Is the Gates Foundation involved in bribery?

[Hannah Bell]

An online legal dictionary defines bribery this way: "The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties."

When we think of bribery we usually envision a check or cash being passed on the sly to public officials. But what if it is right out in the open, concealed only by the fact that the briber is a foundation created by Bill Gates rather than some back street shyster?

Here is how a news story describes it: "Now the foundation is taking unprecedented steps to influence education policy, spending millions to influence how the federal government distributes $5 billion in grants to overhaul public schools. The federal dollars are unprecedented, too. President Barack Obama persuaded Congress to give him the money as part of the economic stimulus so he could try new ideas to fix an education system that most agree is failing. The foundation is offering $250,000 apiece to help states apply, so long as they agree with the foundation's approach."

And it gets worse, as the story related: "Duncan's inner circle includes two former Gates employees. His chief of staff is Margot Rogers, who was special assistant to Gates' education director. James Shelton, assistant deputy secretary, was a program director for Gates' education division. . .The administration has waived ethics rules to allow Rogers and Shelton to deal more freely with the foundation, but Rogers said she talks infrequently with her former colleagues."
This is even before one considers broadly understood restrictions on political lobbying by non-profits. But then who needs to bother with lobbying if you can just deliver the cash and get your way?

http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=715



hey, for those of you still in the dark, spare me all the paeans to gates' "good works".

[KansasVoter]

1. And gave Billions to stop Malaria. What an asshole!

[Greyhound]

2. First post out of the gate.

Nevermind.

[Hannah Bell]

9. what does malaria have to do with education policy?

ps: his "billions" = 1.2 & they've gone mostly to fund research on proprietary drugs & vaccines.

another view of the gates malaria cartel:

WHO official criticizes Gates Foundation 'cartel' on malaria research

The chief of the malaria program at the World Health Organization has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out the health agency's policy-making function.

Many of the world's leading malaria scientists are now "locked up in a 'cartel' with their own research funding being linked to those of others within the group," Kochi wrote. Because "each has a vested interest to safeguard the work of the others," he wrote, getting independent reviews of research proposals "is becoming increasingly difficult."

Also, he argued, the foundation's determination to have its favored research used to guide the health organization's recommendations "could have implicitly dangerous consequences on the policy-making process in world health."

Kochi, an openly undiplomatic official who won admiration for reorganizing the world fight against tuberculosis but was ousted from that job partly because he offended donors like the Rockefeller Foundation, called the Gates Foundation's decision-making "a closed internal process, and as far as can be seen, accountable to none other than itself."

He added, the foundation "even takes its vested interest to seeing the data it helped generate taken to policy." As an example, he cited an intervention called intermittent preventive treatment for infants, known as IPTi. Other experts said IPTi involved giving babies doses of an older anti-malaria drug, Fansidar, when they got their shots at 2 months, 3 months and 9 months. In early studies, it was shown to decrease malaria cases about 25 percent. But each dose provided protection for only a month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/health/18iht-gates.1.10134837.html


Monopolies are bad. Especially unregulated monopolies that are a law unto themselves.


One of the uses of the gates money is drug & vaccine trials in the third world where oversight re protection of research subjects is much less rigorous.

saves money.

in the same way the us research establishment used to conduct trials on prisoners, the retarded, & the mentally ill.

fuck bill gates and his malaria initiative.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Why does this make it okay for him to screw with our schools?

I'm not getting the connection between malaria and public education.

[Luminous Animal]

13. I believe that would be millions not billions but, in any case,

his malaria philanthropy has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

[Greyhound]

3. The Great American disconnect is truly fascinating.

A man that stole billions upon billions, destroyed an industry, ruined the lives of millions, is a great man because the proceeds from a 20-year-crime-spree made him the richest man in the world.
:crazy:

Wonder why we can't prosecute war criminals? We can't even get an investigation of this shitheel's "business practices".
:kick: & R

[LWolf]

4. +1

[Donnachaidh]

14. idolatry of the wealthy -- and the wealthy know exactly how to herd those

SHEEP to further their agendas.

I find it amazing that people who call themselves liberal still bleet and follow those who helped destroy this economy, just because they sought out tax exemptions that were also good PR.

[inna]

21. precisely. corporate propaganda-fueled "idolatry of the wealthy".

I find it amazing that most people seem to be oblivious to what is really clear to see.

[leftstreet]

18. +1

[BillGates]

5. The offering, giving

receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties.



So by that definition, everybody that worked on a candidates campaign or donated money to get that candidate elected, Is guilty of bribery.

[Greyhound]

6. I recommend the anchovies...

:rofl:

[BillGates]

7. I was under the Impression

that this was a liberal forum.

[Hannah Bell]

8. plutocracy is a liberal value?

[Donnachaidh]

15. It is -- but many of us know when class warfare has been engaged.

And Bill Gates, the college DROPOUT, is NOT an *educational leader* in any shape or form.

[BillGates]

17. Is Steve Jobs an

educational leader?

Apple CEO Jobs attacks teacher unions
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/4560691.html

In a rare joint appearance, Jobs shared the stage with competitor Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc. Both spoke to the gathering about the potential for bringing technological advances to classrooms.

