Bill, you CAN see what's on the cutting-room floor. Breitbart's blog has released both the unedited (and time-stamped) video, as well as full transscripts. No, we don't know how many ACORN offices turned them away, but we do know exactly how four of them (so far) behaved.

On the cutting room floor is any ACORN office they visited that didn't take the bait (we know at least one that called the police.)

1. What this most reminds me of is the scene in "Borat" where Baron-Cohen tells the gun dealer that he wants the best gun to shoot Jews, and the guy doesn't flinch before making his recommendation. How many gun dealers did they try this on before it worked? No way to know. 2. I'll do my Mickey Kaus impersonation: This is about welfare reform! Full confession, I've only been following this via the Daily Show, but I was struck by the fact that in the clips I've seen the all the ACORN workers are black women. This is only an assumption, but working in an ACORN office is the type of job held by someone who is poor, probably with a high school education or less. Before welfare reform, these women probably didn't work; now they've been trained in how to fill out various government/business forms, and their job is to teach other poor, uneducated people how to do so. If you read Sudhir Venkatesh's book "Gang Leader for a Day," you'll learn that one of the facts of life in a housing project is that many people are at least vaguely involved in

Quoting Bill Scher: On the cutting room floor is any ACORN office they visited that didn't take the bait (we know at least one that called the police.)

As I previously stated this is old fashioned gotcha journalism that the public loves. I don't how it's sliced and diced it looks bad. Apparently, the President's spokesman, Census Bureau, House and Senate think so too. John

Quoting Bill Scher: On the cutting room floor is any ACORN office they visited that didn't take the bait (we know at least one that called the police.)

What's truely remarkable is the fact that even after winning the presidency by a significant margin and controlling Congress by large margins, conservatives continue to set the national agenda and drive the news cycle. This is as good as it's going to get, and it sucks; and we better enjoy it while it lasts, because the wingnuts we all like to laugh at are going to get a big shot in the arm in the 2010 midterms.

It takes a fairly twisted psychology, ingrained with paranoia and fear to sincerely think the ACORN story warrants much attention. This is almost as bad as the Birthers/Truthers.

Hilarious. After Van Jones last week, I didn't think it could get any better. Was I ever wrong. The best part was the 7 in the Senate coming out and prostituting themselves for Acorn. Keep shilling libs!

Quoting Starwatcher162536: It takes a fairly twisted psychology, ingrained with paranoia and fear to sincerely think the ACORN story warrants much attention.

This is almost as bad as the Birthers/Truthers.

It is, in fact, nearly identical to, and and perfectly congruent with Birthers/Truthers.

The fact that Dems are fleeing Acorn in droves makes Acorn a story. The 'cutting room floor' defense might apply if James and Hanna were pulling a Jimmy Carter: accusing many or most Acorn employees of supporting criminal activity. Obama web-sites are scrubbing all connections between Obama and Acorn and that makes Acorn a story. Obama is the president for only three more years. Then voters will decide if his record justifies another term. Acorn very likely does good work in many areas. However, former key officials have raised questions about financing irregularities. Jon Stewart observed that the individuals on tape certainly seemed quite at ease discussing fraud and other criminal activities. No first-time jitters on display from any of Acorn employees in the tapes. Wonder why. Obama should be proud of the part he played in making Acorn the organization it is today.

Quoting Bill Scher: On the cutting room floor is any ACORN office they visited that didn't take the bait (we know at least one that called the police.)

On the cutting room floor is the fact that Bill's boss and co-worker at the Campaign for America's Future are defending ACORN
As to the entrapment defense, Did progressives back off when they heard it from Larry Craig or George Allen and "macaca"?
Short answer No.

Quoting sirfith: On the cutting room floor is the fact that Bill's boss and co-worker at the Campaign for America's Future are defending ACORN
As to the entrapment defense, Did progressives back off when they heard it from Larry Craig or George Allen and "macaca"?
Short answer No.

Wowie. Non-sequitur-a-palooza is just getting started I see.

Quoting sirfith: On the cutting room floor is the fact that Bill's boss and co-worker at the Campaign for America's Future are defending ACORN
As to the entrapment defense, Did progressives back off when they heard it from Larry Craig or George Allen and "macaca"?
Short answer No.

It's true! People I work with have opinions about ACORN. Another link in the vast left-wing conspiracy, exposed! In fact, there were a number of progressives who made an entrapment defense of Larry Craig, and they had a point (though the Minnesota legal system thought differently.) George Allen was not a victim of entrapment. His racism flowed without prodding.

Are any of the Acorn workers in the video running for public office?

I haven't heard about this ACORN story and I don't have much of an opinion about it, but I found what Bill Scher says here quite interesting. http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/225...5:18&out=15:36 Right on! Bill! Reputation is indeed a big driver in our modern open societies (as long as we allow people to fail and don't bailout every possible looser...). Unfortunately we mostly are insensitive to it. It is not so easy to figure out that reputation is at work, how it operates, and what benefits it brings us. I wish that Bill would be as proactive in teasing out the beneficial effects of reputation when analyzing other service providers, like insurance companies for instance, or other private corporations.

It's so inspiring seeing all those sporting their Charlie Gibson Junior Newsman badges. This whole ACORN stuff is such a non-story - LOL

George Allen was not a victim of entrapment. His racism flowed without prodding.

