NEW REPORT EXPOSES GOVS WHO HELPED CAMPAIGN DONORS, CORPORATIONS BOOST PROFITS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Wed Oct 15, 2014, 05:20 AM - Edit history (1)

No link. We got the pre-release because the DU rocks!


EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: October 15, 2014


** MEDIA ADVISORY **
New Report Exposes Governors who Helped Campaign Donors, Corporations Boost Profits at Taxpayer Expense
-- CMD report “Pay to Prey” reveals how governors in Florida, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin facilitated a corporate power grab of public services, shortchanging taxpayers and the public.

(Washington, DC) – On Wednesday, October 15, at 1:30 P.M. EDT, the Center for Media and Democracy will host a telebriefing to unveil its new report “Pay to Prey: Governors Facilitate the Predatory Outsourcing of Public Services”.

The report highlights the intensive efforts of governors across the country to privatize important public services to private firms with high-powered lobbyists and related campaign contributions. Time after time, outsourcing has gone awry, generating worse outcomes for the public, scandal, lawsuits, and scorching headlines. The report includes examples from Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Wisconsin.

Examples from the report include:

In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder outsourced prison food service to a previously rejected contractor after the company spent half a million on lobbying. The contract has been plagued by scandal, including maggots, employees smuggling drugs and having sex with inmates, and even murder-for-hire allegations.

In Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Corbett has outsourced millions in legal contracts to major campaign contributors to defend ALEC-style voter ID legislation and other policies. The governor is attempting to privatize liquor sales, which would benefit another set of deep-pocketed contributors.

In Florida, Governor Rick Scott has overseen a massive expansion of for-profit online schooling, to companies which spent millions on lobbying. Scott signed a bill requiring every student to take online courses and online tests benefiting firms like ALEC funder K12 Inc., which received failing grades from Florida’s Department of Education.


WHAT: Telebriefing to release “Pay to Prey: Governors Facilitate the Predatory Outsourcing of Public Services”

WHO:
Lisa Graves, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy
Shar Habibi, Research and Policy Director, In the Public Interest
State Rep. Andrew J. Kandrevas (D-MI), Democratic Vice Chair, Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections
State Rep. Chris Taylor (D-WI), Member, Committee on Labor
State Rep. Janet Cruz (D-FL), Member, Appropriations Committee

WHEN: Wednesday, October 15, at 1:30 P.M. EDT

DIAL: 888.632.3384
Conference ID: “Pay to Prey”

[malaise]

1. Off to the greatest page for you

Rec rec rec rec!

[calimary]

3. ... and rec!

[Kingofalldems]

2. Kick this for the GOP crew.

[gademocrat7]

4. K&R

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Just reading the title line, and I knew

that our governor in PA, Corbett, would be on that list. The only good news is that he is down about 20 points in polling. We should be getting his ass out of the governor's house soon.

[femmocrat]

21. I know!

Didn't he also try to privatize the turnpike and the state lottery?

And his support for vouchers and charters would privatize the schools. I wonder who is getting a cut from the Keystone exams.... although I think those pre-date corebutt.

[Curmudgeoness]

23. You are correct, he has tried to privatize everything.

And sadly, he has done a lot more damage with helping private industries than is stated in that article. He has also opened up a lot of state lands to fracking. He wants to do away with the state liquor stores and give that to private companies. The list goes on and on.

And yet, our state is in the shit hole. Our credit rating has dropped several times in his time in office. We are rated at the bottom of the barrel for education, budgets, health care.....

[shraby]

6. Need to know Walker and Wisconsin's story on the list.

[midnight]

33. I don't know if this is what your looking for, but take a look.

Scott Walker refused to take federal funding to expand BadgerCare. He did, however, take big donations from Big Insurance for this.

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/10/scott-walker-caught-pay-not-play-scheme

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. kick, rec. big time.

fucking pukes.

[Sancho]

8. Rick Scott...the worst governor ever!

[catbyte]

13. Rick "The Dictator" runs a close second because he's such a liar. Completely dishonest and tries to

come off as such a "nice guy." Absolutely despicable.

[spike91nz]

9. Kick rec

thanks for the post.

[irisblue]

10. and I'm curious to see what Kasich R Ohio has done

I'm betting on gas, oil & energy.

[jen63]

24. I'd guess you're probably betting right!

I knew we would be on the list.He's a cretin and FitzGerald down 35 points. Unbelievable to me!

[WillyT]

11. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[El Shaman]

12. Gee!

I wonder what category this falls in:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/us/politics/associates-of-kansas-governor-are-investigated-over-fund-raising-and-lobbying.html?_r=0

[csziggy]

14. There is something wrong with their headline

Shouldn't it read:

"New Report Exposes REPUBLICAN Governors who Helped Campaign Donors, Corporations Boost Profits at Taxpayer Expense?"



