People sent their money in expecting to get a fence. But there is no fence. Instead there's "aggressive advertising and outreach [read: direct-mail fundraising] to people across the country." If this were just getting started, we could have some sympathy for all these protestations of innocence. But now that they've raised a million dollars, it's reasonable to ask, "Hey, what about the fence?" MCDC appears to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of a large advertising, PR, and fundraising firm. Perhaps it should not surprise us that what they appear to be doing with the money is advertising, PR, and fundraising. But somewhere along the line, they owe the people who donated a fence. And not that stupid barbed-wire livestock fence they put up for some rancher. Freepers know from experience (whose name was Larry Klayman) that these outfits can chew up 85 or 90 cents of every donation dollar on salaries, overhead, and fundraising, leaving very little for the actual cause that people were donating to. It's true that Simcox doesn't have to show anybody his books until the 990 is due, but until he does, people have to wonder — given the advertising-to-fence ratio we've seen so far — what the deal is here. People thought they were getting a fence, not the next Judicial Watch. |
I doubt that anyone is actually embezzling the funds. That's not the issue. The issue is: where's the fence?