lair bak
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">format on main</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no color or links here 8/18</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">lairbak</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/2014/07/24/montana-is-at-the-forefront-of-national-fight-against-election-corruption/">http://mtcowgirl.com/2014/07/24/montana-is-at-the-forefront-of-national-fight-against-election-corruption/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><header class="entry-header clearfix" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="entry-tags clearfix" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 900; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">TOPICS:</span><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/9th-circuit-court-of-appeals/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">9th Circuit Court Of Appeals</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/american-traditions-partnership/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">American Traditions Partnership</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/art-wittich/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Art Wittich</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/atp/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">ATP</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/atp-american-traditions-partnership/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">ATP American Traditions Partnership</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/bob-wagner/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Bob Wagner</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/citizens-united/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Citizens United</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/common-cause/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Common Cause</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/dan-kennedy/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Dan Kennedy</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/derek-skees/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Derek Skees</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/doug-lair/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Doug Lair</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/ed-butcher/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Ed Butcher</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/free-speech-for-people/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Free Speech For People</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/james-nelson/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">James Nelson</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/jerry-oneil/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Jerry O'Neil</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/justice-at-stake/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Justice At Stake</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/league-of-women-voters/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">League Of Women Voters</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/mike-miller/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Mike Miller</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/pat-wagman/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Pat Wagman</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/ron-fein/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Ron Fein</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/scott-mendenhall/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Scott Mendenhall</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/the-american-independent-business-alliance/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">The American Independent Business Alliance</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/the-american-sustainable-business-council-the-campaign-legal-center/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">The American Sustainable Business Council.The Campaign Legal Center</a><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/tag/wendy-warburton/" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px 15px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; text-transform: capitalize;">Wendy Warburton</a></font></div></header><p class="entry-meta" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="entry-meta-author vcard author" style="margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">POSTED BY: <a class="fn" href="http://mtcowgirl.com/author/admin/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">COWGIRL</a></span> <span class="entry-meta-date updated" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>JULY 24, 2014 </b></span><span class="entry-meta-date updated" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">6:27 AM</span></font></p><p class="entry-meta" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="entry-meta-date updated" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
</span></font></p><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; vertical-align: baseline;"><p align="center" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Montana case is the next battle in the fight to keep elections from being for sale to the highest bidder by keeping campaign finance limits in place.</font></p><p align="center" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, a group of leading national legal non-profit advocacy groups including Free Speech for People, former Montana Supreme Court J<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">ustice James Nelson, the American Independent Business Alliance, the American Sustainable Business Council, </span>the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Justice at Stake and the League of Women Voters are joining Montanans in the fight to keep Montana’s campaign finance limits in place.</font></p><p align="center" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The groups joined the defense of Montana’s campaign finance limits with an <a href="http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/sites/default/files/FSFP%20Lair%20v%20Motl%20amicus%20br.final.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">amicus brief</a> and and <a href="http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/images/Lair_v.Motl_CLC_et_al.amici_brief_7.1.14_FILE_STAMPED.