Tony Perkins

I was channel surfing about a month ago and there was Pat Robertson pontificating on the importance of off shore corporations and attacking the Obama Administration for attempting to enforce corporate tax laws at the same time as he attacked Congress for considering new tax measures regarding off shore corporations.

I used this visage as some off the cuff allusion in a blog or comment; probably several blogs and comments. I mean the incongruity of running a religious channel/church in the first place and then using a pulpit to espouse tax policy.

My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.
--Jesus, Matthew 21:16

Well I see him on the TV
Preachin' 'bout the promised land
He tells me to believe in Jesus
And steals the money from my hand.
--Poison, "Give Me Something to Believe In" *

I kind of filed it away somewhere in my soul. I seem to do nothing more than state the obvious. My friend q reminds me that there are certain basic truths in the universe and to constantly drag them out and pontificate about them becomes a waste of time and intellect.

You know: CHENEY IS A LIAR. And St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota. SO WHAT.

But this goddamnable Tony Perkins shows up on CNN to espouse his take on Health Care in the United States and I go nuts again. So Stewart kind of saves me the trouble by playing a video of tony lying about the number of people in this country who have no access to health care. 

Just five or ten million people perky perkins says are being left out of the loop, so to speak. Which is a goddamnable lie because the number is closer to ten times that figure. And if one adds into the formula the number of American Citizens whose coverage is faulty--hell we are talking about over half of our country and probably closer to three-quarters of our population wanting.

But there is Perky Perkins, President of the Family Research Council denying his own Christian Principles, time and time again.

Ever notice and guys like Perky Perkins and Gary Bauer and Rick Santorum  and that others from the Christian Right  wear more make up than Lucille Ball; appear more effeminate than most of the fans of Queen; and yet, when they are not screaming about political issues they bash gay people.

The seven graces they are sometimes called in contrast to the seven deadly sins...but in Matthew 25:35-36 it is stated quite succinctly:

35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Well enough of that. Hypocrisy will always be with us, just like day time tv and wars and stuff.

The real purpose and subject of this post is this NYT article:

Many Americans dread April 15, the deadline for filing their income tax returns. But some well-heeled people are trembling over another looming tax day: Oct. 15. Thursday is the deadline for Americans to come clean about the money they have hidden offshore, in places like Swiss bank accounts. No one can say with certainty how much money is out there -- the accounts are secret -- but the hoard may be tens of billions of dollars.

 "We're seeing a flood of people," said Scott D. Michel, a tax lawyer in Washington. His firm, Caplin & Drysdale, has 350 clients who are preparing to report their offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue Service. The firm has 14 lawyers handling their cases, one of which involves a tax bill of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The deadline is part of a broad crackdown on Americans who use offshore accounts to evade federal taxes. As part of the effort, United States authorities have challenged the long tradition of banking secrecy in Switzerland, and, in particular at UBS, that nation's largest bank.

The I.R.S. is offering tax dodgers some leniency. Penalties will be reduced for people who come forward by Oct. 15. They will be assessed fines equal to 5 to 20 percent of their tax bills, rather than the usual 50 percent. They also will pay that penalty once, based on the highest balance in their offshore accounts over the last six years, rather than for each of those six years.

The I.R.S. disclosure program is also creating headaches in the hush-hush world of private banking. It requires people to disclose the names, addresses and telephone numbers of bankers, lawyers, accountants, tax advisers and trust officials who helped them evade taxes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/business/13irs.html?_r=2

 And I immediately thought of my buddy Pat Robertson; and how he took time on his Christian Network to discuss American Tax Policy that ostensibly has nothing to do with religion or Jesus Christ or begging his audience for money.

On Thursday, September 1, on the bottom of an article called "BUSH ISN'T THE WHOLE PROBLEM-- RELIGIONISM IS TEARING OUR COUNTRY APART," I posted an update about FEMA pointing people wanting to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina to a Pat Robertson front organization, "Operation Blessing." When FEMA first posted the list of who-to-send-donations-to, the Red Cross was #1 and Operation Blessing was #2 (out of several dozen organizations). After the complaints started coming in FEMA moved Operation Blessing down lower and, finally, yesterday, they removed the Elmer-Gantry-meets-Robber-Baron rip-off organization from the government website.

