How to Create a Children’s Charity, by Tom DeLay
How to Create a Children’s Charity, by Tom DeLay
Rep. Tom DeLay, speaking last night about the grand opening of a new foster home paid for by the DeLay Foundation for Kids, on Fox News:
We’re trying to set an example. Government cannot raise children. That’s the biggest problem. Community and people raise children. And that’s what we’re trying to do, is to build a model that, frankly, we can take around the country.
Towards this end, we’ve pin-pointed some of the important strategic moves Tom DeLay has made in building his own successful foundation. Pay attention charity organizers!
Step #1: Reach Out to Warm-Hearted Oil and Energy Executives
DeLay is not required to name his charity’s supporters. But tax and online records reveal that the donors include ExxonMobil, Southern Company, and SBC. … The Delay Foundation has always raised money by soliciting corporations. In its application for nonprofit status from the IRS in 1987, three years after DeLay was elected to Congress, it declared, “The initial fund-raiser will be a gala evening with a buffet, cocktails, dancing, and a short program. . . .The costs of the event are being solicited from corporate contributions by officers and directors.” [Boston Globe, 6/12/05]
Step #2: Have Jack Abramoff Trade Donations for Political Access
Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist being investigated by the Department of Justice for fraud, donated to the foundation and, according to a recent report in the National Journal, persuaded clients to do the same by telling them it was a way to get in the good graces of Tom and Christine DeLay. [Boston Globe]
Step #3: Hire Major Right-Wing Donors As Building Contractors
Since 2002, the foundation’s biggest goal has been to build a prototype residential care facility for foster children on 50 acres it owns in Fort Bend County, Texas, in suburban Houston. … Bob Perry, the Texas contractor who last year provided the seed money for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is building the facility for “cost.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/25/05]
Step #4: Say Next to Nothing About the Kids Your Charity is Helping
Only one sentence in the [Celebrations for Children] foundation’s 13-page brochure mentioned the recipients of the aid. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Step #5: The More Golf Tournaments With Corporate Execs, The Better:
During the past five years, [the charity] has raised money primarily through golf tournaments where DeLay, 58, and other GOP House leaders have spent hours on the greens with business groups who paid large sums to participate. … There are almost no restrictions on what corporations can give to nonprofits connected to politicians, making nonprofits one of the few avenues by which companies can give vast sums since the passage of a campaign-finance reform law in 2002. [Boston Globe]
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This reminds me of an incident in San Diego back in 1988. My next door neighbor knocked on our door with a children’s charity brochure, after wee gave a couple of bucks she proceed to tell us she was also with the Bush campaign. I could not believe the audacity of this bait and switch tactic, but alas it is now GOP SOP.
August 9th, 2005 at 12:51 pmMe thinks he may just have been too greedy, even for repubs. One can only take so much out of the candy jar, before one gets noticed. He’s like a child that thinks no one can see him. Go back to killing, eating or whatever in the hell you did with the roaches and rats you used to work with. Did I say “used” to work with? Hmmmmmm
August 9th, 2005 at 12:52 pmToday is the 31st anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation. Nixon’s parting words to his staff on August 9, 1974?
“Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”
Fast forward to 2005 and a White House once again engulfed in scandal.
Meet Nixon’s heir.
August 9th, 2005 at 12:54 pmI think DeLays plan may work. If people know that their kids will be fostered by criminals they will do everything they can to prevent the need for fostering.
August 9th, 2005 at 1:00 pmDelay is a scum sucking cowardly thief. And that’s just the good points about him.
The ignorant right wingnut will leap to his defense, as always, because, to them, defeating a ‘librul’ is more important than upholding ethics.
The funniest thing is, most of them have no idea what a liberal is, they just know they are supposed to hate them because Rush and Sean said so.
August 9th, 2005 at 1:14 pmDoes anyone besides me recal how the right wing jumped on hillary for her “it takes a village to raise a child”. Isn’t Delay saying the same thing?
August 9th, 2005 at 1:40 pmI found this part of Cavuto’s show amusing as well:
August 9th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Radio host Don Imus has the same children’s charity scam going at his ranch estate in Arizona. The tax breaks are great too.
August 9th, 2005 at 1:43 pmCan you get any lower? Try knocking a carriage over and stealing the milk from a baby.
lib·er·al (lbr-l, lbrl)
adj.
1.
1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
3. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.
4. Liberal Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.
2.
1. Tending to give freely; generous: a liberal benefactor.
2. Generous in amount; ample: a liberal serving of potatoes.
3. Not strict or literal; loose or approximate: a liberal translation.
4. Of, relating to, or based on the traditional arts and sciences of a college or university curriculum: a liberal education.
5.
1. Archaic. Permissible or appropriate for a person of free birth; befitting a lady or gentleman.
2. Obsolete. Morally unrestrained; licentious.
Do you like vacations? That’s a ‘liberal’ idea. Do you like weekends off? That’s a ‘liberal’ idea, too.
How’s about eight-hour work days? That’s a ‘liberal’ idea.
The Corrections Corporation of America donated a hundred grand to Tom’s charity. It’s so special.
