"It's class warfare and my class is winning." Warren Buffett

The value of any commodity, ... to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Book 1, chapter V.)

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works....(Barack Obama)


Monday, February 01, 2010

What about those Royalties?

At first glance, it seems innocuous enough:

Sarah PAC, Sarah Palin's political action committee, raised more than $1.4 million in the second-half of 2009, according to the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza. That figure brings the group's fundraising haul to $2.1 million for 2009.

But it's in the expenditures that things get interesting:

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate had her political organization spend more than $63,000 on what her reports describe as "books for fundraising donor fulfillment." The payments went to Harper Collins, her publisher, and in some instances to HSP Direct, a Virginia-based direct mail fundraising firm that serves a number of well-known conservative politicians and pundits.

Sarah PAC spent another $8,000 on colorful bookmarks designed by a Nashville-based event branding firm. And her committee paid her publisher $20,000 for what appears to have been the cost of sending her personal photographer and another aide along on her book tour.

Let's see how this works. In part Sarah Palin uses the money she gets for her PAC (money that is supposed to go to political candidates) to buy copies of her books—books for which she is paid royalties. Unless she received no royalties for those books, things look very fishy.

And how much did political candidates receive from the Sarah PAC? Less than the total of what was expended on the "books for fundraising donor fulfillment."

She donated $64,600 to candidates and party committees.

Meanwhile, Rand Paul (Ron Paul's son) is thrilled to get Sarah Palin's endorsement in his bid to become a US Senator for Kentucky.

"Governor Palin is providing tremendous leadership as the Tea Party movement and constitutional conservatives strive to take our country back," Rand Paul said in a statement. "Sarah Palin is a giant in American politics. I am proud to receive her support."

Paul also acknowledged that he "has received a generous donation from Governor Palin's PAC."

Palin, Tea Partiers, and another Paul. The kooks run together.

Posted by Delaware Watch at Monday, February 01, 2010