ACORN files for bankruptcy

[Revere]

Because ACORN registers voters that come from low income and poor communities, it is automatic that they are supporting one political party over another? I think the problem isn't with ACORN, it with the Republican party. That is why the Republicans have such a sordid history of REAL voter fraud and voter suppression.

So what? Why should the be immune from oversight?

Good riddance.

They shouldn't be immune from oversight, but they should be immune from assassination based on lies, fabrications and misinformation.

Then let them testify before Congress.

 

[fyrenza]

Oh, OOPS!

The PROOF, backed with FACTS, is a PROBLEM

(and I quote ~ "I think the problem isn't with ACORN, it [sic])

with the Republican party."



Well, at least he didn't "BUSHWHACK" you!

 

[Bfgrn]

So what? Why should the be immune from oversight?

Good riddance.

They shouldn't be immune from oversight, but they should be immune from assassination based on lies, fabrications and misinformation.

Then let them testify before Congress.

The cowardly Democrats took the comfortable way out, they remained silent and let the lies, fabrications and misinformation go unchallenged. There is plenty of shame to go around. But, NO, it is not 'good riddance'

Mar 1, 2006

Progress in the Fight Against Predatory Lending

Editors Note: Since our Legal Corner Series Dirty Deeds: Abuses and Fraudulent Practices in the Home Equity Market and our January story on “Predatory Lenders” , I am often asked “who are the predatory lenders out there?” Heres the answer and a great resource to learn more about the fight against Predatory Lending from ACORN.org (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). You can find an ACORN Office near you HERE.

ACORN has been engaged in a major effort to protect our neighborhoods from predatory lending since 1999. The campaign has included work to shine a spotlight on and reform the practices of individual lenders, and in playing a leading role in passing city and state legislation to restrict predatory lending, in winning reforms from federal regulators, and in an ongoing fight to block a bill in Congress aimed at preempting state and local protections.

At the heart of these victories are the thousands of victims who have been willing to tell their stories and to get involved in efforts to keep others from encountering the same problems, and the still larger group of community residents who have devoted time and energy to this campaign. These ACORN members have protested at lending company offices and at the homes of their CEOs. They have also rallied outside legislative sessions, and testified in city, state, and federal hearings.

Their stories and their actions have put an industry on the defensive. By keeping this issue in the public eye virtually every day (ACORNs activities generated an average of a newspaper story almost every day for these 3 years – more than 1,000 in total). And engaging in hundreds of conversations with lawmakers and regulators at every level of government, in addition to numerous protest actions, ACORN has created a climate in which changes must be made.

At the same time, neighborhood actions have prevented foreclosures and forced lenders to revise the worst loans, thus empowering ACORN members to keep pushing for bigger victories. Serious problems continue, and much work remains to be done, but real progress has been made.

Ameriquest. In 1999 ACORN members targeted Ameriquest, one of the country’s largest stand-alone subprime lenders. ACORN organized demonstrations, pickets, and sit-ins at Ameriquest offices; held demonstrations at the offices of the Wall Street firms that supply Ameriquest with its financing; filed complaints with state Attorneys General, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice; and aggressively lobbied Congress Members, federal regulators, HUD, and the Treasury.

Ameriquest agreed to negotiate with ACORN in July 2000, and three months later signed an agreement to invest $360 million in an ACORN pilot program. In 10 cities, Ameriquest also agreed to make subprime loans with no prepayment penalties, no credit insurance, set a limit on points and fees at 3 percent of the loan amount, offered interest rates below the market standard, and agreed to loan counseling by ACORN Housing Corporation for every potential borrower. The agreement created a product that has served as an alternative to predatory loans.

Citigroup. In 1999, ACORN released a study condemning Citigroup for its practice of making high-cost loans in minority and low-income communities while denying these neighborhoods A credit. When Citigroup acquired the Associates in late 2000, ACORN was in the midst of a campaign against the Associates’ predatory practices and publicly opposed the acquisition because Citigroup’s own subprime subsidiary, Citifinancial, had long practiced the same abuses.

Not long after Citigroup acquired the Associates, the FTC charged the Associates with predatory lending. Under pressure from the FTC, ACORN, and numerous other groups, Citigroup announced that it would make improvements in its practices. In June 2001, as a result of continuing pressure, Citigroup agreed to stop selling single-premium credit insurance. In September of 2002 Citigroup settled with the FTC for $240 million.

Household. ACORN’s campaign against Household International’s predatory lending through its subsidiaries Household Finance and Beneficial used a wide variety of tactics and sources of leverage to keep constant pressure on the company and force dramatic changes, including a record settlement of $484 million. During this process, ACORN carefully examined the paperwork of hundreds of Household victims who joined the campaign in order to help others. While the campaign made frequent use of protests at Household offices, coordinating simultaneous hits in locations around the country, it also put pressure on the company through its shareholders, its corporate partners, regulators, and the media.

