Bertha Speaks (and shouldn't); And Funding Ban Back On

ACORN's Leader, Bertha Lewis, recently spoke to a group of young people. Her talk, excerpts below, was mighty interesting:



Holy moley, did you catch all of that? Let's see: Socialism, Check! Demean Tea Party members, Check! And on it goes.

Perhaps it was because of this speech that ACORN's funds are once again on hold, as this article spells out:

Appeals Court Temporarily Reinstates ACORN Funding Ban

The ruling by the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will remain in place until full arguments on the issue can be heard during the summer.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge's ruling that it was unconstitutional for Congress to cut funding to the activist group ACORN.

The ruling by the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will remain in place until full arguments on the issue can be heard during the summer.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who has led the charge against taxpayer funding for ACORN, cheered the ruling.

"I applaud the Court of Appeals for immediately addressing the effects of Judge Gershon's attempt to legislate from the bench," he said in a written statement. "With today's action by the Appeals Court, the Obama administration must take immediate steps to re-implement the funding ban for ACORN Congress put into law."

"In recent months, ACORN has undergone a rebranding campaign to disguise itself and its affiliates," Issa added. "As a result, the White House and all federal agencies must be extremely vigilant to ensure that rebranded organizations who have continued to make deals and maintain connections to ACORN don't receive taxpayer dollars."

Well, this is certainly an interesting change of fortune for ACORN. Maybe all of that name changing sleight of hand raised some red flags. Or maybe the Court wanted to look a bit closer into the reasons why the Funding was restored in the first place:

U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon has ruled twice in the past six months that the funding cutoff was unconstitutional.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without having gone through processes to decide whether money had been handled inappropriately.

A series of secretly taped videos filmed at ACORN offices around the country last year caught employees giving advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute, sparking a national scandal and helping drive the organization to near ruin.

On Wednesday, attorney Mark Stern argued for the Justice Department that Congress did nothing wrong when it took action last year against ACORN after it identified "widespread mismanagement."

Attorney Jules Lobel of the Center for Constitutional Rights said that funding for economically distressed people who receive government subsidies for homes was being blocked and that the money needed to be freed or some people would be homeless.

I am all for economically distressed people receiving funds to ensure they keep their homes. I am not all for the organization handling those funds to be rabidly partisan, and there is no doubt ACORN is that. It receives federal dollars - OUR dollars - as a non-partisan organization. That is but one of the many reasons why its funds are at risk, as well as charges of voter registration fraud, voter fraud, and a number of other potential hot-water issues.

It's a shame, too - it didn't have to be this way, but that is the road down which ACORN chose to go, no doubt emboldened by their relationship to Obama. They seem incapable of accepting responsibility for their own actions, blaming those who expect them to operate above board and want to hold them accountable for how they spend our money instead.

It could have been different, it SHOULD have been different. As a result of ACORN's own actions, people who needed this money will not be able to get it. ACORN has no one else to blame for this but itself.

So, I wonder when we can expect their acknowledgment of wrong doing, and an apology for mismanaging our money? Yeah, I'm scheduling it for "Never." How about you?