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Election Day Loss: ACORN Declares Bankruptcy
On this Election Day, when Democrats stand to suffer at the polls, and fewer voters have registered than in previous midterm elections, it seems sadly ironic that ACORN has declared bankruptcy.
This is the final chapter in the long and winding rightwing witch hunt against an organization that stood for poor and working people on issue after issue. As Bill Moyers described the community-based group: “More than any group I’ve covered over my long career in journalism, ACORN was devoted to helping poor people become their own best champions.”
Yet despite ACORN’s mission and history, when the rightwing echo chamber targeted it for destruction too few Congressional Democrats stood in the way. Fox played “shocking” videos of a “sting operation” against ACORN ad nauseam, and rather than questioning the source and content, too many Democrats failed to do due diligence and instead acted cravenly in passing unconstitutional legislation to defund the group.
Never mind ACORN’s track record of registering millions of new voters, fighting predatory lending, rebuilding homes in New Orleans, helping wage and hour enforcement—rightwing operative James O’Keefe had racy videos featuring a pimp, a prostitute, and complicit ACORN employees.
Except that he didn’t.
When Rachel Maddow and others exposed that the videos were fabricated, and the Congressional Research Service, former Massachusetts Attorney General, Brooklyn District Attorney General, and California Attorney General—in all there were at least 46 federal, state, and local investigations—cleared ACORN of wrongdoing, it was too late. Eighteen months of screaming headlines and brutal attacks against the anti-poverty group had taken their toll.
As ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis wrote in a letter posted on the organization’s website today, “The pressure and cost of defending ourselves in multiple investigations as a result of the falsified videos has eroded our organization. As a result we will be filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy by close of business today.”
You can bet the leaders and activists of this storied organization aren’t going anywhere. There will be new organizing efforts and new campaigns. Hopefully this time around they will be able to count on their allies when an emboldened rightwing tries to take them down again.
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46 Comments so far
Show AllIn 1999, with the assistance of a low income program offered by ACORN I purchased my first, and only home. Within two years real estate prices had skyrocketed beyond anything I would ever be able to afford. I still thank the folks at ACORN for their knowledge. We were required to attend a class with lessons about knowing ones credit, can one afford to purchase a house, should you purchase a house if you just bought a car or have credit card debt. Very friendly and informative. Had more citizens had a program like ACORN it might have opened some eyes. The info ACORN provided may have shown others the greed of the bankers and home brokers when they sold homes to those who could not afford it. We are not experts and look to these bankers and home brokers for advice. All they saw was another quick commission.
Without ACORN, what will the Dems do when they want to register non-citizens to vote and engage in other election-night chicanery!??
How many "non-citizens" have the Dems registered?
show evidence or show ignorance.
See http://www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html
That is a site with an agenda. Anybody can put up an opinion site.
Obviously you have not read the fact that ACORN was cleared of all fraud charges in a congressional investigation. The accusations made the front page of the New York Times. When the investigation cleared ACORN, it was buried in a small column on a back page.
Too bad that more people won't read the facts and will take pseudo-populist frothing at the mouth as fact. It doesn't matter who is innocent and who is guilty, or who is framing whom. What matters is who gets the spotlight.
What about all the state law investigations, indictments, guilty pleas by ACORN employees for election fraud, such as in Washington State in 2007:
Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.
These are facts, not opinions. See http://www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html
That still is nothing more than a rabid opinion website.
The guilty pleas of part time employees, hired just for the voter registration drive, were appropriate, but ACORN management never trained the employees to do this, never told them to, and, as always, culled the registration cards for obvious frauds and threw them out. This represents a very low level of employee misbehavior among hundreds and perhaps thousands of part time hires who were involved in the registration drive.
Again I'll remind you that after a congressional oversight investigation, ACORN was cleared of all charges, not to mention that several individual states cases against ACORN were dropped. You can look it up easily, though I'm not surprised that you wouldn't know, since the mass media made nothing of it, after having a field day with the accusations.
As it has been pointed out elsewhere, meanwhile Blackwater (XE) has never been indicted over making billions of taxpayer dollars disappear, banksters run free under Obama's new toothless regulations, and white collar corporate criminals are making billions while the living standard of the working class continues to fall.
At least ACORN will no longer be your scapegoat.
