In most recent IRS report that the Foundation filed for 2008, it shows the foundation took in $91,568 and paid Terri’s dad Robert Schindler Sr., her brother Robert Jr. and her sister Suzanne Vitadamo $59,275, or 64% of the money they raised.
Charity Navigator a respected Charity Rating organization says any charity spending more than 30 percent on salaries gets a zero rating. The foundation doesn’t come close.
In the meantime, since the report was filed, the salaries have increased to $80,000 a year, but the Foundation says one salary is in arrears causing some family members to work without pay.
You know what? If it keeps them from running for elected office, it’s charitable money well spent.
khead
The Khead Foundation
c/o Reverend Kent Stanley Head, Esq.
PO BOX 77711
Laurel MD 20724
I promise to give 70% of the money to someone that is not me.
Citizen Alan
The one bright spot about the whole Schiavo debacle was that it finally made me get off my ass and draft a living will, which I had put off doing for more than ten years. I also asked all my family members what they thought about it, and when my sister said she didn’t think she’d ever be able to pull the plug on anyone, I added a clause saying that under no circumstances would she have any say in the matter.
Jay in Oregon
That wingnut welfare gravy train sure looks profitable.
I hate having scruples sometimes…
Cat Lady
Grifters fleecing brain dead rubes. Shocking.
Michael
I’ll never forget that piggy faced, grinning female lawyer who was happily telling Sean Fucking Hannity about how Terri Schiavo said “I waaan” in response to the query about whether she wanted to live. And how “Father” Pavone confirmed that.
It made me ill, knowing she had no brain, and knowing just how the GOP Congress and the Bushes listened to an astroturf campaign, and how nobody bothered checking on the provenance of calls and faxes to Congress and the White House. I mean hell, we pay a lot of money for staffers, who should’ve been on top of it.
The Schindlers had been sending their goobers around to conventions and wingnut gatherings since 2001 – I knew that, as I attended some and saw them working the crowd early.
Bubblegum Tate
Greetings, friend. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you’ve got the power inside you right now. So use it. And send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don’t delay! Eternal happiness is just a dollar away.
jrg
No matter how cynical I get, I still cannot keep up. It’s not just that Terri Schiavo’s parents are contemptible scumbags, it’s how appallingly stupid the donors to this “cause” are.
Some days I cannot blame “conservatives” for scamming the rubes. The rubes are begging for it. They never deserved to have money in the first place.
Bubblegum Tate
@Jay in Oregon:
Man, you said it. I’ve clearly chosen the wrong life path, what with my desire to work a real job and get a paycheck for my efforts and otherwise earn my money. I could make so much more money for doing so much less if I just became a grifter of wingnuts….
Joshua Norton
I’m surprised they didn’t keep Mr. Schaivo on life support so he could continue to draw a salary.
You know how those people are.
Balconesfault
I read this stuff and remember how we’re always told how churchgoing types give more money in charitable contributions than us heathens.
Well, yeah … since not only their donations to the church bowling alley building fund counts, but then there’s crap like this …
lawguy
@jrg: I have to agree. I totally expect politicians and corporations to rip me off, but sometimes I just get surprised.
Joshua Norton
They’re the ones who keep the Palin money machine chugging along.
Zifnab
So, let me get this straight. If two people of the same gender want to see each other in the hospital, the GOP will move heaven and earth to legislate them apart. But if Bill Frist and Tom DeLay want to waltz into my hospital room, rifle through my files, write my prescriptions, and dictate my care, they’ve got every right.
Hurray, SMALL GOVERNMENT! It’s so small, it’s practically suffocating.
Norbrook
@Zifnab:
Tsk, tsk! Bill Frist doesn’t need to waltz into your hospital room! He can dictate your care by watching a video of you. As for Tom DeLay… well, we really don’t want to see him waltzing again. It took months of heavy drinking to get the Dancing with the Stars episodes he was on out of my brain.
Chuck
@Zifnab:
Pointing out hypocrisy to a Republican is like trying to tell a fish that it’s wet.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Cat Lady:
Ladies and gentlemen: Today’s Internet Winner!
Mark S.
This sounds like a Three’s Company episode:
ETA: I didn’t pay super close attention to this thing, but I thought at least Terri’s parents were sincere. Now I’m starting to wonder.
MikeJ
Bill Frist: the only death panel the US government has ever tried to use for health care.
WereBear
Reminds me of how Marjoe Gortner and his crew would use all the drugs people threw in the “born again” barrels after one of his crusades.
At least Marjoe felt guilty and reformed. (He’d been dragged into it when he was a child, too.) So many of them… not so much.
MoeLarryAndJesus
If the Schindlers had gotten their wish and gained custody of Terri Schiavo’s decaying husk they would have been selling little baggies of her unwashed hair to fundamentalist ghouls for $1000 a pop. Goddamn vultures.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ:
Full of win. You have now qualified for today’s intertubes sweepstakes.
Citizen_X
@Zifnab: No, that’s not Small Government-y enough:
if
Bill Frist and Tom DeLaySheriff Dopecrush and his crew want towaltztoss stun grenades and burst into myhospital roomhouse, rifle through myfileseverything,write my prescriptions, and dictate my careshoot my kids and my dog, they’ve got every right.That’s Small Government!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Citizen_X:
Ah, you’ve been reading about the Columbia MO SWAT team again.
Steve
Aren’t these the same people who said Michael Schiavo was nothing but a greedy ghoul?
Citizen_X
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: That’s unfair. The Columbia cops only shoot dogs. The Detroit cops shoot kids.
BethanyAnne
C.R.E.A.M. ? Whazzat?
Cat Lady
@Steve:
Yes, SASTSQ.
