[Peace] Fwd: What are the top five issues affecting Champaign-Urbana?

[C. G. Estabrook]

Jan & Durl Kruse wrote:
>> FYI
>> 
>> Americans for Prosperity, a national organization with a chapter in 
>> Champaign-Urbana, is now polling 5000 to 6000 CU residents to determine
>> what issues we feel are most important.  Their goal is to be unbiased,
>> non-partisan and produce results which are accurate to within 1.5 to 2
>> percent.  We are extremely lucky to be one of the nine communities in
>> Illinois which they've chosen to survey.
>> 
>> They will be presenting their results in a public forum at 7 pm on 
>> Wednesday Aug. 27 in the Council Chambers of the Urbana City Building at
>> 400 S. Vine St.  All interested citizens are invited to attend. The forum
>> will be televised on Urbana Public Television, channel 6, and is expected
>> to end at about 8:30.
>> 
>> The top five issues will be presented in order, with time for discussion,
>> feedback and possible solutions.  AFP wants to hear from all points on the
>> political spectrum, so please come!

Hmm.  I'm at least a bit skeptical of these folks.  AFP is a big-business lobby 
"committed to educating citizens about economic policy and a return of the 
federal government to its Constitutional limits."

It was founded in 2003 as the result of a split in the right-wing group 
"Citizens for a Sound Economy." The related "Americans For Prosperity 
Foundation" is "a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to 
advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFPF 
believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to 
ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFPF educates 
and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government 
growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits."

On its website Americans For Prosperity say that "AFP gets its support from 
individuals and corporations which share its vision," but it does not disclose 
which corporations fund its operations.  But there are some hints:

The first president of Americans for Prosperity was Nancy Pfotenhauer, who left 
and in 2007 joined the John McCain campaign.  Given her background, she may have 
helped him discover -- or remember -- off-shore drilling.

 From 1996 to 2001, Pfotenhauer was the director of the Washington office of 
Koch Industries, the largest privately-held company in the United States, with 
annual sales of $90 billion. (Cargill comes in second for privately-held 
companies with sales of $75 billion.) Koch's owners, brothers Charles and David 
H. Koch, are leading contributors to the Koch Family Foundations, which supports 
a network of conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for 
a Sound Economy, the libertarian Cato Institute, Reason Magazine, the Manhattan 
Institute, the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council.  Koch 
was started in 1927 by Fred Koch, a charter member of the John Birch Society, 
with an oil delivery business in Texas. It quickly diversified into a number of 
other areas, but it amassed most of its fortune in the oil trading and refining.

During 2008, Americans for Prosperity is running the "Hot Air Tour" campaign, a 
hot air balloon cross-country tour with the slogan, "Global Warming Alarmism: 
Lost Jobs, Higher Taxes, Less Freedom." According to the Hot Air Tour website, 
"Climate alarmists have bombarded citizens with apocalyptic scenarios and 
pressured them into environmental political correctness. It’s time to tell the 
other side of the story. Americans for Prosperity is working hard to bring you 
the missing half of the global warming debate. What will the impacts of 
reactionary legislation be for you, your family and our economy?" I think even 
Alex Cockburn would agree that this is a business shill.

The "Freedom from Foreign Oil Scorecard" is a legislative scorecard released by 
the Americans for Prosperity. The Freedom from Foreign Oil scorecard ranks U.S. 
Representatives based on their support for – or opposition to – policies that 
Americans for Prosperity believes would lower gas and energy prices by 
increasing American supplies and making domestic production less expensive. 
Which is good for all of us, right?

The Freedom from Foreign Oil scorecard ranks lawmakers based on a composite 
score of eight roll call votes and co-sponsorship of three initiatives. 
Co-sponsorships of bills that would allow off-shore and ANWR drilling were 
scored positively, while co-sponsorship of cap-and-trade legislation was scored 
negatively. Lawmakers received positive marks for votes against tax hikes on 
domestic oil and energy, and negative marks for a vote to oppose opening the 
outer continental shelf to natural gas exploration.

In total, 172 U.S. Representatives were designated “Friends of the American 
Motorist” for achieving scores of 70 percent or higher, and 117 House lawmakers 
received perfect scores. The 214 Representatives with scores of 17 percent or 
lower were named “Friends of Foreign Oil.” (Our man Timmy, the brave defender of 
ANWR, managed a straddle -- 35%.) Americans for Prosperity distributed t-shirts 
bearing the OPEC flag to the Capitol Hill offices of 156 lawmakers who scored 
zero, as well as localized news releases to media in their districts. Among 
those labeled “Friends of Foreign Oil” were House leadership members Speaker 
Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. James Clyburn, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel. 
There's no honor among thieves.

Americans for Prosperity has circulated a pledge to federal, state, and local 
officials. The pledge states that the state official will oppose any climate 
change legislation that contains a net increase in federal, state, or local 
revenue.  Members of both political parties have signed the pledge. Prominent 
pledge signers include Jack Hoogendyk, Michelle Bachmann, Pat Roberts, Jim 
Jordan, John Carter, Pete Olson, Greg Davis, and Doug Lamborn. (I haven't called 
to ask if Tim signed.)

In July, 2008, Americans for Prosperity hosted RightOnline, a conference of 
conservative bloggers. The conference brought together conservative activists to 
develop strategies to counter left-wing bloggers and develop conservative New 
Media techniques.  --CGE