Posted on 07/24/2006 10:16:33 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
As supporters of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, we were disheartened to read Jerry Seper's front-page article Thursday about questions and criticisms of President Chris Simcox's management of the organization. According to the article, the volunteer group has not made any financial statements or fundraising records public since April 2005 -- circumstances that have strained relations between Mr. Simcox and several of his top employees, some of whom have resigned in protest.
Mr. Simcox must resolve these problems quickly. Failure to do so would only encourage the organization's critics -- who have made no secret of their desire to see the Minuteman volunteers arrested for vigilantism. But more importantly, according to Mr. Simcox's estimate, Americans have donated $1.6 million to the corps because they believe in their mission to secure the southern border. In return, the least they should expect is transparency and the assurance that their donations went to help the volunteers in the field. But the truth is that no one except Mr. Simcox knows how much money has been donated and what it has been used for.
So far, Mr. Simcox has been unable to come up with a good explanation -- at least one that can be independently verified. And while he insists the money went to help field operations, workers at these locations tell a different story. For instance, Vern Kilburn, who resigned earlier this year as director of operations for the organization's northern Texas sector, told The Washington Times that only two checks for $1,000 came from Minuteman headquarters in October and that other directors across the country "are having similar problems." Some volunteers said that money promised by Mr. Simcox for food and supplies never arrived. "An awful lot of equipment I saw was donated," said Mike Gaddy,...."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
You don't find it at all interesting, I take it, that someone with close ties not only to the Washington Times but to virtually all of the open borders lobbyists in DC, and to this White House, is right here in our midst stirring the anti-Minuteman pot?
This is especially important, I think, when you look at the lack of substance in these various press reports...almost all of which are using the Times as their source.
Smells like a pretty serious agenda to me...one that, if you want to play the new FR "six degrees of separation game" that seems to be all the rage here nowadays, gets really, really interesting when you start to peel away the layers of who is playing.
The kind of money Simcox seems to be raising is chicken feed compared to what this bunch is raising from those who want a continuing supply of cheap labor.
I don't think anybody wants to see the MM taken down. Further, I think many here would be upset if that happened due to financial irregularities on the part of another organization they affiliated themselves with.
People just want to know where the money is, who is holding it what it was spent on. Fair enough question if you ask me.
LOL...okey dokey...
The people that are trashing this and every thread about the Minutemen or against the Peace Plan are only here to trash the thread.
The same few show up on every one of them.
"Fair" if you're the IRS or the FEC.
All of the available evidence is that they are satisfying them, FROBL and Washington Times insinuations notwithstanding.
The fact that other news outlets have based their reports on Seper's work for the Times is not surprising.... that's the way the press works, as any student of media bias will attest. The concern a lot of people have about the Simcox business is that he won't open his books -- if there s a lack of information in the news accounts it may be because of that. It seems to me he could put an end to it rather quickly by giving a full accounting. Doesn't it seem that way to you? After all, he has put himself in a position of public trust.
Wow, that's an interesting comment. Are you saying donors have no right to know how their money is being spent?
Now I know why I always got a creepy feeling when considering donating to a Keyes related charity. Hmmm, nope...that came from the creepy people he had around him.
BTW Tom, that last comment was not directed at you. I've always liked our conversations and appreciated your help in DC.
One local’s observations
Jack Ladd is rocking in a plush recliner next to the picture window that frames the San Jose Mountains a few miles south in Sonora, Mexico. He is 79, with hearing aids in both ears, a mild voice, gentle blue eyes. Each word is chosen carefully, because Ladd is nothing if not a thoughtful man. He spent years as director of labor relations for Phelps Dodge Mining Co. He knows a bit about compromise.
He holds a pile of papers—six 8-by-11 pages of single-spaced, neatly scribed reflections on illegal immigration and what might curb the problem and help bring some peace to his final years on the family cattle ranch.
He has titled this, “Jack Ladd Observations.” It describes the three groups of 15-20 migrants he saw crossing his ranch in broad daylight not long ago. “I dread the flood of illegals that would result if amnesty was actually granted ...” he writes. But he also bemoans as “just for show” politicians’ proposals for more walls, more lights, more agents. “They are not the answer,” he says.
Nor is any absolute ban on the employment and presence of illegal workers in the United States, he says. “I don’t believe this is realistic, possible or humane.”
Middle ground urged in immigration debate (msnbc.com)
I find it a bit curious that both Simcox and Keyes have both been quoting that they have $1.6 million, yet they can't account for it. Someone has aCOUNTED for it for them to be able to quote the intake.
Bottom line is Simcox should know where the donations are, who has them and how it is being spent. The fact no fence has been constructed and he has given evasive answers is fueling this thing. He should take whomever is responsible for this incredible lack of accountability and throttle them.
It may smear the entire movement.
Good point! Nice to see you posting!
Can you think of ONE group she's been involved with that hasn't had questionable "fund raising?"
EV, let me ask you a question and I'd like you to answer it forthrightly, no deflecting or diversionary comments.
If it is found out that a good part, maybe even a majority, of the money donated to build the fence was used up in PR, consulting firms, management contracts and additional fundraising (direct mail, etc.) costs, what would your opinion be then? Would you think the donors were well served? Woulkd you think they might have been lied to?
Yes, he is.
A week or so ago, he tried to drag Jim Robinson into this.
As a red herring, of course.
A nice comment at Redstate.org from our friend Nick Danger.
