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For Immediate Release
December, 06 2012, 02:18pm EDT
Contact:
Jordan Libowitz,,jlibowitz@citizensforethics.org,.
CREW Congratulates November's Scoundrel of the Month: Crossroads GPS
Karl Rove and his dark money minions at Crossroads GPS suffered a series of expensive defeats on Election Day, but thanks to your votes the group is taking home a small consolation prize as November's Scoundrel of the Month. Although Crossroads GPS has a long history of playing fast and loose with election rules, even we were shocked by how brazenly the group violated campaign finance law when soliciting donations to fund ads for specific races.
WASHINGTON
Karl Rove and his dark money minions at Crossroads GPS suffered a series of expensive defeats on Election Day, but thanks to your votes the group is taking home a small consolation prize as November's Scoundrel of the Month. Although Crossroads GPS has a long history of playing fast and loose with election rules, even we were shocked by how brazenly the group violated campaign finance law when soliciting donations to fund ads for specific races.
Federal law requires outside groups making independent political expenditures to disclose the donors who paid for them. Groups like Crossroads GPS normally evade this rule by claiming none of their funds were earmarked for specific races. In complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the FBI, however, CREW presented clear evidence that Rove and other Crossroads leaders solicited donations tied to individual races, even issuing a matching challenge for Ohio's Senate race.
"Karl Rove has had a tough month, failing to deliver results for his secretive mega-donors and being put into a 'time-out' by Fox News after his election night meltdown. This is yet another strike against him," said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. "If the FEC wants to maintain a shred of credibility with the public, it must take swift action against Crossroads GPS for its total disregard for the law."
Karl Rove and his Crossroads cronies can now join the ranks of other former scoundrels currently in the hot seat after the election, including Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist. Stay tuned for announcements on voting for December's scoundrels.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
LATEST NEWS
Rejecting Lightfoot, Chicago Picks Progressive to Face School Privatizer in Mayoral Runoff
Progressive Brandon Johnson will take on conservative Democratic candidate Paul Vallas, who one advocacy group said "has never come across a public school he didn't want to gut."
Mar 01, 2023
Chicago voters rejected Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot's bid for a second term on Tuesday, elevating progressive Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to face conservative candidate Paul Vallas—an ardent school privatization advocate—in an April 4 runoff.
Johnson, a longtime educator and organizer, advanced to the runoff with roughly 20% of the vote after a grassroots campaign centered on expanding resources for Chicago's public schools and taxing the rich to boost affordable housing, public transportation, healthcare, and other priorities.
"Today, we are on the verge of creating a new Chicago," Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in a statement applauding Johnson's campaign. "It's a Chicago for the many, not the few—a city where the unhoused can access affordable and sustainable housing, where our public schools are fully funded and provide the support students need, and where our young people can play in safe, welcoming, and thriving communities."
Vallas, though, is seen as the frontrunner, having received 34% of the vote on Tuesday in his second bid for mayor.
U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.) received less than 14% of the vote in Tuesday's contest, under Lightfoot's 17%.
The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Vallas is a longtime proponent of school privatization, having expanded charter schools and other privatization schemes in his home city as well as in Philadelphia and post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
Far from shying away from his record—which has drawn vocal criticism from lawmakers and officials from the areas where he's attacked public schools—Vallas has pledged to build on it if elected mayor of Chicago.
Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party—which is backing Johnson—said late Tuesday that "the contrast in this runoff could not be clearer."
"In one corner, we have a classroom teacher and union organizer with deep community roots," said Mitchell. "In the other corner, we have conservative Paul Vallas, who is backed by the Trump-supporting Fraternal Order of Police and has never come across a public school he didn't want to gut."
Following Tuesday's vote, Johnson—who has described his opponent's approach to education as "morally bankrupt"—tweeted that "if tonight is proof of anything, it's proof that anything is possible."
"It's proof that we can build a Chicago as big and generous as its promise," he continued. "And it's proof that City Hall can truly belong to the people. Tonight is just the beginning. Thank you, Chicago."
\u201cIf tonight is proof of anything, it\u2019s proof that anything is possible. It\u2019s proof that we can build a Chicago as big and generous as its promise.\n\nAnd it\u2019s proof that City Hall can truly belong to the people.\n \nTonight is just the beginning. Thank you, Chicago. \n\nLet\u2019s go. \ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udfff\u201d— Punch 5 for Brandon Johnson! (@Punch 5 for Brandon Johnson!) 1677643318
To defeat Vallas, Johnson will have to overcome a likely torrent of opposition spending from dark money organizations that have taken an interest in the race to lead the United States' third-largest city.
