Recognizing their party is beaten, but not broken or out of the match, area Republicans are looking to change their formula in the wake of difficult economic times to boost GOP support and end one-party rule.
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock said Republicans must rally behind primary candidates and work to capture the African-American and Hispanic vote to get a one-up on Democrats who are annihilating them with voter mobilization drives and blows in recent election cycles.
"We need to communicate our message in superior ways to everyone in the state," Schock said Saturday. "It is no secret that most statewide Republican campaigns in Illinois have written off vast segments of the population and therefore not campaigned in those areas. As Republicans in Illinois in 2009, we cannot write off the black vote, we cannot write off the Hispanic vote, and we cannot write off Cook County.
"There is a way forward and a way to win."
Schock was the keynote speaker at the 42nd annual Tazewell County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner at the Embassy Suites Conference Center. The event drew nearly 600 people.
In his transition from an Illinois state representative to a congressman, Schock said he continues "to see the Illinois way infect Washington with the most irresponsible overspending, overborrowing and overtaxing in our nation's history."
If the party reaches back to its core principles at a grass-roots level, Schock said it will see comeback triumphs similar to what happened in 1980 and 1994, when the Republican Party gained a majority in the U.S. House for the first time in decades.
Illinois' Republican national committeewoman, Demetra DeMonte, said the GOP is on the road to recovery and has a unique opportunity to take back the gubernatorial seat as well as the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. It's currently held by Roland Burris, a Democrat who is embroiled in his own controversy.
The key is getting out the message using current technologies, including texting and e-mail, DeMonte said Saturday.
"Great political transformations begin in times of adversity," she said. "The Democrats may have the machine and the unions, but they can't match us in passion, ideas and principles."
Schock criticized Obama's "far-left" agenda he said includes reinstatement of the death tax, raising the capital gains tax, gun control measures, instituting measures that will increase the possibility of voter fraud, closing off domestic supplies of energy such as coal, oil and gas drilling and scheming redistricting to make permanent legislative majorities.
He said he plans to introduce legislation that currently is in draft form calling for a zero percent federal income tax and zero federal capital gains tax to incentivize new, renewable energy development and production.
"I say to liberals and conservatives alike, if you want our energy produced here in America, if you want the economic benefits to stay here, if you want to wean us off oil, then place the maximum incentive to produce the next generation of energy," Schock said.
He also is co-sponsoring a bill with a Missouri Democrat that would give federal research dollars to companies researching the use of manure as a petroleum substitute for asphalt, among other legislation.
Charlotte, NC —It wasn't pretty but being pretty doesn't get you a better finishing position, and that was the exact philosophy Wimberley’s Trey Mitchell and his entire Trey Mitchell Racing team had after 250 laps of racing at the South Alabama Speedway. Mitchell who qualified fifteenth tussled his way to a seventh place finish in his first ever Rattler 250 start.
The Trey Mitchell Racing team, led by veteran short track crew chief Freddie Query, began the racing weekend early opting for an extra day of practice on Thursday. Trey, along with other super late model teams, tested the 4/10th mile oval throughout the day picking up as much knowledge as possible as well as getting accustomed to the backstretch wall added over the winter.
It was Saturday when the action really heated up for the Rattler 250 weekend when 31 of the best super late models qualified for this year's event. In his first super late model qualifying effort, Mitchell wheeled his Magnum's Oilfield Services/Rathole Drilling Ford Fusion to a solid 15th place position to take the green flag.
After a brief on-track autograph session, Trey climbed into his No. 47 super late model for the moment he had been waiting for. It took just seventy-five laps for Mitchell to wheel the car into the top 10 when the competition caution came out, allowing teams to change tires and add fuel on pit road under yellow.
Throughout the next 100 laps, Mitchell made his way through the field, racing against many names such as Augie Grill, Eddie Mercer, and Scott Hantz; many names he had only heard or read about until now.
The last 50 laps may have been the hardest of the young racer's career. After hard racing throughout the field that included many caution flags, the No. 47 machine got caught up in the middle, resulting in a beaten and battered race car.
While most, if not all was cosmetic damage, it still resulted in Trey being sent to the rear of the field and having to race his way to the front time after time before finally taking the checkered flag in the seventh position.
