Inform me. What's ACORN?!!!

[kimmerspixelated]

Pretty,please.

[Thrill]

1. Google is your friend

[pnwmom]

27. A friend who talks too much and takes too long getting around to the point.n/t

[Unsane]

2. A small nut-like artifice from a certain type of tree.

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now

[Max_powers94]

4. http://www.acorn.org/

[valerief]

5. It's a sore thing on your foot.

Use Yahoo to search.

[1corona4u]

6. Nice replies you got....not helpful.

Google this, but I'm not sure what the issue is;

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

Maybe someone who is serious will answer it.

[Liberalboy]

7. www.acorn.org/

[1corona4u]

8. Yeah, we got that, but what's the fucking problem with it, as far as mccrap

is concerned?

[IndyOp]

18. They are claiming that ACORN is turning in fraudulent voter registrations as a way of

"setting up" their post-election claims that we stole the election by getting millions and millions of people to vote twice or getting illegal residents to vote.

ACORN actually goes to a lot more trouble than other organizations to verify that their registrations are accurate. After an ACORN volunteer or employee registers voters then someone in the ACORN office calls the registrant to make sure that the form is legit. ACORN flags suspect forms and then turns in all forms to the voter registration offices -- why turn in the ones that are suspect? because they are required to do so by law. The fact that ACORN does a careful job of checking that forms are legit and then follows the law means that they are now being attacked by Republicans for fraudulent voter registrations.

Most recently I saw an article in which former Senator John Danforth (R) was accusing ACORN of handing in duplicate forms to slow down voter registration office employees. ACORN probably is handing in duplicate forms because so many voters are anxious about the possibility that they might've been purged from the rolls and so are turning in multiple forms. So long as the forms are accurate then the voter is doing nothing wrong and neither is the organizer. I've worked in a voter registration office and when you enter data from any form you do a statewide voter search -- if you find that the voter is already in the database and all of the information in the database matches the form in your hand then you write "Duplicate" on the top of the form and go on to the next one. No big deal.

[pnwmom]

29. Thanks for an informative, direct, non-smart-alecky post. n/t

[Liberalboy]

31. I'm sorry,

it was not meant to be smart-alecky. He wanted info, I gave them a link.

[pnwmom]

33. Sorry, I wasn't talking about you really.

I was reacting to several people who posted before you did. For example, the dismissive "google is your friend" comment.

[tech3149]

39. Not to be snarkey or smart-assed pnwmom

but the hour it took you to get a straight and pertinent answer to your question, you could have done an extensive research on ACORN, their focus and history and learned much more. I do remind you that there are no stupid questions. Your question may have been in the minds of hundreds, if not thousands, of other people. Posing the question here may have informed many others who didn't have the stones to ask the question. Thanks for your contribution.

[pnwmom]

42. Actually, I didn't start this thread, and I've only spent a couple minutes here. n/t

[1corona4u]

37. Thanks for giving a complete answer.

:-)

[Betsy Ross]

9. I'm glad someone was able to provide a link to Widipedia

All the rest that made smart remarks should chill. DU members frequently can provide a qualified link which specifically answers the posters request. We are supposed to be on the same team. Treat others with respect.

[OneGrassRoot]

10. I second that motion. :) n/t

[DarthDem]

13. Yeah, Really

Sentiment thirded. :-)

[anigbrowl]

19. True...but is it too much to ask they use Google before starting a DU thread?

I mean, the organization in question is the very first result on Google. It's faster to search on something than it is to start a thread here. I'm all for questions of the form 'I've looked up ACORN on Google and wikipedia, but I still have a question about (something)...'

[pnwmom]

34. Google can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. In this case, a link

to ACORN's official site wouldn't tell you what the current controversy is about.

[anigbrowl]

41. Funny, I always seem to get what I want really quickly

I'm not disagreeeing with you, but it's very rare that I don't find what I'm looking for within the first page or two.

[1corona4u]

38. OFFS....

Is it too much trouble for people to give some background on a TOPIC when they post about it? The OP's question started because they ASKED about it in another thread, and NO ONE answered it.

