to You Tube and didn’t even offer it to any news media? So You Tube broke the story? Not at all sure I see how this all adds up… ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/59 "2009-09-12T04:26:57Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > I forgot all about ACORN. What did they do again? Apparently, they provide child prostitutes to the White House on a daily basis. Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754/60 "2009-09-12T04:27:30Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Oh, I understand that. I _want_ the filmmaker prosecuted. I _want_ all networks covering just what’s on those illegally-obtained tapes night after night after night. I hope the ACORN/Underage Prostitution Ring/Obama trial goes on for months! Well, good luck then. Right now, there’s a better-than-even chance this whole thing was staged. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-glenn-beck-buh-bye-acorn/509754.md?page=4)