Jim Hightower: Corporate America Speaking Out

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Corporate America Speaking Out

by Jim Hightower


Congressional Republicans have spent the first two years of the Obama administration as the rock-solid party of "no," "uh-uh," "no way," "forget about it," "nothing doing," "we're-against-it-and-we'll-kill-it." This is one reason their job approval rating is lower than that of BP executives.

But now, GOP leaders in the House say they are shifting from pure negativity. Instead, they intend to step forward with their own bold policy ideas. Terrific! What are some of those ideas? "Uh ... um ... well," say the leaders, "we don't know yet, but that's why we've launched an exciting new campaign that we call America Speaking Out. We'll go directly to the grassroots people, asking for their ideas, giving them a voice and letting them shape 'the new Republican agenda.'"

Again, terrific! Where are you starting your grassroots campaign? "Uh ... um," stumble the leaders, before mumbling: "Washington, D.C."

Indeed, only six weeks after America Speaking Out was introduced as "an unprecedented initiative to listen to the American people," ASO did not rush out to hold open policy-crafting town hall forums in places like Fargo, Fresno and Freeport. Instead, they held a closed session in the snug confines of House minority leader John Boehner's Capitol Hill office.

And just who were the plain folks the GOP leader invited? His e-mailed solicitation went to 20 top lobbyists representing big corporations and such business front groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. Apparently, this is the bunch Republican leaders consider to be their real "grassroots" constituency. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/18

[Ignis]

1. K&R

JH is a national hero, and all the more important now that other truth-tellers like Molly Ivins are no longer with us.

[cilla4progress]

2. Here, here!

Sure miss Miss Molly, though...

[Ignis]

4. Yeah, me too.

I lent out my autographed copy of Shrub to a friend recently, and I was left staring at the hole it left on my bookshelf.

:(

[gratuitous]

3. What's Hightower doing? Following up?

The story was six weeks ago, and was just supposed to be about this great Republican initiative. That's all. End of story. Finito. Now, here's Hightower, stirring up trouble, by following up on the story, and trying to tell everyone that the Republican "initiative" was another round of them sitting around smelling their own farts. Well, that's not the narrative the Republicans want out there, and it has no place in the national media. When the Republicans want further reporting on their "grassroots campaign," they tell us what they want reported, not a bunch of facts that are only going to confuse people with the gap between Republican words and deeds.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Corporate America never shuts up

We're inundated with their propaganda 24/7/365.