Daddy on the Edge of a Rebuttal

Daddy on the Edge doesn't get a whole lot of feedback.

It happens, and I've come to accept that.  While I know there are a pretty fair amount of people that come by and read the posts here, the comments section remains fairly bare (which I gotta tell you, can sometimes feel like having sex with a mime - in the dark.  You think you're doing pretty good, but it's always hard to know if you have truly "satisfied" with your "content".  Was she thrashing in pleasure, or pretending to be assaulted by the wind, holding on to an invisible rope so she wouldn't be blown away?).

But today, Daddy got a comment; here's a bit of it  -

"I read your most recent blog post from the 9th...you speak of charity and then deride conservatives for not giving to charity.

I find this humorous and uninformed since study after study (including Pew Research, whom I am sure you find more palatable than say Breitbart) have all concurred that conservatives consistently give more to charity than liberals."

I have not found a study that supports this idea - not exactly, anyway - I have found studies that suggest that "Red States" give more to charity than "Blue States", but I know lots of Democrats who live in Red States and vice versa for the Republicans, so it's not so easy for me to buy into that argument.  And besides, that's not the argument I was making.

While I did use the word "Charity" in my last blog post, what I was driving at was the idea that we should care for each other, that whatever we do for the least of us, we do for Christ; that helping the least fortunate among us is a major theme in many, many different religions. The idea of "giving to charity", while it should be synonymous with what I'm saying, can often times...not be.  It's easy to say that Republicans give more to charity, (and my critic did indeed provide me with articles - one from 2006 and one from 2008) but what are we really talking about?

From Wiki - A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on non-profit and philanthropic goals as well as social well-being ( e.g. charitable, educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good)

Like these guys - The American Family Association (AFA) is a United States non profit organization that promotes conservative fundamentalist Christian values. It opposes same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion.  It also takes a position on a variety of other public policy goals and has lobbied against the Employee Free Choice Act. The AFA defined itself as "a Christian organization promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on television and other media," later switching their stated emphasis to "moral issues that impact the family." It engages in activism efforts, including boycotts, buycotts, action alert emails, publications on the AFA's web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying.  The organization is accredited by the Evengelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and posted a 2011 budget of over US$16 million.  AFA owns 200 American Family Radio stations in 33 states, seven affiliate stations in seven states, and one affiliate TV station KAZQ TV) in New Mexico.

AFA has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center as of November 2010 for the "propagation of known falsehoods" and the use of "demonizing propaganda" against LGBT people.  AFA has been criticized for its opposition to LGBT rights.

Annnnnd... it's a Charity.

The AFA is but one example - the Southern Poverty Law Center lists 18 Anti-Gay Hate Groups and their Propaganda that all claim non-profit, tax free status, and any donation you make to them can be claimed as a charitable contribution on your 1040's.

Then there are the environmental charities.  Nope, not Greenpeace - these non profit organizations are "sock puppet groups" put together by the Koch Heads and their ilk to counter rational, scientific conclusions regarding climate change with their own brand of...methane.

In February of this year, The Guardian posted a story that talks about these organizations, which you can read in it's entirety here - the following is a snippet of that article...

" As the Guardian revealed last week, two secretive organisations working for US billionaires have spent $118m to ensure that no action is taken to prevent man made climate change.  

The two organisations – the Donors' Trust and the Donors' Capital Fund have financed 102 organisations which either dismiss climate science or downplay the need to take action.

Among them are the American Enterprise Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council, Hudson Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Reason Foundation, Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Mont Pelerin Society and Discovery Institute. All pose as learned societies, earnestly trying to determine the best interests of the public. The exposure of this funding reinforces the claim by David Frum, formerly a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, that such groups "increasingly function as public relations agencies"".

The Westboro Baptist Church is a charity.    The Ku Klux Klan has enjoyed tax free, non profit status.  Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network is a charitable organization, (despite the fact that Roberston used CBN money and equipment to aid his diamond mining operation in Zaire).  There are volumes of  charities, 501c3s, non profit organizations - countless groups, (all tax exempt, mind you) that, while charities in name and filing status, are in no way charitable.  Now, if you want to tell me that Republicans lead the way in giving to those types of organizations, well then I'll have no trouble believing that.

