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Guy Who Signed 'XYZ Corp.' Astroturf Letter... Worked As Telco
PR Person For Nearly 3 Decades?
,----[ Quote ]
| So, remember last week when we wrote about
| how anti-net neutrality lobbyists from AT&T
| had crafted astroturf letters for various
| "special interest groups" to sign -- but
| someone forgot to remove the boilerplate
| "XYZ Organization" in the first paragraph?
| We also noted that there was little
| evidence that the group -- the Arkansas p
| Retired Seniors -- actually existed.
| However, Matt Cutts did a bit of digging
| and found that the name of the guy who
| signed the letter -- Bob Sells -- appears
| to have worked in PR for Southwestern Bell
| for 28 years (there appears to be only one
| Bob Sells or Robert Sells in Little Rock).
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091024/1547326664.shtml
Health care critic advises 'divide and conquer' strategy
,----[ Quote ]
| A prominent foe of health care reform sent
| a memo to allied groups last week urging
| greater coordination in the health care
| message wars as Democrats work to hammer
| out a final bill.
|
| In the memo obtained by CNN, Conservatives
| for Patients Rights leader Rick Scott wrote
| that the health care bills now emerging
| from the House and Senate will be "target
| rich environments" â but he implored reform
| opponents to synchronize their strategies
| before attacking.
`----
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/19/health-care-critic-advises-divide-and-conquer-strategy/
Rick Scott Urges Anti-Health Care Front Groups to Coordinate Their Attacks
http://www.prwatch.org/node/8646
Insurers poised to reap benefits from healthcare overhaul
,----[ Quote ]
| Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -
| As President Obama's push for a healthcare
| overhaul moves toward its final act, the
| oft-vilified health insurance industry is
| on the verge of seeing a plan enacted that
| largely protects its financial interests.
`----
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-health-insure26-2009oct26,0,757790.story
Insurance Industry Lobbyists Poised for Healthcare Win
http://www.prwatch.org/node/8653
BREAKING FROM DENNIS KUCINICH: Why We Desperately Need Health Care for All - Now
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6820163
Al Franken kicks eleventy-million kinds of ass in health-care hearing
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/23/al-franken-kicks-ele.html
LIVE! From the Big Showdown in Chicago
,----[ Quote ]
| The protestors attempted to deliver a
| letter to ABA President Edward Yingling
| listing their concerns and demands, but no
| representative of the ABA would come out to
| accept the letter, guaranteeing that the
| protestors would try again later.
`----
http://www.prwatch.org/node/8654
Goldman Sachs, KGB?
,----[ Quote ]
| Is GSG's charitable contribution admissible
| "res gestae" on the issue of "consciouness
| of guilt"? Didn't Bernie Madoff donate
| millions to charity? Millions of other
| people's money. Yes Viniar, Henry Paulson
| performed "admirably" for his "former"
| firm. $16.71 billion divided by $200
| million = 83.5, you're in the "prosperity
| gospel" ballpark!
`----
http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/10/goldman-sachs-kgb.html
Lobbyists given free rein after ministers refuse tougher regulation
,----[ Quote ]
| Lobbyists will continue to have free rein
| across Whitehall after the Government
| backed away from imposing new regulations
| on the industry.
|
| Details of meetings between civil servants
| and lobbyists will not to published,
| despite calls from MPs on the Public
| Administration Committee, who made the
| recommendation after a six-month inquiry
`----
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6887499.ece
Oil Tycoon: Our Troops Died ... We're "Entitled" to Sweet Contracts in Iraq!
,----[ Quote ]
| A relatively small number of Americans have
| paid a huge price in Iraq directly. Not
| just the 4,300 killed or 31,500 physically
| wounded, but the entire million-plus who
| have served there at one point or another.
`----
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/143465/oil_tycoon%3A_our_troops_died_..._we%27re_%22entitled%22_to_sweet_contracts_in_iraq!/
,----[ Quote ]
| HuffPost's Nico Pitney: Fox News Largely "A
| 24-Hour Campaign Against The Obama
| Administration" (VIDEO)
|
| Huffington Post national editor Nico Pitney
| appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday
| morning to debate the White House campaign
| against Fox News.
`----
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/25/huffposts-nico-pitney-fox_n_333006.html
GOP Funder Bankrolling Cheney Family Front Group, "Keep America Safe"
,----[ Quote ]
| KAS serves as a mouthpiece for policies
| supported by Dick Cheney, who, since
| leaving office, has denounced the U.S.
| Department of Justice investigation into
| the Bush administration's use of torture,
| and opposed President Obama's plans to
| close the Guantanamo Bay detention
| facility.
`----
http://www.prwatch.org/node/8656
Recent:
Microsoft screwing themselves while they try to screw Google
,----[ Quote ]
| It turns out Microsoft has been busy holding weekly âScrew Googleâ meetings,
| trying to figure out how to throw roadblocks in front of Google as they
| continue to dominate the search arena. Itâs easy for me to say, but doesnât
| it make a lot more sense to spend millions of dollars making something thatâs
| actually better than Google rather than simply trying to make them look bad?
|
| [...]
|
| Itâs time for Microsoft to stop wasting their money worrying about Google,
| and start breaking their own trails. Microsoft does have some diamonds in
| their rough though â one example is their development tools, frameworks and
| platforms. This includes WPF, Silverlight and Microsoft Surface â and in my
| opinion, Microsoft needs to invest more heavily in those technologies.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=1531
Corn Farmers Against Google?
,----[ Quote ]
| Only if they're planting in AstroTurf
|
| [...]
|
| How do you know the organization, and the op-ed, weren't created by LawMedia
| Group at the behest of some well-funded clients? If they did their jobs
| right, you don't know.
|
| Some of them have left digital fingerprints here and there, though, says
| Declan McCullagh, in a blockbuster of a report exposing the intellectual
| whoredom offered for various important issues. Shortly after Microsoft hired
| LawMedia, for example, legislators, national agencies, and news outlets
| received pointed complaints from coalitions of farmers, rural voters, and
| geeky Latinos about how Google's advertising deal with Yahoo would wreck
| everything.
|
| [...]
|
| Don't call them a PR firm or a lobbying firm though, Law Media â which has a
| ton of lawyers working for them tooâis a "public affairs firm" specializing
| in producing "remarkable coalitions" for anything one might need a coalition
| for.
`----
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/08/14/corn-farmers-against-google
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