[wicket]

22. I wish I could recommend your response

THANK YOU.

[JuniperLea]

36. Well said, Betsy...

I'm beginning to feel like I need a snark jacket.

[Stop Cornyn]

11. Here is the core of the right-wing-nut-job chatter:

ACORN office in Vegas raided in voter-fraud probe

By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 7, 1:30 PM ET

LAS VEGAS - Nevada state authorities are raiding the Las Vegas headquarters of an organization that works to get low-income people to vote.
ADVERTISEMENT

A Nevada secretary of state's office spokesman said Tuesday that investigators are looking for evidence of voter fraud at the office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.

No one was at the ACORN office when state agents arrived with a search warrant and began carting records and documents away.

Secretary of State spokesman Bob Walsh says ACORN is accused of submitting multiple voter registrations with false and duplicate names.

The raid comes two months after state and federal authorities formed a task force to pursue election-fraud allegations in Nevada.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_el_pr/voter_fraud_probe

[Epiphany4z]

12. From Obams fight the smears page

http://fightthesmears.com/articles/20/acornrumor?source=sem-pm-fts-ac-search-us&gclid=CKL4zfCNlpYCFRZjnAodVSs-Ew

[rucky]

20. Why does Ken Blackwell hate black people?

[IndyOp]

40. Great link - Great "Fight the Smears" webpage...

Discredited Republican voter-suppression guru Ken Blackwell is attacking Barack Obama with naked lies about his supposed connection to ACORN.

• Fact: Barack was never an ACORN community organizer.
• Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.
• Fact: ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992.

In his capacity as an attorney, Barack represented ACORN in a successful lawsuit alongside the U.S. Department of Justice against the state of Illinois to force state compliance with a federal voting access law. For his work helping enforce the law, called “Motor Voter,” Barack received the IVI-IPO Legal Eagle Award in 1995. (For more about Barack’s career, check out our Obama bio.)

Ken Blackwell is best known today for disenfranchising Democratic voters in his dual role as Ohio Secretary of State and chair of George Bush’s Ohio campaign in 2004. To see him shed crocodile tears for the integrity of the vote while making accusations about Barack and ACORN with absolutely no basis in fact is disturbing.

Blackwell’s attacks against ACORN and community organizers continue a vile Republican pattern of mockery and viciousness against this noble profession. Community organizers are the very individuals Republicans should be celebrating for helping people to help themselves rather than depending on the government.

[L. Coyote]

14. google.com/search?q=ACORN

http://www.google.com/search?q=ACORN

[rucky]

15. McCain's going to blame Subprime on CRA

and CRA on ACORN

And voter registration fraud on ACORN, because of a few ficticious ones a volunteer submitted in 2004.

But mainly because they're a very strong, very effective group of community organizers that helped push through that minimum wage increase that McCain voted against 6 times.

[BlueIdaho]

35. Don't you love republicans?

If they can't stir up a decent race war - they'll happily try to stir up a snazzy new class war - what a bunch of fascists. I swear they all go home and jerk off to Pat Buchanan's photo.

[FirstLight]

16. I wondered what the issue was too...

after reading the wiki link - it looks like they were supposedly involved in voter reg fraud (not like the rethugs weren't and aren't) and then they were named as a benefactor in the original bailout that was fired down by the rethugs. i guess they are pretty hard core dem supporters (as they should be for what they do)

is mccain going to call them a home-grown terrorist organization because they feed the hungry and shelter the homeless? probably.

[AZBlue]

17. ACORN is an example of voter supression by the GOP

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/09/acorn-mccain-an.html

[IndyOp]

25. Great blog post - thanks for sharing it. 2 voter reg cards - they are throwing a fit

over 2 voter reg cards, which is typical.

ACORN doesn't register voters in Seminole, so the cards in question originated in Orange County where it does do voter outreach in public spaces, officials said. ACORN says it's submitted 135,000 voter registration cards to county election supervisors statewide for this November's election, and the number of registrations being disputed in Seminole is approximately two cards.