“It was certainly a wild weekend for me. Between competing in my first-ever Rattler to it being my first race behind the wheel of a super late model it was a total learning experience and that's what I really need right now.,” Mitchell said. “Even though we didn't really have the best handling car, my guys worked all weekend to make it the best they could and that's all any driver could really ask for. I want to just say thank you to John Dykes for a great weekend of racing and really let him know what he does for short track racing is really appreciated.”
Gazpromneft’s specialists were reminded of this while carrying out operations in the Priobskoye field in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District (KMAD). The bottomland section of the field is a floodplain and often under 8-meters of water. It is impossible to construct wells using the cuttings pit technology under such conditions. Toxic drilling cuttings would be swept away by the floodwaters into the Ob River. After long discussions, the company’s specialists made a decision to inject cuttings into the reservoir. This technology had not been yet applied in mainland Russia, or under severe climatic conditions when temperatures drop below minus 50 degrees Celsius in the winter and rise to plus 40 degrees Celsius in the summer. To accomplish this task, it was required to drill wells and break those in receiving reservoirs and to install equipment for cuttings treatment and injection. The treatment includes the reduction of cuttings into fine condition by milling tools. Schlumberger was the only contractor who succeeded in accomplishing this task. They fabricated and installed the equipment to inject cuttings into the reservoirs. The company has been working at Priobskoye Field since October 2008 and provides services to six drilling crews. No cutting pits are used – all drilling waste and cuttings, as well as fluids for well drilling or repair and waste water, are treated and injected into the reservoir.
Approved by the state environmental expertise committee, the company was issued the state license. The site, where cuttings are injected into reservoirs, is elevated above the ground surface so that floodwater does not cover it. The inspiration and implementation of this idea came from Roman Fetsenets, Head of Well Building Management, Gazpromneft-Khantos.
Another "outside the box" approach to drilling challenges was demonstrated by Gazpromneft’s specialists at Urmanskoye field, in the Tomsk region. A complicated subsoil geological structure provided an additional challenge to oil specialists. High reservoir permeability and fracturing held out a hope of high yields in this section. However, highly permeable reservoirs are not good for drilling purposes. The pay zone is comprised of unstable cobblestones; but this layer is well saturated with oil and highly permeable. Such layers are prone to cave-ins, thus complicating the drilling process and reducing oil flow. This problem had to be eliminated.
The company’s specialists, under the leadership of the head of Gazpromneft's Drilling Department, Vladimir Tataurov, reviewed two options. The first option was to apply underbalanced drilling. However, the method was not selected, because it would require significant spending and an additional feasibility study. The second, approved option, suggested a casing drilling method. A conventional casing pipe is applied instead of drill pipes and is left in the well after drilling is completed. The technology and equipment was provided by Weatherford and is suitable for structures comprising fractured reservoir that are prone to cave-ins and collapsing.
Department Chief of Gazpromneft RDC, Alexander Ukhov, shared his opinions with OGE regarding modern drilling technologies, problems and approaches to their solution.
Oil&Gas Eurasia: Can the domestic scientific and engineering capabilities of drilling companies be compared with that of foreign companies? Alexander Ukhov: Before the 1990s, engineering policies in the industry was defined by the Ministry and by the industry scientific research and design institutes. There were both strengths and weaknesses in that system. Its advantages included stability and clear plans for developing the engineering potential of the industry.
These advantages gradually turned into disadvantages such as seclusion of the industry and zero contacts with the world's leading scientific and production centers. One more deficiency is absenting real price formation in the industry, which made it impossible to evaluate efficiency of a technology or production and complicated selling domestic technologies and equipment abroad. Technologies were “boiling inside” with no opportunity for “escape”. When the “Curtain” was up, there was no demand for domestic developments. Major companies such as Rosneft, Lukoil, or Surgutneftegaz selected advanced western technologies despite the added expensive. Domestic well drilling and completion equipment/technologies were too far behind despite achievements in drilling, such as construction of Kola SG-3 superdeep borehole and other technologies. Currently major companies such as Lukoil Overseas, Rosneft and Gazprom integrate western and Russian technologies and drilling equipment and successfully operate both in Russia and abroad.
