Two different acorns:
a·corn
(ā’kôrn’, ā’kərn)
n. The fruit of an oak, consisting of a single-seeded, thick-walled nut set in a woody, cuplike base. (American Heritage Dictionary)
ACORN: The Association of Community Organizers for Reform whose president, Maude Hurd, reflected on last night’s debate as follows: ”Senator McCain failed to acknowledge the trigger of this explosive crisis: predatory lending, . . . If Mr. McCain is unwilling or unable to acknowledge such facts, how is he suitable to lead our country out of the worst financial mess since the Great Depression? Senator Obama acknowledged foreclosures as the root of the financial crisis and has pledged to help homeowners.” (From the ACORN website, http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=22340&tx_ttnews[backPid]=12387&cHash=0a859245ea.)
Ergo, Obama should be elected president of the United States.
If life were that simple, we wouldn’t need an election. Every four years we could just declare the winner by unanimous acclamation. That’s called Utopia.
Fortunately, we do have regular elections in our semi-dysfunctional democratic republic, which means ACORN’s Ms. Hurd has but a single vote and doesn’t call the shots. That too is fortunate in many ways, including the truth that foreclosures may have been one trigger for our mess but did not cause our mess.
The root of our financial crisis is government intrusion into the private market place and without roots even Ms. Hurd’s oak wouldn’t grow and prosper. (See “Psst, Ya Wanna Buy A House, Por Nada?” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/)
What is this ACORN we’ve been hearing so much about and what does it have to do with “a single-seeded thick-walled nut?” The symbolism is fairly obvious, that the plan for ACORN is that its nut would develop in fertile soil into a great oak tree but whether that oak would be a black oak, a white oak, a pin oak or some other oak variety isn’t clear.
Regrettably, after being initially welcomed to the ACORN website, I repeatedly encountered this notice,
“Database Error The current username, password or host was not accepted when the connection to the database was attempted to be established!”
Since I hadn’t entered with a user name, password, or host, I can only surmise that my reputation had preceded me and that I had been ignominiously expelled.
I had wanted to give ACORN the floor to state all its purposes as an organization before I commented, but ces’t la vie.
Apparently, ACORN is quite a group.
According to MarketWatch.com, “WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — James Terry, Chief Public Advocate for the Consumers Rights League, today testified at a joint House Administration and House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on ‘Federal, State and Local Efforts to Prepare for the General 2008 Election,’ where he highlighted ‘corruption at every level of ACORN including embezzlement, cover-ups, misuse of taxpayer funds and voter fraud.’ “ http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/crl-testimony-acorns-voter-fraud/story.aspx?guid=%7B573B31D0-6AB7-4353-B8E7-91300F4DFF81%7D&dist=hppr.
As I said, quite a group, and some future oak! Already, MarketWatch reports that thousands of fraudulent voter registrations have been intercepted but Mr. Terry believes that’s just the tip of the fraudulent iceberg.
The relevance of all this to the national election is that Senator Obama is up to eyeballs and floppy ears in Ms. Hurd’s incipient oak tree which receives millions in federal funding for its voter registration efforts: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=.
For some reason, Rep. Barney (I-Had-a-Male-Prostitute-Running-His-Business-in-My Basement) Frank, (D. MA), and his Dem cohorts refuse to investigate it.
Win or lose, Obama’s candidacy will be regarded as the most morally corrupt campaign in the history of the Republic and ACORN will be seen as a prime accomplice.