ACORN protested outside Household’s shareholders’ meetings and worked inside to move a resolution that received 5 percent backing in 2001 and 30 percent in 2002. As a result of ACORN’s efforts large pension funds were brought into the campaign. ACORN also persuaded cities to pass resolutions urging pension funds to divest from Household. ACORN hit Household from every angle, obtaining credit-insurance refunds for many borrowers, and helped those borrowers talk to the media. ACORN filed complaints on those loans with state regulators, demanded investigations, and then filed class action lawsuits.

ACORN also protested at stores like Best Buy that use Household credit cards and persuaded the AFL-CIO, which also uses Household credit cards, to pressure the company to reform. In case all this didn’t get the point across, ACORN members protested on the front lawns of the CEO and board members. In July 2001, Household announced that it would phase out single-premium credit insurance, and in February 2002 announced that it would lower the fees financed into loans. In October 2002, Household settled with the states’ Attorneys General for $484 million and entered into an enforceable agreement to put in place reforms addressing many of the abuses ACORN had targeted. With its share price dramatically down, and investor confidence shaken, Household sold out to HSBC, a company likely to reform practices further.

Wells Fargo. In May of 2003, ACORN launched a new national campaign aimed at ending abuses in subprime lending by the largest overall home lender in the country, Wells Fargo. ACORN has released a report on Wells Fargo’s practices, staged protests at offices around the country and has begun the process of documenting hundreds of cases in order to pressure regulators to enforce existing laws.

City Legislation. ACORN began this effort in 2000 in Chicago by proposing the first ever resolution (which passed) against predatory lending, and then an ordinance, which was set aside in favor of a weaker bill that did not address single-premium credit insurance. Chicago ACORN’s strong position that this needed to be addressed helped ensure that when Illinois state regulations were issued they did indeed do so.

In April of 2001 ACORN and city council ally Marion Tasco passed a municipal anti-predatory lending ordinance in Philadelphia after more than a year and a half of campaign work. Although the industry was able to overturn the legislation with a state law, the ordinance set a national standard. It not only prevented the City government from doing business with predatory lenders, but actually prohibited abusive lending anywhere in the city and required loan counseling for borrowers of high interest loans. Philadelphia ACORN and its allies began this groundbreaking campaign by defining the problem, issuing reports, generating publicity, and working with a member of City Council to draft a bill.

In October 2001, ACORN passed a similar ordinance through Oakland City Council, and in November 2002 through Los Angeles City Council. Both of those are being held up by industry lawsuits. In November 2002 New York City Council, responding to ACORN, overrode a mayoral veto to pass an ordinance preventing the City from doing business with predatory lenders or Wall Street firms that buy predatory loans. That ordinance is being held up by a suit the mayor filed against his own city.

ACORN also played an active role in fighting for improvements in the more limited city legislation against predatory lending in Washington, D.C., in 2002, and continues to work on a plan to improve that bill. This work at the city level – despite the lawsuits and state preemption laws – is a key vehicle for raising the issue and building momentum for state, and ultimately federal, action. The New York City bill boosted the campaign for a New York State bill, as Oakland’s success did for California.

State Legislation. ACORN has played a major role in winning fights for state legislation against abusive mortgage practices around the country, including in California, New York, New Mexico, and New Jersey. The California law – while not the most comprehensive – provided a tremendous boost to the national campaign, as it was the second state law passed in the country, and was passed in the most populous state by a single vote margin against all-out industry opposition. The more recently passed New Mexico and New Jersey bills are among the strongest in the country. ACORN also worked to improve the more limited bill passed in Arkansas and is at work now on legislation in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Federal Legislation. ACORN has given its support to federal bills that would restrict predatory lending without preempting states’ ability to address their unique concerns with stricter standards. And ACORN has worked to block a bill (H.R. 833) introduced by Rep. Bob Ney (R., Ohio) that would preempt all state and local laws while actually weakening existing federal protections. As part of this effort, an ACORN member testified before the Senate Banking Committee, ACORN members have repeatedly lobbied their members of Congress both at home and in Washington, leaders have spoken at numerous public events and forums on the Hill, and with legislators in their districts, and ACORN has persuaded nine major cities and one state legislature to pass resolutions against federal preemption.

Federal Regulation. ACORN, along with allies in the fight against predatory lending, has urged changes to protect borrowers from predatory loans with top officials at HUD, the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, and bank regulatory agencies. This direct lobbying of these officials was strengthened by ACORN’s broader campaign and the climate it helped to produce. In early 2000 ACORN pushed HUD on the issue of federal regulation, providing important impetus for the formation of a HUD/Treasury Task Force on Predatory Lending. ACORN members served on the Task Force and testified at many of its hearings.

