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Johnson, Drew

he is in various taxpayers assoc?

SEE TPA

made bones on gore house energy

SEE TCPR [--> BEACON]

ideol entre, hit man, incubator baby intern AEI? pepperdine, GMU

Drew Johnson National Center for Public Policy Research

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SEE DREW JOHNSON invented eco-hypocrite kinda limosine liberal, elitist

MADE HIS BONES ON

It is, apparently, impossible to satisfy the public appetite for gotcha journalism - a point of some satisfaction to the Tennessee Centre for Policy Research .

Although you likely never heard of the TCPR before February 26, 2007, you may have heard since that the "independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization" was the source of a story about Al Gore's personal energy consumption. According to the TCPR news release - fired out, coincidentally, the day after Gore's movieAn Inconvenient Truthwon an Oscar - the Gore family home inNashville consumes energy at a rate equivalent to roughly 20 times the national average.

Gore's defence, that he has been purchasing "green energy" that is carbon neutral, was not part of the TCPR release, nor is it of much interest to Drew Johnson, the articulate young president of the TCPR (inset photo). In an interview earlier today, Johnson said the TCPR cares mostly about public hypocrisy. The TCPR's usual target is Republican politicians who call themselvs fiscal conservatives but spend an inordinate amount of time raising taxes and running up deficits. This, Johnson said, is the TCPR's first real attack on a "left-wing" target....

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also in https://missoulian.com/opinion/columnists/judge-was-wrong-to-halt-keystone-pipeline-construction

2291 W. Broadway Missoula, MT 59808

https://www.caller.com/story/opinion/2019/01/25/judge-wrong-halt-keystone-pipeline-construction/2683203002/

jan 2019 no lnx IN ORIG  thus no cite for src

Judge was wrong to halt Keystone pipeline construction

Drew Johnson National Center for Public Policy Research

By Drew Johnson

A District Court judge in Montana recently ordered a halt to construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which could transport 800,000 barrels of [TAR SANDS, KOCH] crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast each day once completed.

Judge Brian Morris, who was appointed by President Obama, ruled that the Trump administration approved the pipeline without adequate consideration of the project's environmental impact. His ruling will force the administration to once again research whether the pipeline is safe and environmentally sound — even though six previous government studies conducted by the Obama and Trump administrations confirm it is.

The judge's ruling is flagrant political grandstanding. Environmentalists' concerns about the pipeline have been repeatedly debunked. An additional review would merely squander time, resources, and tax dollars.

Green activists warn that Keystone XL, or "KXL," will sharply increase greenhouse gas emissions, boost demand for fossil fuels, and put communities along the pipeline's roughly 1,200-mile path at risk of oil spills.

Miles of pipe ready to become part of the Keystone Pipeline are stacked in a field near Ripley, Oklahoma.]

These warnings are pure fearmongering. All studies of the pipeline — even those conducted under the Obama administration, which repeatedly delayed construction to curry favor with activists — concluded KXL would have a negligible impact on the environment.Any increase in CO2 emissions would constitute less than one percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Nor would KXL increase fossil fuel consumption. Previous State Department reviews [DONE BY?] determined that Canada would continue to extract oil at the same rate, no matter whether KXL operates at full capacity or ceases to exist entirely.

[Story from Anthem, Inc.

A look at the social drivers of health

See More →]

The only thing that would change is the method of transportation. If KXL isn't completed, Canadian energy producers will use trucks and trains to send the crude to refineries. Those methods are actually less safe than pipelines. Transporting oil via truck results in nearly 20 serious incidents per "billion ton-miles." Transporting it via rail results in 2.08 incidents per billion ton-miles. Pipelines experience just 0.58 incidents per billion ton-miles.

This nearly impeccable safety record explains why energy companies transport more than 70 percent of all petroleum products via pipelines, compared to just 4 percent via truck and 3 percent via rail.

Environmentalists' worries about oil spills are also overblown. Accidents do happen -- no one denies these incredibly rare events.

But most"pipeline accidents" don't even occur in the pipelines themselves, but at refineries and other facilities with comprehensive backup safety measures in place. Nearly 90 percent of pipeline mishaps result in spills under one cubic meter or no spills at all — and 99 percent don't affect the environment. Accidents are far rarer and less harmful than critics allege.

The recent ruling makes a mockery of the justice system.It's unacceptable that activist judges are stalling America's economic progress. KXL would generate 42,000 jobs, $66 million in sales and tax revenue, $2 billion in wages, and enlarge the economy by $3.4 billion.

It's time to end the delays.

