webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

WATCHDOG

some are crypto/offensive, majority are?!

what is original model? nader's raiders? 2nd wave eco clearinghouse?

 ==

---

yikes

Top EPA Watchdog Since 2010 Announces Departure

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) internal watchdog organization announced plans to leave for a job outside the federal government Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

Arthur A. Elkins Jr., who has held the position of Inspector General since he was appointed by former president Barack Obama in 2010, will spend his last day at the agency Oct. 12, The Hill reported.

"It has been my great honor and privilege to serve the American people in this role for more than eight years," Elkins said in a statement reported by The Hill.

His departure comes in a particularly busy time for the Office of Inspector General (OIG), as it continues to investigate the actions of former EPA-head Scott Pruitt, who resigned amid several scandals in July.

In one report released Sept. 4, Elkins found that Pruitt had failed to justify the need for his 24-hour security detail.

"Failure to properly justify the level of protective services provided to the Administrator has allowed costs to increase from $1.6 million to $3.5 million in just 11 months," the report found.

OIG spokesperson Jeffrey Lagda told The Associated Press that Elkins' departure was not a response to any aspect of the Pruitt investigation.

He further affirmed Elkins' decision "will definitely not impact any of the ongoing OIG reviews related to allegations regarding former EPA Administrator Pruitt and his staff," Lagda told The Associated Press in an email.

The OIG is conducting four more audits related to Pruitt, three of which are due to be released this fall, Lagda told Reuters.

Other high-profile cases Elkins investigated included that of ex-EPA adviser John C. Beale, who cheated the federal government out of $900,000 by pretending to be a CIA agent, the EPA's handling of the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the Colorado Gold King Mine spill, which was the EPA's fault, according to The Hill.

Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, praised Elkins, saying in a statement that he fulfilled his duties "honorably and professionally," The Associated Press reported.

Elkins will be replaced temporarily by deputy Charles Sheehan, who has served at the OIG since 2012.

Before being appointed to head the OIG, Elkins filled legal roles in various federal agencies including the EPA, National Science Foundation, Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency and Department of Defense, Reuters reported.

The OIG is an independently funded office in charge of overseeing the actions of the EPA, according to The Associated Press.

Its head is appointed by the president pending Senate confirmation, Reuters said.

Elkins' departure means President Donald Trump will be able to appoint his successor, The Hill said.

==

==

econ journal watch

Daniel Klein

George Mason University

Co-Editors

Bruce L. Benson

Florida State University

Fred E. Foldvary

Santa Clara University

Garett Jones

George Mason University

George Selgin

University of Georgia

Lawrence H. White

George Mason University

Written correspondence may be sent to the following address (but email is much better):

Daniel Klein 

Editor, Econ Journal Watch 

Department of Economics 

4400 University Drive MS 3G4

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA 22030

---

crypto? esp cap res ctr//landmark WU?

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

WLF Watches FDA Watching Drug Ads

:{:{The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF), a conservative watchdog group funded by businesses (including drug companies), last week launched the "FDA/DDMAC Watch" program to "scrutinize" FDA advertising regulations. DDMAC is the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications, which oversees drug ads.}::{}:

DDMAC Watch's first actionchallenged an FDA warning letter regarding a TV ad for Eli Lilly& Co.'s adult ADD therapy, Strattera (see "Watchdog Group Blasts FDA").}:

:{:{According to the WLF, the FDA is acting “"outside its legal authority"” when its writes such letters, and shows "“disregard for the First Amendmentby alleging that materials are misleading with no evidence of how consumers understand them." ” (See the WLF Letter to DDMAC).}:

In short, the Washington Legal Foundation claims, the FDA "“invented" much of its power to police drug advertising. ("Watchdog Group Blasts FDA").}:

:{:{WLF is to the first amendment what the NRA is to the second amendment. That is, every argument by WLF begins and ends with the first amendment as it applies to a special interest group -- i.e., businesses like the pharmaceutical industry.:{}:

The House(s) That Troy Built}:}:

What's really interesting, however, are the ties that bind WLF, FDA, and the Pharma industry.

One of the main ties is Daniel E. Troy, former chief counsel to the FDA who joined WLF's board of directors just 4 days before the DDMAC Watch letter. According to the WLF Web site, Troy was "the first appointee to the Food and Drug Administration made by President George W. Bush."

"Troy managed to restrict FDA's ability to use its statutes creatively, and this in turn deterred mid-level managers from advocating new approaches to emerging scientific issues, leaving the agency looking - and feeling - weak." (See "FDAers Think Troy Weakened Them, Worry About Masoudi").