Ultimately the task force produced a document in which HUD and the Treasury endorsed many of ACORN’s and the other advocates’ positions. Knowing that the Fed had the power to tighten the rules against predatory lending through regulation, ACORN and our allies urged them to do so. In June 2000, more than 1,000 ACORN members marched on the Fed’s Philadelphia office to demand action against predatory lending. After that the Board released proposed rule changes incorporating some of the demands. ACORN submitted detailed comments in support of the proposal and worked to get many Members of Congress to send in their own comments. On Dec. 12, 2001, the Board approved the changes.

The redefinition of single-premium credit insurance as a fee makes it extremely difficult for lenders to continue to sell that abusive product. The changes also included lowering the APR threshold for high cost loans from 10 to 8 percent above Treasury rates for first mortgages. Another major regulatory change in progress is the OTS proposal to remove the preemption of state laws limiting or prohibiting prepayment penalties. This was made possible by the overwhelming attention to this issue, and by the activity in states around the country generated by ACORN and others.

Progress in the Fight Against Predatory Lending – Alexis McGee Foreclosure Newsletter

 

[Revere]

Yes, ACORN was the tip of the spear in giving mortgages to people who could not afford them.

 

[boedicca]

Gee whiz. I thought that the government funding was minimal.

More people are headed to jail. Stay tuned.

If only. Considering the ethical deficit of the Holder Justice Department, I expect that we'll just see these same people end up in the Spawn of ACORN, and a continuation of the fraud and corruption racket.

 

[daveman]

Yea, we don't need organizations that help Americans secure better wages, help poor kids get free school lunches, help Vietnam veterans' fight for their rights and fight for more hospital emergency rooms.

They are EVIL...

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
Edmund Burke

If they stuck to those things, that would have been fine. Unfortunately, they - like NPR - think you can take taxpayers money and support one political party over another. I can understand why the left have no problem with that.... However, frankly, you want your own 'talk radio' - you fucking pay for it. You want people out touting for votes? You fucking pay for it, or volunteer. But y'all don't get MY money to support the Democrats. Mmmmk?

And, for the record, yea, I would say the exact same thing if they were blatantly partisan for the GOP.

Stick to your remit or lose your funding. End of.

Because ACORN registers voters that come from low income and poor communities, it is automatic that they are supporting one political party over another? I think the problem isn't with ACORN, it with the Republican party. That is why the Republicans have such a sordid history of REAL voter fraud and voter suppression.

Looks like I called it.

 

[Bfgrn]

Yes, ACORN was the tip of the spear in giving mortgages to people who could not afford them.

You see, right wing propaganda is not fact, it is BULLSHIT.

November 10, 2008

Since the 1970s ACORN, which has 400,000 low- and moderate-income "member families" in more than 100 cities in forty states, has been warning Congress to protect borrowers from the banking industry's irresponsible, risky and predatory practices--subprime loans, racial discrimination (called "redlining") and rip-off fees. ACORN has persistently called for stronger regulations on banks, private mortgage companies, mortgage brokers and rating agencies. For years, ACORN has alerted public officials that the industry was hoodwinking many families into taking out risky loans they couldn't afford and whose fine print they couldn't understand.

Now John McCain and his fellow conservatives are accusing ACORN of strong-arming Congress and big Wall Street banks into making subprime loans to poor families who couldn't afford them, thus causing the economic disaster. McCain's campaign is running a one-and-a-half-minute video that claims Barack Obama once worked for ACORN, repeats the accusation that ACORN is responsible for widespread voter registration fraud and accuses ACORN of "bullying banks, intimidation tactics, and disruption of business." The ad claims that ACORN "forced banks to issue risky home loans--the same types of loans that caused the financial crisis we're in today."

For months, the right-wing echo chamber--bloggers, columnists, editorial writers and TV and radio talk-show hosts--has pitched in with a well-orchestrated campaign to blame the mortgage crisis on ACORN and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the 1977 anti-redlining law. In a September 27 editorial, the Wall Street Journal wrote that "ACORN has promoted laws like the Community Reinvestment Act, which laid the foundation for the house of cards built out of subprime loans" and then falsely claimed the bailout bill would create a trust fund "pipeline" to fill ACORN's coffers. On October 14 the Journal's lead editorial, Obama and ACORN, described ACORN as a "shady outfit" and accused the group of being "a major contributor to the subprime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting 'strikes' against banks so they'd lower credit standards."

The right-wing case against the CRA is entirely bogus--a diversionary tactic to take the heat off the financial services industry and its allies, like McCain. The CRA applies only to depository institutions, like commercial and savings banks, but thanks to Congress's deregulation mania, there are now many other lenders, including private mortgage companies like CitiMortgage, Household Finance and Countrywide Financial (which was recently bought out by Bank of America). These outfits, which exist in a shadow world without government oversight, account for most of the predatory loans in trouble today.