"Here's my take: it defies common sense to believe that any private entity is going to build a fence across the Mexican border. Think about it. You've got dozens, if not hundreds, of individual land owners to negotiate and sign contracts with, many of them government entities, including the federal government itself. Some of those will be cooperative, some will cooperative for the wrong reasons ("You're going to build a livestock fence to keep Mexican cattle out of my pasture? For free? Way cool!"), some will balk because of liability concerns, and some will be downright hostile. Layer on top of that dozens, if not hundreds, of individual zoning authorities, planning commissions, building code weenies, etc., many of those in the hands of diehard liberals. A person can be driven nuts trying to get the permits to build a new bedroom for their house. Imagine trying to do that 400 times in 200 jurisdictions.
Who is going to maintain that fence? For how long? At what cost? There will be trucks driven through it; wires cut; poles sawed off. How many people is it going to take to keep hundreds of miles of such fencing intact? Are people ready to sign up to donate regularly, for the rest of their lives?
I see some merit in raising a little cain down there to embarrass the government into doing its job, but $55 million is a ridiculous sum for such an effort. It would be cheaper to bribe every Congressman and Senator in Washington to vote for a federal fence.
If such a fence is ever going to built, it will be by an entity that can cross state lines with the power of eminent domain and blow off local planning commissions. There is only one such entity in the United States: the United States.
People who want a fence would be far better off spending their money to lobby Congress and to scare the willies out of Congressmen who don't 'get it' by donating to their opponents.
This MCDC "fence" is going to end up a patchwork of abandoned, rusting hulks that the world passed by. At best it's going to be few miles here, and then a few miles there, with big holes in between; a monument to symbolism over substance. It saddens me to see good people pouring money into somebody's crackpot fantasy.
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead."
If Keyes is handling the money, it's 95 cents of every dollar.
Ev how do you explain this bald faced lie from Simcox when he met with a group of Young Republicans?
More...
"Not everyone will have the light bulb flash on the same day. What you're seeing is those whose light bulbs have already gone off asking questions. Like, for instance, "They've collected a million dollars. Where's the fence?" So far this MCDC outfit appears to have bought about $8,000 worth of 5-strand barbed-wire livestock fencing for a rancher. They turned this into a big photo op; waved their arms and said, "Look! Fence!" That was back in May. They haven't done squat since. Not one more pole, not one more foot of fencing. And what they did build was a frigging livestock fence, not the 14-foot Gaza Strip thing they put in the brochure. Where's the rest of the million dollars? The volunteers who have been going down to the border to do patrols aren't seeing it. Where is this money going?
These are not unreasonable questions. Asking them does not mean that one is in favor of open borders. It just means you weren't born yesterday. These people are asking for still more money, and you can't see where they've actually done anything with the million they already have.
Being in favor of a fence doesn't mean you should send your money to anybody who says he'll build a fence. Trust, but verify. Right now, if you try to verify, you can't. There's no fence, and if you ask about where the money went they wave their arms and call you names. If a car mechanic had taken your money and now won't even show you your car, and calls you names for even asking about it, what would you be doing right now?
The history of these kinds of efforts is that they chew up the majority of their donations seeking more donations. The people who do the donation-seeking are precisely the mailing houses, credit card processors, PR mavens, and consultants who in this case just happen to own the whole effort and even registered the web page. Drumming up donations is how they make their daily bread. The more of your donations they use to get other donations, the more money they make. Meanwhile you don't get any fence. Has the light bulb gone off yet?
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead."
My favorite...
"You can't collect money for a charitable purpose and use it to buy new spinners for your Escalade instead
Sure you can, and I'll tell you how. You collect money for a charitable purpose and you use a significant fraction of it to do additional fund raising. This is perfectly legitimate. Every charity does this.
You also pay yourself a salary. So long as it is not outrageous, that is also perfectly legitimate.
You hire a firm to do the fundraising. They take money you took in as donations and they spend it on things like printing and postage and salaries. They hire a firm to do the printing. Those people buy paper and ink and pay people to run presses and to sit at big desks in air conditioned offices. All those guys need management help, and it just so happens that you're a management expert with a consulting practice that is a totally unrelated, for-profit corporation named Beezleworks. Lo and behold, both the printing company and the direct mail company hire Beezleworks to do management consulting. Now you take money out of your company and buy new spinners for your Escalade. Wasn't that easy? No fraud, no misrepresentation, just hard-workin' folks doing what they do.
Some years ago, many conservatives were enamored of Judicial Watch, as run by Larry Klayman. Klayman ran around filing lawsuits against Clinton. Which made him popular. Which caused people to send Judicial Watch money.
Then somebody found out about Form 990, and posted it on the Internet. I forget the exact number, but something like 80 or 90 cents on the dollar was going to fundraising. So you got ten or fifteen cents worth of Judicial Watch for every dollar you sent. On top of that, Judicial Watch was renting its offices from... Larry Klayman. Plus paying him a generous salary. (Larry Klayman is gone now, so none of this applies to the Judicial Watch of today.)
I don't think they made Escalades back then, but if they did Larry Klayman would have had one.
Note that absolutely none of this was the least bit illegal or fraudulent. If you were a "professional giver" you would have probably used something like Guidestar, and you'd have seen that Judicial Watch had a very low percentage of donations going to "program services." And so you'd have gone elsewhere with your largesse. But if instead you were an angry Clinton-hater, you wouldn't know about Guidestar and Form 990s. All you'd know is that Klayman was out there making noise and suing Clinton. And so you'd have been buying spinners for his Escalade. And I say this as somebody who probably bought one. Which is why today I'm a little more skeptical of these guys.
In fact I'm so skeptical that when I looked at the Declaration Alliance's 2004 990 and saw that some reasonably high percentage of donations went to program services, I peeked to see what it was. Printing and Postage. All of it. Hmmm. Probably educational materials. I know when I get a mailing from Alan Keyes, that's what I get: educational materials.
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead."
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