Bad Deeds for 3/25/2010

 

Sean Hannity is Using Veterans to Scam Us – The following is from VeteransToday.com:

For the last several years, Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance “charity” have conducted “Freedom Concerts” across America. They’ve told you that they are raising money to pay for the college tuition of the children of fallen soldiers and to pay severely wounded war vets. And on Friday Night, Hannity will be honored with an award for this “Outstanding Community Service by a Radio Talk Show Host” at Talkers Magazine’s convention.

But it’s all a huge scam.

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, including consultants and apparently to ferry the Hannity posse of family and friends in high style. And, despite Hannity’s statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show, few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes. Moreover, despite written assurances to donors that all money raised would go directly to scholarships for kids of the fallen heroes and not to expenses, has begun charging expenses of nearly $500,000 to give out just over $800,000 in scholarships,

According to its 2006 tax returns, Freedom Alliance reported revenue of $10, 822, 785, but only $397,900–or a beyond-measly 3.68%–of that was given to the children of fallen troops as scholarships or as aid to severely injured soldiers. Freedom Alliance’s 2007 tax returns aren’t much better. Out of $12,459,317 it raised that year, only $895,347–or just 7%–went to seriously wounded troops and scholarships for fallen troops. And then, there are the 2008 Freedom Alliance tax forms, which were signed in November 2009 and filed only recently. That year, Freedom Alliance took in $8,781,431 in revenue and gave $1,060,275.57 total–or just 12%–to seriously wounded soldiers and for scholarships to kids of the fallen. Remember, this is well below the 75% required to be considered a legitimate charity.

 

China Trouncing U.S. in Clean Energy Investing – China overtook the United States in renewable energy investments for the first time ever in 2009, attracting nearly twice as many dollars and becoming the world’s largest market for clean energy projects.

Renewable energy investments in China – mostly wind farms – totaled $34.6 billion in 2009, according to report released Thursday by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. In the United States, $18.6 billion was spent.

The report’s authors stressed it was the stable, long-term policies put forth by the Chinese government and easier access to credit that attracted the money, and said the numbers do not bode well for America.

 

 

And, there’s some good news in Congress …

 

Senate Passes Air Traffic Control System Modernization Bill – Passengers stuck on airplanes gain new rights and the nation’s air traffic control system gains new technology under a $34.5 billion bill the Senate passed Monday night.

The Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, passed 93-0, advances the modernization of the nation’s air traffic control system as it moves away from a radar-based infrastructure in favor of GPS technology.

The new system, known as NextGen, uses a satellite-based platform to keep track not only of aircraft, but also of vehicles on the ground at airports. The costly system should allow planes to fly closer together safely and avoid runway incursions, according to a release by the office of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, one of the main sponsors of the bill.

The GPS-based system also allows controllers to tailor each aircraft’s approach for landing, which should save fuel and cut down on late arrivals, according to an FAA fact sheet.

Embedded in the bill is a “Passengers Bill of Rights,” whose centerpiece is a rule requiring delayed commercial planes to return to the gate after three hours on the taxiway. Alternatively, the rule allows the airline to send buses to take passengers off the plane so the aircraft doesn’t lose its place in line to take off.

 

Senators Engage In Bipartisan Civil Disobedience, Refuse To Halt Hearing – Jim Webb and Lindsey Graham had an unorthodox answer to a Republican parliamentary maneuver that blocked committees from meeting on Wednesday: Bipartisan civil disobedience.

“We just decided that we would continue unless somebody told us to stop.” said Webb, a veteran, former Secretary of the Navy and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, which was holding a hearing on military health systems. Webb (D-Va.) consulted with the committee’s top-ranking Republican, he said, as to whether the committee members should continue to exercise their First Amendment rights. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he was willing to buck the exemption.

And, elsewhere …

 

Once Opponents, Insurers Now Back Effort to Make Health Reform Succeed – The health-insurance industry, which spent months campaigning against Democratic health reform, has shifted focus in the wake of its passage, pivoting from opposition to making sure the new law succeeds beyond most expectations.

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry trade group, has agreed to sign on to a new, 50-state health care reform implementation effort, provisionally called Enroll America, which is being organized by Ron Pollack of the pro-reform group Families USA. “We are participating in it,” says AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach. “The goal is to get everyone covered.”

Other parts of the health industry, including drug companies and hospitals, are also expected to join the effort, which will focus on making sure as many uninsured Americans as possible get insurance under the law President Obama signed Tuesday.

While conservative groups and Republican politicians will surely continue advertising and organizing against the health-reform law, Families USA also plans to launch its own public education campaign, funded through foundation donations, over the coming months. It will include a “health-reform road show” across the country, which will seek to drum up local press coverage of the new law’s benefits, says Pollack.

Regards,

Jim