04 Sunday Dec 2011
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in04 Sunday Dec 2011
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in01 Thursday Dec 2011
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inDavid Sanderlin
The Sierra Club is a legitimate grassroots group that works to keep our communities safe and clean, which was created in 1892 by the naturalist John Muir. This grassroots group has nationally spread starting in California through the help of volunteers and like-minded individuals. This group does not have ulterior motives- they are helping the environment and fighting to protect the politics of the environment. This group has no strong political agenda, which proves that this group is not acting as AstroTurf group for the fact they have no alternate ploys beside caring for the environment. The Sierra Club works proactively in gaining the support of volunteers all over the country to keep the environment clean and making sure it is kept that way. In Virginia the volunteers work to keeping our state clean and healthy to live with 17,000 strong. They work to protect the world, but act locally in handing out florescent lights, speaking out for a cleaner environment and making sure that Virginia is a wonderful place to live.
01 Thursday Dec 2011
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inTags
2000 Election, Al Gore, astroturfing, Brooks Brothers Riot, Democrats, George W. Bush, Miami Dade, Politics, Republicans
During the disputed recount of the 2000 Presidential elections, the Brooks Brothers riot was an unforgettable incident that only added further confusion and emotion to the election process. When it was the state of Florida was declared too close to count, the Bush campaign paid several conservative activists, interns, and supporters to travel down to South Florida, the site of the confusion, and protest the results. More specifically, they wanted to shut down the recounting of 10,750 votes that might swing the tide away from George W. Bush, and in favor of Democrat, Al Gore. This movement is often described as an astroturfing because these hired Bush supporters were protesting under the guise of concerned South Floridians. When the, “protesters”, arrived in Miami-Dade County they began to riot and demonstrate inside the building where the recounting was held. Causing so much insurrection that the recount became almost impossible to complete. The rioters began to become violent and rushed the room where the counting was being held, and became so raucous that they had to be restrained by law enforcement that was present. After the rioting had died down the canvassing board, which was in charge of the recount process, decided not to continue the recount. Many believe that the main reason was the violent behavior from before. The Brooks Brothers Riot is evidence of how much power astroturfing groups can have not only on the political process, but on society as whole. In this case they played a very large part in deciding who would be the next President of the United States of America.
01 Thursday Dec 2011
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inBy December 20, 2005, Walmart had launched Working Families for Walmart to counter criticisms made by labor unions such as Walmart Watch. The group is financially supported by Walmart and is headquartered in Edelman’s Washington, D.C. office. It is not organized as a non-profit, and is not required to disclose its sources of funding. Additional efforts to counter criticism include launching a public relations campaign in 2005 through its public relations website, which included several television commercials. The company retained the public relations firm, Edelman (largest private PR firm that exists today), to interact with the press and respond to negative media reports, and has started interacting directly with bloggers by sending them news, suggesting topics for postings, and sometimes inviting them to visit Walmart’s corporate headquarters.
Critics have accused Walmart of leaving the impression that Working Families for Walmart is a spontaneous grass-roots organization, without fully disclosing its financial reliance upon Walmart. The group’s web site does not reveal its connection to Walmart or Edelman. Its home page features a blog and with a link stating that the bloggers are employees of Edelman; however, no other mention is made of Edelman on the site. This has led to accusations of Walmart being engaged in deceit and astroturfing.
Economists at the Cato Institute suggest that Walmart is a success because it sells products that people want to buy at low prices, satisfying customer’s wants and needs. However, Walmart critics argue that Walmart’s lower prices draw customers away from other smaller businesses, hurting the community.
30 Wednesday Nov 2011
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inThe Tea Party movement is regarded by many supporters as a grassroots reaction to the supposed leftist expansion of the government and the erosion of civil liberties in America. But just how grassroots is the popular right-wing movement?
It turns out, not very.
Two groups, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, both of which can be traced back largely to the billionaire Koch family, provide much of the funding and organizational support for the “populist” movement.
First, a little background.
The Koch family’s political activities stretch back over half a century. The creator of Koch Industries (the second largest privately-held American company in 2010), Fred C. Koch was also a founder of the anti-communist Birch Society in 1958. He had four sons- and along with his company and much of his fortune, he seems to have passed them his politics. Two of the sons, Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, are active members of the many organizations funded by the Koch Family Foundation and its affiliates.