Drew Johnson is a Madison County, Montana, resident who serves as a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research.

Speedy deletion nomination [5 22 why?]

fluff see SW other node, INCUBATOR BABY

jason Andrew "Drew" Johnson (born August 5, 1979 in Johnson City, Tennessee)[1] is a columnist, American political commentator, investigative reporter and former think tank executive. He is a senior scholar at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a columnist at Newsmax and a contributor to The Daily Caller.[2]

Johnson is known as a government waste expert and government watchdog. He writes frequently about tax and budget issues, technology and telecommunications policy, and the environment, and is credited with popularizing the use of investigative journalism by think tanks.[2][3][4]

He was the founder and first president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, now known as the **Beacon Center of Tennessee**.[5] He later edited the editorial page of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He is a former columnist and editorial writer at The Washington Times.[6][7]

Early life

Johnson grew up in Johnson City, Tennessee, and graduated from Science Hill High School in 1997.[8] He then earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Belmont University and a Master of Public Policydegree from Pepperdine University.[9] Johnson was a Koch Fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies and the American Enterprise Institute.[10]

Career

Tennessee Center for Policy Research

Johnson founded the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) in 2004. Under his leadership, the organization used the TennesseeOpen Records Act of obtain Al Gore's home energy bills the day after the former Vice President won an Academy Award for the climate change documentary **An Inconvenient Truth**.[11] The records showed that, in 2006, Gore's Belle Meade, Tennessee home consumed nearly 221,000 kWh of electricity—more than 20 times the national average.[12] In 2006, Gore spent an average of $1,359 per month to power the home.[12]

After releasing Al Gore's home energy consumption, Johnson and other TCPR employees received death threats, harassing emails and threatening phone calls from Gore supporters and environmental activists.[13][14][15]

Johnson left TCPR at the end of 2009.[16] InMay 2011, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance announced that he would join that organization as a senior fellow.[17]

Chattanooga Times Free Press

On July 1, 2012, Johnson joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press as opinion editor for the Free Press editorial page, writing editorials and a weekly column.[9] Under Johnson, the Chattanooga Times Free Press became the largest newspaper in the United States to endorse Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.[18]

On August 1, 2013 the newspaper announced that Johnson was terminated for violating the newspaper's standards in altering an editorial headline to tell Barack Obama to "Take Your Jobs Plan and Shove It," a play on the classic country music song "Take This Job and Shove It."[19] The newspaper stated the alteration was "inappropriate" and that Johnson did not follow normal editing procedures.[20] Johnson later claimed that his firing was a result of the criticizing Chattanooga's electric company,EPB, one of the newspaper's largest advertisers.[21] "When I explained how EPB scammed taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars...EPB pulled its ads from the paper," Johnson said. "I know the paper was frustrated with losing money because I was willing to speak the truth about bad actors in the community."[21]

Media and think tanks

Johnson then joined **The Washington Times** as a columnist, editorial writer and author of the newspaper's weekly "Golden Hammer" column, which exposed an egregious example of wasteful spending of tax dollars.[22][23] Johnson also hosted a weekly "Golden Hammer" television segment based on the column that was available on some Sinclair Broadcast Group stations' local news broadcasts.[24]

In April 2016, Johnson was named National Director of Protect Internet Freedom, a group formed to push back on new net neutrality rules and federal preemption of state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts.[25] He joined the National Center for Public Policy Research as a senior scholar in 2017.[11]

Johnson again investigated Al Gore's home energy use in a 2017 report written for the National Center for Public Policy Research.[11] According to information obtained through the Nashville Electric Service, energy consumption at Gore's Nashville-area house increased from 2006 to 2017, despite installing 33 solar panels on the home following the initial criticism.[11] In 2017, Gore's home used 21.3 times more energy per month than a typical American household.[11]

Media appearances

Johnson has been a guest on The Situation Room, Hannity & Colmes,[26] CNN's Glenn Beck[27] and The Big Story with John Gibson.[28] He has appeared on radio programs including the Mike Gallagher radio show, the Sean Hannity Show, the Glenn Beck Program, the Andrew Wilkow show, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! and NPR's All Things Considered.

Political views

Johnson has espoused libertarian and free market positions in his columns, editorials and media interviews.

