[EL] Accepting the results of the election

Thu Oct 20 21:06:07 PDT 2016

Ben,

First quick aside: you seem to be sending some messages to me and some both to me and to the list. Please decide which you wish so I know who is a part of the conversation.

Second aside: sorry this is  a long email, but it takes time to unpack the confusion created by opposition research.

Your link is to the Baltimore tape. I recall that this is the only one that seemed to me at the time to suggest somebody was giving out advice for criminal activity. But the tape is edited awkwardly and I’ll see if I can dig up (what James said was) the complete transcript for Baltimore to see what it reveals.

However, regarding your claims that ACORN was involved in promoting underage prostitution (your first claim) or helping prostitution rings find housing (your second claim once the first claim flopped), that tape does *not* show anybody helping them find housing. Maybe the transcript will show that, but that’s not my recollection.

You’ll recall that at some (most? all?) offices the ACORN staff told James that they don’t give advice regarding the questions he asks and they ask him to leave. They ended up talking to him at some offices because he made a scene and that’s a common way to deal with crazy people coming in off the street (or because they wanted to scare him off or because they wanted to play detective and hand him over the police.) I also recall at least one office (Miami?) did call the police on James. So there was no pattern here of helping them in any way (other than one of the older women in the NCY tape trying to talk Hannah out of prostitution and telling her to not let men harm her, etc.).

I think having an honest discussion and not a tendentious one means concluding that what was on that tape, whatever it was, was not organization sanctioned activity. To believe otherwise is like believing that the two major parties in the US support prostitution because their elected officials get caught with prostitutes or youth over whom they have authority. And the parties have certainly had scandals involving REAL prostitutes, drugs, and young interns. Nothing remotely like that was uncovered by your clients about ACORN.

Essentially, James exploited a very old rule in opposition research: the older and larger the corporation/organization, the more likely you can find some dirt, trip somebody up, etc. ACORN was a very large and, in many respects, a highly decentralized organization. The pay was notoriously bad and turnover was high. Spend enough time around any organization with that kind of structure, and you’ll find problems or weaknesses to exploit. Even organizations with better structure (Fox NEWS, the parties, the Church, etc.) have had dirt dug up on them that is real. But that doesn’t make it organizationally sanctioned.

In short, James and Hannah went to numerous offices and this was the best they got. And it doesn’t even show what you claimed (of course, maybe you’ll change your claim again?).

-Doug

From: Benjamin Barr [mailto:benjamin.barr at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2016 7:47 PM
To: Hess, Doug <HESSDOUG at Grinnell.EDU>; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Accepting the results of the election

Oh, Doug, you're just too much fun.

The videos I've seen show liberal ACORN activists offering James and Hannah advice about how to run a brothel out of a house with their help.  Pretty simple, and disgusting, stuff.  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UOL9Jh61S8<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3D9UOL9Jh61S8&d=DQMFaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=xr_OjwGHtP-zw6I-DJj_MQ4cusLbiVT1bScGa0c8ZJo&m=wuJOf7lnjiKc3cENTo92-PCyTtzr-49KGK7WABcsmeI&s=D-gIq758Wcwb4lzb0-1XlI_wkqXZzDCcot1AUzJpuGo&e=>.

On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 4:53 PM, Hess, Doug <HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu<mailto:HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu>> wrote:
Ben,

Well, it’s not 2:30AM now. No, ACORN did not “happily assist someone claiming to have boatloads of underage prostitutes find housing.” What housing did the person get? What assistance of any kind did they offer? Which of the videos are you talking about? I assume you don’t mean the CA case where the man they filmed clearly was baiting them (just as they were baiting him) in order, so he thought, to turn over evidence against what he thought were criminals to the police?

-Doug

From: Benjamin Barr [mailto:benjamin.barr at gmail.com<mailto:benjamin.barr at gmail.com>]
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2016 3:48 PM
To: Hess, Doug <HESSDOUG at Grinnell.EDU<mailto:HESSDOUG at Grinnell.EDU>>
Subject: Re: [EL] Accepting the results of the election

Doug,

Please accept my apology for my errant description of ACORN at 2:30 in the morning.

You're right.  ACORN never promoted underage prostitution.  They happily assisted someone claiming to have boatloads of underage prostitutes find housing.  I stand corrected.

Forward,

B

On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 1:59 PM, Hess, Doug <HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu<mailto:HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu>> wrote:

Ben,

ACORN never promoted underage prostitution. There was never any evidence in any of the tapes or transcripts supporting that bizarre statement. I think I still have those transcripts and videos somewhere if you want to go over them line by line.

It drives me crazy that people who should know better take such positions.

-Doug Hess

Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2016 02:27:54 -0400

From: Benjamin Barr

Subject: Re: [EL] Accepting the results of the election

Message-ID: <7A516B54-BEFC-40A1-982B-C16C42F06F31 at gmail.com<mailto:7A516B54-BEFC-40A1-982B-C16C42F06F31 at gmail.com>>

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And "RuthAlice" you'd like to attach your reputation to a group promoting underage prostitution (hint:  ACORN)? It's your life.

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