The folks at Right Wing News have a good breakdown of what I am talking about, check it out.

I am not saying that every front end to a charity is bad, but that vast majority of the ones that I have dealt with or been called by qualify as crooks and scam artists in my opinion.  Oh?  How can that be?  How can I be so cold?  I am going to explain, and you might be shocked by what you find out.

First thing, when someone calls you from one of these companies like the State Police fund, or the Fireman’s Charity League or even the one I received just tonight, the Sheriff’s Department taking donations for “Puppy Patrol” which is taking money for programs that teach kids to say no to drugs in school.  These all sound great, don’t they?  Yes they do, and that’s what they are counting on.

You see, it’s not the charities themselves that are the problem, at least not in most cases (there are some fraud charities out there, but they are rare).  No, the problem normally rests in these front end companies that do the soliciting and collection.  That problem is the amount of money, the percentage that gets passed on to the charity.  This is where it gets criminal in my opinion.

This “Puppy Patrol” charity that called me tonight, one thing I asked early in the phone call was how much actually got to the charity?  Most callers don’t like to answer that one.  In this case, it was 15% … yep, that’s it, only 15%.  For every dollar they collect from people, they keep $0.85 and give $0.15 to the charity.  OMG!!!  For every $100 they take in, they keep $85 and pass on $15, that’s it!  If they collect one million dollars ($1,000,000) in a year, they keep eight hundred fifty thousand ($850,000) and give only one hundred fifty thousand ($150,000).  Does it start to make sense now?

That’s right; these companies keep most of the money and only send bare minimums to the charity.  Now, they’ll claim that they have light bills to pay and employees to pay and more and that’s all true.  However, why can reputable charities accomplish all of this and keep only 20%?  They pass on 80% and not 15%, so what’s the big difference between these two types of companies other than one is legit and the other is run by greedy bastards that are exploiting people’s good nature for profit.

So, what’s my point in all this?  Before you give your hard earned money to some charity, make sure you ask them how much actually makes it to the charity.  If they only give 10% or 15% or something silly like that, don’t give them your money.  Instead give it to a local charity or directly to another to make sure that your entire donation goes where it should.  Personally, I don’t give to any company that passes on less than 70%, but that’s just me.

In this case, I must focus my ire upon Oprah. Now, I have never really been a big fan of Oprah or her show. However, she has done some good things and I have always thought that though her views were slanted, she tried to do some good for people.

Now she has crossed a line in my opinion. Actually, she crossed it once a while back and has kept on going. This is where the hypocrisy comes in. Keep in mind that Oprah has the eyes and ears of millions of people in the world; I mean literally millions of people that watch her show and are heavily influenced by whatever she says and does. A great many of those people that follow her show aren’t even influenced, they live their lives by her. Whatever she says to eat, read, do or otherwise is exactly what they eat, read, do and so on.

The first thing she did is not something I take issue with, but it sets up what I do take issue with. First thing, she publicly endorsed Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. That in and of itself I don’t have a problem with, she is free to support anyone she wants. She even made it known on her show that she supported Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. That’s OK too, although I have a small issue with that because I think that her entertainment show ought to be separate from her personal political affiliations. That’s just my personal opinion, but since she doesn’t have a politically themed show, I don’t think it’s appropriate.

Now, the next thing is what really got my goat, especially with what comes later. A large portion of her audience (the majority of which are women) wanted her to interview Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. I thought this would be a good idea, she is after all the first female Republican Vice Presidential Nominee ever. What ticked me off was that Oprah declined the interview, much to the anger of her fans, saying that she would not use her show as a platform for politics or endorsing politicians.

OK, we are talking about an interview based on a historical moment (first potential female Republican VP), not an endorsement. Plus, she had previously come out with her support for Barack Hussein Obama. To me, if you are going to do one, you should do the other. Especially when your reason for the other flies in the face of the first thing you already did.

That was bad enough, but now I read that Oprah is going to move her show to Washington during inauguration week. Still, not bad by itself, but it just goes to further show what a hypocrite Oprah is. She supports Obama on her show, snubs Palin on her show, then moves her show to Washington for Obama’s inauguration. Wow. I mean, I can understand liking and/or supporting one candidate and not the other, but doing so publicly on such a large scale while claiming it was in the name being fair? One word comes to mind, hypocrite.

One last thing, this isn’t about my own preference for one candidate or another. I am not some “right wing” blogger with an axe to grind. This was about blatant hypocrisy by a very powerful and influential woman. Truth be told, I didn’t like either candidate, but since Barack Hussein Obama won, I hope he does all the stuff he said. He talks a good game, but he is still a politician and I don’t know that I believe it.

On to Bailout Plan B:

Simply put, I am against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.  Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to all Americans as a “Dividend”.  To make the math simple, let us assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18 and over. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.

Divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion, and that gets you to a hefty $425,000.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a “Dividend”.  Of course, it would not be tax free, so let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.  Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500 in taxes. That sends $25.5 Billion right back to Uncle Sam.  Neat, huh?

It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500 in their pocket, so a husband and wife have $595,000.

What would you and your family do with between $297,500 to $595,000?

Let’s see:

• Pay off your mortgage … housing crisis solved!
• Repay college loans … a great boost to new grads!
• Put away money for college … it’ll be there and allow more people to actually be college grads!
• Save it in a bank … create money to loan to entrepreneurs and earn some interest!
• Buy a new car … create jobs!
• Invest in the market … capital drives growth!
• Pay for your parent’s medical insurance … health care improves!

Remember, this is for every U.S. Citizen 18 and over, including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers, Enron, and every other company that crushed their employees. If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it instead of trickling it out.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U.S. Citizen.

As for AIG - liquidate it and sell off its parts.  Sell off the real estate and let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean up.  Where is the bailout for Small Business America when we fall on hard times?  Why should AIG get preferential treatment just because they are a “big” company?

Here’s my rationale, we deserve it and AIG does not.  We were never invited to the last 10 years of party time bonuses.  And remember, in reality, this plan truly only costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

On the big day, the Japanese won  by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.  A  management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate  and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the  Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering while the American  team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a  deeper study was in order, American management h ired a consulting  company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering  the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how  to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to  the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering  superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give  the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder.  It was called the Rowing Team Quality First Program,’ with  meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower..  There was  discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra  vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the  Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management  laid off the rower for poor performance halted development of a new  canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new  equipment.  The money saved was distributed to the Senior  Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, this is The End.

Here’s something else to  think about:

GM has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the  US claiming they can’t make money paying American wages.

Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside  the US .   The last quarter’s results:

Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while GM racked up 9 billion in losses.

GM folks are still scratching their heads.

If this weren’t true, it might be funny.

Read about it …