As the Chicago Tribunereported last month, groups spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars in the final weeks of the race for mayor" while "hiding where that money is coming from."
One dark money organization, the Chicago Leadership Committee, has "spent more than $165,000 on TV and digital ads for Vallas' mayoral bid," the Tribune reported.
"There's no question even more dark money will flood this election in the coming weeks," Mitchell warned. "The right wing sees our movement gaining momentum and will do everything possible to stop us. But tonight is more proof that organized people can beat organized money. Brandon Johnson has always had the backs of working families, and in April, we'll have his."
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Calling Out 'Hypocrisy and Censorship,' Campaign Aims to Prevent US TikTok Ban
"Stop feeding moral panic and pass a real data privacy law to stop Big Tech companies—including TikTok!—from harvesting and abusing our personal data for profit," a new Fight for the Future petition urges lawmakers.
Feb 28, 2023
Data privacy and free speech advocates on Tuesday sounded the alarm about "hypocrisy and censorship" as U.S. House Republicans pushed for a bill to effectively ban TikTok, a video-sharing platform created by the Chinese company ByteDance, across the country.
House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) held a hearing on "combating the generational challenge of CCP aggression," referring to the Chinese Communist Party, after introducing the Deterring America's Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act last week.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-based group Fight for the Future launched a #DontBanTikTok campaign opposing the bill (H.R. 1153).
"If policymakers want to protect Americans from surveillance, they should advocate for strong data privacy laws."
"If it weren't so alarming, it would be hilarious that U.S. policymakers are trying to 'be tough on China' by acting exactly like the Chinese government," said Fight for the Future director Evan Greer. "Banning an entire app used by millions of people, especially young people, LGBTQ folks, and people of color, is classic state-backed internet censorship."
"TikTok uses the exact same surveillance capitalist business model of services like YouTube and Instagram," she stressed. "Yes, it's concerning that the Chinese government could abuse data that TikTok collects. But even if TikTok were banned, they could access much of the same data simply by purchasing it from data brokers, because there are almost no laws in place to prevent that kind of abuse."
According to Greer, "If policymakers want to protect Americans from surveillance, they should advocate for strong data privacy laws that prevent all companies (including TikTok!) from collecting so much sensitive data about us in the first place, rather than engaging in what amounts to xenophobic showboating that does exactly nothing to protect anyone."
\u201cNEW: @fightfortheftr has launched #DontBanTikTok, a campaign calling for US lawmakers to stop their unserious and xenophobic handwringing around TikTok and pass a goddamn data privacy law to actually protect people from corporate & government surveillance https://t.co/JQ7ykDwQKU\u201d— Evan Greer is on Mastodon (@Evan Greer is on Mastodon) 1677617090
Fight for the Future's campaign includes a petition that is open for signature and sends the same message to lawmakers: "I want my elected officials to ACTUALLY protect my sensitive data from China and other governments. Stop feeding moral panic and pass a real data privacy law to stop Big Tech companies—including TikTok!—from harvesting and abusing our personal data for profit."
In addition to sharing the petition and highlighting the inadequacy of U.S. privacy laws, the campaign site notes that the ACLU is also opposing McCaul's bill, and on Sunday sent a letter to him and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the panel's ranking member.
"Having only had a few days to review this legislation, we have not included a comprehensive list of all of H.R. 1153's potential problems in this letter," wrote ACLU federal policy director Christopher Anders and senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff. "However, the immediately apparent First Amendment concerns are more than sufficient to justify a 'no' vote."
"This legislation would not just ban TikTok—an entire platform, used by millions of Americans daily—but would also erode the important free speech protections included within the Berman Amendment," they continued. "Moreover, its vague and overbroad nature implicates due process and sweeps in otherwise protected speech."
\u201cTell Congress: Don't ban TikTok https://t.co/jQzj4vbhEB\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1677538588
The letter explains that 35 years ago, the Berman Amendment "removed the president's authority to regulate or ban the import or export of 'informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs... artworks, and news wire feeds' and later electronic media."
In a statement, Leventoff declared that "Congress must not censor entire platforms and strip Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression."