:{:{Before his stint at the FDA, Troy repeatedly sued the FDA.He argued that the FDA had only limited ability to regulate drug companies. Troy filed those suits through --- you guessed it -- the WLF! He also did legal work for Pfizer. Oh well, just another case of "What goes around, comes around."}::{}:

:{:{}:

What About Those Warning Letters?

The WLF criticism of the Strattera warning letter, which I will get to in a moment, comes at a time when the FDA is sharply increasing the number of warning letters sent to pharmaceutical companies.

The FDA issues two types of letters: untitled letters or Notices of Violation and warning letters. The warning letter goes to the CEO and essentially says "we think you have really screwed up and in a way that we think is important to the public health and we expect you to put out some kind of additional information to correct the misinformation you sent." (I quote here John Kamp, Executive Director, Coalition for Healthcare Communication. Kamp was speaking at a CME conference in Princeton, NJ.)

An untitled letter is sent to the head of marketing and says "we think you have a problem, let's sit down and work something out." This type of letter is much less serious and effective than a warning letter. In fact, I've heard it said that untitled letters are considered rites of passage by pharma product managers, who frame them and hang them on their office walls. That's what I've heard some people say.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer ("Deluge of drug ads has FDA struggling to stop the hype"):}:

}:

In January 2002, the Office of the FDA Chief Legal Counsel, Daniel Troy, began reviewing the evidence behind all proposed enforcement letters with an eye toward scuttling any that might not hold up in court. Claude Allen, the deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, the FDA's parent agency, ordered the change in policy.

Troy effectively hobbled the issuance of warning letters by the FDA.

An October 2002 study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said that, before Troy's reviews began, FDA notices went out within days after a problem ad was spotted. Under the new policy, clearing the letters took 13 to 78 days, the report said. "Some regulatory letters may not be issued until after the advertising campaign has run its course," the GAO found. (Phila Inquirer)

:{:{While the number of total enforcement letters sent by the FDA has hovered around 23-25 in the last three years, the number of warning letters increased dramatically in 2004 (before Troy left the FDA but during the VIOXX debacle). In that year the FDA issued 12 warning letters compared to 5 in 2003 and 1 in 2002. 2005 promises to be a record year -- already nine warning letters have been issued.}:

The FDA may be getting the impression that the drug industry is not listening. According to Kamp, "DDMAC is saying the same things over and over again [in warning letters], but the industry is just not getting it. FDA is turning up the heat. How much higher, might I add, does it have to get before we start paying attention?"

:{If the WLF represents the pharma industry -- and with Troy involved it's hard to dispute that it does -- then the industry is paying attention, but responding by criticizing the FDA. There has been some more positive response as well. Recent DTC policy changes by J&J and BMS come to mind (see "DTC Straight Talk" and "New DTC Principles Emerging").:{}:

So What's the Beef With the Strattera TV Ad?}:

The FDA had asked Lilly on June 14 to pull its Strattera TV ad on the grounds that the flashy graphics made the warnings on side effects too difficult for consumers to comprehend(see warning letter and "Watchdog Group Blasts FDA").

WLF had this to say:

}:

"DDMAC cites no evidence demonstrating that consumers cannot process the information presented in the advertisement. In fact, the TV advertisement conveys its message regarding attention deficit disorder so many times that it is incomprehensible that consumers would miss it. The sole source of authority for DDMAC's allegations against Lilly is the individual judgment of the DDMAC reviewer who signed the letter."

:{:{I don't recall seeing the ad myself, but the FDA presented promotional material, submitted by Lilly, which included screen shots from the ad. It looks distracting to me. I don't think you have to do a scientific study to tell whether or not an ad is effectively presenting labeling information. To suggest that "evidence" be produced is merely a ploy to delay the process so the ad can run it's course.}:

The problem is that the review by the FDA happens after the ad is already produced and running. It would be better, as proposed by BMS, that DTC ads be submitted to the FDA for approval BEFORE they run (see "New DTC Principles Emerging").

Guidance Needed

There is at least one point made by the WLF that I can agree with. It has to do witrh guidance from the FDA regarding TV DTC ads for Rx drugs:

}:

:{:{"DDMAC should start providing concrete guidance to industry to help them fulfill this objective and stop playing 'gotcha' with drug companies," said WLF Chief Counsel Richard Samp.}:

}:

Maybe Samp has a point. While the FDA has issued guidance regarding print DTC ads (see "Future of Drug Print Ads"), it hasn't done the same for TV DTC ads. Perhaps that will come sooner than Samp would like.

==

Mike Hardiman founded Hardiman Consulting, a public relations and lobbying company in 1999 after a seven-year stint working as press secretary and adviser for Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) on endangered species and other natural resources issues. [1]

Returns lodged by Hardiman with the U.S. Senate reveal that the lobbying portion of his business had a small client base.[2]

Hardiman worked for the American Conservative Union until July 15 2001, earning $20,000 from them for the January to June period that year. At the end of July, his thirteen-month stint representing theAmerican Trucking Association also came to an end.

