His cartoon about the near farcical Beckaton in front of the Lincoln Memorial along the reflecting pool says it all for me right down to the nonsensical right arm:  “ACORN = nuts = insane” though “mosque + cow = Moscow” is pretty much a classic.

When dealing with a clown, a cartoon just seems to say it best!

Laramie

Maryellen Hayden, a warrior who ran the Pittsburg office of ACORN for years, posted a couple of notes on my Facebook wall ranting about the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturn of ACORN’s successful injunction at the federal district court level of the Congressional crazy stampede that produced the ACORN Defunding Act in the wake of the pimp-prostitute mess last fall and the general partisan hating on ACORN that had been unremitting for a year.  I had posted a Times printing of an AP story.  Maryellen’s comments seemed to be saying that the appeals court had essentially decided to reject the lower court decision because the punishment of ACORN was de minimus – not significant – because only 10% of ACORN’s funding originated with the feds.  So, I thought, what the heck, I’m stranded in Wyoming chomping at the bit to drive home, I should be at the office early tomorrow, instead here I am, so the least I can do is buckle down and read the decision and see if I can throw some light out there against the dark forces.

So I read the decision this morning with a lot of head scratching.  Several observers have pointed out that the appeals decision was decided 2-1 on a Republican versus Democratic split, and there may be good reason to do so, because a lot of the decision seems more “political” than legal.  Inevitably this will arise when so much of the decision is based on the Appeals Court’s avowed intention in many parts of the writing to parse the degrees of punishment to determine whether or not they can be called “unconstitutionally punitive.”  In that sense Maryellen is right that they certainly cite that suspending 10% of ACORN’s funding should not have been a “death blow.”

The Appeals Court’s error here is both substantive and paradoxical.  In the opening arguments of the decision the judges reject the government’s attempt to pull the Department of Defense and Office of Management and Budget out of the case by arguing that it was irrelevant if ACORN never had or never would apply for funding from the DOD, and it was irrelevant if OMB had tried to paper over its initial instructions when the original injunction was overturned, because the “reputational” damage to ACORN was substantial and enduring from both the OMB and DOD actions.  Word!  But, then the judges, pages later, retreat to hide behind the “10%” screen.  Regardless, the definition of punitiveness is inherently subjective, and here the judges want to have some credibility by pretending that ACORN’s problems were all self-inflicted and that the Congressional action was prudent rather than punitive.

The judges pile a lot on the molehill of a relatively recent decision (cited several times) in which HUD has made a determination that that New York Acorn (as they call it) is a separate corporation and not related to ACORN, therefore it could now receive funding from New York State to NY Acorn under a contract that was funded by HUD.  Frankly, all of this is so confusing and contradictory that even rereading the sections of the decision several times, I felt befuddled, which still leaves me in better shape than the judges who I believe allow their handling of this corporation to be slickly deceiving and deliberately intellectually dishonest.  The description provided in the decision of New York Acorn is of the New York ACORN Housing Corporation.  I had heard that NYAHC had been renamed (rebranded?) as MHANY (Mutual Housing of ACORN New York) Management, Inc.   The actual cover page of the decision acknowledges that the name change has occurred from NYAHC (which I think they misstate with the “c” as company rather than corporation, but who cares since facts don’t seem to matter here) and is now MHANY Management, Inc., but from that point on in the text of the decision the judges simply lump all of this post-facto (after the defunding decision) survival mode activity into something they call “New York Acorn.”  By doing so they are then allowing themselves to pretend that something that was always a separate and distinct corporation in New York State is the same as ACORN, and therefore its ability to slip the noose and access the NY State funding makes this all hunky-dory.  That’s just wrong!

Furthermore I would bet money that the facts, by which I mean the politics and not the law, undermine that as well.  A New York Times story some months ago documented clearly the difficult problems that ACORN’s new management had in navigating the old New York relationships with officials in the Obama Administration.  Shaun Donovan, the head of HUD, always had a close and productive working relationship with Ismene Spiliotis, the head of NYAHC and the head of MHANY Management, Inc dating to his time as a New York housing czar.  In the story it was painful to read how Ismene, who was always a great ACORN staff member and manager and widely acknowledged to be one of the best nonprofit housing developers in New York, was being victimized by the fact that one of the primary gotcha tapes from the pimp-prostitute mess was right under her nose involving a housing counselor for NYAHC.  As the saying goes, “all politics is local,” and a wrong was finally righted by restoring justice in New York that the kangaroo court of media and the Congress had not allowed earlier.  A restoration of that kind should not be a justification for the Appeals Court though, espcially so long after the fact.

