Important Update on Haiti Donations

The other day I listed the Yele Haiti Foundation founded by Wyclef Jean. That Foundation has been discontinued for not very pleasant reasons. I found this on The Raw Story:

Wyclef’s Skipping Records
Star’s charity repeatedly dissolved after failing to file reports

JANUARY 15–Musician Wyclef Jean’s charitable foundation–now the recipient of many donations big and small in the wake of the Haiti earthquake–has repeatedly had its corporate status dissolved for failing to file required state disclosure reports, records show. As seen below, the Florida Division of Corporations has, on four separate occasions over the past five years, sanctioned the Yele Haiti Foundation (the charity was incorporated in Florida in 1998 as the Wyclef Jean Foundation, but formally changed its name two months ago). The longest involuntarily dissolution lasted 26 months, ending in November 2008 when Jean’s organization provided Florida officials with overdue annual reports disclosing the identities of the group’s officers and directors, its registered agent, and office address. The foundation’s most recent dissolution occurred in September 2009, but was vacated a month later when the 37-year-old Jean’s group filed its disclosure report. As TSG reported yesterday, the Jean foundation’s records delinquency extended to the filing of its tax returns–and could make a prospective donor question whether the organizationally challenged foundation is a wise choice for disaster relief contributions. In August 2009, the group filed overdue tax returns for 2005, 2006, and 2007, documents showing that Jean and fellow board member Jerry Duplessis paid themselves at least $410,000 for services provided to the foundation. Duplessis, a bass player who has toured with Jean, co-owns a New York City recording studio with the performer, as well as a Haiti-based production company.

My apologies, of course.

Me and Orson Welles

Elly and I got to see “Me and Orson Welles” last night, a 2008 film by Richard Linklater that we had missed on the first round (I don’t remember it playing anywhere around here… the problem with living out in the country).

This is a lovely film about the famous presentation of JULIUS CAESAR in 1937 by Welles’ Mercury Theatre, which included such people as Joseph Cotten, Martin Gable and John Houseman all circling around Orson and his ego. The plot concerns a high school student (Richard) who gets a small part in the production and how it changes his perception of life in the theatre and the great man himself.

The visual quality of this film is amazing (although I did spot one teeny visual anomaly… in a view of people on the street in 1937, amid old cars and perfectly set costume, there was a brief flash of a blue mailbox… something that would have been a dull dark green in the thirties.) And the acting was just wonderful – especially Christian McKay’s Welles (playing Brutus in the stage piece) and James Tupper’s Joe Cotten.

The actual scenes from the famous “fascisti” interpretation of Shakespeare’s CAESAR brought back my Theatre History class in the sixties at Northwestern. It would have been great to actually have been there – but the research done by Linklater and company was exceptional and you get a great sense of what it must have been like.

According to the credits, the theatre interiors were apparently filmed on the Isle of Man, off the British coast, which my wife informed me was where the English exiled Jews in the WWII years as unwanted aliens. Given the amount of characters from this view of the past who were Jewish, this is an interesting fact.

Back to basics, however. Rotten tomatoes gave this a 93, which is very high for them. I agree… if you haven’t seen it and it;s not playing in any second run art house bear you, go rent it.

Alan Grayson on “The Exception” – a Republican Strategy

This piece from the Young Turks program was posted on The Fifth Column and I pass it on here:

Cartoon(s) of the Week… concerning Haiti

Is there a more important story this week? I doubt it.

Ed Stein at UFS:

Enough said.

You can make a donation to the American Red Cross International Response Fund at www.redcross.org or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. Donors can designate their gifts to Haiti relief. You can also donate $10 to Haiti relief by texting “HAITI” to 90999.

Tony Auth at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

…and if you were going to donate money to Robertson’s ministry, perhaps you’ll give it to Haiti instead.

Hey Connecticut Friends… Joan Walsh shows Scott Brown for what he REALLY is…

Smiling Scott Brown Slurs Obama

This from Joan Walsh in Salon… if it makes you angry, I hope you get good and mad before Tuesday and come out and vote for Coakley.

clipped from www.salon.com Who is Scott Brown, the man who could realistically replace Sen. Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, and launch a Republican resurgence that points to the end of Barack Obama’s presidency? He got off one of the great lines of recent campaigns when he was asked in a debate about taking Kennedy’s seat and said, “With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy’s seat, it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat.” He’s right, and Democrats including Brown’s opponent Martha Coakley have been moronic to act like he’s wrong. Brown is also a cipher who’s backed by right-wing Tea Partiers and Birthers while trying to dodge the association. He’s shrugged off connections with the Tea Partiers while attending a fundraiser they held for him; check out their Facebook page organizing against Obama’s visit Sunday. Brown poses as a reasonable Republican, but told a reporter during the Republican National Convention that he wasn’t sure President Obama was born within wedlock.