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  2. 2

    In non-con artist news, there sure are nice folks in Iowa!

    http://wcco.com/wireapnewsia/I.....77746.html
    Iowa Police Officer Buys Car Seat For Motorist
    UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Iowa (AP) ― A University Heights police officer worried about an unrestrained child in a vehicle he pulled over purchased the boy’s mother a car seat.

    Officer Don Strong said he spotted the boy bouncing in the back of the vehicle while on traffic enforcement duty on Thursday. Strong says the boy’s mother told him they had an 80-mile drive to Knoxville and no way to secure the child.

    After trying to locate a car seat elsewhere, Strong and the family went to the Walmart in Iowa City and the officer bought a car seat for the boy.

    Strong says the $60 cost was “a small price to pay for the child’s safety.”

  4. 4

    Kudos to the folks at DFW!
    I hope these guys rot in jail for a while.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....cation=rss

    By Craig Welch
    Seattle Times environment reporter
    They huddled in the bushes after dark, peering through the grass to spy on shellfish gatherers.

    A dozen times over seven months, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers camped at night on the shores of Hood Canal, keeping tabs on men they suspected of poaching hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of oysters.

    One night the wind and waves were so rough, the oyster harvesters flipped over their homemade barge, spilling 450 bags of fresh shellfish into the drink.
    …

    Thursday, a months-long investigation into the alleged illegal harvest of oysters and clams culminated in the arrest of two Jefferson County men and the search of a Quilcene Bay shellfish company, G&R Quality Seafood.

  5. 5

    @2; That is a great story. Kids safe and the family is on the way instead of in a cell somewhere.

    On topic; Why is this surprising? Hannity is just a worthless con man. Of course he’s living it up on the backs of the servicemen, he cares nothing for anyone in the military.

  6. 6

    @3
    Part of Schlussel’s response to Hannity’s claim of innocence.

    Scroll to the bottom of the page for the rebuttal.

    http://www.debbieschlussel.com.....or-vannity

    In fact, the Freedom Alliance “response” doesn’t answer any of the questions I raised and goes on to lie more. They don’t address why they gave a triple amputee only $200—and in fact there are many of these examples provided in their tax return addendum, but I only cited a few for brevity’s sake. They also lie and claim that they gave a lot more money to charity b/c they categorize it as “program expenses.” But I’m sorry—calling $3 million in consulting fees, printing, and postage “program expenses” doesn’t change the fact that it still went to their cronies, not to a fund and not the soldiers who only got on average less than $900 apiece. It also doesn’t change the fact that out of the money spent (I didn’t use the money they claim they raised for their scholarship fund) the vast majority goes to those kinds of expenses.

    So, we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out. It shouldn’t take long.

  8. 8

    Well, that’s the Right for you. Hannjob Hannity probably had good intentions, but the people he hired to do the work seemed to think of themselves as their own charitable cause. Kinda reminds me of those Tea Party Express nuts that wound up fleecing the faithful (and convincing a lot of folks that the Teepers are merely another for-profit venture).

  9. 9

    Uhhh…Puddy?

    So an organization proclaims their own innocence? Never seen that before!

    What are “Program Activities?” That’s the lion’s share of their budget. If this is to believed, the concerts put on cost under $1 million as “fundraising.” SO you trucked all the artists gear (truckers and roadies don’t work free) rented mid-sized arenas, dealt with a ticket selling and venue security as well as dressing room amenities for under $1,000,000?

    Puddy, you really are a credulous fool aren’t you? I’m betting anything related to putting on a program (i.e. concert) is under the umbrella.

    Of course they could open their books to a public auditor to deal with this. (Bwaaa-ha-ha-ha.)

  10. 10

    Crap, I can’t believe this. Sean Hannity, milking the charity tit? Please, tell me it ain’t so. Sean has always been such a pillar of righteousness and honesty. I can’t believe he would care about money or take advantage of the disadvantaged.

  11. 11

    From the story Lee linked to:

    “In fact, less than 20% – and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively – of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses ….”

