Hannity's "Freedom" concert is a money scam
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
After weaving through voluminous amounts of carefully crafted, parsed language and following up on the reporting of news hounds and a daily kos diarist it appears that Sean Hannity and Oliver North are using the name of dead American soldiers to garner profits for a right wing organization masquerading as a charity.
Sean Hannity claims that his concerts are "to benefit the freedom alliance scholarship fund for the children of America's Military heroes featuring Country Music Stars Montgomery Gentry, Leann Rimes, and Lee Greenwood." A closer looks at the facts tell a different story.
For example, the following is the Hannity promotion of the recent concert in San Diego
WHERE: COORS AMPHITHEATRE IN CHULA VISTA, CA.
2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista, CA 91911
WHEN:Thursday - July 26, 2007 7:30 PM (Doors open at 5:30 PM)
TICKETS: Prices: $38.00 - $78.00 PURCHASE TICKETS ?
The following fees are included in the above ticket prices: $4.75 facility fee, $4.25 parking fee, and a $4.00 donation to the Freedom Alliance
So if we were to assume that the average ticket price was $50 (we'll err on the conservative side) then the organizers of this event are skimming $37 a person off the top, not including other paraphenelia. Of course there may be some expenses involved but how much is each person being paid? It also means that 92% of all moneys being paid by concert goers is NOT going to the families of soldiers. Hannity claims that "100% of the profits" go to the families. Again, note the use of the word "profits." By the time Hannity and the Freedom Alliance have taken out money for "expenses" profits are few and far between.
Now I'm being very tricky because you are probably saying to yourself that the piker Hannity only gives 8% of concert receipts to the families of soldiers. And you would be wrong. The number is less than 1% as you'll see later on.
Notice that the $4.00 donation goes to the Freedom Alliance NOT the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund.
Now you probably want to know what the Freedom Alliance is? (Hint: Think traitor, liar, and convicted felon.)
Freedom Alliance, an educational and charitable foundation, was founded in 1990 by LtCol Oliver L. North, who now serves as the organization's honorary chairman.
And is this group about helping military families or is it an ultra right wing political group?
While there has been a liberal domination of the institutions of the federal government, the media and college campuses, Freedom Alliance has worked diligently to educate concerned citizens across the nation to the dangers of a growing federal government and an expansion of international institutions whose policies and influence adversely impact U.S. policy. From the loss of American sovereignty to government restraints on individual liberty to the defense of our men and women in uniform, Freedom Alliance has been, and remains, at the forefront of the most important issues of our time. Public policy and education are only a part of the mission of Freedom Alliance.
A very small part of their organization is about the scholarship fund.
As the troops returned home from the Middle East, the work of Freedom Alliance continued. Four programs were instituted in the years that followed to assist the troops and their families. Freedom Alliance established the HEROES Scholarship Program to provide college scholarships to the children of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were killed during Operations Desert Shield or Desert Storm. This program continues today under the name, the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. Through these two programs, Freedom Alliance has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and helped hundreds of children of American military heroes achieve the dream of a college education.
And a fellow diarist came up with these numbers from a report he gained access to.
Statement of Functional Expenses-2006 (certain examples on 990 Form page 2) The 990 Report is 30 pages long.
$14,503,615 Net assets or fund balances at end of year:
$306,500 Scholarship Grants
$ 97,400 Grants and Contributions
$1,414,215 Printing and publications
$641,411 Consultations
$242,042 Compensations of current officers
$604,310 Salaries and wages not included above
$1,703,232 Postage and Shipping
$246,232 Educational Outreach Consultant
$457,622 Other Expenses
$9,098,290 Scholarship Fund at end of year
$791,555 Temporarily Restricted Net assets
So basically the group began the year with 14.5 million, spent $306,500 on scholarship grants (no guarantee they go to a worthy applicant, they go directly to the college which may or may not use it that way.) and ONLY $97,400 went directly to military families. And where's the rest of the money? So the Freedom Alliance at best gave anywhere from 2% to 8% of its expense money to children of military personnel who died in service. Using the high number, 8% of 8% is less than 1%. So there it is, LESS THAN 1% of the money from Sean Hannity's Scam Concert goes to helping the children of military families yet Hannity bills it as a concert to help these families.