All of this is the tendency of the decision throughout which is a not so subtle attempt to simply “blame the victim” for the unconstitutional actions of Congress by applying ambiguous standards to ACORN that would be unacceptable to any other corporation or entity.  If one reads this decision one thinks that ACORN has been convicted of fraud, financial misuse and misappropriation, and any number of crimes, none of which is true, yet all of which are used by the Appeals Court to justify allowing the defunding of ACORN.

The majority judges also cite in a number of instances what they call ACORN’s “admissions of significant mismanagement.”  None of this is cited or referenced of course, and being a pretty close follower of this story, and quite frankly, for 38 years as Chief Organizer, probably the principal manger here, I read all of this with an eagle eye.  The judges only cite the fact that there have been “reports” (largely overheated, inappropriate, and inaccurate) that the ACORN “family” of organizations involved more than 200 different corporations, which must hardly bring a nod from most corporate heads given the common practice of separating real estate and development projects and nonprofit versus tax exempt organizations into separate corporations and is hardly illegal much less suspect.  They don’t like the fact that the structure and relationships were “complex.”  If they had asked me (which no one anywhere ever has) I would say that we structured the organization smartly from jump and that recent events have proven the rightness of that strategy and the mistake of not holding the line and protecting the walls between various entities.

As for these so-called “admissions of significant mismanagement” in fact where are these admissions and what might they have been?  Obviously Bertha Lewis, who emerged in the year after I resigned under the new title of “chief executive officer” would promise to do things differently, nail down any loose boards, and tighten any wobbly screws.  Frankly, that’s what all new managers do when they replace someone, either with a deft touch or a loud scream.  It was hard for me to ever take personally.  It’s part of the common politics of transitions, and hardly an admission of “significant mismanagement,” nor given Bertha and her teams long history in ACORN’s management would there ever be a credible “admission of significant mismanagement” unless there was a suicide pact to self destruct their own credibility and ACORN itself.

My best guess would be that the judges are relying on the botched, discredited, confidential, slapdash hack job done by attorney Beth Kingsley and commissioned during the upheaval of new management being selected amid the internal power struggles involving the board and staff about the control, direction, and resources of the organization in the months after I resigned.  And, they are certainly relying on that less than the repeated references to it after it was leaked by members of the rump ACORN 8 caucus to the New York Times as they tried to advance their leadership coup.  Probably the only thing the ACORN 8 ever did that I had to agree made sense was attempt to censure Kingsley for unprofessional and ethical violations before the DC bar, though unfortunately they were doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.  Kingsley was overmatched for the job and out of her arena by hundreds of miles, and wrote a political document relying on an embittered, alienated, and disillusioned staff member, that basically offered hip shooting opinions and allegations to cover up any substantive examples of problems or mismanagement other than to say that it was too complex for her and she didn’t like it. (Wade, what did you really think of that “report”? I thought even some of the “and’s” and “the’s” were lies!)

But, who knows, since the bottom line is that the Appeals Court judges just continue the allegation walking on whatever thin ice is beneath them, yet it’s substantial, since they use it to cover the heart of the crime here:  “Although the appropriations laws may have the effect of alienating ACORN and its affiliates from their supporters, Congress must have the authority to suspend federal funds to an organization that has admitted to significant mismanagement.”  By doing so the judges exercise their political will beneath the judicial screen by essentially arguing that even if Congress erred, ACORN asked for it.  That’s a dangerous legal precedent for the future if allowed to stand.

Yet, it will probably be allowed to stand as poorly reasoned and as erroneously based.  I wouldn’t bet on the Supreme Court being willing to hear the case in the future, and I certainly would never bet on the odds of justice at the hands of the Roberts’ court in the future.