He has opposed the death penalty and the Patriot Act, spoken out against anti-Muslim bias and criticized Republicans for increasing government spending.[29][30][31] He has also written in support of pornography, free speech, gay marriage and drug legalization.[32][33]

Public service

Johnson served as commissioner on the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth from 1997 to 2006, and was named to the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 2008.[34][35][36]

He currently serves as the public member of the Nevada State Board of Optometry. [37]

Personal life

He is married to marketing consultant and travel blogger Sarah Reeves Johnson.[2][38][39] They split their time between Las Vegas and Madison County, Montana.[40]

Johnson is credited with starting the Vegas Golden Knights' "Victory Flamingo" tradition, in which fans of the NHL team toss pink plastic flamingos on the ice in celebration of Vegas Golden Knights victories.[41][42][43]

References

  1. ^ *ABC News*, "Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'?--A $30,000 Utility Bill", February 26, 2007
  2. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-nationalcenter.org_2-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-nationalcenter.org_2-2) "Drew Johnson".
  3. ^ "The Tennessee Center For Policy Research Of Al Gore's Electric Bills | Nashville Post". Archived from the original on 2020-04-10.
  4. ^ "Nine questions with Drew Johnson". 15 October 2012.
  5. ^ Jeff Woods, The Great Gadfly: How a baby-faced kid became the governor's No. 1 nemesis, Nashville Scene, September 11, 2008
  6. ^ Boucher, Dave (May 24, 2015). "Beacon Center grows, helps defeat Insure TN". The Tennessean. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  7. ^ "Former Washington Times reporter who investigated Higgins says 'It's about time':{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:. 4 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Beacon Center's light doesn't shine on everyone".
  9. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-named_9-1) "Drew Johnson named opinion page editor for Free Press". Chattanooga Times Free Press. June 8, 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  10. ^ Harkinson, Josh (December 4, 2009). "The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial, No. 10: Tennessee Center for Policy Research (A.K.A. Carnival of Climate Change)". Mother Jones. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
  11. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-ReferenceA_11-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-ReferenceA_11-2) d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-ReferenceA_11-3) e(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-ReferenceA_11-4) "Al Gore's Inconvenient Reality: The Former Vice President's Home Energy Use Surges up to 34 Times the National Average Despite Costly Green Renovations, by Drew Johnson". August 2017.
  12. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-beacontn.org_12-1) "Al Gore's Personal Energy Use is His Own "Inconvenient Truth":{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:.
  13. ^ "The Left-Wing Echo Chamber".
  14. ^ "Where's the Tolerance?". National Review. 9 April 2007.
  15. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:*Penn & Teller: BS! - Being Green*. YouTube.
  16. ^ Clint Brewer Now Top Dog At TCPR, Nashville Post, October 29, 2009
  17. ^ Government Waste Expert Drew Johnson Joins TPA as Senior Fellow
  18. ^ "Gary Johnson for president".
  19. ^ "Read the headline that got Drew Johnson fired: 'Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough':{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:.
  20. ^ Mirkinson, Jack (August 1, 2013). "Drew Johnson, Chattanooga Editor, Fired Over Anti-Obama Headline". Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  21. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Johnson#cite_ref-noogatoday.6amcity.com_21-1) "Whatever happened to Drew Johnson?". 24 March 2014.
  22. ^ "DREW JOHNSON: Virginia private property rights saved Colonial America". The Washington Times.
  23. ^ "Golden Hammer: Feds spend millions to study drunken monkeys, pilots and students". The Washington Times.
  24. ^ "Questionable accounting hides $100 million in purchases at Illinois college". 3 October 2014.
  25. ^ "Protect Internet Freedom Names Drew Johnson Executive Director". 22 April 2016.
  26. ^ "Fox News.com", "Hannity & Colmes", February 27, 2007
  27. ^ "CNN.com", "Glenn Beck", May 1, 2007
  28. ^ "Fox News", "Is Al Gore as Green as He Claims to Be?", February 27, 2007
  29. ^ "Drew Johnson: Capital punishment inconsistent with conservative views". 2 December 2013.
  30. ^ "TN Tea Party Goes Archie Bunker". 24 July 2012.
  31. ^ "JOHNSON: Misspending GOP capital on Cochran in Mississippi". The Washington Times.
  32. ^ "Drew Johnson's support of gay marriage".
  33. ^ "Right Side Round Table: Should marijuana be legalized? Hamilton County Grand Jury thinks so".
  34. ^ https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tccy/documents/newsletter/adv0406.pdf[bare ^URL PDF]
  35. ^ "Drew Johnson".
  36. ^ https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/docs/TNFairHousingReport.pdf[bare ^URL PDF]
  37. ^ https://nvoptometry.org/
  38. ^ "Sarah Reeves Johnso". LinkedIn.
  39. ^ https://youfoundsarah.com/
  40. ^ "Judge was wrong to halt Keystone pipeline construction".
  41. ^ "Stanley Cup Final: Meet the Vegas Golden Knights Flamingo Man". 29 May 2018.
  42. ^ "Meet the Victory Flamingo: How Golden Knights fans got behind the tradition".
  43. ^ "Do You Believe in the Power of the "Victory Flamingo"? | REAL 103.9".

