Heh:
I’m told that 22 Dem Senators have signed on to a toughly worded letter urging Komen to reverse its decision…
You know what, it’s too late. Fuck ’em, I don’t like alarms. Gin and Tacos (h/t to many commenters and to real life friend J for telling me how good G&T is):
[P]lease consult Lea Goldman’s outstanding, well-researched article “The Big Business of Breast Cancer”, which represents what may be the one and only outgoing link to Marie Claire magazine I will ever offer. It details the proliferation of scams in the charity industry (a fitting, if oxymoronic, term) that has sprouted up around breast cancer. There are many organizations that use the funds they raise primarily to raise more funds and pay handsome salaries to the administrators and their talentless family members. [….]The Susan G. Komen Foundationtm has been on my personal shitlist for many years (this post is from 2008). If this is what it takes to get you on the heretofore lonely Screw Komen bandwagon, so be it. But you should not have a low opinion of Komentm because of their announcement on Wednesday. You should have a low opinion of them because they’re a fake charity run like any other company with a product to sell. In this case the product is a combination of guilt, pity, and hope dissolved in a weak acid and dyed a nauseating pink.
[…]Komen’s founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker, is a big money Republican with ties to the past three Republican administration who received a political appointment from George W. Bush as a reward for her fundraising largesse. She draws a salary of $459,000 annually, money well spent compared to the 39% of its budget the foundation spends on “public health education” (i.e., marketing itself). Not to mention that they also spend a million bucks per year in legal fees to threaten other non-profit groups who use the phrase For the Cure, to which Komentm claims to have intellectual property rights.
Omnes Omnibus
Husker Du.
General Stuck
Fuck em. And PP will land on its feet, moneywise. And already has, with all of this acting as jet fuel to amp up liberal outrage and its attendant battle cry against the wingnuts obsession for claiming domain over women’s bodies. For the coming election, no energy is lost or wasted, it simply flows from one side to the other in this two headed country.
Mike G
It would be great if ‘Komen’ became a negative buzzword in the vein of ‘Santorum’, symbolizing the cluster of right-wing cruelty ideology, plastic corporate mendacity, self-serving greed, and gross arrogance and incompetence.
“Hey, you really Komened up that project”.
“The Bush Administration, what a pack of Komens”.
pragmatism
G&T, it’s dynamite
G&T, and it will win the fight
G&T, it’s a power load
G&T, watch it explode
oi oi oi oi
MattF
Number of Senators signing the letter is up to 26. And more to come, presumably.
cathyx
How idiotic for the senate to get involved in this.
rikyrah
f-em.
period
AA+ Bonds
Maybe y’all should just have listened to me when I suggested that it’s about Republican $ in the first place
Or G&T for that matter
I suppose I shouldn’t get riled up, y’all always catch up with me in a day or two.
Mnemosyne
Marie Claire is actually pretty good for a women’s fashion magazine. They always have at least one really good article about women’s issues or women’s rights internationally or domestically in addition to the fashion and beauty stuff.
piratedan
@cathyx: well at least our Brahmin betters are paying attention this time. It will be interesting to see who doesn’t judge the winds appropriately and refuses to sign on. I would expect the vast majority of the R’s to refuse… natch.
Omnes Omnibus
@cathyx: Easy way to signal a pro-women’s health and pro-choice stance in an election year.
Violet
It’s amazing how many skeletons are tumbling out of the Komen ™ closet. I have friends who are doctors/researchers and they haven’t liked Komen for quite some time. They told me not enough money went to actual research, but they never went into specifics. I think it’s becoming pretty obvious they’re a big front.
@Mike G:
That would be funny. Someone should hold a naming contest.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MattF: Wow, Begich, Tester and McCaskill signed on? I would’ve bet against all three.
Xjmueller
G&T rocks.
Xjmueller
G&T rocks.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
So, we’re gonna get PP and probably the American Cancer Society – I’ve read the next goal for SGK is to end funding for ACS because they support stem cell research – through this year. How do we make sure that this happens year after year? It does seem like there are plenty of people online pissed of about this, gathered in rather convenient groups. Could all of these blogs get together and make sure that this happens regularly?
Wannabe Speechwriter
If the Dems wanted to fight back, they’d be talking about taking away the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s tax exempt status. That’s what the Republicans would do…
Violet
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Where did you read that?
