Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
Quote:
Posted on Sat, Mar. 25, 2006 Barbara Bush's gift earmarked to buy software from son's company Associated Press
HOUSTON - Former first lady Barbara Bush gave relief money to a hurricane relief fund on the condition that it be spent to buy educational software from her son Neil's company.
The chief of staff of former President George H.W. Bush would not disclose the amount earmarked for purchases from Ignite Learning.
Since Barbara Bush's gift, the Ignite Learning program has been given to eight public schools with high numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, the Houston Chronicle reported.
"Mrs. Bush wanted to do something specifically for education and specifically for the thousands of students flooding into the Houston schools," Jean Becker said Thursday.
The money was donated to the Bush-Clinton Houston Hurricane Relief Fund, said Steve Maislin, president of the Greater Houston Community Foundation, which administers the fund. That fund has no connection to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, he said.
Barbara Bush chose to promote Ignite because she supports her son and has genuine enthusiasm for his company's program, Becker said.
Two years ago, the Houston school district board wrestled with conflict of interest concerns over the Ignite program. Neil Bush had helped raise $115,000 for the district's philanthropic fund from donors who insisted the money be spent on his company's software.
The district accepted the donations and used them to pay half the costs of new Ignite software, about $10,000 per school.
Currently, Houston public schools use 15 Ignite programs and the Houston area has 40 programs, said company president Ken Leonard.
Neil Bush founded the Austin-based company in 1999.
Is she giving money to Katrina victims, or just her son? This is so fucking stupid. Why didn't she just give her son the money and ask him to supply the software to schools for free? Oh yeah, cuz this is a shady tax dodge, that's why.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
Peeps wrote:
so she killed two birds with one stone
Yeah, she kept the Katrina fund from using the money for food or shelter AND she forced the Houston School Board to buy software that was likely so shitty no one would use it unless it was forced on them with earmarked Katrina funds.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
Yet another reason why I hate this old crow. Here she is a few months ago talking about the Katrina survivors displaced in Texas.
""Almost everyone I've talked to said we're going to move to Houston. What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. (Said with concern.) Everybody is so overwhelmed by all the hospitality. And so many of the peoples in the arena here, you know, they're underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."
_________________ ...and a bitter voice in the mirror cries, "Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:47 pm Posts: 9282 Location: Atlanta Gender: Male
and? You expected any less?
Nothing done by a politician is completely altruistic. I'm not sure that any act of kindness is ever completely altruistic, but you can bet if you get it from a politician, there's something more attached. You scratch our back......
The sheer nature of their lives, status and ambitions preclude them from doing anything purely altruistic just for the hell of it. She gets to feel warm and fuzzy all around here. It's a public school anyway half of it will probably wind up sitting around in some library closet until it's obsolete anyhow. The nature of most government programs. I mean really if you truely cared, why not just donate a large sum of money earmarked specifically for teacher supplies, that's where most programs are shafted. Want kids to be interested in math and science.....fund those teachers, 50 bucks a year dosen't cut it. If you aren't going to do that, give the money back to the people in the form of vouchers and let them choose a better place than the pathetic waste of time we push on them in public schools.
Just an FYI the average private school tuition in my home state of GA is about 14K a year. The worst public schools in the nation here in GA spend about 16K a student to do the worst job in the nation...nice. Most of the money is wasted in administration, one would only assume schools that compete against each other for money (private schools) have to perform or they will fail. Public Schools have no competition and thus mire in mediocraty.
Now until college I too was just a dumb C average PS student, but I learned enough to know politicians (and their families) are generally full of shit and indian givers. Nothing is free, if you want anything decent you have to pay on top of what the government takes from you.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:43 pm Posts: 7633 Location: Philly Del Fia Gender: Female
LittleWing wrote:
You people with your assumptions...
You all really make me sick. If they didn't want the money, if they didn't need the program. Then they wouldn't have accepted the money.
Yer idiots.
*continues making out with barbara*
Fixed.
They needed the money as a WHOLE, yes. They had no choice but to take it, and waste however much she determined had to go right back into her own son's hands.
It's like I walk by you starving on the street, and offer you a $20 as long as you use $10 of it to buy a sweater from my boyfriends cool new internet sweater buisness. See, it's almost summer, but you might want it some day when it gets cold again. Of course, I could buy a sweater myself. But see, if I get YOU to buy it, HE makes money, and I can write off the whole $20 as a charity donation when I do my taxes. SCORE!
