Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

[MarcATL]

ACORN is not an arm of the Democrat party...they are an organization that is dedicated to empowering the poor.

Perhaps if Republicans did the same they would have better results.

But no, they much rather drop to their knees in service to the rich and powerful.

 

[Bfgrn]

Yes ACORN gets poor felons a job.

They also get poor people homes, people who refuse to work, ACORN does force the banks give loans to poor people, many who defaulted and we now the rest, the financial meltdown, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going bankrupt.

Obama helped train ACORN employees. They learned real well from Obama.

ACORN has been fighting against predatory lending since 1999

For years, predatory mortgage lenders have been steering first time homebuyers and those looking to refinance into subprime loans, often Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that would reset to rates the borrowers ultimately could not afford. Now, foreclosures have become a nationwide crisis. Families are losing their homes in record numbers, neighborhoods are being torn apart, and the U.S. and world economies are suffering from the fallout. And this is only the beginning – many more ARMs have not yet reset to the higher rate, and it is estimated that 2 million American families could face foreclosure within the next few years.

Predatory home loans are in the spotlight now due to the national foreclosure crisis, but ACORN has been fighting against predatory lending since 1999. ACORN members have engaged in outreach and education to help homeowners avoid becoming victims of predatory lending, led protests against specific lenders to win changes in their practices, and convinced regulators to crack down on the worst companies.

As the result of a three year campaign, ACORN members reached an agreement in 2002 with Household Finance and Beneficial, subsidiaries of Household International, to set up a Foreclosure Avoidance Program. This program helped thousands of Household/ Beneficial borrowers keep their homes and reduce the costs of their loans. A Fresh Start Program helped those who had already lost their homes obtain a new affordable mortgage. The companies also agreed to reform their home lending practices going forward to be more affordable for borrowers.

The 2002 ACORN report "Separate and Unequal" revealed that subprime loans were taking over much of the mortgage market, replacing more affordable prime loans. Many of these subprime loans were predatory, as lenders lied to borrowers about the details of their loans, neglected to offer them more affordable options, and failed to disclose all the hidden fees and future interest rate hikes. The report also showed that predatory subprime lenders were targeting African American, Latino and low-income communities, selling them bad loans even when applicants had good credit and could have qualified for better loan products.

In 2002, ACORN called for regulatory measures that could have curtailed these predatory practices. Unfortunately, the mortgage lending industry remained largely unregulated. ACORN continues to demand strong legislative measures to protect homeowners and the U.S. economy, as listed in our 10-point platform.

The 2006 ACORN study "The Impending Rate Shock" warned of the crisis that was about to hit the country due to exploding ARMs. This report also showed how pervasive these bad loan products continued to be, as well as how African American and Latino homebuyers were disproportionately targeted for high cost loans, even when they had comparable credit scores to white homebuyers.

ACORN members nationwide are fighting the foreclosure crisis head-on, by reaching out to thousands of troubled borrowers, negotiating with lenders for better practices, and lobbying lawmakers and regulators to reform the lending industry.

On Feb. 11, ACORN announced an agreement with Countrywide Financial, one of the country’s largest mortgage lenders, to work with the company on implementing best practices for negotiating loan modifications and workouts with troubled homeowners rather than turning to foreclosure. ACORN members are in negotiations with GMAC, another major lender, to reach a similar agreement. After staging repeated protests against Ocwen Financial, a mortgage giant with a particularly bad record in dealing with customers, the company has finally agreed to meet with ACORN members, who will push for a best practices agreement.

ACORN members are lobbying their legislators in cities, counties and states around the country, as well as on the national level, to implement regulations that will help stem the foreclosure crisis and curtail predatory lending. ACORN members worked to ensure that Congress passed $150 million in new funds for housing counseling organizations, $100 million of which was earmarked for foreclosure prevention. ACORN continues to work closely with Congress on anti-predatory lending legislation, such as the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008.