OGE: What engineering policy does your company pursue with regard to drilling? Ukhov: We work as follows; we have both drilling contractors and we have service contractors that support drilling operations. There are five drilling contractors at the moment: Service Drilling Company (SBK), Eurasia Drilling Company, SSK, Pioner, and Integra; and over 10 service companies including the largest international ones such as Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Smith, and Weatherford. In addition there are local service companies that at the moment gradually forcing out foreign contractors from the local market. This is of benefit for our company as well: if our national contractors provide high quality services at a lower rate, then why not to use these? OGE: Are there any competitive manufacturers of rig top drives and other drilling equipment in Russia? Ukhov: Today, about 99.9 percent of power heavy duty top drives used in our country are manufactured in the USA, Canada or Germany. This equipment is quite complicated. Therefore there are no manufacturers of this equipment in our country that could compete with leading western companies in this market segment. But, some other home-produced equipment successfully forces out western competitors from the Russian market in the recent few years; these are downhole hydraulic motors by Perm Branch of VNIIBT, Kungur machine building plant, or Radius Service (Perm company). There is another example. Over 60 percent of drilling bits applied in our company are made in Russia. Our suppliers, namely Volga-Burmash (Samara Plant) and Burintekh (Ufa Scientific and Production Association), offer a complete range of different bit types. Our domestic companies such as Vyksunsky Metallurgical Plant mastered production of high quality drill pipes that are reliable and withstand various loads. Our company widely applies aluminum drill pipes that are a 100 percent domestic development. OGE: What can you say about the drilling rig market in Russia? Ukhov: A drilling rig is a core setting the pace of the well construction process. Today, about 90-95 percent of drilling rigs used in our company are made in Russia. These are Uralmash drilling rigs BU3000EUK and BU4000EUK, which are basic and equipped with modern production equipment (pumps and hoists). OGE: What is the decision-making process for selecting service contractors? Ukhov: This is a significant process and decisions are made based on open and transparent tenders. We have established the Tender Committee and Tender Commissions in our company; so it is a multi-stage procedure taking into account all aspects of contractors’ activities. OGE: Where does well construction begin? Ukhov: A selected contractor is provided with an approved well construction program. The work is superintended by our supervisor who monitors efficient implementation of the project. The contractor also provides their supervisor to control quality of work. Strict control is exercised at each well construction stage. OGE: What is the purpose of constructing horizontal and horizontally branched wells? Ukhov: I believe that horizontal wells or wells with increased deviation from the axis ensure much higher oil withdrawal rates than vertical ones, because they ensure a larger area of the pay contact with the well bore. However, drilling and completion of such wells require more spending and that is why their application was restricted. The situation changed after significant progress was made in drilling technologies and in particular in technologies of downhole measurement while drilling. A new type of oil wells has been developed – horizontally branched wells. It is a revolutionary stage in the oil and gas industry development. Horizontally branched wells are placed on production with actual flow rates that at least by 20 times exceed flow rates of adjacent conventional wells. But what is more important, the ultimate oil recovery of reservoirs also doubles. For example, in the aging field with an average daily flow rate of conventional wells of 5 tons, the daily flow rate of a horizontally branched well will be at least 100 tons. A higher drilling costs of a horizontally branched well (by 2-2.5 times higher than that of a conventional one) pays already in the first months of its operation. The cost of oil production using horizontally branched wells is by 3 to 5 times lower compared to conventional wells. OGE: What tendencies are observed in selecting drill bits and diamond tools? Ukhov: Low drilling rate and short drilling life of cone rock bits in geological sections of oil and gas fields required to revise approaches to selecting these tools. Diamond drill bits or polycrystalline diamond (PCD) bits enable significant reduction in well drilling costs due to reduction of round-trip operations that take a significant time of the well construction process. Cutting is the most efficient technique of destructing shale and sulfated carbonate rocks, since their tensile strength is usually less than compression strength. Besides, rock destruction by cutting requires less energy input than rock destruction by compression; and zero run-up of rock-bit teeth on downhole mud pad allows avoiding mud balls formation on the bit working surface. The service life of bits with PCD plates is by 3 to 5 times longer than that of cone bits.
Many years ago, I heard it said that all the good (experienced) finish grade operators were retiring. Of course, this can’t be correct as the younger guys can certainly be very good as well. It was really a comment that fine and finish grading skills take many years of experience to fine-hone.
