By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--May 19, 2009
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
Following calls by a reform group known as the “ACORN 8,” many are rightly worried about the prospect of taxpayer money flowing to the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) for the stated purpose of counting Americans in the 2010 U.S. census. After all, this is the same group that couldn’t count to “1″ when registering voters during last year’s election. In Ohio, ACORN’s machine registered one man more than 70 separate times. But the group’s critics don’t face the same mathematical challenges. They have counted to at least 14 - the number of states investigating ACORN for voter registration and potential voter fraud. In the past month alone, the group has been named in complaints by at least two states. While much criticism is directed at ACORN, though, the problem is more complex. A group intended to better our communities is a thing that should be commended. Unfortunately, a small cadre of powerful but corrupt ACORN executives have warped the organization’s mission into a high-powered, big-money machine that treats its well-intentioned, idealistic staff horribly. Consider ACORN’s record for its staff: The group has sought minimum wage increases (yay!) but sued to get out of paying its own staff the minimum wage (boo!). ACORN campaigns for seven sick days a year but only gives its staff five. [...]
View Comments
Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
Visit the Subversion Inc. Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.