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">amici </em>brief</a> in </span><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lair v. Motl</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span></em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn a District Court ruling that struck down Montana’s political campaign contribution limits. Earlier, a District Court disregarded both Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court precedent to overturn Montana’s limits on contributions to state candidates, including judges, from individuals and political parties.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">In Lair v. Motl, </span><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/2013/04/15/meet-the-atp-board-of-directors/" style="font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">American Traditions Partnership board member Doug Lair w</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">ants campaign finance limits abolished. Several prominent Republican office holders and candidates in Montana caught up in the infamous </span><b>Meth House Scandal</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, in which documents belonging to the infamous American Tradition Partnership (ATP), were found in a Colorado meth house. The documents incriminated </span><a href="http://mtcowgirl.com/2014/07/08/effort-to-remove-wittich-from-office-moves-forward/" style="font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">TEA Party Senate leader Art Wittich</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, Mike Miller, Derek Skees, Pat Wagman, Jerry O’Neil, Bob Wagner, Dan Kennedy, Scott Mendenhall, Wendy Warburton, </span><b>Ed Butcher</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, and Tom Burnett to name a few. Wager, Burnett, Miller, O’Neil and Wittich are currently running for office.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s how Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech For People, explains it: “Campaign contribution limits are justified by an interest in ensuring political equality for all, regardless of access to wealth. When political equality is jeopardized, democracy itself is at risk.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justice James Nelson, a former <a href="http://courts.mt.gov/supreme/bios/nelson.mcpx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Justice of the Montana Supreme Court</a>, and on of the court’s most respected justices, said, “Candidates for political office and elections should not be for sale to the biggest spenders. The Supreme Court has decreed that money equals speech; and contribution limits help to level a playing field tipped in favor of the big spenders by Citizens United.” I could not agree more.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The District Court overturned the Montana’s candidate contribution limits applicable to individuals and PACs, even though the limits have already been upheld by the Ninth Circuit.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In addition to the limits on candidate contributions from individuals and PACs, the lower court struck down Montana’s limits as they apply to contributions from political party committees. Montana does not limit the amount that any individual or PAC may give to political parties, but instead restricts the “aggregate” amount a candidate can receive from his or her political party.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Surprisingly, the issue hasn’t been covered by Montana news outlets, even though its the next step in a nationwide battle to protect America’s and Montana’s elections from corruption.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After all, this case comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">McCutcheon v. FEC,</em> which struck down longstanding limits on the total amount of money wealthy individuals could contribute to federal candidates in an election cycle. As with the Citizens United ruling which now allows unlimited corporate dollars into our elections, the high court’s McCutcheon decision is unleashing further money into the political process from wealthy interests.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’ll see if it gets more attention by Montana reporters after the <a href="http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/guest-opinion-unlimited-money-endangers--person--vote/article_1ffc11e4-5baa-577b-9e94-a48248ddcfea.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">op-ed by Justice Jim Nelson and Ron Fein appeared in yesterday’s <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Billings Gazette</em></a><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">.</em></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...But ATI's biggest funder is Montana businessman Doug Lair and his Lair Family Foundation; they contributed $5,000 and $135,000 respectively to the group last year -- over 75 percent of its total income.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lair’s fortune comes from Lair Petroleum, the family business that was sold in 1989 to William Koch, the lesser-known brother of Charles and David Koch. As recently as 2010, Lair Petroleum was listed as Lair’s employer in state campaign finance reports, although now he’s also an investor in commercial and agricultural real estate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Along with the American Tradition Partnership, Lair and another Montana resident recently filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Montana campaign finance laws, arguing that limits on donation amounts and corporate contributions are impermissible under the First Amendment -- a suit similar to others filed by the group. The plaintiffs are represented by James Bopp Jr., a prominent conservative attorney who worked as a legal adviser to the group behind the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that successfully challenged strictures on corporate money in elections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The Supreme Court has ruled that corporate political speech is protected by the First Amendment, and you cannot ban political speech just because the speaker is a corporation," said Bopp.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A chilling trend for academic freedom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate Scientist Wins A Round for America</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posted: 11/01/11 10:17 PM ET</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A hearing today has implications for academic freedom across the country. A Virginia judge granted climate scientist Michael Mann the right to intervene on his own behalf in a lawsuit filed by a climate change denial group seeking to get his private papers and emails from the University of Virginia. While this is an important victory for American-style freedom and privacy, its background is a story of just the opposite - attempts at authoritarian repression of science for political purposes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010 newly-elected Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a climate change denier, sued the University of Virginia to get Mann's private papers. Cuccinelli wanted to sift through them in the wake of "climategate" to see if he could find anything he could spin into a case under the state's Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, arguing that while an employee of UVA, Mann's work on climate change may have used public money to perpetrate a fraud.