CNN has picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Sarah Palin last night. This morning, pundits on CNN are talking about the work of community organizers.
The description these pundits are giving of community organizers sounds to me like the description of social workers. I’ve always thought of the two as distinctly different. Am I mistaken? Or are the job descriptions being purposely blurred to widen the scope of who should feel victimized by Palin’s comments?
Sarah Palin quipped that being a small-town mayor was sort of like being a community organizer, except that a mayor has real responsibilities.
Social workers absolutely were not included in the punch line. Social workers often help people with special needs, and Palin has a child with special needs. She promised families with special needs that if the Republican Presidential ticket is elected, they’d have an advocate in the White House in the person of Sarah Palin.
Social workers often serve as case managers that help disadvantaged people do many things, like, figure out how to navigate through household budget shortfalls, obtain re-training for displaced workers, address chronic medical issues, or assist with job searches.
This morning, the pundits were describing community organizers in the same terms. My own assumptions, which may be wrong, were that community organizers often work for non-profits that have a specified mission, a defined scope, and that they try to cobble together advocacy groups within that scope so that lobbying local and state governments for the issues within that scope becomes more effective because it adds voices from the community to the voices at the non-profit, thus swelling the ranks of those calling for government action.
I welcome input. Feel free to enlighten me.
Buckeye RINO 
September 4, 2008 at 1:35 pm
People are making too much of the comment…..it was just meant to illustrate how Obama talks about being a community organizer, yet never really discusses exactly what he did.
September 4, 2008 at 4:49 pm
“Community organizer” (more accurately, “political agitator”) in the 1980s, Obama rubbed elbows with radical groups Gamaliel and ACORN.
“Voters should know Obama’s record”
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/sep/03/voters-should-know-obamas-record/
September 4, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Obama has “ties as a ‘community organizer’ to ACORN (America’s foremost proponent of voter registration fraud)”
“The Media Is Working Harder On Palin Than Obama”
http://www.kxmb.com/News/Nation/271167.asp
September 4, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Cuyahoga board probes ACORN voter registration drive – The Plain Dealer – Aug 27
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/cuyahoga_board_probes_voter_re.html
“ACORN stopped the registration efforts of the part-timers on Aug. 15. Three salaried employees continue the drive to sign up voters.
Kristopher Harsh, head organizer for the agency’s Cleveland office, said it is unlikely a full-fledged movement will resume before the Nov. 4 election.
ACORN has submitted about 75,000 voter registration cards to the Cuyahoga board this year.
Board employees are unsure how many of the cards are fraudulent. But the voter registration department received so many suspicious cards that it began compiling a binder with evidence. The binder grew to be an inch-thick.”
September 4, 2008 at 7:12 pm
“New information has recently come to light about more of ACORN’s illegal activities. ACORN has now been connected to money laundering, misuse of taxpayer funds, embezzlement, voter fraud, wage and labor violations and safety complaints. ”
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/25/obama%E2%80%99s-acorn-a-leftist-social-reform-group-part-ii-2/
(ACORN Ohio issues below)
“ACORN/Citizen’s Services have wage and labor issues. The list of problems includes: minimum wage (remember ACORN wants a living wage of $12/hr for workers), overtime pay , break and mealtime pay, payroll-keeping and employee classification issues. These issues are in connection with Citizen Services Inc, which was contracted to do the Get-out-the-vote work for the Obama for President campaign.
The Ohio canvassers, 250 alone in Columbus, Ohio by and large worked more than 40 hours per week. Some canvassers reported working 20+ hours of overtime for which they were never paid. Others said they were never paid time and a half for working more than 10+ hours overtime. ACORN/CSI absolutely refused to pay any overtime. The canvassers have filed various complaints with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Office.
ACORN is currently under investigation by a government inspector from the DOL’s Columbus Office. He is not only investigating the problems in Ohio but checking nationwide for similar incidences of wage and hour issues.
September 4, 2008 at 7:22 pm
NY Times Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
“Acorn, one of the country’s largest COMMUNITY ORGANIZING groups… chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board.”
(The brother of ACORN’s national chief organizer), “embezzled, $948,607.50, was carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to ACORN and many of its affiliated entities.
September 4, 2008 at 7:28 pm
“ACORN has now been connected to money laundering, misuse of taxpayer funds, embezzlement, voter fraud, wage and labor violations and safety complaints. ”
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/25/obama%E2%80%99s-acorn-a-leftist-social-reform-group-part-ii-2/
(ACORN Ohio issues below)
“ACORN/Citizen’s Services have wage and labor issues. The list of problems includes: minimum wage (remember ACORN wants a living wage of $12/hr for workers), overtime pay , break and mealtime pay, payroll-keeping and employee classification issues. These issues are in connection with Citizen Services Inc, which was contracted to do the Get-out-the-vote work for the Obama for President campaign.
The Ohio canvassers, 250 alone in Columbus, Ohio by and large worked more than 40 hours per week. Some canvassers reported working 20+ hours of overtime for which they were never paid. Others said they were never paid time and a half for working more than 10+ hours overtime. ACORN/CSI absolutely refused to pay any overtime. The canvassers have filed various complaints with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Office.
ACORN is currently under investigation by a government inspector from the DOL’s Columbus Office. He is not only investigating the problems in Ohio but checking nationwide for similar incidences of wage and hour issues.
September 5, 2008 at 9:14 am
“Obama is using a non-profit group called Citizens Services Inc. as a front to funnel payments to ACORN for campaign advance work. ”
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/22/acorn-watch-pt-ii-obama-hid-800000-payment-to-acorn-through-citizen-services-inc/
“CSI has been the subject of a little-noticed complaint to the FEC by a Democrat who smelled something rotten going on between CSI, ACORN, and a left-wing 527, Communities Voting Together.”