I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
I saw a great book title: When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country.
Only problem was the author was G. Gordon Liddy. When I was a kid, G. Gordon Liddy was committing felonies....
More info on the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
http://www.mediatransparency.org...ipients/
aei.htm
And don't forget the pugnacious Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)
http://www.mediatransparency.org...ipients/
cei.htm
http://www.prwatch.org/improp/cei.html
What's really funny about this is that AEI, the Federalist Society and all the other Scaife-spawn have had exactly the sort of effect on the US that they now fret about "NGOs" (and which NGOs are they talking about?) having on other countries.
To quote from their website:
NGOs have created their own rules and regulations and demanded that governments and corporations abide by those rules. Many nations’ legal systems encourage NGOs to use the courts-or the specter of the courts-to compel compliance. Politicians and corporate leaders are often forced to respond to the NGO media machine, and the resources of taxpayers and shareholders are used in support of ends they did not intend to sanction.
Some of the paper titles deserve to be republished here as well:
"The NGO Challenge: Whose Democracy Is It Anyway?" Gary Johns, Institute of Public Affairs, Australia
"Increasing NGO Openness and Accountability" David Riggs, Capital Research Center
This gets better when you go over to NGOwatch:
Do NGOs influence international organizations like the World Trade Organization? What is their agenda? Who runs these groups? Who funds them? And to whom are they accountable?
[...]
This site will, without prejudice, compile factual data about non-governmental organizations. It will include analysis of relevant issues, treaties, and international organizations where NGOs are active.
[...]
Non-governmental organizations are a time-honored tradition, in the United States and throughout the world. With greater transparency for NGOs, there will be greater accountability, and with that, we hope, greater responsibility and effectiveness for the many who are engaged in great work.
Lessee ... this from the same general crew that got the courts to seal the results of the conflict-of-interest investigation in the Hiatt Steele trial and the Arkansas Project investigation (itself the result of a case study in non-profit opacity).
The site begs for suggestions. We’re sure they wouldn’t mind hearing from us, would they?
Oh, and lastly, the irony of conservative groups complaining about misuse of the private sector by groups when government can’t do the job is just ... well, Alanis Morrisette couldn’t do it justice.
So now the Neocons are trying to silence the international liberal organizations?
I can only imagine that soon enough they'll declare these groups as 'rouges' and 'potential terrorists'.
Then we'll have the French abstaining from any action taken, and we'll have the 'freedom fries fascism' all over again. Try saying that 10 times real fast!
I'm really starting to hate America
MYOB'
So the Federalist society is not an "unelected few" and an NGO?
Oh, I forgot. In 2000 they elected themselves. So it doesn't count.
Can't we get Haliburton or some othe multi-national to buy up all of these NGO's.
I love it when Rethugnicans accuse other people of doing what they are guilty of - and then pretend that they are not guilty of the behavior of which the accuse others. Like Fox News - "fair and balanced". WTF?
This is the main problem I have with Republicans, they are just horribly dishonest on every single level. How can people with any conscience whatsoever agree with what these mutherfuckers are doing to America?
The Economist has been pushing a similar line: NGOs are great as long as they deliver charity---but advocacy, not a good thing.
"I love it when Rethugnicans accuse other people of doing what they are guilty of - and then pretend that they are not guilty of the behavior of which the accuse others. Like Fox News - "fair and balanced". WTF?"
It'sreally very simple, Scott. Whatever they accuse someone else of doing -- that's what they're doing
All together now --
P
R
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J
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C
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Got it?
Good!
Well, come on now, guys.
The thugs in office can't find any decent NGOs to boil their opponents for them. So they just have to use the government or free enterprise.
That's the ticket!
Great catch Tressy. Know what online newspaper picked up Jim Lobe's article about the "seminar?" The Asia Times Online
Impeachment - it's not just for consensual sex anymore!
How about We're not fromt the government, we're funded by Scaife-Right Wing Think Tanks:the power of the unelected few. as a subject for discussion
But what if it was a faith-based NGO?
When you run the Government, you're not an NGO anymore -- to wit, AEI, FedSoc, etc.
Who cares what the incredibly homely (and unbelievably stupid) Tresy thinks about anything? Why don't you idiots kill yourselves? I want to know.
To paraphrase what I said over at Pandagon--you could replace "NGO" with "Corporation" in everything SullyWatch posted above, and have something more relevant and pressing--but I kind of doubt the Federalist Society is going to have much to say about that.
That bumper sticker is amazing. I want it everywhere.
Who cares what the incredibly homely (and unbelievably stupid) Tresy thinks about anything? Why don't you idiots kill yourselves? I want to know.
It's this kind of reasoned argument that makes me proud to be a conservative.
when will the nut-cons petard blow?
Leah: You're good! I tried to find Lobe's article in full, but the two blogs that referenced it didn't link back to a source. Google didn't find it either--at least for me. I finally figured I'd just link to AEI. Thanks for finding his article.
I respectfully disagree about that bumper sticker - I think it's totally defeatist and hand-wringing. Now I could get behind a call to action like: "Want your democracy back? Stop moaning about it, get off your ass and take it back."
Yes, things suck but I don't understand the predilection for continual whining about it. I think any time you all feel like whining about how shitty things are, you should follow that up with a description of what you did that day to un-shittify things.
Pot ... kettle ... black.
Okay Theresa,
Repeal the "Patriot Act" altogether and denounce it as the fear driven over-reaction it is.
Announce that we will cut off terrorist funding by reducing dependence on Middle East oil - a crash program in sustainable energy.
Refund the GPO, CBO, SEC and GAO. Hire pit bull attornies and forensic accountants to staff them.
Re-engage "old Europe" and the UN. Tell them the failed policies of jingoism and going it alone are no longer feasible.
Reveal the truth single payer government backed health care, for all its flaws, is far more efficient than HMOs.
Hold congressional hearing into the effect corporate consolidation has had on the economy here and abroad - with special emphasis on the role of the IMF, WTO and World Bank in creating dislocations through punitive adjutments.
Break up the new monopolies with a new Sherman Act - that's how far we've regressed.
Reform the tax code to be progressive again.
I'm sure there's more. But that's a start.
Who was that Brazilian priest who said something like "When I fed the hungry they called me a Christian. When I asked why they were hungry they called me a Communist."
Anyway, thanks very much for putting that comment on the main blog.
Just out of curiosity: where did you pick up the term "lumpenintelligentsia?" For about ten years, I've been using this term to describe the nontenured migrant academic workers who wander from community college to community college teaching on a single class contract basis while desperately trying to pay their student loans and pad out their CVs. These include some of the smartest people I’ve ever met.
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