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May 16, 2024 5:17 pm

Adele M. Stan @ The **New Republic: How FreedomWorks Paved the Way for Trumpism—and for Its Own Demise

If you’d known what to look for, you could have seen it coming miles and miles away: the demise of movement conservatism in the face of Trumpism. The only thing surprising about the collapse of FreedomWorks, the loud and splashy libertarian astroturf outfit, is that it hadn’t happened sooner.

Bob Smietana @ Religion News Service: PCA cancels anti-polarization panel with David French for being too polarizing

Leaders of the conservative denomination canceled the discussion of dealing with polarization after online backlash.

Chuck Tanner @ IREHR: The Radicalization of Sam Parker

This is the story of one man who went from a clean-shaven, if far-right-leaning, candidate for the U.S. Senate to a bushy-bearded white nationalist in just six years. His plunge into vicious antisemitism and racism is similar to others radicalized online, drawn to real-world far-right activism, and pulled down into the white nationalist movement.

Marlon Ettinger @ The Daily Dot: A police investigation into Ali Alexander over allegations he groomed underage boys now extends to Texas

A police investigation into Republican operative Ali Alexander is still ongoing, a spokesperson for the Johnstown Police Department in Colorado confirmed to the Daily Dot on Wednesday, and has now extended to Texas.

Justin Peters @ Slate: The Resting Smirk of the Bulletproof Moron

[Jesse] Watters relies on low-effort mockery and lazy analysis, delivered in a mellow tone, often paired with a mirthless laugh. It is the mean-spirited snort of the frat brother when he spies a man with long hair; the smarmy chuckle of the righteous prick, intent on mocking, rather than forgiving, all those who trespass against him—even and especially if those trespasses are purely imaginary ones.

an 10 22

Republican legislators are starting to suggest defunding the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the office founded in 1989 to assist with veteran needs. The VA assists with getting veterans mental and physical healthcare, educational opportunities, community support, and other everyday housing and living needs.

An Arizona legislator, captured on video participating in a mock congressional hearing, said he supported shutting down the department.

“That’s sort of what I’m thinking because … I hear no good stories. I had zero in my district,” the legislator said in a video posted by the far-right watchdog group Patriot Takes. “So I guess it’s a matter of us leading the fight to defund it.”

A second video, posted by the same account, showed Republican Florida Representative Matt Gaetz advocating for defunding the VA while speaking at an event held by FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian advocacy group.

“This is my question to the group. Is it savable? Why not abolish the VA, take all of the money that we are otherwise spending andgo to an any willing provider system inside of our communities?” Gaetz says in the video. “And then, if people get bad care, they can vote with their feet and you don’t have a two-tier system of healthcare in this country with our veterans and then with everyone else.”

Generally speaking, Republican policies favor the privatization of all government functions, thinking that a “small government,” “free-market,” “for-profit” privatization provided by a corporation can solve any market ill.

In reality, if entire communities are deprived of VA access, U.S. military veterans will be left largely on their own to get their life needs met after militaries service. Those who lack money or transportation won’t be able to “vote with their feet” and find a local care provider to handle their specific issues… they’ll either have to spend massive amounts to get such essential care or just go without.

In late July, 41 Senate Republicans voted against a bill aimed at protecting veterans exposed to toxic materials during their military service. The legislation would have expanded care to 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. It would have also added 23 toxic and burn pit exposure-related illnesses to the VA database, Newsweek reported.

After massive blowback, Senate Republicans re-voted on the bill and helped it pass.

Patriot Takes posted the video hoping that it would encourage veterans and military members to vote in the upcoming mid-term elections.

https://thenewsblaze.com/ginni-thomas-tied-facebook-group-frontliners-for-liberty-could-be-a-new-focus-in-jan-6-investigation/

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Ginni Thomas-Tied Facebook Group ‘FrontLiners For Liberty’ Could Be A New Focus In Jan. 6 Investigation

By Anas Siddiqui On Jun 18, 2022

(L-R) Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas arrive at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC.

A Facebook group that appears to be run by Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, could become a new point of interest in the U.S. House Select Committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Congressional investigators said they planned to ask Ginni Thomas to testify before the committee hours after Trump attorney John Eastman on Thursday publicly posted a Dec. 4, 2020 email from Thomas asking him to speak to a gathering she called “Frontliners,” which she described as featuring “grassroots state leaders.” Ginni Thomas is listed as an administrator of a Facebook group that goes by a similar name and description: “FrontLiners for Liberty.”

The private group, which listed more than 50 members, was created in August 2020, just two months before the November elections, according to the page’s description.

The group, which CNBC reviewed before it was removed from public view, described itself as “a new collaborative, liberty-focused, action-oriented group of state leaders representing grassroots armies to CONNECT, INFORM and ACTIVATE each other weekly to preserve constitutional governance.” Although Thomas’ personal Facebook page isn’t verified, it contained numerous photos of Justice Thomas.

The group’s pages were removed from public view after CNBC reached out to Thomas about the organization. It now shows a notice from Facebook saying that it’s either been deleted or the privacy settings have been changed.

CNBC also tried to get answers through Facebook messenger to Stephanie Coleman, who is also listed administrator of the group and the wife of the late Gregory Coleman who was Texas’ solicitor general. Greg Coleman was once a clerk for Justice Thomas.

Coleman and Thomas are repeatedly pictured together on Coleman’s personal Facebook page, including a photo of the two together in December 2016 with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Thomas asked Eastman to speak to her Frontliners group on Dec. 8, according to her email to him. Eastman said Thomas “invited me to give an update about election litigation to a group she met with periodically,” according to his post on Substack, an email newsletter subscription service. Thomas told Eastman she was “on sabbatical until this election stuff is resolved.”

At the time, Trump and his allies were filing legal challenges against the 2020 election results after President Joe Biden was declared the winner. Trump and those close to him lost most of those lawsuits.

Thomas’ email to Eastman appears to be at issue in his legal dispute with congressional investigators looking into the Jan. 6 attack. A federal judge recently ruled against Eastman, who was trying to assert attorney-client privilege to withhold emails about the 2020 election. The judge ordered Eastman to turn over ten documents, including four that pertained to a meeting on Dec. 8, 2020, which was the same date Ginni Thomas asked him to speak to Frontliners. “Two emails are the group’s high-profile leader inviting Dr. Eastman to speak at the meeting, and two contain the meeting’s agenda,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote in his June. 7 order.

Based on the event’s agenda, Eastman discussed “‘State legislative actions that can reverse the media-called election for Joe Biden.’ Another speaker gave an ‘update on [state] legislature actions regarding electoral votes,'” Carter wrote.

Eastman, according to the Jan. 6 House select committee investigating the riot that took place about 17 months ago, tried to convince former Vice President Mike Pence that he held virtually unilateral power to overturn the election. Yet, according to Pence’s former counsel who testified at a Thursday Jan. 6 committee hearing, Eastman once told him that the Trump advisor’s own legal theory would be rejected 9-0 if it went before the Supreme Court.

The select committee said it plans to invite Ginni Thomas to testify about her correspondence with Eastman. Thomas told The Daily Caller that she was willing to testify. “I can’t wait to clear up misconceptions. I look forward to talking to them,” Thomas said. She reportedly supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sending text messages to Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows that encouraged him to stand behind the then president’s false election claims.

A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, a spokesman for the Jan. 6 House select committee, Thomas, Eastman and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

The Frontliners group also worked with a conservative advocacy organization known as FreedomWorks,according to the nonprofit’s spokesman Peter Vicenzi. He also said that Thomas and FreedomWorks activists have been allies for years. FreedomWorks does not publicly disclose their donors.

“Frontliners for Liberty, it is yet another conservative grassroots organization that FreedomWorks partners with to advance our issue set,” Vicenzi said in an email. “Ginni Thomas, for years, has been an invaluable ally to our activist community when it comes to engaging on shared issues.”

Since Trump lost the election, FreedomWorks has pushed the idea that there needs to be election reforms. Conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who used to work with Trump’s campaign, now chairs FreedomWorks’ multimillion dollar National Election Protection Initiative, according to Newsmax.

Merissa Hamilton, who says on her LinkedIn page that she’s a grassroots director at FreedomWorks, tweeted out in October a picture at what she described as an event at “FreedomWorks Frontliners for Liberty.” The picture showed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Louie Gohmert, R-Texas and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. attending the event.

After CNBC emailed Hamilton about the tweets, they were deleted off her page. She did not return follow up requests for comment.

Read original article here

https://darik.news/oklahoma/president-at-ginny-thomas-group-meeting-calls-bidens-victory-illegitimate-long-after-january-6-video-show/618779.html

president at Ginny Thomas group meeting calls Biden’s victory illegitimate long after January 6, video show

June 20, 2022

no lnx

Two months after rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to help President Donald Trump stay in office, Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, attended a gathering of right-wing activists where A speaker declared to applause. Video recordings of the incident showed Trump was still the “legitimate president”.

According to a video posted on Facebook by an attendee, clergyman and conservative radio personality CL Bryant told the crowd, “There’s a robbery going on in this country right now.” “Indeed, I say it to you and I will say it loud and clear, and I am not ashamed to say it. I will not bite my tongue. I believe that Donald John Trump is the only legitimate president.”

The March 6, 2021 event was a meeting of Frontliners for Liberty. The group gained national attention from obscurity last week, with the revelation that Thomas had invited pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman to speak to its members in December 2020.

The revelation stemming from the email, that a judge ordered Eastman to be handed over to the House committee investigating the January 6 uprising, showed that Thomas was in contact with Eastman, a key legal architect of the effort to reverse the election. Judge David O’Carter of the Central District of California wrote in a June 7 opinion that the emails, in which the group’s “high-profile leader” had invited Eastman to speak — were relevant to the committee’s work.

whereas original message And E-mail

While it has been revealed in recent weeks that Thomas was involved in those efforts before January 6, his appearance at the Orlando gathering indicates that his alliance with election deniers continued even after Joe Biden’s inauguration. According to social media posts, court filings and interviews with several people involved in the group, the frontliners have hosted hard-right lawmakers, insisted on strict secrecy and declared that the country’s top enemy is the “radical fascist leftist”.

[A photo from the Orlando event shows Bryant posing with Thomas. Others showed Thomas wearing a name tag decorated with a yellow ribbon and others called the “Trouble Maker”.

Thomas did not respond to messages seeking comment. Bryant also did not respond to a request for comment.

Thomas’ role in Frontliners was confirmed on Thursday, when Eastman published an email inviting him to speak to the group on December 8, 2020. The email was one of several Eastman sought shields belonging to the group, which was not identified. in court filings. Eastman argued that releasing them to committee would violate the participants’ First Amendment rights.

The group said it was understood as a “cone of silence”, which Eastman wrote in a May filing. He quoted an email received from the group as saying, “[W]We are careful about who is on the phone and who is in the room and we don’t leak what happens, what is said or who is in the meeting – always!”

Eastman on Thursday downplay Significance of the invitation, writing that Thomas asked her to “give updates about the election trial to the group she met from time to time.” She wrote that she did not discuss “any matter pending or likely to come to court” with Thomas or her husband.

The committee has not issued any frontliner emails. It has requested an interview with Thomas and asked him to turn over communications with a number of people, including pro-Trump lawyers, members of Congress and Justice Department staff. Thomas told the Orthodox daily caller Last week that she looked forward to meeting with the committee and “can’t wait to clear up the misunderstanding.”

Disclosures about Thomas’ activities have exposed the potential conflicts of interest that her husband faces in deciding the affairs of the 2020 election and seeks to destroy it. Clarence Thomas has not recused himself from any of those cases—including one in January in which he was the sole justice to back Trump’s request to release White House documents related to Jan. was requested to stop.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court did not respond to questions from Clarence Thomas.

Ginny Thomas has said that she keeps her work separate from her husband.

Members described Frontliners for Liberty as a loose coalition of conservative activists. According to former New Mexico lawmaker Janice Arnold-Jones and a second person familiar with the Frontliners’ operations, the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks provides group members with significant institutional support, including hosting briefings and “fly-ins” when members are in person. call from. spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the group.

FreedomWorks “partners with Frontliners” but the two are separate entities, FreedomWorks spokesman Peter Vicenzi wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

“Ginny Thomas, over the years, has been an invaluable ally to our activist community when it comes to engaging on shared issues,” wrote Vicenzi. “Thomas himself has been a staunch conservative activist and FreedomWorks is proud to work with him.”

In his email invitation to Eastman, Thomas imitated another recipient, saying that the person – whose name was modified – was assisting with the meeting because “until this election material is resolved, I will I’m on rest.” It is not clear how his role on the sabbatical was different from his earlier role.

Arnold-Jones told The Post that Thomas was not the group’s sole leader. “It extends much more than that,” she said in an interview. “She’s part of it. Sometimes, we see Ginny.”

