Briefly Noted: November 2012

All throughout ACORN’s terminal scandal that began with the undercover videos in 2009, Democrats ran away from the toxic radical leftist group as fast as they could. No more. At the Democratic Party’s summertime convention in Charlotte, a video tribute honoring the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) was played. The video shows Kennedy speaking at an ACORN-sponsored minimum wage rally with an ACORN logo right beside him. President Obama represented ACORN in court and worked for its voter mobilization arm, Project Vote, in Chicago in 1992.

Did a George Soros-funded, left-wing magazine spike a story because it placed Soros in a bad light? Mother Jones initially reported on its website in late September that Soros was “panicked” that Mitt Romney, then gaining in the polls, could win the presidential election. Less than 24 hours later, the magazine abruptly took down the story, claiming its anonymous source recanted, but the editors never explained what exactly the source took back. The magazine’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Foundation for National Progress, has received funding through Soros’s philanthropies, Open Society Institute ($225,000 since 2008) and Foundation to Promote Open Society ($100,000 since 2010).

The left-wing Latino racial grievance group, National Council of La Raza, was accused of voter fraud last month. Florida Division of Elections spokesman Chris Cate told the Tampa Bay Times that La Raza and another group were involved in “potential irregular voter registration activities” that “constituted a legally sufficient complaint of voter registration fraud.” Hundreds of dubious voter registration forms have been found in a dozen counties across Florida.

The Left’s war against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) continues: Common Cause and the Center for Media and Democracy now claim in a lawsuit that five Republican members of the Wisconsin legislature have violated the state’s public records law by allegedly withholding emails that may or may not have referenced ALEC, which encourages lawmakers to promote pro-free market model legislation. State Rep. Pat Strachota (R-West Bend), who is named in the lawsuit, said she has never introduced ALEC-backed legislation and doesn’t understand why she was targeted. “I don’t feel this is a real complaint,” she said. “I feel it’s a political witch hunt. I think it’s unfortunate they’re wasting people’s time and energy. It just dumbfounds me.”

The Obama administration may soon classify Arab-Americans as a “socially and economically disadvantaged group” entitled to receive taxpayer-funded business assistance from the Commerce Department. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), founded by far-left former U.S. Sen. James Abourezk (D-S.D.), petitioned the Minority Business Development Agency for special status on January 4 of this year. It’s not clear how Americans of Arab ancestry are disadvantaged. They enjoy a mean individual income that is 27 percent above what Americans typically earn. Their median household income weighs in at $59,000, which is more than 10 percent higher than the national average. Almost half of Arab Americans hold a college degree, and they are twice as likely as a typical U.S. resident to have earned a Ph.D, National Review reports.

Former Congressman Artur Davis (D-Ala.) explained to a Heritage Foundation audience why state laws requiring voters to present government-issued photo identification in order to cast their ballots are eminently sensible. Americans have to present photo ID to enter federal buildings and board an airplane, Davis said. “How can it be a burden to ask people to do something they do all the time?