"Whether we're discussing the news of the day, livestreaming protests, or even watching cat videos," she said, "we have a right to use TikTok and other platforms to exchange our thoughts, ideas, and opinions with people around the country and around the world."
Notably, Meeks spoke out against the bill during Tuesday's hearing. Reutersreports that the ranking member "strongly opposed the legislation, saying it would 'damage our allegiances across the globe, bring more companies into China's sphere, destroy jobs here in the United States, and undercut core American values of free speech and free enterprise."
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Sales of SUVs—Responsible for More Carbon Pollution Than All But 5 Countries—Still Rising
One environmental activist urged U.S. President Joe Biden to take action to "usher out the era of climate-destroying cars and trucks."
Feb 28, 2023
Although the total number of automobiles sold globally fell slightly last year, worldwide sales of sport utility vehicles rose significantly, with 330 million SUVs now on—and off—the world's roads emitting more planet-heating greenhouse gases than all but five nations, an analysis published Monday revealed.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports total car sales fell nearly 0.5% to around 75 million units in 2022. SUV sales, however, were up around 3% "despite supply chain obstacles and rising inflation."
"In 2022, SUVs accounted for around 46% of global car sales, with noticeable growth coming in the United States, India, and Europe," the report says.
\u201c\ud83d\udde3 \u201cA strong increase in sales of electric models was not enough to prevent CO2 emissions from SUVs worldwide reaching almost 1 billion tonnes in 2022\u201d\n\nOur new commentary explores how growing SUV sales are impacting efforts to reduce emissions \ud83d\udc49 https://t.co/pVzKe1PbN6\u201d— International Energy Agency (@International Energy Agency) 1677534301
IEA noted that "an increasing number of SUVs were electric, accounting for around 16% of total SUV sales in 2022, above the average overall market share for EVs. For the first time ever, electric SUVs last year accounted for over half of global electric car sales."
However, the "strong increase in sales of electric models was not enough to prevent carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from SUVs worldwide reaching almost 1 billion tons in 2022," the agency said.
Put another way, if SUVs were a country, it would be the world's sixth-biggest carbon polluter.
\u201cIf SUVs were a country, they would rank as the sixth most polluting in the world.\n\nPurchases of SUVs have soared in recent years globally, rising from 20% of new cars in 2012 to 46% of all cars last year, the IEA reports.\nhttps://t.co/VQJV4oBcc2\u201d— Matthias Schmelzer (@Matthias Schmelzer) 1677608992
"Rapidly increasing the number of electric cars on the road in place of conventional cars is a key part of reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century," the IEA report asserts. "At the same time, SUVs require larger batteries to power them, so a growing electric SUV market would impose additional pressure on battery supply chains and further increase demand for the critical minerals needed to make the batteries."
"Addressing those risks ahead of time is possible through a number of actions: downsizing of the average car size; increasing battery swapping; and investing in innovative battery technologies," the analysis continues. "Those strategies would keep in check the investment requirements for developing the cobalt, copper, lithium, and nickel resources needed to satisfy the increasing uptake of EVs."
Climate and environmental campaigners in the United States urged President Joe Biden to take action to boost EV production.
"Cutting auto pollution by 75% by 2030 is the biggest single step America can take to prevent catastrophic global warming."
"While automakers talk out of both sides of their tailpipes, President Biden can take action to usher out the era of climate-destroying cars and trucks," Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign, said in a statement.
"The president needs to set standards that dramatically boost EV production and require automakers to slash the pollution caused by new gas-burning vehicles in the meantime," he added. "Cutting auto pollution by 75% by 2030 is the biggest single step America can take to prevent catastrophic global warming."
\u201cToday @GreenLatinos is in the @nytimes with an ad on #ClimateAction. We must move industry to be a part of the solution @POTUS.\u201d— Ean Thomas Tafoya (@Ean Thomas Tafoya) 1677621092
Amanda Pantoja, a sustainable communities program consultant with GreenLatinos, asserted that "our communities need clean air, not more toxic auto pollution."
"Setting the highest clean car standards is essential to achieving environmental justice for low-income communities of color disproportionately impacted by vehicle emissions," Pantoja explained. "President Biden must deliver on his commitment to advance zero-emission transportation and ensure that vulnerable populations have access to clean vehicles in their neighborhoods."
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