Arnold-Jones said the group maintains strict secrecy, “so that people can say what they have to say.” She said the group serves an important networking function, connecting state activists with parliamentarians and other decision-makers. But such details are shared with care, she said. “When information is shared, they don’t send a big old letter that says, ‘Here’s their phone number.’ ,

Frontliners for Liberty does not have a web presence except for a private Facebook group of about 50 people, which was founded in August 2020 and administered by Ginny Thomas and Stephanie Miller Coleman, the head of one of Clarence Thomas’ former clerks. was a widow. Coleman did not respond to a request for comment.

The post sparked public-facing details of the Facebook group last week. It has since been removed from public view. The group was designated as “a new collaborative, independence-focused, action-oriented group of state leaders representing ground forces to engage, inform and activate each other weekly to preserve constitutional rule”. was described in.

The banner at the top of the page read: “America’s Enemy … is the Radical Fascist Left.”

Coleman’s personal Facebook page features Trump’s former White House strategist, Stephen K. [bannon?], along with Ginny and Clarence Thomas and other high-profile Washington celebrities. There were pictures of him including Bannon. In a 2015 photo, Coleman poses with Ginny Thomas, who is wearing a pin that reads “I .” [heart] My Husband” and a name tag that identifies the event they were attending as the “Thomas Clerk World Retreat”.

Clarence Thomas’ former clerk communicates on an email list known as Thomas Clerk World, The Post previously did. informed of, In the weeks following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Ginny Thomas apologized to those in the email list for a rift that developed between her pro-Trump advocacy and her support for her January 6 rally. Eastman is Thomas’s former clerk.

Since The Post saw photos of Coleman last week, it has made most of his Facebook page private.

During his speech at the March gathering in Orlando, Bryant said the nation is embroiled in a “spiritual war” and urged attendees to “stand up and defend this republic.” He denounced changing definitions of marriage, family, and gender, and he repeatedly returned to the belief that the presidency had been stolen.

“It was a theft, I’ll tell you. It was the biggest theft America has ever seen. But still we sit here in the White House with a guy who’s there by deceit,” Bryant said. “My friends, you shouldn’t be afraid to say it. You shouldn’t be afraid to say it.”

Bryant urged the crowd to act, asking: “What are you ready to do?” He continued: “I believe Ginni asked this question. Are we just going to get out of here on the road, go about our business? …when you leave here tonight, what are you ready to do?”

It is not clear whether he was referring to Ginny Thomas. In pictures from the event, she is speaking with a microphone at an outdoor gathering.

The video was posted to the Facebook account of John de Lemme, a podcast host and founder of the Conservative Business Journal.

Di Lemme told The Post that he is not associated with the Frontliners, but heard Bryant’s speech when he and his wife went to lunch and dinner with a friend who was attending the meeting.

Attendees at the Orlando gathering included a wide range of employees from the grass-roots organizer to FreedomWorks employees who later blamed senior economist Stephen Moore for illegally demonstrating at the Capitol during the January 6 riots, which Trump called a Tapped for seat. Federal Reserve Board but withdrawn from thought After bipartisan criticism of his comments about women.

Other attendees included former state lawmakers, political candidates and conservative activists such as Ron Armstrong, a Michigan businessman who rose to national prominence for leading protests against Covid-19 restrictions, and Brian Kamenker, president of Massresistance, which designated as an antagonist. LGBT hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center.

Moore said that he comments at many such events and does not remember details about the group.

Armstrong told The Post that he remembered Thomas giving the welcome remarks in Orlando because he was “obviously someone who cares and would like to say hello or welcome.” He said that frontliners bring workers together on many issues and they do not have any central organizational structure. The Post did not find any corporate records for the group.

“The frontliner is nothing,” he said. “It’s all a bunch of people that gather around messages and causes and make sure we’re working together.”

Camanker did not respond to a request for comment.

Susan Voyles, a longtime conservative activist in Georgia, said she attended the March conference as president of the Georgia chapter of the Conservative Eagle Forumand saw Thomas there. Voyles said the meeting focused primarily on education issues highlighted by the pandemic.

In August, several months after the Orlando gathering, Armstrong posted a letter to state legislators from the Michigan Frontliners for Freedom group on Facebook demanding a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election. Armstrong said that the state group is different from the national collective.

According to a photo posted on Twitter, at aFrontliners event in October, Rep. Paul A.

[Shown the presence of] Gosar (R-Ariz.). Ma[e]rissa Hamilton, recognized on LinkedIn as the grass-roots director of FreedomWorks, tweeted another photo the same day, apparently from the same incident. It included an image of three other Republican members of Congress who were instrumental in advancing lies about the 2020 election: Louis Gohart [gosar?] (Tex.), Marjorie Taylor Green (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).

“Congressman” @replouiegohmert Congress women @mtgreenee and Congress women @laurenboebert Feather @freedomworks Frontliners for Liberty,” according to one version, the tweet read reserve Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Hamilton did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did spokespersons for Goser, Gohmert, Greene and Boebert.

Alice Crits and Amy Gardner contributed to this report.

#President #Ginny #Thomas #group #meeting #calls #Bidens #victory #illegitimate #long #January #video #show #Source #President at Ginny Thomas group meeting calls Biden’s victory illegitimate long after January 6, video show

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https://web.archive.org/web/20220617033852/https:/webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AfMD-7z_7CpEJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fmerissahamilton%2Fstatus%2F1450829232368672768

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Congressman

, Congresswoman

, and Congresswoman

Frontliners for Liberty ❤️"My children's freedom is my motivator because I refuse to send them into a socialist nation." -

@laurenboebert

oct 2021 frontliners for liberty (freedomworks?]

whereas original message And E-mailWhile it has been revealed in recent weeks that Thomas was involved in those efforts before January 6, his appearance at the Orlando gathering indicates that his alliance with election deniers continued even after Joe Biden’s inauguration. According to social media posts, court filings and interviews with several people involved in the group, the frontliners have hosted hard-right lawmakers, insisted on strict secrecy and declared that the country’s top enemy is the “radical fascist leftist”.

A photo from the Orlando event shows Bryant posing with Thomas. Others showed Thomas wearing a name tag decorated with a yellow ribbon and others called the “Trouble Maker”.

Thomas did not respond to messages seeking comment. Bryant also did not respond to a request for comment.

Eastman on Thursday downplaySignificance of the invitation, writing that Thomas asked her to “give updates about the election trial to the group she met from time to time.” She wrote that she did not discuss “any matter pending or likely to come to court” with Thomas or her husband.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court did not respond to questions from Clarence Thomas.

Ginny Thomas has said that she keeps her work separate from her husband.

FreedomWorks “partners with Frontliners” but the two are separate entities, FreedomWorks spokesman Peter Vicenzi wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

Arnold-Jones told The Post that Thomas was not the group’s sole leader. “It extends much more than that,” she said in an interview. “She’s part of it. Sometimes, we see Ginny.”

Frontliners for Liberty does not have a web presence except for a private Facebook group of about 50 people, which was founded in August 2020 and administered by Ginny Thomas and Stephanie Miller Coleman, the head of one of Clarence Thomas’ former clerks. was a widow. Coleman did not respond to a request for comment.

The post sparked public-facing details of the Facebook group last week. It has since been removed from public view. The group was designated as “a new collaborative, independence-focused, action-oriented group of state leaders representing ground forces to engage, inform and activate each other weekly to preserve constitutional rule”. was described in.

The banner at the top of the page read: “America’s Enemy … is the Radical Fascist Left.”

Coleman’s personal Facebook page features Trump’s former White House strategist, Stephen K., along with Ginny and Clarence Thomas and other high-profile Washington celebrities. There were pictures of him including Bannon. In a 2015 photo, Coleman poses with Ginny Thomas, who is wearing a pin that reads “I .” [heart] My Husband” and a name tag that identifies the event they were attending as the “Thomas Clerk World Retreat”.

Since The Post saw photos of Coleman last week, it has made most of his Facebook page private.

It is not clear whether he was referring to Ginny Thomas. In pictures from the event, she is speaking with a microphone at an outdoor gathering.

The video was posted to the Facebook account of John de Lemme, a podcast host and founder of the Conservative Business Journal.

Di Lemme told The Post that he is not associated with the Frontliners, but heard Bryant’s speech when he and his wife went to lunch and dinner with a friend who was attending the meeting.

Moore said that he comments at many such events and does not remember details about the group.

“The frontliner is nothing,” he said. “It’s all a bunch of people that gather around messages and causes and make sure we’re working together.”

Camanker did not respond to a request for comment.

Susan Voyles, a longtime conservative activist in Georgia, said she attended the March conference as president of the Georgia chapter of the Conservative Eagle Forum and saw Thomas there. Voyles said the meeting focused primarily on education issues highlighted by the pandemic.

According to a photo posted on Twitter, at a Frontliners event in October, Rep. Paul A. Shown the presence of Gosar (R-Ariz.). Marissa Hamilton, recognized on LinkedIn as the grass-roots director of FreedomWorks, tweeted another photo the same day, apparently from the same incident. It included an image of three other Republican members of Congress who were instrumental in advancing lies about the 2020 election: Louis Gohart (Tex.), Marjorie Taylor Green (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).

“Congressman” @replouiegohmertCongress women @mtgreeneeand Congress women @laurenboebert Feather @freedomworks Frontliners for Liberty,” according to one version, the tweet read reserveInternet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Hamilton did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did spokespersons for Goser, Gohmert, Greene and Boebert.

Alice Crits and Amy Gardner contributed to this report.

#President #Ginny #Thomas #group #meeting #calls #Bidens #victory #illegitimate #long #January #video #show#Source#President at Ginny Thomas group meeting calls Biden’s victory illegitimate long after January 6, video show

an 8 22

ctr attack fail

Some right-wing media pundits have furiously railed against the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a massive $750 billion climate change/economy/health care bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on Tuesday, August 16. And plenty of Republicans have lambasted centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia for voting “yes” on the bill.

But all things considered, the Inflation Reduction Act hasn’t been nearly as big a story in right-wing media as the FBI, on August 8, executing a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. And journalists Meridith McGraw and Caitlin Oprysko offer a possible reason why in an article published by Politico on August 22. The Mar-a-Lago search, they argue, pushes the “culture war” button in a way the Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t.

“Far from a singular lapse, last week’s split-screen of the Mar-a-Lago search and the passage of the IRA provided a telling portrait of pistons that move modern Republican politics,” McGraw and Oprysko explain. “Whereas conservative activism has, in past cycles, been driven by opposition to Democratic-authored policies or actions — from Obamacare to TARP— the modern version has been fed by culture-war issues and, more often than not, Trump himself.”

Cesar Ybarra, vice president of policy for the right-wing group FreedomWorks, laments that so far, the GOP hasn’t been able to weaponize the Inflation Reduction Act to the degree that he would like.

Ybarra told Politico, “Everything was moving so fast, the tax provisions were being debated on the fly; so, there was very little time for groups to do that in-depth grassroots pushback like we saw during Obamacare. To create buzz in this town and for it to penetrate across America, you need more time. So yeah, we got rolled.”

When Republicans enjoyed a massive red wave in the 2010 midterms and recaptured the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the things they had been attacking Democrats over was the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare — which passed that year. These days, Obamacare is popular and polls well, but in 2010, Republicans and the Tea Party movement were able to successfully weaponize it against Democrats. Then-President Barack Obama famously described that red wave as a “shellacking.”

But according to Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way,“You’re not having town halls with people screaming about Medicare drug negotiations. It’s very hard to object to a bill that invests a lot of money in clean energy.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/17/ginni-thomas-tied-facebook-group-frontliners-for-liberty-could-be-a-new-focus-in-jan-6-investigation.html

cnbc

a Facebook group that appears to be run by Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, could become a new point of interest in the U.S. House Select Committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The private group, which listed more than 50 members, was created in August 2020, just two months before the November elections, according to the page’s description.

The group,which CNBC reviewed before it was removed from public view, described itselfas “a new collaborative, liberty-focused, action-oriented group of state leaders representing grassroots armies to CONNECT, INFORM and ACTIVATE each other weekly to preserve constitutional governance.” Although Thomas’ personal Facebook page isn’t verified, it contained numerous photos of Justice Thomas.

[doc]

thomas asked Eastman to speak to her Frontliners group on Dec. 8, according to her email to him. Eastman said Thomas “invited me to give an update about election litigation to a group she met with periodically,” according to his post on Substack, an email newsletter subscription service. Thomas told Eastman she was “on sabbatical until this election stuff is resolved.”

Thomas’ email to Eastman appears to be at issue in his legal dispute with congressional investigators looking into the Jan. 6 attack. A federal judge recently ruled against Eastman,who was trying to assert attorney-client privilege to withhold emails about the 2020 election. The judge ordered Eastman to turn over ten documents, including four that pertained to a meeting on Dec. 8, 2020, which was the same date Ginni Thomas asked him to speak to Frontliners. “Two emails are the group’s high-profile leader inviting Dr. Eastman to speak at the meeting, and two contain the meeting’s agenda,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote in his June. 7 order.

Based on the event’s agenda, Eastman discussed ”‘State legislative actions that can reverse the media-called election for Joe Biden.’ Another speaker gave an ‘update on [state] legislature actions regarding electoral votes,’” Carter wrote.

A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, a spokesman for the Jan. 6 House select committee, Thomas, Eastman and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

The Frontliners group also worked with a conservative advocacy organization known asFreedomWorks, according to the nonprofit’s spokesman Peter Vicenzi. He also said that Thomas and FreedomWorks activists have been allies for years. FreedomWorks does not publicly disclose their donors.

Since Trump lost the election, FreedomWorks has pushed the idea that there needs to be election reforms. Conservative lawyerCleta Mitchell, who used to work with Trump’s campaign, now chairs FreedomWorks’ multimillion dollar National Election Protection Initiative, according to Newsmax.

Merissa Hamilton, who says on her LinkedIn page that she’s a grassroots director at FreedomWorks, tweeted out in October a picture at what she described as an event at“FreedomWorks Frontliners for Liberty.” The picture showed Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Louie Gohmert, R-Texas and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. attending the event.

After CNBC emailed Hamilton about the tweets, they were deleted off her page. She did not return follow up requests for comment.

WAPO https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/24/republican-gop-pro-russia-pro-putin-ukraine-war-isolationism/

ukraine war

That brings us to the bad news: Isolationism — or is it Putinism? — remains disturbingly resilient within Republican ranks. In the Pew poll, more than twice as many Republicans as Democrats said that the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine. Roughly a quarter of House Republicans and a fifth of Senate Republicans share that view. Some of the influential voices opposing aid to Ukraine include former president Donald Trump, Fox “News” host Tucker Carlson, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Heritage Action for America (the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation), and FreedomWorks (the Koch-supported advocacy organization).

eid hit on lawsuits

desmog

Vice President of Legislative Affairs

May 9, 2019

FreedomWorks, represented by Jason Pye, signed on to an open letter organized by the American Energy Alliance designed to fight against an electric vehicle tax credit. [52]

“The American Energy Alliance has organized a coalition to proclaim in one unified voice that there should be no expansion of the misguided electric vehicle tax credit,” Thomas Pyle wrote in a statement,quoted at**:{The Daily Caller:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:**. “There is no question that the electric vehicle tax credit distorts the auto market to no gain.” [53]

According to Pyle and others who signed the letter, electric vehicle tax credits “overwhelmingly benefit the rich.” DeSmog’sKoch vs. Clean projecthas systematically debunked this, among other well-rehearsed talking points and misinformation put forward by industry about electric vehicles. [53]

The letter cites research by the Pacific Research Institute (:{PRI:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:), a group that has received over $600,000 from ExxonMobil and millions from “dark money” groups DonorsTrust andDonors Capital Fund.

July 18, 2018

FreedomWorks, represented by Jason Pye, was among signatories of aletter supporting an anti-carbon tax resolution from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va. [49]

“We oppose any carbon tax. We oppose a carbon tax because it would lead to less income and fewer jobs for American families,” the letter read. “We support the House Concurrent Resolution in opposition to a job-killing carbon tax and urge members to co-sponsor and support this effort.” [49]

The resolution would call a carbon tax “detrimental to the United States economy.”:{**:{E&E:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: News**:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: reported it was similar to a measure that passed the House in 2016. Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, co-chairman of the Climate Solutions Caucus, said he would not vote for the resolution.[50]

“Protecting our environment and economic growth are not mutually exclusive,” he said in a statement. “The resolution presents a false choice.”

The Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the measure when it was first introduced. [51]

April 2018

:{The Washington Examiner:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: reported FreedomWorks was behind an effort to defend EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt amidst his wide range of ethics controversies. FreedomWorks tweeted under the hashtag“#StandWithScottPruitt”: [48]

....

REF by EID unidentified "non-profit" above, tho ID'd elsewhere

https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/05/climate-investigations-center-misrepresented-nonprofit-taxpayers-bill/

no lnx

ENERGY

Environmental Group Misrepresented Itself As A Nonprofit In Order To Stick Taxpayers With The Bill For Its Open Records Requests

Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Holds "Fridays For Future" Event In Denver

DREW JOHNSON

NATIONAL DIRECTOR, PROTECT INTERNET FREEDOM

December 05, 2019

An attorney for FreedomWorks filed a complaint against Climate Investigations Center, an environmental activism organization, alleging that it misrepresented its nonprofit status to take advantage of FOIA requests.

Allegedly, the Center files FOIA requests for information on organizations it opposes and also requests a fee waiver as a nonprofit, even though it is not listed as one in the IRS database.

Climate Investigations Center has submitted in numerous FOIA requests involving energy corporations and think tanks involved with the energy industry as well as testified at House hearings on climate change.

An environmental activism outfitfocused on attacking energy companies and exposing funding for so-called “anti-environmental” organizations is using dishonest and potentially unlawful business practices and wasting tax dollars to engage in its investigations, critics claim.

According to its website, Climate Investigations Center “was established in 2014 to monitor the individuals, corporations, trade associations, political organizations, and front groups who work to delay the implementation of sound energy and environmental policies that are necessary in the face of ongoing climate crisis.”

Chris K. Gober, an attorney representing D.C.-based free market organization FreedomWorks, argues Climate Investigations Center’s efforts to “monitor” its opponents in public policy discussions include misrepresenting itself to federal agencies in order to collect documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) at no expense to the Center.

Gober filed a complaint with the Department of Justice on behalf of FreedomWorks accusing Climate Investigations Center of defrauding taxpayers.

[A girl kisses a makeshift Earth during a march for the climate in Bordeaux, southwestern France on December 8, 2018. – Thousands of people were participating today in climate marches in several cities in France. (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP) (Photo credit should read NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images)]

The complaint claims the Center requests massive numbers of government documents from federal agencies using the FOIA process. Climate Investigations Center then requests a fee waiver — allowing the organization to receive the FOIA documents at taxpayers’ expense — on the basis that the outfit is a nonprofit.

A review of the IRS charitable database, however, indicates that Climate Investigations Center has never received a nonprofit status from the federal government. The group is also not registered or incorporated as a charity or business in any state.

Kert Davies, the founder and director of Climate Investigations Center did not respond to emails asking for clarification about the structure of the organization. The organization also failed to provide evidence that the Center is a federally registered nonprofit.

The federal government makes documents available through the Freedom of Information Act in order to broaden the public’s understanding of the actions of the federal government. Gober believes information collected and disseminated by Climate Information Center “does not accomplish this task.”

“Climate Investigations Center,” Gober wrote, “is brazenly asking federal taxpayers to repeatedly foot their bill so they can engage in fishing expeditions into the annals of government records for the purpose of attacking the private entities they are averse to.”

One of the Center’s broadest and most burdensome FOIA requests asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide digital copies of all emails containing any mention of two large oil and natural gas pipeline projects that were sent or received by a former official in the agency’s Office of Policy over a 49-month period. Due to the expansive and inexact nature of the request, EPA employees were still working to compile documents for Climate Investigations Center nearly seven months later.

In addition to the FOIA fee waivers received by the EPA for this and other requests, the Center has improperly requested and received fee waivers from the Justice Department, the Department of Energy, and the Department of the Interior, according to the complaint. (RELATED: DOJ Requests Information That Could Identify Trump Official Behind ‘Anonymous’ Op-Ed)

[HONG KONG, HONG KONG – MARCH 15: Students hold placards and shout slogans as they participate in a protest on March 15, 2019 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)]

“Itappears that Climate Investigations Center uses the FOIA process to secure government records related toentities averse to its apparent commercial interests, and that it then posts and distributes this information to cause commercial harm to the private subjects of the government records,” Gober said.

In addition to apparently misleading federal agencies in order to receive public records at no cost, Climate Investigations Center appears to have taken extreme measures to mask its supporters and sources of funding.

The organization’s website domain is registered through a proxy server that intentionally conceals the identity of those involved in purchasing the domain name and setting up the website. Climate Investigations Center also does not list a physical office address, only a post office box in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.

No fewer than 78 articles appear on the Center’s website related to funding of corporations and nonprofits engaged in influencing climate and environmental policy. One article demands ExxonMobil publish recipients of the company’s corporate giving.Others attack conservative think tanks and other political nonprofit organizations for receiving money from donors with investments in the energy industry.

In an interview with the Energy and Policy Institute, Davies criticized a conservative foundation for refusing to disclose its donors. “There’s no transparency, no accountability for the money. There is no way to tell who is funding them,” Davies complained.

Climate Investigations Center, however, fails to publicly disclose its own donors.

The Center does not solicit donations on its website. In fact, there is no clear way to contribute to the organization, indicating Climate Investigations Center has a stable, reliable source of financing.

Davies did not respond to emails asking how the Center is funded and requesting a list of donors.

Jason Pye, the Vice President of Legislative Affairs for FreedomWorks, said Climate Investigations Center is operating under a hypocritical double standard. “Climate Investigations Center is guilty of hypocrisy,” Pye said. “It’s clear the left doesn’t play by the rules. If any conservative or free-market organization did what Climate Investigations Center has done, there would be cries for donor disclosure laws.”

In addition to failing to publish its sources of funding, the Center also does not reveal salaries for top officers, and hides the identity of its board members. Such information is commonly available for both for-profit businesses and non-for-profit organizations – particularly those engaged in advancing transparency and accountability.

“Climate Investigations Center appears to be nothing more than a well-funded attack website that advances the agenda of its unknown financial backers,” said Gober.

The Center’s staffers may also be violating federal lobbying rules.

Neither Davies nor Climate Investigations Center’s other employee, investigator and freelance reporter Dan Zegart, are registered as lobbyists, but they appear to be engaging in undisclosed lobbying activities.

In the last year, both Davies and Zegart have been in attendance at [PUBLIC? VIDEO?] House subcommittee hearings about climate change, according to sources at the hearings. According to a Congressional staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Davies was overheard saying he got Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to appear at the hearing. He also boasted of plating a question that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez asked about the Koch brothers. (RELATED: Greenpeace Co-Founder: ‘Climate Crisis Is Not Only Fake News. It’s fake Science)

In his complaint to the Department of Justice, Gober asks that no more fee waivers be granted for Climate Investigations Center’s FOIA requests and calls for an investigation into the Center for misrepresenting itself as a nonprofit.

Pye said taxpayers should be reimbursed for the cost of providing FOIA records to the Center under false pretenses.

“Climate Investigations Center should be responsible for paying the FOIA fees they would’ve paid without the improper fee waivers.”

Tags : department of energy freedom of information act justice department

DREW JOHNSON

===

no lnx

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/freedomworks-hopes-anti-critical-race-theory-organizing-will-bring-massive-right-wing-gains-in-2022/

freedomWorks, one of the many right-wing groups taking part in the dishonest campaign against critical race theory, is fomenting opposition to teaching about systemic racism in an effort to mobilize conservative voters to turn out in 2022 midterms and take over school boards.

The day after Thanksgiving, FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon wrote in a fundraising email that opposition to critical race theory “could be the key to making MASSIVE political gain in 2022.” He claimed that “the Left” is out to “indoctrinate children with CRT – so our kids will start hating our country and our God-given freedoms as much as the Left does.”

FreedomWorks’ Noah Wall followed up with an email a couple days later claiming that “The radical Left has proven that they are willing to do whatever it takes to brainwash future generations to transform America into a socialist nation.”

Brandon’s email touted FreedomWorks’ efforts to recruit and train school board candidates. He claimed that since the group had launched its BEST (Building Education for Students Together) initiative, it had hosted grassroots events reaching 3,700 activists, trained more than 300 activists to run for the school board, encouraged 150 of its Candidate Academy graduates to commit to filing paperwork to run for school board seats, and created partnerships with many of the other right-wing groups rallying activists to take over school boards.

Just a few days later, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah lent his name to a Dec. 1 FreedomWorks fundraising email that focused on other supposed threats from “the Left’s socialist wish list” such as a $15 minimum wage and statehood for the District of Columbia. Lee’s brief note introduced a longer message from Brandon, who asked for money to fight “the swamp” and elect right-wing candidates in 2022. “Whether it’s AOC’s so called ‘Green New Deal,’ Washington D.C. Statehood, Supreme Court packing—or the Democrats’ schemes to seize TOTAL control of our election system—America is facing a GRAVE THREAT.”

FreedomWorks is associated with the State Policy Network, a collection of think tanks and advocacy groups that promote right-wing policies at the state level. Brandon is a member of Council for National Policy, a secretive and influential network of right-wing and far-right activists.