It’s always about projection.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Citizen_X:
Heh heh, good point. It reminds me of the Denver PD back in the 80s. Here’s how they approached any given suspect:
“Stop or I’ll…”
(unloads 3-6 rounds from service revolver into suspect)
“…shoot.”
Comrade Tank Hueco
@BethanyAnne:
Cash Rules Everything Around Me.
Rosali
Gee, this sounds like something that FL Atty General Bill McCollum should investigate. I’m sure that his supporters are the kind of people who were scammed by the foundation. I’m sure he’ll get right on it.
Shaun
Holy crap! 90k this many years later? How much did they raise in the first year? Imagine how much they would be rakng in if they had been given custody of Terri? I can picture DVDs for sale featuring heavily edited videos of Terri answering questions by blinking once for “yes” and twice for “no” and three times for “send money”.
Mart
@Mark S.: The parents started off OK then morphed into creeps – Michael Schiavo continues to be the hero in this mess. Too long a story to re-capp; but I still can not believe this country could ignore science and sound legal rulings and be thrown into media circuses and unconstitutional law making based on hate spewing religous whackjobs gut feelings.
Remarkable & frightening.
tavella
I think the parents probably started out sincere, if deluded, but got hooked on that sweet sweet heroin of attention and free money. Michael Schiavo was awesomely tough and persistent, fortunately.
BC
One of the issues in the Schiavo case, where parents were asking to be her guardians, is that she received somewhere around $1 million for her injuries (sorry, can’t remember who was sued, but I do remember the $1 mil). Always thought the parents wanted control of that money more than they wanted control of their daughter’s care. And, yes, Michael is the hero here – after all, he was the one who took the time to get the training needed on caring for Terri and he was diligent in making sure she had the care she needed while in the nursing home. No bed sores or other signs of negligence in the 15 years she was there.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Yep, and I’d rather they spent it on themselves than political contributions.
.
BethanyAnne
@Comrade Tank Hueco: Ah! thankies :)
JGabriel
@Norbrook:
Don’t even talk about it. It just renews the trauma.
.
FreeAtLast
I’ll bet that many other wingnut “charities” would love to get their hands on the Schindlers List of brain dead rubes.
Mnemosyne
@BC:
My brother was in a serious car accident when he was 17 that required a good 18 months of rehab. He’s a wingnut, but the one thing that turned him around on the Schiavo case was finding out that she didn’t have any bedsores. He ended up with a few despite the very good hospital care he received, so he was really impressed by that.
fucen tarmal
donate here and watch as your money helps fucen tarmal make a permanent egress.
Anne Laurie
Which reminds me… any bets on the thoughtful, dignified “memorials” to Teri Schiavo that will be featured at the RNC convention in 2012? Will there be a bus tour to the hospice where she died, complete with televised prayer groups and would-be rising Republican stars weeping glycerine tears?
amorphous
Dolla dolla bill, y’all.
Cerberus
One response: It’s pretty much just true that anyone left in the Republican Party is either a scam artist or a crazy person, if not both. Thus, this should not be surprising especially with the well-known rule that anything a right-winger says is projection.
But second response: For fucks sake, this was their kid once upon a time. I don’t remember what it was from but there was a movie or a TV show quote that went: “Aren’t you a little concerned there might be a hell?” And that’s what this shit reminds me of. Engaging in an X year long smear battle over your dead daughter attacking the man she loved and trying to ruin him publicly if not get him assassinated by the “pro-life” terrorists and then decide to ride that bullshit for what, the last 5 years now? To get rich? Can these people even look at themselves in the mirror anymore or is the sheer weight of their lost humanity made them unable to see anything because they have literally rather than metaphorically become vampires?
FFS. There really is no depth, no depravity right-wingers will gladly delve into, is there? It’s like they take the metaphoric idea of a bottom personally and have made it their life’s work to prove that there is no bottom by frantically digging.
And frankly this story should be highlighted every time they blather on about how conservatives have high family values. I have never met a group of people who more believe their children are their personal property than right-wing nutcases.
David Hunt
I followed the link and browsed the tax return that they linked to on the site. My first thought was to wonder who they were paying the 15K+ of rent to. The Schinders themselves, maybe? That’s a pretty big chuck of their revenues going to that as well.
de stijl
Schindler’s List 2.0: Me, Myself, I.
Janet Strange
@Mark S.:
No, I don’t think so. I got the impression that her father was an abusive asshole who probably contributed to Terri’s bulimia. He pretty much wrote her off after she went into a coma and only took an interest after the malpractice settlement. He wanted a share of the money and basically swore to ruin Michael and get custody of Terri – and therefore the money – when Michael refused to give it to him.
I think her mom cared about Terri and wanted to do the right thing by her, but had been bullied all her married life by her husband and couldn’t stand up to him, so went along with the whole horrible spectacle.
maus
@Janet Strange: You can also be a “sincere” piece of human filth.
Jeff Fecke
@Steve:
Yes. And then, when he was offered millions to drop his suit and didn’t, they shifted to say that he was just trying to cover up his attempted murder of Teri, and when that was proven to be completely false, they…look! What is that enormous thing?
Well, I sure saw it.
Anyhow, and that’s why Barack Obama wants to steal your children’s souls.
Liz
Classy.
Norman Rogers
Kudos, Mr. DougJ
I shamelessly blogged about this as well. May those thieving bastards find wooden nickels in their collection plate from now on.
Kilkee
Looking at that tax return, one wonders what her brother and sister-in-law can each be doing for the stated 40 hours per week with this BS foundation. I know it takes some time to fleece the goobers, but if all you can get is about $100k total for a year you can’t be working at it full time, can you? I gotta believe the truth is they’re each spending about 10 hours a week at it, and picking up a collective 80k.