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Between ACORNs and Blackwater
In 2007 Blackwater hires launched a massacre in the heart of Baghdad, turning a crossroads of traffic into a bucket of blood. The incident fueled anti- U.S. insurgency and splashed egg on the face of US puppet and Iraqi Prime Minister, Nur al-Malid, who demanded that the company be expelled from Iraq. They're still there. Any lost contracts? Nope. Indeed, the Obama administration just announced new contracts with Blackwater (under its new corporate name, XE)
Listen now:
Between ACORNs and Blackwater
[col. writ. 10/4/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Nothing says as much about the nature of the American media as its latest frenzy.
What seizes it is often the seemingly trivial, the symbolic and, yes, the silly; that most designed to not only tug at the heartstrings, but to cement our certainties, play to our prejudices and support the status quo.
For months, right wing shout-show hosts have been harping on ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). In their world, they were the 2009 version of the 1950's Communist Party, and as such, they were painted as enemies of the state.
It took a while, but before long the corporate media jumped into the pit, and, assisted by the amateur film set-ups by a right wing couple posing as a pimp and his mini-skirted accomplice, ACORN became the big news.
The group, which has several hundred thousand members, was harmed by the actions of perhaps half a dozen, who, rather breezily, advised the supposed 'couple' in ways to avoid taxes and still ply their trade.
Almost overnight state and federal governments cut contracts with the group, which has organized many grassroots communities around housing issues, foreclosures, labor issues and voting rights.
Politicians couldn't find a mike fast enough to distance themselves, and denounce the group.
Consider the difference between that response and the silence which greeted news of the long record of carnage and mayhem committed at the trigger-happy hands of Blackwater. The private, corporate army has lucrative contracts with the State Dept., and many government agencies.
In 2007 Blackwater hires launched a massacre in the heart of Baghdad, turning a crossroads of traffic into a bucket of blood.
The incident fueled anti- U.S. insurgency and splashed egg on the face of US puppet and Iraqi Prime Minister, Nur al-Malid, who demanded that the company be expelled from Iraq. They're still there.
Any lost contracts? Nope. Indeed, the Obama administration just announced new contracts with Blackwater (under its new corporate name, XE)
Employees of Blackwater kill and wound dozens of Iraqi with immunity (and impunity), no contracts lost.
Employees of ACORN get caught on tape trying to assist a fake pimp and prostitute. They get fires, ACORN loses a slew of government contracts.
Guess which group is tied to wealth and right wing groups around the world?
Guess which group supports efforts of the urban poor to navigate their lives amidst economic chaos?
Guess which group gets its contracts cut?
--(c) -09 maj
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - icffmaj [at] aol.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Submitted by: Sis. Marpessa
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe [at] topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj [at] aol.com!
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is
just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die.
And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about
justice." - Mumia Abu-Jamal
For additional information and to order Mumia's new book We Want Freedom,
visit: southendpress.org
Check out Mumia's NEW book:
"Faith f Our Fathers: An Examination of the Spiritual Life of African and African-American People" at http://www.africanworld.com
[col. writ. 10/4/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Nothing says as much about the nature of the American media as its latest frenzy.
What seizes it is often the seemingly trivial, the symbolic and, yes, the silly; that most designed to not only tug at the heartstrings, but to cement our certainties, play to our prejudices and support the status quo.
For months, right wing shout-show hosts have been harping on ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). In their world, they were the 2009 version of the 1950's Communist Party, and as such, they were painted as enemies of the state.
It took a while, but before long the corporate media jumped into the pit, and, assisted by the amateur film set-ups by a right wing couple posing as a pimp and his mini-skirted accomplice, ACORN became the big news.
The group, which has several hundred thousand members, was harmed by the actions of perhaps half a dozen, who, rather breezily, advised the supposed 'couple' in ways to avoid taxes and still ply their trade.
Almost overnight state and federal governments cut contracts with the group, which has organized many grassroots communities around housing issues, foreclosures, labor issues and voting rights.
Politicians couldn't find a mike fast enough to distance themselves, and denounce the group.
Consider the difference between that response and the silence which greeted news of the long record of carnage and mayhem committed at the trigger-happy hands of Blackwater. The private, corporate army has lucrative contracts with the State Dept., and many government agencies.
In 2007 Blackwater hires launched a massacre in the heart of Baghdad, turning a crossroads of traffic into a bucket of blood.
The incident fueled anti- U.S. insurgency and splashed egg on the face of US puppet and Iraqi Prime Minister, Nur al-Malid, who demanded that the company be expelled from Iraq. They're still there.
Any lost contracts? Nope. Indeed, the Obama administration just announced new contracts with Blackwater (under its new corporate name, XE)
Employees of Blackwater kill and wound dozens of Iraqi with immunity (and impunity), no contracts lost.
Employees of ACORN get caught on tape trying to assist a fake pimp and prostitute. They get fires, ACORN loses a slew of government contracts.
Guess which group is tied to wealth and right wing groups around the world?
Guess which group supports efforts of the urban poor to navigate their lives amidst economic chaos?
Guess which group gets its contracts cut?
--(c) -09 maj
PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
E-mail - icffmaj [at] aol.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!
Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Submitted by: Sis. Marpessa
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe [at] topica.com
Read: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/read
Subscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailing
icffmaj [at] aol.com!
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is
just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die.
And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about
justice." - Mumia Abu-Jamal
For additional information and to order Mumia's new book We Want Freedom,
visit: southendpress.org
Check out Mumia's NEW book:
"Faith f Our Fathers: An Examination of the Spiritual Life of African and African-American People" at http://www.africanworld.com
For more information:
http://www.prisonradio.org/mumia.htm
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My understanding (am I wrong? - please let me know if so - ) is not that ACORN advised the pimpy pair on TAXES, but on how to report their income as undocumented in order to buy a house.
So what really got me, as someone who was heavily lobbied mmm maybe daily at least during the housing crash-build-up to refinance, and as someone who took the bait -- is that each and every single one of the hundreds-of-thousands of real estate brokers across the country were selling these "no doc" loans to anyone they could.
And I think what can't be emphasized enough is that the USA's gross national product consisted in large part of the loan-shark interest created for and by wealthy "investor" (casino) banks that counted on, REQUIRED foreclosures and other defaults to keep "the economy" going. There was no mechanism, no encouragement, many obstacles to investing in anything needed and real, but in order for the trend-setting elite of our shared economy to continue in its capitalizing way, investments absolutely required, counted on foreclosures and other loan defaults, criminally jacked-up interest rates, laws such as the one that allows banks to seize assets to pay into one "overdue" account with jacked up rates if some unrelated bill, such as a utility or healthcare bill, is not paid, etc. etc. I personally experienced a friend on SSI who was allowed by the bank to take out more from his ATM machine than was in his account; then he was charged fees that compounded such that 2 or 3 2-dollar transactions accumulated to a $900 debt in a matter of less than a week. It's still happening. Another friend had the little bit of money he had in his bank account seized last week for a credit card whose fees went up 300% -- that he had been PAYING on. And on it goes.
It reminds me of when R.D. Laing in the 60s wrote "we are all prostitutes and murderers," (which I think we are). It is hypocritical to the max that ACORN was busted for something virtually anyone in the same place would have done and did do -- over and over and over and over. We should all be out there carrying signs for ACORN saying "we're all pimps and prostitutes."
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