Free Republic

For the fourth time, the President has proposed limiting charitable deductions. The clearly intended result would be a massive transfer of money from the voluntary sector of society into government. Tocqueville warns, "our quarrel is not about the value of freedom per se, but stems from our opinion of our fellow men … a man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him"

On Sunday the Obama Administration posted a list of organizations who they claimed supported their anti-religious HHS mandate. The list posted on the White House website included a quote from Catholic Charities. But it wasn’t true. Catholic Charities did not endorse the Obama administration’s latest HHS policy requiring free contraceptive coverage for all employees. FOX News reported: A leading Catholic charity group wants the public to know it has not endorsed the Obama administration’s latest policy requiring free contraceptive coverage for employees, despite “mischaracterizations in the media.” Catholic Charities USA has occasionally been cited as a supporter of the new...

H.R.1681 & S.1770: “Catholic Charities- Dump Forever,” beats “Every Child Deserves a Family Act” by John P. Roco December 7, 2011 10:10 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time on Oahu The name, “Every Child Deserves a Family Act,” implies there are children with no families. Further, every child, pertaining to those without a family, deserves a family. In terms of gay and lesbian foster and adoptive children and parents, many foster family and adoption agencies already ‘accept’ gay and lesbian couples and single parents. In fact, that is exactly what 2006 laws in Massachusetts, 2010 laws in the District of Columbia, and...

Next Thursday, as the rest of us tuck into our turkey feasts, hundreds of needy families in Southern California will open "Boxes of Love." Delivered by several churches led by Pacific Crossroads in Santa Monica, Calif., the boxes contain ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal for six. They allow impoverished families to skip food lines and neighborhood pantries and enjoy the holiday in their own homes. What's unusual about the Pacific Crossroads congregation—and what underpins efforts such as Boxes of Love—is its theologically conservative raison d'être. A member church of the Presbyterian Church in America, Pacific Crossroads is committed to Reformation...

Story at link -- I tried to copy and paste the article but for some reason I can't.

As you open your pockets for the next natural disaster, please keep these facts in mind: The American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans' salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses The United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary along with numerous expense benefits UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1,200,000 per year (100k per month) plus all expenses including a ROLLS ROYCE Less than 5 cents of your donated dollar goes to the cause The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this...

Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably. There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11. One charity raised...

In 35 seconds, the city of Léogane was almost entirely destroyed by last year’s earthquake. A year after, 80% of the victims are still living in camps surrounded by rubble, without water or electricity. Despite millions in international aid, the rebuilding process is at a standstill.

In a major recession, some brainiacs decided they want to build a $150 million Noah's Ark Amusement Park in Kentucky. The effort is backed by Answers in Genesis, the group that sunk millions into a "creation" museum that highlights their distorted view of science with such things as men living with dinosaurs. Many Christians are asking, however, aren't there better things to spend this money on? "Hungry people, missionaries, new churches, charities, all should be higher on the list. This is embarassing," said one churchgoer. Another added, "How can we afford to waste this money while the government is busy...

By Today’s election in Haiti is bringing out protesters upset over fraud allegations hanging over their president and all of Haiti’s House and Senate. Why are so many Haitians still living in abject misery nearly one year after the horrific devastation last January? “The situation in Haiti is just as bad, if not worse than the day of the earthquake,” according to Yahoo answers blog, (1), that goes on to say that the billions of “donated money have nothing to show.” Haitians still live in cardboard box shanty towns while cholera epidemics are growing daily, and there is “no clean...

Washington - A new ranking of the nation's 400 biggest charities shows donations dropped by 11 percent overall last year as the Great Recession ended - the worst decline in 20 years since the Chronicle of Philanthropy began keeping a tally. The Philanthropy 400 report to be released Monday shows such familiar names as the United Way and the Salvation Army, both based near Washington, continue to dominate the ranking, despite the 2009 declines. The survey accounts for $68.6 billion in charitable contributions.

Ostensibly, White House party crashers Tareq Salahi and his wife could facilely be dismissed as another pair of publicity infatuated cretins. Commentators have been quick to compare them to the deranged Balloon Boy parents, desperate for fame at any price. Obamanutz devotes an entire chapter to the putrification of our pop culture that has spawned and enabled this kind of narcissism. Two strangers getting access to the President of the United States is disturbing enough by itself. We were told early on that Salahi is “half Palestinian.” That’s not the half of it. The Salahi’s are deeply in debt as...