When Congress enacted the CRA in 1977, the vast majority of all mortgage loans were made by lenders regulated by the law. In 2006 only about 43 percent of home loans were made by companies subject to the CRA. Indeed, the main culprits in the subprime scandal--the nonbank mortgage companies, which successfully grabbed the bulk of the mortgage market away from the CRA-regulated banking industry--were not covered by the CRA.

Wall Street investment firms--including Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Citigroup--set up special units, provided mortgage companies with lines of credit, then purchased the subprime mortgages from the lenders, bundled them into "mortgage-backed securities" and sold them for a fat fee to wealthy investors worldwide, typically without scrutiny. By 2007 the subprime business had become a $1.5 trillion global market for investors seeking high returns. Because lenders didn't have to keep the loans on their books, they didn't worry about the risk of losses.

I suggest you read the whole article...
The GOP's Blame-ACORN Game

 

[daveman]

What was the legal ground for Defunding Acorn? What..should be easy.

It is.

Barring the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving federal funds through the Defund ACORN Act is perfectly constitutional. It certainly is not a bill of attainder, as some recent reports have claimed.[1] The House of Representatives voted on September 17, 2009, to specifically prohibit ACORN from receiving federal grants, funds, or contracts, along with any other organizations that have been:

indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration...that had its State corporate charter terminated due to its failure to comply with Federal or State lobbying disclosure requirements...that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency.[2]

Any organization that employs, contracts with, or retains any individuals that have "been indicted for a violation under Federal or State law relating to an election for Federal or State office" or have such an individual acting on the organization's behalf or with its express or apparent authority is also affected by this ban on receipt of federal funds.[3] This is clearly a prohibition on receiving appropriated funds from Congress or any other federal agency.

 

[California Girl]

Yea, we don't need organizations that help Americans secure better wages, help poor kids get free school lunches, help Vietnam veterans' fight for their rights and fight for more hospital emergency rooms.

They are EVIL...

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
Edmund Burke

If they stuck to those things, that would have been fine. Unfortunately, they - like NPR - think you can take taxpayers money and support one political party over another. I can understand why the left have no problem with that.... However, frankly, you want your own 'talk radio' - you fucking pay for it. You want people out touting for votes? You fucking pay for it, or volunteer. But y'all don't get MY money to support the Democrats. Mmmmk?

And, for the record, yea, I would say the exact same thing if they were blatantly partisan for the GOP.

Stick to your remit or lose your funding. End of.

Because ACORN registers voters that come from low income and poor communities, it is automatic that they are supporting one political party over another? I think the problem isn't with ACORN, it with the Republican party. That is why the Republicans have such a sordid history of REAL voter fraud and voter suppression.

ACORN allowed voter REGISTRATION fraud, not voter fraud. Learn to tell the difference. I am quite comfortable with helping people to register - if they need help. But ACORN overstepped its remit. I don't care how you spin it or how you want to delve into history to whine about what used to happen.... It is not acceptable for any 'community organization' to become THAT powerful. ACORN were corrupt. SEIU are corrupt. Both organizations need to go.

 

[Sallow]

What was the legal ground for Defunding Acorn? What..should be easy.

It is.

Barring the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving federal funds through the Defund ACORN Act is perfectly constitutional. It certainly is not a bill of attainder, as some recent reports have claimed.[1] The House of Representatives voted on September 17, 2009, to specifically prohibit ACORN from receiving federal grants, funds, or contracts, along with any other organizations that have been:

indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration...that had its State corporate charter terminated due to its failure to comply with Federal or State lobbying disclosure requirements...that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency.[2]

Any organization that employs, contracts with, or retains any individuals that have "been indicted for a violation under Federal or State law relating to an election for Federal or State office" or have such an individual acting on the organization's behalf or with its express or apparent authority is also affected by this ban on receipt of federal funds.[3] This is clearly a prohibition on receiving appropriated funds from Congress or any other federal agency.

Of course they were never convicted of any of these violations. And yes..it was a bill of attainer. That..and no other corporate entity or lobbyist seems to have been defunded under the same circumstance.

But if not..there should be no problem with their appeal..which for some weird reason, doesn't make it into court.

 

[Bfgrn]

If they stuck to those things, that would have been fine. Unfortunately, they - like NPR - think you can take taxpayers money and support one political party over another. I can understand why the left have no problem with that.... However, frankly, you want your own 'talk radio' - you fucking pay for it. You want people out touting for votes? You fucking pay for it, or volunteer. But y'all don't get MY money to support the Democrats. Mmmmk?

And, for the record, yea, I would say the exact same thing if they were blatantly partisan for the GOP.

Stick to your remit or lose your funding. End of.