Thank You for supplying that web page. Many Democrats believe Acorn was without fault, and it is good for them to see the truth. The same can be said about many Republican leaning organizations, too.
a very rare occurance troll 2 answering toll 1 and they were cleared of all federal, state and local charges against them. far above everything else they were registering voters where no one else was attempting to register voters. right wing a holes cling to their bs that there was all this voter fraud and it is just a big pile of crap. it is another long and very screwed up attempt to bring back the good old days where white a holes prevented people of color from voting by any an all means.
i wish the right wing trolls would get their facts straight and not use their fake front groups to suppress voters and terrorize communities all over the US. you are really just fronts for hate groups.
matthew
galveston tx
Some more information about the public-spirited activities of ACORN:
see http://www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html. For example, in 2009:
Nevada authorities indicted ACORN on 26 counts of voter registration fraud and 13 counts of illegally compensating canvassers. ACORN provided a bonus compensation program called “Blackjack” or “21+” for any canvasser who registered more than 20 voters per shift, which is illegal under Nevada law.
And in Wisconsin (2008):
At least 33,000 ACORN-submitted registrations in Milwaukee have been called into question after it was found that the organizations had been using felons as registration workers, in violation of state election rules. Two people involved in the ongoing Wisconsin voter fraud investigation have been charged with felonies.
The debunking of your hateful slander can be found at this site:
http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=6500
With links to these stories (and more):
10/7/08: 'Stunt' Raid at NV ACORN Office & the GOP ACORN Lie Revealed
10/13/08: Brad at UK's Guardian - "The Republican Voter Fraud Hoax"
10/14/08: So Where's the ACORN 'Voter Fraud'? (Hint: It doesn't exist)
10/19/08: CA GOP Vote Registration Contractor Arrested for Registration Fraud, Perjury
10/21/08: GOP Charges of ACORN 'Voter Fraud' in NM Fall Apart
10/22/08: VIDEO: Colbert Declares GOP ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Hoax a National Joke
10/25/08: VIDEO: The Truth About ACORN
10/31/08: VIDEO: 'Daily Show' Slams GOP's ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Scam
11/1/08: McCain Rep Admits 'Not a Single Instance of Voter Fraud'
1/29/09: GOP Investigation Finds Single Case of Voter Fraud in OH
America-Hating Republican Cowards Fail to Apologize
3/18/09: Officials Say Feds Inappropriately Involved in Nevada's Pre-Election ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Raid
6/17/09: Head of CA GOP Voter Registration Firm Pleads Guilty to Voter Registration Fraud
FLASHBACK VIDEO: Brad covers arrest with 'Fox News Alert' on FNC last October amidst phony ACORN brouhaha...
* U.S. PIRG, 9/24/08: "Vanishing Voters: Registered Voters Dropped From Rolls in Nineteen States"
* CBS News, 9/30/08: "Red Flag on Purging Voter Rolls"
* Brennan Center for Justice, 9/30/08: "Voter Purges:13 million voters in 39 states"
* New York Times, 10/8/08: "States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal"
* BBC Newsnight, 10/8/08: "Vote rigging and suppression?"
* AlterNet, 10/14/08: "California GOP had Same Voter Registration Problems as ACORN in 2006"
* Rolling Stone, 10/17/08: "Block the Vote: the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots"
* Washington Post, 10/18/08: "Thousands Face Mix-Ups In Voter Registrations: In New Databases, Many Are Wrongly Flagged as Ineligible"
* Los Angeles Times, 10/18/08: "Voters say they were duped into registering as Republicans"
I see some Spouting right wing slanderous lies about Acorn. Shameful. The murderous hate of right wingers and their attempt to attack anything that helps the poor, as if they want to assure they will die, never ends. The fact is that Acorn was cleared of all charges. Acorn was an excellent organisation that was a lifeline for the poor who have been abandoned by the capitalist elite, which had earned them unrestrained hate of the sociopathic right wing. The organisation was composed virtually entirely of the most honest, decent and caring people, to punish the entire Acorn organisation for a few bad apples who broke the rules without knowledge of upper levels of the organisation is absolutely absurd and shows the childish and the slanderous behaviour of the right wing which has just been looking for any bogus reason they can help to destroy any organisation that helps the poor. Glenn Beck also motivated attacks on other charities as well including a recent attempt to attack and kill members of a charity in California but another one of Glenn Becks soldiers against any who would dare aid the poor. in right wing Glenn Beck, america, the poor are supposed to be allowed to die on the street, anyone who helps them is seen as an anti american traitor. Ive never seen a more toxic brew of classists, fascists, elitists, racists, bigots and sociopathic poor hating criminals as the Tea parties, whose every action is meant to cement absolute control for a powerful elite and serve their wealthy masters agenda, who wish to secure unlimited power for the capitalist elite establishment to kill and destroy workers lives with reckless abandon and force religious theocracy on an entire country and destroy anyone who gets in the way of their tyrannical, fascist, authoritarian agenda to turn the US into a theocratic plutocracy ruled by the iron fist of infinitely powerful corporations who can destroy workers at the slightest whim, and anyone who opposes this is destroyed.
