An ACORN Falls
With autumn just days away, I can see why one might be confused about the ACORN stings that have been all over the news. No, we’re not talking about oak tree thievery here. This is a much juicier Dinner Topic. It’s all about a couple of employees at ACORN’s Baltimore offices allegedly dispensing free advice on prostitution, child pornography and tax evasion.
What is ACORN?
ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. According to its website, ACORN is the nation’s largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people. ACORN has been around since 1970 and claims to have organized over 400,000 member families in 110 cities across the country.1
What does ACORN do?
The organization claims to back issue campaigns such as: raising the minimum wage; eliminating predatory lending practices; promoting affordable housing; improving the quality of urban public schools; and rebuilding New Orleans. In more general terms, ACORN sees itself as an advocate of social and economic justice, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy and voter participation.2
So why is ACORN all over the news?
Independent filmmakers/journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, disguised as pimp and prostitute, walked into ACORN’s Baltimore offices and secretly filmed as they solicited advice on how to set up a tax-free prostitution ring (which happened to involve a dozen underage El Salvadorian girls). Two ACORN employees appeared on film eagerly counseling the “pimp” and “prostitute”. The video hit the news channels and a scandal was born.
What does ACORN have to say about all this?
Well, ACORN promptly dismissed the two employees for failing to “uphold the highest legal and ethical standards.”3 Despite the firing, Bertha Lewis, ACORN’s chief organizer, released a statement claiming that ACORN was the subject of a nationwide conservative smear campaign and that the O’Keefe/Giles video was doctored and the story was fabricated. Further, ACORN claims the recording itself was criminal.4 Watch the video below and judge for yourself.
Haven’t we heard something about Obama and ACORN recently?
Yes. Obama’s campaign hired an ACORN affiliate for $800,000 to conduct a get-out-the-vote effort during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary election. Following the primary, ACORN became the subject of claims of widespread voter fraud, principally that ACORN employees were registering non-existent voters.5
Read on:
(image above taken from: http://commonsenserepublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/acorn-logo.jpg)
- http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12342 ↩
- Ibid ↩
- Following the release of the video, Census Bureau severed ties with ACORN. ACORN has been tapped to help with low level data gathering for the 2010 census. Similarly, the U.S. Senate cut off all HUD grants to ACORN. ↩
- http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=22581&tx_ttnews%5bbackPid%5d=12387&cHash=bb5331a517 ↩
- Just last week, federal and state authorities in Miami issued arrest warrants for 11 people suspected of committing voter registration fraud. (See http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/09/acorn-turns-florida-workers-voter-fraud-charges.) ↩
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