His other major client was ALRA, a Wise Use Movement property rights group led by Chuck Cushman, though the ALRA web site lists Hardiman on its staff pages. [3] His $40,000 a year work for them as a lobbyist came to an end on February 27, 2004. [4] His registration for a Pennsylvania farmer - disclosed as being less than $20,000 in a year - came to an end at the same time.

Hardiman has testified before United States Senate and House committees and state legislatures on land use issues.[5] [6] [7][8][9] He was named Advocate of the Year by the Property Rights Foundation of America for his role in defeating a $47 billion land acquisition trust fund proposed in congress. [10]

In June 2002, Hardiman, wearing his American Land Rights Association (ALRA) hat, co-signed a letter initiated by the Competitive Enterprise Institute to George W. Bush attacking the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific assessment of climate change. In 2003, Hardiman and 32 other co-signatories wrote to House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde expressing their concern "about the approach Congress is taking to climate change policy". [11]

On September 3, 2002, he founded and served as Executive Director of Public Interest Watch (PIW), a group that lobbied the Internal Revenue Service to withdraw the charitable tax-status for environmental groups such as Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network and the Dogwood Alliance. [12]

In February 2004, Hardiman left PIW to work in Iraq as a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense. [13]

Hardiman worked for the National Federation of Independent Business[14] in early 2006. He then re-established his public relations and lobbying operation, Hardiman Consulting. Included among his current clients is the American Land Rights Association, for which he registered to lobby in July 2006.

Mr. Hardiman holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification awarded by the Project Management Institute [15].

Contact information

Michael Hardiman

507 Seward Square, SE

Washington DC 20003

Phone 202-531-2290

Fax 202-543-7126

Email hardimanmike AT yahoo.com

Web: http://www.hardimanconsulting.com

External links

Categories:

---

Intimidating public interest groups

Jump to: navigation, search

The dramatic increase in the number and influence of public interest groups over recent years has alarmed conservative groups. In response, there has been a flurry of attempts to establish on-line databases to monitor non-profit groups. For all the bluster accompanying these projects, few have amounted to much.

Another strand in their strategy has been developing the intellectual rationale and rhetoric on how curtailing non-profit groups is consistent with maintaining a healthy democracy.

The Capital Research Center's Green Watch - which gained $50,000 in funding from ExxonMobil in 2002 and 2003 - is perhaps the most effective at profiling the "liberal environmentalist movement". [1][2]

Others, such as ActivistCash.com purport to 'expose' activist groups, while in reality providing little more than information that is publicly available. The ActivistCash.com website was launched in December 2001 with profiles on only 16 activist groups. By January 2003 it had crept up to only 33. In the next eighteen months to June 2004 only an additional six groups had been added to the database.

Public Interest Watch (PIW) was launched in September 2002 by Mike Hardiman. Hardiman, the principal of the public relations and lobbying company Hardiman Consulting, was also a lobbyist for the 'wise use' group, the American Land Rights Association. The group seems to have been primarily a vehicle to attack Greenpeace. On the basis of a review of IRS 990 forms, PIW filed a complaint with the IRS urging an investigation claiming that the perfectly legal transfer of funds between 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) arms amounted to 'money laundering'. Hardiman resigned in January 2004 . In March 2004 Lewis Fein was appointed as an interim Executive Director.

However, PIW appears to be a phantom organisation. Asked if the organization had had filed an IRS return Fein said "I believe so". Nor was he able to state who the Board members were or whether the address listed on the website was in fact an office address rather than the residential address of a board member.

In May 2003 the National Center for Public Policy Research, established the Envirotruth website, which it claims "sheds light on the environmentalist movement, offering information about their tactics, terrorist acts and fundraising machines." Like most of the other profiling sites, it is long on hype and short on details. In 2003 Exxon Mobil contributed $30,000 to underwrite the project. [3]

The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise's RANamuck website targeting the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network has not been updated since September 2002. Similarly, its PETA Probe site was last actively updated in late 2002.

In June 2003, with a great deal of fanfare, the American Enterprise Institute unveiled NGOWatch.org, a joint project with the Federalist Society** :(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}::{for Law and Public Policy Studies. The site, they claimed, would "expose the funding, operations and agendas of international NGOs". However, one-year later sections of the site remain "under construction" while the actual profiles on groups are spartan.

