My Experience with Acorn

[dreamdancer 0]

ACORN are so big and black and scary...

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When I started working for ACORN in 2004, I was one of only four white people employed in their North Philadelphia office. The office was in a very run-down tenement on North Broad Street, abutted by an abandoned lot on one side and a black baptist church on the other. The furniture could only described as ratty and unsuitable for anyone's home. Most of the day-to-day work going on was in counseling. The main area of counseling was for people who had been suckered into predatory mortgages that they quickly discovered they couldn't afford. Every day desperate people filed into the office begging for help in avoiding foreclosure.

I worked on the political side. At first, I was assigned Delaware County. Later on, I took over the Montgomery County operation, which I led right through election day. My job was to identify areas of Montgomery County that had at least 65% Democratic registration. Then I hired kids off the streets of North Philly and trained them in voter registration and get out the vote strategies. Each day I would dispatch a bunch of vans to the designated areas of Montgomery County to register voters. We never asked people to vote for Kerry or to register as Democrats, and we turned in every card (after vetting them for fraud) even when the cards were for Republicans. We relied on my research to make sure we were registering more Democrats than Republicans. The goal was to achieve a 7:3 ratio, so that we'd net four votes for every 10 registrants. This was all compliant with election law.

Three of my co-workers (people with the same job description) were fresh out of prison. They were relatively young black men from North Philly who had done their time and were happy to have full employment and to give something back to their community. Mainly, they acted as very effective mentors to the at-risk kids that were coming in in response to the jobs we were offering.

I don't think it's possible for most white, suburban people to really understand the culture that ACORN operates in. Just the idea that freshly released felons might be some of the most valuable role models in a neighborhood is too foreign for a lot of people to relate to. These kids didn't have prior job experience. They didn't have other jobs in retail or a union available to them. There were no local banks or available credit. Most of them had no picture ID, and even fewer had a government ID. Just getting their paperwork in order so that I could hire them was a nightmare. When their paychecks were late (as they often were), their heat got shut off.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/142729/my_experience_with_acorn/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[airdvr 200]

An original thought every once and again would be ...umm...refreshing?

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[futuredivot 0]

So, YOUR experience with ACORN is nonexistent?
And the proper phrase is ACORN is so , socialist, and scary.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[JohnDeere 0]

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I was one of only four white people employed in their North Philadelphia office.

Wow that person racist! What does it amtter if he's only one of four whites

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Most of the day-to-day work going on was in counseling. The main area of counseling was for people who had been suckered into predatory mortgages that they quickly discovered they couldn't afford. Every day desperate people filed into the office begging for help in avoiding foreclosure.

Thats funny cause Acorn protested at several houses of bank CEO's cause they wouldn't loan to people that were riskyer..... Now there counseling people that that are the products of there protest??? Hmmmm Its called job security.

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My job was to identify areas of Montgomery County that had at least 65% Democratic registration. Then I hired kids off the streets of North Philly and trained them in voter registration and get out the vote strategies. Each day I would dispatch a bunch of vans to the designated areas of Montgomery County to register voters. We never asked people to vote for Kerry or to register as Democrats, and we turned in every card (after vetting them for fraud) even when the cards were for Republicans. We relied on my research to make sure we were registering more Democrats than Republicans. The goal was to achieve a 7:3 ratio, so that we'd net four votes for every 10 registrants. This was all compliant with election law

Can you say illegal! You should at least post something that doesnt show how shity they are

Nothing opens like a Deere!

You ignorant fool! Checks are for workers!

[lawrocket 3]

Nice. He started in2004. He mainly counseled people who were sucked into predatory mortgages, which started coming up in 06-07.

I guess he could have spent a couple of years counseling them not to get into mortgages they couldn't afford, but that would mean actually preventing harm.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[pbwing 0]

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An original thought every once and again would be ...umm...refreshing a fucking miracle?

There, fixed it!!

[Rookie120 0]

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There, fixed it!!

I thought that was funny.

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

[rushmc 18]

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An original thought every once and again would be ...umm...refreshing a fucking miracle?

There, fixed it!!

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[dreamdancer 0]

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You can call this a permanent underclass if you want, but they are not without their ambitious merchants and remarkably intelligent and (especially) resourceful people. Organizations like ACORN don't just employ people in these neighborhoods, they fight for them. They educate them about the few legitimate opportunities that exist. They assist them when they are preyed upon.

If you walk into this scene out of the lily-white suburbs, you're likely to be shocked at first by what you see. Things are turned upside down. The role models are felons, the clean kids are working the black market. But, spend some time there and you'll quickly adapt and begin to see how there is dignity and fight and pride and ambition and resourcefulness and tremendous faith that sustains these communities in the face of enormous odds. Anyone who had ever seen what I have seen would never, ever, cut off all funding for ACORN or use them as a symbol of black dependency and corruption.

Come down out of your Ivory Towers and stop trying to cover your ass. Most of us got into politics to help people. ACORN is doing that every day as well as they know how.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/142729/my_experience_with_acorn/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[Rookie120 0]

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http://www.alternet.org/...perience_with_acorn/

Oh great! No personal thought of your own. I knew he had to find a alternet comebcak! NICE

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

[dreamdancer 0]

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Could ACORN defunding bill strike military-industrial complex?

Overly-broad language used by lawmakers intending to pull government funding for community organizing group ACORN may have the unintended effect of forcing the government to also pull funds from much of the military-industrial complex, a Tuesday report revealed.

"The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to 'any organization' that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things," wrote Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grimm.

"In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops."

Mother Jones was quick to note that could mean any firm in the Project on Government Oversight's contractor misconduct database could be facing a removal of government funds -- including the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/could-acorn-defunding-bill-strike-military-industrial-complex/

stay away from moving propellers - they bite
blue skies from thai sky adventures
good solid response-provoking keyboarding

[jgoose71 0]

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and we turned in every card (after vetting them for fraud) even when the cards were for Republicans.

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We relied on my research to make sure we were registering more Democrats than Republicans. The goal was to achieve a 7:3 ratio, so that we'd net four votes for every 10 registrants. This was all compliant with election law.

I laughed so hard I cried, and then I laughed some more.


So does anyone remember if Mickey Mouse was registered as a Democrat or Republican?

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[mnealtx 0]

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and we turned in every card (after vetting them for fraud) even when the cards were for Republicans.

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We relied on my research to make sure we were registering more Democrats than Republicans. The goal was to achieve a 7:3 ratio, so that we'd net four votes for every 10 registrants. This was all compliant with election law.

I laughed so hard I cried, and then I laughed some more.


So does anyone remember if Mickey Mouse was registered as a Democrat or Republican?

Hell, I'm wondering how many times Teddy Kennedy will be registered in Chicago and New Orleans this coming year...

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[hwt 0]

We relied on my research to make sure we were registering more Democrats than Republicans. The goal was to achieve a 7:3 ratio, so that we'd net four votes for every 10 registrants. This was all compliant with election law.
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this group is supposed to be bipartisan as tax monies are payed to them by both Republicans and Democrats.. this clearly demonstrates that this group is corrupt as hell and needs to be investigated and disbanded. Blue Skies