Blackwater’s New Ethics Chief: John Ashcroft
(This article is re-posted from WIRED.)
The consortium in charge of restructuring the world’s most infamous private security firm just added a new chief in charge of keeping the company on the straight and narrow. Yes, John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, is now an “independent director” of Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater.
Ashcroft will head Xe’s new “subcommittee on governance,” its backers announced early Wednesday in a statement, an entity designed to “maximize governance, compliance and accountability” and “promote the highest degrees of ethics and professionalism within the private security industry.”
In other words, no more shooting civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan; no more signing for weapons its guards aren’t authorized to carry in warzones; no more impersonations of cartoon characters to acquire said weaponry; and no more ‘roids and coke on the job.
Ashcroft’s arrival at Xe is yet another clear signal it’s not giving up the quest for lucrative government security contracts now that it’s no longer owned by founder Erik Prince, even as it emphasizes the side of its business that trains law enforcement officers. In September, it won part of a $10 billion State Department contract to protect diplomats, starting with the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. Ashcroft, a U.S. senator before becoming attorney general in the Bush administration, is a very known quantity to the federal officials that Xe will pitch. Even if he’s not lobbying for Blackwater, Ashcroft’s addition on the board is meant to inspire confidence in government officials of its newfound rectitude.
To some, Ashcroft will be forever known as the face of Bush-era counterterrorism, the official who vigorously defended the Patriot Act’s sweeping surveillance powers; told civil libertarians that their dissents “only aid terrorists“; and covered up the Spirit of Justice’s boob. At the same time, when Ashcroft was critically ill in 2005, he resisted a White House entreaty to his hospital bed seeking to reauthorize warrantless surveillance in defiance of the acting attorney general.
“This is a company with a strong history of service to its country, and a reputation of best-in-class offerings to its public and private customers,” Ashcroft said in a statement. “I look forward to helping USTC enhance its governance and oversight capabilities as the company moves forward,” referring to U.S. Training Center, another of Blackwater’s many names. Like scores of other senior security officials, he’s spent his post-government career running a Washington consulting firm.
Xe is still sorting out its permanent leadership and searching for a permanent CEO. For now, the investor team that bought the company in December assembled and empowered a board of directors to run the shop along with the existing management. That board includes former National Security Agency director Bobby Ray Inman. Its chairman is a Clear Channel co-founder, Red McCombs.
Ashcroft and his new subcommittee will report to the board. “With the formation of this subcommittee, and with Ashcroft as its chair,” the firm says in the statement, “USTC aims to set the bar for industry standards against which all other companies will be measured.”
Democracy on Hold in Benton Harbor
This story by Ryan Harvey is re-posted from TruthOut
Michigan emergency financial management law “a violation of constitution,” say residents.
While the country watched the protests in Wisconsin spill into the State Capitol Building, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was passing a controversial bill that many consider a direct attack on the constitutional rights of the citizens of Michigan.
Public Acts 4-9, also called The Emergency Financial Management bill, gives already existing “Emergency Financial Managers” (EFMs) sweeping new powers, allowing them to literally suspend the entire elected bodies of municipalities they deem to be failing, and suspend collective bargaining agreements with unions for up to five years.
Immediately after the bill passed, an EFM took complete control over the city of Benton Harbor as well as Detroit’s public school system. EFMs are also in power in Pontiac and Ecorse.
As many as 400 accountants, lawyers, school employees and city workers are taking classes as part of the new law, studying corporate-sector strategies for municipal application. One class, “Dealing with the Unionized Workforce,” alludes to union-busting techniques.(1)
Having studied, these teams are ready to attack the local governments of Michigan to restructure their finances. “A SWAT team is an OK way to look at this,” Michigan State University economist Eric Scorsone told Bloomberg last week of the trainees.(2)
Many Michigan residents, especially those experiencing poverty or hanging on to medium-income jobs, are outraged. Protests, lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and local municipalities and calls for Governor Snyder to be recalled have unfolded with the bill’s passing.
“It’s a dictatorship,” Marian Kramer of the National Welfare Rights Union in Detroit says. “They are restructuring the government to protect the interests of corporations, that’s what this is all about. It’s not about us.”
“They have violated the constitution for the residents of Benton Harbor,” says Rev. Pinkney of Benton Harbor. “This is a constitutional issue.”
He and hundreds of others have been organizing and participating in demonstrations, lawsuits and other forms of protest against the bill.
Benton Harbor residents say that Whirlpool, the world’s leading manufacturer of major home appliances, and which once employed many in Benton Harbor in manufacturing jobs, might have a role in the EFM law as well; State Rep. Al Pscholka, who introduced the bill, formerly sat on the board of a Whirlpool-funded nonprofit in Benton Harbor now behind a controversial development on the town’s beach. And his former boss Rep. Fred Upton is a Whirlpool heir who owns property near the development.
Protesters listen to a speaker at a rally in Benton Harbor against EFM and Harbor Shores, on April 27, 2011. (Photo: Protect JKP)
Sucked Down the Whirlpool
Benton Harbor has long dealt with abject poverty, job loss from outsourcing and low-level corruption.
Earlier this month, former City Manager Richard Marsh settled a $192,000 lawsuit accusing other city officials of conducting fundraisers in the name of the city, but not turning over the money, and of burying a report on the city’s financial situation.
The city government has been profiled for government accountability lapses in the past as well. But many residents say that appointing an EFM with no legal accountability whatsoever will only makes such problems worse.