ACORN: Foreclosures

 

[GWV5903]

When did the Liberal/Marxist decide the only way to win election is through fraud and corruption

The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud « Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian

The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud
October 14, 2008 — budsimmons
The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud

October 14, 2008 – by Jim Hoft

And you thought 2000 was bad.

This year’s election is shaping up to be one of the most controversial in history. Just this week, a [1] federal judge ordered Ohio’s top elections official to verify the identity of newly registered voters by matching them with other government documents. The very next day a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals[2] set aside the federal judge’s order on verifying registrations.

Further igniting the voter fraud/voter registration debate was the news that a national community organizing group is being investigated in at least 14 states and several swing states for massive irregularities. This news would make headlines anyway, but what made it worse was that Barack Obama was a key player in this organization, the [3] Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, in the past. Obama [4] trained its local leaders, [5] represented the organization in court, and worked to [6] funnel funds to the organization. The Obama campaign also [7] donated $800,000 this year to an ACORN affiliate.

What is ACORN?

The [8] Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a community-based organization that advocates for low and moderate income families founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado. [9] Rathke, one of the most powerful hard-Left activists in America, is a former member of a radical 1960s group, the [10] Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The Weathermen terrorist group split off from the SDS in 1969. [11] ACORN says its priorities include better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, and better public schools.

ACORN is also known for its voter registration efforts.
[12]

This year alone [13] ACORN has registered 1,315,037 voters.

Although the organization prides itself for its registration efforts, it also has a long history of scandal. In the state of Missouri in 1986, [14] 12 ACORN members were convicted of voter fraud. But that case was not an isolated incident in the state. In December 2004, in St. Louis, six volunteers pleaded guilty of dozens of election law violations for filling out registration cards with names of dead people and other bogus information. Authorities launched an earlier investigation after noticing that among the new voters was longtime St. Louis alderman Albert “Red” Villa, who died in 1990. The volunteers worked for “Operation Big Vote” — a branch of ACORN — in St. Louis.

On February 10, 2005, Nonaresa Montgomery, a paid worker who ran Operation Big Vote during the run-up to the 2001 mayoral primary, was found guilty of vote fraud. Montgomery hired about 30 workers to do fraudulent voter-registration canvassing. Instead of knocking on doors, the volunteers sat at a St. Louis fast food restaurant and wrote out names and information from an outdated voter list. About 1,500 fraudulent voter registration cards were turned in.

In October 2006, St. Louis election officials discovered [15] at least 1,492 “potentially fraudulent” voter registration cards. They were all turned in by ACORN volunteers.

In [16] November 2006, 20,000 to [17] 35,000 questionable voter registration forms were [18] turned in by ACORN officials in Missouri. Most all of these were from St. Louis and Kansas City areas, where ACORN purportedly sought to help empower the “disenfranchised” minorities living there. But the ACORN workers weren’t just told to register new voters. The workers [19] admitted on camera that they were coached to tell registrants to vote for Democrat Claire McCaskill.

In 2007, in Kansas City, Missouri, four ACORN employees were [20] indicted for fraud. In April of this year [21] eight ACORN employees in St. Louis city and county pleaded guilty to federal election fraud for submitting bogus voter registrations.

And, that was just Missouri.

This year there have been several accusations of fraud against ACORN. Over a dozen states are investigating the organization already. Here is a complete list of the ongoing investigations:

North Carolina — State Board of Elections officials have [22] found at least 100 voter registration forms with the same names over and over again. The forms were turned in by ACORN. Officials sent about 30 applications to the state Board of Elections for possible fraud investigation.

Ohio — [23] The New York Post reported that a Cleveland man said he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times. The complaints have sparked an investigation by election officials into the organization, whose political wing has supported Barack Obama. Witnesses have already been [24] subpoenaed to testify against the organization.

Nevada — Authorities [25] raided the headquarters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now on Tuesday October 7, 2008, after a month-long investigation. The fraudulent voter registrations included the Dallas Cowboys starting line-up.