    This is typical of conservative fund-raising. Several years ago, the Seattle Times (which was still a newspaper back then) did a story on the College Republicans’ fundraising scams that bilked elderly people of their life savings. It was the same thing, nearly all the money went to professional fundraisers, and very little to what the donors thought they were supporting:

    “Response Dynamics, its affiliates and other companies related to the fund raising get most of the money raised by the College Republicans. About $9 million of the College Republicans’ reported spending this year appeared to go into fund-raising expenses, according to a Times analysis of reports filed with the IRS. … The large amount of money devoted to fund raising … is unusual among the top ranks of the burgeoning field of so-called 527 independent political groups.”

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....bs28m.html

    If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that most of the money never gets spent on the conservative causes it was meant for. It just lines the fundraisers’ pockets.

  12. 12

    @3 Hmmm … since we have conservatives on both sides of this argument, regardless of which one you believe, a conservative is lying.

  14. 14

    Not like proud goatist. Conservatives disagree all the time. When DUMMOCRAPTS do it they castigate them and threaten them with reprisals.

  15. 15

    @3
    Um, you might want to read the post I linked to. Not even Oliver North’s attempts to whitewash this con job address what the author of that blog post found simply by looking up tax records.

    Of course, sincere thanks go to you, Puddy, for demonstrating why these people are so easily able to con people as dumb as you.

  16. 16

    @9
    Puddy, you really are a credulous fool aren’t you?

    Arguably the most credulous fool I’ve encountered in my entire life. He learned that the tooth fairy wasn’t real after he asked his dentist for his wisdom teeth back – when he was 25.

  17. 17

    Ah, c’mon, Lee,
    Let’s not make Puddy feel unwelcome. We need our trolls to post here to expose us to the incredible nonsense that’s out there. Okay, I guess we get exposed just by opening our eyes in the morning. Oh well.

  18. 18

    @17
    Yeah, they’re good for a few laughs, but I prefer engaging with conservatives who actually have a few functioning brain cells (there are definitely a few out there).

    BTW, another post on the scandal here.

  19. 19

    @16

    The whole thing makes me laugh. The more the Ollie’s and Puddy’s of the world protest the deeper the rest of us will dig and the last thing the Ollie’s and the Puddy’s need is us digging in around in those 990’s and whatever tax forms FA has to file with the state of Virginia.

  21. 21

    http://www.tax.virginia.gov/si.....TExemption
    To qualify for an exemption, a nonprofit organization must meet all of the following criteria:

    The annual administrative costs of the organization, including salaries and fundraising, may not exceed 40 percent of its annual gross revenue as determined under generally accepted accounting principles.

  22. 22

    Gotta love that Michele Bachmann.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02556.html

    Protesters outside the Capitol hurled epithets at Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.) as they left the building after President Obama delivered an 11th-hour speech on behalf of the health care bill. Carson told reporters that protesters yelled “kill the bill,” then used a racial epithet to describe Carson and Lewis, who is a revered figure on both sides of the aisle.

    According to observers, Frank was confronted by about 100 protesters inside the Longworth House Office Building, where Democrats were huddling for another meeting about the legislation. Some targeted Frank with anti-gay epithets and urged him to vote against the bill.

    The incidents followed a noontime protest on the west side of the Capitol that drew several thousand people from around the country for a “Code Red” rally against the health-care bill. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) addressed the crowd.

  23. 23

    Oliver North is still a hero of the radical right? For fuck’s sake. What does that say? He was always a buffoon, a liar, a dimwit, and, ultimately, a felon. Yet, wingnuts still give him money? That is why wingnuttia is going to lose. Its heroes ain’t heroes.

  24. 24

    The Enemy Is Us

    A lot of politician-bashing goes on in this blog, and let’s face it, the pols have it coming. But we’ve somewhat neglected another batch of guilty people: The voters pols pander to. Jacob Weisberg writes in Newsweek:

    “In trying to explain our political paralysis, analysts cite President Obama’s tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, and the Senate filibuster …. [T]hat list neglects what may be the biggest culprit of all: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.