The 20 Worst Charities In America6-1 2020 By Greg Bocquet A favorite saying in business is that you have to spend money to make money. Charitable organizations, on the other hand, have to spend money to give money, and it turns out that some are woefully inefficient at channeling donations to the people they're supposed to help. The non-profit Charity Navigator Web site tracks such expenses via charities’ disclosure statements to the IRS to provide donors with an assessment of how well charities run themselves. Looking only at the supply side for the more than 5,500 charities that it tracks,...

Christian slaves in the Balkans under Turkish rule The role of Islamic charities is a serious issue because many are based on spreading radical Islam via indoctrination or by supporting terrorism or political goals which should be way outside their remit. Indeed, the war in Bosnia resembled the same patterns which flowed in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and other nations, whereby Islamic terrorism or radical ideology or a fusion of both were transported via Islamic charities. It is vital that these channels are fully closed in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo (Serbia), Macedonia, and other areas in the Balkans. If not, then...

Note: The following text is a quote: Hassan Nemazee Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to $292 Million Bank Fraud PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HASSAN NEMAZEE pleaded guilty today to charges of defrauding Bank of America, N.A. ("BofA"), Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank"), HSBC Bank USA, N.A. ("HSBC"), and a longtime friend and business associate of a total of more than $290 million in loan proceeds. NEMAZEE entered his guilty plea before United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN in Manhattan federal court. According to the superseding Information, filed today, to...

Note: The following text is a quote: Officials Consider Role in Haiti Beyond Immediate Relief By John J. Kruzel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2010 – The U.S. government still is figuring out the details of American assistance in Haiti, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said here today, noting that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President Barack Obama discussed the issue yesterday. “I think that everybody would say by now that the aid is flowing in a very productive and helpful fashion,” Morrell told Pentagon reporters. “But the question now becomes, now that this immediate relief has...

NEW YORK (AP) - A Yemeni sheik accused of funding terrorist organizations boasted of his ties to Osama bin Laden and Palestinian militant leaders on surveillance tapes played Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. "He used to say that I'm his sheik," Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad said of bin Laden on the tapes secretly recorded in a German hotel room. "I used to teach him some of the Islamic laws," he added. Defense lawyers said al-Moayad made idle boasts to wheedle millions of dollars from an FBI informant posing as a militant Islamist. The informant had proposed giving al-Moayad $2.5 million...

United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009.

Part of the story about who would feel the payroll tax on employers contained in the House-passed health care bill has gone missing. The media coverage I've seen and the Congressional rhetoric I've heard focuses on the small business lead by an entrepreneur who started the company. That's part of the story, but it isn't the whole story. The Joint Tax Committee's "technical explanation" makes clear that this is a tax on all employers, both for-profit and not-for-profit. (See the discussion that starts on page 31, under the opaque title "Responsibilities of Nonelecting Employers".) A lot of non-profits do not...

Just this week the famous protector of the the seniors in America came out and supported the 20 pound health care bill that will cut $550 billion from medicare for seniors. Go figure! Who is this group anyway? Under the radar this week I also see, according to Life Decisions International, that AARP made their list of "Dishonorable Mention" there too. That means that they are in a group of charitable groups that are associated with Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda. Also on that list surprisingly too are the Susan G.Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, The YWCA/YMCA, March of Dimes, Muscular...

The federal government has listed an ACORN affiliate in its catalog of approved charities – allowing federal employees to set up payroll deductions and donate a portion of paychecks directly to the group. The ACORN Institute, an affiliate of the national umbrella organization of ACORN, is featured in the Office of Personnel Management's 2009 CFC list of participating national and international organizations. The government's annual workplace charity campaign allows federal employees to contribute to qualified charities with cash, checks or payroll deductions. According to a Washington Post report, ACORN transferred millions of dollars in charitable contributions meant for the poor...