FreedomWorks was created in 2004 from the merging of two groups, Empower America and Citizens for a Sound Economy. The first group, although certainly a right-wing group, held no apparent ties the Koch family before the merger. Citizens for a Sound Economy however, was founded by the Koch brothers (Charles and David) in 1984. They also funded it heavily. Media Matters reported that they gave more than $12 million to the foundation between 1985 and 2002.
Since the merger, FreedomWorks has remained just as right-wing as the two groups that created it. In recent years, it has been funded largely by groups like as the Scaife Foundations, a group of organizations founded and run by Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon industrial, energy, and banking fortune.
Americans for Prosperity was created in 2003 as a successor to the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation. Since then, the Koch family has had strong influence in the group, and David H. Koch is currently the chairman of the board. They are funded also by other conservatives, including Art Pope, a well-known donor to right-wing causes.
So what do these groups have to do with the Tea Party Movement?
Both of these groups hold numerous training sessions for Tea-Party activists around the country, and provide “Home-Organizing Kits” free of charge. They have also staged massive events such as the Tax Day Tea Party, as well as local events, that were shown by many in the media as grassroots gatherings. In a 2009 article on thinkprogress.org, John Feng writes “[t]he two groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests.”
With these front groups funded by billionaires providing logistics and public relations to the movement, it seems impossible that they don’t shape the message as well. The amount of money that these businessmen put into organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity must have a favorable return, or they wouldn’t invest it.
The Tea Party Movement grew in reaction to the Democratic Party regaining the Presidency and much of Congress, and no one would oppose that more than big-industry interests, such as those funding FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. They were able to use their money to shape what became an illusion of a popular movement. They’ve bought and paid for democracy.
30 Wednesday Nov 2011
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inMuch to the chagrin of the tobacco industry, the Australian government recently passed a law that requires all cigarettes to be sold in ‘plain packaging’, free of any brand logos or colors that consumers might find appealing in an effort to discourage smoking. The law set to take effect in December of 2012.
Needless to say, the tobacco industry was not enthused when the law was initially proposed. But there was another group that opposed the law as well. The Alliance of Australian Retailers seemed to emerge out of nowhere in July and began campaigning against the bill along side Big Tobacco. Comprised of organizations representing primarily small businesses, the ARR opposed the proposed law on grounds that it would do nothing but harm small businesses by discouraging spending. It was later revealed that the ARR had received large amounts of funding from tobacco-giant Phillip Morris Australia and that the campaign was being coordinated by Steve Argent, director of corporate affairs at Phillip Morris.
This is a clear example of astroturfing. Big Tobacco is not an industry that is looked upon favorably by the public so in order to garner public support, they tried to convince the masses that the bill would harm them as well, through public action by their puppet group, the ARR. It was a bold attempt to trick the working class into opposing the law, thus supporting Big Tobacco and putting money in the pockets of tobacco executives. Ultimately, however, the tobacco industry and the ARR failed and the law was passed.
30 Wednesday Nov 2011
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inAs a result of the 1988 U.S. Surgeon General’s report, a front group called ARISE (Associates for Research In the Science of Enjoyment) also known as “Associates for Research In Substance Enjoyment” was created by David Warburton with the help of many large companies such as, Tate & Lyle, Coca Cola, British American Tobacco Miller, R.J. Reynolds Nabisco, Nestle and Guinness.
The report alleged that nicotine was as addictive as heroin or cocaine. As expected the global tobacco industry struck back by creating a group whose aim was to promote “pleasure and relaxation.” Like most front groups, ARISE was portrayed as a group of scientist that truly believed in the benefits of pleasure and relaxation. Unfortunately that was not the case. This group, was nothing more than a way for tobacco industrys to distract the public from the true dangers of tobacco. ARISE even went so far, as to claim that nicotine enhanced performance. In other words, they lied. Not only that but they also compared smoking to eating and drinking. In 1990 ARISE published a book called Addiction Controversies, which criticised established views on substance use. They didn’t stop there, in 1994 a second book was published called Pleasure: The Politics and Reality. In 1999, the group seemingly disappeared.
29 Tuesday Nov 2011
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inKeep America Beautiful is a U.S. based nonprofit organization founded in 1953. It is the largest community improvement organization in the United States, with approximately 589 affiliate organizations. Phillip Morris was one of the original founders of the Keep America Beautiful campaign and in 1996 when you showed support for KAB you would receive a pocket ashtray because R.J. Reynolds (Richmond based tobacco company) donated 25,000 dollars to KAB.