    “Anybody who says you can’t have it both ways hasn’t been spending much time reading opinion polls lately. One year ago, 59 percent of the American public liked the economic stimulus plan, according to Gallup. A few months later … a majority of the same size said Obama was spending too much money on it.

    “There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, of course, but polls reflect something more troubling: a country that simultaneously demands and rejects action on unemployment, deficits, health care, and other problems.

    “Some say that the public is in an angry, populist, tea-partying mood. But a lot more people are watching American Idol than Glenn Beck, and our collective illogic is mostly passive rather than militant. The better explanation is that the public lives in Candyland, where government can tackle the big problems and get out of the way at the same time.

    “In this respect, the whole country is becoming more and more like California, where the state’s bonds have dropped to an A- rating (the same level as Libya’s) thanks to a referendum system that allows the people to be even more irresponsible than their elected representatives.”

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/233158

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: This theme isn’t new to me. I’ve realized for a long time that one of America’s most powerful cultural influences is the urge to get something for nothing. Detroit has capitalized on this tendency by selling $2,000 rebates for $2,500. Politicians know higher taxes are always more unpopular than higher deficits. Want to blame someone? Blame the fools with the “Keep Government’s Hands Off My Medicare!” signs.

  26. 26

    “A recent survey reveals that a startling 37 percent of the country’s workforce — some 54 million people — have bosses who scream at them, belittle them, sabotage their work, and are otherwise aggressive.”

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/218460

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: The master-servant employment relationship is obsolete and should be abolished. Everyone should be an entrepreneur and sell their labor at B2B rates. When workers have to provide their own education and training, tools and transportation, health care and retirement, no one should work for less than $50 an hour.

  27. 27

    Rabbit,
    We are not a thoughtful group of people. Americans, or at least too many of us, disdain thinking, evidence, reality. You have said, at times, that liberals must arm. I have repeated that to others, partly because I’m a rednecked leftist who can hit a target and partly because I think it is a call to polemical arms. The level of stupidity that we see in our nation’s political debates–Beck, Bachmann, Palin–does not inspire optimism.

  29. 29

    How Republicans Helped Government Take Over Health Care

    There’s been a government takeover of health care, all right, but it wasn’t Democrats who did it:

    “In 1990, health care expenditures in the United States were split, 60-40, between the private and public sectors. By 2000, the ratio had fallen to 55.9-44.1. In other words, in the 1990s, a period in which Republicans controlled the House for six years, the share of health spending controlled by the government rose by 10 percent. The trend continued in the period from 2000 to 2008, when Republicans controlled the White House and largely controlled Congress. … By 2008 … private health care expenditures had fallen to 52.7 percent and public had risen to 47.3 percent. In pretty much every year of the Bush administration, the government ‘took over’ a greater chunk of the health care sector. … So, to reiterate, we’re already half way toward fully socialized medicine. The government has already taken over one-twelfth of the economy—and more every day. That’s the status quo the opponents of reform are defending.”

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/234745

  30. 30

    28
    Evan Bayh whimped out. A couple decades ago, I thought his father would have been a good president. Evan hasn’t the balls. I think this nation is to the left of what the commentators claim. Bayh is to the right of that. He knows that. So, it’s time to make some money. I don’t blame him for that. Godspeed, Bayh, and all of that.

  31. 31

    @25 Here’s a little gem I picked out of that blog that illustrates all too well the mentality we’re up against:

    “Mr. Kunstler,

    “My boy gave me a copy of your book, The Long Emergency. I won’t look at it because I don’t believe in conspiricies.

    “If this peak oil nonsense was true, don’t you think the Bush/Cheney people would of told us?
    Not that I’m a big fan of them, but, wake up!!- they were IN the oil business. You think they would of known.

    “And if they knew and it was as big a deal as my boy says you say it is, then they have to tell us.