The following are listed on the sites web page as staff of the "Freedom Alliance"
Thomas Kilgannon, President
Pepper Ailor, Program Officer
Helen Alford, Development Assistant
Catherine Charles, Programs Coordinator
Calvin Coolidge, Director of Programs
Jamie Critchfield, Staff Assistant
Janet Fallon, Event Coordinator
Marsha Fishbaugh, Administrative Assistant
Greg Foster, Researcher
Laurie Mooney, Development Officer, Foundations
Debbie Nicolette-Clark, Regional Development Officer
Jennifer Ohman, Director of Media and Public Affairs
Paul Olivett, Major Gifts Officer
Jennifer Pusatere, Director of Development
Kathy Rothschild, Development Officer
Shannon Sullivan, Development Officer, Events
Kelly Travis, Staff Assistant
Dee Wilgenbusch, Chief Operating Officer
Kilgannon made over $150,000 last year from the group. How much are the others being paid? Now look at the list of expenses again. 1.4 million for Printing and Publications? Who is getting that money? What about the $641,111 for "consultations" Is Hannity someone who was being consulted? Any of his minions? Then there's the $604,310 allegedly for salaries and wages not included above? Who is getting that money? What about the $457,622 for "other expenses." Is Hannity getting any of that?
There is absolutely nothing wrong, in and of itself, with any person, regardless of political philosophy, raising money for children who lost a parent at war. I will put aside the cruel ironies of how Hannity's policies in actions led to these deaths or how Republicans gut programs designed to help these children. (e.g. cutting scholarships and student loans)
This is about Sean Hannity and his "friends" using the names of dead soldiers to make a profit for himself, a couple of his fellow musicians, and Oliver North's corporation/charity. It's truly disgusting.
UPDATE: Thanks to all for your support and recommends. I listend to Hannity (so u don't have to) for a couple of hours today. He started the day by smearing Markos, claiming Markos favors killing contractors and consistently referring to Daily Kos as "daily kooks," "left wing bloggers" "hate mongers," etc. However Hannity never addressed this issue.
There's more. As picked up by a commenter below, the Freedom Alliance has been concealing the books and mastering the art of nondisclosure This is just more evidence (beyond the math) that something is very fishy.
There are still many things we haven't learned and may not be able to learn unless Freedom Alliance/Oliver North and Hannity and Friends exercise transparency and IMMEDIATELY release all related financial documents with their business enterprises and allow independent reporters to review these documents. But on the surface, this appears to be about money. The salaries? The postage? the printing? Not hard to smell a rat.
When you charge $50 for a ticket, send $4 of that to a group and then that group only spends a fraction of incoming revenues on the scholarship fund you purport is what your concert is about, you deserve this scrutiny.
Hannity is a snake oils salesman. Calling him out on it is easy.
============================================================ ============================================================ ==
Inflatable Dartboard: Rush Limbaugh Fleeces His Ditto-Heads
I was speaking to a good friend last night and we commenced our regular swapping of current and political events. If we were somehow transformed into Dungeons and Dragons characters, we would both be classified as 9th Level News Mongers. In other words, rarely do we catch each other off guard with an unknown news item.
Last night was an exception to that rule. My fellow news junkie floored me with the revelation of the Rush Limbaugh "Adopt A Soldier" program. Sounds benign and perhaps even honorable at first. Well, one should always be suspicious if Rush is involved. I offered up my laptop and he directed us to Rush's lair on the web. Sure enough, on his front page, there is a large graphic for the "Adopt A Soldier" scam.
Why is it a scam? Here's how it works... there are two buttons for you to click on. You choose button one if you want to adopt a soldier, click on button two if you are currently a soldier. Then the incredibly complex database matches a soldier with the kind donation of one of the charitable donors.
So what is it that these folks are donating? Could it be much needed body armor? Perhaps scraps of steel for their Hum Vees? Sand repelling lubricating oil for their guns? Tasty baked goods from nice little old ladies? What goodness is Rush spreading to the troops?
None of the above. The adopted soldier is the proud recipient of a annual subscription to Rush Limbaugh's "24/7" newsletter! How exciting and useful! What's more is that Rush only charges $49.95 to each donor for the subscription rate. In fact, he states that the $49.95 is a "reduced rate". How incredibly kind of him.
I've seen these newsletters at a ditto-head relative's house. They are very light on both content and pages, thus the term "newsletter" and not "magazine". I subscribe to a couple magazines and the subscriptions for both don't even come close to $49.95.
The only thing I can gather is that the printing company that prints this newsletter charges him an inflated fee because all the crap he writes about spurts, sprays and gunks up all the printing presses and equipment operators.