SNIPPET: "According to a report prepared by Pakistani police (the Crime Investigation Department), the AHF has funded approximately USD 15 million to Jihadi groups in Pakistan for carrying out terror attacks. These funds mostly went to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which is responsible for numerous suicide strikes in the last couple of years and also blamed for the assassination of Benezir Bhutto." SNIPPET: "Till 2004, the United States had designated at least thirteen AHF branch offices operating in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, in many African countries and in the United States. But in 2008, the US Treasury Department has designated...

An Aids-awareness advert depicting Adolf Hitler having unprotected sex has been condemned by mainstream health charities for stigmatising people infected with the virus. The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line "AIDS is a mass murder", aims to scare young people into using condoms by associating the deadly disease with the German dictator. But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man's face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be Adolf Hitler. "Of course there are many HIV organisations that run their...

'Cash for Clunkers' takes toll on local charities SAN DIEGO - The parking lot used by Father Joe Carroll's car donation program used to be filled with nearly 1,000 aging vehicles. Now it is almost empty. "I feel good for the dealerships making money, but I feel miserable that it will affect my help with the poor," Father Joe said. While many dealerships are thriving thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program, several local charities are taking a hit, because they rely on donated old cars to raise money for their services. "About 20 to 25 percent of our funding...

Today, Bernard Madoff will likely be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary. But his sentencing is merely the beginning of the litigation and recrimination he has spawned with his vast investment fraud. The inevitable accusations — and perhaps criminal charges — against his co-conspirators, and particularly his family, are sure to continue. And another troubling aspect of the Madoff fraud has emerged in the past few weeks. It is now being alleged that certain charitable foundations and individuals on the whole reaped profits in the millions, if not billions of dollars, from Mr. Madoff’s...

SNIPPET: "The American Civil Liberties Union released a report June 16 (together with a You Tube video) attacking the U.S. government's efforts to shut down terrorist-financing charities. The report was based on 120 interviews, 115 of which were conducted with Muslim community leaders and other Muslims "directly affected by" U.S. government policies regarding the charities. It suggests (contrary to a substantial body of evidence) – that the U.S. government was wrong to have acted against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation and other charities accused of raising money for terrorist...

Conservatives are big financiers of the spread of socialism by nonprofits. Bigger even than billionaire George Soros. There are tens of thousands of liberal nonprofits on the public dole. Conservatives tend to focus attention and even outrage on a few large and notorious taxpayer-funded nonprofits such as ACORN, Planned Parenthood and AARP. That focus, though, is too myopic. Liberals know how to use nonprofits to "change" America. With the daily bombardment against our free-market, constitutional senses by the Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime, we may be ignoring the nonprofit foundation of their comprehensive socialist agenda. And conservatives are helping to pay for it,...

Nonprofit leaders are reeling from the recent news that President Barack Obama's proposed budget would limit tax deductions on charitable contributions from wealthy Americans. But now the philanthropic world has something else to worry about. Today the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), a research and advocacy group, will release a report offering "benchmarks to assess foundation performance." Its real aim is to push philanthropic organizations into ignoring donor intent and instead giving grants based on political considerations. The committee is part of a rising tide of politicians and activists who are working to change the face of American philanthropy...

A former FBI special agent told law enforcement and Homeland Security personnel that a network of Islamic organizations are working to incrementally implement Islamic law in the United States. During a presentation at the Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, former FBI agent John Guandolo briefed members about groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claims is working with other Islamic groups to slowly implement Shariah, also known as Islamic law, which encompasses all areas of life. Guandolo worked in the FBI since 1996, including nine years as a member of its SWAT team. After 9/11, he worked in the...

A House committee held an important hearing Thursday morning on the issue of "libel tourism." That's the practice of bringing libel suits against American authors in other nations, particularly the United Kingdom, where First Amendment protections do not apply and where the burden of proof is placed on the defendant rather than on the plaintiff. Saudi Arabian businessman Khalid bin Mahfouz has brought several such lawsuits, winning a default judgment against American researcher Rachel Ehrenfeld for her book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It, and forcing a Cambridge University Press to destroy copies of the...

As reported at Socialist Worker.org, a Communist website: Socialistworker.org February 9, 2009 STUDENTS AT the University of Rochester (UR) and their supporters from the community occupied a campus building February 6 in solidarity with the victims of Israel's siege of Gaza--and in a matter of half a day declared victory after winning important concessions from the administration. The university agreed to a public forum to discuss UR's financial policies, and its investments in Israel and companies that do business in Israel. It also promised support for a campus-wide fund drive for Palestine, donations to Gaza of surplus supplies, and international...