One reason for this is that, using conventional methods, one has to do a lot of the work eyeballing grade. Relying on blue tops set every twenty five feet means a lot of unaided interpolation between the hubs. This makes finish grading almost an art form. It is possible that operators can be dead-on at each stake and low or high in between, resulting in the infamous washboard effect.
Machine control solutions create virtual stakes every inch between the hubs so the surface ends up consistent (without the peaks and valleys). This creates a better finished product and saves on machine passes and materials. It also turns a younger, less experienced, operator into an old pro.
I would like to hear from you on this subject. Have you seen the old guys retiring in your area and felt a gap in the skills and experience of those taking their place? Have you seen the implementation of machine control help the younger guys produce the same results?
Please share your views and experiences so it can be added to our collective knowledge base.
The introduction of the Husqvarna DXR 310 demolition robot at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas was a huge success. The remote-controlled robot's new technology and features impressed contractors and others in the industry.
The DXR 310 is currently available in Europe and will be available in the United States during the third quarter of 2009. However, one company in particular could not wait until third quarter. Cougar Cutting, Inc. based in Ft. Myers, FL, purchased the first robot in the United States. Cougar Cutting specializes in providing quality concrete cutting, breaking, drilling, demolition and installation services. They have been in business for over 40 years, starting operations in Florida over 25 years ago. "We have several Husqvarna products and the reliability and service is tremendous. The technicians are second to none in the industry and are always available to resolve any issues we've had!" said Ron Schmitt, Owner.
Husqvarna's commitment to quality products and service was one of the main reasons Cougar Cutting choose the DXR 310. In addition to the great service, the robot offered numerous benefits that solidified Cougar Cutting's decision. "There are several features this machine has that others in its class don't offer, such as the telescopic boom that has a range of 18' (including the breaker) as a standard feature. This machine is extremely compact and has a very low profile, giving it tremendous sight lines (and) making it very easy on the operator to see what he's doing.", said Al Miller, Director of Demolition Operations. Cougar Cutting continues to be thoroughly impressed with the machine, as well as the company behind it. They feel it will be a great asset to their company and allow them to complete more in less time.
"In today's economy, the name of the game is production and this tool has production - Husqvarna' written all over it." summed up Mr. Miller. In addition, Mr. Schmitt said, "I've never seen a company in our industry invest in products as much as Husqvarna has over the last several years, they are committed for the long term." Husqvarna Construction Products is a market leader in equipment and diamond tools for the construction and stone industries. The product range includes power cutters, floor saws, early entry saws, tile and masonry saws, wall and wire saws, core drilling machines, surface preparation equipment and diamond tools for these and other applications. from: www.forconstructionpros.com
The introduction of the Husqvarna DXR 310 demolition robot at the World of Concrete in Las Vegas was a huge success. The remote-controlled robot's new technology and features impressed contractors and others in the industry.
The DXR 310 is currently available in Europe and will be available in the United States during the third quarter of 2009. However, one company in particular could not wait until third quarter. Cougar Cutting, Inc. based in Ft. Myers, FL, purchased the first robot in the United States. Cougar Cutting specializes in providing quality concrete cutting, breaking, drilling, demolition and installation services. They have been in business for over 40 years, starting operations in Florida over 25 years ago. "We have several Husqvarna products and the reliability and service is tremendous. The technicians are second to none in the industry and are always available to resolve any issues we've had!" said Ron Schmitt, Owner.
Husqvarna's commitment to quality products and service was one of the main reasons Cougar Cutting choose the DXR 310. In addition to the great service, the robot offered numerous benefits that solidified Cougar Cutting's decision. "There are several features this machine has that others in its class don't offer, such as the telescopic boom that has a range of 18' (including the breaker) as a standard feature. This machine is extremely compact and has a very low profile, giving it tremendous sight lines (and) making it very easy on the operator to see what he's doing.", said Al Miller, Director of Demolition Operations. Cougar Cutting continues to be thoroughly impressed with the machine, as well as the company behind it. They feel it will be a great asset to their company and allow them to complete more in less time.
