May 29, 2015

"The model has responsibility; she paid a high price for a feel-good moment with Bill Clinton."

"But he was riding the back of this small charity for what? A half-million bucks? I find it — what would be the word? — distasteful."

Said Doug White, head the master’s program in fund-raising management at Columbia University, commenting on the way the Happy Hearts Fund operates and got Bill Clinton to appear at a posh gala. Petra Nemcova's charity spent $363,413 on the affair:
She booked Cipriani 42nd Street, which greeted guests with Bellini cocktails on silver trays. She flew in Sheryl Crow with her band and crew for a 20-minute set. She special-ordered heart-shaped floral centerpieces, heart-shaped chocolate parfaits, heart-shaped tiramisù and, because orange is the charity’s color, an orange carpet rather than a red one. She imported a Swiss auctioneer and handed out orange rulers to serve as auction paddles, playfully threatening to use hers to spank the highest bidder for an Ibiza vacation.
And Bill Clinton, who had previously declined invitations to accept an award from Happy Hearts, responded to a donation of $500,000 to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

Both Happy Hearts and the Clinton Foundation have the stated goal of helping Haiti. As the HH spokesperson put it: "We believe that we can create the most impactful change by working together."

51 comments:

chickelit said...

Bill appreciates heart-shaped asses.

Hagar said...

Riding or raiding?

traditionalguy said...

Large gifts from strangers have always meant that a favor is expected from a ruler ever since Egypt and Babylon invented Empires.

tim in vermont said...

They can beg and they can plead
But they can't see the light, that's right
'Cause the boy with the cold hard cash
Is always Mister Right
- Material Girl


The theme of the Hillary campaign.

tim in vermont said...

More of an anthem, really.

Anonymous said...

The vulgar underside of the charity scams, with alleged charities laundering funds between themselves and counting the laundering as good works...

Bill would have done it for less, as long as a 33B–24–34 piece of ass was included.

Laslo Spatula said...

And the thought to leap from a tall building has never even crossed Bill Clinton's mind.

I am Laslo.

Lyle said...

Boss Tweed says, "Huzza for Hillary!".

Martha said...

That is the Clinton way—Bill shakes them down and Hillary nods her bobble head in agreement. It adds up to millions and millions for "good works".

Bobber Fleck said...

I guess this depends on one's definition of "impropriety". Right now the bar seems to be painted on the ceiling.

Fabi said...

Laslo nails it. Willie, as with every other narcissist, would never consider suicide -- their deaths would have a negative impact on the world and bring forth great sorrow. That's the way that they see it, anyway.

garage mahal said...

The vulgar underside of the charity scams, with alleged charities laundering funds between themselves and counting the laundering as good works...

Just think: if the Clinton Foundation were the Club for Growth you'd be called a fascist for questioning even one dollar.

Laslo Spatula said...

He used to need people to bring average-looking chicks to him.

Now a model has to pay a half-million to get HIM to see HER.

Just wanted to put out that context.

I am Laslo.

kcom said...

"Now a model has to pay a half-million to get HIM to see HER."

So what you are saying is Paula Jones should be flattered.

Todd said...

garage mahal said...
The vulgar underside of the charity scams, with alleged charities laundering funds between themselves and counting the laundering as good works...

Just think: if the Clinton Foundation were the Club for Growth you'd be called a fascist for questioning even one dollar.

5/29/15, 8:49 AM


Really? Is that the best you can come up with? Do you have any, ANY proof that there was a quid-pro-quo between Club for Growth and other tax exempt groups that they solicited funds on behalf of each other and re-directed funds to each other? If not, you are once again mudding the issue under discussion due to a) a partisan streak a mile wide that prevents you from seeing any issue in other than partisan ways or b) you are just too ignorant of the issue under discussion to understand it or c) a combination of a and b.

I don't think that charities should be required to disclose their donors as I have seen what the left has tried to do in recent years when they don't approve of the groups being donated to. I fear that this sort of "investigation" can be used by both sides for ill so would rather see it not available to either. That though is completely different from charity groups raising funds under false pretences. I would rather see all charities be required to disclose what percentage of their collections actually go to charitable works (and what charities or works - in detail), to overhead (to include salaries), and other expenditures. That is the type of transparency that I am looking for. I don't care who gives to the different charities. I DO care that government or politicians have involvements with charities and there is the appearance of using the charities to launder money / kickbacks. I would be just as concerned if it were Scott Walker doing this as I am it is the Clintons. The appearance that you can not make this sort of distinction is most telling.

garage mahal said...

