Fox News attacks ACORN over grant to give smoke detectors to low-income families
Fox News' Bill Hemmer criticized the Department of Homeland Security for awarding a since-rescinded fire prevention grant to ACORN, ignoring that the Bush administration awarded similar grants to ACORN in 2007. Moreover, other Fox personalities and The Washington Times claimed that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) "made this public," even though the grant was reported on long before Vitter mentioned them.
Fox News' Hemmer: ACORN given "money typically earmarked for fire departments all across the country"
"Doesn't look like much firefighting there." Discussing a $997,402 fire prevention and safety grant awarded to ACORN by FEMA through the Department of Homeland Security, Hemmer juxtaposed file footage of fire trucks and ACORN workers to ask, "[W]hen it comes to firefighting, is this what you think of?" Hemmer went on to report that the funds are "typically earmarked for fire departments all across the country" but did not note that the grant was for fire prevention. [Fox News' America's Newsroom, 10/7/09]
But grant was for "fire prevention and safety activity," and ACORN received a similar one during Bush administration
Bush administration awarded ACORN similar grant in 2007. Hemmer did not note that ACORN received similar funding thorough the same program during the Bush administration. In 2007, ACORN applied for a fire prevention and safety grant through FEMA and was awarded $450,484 in August 2008.
ACORN was to distribute smoke detectors, other equipment. ACORN reportedly planned "to use the money to assess fire safety in the homes of low and moderate-income families and hand out smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and other fire prevention gear." [Associated Press, 9/16/09] (Following Hemmer's report, The Hill's Tony Romm wrote in an October 7 blog post: "The Department of Homeland Security initially earmarked the money for ACORN long before House and Senate lawmakers mobilized to cut the group's access to federal dollars, but FEMA never followed through and provided ACORN the money.")
FEMA lists "community organizations" as eligible for grants in guidelines
From FEMA's Program and Application Guidance document:
A. Fire Prevention and Safety Activity
Eligible applicants for this activity include fire departments, and national, regional, state, local, or community organizations that are recognized for their experience and expertise in fire prevention and safety programs and activities. Both private and public non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for funding in this activity. For-profit organizations are not eligible to receive a FP&S grant award. For all grantees the Federal share of the project cost (i.e., amount of Federal award dollars) is limited to $1 million per application.
Conservative media suggest grant was covered up, but AP reported on it
Wash. Times: "The grant to ACORN's Louisiana office became public on Oct. 2." A Washington Times article by Audrey Hudson claimed that "[t]he grant to ACORN's Louisiana office became public on Oct. 2." The article also reported that "Mr. Vitter, who was routinely notified of the grant before it became public, sent his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Sept. 22." [The Washington Times, 10/7/09]
Kilmeade: "David Vitter made this public." On Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade claimed "Senator David Vitter of Louisiana spoke up and said, listen, you've got to stop this, you've got to reverse this." Kilmeade went on to say, "So David Vitter made this public."
AP reported on the grants weeks ago. Despite these claims, an AP article reported - well before Vitter's September 29 blog post -- that "FEMA awarded $997,402 to ACORN in New Orleans on Sept. 4 as part of its Fire Prevention and Safety Grants program." [AP, 9/16/09]
Transcripts
From the October 7 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
HEMMER: Your neighborhood at night?
JULIET HUDDY (guest co-host): I'm not kidding you.
HEMMER: All of our neighborhoods at night. Racing like the sound of fire trucks on a call. But when it comes to firefighting, is this what you think of? Roll this and listen here.
[begin video clip]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are ACORN!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are ACORN!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mighty, mighty ACORN!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mighty, mighty ACORN!
[end video clip]
HEMMER: Is that the siren you hear, Juliet?
HUDDY: No. No, no, no.
HEMMER: Doesn't look like much firefighting there. We're told today the left-wing group ACORN was granted about a million dollars by the Department of Homeland Security -- that money typically earmarked for fire departments all across the country. That's the connection. Apparently DHS is now having second thoughts on that; we understand the money's been frozen so ACORN does not receive the money. It has been awarded, but it has not been doled out. They cannot cash that check.
HUDDY: We'll keep you posted on that, I have a feeling.
From the October 7 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): Let's talk about this story this morning, because firefighters are going to lose a whole heck of a lot of money down in Louisiana. Apparently a $1 million grant that they were used to getting from the Department of Homeland Security is now going to be going to -- sit down, wait till you hear this: ACORN. ACORN is going to get this 1 million bucks instead of firefighters down in Louisiana.
Apparently some sort of a snafu, even though Congress voted to cut off all funding for ACORN just about three weeks ago; now they're apparently going to get this money instead of the firefighters. And by the way, that's 80 percent of the money that the firefighters would get in grants down in that state.