"In today's economy, the name of the game is production and this tool has production - Husqvarna' written all over it." summed up Mr. Miller. In addition, Mr. Schmitt said, "I've never seen a company in our industry invest in products as much as Husqvarna has over the last several years, they are committed for the long term." Husqvarna Construction Products is a market leader in equipment and diamond tools for the construction and stone industries. The product range includes power cutters, floor saws, early entry saws, tile and masonry saws, wall and wire saws, core drilling machines, surface preparation equipment and diamond tools for these and other applications. from: www.forconstructionpros.com
This morning, my twitter feed was all abuzz with this piece from Playboy purporting to prove that the Tea Party phenomenon was all a Koch-funded astroturf operation, with the implication that the initial Santelli rant that touched it off was some sort of a plant.
What's that you say? The link is dead? Indeed it is. Fortunately, as it happens, I happened to have a second browser open with the article; text below the fold.
Last week, CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli rocketed from being a little-known second-string correspondent to a populist hero of the disenfranchised, a 21st-century Samuel Adams, the leader and symbol of the downtrodden American masses suffering under the onslaught of 21st century socialism and big government. Santelli's "rant" last-week calling for a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest President Obama's plans to help distressed American homeowners rapidly spread across the blogosphere and shot right up into White House spokesman Robert Gibbs' craw, whose smackdown during a press conference was later characterized by Santelli as "a threat" from the White House. A nationwide "tea party" grassroots Internet protest movement has sprung up seemingly spontaneously, all inspired by Santelli, with rallies planned today in cities from coast to coast to protest against Obama's economic policies.
But was Santelli's rant really so spontaneous? How did a minor-league TV figure, whose contract with CNBC is due this summer, get so quickly launched into a nationwide rightwing blog sensation? Why were there so many sites and organizations online and live within minutes or hours after his rant, leading to a nationwide protest just a week after his rant?
What hasn't been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli's "tea party" rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called "astroturfing") to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that's because it was.
What we discovered is that Santelli's "rant" was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a "Chicago Tea Party" was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.
As you read this, Big Business is pouring tens of millions of dollars into their media machines in order to destroy just about every economic campaign promise Obama has made, as reported recently in the Wall Street Journal. At stake isn't the little guy's fight against big government, as Santelli and his bot-supporters claim, but rather the "upper 2 percent"'s war to protect their wealth from the Obama Adminstration's economic plans. When this Santelli "grassroots" campaign is peeled open, what's revealed is a glimpse of what is ahead and what is bound to be a hallmark of his presidency.
Let's go back to February 19th: Rick Santelli, live on CNBC, standing in the middle of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, launches into an attack on the just-announced $300 billion slated to stem rate of home foreclosures: "The government is promoting bad behavior! Do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages?! This is America! We're thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July, all you capitalists who want to come down to Lake Michigan, I'm gonna start organizing."
Almost immediately, the clip and the unlikely "Chicago tea party" quote buried in the middle of the segment, zoomed across a well-worn path to headline fame in the Republican echo chamber, including red-alert headlines on Drudge.
Within hours of Santelli's rant, a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com sprang to life. Essentially inactive until that day, it now featured a YouTube video of Santelli's "tea party" rant and billed itself as the official home of the Chicago Tea Party. The domain was registered in August, 2008 by Zack Christenson, a dweeby Twitter Republican and producer for a popular Chicago rightwing radio host Milt Rosenberg--a familiar name to Obama campaign people. Last August, Rosenberg, who looks like Martin Short's Irving Cohen character, caused an outcry when he interviewed Stanley Kurtz, the conservative writer who first "exposed" a personal link between Obama and former Weather Undergound leader Bill Ayers. As a result of Rosenberg's radio interview, the Ayers story was given a major push through the Republican media echo chamber, culminating in Sarah Palin's accusation that Obama was "palling around with terrorists." That Rosenberg's producer owns the "chicagoteaparty.com" site is already weird--but what's even stranger is that he first bought the domain last August, right around the time of Rosenburg's launch of the "Obama is a terrorist" campaign. It's as if they held this "Chicago tea party" campaign in reserve, like a sleeper-site. Which is exactly what it was.