Tags: Adam Brandon, Mike Lee. Noah Wall, Critical Race Theory, Election 2022 School Boards Council for National Policy Freedom Works FreedomWorks State Policy Network

an 921

Brandon Prenzlin is among the many Donald Trump supporters who is facing charges in connection with the January 6 insurrection. And he has been fired from his position as a grassroots organizer for the right-wing group FreedomWorksbecause of his arrest, according to HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly.

Prenzlin, Reilly reports, was arrested by the FBI in Arlington, Virginia on September 17, and he is facing four misdemeanor charges — which include disorderly conduct on the grounds of the Capitol, entering a restricted building without authority, disorderly conduct inside a restricted building, and parading inside the Capitol.

Reilly notes that Peter Vicenzi, a FreedomWorks spokesman, confirmed that Prenzlin has been fired but did comment on his case.

According to Reilly, an "FBI affidavit lays out Prenzlin's alleged activities inside the Capitol on January 6, and shows how they were able to build a case against Prenzlin by citing his presence on social media."

"The FBI affidavit doesn't explicitly say it," Reilly reports, "but it suggests that online sleuths known as the 'Sedition Hunters' played a role in the case against Prenzlin. The sprawling community of open-source investigators, often working under the #SeditionHunters hashtag, has been working to identify the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6. The Sedition Hunters website, where a photo of Prenzlin was labeled as No. 640 on a list of 'Sedition Insiders,' noted before Prenzlin's arrest that he had been identified."

Reilly adds, "It's unclear precisely when the identification was made, but an image of Prenzlin included in a tweet from the @SeditionHunters Twitter account indicated that Prenzlin had been IDed by early July. That's about the same time, according to the affidavit, that the FBI investigation got underway thanks to a tip."

FreedomWorks has been aggressively promoting voter suppression with its "Election Protection Initiative," which features far-right attorney and Trump ally Cleta Mitchell. In a video posted on FreedomWorks' website, Mitchell falsely claims, "The 2020 election was chaotic and deliberately overwhelmed the elections systems in many places in our country. It's no wonder that people across this country believe that there was really something wrong in the 2020 election. There was."

baaaack?

OMG anti-stay at home/mask protests could be prep for voter intim at polls or worse in chaos after?! xian UNIFYING

TRUMP BS ON INVALID ELECTION //BUILDS ON PUTIN DISINFO

nyt

no lnx

The Quiet Hand of Conservative Groups in the Anti-Lockdown Protests

Groups in a loose coalition have tapped their networks to drive up turnout at recent rallies in state capitals and financed lawsuits, polling and research to combat the stay-at-home orders.

By Kenneth P. Vogel, Jim Rutenberg and Lisa Lerer

April 21, 2020

WASHINGTON — An informal coalition of influential conservative leaders and groups, some with close connections to the White House, has been quietly working to nurture protests and apply political and legal pressure to overturn state and local orders intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The groups have tapped their networks to drive up turnout at recent rallies in state capitals, dispatched their lawyers to file lawsuits, and paid for polling and research to undercut the arguments behind restrictions that have closed businesses and limited the movement of most Americans.

Among those fighting the orders are FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots, which played pivotal roles in the beginning of Tea Party protests starting more than a decade ago. Also involved are a law firm led partly by former Trump White House officials,a network of state-based conservative policy groups, and an ad hoc coalition of conservative leaders known as Save Our Country that has advised the White House on strategies for a tiered reopening of the economy.

The effort picked up some influential support on Tuesday, when Attorney General William P. Barr expressed concerns about state-level restrictions potentially infringing on constitutional rights, and suggested that, if that occurred, the Justice Department might weigh in, including by supporting legal challenges by others. Separately, in Wisconsin, Republicans in the state legislature sued to block the Democratic governor’s order extending stay-at-home rules through May 26.

Those helping orchestrate the fight against restrictions predict the effort could energize the right in the same way the Tea Party movement did in 2009 and 2010,and potentially be helpful to President Trump as he campaigns for re-election. But the cause has yet to demonstrate that kind of traction.

Polls show a majority of Americans are more concerned about reopening the country too quickly than they are about the damage to the economy. And coronavirus protests have drawn smaller crowds ranging from a few dozen to several thousand at a rally in Michigan last week.

Conditions are hardly ideal for a protest movement related to the virus. In addition to the health risks, demonstrators potentially face legal exposure for violating the very measures they are protesting. Plus, some key Republican leaders have embraced the types of restrictions being targeted, while powerful grass-roots mobilizing groups, including those spearheaded by the billionaire activist Charles Koch, have so far not embraced the protests. [BUT FREEDOMS WORKS HAS?!]

Still, the fight has emerged as a galvanizing cause for a vocal element of Mr. Trump’s base and others on the political right. Organizers see it as unifying social conservatives, who view the orders as targeting religious groups; fiscal conservatives who chafe at the economic devastation wrought by the restrictions on businesses; andcivil libertarians who contend that the restrictions infringe on constitutional rights.

“Groups are united in purpose on this,” said Noah Wall, advocacy director for FreedomWorks, which in 2009 organized a Tea Party protest that drew tens of thousands of people or more to Washington. He described the current efforts as appealing to a “much broader” group. “This is about people who want to get back to work and leave their homes,” he said.....

===

several like this/ 420 an

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/stoking-divisions-and-driving-a-new-explosion-in-the-pandemic-republicans-think-they-can-win-through-sheer-chaos

digby no lnx

...

FreedomWorks, the instrumental force behind the Tea Party, “is holding weekly virtual town halls with members of Congress, igniting an activist base of thousands of supporters across the nation to back up the effort” led by right-wing commentator Stephen Moore.the Associated Press reported. Other right-wing groups vocally opposing shutdowns include Americans for Prosperity, an organization funded by the Koch brothers, and the conservative Heritage Foundation. There is even a connection to the family of Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. As Michigan’s governor noted, the DeVos family foundation helped fund Facebook ads for this week’s protest.

Pro-gun activists have gotten in on the act as well. It’s an astroturf Tea Party reunion tour. If there’s one thing that riles up the right wing, it’s apparently the government trying to save lives.

‘There’s no pandemic…Media’s the cancer’ — People across the U.S., many of whom are vocal Trump supporters, are protesting stay-at-home orders.

COVID-19 has killed more than 37,000 people in America within the last 7 weeks. pic.twitter.com/2xtbPXfjz9

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 19, 2020

Trump has personally praised the protesters, as has Vice President Pence, even as they both pretend to care about their new guidelines for opening up the country.

All of this seems odd, considering that common sense and all legitimate scientific advice says that prematurely letting our guard down will likely lead to a resurgence of the epidemic, which means shutting down the economy all over again, with even worse consequences. But there’s a method to their madness. As chaotic and dysfunctional as they are at governing, Trump and the Republicans are united on their electoral strategy. They’ve decided that opening up the economy as soon as possible is their ticket to re-election.

According to Politico, conservatives are still convinced that a highly divisive strategy focused entirely on their base voters divisive, is the way to go, even in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis:

Trump-supported activists are protesting strict stay-at-home orders. Conservative groups’ internal polling in red-leaning and swing states show a significant uptick in Americans who favor reopening the country. A growing chorus of Republican lawmakers across the nation are on board.

“If you don’t see something start to happen … you’re going to see a conservative revolt by our base,” said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, a conservative group which recently polled on reopening the economy. “The worst strategy for him is to keep things shut until August. Trump is basically going to win or lose his election right now, in the next month.”

Yes, that would be the same FreedomWorks that is ginning up the protests, along with the other big money groups financed by the likes of Charles Koch. Big-money donors seem to have activated their astroturf groups to get people out in the streets to make sure that Trump feels the pressure from his beloved base to open up the economy. These donors care about preserving their power, privilege and profit margins, but Trump only cares about the November election. They are manipulating him, and his supporters, to make him believe that his ends are aligned with theirs.

Republicans in Congress are doing their part as well. The bill coming up for a vote this week to refill the small-business bailout fund is missing something vital that Democrats and governors of both parties have been begging for: help for state and local governments, many of which are in dire economic trouble and hamstrung by balanced-budget requirements.

You might think that providing them with federal funds to keep the lights on would be a no-brainer. But according to Axios, Republicans will use this prospect as a cudgel to force states to reopen: “The thinking among some Trump administration officials is that many states should be reopening their governments soon and that additional funding could deter them from doing so.”

If anyone thinks that depriving aid won’t hurt Trump’s political enemies more than his allies, they still don’t understand how he plays this game. (There’s already evidence that more federal aid has gone to red states.) This may end up being the most destructive thing Trump has done, at least in economic terms.

lee f

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/15/dark-money-irs-reporting-501c

DARK MONEY GROUPS backed by foreign corporate donors are supporting the Trump administration’s decision to roll back one of the last remaining ways for authorities to monitor the flow of unlawful campaign cash in American elections.

In recent years, 501(c) nonprofits have become the entities of choice for secret campaign spending.These nonprofit groups, which do not have to report any donor information to the public, can receive unlimited contributions from any source and, thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, spend unlimited amounts on elections.

Foreign spending, whether by a foreign national or a foreign-owned corporation, is still illegal under federal law. But the law has been poorly enforced, and the few instances in which penalties have been applied in recent years have come in reaction to publicly reported foreign corporate spending to Super PACs, such as The Intercept’s reporting on Chinese corporate donations in 2016 and the recent federal indictment over a shell company owned by a Russian national that gave to President Donald Trump’s Super PAC in 2018.

The one check on foreign contributions to dark-money groups has been the Schedule B form, which reports 501(c) donor information confidentially to the Internal Revenue Service. Under a new rule proposed last September by the Treasury Department and the IRS, nonprofits will no longer be required to report donor information, even to the government, allowing an unprecedented level of secrecy.

Lobbyists for foreign-funded groups have pushed the administration to move forward with the rule, which is close to being finalized. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobby organization in the world, spent over $10 million to influence the last 2018 midterm election cycle using its general fund. The group, which has foreign corporate donors, has lobbied in support of the IRS rule to repeal the Schedule B requirement, claiming in a letter to officials that the accidental leak of donors could reduce corporate free speech rights.

“Identifying, harassing, and intimidating the organization’s supporters is a chief means of silencing that organization’s speech,” wrote Caroline L. Harris, the Chambers’ chief tax policy counsel, and Ryan P. Meyers, the deputy general counsel of the group, in a regulatory letter to officials overseeing the rule change. “The Chamber applauds the work of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in eliminating onerous reporting requirements.”

The National Association of Manufacturers, which counts several corporations based in foreign countries as members, in a letter to IRS officials, similarly called the Schedule B requirement an “unnecessary administrative filings that raise the potential for misuse in a way that chills protected speech.”

Both NAM and the Chamber of Commerce, which spends more than $160 million a year, are organized as 501(c)(6) trade associationsand under no obligation to disclose donor money to the public — only to the government through the annual Schedule B form to its 990 annual filing. After the Citizens United decision, the two groups led an effort to defeat the DISCLOSE Act, legislation that would have forced groups engaged high-dollar election advocacy to reveal donor information. The Chamber also lobbied successfully to stop President Barack Obama from issuing an executive order to force government contractors to disclose grants to 501(c) groups.

Foreign-based firms such as Brazilian petrochemical firm Braskem, Al Zayani Investments in Bahrain, and Turkish conglomerate Tekfen are listed on the Chamber’s website as dues-paying members. Faced with criticism in the past that its foreign funding might bleed into the Chamber’s vast domestic lobbying and campaign spending budget, the group has claimed that any foreign donations are walled off from domestic funds, and that foreign donors make up a small percentage of its overall budget.

But the removal of the Schedule B requirement could make those claims impossible to verify. A large foreign national firm could provide multimillion-dollar donations for use in U.S. elections to the Chamber under the new rule and such giving would never be reported to government officials.

That’s precisely the danger of removing Schedule B forms, campaign finance experts warn. The Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance watchdog that has filed the ethics complaints that led to enforcement action on foreign money in the past, cautioned the IRS that the rule would simply open the door to more foreign spending.

“Congress has failed to pass new transparency legislation, and the FEC has failed to enforce the transparency laws that are on the books,” said Brendan Fischer, director of Campaign Legal Center’s federal reform program. “As a result, the only donor disclosure reports that dark-money groups file with any federal agency are the confidential Schedule B reports filed with the IRS. These confidential donor reports are one of the few ways that federal agencies could detect and deter foreign money in U.S. elections.”

It’s not hard to comprehend the many ways in which completely secret legal entities could incentivize illegal election behavior. In 2016, reporters from the Telegraph conducted a sting operation on a Republican campaign operative working in support of Trump. The operative was offered a $2 million check from a Chinese businessman by the reporters.He responded by offering a plan for how to conceal the money, suggesting that it be routed through his consulting firm to a pair of 501(c)4 groups and then to a pro-Trump Ssuper PAC.

