What ACORN Did

[phantom power]

People probably know that ACORN registered people to vote, but that's about all they know about the former community organization. Registering voters was never more than a sideline. They actually contracted the whole thing out to PROJECT VOTE. The main thing ACORN did was fight back against this. When you walked into an ACORN office, the people at the desks manning the phones and meeting with people were spending 95% of their time trying to help people avoid losing their homes or advising them how to navigate all the predators in the housing market. What's been going on in Washington DC is only a particularly nasty form of something that was rampant in the 2000's.

Buying liens is a really awful practice, particularly when it is coupled with an intent to pile legal costs on the homeowner to the point that they just have to hand over their house to you rather than just the tax money they owed to the government.

How does that work?

In some municipalities, you can buy ownership of unpaid debt (property taxes) and then receive whatever interest accrues. However, if the homeowner doesn't pay the debt off in a timely manner, you can start charging them for any legal fees you rack up trying to get the debt repaid. And, then, when the homeowner has too much debt to ever pay you back, you can foreclose on their home. People have lost their homes this way when they initially owed less than two hundred dollars.

You'd be amazed what is legal in this country. ACORN fought on this battlefield. But they got smooshed like a bug.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/9/8/173155/0560

[nashville_brook]

1. kick for truth about ACORN

[DirkGently]

2. ACORN: Accused of helping the poor. Convicted. Executed.

[bvar22]

3. Thank You.

And the White House and Democratic Party Leadership could not Run Away from Acorn Fast Enough because a little weasel like Brietbart posted a propaganda video to YouTube.

ACORN was worth fighting for.

ACORN quickly thrown under the bus,
but the Wagons Circled and Dry Powder expended to protect a liar like Clapper.

Message Received?

[G_j]

4. K&R !

[avaistheone1]

5. K&R

[Martin Eden]

6. And the "smooshing" was a FRAUD

Our community organizer president should have had the courage to stand up for an organization that epitomized that kind of community help!

[annabanana]

7. Big Friggen Kick to this!!!! . . . . n/t

[Peacetrain]

8. Excellent.. thank you for this op

[Eric J in MN]

9. It's strange that someone with a tax lien gets everything.

"Not only did he lose his $197,000 house, but he also was stripped of the equity because tax lien purchasers are entitled to everything, trumping even mortgage companies."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/08/left-with-nothing/

[reusrename]

10. We have moved from a manufacturing-based economy to a fraud-based economy.

Crime is the only thing that pays well now.

[rhett o rick]

11. Would one of you members of "The Group" plez explain why the Democrats would

abandon ACORN. Maybe I should guess.

ACORN represents everything bad to the DLC, New Democrats, Third Way, or whatever the fuck they like to call themselves.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, phantom power.

[suffragette]

13. And they keep pushing legislation to prevent funding any successor to ACORN or any attempt by former

Staff from ACORN from using their expertise to organize to assist the poor again.
This has been purposeful and reprehensible from the beginning and continues to be so.

[libodem]

14. Private Enterprise

Oh, those goofy job creators. You can't fault them for making a buck in this economy.....

[gopiscrap]

15. I worked for ACORN for a summer and they were a great outfit to work for

like I said before, we won't truly look for a real solution for the common person untit we either have a serious revolution or a major depression and EVERYBODY loses everything!