Subtitle -
'The Unspeakable in Pursuit of the Inedible'
as us Brits call FOXHUNTING.
Well, I think I'm funny.
Realcountrymusic wrote a diary last week with the shocking allegations about Sean Hannity that Debbis Schlussel 'revealed'.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
She has come right out and called Sean Hannity's "Freedom Alliance" and their "Freedom Concerts" a "scam," raising money that is mostly spent on luxury travel and personal perks, with only a small portion going to help the wounded veterans and their families who are the supposed beneficiaries of FA's "Freedom Concerts."
I then wrote a further diary with background to the animosity between Schlussel and Hannity, plus updates on the current situation, and Freedom Alliance's repudiation.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I included some comments from Freerepublic (hilarious) and this video of Ed Schultz
For various reasons, this diary didn't gain many 'eyeballs'. Rightly, you were all engrossed with the epic fight to get HCR passed (YAY!)
Now things have heated up, Schlussel has not retracted, no, she has gone in for the kill.
Link to Schlussel's first posting about Hannity, who she sweetly calls Vannity.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/...
I began investigating these claims, and lo and behold, I discovered that Freedom Alliance gives very little money to the children of slain troops to pay for college and even less to wounded troops. The stories of injuries to troops and how much Freedom Alliance gives them–$200 for a soldier from a poor neighborhood who lost three limbs–is heartbreaking. Soldiers with traumatic brain injuries, severe wounds to the face from disfiguring burns and explosions, and multiple amputations got $1,000 or less, with only a handful of exceptions.
The tax forms available to the public This week, false and malicious allegations about Freedom Alliance were posted on the Internet and we want to address them with you. We don't know the motivation for these vicious smears, but we will not allow them to go unanswered. for the Freedom Alliance–for the years 2006-2008–paint a tragic story, a story of a charity that makes gazillions and spends very little for the purposes it claims, a charity that spends millions more on its small staff and crony consultants than it ever gives in scholarships to the children of the fallen or severely injured troops or in aid to the injured troops themselves. While Hannity’s Freedom Concerts take in millions, only a few hundred thousand go to the claimed intended recipients.
Debbie had links to tax forms, hard to argue with but argue they did.
http://spectator.org/...
This week, false and malicious allegations about Freedom Alliance were posted on the Internet and we want to address them with you. We don't know the motivation for these vicious smears, but we will not allow them to go unanswered.
Debbie didn't like this, not one little bit.
New article...........
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/...
In fact, it’s far worse than I originally reported. The scam is far bigger. And it’s big business. . . . for cronies and friends of Sean Hannity and Oliver North. I’ll be writing more in the coming days about the Freedom Alliance, itself, and where the money the charity receives is really going.
snip........
In fact, despite the written denials of both North and Freedom Alliance chief Thomas Kilgannon, Sean Hannity did NOT pay for his own private jet flights to the various Freedom Concerts. In fact, the money for his expensive travel came right from the revenue of the Freedom Concerts, a big, profitable business, which isn’t owned or operated by Freedom Alliance. While the charity is technically correct that Freedom Alliance didn’t pay for it in recent years, in fact Freedom Concert revenue, which is controlled by Hannity’s speaking engagement agents, did. The operant question here is, who owns the Freedom Concerts?
snip.......
The answer, according to an insider, is apparently Premiere Speakers Bureau, owned by Duane Ward, Oliver North’s longtime PR man, and the speaking engagement agent for both North and Hannity, as well as many FOX News and other conservative personalities. Premiere runs the Freedom Concerts and owns the FreedomConcerts.com domain name, sells the Freedom Concerts merchandise, etc. While only a $4 surcharge on Freedom Concert tickets goes to Freedom Alliance, the rest is controlled by Ward and his various companies.
I'll leave you to make your own minds up and with this vid
If it walks like a duck etc., etc.
p.s. the vid is adorable.