Tired of knuckle dragging know-nothings spewing their own spittle and hatred at the news cameras with dark references to ACORN and Obama’s relationship to the group? Seriously fed up with these strident la-la-la I can’t hear you Republicans dodging issues and inserting ACORN in every argument about what caused the destruction of the world’s investment banking system?

Visit the ACORN site to find out more about the good work these people have done for years, helping poor and working class Americans find home loans, registering voters who have been marginalized (think: Katrina victims), and providing a grass roots voice for better education, health care, decent minimum wages, and an end to predatory lending practices.

It is clear to me why the corporate elite and the people they’re dragging along in the McPalin campaign want to strike at ACORN, to turn it into a dirty word. They want to block the group’s access to our new President and challenge him with the voice of their right-wing mob to listen no longer to the voices from the community.

We can’t have that. Read up on ACORN and educate these know-nothings so they come to understand more about the great work done by this grass-roots organization.

Maud Hurd, president of ACORN, writes:

“For almost a decade, ACORN, a community organization of 400,000 families in neighborhoods across the country, has been fighting against the predatory lending practices that have robbed our members of their homes, destabilized neighborhoods, and roiled the global economy.

“In his newest ad, John McCain’s campaign bizarrely claims, ‘ACORN forced banks to issue risky home loans, the same types of loans that caused the financial crisis we’re in today.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, ACORN has worked successfully to help working class families get good home loans on fair terms from legitimate banks and has fought vigorously against predatory lenders who have ripped off families in our communities. These predatory loans caused the crisis.

“For more than a decade, ACORN members have held protests, released reports, and advocated for regulations to protect homeowners from predatory lenders. ACORN organizers and volunteers have been working day and night to help victims of the GOP economic meltdown to save their homes from foreclosure. In fact, ACORN has brought class action lawsuits against several predatory lenders, and has lobbied the Federal Reserve and Congress in support of regulations against predatory lending. ACORN has even been successful in convincing many lenders to treat homeowners more fairly and help families be able to make their mortgage payments and save their homes.

“Unfortunately, the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans like John McCain have blocked the sensible regulations that ACORN and others proposed that would have averted the mortgage meltdown. If John McCain thinks that community organizers caused the foreclosure crisis, he knows even less about the economy than previously thought.

“John McCain and the Republicans are desperately trying to shift the blame for the economic crisis they caused with a philosophy of deregulation and indifference to homeowners. All the grainy footage and creepy music in the world can’t cancel out some simple, basic facts, and the facts about the economy are not on John McCain’s side.”

10-10-08 23:47