The ACORN Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree When it Bonks Harper on the Head

It's taken me a while, but I've been able to reduce the complexities of Stephen Harper into three simple facts.

1. He is a malignant narcissist

2. He was indoctrinated by the anti-communist, anti-liberalism crowd.

3. He is a Republican.

So if the media or political pundits want to try to make sense of what this man does, they just need to remember those three things. He is driven by his own self-importance, a visceral hatred of liberalism and an undying love for anything Republican.

Which brings me to the census issue.

We Should Have Looked South in the First Place

ACORN is an organization that advocates for affordable housing for low and mid-low income families. Barack Obama once acted as their attorney and as a result the Tea Party/Republican crowd hates them. The anti-liberalism crowd detests them for advocating for the poor, and the Religious Right condemns them because they are trying to interfere in God's master plan.

They also advocate for gun control, a livable wage, minorities ...

In other words, they are doomed in the current American political climate.

I had blogged on them before when tracking the parallel movements of the Leadership Institute, Manning Centre for Democracy and the Conservative Party of Canada.

Morton Blackwell, founder of the LI was involved in a plot to undermine the work they do. And bragged about it. You can read the story here.

Well, apparently ACORN was given the job of compiling census information and the Tea Party crowd are steeped and steaming.

One of their tea waggin' queens, Michele Bachmann, is encouraging Americans not to fill out their census forms, calling them an "intrusion" and highlighting the fact that failure to comply could result in a $ 5,000 fine. And despite the fact that no one has ever actually BEEN fined in the history of the census, her whistle is going off.



But there is a problem with the tea baggers plans to boycott the census. If they don't weigh in they could be thrown out of any decisions when it comes to the allocation of funds. Tea stained states could suffer as a result.

Google 'Tea Party' and 'census' and listen to the rhetoric the American right is using. It is almost verbatim what we're hearing from Stephen Harper, Maxime Bernier and Tony Clement. "Law abiding citizens shouldn't be penalized", "it's an intrusion", etc., etc., etc.

The Harperites claim to have been in consultation with stakeholders since 2006, but as David McKie discovered recently, no such consultations ever took place.

The response to my request for such studies was disappointing: "Having completed a thorough search, we regret to inform you that we were unable to locate any records responsive to your request."

But Mckie was looking in the wrong place. He should have just invited himself for 'tea' with Bachmann.