"What's going on here is a right-wing radio station called the supervisor trying to drum up a story," Hettenring said.

[Aloha Spirit]

21. They protect people from unscrupulous landlords and register people to vote and

work for affordable housing.

Some people hate them because they're community organizers, which is code "for socialists who are trying to impose their ideas on and encourage activism in the lower-middle class", which some construe as dangerous and anti-American.

Out of a very large grassroots network, a few ACORN people have done unscrupulous things such as try to register the same person to vote like 80 times.

Some would take these few examples as proof of institutional depravity.

[patrice]

23. Voter registration and turn-out group **specifically** dedicated to enfranchising the POOR.

[RoadRage]

24. A popular snack for squirrels. NT :)

:hi:

[unpossibles]

26. a quick summary is they are an anti-poverty group which is involved in many issues

from housing to voting rights/get out the vote, to gun issues.

The right wing obviously hates them because of this, and the fact that they receive some federal funding. Much like when Cheney under Nixon, (along with Rumsfeld) fired Terry Lenzner because for refusing to violate the law, by firing lawyers who were trying to help the poor from the Office of Economic Opportunity, an anti-poverty agency.

It's typical - they blame and attack the poor for the Wall Street debacle, and try to take down as many Democrats along the way as they can.

I'm sure there's more to it, but ... I generally assume that when they are accusing someone of something and the only links are to Red State and Newsmax, that it's BS.

[Proud_Lefty]

28. One of my co-workers was sent this article

by her supervisor. She was astonished, feeling very threatened, and sent it to me for my input. This guy is a real piece of work! My co-worker's supervisor sending this as proof that Democrats are bad shows me how out of touch these far right winged Republicans are. I'm speechless. The article is pure trash.


Inside Obama’s Acorn
By their fruits ye shall know them.

By Stanley Kurtz

What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, you’d know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, I’d wager, does Barack Obama.

This is a story we’ve largely missed. While Obama’s Acorn connection has not gone entirely unreported, its depth, extent, and significance have been poorly understood. Typically, media background pieces note that, on behalf of Acorn, Obama and a team of Chicago attorneys won a 1995 suit forcing the state of Illinois to implement the federal “motor-voter” bill. In fact, Obama’s Acorn connection is far more extensive. In the few stories where Obama’s role as an Acorn “leadership trainer” is noted, or his seats on the boards of foundations that may have supported Acorn are discussed, there is little follow-up. Even these more extensive reports miss many aspects of Obama’s ties to Acorn.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjRjYzE0YmQxNzU4MDJjYWE5MjIzMTMxMmNhZWQ1MTA=

[rateyes]

30. Oak tree seeds.

[99th_Monkey]

32. I have personally worked for ACORN. They organize poor people

to act collectively & effectively on their own behalf with issues like preditory lending, neighborhood improvements,
affordable housing that's decent to live in, etc. Believe me, they do awesome work.

Another BIG thing they do is VOTER REGISTRATION ... which is mostly what I did (in 04) ... they are highly professional,
and non-partisan (they don't shred the Republican voter reg.s they get -- which is more than can be said for similar
RW "voter reg" groups.

However, problems have occurred with how they have "quotas" for daily numbers of new registrations each employee gets,
because if an ACORN worker doesn't meet their quota regularly, they are canned (as in fired) for low performance. Some
workers are unethical enough personally to submit bogus registrations they just pull out of their ass, in order to not
get fired. To be truthful, I did experience lots of pressure around this quota business, but the ReThugs have a MUCH
worse record on this .... not because of an occasional unethical worker, but by intentionally shredding and discarding
ANY Democratic registrations and ONLY turning in the Rethuglican ones to the local Elections Offices.

Hope this is helpful. Believe me, the ReThugs have NOTHING (or next to nothing) on ACORN that their own voter reg.
groups aren't 10 times more guilty of. Think of mole hills v. mountains and you get the drift.