Going Nuts Over ACORN

It should be fully investigated and ordered to revise its procedures and hiring practices.

So half the ACORN locations either laughed at them or had to call the police to kick them out. The other half had dumb employees who have since been fired.

Congress has lost their minds if they can't think past a 2 minute video to the full story.

Why should two people's stupidity bring down an entire organization? ACORN has chapters throughout the country with probably thousands of people working for them. It doesn't make sense that the organization should shut down because two people are idiots. That's like saying you shut down McDonalds because an employee spit in your food. The employees should be fired, ACORN should be audited/investigated and then allowed to continue to operate.

In addition, I truly believe that the employees that were caught thought it was a joke. Yes, they were stupid in that they didn't kick the two "investigative journalists" out, but there was no way that they believed them. The costume that the guy was wearing is like a halloween costume. It is just too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Go see the pictures.

If after investigation the unethical actions of two people bring down an organization, then how do we explain the overwhelming unethical 8 fear based years of the bush/cheney administration?
Voters for bush/cheney unwilling to admit mistake, just like them.

The tax advice offered by the ACORN employees was little different than the type of illicit tax advice recommended to me by my advisors. There are always ways to game the system (sadly). Most accountants hired by the wealthy offer similar unscrupulous tax advice. Is it worse for a wealthy individual to hide $250k offshore or for a poor person to hide $250?

The difference is that ACORN receives government funding and was caught. Your (or most) accountants hide beneath the radar.

I don't excuse their behavior and believe something should be done, but please don't insult me by pretending it is out-of-the-ordinary advice offered by tax advisors.

LOL...nice poll options. Ignore, reprimand, or disband. Nothing in between!

Love the denial exhibited here. Some think it only happened in one office. The best is the person that thinks that "dumb employees" in half the offices investigated, who counsel how to break the law, is really a non-issue now since they've been fired.

How about this: there should be an investigation of this organization by the FBI to see if it meets the tests of a corrupt organization under the RICO statutes. That should get us past "two minute videos" and let us know if they are persecuted champions of the poor, or a government sponsored criminal gang.

I have two words: 'HALLIBURTON' and 'IRAQ'. You make up your mind.

I checked "other," and I see 59% want ACORN to be sent into oblivion.

Why?

Because it tries to empower the powerless?

I agree ACORN suffers from some poor administrative decisions. Anyone who's ever volunteered in community service knows that you don't get the people you want to work for you, you get the people you have (I can't believe I'm paraphrasing Rumsfeld).

ACORN needs to be re-organized from the top down. It's interesting that the people who hate ACORN are almost always white and privileged. It's also interesting that these critics don't want the brass at ACORN to take responsibility, they just want ACORN to go away.

I recall the National Red Cross had some organizational problems over the years, as did several United Ways here and there. Does that mean those organizations should be forced into "oblivion"?

ACORN critics also wrongly believe that this organization was responsible for Obama's success in the last election. They are wrong. Obama won the last election because John McCain picked an idiot for a running mate. My advice to the neo-cons here is to familiarize yourself with the facts, grieve your losses, pace your anger and move on. You're bringing this country down with your negative attitude.

Take whatever you want from a sample of "206 voters" regarding ACORN knowing that the only group who feels strongly about it are talkradio/Foxnews viewers who obsess about it. I honestly had never heard of ACORN prior to the last election and this story. Investigate, punish the guilty, allow the good work it does (providing advice to low income voters) to continue.

**To Dhartmva "Love the denial exhibited here. Some think it only happened in one office. "
Don't know why I'm bothering saying this to someone who equates "ACORN" with "RICO", but read what happened in the Philladelphia office when our young brooks brother brothel reporters tried to pull the same stunt.

ACORN has been conducting their suspicious activities for a long time, albeit now they were finally caught flat-footed with no defense. This one they will be unable to slither away from. During the presidential campaign, they were accused of registering voters who were not legitimate. And now this. The leftist media is protecting and sheltering this organization due to their connections to Obama and their leftist stance on issues. After all Obama served as their lawyer for some time and he also recived money to run his presidential campaign. It took the mainstream media days and days on end to report on this, although FOX News reported it right away. Hypocrisy and double standards in the ecxtreme by the leftist media.

Posted by: bwvr | September 18, 2009 10:35 AM
Why should two people's stupidity bring down an entire organization?
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Have you not been watching any news the past several years? ACORN has had convictions for voter registration fraud in multiple states among other confirmed illegal activities. ACORN is a corrupt organization from top to bottom and has been for over almost two decades.

Posted by: jbanks979 | September 18, 2009 12:17 PM
Take whatever you want from a sample of "206 voters" regarding ACORN knowing that the only group who feels strongly about it are talkradio/Foxnews viewers who obsess about it.
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Maybe you should listen to talk radio more and watch Fox News. You sure didn't get ant information from the liberal rags like the WaPo or NYT nor from watching NBC, CBS, ABC etc. I guess you can keep reading/watching liberally biased news sources and keep living with your head in the sand regarding current events.

jbanks979...You sell ACORN short. There was actually more than one office that decided not to counsel complete strangers about how to hide illegal activity and even exploit children.

