Of candidates and foundations

[KSinTX]

Barack Obama sat on the board of directors of the Joyce Foundation, which has been defined as an anti-gun organization by Second Amendment advocates and Republican operatives, from 1997 to 2002. The foundation descibes itself as "a charitable foundation based in Chicago in the United States and operating principally in the Great Lakes region."

So, did this organization put its money where many people's mouths have indicated? The board disbursed $219 million in GRANTS to local and national organizations - less than 10 percent of which involved guns, gun ownership, gun limits or gun bans.

"Of the $219 million in grants approved from 1997 through 2002 — the years of Obama’s tenure for which the foundation has posted its annual reports online — the environment received $57 million, followed by education ($56 million), employment ($41 million), gun violence ($21 million), money and politics ($17 million) and culture ($6.5 million)."

It is not unusual for political heavy hitters and community leaders to become involved with foundations of all ilk. Let's compare the above organization which devoted $198 million to the environment, education, employment, anti-corruption in politics and culture to one with which John McCain chose to be affiliated.

John McCain - Board of Directors, Board of Directors Chair, International Republican Insitutute (IRI), 1992-present

"U.S. Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said the United States would contribute $232 million and the Inter-American Development Bank $400 million. But what many people don’t know is that U.S. federal funds have been flowing into Haiti for the past six years. A federally-funded group called the International Republican Institute, or IRI, has funneled some $3 million into Haiti to destabilize the democratically-elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

"The IRI, a nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration, initiated the destabilization of Aristide’s government by imposing harsh sanctions, training Aristide’s political opponents and encouraging them to reject internationally-sanctioned power-sharing agreements. Haiti’s political crisis eventually escalated into violence until Aristide was overthrown in February of this year in what he calls a modern-day kidnapping in the service of a coup backed by the United States."

underpants posts in Breaking News (Fri Mar-28-08):
BREAKING NEWS: White House says a presidential aide has resigned after engaging in improprieties using USAID grant money

Downthread, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3246974&mesg_id=3247351">starroute notes this:

USAID, which funded the IRI’s previous programs in Cuba from 1997 to 2002 with millions of dollars, simultaneously financed a number of other organizations theoretically devoted to democracy-building in Cuba, including the Center for a Free Cuba. Such programs represent an audacious raid on the U.S. Treasury and are little better than bag money given as a payoff to pro-Bush partisans who are being rewarded for getting out the vote.