Do you have any, ANY proof that there was a quid-pro-quo between Club for Growth and other tax exempt groups that they solicited funds on behalf of each other and re-directed funds to each other?

See here for starters.

MadisonMan said...

Always check to see where you charity donations are going.

Clinton & Happy Hearts should be ashamed. But I doubt they are.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

No one point out to garage that political interest groups and (alleged) charities have vastly different aims--let's let him keep his delusion that this particular straw man has been devastatingly dispatched.

Virgil Hilts said...

Chelsea's $10 million home aint cheap; someone has got to pay for it.

Rick said...

She flew in Sheryl Crow with her band and crew for a 20-minute set.

See how the Charity/NGO Complex serves as a corruption linchpin between politics and Big Entertainment?

Thorley Winston said...

Always check to see where you charity donations are going.

I have two immutable rules for charitable giving:

(1) If the organization asking for your money doesn’t actually provide services that help people directly but instead collects money and dispenses some of it to groups who do, cut out the middle man and donate directly to the group who helps people.

(2) Never give money to any organization whose mission statement includes any variation of the words “raise awareness.”

Rick said...

Todd,

Don't help the troll change the subject. Let him stick with his slut-shaming.

Todd said...

garage mahal said...
Do you have any, ANY proof that there was a quid-pro-quo between Club for Growth and other tax exempt groups that they solicited funds on behalf of each other and re-directed funds to each other?

See here for starters.

5/29/15, 9:12 AM


Thanks for the link. Read it. Did you? It does not appear to support what you are saying. No charges were filed and it does not appear laws were broken nor does it appear that there was a quid-pro-quo as Walker was already supporting the legislation that would have benefited that company. Walker is not in control of Club for Growth. The Club for Growth is a issues organization. The Clinton foundation is a generic charity that promotes good causes, the biggest which appears to be getting the Clintons lots and lots of money. The Club for Growth can actually show where its funds have gone and what it has accomplished with those funds. What can the Clinton's foundation show other than lots of money from lots of foreign governments and a big fat bottom line that directly benefits the Clintons?

Wait! This is the same "Club for Growth" that has been under those years long John Doe investigations, right? The investigations that have dragged on and on and produced zip, right? The investigations that violated citizen's rights and placed them under gag orders so that they were unable to discuss or defend themselves, right? OK, I see where you are going now...

Jason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jason said...

The vulgar underside of the charity scams, with alleged charities laundering funds between themselves and counting the laundering as good works...

Just think: if the Clinton Foundation were the Club for Growth you'd be called a fascist for questioning even one dollar.


Club for Growth doesnt have Scott Walker's name on it. The Clinton Foundation has the Clinton name on it, and was active with people and countries the US was dealing with while Hillary served as Secretary of State.

If you cant or refuse to see the difference, or think there's simply nothing wrong with it, there's no hope for you.

garage mahal said...

"Billionaire John Menard Jr. gave more than $1.5. million to the Wisconsin Club for Growth in an effort to boost Gov. Scott Walker's campaign in the 2012 recall, Yahoo News reported."

"In 2013 and 2014, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. chaired by Walker awarded Menard's namesake chain of hardware stores up to $1.8 million in tax credits. The governor and his aides responded that he had not been directly involved in those awards."

Pure as the driven snow. Unlike that dirty Clinton money!

Humperdink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Humperdink said...

Once again the Mahal fella is trying to send this discussion into the ditch. Do not take the bait

Todd said...

garage mahal said...

Pure as the driven snow. Unlike that dirty Clinton money!

5/29/15, 9:34 AM


If they are dirty, let them burn. If they are not and it appears that they are not since the investigation I and II (are they on III yet) has turned up nothing on Scott then for your health, let it go. Let us do the same level of investigation as the John Doe(s) against the Clintons and see what shakes out, m'ka?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

How the heck is Haiti doing these days? Oh, right, no one cares.

Anyway Hillary's brother Tony managed to get himself involved in a literal goldmine there so I just assume everything's working out.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

She flew in Sheryl Crow with her band and crew for a 20-minute set.

If it makes you happy,
Your carbon footprint can't be that baaaa-d.

Humperdink said...

She flew in Sheryl Crow with her band and crew for a 20-minute set.

With more than a single sheet of toilet tissue.

Todd said...

She flew in Sheryl Crow

Well the position of "Eco Warrior First Class!" has to carry some perks if you want to attract the "right" class of person to represent...

rhhardin said...