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mann has become a political target because he helped create the "hockey stick" graph, which shows global temperatures stable for a thousands of years and spiking since about 1950. It has the iconic power of e=mc2, and discrediting him has become the holy grail of climate change deniers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is why Mann was at the center of the climategate attacks in late in 2009. Climate deniers illegally hacked into scientists' emails and claimed they showed scientists, including Mann, manipulating data. Their charges were investigated by four separate bodies, each one reaffirming the soundness of the science, and exonerating the scientists. In other words, climategate was over -- nothing, it turned out. Instead of data, it was the press that had been manipulated.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rightly, the University of Virginia, which was founded by scientist Thomas Jefferson, rejected Cuccinelli's McCarthyite attack. Cuccinelli sued and lost. The case in under appeal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it didn't end there. Next, a little-known group named Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) got into the act. WTP is a political advocacy group backed primarily by the energy industry. It was first registered as a Colorado nonprofit in 2008 by Scott Shires, a Republican operative who pleaded guilty that same year to fraudulently obtaining federal grants to develop alternative fuels.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010 WTP changed its name to American Tradition Partnership (ATP),[in the middle of lawsuits? ] and announced that it had launched the American Tradition Institute, a think tank that would be "battling radical environmentalist junk science head on." The "junk science" ATP seems most concerned with is what the US National Academy of Sciences says should now be regarded as "settled facts" - that the Earth is warming and humans are the likely cause.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last year WTP/ATP fought for a Colorado referendum allowing voters to opt out of the state's renewable energy standard. The standard requires 30 percent of electricity produced by investor-owned utilities to come from renewables by 2030. The referendum's backers missed the filing deadline, but ATI sued Colorado over the standard, and is now targeting similar standards in Delaware, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico and Ohio.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WTP/ATP also fights laws that restrict corporate money in elections or require disclosure of contributions. In 2009, the group sued Longmont, CO over their Fair Campaign Practices Act. The city settled and agreed to drop disclosure requirements. In 2010, after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, WTP/ATP successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Montana Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, which prohibited independent political expenditures by corporations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>During the 2010 elections, the Montana Commission of Political Practices found that the organization broke state campaign laws by failing to register as a political committee or report its donors and spending</b>. The state suggested WTP/ATP was involved in corruption and money laundering. They found that it solicited unlimited contributions to support candidates and then passed them through a "sham organization," the Bozeman-based political action committee The Coalition for Energy and the Environment that ran attack ads against Democrats. WTP told corporations that it aimed to combat "radical environmentalists" and "beat them at their own game" and that their contributions would remain secret.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These actions reflect an all-too-common authoritarian goal, a goal that vested interests have pursued since the days of Galileo: forcibly silencing freedom of speech, thought, inquiry and expression that runs counter to the vested interests. In Galileo's 1633 indictment, it was the Catholic Church, then the seat of world political power. Today the vested interests that are being threatened by the measured facts of science are the current the seat of world political power, the US energy industry. But quashing science is anti-freedom and unAmerican, so the try to do it anonymously, through groups like ATI.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATI's executive director is Paul Chesser, who WTP/ATP describes as a "noted climate scholar." But Chesser is not a scientist. According to his bio, Chesser edited two weekly conservative North Carolina Christian newspapers, Raleigh World and Triad World. His writing has appeared in many fundamentalist and anti-science websites including The Good Steward.com, Evangelical Press, the Christian Examiner, The Home School Legal Defense Association, and antiscience evolution denier Answers in Genesis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies (ISS) reported that<b> Chesser </b>then moved to edit the Carolina Journal, the monthly newsletter of the John Locke Foundation (JLF), a "free market" think tank in Raleigh, NC that has been a leading voice of climate denial in that state. This is ironic, since Locke is considered the father of empiricism, and defined how scientific knowledge is different from and superior to "but faith, or opinion," something the JLF seems to have missed. The JLF ignores empiricism in favor of publishing rhetorical arguments for a predetermined conclusion - the opposite of empiricism. An example is their Citizens Guide to Global Warming (pdf), which is an antiscience publication that attacks what the group calls "global warming alarmism" and promotes the views of climate deniers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Locke Foundation was founded - and is still funded in part - by Art Pope. Pope is a national director of the Koch brothers-founded Tea Party astroturfer Americans for Prosperity. The Kochs fund several climate denial groups. Their foundations contributed at least $70,000 to the Locke Foundation, according to the Institute of Southern Studies (ISS).