I wonder how Susan G. Komen, the woman herself after whom the organization is named, would have felt about her name being dragged through the mud like this?
AA+ Bonds
Although I suggest that you remember that I was right about this, yet again, next time I suggest an ulterior motive to a “magic mistake” and everyone’s like, SHIT SON YOU’RE A CRAY CRAY CONSPIRACY THEORIST
Maybe next time, or the time after that, or . . .
BGinCHI
I forwarded a link to stats about how much Komen takes in to how much they give to their target projects. They have really high expenses/overhead, or whatever that skimming for salaries racket is called.
Brinker on NPR today calling the whole thing slander and “scurrilous accusations.”
Fuck her and fuck these corporate charities.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Mnemosyne: Is that like the one serious story in Playboy or Maxim?
Cat Lady
@Mnemosyne:
My friend Lesley Jane Seymour was the editor in chief for several years and she’s a big progressive – she was on MSNBC the other day promoting More’s (her new magazine) article about FLOTUS’s mentoring initiative. Marie Claire is not as good as when she was there.
pseudonymous in nc
@AA+ Bonds:
Remember, kids: AA+ Bonds is always right, because he tells you so ever so loudly.
Never mind that social conservatives actually give the bulk of their donations to churches, and that the Komen PR clusterfuck hasn’t actually tapped a new rich vein of anti-choice donors.
The Bobs
@cathyx: Right you are, it’s not like there is anything political about this.
shortstop
@Violet: If not us, who? If not how, when? Any FPers up for guiding a Santorum-style derogatory naming contest for “Komen” through what will no doubt be a wild ride?
On another note, am I the only one who accidentally reads an AA+ Bonds comment once in a blue moon? Personality disorder much?
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@shortstop:
I”m down, mark me down.
Omnes Omnibus
@AA+ Bonds:
Perhaps not. But one manic dude? Oh, yeah.
pseudonymous in nc
@Wannabe Speechwriter:
Ack, there’s no need for that. When you’ve got an org. that’s doing its best Plaxico Burress impersonation, you just leave it to wail and call the ambulance.
jayboat
@BGinCHI:
Yep. Fuck em good. Hope this is the beginning of the end for their grift.
And, G&T rocks.
AA+ Bonds
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s really more that I cribbed ABL’s style once I realized it worked here
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Violet: Sorry, I think I mixed stories. They are ending spending for stem cell research at a other places:
Brian S
I hope that what comes out of all this is that politicians fuck with PP at their peril. It’s a long shot but I can dream.
AA+ Bonds
@pseudonymous in nc:
Sure, post up those numbers that were sent backwards through time to you from the next few months, so you can prove me wrong
SMH
It’s also worth noting that, for the billionth time, I don’t guarantee that these people’s strats work, I just point out when they appear
AA+ Bonds
@shortstop:
my ever-growing fan base . . . you respond to my comments an awful lot for someone who never reads them, shortstop
Anyway, just wanted to put a plug in for my posts, which tend to point in the right direction for further inquiry
BGinCHI
@jayboat: G&T does rock; forgot to say that.
Now, I just had a really big dinner and now I need to take a Komen.
Let’s hope this is a consciousness-raising moment for a lot of these orgs.
MikeJ
First thing tomorrow: Call Cantwell & Murray and say thanks, ask Cantwell for the phone num for reëlect HQ so I can volunteer.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: I say “komen” should replace “shart” – both as a noun and a verb.
pseudonymous in nc
@AA+ Bonds:
I’m not going to make a Romneybet with you, but I feel pretty confident that whatever bump SGK receives from wingnuts ain’t gonna to last. I’ll come back and
laugh at youcompare notes when the 2012 Form 990 comes out next spring.(Edited to be less snarky after your edit. If it really was a punt for GOP $$$, it was braindead, because the donor demographics just don’t pan out that way.)
Glyph_2112
Any “Charity” that has a CEO making $450,000 is BS from the start. It should send a direct signal to anyone that this organization is less worried about actually curing anything and more worried about perpetuating their hefty paychecks.
shortstop
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: Excellent! Thanks, Doug.