This may be a sorry ending, but it is likely the ending of the last legal lifeline for ACORN.

Helena

Chaco, CJ Butler (nephew and invaluable chief technician on this tour), and I pulled all of the gear out of the truck and trailer in the evening to see what we had and what we needed.  Old batteries had to go, mantels needed to be bought, missing outdoor shower found, fishing gear box lost, so it was pretty much the usual, though it was the first time on a camping trip a broom and mop had made the list, but the Silver Bullet needs care and attention.  Fishing licenses need to be bought, reels strung up, and a hundred other last minute items of work and pleasure checked off today.

Tomorrow finds us with an even larger crew heading for Secky’s Sweet Spot a piece along the blue ribbon trout stream where the Silver Bullet will come to rest after 4 years of post-Katrina service for staff and volunteers and a year of helping CJ and a buddy find a soft berth in the move from Conway, Arkansas to Denver, Colorado.  Assuming we can get all of this up 15 miles of dirt road and across a wooden bridge (how wide and how much weight), level the ground and the trailer, then this 1978 Airstream International Sovereign will be good to NOT go and available for service as an annual fishing camp, store house, and guest lodge for friends, family, and fellow travelers savvy and swell enough to know Secky or me.  That’s the plan.  Fingers crossed.

Cell phone coverage ends at the highway.  For 4 or 5 days, the longest time in years, we’ll be off the grid.  Internet absent, blackberry turned into an alarm clock, and nothing but us and all that makes Montana special.  As the younger members of this tribe say:  sweet!

In checking off my list before going into radio silence, I had to think about how much my buddy, Glenn Beck, would be missing me.  A couple of days ago driving through Wyoming, a friend in Los Angeles had taken a day off and was surfing TV channels, and started texting me as he came across Beck.  The messages were classic:

“Beck has u on the top of the blackboard again”

“Sweet Jesus!  I had no idea u orchestrated water bottle throwing in Phoenix this weekend.”

“Apparently u have ur hands in Greece uprising too.  I suspected as much.”

What could I do, but laugh, a dangerous man driving a Suburban and pulling an Airstream across my birth state of Wyoming.  I had to text back that I would have told my friend all of these stories but couldn’t because if he was caught, I didn’t want him tortured.   The headlines in Sheridan had been about Wyoming’s ranking as the most conservative state in the country, but being conservative and being a Glenn Beck style instigator and hater are really two very different things.  In Wyoming folks might be on the right side of the highway, but they were unfailingly helpful, friendly, and welcoming in the way that is common in the West (and South!).

I won’t miss the daily Google alerts reporting the Glenn gymnastics of disjointed connections and conspiracies, rattling the already angry, unstable out there.  The gyrations around the California shooter and shootout involving the Tides Network have been chilling to many, though it’s all catnip to Beck and his ilk.  We are obviously waiting for god knows what to happen and it won’t be pretty and there will be some “oh, I’m sorry” and “we should have seen it coming,” but that will be too late.  All of that will be as effective as the folks who argue that there need to be apologies to Sherrod and ACORN, as if it matters to her or it could bring ACORN back from the dead.

I’ll just dial it all down along the stream side, wet a line, build a fire, talk about times past and times to come, and let ‘em wonder about what ideas and plans might be churning to let us get some justice down the road here and abroad, so that in the words of the song, “we can give ‘em something to talk about.”

At the end of the day, there’s talking about it and there’s doing.  They can keep talking, we’ll keep doing, remembering always that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Denver

I had negotiated with teams of ACORN leaders and staff with these folks a number of times, including the last of the three co-founders, Brad Morrice, who had returned as CEO before one of our largest sessions and had quipped at the time that he had come back “because no one else would, “ and we all laughed.  He seems to have agreed to pay back close to a half-million in ill-gotten gains.

Having dealt with him and his team, I honestly wonder if they really understood fully the “company’s deteriorating condition.”  In a rarity they agreed after a brief caucus to alter broker payments in Texas when we pointed out the fact that they were incentivizing brokers to lie about the loans.  Morrice was clear they had not looked hard enough and would change it immediately.  When we pointed out that half of their portfolio was in “stated income” loans or what were called “liar’s loans” in the industry at the time, they kept talking babble about their computer programs being so good it would catch any problems.  When we kept hammering about their inability to supervise their broker network, their general counsel (who I was pleased to see was not in the 13, so at least I can believe he wasn’t lying to me from front to back, so here’s to you, Terry Theologides!) kept saying that they turned in brokers to state attorneys general when they suspected anything.

