Like Kennedy and Palast said earlier . . .

Hey Folks -

Here's a full-page ad People for the American Way will be putting in the New York Times.

- Uke Man

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FRAUD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You’ve heard a lot about ACORN in the media lately, accused of voter fraud. But it’s news fraud — a false story instigated by right-wing operatives.

The wild charges made against ACORN aren’t true. Period. It’s the story the right wing wants you to hear and the media is reporting as unchallenged fact.

ACORN hired 13,000 workers to register voters. And unfortunately a few bad apples turned in registration forms with inaccurate and even made-up names.

Here’s what’s missing from the story: In most states, ACORN is required to submit all forms they collect, whether they appear to be bogus or not. That way election officials, not independent groups, can decide who gets registered and who doesn’t. ACORN spends millions to flag cards that may not be legitimate. And many of the irregularities you’ve heard about only came to light because ACORN itself flagged the cards!

Meanwhile, ACORN has successfully registered over 1 million legitimate voters — Democrats, Independents and Republicans. And there are no reported instances of organized double-voting — so there’s no chance this will affect the election.

So what’s the real story?

The right wing wants to discourage low-income people and African Americans from voting. And attacking ACORN helps justify their real efforts to suppress the vote — which are well under way.

In Indiana, the right is considering using home foreclosure as a reason to prevent legitimate registration.

In Philadelphia, an anonymous flier targeting African-American neighborhoods falsely warns that voters with outstanding traffic tickets may be arrested if they go to the polls.

In Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State rejected more than 6,000 citizens’ registration cards because of minor errors like not marking a checkbox.

Last week, Fox referenced ACORN 770 times on the air. That’s to be expected, but then CNN and others parroted the same right-wing talking points.

Instead of hearing about the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who will be prevented from casting a vote this year, you heard about fictional people who will never cast a vote.

And that’s the real fraud.

To learn more, please go to www.PFAW.org/ACORN