Thursday, July 31, 2008
Oil Companies Still Price Gouging During War
Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation. At the same time the US government had the largest debt in history. Is our government selling us out or just retarded?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Are gay's equal or of less value?
If you go to this page of the California Secretary of State's office, you will find a listing for campaign finance for all of California's various and sundry propositions and ballot measures.
But it gets better:
You will note the last link took you to the main page for Proposition 8 and lo and behold the major financiers for the campaign (pro and con) are all listed.
These pages truly are a treasure trove of information when you enter them.
What's so cool about these pages is you can download all of the campaign finance data on these organizations in an Excel Spreadsheet (see the little "download these results in excel" link)!
But it gets better:
You will note the last link took you to the main page for Proposition 8 and lo and behold the major financiers for the campaign (pro and con) are all listed.
These pages truly are a treasure trove of information when you enter them.
What's so cool about these pages is you can download all of the campaign finance data on these organizations in an Excel Spreadsheet (see the little "download these results in excel" link)!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Be Careful Of Where You Donate
The Los Angeles Times web site hosts a database that monitors the money spent by non-profit organizations to raise funds — and how little money was returned to the non-profit by the fund-raisers. (The database is limited to fund-raising reported to the state of California from 1997 to 2006.)
The database reports, for example, that Concerned Women for America’s education and legal action fund collected $14.7 million in gross revenue via for-profit fund-raisers during the decade.
However, CWFA only received $975,000 from its fund-raisers. It seems that more than a million dollars per year, or 93.4 percent of donations collected by for-profit fund-raisers and reported to California, went to the fundraisers, who were primarily:
InfoCision Management Corp., an Ohio telemarketing company with conservative-Christian and GOP clients,
MDS Communications Corporation, an Arizona/California outfit that also serves National Right to Life, FRC, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. (They also serve the global anti-hunger charity CARE — perhaps some polite letters to CARE are in order.)
Regency Communications, apparently a now-defunct Texas telemarketer that was tied to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Alliance and The Rutherford Institute
I understand that for-profit telemarketers don’t just raise funds; they charge fees to non-profits to conduct political advocacy, such as rallying members to call lawmakers about an antigay vote. CWFA donors expect their donations to be spent as described by the telemarketer, but CWFA’s for-profit fund-raisers can spend their majority share of the donated money any way they please. They can redirect non-profits’ fund-raising revenues — via discounts, pro bono work, and fresh donations — into partisan political campaigns. And non-profits can choose to overpay their fund-raising contractors, with the knowledge that the overpayment will benefit allies who use the same contractor.
In fact, there are vague signs of such a redistribution of donor cash at MDS Communications: While CWFA received an average 6.6 percent return from all reported for-profit fund-raisers, its returns from MDS are often negative: CWFA has repeatedly spent more than it received. Meanwhile, Family Research Council has enjoyed a 30.6 percent return on donations and National Right to Life has received returns of up to 50 percent from various MDS campaigns from 1997 to 2006.
In 2007 federal tax filings, CWFA reported $10 million in direct public support. While other organizations conduct their political advocacy in-house to maintain control of their message and conserve cash, CWFA paid its for-profit contractors more than $4 million in 2007 — $2.8 million of which appears have been for-profit political advocacy rather than pure solicitation.
The Los Angeles Times story focuses on excesses of charitable fund-raising, and so it does not report, nor even question, MDS’s fund-raising results for Democratic and GOP committees.
There is a strong and largely unregulated potential for cronyism among religious shell organizations; insiders who double-dip as employees and as contractors; fund-raisers; partisan political interests; and unrelated political causes (such as free trade) that would offend many donors to religious-right shell organizations.
Concerned Women for America isn’t alone in preying upon donors’ patriotism and concern for children while handing donations to cronies, according to the Times:
Among The Times’ findings:
More than 100 charities raised $1 million or more from commercial appeals but netted less than 25 cents per dollar. Fundraisers got the rest.
In 430 campaigns, charities got nothing: All $44 million donated went to fundraisers. In 337 of those cases, charities actually lost money, paying fees to fundraisers that exceeded the amount raised.
In hundreds of other campaigns, charities apparently entered into contracts that limited their share of donations to 20% or less, no matter how successful the campaign.
Groups with strong emotional or patriotic appeal — those supporting animals, children, veterans and public safety workers, for instance — often fared worst. Missing-children charities received less than 15% of more than $28 million raised on their behalf.
What additional restrictions, if any, are needed to prevent religious non-profit organizations from hiring fund-raisers that may siphon off donations for partisan political uses, out of sight of the donors?
And what more must be done to prevent religious organizations from abusing their tax-exempt status?
The database reports, for example, that Concerned Women for America’s education and legal action fund collected $14.7 million in gross revenue via for-profit fund-raisers during the decade.
However, CWFA only received $975,000 from its fund-raisers. It seems that more than a million dollars per year, or 93.4 percent of donations collected by for-profit fund-raisers and reported to California, went to the fundraisers, who were primarily:
InfoCision Management Corp., an Ohio telemarketing company with conservative-Christian and GOP clients,
MDS Communications Corporation, an Arizona/California outfit that also serves National Right to Life, FRC, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. (They also serve the global anti-hunger charity CARE — perhaps some polite letters to CARE are in order.)
Regency Communications, apparently a now-defunct Texas telemarketer that was tied to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Alliance and The Rutherford Institute
I understand that for-profit telemarketers don’t just raise funds; they charge fees to non-profits to conduct political advocacy, such as rallying members to call lawmakers about an antigay vote. CWFA donors expect their donations to be spent as described by the telemarketer, but CWFA’s for-profit fund-raisers can spend their majority share of the donated money any way they please. They can redirect non-profits’ fund-raising revenues — via discounts, pro bono work, and fresh donations — into partisan political campaigns. And non-profits can choose to overpay their fund-raising contractors, with the knowledge that the overpayment will benefit allies who use the same contractor.
In fact, there are vague signs of such a redistribution of donor cash at MDS Communications: While CWFA received an average 6.6 percent return from all reported for-profit fund-raisers, its returns from MDS are often negative: CWFA has repeatedly spent more than it received. Meanwhile, Family Research Council has enjoyed a 30.6 percent return on donations and National Right to Life has received returns of up to 50 percent from various MDS campaigns from 1997 to 2006.
In 2007 federal tax filings, CWFA reported $10 million in direct public support. While other organizations conduct their political advocacy in-house to maintain control of their message and conserve cash, CWFA paid its for-profit contractors more than $4 million in 2007 — $2.8 million of which appears have been for-profit political advocacy rather than pure solicitation.
The Los Angeles Times story focuses on excesses of charitable fund-raising, and so it does not report, nor even question, MDS’s fund-raising results for Democratic and GOP committees.
There is a strong and largely unregulated potential for cronyism among religious shell organizations; insiders who double-dip as employees and as contractors; fund-raisers; partisan political interests; and unrelated political causes (such as free trade) that would offend many donors to religious-right shell organizations.
Concerned Women for America isn’t alone in preying upon donors’ patriotism and concern for children while handing donations to cronies, according to the Times:
Among The Times’ findings:
More than 100 charities raised $1 million or more from commercial appeals but netted less than 25 cents per dollar. Fundraisers got the rest.
In 430 campaigns, charities got nothing: All $44 million donated went to fundraisers. In 337 of those cases, charities actually lost money, paying fees to fundraisers that exceeded the amount raised.
In hundreds of other campaigns, charities apparently entered into contracts that limited their share of donations to 20% or less, no matter how successful the campaign.
Groups with strong emotional or patriotic appeal — those supporting animals, children, veterans and public safety workers, for instance — often fared worst. Missing-children charities received less than 15% of more than $28 million raised on their behalf.
What additional restrictions, if any, are needed to prevent religious non-profit organizations from hiring fund-raisers that may siphon off donations for partisan political uses, out of sight of the donors?
And what more must be done to prevent religious organizations from abusing their tax-exempt status?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
McCain Is The Immoral One
Imagine, for one moment, that it had been Barack Obama instead of John McCain who had cheated on his wife by having multiple affairs. Suppose it was Barack Obama who had married his mistress, a younger heiress of a billion dollar beer empire only a month after the ink was dry on the divorce papers. Pretend it was Michelle Obama instead of Cindy McCain who had been so addicted to painkillers that she stole money from her own charity and had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The vilifications, smears, and berating from conservatives would be louder than a 747 takeoff. The castigating and crucifixions by the Limbaughs and O'Reillys of the world would never end. Faux piety and bellicosity from the pumped up blowhards in the religious right would flow harder than the flooding waters of the Mississippi.
But the Family Values Party has made new rules that even Woody Allen could love. "The heart wants what the heart wants." Judging the awful personal misconduct committed by a Republican is distasteful and off base. Judging the awful personal misconduct committed by a Democrat is the necessary application of social cost. It's the same Pharisaical stuff we should always expect, because when it comes to hypocrisy, Republicans are in high cotton in any season.
The vilifications, smears, and berating from conservatives would be louder than a 747 takeoff. The castigating and crucifixions by the Limbaughs and O'Reillys of the world would never end. Faux piety and bellicosity from the pumped up blowhards in the religious right would flow harder than the flooding waters of the Mississippi.
But the Family Values Party has made new rules that even Woody Allen could love. "The heart wants what the heart wants." Judging the awful personal misconduct committed by a Republican is distasteful and off base. Judging the awful personal misconduct committed by a Democrat is the necessary application of social cost. It's the same Pharisaical stuff we should always expect, because when it comes to hypocrisy, Republicans are in high cotton in any season.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Bush And Cheney Became The Communists They Hated
Bush and Cheney were just another example of what governments like the Communists will do to stay in power. Trainers for the US under their administration used a chart of torture techniques. What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.
The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Another Stupid Republican Idea To Reduce Gas Prices
Oil companies are price gouging like crazy during a time of war. Speculators are pushing up the price of oil because Republicans eliminated the capitol gains on their profits. Saudi Arabians and other muslim states are driving the US economy into the ground. All Republican Senator Warner can come up with is to require US citizens to limit their driving speed to 55 mph. You have got to be kidding. It was a terrible failure the first time it was tried.
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