TPM: Conservative Think Tank Seeks Michigan Profs' Emails About Wisconsin Union Battle ...And Maddow

[highplainsdem]

And in case you're wondering why Rachel Maddow's name is involved, when other people in the media aren't -- Rachel mentioned ALEC on her program:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x610562

This was back on March 10, before Professor Cronon's blog about ALEC drew so much attention to ALEC that the GOP didn't want.

I haven't heard Ed Schultz mention ALEC yet. But Keith Olbermann did, a couple of weeks before he left MSNBC.


This is the TPM article:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/in-michigan-conservative-think-tank-seeks-labor-prof-emails.php

Conservative Think Tank Seeks Michigan Profs' Emails About Wisconsin Union Battle ... And Maddow
Evan McMorris-Santoro | March 29, 2011, 10:12AM


A free enterprise think tank in Michigan -- backed by some of the biggest names in national conservative donor circles -- has made a broad public records request to at least three in-state universities with departments that specialize in the study of labor relations, seeking all their emails regarding the union battle in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, TPM has learned.

According to professors subject to the request, filed under Michigan's version of the Freedom Of Information Act, the request is extremely rare in academic circles. An employee at the think tank requesting the emails tells TPM they're part of an investigation into what labor studies professors at state schools in Michigan are saying about the situation in Madison, Wisc., the epicenter of the clashes between unions and Republican-run state governments across the Midwest.

-snip-

But where those requests were relatively narrow -- looking for emails surrounding a specific incident or specific plans for a strike -- the FOIAs sent to state university labor studies faculty are quite broad. The parameters for the request, from a version of the FOIA obtained by TPM and confirmed by Mackinac, cover emails that mention:

"Scott Walker"; "Wisconsin"; "Madison"; "Maddow"; Any other emails dealing with the collective bargaining situation in Wisconsin.

-snip-

Here's a link to my very long compilation topic, which includes replies to information about the Mackinac Center:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230

See reply #140 there from Hector Solon, and the replies to it.

[Mojeoux]

1. Oh Anonymous! Check out this Macinac Center!

They want e-mails exposed!!! So expose THEM!

[highplainsdem]

2. Dave Weigel's comments in Slate -- he says this is part of "defunding the left":

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/03/29/creeping-foiazation-in-michigan-and-defunding-the-left.aspx

-snip-

Go read McMorris-Santoro's piece; I've got calls out to find out a bit more. But here's some background. These labor centers at the universities have long been targets of the business community in Michigan, which sees them -- as the state's Chamber of Commerce president once said of the Wayne State center -- as "wholly owned subsidiaries of the UAW." In 2006, the Chamber filed a legal complaint against the center because it hosted a site promoting a minimum wage ballot initiative. In 2010, the Mackanic Center published a litany of problems with the labor centers, arguing that they were basically taxpayer-funded organizing hubs for the Left.

-snip-

When you hear Newt Gingrich talk about "defunding the left," this is one of the things he's talking about. This is the next stage, really, in the evolution of the conservative and libertarian think tanks that were created to combat the influence of state-funded public universities -- making it tougher for the public universities to host political operations. Ban taxpayer funding for ACORN and you kill that organization. Raise concerns about labor centers at universities, when the state is run by a new Republican governor and legislature, and you crack open the door to defunding those centers, too.

-snip-

[starroute]

6. "Defunding the left" has been a goal for 30 years

Thr phrase goes back to at least 1981, when the Heritage Foundation published a set of recommendations for the Reagan administration that included "defunding the left" by depriving liberal organizations of federal funding. In 1984, the Capital Research Center was founded by a former Heritage Foundation vice president to dig out dirt on the finances of progressive groups. A lot of the attacks on ACORN, as well as the raw materials of Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories, come from the CRC's research.

I have a saved file summarizing the 2001 Conservative Political Action Conference (no longer on line) which includes a paragraph saying, "Next, a panel on 'Defunding the Left,' moderated by the Leadership Institute’s Morton Blackwell, focused on big labor, and how government policies and funds enrich this 'engine of the far left,' as Stefan Gleason of the National Right to Work Foundation called it."

You've just got to know that if Morton Blackwell is part of it, it's got to be dirty.

And I have an article (also not online) which appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1995 that starts out with a correction:

The first name of Ed Gillespie, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, was omitted from a story yesterday on congressional Republicans' plans to trim the budgets of some government-funded nonprofit groups. Their aim is to identify nonprofit organizations whose funding should be cut and to plan a strategy to end their grants or contracts with the government or the programs for which they provide services.

Led by Virginia Lamp Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court justice, a special group of senior House Republican experts and staff members has been quietly working under the auspices of House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas. Their aim is to identify nonprofit organizations whose funding should be cut and to plan a strategy to end their grants or contracts with the government or the programs for which they provide services.

Yeah, that Ed Gillespie and that Virginia Thomas. Funny how the same names and agendas keep coming round, isn't it?

The article goes on to explain that "The effort, referred to by conservatives as 'defunding the left,' is intended to take aim at what they consider advocacy groups that lobby for liberal social programs from which they receive grants and contracts."

And it notes that "Thomas is a former Labor Department lawyer under the Republicans and lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who last year earned $78,800 as a senior policy coordinator for the House Republican Conference. She joined Armey's staff on Jan. 4 as his $108,234 chief liaison for all House committees. She declined to return telephone calls, and sources said she is sensitive about her position and reluctant to be seen as a leader in Armey's defunding effort. Her involvement in the defunding effort has raised sharp questions among liberals who recall that some of the targeted groups -- labor unions, legal advocates and the National Organization for Women -- were involved in the bitter battle to defeat her husband's nomination."

It really isn't a vast right-wing conspiracy, you know. It's a very tiny right-wing conspiracy consisting of about a dozen people whose names keep coming round over and over.

[rustydog]

3. Wow,what an example of an oxymoron: Conservative Think Tank.

[highplainsdem]

4. True.

[starroute]

5. Mackinac is furiously pro-voucher as well as being anti-union

http://www2.metrotimes.com/archives/story.asp?id=12681

2/23/2000

There’s also another force at work in the pro-voucher effort that isn’t reflected in campaign finance statements: A seemingly unconnected trio of Michigan nonprofit organizations – the Michigan Family Forum, Teach Michigan Education Fund and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy – that has been at the forefront of the movement for the past decade. Along with a shared interest in vouchers, these tax-exempt groups have something else in common: DeVos contributions play a significant role in their funding. . . .

Between 1994 and 1997, according to federal tax records, DeVos, Prince and Amway foundations contributed more than $1.5 million to Teach Michigan, the Michigan Family Forum and the Mackinac Center, all of which are declared members of the Kids First! Yes! Coalition. . . .

Joining Teach Michigan as a premier player in the voucher issue has been Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland-based free-market think tank that advocates free-market economic policies and the privatization of government services. With an annual budget more than $2 million the Mackinac Center is a force to be reckoned with.

"Education has been our No. 1 issue for some time now," says Joe Overton, Mackinac’s senior vice president. Along with a Web site (www.mackinac.org), the center puts out the Michigan Education Report, a quarterly publication distributed to "30,000 teachers, administrators, school board members, policy experts, and elected officials." It also has a speakers bureau and frequently provides guest commentaries to newspapers across the state.

[calimary]

7. Sounds like our Rachel is starting to make them feel a little uncomfortable.

Or maybe she's actually drawn a little blood?

They now perceive her as a threat. Wish we could clone her!