Perhaps the truest statement, and saddest, came from Morrice as he tried to defend “interest only ARMs” (adjustable rate mortgages) by saying that he “drank his own kool-aid” and financed his own home exactly that way;  I hope he at least has a roof over his head, because many former mortgage holders with New Century sure don’t!

Here’s a piece of the blurb from the LA Times where it’s all still home town news:

“In the second half of 2006, the company raised $142.5 million by selling stock to new investors, the SEC suit noted. “These investments were wiped out as New Century’s fraud was revealed to the public” in 2007, the suit alleged.

None of the defendants admitted any wrongdoing. New Century co-founder Brad Morrice said in a statement that he hoped the settlement “would make up for some of the losses suffered and provide closure to me and the shareholders.”

Morrice, a former chief executive of the company, was one of the three who were sued in December by the SEC. The agency accused them of concealing the company’s deteriorating condition in the period before it shut down lending and ultimately filed for bankruptcy protection.

As part of the settlement, all three agreed to be banned from acting as officers and directors of any public company for five years and to make six-figure payments to the SEC.

Morrice agreed to pay $464,354 in allegedly ill-gotten gains, plus $76,991 in interest and a $250,000 fine. Patti M. Dodge, a former chief financial officer, agreed to pay $379,808 plus $70,192 in interest, and pay a $100,000 civil penalty. Former controller David N. Kenneally agreed to pay $126,676 with $23,324 in interest and a $32,500 civil penalty.”

New Orleans

So local police will be enjoined from asking every conceivable person that they think might be illegal to show papers and stand to be arrested.  The judge correctly saw through the governor’s baloney that local law enforcement offers were so well trained that they could avoid discrimination.  Can you say the words, Sheriff Arpaio, and still repeat that sentence with a straight face, Governor?  They can’t hold people for deportation by the feds based on SB1070, but we still have DHS Napolitano’s 287(g) for that mischief.  Various civil penalties cannot be converted into crimes and everyone with a tan will not have to carry their paperwork to prove citizenship, but as today’s rallies in Phoenix “against the hate” make clear, these are symbolic victories when the anger at immigrants is being fanned to a vengeful and violent level of anger and potential attack.

Washed away in the headlines are huge concerns about the future of day laborers, which the National Day Laborers’ Organizing Network has indicated could cripple the ability for day laborers to find work and lead to huge legal oppression everywhere in the country.  This was a confusing piece of the injunction story.  The judge enjoined the efforts of Arizona to essentially drive day laborers off of the sidewalks and any public areas where they could look for work, but allowed the language that was based on the old ACORN v. Phoenix suit to stand which allows day laborers to be harassed and arrested if they seem to be a traffic nuisance.  NDLON has correctly worried that day laborers would now be walking a tightrope thin line in trying to both protect their livelihoods and at the same time avoid arrest and prosecution (and therefore also potential deportation depending on the charge and jurisdiction) because traffic safety would trump everything and everybody.

I’m not whining.  We desperately needed to win this injunction, so all good there, but “happy” and “celebrate” are not two words that come easily in this moment when so little is solved, other rights are eroded, and the forces of hate and repression are still gathering mightily in cities and states throughout the country with no real relief in sight.

Portland

On the web the news out of Nevada indicates that a Project Vote and ACORN voter registration worker is due for trial after Thanksgiving.  The AG in Pennsylvania is scrapping around the cases of another couple of workers.  For all the sound and fury two years ago about ACORN and its voter registration efforts among the poor and disenfranchised, these two efforts seem to be all that remains of a forest of press coverage back then, and both are mighty thin soup.

All of these ironies come in focus for me as I realize that even as ACORN Canada and ACORN Kenya work to expand voting access and participation in that country, the fire has been snuffed out in the United States.  Two years on as some observers look at the impending election and the absence of huge, large scale registration efforts like those mounted by ACORN; some understand that the loss is huge to democracy when such forces are removed from the battle.

