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The Spectacle Blog
As I reported yesterday, federal investigators are recommending that government funding for ACORN’s still operating housing affiliate be cut off immediately. In a recently completed probe, the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that ACORN Housing (now renamed Affordable Housing Centers of America) appeared to have committed massive fraud against the taxpayers of the United States.
Investigators must have felt it was necessary to urge the funding cutoff because the federal government’s prohibition on funding ACORN isn’t a permanent ban. It exists at the whim of lawmakers and (because it was attached to annual appropriations bills) runs out at the end of this month. There is no indication currently that the federal ban on funding ACORN, whose last day in effect is Sept. 30, will be extended.
As of writing (Tuesday morning) spokesmen for the House and Senate appropriations committees told me they had no idea if the funding prohibition was going to be extended. Ellis Brachman, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee said the Senate was taking the lead on the continuing resolution that will fund the government past Sept. 30. (Note: Inserting the ban into the continuing resolution would be the logical way to extend the ban.) John Bray, spokesman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, told me yesterday he had no idea if the ACORN funding ban would be extended and that he would get back to me. He hasn’t call me back.
Many Americans -and some lawmakers- seem to believe Congress cut off ACORN from any sort of funding permanently, but this belief appears to be unfounded.
This confusion about ACORN can probably be blamed in part on the quirks of parliamentary procedure and the complexity of the appropriations process. The legal language prohibiting the funding is contained in spending legislation that covers only the federal government’s current fiscal year which ends this Sept. 30. The House and the Senate first passed legislation banning funding for ACORN in fall 2009 after undercover videos showed ACORN Housing employees offering activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles “how to” advice on establishing a brothel, defrauding the government and banks, and evading other laws.
Mass media news reports rarely explain details of spending bills, such as when the fiscal year they cover comes to an end. But the fact that the funding ban is not permanent was noticed by ACORN lawyers and Judge Roger J. Miner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Miner wrote the court’s opinion in August that overturned Judge Nina Gershon’s perverse ruling that the funding ban was an unconstitutional “bill of attainder” that punished ACORN without a trial.
Public Law 111-68, signed by President Obama on Oct. 1, 2009, is formally known as “An Act making appropriations for the Legislative Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.” [emphasis added] Section 163 of the Act reads: “None of the funds made available by this joint resolution or any prior Act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations.”
Similar de-funding language was included in other spending bills signed into law by President Obama that followed in the weeks after. All those bills covered federal spending only for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010. (See Section 427 of Public Law 111-88; Division A - Section 418, Division B - Section 534, and Division E - Section 511 of Public Law 111-117; Section 8124 of Public Law 111-118.)
One bill pending in Congress would extend the funding ban but it’s not going anywhere. Section 417 of the Transportation-HUD appropriations bill for fiscal 2011 (S.3644) would prohibit funding of ACORN in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2010. It’s very unlikely that the bill will become law by Oct. 1; in other words, despite the earlier funding ban, ACORN is alive and kicking.
Pete| 9.28.10 @ 11:31AM
Good thing there are no elections coming up....
This should be a headline on every reputable media outlet. This is the only way the Dems will be able to keep some races close enough to steal in the courts.
Scott D| 9.28.10 @ 3:02PM
I say let them FUND ACORN NOW!
They'll go NUTS with that money, hang themselves in the process eliminating their frauds for the 2012 Presidential election.
Patriot| 9.28.10 @ 4:10PM
Amnesty and ACORN are two ways unelectable Marxist democrats subvert the will of the people.
The Democrat Party is dead.
Nate| 9.28.10 @ 10:27PM
Ah.... ACORN.
ACORN has done a lot for the cynical hacks on the right.
Too bad the whole case against them was trumped up by doctored videos and propagandists on Fox News.
Nick| 9.29.10 @ 12:11AM
Nate the dazi,
Remember how good you felt on January 20th, 2009?
Thanks to President Dither, you will never feel that way again.
(January 20th is Inauguration Day, by the way.)
Patriot| 9.29.10 @ 1:16AM
LOL! All your ACORN vote cheating in the world won't save you this time, Marxist boy. Where are Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck when you need them?