Hey the single sheet thing was for women peeing, not for serious work.

All you need is a soak-the-drops-up function for that.

rhhardin said...

It's curious that HH (Happy Hearts) is also the radio prefix code for Haiti.

HH2OT was my first foreign contact back in the early 50s. He even sent me a much appreciated confirming card in the mail.

William said...

Haitian charities, all of them, seem to have a high level level of corruption and chicanery. What is it about that unhappy land that consistently brings out the worst in people?

Monkeyboy said...

Just think: if the Clinton Foundation were the Club for Growth you'd be called a fascist for questioning even one dollar.

I was off the coast of Haiti in 1994 after the coup by Cedras. We had to steam 50 miles off shore at night to get water pure enough to go through the ship's condensers, and built parts for Cap Hatien's only garbage truck and helped get electricity. It's probably the poorest place I've ever been, and I've been to some bad places.

My neighbor is a SEABEE and was there after the earthquake rebuilding hospitals and pulled a number of bodies from the rubble including an Air Force officer there on orders.

I know you enjoy turning everything into an anti-Walker thread, but please stay away from this one. Spending donated dollars on carpets and centerpieces is reprehensible.

TrespassersW said...

Shorter garage: No Democrat has ever done anything wrong because Walker!

Gabriel said...

Not to feed the troll, but what was "fascist" about the John Doe investigations is the gag orders + the kicking in doors, not the investigation itself.

The troll is trying to pretend that we said any investigation at all is fascist.

But the fact is that he approves the use of armed force against political opponents.

John Scott said...

Only 16% of the money donated to the Clinton Foundation actually went to charity.


That should be the Republican emphasis of attack.

John Christopher said...

I wonder how high Bill Clinton would make it in a ranking of the greediest people in U.S. history. Admittedly, he has a lot of competition.

n.n said...

Good perceptions.

Thorley Winston said...

When I read about how $863,413 was spent on this gala, I couldn’t help but think of the last funeral I went to. It was for the spouse of friend from my childhood who left behind his wife and three children. The family requested that in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to the local food shelf.

That was for a funeral which is supposed to be about the family that were left behind and instead they turned it in a way to actually help people who were less fortunate than themselves. This “gala” wasn’t really about helping people and after reading about how the money is being spent, I question whether the “charity” is either.

garage mahal said...

about the John Doe investigations is the gag orders + the kicking in doors, not the investigation itself.

Which you know happened because you read it somewhere on the internet.

Birches said...

That was for a funeral which is supposed to be about the family that were left behind and instead they turned it in a way to actually help people who were less fortunate than themselves. This “gala” wasn’t really about helping people and after reading about how the money is being spent, I question whether the “charity” is either.

I know the Red Cross does some of this gala crap, but percentage wise, its in a respectable range. If I feel the need to give to someone because of a natural disaster, there is now no question about who is going to get my money.

CatherineM said...

There is no way to justify the Heart to Heart or the Clinton Foundation's actions.

When you are honored by an organization (like say the Italian American Foundation) you are supposed to help the organization by getting friends, clients and corporations you are connected with to donate (for ex buy a table for 10 at $10,000 or don't fill the table with your guests, but donate the table). No one pays the honoree. Sheryl Crowe should have paid her own way and donated her performance.

For the trolls who excuse this behavior because it's their "side," what's wrong with you too?

Drago said...

Take it easy on garage. It hasn't exactly been a bed of roses for him since middle school. By aligning with and hilariously defending his democrat betters he gets a chance to view himself as sciency-smart, politically in the know and a member of an imagined enlightened set.

Why begrudge him that small solace?

Gordon Scott said...

"There is no way to justify the Heart to Heart or the Clinton Foundation's actions."

There is, if what one wants is to hang out with the cool kids, and if one believes that having the intent to perform good deeds is the same as performing them.

Petra whatshername isn't actually interested in building schools. She's striving to be in with the cool kids. She is spending money ostensibly raised to build schools, so that she can hang out with Bill Clinton and Sheryl Crow for a couple of hours.

Birches said...

The Three Cups of Tea author was busted for way less, and yet, the Clintons keep pushing along. It now makes sense why the guy made up a lot of his stories. There's big money to be made in charities; you just have to find an "in."

Gabriel said...

@garage mahal:Which you know happened because you read it somewhere on the internet.

Yes, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's reporting, just like I told you the last time you said that, troll.

Joe said...

Yet another reason to rid ourselves of all "tax free" organizations.