"Astroturf Activism": Leaked Memo Reveals Oil Industry Effort to Stage Rallies Against Climate Legislation »
Posted By jovial 3 months, 1 week ago in Political News
A leaked memo reveals the American Petroleum Institute is asking oil companies to recruit employees, retirees and contractors to take part in rallies against climate change legislation. We speak with Greenpeace USA research director Kert Davies. [includes rush transcript]
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jovial
Grew up In Brooklyn. Joined the Navy in 1976 stayed in 10 years. Aircraft Electronics tech. Worked for Major Govt. contractor then settled in California ...
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jovial3 months, 1 week ago
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FTA:
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"The oil industry appears to be turning to the tactics of right-wing opponents to healthcare reform in order to derail federal climate change legislation. In a leaked memo obtained by Greenpeace, the American Petroleum Institute asked member oil companies to help recruit employees, retirees and contractors to participate in anti-climate bill rallies being held in twenty-two cities across the country this month. "-
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hyperbola3 months, 1 week ago
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We are on the cusp of becoming a feudal society run by corrupt corporations.
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Changing the Corporation
The corporation is no more than an aggregation of capital managed for the proportional benefit of those who supply it. It is a system controlled by managers, administrators and clerks largely for the benefit of passive investors looking for a higher return than they can earn elsewhere.
It makes no sense that government should provide the very wealthy with a tool that poses a continuous threat to the public interest. Government's job is to protect the public interest, not sponsor those that destroy it.
Doing nothing
In Common Sense Thomas Paine from argued for a change of government, but what he said 232 years ago has application today.
"""The current situation has become intolerable. Governments now stand by while modern corporations destroy. Governments are responsible for creating the modern corporation. Citizens are responsible for creating government. We have furnished the means through which the destruction is conducted. In the words of Paine, "our calamities [are] heightened."""
This problem is not getting fixed. Indeed it is getting worse.
.... The most serious part of this problem, however, is not the physical damage that is being done. It is the damage being done to the civic spirit of the people. They have begun to feel that it doesn't pay to be a good citizen. They have begun to lose hope.
... Not understanding the true source of this problem results in the blaming of government and corporate personnel. When successive changes in personnel do not solve the problem, despair sets in and people begin to withdraw their support for government and their involvement in politics. They reason that government is ineffective and their involvement will have no effect. They conclude they should not waste their time. Their withdrawal increases the power of the modern corporation to set the agenda. As a result, government loses its focus on solving human problems. This makes it more irrelevant to the average citizen and corporate abuse of the public interest becomes even harder to eliminate.
... Abuse of the commons by the modern corporation will not go away if it is simply ignored. If nothing is done, humanity's suffering at the hands of the modern corporation will continue to multiply. Each generation will suffer more than the one that precedes it. The question is what to do. ....
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/08/20/changing...
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cowboygrandpa3 months, 1 week ago
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Getting people to go against what is best for them.
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Peace, healthcare, ecological concerns, social and political reforms that enforce the constitution and restrict the politicians and power brokers.
This is not a surprise, just another disappointment.
Good one jovial. -
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beavis617bComment removed: Retracted by user
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TonyByron3 months, 1 week ago
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OMG! Big business is against a huge energy tax on them and their customers!
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OMG! Big business backs Obama's trillion dollar health care boondoggle!
"The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/health/policy/09...
Hypocrite much? -
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beavis617bComment removed: Retracted by user
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Tumultuous3 months, 1 week ago
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Astroturf activism equals corporate truth manipulation and social irresponsibility.
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Corporate gestapo's employ hit men to support the company's position through false pretense and manufactured dissent.
The shame is that segments of the corporate media portray the activism as genuine. Much of the general public, naive and uninformed, absorbs the propaganda as being authentic.
Furthermore, virtually every federal agency is now captive to the corporate interests it is supposed to regulate.
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