I have always wondered if there was a grading system for charities as their is for banking , insurance, and Fortune 500 companies. Today I found the answer.

AIP. Or the American Institute of Philanthropy.

They have a unique grading system from A+ through to F.

On its website AIP states that high rated charities typically spend 75% or more on their budgets on charitable programs, do not hold excessive assets in reserve and  receive “open-book” status for disclosure of basic financial information and documents to AIP.

AIP then goes on to list a lot of different categories of charitable organizations, with the best of the bunch shown with an A+ to B+ rating

I will now bookmark this page and use it as a point of reference when promoting different charities.

Since I began my quest this year to hi-lite the excellent work carried out on a daily basis by so many charitable organizations, a lot of the research I have been conducting has lead me to some very somber conclusions.

It is quite easy to despair at the hatred and animosity perpetrated thousands of miles away. Innocent men women and children being killed in the name of God, or in the name of ancient rights to ancient lands.

People persecuted and killed for their right to practice their religion or the right to their sexual orientation. Women are still a subjugated section of many societies, where choosing who they marry is not based upon whom they love but dependent upon parental approval.

Of course I do not  need  to look further than home to notice injustices on a grand scale. America – the land of the free, is not free. Homelessness has been on the rise for many years, and the numbers are as astonishing as they are tragic.

According to a survey carried out by The National Coalition For the Homeless , the number of homeless people has reached 3.5 million of which 1.5 million are children.

According to the non partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, 79% of the 48 million uninsured in America today are either US citizens or legal residents/aliens. That does not include the under insured, which would vastly increase the number if it was to be included.

Currently the unemployment rate exceeds 10 per cent, a number not seen in over a quarter of a century.

Since President Obama’s historic election victory, politics has become more nasty, more divided, than ever before.

Never before has a member of the House interrupted the President during a speech to a joint session of Congress, and certainly never shouted at the President “You Lie” as Joe Wilson, GOP congressman from South Carolina did in September of last year.

And never in the history of US politics has a previous Vice President consistently berated, belittled and criticised a sitting President as Dick Cheyney has done.

The current fight over the health care epitomizes the split between the left and right, both in Washington and in the country at large.

I could go on a whole lot longer. But I will spare you the pain.

Which brings me back to the beginning of my article. Spending my time researching so many charities allows me to restore my faith in mankind. Sometimes I tear up just reading about what some of these charities do to make a difference in peoples lives. And it happens every minute of every hour of every day.

And that is why I feel blessed in doing what I do. It’s what lets me sleep peacefully at night. And for that I am very grateful indeed.

Scrooge's Clothing Provided by H&M

An article in the New York Times today told a story that beggars belief.  On the back street of H&M’s flagship store on 35th Street, bags of unsold clothing are dumped into trash bags to await pickup by trash haulers.

One curious person, who noticed two people rifling through the clothes on a bitter Monday evening 4th January decided to take a look for herself. She was astounded to find that someone had slashed nearly every item of clothing; ensuring that no-one would ever be able to wear them.

So, as temperatures continue to drop, and as the city’s poor and homeless dig in wherever they can find a warm enough place, H&M believes it can find no better use for these clothes than to purposefully destroy them.

This was not an isolated incident. One lady, Ms Magnus, actually described in great detail the vast amount of clothes that she saw dumped in the back street.  On Dec. 7, during an early cold snap, she saw about 20 bags filled with H & M clothing that had been cut up. The New York Times quotes her explaining that the clothes were destroyed deliberately.

” Gloves with the fingers cut off. Cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor. Men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.” The jackets were tagged $59, $79 and $129.

The irony is that directly around the corner from H & M is a big collection point for New York Cares, which conducts an annual coat drive. On their website they state – ” Did you know that 90% of homeless adults need a new, warm coat each winter because they have no place to keep one over the summer months? But it’s not just homeless people who need our help; thousands of New Yorkers each year are forced to make a choice between buying a winter coat and putting food on the table, or meeting other basic survival needs.”

How much effort would it take H&M to have delivered the clothing round the corner. Or to pick up the phone and called a New York Cares volunteer to come take the unsold clothing away?!