Because ACORN registers voters that come from low income and poor communities, it is automatic that they are supporting one political party over another? I think the problem isn't with ACORN, it with the Republican party. That is why the Republicans have such a sordid history of REAL voter fraud and voter suppression.

ACORN allowed voter REGISTRATION fraud, not voter fraud. Learn to tell the difference. I am quite comfortable with helping people to register - if they need help. But ACORN overstepped its remit. I don't care how you spin it or how you want to delve into history to whine about what used to happen.... It is not acceptable for any 'community organization' to become THAT powerful. ACORN were corrupt. SEIU are corrupt. Both organizations need to go.

How about the ACLU too? Why don't we just finally rid ourselves of any organization that represents and fights for the poor, middle class and working folks. We should only keep cartel funded think tanks and organizations that lick the assholes of the banks and corporations that poison our children and kill thousands of Americans. THEY are the good guys anyway! Why pretend we are anything but an aristocracy and the little people deserve only crumbs that 'trickle down' If they don't fucking like it, we can set them up with a $40,000 per year room provided by the right wing 'Nanny State'

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru

 

[rdean]

Voter "fraud"?

Or

Illegal voter "registration"?

The real question, "How many of those illegally registered voters actually voted"? 10? 5? None?

 

[Intense]

It is amazing how the an organization that did so many good things for American citizens can be so easily vilified and ultimately destroyed by lies, innuendo and falsehoods perpetrated by the right's echo chamber with help from the so called liberal bias MSM. ACORN was one of the leading voices speaking out against predatory lending. If we had listened to ACORN, maybe millions of Americans wouldn't be facing foreclosure.

For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din

The embattled community organizing group is much in the news these days, thanks to the idiocies of a handful of now-suspended staffers having been filmed and YouTubed by a right-wing sting squad. Most of the stories present ACORN as, at best, a shady organization up to no good in America's inner cities, not to mention the nation's primary source of voting fraud.

What's been obscured amid all the polemics, or the polemics passing as news reports, is what ACORN is and does. Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.

What are the projects on which all these staffers and members work? Raising the minimum wage, for one. ACORN conceived and led the successful initiative campaign to raise the wage in Florida in 2004 and in four more states in 2006. In the past four years, it successfully pressured seven legislatures in other states to raise their minimum wage as well.

Another major campaign has been to limit the interest and fees that banks charge homeowners. In the 1990s, ACORN spearheaded a number of legal actions, often joined by states' attorneys general, that compelled such lenders as Citigroup to change many of their practices. The group has led successful drives to outlaw the most egregious predatory lending in nine states. It also counsels thousands of inner-city homeowners and home buyers.

Harold Meyerson - For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din - washingtonpost.com

Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

“Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.

* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.

* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.

* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.

* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.

* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.

* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.

* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

You do realize that we pay for every false Voter Registration Form, and it's Filing, and it's processing, and it's clean up. Should we continue to do something so damaging to our foundation, and encourage more of it, or should we, address the hypocrisy, and put an end to it? Why perpetuate something so flawed?

 

[Intense]

Because ACORN registers voters that come from low income and poor communities, it is automatic that they are supporting one political party over another? I think the problem isn't with ACORN, it with the Republican party. That is why the Republicans have such a sordid history of REAL voter fraud and voter suppression.

ACORN allowed voter REGISTRATION fraud, not voter fraud. Learn to tell the difference. I am quite comfortable with helping people to register - if they need help. But ACORN overstepped its remit. I don't care how you spin it or how you want to delve into history to whine about what used to happen.... It is not acceptable for any 'community organization' to become THAT powerful. ACORN were corrupt. SEIU are corrupt. Both organizations need to go.

How about the ACLU too? Why don't we just finally rid ourselves of any organization that represents and fights for the poor, middle class and working folks. We should only keep cartel funded think tanks and organizations that lick the assholes of the banks and corporations that poison our children and kill thousands of Americans. THEY are the good guys anyway! Why pretend we are anything but an aristocracy and the little people deserve only crumbs that 'trickle down' If they don't fucking like it, we can set them up with a $40,000 per year room provided by the right wing 'Nanny State'

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru

Personally, I just think that there are lines nobody should cross, just because of who they say they are or who they say they represent. I think the issue is more boundaries, than the right to exist. Everything has limits.

 

[rdean]

It is amazing how the an organization that did so many good things for American citizens can be so easily vilified and ultimately destroyed by lies, innuendo and falsehoods perpetrated by the right's echo chamber with help from the so called liberal bias MSM. ACORN was one of the leading voices speaking out against predatory lending. If we had listened to ACORN, maybe millions of Americans wouldn't be facing foreclosure.

For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din

The embattled community organizing group is much in the news these days, thanks to the idiocies of a handful of now-suspended staffers having been filmed and YouTubed by a right-wing sting squad. Most of the stories present ACORN as, at best, a shady organization up to no good in America's inner cities, not to mention the nation's primary source of voting fraud.