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sturgis says that Chesser also worked with Climate Strategies Watch, a joint project of the JLF and the Heartland Institute, that sought to discredit the Center for Climate Strategies, a nonprofit group that helps states figure out ways to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sturgis's research shows that Chesser also served as a special correspondent to th<b>e Heartland </b>Institute, which has received at least $676,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. Between 1997 and 2008, it also received $30,000 from foundations connected to the Kochs and another $50,000 from Pope's family foundation. Walter Buchholtz, an ExxonMobil executive, served as Heartland's Government Relations Advisor, according to Heartland's 2005 IRS Form 990, pg. 15. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chesser then became an associate fellow for the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative think tank and propaganda dispenser funded by the Scaife Foundations, which are controlled by the family that owns Gulf Oil. He blogged at the climate denialist Cooler Heads Coalition, an industry astroturfer closely tied to the think tank and astroturfer Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). CEI opposes greenhouse gas regulations and has taken over $2 million from ExxonMobil. It also has funding from the American Petroleum Institute, Texaco, and the Amoco, Koch, Scaife and Pope foundations. ATI's director of litigation, Christopher Horner, is a CEI fellow.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At ATI, Sturgis says that Chesser's antiscience propaganda efforts are largely bankrolled by fossil fuel interests. According to its most recent filing with the IRS, ATI last year received $40,000 from its sister group ATP, which in turn is supported by oil, gas and coal interests. It received another $5,000 from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a Virginia-based think tank that since 1998 has received over $1 million in funding from Exxon Mobil; between 1997 and 2008, Atlas also received $122,300 from the Koch foundations and $735,000 from the Pope foundation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>ATI's biggest funder is Montana businessman Doug Lair and the Lair Family Foundation; together they contributed over 75 percent of its total income. Lair's fortune comes from Lair Petroleum, a family business that was sold in 1989 to William Koch, brother of Charles and David Koch. Lair still works for Lair Petroleum according to 2010 state campaign finance reports.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today's hearing considered Mann's motion to intervene in ATI's case against UVA in order to protect his own papers under the ideals of privacy and freedom that Americans have always held dear. Without this right, Mann would have had no say in what papers the UVA might ultimately release to ATI.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) said lawsuits like ATI's "have created a hostile environment that inhibits the free exchange of scientific findings and ideas." Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said "Scientists should be able to challenge other scientists' ideas and discuss their preliminary thinking before their analyses are complete and published." Grifo said that "scientists shouldn't have to worry if political opponents of science will be sifting through emails" for bits and phrases to spin. "It has a chilling effect" on research, she said, and that's not going to take America where we need to go. The American Association of University Professors sent a letter to the UVA president arguing that the Virginia public documents statute exempts scholarly data of a proprietary nature that has not yet been publicly released, published, copyrighted or patented - in other words, Mann's emails. And US copyright law suggests that the documents may be covered under common copyright.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What is at stake in Mann's case is something much larger and more precious than papers and emails, or partisan politics -- what is at stake is Americans' freedom to investigate, debate and express ideas that run counter to those of corporations. Attacks on this basic freedom are a step away from democracy and toward tyranny.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Get Shawn Lawrence Otto's important new book: Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, "a gripping analysis of America's anti-science crisis." --Starred Kirkus Review. An "incredible book" -- Starred Publishers Weekly review. Like him on Facebook. Listen to him of Science Friday. Join ScienceDebate.org to get the presidential candidates to debate science.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shawn-lawrence-otto/climate-scientist-wins-a-b_1070426.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marian Lyman Kirst | May 14,<b> 2012 </b>05:00 AM</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back in February, I wrote on the Goat blog about "s<b>WIND</b>le", an anti-wind energy billboard campaign in Idaho that was developed by the Energy Integrity Project, an obscure nonprofit that fancies itself a grass-roots watchdog. The group believes that wind energy projects in Idaho -- specifically those near EIP members' houses -- are not based on "genuine" science and that they threaten the economy, taxpayers, and the environment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Energy Integrity Project is one of a growing number of "grass-roots" groups around the country that aggressively lobby against regional wind development projects and renewable energy policies. And while most are small, NIMBY-type outfits, documents recently obtained by the Checks & Balances Project -- a government and industry watchdog organization -- suggest that these local groups are more coordinated in funding and strategy than the average citizen-run non-profit. With the help of prominent conservative think tanks -- a number of which have ties to the fossil fuel industry -- these smaller groups are working to combine their small gusts of regional anti-wind rhetoric into a national gale aimed at subverting the renewable energy industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a press release issued this week, the Checks & Balances Project, whose watchdog work to date has largely focused on exposing the fossil fuel industry's influence on energy issues -- says that a network of anti-wind activists, including the members of several high-profile conservative organizations with funding ties to the oil and gas industry, gathered in the nation's capital in February 2011 to "confirm plans for a coordinated national disinformation campaign against wind energy."