The way to respond to facts is with facts, not to bloviate on this or that bilious opinion.
What are you doing other than falling back on outdated, debunked mass media spew?
I haven't read all the stories on the website you mentioned, http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=6500, but it does not appear from their headlines that they address the indictments, guilty pleas and convictions on the rottenacorn site.
Ah, you'd rather not read. All is there, all of it.
Talk to "B1" Bob Dornan who lost his seat from a presumably safe district in Orange County to a faux Hispanic.
I mourn the loss of ACORN, and am disgusted at those who worked so hard to bring it down, the same people who so often emphatically and smugly insist that the United States is a Christian Nation.
Is there no limit to the kind of hypocrisy that seems to be one of the major character flaws of so many of our self-proclaimed "good" Christian citizens?
Thank you, people of ACORN who did so much and helped so many for so long. May your truly good work continue and more acorns be able to grow into mighty oaks.
/cm
Do as big business does...change the name and reopen for business tomorrow.
Some of the chapters are doing just that, keeping their offices open under names like New York Communities for Change. There's one in California doing that too. ACORN Housing offices will now be Affordable Housing Center.
At the end of the piece, Greg Kaufman laments that, "Hopefully this time around they will be able to count on their allies when an emboldened rightwing tries to take them down again."
That misses a salient point entirely: ACORN was done in because they did not have within their apparatus a media-savvy quick-response team to counter the slander produced by James O'Keefe. In fact, any progressive organization that wishes to fill the space left by ACORN's bankruptcy had better be prepared to wage this sort of internet media war against the likes of O'Keefe, Andrew Breitbart, etc., who are not about to stop their odious activities. ACORN's fundamental mistake was to count on their supposed allies while thinking they were still in pre-Internet 2.0 media environment.
Make no mistake, any true progressive organization that tries to emulate ACORN's mission will be up against the tools of corporate feudalism looking for another scalp.
you are right about that. neo fascists don't want people to vote especially african american, hispanic, and arab american and native american because they more than likely will not vote for the rethugs. the rethugs don't believe in fair elections or the right to vote. they love control and war and the police state and too often the dims follow in similar suit. true progressive groups and organizations need to help acorn reorganize and restart all of the vital work they were doing and get many more people to vote.
matthew
harris county green party
I believe ACORN was brought down because they did illegal things. One illegal thing can negate a hundred good things. ACORN had too many illegal things found out about them, and they kept adding up over the years. Most people when hearing the name ACORN had some story of corruption pop into their mind.
I believe that you believe. Big deal. Evidence? (Where's the beef?)
Evidence has nothing to do with perception.
Ooooookkkkkkk.....Turn off the FOX Noise. And the rest of the crapaganda, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN........
Turn on Free Speech TV, Thom Hartmann, The "Liberal Media" on MSNBC, Olbermann, Schultz, Maddow. Pick up a McClatchy Newspaper.....
Dear jimmytwoshoes:
"Illegal things?" Brought down by illegal things? Why is Wall St. still in business? Oh yes, and all those auto makers too, and the Chamber of Commerce?
Bankruptcy has become the real welfare state of the corporations. By the way, since they are now "people "too, maybe they should sufffer the fate of the citizens who have an entirely different set of rules for BK.
Congress did decide that the "people" were scammers and shouldn't be able to get out of bankruptcy so easily. Oh wait.... the Banks made up those new rules didn't they. Silly me.
I think Ralph Nader was right in "Only the Super Rich Can Save Us," Level the playimg field...Every CITIZEN, incorporate now and live the priviledged life of the Corporateers!
A horrible loss to grassroots democracy.
Killed by corporate insanity and historical amnesia !
Why can't a bunch of superwealthy Americans... Oprah, Beyoncee, Jon Stewart and others provide funding for us to start a brand new org to replace ACORN with several times the funding of ACORN?
Because their wealth is NOT threatened. Americans need to understand that it's the people against the RICH people. So long as they feel safe in their mansions, they will not support progress enough to cause real change.
Same old same old. Infiltration and subversion still works. You have to give the cabal credit for its machine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WQuBWSkG5g&feature=related
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs met the same fate as Connell. She was a fierce supporter of the investigation of this crime.
Dear ACORN:
All is not lost! Regroup, but this time, as you are in Rome, do as the Romans do.
I see the beginning of a whole new endeavor, as from an acorn, a mighty OAK will grow.