Omaha Steve, thanks for the heads up - can't wait to read the entire article.

[greatlaurel]

15. What about Ohio!? No one is paying any attention to what a crook Kasich is. No national attention.

Why is this crook being allowed to be reelected in a cake walk? Ohio is in the midst of the greatest theft of public property in the history of the US.

Here are some examples:

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-43395-east-state-sell-off.html Ohio University plans to sell off income producing properties.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/19/3569309/ohio-supreme-court-ok-to-strip-mine-state-parks/

http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/02/11/when-a-christian-school-dips-into-a-lot-of-public-money/

http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/01/26/wild-wild-west-of-charter-school-land/

http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/06/24/ecot-founder-finds-unflattering-fact-sheet-at-pro-charter-event/

[jen63]

25. I was just wondering about this

upthread. No national attention at all, but more importantly, he's up by sooo much statewide, I can't figure it out.

[greatlaurel]

30. It is just weird how Kasich gets a pass from every media outlet.

His abusive behavior toward ordinary people is disgusting and vile. He looks and acts like someone who has a drug or drinking problem. How does that not get media attention?

This man is coated in more teflon than a whole truck load full of cookware. It is just strange. The Wolfe family who are very involved in banking and own lots of media outlets have been his booster for decades, but still his strange behavior should draw some attention.

[Enthusiast]

36. Speaking badly of Kasich on Ohio TV is verboten.

Thanks for the links.

[peace13]

50. Thank you for these links.

They will come in handy!

[greatlaurel]

61. You are welcome. If you are interested in Ohio's education issures, here are 2 more great sites.

This site has a wealth of information about how much local money is being stolen from local taxpayers and children and flowing into the charter schools. It is shocking. Just plug in a school district and it shows how much money is being taken from the local school and given to the usually much lower performing charter schools.

http://knowyourcharter.com/

This site has a lot of interesting information about the state board of education and charter schools

http://www.thenewsoutlet.org/state-education-ohio-charter-schools/

http://www.thenewsoutlet.org/state-education-ohio/

Glad you liked the links.

[johnnyreb]

16. K & R !!!

[rurallib]

17. you have earned your pay with this one, Steve!

Great scoop! -
Where is my governor Branstad?

[greatlaurel]

18. This is really great information.

The privatization schemes need to be called what they are, theft of public resources.

I forgot to thank you in my previous post. Got too mad thinking about Kasich.

Way to go, Steve, well done.

[sheshe2]

19. “Pay to Prey”

Yup, that says it all, Steve.

[Major Hogwash]

20. OMG! They tired to do in Idaho what Rick Scott did, but it didn't work!

They tried to ram the same kind of bill through Idaho state's legislature here 2 years ago.

. . . a bill requiring every student to take online courses and online tests benefiting firms like ALEC funder K12 Inc., which received failing grades from Florida’s Department of Education.

The bills designed to do this very same thing in Idaho didn't make it out of the legislature's committees because there were too many questions being asked about who would benefit from requiring online courses.

So, the Secretary of Education, Tom Luna, proposed the idea of putting the issue on the ballot to the state's legislature.
Thinking that the majority of people in Idaho were stupid enough to vote for Republicans that they might also be stupid enough to vote for requiring online courses in our public school system.

Since the Secretary of Education is named Tom Luna, the 3 ballot measures quickly became known as Luna's Laws or Lunatic's ballot measures.
The people of Idaho went to the polls in droves in 2012 to vote for President, and although Mitt took the state, all 3 of Luna's ballot measures failed.

But, wait, there's more.

Because Luna was so confident that all 3 of the ballot measures would pass -- without any authority whatsoever -- he went ahead and ordered 1000s of personal computers to put in Idaho's public school system, even though he didn't conduct any kind of a bidding process to choose a vendor to purchase the computers from, held no public hearings, no nothing, he just went and placed the order all by his own self.

The oscillating overhead contraption got very dirty and started smelling very quickly when the highly overrated, egotistical Republican members in the state legislature found out that Luna was trying to spend money without having the legal authority to do it.
That is their job!!

Luna decided not to run for re-election this year, largely as a result of his stupid ballot measures.

[femmocrat]

22. This needs to be widely disseminated.

And the sooner the better... the election is already upon us!

[2naSalit]

26. K&R!!!!

[TerrapinFlyer]

27. Is the US MEdia even going to cover this story?

I have no faith in the media anymore... they are complicit in the crimes.