    “If the president and his folks keep something like that secret, I mean, why would they? I just don’t swallow that kind of conspiricy bullshit. It doesn’t make no sense.

    “So, you and your UFO, 2012, 911 inside job nutcases should maybe leave the United States and go someplace where they want you.”

    http://www.kunstler.com/Grunt_hate_mail.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Yeah, I see what the guy means, if there was a big problem Bush and Cheney would tell us. Silly us.

  33. 33

    @25 (continued) Hey, that Kunstler guy gets really good hate mail. How come I don’t? I guess I don’t know the right haters.

    “It must be sad for you at seventy years of age to be pussy whipped by a woman infinitely more talented and beautiful than you could ever hope to be.”

    (Same link as @31)

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: I doubt this Kunstler guy ever was “beautiful,” even when he was 21. I know I wasn’t. I’ve been called a lot of things, but nobody ever called me “beautiful.”

  35. 35

    Why does equivalent medical care cost 10 times more in America than Argentina?

    Probably because, “Most Americans have no idea how much their health care really costs, nor do they know how well it really works, compared with, say other places, practices or countries.”

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/234319

  37. 37

    Debunking Lomborg — Again

    Remember Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, a book much-loved by conservatives?

    (After all, a wheelbarrow load of footnotes is all it takes to infatuate pseudo-intellectuals.)

    Well, someone got around to fact-checking Lomborg’s latest book, Cool It, and found problems:

    “As an experiment, I looked up one of his footnotes, found that it didn’t support what he said, and then did another, and kept going, finding the same pattern.” He therefore took on … checking every one of the hundreds of citations in Cool It. Friel’s conclusion … is that Lomborg is “a performance artist disguised as an academic.”

    I’ll let you read the rest for yourself:

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/233942

  39. 39

    Could Snowe’s ‘No’ Vote Cost Her Senate Seat?

    The answer appears to be “yes” — if Democrats come up with a strong challenger. Snowe gamed health care reform, and her constituents don’t like it. By pretending to negotiate a compromise with Democrats, she “left the proposals sitting for months like roadkill to be picked apart by vultures.” And even though Democrats met her top demand — removing the public option, she voted against it anyway.

    That won’t sit well in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, and polls show Snowe gets more support from Democrats than Republicans. Here are some other reasons why her vote against health reform may make her the most vulnerable GOP senator:

    Maine is a poor state where most people are struggling.

    Maine has a health insurance monopoly.

    The monopoly insurer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, just raised rates by 23%.

    Polls show Mainers strongly support health care reform, including the public option, which means Snowe voted against the wishes of the vast majority of her constituents.

    Doing so makes her look like she takes orders from Republican leaders instead of representing the voters who elected her.

    Recent polls show her approval ratings plunging. Already reviled by Republicans as a compromiser, she now is reviled by Democrats as well.

    Bottom line: “Olympia Snowe is not going to waltz into re-election.”

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....rop21.html

  40. 40

    Lee seems to believe everything posted on the internet…at least everything that attacks Conservatives. C’mon Lee…Hannity makes a fortune and has actually CONTRIBUTED $200,000 to the organization you claim he is illegally taking money.

    If you want to talk about a real shakedown artist…how about the REVEREND JESSES JACKSON?

    Puddy posted the link responding-
    Here are the key elements.

    False Accusations
    The blog posting accuses our friend Sean Hannity of personally benefiting from Freedom Alliance. This

