Slim Pickins

President Bush is really down on education, isn't he? He cuts funding for education to the barest minimum. Then denies visas to three top scientists from India who were scheduled to lecture on topics of their expertise in the US.

Seems to be a Bush policy. Keep the masses ignorant and there will be no threat to his totalitarian governing practises.

Too bad his recently expressed, newly formed, desire to strengthen diplomatic relations abroad didn't catch Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice's attention. In a "surprise" visit to Beirut yesterday, Rice snubbed the President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud. Way to go, Condoleezza. Guess Lahoud didn't have 6.8 billion to invest in US ports, eh?

So enough already of such serious stuff. It's Friday. Time to consider lighter bits of fluff.

Like Boone Pickens. Any news of a fellow with the name Boone Pickens has to be comedy material, right?

Well it seems Boone Pickens made a substantial donation to the golf industry. Leave it to the Texans to figure out new tax evasion ploys.

This one takes the buzzer right out of the doorbell, however. OK, here's the low down and dirty.

Boone Pickens, of BP Capital fame ( Say! Isn't that there one of those big oil companies?) sits on the board of Cowboy Golf. It's unclear, at this point in time, how Cowboy Golf got started but supposedly it's a charity program at Oklahoma State University.

Nothing wrong with that. It's nice to know that the big oil barons donate some of their time to charities. Kinda makes 'em seem more human.

But there's more.

Seems Pickens had $165 million sitting around cluttering up his desktop and he was about to be taxed on these slim pickins. Not satisfied with President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, he decided to upstage the bureaucrats. Pickens donated all $165 million to Cowboy Golf.

Which is a really generous thing to do! Kinda makes your heart go right out to the man. But wait. There's more.

The money was in and out of the Cowboy Golf account so fast milk didn't have time to curdle. An hour after it was deposited to the charity account it was re-invested in a hedge-fund controlled by Boone Pickens' BP Capital.

Can Pickens use the assets ( Assets are money, folks. Cold hard cash in his pockets.) to buy any little ole trinket his heart desires?

Yep.

What a great tax evasion. Pity I didn't think of it myself. Used to be when you claimed a charitable exemption, you actually had to give the money away. But this Pickens feller, why he figured out a way to have his cream puffs and eat them, too!

Mmm . . . I hear you say, just how did he go about doing that? Well remember now, the Senate and Congress are controlled by those crafty Republicans. So you can pretty well figure whatever seemingly altruistic laws they pass have a hidden dollar benefit to their bank accounts tucked in amongst the fine print. The Katrina disaster is no exception.

Those wily lawmakers passed Katrina relief legislation (right under our noses, folks) which allows exemptions for a charitable gift equal to 100 percent of a person's adjusted gross income. That's exactly double the normal limit of 50 percent.

Sly old fox, Pickens. How much you wanta bet he's a Republican?
Slim Pickins © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan