After being offered a new job with USDA, Shirley Sherrod told the media she indeed wants to hear from the President, to acquaint him with some realities from her life that he may not understand. So she needs to be convinced that he — the President of the United States — believes in, and will fight for, the principles he claims to hold.

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack issued a statement this a.m. saying he will reconsider the case that led to the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod, after he and the Obama Administration faced a storm of criticism for their actions.

Watching the story of Ms. Sherrod’s unfair firing unfold, there are several people who deserve to be fired in the Obama Administration today, possibly even in the White House. But so far, the only person to lose her job is Ms. Sherrod, the lone honest public servant in this sorry episode.

I don’t know of any similar organization. Yet, when I imagine a logical organization to build in our society, I wind up at ACORN. If ACORN did not exist, in other words, it would be necessary to invent it. All we actually need do is reconstitute it.

After all, James O’Keefe is facing felony charges for trying to tamper with a Senator’s phones, and his Blockbuster Video Exposé of supposed ACORN wrongdoing is falling apart all around him and his pimp promoter.  And yet, Mike Stark is “struck by O’Keefe strutting around CPAC accepting all sorts of accolades and plaudits while he [...]

I think what we’re seeing is a breakdown of the progressive online community into those who are willing to overlook extreme financial malfeasance if “our guys” are the ones doing it, and those who don’t want to be part of “our guys” if that’s the price. Count me in with the latter group, because the hypocrisy of the former is what led to the Bush dead-enders and their irrational embrace of George Bush beyond limit. A small cabal who can only interpret things through personalities is going to lose the rest of the country pretty quickly, because most people actually believe that these continuous bailouts are part of the “enormous problems” we are struggling with.

Andrew Breitbart is steaming mad that the Associated Press “whitewashed” his 118 word comment on the ACORN report. Readers really do need to read his comment, too. Really.

The Republican Party has engaged in a decades-long project to portray any Democratic electoral gains as fraudulent, chipping away at the legitimacy of any Democratic politician. A new poll by a Democratic firm shows that these efforts have paid off.

Harry Reid quietly reforms Senate process to reinstate open, democratic debate on floor amendments, while simultaneously shepherding through the Senate unConstitutional Bills of Attainder to punish ACORN, on Constitution Day, 2009.

Many people first encountered ACORN when it became a piñata in the wingnuts’ last-ditch attempt to salvage something—anything—for their base during the 2008 elections. But since 1970, when the community organizing group was founded, the organization has accomplished a lengthy and impressive list of victories on behalf of low- and middle-income families. Among its achievements, ACORN has:

* Moved more than 2 million homes into ownership by low-income people in less than 20 years.
* Spearheaded the living wage movement that resulted in raising the hourly pay of some of the lowest-paid workers in more than 140 cities between 1996 and 2006 before going on to win statewide minimum wage increases in several states, such as Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Arizona in the 2006 elections.
* Partnered with H&R Block to reduce predatory fees charged to low-income people who receive rapid anticipation loans, with one such fee reduction resulting in a savings of $200 million for tax filers.