“You as a citizen have no rights,” Marian Kramer says. “The EFM only responds to the governor and his committee, not to the people.”
Benton Harbor residents point out the state government’s two-faced approach to their community. They see Whirlpool as the real criminal, overshadowing anything a city commissioner could do in a lifetime.
Whirlpool, which has its global headquarters in Benton Harbor, has long controlled the city. In 1986, at the behest of business leaders, Benton Harbor was designated as an “Enterprise Zone” to give tax exemptions to the private sector. Whirlpool quickly ate up the exemptions.(3)
At the same time, the St. Joseph-Benton Harbor area was losing over 5,000 jobs.(4) Whirlpool continued layoffs into the ’90s, until in 1996 they laid off half of the workers at their Evansville, Indiana, plant.
Today, less than one-third of Whirlpool’s workforce is inside the country.(5)
In 2003, as anti-police brutality riots broke out in Benton Harbor, Whirlpool was complaining that further tax incentives in a proposed energy bill were not enough to keep them from moving more jobs overseas. Apparently, the $17.40-an-hour jobs at Evansville were too pricey.
“A tax credit that creates a benefit for our refrigeration business is certainly welcome, but isn’t sufficient to eliminate the need for us to consider the possibility that we move some production to Mexico,” Tom Catania, Whirlpool’s vice president of government relations, threatened at the time. (6)
The threats worked and more favorable legislation passed in the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Thanks in part to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it poured into lobbying, Whirlpool has since received over $500 million dollars in tax breaks.(7)
After the new tax incentives started, Whirlpool announced it would soon be moving its Evansville and Fort Smith, Indiana, plants to Mexico, laying off another 1,200 workers(8) and leaving up to 1,500 more out of jobs through the overall “ripple effect.”(9)
This year, the job-exporting mega-manufacturer will receive multiple government handouts once again, including over $300 million in energy tax credits from the federal government – which will account for one-third of its annual profit(10) – a $19.3 million grant from the Department of Energy, $19 million in tax incentives from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority(11) and almost $1 million from the State of Ohio.(12) The company has also received over $500 million in tax credits in the last six years from the Brazilian government.(13)
And, like General Electric, Whirlpool’s effective tax rate for 2010 will be zero percent.(14)
Subsidized by these tax incentives and government handouts, Whirlpool last week announced a three-percent rise in first-quarter profits, up from $164 million to $169 million.(15)Whirlpool’s sales last year topped $17 billion.
Residents See Whirlpool Role in EFM Law
Whirlpool has often used the “job-creation” myth as a mean of getting government handouts and calming Benton Harbor residents. But, according to the Detroit Economic Club, Whirlpool’s Michigan workforce is almost 100 percent white collar. Benton Harbor is a blue-collar town. (16)
Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig exposed this recently, describing the new Whirlpool headquarters project for which the company has been promised $19 million in tax breaks from the state. “We have historical reasons [for staying in Benton Harbor], as well as having 4,000 good people here,” he told a crowd in March. “All that could change that equation for us is whether in the future we can continue to attract talent to the state.”(17)
A rally in Benton Harbor, Michigan is held against EFM and Harbor Shores, on April 27, 2011. (Photo: Protect JKP)
So, the “knowledge economy” jobs for which Michigan is paying are being marketed to people outside of Michigan.
To keep a clean public image, Whirlpool funds and largely controls a nonprofit in Benton Harbor called the Cornerstone Alliance, which has a revolving door with Whirlpool and the Whirlpool Foundation for its staff members and employees.
Cornerstone has long served the interests of Whirlpool in Benton Harbor, creating a façade through which the company can pass off its actions as being in the interests of “the community.”
“They’re an arm of Whirlpool,” says Carol Drake of Friends of Jean Klock Park.
Carol has been fighting for the preservation of the historic park against a consortium of developers led by Whirlpool. Her organization has tracked the evolution of developers’ plans to seize the public park, which she says have been in the works for decades.
Their current project is called Harbor Shores, a $500 million golf resort to include luxury homes, a water park, high-end condominiums and other similar upscale amenities.
Both Whirlpool and Cornerstone are partners in this development, which will span Benton Harbor’s public beach. Jean Klock Park was deeded to the people of Benton Harbor almost 100 years ago, but the central area of it was turned over to developers in 2008.
While the city government of Benton Harbor was complicit in this deal, newly elected commissioners have officially withdrawn the city’s support. “I don’t think any good government would show their support when we’ve given much more than any other entity,” Benton Harbor City Commissioner Duane L. Seats II said.(18)
But those commissioners no longer have any power due to Joe Harris’ recent suspension of all local government activity through the Emergency Management law.
This has led some to believe that the EFM bill is being used here to ensure that the Harbor Shores project continues.
“The true intent of the Emergency Management law here is so that the Whirlpool Corporation can complete what they started long ago,” Carol says, “the takeover of the park and of the City of Benton Harbor.”
Residents point out that Pscholka, who introduced the bill, was vice president of the Cornerstone Alliance’s Chamber of Commerce from 1996 to 2004.
“To say that there’s no connection between Harbor Shores and this legislation is absurd,” says Julie Weiss. “They are the ones who need to explain themselves.”
Julie has been active for many years in the fight to protect the park. Her organization, Protect Jean Klock Park, was founded in 2008 to support federal litigation against the National Park Service, The Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Benton Harbor.