[Half-Century Man]

28. Wahoot 100th rec

[PAProgressive28]

29. This is news?

"In Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Corbett has outsourced millions in legal contracts to major campaign contributors to defend ALEC-style voter ID legislation and other policies. The governor is attempting to privatize liquor sales, which would benefit another set of deep-pocketed contributors"

[AzDar]

31. K & R

[littlemissmartypants]

32. Pat McCrory is requesting that his name be added.

He knows he is trying to F everything great about NC for a price.

It's just a matter of time, Patty Boy. Your days are numbered.

Nobody is buying what you are doing as "Good for North Carolina"
but just keep selling it and yourself right out the backdoor of the mansion.

That door will be hitting your arse on the way out.


Thanks so much, OS.


~lmsp

[Greybnk48]

34. I want to hear about Walker. n/t

[valerief]

35. Kick

[Enthusiast]

37. Kicked

and recommended!

[1StrongBlackMan]

38. Posted to for later. eom.

[alfredo]

39. Knr

[Dont call me Shirley]

40. Where's New Mexico guv Martinez?

Schools are failing, lost the Branson Spaceport, losing good paying jobs?

[raouldukelives]

41. Shocked! nt

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

42. K & R

[alfredo]

43. knr

[alfredo]

44. kicking this

[mopinko]

45. scott walker rewrote the MINING LAWS in wis

so that a company that gave him $700,000 could take the top of a mountain in the headwaters of lake superior. they plan to dump the tailings on a first nation rez.

[B Calm]

46. Do you have a link?

[navarth]

47. kick. need to hear more about Snyder here in MI ASAP.

I don't think the debate with Mark Schauer went all that well. Need more ammo.

[hue]

48. K&R for exposure!

[ChiciB1]

49. Thanks For INFO... K&R

[1StrongBlackMan]

51. I'm pretty sure Arizona will appear on the list ...

It's an unlikely coincidence that our Governor's "inner-circle" was heavily prison industry lobbyists, or married to prison industry lobbyists; and in rapid succession, there was a push towards prison privatization, followed by 1070 ... a law that, essentially, criminalized being Hispanic.

[Rex]

52. Wow, just wow...

The blatancy is shocking...then again we are talking about professional criminals. But the sheer level of maleficence reminds me of the Bush era!

Unbelievable, thank you for the sunshine!

The average person get's convicted of a felony and cannot vote or own a firearm. The average Republican governor, already with a criminal background - get to ruin an entire state while making a tidy profit for their wife, friends, PAC, etc..

I boggles the mind.

K&R

[woo me with science]

53. Third Way liar McAuliffe in VA just broke his promise to expand Medicare unilaterally for 400,0000.

Only 25,000 will be eligible. Of course, his promise was hugely publicized, but the reversal was quietly on the back pages.

Anyone who has followed his slimy Third Way career knew it was all lies and would never really happen. DUers have been following and posting about his lies and betrayals for a long time.

Virginia was never going to get real Medicare expansion with this DLC corporate snake in office. He is the quintessential Third Way liar pretending to be a liberal.

McAuliffe abandons promise; 25,000 rather than 400,000 will get medical insurance
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/08/terry-mcauliffe-virginia-medicaid_n_5785640.html

Terry McAuliffe: 'If It's The Last Thing I Do,' I'm Going To Fight For Medicaid Expansion
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/15/terry-mcauliffe-virginia-medicaid-expansion_n_4971132.html

Regardless, Beverly, who said she's good at reading people, said she had her doubts about McAuliffe's pledge.

"Right now I'm reading that it's just a big show," she said.

Terry McAuliffe is a Third Way liar
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4184956

Yes, Terry McAuliffe has a sleazy as hell financial history.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023826799

Terry McAuliffe to VA GLBT: FU!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/04/1282164/-Terry-McAuliffe-to-VA-LGBT-F-U

Terry McAuliffe reappoints Mr. VA Mandatory Transvaginal Ultrasound
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024184917



Virginians really, really needed this help. This is the Third Way. This is corporate money in our Democratic Party.

[duhneece]

54. What? No susanna martinez? She made NM glad for Mississippi.

For awhile there, we became 2nd worst in the nation in so many things...now, we're back to worst.

[blkmusclmachine]

55. Government For Sale To The Highest Bidder (And Go "F" Yourself, Main Street USA)

We knew it all along. Both Parties are on the payroll to the 1%.

[Octafish]

56. The Piratization of America

"Pay to Prey" indeed.

[littlemissmartypants]

57. DUzy. nt

[Omaha Steve]

58. Here is the post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025671090

[KansDem]

59. Kansas, again?

K&R!!!

[mountain grammy]

60. Every damn last one of them is a crook!