From: geeman@best.com
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 15:11:11 +0800
To: declan@well.com
Subject: Re: The Global Fix is In
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970623090316.006bf1e0@best.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Maybe I should have said lobbyist group masquerading as 'thinktank'
Like the American Security Council.

AND: grassroots is totally different - I agree that they would be a voice
in the wilderness -
and very ineffectual

How can you put them in the same category, "conservative thinktanks and
grassroots groups" as if they are even in the same universe?  Can any
grassroots org.
demonstrate the same track record in pushing legislation to go their way as
can the 
corporate-funded PAC/thinktanks?

Go back and look at the PAC list for McCain, and tell me how many that he
is aligned with are 
leading the opposition to administration proposals?

And then tell me that the thinktanks and the PACs are independent and
unrelated.  I don't think so.
The thinktanks are used by the PACs and funded by them, indirectly at least.

By the way, what does Rand Corp. have to say?



At 10:16 PM 6/22/97 -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Without taking a position on the rest of the following post, I should say
>that it's the conservative thinktanks and grassroots groups that are
>leading the opposition to all administration proposals and are taking a
>crypto-absolutist stance. 
>
>-Declan
>
>Sure, libertarian groups are just as good or better, but there are fewer
>of them. (Cato -still- hasn't come out with their crypto policy analysis
>even after they've been working on it for half a year. At least their
>privacy paper should be coming out soon. And CEI doesn't have the staff to
>devote someone to this issue.) They've done a few conferences and such,
>but they're limited by numbers. 
>
>
>
>On Sun, 22 Jun 1997 geeman@best.com wrote:
>
>> massive investments being made by Industry in the conservative thinktanks
>> who produce the
>> intellectual fodder-de-jour that supports the position of this elite, and
>> overwhelm the
>> likes of McCain and Kerrey with
>> impossible-for-the-legislature-to-understand managed 
>
>
>