!!Koch!! Front Group Americans For Prosperity: 'What We Want Is ToTake The Unions Out At The Knees’

[kpete]

Run time: 01:59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmj1boce8Rc   Posted on YouTube: February 25, 2011 By YouTube Member: ThinkProgress2 Views on YouTube: 37   Posted on DU: February 26, 2011 By DU Member: kpete Views on DU: 1163

 
Koch Front Group Americans For Prosperity: ‘Take The Unions Out At The Knees’

In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual conference, AFP Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and its allies like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) efforts. Speaking at CPAC’s “Panel for Labor Policy,” Hagerstrom said that AFP really wants to do is to “take the unions out at the knees”:

HAGERSTROM: It’s easy to go out there and fight taxes and increased regulation, you know we send out an action alert on taxes to AFP and we get thousands of people to respond. You send out one on a more complicated issue and it just doesn’t quite resonate…We fight these battles on taxes and regulation but really what we would like to see is to take the unions out at the knees so they don’t have the resources to fight these battles.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/25/afp-union-knees/

[Cowpunk]

1. I wish we could hear how he's going to do that NT

[guruoo]

2. nt

[DeSwiss]

3. Jealous.

- Snakes don't have knees.....

K&R

[roxiejules]

4. His wife appears to be one of the PR people behind the Santelli/People's Mob

A few links about Amy Hagerstrom:


Ron Paul Michigan Campaign Hires Amy Hagerstrom Amid controversey - Nov 12, 2007
http://www.outsidelansing.com/diary/91/

Now, before last week's major fundraising burst by Ron Paul, the campaign has hired a professional consultant formerly with the Sterling Corporation (representing Mitt Romney) - Amy Hagerstrom. She formed her own consulting sometime last year, and has worked with MCRI and Americans for Prosperity (Koch) most recently. Her husband works for Jack Hoogendyk.


Santelli Rant a 'Carefully Planned Trigger' For Anti-Obama Campaign - Feb. 28, 2009
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/02/28/703154/-Santelli-Rant-a-Carefully-Planned-Trigger-For-Anti-Obama-Campaign

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, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family..


The People's Mob is a fraud run by lobbyists and American Liberty Alliance - Aug 11, 2009
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/08/11/763246/-The-Peoples-Mob-is-a-fraud-run-by-lobbyists-and-American-Liberty-Alliance-Astroturf - 8/09

How do Joe The Plumber, racism, Republicans, Nazis, Ron Paul supporters, NWO CT theorists, ACORN CT theories, teabaggers, Oil industry insiders, free market advocates and health care opponents all tie in together? Natuarally? No. Only professionals are capable of this sort of co-ordination....corporate sponsored front groups....

The American Liberty Alliance. Amy Hagerstrom, Director of Operations, Eric Odom, Executive Director

As Keith Olbermann points out, the ALA does not help people who are inspired to organize protests, they are the organizers.



Amy bio: http://www.azurestrategies.com/about-2/ - her PR company
http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/people/Amy_Hagerstrom/roles - worked for AFP starting in 2006

Scott bio: http://www.americansforprosperity.com/041309-scott-hagerstrom

[Billsmile]

5. What really gets me about this speaker...

Is that union membership helped put food on the table for his family for generations.

So what does he do? He teaches dirty tricks and provides misinformation to fool the public and destroy unions.

[JHB]

6. That stood out to me too...

...assuming that wasn't just a bald-faced lie that he uses to gain the confidence (as in "con") blue-collar teabagger audiences.

And of course when he points out that public-sector unions are now larger than private-sector ones, he leaves out the fact that is mostly due the public-sector unions not being subject to the same active union-busting and outsourcing as private-sector unions.

Hiring a union-breaking law firm to run dirty tricks for more than a settlement would cost would show up in the budget and be subject to public scrutiny.

They can't collect your garbage from China.

Being not-starved doesn't make you bloated.

[roxiejules]

7. Atlas Shrugged cult fans

like Hagerstrom believe you must fight against "parasites", "looters", and "moochers". They do not believe in a moral obligation to serve the “greater good” of society. We are supposed to be happy that they have blessed us with their presence. It is the ultimate in arrogance.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged