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                    Charity by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I have discussed some problems relating to Freedom Alliance, a right wing 'charitable organization' fronted by Fox News and its employees .

Freedom Alliance was founded in 1990 by Oliver North, who now serves as the organization's honorary chairman. We work to keep America strong, keep America prosperous, and keep America free. The mission of Freedom Alliance is to advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense.   http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=6590

Through the generosity of so many patriotic Americans, the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund will provide scholarships for thousands of young Americans, reminding them that their parents' sacrifice will never be forgotten by a grateful nation.  http://www.freedomalliance.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=22&Itemid=93

Now to be fair, Oliver North is a right wing fascist; a convicted felon who was able to translate his infamy into tens of millions of dollars over the past three decades by claiming to be on the side of patriotism and the soldier on the ground and truth and justice and the American way.  And of course he is teaming up with a right wing fascist Sean Hannity; an apologist for militias who advocate the violent overthrow of the United States Government.

So what is all the fuss all about?

Once upon a time there was a hateful racist right-wing blogger by the name of Debbie Schlussel whom I think became what she is partially as a result of taunts she received for her unspellable name when she was a youngster.  Oh, and if you do not believe she is a racist, half of her blogs deal with race cards and stuff.

A race card, by the way, has nothing to do with those fun car expositions you see on ESPN on the weekends.

Anyway, she got mad at sean and ollie. There is something in the background about this animosity but who cares, really? Maybe their charity would not purchase services and goods from her corporate fronts? The fact is that this right wing nut got mad at other right wing nuts and this right wing nut has more intellectual tools than Bachmann or palin. When Schlussel gets mad, she knows how to research an issue.

Suffice it to say that thousands of young Americans have not received scholarships from FASF as Sean and Ollie have contended. Something over a hundred young Americans have received scholarships over the past decade from this pretend charity; anywhere from a thousand bucks all the way up to six thousand bucks on an individual basis; really not enough money there to fund a good frat party when you think about it.

Our friend David Frum has attempted to bring reason to the analysis of this charity:

FrumForum has intensively investigated Freedom Alliance's 990 Forms, which have been submitted to the IRS and checked by an independent auditor. Debbie Schlussel alleges that only $1 million of the organization's $8.8 million in revenue was going to soldiers and scholarships in 2008. This figure is the product of a misleading and selective reading of the organization's tax forms.

The numbers that Schlussel cite refer to direct financial transfers to individuals - that is, if there is a direct grant that Freedom Alliance gives to a soldier. This does not include all the positive work that doesn't involve a direct grant. Freedom Alliance also spends money on non-cash benefits for military families, involving things like taking soldiers to sporting events and sending care packages to troops.

The highest paid employee earned $152,000 in 2006. The second highest paid employee earned $83,000. In 2007, Freedom Alliance spent about $1 in $7 on salary and benefits.

Total staffing costs may seem high, but they are not out of line with what is spent at many other charities. For example, the Armed Services branch of the YMCA spent about $1 in $2 on salaries and benefits in 2008.   http://www.frumforum.com/hannitized-is-sanitized

This little gem really got to me. I mean the right wing corporate shills go on and on and on about those damn unions. You know the ones that attempt to see that teachers receive salaries approximating the 'average' American wage of $44,000 a year. The unions that would like to see Walmart employees receive more than $7.00 an hour. The unions that demand benefits like health insurance for their members.

These same corporate shills attack even that seven bucks an hour because they do not like minimum wages. And yet paying employees of charities six times and eleven times the minimum wage is only fair. And I would like this issue researched further so that I may discover if these two employees have other jobs with other income; so that I may discover if these two employees are double or triple dippers; so that I may discover the employees blood relationship to Sean or Ollie, so that I may discover if other organizations owned by Sean and Ollie receive reimbursements from the 'charity' and so that I may discover why charitable frauds are not put in prison.

Oh and you see Frum, the writer of some of the worst speeches ever delivered by a President of the United States, decides that charities should be judged by some comparative shopping. I mean you find the absolute worst charities in the world and discover that maybe the right wing bastard charities are not that bad.

Oh and check out that line about non-cash benefits. What, are they sending our soldiers comic books or something? I am almost positive that cigs are out of the question now-a-days. Does Frum mean non-cash benefits like airline expenses for Ollie and Sean as well as their retinues? And what kind of non-cash benefits were received by 'staff' and 'consultants'? To be fair, the repub Frum does conclude that Sean and Ollie could work on improving their charity.

Oh and Frum does not address consulting fees which are more than payroll.

Oh and Frum cited those independent auditors. Boy those IA's really make me feel better. Look how well they fared in 2008!!!

• Continue reading

Responding to the complaints against the Freedom Alliance filed last Monday with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- alleging both consumer fraud and abuse of tax-exempt status -- the group's chairman, Tom Kilgannon, replied that there is "absolutely no merit to the scurrilous charges." His brief statement went on to promise that "the smear-mongers who have launched this politically motivated witch hunt against Freedom Alliance will be proven wrong as we aggressively defend ourselves in the days and weeks ahead." http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/

Boy that makes me feel better, I mean there can absolutely be no merit to the scurrilous charges. Remember, repubs always go through stages in these scandals. Just ask Duke Cunningham.

First, deny everything generally. It never happened.

Second, underline that it is the liberal press and liberal organizations that are simply attempting to make political gain from all this.  All my enemies are after me.

This always takes place before the subpoenas fly and after more information is revealed, the wrongdoer says something like: I aint no accountant or lawyer.  Then you find someone to throw under the bus and demonstrate remorse for what you had no knowledge of.  There are further steps in this process but we are still at the beginning of this investigation.

The CREW complaints, posted on the watchdog group's Web site, provide considerable detail about the facts uncovered in its investigation of Freedom Alliance. Among the documents cached on the site is a contract showing that proceeds from the concert tour are actually controlled by Premiere Marketing, a Tennessee speakers agency that represents Hannity and North, and its president, Duane Ward.

Although Kilgannon claims that his organization "not only meets, but exceeds standards of program efficiency set by most charity regulators," the gold standard is the American Institute of Philanthropy, whose grading of Freedom Alliance in recent years has been dismally low. AIP doesn't post the grades of the worst charities on its Web site, but in December 2009, according to CREW, the organization got a "D," the same as in December 2008 -- which represented only a slight improvement over the "F" it received in both December 2006 and December 2007.

When the FTC and the IRS take action on the complaints filed last Monday, the Freedom Alliance ledgers may at last be opened -- and its real relationships with Hannity, North, Premiere Marketing and a host of other political figures will be revealed.

This CREW is an interesting organization.  It knows how to investigate. It knows how to demand information through court orders as well as through the Freedom of Information act. It knows how to use courts in order to seek justice under our laws. Just as an aside, if you  have money left over after rent, cigs and beer; send it to CREW.

CREW's FTC complaint alleges Hannity and Freedom Concerts have engaged in illegal and deceptive marketing practices by suggesting that all money generated by ticket sales for the Freedom Concerts he sponsors each summer goes to scholarships for children of killed and wounded service members. In fact, the concerts are staged by Premiere Marketing, which is headed by Duane Ward - also the head of Premiere Speakers Bureau, which exclusively represents Mr. Hannity and Lt. Col. North. After staging the concerts, Premiere donates an unknown portion of the concert proceeds to the Freedom Alliance.

Hannity has promoted the concerts on his show, making statements such as, "Every penny, 100 percent of the donations are applied to the Freedom Alliance scholarship fund." Similarly, promoting the concert on Hannity's program, Lt. Col. North has said, "There's no overhead. There's no expenses taken out. Every penny that's donated or that's raised through things like the Freedom Concerts" goes to the scholarship fund." In addition, Hannity has pledged that all the proceeds of his new book, "Conservative Victory," will go to Freedom Alliance.

CREW's IRS complaint against Freedom Alliance asks the IRS to consider revoking its charitable tax status because the organization has engaged in prohibited political activities. When Freedom Alliance first formed in 1999, the IRS conditioned its charitable tax status on the organization removing politically partisan materials from its website and warned it not to intervene in political campaigns. Despite those warnings, Freedom Alliance's website includes links to Lt. Col. North's columns, which are largely political, rents its mailing list to a communications firm that works for organizations that "seek to reach Republicans and conservatives across the United States," and hosts an annual "Freedom Cruise" with Republican politicians such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. In addition, Freedom Alliance appears to have a relationship with Team America, a PAC formed by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), dedicated to anti-immigration efforts and supporting conservative candidates.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan stated, "There is little more despicable than preying upon the generosity of Americans by deceiving them into believing they are aiding the children of killed and wounded service members when the truth is most of the money is going to a for-profit venture." Sloan continued, "Americans deserve to know whether this high-profile charity allegedly dedicated to helping veterans and their families is really doing what it says it is."

Jon Soltz, the Chair of VoteVets.org said, "If not every dime is going to those who wore the uniform, then people have the right to know that. It really is that simple. There are many wonderful charities to help troops and veterans that are completely transparent and truthful about where their donations go. If Sean Hannity and Freedom Alliance are being untruthful, that hurts all those other charities, because it only causes people to hold back donations to worthy causes in the future. We need to get to the bottom of this, quickly, and the FTC and IRS must take any corrective action that's deemed necessary."

Read CREW's complaints and citations in the Related Documents section on the right.  http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/44511

These links not only quote people like Sean and Ollie and Gary Sinese (Now I know why I always hated that guy) as saying that when you buy a ticket to one of their sponsored concerts, EVERY DIME GOES TO THE SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS, when in fact only a $4.00 'surcharge' actually goes to the charity while the other sixty or seventy bucks goes to.....whatever.

Apparently, the unseemliness of it all has not escaped the attention of Col. North, if not Mr. Hannity.

While those buying tickets think all of the proceeds of the concerts go to the Freedom Alliance, in fact, none of the proceeds go to the charity, only the $4 surcharge.  The source confirmed that Premiere paid for Hannity (out of Freedom Concerts revenue) to fly to many of the concerts on private jets, along with his entourage, and the source confirms the conversation I described in my report last week, in which North scolded Hannity for wasting so much of the Freedom Concert money on private jets, swanky suites, and luxe SUVs. The source is the second source to confirm the conversation. The particular conversation cited took place in 2008, and there were several witnesses to it, including one of Hannity's radio producers, who is married to Oliver North's former personal assistant. Don't look for her to tell the truth . . . if either of them ever wants to work again. Via Debbie Schlussel

Patriotic donors cannot say they weren't warned: The four-star rating of Freedom Alliance by Charity Navigator, an independent and nonpartisan Web site that rates charitable organizations, has dropped precipitously from four stars to two stars. The abrupt downgrade occurred within two days after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed complaints against the Freedom Alliance with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service, alleging consumer fraud and abuse of tax-exempt status.

The complaints also named Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Oliver North Jr., who run Freedom Alliance and the Freedom Concerts that have raised millions of dollars over the past decade.

Freedom Alliance has often boasted of its high ratings from charitable watchdog groups, specifically citing the four stars awarded by Charity Navigator to bolster its credentials as a benefactor of military veterans and their families. That generous assessment was particularly valuable because another major rating agency, the American Institute of Philanthropy, has long treated Freedom Alliance with deep skepticism.

The four-star rating that Freedom Alliance formerly enjoyed, according to Charity Navigator's Web site, indicates that a charity is "Exceptional" and "Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause." By contrast, a two-star rating means that a charity "Needs Improvement" and "Meets or nearly meets industry standards but underperforms most charities in its Cause." The latter phrase, while far from glowing, may yet be rather charitable to Freedom Alliance. Naturally, the CREW Web site's blog noted the down-rating of its target and snarked:

Less than a week ago, Freedom Alliance proudly displayed Charity Navigator's logo on its website, boasting of its four-star rating. Now that logo has been removed   http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/04/02/watchdog/

I wish to underline why I am following this story. We must, on the left, seek out and discover ALL OF THE SINS OF THE RIGHT WING BASTARDS WHO CONTROL THIS COUNTRY AS WELL AS THE INFORMATION THAT IS DISSEMINATED TO THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY.

Rover was a genius at this technique as are the repub bastards at Fox. Every single right wing bastard must be investigated for his or her own sins. Clinton knew this and that is how he survived impeachment. If the enemy claims you are a sexist prick who screws anything that walks, find all the bastards on the other side guilty of the same sins.

The right wing propagandists do not care about the soldier on the ground or about the average Joe or about fairness. The right wing propagandists worry primarily about their pocketbooks and about spewing out lies in support of their corporate contributors.And the right wing propagandists do not give one shite about charity. They never have.

There is a propaganda war going on out there. And we must pull our weight by investigating all the liars and PROVING where their interests really lie.