Please start the OAK TREE NATIONAL BANK. I would love to be a founding member, with a small donation of course. Go to North Dakota and find out all the good ways to have a viable bank, that truly does give back to the community and doesn't charge the citizens to bail it out of bad business and bad behavior.
I can deposit $10. 00, as unemployment doesn't pay much, but I would be happy to leave my $10.00 in your bank FOREVER so that people who want an honest loan can get one. If you get enough small donations and deposits, then the Peoples' Business will flourish!
ING is an internet bank, so you don't have to have a brick and mortar building at all! Make it like those micro businesses for 3rd world countries ( since that's where we are anyway.) People give a little to build up a lot and Americans will find that Banks don't have to be genetically modified Jabba the Huts that lie and cheat and get fat off the backs and souls of the citizens.
A peoples' bank, the OAK TREE NATIONAL BANK...is exactly what this nation and the cirizens need. When you get up and going, please have your story on CD, so I will know how to support you with my deposit.
I can hardly wait, because a bank OF the People, BY the People, and FOR the People, should not perish from this earth.
Perhaps this sounds silly to some, but then creating a republic seemed silly once upon a time too! As that post said the other day,",,, it's o.k. if it's impossible......" because everything is impossible until you start.
An OAK TREE NATIONAL BANK ! What a fabulous idea! You also have my ten bucks, forever.
Considering how little the conservatives had to work with, it's amazing how much they achieved, ALL of it because the Democrats are almost identical to the Republicans, except neutered.
Given the choice between a true Republican and a Democrat masquarading as a Republican, the progressives stay home, and the right-wing wackos come out and vote in droves.
I think that if Obama had a public option, and bailed out millions of Americans instead of Wall Street, and made the Republicans famous for their obstructionism, we would've kept the House, and increased our majority in the Senate.
There's a part of me that wonders if there wasn't sabotage in the Democratic ranks... beyond the "bluedog" anomaly... I think the average H. S. senior would've known what matters to voters more than what the Democrats exhibited here.
They're ALL Blue Dogs--the whole friggin' party.
Some Dems, albiet very few, are just more open about who they really are.
Take heart acorn soon will be slithering around under different guises
You must understand that orgs like this are all going to disappear. Why? Because America is more than 3/4ths white according to the latest census. Trust me, the Obama era is over and the honkeys are going to squash everything they see in a last ditch effort to maintain a perceived supremacy.
Capitalism is not "white supremacy".
99% of whites are victims of the capitalists. How is that supremacy?
And to carry your argument further, would you call capitalism in Japan asian supremacy?
Obama and the Dems ALLOWED ACORN to rot.
I recall Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of MO. was among one of ACORN'S
strongest critics.
As with almost every issue, Dems end up caving to the wishes of the Republicans.
The ruination of ACORN does NOT only rest at the feet of the Republicans, but the Dems too.
The Nation sucks.
When are they going to stop blaming everything on the Repugs and start looking at their own filthy corporate run Democratic Party?
Silly FAKE liberals.
What about applying for a Pepsi Refresh Grant.. thousands of people aided by ACORN could vote daily and bring needed funds to create a foundation of capital to begin again.
Let's face it, if ACORN was really as great as some here think, they would still be in business, They went bankrupt. They lost support of the Left, and people like the people complaining on here stopped supporting them.
NO MONEY, equals NO ACORN.
This is GREAT NEWS. I don't think people that only take from society and give nothing back (aka the people ACORN recruit to vote by giving out cigaretts paid for with taxpayer money)should have the right to vote anyways. They will obviuosly just vote to take the money from the working class, who in turn will then slowly add to the volume of the non-working class because they can't afford to keep a car on the road to drive to work anymore. Wake up people, everyone cannot ride in the wagon, some people need to pull it too for it to go anywhere.
Aside from that personal view, ACORN has no right to exist as a taxpayer funded organization. Nothing they did was beneficial to any taxpayers. Let them raise their own money to fund their criminal enterprise, I want no part of it!
What ACORN reaped was the lack of discipline and accountability of workers on the ground and the ideological bent of leadership to take down conservatives and so called right wingers.
There were definitely instances of voter fraud and qualifying households for mortgages households could not afford them. Since ACORN did not have it's own means to finance mortgages, they passed on potential buyers onto the banks ("the rich") the same business class that some of ACORN's supporters/leaders demonized! The perfect storm was created and were in the mess were in.
ACORN sholud not be tax supported anymore than Focus on the Family, American Family Council or any like minded organization. Even wealthy liberals did not feel ACORN deserved support- they allowed it to go under. Sorros, Orprah, Gates and others are not interested in truly empowering the working class, that's "fly over" country for them. Remember Air America did not make it either.