November 2, 2010: Save the date, Nate--we have.
Mike the cynic| 9.29.10 @ 9:49AM
I would hope you're saying this in jest. It would be extremely difficult to doctor the videos to help the cause of two activist or to help Fox News in any way. I personally believe the videos show how low the Democrats have sunk.
REMEMBER NOVEMBER!!| 9.29.10 @ 4:23PM
The troll's a lying Fascist. He knows ACORN is dirty; he also knows cheating is the only way the Fascist Liberals can win elections.
NOVEMBER 2, 2010--KICK OUT FASCIST DEMOCRATS!!
kalifani6| 9.29.10 @ 10:15AM
Where did you get your information? Provide a source . The fraud is you. How do you lying, projectionist, framing, blame transferring hypocrites live w/ yourselves w/out being raging alcoholics & junkies. Did ACORN have anything to do w/ Bush being mandated on US by the Supreme Court? How about the rigged polling machines & voter caging? I can guarantee y'all this.....NEVER AGAIN.
Chuckie| 9.29.10 @ 4:20PM
You're right, filthy commie cheater--NEVER AGAIN!! See you November 2, loser.
GWB won fair and square--even the Marxists at the NYT admitted as much.
kalifani6| 9.29.10 @ 5:04PM
Lmao, You wouldn't know fair if it bit you in the azz.
"filthy commie cheater"...Do get another schtik. This is 2010 not the The McArthy Era. What went down in 2000 & 2004 is common knowledge & only idiots like you think that what happened to this country as a result was a good thing.
Yet, any answer to the question of proof against ACORN?
Hell...no.
You flying-monkeys have never gained anything honorably so of course it's no surprise you don't recognize it's value.
kalifani6| 9.29.10 @ 5:18PM
Btw....never has the world been exposed to the likes of sour grapes as has been revealed to be dominant within the likes of your ilk. Could be wrong but, you guys are coming off as the losers. Very tender....sore losers. Your so blind you can't see your way through Seran wrap.
So sad....so pathetic,but I can't feel sorry for ya.
I only wish to see you out of your misery s'all.
SO, GET ON WITH IT.
Trust we're not done trimming the hedges.
Do realize no matter what happens in Nov.----THE PRESIDENT WILL STILL BE A BLACK MAN.
LOVE IT.
Miscreant, you wanna talk Nov.2?
I'm counting the days.
Chuckie| 9.29.10 @ 10:31PM
Sore Losers? Don't think so, because we're going to beat the hell out of you stinkin' liberals in November. Better bust out your tinfoil hat, loser--paranoia is all you've got left. GWB won fair and square in 2000--even the NYT admitted as much.
No problem with Obama being black--that's your predictable whine--he's going to be an eunuch after November 2! Save the date.
kalifani6| 9.30.10 @ 2:47AM
Oh retard, I'm not here to debate w/ you monkeys. Just answere the friggin question:
Where did you get your information?
Provide a source .
"No problem with Obama being black--that's your predictable whine--he's going to be an eunuch after November 2!"
All you goons have been trying to do all along is castrate the man as you do in regard to all black men throughout the course of history.
Don't front.
Cowering in the shadows of 'liberal vs. conservative' culture war BS is not enough cover to veil your deep-seeded hatred for all things that remind you that the world doesn't revolve around just the likes of you.
Disdain for the left is disdain for empowerment to those other than white males---including women & gays as well as immigrants of every stripe, all attributable to 'liberal' causes.
Don't front.
It's a waste of energy on your part.
I know exactly what you are.
This is your last grasp at control over the reality of others.
Yours is a dying breed.
Do yourself a favor & step out of the bubble...or drown in your lamentations for the good ole days when it was all about the 'good ole boys' club and all else [including your own women & children] were just fodder for the flames if not pulse to feed your bloodlust.
As for Nov.2, like I said....I'm just countin' the days.
Better have all your cheatin tactics in check and all your rigged machines better be undetectable because the voter caging thing will not fly this time.Your plan has been exposed before you got it outta the can(not quite unlike your boy James O'Keefe these days,teeheehee.What freaks you all are.).
