Subject: Kennedy took $1.4M from AIDS, Inc., pals; he must recuse himself on RW
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 01:13:53 EDT

[Dear friends:

Below is an introductory letter from activist Patrick Monette Shaw. Attached 
to this email is Patrick's lengthy report regarding Ted Kennedy accepting 
quite a bit of money from AIDS, Inc. and its allies. Patrick has pored over 
tons of FEC records to produce his report, which contains 9 sections and his 
resume. 

If you are the bit affected or interested in the Ryan White CARE Act and the 
reauthorization process before Congress, you owe it to yourself to read 
Patrick's report.  --MP]

   *    *    *

FROM: [email-masked]
Patrick Monette-Shaw
975 Sutter Street, Apartment 8
San Francisco, CA   94109

August 16, 2000 

The Honorable Edward Kennedy
United States Senate
Washington, DC 

Dear Senator Kennedy:   Re: RECUSE YOURSELF FROM HEARINGS DUE TO  POTENTIAL 
CONFLICT OF INTEREST - H.R. 4807, Ryan White CARE Act 
I hear you are impeding reaching consensus on equity in distribution of Ryan 
White CARE Act funds to jurisdictions with greater needs than San Francisco.  
I ask you immediately recuse yourself from Reauthorization joint conference 
committee meetings.

This is not about "destablizing systems of care" in San Francisco, as your 
jesters whisper in your ear. As you will see, this is more approiately about 
destabilizng the flow of contributions to various and sundry politican's and 
legislator's coffers, to call a spade a spade.

As you can see from the tables in the attachment, there are substantial 
questions concerning the sources of contributions made 
to you, your family members who are also members of Congress, and key 
legislators who have close ties to you.   A modest percentage of the 
donations below may be "double counts," but it is important to include those 
contributions in their various contexts to see which sundry stakeholders - in 
particular, that creepy Tom Sheridan, whose firm, The Sheridan Group, and its 
clone he runs, American AIDS PAC,  receives a $95,000 annual tithe from the 
San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), ostensibly for public policy  
"advocacy," but which is 
suspected is merely and purely adultered lobbying - are pushing you to 
prevent cuts in San Francisco's receipt of their inequitable share of CARE 
Act funds, a mere and modest $5 million annual cut.

In the past five years, Sheridan has most likely collected a cool $500,000 in
advocacy fees from SFAF alone; were I to allege a pyramind scheme, who knows 
how many other AIDS Service Organizations nationwide have been hoodwinked 
into paying him fees to lobby you and other members of Congress under the 
guise of 
"advocacy"?  Surely, somewhere in California's $64 billion budget, or San 
Francisco's $1.2 billion budget, this petty $5 million cut (sorely needed 
elsewhere, I might add) could be found, allowing your Committe to cease and 
desist quibbling over San Francisco's modest $5 million "hold harmless." 

I'm positive a modest $5 million could be found across those two budgets' 
funding capacity, if by nothing else, by finding economies of scale; 
eliminating duplication of services in San Francisco (to modestly provide 
unduplicated services elsewhere); implementing proper billing for services 
rendered now unbilled; or eliminating mismanagement of scarce resources. 

Another Modest Proposal (al lá Swift's handbill on Ireland) might consider 
cutting the salary of SFAF's executive director, Pat Christen, from $201,000 
annually - which I remind you is more than President Clinton's, California 
Governor Grey Davis', or San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's salaries, even 
though they manage $1,760, $64, and $1.2 billion budgets, respectively, while 
she's piddling mismanaging SFAFs modestly insignificant $17.3 million in 
actual-expenditures, despite SFAFs claims its 
budget is $19.6 million, (but I digress) - an obscene salary compared to the 
average income of people  with AIDS in San Francisco, let alone Harlem or 
elsewhere. 

Another modest proposal:  prohibit SFAF and other AIDS Service Organizations 
in San Francisco from slipping Tom Sheridan and the American AIDS PAC their 
annual "management" fees, and prohibit annual "dues" to the CAEAR Coalition 
(Cities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief) and they'd be well on their way 
towards recovery.  Recovery, that is from any CARE Act formula cuts.

What is particularly appalling is that, if you've bothered to read the GAO 
report entitled "Opportunities to Enhance [Ryan White CARE Act] Funding 
Equity Revisited" presented to the House Committee on Commerce on June 23, 
2000, you would understand the 24 states without an EMA (Emergency 
Metropolitan Area) are in desperate need of equitable funding.  Surprisingly, 
though you received $392,000 in contributions from individuals in those 24 
states, you've been getting so much lobbying (err, "advocacy") pressure from 
Tom Sheridan, Pat Christen, and other registered federal AIDS lobbyists that 
you've apparently decided to ignore urgent unmet needs in those 24 states, 
relevant epidemiology (statistics) from the CDC for those areas 
notwithstanding.

I am even more appalled, having heard your nephew, Congressman Patrick J. 
Kennedy, being interviewed yesterday by Matt Lauer on the Today show.  In 
reply to a question Mr. Lauer posed concerning campaign finance reform, your 
nephew, Patrick - whose name appears as a beneficiary, as well as a source 
of, contributions throughout the attached donor lists I've spent the better 
part of a modest five days downloading from the FEC Info (Federal Elections 
Commision) Internet site and then manipulating in an Access databas, - 
blithely 
acknowledged the Kennedy clan is well aware the entire campaign finance 
system is "corrupt" (his choice of words).  

I would suggest that after you review the attached donor and disbursement 
lists, you consider whether the Kennedy clan may be contributing to that 
particular problem rather than its being a paragon of equity, while modestly 
minding his choice of words.

I intend to continue investigating the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's (SFAF) 
annual "grant awards" to the CAEAR Coalition … particularly to see if CAEAR's 
Board or members include representatives of the Black clergy, nationwide …  
and SFAFs other front group, Mobilization Against AIDS (whose employees have 
made donations to American AIDS PAC, possibly against FEC rules), and will 
continue questioning SFAFs expenditures to The Sheridan Group for 
"advocacy,"which may in fact be nothing more than a cover for lobbying, that 
I believe is a prohibited "expense" by CARE Act, or other,  monies - no 
matter how modest the sums involved.  

While, like Assemblywoman Carole Migden, I certainly don't want to say 
anything libelous, slanderous, or unreasonable, I intend to ask the FEC to 
investigate donations SFAF employees have made to legislators and/or PACs; 
while those donations may have come from paychecks gleaned from grossly 
inflated salaries affording disposable incomes most people with HIV and AIDS 
are not privy to, as employees of an organization receiving federal contracts 
this appears to be at best, or at minimum, a modest conflict of interest on 
the part of SFAF employees and its Board.  It's time for such an 
investigation.

Sincerely,
Patrick Monette Shaw
San Francisco, CA
Ph: 415-292-6969
Em: [email-masked]
==========================

Michael Petrelis
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www.AIDS-statistics.com 
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San Francisco, CA 94114