External links

Categories: 

ref 13

https://www.heritage.org/commentary/the-left-wing-echo-chamber

town hall, daily signal

death threats. Harassing phone calls. Threatening e-mails. Such was a day in the life of Drew Johnson a few weeks ago.

His crime? Johnson is president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a free-market think tank that broke one of the juiciest stories of 2007. A day after the Academy Awards, on Feb. 26, Johnson's organization reported details of Al Gore's enormous utility bill. The former vice president had consumed nearly 221,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in a single year -- more than 20 times the national average.

The story skyrocketed to the top headline on the Drudge Report,sending tens of thousands of visitors to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research's Web site. With Gore facing charges of hypocrisy just a day after winning an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth," the news traveled fast.

Unfortunately for Johnson, it meant enduring days of attacks from liberals -- even though the facts of the story came directly from public records.

Last week he visited Washington, D.C., to share his story. Johnson told a group of conservative bloggers at The Heritage Foundation that he heard from hundreds of angry callers, many of whom used profane language. The research center's vice president, whose phone number was listed on the Web page, eventually had to change her number when the attacks became so persistent and threatening.

The phone blitz was only one avenue liberals used to intimidate. Johnson said his organization received thousands of e-mails, the vast majority of them negative and hate-filled.

Shortly after the story made headlines, popular liberal blogs Daily Kos and Huffington Post, laid out their plan of attack. A blogger called NeuvoLiberal wrote on Daily Kos, "please post any specific (action oriented) ideas you have for fighting back…. We'd like to target every person out there that is spinning in various rightwing and other outlet for this kind of smear job (the damage is done before you wake and smell the coffee)."

Over at Huffington Post, bloggers Dave Johnson and James Boyce issued another call to action: "Al Gore is a hero. Even heroes need help - join us, add to the comments, let's find out everything we can about these guys and stop them in their tracks. Now."

Their pleas were answered. Liberal blog Think Progress led the way with 655 comments on a post about the Gore story. Daily Kos was close behind with 481 comments. And 125 comments are attached to the Johnson-Boyce call-to-action post.

All this added up to one giant headache for Drew Johnson, who didn't know where to turn to respond to the attacks being lodged at him personally, his employees and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.While the initial Gore story received favorable coverage from conservative bloggers, these same people were silent when liberals began to distort the record.

One of the most outrageous charges, Johnson said, had to do with his background. The liberal "watchdog" Media Matters dug into Johnson's past, noting that he had been a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Since ExxonMobil has contributed to AEI, that bit of information was enough for Media Matters to assert that Johnson was bought and paid for by ExxonMobil. Immediately, the liberal echo chamber began to hype the allegation, though Johnson swiftly denied it.Johnson had merely interned at AEI.Neither he nor the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has ever received money from ExxonMobil. But that didn't stop MSNBC's Keith Olbermann fromplaying up the mythical connection.Instead of backing down and retreating, the episode has inspired Johnson. His three days of meetings in the nation's capital introduced him to a wider network of contacts and left him eager to help build a network of bloggers who could defend conservatives under attack.

He has also hired an investigative reporter to produce more stories similar to the one about Gore -- an unorthodox tactic for a think tank. But Johnson said sometimes that's what it takes to discover the truth, no matter how inconvenient it may be for him personally.

Robert Bluey is Director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation.

ref 14 note no specific evidence of death threats, whilst others are quoted

no lnx

https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/04/wheres-tolerance-deroy-murdock/

National Review

America Needs a Real Political Comedy

Civic Education Requires Liberal Education

Russia and Realism, American-Style

Beware the EU’s New Internet Regulations

The Real Problem with Sex Education

POLITICS & POLICY

Where’s the Tolerance?

By DEROY MURDOCK

April 9, 2007

Hateful reactions from the Left.

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) recently generated headlines when it announced that former Vice President Al Gore’s Nashville estate “devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours” of electricity in 2006, “more than 20 times the national average.” This free-market think tank’s phones lit up when it analyzed Nashville Electric Service’s public records and identified an inconvenient gap between Gore’s conservationism and his energy consumption. TCPR’s one-page press release was greeted with enough megawatts of hatred to power the South.