The FBI is also investigating the National Rifle Association over allegations that the group, which is organized as a 501(c)4, may have received financial support from Russian sources. McClatchy reported that counterintelligence officials believe that Russian interests may have contributed to the NRA’s $30 million election advertising campaign in 2016.

Foreign firms increasingly finance major American business associations. As The Intercept has previously reported, a major Chinese chemical company joined the American Chemistry Council, a 501(c)6 that routinely lobbies lawmakers and spends money in elections.

The Trump administration had originally tried to remove the Schedule B form last summer in a surprise decision. A federal judge in Montana, however, ruled that the IRS had failed to follow proper regulatory procedure and ordered the agency to conduct a formal rule-making to allow the public and stakeholders to weigh in on the change.

“The rise of ‘dark money’ in U.S. elections has made it easy for foreign entities to contravene these laws by funneling money into U.S. elections through groups that that [sic] do not publicly disclose their donors, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) trade associations,” wrote the Campaign Legal Center in a letter to the IRS.“This change would further enable foreign entities to donate millions of dollars to such organizations for the purpose of influencing U.S. elections without any risk of scrutiny by federal regulators.”

Republican-aligned think tanks have joined the business-backed push to eliminate the Schedule B.Several nonprofits backed by billionaire Charles Koch, including his marquee group Americans for Prosperity,**testified**on February 7 in support of the rule change.FreedomWorks, a conservative grassroots group backed by business interests, has also mobilized hundreds of letters to the agency.

Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member now with the Heritage Foundation, appeared at the hearing alongside other conservative activists in support of the rule change.

Von Spakosvsky, an avowed critic of campaign finance regulations and voting rights laws, testified that “their claim that this will somehow allow foreign money to suddenly flood into American elections is absurd,” according to a transcript of his remarks. Von Spakovsky said the FEC had plenty of authority and expertise in combating foreign money during his tenure, despite the fact that the agency has historically only intervened to investigate foreign money through disclosed political action committees on a few occasions in its 45-year history. He did not cite any examples of the FEC investigating 501(c) groups.

~ impeach

hmm redstate: hit vuln dems: tv ad, dark post; rad left witchunt: acu schalpp, heritage action, fredomworks, presidential coalition, am 1st pol, cfg; censure schiff, text msg dirty 30--> 75K calls to congress;

2019

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/interest-groups-lobby-for-democrats-hr1-ahead-of-friday-house-vote/

On Friday, the House will vote on H.R. 1 or the “For the People Act,” a massive overhaul of transparency, campaign finance and lobbying rules. The 571-page bill, backed by Democrats, tackles a variety of issues from requiring “dark money” groups to release their donors and presidents to release their tax returns to tightening FARA registration to making Election Day a federal holiday. Like any major legislative effort, this one has attracted a number of groups to lobby on its behalf.

As the House prepares to vote on H.R. 1, a group of 71 predominantly liberal groups are working to convince lawmakers to support the measure. Notable names backing the legislation include End Citizens United Action Fund, the Center for American Progress and Planned Parenthood.

The package includes legislation to establish automatic voter registration, the creation of an independent redistricting commission, legislation restricting the use of straw companies for donations, and stricter rules on super PAC-candidate coordination, among many other new proposals.

Like most large-scale reform bills, interest groups have been involved with H.R. 1 since the beginning. Public Citizen assisted in writing parts of the legislation which dealt with ethics and conflict of interest issues. The Brennan Center for Justice helped develop aspects of the bill that address voting registration and small-donor public financing of elections.

End Citizens United is an organization which advocates for stricter campaign finance rules and a reversal of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. It boasts an impressive fundraising apparatus raising almost $33.1 million in the 2018 cycle and spending nearly $32.9 million from the FEC disclosed committee. A significant amount of that, more than $12.3 million, was used on independent expenditures in the cycle.

The group also contributed directly to a wide variety of Democratic candidates in the cycle. Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) and unsuccessful candidate Gina Ortiz Jones (D-Texas) received $15,000 each from the organization — the most among House members and candidates. It also contributed heavily to the DCCC and the DSCC, handing each organization $150,000.

In a letter sent on March 4 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and sponsor of the legislation Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller called H.R. 1 a “once-in-a-generation government reform bill that will restore the promise of our democracy.” The letter notes that the organization and its four million members “enthusiastically support” the legislation.

The Center for American Progress, one of the leading liberal think tanks, is a regular campaign contributor and lobbying presence. In 2018, the group spent $90,000 on lobbying Capitol Hill. Individuals from the think tank contributed $309,415 during the midterm cycle. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and 2020 presidential candidate was the leading recipient with $10,800.

Another liberal interest group, People for the American Way, is pushing for the H.R. 1 legislation. People for the American Way includes a lobbying arm, which dropped $170,000 in 2018 focusing on bills like the Voter Rights Amendment Act and legislation introduced to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The group also has an independent expenditure wing and a separate PAC. During the 2018 cycle, the group spent $515,590 on independent expenditures, the biggest race it spent on was for the Texas Senate.

Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way, applauded the legislation. “HR1 takes dead aim at some of the most pressing issues threatening our democracy,” she said in a statement to The Center for Responsive Politics. “Our members have been working on these issues for years, and now they’re focused on pushing hard on Congress to pass HR1, with calls, emails, digital and on the ground organizing.”

Public Citizen, the liberal consumer rights group founded by Ralph Nader, is another outside source pressuring Congress to support the sweeping legislation. The organization maintains a fairly robust lobbying apparatus, spending $250,000 in 2018.

All 235 members of the House Democratic caucus have co-sponsored H.R. 1. Even members who receive a significant amount of campaign contributions from business PAC sources, like Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) who got more than $1 million in the recent cycle, have signed on.

While there is essentially universal Democratic support in the House, the measures have been staunchly opposed by Republicans and other interest groups. Opponents include the National Association of Business Political Action Committees (NABPAC), an organization that represents and lobbies for business PACs, the Conservative Action Project and FreedomWorks.

In January, NABPAC hosted a luncheon which looked to address H.R. 1. The event description notes that “many of the provisions, if enacted, could severely restrict the role of the business community and their PACs” and calls it “potentially onerous.”

FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian-leaning organization, has recently become a major lobbying player. In 2018, it spent the most it ever had on influence with almost $1.9 million.

Peter Vicenzi, press secretary for FreedomWorks, said in a statement to The Center for Responsive Politics, “The main issues we have with HR 1 are that it would have a chilling effect on political speech, take power from individual states in how they conduct elections and fund political campaigns with taxpayer dollars.”

While the package of bills will likely pass the House on a party-line vote, there is essentially no chance of it passing the Senate or even being brought up for a vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.) wrote an op-ed in which he called the legislation the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.”

"The ‘Legislative Wall’: Dick Armey’s Top Five Tea Party Republican Candidates"

As most independent groups focus on the presidential nomination contest, FreedomWorks for America is focused on electing far-right Republicans to the U.S. Senate. The independent-expenditure-only super PAC is part of the FreedomWorks astroturf network of former U.S. House Republican Leader Dick Armey (R-TX).

Yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union, Armey said his groups aim to elect tea party-minded conservatives to Congress to force the White House on a far-right path. “We’ll build a legislative wall… We’ll either be walling a Republican president in, or walling a Democratic president out.”

Here are the bricks they aim to put in their wall:

– A not-yet-determined Republican primary challenger to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) ($237,065 in independent expenditures to date). Hatch has veered sharply to the right since the 2010 defeat of Sen. Bob Bennett (R) by conservative activists and earned a 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union for 2010. But FreedomWorks wants Hatch out of the senate too, given his past support for crazy things like the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development.

–Former Texas Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz (R), a candidate for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R)’s open senate seat ($71,647 in independent expenditures to date). Cruz has offered an unconstitutional proposal for a backdoor method of state nullification of federal laws and the Affordable Care Act and co-authored a white paper advocating a radical reading of the Constitution that would lead to Medicaid and most federal education programs being declared unconstitutional.

– Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), who is challenging Sen. Dick Lugar (R) in a primary ($47,180 in pro-Mourdock independent expenditures to date and another $12,378 against Lugar). Critics say Mourdock wasted $2 million in state funds in his unsuccessful legal challenges to the 2009 Chrysler reorganization and federal bailout. And in a September 12, 2009 speech to the FreedomWorks “Taxpayer March on Washington,” Mourdock warned that “through obvious, brutal, criminal acts of tyranny or through subtle, creeping

incremental-ism, governments corrupt the ideal of individual freedom into statism, economic slavery, and governmental dependency, and dependency is the opposite of liberty.”

– Nebraska State Treasurer Don Stenberg (R), a former state attorney general and candidate for Sen. Ben Nelson (D)’s open senate seat ($33,230 in independent expenditures to date). He has endorsed an extreme proposal to cripple our system of federal regulation by requiring that Congress approve every single major rule or regulation before it takes effect. In its endorsement, FreedomWorks for America said “Nebraskans described Stenberg to us as ‘tea party-minded before we had tea parties.’”

– Former Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, a former senatorial candidate who recently dropped out of the race to defeat Sen. Bill Nelson (D) ($12,378 in independent expenditures to date). The outspoken conservative is now a candidate for U.S. House. He supports a national anti-union “right to work” law and a freeze on any new regulation that might have a “substantial economic impact on job creators.”

If Armey and his allies succeed in electing these and other far-right conservatives to Congress, the legislative wall would continue to block progress.

interpersonal or cya or both?:

Washington, DC- On Thursday July 11th, the John Cornyn for Senate campaign issued a statement announcing the addition of a former FreedomWorks employee, Brendan Steinhauser, claiming he “led the group's effort to elect Ted Cruz to the Senate in 2012." The Cornyn campaign further claims that "Steinhauser also led grassroots campaigns to help elect Senators Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Pat Toomey.”

FreedomWorks issued the following statement to correct the record:

FreedomWorks is obligated to clarify the false and potentially misleading statements made about Brendan Steinhauser by the John Cornyn for Senate campaign. Steinhauser did not lead our efforts to elect Ted Cruz. As a FreedomWorks employee, Steinhauser was not in charge of our political efforts in 2010 or 2012. FreedomWorks is a 501 (c3) and a 501 (c4), engaging in education and issue advocacy. All political “Get out the Vote” activity is conducted exclusively through our Super PAC, FreedomWorks for America. All financial and strategic decisions and executive management of FWFA’s political initiatives were made exclusively by FWFA National Political Director, Russ Walker, and FWFA Chief Operating Officer, Ryan Hecker.

As a 501 (c3) and (c4) employee, Brendan Steinhauser was not involved in the decision to endorse Ted Cruz early in the Texas Republican primary. Like all candidate endorsements, thedecision to endorse Ted Cruz was made by senior management before June 1, 2011, after extensive feedback from our membership in Texas. Any field work conducted by Steinhauser for FWFA was directed by Walker and Hecker....

By Michael Beckel

October 24, 2013

This story was originally published by The Center for Public Integrity, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.

Tea party-aligned nonprofit FreedomWorks Inc. boasted its largest fundraising year on record in 2012, primarily fueled by a handful of million-dollar gifts, according to previously unpublished documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The self-described "grassroots service center," which is based in Washington, D.C., reported raising $15 million last year -- a 50 percent increase above the $10 million it raised in 2011, according to a new annual tax report filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

That's a larger sum than any year on the books, according to a Center for Public Integrityreview of IRS records going back to 2006.

The new IRS filing shows that nearly 60 percent of the money FreedomWorks raised came from four publicly unnamed donors that each gave at least $1 million.

The group's top donor -- who contributed nearly $4.9 million -- alone accounted for about one-third of FreedomWorks' overall receipts.

In all, 106 unnamed donors are listed in the new tax filing as contributing at least $5,000 last year to the nonprofit that describes its mission as fighting for "lower taxes, less government and more freedom."

The IRS documents detail millions of dollars spent in 2012 on "public education," "events," tracking "legislation on Capitol Hill" and alerting "members when issues of interest become relevant."

Among FreedomWorks' many recent initiatives was its enthusiastic endorsement of the 21-hour talk-a-thon last month by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as he railed on the Senate floor against Obamacare.

Earlier this month, the group urged members of Congress to reject the bipartisan legislation developed that re-opened the federal government last week and raised the debt ceiling until February. It said the bill "allows for more uncontrolled spending and debt, with no reforms to either, [and] does nothing to address Obamacare."

The IRS documents also show that FreedomWorks made just one grant to another nonprofit organization last year: $30,000 to Indiana Right to Life, an affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, which is seeking to "make Indiana inhospitable to abortion on demand."

The revelations about FreedomWorks' 2012 fundraising come at a time when it is weathering its share of internal -- and financial -- troubles.