George Allen uttered a word and the Washington Post runs it on the front page numerous times before the election. Obama's blast about his grandmother being a 'typical white person' was buried in the back pages. The racist rantings of Jeremiah Wright and Van Jones never warranted a mention until bloggers and FOX News made them too hot to ignore. The crimes and lies of the NEA? Would have been missed except for those willing to do the MSM's jobs for them. An organization which receives billions in taxpayer funds is guilty of voter registration fraud, shaking down businesses with racism claims and offering tax dodges to prospective pimps selling underage illegal immigrants and the Washington Post, NYTimes, the major networks etc ignore it. The most ironic thing of all is that the liberals, those who call themselves the most compassionate people in the world who do the most to help the

"The crimes and lies of the NEA?" Panties. Twisted. ACORN-gate is a tempest in a teabag. Having seen a picture of the "pimp" I don't believe for a minute that those idiots weren't being put-on by amused ACORN workers. Especially since the one staffer boasted of killing her husband - which, of course, she didn't. And the 401K suggestion was totally hilarious. As was the suggested "performance artist" job description - which is a give-away that the blonde had become the butt of her own "joke." If this is the best the right-wing can come up with when they try "investigative journalism" I'm confident they have no future beyond the Beckish antics we've seen so far. (It's been so, so long since the Dan Rather font wars, hasn't it?) There are far more damning videos of Glenn Beck telling preposterous lies on FOX than there are of ACORN workers playing a couple of dumb-ass, Halloween-costumed white kids. Also, Matt is proving every bad thing I've ever thought about him with his absurd "800,000" estimate. These folks are officially competing with ANSWER for the keys to the political insane asylum. Meanwhile, there will not be a word about this on Hannity, Beck or the

I went to Breitbart's sites and can't find this... Since the videos I've seen look completely absurd as "investigative journalism" - more like a couple of kids being toyed with and not getting it - I'd love to see the outtakes, etc. myself. Also, any investigative journalist who deserved even a grain of respect would have noted when they thought they were getting bites and when they weren't. That's 101. What I'm seeing looks like a cross between Halloween and Amateur Hour. That Glenn Beck is pushing the story is confirmation that it's total bullshit. The guy's a joke. There's many hours more video of Beck gleefully disgracing his own "job" as a supposed journalist than could ever be compiled of ACORN "bad apples" (assuming that not knowing this was a hoax and treating it as such was even the case - which the "pimp's" outfit alone calls into serious question.) Not cowed and not impressed. The more I see the FOX, wingnutosphere and Teabag Right coalescing, I have trouble deciding whether the historical precedent is P.T.Barnum or Joseph Goebbels. Given that recovering addicts like Beck and Rush seem to be at the center of this, I'm

"Would love to see that best actual evidence for that 800,000 9/12 rally." Uh, I was in a meeting...an internal meeting...and the best estimate is that you will never see any such thing.

"I've been critical of Glenn Beck in the past, I'm gonna stop doing it..." Tongue in cheek...or in Beck's butt ? Oh my God..."ACORN is more important than the health care bill..." Total fail...these guys have created an alternate reality for themselves. Prognosis for "Contemporary conservatism" ? Never have there been more entertaining death throes...

The most ironic thing of all is that the liberals, those who call themselves the most compassionate people in the world who do the most to help the poor and disadvantaged, are actually helping to destroy the black community by enabling these dishonest con men/women and poverty pimps. Before Lyndon Johnson supercharged welfare in the late 60's, over 70% of black children were born into two-parent families. Now with the democratic party paying off the ACORN type voter wranglers, black kids have a 70% chance of having no dad in the home and poor blacks are caught in a crash dive of misery.

Thanks for bringing up this interesting theory! Fortunately there's a very easy way to prove its accuracy. If it's true that the main cause of poverty among African-Americans is too many single-parent homes, and that most black children were born into two-parent families before the late sixties, then we should expect to see the African-American poverty rate much lower before the late sixties than it is currently. Percentage of African-American families below poverty line in 1959: 54.9
Percentage of African-American families below poverty line

Seriously, Matt better not piss off Glenn Beck. He could get him fired, or even worse, he could subject him to this.

Quoting kezboard: Thanks for bringing up this interesting theory! Fortunately there's a very easy way to prove its accuracy.

Smart.

Quoting brucds: ACORN-gate is a tempest in a teabag. Having seen a picture of the "pimp" I don't believe for a minute that those idiots weren't being put-on by amused ACORN workers.

1) The ACORN were just playing with the two undercover reporters
2) This was secret highly funded insidious plot by the VRWC and Fox News to "swiftboat" ACORN.

I'm listening to the National Endowment of the Arts Propaganda Conference call at breitbart.com. Politicizing the arts is nothing new. However, the idea still makes me throw-up. I don't like it from the left or the right. Serving government is the kind of concept that sends me right back to my Frank Zappa collection. I can just imagine all the little ditto-heads cutting and pasting the little widgets and smiley faces into their email. I hadn't frankly thought anything could trump the Acorn scandal. I'm at the point in the conference call where the organizers discuss the legality of White House participation. Or maybe they're just worried about the 'optics'. Utterly revolting.