ACORN

[discocrisco01]

I saw this article on ACORN (http://bit.ly/5cw57d) and I wonder why conservatives have so much vitrol about ACORN. Yes, ACORN had a massive issues with its management and operational internal control environmen but it is not as worse what goes on Blackwater. Where is the conservative outrage at KBR which overcharged the government far more than ACORN ever does.

[PhilosopherKing]

1. They register minorities to vote

Minorities vote for Democrats, for the most part.

[baldguy]

3. +1

Pure, simple, opportunist racism.

[av8rdave]

2. Conservatives HATE minority voters

With a passion.

[mrcheerful]

4. Yep, because everyone knows that the poor and minorities aren't smart enough to vote

for folks that will put their interests before corporate america. You know like the conservatives do. After all we all know how hard it is to vote. :crazy:

[HughMoran]

6. That's it

They know that minorities don't vote for people who hate them.

[sabrina 1]

5. I agree with what everyone else said. Conservatives

do not want the poor and minorities to vote because they know they will vote for Democrats.

But ACORN does a lot of other work to help the poor and minorities. Eg, one of the main reasons that, from the beginning, the right hated ACORN was because they helped minorities to get loans to buy their own homes.

This started back in the '70s after the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act was passed. This bill was passed to stop the practice of refusing to give mortgage loans to minorities, even if they were qualified. It was racism pure and simple. Banks hated the CRA and felt they were being forced to give loans to people they did not believe could repay them. There was no reason, other than racism, for that assumption at the time.

ACORN was formed around that time and forced Banks to abide by the law. Needless to say the right were infuriated as it meant that black people could move into their neighborhoods. However, over several decades most of these loans were repaid and banks became less reluctant to consider lending to minorities who were qualified buyers. The more success ACORN had, it seems the more they were attacked from the right. They do fight back though and have survived and grown despite the best efforts of the racists on the right.

They also helped the poor in many other ways, helping them with their taxes eg, and fighting foreclosures, a disaster they foresaw before it became national news.

They have been badly smeared by the right and especially after it was discovered that Obama had worked with them in Chicago. The attacks increased during the election with false charges of voter fraud.

They've had some problems over the years, like any large organization (their membership is around 400,000) and they are in almost every part of the country where they are needed. But any problems they've had pale compared to Wall St. corps and the military contracting business. ACORN has never been convicted of corruption, unlike Halliburton and Blackwater and so many others.

The right hates them mainly because the right is still extremely racist and anti poor people. So they keep on attacking them, and sadly Democrats do not support them enough, especially Congress. They should, because they are one of the most effective organizations for helping minorities and the poor not to mention the least costly to this government.