CarnalNation

Remember that couple that tried to shut down community organizing group ACORN by claiming to be interested in starting a prostitution ring and then posting heavily edited videos about it?  Apparently Hannah Giles, the "prostitute" half of the couple, didn't realize that these actions might upset some ACORN employees, and now she's on the defensive, claiming that the organization is trying to destroy her.

AlterNet reports that this week they got a fundraising appeal from Giles.  Since James O'Keefe, the guy in the ridiculous pimp costume, has since been arrested for trying to tap a senator's phone lines, the twenty-year old college dropout is now on her own to face the alleged wrath of community organizers.

The four-page letter the faux prostitute sent was rather blunt:  "Dear Fellow American," it began.  "Let me be direct:  Obama's ally ACORN is trying to destroy me."  She goes on to explain how the "evil taxpayer funded organization" is trying to make an example of her, because otherwise other reporters will continue to pry into the organization's evil-doing.  She refers to the organization several times as "Obama's ACORN," which is rather misleading since the group has been around since the Nixon administration.  (Both Giles and O'Keefe seem to have a tenuous grasp on what ACORN actually does; for instance, it's generally agreed that the organization's gotten $53 million in federal funding since 1994, but O'Keefe refers to it in writing as "billions in tax money.")

This week it was announced that Philadelphia ACORN employee Katherine Conway-Russell became the third employee of the organization to sue Giles for emotional distress after the release of the videos.  ACORN has also sued Giles for violating wiretap laws and engaging in entrapment, which is why the right-wing Liberty Legal Institute has set up a legal defense fund for the college dropout.