Braised Lambchop
a nurse trying to work while suffering with chronic pain - she rambles a bit

Oh, dear God in heaven. The Red Cross has no shame.

However, in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, Richard Walden finally lays out the sham that is the American Red Cross. In the first link, to The Oklahoman, the ARC is begging for more money;, although it has more than 70% of the total money raised for the hurricane disasters; in the second link, Walden tells you that the Red Cross is operating all those shelters under a FEMA contract, which the ARC conveniently forgets to tell people:

This skewed giving to Red Cross would be justified if the organization had to pay the cost of the 300,000 people it has sheltered. But FEMA and the affected states are reimbursing the Red Cross under preexisting contracts for emergency shelter and other disaster services. The existence of these contracts is no secret to anyone but the American public. The Red Cross carefully says it functions only by the grace of the American people — but "people" includes government, national and local. What we've now come to expect from a major disaster is a Red Cross media blitz.

The national Red Cross reports it spent $111 million last year on fundraising alone. And it's hard to escape the organization's warning of Armageddon if you don't call in a credit card number or send a check or donate blood (which it resells to the tune of more than $1.5 billion annually, part of its $3 billion in income).

Listen, I'm not trying to bring down the Red Cross volunteers; Walden correctly states that they "are the salt of the earth." Having said that, it really defies imagination for the ARC to cry poverty when the ARC is already being paid out of our tax dollars. And this isn't the first time they've done this, either.

Go read the LA Times article. Then find some other charity to support. In my opinion and the opinions of philanthropists throughout the country, the American Red Cross has had enough of our support to last several future disasters.