Indiana — More than [26] 2,000 voter registration forms filed in northern Indiana’s Lake County filled out by ACORN employees turned out to be bogus. Officials also stopped processing a stack of about 5,000 applications delivered just before the October 6 registration deadline after the first 2,100 turned out to be phony.

Connecticut — Officials are looking into a [27] complaint alleging ACORN submitted fraudulent voter registration cards in Bridgeport. In one instance, an official said a card was filled out for a [28] 7-year-old girl, whose age was listed as 27. 8,000 cards were submitted in Bridgeport.

Missouri — The Kansas City election board is reporting 100 duplicate applications and 280 with fake information. Acorn officials [29] agreed that at least 4% of their registrations were bogus. Governor Matt Blunt [30] condemned the attempts by ACORN to commit voter fraud.

Pennsylvania — Officials are [31] investigating suspicious or incomplete registration forms [32] submitted by ACORN. 252,595 voter registrations were submitted in Philadelphia. Remarkably, 57,435 were rejected — most of them submitted by ACORN.

Wisconsin — In Milwaukee ACORN improperly [33] used felons as registration workers. Additionally, its workers are among 49 cases of bad registrations sent to authorities for possible charges, as first reported by the Journal Sentinel.

Florida — The Pinellas County Elections supervisor says his office has [34] received around 35 voter registrations that appear to be bogus. There is also a question of [35] 30,000 felons who are registered illegally to vote. Their connections with ACORN are not yet clear.

Texas — Of the 30,000 registration cards ACORN turned in, Harris County tax assessor Paul Bettencourt says just more than 20,000 are valid. And just look at some of the places ACORN was finding those voters. A church just next door is the address for around 150 people. More than 250 people claim a homeless outreach center as their home address. Some listed a county mental health facility as their home and one person even wrote down the [36] Harris County jail at the sheriff’s office.

Michigan — ACORN in Detroit is being [37] investigated after several municipal clerks reported fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications coming through. The clerk interviewed said the fraud appears to be widespread.

New Mexico – The Bernalillo County clerk has notified prosecutors that some 1,100 fraudulent voter registration cards were [38] turned in by ACORN.

That’s not all. So far this year at least 14 states have started investigations against ACORN. Talk about a culture of corruption. It is so bad that Representatives of Congress [39] have asked for the Justice Department to investigate, and GOP presidential candidate John McCain is [40] bringing it up in his stump speeches. The Obama camp is [41] stealthily altering its “Fight the Smears” website to distance themselves from the organization — quite a challenge considering how close their candidate’s association has been with the group.

The liberal vs. conservative, voter fraud vs. voter intimidation debate will no doubt continue after this election. But this year, with the assistance of scandal-plagued ACORN, it appears that — so far — the voter fraud side is winning.

Hey pea brain, here's a FACT for you to choke on...

There was ZERO voter fraud in the last election attributed to ACORN...NONE...NOT ONE cartoon character appeared at any polling place...

SO...Let's destroy agencies like ACORN that help people find jobs, warn citizens about predatory lenders and work to raise wages for workers and instead let's prop up the scum bags contractors that KILL our soldiers through electrocution and rip off the public for more $$$ in ONE day than ACORN gets in a year!

Albert Camus said: "It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners."

You right wing pea brain shouldn't be allowed to cross the street without adult supervision...you're THAT stupid!

What your brain fails to understand is ACORN is wrong, simple, they have been caught red handed, your justifying their actions based in comparison to Blackwater's or Halliburton's actions?

If you want to try and defend them use some one like Sister Theresa or Gandhi, at least you wouldn't look as stupid, maybe you wouldn't?!?!?!

 

[mdn2000]

ha, ha, ha, Acorn helps the poor, what a crock of shit. If acorn helped the poor why are they still poor.

Capitalism and Conservatism has done more for the poor than any other group in history.

Democrats keep the poor poor, thus keeping the poor dependent on Democrats.

What a bunch of morons who think otherwise and post nothing more than idiotic opinion.