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“I was accused several times of being a ‘stupid, redneck bitch,’” recalls TCPR’s vice president Nicole Williams, who fielded numerous calls. “I repeatedly was called a ‘whore’ and asked ‘Whose whore are you?’ for three days straight, almost as if those were talking points… I was shocked by these sexist insults — basically attacking my gender.”

‘I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl,’ Governor Kay Ivey said.

The calls continued beyond Williams’s Nashville office.

“I had to change my home number and get an unlisted number,” Williams tells me. “I got about 10 death threats by phone that made an impression on me. I got the ‘I’m gonna get you’-type threats more than 100 times…I was worried that I would get shot walking to my car.” Williams discovered her obsolete address posted online. “If they could find my old home address, it would not be so hard to find a current one.”

Gore’s defenders also spewed venomous e-mails. They sent TCPR nearly 3,000 Gore-related messages that exhibited the very bigotry the Left routinely denounces. Warning: These offensive, often-vulgar, and occasionally unschooled comments reveal the vitriol behind much of today’s “progressive” rhetoric.

‐ Many e-mails displayed Dixiephobia — an intense disdain for the south and southerners.

After TCPR President Drew Johnson discussed his story on cable news, Kevin Lafferty objected: “Johnson said Gore’s home has gas lamps lining his driveway, a heated pool and an electric gate — all of which would be easy to do without. Well sure, that’s easy enough for you to say when you live in a frickin mobile home in Tennessee, eh Johnson?”

“F**k you, and for that matter, f**k Tennessee,” wrote Thomas Brown. “I’ll never go there again.”

“Why don’t you all go back to shooting one another across the hollows instead of trying to make people think anyone in Tennessee has an ounce of intelligence?” Roger Miller insisted. “Or better yet, get your snaggle tooth grins capped and learn to read and write…Someone who’s traveled the world here, and never ever wants to even fly across your state again.”

“W.T.F. difference would it make if he was [sic] using 1000 times more energy than the average household if it came from clean energy?” Thomas Grinnell wondered. “Don’t think about that too much. It will give your southern mullet a headache.”

“You really should concentrate on what Southerners do best,” D. Hunter advised. “Sodomizing and impregnating little children!”

“You are the most despicable and pathetic types of people of all time,” Christopher LaBarge declared. “I hope you all die slowly and have your hearts and brains trampled to pieces you small-minded, ignorant, backwoods ideologues.”

“GO-F–K-YOURSELVES! GO-F–K-YOURSELVES! GO-F**K-YOURSELVES! GO-F**K-YOURSELVES!”

More from

DEROY MURDOCK

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“Well it’s like I’ve always said, ‘we should have flattened the South when we had the chance!” wrote Mount Laurel, New Jersey’s Robert Dodelin. “If ever you confederates [sic] want to leave the Union please do. We Nothen [sic] states would love to stop having to subsidize you with our tax dollars.”

This anti-southernism mystifies TCPR’s Johnson.

“Some people must believe the Mason-Dixon Line runs between our office and Gore’s mansion,” Johnson says. “No one would call Gore a redneck, but when we uncovered his hypocritical energy use, it somehow made me a sister-dating hillbilly. That’s quite amusing, since Gore and I live in Nashville, less than five miles apart.”

‐ Some e-mails, like Benjamin Greuel’s, reflected anti-religious bias: “Go f**k yourselves you neo con, non-secular, bible thumpin, anti-science dumb f**k pricks.” Similarly, Anthony Black wrote:

You bunch of stupid hick red-necks. I am sure you are quite religious, yet you have no problem destroying His creation with pollution; and, rather than addressing that, you cast dispersions [sic] on Al Gore’s home energy use. Absurd.

Seriously, find one of those nice Tennessee hardwoods, get a nice stick from it, and stick it up your white-bread ignorant a**.

Have a nice day, you ignorant red-neck.

‐ “How about you have a do [sic] humanity a favor and have a stroke,” Russ Smith recommended. “You silly metrosexual twit, need some more hi-lites in your hair?”

Another gay-hater wrote: “You guys are the faggiest fags I’ve ever come across. How do you get any work done, what with all the c**k sucking and such?”

“Keep licking Bush and Cheney’s privates,” Burton Ogle suggested. “Your time is up and we’re moving you’re a**es out.”

‐ Two e-mails feature chillingly violent imagery.

“You people are such slime,” T. J. Williams noted. “You are a total waste of skin and air. Help the environment and jump off a cliff.”

Bob Beaver urged: “Find a hole and stick a knife in it.”

