by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I received a most interesting piece of mail this week - a glossy one page flyer informing me that several Missouri organizations were congratulating my state's junior senator, Ol' Roy Blunt, for being a champion of health care innovation. The flyer came from a sketchy group called the American Life Sciences Innovation Council with a return address in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Blunt, the patriarch of a family of lobbyists, pulls down a handsome side income by serving in the United States Senate where he champions American corporate interests. If he has any interest in health care, it is in ensuring that profits for insurance companies and the health industry are unimpeded. He is a strong believer in the Republican political ethic that the only involvement government should have in health care is to pay the premiums of members of Congress - and screw everybody else.
But here was this group I had never heard of sending out a flyer telling me that seven Missouri groups were all congratulating Senator Blunt for being a "champion" of health care and then encouraging me to visit an internet site to learn more. The seven groups, which all sounded like lobbying organizations, were: Associated Industries of Missouri, Missouri Pharmacy Association, Missouri Biotechnology Association, SCIL (Choices and Empowerment for People with Disabilities), BioNexus of KC, and CHOP (the Coalition of Hematology and Oncology Practices).
The flyer contained a few photos of senior citizens and their doctors, along with one cheesy shot of a smiling Ol' Roy.
I did some quick research and found out that the group had initially gotten its web address through a proxy registration out of Arizona at Go Daddy, and its initial physical address had been a mail drop in Washington, DC, a box that had also been used by Republican con-artist and "filmmaker" James O'Keefe. One of the group's past tactics had been to make robocalls recognizing various congresspeople as "champions" of health care - people who were in the fight to actually pull the government out of health care.
Then I visited the site that the flyer directed me toward. Just typing in the name of the group and "dot org" resulted in nothing, but when I added a backslash and "Blunt" as outlined in the flyer, a copy of the flyer that I had received popped up. There I learned that I could congratulate Senator Blunt myself by simply providing the American Life Sciences Innovation Council with my personal contact information. Who knows, maybe then I could help fund future awards for other health care innovation "champions," perhaps like Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.
The line of people and groups who are trying to cheat old folks out of their meager incomes grows ever longer.
Citizen Journalist
I received a most interesting piece of mail this week - a glossy one page flyer informing me that several Missouri organizations were congratulating my state's junior senator, Ol' Roy Blunt, for being a champion of health care innovation. The flyer came from a sketchy group called the American Life Sciences Innovation Council with a return address in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Blunt, the patriarch of a family of lobbyists, pulls down a handsome side income by serving in the United States Senate where he champions American corporate interests. If he has any interest in health care, it is in ensuring that profits for insurance companies and the health industry are unimpeded. He is a strong believer in the Republican political ethic that the only involvement government should have in health care is to pay the premiums of members of Congress - and screw everybody else.
But here was this group I had never heard of sending out a flyer telling me that seven Missouri groups were all congratulating Senator Blunt for being a "champion" of health care and then encouraging me to visit an internet site to learn more. The seven groups, which all sounded like lobbying organizations, were: Associated Industries of Missouri, Missouri Pharmacy Association, Missouri Biotechnology Association, SCIL (Choices and Empowerment for People with Disabilities), BioNexus of KC, and CHOP (the Coalition of Hematology and Oncology Practices).
The flyer contained a few photos of senior citizens and their doctors, along with one cheesy shot of a smiling Ol' Roy.
I did some quick research and found out that the group had initially gotten its web address through a proxy registration out of Arizona at Go Daddy, and its initial physical address had been a mail drop in Washington, DC, a box that had also been used by Republican con-artist and "filmmaker" James O'Keefe. One of the group's past tactics had been to make robocalls recognizing various congresspeople as "champions" of health care - people who were in the fight to actually pull the government out of health care.
Then I visited the site that the flyer directed me toward. Just typing in the name of the group and "dot org" resulted in nothing, but when I added a backslash and "Blunt" as outlined in the flyer, a copy of the flyer that I had received popped up. There I learned that I could congratulate Senator Blunt myself by simply providing the American Life Sciences Innovation Council with my personal contact information. Who knows, maybe then I could help fund future awards for other health care innovation "champions," perhaps like Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.
The line of people and groups who are trying to cheat old folks out of their meager incomes grows ever longer.
1 comment:
Sketchy is the word. NonProfitFacts.com (http://www.nonprofitfacts.com/MN/American-Life-Sciences-Innovation-Council.html#reasonForPublicCharityStatus) has them profiled. They are not at 501(c)(3). They have no stated charitable purpose. They spend most of their money on legal fees, accounting, and lobbying. Yet OpenSecret.org does not recognize them.
Their mailer should be required to state "Paid for by Dark, Secret, & Dirty Money."
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