(no subject)

[badstar]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_on_re_us/katrina_barbara_bush

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this. Barbara Bush gave money to the Bush-Clinton Houston Hurricane Relief Fund, specifying that it be used to buy software for schools...specific software coming from her son Neil's company.

My thoughts...which are just thoughts...are this:

1. I don't know anything about the software. I can't criticize or laud it's use.

2. It's her money, if she wants to donate it to a specific cause for a specific use, it's her choice.

3. I think I would have more clear-cut feelings- I think it would bother me less- if she had just purchased the software and given the software. Something about "Here's a chunk of money now go buy stuff from my son's business" really puts me off.


The article mentions a previous conflict-of-interest situation....

Two years ago, the Houston school district board wrestled with conflict of interest concerns over the Ignite program. Neil Bush had helped raise $115,000 for the district's philanthropic fund from donors who insisted the money be spent on his company's software.

Comments

[forexample.livejournal.com]

Neil Bush is a bad businessman and a crook who couldn't survive without help from friends and family. A recurring method is to give him a high paying job he's unqualified for so it can be counted as salary. There's an article from 2003 floating around about it.