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The plans were detailed in a confidential public relations campaign proposal that Gabe Elsner, co-director for The Checks & Balances Project, found (along with a number of related documents) via a Google search. The proposal was edited and presented to participants at the February gathering -- dubbed the D.C. Energy Advocates Conference -- by John Droz, Jr., a longtime opponent of commercial wind energy and the conference's organizer. From The Checks & Balances Project:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The document details a series of wind energy attacks ranging from "counter intelligence," setting up a "dummy business" and steering kids away from science projects on wind because "it doesn’t meet the criteria we set up." The document also notes that the groups should coordinate national messaging but make sure the same message "appears to come from as many as a dozen separate sources."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While <b>Droz </b>and other participants describe the conference as a gathering of concerned citizens opposed to government support for the wind energy industry, which Droz says has failed to "justify its existence," environmental groups and clean-energy advocates feel the gathering is "evidence of a concerted effort on the part of fossil fuel companies to squash a sector that could someday threaten their business interests," reports E&E News (subscription only).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, in addition to Droz's strategy memo, Checks & Balances' Elsner also found a list of conference participants, some of whom have ties to the oil and gas industry or are associated with groups that receive significant funding from fossil fuel interests.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For example, Droz is a senior Fellow at the American Tradition Institute, a conservative think tank that, Elsner says, receives 75 percent of its funding from Doug Lair, founder of Lair Petroleum</b>, a business that billionaire oilman William Koch bought from Lair back in 1989. Paul Driessen, a Senior Policy Analyst at conservative free-market policy institute the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) was also in attendance. CFACT received $577,000 from ExxonMobil between 2000 and 2007, according to the company's tax records and giving reports, but Driessen maintains that he was at the conference representing only himself. Marita Noon, Executive Director of the Citizens' Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE) -- a New Mexico-based anti-wind lobby -- also participated. CARE is funded in part by New Mexico oil and gas producers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This brings us back to the Idaho-based Energy Integrity Project. According to that list of conference participants, Tauna Christensen -- the president of the EIP -- was there as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EIP incorporated only recently and so it's unclear as yet who funds the group. Christensen claims the EIP is paid for by concerned citizens "out of their own pockets." But, like the other supposedly self-supported anti-wind groups at the conference, notes Elsner, the EIP is -- in its "sWINDle" campaign – running what appears to be a very well-funded effort against local wind energy projects and policies. In fact, Elsner looked into how much it costs to advertise via billboard in Idaho: A quote he got from a Boise billboard company said 14 billboards would run $13,000 a month. So buying anti-wind billboards is a pricey endeavor for a group that Christensen says has only 4 active members.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For its part, The Checks & Balances Project, is not exactly a disinterested party in the wind energy debate: "We are pro-clean energy", says Elsner. But, unlike the EIP and other clean-energy-bashing groups, The Checks & Balances Project believes in transparency and is open about its funding sources: Renew American Prosperity (RAP) and the New Venture Fund. RAP supports Elsner's work, and it, in turn, is funded by clean technology attorney Mike Danaher.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If groups like the EIP are going to embark on subversive local and national campaigns of disinformation about wind energy -- an industry they claim is non-viable despite the fact that electricity generation from wind increased from 6 billion kilowatt-hours in 2000 to about 95 billion kilowatt-hours in 2010 and that, since 1998, wind capacity has grown by an average of more than 25 percent per year -- then the least they could do is show us the money.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marian Lyman Kirst is an editorial Fellow for High Country News</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>attrib to lair</b> by cowgirl:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frontline & PBS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posted by admin on Dec 2,<b> 2012 i</b>n Uncategorized | 1 comment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Concerned Citizens of Sweet Grass County</b> is sponsoring two free showings of <b>Big Sky, Big Money, a documentary produced by Frontline, </b>a Public Broadcasting System (PBS) contributor. In our next post, we will examine the issues discussed in the documentary, but first we ought to find out just who and what Frontline and the Public Broadcasting System are, what they have said in other broadcasts and what they have supported.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Here are some comments and positions expressed by PBS employees:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PBS host Tavis Smiley stated the United States has a terrible Christian terrorist problem. In 2010, he said Christians blow up people every day in the United States.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1989, PBS aired a six-part series titled America’s Century, starring Lewis Lapham, the leftist editor of Harper’s magazine. In Lapham’s view, the entire 20th century was an unfolding mess of American violence. Hitler, Lenin and Stalin apparently were humanistic peace lovers. Lapham began with the troubling “militarism and imperialism” of Theodore Roosevelt, and kept the attack on until he’d reached Ronald Reagan and the “confidence of his belief in all the American fairy tales.