In fact, H&M doesn’t even need to pick up the phone.

Ms. Magnus volunteered, in a letter, to help H & M connect with a charity or agency in New York that could put the unsold items to better use than simply tossing them in the trash. So far, she said, she has gotten no response.

H&M obviously has not a clue what PR suicide means. Someone needs to put them on round the clock suicide watch.

BRING CHANGE!! ONLY THEN CAN WE BRING HOPE!!

The wheeling, the dealing , the arm bending on the left and the right of the Democratic Party, the absolutely disgusting and uncaring fillibuster attempt by the Republican Party – it’s incredible that Senator Reid can talk about a health care bill and for others within his own party to know which one he’s referring to.

Having been savaged by Senator Leiberman of a public option and expansion of Medicare to 55 year olds, having made concessions to Senator Nelson on abortion and medicaid, having got other Democrats on board with their own State black male requirements, deep divisions within the Democratic Party are threatening to derail the Bill at the very same time the White House is lauding it as the most comprehensive piece of  health care legislation since social security.

And these divisions are coming from the base of the Democratic Party, most notably spearheaded by Vermont Governor, Howard Dean, who up till last night was stating quite publicly that he would kill the bill if he had the vote.

So , what exactly is in this Bill that has allowed (so far) for a yes vote from the 60 Democratic and Independent Senators?

Ezra Klein, a columnist at the Washington Post neatly hi lites the changes, and to me looks like a decent start to health care change in America.

In fact it is so decent, I believe that Howard Dean has finally caved under pressure from the White House to get the legislation through.

Until just a couple days ago Dean stated “This is a bigger bailout for the insurance industry than AIG, & a very small number of people are going to get any insurance at all, until 2014, if the bill works.” “This is an insurance companies’ dream, this bill,” Dean added. “This is the Washington scramble and I think it’s ill-advised.”

And John Gibbs, White House Press Secretary attacked Dean and said that he did not know what piece of legislation Dean was reading.

Now things have gotten a lot more cordial between Howard Dean and the White House

The White House  is now praising Howard Dean with a “we respect him so much” op ed by Joe Biden in the NY Times and in remarks by David Axlerod on NBC this morning cooing “I respect Howard Dean,” describing him as “passionate” about the issue.

Meanwhile, also on NBC, Dean conspicuously declined to say that Obama had failed to fight hard enough for core liberal priorities. Asked about this line, Dean reiterated his substantive criticism of the bill, but added: “He certainly tried very hard.” And he declined to call outright for the bill to be killed.

The bottom line is that I sadly support the Bill, even though it won’t stop discriminatory practices against my pre-existing condition by the insurance industry for another five years. Which is practically a life time for those people with chronic and progressive disorders such as myself.

But having read the latest bullet points, I cannot say – “all or nothing” . When the Bill calls for immediate halt to discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions, I cannot say – no, children with pre-exiting conditions may have to ..wait forever possibly,  if no new legislation gets passed and the insurance industry wins.

The Bill calls for accountability for excessive rate increases. A health insurer’s participation in the Exchanges will depend on its performance. Insurers that jack up their premiums before the Exchange begins will be excluded – a powerful incentive to keep premiums affordable.

Again, this must surely be a good thing. Some oversight and accountability has got to be better than no oversight and accountability at all.

The biggest tragedy is that Progressive Liberals dared hope for real change, the very mantra that got Barack Obama elected. But not doing anything about health care would play right into the hands of the insurance industry and Republican objectives, which we know would be tantamount to political suicide and the dashing of hopes of the silent majority, who are dying and going bankrupt because of the current state of our health care system.

The Australian Immigration department has denied permenant residency to a German doctor whose temporary visa runs out in 2010.

Dr Molleir, who was invited by the Australian government to work in Australia in a drive to boost the numbers of doctors working in rural areas, has a son with Downs Syndrome, and is the reason for the denial.

The Immigration Department stated: “A medical officer of the Commonwealth assessed that his son’s existing medical condition was likely to result in a significant and ongoing cost to the Australian community,” a departmental spokesman said in a statement issued Thursday by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!!!! Australia of all places.