Sunday, October 12, 2008

ACORN, the new Republican talking point?

I will have to admit that I don't understand this story. If I were trying to steal votes for the Democrats, this is not the way I would go about doing it. Of course we could go with a Democratic conspiracy theory; it's really the Republicans trying to discredit community organizing. But conspiracy theories are a last resort. So what gives here?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's a pretty straightforward argument:

1. Individual Acorn members have committed voter fraud in the past.

2. Obama has worked for Acorn as a lawyer and as a community organizer 20 years ago.

3. Therefore, Obama is a terrorist, socialist, Muslim, and possibly the anti-Christ.

Ilíon said...

VR: "I will have to admit that I don't understand this story. ..."

As I keep pointing out, there are three and only three general categories of explanation for why a person doesn’t understand something:

1) Look, we both know that you're not stupid. So that potential explanation for your claimed inability to understand the issue is out.

2) Are you missing some information, the lack of which is preventing you from understanding this. That possibility is exceeding difficult to credit. And just from the spin you put on it in your OP, it's clear that you *do* have the relevant facts.

2a) Now, since it’s clear that you do already have the relevant facts, we know that ignorance does not explain your inability to understand the issue. Therefore, we must look to one of the other possibilities, either: 1) you’re too stupid to understand, but we *all* know that you are not stupid; 3) you do not *want* to understand.

3) The only possibility left is that you *refuse* to understand the issue.

As I have been telling you for several weeks: get off the politics, you’re killing your soul with this intellectual dishonesty.

Anonymous said...

Reppert, now you know how Calvinists feel when Ilion "critiques" them. :-D

Ilíon said...

Anonymouse: "Reppert, now you know how Calvinists feel when Ilion "critiques" them. :-D"

Well, Mr Manata ... er, Mr Mouse ... it is true that those who *refuse* to be rational and logical (or, at least, wish to reserve unto themselves the "right" to be illogical and/or irrational while still demanding to be taken seriously) do strongly object to having their non-seriousness so bluntly exposed. Though. Grow a pair. Or stop being irrational/illogical.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of intellectual dishonesty...

ilion, why don't you give us your "logical", "rational" case for your continued insinuation that Obama is not an American citizen?

But you won't, will you? You won't provide an argument, or a link, because for all your chest-thumping and bleating protestations, you are an intellectual fraud. And you know it.

Ilíon said...

Anonymouse,

Of course, we *all* realize that you do not care about fact. But, nonehteless, I have never said that Obama is not an American citizen. Rather, I:

1) pointed out that he is a racist America-hater.

2) that there is an unresolved legal question, on which he and the DNC appear to be attempting to run out the clock, concerning whether he meets the Constitutional requirements to occupy the office of US President.

Ilíon said...

And related to that last issue, following from it (and the facts of his specific life), is the question of whether he is, in fact, a US citizen. I made reference to this question of fact, but I have taken no position.

That's difficult for one like you to comprehend, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Okay, fine.

Present us with your intellectually honest, rational, logical case, as to why Obama is a racist.

If you actually even ATTEMPT to make the case, I'll eat a brick and post the video on youtube.

F-R-A-U-D.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Here is ACORN's fairly thorough response to the accusations, most of which are based on misinformation (shocking). For instance, they don't pay by the vote, but by the hour. This article pretty much squashes that story.

Ayers is the only character assassination story that has real legs.

Why is it that repubs like to impugn character so much, while dems want to impugn policy?

PS ilion rulz! The ACORN article, written by the people of ACORN, is unbiased so I'm sure it will change his mind.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Ilion makes some great points. Also, Obama has yet to prove he is not a communist, and until he does, logically we can only assume he is. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that this story of Obama's not disproven communism hasn't gotten more cover from the liberal mainstream media.

One Brow said...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp

Having been born in Hawaii, that pretty much settles the issue for all but the very partisan.

Charlie said...

Ilion could be an Anti-American communist and a may not even be a legal citizen of the US. Just something to think about...

Anonymous said...

Not to pile on, but I'm jut appalled that a person who would post all the worst and wildest Obama rumors as if someone had to be stupid, uninformed, or dishonest to not believe them (as illion does with nearly every random, woolly-eyed, tin-foil hat Obama conspiracy theory) would go about crusading on intellectual honesty.

If you are an adamant spreader of these rumors, you may be many things. A sincere Christian. A proud Conservative. A true patriot.

[i]But you are not intellectually honest.[/i]

One Brow said...

As for ACORN, the logic is simple:

1) There is some evidence for election fraud on behalf of Republicans, conducted by Diebold.

2) There is no similar evidence of election fraund on behalf of Democrats.

3) There is a history of voter fraud by Democrats beack in the Depression-era times.

So, any accusation of voter fraud today, however unsupported, can be used as a buttress against accusations of election fraud.

Blue Devil Knight said...

anon: I think ilion is hilarious. He's like Ed Anger from the Weekly World News. Awesome.

Victor Reppert said...

The reason I said I didn't understand this is because it looks to me as if these guys were trying to get caught. The Dallas Cowboys? Really. You might have been able to get a little more obscurity with the Arizona Cardinals, but not the Cowboys.

Ilíon said...

VR: "The reason I said ..."

LOL. Cute.

Charlie said...

^Makes no sense.

Ilíon said...

^Being famously senseless, and proud of it, is incapable of knowing sense.

Charlie said...

^Knows he's being intellectually dishonest, and is possibly an anti-american communist