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NPR legal reporter Nina Totenberg proclaimed she was “ashamed of my country” after it was revealed that major terrorism suspects were housed in secret CIA prisons (2005).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the PBS series Ethics in America, Mike Wallace was asked, “Don’t you have a higher duty as an American citizen to do all you can to save the lives of (American) soldiers rather than this journalistic ethic of reporting fact?” Without hesitating Wallace responded: “No, you don’t have higher duty…You’re a reporter.” This persuaded Peter Jennings, who changed his view: “I think he’s right, too.” Journalism trumps loyalty.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The narrator of a PBS series on Africa, Ali Mazrui, said Moammar Qaddafi offered “supreme ideals” to make Africans and Arabs masters of their own destinies against the West.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After being criticized by Senator Jessie Helms, reporter Nina Totenberg said she wished he would die of AIDS.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1990,<b> Saul Landau</b> produced The Uncompromising Revolution for PBS. He touted how Castro wanted to build a society “modeled on the ideals of the legendary Che Guevara….Fidel appeals to the masses to be like Che, but Che Guevara was a revolutionary saint. Most Cubans cannot aspire to such status.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On June 12, 2007, the PBS show Now devoted most of its half-hour to smearing the pro-life movement. It didn’t matter how many times activists decried the shooting of late-term abortionist George Tiller — they were still treated as advocates of violence and terrorism. PBS hailed two other late-term abortionists, Dr. Warren Hern and Dr. Leroy Carhart.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PBS regular Julianne Malveaux hoped that Clarence Thomas’ wife “feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>In 1990, the panic over global warming </b>was in full swing, and from October 7 to 11, PBS aired ten hours of a series gaudily titled Race to Save the Planet. The show’s host was Meryl Streep, who said: “By the year 2000, that’s less than 10 years away, the Earth’s climate will be warmer than it’s been in over 100,000 years. If we don’t do something, there will be enormous calamities in a very short time.” Earth Day founder Denis Hayes suggested that without an environmental revolution, man could cause “planetary death.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Loren Jenkins, a PBS foreign editor, vowed to “smoke out” American troop locations in Afghanistan, adding he had no desire to aid a lying Pentagon and that he represented ‘history’. We recollect similar statements from Karl Marx.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On a PBS program, Andrei Codrescu wished evangelical Christians would disappear: “The evaporation of four million people who read and believe this Rapture crap would leave the world an instantly better place.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1991 Frontline aired a documentary investigating “The Election Story of the Decade.” Liberals pushed the conspiracy theory that the Reagan campaign in 1980 secretly plotted to delay the release of the <b>U.S. hostages in Iran to prevent an “October Surprise” for Jimmy Carter.</b> This led to 27 network news stories (and several special episodes of ABC’s Nightline) casting ethical aspersions on the Reagan campaign. But the tale of their alleged “lawlessness and recklessness” was proven to be false.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shortly after 9/11 PBS host <b>Bill Moyers </b>said: “When I see (American) flags sprouting out on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao’s Little Red Book.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a 1987 program on PBS, Moyers proclaimed that the “black birds” represent America and the “white birds” were the Sandinistas who revered freedom, George Washington and Jesus Christ.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Nina Totenberg was the first to report the unproven story of Anita Hill’s sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas.</b> She later ignored sexual assault claims by Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick against Bill Clinton.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PBS aired NEA funded Tongues United, a documentary that celebrates black gay sex with explicitly pornographic talk and anti-religious overtones.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unlike the firing of Juan Williams last year, none of these blatantly biased offenses resulted in punishment or any change in policy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Frontline has produced a long list of left wing hit pieces. Here are a few:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The 2001 documentary Enemies of War recounts the 1980s civil war in El Salvador.</b> While denigrating the elected anti-Communist Salvadoran government that was backed by the Reagan administration and was fighting against Marxist terrorists from neighboring Nicaragua, the film lauds the efforts of those who “halted U.S. involvement” in the region and thereby helped El Salvador “generate peace instead of war.” Praised effusively in the film is Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts congressman who in the Eighties was a congressional aide opposed to Reagan’s efforts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Frontline documentary FROM JESUS TO CHRIST: THE EARLY CHRISTIANS brings together the skepticism of the Jesus Seminar and the pretentiousness of German higher criticism to form a very confused portrait of Christianity. It takes real hubris to disregard the Gospels and try to patch together a portrait of Jesus from some limited archeological evidence. The program’s scholars belittled Jesus. Then they confuse the meaning behind theological precepts and harped on a questionable source produced by the German school of higher criticism that helped undermine the church in Germany and paved the way for the Nazi Holocaust.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a the documentary Vaccination Wars, Frontline consistently ignored and gave no voice to contributors who did not agree with their belief that child vaccinations are always good and can be multiply administered.</b> Even physicians with moderate doubts were not represented. It is curious that PBS gets some of its funding from the producers of vaccinations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Frontline documentary Bush’s’ War, the President of the United States is portrayed as a lover of theatrical policy presentations, the slave of his cabinet, intellectual inadequate and full of blood lust.http://<b>pjmedia.