Unfortunately, there were also four offices that we know of that decided to provide such advice.

We actually made the same recommendation in the end, so not sure why you're miffed. RICO is the right law if an organization is obstructing justice on an ongoing basis.

What's been lost from view is that at some ACORN offices this couple were turned away almost immediately. They are lucky that they weren't arrested for proposing underage sex. Also, if ACORN is denied federal funds for this reason, should certain congress people (who are still in Congress) have their salaries and benefits stopped?

Funny how the liberals tried to excuse ACORN's reprehensible conduct by changing the subject to Iraq or Haliburton or Fox News. We know ACORN registers fraudulent voters to help Democrats. We know Obama trained ACORN workers. We know ACORN aids and abets criminal activity.

We also know the Washington Post did their level best to ignore this story.

More of the same...

ACORN is conducting an "internal investigation". The Congress and Senate have made a show of stripping funding -- without actually stripping any funding. The media is downplaying the story and refusing to even mention Obama's ties to ACORN.

ACORN will weather the storm just fine. America, on the other hand, will suffer.

"Funny how the liberals tried to excuse ACORN's reprehensible conduct by changing the subject to Iraq or Haliburton or Fox News. We know ACORN registers fraudulent voters to help Democrats. We know Obama trained ACORN workers. We know ACORN aids and abets criminal activity.
"

Oh bullcrap! How about the fact that there has yet to be PROOF that ACORN misallocated any federal funds? How about the FACT that KBR misallocated billions in Iraq either through outright mismangement, shoddy construction, or plain incompetence? They also conspired to cover-up the GANG-RAPE of one of their female employees!

There is also no PROOF that any of the fradulent registrations ever made it through to the voting process. That's because a bunch of government bureacrats found the fraudulent registrations!

You don't KNOW that Obama trained ACORN workers... you pulled that one out of your nether regions. As to aiding and abetting criminal activity, let's see, UBS lets a bunch of millionaires scam the IRS and conservatives are just fine with that. ACORN has a few employees that counseled poor people about scamming the IRS and the conservatives go bananas.

Someday someone will explain to me why conservatives hate the poor so much. Is it because they vote for Democrats? Well, gee, maybe they would vote for Republicans if the GOP actually gave a damn about them!

The only thing that's known so far is that several offices provided advice to further criminal activity. Everything else is based purely on allegations and speculation. I apologize for mischaracterizing your opinion dhartmanva, for you and I are in agreement-the only thing that needs to happen is criminal activity needs to be adressed and prosecuted.

I think the reason ACORN has drew the ire of the conservative/talkradio/foxnews crowd isn't so much the recent video tapes but this.....
"ACORN has been conducting their suspicious activities for a long time, albeit now they were finally caught flat-footed with no defense. This one they will be unable to slither away from. During the presidential campaign, they were accused of registering voters who were not legitimate. "

Accused by conservatives who are angry that a get out the vote organization for low-income, inner-city voters was so successful. That's really what this is all about to begin with. Left over-rage at organizations that helped their candidate lose in the last presidential election.

Just one follow up,
in case anyone is interested in further reading on the accusations of voter fraud.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/acorn_rallies_its_troops.php

this organization is rotten at its very core. we now have 5 tapes--this isnt just about 1 or 2 bad apples. and these videos were shot in ACORN field offices, where supervision and control is presumably the highest. most of ACORN's work happens "in the community", going into "the streets", or going "door to door". makes you wonder what they're willing to do out there?

The fact that so many conservatives are salivating and laughing over this offense tells you that conservatives don't really care about the poor. Modern conservatism can be defined by two words: Selfish and Mean.

Where is the coverage about the illegal actions of the filmmakers? If I remember right, Linda Tripp was forced to plea bargain to avoid jail when she illegally taped Monica Lewinsky in Maryland.

As Joe Conason from Salon said, its only journalism if you cover all sides of the story.

WTF is wrong with you people???? ACORN is a cancer. This Assc. has stolen at least a million dollars of your tax money. They need to be audited and prosecuted. ACORN doesn't give a rats patootey about the poor people they supposedly help.

ACORN is the modern day MAFIA without the bloodbath, everything else is the same. Federal money going to an admittedly partisan group - against the Constitution. The poor and indigent are used and discarded by ACORN like today's trash, they should be stopped and investigated.

Conservatives are not salivating and laughing over this offense, as someone put it; they are relieved that obvious criminal activity might be removed from connection to the highest authority in our country, the White House. People who excuse evil because it suits their needs are guilty of the same offense.

"What's been lost from view is that at some ACORN offices this couple were turned away almost immediately. "

Interesting, which ones? You don't know the answer do you.