Changes

[[File:ACORN.jpg|right]]

[[File:ACORN.jpg|right]]

The '''Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now''' ('''ACORN''') is "the largest radical group in America,"<ref name=kurtz-inside> [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI= Inside Obama’s Acorn: By their fruits ye shall know them] - Stanley Kurtz</ref>

The '''Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now''' ('''ACORN''') is a left-wing activist group supposedly geared to helping the poor achieve jobs and control over their communities. Founded in Arkansas in 1970, ACORN advocates for higher minimum wages, access to affordable housing and increased voter registration in low-income communities.

working "to take over the system from within, rather than futilely try to overthrow it from without."<ref name=kurtz-inside-2> [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=&w=MQ== Kurtz, page 2]</ref>

"Though Acorn touts living-wage laws as a way to lift the [[working poor]] into the [[middle class]], the vast body of academic work on [[wage laws]] shows that they end up hurting the poor by forcing businesses to eliminate some [[low-wage jobs]]. Acorn's own leadership understands this principle perfectly. When California regulators sued Acorn for not paying its own workers the minimum wage, Acorn argued that this would endanger its mission—because it would have to hire fewer workers."<ref name=squash>[http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-acorn_squash.htm Manhattan Institute]]</ref>

ACORN has been a top target for conservatives because of its liberal agenda. [[Barack Obama]] worked as an attorney for the group in Chicago in the 1990s.

 

Stanley Kurtz calls it "the largest radical group in America,"<ref name=kurtz-inside> [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI= Inside Obama’s Acorn: By their fruits ye shall know them] - Stanley Kurtz</ref>

working "to take over the system from within, rather than futilely try to overthrow it from without."<ref name=kurtz-inside-2> [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=&w=MQ== Kurtz, page 2]</ref> 

ACORN tried to help elect Obama in 2008, but nearly a third of the 1.3 million voters it registered were rejected as fraudulent.

 

In Sept. 2009 FoxNEWS showed videos of ACORN workers in several cities, including New York, Baltimore and Washington, giving advice to two conservative investigators who posed as a prostitute and her pimp and said that they wanted to buy a house and run it as a brothel with underage teenage girls smuggled in from Central America.  Happy to help, ACORN staffers gave practical advice on how to evade taxes and conceal the nature of the illegal business.

 

Reeling from revelations of systematic fraud in both election registration and community development programs, ACORN saw both Houses of Congress vote to cut off federal funds, and the Census Bureau reject its help. Many states and cities are considering similar punishment. It shuttered 40% of its centers in cities including Chicago, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Omaha, and is not taking new clients in the centers that remain open in low-income neighborhoods.<ref> P.J. Huffstutter and Kate Linthicum, [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-acorn19-2009sep19,0,6183518.story "ACORN scaling back or shutting down in many cities," ''Los Angeles Times'' Sep. 19, 2009]</ref>

==Harassment of corporations==

==Harassment of corporations==

The group considers itself the nation’s largest community organization and has the full support of then [[Democratic]] Presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]]. ACORN is a partner of the [[liberal]] coalition [[America Votes]]. <ref>[http://www.americavotes.org/site/partner_summaries/ America Votes - Partners]</ref> American Votes is a coalition member of the [[Shadow Party]]. <ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.com Discover The Networks]</ref>

The group considers itself the nation’s largest community organization and has the full support of then [[Democratic]] Presidential candidate [[Barack Obama]]. ACORN is a partner of the [[liberal]] coalition [[America Votes]]. <ref>[http://www.americavotes.org/site/partner_summaries/ America Votes - Partners]</ref> American Votes is a coalition member of the [[Shadow Party]]. <ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.com Discover The Networks]</ref>

==Founding organization==

==Founding organization==