{"id":190792,"date":"2009-10-24T08:03:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-24T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/10\/24\/well-heres-a-shocker-2\/"},"modified":"2009-10-24T08:03:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-24T13:03:00","slug":"well-heres-a-shocker-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2009\/10\/24\/well-heres-a-shocker-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, Here’s a Shocker"},"content":{"rendered":"

It appears that Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the favorite rent-a-crowd for corporate interests, like Microsoft, Tobacco, and Jack Abramhoff, has now weighed in against the GE\/Rolls F136 alternate engine for the JSF<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The group is lambasting congressional funding for a second F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine, made by General Electric and Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n

In the process, the nonprofit watchdog organization is spending as much as an estimated $2 million on advertising that includes posters in D.C. Metro trains, paper and digital ads in Capitol Hill publications and billboards in several districts across the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But wait, there’s more:<\/p>\n

CAGW refuses to disclose the campaign\u2019s expenses, but it appears to represent a sizable chunk of its total budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2008, CAGW\u2019s total revenue, which includes the nonprofit and its lobbying arm, the Council of Citizens Against Government Waste, was $5,158,515.<\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/p>\n

Pratt & Whitney spokeswoman Erin Dick said that her company \u201cis not paying for the CAGW ads.\u201d When asked whether Pratt & Whitney donated to CAGW, Dick said that the company does not disclose the public interest groups it supports.<\/span><\/p>\n

CAGW and Pratt & Whitney <\/span>share the same ad agency<\/span>, Sullivan Higdon & Sink, based in Wichita, Kan., according to a Bloomberg report in August.<\/span><\/p>\n

That same month, Pratt & Whitney said that it was erroneously <\/span>[“erroniously”, Ha!] named <\/span>the paid sponsor of a video made by the agency on behalf of CAGW<\/span>. Since then, the paid sponsor reference has been changed, and the advertising group said that CAGW and Pratt & Whitney are separate customers, according to Bloomberg.<\/span><\/p>\n

….<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2006 Finance Committee report, published by the minority Democratic staff but backed by the Republican chairman at the time, tracked how convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff enlisted tax-exempt groups on behalf of his clients. The report documented how Abramoff got CAGW, among other groups, to publish articles and news releases on behalf of his clients, and then directed tens of thousands of dollars to the taxpayer groups.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(emphasis mine<\/span>)<\/p>\n

Seriously, why anyone takes CAGW seriously is completely beyond me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the favorite rent-a-crowd for corporate interests, like Microsoft, Tobacco, and Jack Abramhoff, has now weighed in against the GE\/Rolls F136 alternate engine for the JSF: The group is lambasting congressional funding for a second F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine, made by General Electric and Rolls-Royce. In the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[970,1008,1051,1128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-defense-procurement","category-hypocrisy","category-propulsion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}