“Pscholka was also a staffer for U.S. Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI),” Julie says. Representative Upton owns over $1 million in Whirlpool stock and pushed hard for the privatization of Jean Klock Park. His grandfather was a co-founder of Whirlpool.
For its part, Whirlpool has donated former factory land appraised at $20 million in anticipation of development at Harbor and has offered over $15 million in economic assistance and loans.
Meanwhile, the state of Michigan has offered up to $120 million in tax breaks for the project.(19)
The Harbor Shores plan is being run through a nonprofit called Harbor Shores Community Redevelopment, Inc., a collaboration among Whirlpool, Cornerstone and a new formation called The Consortium for Community Development.
The company in charge of developing Harbor Shores, Evergreen Development, was formed in 2005 in anticipation of the project. Evergreen’s Chief Financial Officer Jeffery Gilbertson is the former senior director of Financial Operations, International at General Growth Properties (GGP), one of the largest mall owners in the United States.
While Gilbertson was joining up with Evergreen in 2008, his former employer, after amassing $27 billion in debt, was filing what has been called the largest real estate bankruptcy in US history.(20)
Meanwhile, workers at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor were announcing a major campaign against GGP, which parallels the fight in Benton Harbor in many ways. A new report released this week shines light on these issues and perhaps puts the Harbor Shores project in Benton Harbor under a new light.
“The Inner Harbor,” the report reads, “has become a glaring example of poverty zone development, with low-quality jobs and abusive wages and conditions. As in other poverty zone developments, the private developers – General Growth Properties and Cordish Companies – and their investors insisted on secure profits through access to public subsidies and advantageous leases with the vendors who run the businesses in the development.”
That might sound all too familiar to the residents of Benton Harbor.
Development vs. Fair Development
It was recently announced that the 2012 and 2014 Senior PGA Tournament, brought to you by Whirlpool’s own KitchenAid, would be played at Harbor Shores.
“The Senior PGA, KitchenAid brand and Whirlpool Corporation’s alliance presents an opportunity to show how business and golf can help to strengthen and transform lives and communities,” said Jeff Noel, corporate vice president of Whirlpool Corporation.(21)
Instead of hiring locals whose taxes have helped fund the golf course’s development to work the tournament, the PGA is asking for 1,500 volunteers.(22)
This is a bit ironic since one of the big promises with the Harbor Shores development is that it will, according to their numbers, create 4,739 jobs. This number has been used in both the media and in the community as the great defense of the project.
The figure was first announced in an impact study conducted by students from the Kelley MBA Sports & Entertainment Academy with assistance from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
But there’s a catch. When the W.E. Upjohn Institute conducted their own in-depth study afterwards, they found that the previous study’s numbers were skewed. The authors had computed the employment numbers as “job years,” which, according to the new report, “is not a reporting technique generally used by professional economists.”
“In essence, a ‘job year’ is one year of employment,” the report states. “By this measure, a solitary individual who works at the same job for 10 years would be reported as 10 ‘job years.'” The Upjohn Institute reports all employment impacts in terms of conventional jobs or employment levels, which is compatible with standard, publicly-reported employment statistics.”
It turns out the numbers were off by as much as 3,123. The second report puts the total employment count during the highest employment year (which in the report is 2012) at 1,616 jobs. That includes projected tourism employment and development construction.
These numbers also don’t account for how long those jobs will last, how much they will pay and how much skill they will involve. What we do know from the reports is that the majority of the jobs created will be in construction, meaning they will only last a few years.
Again, the Baltimore report describing working conditions at the Inner Harbor gives insight into what these kinds of developments mean when they talk about jobs: “The vendors, many but not all extremely powerful and wealthy companies themselves, maximize their profits by minimizing their unfixed costs (in particular labor), which creates a downward pressure on wages and working conditions for the vendors’ employees who work at the very bottom rung of the economic ladder.”
“In short,” it continues, “the development’s profits do not trickle down, but are instead squeezed upward from the workers.”
The promise of low-paying jobs and temporary employment will not lift Benton Harbor’s current residents out of poverty. Residents say they have been hearing similar things for years, but little has changed.
“They aren’t going to bring any jobs that are going to sustain a family,” Carol says.
Though there have been some improvements since the harsh years of the late 1970s, unemployment rates in Benton Harbor are still far above the national average (15 percent today with unofficial claims as high as 70 percent) and almost half of the city’s residents are now living at or below the poverty line. While the unemployment rate is lower than it was when the 1986 tax incentives started, almost half of the city’s residents have moved out since then, which helped bring that percentage down.
“They had to run the city down as far as they possibly could so [Whirlpool] would qualify for all the state money,” Carol suggests, “so they could create this development.”
One typical pattern with this type of development is that, after completion, property values rise and renters must move on to cheaper areas. For instance, while Fred Upton and Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig will see their property values rise in St. Joseph, the 60 percent of Benton Harbor residents who rent their houses will not.(23)
If poor residents are priced out and forced to other places, the result on paper will be that the overall income of Benton Harbor rose as a result of the Harbor Shores development.
“They want us to leave here as soon as possible,” says Reverend Pinkney.
As the Baltimore model has shown, developers in positions like Harbor Shores often masquerade as an economic engine for a city while leaching public money to make big profits.
“Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a sad example of what broken promises for economic prosperity and jobs can do to a community,” says Ashley Hufnagel, a leadership organizer with the United Workers.
“It is workers and the community who end up paying the price for poverty-zone developments through poverty wages, lack of healthcare, barriers to education and more. That’s why harbor workers in Baltimore are holding the developers accountable and calling for Fair Development, an alternative model that respects human rights, maximizes public benefits and is sustainable.”
A demonstration has been called for in Benton Harbor on June 18, the anniversary of the 2003 riots. Another larger demonstration will take place during the 2012 PGA Championships at Harbor Shores.
Footnotes:
1. See here [3].
2. See here [3].
3. See here [4].
4. See here [5].
5. See here [6].
6. “Good Jobs First, Layoffs at Whirlpool: Costs to the Evansville Metro Area and Indiana Taxpayers.” Commissioned by IUE-CWA Local 808 and AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Washington, DC. April 2010.
7. See here [7].
8. See here [8].
9. “Good Jobs First, Layoffs at Whirlpool: Costs to the Evansville Metro Area and Indiana Taxpayers.” Commissioned by IUE-CWA Local 808 and AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Washington, DC. April 2010.
10. See here [9].
11. See here [10].
12. See here [11].
13. See here [12].
14. See here [13].
15. See here [14].
16. See here [6].
17. See here [6].
18. See here [15].
19. See here [16].
20. See here [17].
21. See here [18].
22. See here [19].
23. See here [20].
[21]Yesterday, Senator Carl Levin issued a brief statement on the killing of Osama bin Laden.
“The people of the world can feel relief and satisfaction that a monster has been brought to justice. Justice has a long memory and a long arm.
“I stand in awe and appreciation of the men and women of our military and our intelligence community, who have once again demonstrated their amazing courage and competence. Their heroism is a stark contrast to bin Laden, who while sending his underlings to die or huddle in mountain caves has been living in the comfort of a villa in Pakistan. Surely this will help puncture the myth of Osama bin Laden.
“This is a great victory in the fight against terrorism. But it is not the final victory.
“These events also bring back to us the pain of the terrible loss we suffered on Sept. 11, 2001, and of the sacrifices of the brave men and women who have been lost or wounded in the years since. It is their heroism, and not bin Laden’s hatred, that endures.”
The statement is revealing on many levels. First, Levin makes the claim that the “people of the world” feel relief that bin Laden is dead, even though the Senator never provides any evidence that the people of the world indeed feel this way. Some heads of state have made comments to that effect and some people in the US are rejoicing over the decision of the Obama administration to assassinate bin Laden, but there is hardly a sense that the people of the world feel relief.
In fact, many people around the world have reason to have a continued sense of fear, since the death of bin Laden will not end US military campaigns around the world. The people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Egypt, Yemen and many other countries will not feel relief. The US military operations or US supported military repression in those countries will not end and will not even decrease in intensity because of the death of bin Laden, a point that Jeremy Scahill made yesterday in regards to Afghanistan & Pakistan while speaking on Democracy Now.
Secondly, Levin goes out of his way to make heroes out of the US military personnel who were involved in the operation that ended bin Laden’s life. Levin says that the men and women have demonstrated “amazing courage.” Interesting, so the most sophisticated army in the world, with the most deadly weaponry in the world demonstrates courage because they assassinated Osama bin Laden. How is this courageous? These men were just following orders.
Levin also said that the US military demonstrated amazing competence. If indeed, the US military did finally kill bin Laden, it took them almost 2 decades to do so, since bin Laden was on the hit list beginning with the Clinton administration. In fact, there are those who have worked in the US intelligence community who think that the US has had plenty of chances to kill or arrest bin Laden and have failed to do so over the past 20 years, a claim made by former intelligence officer Michael Scheuer in his book Imperial Hubris.
Thirdly, Levin states that the death of bin Laden is a victory in the “fight against terrorism,” but then says it is not the “final victory.” Again, Levin provides no evidence that the assassination of bin Laden is a victory in the US campaign against so-called terrorism. Indeed, the assassination of bin Laden will likely have no impact on actions of groups like al Qaeda or the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Fourth, Senator Levin uses the opportunity of the announcement of bin Laden’s death to talk about the terrorist attack against the US on 9/11/2001. This has been the case of much of the US media, where pundits make the point that those who lost family members in those attacks can now feel like justice has been served. What is problematic with such a position is that is assumes that bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. There is no hard evidence that bin Laden gave the orders for 9/11 and if he is indeed dead we will never know since there will be no trial to determine such a conclusion.
Lastly, the statement by Levin and the current news blitz omits the history relationship between Osama bin Laden and the US. Bin Laden has been presented only as an enemy of the US, but news agencies, President Obama and Senator Levin omit the fact that in the 1980s bin Laden was part of the Mujahideen insurgent forces fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Bin Laden, like many other Muslim extremists, was the recipient of US funding, weapons and training throughout the 1980s in that anti-Soviet campaign, a point that Bill Blum has documented well.
The US funding of bin Laden during the 1980s was also supported by Senator Levin and the majority of Congress who approved roughly $6 billion in weapons and other military aid to the Mujahideen. However, providing historical context is usually not of interest for the commercial media in the US, which means that Senator Levin will rarely be questioned on his foreign policy positions.
(This article is re-posted from OpenSecrets.)
During federal elections, contributions to moneyed political party organizations such as the Democratic National Committee or National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee receive considerable attention. Less scrutinized are governors associations, which in recent years have attracted significantly more special interest cash than ever before.
Unlike political committees or candidates for federal office, the Democratic Governors Association and Republican Governors Association both may receive unlimited amounts of money in their bids to support gubernatorial candidates across the nation, including money directly from corporate and union treasuries. And raise cash they did.
During the 2010 election cycle, the RGA raised a total of $117.1 million. Interest groups, corporations and unions accounted for $73.1 million of these contributions to the RGA. And of this sum, $60.3 million (or 82.5 percent) came from businesses, lawyers and lobbyists.
According to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the top 50 donors to the RGA, 39 are corporate entities, and together, they gave $19 million to support the organization.
Topping the list of corporate contributors to the RGA is News America, at $1.25 million. News America is a subsidiary of News Corp., a company founded by media magnate Rupert Murdoch. News Corp. is the third largest media conglomerate in the world, and it owns Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, among other publications.
Contran Corp. is a close second, having made $1.125 million in contributions to the RGA during the 2010 election cycle. Contran is a holding company that owns subsidiaries that specializes in chemical, metal, computer and waste management systems. In 2010 alone, the company also spent $340,000 to lobby the federal government.
The DGA, meanwhile, received $46.7 million of its overall $55.3 million in receipts during the 2010 election cycle from corporations, unions or special interest groups, and $32.7 million of that — or about 70 percent — came from corporations, lobbyists and lawyers.
Of the DGA’s top 50 donors, 32 are corporations from the health, energy or and telecommunications sectors.
Pfizer gave $590,770, and this represented the single largest corporate contribution to the DGA. Pfizer is a global pharmaceutical company that produces drugs such as Advil, Celebrex and Lipitor. During 2010, the drug company spent more than $13 million lobbying Congress on public health and tax issues.
Second on the DGA’s list is FirstEnergy Corp., which gave $550,000. FirstEnergy is an Ohio-based electric company and is a member of the Forbes 500 list. The company hired 15 lobbyists to influence lawmakers in Washington on energy, environmental and other issues last year.
Among major corporate contributors to the DGA and RGA:
A number of corporations ultimately hedged their bets in gubernatorial races by giving generously to both the DGA and RGA.
When comparing the top 50 donor lists for both associations, 15 companies sent money to both organizations, according to the Center’s research.
For instance, the U.S. subsidiary of AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals contributed $577,000 to the RGA while also giving $520,000 to the DGA. AstraZenceca is a London-based pharmaceutical company that specializes in drugs that combats cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.
Similarly, the Correction Corporation of America gave $306,000 to RGA and $265,000 to DGA. Correction Corporation of America designs, constructs, remodels and manages prisons and jails. The organization also operates inmate transportation services through its subsidiary company, TransCor America.
Another company that donated to both associations is Wal-Mart. During this past election cycle, the massive retailer contributed $469,000 to the RGA and $411,000 to the DGA.
Click on the charts below to see how business and special interest sectors have contributed money to the DGA and RGA during the 2010 election cycle (click charts to enlarge):
Although corporations have made sizable donations to both governors associations, individuals have also made six- and seven-figure donations, particularly to the RGA.
In all, eight people gave at least $500,000 to the RGA during the 2010 election cycle, including Perry Homes chief Bob Perry ($8 million), Elliott Management hedge fund honcho Paul Singer ($2.38 million) and Koch Industries co-owner David Koch ($1 million).
Perry is also notable for his financial support of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth organization that criticized Democrat John Kerry during his 2004 presidential bid and American Crossroads, a conservative group established last year in part by former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove, as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.
Eleven people donated six-figure sums to the DGA during the 2010 election cycle, including Newsweb Corp. Chairman Fred Eychaner ($450,000), lawyer J. Steve Mostyn ($400,000) and BLS Investments Chairman Bernard L. Schwartz ($350,000).
Six-figure contributions by Eychaner were also notably used by a political committee operated by EMILY’s List called Women Vote! to fund radio ads during the special election in Massachusetts in January 2010, as OpenSecrets Blog first reported in March 2010. Women Vote! was one of the first so-called “super PACs” to operate during the 2010 election cycle.
During the 2010 election cycle, the GOP won a net of six gubernatorial seats in the 38 contested state and territorial governorships.
The 2012 election cycle will feature only 13 gubernatorial races. But corporations, labor unions and ideological groups will likely invest their resources into these contests given their competitive nature and deep partisan divides across the nation.
On Saturday, while attending the May Day celebration in Grand Rapids, we had a chance to speak with Benton Harbor activist/organizer Rev. Pinkney.
He talked about what the newly imposed Emergency Financial Manager means for the people of Benton Harbor and what is being done to respond to what he called a “theft of democracy.”
Rev. Pinkney also informed us that there is a demonstration in Benton Harbor this coming Saturday, May 7. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was invited by the city of St. Joseph to be the Grand Marshall of Grand Floral Parade, which is the biggest yearly event in St. Joseph & Benton Harbor.
People are invited to come and protest the parade this coming Saturday, May 7. People will meet at 11am in front of the Benton Harbor Public Library 200 Wall Street, then march to where the parade is being held.
For more information on the protest or the struggle in Benton Harbor go to http://bhbanco.blogspot.com/.
Grand Rapids Celebrates May Day 2011
Yesterday, hundreds of people from the community came out to celebrate in the 2nd annual May Day event organized by the Grand Rapids Chapter of the IWW.
While the day started out windy and cool, the sun finally broke through and it was a beautiful day for a celebration. Some 15 bands played throughout the day, including folks music, hip hop, Latin rock, punk, blues, rap and Indie music. The IWW also had a DJ there throughout the day spinning tunes between bands keeping the energy high.
These mix of music genres was reflected in the turnout with a racial diverse audience of people, some of which came from the immediate neighborhood surrounding Martin Luther King Park.
In addition, members of Stop Targeting Our Kids (STOK) provided some activities for children such as face painting and other artistic expression projects. The Really, Really Free Market was also open for several hours allowing people to exchange goods without having to spend any money. There was also free food provided by a new chapter of Food Not Bombs and garden plants from Our Kitchen Table. The new worker-run restaurant BarterTown also brought food for people to sample and to see how a worker-run restaurant differs from a management run business.
There were also several organizations there with information and resources. The Sprout Anarchist Collective had a table with zines and other resources, along with the IWW and the Bloom Collective.
Between bands groups had an opportunity to let people know about the grassroots and anti-capitalist work being done in Grand Rapids. There was also some poetry read, a speech by Rev. Pinckney from Benton Harbor and the IWW kept reminding people about the history of May Day and their call for a general strike. GRIID had a chance to speak with IWW member Cole Dorsey about some of these issues.
Barack Obama Seeks Big Bucks
(This article is re-posted from OpenSecrets.)
President Barack Obama returned Wednesday night to a land where campaign cash has flowed for him like milk and honey: New York City.
When Obama ran for president in 2008, of every $20 he raised, $1 came from someone in New York City, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Donors living in the NYC metro area contributed more than $42 million to Obama’s massive war chest during the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center’s research — more than any other metropolitan area.
And six of the 10 most prolific zip codes that backed Obama represent parts of New York City: 10024, 10023, 10021, 10025, 10128 and 10011.
As he battles for re-election, Obama is hoping to keep his New York City supporters energized and motivated to again open their pocketbooks for him.
On Wednesday night, Obama’s fund-raising tour in the Big Apple consisted of three events: one at the Fifth Avenue home of former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer and former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine, one at the prestigious Waldorf Astoria hotel and one at the Town Hall theater in Manhattan, which also featured music by the Roots. The three events reportedly raised more than $2 million, split between Obama’s nascent re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
At the events, Obama lauded his successful elevation of two new women onto the U.S. Supreme Court — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. “We put a couple more women on the Supreme Court — Lord knows we need them,” Obama said to applause.
During his 2008 presidential run, Obama also needed votes and financial support from women.
Female donors accounted for more than $145 million in itemized contributions, that is donations above the $200 threshold for itemized disclosure with the Federal Election Commission.
Male donors, meanwhile, gave Obama about $199 million in donations exceeding $200. That translates to about a 57-42 split between male and female donors.
Obama’s Republican challenger, John McCain, meanwhile, got about 72 of his itemized donations from men and only about 28 percent of his money from women, according to the Center’s research.
Senator Stabenow and the Future of Agribusiness Subsidies
Last week, Senator Debbie Stabenow was in Grand Rapids meeting with representatives from the agribusiness sector, according to MiBiz.
The business journal quotes the Senator as saying, “From farming and ranching to marketing and manufacturing, Michigan’s agriculture industry touches virtually every community, supporting one in four Michigan jobs and bringing more than $70 billion to the state annually.”
While it is true that agribusiness brings $70 billion to the state of Michigan, much of that profit goes into the hands of the agribusiness sector and does not provide a significant benefit to most Michigan families. In fact, Michigan taxpayers subsidize the agribusiness sector to the tune of millions each year. According to the Environmental Working Group, agribusiness subsidies have totaled $4.11 billion from 1995 – 2009.
The amount of these annual subsidies is exactly why the general manager for Country Fresh was so delighted to have a visit from Senator Stabenow. Country Fresh has also been the recipient of huge taxpayer subsidies and according to the Environmental Working Group the dairy sector (which Country Fresh is part of) received $208,146,457 from 1995 – 2009.
One of the main reasons that the agricultural sector receives such high taxpayer subsidies is because they lobby Congress to provide them with these huge cash payments. According to the Center for Responsible Politics, the Agribusiness sector has spent over $500 million dollars in the last 20 years in order to receive hundreds of billions of dollars in federal subsidies over the same period of time. Dean Foods, the parent company of Country Fresh, has contributed $665,200 alone in the past year to members of Congress.
The other reason that Country Fresh management was happy by Senator Stabenow’s visit is because she is the chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Country Fresh invited Stabenow to one of their food processing plants in order to continue a relationship with the Senator, especially now that she is the chair of the Agriculture committee.
Senator Stabenow will be chairing the first of several hearings in Michigan on the 2012 Farm Bill, which will determine the amount of future taxpayer subsidies to agribusiness. This hearing is set for Tuesday, May 31st, from 9AM til Noon in the Kellogg Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Country Fresh will no doubt have it’s own representatives at such a hearing and inviting Senator Stabenow to Grand Rapids just weeks before the hearing no doubt will be beneficial for them in terms of future subsidies.
(This article by Nick Turse is re-posted from TomDispatch.)
In recent weeks, Yemeni protesters calling for an immediate end to the 32-year reign of U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been met with increasing violence at the hands of state security forces. A recent pledge by Saleh to step down, one of many that haven’t met demonstrators’ demands, has yet to halt the protests or violence by the troops backing his regime. During a demonstration earlier this month in the city of Taiz, protesters marching down a central street were confronted by security forces and Saleh supporters, while government helicopters flew overhead. “The thugs and the security forces fired on us with live gunfire,” Mahmud al-Shaobi, one of the protesters told the New York Times. “Many people were shot.”
In the days since, more demonstrators have been attacked by government forces — with the death toll now estimated to exceed 130. Witnesses have also been reporting the increased use of military helicopters in the crackdown. Some of those aircraft may be recent additions to Saleh’s arsenal, provided courtesy of the Obama administration as part of an $83-million military aviation aid package.
Since the beginning of 2011, under a program run by the U.S. Department of Defense, the United States has overseen the delivery of several new Bell UH-1Hs, or “Huey II” helicopters, current models of the iconic Huey that served as America’s primary gunship and troop transport during the Vietnam War. Although these helicopters are only the latest additions to a sizeable arsenal that the Pentagon has provided to Yemen in recent years, they call attention to how U.S. weapons and assistance support regimes actively suppressing democratic uprisings across the Middle East.
How to Arm a Dictator
Last December, 26-year-old Tunisian fruit-seller Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of a local municipal office, touching off popular protests that continue to sweep across the Middle East and North Africa. By the end of January 2011, the country’s U.S.-backed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had fled and demonstrations, which would eventually also topple corrupt autocrat and long-time U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, had broken out in Egypt. In Yemen, as is the case elsewhere in the region, anger at government corruption, rampant poverty (40% of all Yemenis live on less than $2 a day), high unemployment (also running at 40%), and decades of harsh rule by an authoritarian strongman brought tens of thousands into the streets.
In January, as freedom struggles were spreading across the region, President Barack Obama publicly avowed support for “certain core values that we believe in as Americans[,] that we believe are universal: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, people being able to use social networking or any other mechanisms to communicate with each other and express their concerns.” Just days earlier, however, his government had transferred military equipment to the security forces of Yemen’s so-called president for life.
Under the terms of a $27 million contract between the Pentagon and Bell Helicopter, Yemen received four Huey IIs. Prior to this, 12 Yemeni Air Force pilots and 20 maintenance personnel were trained to fly and service the aircraft at Bell’s flight instruction facility in Alliance, Texas. “The swift execution of the Yemen Huey II program demonstrates that the military departments — in this case the U.S. Army — can quickly deliver defense articles and services to U.S. partners with the cooperation of U.S. industry,” said Brandon Denecke of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the branch of the Pentagon that coordinates sales and transfers of military equipment to allies.
The recent helicopter deal is just the latest example of Pentagon support for the forces of the Yemeni dictator through its so-called “1206 program,” a Congressionally-authorized arrangement that “allows the executive branch to rapidly provide foreign partners with military equipment and training…” Named for section 1206 of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act, the program allows the Pentagon to enhance the capabilities of foreign military forces for “counterterrorism and stability operations.”
Since 2006, more than $1.3 billion worth of equipment has been allocated under the 1206 program and Yemen has been the largest recipient worldwide, benefitting from about one-fifth of the funding or approximately $253 million through 2010. This assistance, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, has provided Yemeni security forces with light airplanes, helicopters, small arms, ammunition, light tactical vehicles, trucks, radios, surveillance cameras, computers, body armor, patrol boats, and helicopter parts, among other materiel.
Since 2000, the Pentagon has also transferred weapons and equipment directly from U.S. stockpiles to Yemen’s security forces. These items include armored personnel carriers, M-60 machine guns, 2.5-ton military trucks, radios, and motorboats, according to an analysis of Defense Department documents by TomDispatch. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency did not respond to repeated requests for further information.
All told, over the past five years, the U.S. has provided more than $300 million in aid to Yemen’s security forces, with the dollars escalating precipitously under the Obama administration. In 2008, under President George W. Bush, Yemen received $17.2 million in baseline military assistance (which does not include counterterrorism or humanitarian funding). In 2010, that number had risen to $72.3 million while, overall, Yemen received $155.3 million in U.S. aid that year, including a “$34.5 million special operations force counterterrorism enhancement package.” These funds have provided Yemen’s security forces with helicopters, Humvees, weapons, ammunition, radio systems, and night-vision goggles.
Additionally, U.S. special operations troops (along with British and Saudi military personnel) have been supporting, advising, and conducting training missions with some of Yemen’s elite forces — including the Republican Guard, Special Operations Forces, and the National Security Bureau — which are commanded and staffed by Saleh’s sons and other close relatives.
As his part of the bargain, Saleh allowed the U.S. to launch missile strikes against suspected al-Qaeda camps in Yemen while instructing his government to take credit for the attacks (for fear that if their American origins were made clear, there might be an anti-American backlash in Yemen and the larger Arab world), according to classified State Department documents released last year by the whistleblower group Wikileaks. “We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,” Saleh told then-CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus following strikes in December 2009.
The Yemeni government also came up with a cover story for, and even excused, the deaths of civilians in those strikes. Rashad al-Alimi, a deputy prime minister, claimed that the Yemeni citizens killed in an attack were “acting in collusion with the terrorists and benefiting financially” when, in reality, they were likely Bedouin families involved in little more than peddling food.
Not So Tough Talk
As Yemen’s security forces have escalated their violence against demonstrators this spring, the Obama administration has offered mixed signals regarding Saleh, but has yet to issue an outright condemnation of the dictator, no less sever ties with a leader seen as crucial to the fight against al-Qaeda. “We have had a good working relationship with President Saleh. He’s been an important ally in the counterterrorism arena,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on March 23rd. “But clearly, there’s a lot of unhappiness inside Yemen. And I think we will basically just continue to watch the situation. We haven’t done any post-Saleh planning, if you will.”
On April 5th, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney came out more forcefully. “The United States strongly condemns the use of violence by Yemeni government forces against demonstrators in Sanaa, Taiz, and Hodeida in the past several days,” he said. “The Yemeni people have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and we remind President Ali Abdullah Saleh of his responsibility to ensure the safety and security of Yemenis who are exercising their universal right to engage in political expression. “
That same day, however, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was more equivocal, justifying enduring U.S. support for Yemen’s strongman as a “prudent course of action,” while including the protestors as the equals of the security forces in his condemnation of the use of force: “The protests, the demonstrations need to be nonviolent. Obviously, the government needs to respond to them in a nonviolent manner. So we are — we condemn the violence all around.”
Morrell also sought to distance the Pentagon’s aid for the country’s security forces from the violence being meted out in Yemen’s streets. He told reporters, “To suggest that the aid to Yemen has somehow been used against protesters I think is a leap of faith for which there is no evidence to support.” Recent reports, however, suggest that Yemen’s elite U.S.-trained counterterrorism troops have now been deployed in the capital, Sanaa, to deal with the massive ongoing protests.
Late last year, the Pentagon floated a new proposal to pump up to $1.2 billion more into Yemen’s security forces over the next five years. However, with protesters in the streets week after week in vast numbers and significant elements of the military defecting from the regime, the Obama administration failed to write Saleh a check and began quietly urging him, through back-channel communications, to hand over power — assumedly to a successor likely to favor U.S. interests.
Finally, on April 23rd, after Saleh seemingly agreed to an arrangement brokered by Arab mediators that would grant immunity from prosecution to his family and him, and eventually shift power to his deputy for an interim period, the Obama administration threw its support behind the plan. A spokesman characterized it as “responsive to the aspirations of the Yemeni people.” Not only have many opposition protesters rejected the deal, while Saleh’s troops continue to attack them, but the dictator has slowly backed away from it as well.
And yet, despite weeks of violence that have left hundreds dead or wounded, President Obama has yet to publicly and unequivocally call for Saleh to step down as he did, albeit belatedly, with former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and, more recently, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sending a Message
Earlier this month, Tawakul Karman, a Yemeni human rights activist and antigovernment protest leader, told the New York Times of her anger at Obama for his failure to issue such a call. ”We feel that we have been betrayed,” she said. Hamza Alkamaly, another prominent youth leader, echoed the same sentiments: ”We students lost our trust in the United States.”
After watching two allied autocrats fall in Tunisia and Egypt, the United States has focused on its periodic enemy, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, in Libya and has done little of substance to advocate for, let alone facilitate, demands for democracy and social change by protesters in allied states that are more integral to its military plans in the region, including Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Instead, Washington has continued to support repressive governments to which it has provided training, weapons, and other military equipment that has already been used or could be used to suppress grassroots democratic movements.
In the case of Bahrain, the U.S. has provided millions of rounds of live ammunition, helicopters, and tanks. For Saudi Arabia, it was a weapons deal worth tens of billions of dollars that will have Saudi pilots training in the U.S. In Iraq, the U.S. is aiding the very units of the security forces implicated in crackdowns on the free press. And these are only a few examples of recent U.S. efforts in the Middle East.
A survey of Yemeni adults conducted in January and February by the U.S.-based polling firm Glevum Associates found exceptional hostility to the United States. Ninety-nine percent of those surveyed viewed the U.S. government’s relations with the Islamic world unfavorably, 82% considered U.S. military influence in the world “somewhat bad” or “bad,” 66% believed that the U.S. hardly ever or never took into account the interests of countries like Yemen, and just 4% “somewhat” or “strongly approved” of President Saleh’s cooperation with the United States.
The numbers could hardly get more dismal, but anger and resentment can deepen and become even more entrenched. When protesters look to the skies over Sanaa in the days and weeks ahead, they may notice new American-made, U.S. taxpayer-financed helicopters hovering above them. Unless the Hueys are seen ferrying the dictator away in a scene reminiscent of Saigon in 1975, Yemenis — more than two-thirds under the age of 24 — are likely to remember for a very long time which side the United States took in their freedom struggle.
Circus Protest Planned for this Friday in Grand Rapids
A group of local animal rights activists have organized a protest against the Circus when it is in town this weekend.
Too often we think of that the animals used in a circus are treated well and willingly do whatever “tricks” they do for the audience. According to PETA, “For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as “positive reinforcement”—only varying degrees of punishment and deprivation. To force them to perform these meaningless and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.”
Those who have organized the Grand Rapids protest also make a statement about how animals are treated in the circus.
“Help us stop the cruelty. These animals have horrible lives and are trained with whips and chains. They live in small trailers and do not even have room to turn around. They submit to this cruelty because they are completely broken down.”
Anyone who opposes the animal cruelty in circuses is invited to come with signs and send a message to those who paid to see animals mistreated.
Friday, April 29
4 – 7:00 PM
DeltaPlex Arena & Conference Center
2500 Turner Ave NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49544