I doubt anyone who reads DOWN WITH TYRANNY needs any more convincing that Robertson is a fraud and charlatan who should have been carted off to prison long ago. But maybe you know someone who swallows his line of bunk. The Operation Blessing that FEMA saw fit to tell people to donate to didn't just appear out of the blue to try to capitalize on the Katrina disaster. Oh, no, Robertson and Operation Blessing have been preying on naive Americans for some time. The state of Virginia launched a probe of the bogus charity after Robertson had been soliciting funds for displaced persons relief in Rwanda and then diverting the bulk of the money to fund his for profit diamond mining operation in Mobutu's Congo. Of 40 flights Operation Blessing carried out, only two were even remotely related to humanitarian efforts. The rest were just doing business for Robertson's African Development Corporation (which only develops one thing: immense personal wealth for the vile Robertson. He is the president and sole shareholder in ADC.)  http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2005/09/pat-robertson-rip-off-artist-is-helped.html

This guy was ranting in 2005 about how Pat was ripping off the taxpayers with strange international pretend charitable efforts after w had him appointed to some oversight commission.

In 2002, after complaining about the legitimacy of President Bush's subsidies to Christian churches through a so-called faith-based initiatives, Robertson's Operation Blessing accepted millions in taxpayer money from the administration.

Subsequent investigations of Robertson's charity, however, reveal that it doesn't actually distribute charitable giving to those in need, but rather serves as a "middle-man" siphoning off part of the donations for its "overhead" and then handing the money over to real charities.

Robertson and his businesses has gotten into trouble for failing to pay his creditors, for trying to avoid paying state, local and federal taxes, for breaking campaign finance rules and bending other laws. In other words, he believes that it is God's will that he cheat, steal, make deals with tyrants, and bribe and scheme his way into greater riches - all lovingly financed by his cult following.

The question is why is FEMA promoting Operation Blessing? Can you trust Robertson with your donations? Obviously not. His record shows that he will pocket part of the donations to finance some hair-brained scheme that probably involves slave labor, environmental racism, and some brutal tyrannical government.
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/1802/1/119

In the same article I found this:

What Robertson didn't disclose was that his oil-related investments are really what fuel his animosity for Chávez.

Robertson's business interests are less well known than his big mouth. His investments and business schemes have been mostly funded through Operation Blessing and his other "charities," his television show, The 700 Club, and his TV "network" the Christian Broadcasting Network.

From donations provided by viewers, Robertson bought the Family Channel, sold part of its stock at a personal profit of $90 million, and then sold the rest to right-wing media mogul and FOX owner Rupert Murdoch for $1.82 billion.

In two swift financial deals, Robertson and his family took in tens of millions of dollars in pure profits on the backs of desperate, deluded faith-filled viewers. No money was disbursed to the viewers who made Robertson's millions from these deals possible. Interestingly, Robertson's diamond venture shows that he really doesn't have a problem with dictators per se - as long as he can make some money from them. To win diamond mining rights, Robertson developed a close and friendly relationship with dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, most notorious for his collaboration with the CIA in the assassination of Congolese national liberation movement leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961.

You see, what gets me is that Pat has been using off shore corporations to hide his money and not pay taxes. Can you imagine him making 90 million dollars off of the taxpayers and his Christian audiences who think they are contributing to causes like helping flood victims and feeding the poor and such?

Pat Robertson is a very evil man.

But then I thought, from when does Perky Perkins get his monies from. You know, to keep this fascistic façade called the Family Research Council going?  I mean we know where some of the money goes that Perky Perkins does not pocket.  http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00452383&cycle=2008

It goes to right wing fascist Nazis who run for office for one thing, of course.

But where did the money from in the first place?

Its hard to figure really. But you will see entries like this in their lists of contributors:

TEODORO, CAROL MRS
GIG HARBOR, WA 98335 ADVANCED WOMEN'S HEALTH/MEDICAL ASS 09/19/08 $250

CALFANO, ALBERT MR
TRENTON, NJ 08610 NJM INSURANCE GROUP/UNDERWRITER 10/20/08 $200

PFLANTZ, WARREN MR
ARNOLD, MO 63010 DES PERES HOSPITAL/GROUNDSKEEPER 10/17/08 $250

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?sort=A&cmte=C00452383&cycle=2008&Page=2

It's a PAC so there are limits on the contributions for the Family Research Council. 

Well there are fronts and there are fronts. And the FRC is only one of Perky Perkin's fronts.

What the health industry does is simply get its employees, before bonus time, to 'contribute' to whatever propaganda fronts it can find. 

So here is Perky Perkins working hard to make sure people stay sicker, health insurers stay richer and he keeps getting extra paychecks.

Whenever you hear some political bullshit pouring out of somebody's mouth, find out who is paying the bastard.

FOLLOW THE MONEY.