You're starving. You're not going to turn down all of the money because half of it is going to be wasted on my own selfish ambitions. Of course, in this situation, I've done you one better than you've done us and assumed you're not an idiot. You're going to use what you can to eat. Right now, what you NEED is food, not a sweater. But I'm not giving you that choice, because this way works out better for me.
It's the same thing. They don't NEED fancy software right now. They need the basics - pens, pencils, paper. . . she took away their choice to decide what they really need in order to suit her own needs.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
NaiveAndTrue wrote:
LittleWing wrote:
You people with your assumptions...
You all really make me sick. If they didn't want the money, if they didn't need the program. Then they wouldn't have accepted the money.
Yer idiots.
*continues making out with barbara*
Fixed.
They needed the money as a WHOLE, yes. They had no choice but to take it, and waste however much she determined had to go right back into her own son's hands.
It's like I walk by you starving on the street, and offer you a $20 as long as you use $10 of it to buy a sweater from my boyfriends cool new internet sweater buisness. See, it's almost summer, but you might want it some day when it gets cold again. Of course, I could buy a sweater myself. But see, if I get YOU to buy it, HE makes money, and I can write off the whole $20 as a charity donation when I do my taxes. SCORE!
You're starving. You're not going to turn down all of the money because half of it is going to be wasted on my own selfish ambitions. Of course, in this situation, I've done you one better than you've done us and assumed you're not an idiot. You're going to use what you can to eat. Right now, what you NEED is food, not a sweater. But I'm not giving you that choice, because this way works out better for me.
It's the same thing. They don't NEED fancy software right now. They need the basics - pens, pencils, paper. . . she took away their choice to decide what they really need in order to suit her own needs.
And that's damn shitty.
Beautiful.
A finer metaphor I couldn't have crafted myself.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:43 pm Posts: 7633 Location: Philly Del Fia Gender: Female
punkdavid wrote:
NaiveAndTrue wrote:
LittleWing wrote:
You people with your assumptions...
You all really make me sick. If they didn't want the money, if they didn't need the program. Then they wouldn't have accepted the money.
Yer idiots.
*continues making out with barbara*
Fixed.
They needed the money as a WHOLE, yes. They had no choice but to take it, and waste however much she determined had to go right back into her own son's hands.
It's like I walk by you starving on the street, and offer you a $20 as long as you use $10 of it to buy a sweater from my boyfriends cool new internet sweater buisness. See, it's almost summer, but you might want it some day when it gets cold again. Of course, I could buy a sweater myself. But see, if I get YOU to buy it, HE makes money, and I can write off the whole $20 as a charity donation when I do my taxes. SCORE!
You're starving. You're not going to turn down all of the money because half of it is going to be wasted on my own selfish ambitions. Of course, in this situation, I've done you one better than you've done us and assumed you're not an idiot. You're going to use what you can to eat. Right now, what you NEED is food, not a sweater. But I'm not giving you that choice, because this way works out better for me.
It's the same thing. They don't NEED fancy software right now. They need the basics - pens, pencils, paper. . . she took away their choice to decide what they really need in order to suit her own needs.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
Electromatic wrote:
Most of the money is wasted in administration, one would only assume schools that compete against each other for money (private schools) have to perform or they will fail.
Most of they money is wasted in attempts to deal with the behavior disorders and learning disabilities with which the private schools can't be bothered.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Here's a better metaphor. I go to my sisters store. I buy a sweater from her to support her. I take it down to a homeless guy in the middle of summer, and give it to him.
All the guy cares about is that someone gave him something. He doesn't care about who's pocket the money came out of to buy it, or the pockets that are now lined with it.
That is the metaphor you should use. It's exactly the same thing.
Charity, is charity, is charity. Unless it's a Bush's charity right. I've never seen people get upset at PHILANTHROPY!
You all really make me sick. If they didn't want the money, if they didn't need the program. Then they wouldn't have accepted the money.
Yer idiots.
*continues making out with barbara*
Fixed.
They needed the money as a WHOLE, yes. They had no choice but to take it, and waste however much she determined had to go right back into her own son's hands.
It's like I walk by you starving on the street, and offer you a $20 as long as you use $10 of it to buy a sweater from my boyfriends cool new internet sweater buisness. See, it's almost summer, but you might want it some day when it gets cold again. Of course, I could buy a sweater myself. But see, if I get YOU to buy it, HE makes money, and I can write off the whole $20 as a charity donation when I do my taxes. SCORE!