The Pied Piper is a charter member, too.
August 9th, 2005 at 1:48 pmThank goodness he remembered to mention the children…
August 9th, 2005 at 2:25 pmAnybody want to challenge the charity standing with the IRS?
We should challlenge each and everyone of the GOP PACs, 501, 527, and anything else they have on grounds of Tax evasion filing the necessary paper work with the IRS.
Put them out of business and in prison where they belong.
August 9th, 2005 at 2:50 pmWe’re with Mrs. Delay. We don’t read the paper either. Of course we don’t watch Faux news either… We’re in a bunker in Iraq! Those that would parade about as moral and patriotic and then watch only one news channel for ALL their information are neither.
Tim, Mark, Sam, Michael, Sherry, Franklin, and TJ
August 9th, 2005 at 3:00 pmDoesn’t Delay’s idea contradict Mr. Santorum’s, in which society and communities are not effective and that it only takes a “family” to do this?
To me, unless I am mistaken, these statements are not in agreement and yet somehow they are towing the same lines.
Then again, this is the beauty of their machine, mixed messages that don’t really make sense when you start reviewing them. If this is so, it needs to be pointed out.
August 9th, 2005 at 3:05 pmNoone who hates the EPA loves children. People who go into politics soley to eradicate the EPA hate children.
August 9th, 2005 at 3:16 pm#6 Krazny, I noticed.
August 9th, 2005 at 3:36 pmI also noticed that Santorum’s book similar.
A Democrat says/does something positive, and the Republicans can’t wait to throw stones. Then, when the dust clears, they say the same thing and declare themselves wonderful.
Just ugly stuff, and frankly typical of so much of what passes for commentary these days.
If you have an accusation to make it, state it clearly and for the record. Don’t hide behind innuendo. You’re trained to think and to argue; make an argument, if you can.
I suspect you can’t.
There’s absolutely no evidence of anything inappropriate in this case. None at all. But rather than celebrate the fact that the reviled Tom Delay may actually be doing some good in the world, you use his charitable efforts as another excuse to attack him. There’s a lesson there, for sure. And it doesn’t say something important, but about you and not about Tom Delay.
August 9th, 2005 at 5:04 pm“I suspect you can’t”
August 9th, 2005 at 5:16 pmYou have a double standard, Thomas.
HOW TO DESTROY A CHILDREN’S CHARITY:
1. Organize a liberal talk radio network;
2. Fund it with non-profit grant money that was earmarked for Alzheimer patients (they won’t know the differene) and inner city kids;
3. Staff it with high-priced, has-been lefty comedians who couldn’t pack the men’s room at McDonald’s.
4. Devote hours of programming to meaningless drivel that attracts almost zero market share; and
5. Look innocent (”Grant money? What grant money?”) when the fit hits the shan.
R.I.P. Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club!
August 9th, 2005 at 6:31 pmYou’re bitter, Fake. What’s the matter? You afraid holdin’ the marbles not enough?
August 9th, 2005 at 6:41 pmHere’s the problem, Fake. Rumsfeld just came out and said Iran is smuggling weapons to Iraq. Now that does not surprise me.
August 9th, 2005 at 6:45 pmHowever, since one of your war criminals said it? I can’t believe it.
Saw that clip too.Why are they so worried about smuggled explosives from Iran when the U.S military allowed weapons depots and explosive storage facilities to be looted and seemed not to care. Once again, it doesn’t add up.
August 9th, 2005 at 7:45 pmQuag,
One of the british generals says the whole iranian thing is unsubstantiated speculation – sounds way to much like the ‘Niger’ affair to me. These guys have been aching for a reason to attack Iran, so misrepresenting the situation to blame others for their utter failure in Iraq only seems obvious…
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=104147
August 9th, 2005 at 7:48 pmSo you guys don’t think I’m nuts, Al Franken here is AKA Fake But Accurate.
August 9th, 2005 at 7:55 pmobvious,
August 9th, 2005 at 7:59 pmThanks for the link.
At least Al Franken has originality and real talent, unlike Rush.
August 9th, 2005 at 8:28 pmHeard Clear Channel profits are down mostly due to their radio business. Could be,in part, that people are finally tiring of these right-wing blowhards.
Why aren’t all the major networks and major papers covering the Air America Story? It’s big! Big! BIG! I tell you!
August 10th, 2005 at 12:30 amBob Perry, Delay, Swift Boats, Abramoff, Norquist, Welrich, Ahmanson, Eberle, Rove, Bush, Cheney, and others all add up to criminal activities on a national scale. The scale of which is to commit treason against the government of Unites States of America.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:17 pmThis woman in DeLay’s district has been following the charity. She’s been taking pictures of the building of DeLay’s little Branch Davidian compound!!!!! She’s a hoot! http://www.brazosriver.com
August 10th, 2005 at 4:15 pmWill they call this one Homeland Youth, Bush Youth, Delay Youth… or stick to the tried and true..
Hitler’s youth?
Bet they have propoganda films, and promote the PURE folks breading too.
August 17th, 2005 at 12:17 pm