</b>com/blog/bushs_war/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In its’ documentary Money, Power and Wall Street, Frontline totally ignored why the subprime market got so big. That’s because if they were to explain why it got so big, they would have had to discuss the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the fact that banks, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and other lending institutions were required by law to make loans to subprime borrowers. </span>(Click here or here for a smidgen of the voluminous literature on the subject.) from http://policydynamics.org/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And just wait for the coming expose of Rupert Murdoch.</b> The reporting correspondent has accused Murdock of participating in a conspiracy with “every Prime Minister in Britain for the last quarter century…colluding, money changing hands, cover-up and all kinds of black arts in between.” With a lead in like that, we can hardly expect the documentary to be objective. And of course, Frontline is far too morally upright to regard a media tycoon as one of its competitors. http://truth-has-a-liberal-bias.tumblr.com/post/18954297369/save-the-date-pbs-schedules-frontline-expose-of-rupert</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Frontline is just another head on the Medusa-like monster of the <b>mainstream media</b>. They are in the business of dictating to the American public that what is wrong and what is right. We suspect Frontline was given the American Tradition Partnership story by the Montana State Attorneys General office in order to silence a group that has been most effective in preserving Montanan’s Constitutional freedoms in state and federal courts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donors and Executives:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The PBS Foundation’s most significant donors between 2005 and 2011 were the Ford Foundation, the John S. James and L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Adobe Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Richard and Rhonda Goldman Foundation, the Newman’s Own Foundation, the Orfalea Family Foundation, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PBS Foundation’s first executive director, Cheri Carter, was a veteran Democratic Party political operative who previously had worked for the late Ron Brown, Commerce Department secretary during President Bill Clinton‘s first term. Carter subsequently served as chief of staff in the White House office of public liaison (1996-1999), and as chief operating officer for the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Just before joining PBS, she was a fundraiser for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not only does the<b> Federal Government partially fund PBS (about $450 million)</b>, but the organization uses some of the money to lobby for, guess what? More funding. Click here to read their pitch. Some say that amount of money is insignificant. Perhaps, but there is a principle involved. No public money should be given to any outfit that holds and promotes political and religious opinions. In our view, that principle holds true for all organizations; the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, the Republican Party, Citizens United or the mis-named Public Broadcasting System.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THE TIES THAT BIND</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Cowgirl</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While embattled Montana state senator Jason Priest has tried to separate himself from American Traditions Partnership,</b> his donor sheet tells a different story.Continue reading ?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cowgirl 14 Comments Posted in Montana GOP, Montana Legislature 2013, TEA Party Tagged with American Traditions Partnership, Bob Faw, dark money groups, Doug Lair, Geoff Goble, Jason Priest, Medicaid expansion, Montana Growth Network</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posted: April 17, 2013 at 7:29 am</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BOARD MEMBERS OF ATP FRONT GROUP ALSO UNCOVERED</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Cowgirl</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The board of directors of an American Tradition Partnership (ATP) dark money front group operating in <b>Big Timber</b> have now come to light.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The good people of Sweetgrass County discovered that ATP has been operating a front group in their community under the name <b>Citizens for Constitutional Integrity. </b> Board members of the front group include: </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Continue reading ?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cowgirl 6 Comments Posted in TEA Party Tagged with ATP, ATP board member, ATP Front Group, Bob Faw, Doug Lair, Geoff Goble, Robyn Roberts,Sweetgrass Citizens for Constitutional Ingegrity, Sweetgrass County, Terry Baird</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posted: April 15, 2013 at 9:38 pm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MEET THE ATP BOARD OF DIRECTORS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Cowgirl</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A court has demanded that the dark money group American Tradition Partnership must reveal its board members, the Associated Press reported today. Let’s meet them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Doug Lair</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATP Director Doug Lair</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATP Director Doug Lair</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Doug Lair (pictured right), resides in Sweet Grass County.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For some reason, ATP is operating in the county under a different name: Sweetgrass Citizens for Constitutional Integrity. The group hosts an innocuously named website sweetgrassroots.org–and it’s really something to see. On it, Mr. Lair warns his ATP followers that “Progressive programs and indoctrination have found their way into our local government and schools at an alarming rate.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There is one insidious new influence in Big Timber that Mr. Lair is especially worried about. He fears that a local economic development project of the Northwest Area Foundation may really be a <b>secret “progressive indoctrination boot camp.