Such anti-intellectual intimidation reflects the high-octane hate that fuels so much Leftist discourse. Rather than simply argue that Johnson, Williams, and their colleagues are misguided or misinformed about global warming, these bullies call them barefoot, same-sex-loving, Winchester-wielding whores, and evangel-yokels. Remember this whenever liberals crow about diversity, tolerance, and open-mindedness.

insea changecommand and control EPW BS report he keeps getting cited as Newsweek reporter? same name?

nope snuck in opinion vulnerability, same old eco-hypocrit pvt jet BS scam

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

:{https:/:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:**/dailycaller.**:{com/2019/12/05/climate-investigations-center-misrepresented-nonprofit-taxpayers-bill/:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:

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

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eg tho not ~ green

https://www.newsweek.com/why-are-private-jets-being-subsidized-you-and-me-641890

no lnx many many ads

OPINION

Why Are Private Jets Being Subsidized By You and Me?

DREW JOHNSON

ON 7/30/17

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OPINION

JETS

GLOBAL

The National Business Aviation Association's (NBAA) vocal opposition to modernizing the air traffic control (ATC) system has more to do with preserving the status quo for private jet owners than protecting the interests of the flying public.

The NBAA has frequently opposed proposals to modernize the nation's ATC system on the basis that reforming it will require corporate jets to pay for their use of the system instead of relying on airline passenger taxes to foot their share of the bill.

Yet for years, many of its corporate members have milked a set of tax loopholes that allow private jet owners to lower their tax burden and pass on the cost of their travel to consumers.

Private jet owners [mostly corp ceo and hedge fund bros] can write off much of the cost of their aircraft at the expense of commercial passengers and taxpayers. The IRS permits owners to deduct the depreciation on commercial jets over a five-year period — two years faster than commercial airlines. This gap allows a corporate owner to write off as much as 60 percent of the value of a company jet in the first three years.

Even though corporate jets use almost $1 billion of air traffic control resources, they only contribute around $200 million in fuel taxes, letting commercial passengers pick up their tab.

Generally, corporate jets are exempt from the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) air transportation tax, a fee on the number of passengers and amount of cargo transported, which funds 95 percent of ATC operations.

RELATED STORIES

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The maintenance and improvement of the ATC system's equipment and infrastructure is paid through the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), which is made up of excise taxes collected on aviation fuel, passenger transport and use of international air facilities.

While general aviation is at least subject to the fuel tax, high-end general aviation aircraft — the majority of which are corporate-owned — contributed only about 1 percent of the AATF's receipts in 2014, despite using an estimated 10 percent of the system the AATF supports.

The NBAA has been living the special interest dream for way too long. Instead of blocking efforts to modernize ATC, it should stop standing in the way of making long-needed improvements to the dated system.

While today's automobiles can use hyper-accurate GPS to practically drive themselves, U.S. ATC continues to rely on a ground-based radar system first developed in 1943. Deployment of NextGen, a satellite-based upgrade to flight navigation and communications, has been languishing under a bloated government bureaucracy and hamstrung by a congressional budget process that funds it in fits-and-starts.

Proposals to modernize the system would transfer authority for managing all but the safety functions of ATC from the FAA to a federally-chartered, nonprofit entity where NextGen improvements could be deployed more swiftly, minimizing flight delays, reducing fuel consumption and lowering carbon emissions.

Everyone benefits from an ATC system that is state-of-the-art, agile, sustainable and safe, and the system's users should pay their fair share for its maintenance. As Congress advances proposals to transform our nation's ATC, the NBAA needs to put aside the interests of corporate jet owners and support a proposal that will benefit the rest of the country — which flies coach.

Drew Johnson is Senior Fellow at the Taxpayer Protection Alliance, a non-partisan nonprofit think tank dedicated to exposing the effects of government policy on deficits and debt.

Origin of Gore house slam?

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

Fun b/c tho minor, pulls various threads together

Jason A. (Drew) Johnson is president of the Nashville-based Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) and a Fellow of the Davenport Institute, Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. [1]

Johnson is the "son of a former NASCAR series driver" [2].

Johnson was a Koch Fellow [3] in the Summer Fellow Class of 2002 at the libertarian Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. [4]

"In 2002, while at the American Enterprise Institute, Johnson’s research on the link between increased campaign finance regulation and rates of incumbent reelection served as the empirical backbone in the Supreme Court Case 'McConnell v. FEC.' As a research analyst for the Modern Red Schoolhouse Institute in Nashville, he examined state educational standards, education reform and pedagogical use of technology." [5]

Johnson, from Johnson City, TN [6], "graduated from Belmont University in 2001 with a BS in Political Science" and received a Master of Public Policy from Pepperdine University in 2003. [7][8]

Contents

National Taxpayers Union Foundation

Before founding TCPR, Johnson was a policy analyst at the right-wing-funded National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), the research arm of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU). [9] GROVER?