Chuckie| 9.30.10 @ 2:06PM
Kalifani is psychic, er, I mean psycho! We don't need to lie, cheat and steal like you ugly, self-hating liberal thugs. We stand for a free America who is a beacon to the world, unlike you Marxist losers who hate and demean your own country.
See you on November 3--but you won't be here because you don't have the guts to admit the beat-down the American people have given you pieces of human excrement!
It would be in your best interests NOT to keep a loaded gun on your nightstand November 2!! Cheers.
Chuckie| 9.30.10 @ 2:27PM
Kalifani, NEWS FLASH! You democrats created and profited from despicable slavery of American Black People, and you created Jim Crow laws and lynched hundreds of Black Americans, too.
Now, you've created new plantations--our dead and dying inner cities-- to keep minorities trapped by your hateful, dead-end liberal policies.
We're the party of Abraham Lincoln who died to free Black American slaves. You democrats are always on the wrong side of history. Nice try, though, loser.
Liveaboard| 9.29.10 @ 3:24PM
Kalifani6, would that opening fusillade be an ad-hominem attack?
I see you opened the subject of rigged polling machines...would you by chance be intending to highlight the voting fraud that resulted in the election of Al Franken? Or would you be alluding to the DOJ handling of the Black Panther case?
kalifani6| 9.29.10 @ 5:07PM
Like I said before: PROVE IT.
Simple enough for you to understand...or is that too much ad-hominem for ya?
Only in the dismal fantasy of your right-wing bubble do you exist in a world where lies matter over the truth.
Chuckie| 9.30.10 @ 12:07AM
It's been proven, moron--that's why congress pulled its funding. They had to sneak it back in so the public didn't know--corrupt bastards.
We'll destroy ACORN when we're back in power--just wait and see.
kalifani6| 9.30.10 @ 6:08AM
hah...lol, It's been proven that the whole 'pimp' sting was a doctored up fruad. In lieu of this, the defunding was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Law & court ordored that funding for ACORN be reinstated. THESE ARE WHAT ARE KNOWN AS FACTS.I'll light up this whole blog w/ veritable sources of accurate & valid information on the subject at hand...just as I'm sure you could should you show the faintest interest in truth as it exists in forms that you don't like to know it.
That you choose not to do so 'Chuckie-boy' makes you the moron...in this debate & in this life.
"We'll destroy ACORN when we're back in power--just wait and see."
You'll destroy none other than yourself.
Bank on that...& you just may prosper.
Chuckie| 9.30.10 @ 2:08PM
No, we'll just destroy corrupt, traitorous, scum-sucking low-life liberals like you. Then we'll prosper.
Cheers!
Ruth| 9.30.10 @ 7:38AM
"the defunding was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Court of Law & court ordored that funding for ACORN be reinstated."
This ruling was overturned by the 2nd circuit (link is in this article), which means it was not "deemed unconstitutional" and that means the ban is valid...
kalifani6| 10.1.10 @ 3:15AM
Tell that to the Supreme Court.
The moderator axxed my linked sources so you have to seek for yourself.
Chuckie| 10.1.10 @ 1:01PM
Stop yer whining, dumbtard, and crawl back under your slimy rock. ACORN sucks and so do you.
Hope you're up for an ass-kicking November--we are! Cheers.
kalifani6| 10.1.10 @ 3:54PM
Thats your retort? Are you over 12 F*cktard?
No whining, but I am laughing.
Still no answer to the question though.
Don't be mad because you lost.
You were born to lose.
Only now your are reduced to the fringe...don't let the media fool you.
You are all about to fall right off the cliff.
kalifani6| 10.1.10 @ 3:58PM
heh heh, Btw...tell your mother she needs to have your Dr. up your meds freak.
Chuckie| 10.1.10 @ 5:18PM
Way too much time on your hands, libtard. Doesn't your step-mom charge you any rent?
Time for you to get a job--your welfare checks are going to be discontinued when we take over congress.
Cheers!