Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 10:32 PM
Thu Nov 12
73 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
The purpose of the prohibition on bills of attainder is to keep Congress from using legislative means to deny individuals their civil rights without due process (i.e., Congress can't find you guilty of a crime).
This legislation is not "targeted" towards ACORN, it's actually a huge appropriations bill that provides funds for transportation and affordable housing funds in FY10. The act sets forth several limitations on the use of funds, including a provision saying that no funds can be distributed to ACORN or its subsidiaries. But it also restricts distribution of funds to other government agencies, organizations that seek to exercise eminent domain etc.
Granted, it does not provide a rationale for denying funding to ACORN but I don't know that ACORN has any specific right to the funding either? I'm pretty sure Congress has a right to direct appropriations to specific sources as it sees fit. Interested to hear other arguments...
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/18/09
This story is dangerous because it is an attempt to establish a false equivalency to the corruption of the right. Is what this lady did on video more or less dangerous then female workers for haliburton and KBR being raped and the cover up being sponsored on our dime?
I'm sorry but some minor corruption by a bunch of poor people just doesn't rise to
the level of that other stuff, but we can't talk about that in this country, that would be disrespectful to the president and the troops.
09/18/09
09/18/09
09/18/09
09/18/09
It's possible that those were simple mistakes and errors in judgment on the part of the employees, especially as ACORN's screening for the voter reg staff was minimal. However, knowing that the same error popped up in at least 4-5 different states in the 2004 election season makes it seem like it may have been intentional.
I was also dismayed later on, to find out about the history of ACORN in Kansas City, MO, where the office closed with short notice, and ACORN national continued to withdraw membership dues from the affected members for 8 years with no staff to support them and no active chapters.
I soon left, because I had grave concerns about the stability of the neighborhood chapter I was supposed to build, and those concerns were seriously affecting my ability to recruit members.
It was soon after that that I discovered the non-profit for whom I had been doing community organizing had been convicted of union-busting among their own employees not a year earlier. I've included here a link to the decision by the National Labor Relations Board.
[www.nlrb.gov]
I agree with Lymed in her assertion that ACORN does do some fantastic work. They were one of the first to raise awareness publicly about predatory lending. They have spoken out on behalf of the poor and the marginalized in multiple communities, and given low-income neighborhoods alot of power in deciding their own agendas for their neighborhoods, something I admire and respect.
However, I also think the methods they have used to achieve those means are reprehensible. I hope that, with their federal funding revoked, other non-profits will step in to fill the gap, and fill it in a way that is more ethical. I support the revocation of their funding by the government. When I found out that my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) had given them a generous grant from our funds to support community organizing, I also advised our national staff to take a closer look at their history of labor relations and structural stability. I still stand by that advise.
Doing I think this interview served as a form entrapment? Certainly. Do I think the organizer really thought she wsas just playing along? Definitely. However, I also hope the publicity this brings to ACORN will also allow us to look more closely at their problematic history, and criticize them fairly. We on the left need to criticize them as well, to hold them accountable for justice within their organization as they proclaim the need for justice in our society.
09/18/09
Are they perfect? Far from it. When the claims of voter fraud emerged I laughed saying there is no way ACORN could pull it off even if they wanted to. That is what I see in this instance. Not malice, but incompetence. Workers thinking they are helping people in need and doing it incompetently.
But what happens now? What happens to those people ACORN did help? What happens to all the people ACORN mobilized in elections to vote for people who stood for the under-represented?
It would have been one thing if it was discovered ACORN was regularly giving out this advice. But this was a set up and a few people acted really stupidly when they were set up. Now the poor and disenfranchised in America will suffer.
09/18/09
And that's a feature, not a bug.
09/18/09
They are trusted by low income people who are in need of assistance.
This has always been, for me, the greatest value of ACORN. When I see ACORN organizers and volunteers around, they are always people from that community, helping people in that same community. They generally aren't seen as outsiders coming in to tell the poor folks what to do and how to live as so many well-meaning liberal organizations tend to do. It engenders a lot of trust in what they have to offer and what they have to say.
09/18/09
09/18/09
If I were ACORN I would be bringing in all of the office managers for retraining, and replacing the personnel at offices that have repeated problems. If the organization cannot effectively control the actions of its offices, perhaps it needs to shrink back and look for other non-profits to fill the gap.
Helping disenfranchised people is ACORN's business, and they are in serious need of a business overhaul. Right now, in its current state, ACORN risks hurting the cause as it tries to help it.
09/18/09
However, I would guess that rather than having some evil agenda, ACORN, like many organizing non-profits is badly managed.
I've worked as an organizer for a large non-profit. If ACORN is anything like that place, they will hire anyone willing to do the job. These jobs are extremely grueling, discouraging and badly paid. There is high staff turnover and some very unprofessional people are hired.
The attitude of the organization I worked for was that organizers on the grass-roots level were disposable - one quit/was fired - hire a new one! I think investing more time and energy into hiring and KEEPING quality people could help a lot with the problems ACORN is having.
09/18/09
The only thing they really cared about was your ability to fundraise. It didn't matter if you collected two dozen letters while you were out canvassing, if you didn't meet your fundraising quota, you were out on your ass.
I was never good at fundraising, because most of the people I canvassed were poor people who needed all of their money to pay their bills and buy food, which was why they fired me after a month.
I found the whole experience quite disappointing. I had the passion, but it wasn't enough. i had to be a fucking car salesman, too.
09/18/09
09/18/09
However, I hate the fact that ACORN as an entire organization is being run into the ground. Personally, I've had nothing but a positive experience with ACORN in Baltimore. Their homeowners course kept my husband and I from buying a house before we were ready. One of the main goals was to prevent poor people from falling victim to predatory lenders and getting into homes they couldn't afford.
09/18/09