ChicagoTeaParty.com was just one part of a larger network of Republican sleeper-cell-blogs set up over the course of the past few months, all of them tied to a shady rightwing advocacy group coincidentally named the "Sam Adams Alliance," whose backers have until now been kept hidden from public. Cached google records that we discovered show that the Sam Adams Alliance took pains to scrub its deep links to the Koch family money as well as the fake-grassroots "tea party" protests going on today. All of these roads ultimately lead back to a more notorious rightwing advocacy group, FreedomWorks, a powerful PR organization headed by former Republican House Majority leader Dick Armey and funded by Koch money.
On the same day as Santelli's rant, February 19, another site called Officialchicagoteaparty.com went live. This site was registered to Eric Odom, who turned out to be a veteran Republican new media operative specializing in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns. Last summer, Odom organized a twitter-led campaign centered around DontGo.com to pressure Congress and Nancy Pelosi to pass the offshore oil drilling bill, something that would greatly benefit Koch Industries, a major player in oil and gas. Now, six months later, Odom's DontGo movement was resurrected to play a central role in promoting the "tea party" movement.
Up until last month, Odom was officially listed as the "new media coordinator" for the Sam Adams Alliance, a well-funded libertarian activist organization based in Chicago that was set up only recently. Samuel Adams the historical figure was famous for inspiring and leading the Boston Tea Party--so when the PR people from the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance abruptly leave in order to run Santelli's "Chicago Tea Party," you know it wasn't spontaneous. Odom certainly doesn't want people to know about the link: his name was scrubbed from the Sam Adams Alliance website recently, strongly suggesting that they wanted to cover their tracks. Thanks to google caching, you can see the SAA's before-after scrubbing.
Even the Sam Adams' January 31 announcement that Odom's fake-grassroots group was "no longer sponsored by the Alliance" was shortly afterwards scrubbed.
But it's the Alliance's scrubbing of their link to Koch that is most telling. A cached page, erased on February 16, just three days before Santelli's rant, shows that the Alliance also wanted to cover up its ties to the Koch family. The missing link was an announcement that students interested in applying for internships to the Sam Adams Alliance could also apply through the "Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program" through the Institute for Humane Studies, a Koch-funded rightwing institute designed to scout and nurture future leaders of corporate libertarian ideology. The top two board directors at the Sam Adams Alliance include two figures with deep ties to Koch-funded programs: Eric O'Keefe, who previously served in Koch's Institute for Humane Studies and the Club For Growth; and Joseph Lehman, a former communications VP at Koch's Cato Institute.
All of these are ultimately linked up to Koch's Freedom Works mega-beast. Freedomworks.org has drawn fire in the past for using fake grassroots internet campaigns, called "astroturfing," to push for pet Koch projects such as privatizing social security. A New York Times investigation in 2005 revealed that a "regular single mom" paraded by Bush's White House to advocate for privatizing social security was in fact FreedomWorks' Iowa state director. The woman, Sandra Jacques, also fronted another Iowa fake-grassroots group called "For Our Grandchildren," even though privatizing social security was really "For Koch And Wall Street Fat Cats."
If you log into FreedomWorks.org today, its home page features a large photo of Rick Santelli pointing at the viewer like Uncle Sam, with the words: "Are you with Rick? We Are. Click here to learn more."
FreedomWorks, along with scores of shady front organizations which don't have to disclose their sponsors thanks to their 501 (c)(3) status, has been at the heart of today's supposed grassroots, nonpartisan "tea party" protests across the country, supposedly fueled by scores of websites which masquerade as amateur/spontaneous projects, but are suspiciously well-crafted and surprisingly well-written. One slick site pushing the tea parties, Right.org claims, "Right.org is a grassroots online community created by a few friends who were outraged by the bailouts. So we gathered some talent and money and built this site. Please tell your friends, and if you have suggestions for improving it, please let us know. Respectfully, Evan and Duncan." But funny enough, these regular guys are offering a $27,000 prize for an "anti-bailout video competition." Who are Evan and Duncan? Do they even really exist?
Even Facebook pages dedicated to a specific city "tea party" events, supposedly written by people connected only by a common emotion, obviously conformed to the same style. It was as if they were part of a multi-pronged advertising campaign planned out by a professional PR company. Yet, on the surface, they pretended to have no connection. The various sites set up their own Twitter feeds and Facebook pages dedicated to the Chicago Tea Party movement. And all of them linked to one another, using it as evidence that a decentralized, viral movement was already afoot. It wasn't about partisanship; it was about real emotions coming straight from real people.