In July 2004, while with NTUF, Johnson co-authored the economic policy study "Kerry's Fiscal Agenda 'Makeover' Won't Improve Budget Picture for Taxpayers" on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's spending recommendations.

On an undated "Statement of Concern for Freedom in Russia" posted on the NTU website, the signatories—among which are Johnson, representing TCPR; Grover Norquist, of the conservative, tobacco industry-related Americans for Tax Reform; and Leonard Liggio of the conservative Atlas Economic Research Foundation—identify themselves as "representatives, of liberal think-tanks and movements".

On Bush's Spending

"Fiscal conservatives, too, are less than pleased with the current administration," Brian Montopoli wrote January 22, 2004, in The National Review Online. "'Since Bush came into office, federal spending is up 24 percent,' says Drew Johnson, policy analyst at National Taxpayers Union. 'I always thought that if the Republicans could control both houses of Congress and the presidency, taxes would fall, spending would fall, and the deficit would go down. So it's frustrating that once we finally got our way the Republicans stopped acting like Republicans.' He complains about excess pork in the 2004 Omnibus spending bill and the newly unveiled space exploration initiative, which the president chose not to mention in the State of the Union address. 'There is enough frustration that perhaps a Libertarian could skim off some fiscal conservative votes,' he says."

External links

Profiles

Studies and commentaries authored/co-authored by Drew Johnson

Articles & Commentary

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

Category: Think tanks

Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) describes itself as "an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to providing concerned citizens, the media and public leaders with expert research and timely free market policy solutions to public policy issues in Tennessee." [1]

TCPR is part of the State Policy Network.

TCPR has emerged as a government watchdog, taking both Republicans and Democrats to task for pork spending [2], for ethical breaches [3] and for not disclosing information that might show conflicts-of-interest. [4]

Additionally, in an internal e-mail sent by a staffer at the Tennessee Department of Revenue, TCPR was described as "not a legitimate organization" in an effort to deny the group public information. [5] The Tennessee Department of Revenue was taken to task for this statement. Indeed, one Tennessee newspaper accused officials at the Department of Revnue of "Byzantine logic," in trying to keep tax information from TCPR and the public. [6]

Contents[hide]

Staff & Scholars

According to TCPR's website, the following are staff and scholars:

Staff

Scholars

Links

Links from TCPR's website include the following right-wing and libertarian think tanks: [7]

Funding

The TCPR is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization but does not disclose the sources of funding on its website. In its 2005 annual IRS return for 2005, TCPR states that its total income was $104,908 with expenditure of $76,673. [8] (Pdf)

Corporation

The "Tennessee Center for Policy Research, 1606 Burton Avenue, #A, Nashville, 37215, Jason A. Johnson" is found among the Legal Listings for New Corporations posted by The [Nashville, TN] City Paper Online, April 27, 2005.

On March 10, 2005, Roger Abramson reported in the Nashville Scene that "Belmont University graduate Drew Johnson serves as the center's president, and seeks to bring his public policy experience with Washington-based groups like the National Taxpayers Union and the American Enterprise Institute a little closer to home.

Website

According to a WHOIS search, TENNESSEEPOLICY.ORG was created October 13, 2004, and registered to Drew Johnson at P.O. Box 121331, Nashville, TN 37212.

The website debuted online the week of March 8, 2005. [9]

Contact Information

PO Box 121331

Nashville, TN 37212

Phone: 615 383-6431

Fax: 615 383-6432

Email: info AT tennesseepolicy.org

Website: http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/

Articles and Resources

Sources

Other SourceWatch Resources

External links

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

Categories: Think tanks | United States | Politics (U.S.)

Paula Melton ofEnvironmental Building Newsdescribes how the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for all of the emails (nine years worth) between the US Green Building Council, creators of LEED, and the General Services Administration. TPA President David Williams tellsthe Daily Caller:

We’re trying to see if there is a connection between the U.S. Green Building Council, a 501(c)3, that is benefitting financially from these new standards, to get to the genesis of these LEED standards and see exactly just how much influence this nonprofit had.

