Friday, September 25, 2009

Where is the Defund Blackwater Act?

Since Democrats have failed to stand up to Republican efforts to defund ACORN, there is something I want to know.

blackwater_crime Democrats joined Republicans in voting to "Defund ACORN," yet have done nothing to stop Blackwater's ongoing taxpayer-funded crusade in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Republican Congressional leaders are continuing their witch-hunt against ACORN, the grassroots community group dedicated to helping poor and working class people. This campaign now unfortunately has gained bipartisan legislative support in the form of the Defund ACORN Act of 2009 which has now passed the House and Senate. As Ryan Grim at Huffington Post has pointed out, the legislation "could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex:"

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

According to the Project on Oversight and Government Reform, this legislation could potentially eliminate a virtual Who's Who of war contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and KBR to other corporations such as AT&T, FedEx and Dell.

 

Perhaps one of the most jarring comparisons here is the fact that ACORN is now being attacked while the Obama administration continues to contract with Blackwater, the favorite mercenary company of the Bush administration, which is headed by Erik Prince, who was a major donor to Republican causes and campaigns, including those of some of the Defund ACORN bill's sponsors, among them Indiana Republican Mike Pence, one of the key figures in hunting down Van Jones. Prince, of course, was recently described by a former employee as a man who "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and whose companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."…

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

There is my answer.  If ACORN is to be defunded, it follows that all contractors who have violated the terms of this act should be defunded right along with them, especially Blackwater (now Xe) and KBR.

9 comments:

Mike said...

Oh, come on. ACORN helped poor people. That's a lot worse than anything military contractors ever did.

TomCat said...

True, Stimson. Every penny Democrats spend on the poor is a penny Republicans can't spend on a millionaire.

Unknown said...

The carpetbaggers should get their due just based on the language alone in the 'defund ACORN' bill.

YEs, they are that stupid..don't ya just love it? ;p

The Moose said...

I think Congress needs to be defunded.

ivan said...

The poet Keats would call it negative capapility, I suppose.
The acceptabce if of unpalatable fact while staying with the fable...the fable of bringing democracy to Afghanistan.
Leadership is a tough go it seems.

the walking man said...

this is the best damned congress money can buy and ideology of ignorance can sway.

TomCat said...

Right on Dusty, not to mention that it's a Bill of attainder.

Moose, you yummy looking rodent, are you suggesting publicly financed elections to put the lobbyists out of business?

Ivan, Bush only claimed to bring democracy to Afghanistan. He was really trying to bring UnoCal.

Amen to that, Mark.

Oso said...

Tomcat-re: Bush only claiming to bring democracy-I like your style man !

TomCat said...

Thanks Oso. There's not much style to stating the obvious, though. :-)