Democratic Congressional Candidate Jon Powers And War Kids Relief — What’s The Deal?
A Democratic friend of mine told me the other day she was really excited about their congressional candidate to replace Tom Reynolds, Jon Powers, a war veteran from Erie County. I asked her what she liked about him and she told me about this charity Powers started called War Kids Relief. I think the real reason she liked him is that he wasn’t a Republican.
I decided to look into this organization. All my friend knew about the charity was it helped kids in Iraq. My first thought was that there were plenty of kids in the United States needing help — but I was going to try and keep an open mind.
The funny thing is when I did a Google search for War Kids Relief, all I found was references to how it was created by Jon Powers. Stuff put out by his campaign. I went to youtube and again, the only reference to War Kids Relief was in the context of Jon Powers creating it — again stuff put out by his campaign.
I found all of the following links by doing a Google search on War Kids Relief. The only problem is that none of them work:
http://www.vvaf.org/programs/war-kids-relief/
http://www.vvaf.org/programs/immap/iraq/
Funny, when I did a Google search on Jon Powers for Congress, I found the following links and they all worked:
http://www.powersforcongress.com/
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18111
So here is my conclusion. Jon Powers knows something about websites — he is quite good at self promotion. But what about that charity my Democratic friend told me about? I’m starting to think that it was a resume building activity that Jon has left in the dust.
Let’s hope someone in the media asks him about this — he needs to come clean on this explain what’s going on.
7 Responses to “Democratic Congressional Candidate Jon Powers And War Kids Relief — What’s The Deal?”
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Hmm, your Google must work different from mine, because one of the top returns for my search was this NBC Nightly News story on the charity from 2005:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10070054/
So at some point the charity was legitimate enough to merit a story on NBC. That’s a little more than “YouTube videos” as you claim here.
It is possible that Powers started it and closed it down after it did some good. Does that make him a bad man? Apparently so. I guess he should have done nothing instead.
Or maybe he should have written a book about his experiences in Iraq and promoted that book via a website and book tour. But that wouldn’t be self-promotion and resume padding, would it? *
My first thought was that there were plenty of kids in the United States needing help — but I was going to try and keep an open mind.
Yeah, why would we want to help kids in Iraq? We’ve done nothing there that would incur a moral obligation on our part.
——-
*In case people don’t get this reference, David Bellavia, one of Powers’ opponents, did just that. And don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing wrong with Bellavia writing a book. But the standard that Cincinnatus is holding up here would lead one to think there is.
My point was I don’t think it exists anymore. Getting a lot of milage out of something that was around that long.
As for Bellavia — I’m not a big fan of his either.
oops I meant wasn’t around that long
From the MSNBC News story in 2005:
“Powers has now launched a program — War Kids Relief — to help the thousands of Iraqi orphans caught in the cross fire.
War Kids Relief hopes to raise $7 million to help the innocent victims of the Iraq war. The organization’s top priorities include: creating a network of safe havens with existing orphanages, launching a family program to reintegrate children into family programs, improving education and training and empowering the children’s caretakers.
If you would like to help, please visit http://www.vvaf.org. To contact Jonathan Powers specifically, feel free to e-mail him at jpowers@vi.org or call him at (202) 557-7575.”
I tried to go to the link in the story and it doesn’t work. Did Powers announce that the program achieved these goals? I haven’t been to his political website, but does he speak of the organization in the past tense or like it’s still in operation?
In all fairness, Jon or someone remotely involved with or following his campaign should be able to let this blog’s readers know what the deal is so this doesn’t become an issue for either side. Don’t give him crap if the thing is still up and running or if his non-for-profit achieved its goals. On the flip side, he shouldn’t be using this as a political resume builder if it did not have a positive impact or if it didn’t do anything.
I cannot imagine him bullsh**ing the public on this. No one would risk their politcal campaign by lying that they helped children when they didn’t. He’s not that stupid.
This should be easy to put to rest… without the sarcasm from both sides.
That site does not work
http://www.vvaf.org
Also isn’t (202) 557-7575 a Washington DC phone. Why isnt in the 26th district.
To Monroerising:
Have you received any information from anyone about what the deal is with this organization? I still can’t find anything on it.
This is starting to make me a bit concerned. Does this organization exist or not? Sorry, but I’m not gonna believe this just because a media story was written about it.
The media isn’t always known for factual reporting.
If it really did exist, did it get any government money? The leaders of some of these not for profit groups make a lot of money running them. Was he or anyone else paid? How much did they raise for the kids? I really hope Powers isn’t lying about this.
A volunteer group I was involved with wanted to obtain NFP status but it took something like 5 years to get approved.
How can you be so cynical?
The guy started a charity to help kids in Baghdad after serving as a Capt in the platoon that held down Udai Hussein’s Pimp Palace.
Seems pretty honorable to me.
A hell of a lot more honorable than buying a tank of gas for someone.