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
After weaving through voluminous amounts of carefully crafted, parsed language and following up on the reporting of news hounds and a daily kos diarist it appears that Sean Hannity and Oliver North are using the name of dead American soldiers to garner profits for a right wing organization masquerading as a charity.
Sean Hannity claims that his concerts are "to benefit the freedom alliance scholarship fund for the children of America's Military heroes featuring Country Music Stars Montgomery Gentry, Leann Rimes, and Lee Greenwood." A closer looks at the facts tell a different story.
For example, the following is the Hannity promotion of the recent concert in San Diego
WHERE: COORS AMPHITHEATRE IN CHULA VISTA, CA.
2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista, CA 91911
WHEN:Thursday - July 26, 2007 7:30 PM (Doors open at 5:30 PM)
TICKETS: Prices: $38.00 - $78.00 PURCHASE TICKETS ?
The following fees are included in the above ticket prices: $4.75 facility fee, $4.25 parking fee, and a $4.00 donation to the Freedom Alliance
So if we were to assume that the average ticket price was $50 (we'll err on the conservative side) then the organizers of this event are skimming $37 a person off the top, not including other paraphenelia. Of course there may be some expenses involved but how much is each person being paid? It also means that 92% of all moneys being paid by concert goers is NOT going to the families of soldiers. Hannity claims that "100% of the profits" go to the families. Again, note the use of the word "profits." By the time Hannity and the Freedom Alliance have taken out money for "expenses" profits are few and far between.
Now I'm being very tricky because you are probably saying to yourself that the piker Hannity only gives 8% of concert receipts to the families of soldiers. And you would be wrong. The number is less than 1% as you'll see later on.
Notice that the $4.00 donation goes to the Freedom Alliance NOT the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund.
Now you probably want to know what the Freedom Alliance is? (Hint: Think traitor, liar, and convicted felon.)
Freedom Alliance, an educational and charitable foundation, was founded in 1990 by LtCol Oliver L. North, who now serves as the organization's honorary chairman.
And is this group about helping military families or is it an ultra right wing political group?
While there has been a liberal domination of the institutions of the federal government, the media and college campuses, Freedom Alliance has worked diligently to educate concerned citizens across the nation to the dangers of a growing federal government and an expansion of international institutions whose policies and influence adversely impact U.S. policy. From the loss of American sovereignty to government restraints on individual liberty to the defense of our men and women in uniform, Freedom Alliance has been, and remains, at the forefront of the most important issues of our time. Public policy and education are only a part of the mission of Freedom Alliance.
A very small part of their organization is about the scholarship fund.
As the troops returned home from the Middle East, the work of Freedom Alliance continued. Four programs were instituted in the years that followed to assist the troops and their families. Freedom Alliance established the HEROES Scholarship Program to provide college scholarships to the children of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were killed during Operations Desert Shield or Desert Storm. This program continues today under the name, the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. Through these two programs, Freedom Alliance has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and helped hundreds of children of American military heroes achieve the dream of a college education.
And a fellow diarist came up with these numbers from a report he gained access to.
Statement of Functional Expenses-2006 (certain examples on 990 Form page 2) The 990 Report is 30 pages long.
$14,503,615 Net assets or fund balances at end of year:
$306,500 Scholarship Grants
$ 97,400 Grants and Contributions
$1,414,215 Printing and publications
$641,411 Consultations
$242,042 Compensations of current officers
$604,310 Salaries and wages not included above
$1,703,232 Postage and Shipping
$246,232 Educational Outreach Consultant
$457,622 Other Expenses
$9,098,290 Scholarship Fund at end of year
$791,555 Temporarily Restricted Net assets
So basically the group began the year with 14.5 million, spent $306,500 on scholarship grants (no guarantee they go to a worthy applicant, they go directly to the college which may or may not use it that way.) and ONLY $97,400 went directly to military families. And where's the rest of the money? So the Freedom Alliance at best gave anywhere from 2% to 8% of its expense money to children of military personnel who died in service. Using the high number, 8% of 8% is less than 1%. So there it is, LESS THAN 1% of the money from Sean Hannity's Scam Concert goes to helping the children of military families yet Hannity bills it as a concert to help these families.
The following are listed on the sites web page as staff of the "Freedom Alliance"
Thomas Kilgannon, President
Pepper Ailor, Program Officer
Helen Alford, Development Assistant
Catherine Charles, Programs Coordinator
Calvin Coolidge, Director of Programs
Jamie Critchfield, Staff Assistant
Janet Fallon, Event Coordinator
Marsha Fishbaugh, Administrative Assistant
Greg Foster, Researcher
Laurie Mooney, Development Officer, Foundations
Debbie Nicolette-Clark, Regional Development Officer
Jennifer Ohman, Director of Media and Public Affairs
Paul Olivett, Major Gifts Officer
Jennifer Pusatere, Director of Development
Kathy Rothschild, Development Officer
Shannon Sullivan, Development Officer, Events
Kelly Travis, Staff Assistant
Dee Wilgenbusch, Chief Operating Officer
Kilgannon made over $150,000 last year from the group. How much are the others being paid? Now look at the list of expenses again. 1.4 million for Printing and Publications? Who is getting that money? What about the $641,111 for "consultations" Is Hannity someone who was being consulted? Any of his minions? Then there's the $604,310 allegedly for salaries and wages not included above? Who is getting that money? What about the $457,622 for "other expenses." Is Hannity getting any of that?
There is absolutely nothing wrong, in and of itself, with any person, regardless of political philosophy, raising money for children who lost a parent at war. I will put aside the cruel ironies of how Hannity's policies in actions led to these deaths or how Republicans gut programs designed to help these children. (e.g. cutting scholarships and student loans)
This is about Sean Hannity and his "friends" using the names of dead soldiers to make a profit for himself, a couple of his fellow musicians, and Oliver North's corporation/charity. It's truly disgusting.
UPDATE: Thanks to all for your support and recommends. I listend to Hannity (so u don't have to) for a couple of hours today. He started the day by smearing Markos, claiming Markos favors killing contractors and consistently referring to Daily Kos as "daily kooks," "left wing bloggers" "hate mongers," etc. However Hannity never addressed this issue.
There's more. As picked up by a commenter below, the Freedom Alliance has been concealing the books and mastering the art of nondisclosure This is just more evidence (beyond the math) that something is very fishy.
There are still many things we haven't learned and may not be able to learn unless Freedom Alliance/Oliver North and Hannity and Friends exercise transparency and IMMEDIATELY release all related financial documents with their business enterprises and allow independent reporters to review these documents. But on the surface, this appears to be about money. The salaries? The postage? the printing? Not hard to smell a rat.
When you charge $50 for a ticket, send $4 of that to a group and then that group only spends a fraction of incoming revenues on the scholarship fund you purport is what your concert is about, you deserve this scrutiny.
Hannity is a snake oils salesman. Calling him out on it is easy.
============================================================ ============================================================ ==
Inflatable Dartboard: Rush Limbaugh Fleeces His Ditto-Heads
I was speaking to a good friend last night and we commenced our regular swapping of current and political events. If we were somehow transformed into Dungeons and Dragons characters, we would both be classified as 9th Level News Mongers. In other words, rarely do we catch each other off guard with an unknown news item.
Last night was an exception to that rule. My fellow news junkie floored me with the revelation of the Rush Limbaugh "Adopt A Soldier" program. Sounds benign and perhaps even honorable at first. Well, one should always be suspicious if Rush is involved. I offered up my laptop and he directed us to Rush's lair on the web. Sure enough, on his front page, there is a large graphic for the "Adopt A Soldier" scam.
Why is it a scam? Here's how it works... there are two buttons for you to click on. You choose button one if you want to adopt a soldier, click on button two if you are currently a soldier. Then the incredibly complex database matches a soldier with the kind donation of one of the charitable donors.
So what is it that these folks are donating? Could it be much needed body armor? Perhaps scraps of steel for their Hum Vees? Sand repelling lubricating oil for their guns? Tasty baked goods from nice little old ladies? What goodness is Rush spreading to the troops?
None of the above. The adopted soldier is the proud recipient of a annual subscription to Rush Limbaugh's "24/7" newsletter! How exciting and useful! What's more is that Rush only charges $49.95 to each donor for the subscription rate. In fact, he states that the $49.95 is a "reduced rate". How incredibly kind of him.
I've seen these newsletters at a ditto-head relative's house. They are very light on both content and pages, thus the term "newsletter" and not "magazine". I subscribe to a couple magazines and the subscriptions for both don't even come close to $49.95.
The only thing I can gather is that the printing company that prints this newsletter charges him an inflated fee because all the crap he writes about spurts, sprays and gunks up all the printing presses and equipment operators.