Southern Beale
This just happened: Planned Parenthood sued the state of Tennessee over HIV/STD grants:
MattF
@Glyph_2112: Yeah, “Overpaid Charity CEO” is practically the definition of a red flag.
gwangung
@Glyph_2112: Eh…..I’m not so big on that. That’s like being shocked college professors at major research universities in a major metropolitan area can reach $100K (after a decade or more of useful work).
waratah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Probably have a lot of rural and low income areas.
shortstop
@gwangung: I don’t think it’s like that at all. Especially when the person in question is independently quite wealthy, it’s unseemly at the very least for the organization’s founder to be taking a salary of a half-mil every year.
Something tells me she’s suddenly going to get the urge to donate it to cancer research/prevention this year, though.
kay
@BGinCHI:
I was looking at a non-profit marketing blog they had linked on Kos. The comments are great. They’re all saying this will be taught in business school. They’re genuinely excited.
This is a shot of the Energizer Facebook page. Energizer batteries just happened to be the latest corporate sponsor, unhappily for them. The marketing blog used this as an example of the PR disaster.
I love the comments on the Energizer page, because the woman are so fair. Firm, but fair.
Although I know Energizer did not cause this, I will NOT be buying your batteries.
One of them uses the term “collateral damage” :)
Smiling Mortician
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s good.
AA+ Bonds
All it really takes to know where to start looking for empirical evidence is to ask simple deductive questions:
Would Komen’s right-wingers have thought about the possible effect on donations? (yes)
Do they have large individual donors who are Republicans? (undoubtedly; breast cancer is a “safe” women’s issue for Republicans)
Would they have balanced this decision with analysis of whether they could make out as well or better with Republican donations? (of fucking course they would)
Does this mean it will “work”, or that they necessarily expected the response they got? (of course not, which is the caveat I always offer that everyone conveniently forgets)
And then you bring in one axiom to figure it out:
C.R.E.A.M.
waratah
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):I wonder where all this money is going to go?
BGinCHI
@gwangung: Wait…what?
That way false equivalence lies.
Mnemosyne
@AA+ Bonds:
You do realize that your insistence on congratulating yourself for saying the same thing that a lot of the rest of us have been saying is skating very close to putting yourself in the matoko-loco category, right?
Sorry, but it doesn’t take enormous deductive reasoning skills to figure out that Komen is filled with right-wingers and thought they could ride this out because, hey, everyone hates Planned Parenthood, amirite? If you read feminist blogs at all, Komen’s antics have been old news for years.
So, yes, congratulations on getting caught up to where Pandagon, Shakesville, and IBlameThePatriarchy were three years ago. Good for you.
Raven
Here’s the Charity Navigator Rating for Komen. So I don’t get yelled at you tell me what you think.
BGinCHI
@kay: I’m glad the curve of something bends toward something progressive. I can never remember that quote.
But even business people are getting it! With their denseness and all! Hope springs eternal.
Raven
@Raven: Whoa, they get good ratings but the comments. . .
beltane
@AA+ Bonds: They may gain right-wing donors but they have also squandered any vestige of credibility among mainstream Americans. I don’t see how Komen will be able to distinguish itself from all the other anti-science, anti-women, and anti-family organizations floating around in the right-wing septic tank.
Last week, the Susan G. Komen Foundation wielded a frightening amount of influence over health care policy. From here on out they will be pariahs to all but the 27%ers, taken seriously by no one.
kay
@BGinCHI:
It’s interesting, because it’s pure DISDAIN over there, mixed with excited rubbernecking at the scene of the crash.
She had no communications strategy, which is apparently a mortal sin in marketing.
They’re going on and on about how she didn’t respond IMMEDIATELY on Twitter, or take control of THE MESSAGE.
Just a funny, funny perspective.
She’s a Bush supporter, remember. It’s all about image with Bushies. She’ll be bothered more by disrespect in bidness circles than any shrill screeds coming out of the “humanitarian” community about poor people and such.
Mouse Tolliver
So Susan G. Komen spends $1 million a year putting mom-and-pop charities out of business. They’re the Walmart of philanthropy.
Mnemosyne
@beltane:
And when a huge part of your fundraising strategy depends on having low-information mainstream Americans buy your corporate sponsor’s yogurt over another brand of yogurt because it has a pink ribbon on it, you have just completely fucked yourself over no matter how many right-wing billionaires write checks to you.
