I'm sure by now you have heard about the current Medicare legislation passed by the house and pending in the senate.
The Republican sponsors of the bill are making much hay and pointing to the fact that the AARP has endorsed the bill, and are presenting this as proof that seniors are behind them.
But after some checking, things are not what they seem. It looks like the AARP is no longer an 'independent' advocacy group.
Turns out that William D. Novelli, the director of AARP is nothing short of a Republican product, with very close ties to the RNC and also close financial ties with many pharmaceutical and healthcare related corporations.
Before coming to AARP, he co-founded the public relations firm Porter Novelli, which was up to their eye-balls in spinning the public for Republican causes.
To be blunt, this guy is nothing but a right-wing hack, who specializes in spinning the truth.
Listed below is some info I lifted from the AARP forum (link included) that will give you a good start on the real Mr. Novelli.
The post includes a suggestion to google the words: Porter Novelli Republican. I did that, and if you are interested in this issue, that will tell you all you need to know that the leader of the AARP is knee-deep into Republican party partisan actions.
I'm not a senior, but if any of you are, I would encourage you to check this out and give serious thought to resigning from an organization run by a person who has a long history of direct financial ties that conflict with your personal health and well being.
I found this email on the AARP site listed as the one to contact William D. Novelli, its looks suspicious to me, but it might be worth a try... member@aarp.org
Best!
Kelley
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http://community.aarp.org/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=rp-legislative&msg=3735.1&ctx=1In June 2001 our elected Board Members of AARP, under the influence of Mr Novelli, changed our AARP Bylaws. Instead of having a AARP convention every other year, they voted to have new Board members appointed by the present Board. They create a nomination committee to propose new Board members. This in effect has taken out WE, the members from the voting process, and replacing us with Novelli.
If you look at many large organizations, and corporations you will find that when this method is used corruption often flourishes. This gives so much power to the CEO that they have created a self perpetuating dynasty.
Where did Bill Novelli come from ? He joined AARP in January 2000 as Associate Executive Director, Public Affairs. Mr. Novelli co-founded and was President of Porter Novelli, now one of the world's largest public relations agencies and part of the Omnicom Group, an international marketing communications corporation.
The following is some research I did this morning. You draw your own conclusions.
I would post each WEB site, but AARP is now removing any references in this Board. You can recreate my work by putting into the Google browser the following:
Porter Novelli Republican
Taken from the current Porter Novelli web site:
EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT