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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerrel Peters who wrote (420016)	6/28/2003 5:19:23 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769670

All right, enough attacking Kerry's wife. We get the point. And I'm sure there's a good reason why it took the board an extra year after the Enron bankrupcy scandals to get rid of Lay.

To: Jerrel Peters who wrote (420016)	6/28/2003 6:13:39 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Respond to of 769670

Nice find, you evil man. The founder of NonProfitWatch.org, Bernardo Issel, appears to have been associated with Ralph Nader and the Green Party. If I am not mistaken, American Spirit was adamant last night that yesterday's Washington Post was a Republican plant. Appartently not. About Nonprofit Watch Nonprofit Watch, formerly the NonProfit Accountability Project (NPAP), is an independent project being developed by Bernardo Issel. The project's goals are to investigate public interest groups and raise issues regarding transparency, conflicts of interest, and accountability within the nonprofit community. While numerous groups exist that evaluate nonprofits by a variety of criteria, primarily accounting measures, none of these groups examine ethical issues related to conflict of interest matters and strategic differences among public interest groups. It is my belief that the widely accepted thesis regarding the influence of big money on politics also applies to the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit Watch's seeks to provide the general public with knowledge to make better informed philanthropic decisions. While such would not affect the ability of special interests to fund nonprofits, it may encourage some individuals to direct their energies and donations to different groups. The political "right" is highly adept in its criticism of nonprofits. The Capital Research Center (CRC) criticizes corporations for giving to charities and other non-governmental organizations oriented toward public interest goals. But CRC seldom if at all criticizes donations to trade associations or lobby groups as misplaced expenditures, probably for the obvious reason that this funding serves the corporate interest. CRC ignores the question as to whether corporate donations to the nonprofit sector also serve the corporate interest --purchasing influence to alter discourse and public debate within civil society. Nonprofit Watch intends to invert this criticism and raise the question of what ill effect arises from nonprofits receiving corporate and other special interest funding. Mr. Issel is a misdirected Gen-Xer who has been sidetracked on the way to medical school by quixotic pursuits -- for example involvement in the Green Party's Nader for President campaign in 1996 -- resulting in a distinguished record of dilettantish underachievement. Mr. Issel owns no stock what so ever, not even for the purpose of shareholder resolutions. His background is that of blue collar working family. He has no trust fund, though admittedly he has known people who do. This project came to mind years ago while involved in researching the immune system of people with head-injuries; Mr. Issel became aware of scientific literature suggesting a tremendous potential for nutrient compounds such as antioxidants to favorably impact neurological injury as well as perhaps HIV-infection, but experienced a reticence from the research community to pursue these avenues, noting a preference for genetic, pharmaceutical, and surgical strategies. The interest in philanthropic matters grew out of having read critiques of the corporate-funded environmental groups that supported the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA). Upon moving to D.C. and observing the lavish offices of some of these pro-NAFTA groups, as well as their corporate donors and directors, it was felt that their ought to be a project that would raise issues of accountability on policy matters and point out conflicts of interest. Originally it was thought that a token effort would catalyze broad support for what appeared to be a very common sense cause. Such regrettably has not been the case. PO Box 53238;Washington D.C. 20009 202-318-1106(voice mail/fax) --info@nonprofitwatch.org