Firefighters lose large U.S. grant to ACORN

Nearly $1 million in Homeland Security funding typically earmarked for fire departments has been awarded to ACORN, despite a clear signal from Congress that it intends to cut off federal funding to the embattled group.
The grant to ACORN's Louisiana office became public on Oct. 2, less than three weeks after the House and Senate voted to cut off ACORN funding after employees were caught on video advising a fake prostitute and pimp on scams.
It was one of only three such grants issued to the state and made up almost 80 percent of the firefighting money earmarked for Louisiana, prompting one of the U.S. senators from the state to demand that the funds be taken back.
"I request that you rescind this grant based on a history of abuse of federal dollars by ACORN and their clear lack of expertise in this area," said Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican.
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One such group might have been the St. Tammany Parish Fire District No. 3, which applied for a $120,000 grant to purchase smoke alarms for low-income families after a January fire killed four childrenin a home that had no working detectors.
"We wanted to buy smoke detectors to spread to homes all over the community to prevent that from happening again," Chief Charles Flynn said in an interview Tuesday.
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"My issue is ACORN in New Orleans. Their mission statement says nothing about fire safety or fire prevention. It bothered me that ACORN got $1 million and there are so many smaller and bigger departments that have a need for that money."
The Monroe Fire Department was the only squad in Louisiana to receive a grant and will be awarded $192,000. The Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office will receive $62,000.
ACORN received $997,402, slightly less than the maximum allowable grant of $1 million. A total of $35 million was available for the grants project to fire districts across the country this year.
"Several Louisiana fire departments have voiced their serious concerns to me over the award of these funds to ACORN," Mr. Vitter said in the letter.
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The FEMA grant was revealed as ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis and Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell sparred over how much money was embezzled from the group by a top official nearly a decade ago.
ACORN says less than $1 million was stolen, but the attorney general claims the figure is as high as $5 million.
"This is speculation, completely false and not based on any documentation or any audit or anything other than two disgruntled former board members," Ms. Lewis said Tuesday at a National Press Club news conference during which she accused the group's critics of racism.

Accusing people of racism seems to be the only argument that is able to shut down the entire discussion. Once one is accused of it, all other rational argument is null and void. These are arguments usually made by vapid people. The racism argument is usually brought forth from people who are themselves inherently racist. Always, question who is presenting the argument and what the history of that person is. It's an ugly argument on many different levels, but the dirtiest of them is that it shuts down the conversation and diverts focus from being able to resolve issues in a civil manner. It evokes much passion, but accomplishes nothing. It would behoove our politicians to answer the charges of racism instead of avoiding the conversations. The politicians and media set the tone. When they duck the arguments and don't stand up for what is right, the side that is loudest wins. Right or wrong, when that happens it's the loudest voice that heard, because there is not a whisper in logical contrary positions. It's sad. The conversation is not intelligent and in fact, there is no conversation at all. (Silence)


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