Mackinac Can Dish It Out, But Can't Take It [Updated]

You've got to love this. The Mackinac Center admits to looking for emails containing the name "Maddow" because of her critical commentary of Michigan governor/dictator Rick Snyder . No where does it say she got anything wrong, it just seems the audacity this woman had to expose these right wing dictators for what they are have their feathers ruffled.
Full article here

Here's the text directly involving Ms. Maddow:
Some of the concern expressed about our recent FOIA inquiry has had to do with our requesting emails mentioning not just Wisconsin and Michigan public-sector labor topics, but also Rachel Maddow. We asked for these emails first because Ms. Maddow had recently criticized at length Michigan’s governor and his labor-related legislation in a TV segment virally circulated on the Web, and second because FOIA requests are an inexact art, much like a Google search. You can ask for everything, and get everything, but not only is it costly to do so (public bodies can charge the fair costs of retrieving public records), it is both time-consuming and needlessly intrusive on the activities of public employees.

Hence, by including emails referring to Ms. Maddow, we were aiming to generate a more narrowly targeted set of emails that nevertheless didn’t depend closely on exact phrases that she or the letter writers might have used and that would have excluded emails relevant to our request. Nothing in our request intentionally impinged on or attempted to override the privacy exemptions built into Michigan’s FOIA law, including exemptions for personal material subject to doctor-client privilege, student privacy, social security numbers, trade secrets or material protected by other statutes. In any event, public employees are aware that their use of government resources can be constrained and monitored, just as private-sector employees know this about their use of their businesses' resources.

If you read the article, you'll love their five sections of hypotheticals. Do they think everyone is as dumb as a typical Faux Newz viewer? The answer would be yes, yes they do. All their hypotheticals have been proven. It is what they do! The band-aid was ripped off and the scab came with it. The Koch brothers and their Koch-suckers never thought their gig would get exposed. Thanks to many left leaners, lead by mainstream Maddow, their donations and deceit are up front and center. Is it enough to save us before the next election? I don't know. Ignorance and fear run rampant in this country. The very people that Americans should fear have the most money and use it to spread the lies and fears that have divided us. As I've said before, they've done a masterful job of pitting us against each other instead of allowing the public to focus on the real danger...plutocracy.

If you'd like to join the boycott of the Koch products, here's a list.

UPDATE
Not surprisingly, Rachel Maddow was all over this story explaining the Mackinac Center's dishonesty and the intimidation tactics they're using to silence their political opposition.

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'Scott Walker,' 'Wisconsin,' 'Madison,' 'Maddow,' Oh My!

Union busters have always relied on scare tactics to boost anti-worker legislation -- fear, threats, lies and intimidation are standard fare for politicians trying to weaken labor laws, and they're generally effective. In a recent example of this, right-wing think tanks are going after universities and professors for emails that might mention anything regarding the mass protests across the Midwest. Yesterday, the case of William Cronon, a historian at the University of Wisconsin, who was targeted by the GOP for his emails in an effort to smear his reputation was reported. You see, Cronin had the audacity to weigh in on Wisconsin's turmoil by creating a blog called scholarcitizen. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which is funded by the union-busting Koch Brothers, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for any emails sent during state time, on state computers which contained, 'Scott Walker,' 'Wisconsin,' 'Madison,' 'Maddow.' Maddow? Huh, the right wing is always saying how she's irrelevant and no one watches her while touting Faux' big, big ratings on their propaganda channel. So why is the lefty truthteller on little ol' MSNBC so scary to them?

In abusing Open Records to attack academic freedom and intimidate critics, the Cronon situation is an indicator of just how vindictive, how un-American, one of our two political parties has become. I watched Fair Game earlier tonight. Ever since Bush-Cheney fired the shot over the bow to expose CIA Agent Valerie Plame due to husband Joe Wilson's damning article about their Iraq lies, and got away with it, Republicans have established a war on any type of criticism headed in their direction. By the way, I highly recommend the movie although I regret they didn't go even more in depth. They just told the story.

Rachel Maddow followed up this evening being that she was named and all, inviting Mackinac backers -- including Charles Koch and The Walton [Wal-Mart] Family Foundation -- to appear on last night's show and discuss the FOIC request. Neither responded, I know - shocking. Also interesting was the response of another Mackinac backer, The Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation (the parents of Blackwater founder Erik Prince) -- who claimed not to know what they were talking about, before abruptly hanging up. Watch the clip below, Rachel doing it as only she can!

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