    1. is FALSE. Freedom Alliance has never provided planes, hotels, cars, limos, or anything else to Sean. Sean gets nothing from Freedom Alliance except our gratitude for his personal generosity and for all he has done to help the troops and our organization. We have never had to ask Sean for anything, he always generously offers his help before we have a chance to ask him. But to be clear Sean pays for all his own transportation, hotels, and all related expenses for himself and his family and friends and staff, which over the years has added up to tens of thousands of dollars. He does not use any Freedom Alliance Funds or Concert funds in any way, period.
    Sean Hannity has contributed $100,000 to the Wounded Warriors Foundation, over $200,000 to them
    2. Freedom Alliance, and over tens of thousands of dollars to other military charities and individuals. We only make this information public because of the outrageous slander against him. Sean has no management or operational involvement in, or control over, Freedom Alliance. He has been a selfless patriot in his efforts to raise funds for the education of children of armed services personnel.
    The blog posting accuses Freedom Alliance of spending less than 20% of money raised on program
    3. activities. This is FALSE. Listed below are the amounts that Freedom Alliance spent for each of the past three years and the categories on which they were spent. The figures are taken from our Federal Form 990 which is filed with the Internal Revenue Service and posted on our web site and audited by an independent auditor using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. This financial

  41. 41

    Cynical, as much as it shocks Puddy to do it… Media Morons has the correct take…

    “Unfortunately, Schlussel doesn’t provide any documentation for the assertion that Freedom Alliance claimed in writing that 100 percent of donated funds would go to scholarships, so we don’t know if it’s true.

    Schlussel’s characterizations and assertions need to be taken with more than a grain of salt — they require an entire salt lick, at least. But her numbers seem to check out. If her assertions that Hannity has made false claims in raising money for the charity are also true, that would be scandalous.” Emphasis Puddy

    To THE DUMB BUNNY… there is that magic word IF.

    To Lee, Proud Goatist and the rest of the moronic crew… Merry Fitzmas comes to mind.

    And Schleussel uses “an unnamed source”. How many times has this blog ran with a story only to have it proven wrong. Marcelas and Tifanny are in the immediate past. Or Dave Bing using “Porkulus Funds” for Detroit Urban Renewal in 2009.

  42. 42

    Oliver North and Sean Hannity, scam artists exploiting the military, using troops and their families as cannon fodder? Whod’ve thunk it?

  43. 43

    Hey Cyn…

    @40. This is why you keep getting your posts deleted. Puddy (@3) posted a LINK to the long bit of text that you cut and pasted without citing a source. Maybe you didn’t want anyone to know that your source for the claim that Freedom Alliance is legit is Freedom Alliance themselves?

    Fair use = quote briefly, cite source.

  44. 44

    @40

    This play out one of two ways.
    1. Hannity is a con artist
    2. Schlussel is a liar.

    It’s a win/win situation for us.

  45. 45

    Schlussel’s a right winger..

    I thought according to the “real americans” (the degenerate right wing trolls) – EVERYTHING from right wing pundits and other sources like that is supposed to believed over the NY Times, the WAPO, etc…

    Guess not. Not if it undermines the wretched “cause”..

    Ho hum…

  46. 46

    So, according to the foundation, Hannity doesn’t have anything to do with it, other than making contributions and offering support where he pays his own way. I have no idea whether that is true or not.

    The key is that the foundation’s e-mail emphasized money spent on “programs”, but did not address the issue of actual money given to beneficiaries. The questioned expenses could have been wrapped up into “program expenses” – a simple accounting device which sometimes divides up “administrative expenses” between various programs. Nothing wrong with using that accounting device – it is sometimes helpful to guage how cost-effective a specific program actually is. But it can also be used to disperse and hide what are, effectively, administrative expenses.

    The usual way a charity gets away with this is to include “education” or “raising awareness” as one of their goals. Under those words, just about any travel literature, or mailing could qualify. Even fundraising mailings could be called a “program expense” if a susbstantial portion of the mailing “raises awareness” of the need for efforts in the targeted area.

    I would have expected the foundation’s response to have at least spent as much time listing actual benefits given to veterans or their families as they did in defending Hannity’s reputation. There mere reliance upon the phrase “program expenses” indicates a weakness in that area.

    Even if Hannity didn’t know about the poor performance of this charity, he should have before he attached his name and prestige to it. It would be one thing if he simply gave them a check, but before he endorses a charity he needs to check them out thoroughly – at least a simple check of the tax filings which were available to the writer of the article.

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