ACORN punches back

I work for ACORN and i'm getting out the vote for Obama since my girlfriend is 6 months pregnant and I have no health ins. I need to save my pocket money, so I be hoping Obama wins, so by the time he takes office we'll have free health care and my girl will be 8 months pregnant and we can abort that thing for free, then since I don't work and pay no taxes, Obama gonna give us a check, kinda like spreading the wealth around. so he'll help me keep my pocket money, and my savings, Go obama go

ACORN is a group with a long and established history. Anyone that attacks them -- have you seen the video where John McCain is a guest speaker at an ACORN event and basically calls them American heros? How our opinions do change when we will literally do ANYTHING to win an election. McCain is stooping to all new lows. Haven't we had enough of presidents who lie to us????

The first comment is an obvious fake email from a Republican, designed to address every anti-Obama stereotype. Let's cut out the silliness and dirty tricks.

ACORN works for all people, particularly for people like the one Mr. Jackson purports to be, poor, unemployed, lacking health insurance, without access to quality health care. If Mr. Jackson actually worked for ACORN and/or could do math, he would know that Sen. Obama, should he be elected President, would be sworn into office on or around the time of Mr. Jackson's 'child's' birth. He would know that any health care plan supported President Obama would have to first be enacted by Congress and would not take effect for months, if not years. He would further know that Mr. Obama is adamantly against the third term abortion of a viable fetus except to preserve the life or health of the mother. He would know that Sen. Obama proposes tax credits, which would only go to tax payers. He would also know that ACORN and Sen. Obama would fight citizens, like Mr. Jackson, to obtain a good education that would enable him to find employment that would support him and his family, so he could afford health insurance, and keep a little pocket money while building his savings. And, yes, Sen. Obama would like to us to share in our nation's wealth, which we all help create, rather than seeing it concentrated in the hands of one tenth of one percent of our population, as it has been during the Bush Administration, thanks to sweeping deregulation, rampant greed and flat-out fraud.

it's very disheartening, Acorn is clearly backing one specific organization with the assistance of tax payers money -- why in the world is tax payer money going to anything like this -- the country has a very large debt and people that are really hurting -- Acorn is a complete, a complete waist of money...

Have you all noticed !!! that when ever someone raises the question about whether Sarah Palin is QUALIFIED to be the Vice President and in the event has to step up to the highest office, all her surrogates say the SAME THING except for the honest ones, they say SHE ELECTRIFIES THE BASEhave you guys noticed that thats all they have to say about her readiness and the pundits settle for that answer. Well what is needed in the oval office is not some one who electrifies the base, we need some one who is competent to run this country i was wondering if anyone else notice how thats all they say she electrifies the base SO WHAT SHE ELECTIFIES THE BASE THEY NEED TO GET SERIOUS AND SO DO WE THE VOTERS OF THIS GREAT NATION THIS IS NOT A BEAUTY CONTEST, THIS IS NOT SOME TALENT SHOW THIS IS OUR COUNTRY AND I AM TRULY GETTING FED UP WITH THE REASON WHY SHE SHOULD BE VICE PRESIDENT IF THIS IS THIER REASONING SHE ELECTIFIES THE BASE GIVE US A BREAK

Sounds like Sarah electrifies your nerves! say it the right way. I love it

I think ACORN SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN. I don't want any of my tax dollars going to stuff like this. The Justice Department should look into why a charity organization is using tax payer dollars to nominate one specific candidate and one of the workers themselves in this editorial admitted it, the last time I checked that was a federal offense. They should be prosecuted and shut down! Return the money to the taxpayers!

Deklotz and Missy:
A) ACORN does not work for a particular campaign. They may ask you what party you align with, as that information is required by most voter registration forms, but that's about it. They just ask people if they're registered, and, if not, offer to register them.

B) ACORN is actually an organization of organizations. That being said, ACORN has never taken taxpayer money for its voter registration campaigns. That money comes from massive donations by charitable organizations (many owned by large companies donating the money for tax breaks). Taxpayer money was received by DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS within the greater whole. Specifically, they received government grants for: a) a program to provide counseling and other services to first-time home-buyers and b) a program to remove lead from old buildings.

Once again, ACORN's voter registration drive will once again result in precisely 0 fraudulent vote attempts. The Republicans have been trying to go after ACORN for years since they tend to help the poor and minorities who usually vote Democratic. The Department of Justice scandal that's still being investigated deals with this very tactic in 2006. The 9 fired attorneys refused to press fraudulent charges against ACORN. Get informed!

Soup,

Youve asked Missy and Deklotz to "get informed". In reading your post I can only assume that either you're not following your own advice, or you're totally disingenuous.

You've portrayed ACORN as a non-partisan organization which is ludicrous. They've endorsed Obama for president and are actively working to assist him in that goal.

When characterizing how ACORN operates you state "they just ask people if they're registered and, if not, offer to register them."

Yeah, they offer to register them 10-20 times.
Let's be honest here. This organization has been doing this for a decade and in spite of numerous incidents of abuse they continue to operate in the same manner.

You state that they receive money from "charitable organizations", but you fail to mention that the Obama campaign paid an ACORN organization in excess of $800K this year to assist them in their "get out the vote" efforts. Do you consider the Obama campaign a charitable organization?

You state, in a seemingly unequivocal manner, "Once again, ACORN's voter registration drive will once again result in precisely 0 fraudulent vote attempts. ".
Be honest, you have no idea how many fraudulent votes have been or will be cast as a result of Acorn's efforts. Noone knows!

I could go into how the taxpayer funded "mortgage counseling programs" you mentioned contributed to our current financial meltdown, but I don't want to throw too many facts in front of you at once.

I urge you to inform yourself.
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