While it's clear what is at stake for the Koch oligarch clan and their corporate and political allies--fighting to keep the hundreds of billions in surplus profits they've earned thanks to pro-rich economic policies over the past 30 years--what's a little less obvious is Santelli's link to all this. Why would he (and CNBC) risk their credibility, such as it is, as journalists dispensing financial information in order to act as PR fronts for a partisan campaign?
As noted above, Santelli's contract with CNBC runs out in a few months. His 10 years with the network haven't been remarkable, and he'll enter a brutal downsizing media job market. Thanks to the "tea party" campaign, as the article notes, Santelli's value has suddenly soared. If you look at the scores of blogs and fake-commenters on blogs (for example, Daily Blog, a slick new blog launched in January which is also based in Chicago) all puff up Santelli like he's the greatest journalist in America, and the greatest hero known to mankind. Daily Bail, like so much of this "tea party" machine, is "headquartered nearby" to Santelli, that is, in Chicago. With Odom, the Sam Adams Alliance, and the whole "tea party" nexus: "Rick, this message is to you. You are a true American hero and there are no words to describe what you did today except your own. Headquartered nearby, we will be helping the organization in whatever way possible."
It's not difficult to imagine how Santelli hooked up with this crowd. A self-described "Ayn Rand-er," one of Santelli's colleagues at CNBC, Lawrence Kudlow, played a major role in both FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth.
So today's protests show that the corporate war is on, and this is how they'll fight it: hiding behind "objective" journalists and "grassroots" new media movements. Because in these times, if you want to push for policies that help the super-wealthy, you better do everything you can to make it seem like it's "the people" who are "spontaneously" fighting your fight. As a 19th century slave management manual wrote, "The master should make it his business to show his slaves, that the advancement of his individual interest, is at the same time an advancement of theirs. Once they feel this, it will require little compulsion to make them act as becomes them." (Southern Agriculturalist IX, 1836.) The question now is, will they get away with it, and will the rest of America advance the interests of Koch, Santelli, and the rest of the masters?
My thoughts:
1) The smoking gun, to the extent that there is one, is the "chicagoteaparty" domain. But the timing doesn't work. No one in August knew that there were going to be massive bailouts and stimulus packages against which they could protest. On the other hand, if you think that taxes are going to go up, it's not crazy for founding-fathers-obsessed conservatives to start registering any domain that involves tea parties. That doesn't mean that they then orchestrated an elaborate ruse in order to give them an excuse to deploy the domain; it's just as likely that they simply leaped in when opportunity arose. Domain squatting is ubiquitous these days, particularly among political groups, and there are probably dozens out there now just waiting for the right catchphrase to make them relevant.
2) I don't see any evidence offered that Koch money funds FreedomWorks, or any astroturfing organization. They may--a lot of groups do it, including groups on the left--but there's precious little evidence of it in this article. Koch is pretty open about their connection with institutions like IHS, but from what I know of them, astroturfing doesn't really seem like their style. I've seen Koch in action at private events, and though I'll respect the privacy, I'll say that even in the company of other like-minded rich people, he displayed rather a mania for honest dealing. That's not to say that it's impossible that they do fund FreedomWorks--I'm not particularly conversant with the world of 501(c)(3) funders. But Freedomworks doesn't publish its donor list, and there's no source offered for the claim.
3) The accusation against Santelli is potentially libelous, which is, I assume, why the article disappeared this morning. If I were Santelli, I'd sue. Aside from the fact that I have absolutely no reason to question Santelli's sincerity, I find it pretty hard to believe that any private group would be willing to front enough money to make it worth a television correspondent's while to risk all his future salary payments.
4) I have no doubt that there has been involvement of various right-wing groups with the tea parties. So what? Groups--often funded by God knows who--coordinate protests. The article implies that the people who participated were therefore insincere. I know some of the people who went to these things, and trust me, they hate taxes and government every bit as much as they claimed.
5) The claim that Odom's name was "scrubbed" from the Alliance seems weak. Usually, when people leave an organization, the organization takes their name off the website. My name has been "scrubbed" from multiple sites by employers because, erm, I'm no longer associated with them. The implication of that paragraph is that Odom hasn't really quit, but is being paid to run a front group. But that's a big claim, and there's no sourcing offered.