After the November 2012 election, Dick Armey, the former Republican House majority leader who has long served as FreedomWorks' chairman, tendered his resignation.

Prior to the election, Richard J. Stephenson, who serves on FreedomWorks' board of directors, arranged an $8 million buyout for Armey, which would be paid in annual $400,000 installments as consulting fees, according to the *Associated Press*.

Armey told *Mother Jones* that other FreedomWorks executives were insisting on a "direction" that he believed was "unproductive."

The new IRS annual report includes a confirmation that Armey and Stephenson entered into a "business relationship" last year.

It also shows that Armey received compensation totaling $489,000 from FreedomWorks and its related organizations.

That was slightly more than the$470,000 in compensation received in 2012 by Matt Kibbe, FreedomWorks' president and chief executive officer.

FreedomWorks, which is organized as a "social welfare" nonprofit under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code, also operates a 501(c)(3) foundation arm and multiple political committees.

Federal law requires all political committees, including super PACs, to reveal their funders. There is no such requirement for 501(c)(4) nonprofits to identify their funders.

According to a report from *BuzzFeed* earlier this month, FreedomWorks' fundraising has plummeted since Armey's departure, and it has even taken out a $1 million line of credit.

FreedomWorks spokeswoman Jackie Bodnar maintained the group was "on track" and "exactly where we anticipated being for the year," but she declined to provide BuzzFeedwith fundraising figures.

Bodnar did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Center for Public Integrity.

(Update, Oct. 24, 2:20 p.m.:In an email statement, Bodnar attributed the group's fundraising success to "our donor base of tens of thousands of individuals across the United States." She added: "We have an organizational policy not to discuss donors, big or small, out of respect for their privacy.")

FreedomWorks ended 2012 with net assets totaling about $5.4 million, according to the IRS filing.

In 2011, the conservative nonprofit added a super PAC to its stable of advocacy organizations. Its goal: to advocate on behalf of its preferred candidates -- and tear into political opponents.

The super PAC -- known as FreedomWorks for America -- came in addition to the group's traditional PAC, which, unlike super PACs, can only accept limited contributions.

The super PAC ultimately raised about $23 million during the 2012 election cycle, with about $2.6 coming from the 501(c)(4) nonprofit arm of FreedomWorks itself, including in-kind contributions such as paying staff salaries and administrative costs.

That ranked FreedomWorks Inc. as its affiliated super PAC's No. 2 donor, behind only a mysterious Tennessee-based limited liability company that was reportedly a conduit for Stephenson, the FreedomWorks board member.

FEC records show the FreedomWorks for America super PAC spent roughly $20 million on advertisements that endorsed or opposed federal candidates. By and large, it worked to defeat Democrats and boost Republicans, although it did push for conservative candidates in multiple, high-stakes intra-party GOP contests.

For instance, FreedomWorks for America spent almost $500,000 to aid Cruzduring hiscontentious GOP primary fight with David Dewhurst, Texas' lieutenant governor and the favorite of many of the Republican Party's establishment.

The super PAC also went after incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, unsuccessfully, to the tune of roughly $1 million during his 2012 Republican primary.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-center-for-public-integrity/tea-party-aligned-freedom_b_4158172.html

Former FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey says the conservative outlet that helped launch the Tea Party paid Glenn Beck at least $1 million last year to fundraise for the organization, an arrangement he said provided "too little value" for the money.

"The arrangement was simply FreedomWorks paid Glenn Beck money and Glenn Beck said nice things about FreedomWorks on the air," Armey, the former House majority leader, told Media Matters Friday. "I saw that a million dollars went to Beck this past year, that was the annual expenditure."

Armey, who left the organization this past fall after a dispute over its internal operations, said a similar arrangement was also in place with Rush Limbaugh, but did not know the exact financial details.

"I put it down now as basically as paid advertising for FreedomWorks by Beck," Armey said, calling it a mistake.

Media Matters contacted Armey after Mother Jones magazine published a leaked copy of the document FreedomWorks prepared for its Winter 2012 board of directors meeting. That document alluded to "embedded media programs" for fundraising that featured the two conservative radio hosts and claimed that fundraising efforts featuring them raised nearly $1.3 million in 2012, not including event ticket sales from third-party vendors.

From the leaked FreedomWorks document:

And just who are Freedomworks funders? David Koch anyone? Almost $6 MILLION dollars. And the Claude R. Lambe Foundation (controlled by the Koch family) has contributed almost another $6 million. Another big player is the Sarah Scaife Foundation, “financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune. At one time its largest single holding was stock in the Gulf Oil Corporation.” I smell oil – black gold – carbon emissions, gulf oil spills – you know, groups Gov. Schwarzenegger just called out:

“Does anybody really believe that these companies, out of the goodness of their black oil hearts, are spending millions and millions of dollars to protect jobs? This is like Eva Braun writing a kosher cookbook. It’s not about jobs at all, ladies and gentlemen. It is about their ability to pollute and thus protect their profits.”

Scaminaci provides more information regarding the Koch brothers from a report submitted by David Weigel who attended a summit where David Koch spoke:

Koch Industries—Planning and Executing The Outside Game

“On October 3 [2009], David Koch, the co-owner of Koch Industries, told about 2,000 of Americans for Prosperity’s libertarian activists at a Defending the American Dream Summit, that he had started planning the Tea Party movement five years ago[emphasis added] —essentially when Citizens for a Sound Economy split into Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. Koch told the activists, “‘We envisioned a mass movement, a state-based one, but national in scope, of hundreds of thousands of American citizens, from all walks of life standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that made our nation the most prosperous society in history.’” According to David Weigel who reported on the event, “Koch took credit for launching one of the key organizations of the conservative insurrection.” The purpose of the Summit, which drew three times as many activists as the Tea Party national convention would in February 2010, was to get “newly discovered conservative activists” to elect fiscally conservative Republicans in 2010.

The first indication that Americans for Prosperity may have been planning what would become the Tea Party movement came in a July 2008 article in the New York Times. Kate Philips reported that Americans for Prosperity was sponsoring training seminars with the Sam Adams Alliance “to encourage right-leaning activists and bloggers to get online and focus on local and state issues.” One of the Sam Adams Alliance (SAA) trainers indicated that SAA “was working on projects that it wasn’t ready to talk about yet.”[4] Whatever those projects were or were not, SAA was building the virtual network, the future backbone of the eventual Tea Party movement.”

>

Koch Industries—Executing The Inside Game

>

“On the day in October 2009, David Koch announced he had planned the Tea Party movement Koch gave Senator Jim DeMint the [Americans for Prosperity Foundation] Washington Award.”

I had already determined Sen. Jim DeMint’s obvious role – he has repeatedly endorsed “tea party” candidates* throughout the country and a little research at www.opensecrets.org produced the information he has received $62K in donations from Koch Industries. (In addition to some nice contributions by Club for Growth and AT&T – net neutrality anyone? And, of course, DeMint’s protégés would be more than happy to vote him in as the next Leader of the Senate – either as majority or as minority). I doubt his vanity is behind this, however. His principles, maybe -

Senator Jim DeMint:“Well, I think people are seeing this massive government growing and they’re realizing that it’s the government that’s hurting us and I think they’re turning back to God in effect is our salvation and government is not our salvation and in fact more and more people see government as the problem and so I think some have been drawn in over the years to a dependency relationship with government and as the Bible says you can’t have two masters and I think as people pull back from that they look more to God. It’s no coincidence that socialist Europe is post-Christian because the bigger the government gets the smaller God gets and vice-versa. The bigger God gets the smaller people want their government because they’re yearning for freedom.”

As he ranks as one of the poorest Senators, money does not appear to be his issue. His “C Street” association with “The Family” and the above statement indicates he’s much more dangerous – an ideologue.

thomas frank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Frank

Frank comes from a liberal political perspective and is highly critical of Republican governance, especially the presidency of George W. Bush. Frank summarized his book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, as "Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad." ^[1] 2008

^WC ^int:

^...Thomas ^Frank: ^One ^of ^the ^many ^problems ^with ^the ^media ^is ^they've ^given ^in ^to ^a ^logical ^fallacy ^--^ ^false ^mirroring, ^the ^idea ^that ^what ^one ^party ^does, ^the ^other ^party ^also ^automatically ^does ^to ^exactly ^the ^same ^extent. ^It's ^factually ^not ^true. ^And ^that's ^not ^to ^let ^Democrats ^off ^the ^hook ^for ^anything, ^but ^the ^two ^parties ^are ^very ^different ^animals.

^...^

Here's what I mean: You've got people [in the Republican party] whose philosophy is one of cynicism towards government and one of complete disrespect towards particular branches of government. ... They've run these branches of government completely in reverse, put people in charge of them who don't believe in the mission, and done everything else to make government accountable not to the voters, but to the business community.

This has resulted in disaster in numerous cases. Now, when you look upon the disaster, do you say this is because government doesn't work? Or do you say, this is because a philosophy of government doesn't work? The obvious conclusion to anybody watching this stuff unfold is to say government just can't do anything right -- look how badly it's botched this job.

But the correct answer is that government obviously does work in certain circumstances, in other countries, and it's even worked here when it wants to. What they're doing right now at the Fed and the Department of Treasury is they're playing the game exactly right -- they're intervening decisively, quickly -- they're doing it exactly right. When the chips are down and when it's something conservatives care about, they can make government work.

But the natural conclusion is just to blow it all off with cynicism. It's so easy to be cynical. We confuse cynicism with sophistication. The correct answer is that it's a philosophy of government that's failed, but you can't say that in the media.

One of the themes [of the book] is that there's an economy of cynicism. [Conservatives] come to government with an extraordinarily cynical attitude towards government and they govern in such a way so as to increase public cynicism towards government -- which just gives them, ironically, a new lease on life.

...

Frank: Conservatism is an industry which generates profits on its own. One of the guys I quote in the book describes himself as part of the conservative movement industry. He's right. So how do you take it on? A big part of their industry is playing you guys. ... There are whole groups in Washington aimed at destroying liberal movements, and there's a whole branch of it aimed at you guys -- just at playing your industry, and CNN in particular. And in my opinion, they've done that with great effectiveness.

in book he interv GN: problem is to bet more $ into gov't so it behaves rationally?! lobby roi 160K%

JA and JA reorg CRep from resume pad social club to grassroots; took over from YAF shock troop BG JA set up fake beastiality clubs to discredit gays, also d'souza

Frank is the founder and editor of The Baffler and the author of several books. Other writings include essays for Harper's Magazine, Le Monde diplomatique, Bookforum, and the Financial Times. His book What's the Matter with Kansas?, published in 2004, earned him nationwide and international recognition.

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/06/144783945/pity-the-billionaire-the-rights-unlikely-comeback

1/25/12 10 am pity billionare FW reads aULINSKY (and 30's uk socialist ) for strategy but also bogeyman

author after Am Earthquake edmund white? soc doc GD

1st TP in DC CTT and "wrecking crew" malkin see his wsj op ed?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks

promoted tea party, health care town hall (maddow)

forbes $?

The board of the FreedomWorks Foundation, the group's policy and education arm, includes Steve Forbes, the publisher of Forbes, which recently named ExxonMobil "Green Company of the Year."

By Josh Harkinson dirty doz

No. 9: FreedomWorksMeet the 12 loudest members of the chorus claiming that global warming is a joke and that CO2 emissions are actually good for you.

"If you are going to go ugly, go ugly early." So says former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey on the website of FreedomWorks, his latest corporate-funded front group. This summer, FreedomWorks packed health care town hall meetings with self-proclaimed grassroots activists who spouted talking points about "death panels" and pulling the plug on grandma. George W. Bush is a fan. "Folks, you've got to get to know this organization," he says on the FreedomWorks website. "They have been doing a great job all over the country educating people."

The group does an especially great job of astroturfing. It has helped plan putatively spontaneous events, supplied protesters with prewritten signs and "sample press releases," and provided guides for delivering a "clear message" to the media. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed FreedomWorks [link] for building "amateur looking" websites to promote Armey's lobbying interests.

Armey has suggested that FreedomWorks next target will be climate change. (He did not respond to a request for comment for this story.) In August it promoted the Energy Citizens rally in Houston. And it has published a steady stream of attacks on proponents of cap-and-trade policies, who, according to the FreedomWorks blog, are just "anti-capitalists and big-government supporters and rent-seekers trying to gain wealth and power through pseudo-science."

FreedomWorks traces its roots the now-defunct, Exxon-funded Citizens for a Sound Economy, along with another group, Americans for Prosperity. AFP lacks Armey's star power but not his sharp-elbowed tactics. It has run ads describing climate-bill backers as "wealthy eco-hypocrites," offered free balloon rides on a climate change "hot air" tour, and fed Glenn Beck's attacks on former green jobs czar Van Jones. Both groups are funded in part by foundations tied to Koch Industries, a holding company with extensive oil interests. The board of the FreedomWorks Foundation, the group's policy and education arm, includes Steve Forbes, the publisher of Forbes, which recently named ExxonMobil "Green Company of the Year."

