So this financial crisis is somehow ACORN's fault?

[FVZA_Colonel]

It's hard to imagine how a community activist group could be at fault, but the meme is still going around that their assistance to "the poor" and "minorities" is the root cause of this financial crisis. Oh, and throw in some Carter and Clinton bashing for good measure.

Where did they come up with this stuff?



On Edit: And now there's the annual "attack ACORN for voter fraud," no matter how many names turned in were legitimate.

[dkf]

1. No. Its was the lenders fault for giving loans without caring if they could be paid back.

2003-'07: The Federal Reserve failed to use its supervisory and regulatory authority over banks, mortgage underwriters and other lenders, who abandoned such standards as employment history, income, down payments, credit rating, assets, property loan-to-value ratio and debt-servicing ability. The borrower's ability to repay these mortgages was replaced with the lender's ability to securitize and repackage them.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB122246742997580395.html

[FVZA_Colonel]

2. I'd actually perused that article already, but thank you for the link (I lost mine.)

The idea that it could be the fault of a group like this was always a joke.

[snappyturtle]

3. And yet I heard ACORN brought up two times this morning on msm! nt

[yardwork]

4. The Republicans in North Carolina are going after ACORN for supposed vote fraud.

[FVZA_Colonel]

9. Didn't those same allegations, in the same state, come up in 2005?

I think I saw a thread in the archives that described it.

[yardwork]

11. Very likely. The Republicans accuse us of doing what they are doing.

It's the Republicans who are committing vote fraud. So they go after grass-roots organizations that work hard to register minorities and first-time voters, and accuse the Democrats of engaging in vote fraud. It's just lies and projection.

[SmileyRose]

5. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

I believe ACORN was at the forefront of pushing the feds to stop lenders and insurers from red-lining entire zip codes from services regardless of the buyer's ability to pay. Lenders were giving prime rates to people buying in certain affluent zip codes and refusing to lend at all in poorer zip codes, with ability to pay and appraisal value of the property being almost not considered at all. It condemned whole swaths of struggling neighborhoods to complete deterioration and one abandoned house after another. I believe the Community Redevelopment act was the legislation they came up with to solve it. I don't know how effect it could have been, since lenders decided it would be a great opportunity to take advantage of the general lack of financial education so many in struggling neighborhoods have. Lenders were full on predatory. So blaming this mess on ACORN is more than a little stupid.

[checks-n-balances]

8. Could that be the reason for the "Community organizer" remarks at the RNC

Linking ACORN to the Dem party & specifically to BO?

I think the true meaning of "GOP" needs to be updated:

Greedy
Old
Predators

That covers a lot more ground - both sexual and economic.

[sandnsea]

6. Read DU, plenty of bashers here too n/t

[creeksneakers2]

7. That's not the exact accusation

The wingnuts are saying that 20% of the bailout money is going to ACORN. Of course that's nonsense.

Here's how the wingnuts came up with this:

Democrats insist that if there is a bailout that some of the money should flow to bailing out ordinary people. So, in the proposed plan, Democrats specified that 20% of profits from the bailout program go into two funds. That's not 20% of all the bailout money. Its only 20% of any profits, and there is no way to be certain there will be any profits at all. Of the two funds, one would receive 35% of the 20% of profits, or 7% of the profits, if there are any. That fund would be for support of low income housing initiatives. Under the program, grants could be given to not-for-profit organizations that are involved with low income housing.

The wingnuts reason that since grants could go to not-for-profits, and ACORN is a not-for-profit, that the bill gives money to ACORN. Of course, the wingnuts sound crazy. I think what the wingnut leaders are after is some propaganda to kill off the money for low income housing so that all the money goes to greedy Wall Street speculators instead. So the wingnut leaders made up the nonsense about ACORN.

[FVZA_Colonel]

10. Thank you for the correction.