One of the foremost parrots of the GOP Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, Hannity has displayed his solidarity with standard GOP support for our troops.
We have long had our suspicions about how much money from Sean Hannity’s highly-touted Freedom Concerts actually go to scholarships given out by Freedom Alliance, the charity run by Hannity’s pal, convicted liar Oliver North. Now, it appears as though our worst suspicions have been confirmed.
We saw red flags in 2006 and 2007 – especially in 2007, when we found that no portion of the ticket price was deemed tax deductible, and that only $4 of the ticket price for a ticket in San Diego that year went to the overall charity Freedom Alliance (not necessarily its scholarship fund).
Now conservative Debbie Schlussel has put out damning blog post about the paltry sums that actually went to vets and scholarships. We hardly think of Schlussel as a reputable source and she has a long-standing grudge against Hannity. But with a little help from my sister, the former accountant, we concluded that Schlussel’s basic conclusions about the Freedom Alliance are correct.
Only 7% and 12% in 2007 and 2008, respectively, (links to Freedom Alliance’s IRS forms that have the numbers can be found in Schlussel’s post), of Freedom Alliance’s revenues went to "grants and allocations," which, presumably, means vets and scholarships. That means that out of Freedom Alliance’s $12,459,317 total revenue in 2007, it gave $895,347 in total. In 2008, Freedom Alliance received $8,781,431 and it paid out $1.060,275.
For comparison purposes, United Negro College Fund gave out 56% and 45% in 2007 and 2008, respectively, of their total revenue. That means that UNCF received in 2007 $197,435,560 and gave out $111,260,696 and in 2008, its revenue was $240,455,525 and it gave out $108,354,765… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Newshounds>
It has long been SOP for the GOP to be long on pseudo-patriotic claims, while using out troops as cannon fodder to further their own agenda and provide profit for corporate cronies. Whenever it came to providing our troops with the equipment they need, insisting they get R&R time at home, providing them the health care we owe them, giving them education benefits, raising their pay, etc., Democrats have to accomplish those goals over GOP objections. We may disagree with the wars, and I do, but when someone puts their life on the line for this nation, we owe them. The GOP evidently does not agree.
So we should not be surprised that Hannity and North lie to donors and rip off our vets. But that still leaves one question. What happened to all those millions of dollars? Perhaps Sean and Ollie spent them at the GOP Family Values Retreat, aka The Bunny Ranch.
Off topic: Catch the video in today’s Open Thread. It’s a hoot!
28 Responses to “Hannity Rips Off Veterans!”
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Hannity is all mouth and no brains, heart, or spine. I wouldn’t trust him with grandma’s coin purse let alone my wallet, and he is the last person I would turn to in an emergency. What a despicable phony.
Amen, Jack. And with all his ranting about gay people, does it surprize you that his dating site, Hannidate, has men seeking men and women seeking women sections?
What concerns me as much as this story is that I am NOT surprised. I despise Hannity. I always have and I always will. Like so many of the FAUX NOISE hypocrites he carries Jesus in his right hand and steals with his left.
I hear you, Mike. An apt description.
Why would anyone be surprised, when you have an ex convict running a charity? Why would anyone align themselves, or go into business with a convicted felon? Why would anyone give money to a charity run by a convict? How dumb can some people be?
Tom, I’d respectfully suggest that when an blog has an ‘About Me’ page, reading it might spare you some embarrassment. In the ‘About Me’ page here, I describe how I descended into crime, became a convicted felon, rehabilitated myself, have been a law abiding citizen for over ten years since prison, currently volunteer both inside and outside prison helping others do the same, and am now the Treasurer of a nonprofit corporation dedicated to that purpose. They trust me with the money, because I am trustworthy,
The problem with Oliver North is not that he used to be a criminal, that is an ex convict. His problem is that he did not rehabilitate himself and is STILL a criminal.
I know what you said was just a knee jerk reaction, and you did not mean that personally, so I offer forgiveness in advance.
Yes Tom Cat, I am sorry. My thoughtless, unfair comment was not a personal reference to you. It was a stupid generalization. I actually have a history of hiring people with criminal records, which I will not get into, because I don’t want it to sound like a defense for a remark, that has no defense.Sorry.
Tom, I fully understand your frustration. I have felt it, watching people I have worked my ass off to help turn back to the old ways. Fortunately our successes exceed our failures by a great margin. I applaud your willingness to give people a second chance and hope you continue to do so.
I would love to see Hannity and North hounded out of town, not likely, their boss, the wild colonial boy Murdoch, is a bigger crook than they are.
Too true, Holte. They’re undoubtedly following orders.
Why am I not shocked?
I have only two questions….(1) Who’s going to fall on their sword to save Hannity? (2)Sean…where’s the money? SHOW US…THE MONEY.
I can answer #1. Nobody needs to. Republicans will turn a blind eye to his crimes.
“Nobody needs to. Republicans will turn a blind eye to his crimes.”
It’s even worse than that. They will say that there have been no crimes, and the liberals made it up. How long can Republicans and teabaggers continue to listen to these idiots and blame all of their ills on supposed lies from the left?
Sky, the more desperate they get, the more obvious their lies become. If the Dems can avoid a circular firing squad ( a HUGE if), they can put the GOP out of business.
Not to stray from the subject at hand, but what’s that black spot on the front of his pants. ; )
Do you really want to know? I don’t! 😉
I saw this over at JR’s blog yesterday – disgusting. Actually North pulled him aside one time and said this has to stop. But Sean went right on doing what he’s doing and getting away with it. When you have almost $5M in postage and shipping fees for a non-profit, the IRS should be looking at them – HARD. Stupid people are easily parted with their money – look at the evangelicals; need I say more?
Lisa, that’s a good point. After I posted this I saw it at JR’s too. The more the better.
He will go with the plausible deniability clause IOKIYAR. Ok, he will say that it does not say all the money goes to the charity only some of it. If I read correctly in the fine print, it doesn’t say all money goes to the charity. I could be wrong though.
Welcome, Jess. Of course no charity can escape overhead expenses. But 93% (2007) and 88% (2008) overhead can not be justified.
Probably making a point already known, but the IRS 990 Forms for all nonprofits can be viewed from either:
http://www2.guidestar.org/
or
http://www.charitynavigator.org/
You do have to register at the sites (it’s free) and the 990s are in PDF format, but they are interesting to peruse – even for non-bean counters.
Thanks Nameless. I actually did not know that.
I couldn’t find better words than the four-letter variety to describe my ardor for Hannity, so I let Schlussel tell most of the story.
Unsurprising, but still aggravating as hell. Hannity belongs in a prison cell.
JR, yopu may have had the better article, but I had the better graphic. 😉
I ditto Prof. Jodell and Jolly Roger. GAD! I’m reposting this so the word spreads….
Thank you, Gwen!
you gotta love the complete nut job Debbie Schlussel broke the St Ronnie cardinal rule of never trashing a fellow idiot, i mean conservative by outing Hannity
DC, that’s the sweetest part of it. On the left, we’re different. For the most part, when we think one of ours is wrong, we say so.