FreedomWorks is a U.S.-based conservative advocacy group "for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom."^{[1]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-0) On its website, FreedomWorks states that it:

"...drives policy change by training and mobilizing grassroots Americans to engage their fellow citizens and encourage their political representatives to act in defense of individual freedom and economic opportunity"^{[2]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-1)

and in particular, to:

"Fight The Left ...[and to create] a grassroots juggernaut capable of going toe-to-toe with the unions, extreme enviros, and the MoveOn.org's of the world."^{[3]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-Action-2)

FreedomWorks was described in a January 27, 2010 article posted on Alternet as "the Wall Street front group that helped launch the Tea Party Movement.^{[4]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-3)

Contents

Founding

Created from merger of CSE and Empower America in 2004

In July 2004, FreedomWorks was created from the merger of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) and Empower America.^{[5]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-merge-4) (Although the FreedomWorks' website stated until late 2007 that it was founded in 1984^{[6]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-5), it was CSE that was founded at that time.)

[

FreedomWorks has a long history of using such campaigns. Founded in 2004 by Dick Armey, the former Republican House Majority Leader and lobbyist from Texas, and publishing titan Steve Forbes, FreedomWorks represented the consolidation and rebranding of two older think tanks, Citizens for a Sound Economy,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy

founded by the notorious Koch family, and Empower America, a powerful lobbying firm that has battled health care reform and minimum-wage bills while championing deregulation, corporate tax cuts and whatever else their corporate clients desire.

The idea was to bring these two dinosaurs into the Internet age so they could compete with the newly created MoveOn.org.

Initial press release

In late July 2004, the initial FreedomWorks media release stated that "three of the most respected and accomplished leaders of the conservative, free-market movement" -- former Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Dick Armey, former White House Counsel and conservative luminary, C. Boyden Gray, and Jack Kemp -- "will serve as the Co-Chairmen of FreedomWorks. Bill Bennett will focus on school choice as a Senior Fellow. Matt Kibbe is FreedomWorks’ new President and CEO."^{[5]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-merge-4)

In this initial statement, FreedomWorks outlined that its initial plan was to "run major voter education campaigns and Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) efforts in key races" in the 2004 Congressional elections. Kibbe stated that the role of FreedomWorks was to be a "powerful answer to the challenge presented by the Left and groups like America Coming Together (ACT), MoveOn.org, and the Media Fund."^{[5]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-merge-4)

The statement said that FreedomWorks:

"...boasts over 360,000 members and a legal structure that includes a 501(c)(3), a 501(c)(4), a 527, a federal PAC, and various state PACs. FreedomWorks is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with full-time campaign staff on the ground in the battleground states of Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. The new organization also houses a sophisticated conservative political database containing over 600,000 activist names in all 50 states."^{[5]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-merge-4)

Positions taken

In 2009, FreedomWorks was a prominent opponent of proposals by U.S. President Barack Obama to reform the U.S. healthcare system, of the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill to address global warming, and of state proposals to raise taxes.^{[3]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-Action-2)

Tobacco

According to the U.K. Guardian, FreedomWorks has received funding from the tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris. The Guardian also reports that local branches of FreedomWorks' sister organization, Americans for Prosperity have also received tobacco money and opposes smoke-free workplace laws and cigarette taxes.^{[7]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-6)Freedomworks also opposes tobacco taxes.^{[8]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-7)

Activities

FreedomWorks has mobilized opposition to health care reform, taxes, and climate legislation.

Astroturfing

2010

In January 2010, FreedomWorks was offering a "Citizen Lobby Training" for a Tea Party Patriot group^{[9]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-8) whose cofounder^{[10]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-9) was featured in a January 15 New York Times article on the movement's push to take control of the Republican party^{[11]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-10)

2009 - taxes, health care reform, climate

FreedomWorks was one of the lobbying groups involved in orchestrating the April 15, 2009 anti-Obama, anti-tax "tea parties". In February 2009, the FreedomWorks website said the group was "now working with other groups to plan a massive, nationwide tea party protest day for Tax Day on April 15th, 2009"^{[12]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-11), the Tax Day Tea Party protests.

Summer 2009: In summer of 2009, FreedomWorks began pursuing an aggressive strategy to create the image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform at Congressmembers' town-hall meetings in their districts. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website "Tea Party Patriots," describes how members should infiltrate town hall meetings and harass and intimidate Democratic members of Congress:

"Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up ... You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early. If he blames Bush for something or offers other excuses -- call him on it, yell back and have someone else follow-up with a shout-out ... The goal is to rattle him ..." ^{[13]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-12)

August 2009: In August 2009, FreedomWorks supported the American Petroleum Institute's "Energy Citizens" rallies to oppose the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill, held in about 20 states. Other backers included the National Association of Manufacturers, American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform and Council for Citizens Against Government Waste. ^{[14]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-13)

2008 - mortgage bailout

In 2008, FreedomWorks was behind the creation of a fake grassroots web site called Angryrenter.com which rallied opposition to "the Obama Housing Bailout"; the site claimed to represent "Renters and responsible homeowners against a government mortgage bailout", and urged people to oppose bailing out mortgage companies. Michael M. Phillips of the Wall Street Journal investigated AngryRenter.com and reported^{[15]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-14):

"AngryRenter.com looks a bit like a digital ransom note, with irregular fonts, exclamation points and big red arrows -- all emphasizing prudent renters' outrage over a proposed government bailout for irresponsible homeowners. "It seems like America's renters may NEVER be able to afford a home," AngryRenter.com laments. The Web site urges like-minded tenants to let Congress feel their fury by signing an online petition. "We are millions of renters standing up for our rights!" Angry they may be, but the people behind AngryRenter.com are certainly not renters. Though it purports to be a spontaneous uprising, AngryRenter.com is actually a product of an inside-the-Beltway conservative advocacy organization led by Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, and publishing magnate Steve Forbes, a fellow Republican. It's a fake grass-roots effort -- what politicos call an AstroTurf campaign -- that provides a window into the sleight-of-hand ways of Washington."

2005 asbestos hidden conflict of interest

In early 2005, "Radio listeners in 15 states in recent weeks ... heard a broadcast appeal from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) asking them to help scuttle a bill designed to contain asbestos litigation," reported Roll Call. "But at no time in the ad - made in his capacity as co-chairman of FreedomWorks, a conservative grass-roots network - does Armey disclose that he is also working as a lobbyist for Equitas, a British insurer that has lobbied to thwart the asbestos trust fund legislation." Armey was a registered lobbyist for Equitas, as part of his work at the DLA Piper firm. Equitas "directed $920,000 of the $1.7 million it spent on outside lobbying help last year [in 2004] to DLA Piper." ^{[23]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks#cite_note-22)

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cse funders http://www.nndb.com/org/906/000051753/

Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) was a powerful industry-funded think tank, promoting deregulation. It was founded by Koch Industries interests and continues to maintain strong links. In 2003, an internal rift between CSE and its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation led to a split in which CSEF was renamed as a separate organization, called Americans For Prosperity.

In July 2004, CSE announced it was merging with Empower America to create FreedomWorks.^{[1]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy#cite_note-0)

Main article: FreedomWorks

CSE was often described as a "consumer group," but according to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of its 1998 funding came from major corporations. "The 'citizens' in question [are] companies like Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric and General Motors", wrote Alexander Cockburn and Ken Silverstein in the book Washington Babylon.^{[2]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy#cite_note-1). "During recent years, the CSE, headed by C. Boyden Gray, who acted as counsel to the president under George W. Bush, has opposed health care reform and a rise in the minimum wage, while championing corporate tax cuts, deregulation and a balanced budget."

In 1995, CSE's budget hit $10 million and its "research" - funded entirely by corporations, conservative foundations, and wealthy businessmen -- is tailored to ensure results favorable to its patrons. Hence, a recent CSE study found that the American people were furious with the Food and Drug Administration. The CSE discovered this by asking respondents if they agreed with rigged statements such as, "The additional years it takes for the FDA to approve products costs lives by forcing people, including those with incurable diseases, to go without potentially beneficial drugs." Sixty-eight per cent agreed.^[citation ^needed]

Armed with this information, Gray went before a House subcommittee in early 1995 and demanded "reform" of the FDA. Gray told members of Congress that as a result of FDA dawdling, tens of thousands of Americans die annually. One particularly absurd case was that of the miracle drug nitrazepam. Deprived by FDA bureaucrats of the right to take this drug, some 4,000 people had perished. Or so Gray claimed.^[citation ^needed]

Questioned by committee members, CSE's head conceded that he wasn't sure what nitrazepam was used for. Rep. Richard Durbin informed him: insomnia.^[citation ^needed]

CSE has been criticised by the Nader-founded group, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), as lacking independence. In 2000 GAP spokesperson Gary Ruskin told the Washington Post, "It's part of a rent-a-mouthpiece phenomenon. ... There are mercenary groups that function as surrogates when industry feels it's not advantageous for it to speak directly."^{[3]^}(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy#cite_note-2)

^---related ^{to http://www.claremont.org/projects/projectid.39/project_detail.asp}

^docs ^for ^guns, ^contra ^new ^engl ^jrnl ^!^

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^Armstrong ^funded

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^map

http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=24139

Empower America

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Empower America was a right-wing think tank established in 1993. In July 2004 it merged with Citizens for a Sound Economy to form a new group called FreedomWorks. [1]

Contents

[hide]

* 1 Mission statement

* 2 Board of Directors

o 2.1 Others

* 3 Connection with the Claremont Institute

* 4 Contact

* 5 Related SourceWatch Resources

* 6 External links

Mission statement

According to its web site, Empower America was "devoted to ensuring that government actions foster growth, economic well-being, freedom and individual responsibility. The ideas that have fueled America's stunning economic expansion - opportunity, competition, ownership and freedom - must be the framework for reform of century-old public systems such as K-12 education, the tax code and social security. Uniquely positioned in Washington, Empower America bridges the gap between the array of think tanks that produce white papers on the public-policy debate and the actual enactment of policy. In implementing our free-market, entrepreneurial principles into law, we are convinced, through actual experience, that we are the most effective 'delivery' system in existence.

"In pursuit of our mission, Empower America practices strategic intervention to achieve our goals. Our response to issues, whether reaching out through the media, communicating directly with legislators and political leaders, sponsoring solution-finding or consensus-building forums, or mobilizing public opinion at the grassroots level, is always results-oriented.

"Empower America has demonstrated that it has considerable influence on our core issues - education reform, technology policy, tax reform, social security reform and national defense. Our victories are attributable, in large part, to our ability to focus on the right issue, at the right time, with maximum impact and maximum exposure."

Board of Directors

* William J. Bennett, Co-Director

* Jack F. Kemp, Co-Director

* Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Co-Director

* Vin Weber, Co-Director

* William Sebastian Cohen, Co-Director

* E. Floyd Kvamme, Chairman of the Board

* James R. Taylor, President

* Joseph G. Fogg III, Chairman of the Advisory Board

* Theodore J. Forstmann, Founding Chairman

* Tim Blexseth, President, Blixseth Companies, Rancho Mirage, CA

* Jamie B. Coulter, Chairman/CEO, Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, Inc., Dallas, TX

* Ronald E. Eibensteiner, President, Wyncrest Capital, Minneapolis, MN

* Raul Fernandez, Chairman Emeritus, Dimension Data, Reston, VA

* Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, Washington, DC

* David W. Hanna, Chairman, Hanna Capital Management, Newport Beach, CA

* Lisa Graham Keegan, CEO, Education Leaders Council, Washington, DC

* Michael Novak, George Fredrick Jewett Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

* Joseph Schmuckler, COO, Nomura Holding America, Inc., New York, NY

* Judy Shelton, Economist, Professor, Author, Marshall, VA

* Jack Thompson, Co-founder (retired), J.E. Edwards, Larkspur, CO

* Thomas W. Weisel, CEO, Thomas Weisel Partners, San Francisco, CA

Others

* Tex Lezar was chairman of Empower America in 1996-97.

* Shawn Small — Director of Policy[2]

EMPOWER.org was formally established on November 19, 1999, as the education and research arm of Empower America. EMPOWER.org was sponsored by an independent Board of Directors, and described itself as a non-partisan, non-profit organization.

William J. Bennett and Jack F. Kemp were Co-Directors of EMPOWER.org. David W. Hanna was Chairman of the Board; James R. Taylor was President and CEO; Noreen E. Burns was Secretary; and Joan Y. Nicolaysen was Treasurer.