KILMEADE: So Senator -- yeah, so -- so Gretchen, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana spoke up and said, listen, you've got to stop this, you've got to reverse this. Because these firefighters want to use this money, for example, for grants to -- for low-income houses, to give them smoke alarms, maybe $120,000 there. So David Vitter made this public. And Governor Napolitano, who is now Homeland Security secretary, says, listen, I'm going to listen to Senator Vitter, but I don't negotiate through the press.
STEVE DOOCY (co-host): Right.
KILMEADE: I keep it to myself.
DOOCY: Well, here's the thing. OK, so ACORN gets close to $1 million for fire prevention? What do they know about fire prevention and education and stuff like that? It turns out they actually got, in 2007 fiscal year, they got about half a million dollars.
Senator Vitter contacted ACORN and said, "What do you know about this? What are you going to do with the money?" And rather than actually say what they're going to do with the money -- because you don't think of ACORN as an outfit in the fire prevention business -- they attacked the senator.
wonders if the GOP has rental property's and if they do would they not want a smoke detector?
It's a Distrust of the Other, That person or persons that don't quite look like You & Me.
"Please Don't Fox News Me" This is currently the most Dangerous Phrase in all the Land.
Right now Fox News is winning the War, But "If they will Unclench their Fist I will extend a Hand"
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
Lets just let that statement from above Brew for a moment & Perculate.
JFK & Bobby are Shot Dead, But Ms. Carlson can't or is unwilling to see past Ted Kennedy's Pain.
But hey, Why should Gretchen care or even give a Damn when it gets in the way of her Potential Political Gain?
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
Um, Excuse me Gretchen Carlson each time i find a Vid of you making a complete fool of yourself with this statement it Abates.
I wonder who is responsible for this?
Could it be Rupert or Roger? I'll keep investigating Gretchen because someday i will get to the bottom of this Tryst.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
And wow a million bucks! What'd they do, shake out a couch somewhere on the Capitol and turn the change they found into into a block grant? Yeah yeah, I know it's taboo in our political culture to act as though any level of frivolous spending (which this obviously isn't) can be overlooked, but it's still unbelievable see anyone trying to make a stink over a million bucks.
Yep, whenever a thread strays into taxation, here comes Tommy.
In case you missed it, the gap between the richest and the poorest among us is at the highest level since the days of the robber barons, which led to the Great Depression.
We just narrowly averted a depression, and you're rooting for policies that brought us there.
Your free lunch/work hard/earn what you have crapola is just that: Crapola. Lotsa people work hard and guess what - THEY'RE STILL POOR.
Your disjointed view of reality is disgusting. Haven't you found enough people to join you in your tax-free utopia of Tommyland yet?
with dim wits on repugs side, if we cut them out we have a good proper sizes government then.
But then Us Americans always try to help our fellow Americans out.
How about military contractors? Wouldn't have many of them without bloated government.
And don't even get me started on these lazy soldiers. I hear their paychecks come directly from our bloated government.
Yeah, cause everyone knows that poor people are lazy and rich people are the hardest working people in the world.
Interestingly enough, I have found the opposite to be true on my way up the corporate ladder. The more money I make, the less actual hard work I am asked to perform. I may put in a lot of hours today for the good money I make, but I certainly do not work as hard as I did when I was a young man and digging holes for a living.
ps. "When you work hard and earn what you have you are ultimately much better off, and far more gratified." isn't an emotional argument? Because hey guess what: the only difference between someone who buys a smoke detector and someone who has one given to them is how they personally feel about their method of acquisition. If the government cuts a check to buy some smoke detectors they don't suddenly become any less reliable, despite any delusions potentially harbored by free-market trolls wielding melodrama. (MY WEALTH RIPPED FROM MY ARMS BY FORCE... BY THE LEVIATHAAAAAAN! Sounds like a Dio song.)
First, it is society that enables you to earn that money, and that protects you from the true state of nature, which means you fall to the first predator that comes along. It prints the currency, maintains a system of laws, enforces them, insures bank deposits, stabilizes relations with other states, and protects you from creditors when you go bankrupt.
WEalth and earning are artificial concepts set inside a carefully established and maintained society. They are not eternal virtues interfered with by that society.
Second, people always invoke earning and work and immediately use it to defend unearned and unworked-for wealth. If your invocation is to earning, then why not have a 100% estate tax? Why have social parasites live a life of luxury without ever working?
But somehow, when you're done invoking hard work and virtue, 'earning' gets defined as 'whatever money I've gotten by whatever means.' Including drawing on Daddy's trust fund.
Third, there's kids. Children are by definition parasites, taking and taking without offering the least bit of contribution to society. They've earned nothing and demand a great deal. the ultimate welfare cases--but without them the species dies out. A society that doesn't actively support having children will be supplanted by those that do, no matter how many skyscrapers and symphonies the Galt class produces. Because--and this may come asa shock--we all die and turn to dust.
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States...
Again, reality fails you. Wealth has been redistributed to the top 1% for the past 20 years. Why aren't you outraged about that?
So again I ask, why do you hate the constitution? Were the founders Marxists? Maybe fascists?