The launch of the NGOwatch site co-incided with a conference on NGO's co-hosted with the Australian conservative think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) The IPA itself launched a specialist newsletter, NGO Watch, in April 2001 to profile human rights, development and environmental organisations. However, faced with little subscriber support, the October 2002 edition was the last. "It just wasn't financially sustaining, there weren't enough buying the product," said IPA Senior Fellow, Gary Johns told Inter-Press Service.

While some of these projects have floundered or been abandoned by their sponsors it would be a mistake to conclude they have no effect. In part, their role is to create a climate in which non-profits divert scarce resources away from their core mission or soften their advocacy.

While there are thousands of non-profit environmental and other non-profit groups, only a handful appear to have been singled out for specific attention. The key groups featured by one or more of these groups are:

Other SourceWatch resources

External links

---

F&F: 

Only when Terry, the U.S. Border Patrol agent, was murdered in December 2010 did the prosecutors act. Voth's agents arrested Avila within 24 hours of Terry's death. On Jan. 19, 2011, a federal grand jury indicted him and 19 other suspects. (Avila has since pleaded guilty to dealing guns without a license).

Meanwhile, a crucial part of the Fast and Furious scandal—an unusual alliance that would prod politicians and spread word of the failure to stop guns from making their way to Mexican drug cartels—was waiting in the wings. Little more than a week after Terry's murder, a small item about the possible connection between his death and the Fast and Furious case appeared on a website, CleanUpATF.org. The site was the work of a disgruntled ATF agent-turned-whistleblower, Vince Cefalu, who is suing the bureau for alleged mistreatment in an unrelated case. His website has served as a clearinghouse for grievances and a magnet for other ATF whistleblowers.

It had also attracted gun-rights activists loosely organized around a blog called the Sipsey Street Irregulars, run by a former militiamember, Mike Vanderboegh, who has advocated armed insurrection against the U.S. government. It was an incendiary combination: the disgruntled ATF agents wanted to punish and reform the bureau; the gun-rights activists wanted to disable it. After the item about Terry appeared, the bloggers funneled the allegations through a "desert telegraph" of sorts to Republican lawmakers, who began asking questions.

---

new crypto:

It was at the Locke Foundation that Chesser began his crusade against the growing scientific consensus about climate change. He served as an editor of Carolina Journal, the group’s monthly newspaper that relentlessly attacks the science of global warming in its climate coverage. While there he also began working with  Climate Strategies Watch, an initiative that sought to discredit the Center for Climate Strategies  http://www.climatestrategies.us/ (some $ from SF!], a nonprofit group that helps states figure out ways to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Climate Strategies Watch was a joint project of the Locke Foundation and the Heartland Institute, a corporate-backed think tank in Chicago where Chesser also served as a special correspondent. Heartland has received at least $676,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. Between 1997 and 2008, they also received $30,000 from foundations connected to the Kochs and another $50,000 from Pope's family foundation. One of Heartland's government-relations advisors also served as Exxon's senior environmental advisor.  chesser ATI

---

Bonner Cohen headed EPA Watch, which received funding from Philip Morris. He purported to edit EPA Watch as an independent newsletter published and distributed by the non-profit American Policy Center, but in fact it was a publication of the APCO & Associates PR Group, originally owned by Philip Morris's Washington legal firm, Arnold & Porter (ie A&P Co = APCO)

During this time he shared the work with Steve Milloy ("Junkman"), who was running the organization known as The Advancement for Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), which purported to be a grass-roots, sound-science organization, but which was originally a tobacco industry front (run also by APCO) pushing a "sound science" line.

see CRC

CRC also sponsors three additional watchdog projects: GreenWatch, "an on-line database and information clearinghouse providing factual information on over 500 non-profit environmental groups"; EducationWatch, "an online database and news service providing timely information about nonprofit policy and advocacy groups involved in the public debate over the reform of K-12 primary education"; and CorporatePatterns, "monitor[ing] the philanthropic activities of America's leading corporations."

OMBwatch  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=OMB_Watch  RTK network  ok

chamber watch etc

foundation watch

judicial watch is scaife

ngo monitor pro israel ? http://www.ngo-monitor.org/articles.php?type=about

sourcewatch exposed is tort reform

crc:

David Riggs is the Executive Director of Green Watch, a project of the conservative think-tank, the Capital Research Center.

"David Riggs joined CRC in June, 2002. He is director of the CRC Green Watch project, www.green-watch.org, and the CRC Education Watch project, www.educationwatch.org. An expert on environmental issues, organizations and public policy, David is also adjunct faculty at George Mason University and formerly worked as Director of Land and Natural Resource Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, his biographical note states.

External links

Recent contributors to Foundation Watch include:

When is a foundation not a foundation? When it gives away other foundations’ money. [1]

Recent editions

References

  1. ↑ About page, Capital Research Center, accessed October 2007.

Category: Publications