What's been obscured amid all the polemics, or the polemics passing as news reports, is what ACORN is and does. Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.

What are the projects on which all these staffers and members work? Raising the minimum wage, for one. ACORN conceived and led the successful initiative campaign to raise the wage in Florida in 2004 and in four more states in 2006. In the past four years, it successfully pressured seven legislatures in other states to raise their minimum wage as well.

Another major campaign has been to limit the interest and fees that banks charge homeowners. In the 1990s, ACORN spearheaded a number of legal actions, often joined by states' attorneys general, that compelled such lenders as Citigroup to change many of their practices. The group has led successful drives to outlaw the most egregious predatory lending in nine states. It also counsels thousands of inner-city homeowners and home buyers.

Harold Meyerson - For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din - washingtonpost.com

Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

“Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.

* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.

* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.

* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.

* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.

* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.

* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.

* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

You do realize that we pay for every false Voter Registration Form, and it's Filing, and it's processing, and it's clean up. Should we continue to do something so damaging to our foundation, and encourage more of it, or should we, address the hypocrisy, and put an end to it? Why perpetuate something so flawed?

Who discovered the fraudulent voter registration? Oops, turns out it was reported by Acorn. Go check it out.

How many "false voter registration forms" were there?

You might want to check your research. All this has been covered "ad nauseum".

Republicans and corporations don't like Acorn because they organize the poor and support the minimum wage. Republicans squat on the poor, even though many Republicans live in homes parked in groups.

 

[Revere]

Taxpayers should not pay for ACORN to intimidate legal US businesses.

 

[daveman]

What was the legal ground for Defunding Acorn? What..should be easy.

It is.

Barring the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from receiving federal funds through the Defund ACORN Act is perfectly constitutional. It certainly is not a bill of attainder, as some recent reports have claimed.[1] The House of Representatives voted on September 17, 2009, to specifically prohibit ACORN from receiving federal grants, funds, or contracts, along with any other organizations that have been:

indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration...that had its State corporate charter terminated due to its failure to comply with Federal or State lobbying disclosure requirements...that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency.[2]

Any organization that employs, contracts with, or retains any individuals that have "been indicted for a violation under Federal or State law relating to an election for Federal or State office" or have such an individual acting on the organization's behalf or with its express or apparent authority is also affected by this ban on receipt of federal funds.[3] This is clearly a prohibition on receiving appropriated funds from Congress or any other federal agency.

Of course they were never convicted of any of these violations. And yes..it was a bill of attainer.

Did you even read it? Conviction isn't required. Indictment is.

And that requirement has been met.

And no...it was not a bill of attainder.

That..and no other corporate entity or lobbyist seems to have been defunded under the same circumstance.

Immaterial. The law is not written to specify ACORN. It deals with ANY organization whose members have been indicted for violations of campaign finance, election, or voter registration laws. That's what makes it not a bill of attainder.

But if not..there should be no problem with their appeal..which for some weird reason, doesn't make it into court.

ACORN does not have the right to violate elections laws on the public dime.

 

[Bfgrn]

It is amazing how the an organization that did so many good things for American citizens can be so easily vilified and ultimately destroyed by lies, innuendo and falsehoods perpetrated by the right's echo chamber with help from the so called liberal bias MSM. ACORN was one of the leading voices speaking out against predatory lending. If we had listened to ACORN, maybe millions of Americans wouldn't be facing foreclosure.

For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din

The embattled community organizing group is much in the news these days, thanks to the idiocies of a handful of now-suspended staffers having been filmed and YouTubed by a right-wing sting squad. Most of the stories present ACORN as, at best, a shady organization up to no good in America's inner cities, not to mention the nation's primary source of voting fraud.

What's been obscured amid all the polemics, or the polemics passing as news reports, is what ACORN is and does. Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.

What are the projects on which all these staffers and members work? Raising the minimum wage, for one. ACORN conceived and led the successful initiative campaign to raise the wage in Florida in 2004 and in four more states in 2006. In the past four years, it successfully pressured seven legislatures in other states to raise their minimum wage as well.

Another major campaign has been to limit the interest and fees that banks charge homeowners. In the 1990s, ACORN spearheaded a number of legal actions, often joined by states' attorneys general, that compelled such lenders as Citigroup to change many of their practices. The group has led successful drives to outlaw the most egregious predatory lending in nine states. It also counsels thousands of inner-city homeowners and home buyers.

Harold Meyerson - For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din - washingtonpost.com

Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

“Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.

* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.

* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.

* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.

* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.

* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.

* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.

* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

You do realize that we pay for every false Voter Registration Form, and it's Filing, and it's processing, and it's clean up. Should we continue to do something so damaging to our foundation, and encourage more of it, or should we, address the hypocrisy, and put an end to it? Why perpetuate something so flawed?