But again, what I was referring to were actual works - things that you do that directly help or hurt the poorest and weakest among us.  When sequestration was put on the table, the cuts were designed to be so unpalatable that no decent person could actually let such a thing happen, and that Republicans and Democrats would do whatever was necessary to avoid them.  Now that obstructionist Republicans have blocked every attempt at actual progress, this is what will happen to the poorest among us; 

From Mother Jones; 

Public housing subsidies:  $1.9 billion in cuts would affect 125,000 low-income people who would lose access to vouchers to help them with their rent.

Foreclosure prevention:  75,000 fewer people would receive foreclosure prevention, rental, and homeless counseling services.

Emergency housing: 100,000 formerly homeless people could be removed from their current emergency shelters.

Educational programs: Learning programs for poor kids would see a total of $2.7 billion in cuts. The $400 million slashed from Head Start, the preschool program for poor children, would result in reduced services for some 70,000 kids.

Title I Funding: The Department of Education's Title I program, the biggest federal education program in the country, subsidizes schools that serve more than a million disadvantaged students. It would see $725 million in cuts.

Rural rental assistance: Cuts to the Department of Agriculture would result in the elimination of rental assistance for 10,000 very low-income rural people, most of whom are single women, elderly, or disabled.

Social Security: Although Social Security payments themselves won't be scaled back, cuts to the program would result in a massive backlogging of disability claims.

Unemployment benefits: More than 3.8 million people getting long-term unemployment benefits would see their monthly payments reduced by as much as 9.4 percent, and would lose an average of $400 in benefits over their period of joblessness.

Veterans services: The Transition Assistance Program would be forced to cut back some of the job search and career transition services it provides to 150,000 vets a year.

Nutritional Assistance for Women & Children: The government's main food stamp program is exempt from cuts, but other food programs would take a hit. Some 600,000 women and children would be cut from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which provides nutrition assistance and education.

Special education:  $978 million in cuts would affect 30.7 million children. For example, the scaling back of federal grants to states for students with disabilities would mean that cash-strapped states and districts would have to come up with the salaries for thousands of teachers, aides and staff that serve special needs kids.

Job training programs:  $37 million would be slashed from a job retraining and placement program called Employment Services, and $83 million would be cut from Job Corps, which provides low-income kids with jobs and education.

Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa) said that the $85 billion in cuts "would really help a long way and get us on a sustainable fiscal path."  Hmmmm...so would only fighting the wars that we really needed to, as well as not paying for antiquated weaponry that is obsolete to our current military needs (and is expensive as hell); so would abandoning your parties repeated attempts to repeal "ObamaCare" (which as of July 2012 had racked up costs of approximately $48 million) and constantly defending the Defense of Marriage Act ($ 3 million so far) -  then there's that pesky notion of paying salaries, health care, personal protection, ground, air and sea transportation, pension and rent to a bunch of Congressional jack-wads who would rather propose 694 Anti-Choice bills in three months (!) than actually sit down and work with the President to tackle the serious problems still facing this nation and this planet.  I'd much rather give that money to Head Start kids or homeless Vets than to a bunch of self aggrandizing K Street whores who don't seem to have a fucking care in the world about ANYONE but themselves.  And yeah, I'm talking about you, Toomey.  Weenie.

So, in conclusion - thanks for the feedback.  Glad you found some humor here, and I hope you come back.  And honestly, I love feedback - I would be thrilled to hear from anyone and everyone who's got something to say, but know this - this blog is the radically amplified, barely censored, oft times caustic opinion of a self proclaimed ludicrous asshole who goes by the name of  Daddy on the Edge. The fact that you call me uninformed frankly makes me giggle, but you go right ahead and call me that if it makes you feel better.  Facts are facts, and even blind guides and blind fools can see that your GOP brothers wailing for this to be a Christian Nation are about as Christlike as a post Purim nosh at the 2nd Avenue Deli.

I'll wrap this up with a few words from the biggest Liberal I know; Watch...

Go with God, 

Daddy