Right Side News' first issue of an eight part series written by Kathy Shaidle. excerpt: Today many Americans are either blissfully ignorant of, or simply indifferent to, the slow, incremental growth of radical Islam in their midst. We sometimes hear about terrorist cells or suspicious Muslim "compounds" on the news. However, these stories represent merely the tip of an Islamic iceberg that could very well doom America. Not today or tomorrow. But in our lifetimes? That is a real possibility. And don't shrug off Islam as "just another religion." Muslim sharia law deems women to be inferior to men, and...

For 130 years they have been part of Christmas, filling the air in towns across the land with music and carols. But one thing is missing from the repertoire of Salvation Army bands this year - the percussion of rattling tins. Members have been forbidden to shake their charity tins - even if it's done in time to the music - in case it harasses or intimidates people. One said she had been told it might also offend other religions. Tin man: Salvation Army collectors have been told not to rattle their tins as it could be construed as religious...

Over the next year, the U.S. government will need to borrow somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 trillion, the most ever by far. Estimates go as high as $2 trillion, depending on how quickly the economy cools and how fast tax revenues fall. The simple question most of America has not asked is this: Where is the money going to come from? The federal government already knows the answer to that question, and it has implications Americans are not ready for but will soon be faced with. America is going cap in hand to Middle East oil exporters. What government...

Nine things the police in Columbus, Ohio, need to know being taught the police in Columbus, Ohio by members of CAIR] covered included the basic beliefs and practices of Islam, practical advice to help future law enforcement personnel develop cultural competency when interacting with the Muslim community." -- from this article What the police force in Columbus, Ohio and all over the country need to be taught is this: 1. They need to know what the texts of Islam -- Qur'an and Hadith and Sira -- inculcate in Believers about non-Muslims, and in particular, about the central notion that Islam,...

A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The unanimous verdicts are a complete victory for the government, which streamlined its case and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex, massive evidence presented in the trial. Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges. The prosecution victory is also a major one for the lame duck administration of President George Bush, whose efforts at fighting...

“A Muslim must try his best to abide by the rulings of Sharia [Islamic law] whenever possible as much as he can. He should not allow himself to be liable to those western laws that contradict the clear-cut Islamic rulings.” The rulings of Sharia, mind you, include stoning for adultery, amputation of the hand for theft, and institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims. But the speaker was not some fanatic Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia; it was the Phoenix-based imam Omar Shahin, president of the North American Imams Foundation. This is probably one reason why, as The Arizona Republic reported Monday,...

PHOENIX, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Muslim leaders in Arizona have drawn increased scrutiny from federal officials in the past year because of a string of suspicious incidents, officials say. Although no one in the state has been accused of supporting terrorists, one Mesa, Ariz., man was charged with lying to the FBI during the terror financing investigation into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday. Also drawing attention to Arizona Muslims was a target-shooting episode in Phoenix that involved a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of...

DALLAS – Jury deliberations begin Wednesday morning in the case of five men accused of routing millions of dollars to Hamas. Closing arguments in the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and its former officers ended late Tuesday afternoon. After the second full day of hearing from attorneys, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis suggested jurors select a foreperson and go home for the evening. The men are accused of routing millions of dollars to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities prosecutors say were controlled by the terrorist group. But defense attorneys cast...

In fact, during that 2000-2004 period Obama gave substantially less than the average family making more than $150,000, which averages giving of 2.2 percent of total income according to University of George Professor Russell James. And a study published in January by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy found that nationwide in 2004 more than two-thirds of American households – the vast majority of which made significantly less than the $207,647 Obama made that year – still gave an average of over $2,000, or 3 percent of their income. Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, was even stingier about spreading his...

As a state senator from the South Side, Barack Obama once arranged for a $200,000 state grant to jump-start an urban venture capital fund for a non-profit group run by Rev. Jesse Jackson. The grant was the very sort of faith-based initiative now at the center of an uncomfortable rift between Jackson and Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The money was spent, but the promised investment pool for job-poor neighborhoods never materialized, an example of the mixed record for Obama and other officials in getting results from such programs. Obama's embrace of this approach, championed by President George W....

3 Jefferson relatives plead innocent Three relatives of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., have pleaded innocent to charges they ripped off three charities they founded. Mose Jefferson; his sister, 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson; and her daughter, Angela Coleman all entered pleas at an arraignment hearing Friday, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported. They are accused of skimming more than $600,000 from three non-profit groups. U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore told the trio to avoid any contact with Brenda Foster, who pleaded guilty Wednesday. Foster, who also goes by the name Brenda Jefferson, is a sibling of the congressman, as well...

In January 2008, a minor in foster care in Richmond, procured an abortion while receiving support services from Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC). An investigation of this unfortunate event revealed that some members of CCC staff assisted the minor in preparations leading up to the abortion, and that one member of staff signed the consent form necessary for the minor to have the abortion. The minor was taken to and from the abortion facility by a person associated with CCC. Neither agency nor diocesan funds were used to pay for the procedure. A subsequent investigation also revealed that about two months...

An Islamic charity with ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban is now collaborating with an unlikely new partner: UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund.UNICEF has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity of massive scope that keeps branches in more than 20 countries and has over 100 offices worldwide. According to UNICEF, it will be teaming with the charity’s domestic Saudi branch to “promote children’s rights, health, equality and education,” in the oil-rich kingdom — but the organization has been doing more than just charity work. The U.S. Treasury Department...

A jury on Friday convicted three men of Middle Eastern descent of plotting to recruit and train terrorists to kill American soldiers in Iraq. The men — Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27 — face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and make explosives while raising money to fund their plans to wage a holy war against U.S. troops. Defense attorneys charged that the three defendants, who all lived in the Toledo area, were manipulated by a government informant. The jury returned its verdict after three...

http://www.americansagainsthate.org/press_releases/PR-Mayor_Bernero_Award.php April 4, 2008 For Immediate Release Contact: Joe Kaufman (info@americansagainsthate.org) AAH CALLS ON LANSING MAYOR TO RESCIND AWARD GIVEN TO CAIR-MICHIGAN LEADER CAIR’S DAWUD WALID TOLD MUSLIMS IT’S OKAY TO DISOBEY THE LAW AND TO DONATE TO TERROR-RELATED CHARITIES (Coral Springs, FL) Americans Against Hate (AAH) is calling on the Mayor of Lansing, Michigan, Virg Bernero, to rescind a “special recognition” award he had given to the Executive Director of CAIR-Michigan, Dawud Walid. The award was presented to Walid, on September 27, 2007. A photo of Walid holding the award, while posing with Mayor Bernero, is currently found on...

Fjordman - 3/26/2008 I do not have the time right now to include hyperlinks to every single piece of information stated here, but almost all of this information should be available online with a quick web search. Robert Spencer has dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood in a number of books, for instance in Onward Muslim Soldiers. I would also strongly recommend the recent book "Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam," by former Muslim Patrick Sookhdeo. Sookhdeo does excellent research, particularly regarding the systematic Islamization of Britain, but the same blueprints are used in other countries, too....

A former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty to aiding a Palestinian terrorist group was not immune from a subpoena forcing him to testify in an unrelated probe of Muslim charities, an appeals court ruled Friday. Sami Al-Arian, 50, had argued the terms of the plea agreement exempted him from testifying before a grand jury in an investigation of Islamic charities in Virginia. A federal judge disagreed and found Al-Arian guilty of contempt when he refused to testify. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Al-Arian's appeal Friday, ruling that federal prosecutors did not violate the plea agreement by...

What could the USS Kitty Hawk and Citigroup possibly have in common? I'll start with the aircraft carrier because I'm still stewing over what happened when the People's Republic of China abruptly denied the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships and submarines their routine, scheduled Thanksgiving berth in Hong Kong, where hundreds of crew members' families had gathered (at considerable expense) to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones. First, there was the nasty act itself. News accounts speculated about the "reason" -- was it President Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama? Our latest arms agreement with Taiwan?...

Operators of free food banks say they are seeing more working people needing assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions. Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. "I've been doing this for 20 years, and I can't believe how much worse it gets month after month," she...