Archive for August, 2008


Fundraising Party Time at the National Conventions

Imagine the postcards that delegates to the Democratic and Republication conventions will send to their families back home the next couple of weeks:

Attended lots of fundraisers for charity at the convention, got to hobnob with our favorite lawmakers, met lots of people who I think might have been lobbyists, but they didn’t really have to say so, grabbed lots of corporate knickknacks, do-hickeys, and whatnot that they handed out, a good time was had by all, see you soon!

Yes, happy days are here again, for the special interests that get to use the national parties’ conventions as venues where they can coagulate around lawmakers and delegates to ply their trade without the formalities of bothersome practices like much transparency and disclosure. They can thank the Congressional leadership of both parties for having loosened the reins on how lobbyists and special interests might use charities as venues for cozying up to national legislators.

(more…)

Nickel-and-Diming Volunteer Drivers: Time for a Change

Wouldn’t it be great if volunteer drivers for charities such as Meals on Wheels and the Salvation Army could take a charitable deduction of 74 cents for the mileage they drive as opposed to the measly, crummy, insulting 14 cents per mile currently allowed under U.S. law?They could—if they were volunteers in the United Kingdom, but not in the American cauldron of charitable sensitivity.

(more…)

Playing by the NFL’s Tax Exempt Rules

Should the nonprofit National Football League be exempt from IRS 990 salary disclosure requirements? Apparently the NFL thinks it deserves its own unique exempt tax status, maybe 501(c)(”m” for monopoly), allowing it to report on what it thinks is important for the public to know and withhold what might make the public a little upset with the nonprofit trade association of sports barons.

(more…)

The Great Lobbying Fix

Press coverage of the July 16th revisions to Congressional lobbying rules was scant and generally positive. It must be a rerun of “Short Attention Span Theater” on Capitol Hill and in the Fourth Estate.

(more…)

The Cohen Roundup, or, Where’s Rick?

Readers of the Cohen Report may also be interested in these other articles by Rick.

Click here for the list of articles »