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From the New York Times:
Over the past two years, Senator and Mrs. McCain donated about $340,320 from their community assets to charity, the campaign said. Most of Senator McCain’s contributions were made to the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation. It contributes to a number of groups including Operation Smile, an organization that provide reconstructive facial surgery to poor children and others, and The Halo Trust, an organization involved in mine-clearing.
That’s true, but as I reported here in February, between 2001 and 2006, the John and Cindy McCain Family foundation “made contributions of roughly $1.6 million. More than $500,000 went to his kids’ private schools, most of which was donated when his children were attending those institutions. So McCain apparently received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by his children.”
The McCain foundation’s contributions to Operation Smile and Halo Trust were nice, but very small next to the donations to his kids’ private schools. The description from the Times makes McCain look far more charitable-minded than the records suggest.
More from Ken Silverstein:
Commentary — July 25, 2012, 2:20 pm
Washington Babylon — September 29, 2010, 11:37 am


Minimum number of baboons forced to smoke crack in a 1989 study testing the efficacy of cigarettes as a drug delivery device:

A reduction in distrust toward atheists was documented among pious Canadians who are reminded of the Vancouver police.

A Missouri cinema apologized for hiring an actor dressed in body armor and carrying a fake rifle to appear at a screening of Iron Man 3.
Winner of the 2012 Olivier Rebbot Award for best photographic reporting from abroad in magazines or books