An Accounting of Komen’s Impressive Financial Hypocrisy
Clipped from here (click to see the links):
According to the charity’s website, in the last year, Komen’s given quite a few grants to quite a few hospitals and medical schools associated with quite a few investigations.
- They’ve given a grant to researchers at the University of Kansas, even though two scientists working there are currently under investigation for plagiarizing portions of their research.
- Funds haven’t been interrupted to the University of Texas at Austin, even though a currently pending lawsuit alleges that the school is discriminatory against Asians.
- Boston’s Dana-Faber Cancer Institute is named in the investigation into the death of a former employee who ingested cyanide. Would that pass Handel Rule muster?
- Komen’s also given a grant to the University of Texas Southwestern’s medical center, which was under investigation at both the state and federal level as recently as last summer.
- An organ donation center managed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, another Komen grant recipient, was recently under investigation for having an improper financial relationship with a vendor.
- They’ve given money to Duke University’s Medical Center, even though Duke’s under investigation for Title IX violations.
- A grant to the University of California at San Diego’s Medical School flowed through uninterrupted, even though last summer, a recreational fencing coach there was investigated for sexual assault. (If an individual is under investigation, does that mean the entire organization should be treated as though it’s under investigation? Best err on the side of caution!)
- Money’s still going to the University of California at San Francisco, even though a seat belt-less shuttle bus led to the death of a professor last summer.
- And protesters who claim they were wrongly treated at the University of California-Berkeley are suing the school, which is still receiving money from Komen. Shall I go on?
And Komen’s supposedly high minded (and patently false) claim that they won’t give grants to organizations that are under investigation of course doesn’t apply to money flowing into the organization.
- They get money from Quilted Northern, which is owned by the Koch Brothers, who have gotten in trouble with doing secret business with Iran.
- They’ve got a big hard on for Bank of America, Public Enemy Number 1 when it comes to fucking over the American consumer in all colors of the rainbow (especially pink!).
- Just a couple of months ago big Komen supporter Merck was forced to pay almost $1 billion to settle charges that it illegally marketed the drug Vioxx.
- Another big Komen donor is 3M which just was forced to pay $3 million to settle an age discrimination suit.
- Pink pimper Oracle was investigated last summer for violating antibribery laws while doing business in Africa.
- Just a couple of weeks ago, Federal safety regulators began investigating claims that Komen corporate buddy KitchenAid was making dishwashers that light stuff on fire.
Komen also gladly accepts money given by Ford, American Airlines, Key Bank, and Microsoft — all of which were recently under investigation. Talk about inconsistent principles.
In case anyone is in the dark at this point, let’s look closely at the investigation of Planned Parenthood. There is currently a government investigation against them, but it’s being conducted by Republican politicians (not a Democrat in the bunch), because Planned Parenthood gives abortions which only represents 3% of the total of their funding. Most of Planned Parenthood’s work deals with STDs and contraception (education and supplying treatment).
Regardless, the investigation is unnecessary anyway, because Planned Parenthood is routinely audited by the government. Those findings are reported and Planned Parenthood has not had violations.
Despite that, these guys have been trying to get Planned Parenthood defunded for quite some time, but their efforts have resulted in nothing. So now they try to influence other companies, Komen being one, to dump them.