On their website,the TPA explains in more detail, (emphasis mine)

TPA has been concerned about private,non-science based non-profit organizations like the USGBC being involved in creating environmental standards that are then relied upon to dictate government policies and in turn cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Last year, TPA highlighted the fundamental problems with LEED and the attempt to institute LEED v.4. In TPA’s public comment letter to the USGBC, TPA pointed out that products such as plastic insulation, vinyl roofing, and LED lighting are discouraged through the chemical avoidance credits in LEED v4, which uses the European Union’s REACH regulations as a benchmark. This is a standard that small and medium U.S. based manufacturers are unfamiliar with and will struggle to meet. Moreover, there are credits for certification in this new standard that could reward architects for rejecting modern technology and chose instead to use a thatched straw roof, yet the standards dissuade builders who use bullet resistant glass in federal courthouses. LEED v4 is filled with arbitrary and requirements that pick winners in losers in the marketplace. The USGBC seems to have undue influence in mandating LEED standards and now TPA wants answers.

So who is the TPA and who is behind it? Paula Melton asked TPA President Williams.She writes:

This attention from a tax-focused interest group comes on the heels of aggressive lobbying against LEED by certain segments of the forestry and chemical industries. Their efforts have contributed to anti-LEED legislation in a few states and, at the federal level, restrictions on LEED for the U.S. military. When EBN asked if industry groups are backing his efforts, Williams refused to say. “It comes from private sources, and I don’t reveal who my donors are,” he replied.

David Williams does not have much of a paper trail. On thewebsite his bio saysthat he is "an expert in finding and exposing government waste and has helped fine tune criteria in identifying and ultimately eliminating earmarks. " He has a "Senior Fellow", Drew Johnson, who has been a guest on Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity shows, and got famous for going after Al Gore in 2007 for using as much electricity in his house in a month as average Americans use in a year. Neither of them are big fish.

...however when you dig up the 990, a form required by the IRS for every tax-exempt non-profit, you find some very big fish indeed.

Barry Bennett and the Alliance for America's Future

Barry Bennett is described lovingly inHuffington Post:

Bennett has a history as a frontman for Republican Party ventures financed by donors intent on maintaining their anonymity. Since the 1990s, he has headed two nonprofits set up for the purpose of influencing elections while maintaining donor secrecy. He has operated within the underbelly of politics where secret money flows through obscure trusts and foundations to finance attack ads and campaigns free of fingerprints.

Bennett now runs The Alliance for America's Future; Paul Blumenthalcontinues in Huffpo:

Joining him at the new conservative nonprofit wereMary Cheney,the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Kara Ahern, Cheney's former chief of staff. The nonprofit was formed after the Citizens United ruling that, among many other things, allowed nonprofits to spend money on express advocacy for candidates seeking election. This change effectively sanctioned much of the activity that Bennett and CCF [his former gig] had pursued in the 1990s. The CCF ads had to mask their negative message about a candidate behind criticisms over issues. The Alliance for America's Future, however, could raise unlimited contributions from anonymous donors to fund ads that openly call for the victory or defeat of candidates.

The nonprofit is part of a network of independent conservative groups that have either been established or increased their visibility in the wake of the Citizens United decision. They include the Karl Rove-linked American Crossroads and the Koch brothers-fundedAmericans for Job Security....

Stephen Demaura and Americans for Job Security

And who is president of Americans for Job Security? Why, it is Stephen Demaura, Treasurer and Secretary of the Taxpayer Protection Alliance. According to Sourcewatch,

AJS has long been ahead of the trends for dark money political spending. "You could say Americans for Job Security has been keeping donors anonymous since before it was cool," Talking Points Memo wrote in December 2012....in a FEC Complaint, Public Citizen wrote that AJS is a "sham front group that would be better called Corporations Influencing Elections ... masquerading as a non-profit to conceal its funders and the scope of its electioneering activities."

No wonder TPA Prez David Williams refused to tell Paula where his money came from; he's the front man for two of the biggest conservative dark money organizations in the country, funded by the Kochs and no doubt the American Chemistry Council and SFI, who are all working together to gut LEED and make America safe for the makers of formaldehyde, vinyl and clearcut lumber...

http://insideclimatenews.org/content/60-pro-keystone-xl-comments-tied-industry-group-says

==

bs

Drew Johnson is a Senior Fellow at TPA. Drew is the founder of the Council on Responsible Local Government (CRLG). Prior to his work with CRLG, Drew founded and, from 2004-2009, served as president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR).   

Drew is known for infusing investigative reporting and policy research, exposing government waste, corruption and hypocrisy as a result. These efforts have made him a frequent guest on television and radio, including appearances on Glenn Beck, Hannity and Colmes, All Things Considered, the BBC, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and The Sean Hannity Radio Show, among others. Additionally, Drew’s columns and articles have appeared in scores of newspapers, magazines and journals, including the Wall Street Journal, National Review and Human Events.

Attachments