ACORN followed the letter of the law. They properly handled every voter registration that was clearly bogus and those that appeared to be bogus. ACORN reported registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law. ACORN acted to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees as soon as it became aware of these problems.

If you're worry about defrauding the government and costing taxpayers money, start at the top of the list, you'll get to ACORN in the next century...MAYBE.

Home - Federal Contractor Misconduct Database

Firms defraud government but get new U.S. contracts

By Larry Margasak
Associated Press
Saturday, February 28, 2009

Washington —- Companies that defrauded the United States and jeopardized American lives were awarded new government work despite rulings designed to stop them from receiving federal contracts, government investigators report.

Payments went to a company whose president tried to sell nuclear bomb parts to North Korea, a company that jeopardized lives on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and a seller of body armor that the Air Force said was defective.

The companies were on a government database of 70,000 individuals and businesses suspended or barred by various U.S. agencies from receiving government contract work.

The government bought body armor from the Pinnacle Corporation after the Air Force concluded that the company falsely claimed testing the equipment. (Photo: Wired)

The Government Accountability Office blamed some of the mistakes on faulty computer searches by officials who left out commas or periods. But it also said the search engine for the database often failed to identify any of the entries on the exclusion list.

A hypothetical suspended company named XYZ Corp., Inc. —- with a comma —- would escape detection if one searched for XYZ Corp. Inc. —- without the comma —- the report said.

The investigators found a staggering list of offenses by companies awarded new contracts. They included use of fictitious Social Security numbers, massive tax fraud, delivery of faulty parts for the military, false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, use of insider information to bid on federal contracts, and Medicare fraud.

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked in a hearing Thursday, “What is the point of having suspension and debarment regulations if our own agencies disregard them?”

Most contracts were awarded to excluded companies by mistake. However, the Army deliberately continued a contract with a German company, Optronic GmbH, whose president was convicted in Germany for attempting to illegally ship dual aluminum tubes to North Korea. The equipment can be used in the development of nuclear bombs.

The Army paid the company $31 million under the contract, including $4 million after it was placed on the exclusion list. The firm supplied civilians for training exercises for 7,000 U.S. troops prior to their deployment to Iraq.

In ruling that the company should not receive new contracts, the Army stated in July 2005 that the gravity of the conduct was clear, given that 37,000 U.S. forces were stationed on South Korean soil.

An Army official, in an interview, said the payments continued because the convicted president was removed from the company and the firm did an excellent job in its crucial role in the training exercises.

Firms defraud government but get new U.S. contracts

 

[Intense]

It is amazing how the an organization that did so many good things for American citizens can be so easily vilified and ultimately destroyed by lies, innuendo and falsehoods perpetrated by the right's echo chamber with help from the so called liberal bias MSM. ACORN was one of the leading voices speaking out against predatory lending. If we had listened to ACORN, maybe millions of Americans wouldn't be facing foreclosure.

For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din

The embattled community organizing group is much in the news these days, thanks to the idiocies of a handful of now-suspended staffers having been filmed and YouTubed by a right-wing sting squad. Most of the stories present ACORN as, at best, a shady organization up to no good in America's inner cities, not to mention the nation's primary source of voting fraud.

What's been obscured amid all the polemics, or the polemics passing as news reports, is what ACORN is and does. Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.

What are the projects on which all these staffers and members work? Raising the minimum wage, for one. ACORN conceived and led the successful initiative campaign to raise the wage in Florida in 2004 and in four more states in 2006. In the past four years, it successfully pressured seven legislatures in other states to raise their minimum wage as well.

Another major campaign has been to limit the interest and fees that banks charge homeowners. In the 1990s, ACORN spearheaded a number of legal actions, often joined by states' attorneys general, that compelled such lenders as Citigroup to change many of their practices. The group has led successful drives to outlaw the most egregious predatory lending in nine states. It also counsels thousands of inner-city homeowners and home buyers.

Harold Meyerson - For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din - washingtonpost.com

Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

“Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.

* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.

* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.

* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.

* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.

* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.

* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.

* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

You do realize that we pay for every false Voter Registration Form, and it's Filing, and it's processing, and it's clean up. Should we continue to do something so damaging to our foundation, and encourage more of it, or should we, address the hypocrisy, and put an end to it? Why perpetuate something so flawed?

Who discovered the fraudulent voter registration? Oops, turns out it was reported by Acorn. Go check it out.

How many "false voter registration forms" were there?

You might want to check your research. All this has been covered "ad nauseum".

Republicans and corporations don't like Acorn because they organize the poor and support the minimum wage. Republicans squat on the poor, even though many Republicans live in homes parked in groups.

Your response is a gross mis-characterization. I don't like ACORN because of It's agenda, form, and method. It undermines Federalism.

