A blog for all seasons; A blog for one; A blog for all. As the 11th most informative blog on the planet, I have a seared memory of throwing my Time 2006 Man of the Year Award over the railing at Time Warner Center.
Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
While New Jersey gays and lesbians are waiting for Gov. Chris Christie to change his mind about approving a same-sex marriage bill (he issued a conditional veto and has said he'd put the matter up for a referendum), Maryland isn't waiting. They're joining with New York and several other states in enacting same-sex marriage legislation. Governor Martin O'Malley is set to sign the legislation into law this evening - though it would take effect January 2013. Opponents are hoping to gather sufficient signatures to overturn the law:
Though both the House and the Senate chambers are dominated by Democrats, same-sex marriage was not an easy sell for the Democratic governor. In the end, two House Republicans bucked their party and voted for it -- ensuring passage. The Senate wrestled with the issue last year, and passed it with less drama this time.
But even with the governor's signature, same-sex couples won't get Maryland marriage certificates until the law goes into effect in January 2013 -- at the earliest.
Fired-up opponents have pledged to collect 100,000 signatures opposing the bill by June 30 -- about twice what they would need to trigger a state-wide referendum on the topic. On Wednesday several powerful groups joined forces to accomplish that goal.
ACORN officials must be besides themselves and are tired of trying to attempt to defend the indefensible actions of their employees who have been revealed to be unethical and promoting illegal activities on a multitude of video tapes.
They're angry. They're pissed. And they've called out the lawyers.
They don't want blood. They want millions in damages and they're suing James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Andrew Breitbart for illegal wiretapping in Maryland because Maryland law requires that both parties consent to the taping.
This isn't going to go well.
Even Admiral Ackbar knows one when he sees one. It's going to be a trap. It's not a good idea to bring a lawsuit when you're angry and haven't had a chance to suss out the possible outcomes, and not just in the courtroom. This is a situation that has media scrutiny written all over it, particularly because Breitbart is being sued. He's not going to let this issue die; he's going to use it to drive continuing traffic to his websites and will continue pushing matters on any news outlet he can get himself booked on, particularly Fox News.
ACORN would have been better off letting the issues slide, because attacking the messenger and pushing ahead with a lawsuit guarantees more news coverage and additional scrutiny on ACORN actions. ACORN could conceivably win on the lawsuit, but they'd lose the war - as their political allies (like Barney Frank) distance themselves to avoid the omniscient stink as media outlets actually are forced to cover the story.
Bear in mind that Breitbart had let on that there were seven sets of videos and only five had been made public. ACORN could have waited this out and let the interest die out and its political allies regained their nerve (although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refuses to hold hearings on the matter). Now, there's an incentive for Breitbart to push ahead with releasing the videos at some unspecified date to keep the pressure on ACORN.
Moreover, ACORN fired the two employees in the Baltimore video as a result of their conduct on the video. Those two former employees would have a far stronger case than ACORN, but this is route that ACORN is taking. Instead, they're going to face a potential jury pool that isn't going to take what was seen on the videos lightly when compared to the alleged violation of Maryland wiretapping laws, particularly when ACORN leaders have said that they were thankful for the videographers for outing a few bad apples.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) has cut funding to ACORN amid the widening scandal facing the group.
"I have instructed the State Fiscal Officer to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's relationship with ACORN, and all state agencies are to cut off funding for any current contracts with ACORN to the extent the law permits," Governor Barbour said.
Mississippi joins a growing list of states severing ties to the group after a video was released showing employees in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., advising two undercover activists posing as a pimp and a prostitute to lie about the prostitute's profession, suggested they launder the money and advised how to hide underage prostitutes.
San Diego's Board of Supervisors might go back and audit the group's voter registrations. Nice. Isn't that a little late? Considering that the group has repeatedly been caught engaging in voter registration fraud - a separate and distinct issue from actual voter fraud - it should have opened an investigation long ago. The ACORN office in San Diego says that if their voter registrations should be audited, so should all the other registrations. Good point (even if broken clocks are right twice a day). Local and state elections officials have repeatedly shirked their responsibilities to confirm that those who register to vote are actually eligible to vote (including failing to cull the deceased from voter rolls). But, special scrutiny should be paid to ACORN-related registrations primarily because of the flexible moral and ethical conduct of ACORN employees as witnessed on the multitude of videos.
Maryland Attorney General has finally launched an investigation into ACORN activities, stemming from the video showing the Baltimore office's gross misconduct. That's after Baltimore officials appear more than willing to overlook matters:
Hours after the Justice Department's inspector general announced Monday that he plans a review of funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Maryland's top law enforcement officer also moved to launch an investigation.
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) asked and received permission from Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute "conduct involving" ACORN.
Gansler's investigation effectively usurps Baltimore City State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. She had called the secret taping of ACORN employees giving tax advice to a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute illegal under Maryland's requirement for two-party consent for audio recordings.
"As time went on, it became clear that the local authorities were not going to look into it," said Raquel Guillory, Gansler's spokeswoman. "It's obviously something that needed to be looked into, and that's why we've taken this step."
Baltimore's more interested in prosecuting James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles than going after the gross misconduct at ACORN. Curious how that works. Instead of trying to deal with the huge mess that O'Keefe and Giles kicked over with their expose, Baltimore's prosecutor wants to hit the duo. Nice.
It's also good to see that the US Justice Department is finally opening an investigation. They're going to look for improprieties in any funding obtained through the Department. I would suggest that Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services likewise open investigations given that ACORN may have obtained funds through both of those agencies as well as part of their homeowner assistance programs and other community programs.
Such investigations are long overdue (going back years in fact), but there is no way one can possibly ignore the mess.