KAB is also sponsored by groups such as Coke, Pepsi and, Anheuser-Bush who are 3 of the biggest opposers to Bottle bills, which are laws trying to be passed about recycling and money to be made off of the recycled bottles and cans. The KAB also is in favor of landfills because they would lose the support of 3 of their major supporters. Those are the sides of the environmental group that people don’t see.
Keep America Beautiful is one of the biggest promotor of cigarette butt clean up mostly because they are backed behind Phillip Morris, but this is just so Phillip Morris has a part of their company that makes them look good even though they are “big bad tobacco.” It helps citizens by getting people out to help clean up communities and keep it beautiful but it also has its dark side.
Most well known KAB ad campaign from the 1970’s.
29 Tuesday Nov 2011
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inON THE SURFACE: The Occupy Wall Street movement has occupied more than just the financial capital of the United States; the protesting force has a massive presence around the nation and in news headlines around the word. The picketers and protesters, civilians and citizens of all sorts, seek to draw attention to the injustices of our corrupted Capitalist system and the plight of the “99%” that they call themselves, as opposed to the top “1%” of wage-earners. For months now, groups have taken over city parks and urban centers around the country, refusing to leave and acting as a massive voice of the frustrated masses. Some criticize the movement as lacking unity and a clear list of demands, but supporters refute that statement. Apparently the situation is so bad for the 99% that the state of the nation as a whole is the prime target for change.
BEHIND THE SCENES: This movement appears to be the civilian uprising to end all others, with dedicated participants of all shapes, sizes, and colors. However, there are major forces acting off-stage that are the prime sources of funding, organization, and motivation. These groups include ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), SEIU (Service Employees International Union), The Working Families Party, Tides, George Soros, and more. ACORN shuttered it’s doors due to a scandal in 2009 involving selectively edited videos showing officials discussing ways to avoid taxes and hide prostitution. SEIU prides itself on being the largest single donating force to the Obama campaign. ACORN and SEIU shared same addresses in many different locations. Tides, a San Francisco based operations center, was given 3.5 million dollars between 2007 and 2009 by George Soros’ Open Society. Tides also gave Adbusters grants of nearly $200,000, the liberal/anti-capitalist publication widely credited with sparking the movement. It’s an inter-connected net that goes on and on.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU: Many people, especially young people, seem to think that conservatives, Republicans, and the “rich” are the only people that put out deceiving propaganda and are out to get you, whereas political Liberals are often seen as free-thinking, socially liberal people who would never do such a thing. That’s incorrect. Everyone in politics has their own agenda, and will do what they have to do to support it. As seen with Occupy Wall Street, a massive liberal force has done a good job of creating a partisan-free, politically neutral, “people’s movement” in the minds of the masses – something that is not the truth. Occupy Wall Street is very partisan, fully supported by the Democratic Party. This is not necessarily an evil thing, it’s just important to know who is really behind what so that you can make more informed decisions on who to listen to and what to believe. Remember, each side has their own agenda; take it with a grain of salt, and always be a little skeptical.
SOURCES / FURTHER READING:
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/10/george-soros-connection-to-occupy-wall.html
http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/03/acorn-officials-cover-up-connections-to-ows/
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35696
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/11/acorn-is-behind-occupy-wall-street/
29 Tuesday Nov 2011
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inEnergy in Depth is a self-described “research, education and public outreach campaign” launched and maintained by the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the American Petroleum Institute, two major oil & gas lobbying groups. Though both groups claim to represent the interests of small American businessmen, neither would exist without substantial contributions from international oil industry heavyweights like BP, Halliburton and Shell.
This astroturf group exists to combat proposed legislation intended to regulate the practice of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. Fracking is essentially the use of pressurized drilling fluids to fracture rock formations underground, releasing more natural gas and oil to be collected.
Energy in Depth paints itself as a defender of American small businesses in its efforts to oppose government regulation. In reality, it is a means for major oil companies to avoid extensive fines for environmental damage and risks to public health, and ultimately to protect their astronomical profits.
A major issue in this debate is the content of the proprietary fracturing fluids used by oil and gas producers, whose ingredients they refuse to reveal. It’s not hard to understand why, with cases of groundwater contamination and public health issues following the spread of fracking nationwide. Because the fracking fluid is an industry secret, its pollution is impossible to trace, allowing the oil companies to get away with widespread environmental contamination. George W. Bush’s administration exempted the oil and gas industries from the Clean Water Act. Naturally, they would like to keep it that way.
For a thorough look at this issue, check out Josh Fox’s 2010 documentary Gasland.