You're starving. You're not going to turn down all of the money because half of it is going to be wasted on my own selfish ambitions. Of course, in this situation, I've done you one better than you've done us and assumed you're not an idiot. You're going to use what you can to eat. Right now, what you NEED is food, not a sweater. But I'm not giving you that choice, because this way works out better for me.
It's the same thing. They don't NEED fancy software right now. They need the basics - pens, pencils, paper. . . she took away their choice to decide what they really need in order to suit her own needs.
And that's damn shitty.
The guy gets a sweater to keep him warm and $10 to buy food. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:38 am Posts: 5575 Location: Sydney, NSW
Someone call me?
_________________
Jammer91 wrote:
If Soundgarden is perfectly fine with playing together with Tad Doyle on vocals, why the fuck is he wasting his life promoting the single worst album of all time? Holy shit, he has to be the stupidest motherfucker on earth.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:43 pm Posts: 7633 Location: Philly Del Fia Gender: Female
LittleWing wrote:
They're awful metaphors.
Here's a better metaphor. I go to my sisters store. I buy a sweater from her to support her. I take it down to a homeless guy in the middle of summer, and give it to him.
All the guy cares about is that someone gave him something. He doesn't care about who's pocket the money came out of to buy it, or the pockets that are now lined with it.
That is the metaphor you should use. It's exactly the same thing.
Charity, is charity, is charity. Unless it's a Bush's charity right. I've never seen people get upset at PHILANTHROPY!
Again, you people make me sick.
Charity is helping people who need help - HOW the need it, and when. It stops being charity when a large portion of it goes to suiting your OWN needs, not someone else's. It's a fucking slap in the face to the kids who could have used the supplies that are being deplaced by shitty software.
This way, Barbara can 'look good', have a tax write off and put money in her sons hands, tax free.
But hey, it's charity, right? Maybe she should send a bunch of that shitty software over to Africa. Who cares if they need shoes and clothes, right?! I mean, come on. Free software!
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
LittleWing wrote:
They're awful metaphors.
Here's a better metaphor. I go to my sisters store. I buy a sweater from her to support her. I take it down to a homeless guy in the middle of summer, and give it to him.
All the guy cares about is that someone gave him something. He doesn't care about who's pocket the money came out of to buy it, or the pockets that are now lined with it.
That is the metaphor you should use. It's exactly the same thing.
Charity, is charity, is charity. Unless it's a Bush's charity right. I've never seen people get upset at PHILANTHROPY!
Again, you people make me sick.
Did you even read her metaphor?
Nobody needs a sweater in June.
And as you SO OFTEN TELL US, people are better equipped to decide what to spend their money on than BIG BROTHER government agencies and such. Well, just because it was a rich donor and not the government, why aren't the RECIPIENTS of the charity better suited to decide what they NEED to spend money on than Barbara Bush is? How would you have reacted if it were the FEDERAL GOV'T telling the recipients that they must spend the money on computer software from a specific vendor?
The nausea is mutual.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
Nothing done by a politician is completely altruistic. I'm not sure that any act of kindness is ever completely altruistic, but you can bet if you get it from a politician, there's something more attached. You scratch our back......
The sheer nature of their lives, status and ambitions preclude them from doing anything purely altruistic just for the hell of it. She gets to feel warm and fuzzy all around here. It's a public school anyway half of it will probably wind up sitting around in some library closet until it's obsolete anyhow. The nature of most government programs. I mean really if you truely cared, why not just donate a large sum of money earmarked specifically for teacher supplies, that's where most programs are shafted. Want kids to be interested in math and science.....fund those teachers, 50 bucks a year dosen't cut it. If you aren't going to do that, give the money back to the people in the form of vouchers and let them choose a better place than the pathetic waste of time we push on them in public schools.
Just an FYI the average private school tuition in my home state of GA is about 14K a year. The worst public schools in the nation here in GA spend about 16K a student to do the worst job in the nation...nice. Most of the money is wasted in administration, one would only assume schools that compete against each other for money (private schools) have to perform or they will fail. Public Schools have no competition and thus mire in mediocraty.
Now until college I too was just a dumb C average PS student, but I learned enough to know politicians (and their families) are generally full of shit and indian givers. Nothing is free, if you want anything decent you have to pay on top of what the government takes from you.
Jimmy Carter manages to be altruistic quite sincerely.
He knows that houses are more important than software.
This is a lesson the Bushes need to learn.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
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