"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.

"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."

At various pauses, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Dell sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap.

"Apple just lost some business in this state, I'm sure," Jobs said.

Dell responded that unions were created because "the employer was treating his employees unfairly and that was not good."



Steve Jobs, Proud to Be Nonunion
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/02/72754

Jobs knows a lot about schools; he's been selling computers to them for more than 30 years. But don't you love it when a billionaire who sends his own kids to private school applies half-baked business platitudes to complex problems like schools? I'm surprised Jobs didn't suggest we outsource education to the same nonunion Chinese factories that build his iPods.

Jobs has also been a longtime advocate of a school voucher system, another ridiculous idea based on the misplaced faith that the mythical free market will fix schools by giving parents choice.

Jobs argues that vouchers will allow parents, the "customers," to decide where to send their kids to school, and the free market will sort it out. Competition will spur innovation, improve quality and drive bad schools (and bad teachers) out of business. The best schools will thrive.

[Electric Monk]

22. Does he have a sycophant in this thread pretending to be him?

I await your attack on Linus Torvalds next in your attempted defense of Mr Gates.

[BillGates]

23. I am not defending

Bill Gates, and I haven't attacked Steve Jobs.

I like Linus Torvalds/

Linus Torvalds: "Microsoft hatred is a disease"
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/07/linus-torvalds-microsoft-hatred-is-a-disease.ars

I'm a big believer in "technology over politics". I don't care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don't have to worry about licensing etc issues. I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out. There are 'extremists' in the free software world, but that's one major reason why I don't call what I do 'free software' any more. I don't want to be associated with the people for whom it's about exclusion and hatred.

[City Lights]

25. LOL!

:spray:

[BillGates]

19. Billionaire College Dropouts

http://www.twincommas.com/billionaire-college-dropouts

Steve Jobs

Estimated net worth: 5.7 billion USD

In addition to being the CEO of Apple Inc, Steve Jobs became the largest individual shareholder of the Walt Disney Company after selling Pixar Animation Studios in 2006. In 2007, he was chosen as Fortune Magazine’s most powerful businessman. That’s quite an honor for someone who dropped out of college after just one semester. Although his yearly salary is officially just $1, Jobs has received “executive gifts” including a $46 million jet and nearly 30 million shares of restricted stock. Because capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than salary income, this is also a tax minimization strategy.

[Hannah Bell]

24. you & mayor bloomberg. hey, no problem if we faked the test scores, (famous high school dropout X)

is a millionaire!

cheeze whiz.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. You're back!

What kind of pizza this time?

[rucky]

11. I'm still waiting for that money you promised me...

for forwarding that mass email you sent.

[Angry Dragon]

20. NO

[Hannah Bell]

26. lol. right, volunteering on a campaign is the equivalent of donating a million dollars with the

condition people do what you say.

no shame.

[BillGates]

38. No Shame

You could not make a substantial argument on what I actually posted, so you took my words out of context and made an argument on that.

[BillGates]

16. It seems

that the ugliness of hate also consumes some liberals.

:(

[Hannah Bell]

27. it seems that the ugliness of bootlicker ethics also consumes some - liberals?

[BillGates]

28. You just validated my point

Bootlicker!

If you're looking for the guilty, you need only look Into a mirror.

[madfloridian]

29. You still around? Still griping about Steve Jobs not getting bashed here?

:eyes:

[BillGates]

30. I am not griping

I just asked a question.

"Is Steve Jobs an educational leader?"

[madfloridian]

31. You left such an opening there...a mile wide.

But I won't be ugly and say neither of you should be education leaders. I won't say that.

[Hannah Bell]

33. he funds school deform, too.

[Starry Messenger]

36. Who said he was?

:shrug:

[girl gone mad]

37. Would a college drop out be allowed to teach public school Kindergarten?

No.

So how can he be presented as an "educational leader" when he isn't even qualified to teach Kindergarten?

[Hannah Bell]

32. here's a mirror for you:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8871678&mesg_id=8873538

[BillGates]

34. Good evening

Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. I thought we could take some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this forum, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.

Fear got the best of you.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/quotes

[Electric Monk]

35. I understand your vector, but I think you also project. nt

[happy_liberal]

41. There is something terribly wrong with this country...

n/t

[Greyhound]

42. Are you at all familiar with your namesake's history? n/t

[JDPriestly]

39. Sure sounds like bribery.

It is undemocratic for our government to allow Bill Gates to buy so much influence through his "gifts."

We need to tax the wealthy, not beg from them. Gates is basically buying influence with his money. This is what they claimed they were putting Siegelman in jail for. The sale of influence and, in Siegleman's case, an appointment.

Bill Gates and Eli Broad, of course, get by with it because they just offer too much money to pass up.

[maryf]

40. And what they want is to be sure the slaves they pay for are trained

to do the work they want them to do, and nothing else; no problem solving that is not solving one of their problems, no thinking that doesn't deal with something related to their needed work/services. They certainly don't want people questioning the system, or even having the words necessary to do so...