6) Likewise, the Koch fellows program is not some dark secret. Koch funds interns to work at various market-friendly groups. The fellows application process may have been closed, or Koch may have chosen to stop funding interns at the Sam Adams alliance. But I doubt that they took the name down because it provided a shadowy link to someone who no longer works there.
I presume that the people who put this blogpost up thought they had a big muckracking scoop. But take out the innuendo, and nothing's sourced, not even to the level of "people close to the organization tell us" or "it is rumored"; they just assert major factst hat are not, so far as I know, in evidence. You can get away with that on a personal blog, because, really, is Santelli going to bother to sue you? But for a major media organization, things like this require a little more care. Investigative journalism is quite hard, and involves more than printing things you think are probably true, which is why people who are good at it, like Spencer Ackerman, are so valuable--and why organizations that do a lot of it have big legal staffs and experienced editors to make sure they can back up what they say.
This is the sort of thing that has always haunted media organizations that start blogs. It's bad enough if an employee says something that you, as an organization, regret. But paid staffers can also say things that put you on the hook for big payouts.
Of course, it will be very exciting for Playboy if it turns out their employees hit the jackpot. But given how thinly sourced it is--the entire thing mostly seems to rest on the ownership of two domain names--I wouldn't bet on it. And given that the article has been taken down, apparently, neither would they.
I think it's too late for that now, however; Playboy either needs to stand by the article and put it back up, or explain why they took it down--and why they put it up in the first place.
Full disclosure: It's pretty much an open secret in DC, but given the content of the article I'm discussing, I think I ought to mention that I live with Peter Suderman, who once worked for Freedomworks. Other than giving me the name of the right employee to email to make inquiries (no word back yet), I haven't asked him about his former employer, and he hasn't told me anything. I debated whether to write about this, but since I'm not actually defending Freedomworks, I think it's kosher.
Update: Apparently Koch used to fund Freedomworks' predecessor group, Citizens for a Sound Economy. That's still a long way from a Koch-directed plot to inundate our nation's metros with tea.
Update II: . . . but apparently there was some rift between Koch and CSE, and according to my sources, Koch may have stopped funding them long ago.
Positioning and Machine Control technology has enjoyed rapid growth over the last 10 years. The core technology has been around longer, of course, but adoption has accelerated in these recent years partially due to greater visibility, internal market referencing and the normal adoption of such technology paradigms.
There is debate about the potential market size and current penetration rate but general consensus hovers around approximately $400 million in annual machine control sales estimating 10% market penetration. There are many factors and questions to be considered, thus the debate. For example, what do these numbers include? Do they include agriculture (land leveling, drainage , precision spraying), 2D and 3D positioning systems, mining, haul truck monitoring, landfill compaction systems, precision and coarse drilling and asset management? This list goes on and I do not have all of these numbers. I welcome any input that contributes to our collective benefit. Feel free to share your comments, facts and perspectives. (contact Randy)
Nevertheless, considering the general consensus, $400m being 10% penetration, we have a very small piece of a very big pie; A pie that continues to grow.
So how do we grow our slice of the pie? Do we drive development to new heights spawning new features that differentiate one system over another? Certainly one cannot stop progress. Do we lower prices bringing affordability as differentiators? My guess is that prices will drop organically any way as new players come to compete for the 10% slice and most assuredly dropping faster than desired by the industry, squeezing their profits.
Let me offer another perspective for consideration. It is not rocket science and likely I am not the first to discuss. But it is my belief that the primary competitor is not competing systems. They are all good delivering unprecedented control, accuracy, safety and productivity to the consumer. Hypothetically, I think if we were to cut features in half, the value and ROI remains. I believe the primary competitor is the non-user. That part of the pie outside the 10% that feeds us. I believe that if the industry focuses more on education, simplicity, interoperability, industry standards (GNSS messaging, driver formats, application interoperability, etc.) we grow the pie, we grow the slice of penetration and we grow our share of this bigger slice.
Positioning and Machine Control technology has enjoyed rapid growth over the last 10 years. The core technology has been around longer, of course, but adoption has accelerated in these recent years partially due to greater visibility, internal market referencing and the normal adoption of such technology paradigms.