As I said in another thread, mainstream Americans may not remember exactly what the kerfuffle was in a few months, but they will remember that there’s some reason they’re not supposed to buy products with pink ribbons on them, so they’ll avoid them. Komen shot themselves in the foot, and they just can’t keep their fingers off the trigger.
Arclite
Charities should be held to some standard the way health insurance companies are under the ACA: You must use 80% or 90% or some % of your funds to help the recipients of your charity, or you lose your tax-free status. It’s that simple.
beltane
@Mnemosyne: And the right-wing donors with the big check books might not want to invest in an organization that has been so thoroughly exposed. What’s the point of a Trojan horse that has “TROJAN HORSE!!!” written on it in day-glo colors?
kc
@Cat Lady: I loved Marie Clair when Ms. Seymour was the editor! I noticed a definite change, not for the better, when she left. It’s become more like every other fashion may around.
Nothing against the new editor, and I don’t dislike the mag now, but I’m not crazy about it.
gwangung
@shortstop: meh. I’m looking at Fred Hutchison Cancer Center. 89% goes to charitable purposes (and I mean real cancer research and treatment on a budget of over $500 million). Their CEO’s salary is $572K. But I doubt you’ll see anybody complaining about any inefficiencies there.
To be sure, $400K to be a douchebag is a waste of money. But paying ANYTHING to a douchebag is a waste of money.
eemom
Um, the name Komen itself is that of an innocent woman dead of breast cancer who had nothing to do with any of this. Y’all might want to keep that in mind before you go off on your wild ‘n crazy naming contests.
scav
@beltane:
OK, my second thought was they’d have to be rubber checks, from which you can probably infer what my first thought was.
shortstop
@scav: Can you hear the snare crack/Can you let it move without holding back?
pseudonymous in nc
@AA+ Bonds:
Or perhaps Hanlon’s razor applies.
@Mnemosyne:
And that the significant money here isn’t 2¢ a pink-lidded yogurt or whatever, it’s the licensing deal that SGK signs with Yoplait before a single pink-lidded yogurt comes off the production line, presumably based upon marketing dossiers that estimate the uptick in sales that comes with the Big Pink Ribbon.
Midnight Marauder
@eemom:
If anyone deserves the Santorum treatment in this situation, I would like to think Nancy Brinker would be first up at the plate, with Karen Handel waiting in the on deck circle.
Susan Komen has already had her name plenty tarnished thanks to these assholes.
MikeJ
@pseudonymous in nc: IF SGK was doing good work with the money I wouldn’t care if Yoplait gave because it made them look good. Who gives a shit? And hey, maybe it will make them look good because they’re actually doing something good.
If SGK is doing evil with the money (and it appears there’s evidence they are) then I don’t care how pure the hearts of the donors are.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@eemom: Maybe we can make it into a synonym for being Shiavoed: having your name become the definition for something you were not a part of. Though it needs to be refined so that Santorum cannot start using it in his defense.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@eemom:
Yeah, you’re right. I’m not doing the Santorum thing here. Thanks for mentioning this.
shortstop
@Midnight Marauder: Right, not Komen. Brinker, on the other hand…and it has the advantage of some nice hard vowels and rhyming possibilities.
Really, though, I suspect that “Komened” (“Komenned”? Seems like it needs a double n) will gather currency on its own, without any special help, as meaning “destroyed a going concern with one very serious false move.” And although that’s not the fault of the woman named, it’s not really directed at her, either.
Optical Inch
Does Gin and Tacos guy think that the Marie Claire article he links to says something bad about Komen?
Optical Inch
Does Gin and Tacos guy think that the Marie Claire article he links to says something bad about Komen?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Optical Inch: His posts do allow comments.
Birthmarker
The Marie Claire article linked in the post is well worth a read, just as a cautionary tale about the methods of false charities. I never give to telephone solicitors, but if you ever have felt so inclined, you should read the article.
Also, the next time you’re in the grocery, jot down a couple of pink-ribboned products, then send a polite email to the companies stating you won’t buy again as long as the ribbon is on the product.
catclub
@Mike G: Exactly what I thought on reading ‘Komentm’ and thinking Komentum, as the opposite of momentum – but with fecal matter.
pseudonymous in nc
@MikeJ:
My point is just that the big money is in sharing the SGK brand, not in per-sale receipts, and when the brand gets tarnished, then the value of sharing it with corporate partners plummets.