Connection with the Claremont Institute

Empower America appears to have been operationally connected to the Claremont Institute. Although it is based in California, and Empower America was based in Washington, a November 4th 2003 press release from the Claremont Institute directs press inquiries to Seth Leibsohn at Empower America's Washington telephone number [3].

Contact

Empower America/EMPOWER.org

1775 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 11th Floor

Washington, DC 20006-5805

Phone: 202 452-8200

FAX: 202 833-0388

Web site: www.empoweramerica.org or www.empower.org

Related SourceWatch Resources

* David Kuo

* FreedomWorks

* Citizens for a Sound Economy

* Claremont Institute

External links

* "Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) and Empower America Merge to Form FreedomWorks", Media Release, July 22, 2004.

* "Profile: Empower America," Interhemispheric Resource Center

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Empower_America"

Categories: Think tanks | United States

FreedomWorks is a conservative advocacy organization that has been a key backer of the Tea Party movement.[1] FreedomWorks was created in 2004 as part of a merger between Citizens for a Sound Economy, a rightist pro-free market organization, and Empower America, which was founded in 1993 by William Bennett, secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan and a rightist pundit on issues from defense policy to family values. As of late 2010, FreedomWorks was led by board chairman Dick Armey, the former right-wing Republican from Texas who along with Newt Gingrich helped draft the 1994 “Contract with America,” and president Matt Kibbe, a long-standing Republican Party operative.[2]

A purported champion of small government conservatism, FreedomWorks claims to drive “policy change by training and mobilizing grassroots Americans to engage their fellow citizens and encourage their political representatives to act in defense of individual freedom and economic opportunity.”[3]

Despite its grassroots claims, observers have argued that FreedomWorks is an establishment organization that has endeavored to co-opt grassroots movements. Shortly after the Tea Party began to emerge as a force in national politics, FreedomWorks was one of several establishment groups that stepped in to claim the leadership of the movement.

Wrote Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone, “Suddenly, tens of thousands of Republicans who had been conspicuously silent during George Bush's gargantuan spending on behalf of defense contractors and hedge-fund gazillionaires showed up at Tea Party rallies across the nation, declaring themselves fed up with wasteful government spending. From the outset, the events were organized and financed by the conservative wing of the Republican Party, which was quietly working to co-opt the new movement and deploy it to the GOP's advantage. Taking the lead was former House majority leader Dick Armey, who as chair of a group called FreedomWorks helped coordinate Tea Party rallies across the country.”[4]

FreedomWorks financial backers have included several conservative foundations—including the Bradley, Scaife, Castle Rock, Earhart, and Olin foundations[5] —as well as the Koch brothers (David and Charles), who along with Rupert Murdoch have provided much of the financial backing for anti-Obama administration activism.[6]

Commenting on the Koch brothers, the New York Times’ Frank Rich wrote, “There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the ‘death panel’ warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. … Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News. The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might.”[7]

After FreedomWorks was created in the run up to the 2004 presidential election, Bill Berkowitz wrote in MediaTransparency: "Stealing a page from MoveOn.org 's successful organizing playbook, the leaders of FreedomWorks … hope to conduct massive get out the vote and political education campaigns in the swing states on behalf of President George W. Bush. The two groups decided to merge because there was 'an overlap in issues between the two organizations,' Shawn Small, the director of policy at Empower America, told me in a telephone interview. It was an opportunity to bring together Empower America, which Small characterized as a 'grasstops' organization driven by such inside the beltway 'superstars' as William Bennett, Vin Weber, and Jean Kirkpatrick, and CSE's 'grassroots' following.”[8]

Despite the claims of overlap, FreedomWorks has largely abandoned the get-tough foreign policy advocacy that characterized much of Empower America's work, especially in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Among Empower's more notable efforts during the early years of the "war on terror" was the creation of the Bill Bennett-led Americans for Victory over Terrorism (AVOT), an advocacy outfit closely aligned with pro-war neoconservative groups that helped push public opinion to support the invasion of Iraq. AVOT eventually merged with the conservative Claremont Institute.

On foreign policy, FreedomWorks has little to say aside from advocating free trade agreements and pushing through immigration reform, including border security. As of late 2010, FreedomWorks’ “Key Issues” web page failed to mention any foreign policy concerns. On “border security,” the group wrote on its website, "Large-scale illegal border crossings—the vast majority for economic reasons—are compromising the security of America's borders. … By providing American employers and temporary guest workers a legal way to operate, we can eliminate the source of much of the current lawlessness at the border. Reducing the overall flow of illegal traffic at the border will allow law enforcement to focus on stopping criminal gangs and capturing terrorists."[9]

Describing FreedomWorks pre-Tea Party work, Rolling Stones’ Taibbi writes, “Prior to the Tea Party phenomenon, FreedomWorks was basically just an AstroTurfing-lobbying outfit whose earlier work included taking money from Verizon to oppose telecommunications regulation. Now the organization's sights were set much higher: In the wake of a monstrous economic crash caused by grotesque abuses in unregulated areas of the financial-services industry, FreedomWorks—which took money from companies like mortgage lender MetLife—had the opportunity to persuade millions of ordinary Americans to take up arms against, among other things, Wall Street reform.”[10]

A 2007 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists listed FreedomWorks as an organization that received much money from “Big Oil” and also promoted an agenda that did not recognize global warming: "CSE received $275,250 from ExxonMobil in 2001, an increase from $30,000 the year before. CSE merged with Empower America and became FreedomWorks in 2004. FreedomWorks maintains that the science of climate change is 'far from settled' and cites scientists such as Sallie Baliunas" (Baliunas is an astrophysicist who has criticized theories of global warming).[11]

FreedomWorks earned hundreds of thousands of dollars through a plan, designed by Citizens for a Sound Economy in 2000, in which people buying tax-free medical savings accounts sold by Medical Savings Insurance Co. were asked to become members of the advocacy group. The plan, which was the subject of a class-action lawsuit begun in 2005, was challenged on the basis that insurance holders were not made clearly aware that they were becoming members of the CSE when signing on. According to the lawsuit's motion for class-action status, "The certificates of insurance issued to class members, despite the clear language contained herein, did not disclose the identity of the Group Policyholder [CSE, and later FreedomWorks] of the group policy, despite the fact that each putative insured must 'join' and pay money to such group as a condition of obtaining insurance.”[12]

Contact Information

FreedomWorks

601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20004

Phone: 202-783-3870

Fax: 202-942-7649

Website: http://www.freedomworks.org

Founded

2004

Mission (as of 2010)

“FreedomWorks fights for lower taxes, less government and more economic freedom for all Americans. FreedomWorks combines the stature and experience of America’s greatest policy entrepreneurs with the grassroots power of hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists all over the Nation.

FreedomWorks, led by former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has an unrivalled ability to reach opinion leaders and elected officials with innovative policy ideas and effective strategies for change. FreedomWorks drives policy change by training and mobilizing grassroots Americans to engage their fellow citizens and encourage their political representatives to act in defense of individual freedom and economic opportunity.”

Principals (as of 2010)

o Dick Armey, board chairman

o C. Boyden Gray, board member

o James Burnley, board member

o Matt Kibbe, president

o Thomas Knudsen, board member

o Richard Stephenson, board member

The Right Web Mission

Right Web tracks militarists’ efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy.

Sources

[1]FreedomWorks, http://www.freedomworks.org/.

[2]FreedomWorks, "Board of Directors," http://www.freedomworks.org/about/board-of-directors.

[3]FreedomWorks, "Mission," http://www.freedomworks.org/about/our-mission.

[4]Matt Taibbi, "Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party,” Rolling Stone, September 28, 2010, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904?RS_show_page=0.

[5]For more on FreedomWorks funding, see Media Matters, "FreedomWorks," http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/organization/FreedomWorks/overview.

[6]Frank Rich, “The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party,” New York Times, August 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html.

[7]Frank Rich, “The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party,” New York Times, August 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html.

[8]Bill Berkowitz, "FreedomWorks Challenges Progressive Organizations," MediaTransparency, July 31, 2004, http://old.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=40.

[9]FreedomWorks, “Border Security," http://www.freedomworks.org/issues/border-security.

[10]Matt Taibbi, "Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party,”Rolling Stone, September 28, 2010, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904?RS_show_page=0.

[11]Union of Concerned Scientists, "Smoke, Mirrors, & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science," January 2007, p. 31, http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf.

[12Jonathan Weisman, "With Insurance Policy Comes Membership," Washington Post, July 23, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200683.html.

rww

The now-defunct Empower America was a right-wing pressure group founded by former Education Secretary William Bennett in 1993 that championed conservative domestic policies and hawkish foreign policies. After the 9/11 attacks, Empower America became part of a network of neoconservative-aligned groups that helped promote militarist “war on terror” policies. Empower merged in 2004 with Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a rightist pro-free market think tank, to create a new group called FreedomWorks.[1] FreedomWorks focuses largely on U.S. domestic policy, promoting smaller government and less taxes, and has served as one of the key promoters of establishment “Tea Party” politics in the United States.

According to its mission statement, Empower America was "devoted to ensuring that government actions foster growth, economic well-being, freedom, and individual responsibility. The ideas that have fueled America's stunning economic expansion—opportunity, competition, ownership, and freedom—must be the framework for reform of century-old public systems such as K-12 education, the tax code, and social security. Uniquely positioned in Washington, Empower America bridges the gap between the array of think tanks that produce white papers on the public-policy debate and the actual enactment of policy. In implementing our free-market, entrepreneurial principles into law, we are convinced, through actual experience, that we are the most effective 'delivery' system in existence."[2]

On national security, the group pushed for a "strong and proactive—but distinctively American—foreign policy, one that rejects both short-sighted isolationism and imprudent multilateralism. We believe that the federal government is primarily responsible for guaranteeing the safety of its citizens. Therefore, our goals are twofold: to insure that the U.S. military is prepared for any challenge it may face, and to rapidly deploy an effective missile defense to protect American citizens and allies."

Among Empower's more notable efforts during the early years of the "war on terror" was the creation of the Americans for Victory over Terrorism (AVOT), an advocacy outfit closely aligned with pro-war neoconservative groups that helped push public opinion to support the invasion of Iraq. AVOT eventually merged with the conservative Claremont Institute.

According to writer James D'Entremont, while Empower America billed “itself as a 'nonpartisan, nonprofit organization,'” its board of directors was a blue-ribbon panel of right-wing pro-corporate Republicans, and the organization itself is a kind of stepchild of the Heritage Foundation.”[3]

Among Empower America's main outputs was the yearly publication of “The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators,” which billed itself as a “compilation of facts and figures about the state of American society.”[4] Bennett's introduction to the 2001 index stated: "By many measures, the state of our union is extraordinarily strong. We live in a time of peace and unprecedented prosperity. Citizens of America live longer, and more comfortably, than any other citizens in history. The average American today enjoys luxuries undreamed of by the richest and most powerful of kings in the last century."

The report also celebrated the country's unrivalled leadership in the world, likening the United States to a "colossus." Wrote Bennett: "In terms of military and foreign affairs, we bestride the world like Colossus. Our military dominance is arguably as great as any other nation's in history. No nation is perfect, but to a degree unlike any other nation, we have used our power to advance the causes of liberty, human rights, and democracy worldwide."

Contact Information

FreedomWorks (formerly Empower America)

601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20004

Phone: 202-783-3870

Fax: 202-942-7649

Website: http://www.freedomworks.org

The Right Web Mission

Right Web tracks militarists’ efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy.

Sources

[1]“Citizens for a Sound Economy and Empower America Merge as FreedomWorks,” National Review, September 13, 2004.

[2]Empower America Mission Statement (Web Archive), http://web.archive.org/web/20030622093625/www.empoweramerica.org/stories/storyReader$2.

[3]James D'Entremont, "Empower America Profile," MediaTransparency, http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientprofile.php?recipientID=523.

[4]Empower.org, White Papers and Supplemental Reports (Web Archive), http://web.archive.org/web/20021111111850/http://www.empower.org/pubs.htm.

March 8, 2013 |

Conservative organization FreedomWorks is fundraising off of Fox News contributor Karl Rove's efforts to, in the group's words, "silence grassroots activists and make sure that only big-government RINO's call the shots in Washington."

Rove, along with allies from his Crossroads political groups, recently launched the Conservative Victory Project. According to The New YorkTimes,the group will work to "recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts." The project has sparked a civil war among conservative commentators, with some of Rove's own Fox News colleagues calling the group "absolutely repulsive" and "an incumbency protection racket."

FreedomWorks, which attacked Rove when the project was announced, has launched NotKarlsParty.com. In a touting the effort, FreedomWorks spokeswoman and Fox News contributor Deneen Borelli says that "Karl Rove and his unprincipled establishment candidates" are trying to "take over the GOP." The message asks followers to visit NotKarlsParty.com to "file a petition to give Karl Rove a piece of your mind."