A recent piece by Tonyaa Weathersbee, regular columnist and member of the editorial board of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville that was published in the Louisiana Weekly called “We’ll Soon Wish We Still Had ACORN,” is worth noting:

”Call it a piece of democracy done in by deception.

ACORN, the community organizing group that became an obsession of right-wingers appalled that scores of black people dared to exercise their right to vote in 2008, was recently vindicated by the General Accountability Office.

As it turns out, the GAO found that the group, which is formally known as the Association of Communities Organizing for Reform now, did not misuse any of the $40 million in taxpayer funds it received between 2005 and 2009.

Seems that when Congress voted to strip it of its funding last year, all it was guilty of was employing some dimwitted folks who allowed conservative operatives masquerading as a pimp and whore to dupe them into doling out illegal  advice.

But now, ACORN is in tatters – done in by a doctored videotape and a Republican witch hunt. And their demise couldn’t have come at a worse time.

I say this because in 2008, the organization helped to register millions of voters in key swing states that President Obama won. And while there’s no denying that the communities ACORN serves tend to be filled with black and poor people who are constantly marginalized and vilified by the GOP, the key thing that they did was help millions of people understand the power that voting gives them.

Perhaps, just perhaps, ACORN could have used its power to persuade many of those same people who voted for the first time in 2008 to vote in the upcoming midterm elections – because there are lots of people who are counting on them to stay home as they vote to undo what was done two years ago.

I know this because recently, Gallup released a poll showing that Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more enthusiastic about voting in the midterm elections this year than they’ve ever been in the past. Fifty-nine percent of them say they plan to vote in November, compared to 44 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

That’s the highest average that Gallup has found among Republicans since it first asked the question in 1994 – the year that the GOP swept both housing of Congress and saddled us with Newt Gingrich and the Contact with America.

That tells me that that a whole lot of GOP voters see a chance to, by way of their vote, accomplish what all the town hall screaming and racial epithets couldn’t: Neutralize Obama’s agenda. It also tells me that a lot of Democrats are, at this point, either disillusioned by what he hasn’t done, or don’t understand that he still needs them to vote if he is to get anything done.

For some of that, Obama has himself to blame.

When black people and Latino people went out and voted for him in unprecedented numbers, they did so because they saw him as representing a new social and political order; one in which their needs and issues would be a priority.

But so far, that hasn’t happened.

There’s no immigration bill. Black unemployment is still triple that of whites, and while Obama inherited an economy that will certainly take years to fix, he’s shown little inclination to create any programs that target black joblessness.

Of course, Obama continues to poll high among those key constituencies. But he isn’t on the ballot, and the voters who put him over the top in 2008 haven’t seen enough difference in their own lives to make the connection between the president’s success and the success of his party in the midterms.

The Democratic Party realizes this is a problem – and it plans to spend $50 million to get those new Obama voters to return to the polls come November.

Still, I wish ACORN was around to help because voting shouldn’t just be about putting a particular party in power, but about helping marginalized people realize their own power to hold all politicians – Obama included – accountable.

I also wish they’d vote because it’s disturbing to hear right-wing pundits continue to paint Obama’s election as an anomaly – because what they’re really saying to white politicians is that without Obama’s name on the ballot, they never have to worry about black folks voting again.

That alone ought to be enough to make black people mad. Mad enough to prove them wrong.”

New Orleans

First, I have to say in the main that many Customs officers were great.  The only exception being at the Canadian border, but you figure.  I think they are bored and just looking for action, but that’s another story.  Mostly the officers were frank and forthcoming.  Many would laugh and be more candid than I’m sure the rules allowed.  Once they had my SSN, several said it was clear that I was not the person being hunted, but, shrug, sorry about that, you still have to go to secondary.  Pretty much you have to be a prick to work there it seemed to me, but it is probably the same guys on a different rotation, and, hey, they are looking for trouble.