But Obama didn't begin the progressive tax structure. He's simply trying to get our nation back on firmer financial footing, because cutting the federal budget is very hard, especially when we have two wars going on and much of the rest of the budget is not discrentionary spending.
It's an attack on Obama that has no basis in reality. There is necessary spending, like what Obama did in January.
So yeah, they're horrible I guess, the founders and the people who came up with the income tax constitutional amendment, in what, 1918, that was ratified by the states?
Oh, and I'm neither a moron nor a liberal, but you are incredibly gullible.
oh yea thats right off the sweat and dead of the same people you are complaining about.
So its really the up cruse with the money and guess what>>>>>>>
most to all of them never worked for it.
And you're right, the fact he can't fathom that wealth has been re-distributed upward for the past 20 years is a hurdle he's gonna have to clear before he can provide a coherent argument.
"What people are against is using taxpayer money to redistribute wealth" - RightOn
And you do not see any contradiction in these statements? Taxation is inherently a redistribution of wealth. You do understand that, don't you?
You don't understand America and democracy. You can't have it your way all the time. What you want is a dictatorship with your comrade in charge.
But back to smoke alarms: What if they were protecting the unborn? Same position?
Right, we know - what you are arguing is that there should not be a progressive income tax. However, there is. If you would like to know why, I suggest you ready a little Teddy Roosevelt - he was excellent that explaining the need for a progressive income tax. If not, I can explain to you in more detail. But, I truly think you would get more out of it if you did some reading of your own.
If they had taken more time to consider what ACORN really does, then they may have decided ACORN should get MORE funding.
Are you for cutting funding to the war profiteers who have imported real, living and breathing, underage sex slaves approved by contractor executives and who have been responsible for numerous deaths? Or the actual, real, gang rape of a KBR employee?
Where's the outrage over that?
you know the kind that the white wing wrong side party believes in.
Pure BS on FOXES part.
And I am also sure that Fox will set down the rules about being able to come armed, just in case. and because it is their right.
Curiously, the Cons love the Constitution when it is on their side but it needs changed when it affects them negatively. But that is what Cons are, Convoluted.
ACORN grant for firefighting questioned
06:44 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Doug Mouton / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS - Northshore firefighters are questioning how ACORN qualified for federal firefighter assistance grant money.
Video: Watch the Story
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded the ACORN office in New Orleans $997,402 in what's called the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.
"The grant was centered around fire departments," said St. Tammany Fire District 3 Chief Chuck Flynn. "I think there are so many other departments in the state of Louisiana or even in the nation for that matter that are far more deserving of this than an organization such as ACORN."
Chief Flynn applied for a $150,000 grant that was denied.
"It would have allowed us to put smoke alarms in every household in Lacombe," he said.
Flynn said the grant would have paid for roughly 4,000 smoke detectors with 10-year lithium batteries. His staff would have installed them at no cost.
"I think we had a real good cause for it for this year," he added. "I thought the shoe would fit for us to get a grant. I'm not dissatisfied that we did not get it, I'm dissatisfied that it wasn't a fire service, a fire department that got it.
"I'm as upset as anybody else," said Chris Kaufman, the chief of administration for St. Tammany Fire District 1 in Slidell. "We do the best we can with the money we're given and to think that type of grant money goes to a non-fire agency. There's criteria for the grant process that you have to qualify for."
St. Tammany Fire District 1 requested a $20,000 grant to pay for a hazard house, a small, portable home to demonstrate fire safety. Their grant was also denied.
"We struggle too hard to do what we do for the citizens of the State of Louisiana and absolutely, I'm bothered by it," Kaufman added. "We depend on those types of dollars to deliver those programs which we can't afford to deliver in our operating budget."
Both Flynn and Kaufman question how ACORN qualified for the grants in the first place. The DHS application states, to be eligible, an organization must be "recognized for their experience and expertise in fire prevention."
"Their mission statement does not state that they have any fire prevention activities whatsoever," Chief Flynn said.
"I don't see ACORN or any other agency that's not a fire agency delivering the type of fire safety education throughout our state," Kaufman added.
"Maybe they're trying to put out a bunch of political fires," Sen. David Vitter said Wednesday afternoon, "but they know nothing about real firefighting, so they don't qualify."
ACORN said Wednesday their fire safety program is administered out of their New Orleans office, but the money will be spent in 13 cities, none in Louisiana. For now, Congress has frozen ACORN's money, but Vitter wants the grant cancelled.
"This is not unique," Vitter added. "They have gotten millions, tens of millions of taxpayer dollar for a longtime, and that is what has to stop."
FEMA administers the program and points out, ACORN's money was awarded by the previous administration.
Both Flynn and Kaufman said they'll apply for the grant again next year.
(http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl100709tpacornA.1f464f768.html?ocp=2#slcgm_comments_anchor)
Well in a way he`s right they did get millions even tens of millions for a long time. like what 15 years.