EXCLUSIVE: US Chamber’s Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage Unions, Smear Chamber’s Political Opponents

ThinkProgress has learned that a law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the big business trade association representing ExxonMobil, AIG, and other major international corporations, is working with set of “private security” companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress, with a surreptitious sabotage campaign.

According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Hunton And Williams’ attorney Richard Wyatt, who once represented Food Lion in its infamous lawsuit against ABC News, was hired by the Chamber in October of last year. To assist the Chamber, Wyatt and his associates, John Woods and Bob Quackenboss, solicited a set of private security firms — HB Gary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.

Read the whole mess here ….

Some people think it’s the hardest part of communications but I love to pitch reporters.  If I’m having a bad day or I’m deeply in need of an excuse for productive procrastination – I pick up the phone and start calling reporters.

There is nothing quite like getting the attention of a person who is pursued by hundreds of people every day and read by thousands.  Creating that spark in their mind and planting the seed of a story.  It must be something like creating that light that goes on in a child’s eyes when they learn something new and you were the teacher or so my mother (a teacher for 40 years) told me.

It’s fun.  It’s challenging.  But it’s not rocket science.   Respect their time, their beat and their desire to scoop everyone else and you can get your own spark going.  Court them early and often to build a relationship before you really need them.  Talk to them like their human beings when you have the time, or if not, then talk to them like they’re the insanely busy and overworked professionals they are.

Never lie to them because you have a fundamental truth in common – your credibility is your livelihood.  If you want to screw with a reporter make sure you never ever want (or need) to talk to them again.  Nobody holds a grudge longer.  And never ever ask if they got your release. Their Pavlovian response to the phrase is to hang up and delete all future missives.

In the end – their job is to find the story and yours is to create it – so we need each other.  They’ll pick up the phone and listen politely (for a minute) or even call you first when you remember the golden rule.  Pitch unto others as you would have someone pitch to you.  In other words if you think it’s a boring pitch so will they!  Get creative.

I am proud and chagrined to say I designed and created every inch of this so I am looking forward to you all telling me what you think.

Have a Great Day!

Ramona

I watched the the President’s speech to the Urban league touting his brand of education reform.  I applauded when he said;

“The whole premise of Race to the Top is that teachers are the single most important factor in a child’s education from the moment they step into the classroom.”

The problem is his words don’t come close to matching the education policy his administration is touting.  When you look closely at what Race to Top wants to do, anyone with an iota of sense, let alone a child in public schools, will see some huge problems.

Acclaimed education scholar Diane Ravitch explains the problem today on Huffington Post:

“The program contains these key elements: Teachers will be evaluated in relation to their students’ test scores. Schools that continue to get low test scores will be closed or turned into charter schools or handed over to private management. In low-performing schools, principals will be fired, and all or half of the staff will be fired. States are encouraged to create many more privately managed charter schools.”

The logic of evaluating teachers based on how students perform on tests seems clear but here is the problem according to Ravitch:

”Evaluating teachers in relation to student test scores will have many adverse consequences. It will make the current standardized tests of basic skills more important than ever, and even more time and resources will be devoted to raising scores on these tests. The curriculum will be narrowed even more than under George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind, because of the link between wages and scores. There will be even less time available for the arts, science, history, civics, foreign language, even physical education. Teachers will teach to the test. There will be more cheating, more gaming the system.”

And about those charter schools…

“Furthermore, charter schools on average do not get better results than regular public schools, yet Obama and Duncan are pushing them hard. Duncan acknowledges that there are many mediocre or bad charter schools, but chooses to believe that in the future, the new charters will only be high performing ones. Right.”

The end result according to Ravitch …

“President Obama and Secretary Duncan need to stop and think. They are heading in the wrong direction. On their present course, they will end up demoralizing teachers, closing schools that are struggling to improve, dismantling the teaching profession, destabilizing communities, and harming public education.”

I wish you could ask my mom what these policies mean to teachers but she is teaching little angels in heaven.  Instead ask a teacher today if test scores are enough to get a kid into college, or if test scores will ensure they get a good job with a strong career track.   Teachers know that kids are more than a number and that pushing to privatize our educational system will only spell disaster for our nation

This piece is cross-posted at Blogher here - visit and leave a comment.