Many knew ACORN and were big admirers.  One asked for my autograph.  Another doing a very careful luggage inspection came on an old business card and asked if he could keep it.  Being picked up in Buffalo by Judy Duncan from ACORN Canada, who had a similar experience, when asked to state her business, said she was going to pick me up and that we were with ACORN International, and said in the famous line she can now deliver flawlessly:  “Ma’am, we know ACORN.”

Mainly it’s a main in the butt though, even if there are some laughs, and even if I do understand that the price of international travel is high alert.

But, life within the bureaucracy is perhaps more bizarre.  All of my Custom’s buddies would give me a form and say that I should reach out and get it straightened out.  Ok!  So you go on-line, you do a PDF of your passport and state the problem, you get a number in case you die waiting, and then nothing whatsoever happens for months.  Houston, where the Customs folks are the friendliest, would laugh because they could see I had made the appeal on their computer screens, but everyone knew there was no timeline.

Finally I got a letter from a Jim Kennedy with “Traveler Redress Inquiry Program.”  The letter was the most classic piece of Orwellian doublespeak I have ever seen, because it said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ONE WAY OR ANOTHER about my problem.  In fact one could say that the only thing it said is how I could go back on the website and start my inquiry all over again.  The only way I know that the letter had any importance is the fact that I have not been stopped since May 21^st, the date of the letter.

Here are the guts of this letter so you can share the full opaqueness of such an official response:

“We have completed our review of this matter.  I appreciate this opportunity to respond to your concerns.

“DHS makes every effort to process travelers in the most efficient and professional manner possible without compromising our primary mission of protecting our Nation’s borders.  In an effort to remain ever-vigilant and safeguard the American public, our ports operate under intense conditions.

“While I understand that these inspections can sometimes seem time-intensive, the effective protection of our Nation’s borders depends upon the thoroughness of this process.  It is not our intent to subject the traveling public to unwarranted scrutiny.  Occasionally, however, DHS may inconvenience law-abiding persons in our efforts to detect, deter, and mitigate threats to our homeland caused by the few individuals who are involve in illicit activities.  We are aware that this process may sometimes be stressful, but in such cases we rely on the patience, cooperation, and understanding of travelers to ensure the effective protection of our borders.

“When DHS receives inquires such as yours, we conduct a thorough review of the matter.  In cases where it is determined that a change or correction of records is warranted, be assured that such changes or corrections are made.  If you continue to have concerns during CBP processing, we recommend that you request to speak to a supervisor on-site.”

Etc.  So the comfort is in the very indirect “be assured that such changes or corrections are made.”  I now get to carry with me this dog eared letter just like the one from a New Orleans hospital saying I have to have knee surgery that I toted to four or five draft physicals in different cities in the Vietnam era.

It’s a relief to have relief though even with no understand of WTF, but I was left still wondering:  what’s up with all of those hyphens?

Greetings were read from ACORN Canada and ACORN International.  Mildred Edmond, President of Local 100 of the United Labor Unions, was there and in the thick of the celebration.  I wore my new “Tenants Vote” t-shirt from Toronto ACORN with its big maple leaf in the middle of their design of the ACORN button, which elicited comments and appreciation from many of the leaders in the room.

This was a gathering of a community foraged in the steel of struggle from decades of neighborhood and citywide campaigns, fights for the living wage, heroic struggles to lead the post-Katrina recovery, and now the heartbreak of having to build a new organization again.  Watching the smiles as leaders hugged Vanessa Gueringer and Gwen Adams as they marched up to get their certificates and listening to their remarks sometimes brought tears to my eyes.  I couldn’t help thinking about the indomitable spirit and will of the members, which trumps money every time.

Here is a place where the name, the experience, the “brand” of ACORN is still golden in the streets and community centers of New Orleans just as it is in so many other cities in the country.  It’s not a “word” but a shared experience that lights the flame guiding the work going forward.  Beth Butler spoke about her father having told her when she went to work for the organization in Little Rock to make sure she worked with “strong leaders” and many were in this room.  Mark Moreau, head of New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation, brought the crowd to peals of laughter after receiving an award, saying he had been with them for more than twenty years and would be with them forever “no matter what the name.”

In fact the truth of the old chant is indisputable:  the people united shall never be defeated!

Happy anniversary to a peoples’ struggle that will continue unbroken!