 

[Intense]

It is amazing how the an organization that did so many good things for American citizens can be so easily vilified and ultimately destroyed by lies, innuendo and falsehoods perpetrated by the right's echo chamber with help from the so called liberal bias MSM. ACORN was one of the leading voices speaking out against predatory lending. If we had listened to ACORN, maybe millions of Americans wouldn't be facing foreclosure.

For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din

The embattled community organizing group is much in the news these days, thanks to the idiocies of a handful of now-suspended staffers having been filmed and YouTubed by a right-wing sting squad. Most of the stories present ACORN as, at best, a shady organization up to no good in America's inner cities, not to mention the nation's primary source of voting fraud.

What's been obscured amid all the polemics, or the polemics passing as news reports, is what ACORN is and does. Founded in Little Rock in 1970 as an organization agitating for free school lunches, Vietnam veterans' rights and more hospital emergency rooms, ACORN has grown in the past four decades into the nation's largest community organizing group. Based in low-income neighborhoods, it has nearly 500,000 dues-paying members, recruited by door-to-door canvassers, with chapters in 110 cities in 40 states. Nationwide, it has more than 1,000 staffers.

What are the projects on which all these staffers and members work? Raising the minimum wage, for one. ACORN conceived and led the successful initiative campaign to raise the wage in Florida in 2004 and in four more states in 2006. In the past four years, it successfully pressured seven legislatures in other states to raise their minimum wage as well.

Another major campaign has been to limit the interest and fees that banks charge homeowners. In the 1990s, ACORN spearheaded a number of legal actions, often joined by states' attorneys general, that compelled such lenders as Citigroup to change many of their practices. The group has led successful drives to outlaw the most egregious predatory lending in nine states. It also counsels thousands of inner-city homeowners and home buyers.

Harold Meyerson - For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din - washingtonpost.com

Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

“Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

* 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.

* 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.

* 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.

* 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

* 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.

* 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.

* 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.

* 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.

* 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

UEPI - Manipulating the Public Agenda

You do realize that we pay for every false Voter Registration Form, and it's Filing, and it's processing, and it's clean up. Should we continue to do something so damaging to our foundation, and encourage more of it, or should we, address the hypocrisy, and put an end to it? Why perpetuate something so flawed?

ACORN followed the letter of the law. They properly handled every voter registration that was clearly bogus and those that appeared to be bogus. ACORN reported registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law. ACORN acted to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees as soon as it became aware of these problems.

If you're worry about defrauding the government and costing taxpayers money, start at the top of the list, you'll get to ACORN in the next century...MAYBE.

Home - Federal Contractor Misconduct Database

Firms defraud government but get new U.S. contracts

By Larry Margasak
Associated Press
Saturday, February 28, 2009

Washington —- Companies that defrauded the United States and jeopardized American lives were awarded new government work despite rulings designed to stop them from receiving federal contracts, government investigators report.

Payments went to a company whose president tried to sell nuclear bomb parts to North Korea, a company that jeopardized lives on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and a seller of body armor that the Air Force said was defective.

The companies were on a government database of 70,000 individuals and businesses suspended or barred by various U.S. agencies from receiving government contract work.

The government bought body armor from the Pinnacle Corporation after the Air Force concluded that the company falsely claimed testing the equipment. (Photo: Wired)

The Government Accountability Office blamed some of the mistakes on faulty computer searches by officials who left out commas or periods. But it also said the search engine for the database often failed to identify any of the entries on the exclusion list.

A hypothetical suspended company named XYZ Corp., Inc. —- with a comma —- would escape detection if one searched for XYZ Corp. Inc. —- without the comma —- the report said.

The investigators found a staggering list of offenses by companies awarded new contracts. They included use of fictitious Social Security numbers, massive tax fraud, delivery of faulty parts for the military, false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, use of insider information to bid on federal contracts, and Medicare fraud.

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked in a hearing Thursday, “What is the point of having suspension and debarment regulations if our own agencies disregard them?”

Most contracts were awarded to excluded companies by mistake. However, the Army deliberately continued a contract with a German company, Optronic GmbH, whose president was convicted in Germany for attempting to illegally ship dual aluminum tubes to North Korea. The equipment can be used in the development of nuclear bombs.

The Army paid the company $31 million under the contract, including $4 million after it was placed on the exclusion list. The firm supplied civilians for training exercises for 7,000 U.S. troops prior to their deployment to Iraq.

In ruling that the company should not receive new contracts, the Army stated in July 2005 that the gravity of the conduct was clear, given that 37,000 U.S. forces were stationed on South Korean soil.

An Army official, in an interview, said the payments continued because the convicted president was removed from the company and the firm did an excellent job in its crucial role in the training exercises.

Firms defraud government but get new U.S. contracts

All Fraud and Corruption should be crushed, that is a given.