</b>” Actually, the program gives grants to local communities for projects like sprucing up their business and industrial parks to help get the local economy moving.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the FRONTLINE documentary exposing ATP’s activities was aired on PBS, Lair posted a tirade against PBS on the Sweetgrass Council/ATP website. He accused the station of everything from “belittling Jesus” to spreading anti-American views, to being part of a government conspiracy to vaccinate kids against diseases.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The site indicates that Sweetgrass County Commissioner Bob Faw is heavily invoved in the group. It also helpfully lists the emails of all the legislators they say have done right by ATP in the legislature, so that you may thank them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geoff Goble</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geoff Goble</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Goble is a commercial property developer who also lives in the Big Timber area. He’s also your garden variety secessionist. He’s been linked with the websiteSovereignStateProject.com According to this campaign finance complaint filed by former state legislator John Esp, <b>some ATP documents uncovered in a meth house</b> appear to show that<b> Goble helped finance the pro-secession website</b>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The website proclaims such views as:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Project was inspired by Rep. Joel Boniek’s recent legislation in Montana and the clamor for states’ rights that is sweeping the U.S. We are part of a grassroots movement of ordinary citizens who are FED UP with the Federal Government.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“States should seize back the power over their own borders and BOOT the Feds. Let them control ONLY the international borders, and stay out of our Sovereign States.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint also describes how <b>Oathkeeper</b>-affiliated Joel Boniek, Geoff Goble, and ATP worked together to defeat Esp and support Boniek’s campaign for state legislature. Boniek was the former state legislator who made headlines after a bizarre incident which led to his arrest. Goble has also signed his name to statements declaring that <b>Earth Day is “straightforward paganism,</b>” and a “tool used by those who seek to control individuals and engineer society.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter MacKenzie </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter MacKenzie, ATP Bankroller</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Man thought to be Peter MacKenzie, ATP Board member</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Mackenzie is a<b> large land ownerand Livingston real estate developer </b>and a major bank-roller of ATP. Here’s how he’s described in ATP’s donor prospecting notes, which were uncovered among the infamous meth house documents:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Mackenzie</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Peter G. Mackenzie of Mackenzie Associates LTD from the Livingston zip code has given money to Burns, Daines, Fox, and Brown. His profile appears to match this Peter MacKenzie (pictured) who is described thusly:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Over the past 25 years, Peter MacKenzie has developed and operated <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">200 plus nationally-known franchises. In addition to spending a number of years on Wall Street, he continued to raise and manage monies for clients. Peter has developed properties in Big Sky </span>as well as currently owns and operates several retail businesses there.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Mackenzie check</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cowgirl 19 Comments Posted in 2012 Elections, Montana GOP, Montana Legislature 2013 Tagged with American Tradition Partnership, American Traditions Partnership, ATP, ATP Board members, Doug Lair, Geoff Goble, Joel Boniel, oathkeepers,Peter Mackenzie, secession, Sovereign States Project, WTP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posted: December 2, 2012 at 7:16 pm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BIG TIMBER, BIG MONEY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Timber citizens have a reason to be particularly concerned about dark money groups like American Tradition Partnership.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The state leader for ATP, Doug Lair, resides in Sweet Grass County. County Commissioner Bob Faw is even a major donor to the group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For some reason, ATP is operating in Big Timber under a different name: Sweetgrass Citizens for Constitutional Integrity. At the innocuosly named website sweetgrassroots.org, folks are told that they can:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Help maintain the integrity of Big Timber by making a generous contribution to SGCCI here. Note- contribution receipts will appear from American Tradition Partnership.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ATP/Sweetgrass Citizens website is really something to see. On it, Mr. Lair warns his followers that “Progressive programs and indoctrination have found their way into our local government and schools at an alarming rate.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is one insidious new influence in Big Timber that Mr. Lair is especially worried about. He fears that the Horizons project of the Northwest Area Foundation may really be a secret “progressive indoctrination boot camp.” (A simple google search shows that the program gives grants to local communities for projects like sprucing up their business and industrial parks to help get the local economy moving.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thankfully, group of citizens in Big Timber smartly decided to bring Big Sky, Big Money to the local theatre this Thursday, December 6th at 7:00pm and Sunday, December 9th at 2:00pm. The documentary, which uncovered potentially illegal collusion between secretive right-wing group ATP and Republican candidates, is being shown FREE to all residents.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The showing seems to have upset Mr. Lair. When he learned locals would be seeing the expose, he posted atirade against PBS on the Sweetgrass Council/ATP website. He accuses PBS of everything from “belittling Jesus” to spreading anti-American views, to being part of a government conspiracy to vaccinate kids against diseases.</font></div></div>