FREE BIRD! What's left of Skynyrd & Charlie Daniels sign up for Hannity's Rip-Off-Veterans-A-Thon

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Wednesday, Mar 31, 2010 12:32 EDT
Joe Conason
Hannity's charity vows to rebut fraud charges -- someday
The Freedom Alliance promises to disprove "smears" filed at the FTC and IRS in the "days and weeks" to come
By Joe Conason



http://www.salon.com/news/sean_hannity/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/03/31/freedom

Will fans of Sean Hannity and Oliver North feel reassured by the pair's denial of any wrongdoing in the operation of the Freedom Alliance, their multimillion-dollar charity? The Fox News personalities no doubt hope so, as they prepare for the annual series of fundraising "Freedom Concerts" tour that will kick off in New Jersey in August, headlined by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Charlie Daniels Band.

Responding to the complaints against the Freedom Alliance filed last Monday with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- alleging both consumer fraud and abuse of tax-exempt status -- the group's chairman, Tom Kilgannon, replied that there is "absolutely no merit to the scurrilous charges." His brief statement went on to promise that "the smear-mongers who have launched this politically motivated witch hunt against Freedom Alliance will be proven wrong as we aggressively defend ourselves in the days and weeks ahead."

But Kilgannon offered no further detail than a week earlier, when he and North posted an answer to similar accusations by conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel, who quoted inside sources saying that Hannity squandered funds supposedly raised to benefit veterans and their children. She also performed her own examination of the charity's tax returns, but both Hannity and Kilgannon rebuffed her attempts to question them about her troubling discoveries.

The CREW complaints, posted on the watchdog group's Web site, provide considerable detail about the facts uncovered in its investigation of Freedom Alliance. Among the documents cached on the site is a contract showing that proceeds from the concert tour are actually controlled by Premiere Marketing, a Tennessee speakers agency that represents Hannity and North, and its president, Duane Ward.

http://www.salon.com/news/sean_hannity/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/03/31/freedom

[Cha]

1. That's too bad..the brainwashed stay

that way.

[Bozita]

2. Hannity's running low on bullshit today. Please come back tomorrow.

[panader0]

3. Argh! One of my buddies plays in a Skynyrd tribute band called Freebird

We argue politics all the time. I sense another 'discussion" in the works.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. The difference between the Ronnie Van Zandt Skynyrd and the 2010 edition:

Ronnie was a redneck, and he knew that...he never pretended to be anything else. And while his politics couldn't exactly be called "Liberal," he never would have signed off on what his brother's edition of the band has beein doing...like naming their latest album "Gods & Guns." He was more subtle than that, as his choice in T-shirts clearly illustrates:

[walldude]

12. It's not "his brothers" edition of the band.. Johnny is nothing more than a hired gun

I roadied for Skynyrd, it's actually Ronnies wife who is in charge and who calls the shots. Johnny was brought in because of the name and the voice but he was invited in, he had nothing to do with the reformation.
What's odd is the deal was supposed to be that as long as there were 3 original members still going they could use the name. Now that Billy Powell died I thought that would be the end of it.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

13. I hear ya.

I remember the "3 members" deal, as well as the lawsuits and threats of lawsuits. But in the long run, I guess money really does talk.

:toast:

[JerseygirlCT]

4. Skynyrd and Charlie Daniels...

top the list of bands I cannot stand!

[Ian David]

5. Are Hannity and Oliver North using the private jets to smuggle drugs for The Contras?

I'm just asking the question.

[Ian David]

6. My mom's friend Mary did cocaine with and fucked the entire Charlie Daniels Band....

... in their tour bus, circa 1986-89 outside The Parsippany Hilton Hotel in New Jersey.

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. Geez, that is funny.

It just struck me that way.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[demwing]

16. All at once?

Doesnt't that means she did most of the Marshall Tucker and Greg Allman band, too? It kind of a Southern Rock ingreeding experiment

[Ian David]

17. Yes, all at once.

Mary was a live-in "personal trainer" for a wealthy couple.

She could handle it.

[Fumesucker]

7. Skynyrd had at least one pretty liberal song..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Special_(song)

"Saturday Night Special" is a hard rock song by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It is the opening track on their album Nuthin' Fancy. The song addresses the issue of gun control. Its lyrics refer to the cheap handguns popularly associated with the term, and associates them with impulsive violence; the following examples being given: shooting the man your wife is having an affair with, a gambler shooting his gambling partners during a losing night, and accidentally shooting oneself while intoxicated. Notably, it argues that they "Aint no good for nothin / But put a man six feet in a hole".

I saw 'em at Funnochio's on the strip in midtown Atlanta in 1972 before they ever released their first album, a wild ass bunch of longhaired hippies..

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. That's what I was alluding to above...

...they were definitely a "wild ass bunch of longhaired hippies," and they wrapped that around a carefully crafted conservative center, but all that the current edition can pull off is some kind of Toby Keith cartoon redneck boogie-thon.

It's Gary Rossington and a bunch of other guys. With Ronnie, Allen, Leon and Billy dead, it ain't Skynyrd, and it never will be. He should go back to calling it "The Rossington Band," and he and his wife can play state fairs and monster truck rallies and die fat and rich and happy.

[spanone]

15. ronnie is no johnny

[bbernardini]

11. But...but...I thought it was politically motivated!

Conservative blogger, eh? Awesome. :)

[spanone]

14. southern rednecks. i can say that cause i'm from the south.

[lpbk2713]

18. That makes them complicit in picking the veterans' pockets.

Not surprised in the least at Charlie Daniels BTW.