If it’s Autumn, it must be time to check in on Pastor Ken Hutcherson’s loopy Microsoft Proxy scam.
As expected, the Microsoft Stockholders Meeting has been scheduled for November 18th 2008. The big questions were whether Hutcherson, Strobhar and company had submitted a Shareholder Proposal and pulled together sufficient Proxy Votes to pass it at the meeting. Based on the Proxy Materials on the Microsoft web site they have lodged a proposal but have veered away from attacking the benefits of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees benefits directly and instead are looking to highlight corporate support of anything that doesn’t agree with their Christianist ideology.
Proposal 7 (Shareholder Proposal No. 3) on the Proxy document proposes “that our company list the recipients of corporate charitable contributions of $5,000 or more on the company website [sic].”
The supporting statement is vintage Strobhar insanity – part plea for self-serving transparency and part ideological tirade dressed in it’s Sunday Best:
The more people know of our support of philanthropic activity the better it is for our company. For example, if we should decide to give money to the American Cancer Society we might garner good will from the millions of people touched by cancer. Similarly, should we decide to give money to Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion performing organization, we might be expected to win sympathetic praise from many who support the choice of abortion. Possible contributions to organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or other organizations that focus on the interest of people who choose to define themselves by their interest in homosexual sex, would likely engender positive feelings among potentially millions of people who enjoy engaging in sex with members of their own sex or simply those who support same sex marriage. If we gave money to the Boy Scouts of America we might expect the plaudits of potentially millions of their past members, even though they refuse to allow homosexuals to be scout leaders. Contributions to the American Heart Association or a myriad number of other worthwhile cultural and educations charities could be a source of ongoing public approval. Proper disclosure of charitable contributions would cost us little and should only serve to enhance our corporate image. For these reason and others we urge your support for the above resolution.
It almost goes without saying that the Microsoft Board of Directors recommends voting AGAINST this proposal.
While we all remember what a dada barn-burner Hutcherson’s last Microsoft Stockholder Meeting performance was, we also know that there is no chance of their proposal being successful. What will be interesting to hear is how many proxy votes Hutcherson, Strobhar et al. have mustered in support of their proposal.
Anyone willing to bet that number is never disclosed?
It’s still curious that Hutcherson was driving his supporters to acquire MSFT stock and Proxy votes based on a mid-March deadline rather than the actual deadline during the first week in September. I’m looking forward to seeing the annual report for AGN Financial, the non-profit that Hutcherson established for this doomed scheme, to see how effective the March deadline was and whether the shares are still being held by the non-profit.
When Hutcherson ultimately fails in each of his schemes, he always has a new definition of success or another project he’s been working on that is much more important to distract from his failure. At the close of my Hutcherson 2007 Year in Review post I wrote:
I'm going to be keeping an eye and an ear out for Hutcherson's "Oh, no! I have something *much* more important that I'm doing" excuse for failing to follow through on his threats to Microsoft.
Perhaps we should take odds on what it will be when the Microsoft Shareholders meeting rolls around again in November 2008. I think he'll say he's "focusing on getting pro-traditional family candidates elected".
It's got to be better than his tired "The dog ate my boycott" canard, surely.
Hutcherson has been very quiet on this scam for several months, no doubt excited by this month’s cruise with the faithful.
Now it seems that the web site he and his supporters launched with such self-congratulatory fanfare earlier in the year, AGNFINANCIAL.ORG, has quietly fallen off the Internet. It still appears in Google’s August 24th search cache but the site is no longer live.
His failure is a certainty and the disappearance of this web site is most likely a step in a plan to make us forget he ever even engaged in it.
