Archive for the ‘Internet Free Speech’ Category

February28

On Capitol Hill, Public Citizen brings the heat of reality to a GOP freeze on regulatory safeguards

By: Rich Robinson

The U.S. House of Representatives refuses to let up on its quixotic mission to destroy public safeguards. Its latest incarnation is H.R. 4078, the “Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act of 2012,” a misguided bill that seeks to halt regulatory protections until the unemployment rate is equal or less than six percent.

photo by Derek Keats vis flickr

It was the topic of the hour at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law, featuring two professors associated with the Hoover Institute, Allan Meltzler and John Taylor, who were there to bolster a weak argument that by “freezing” regulations, somehow all of our country’s jobs problems would magically disappear.

Fortunately, Public Citizen President Rob Weissman was there to speak on behalf of reality.

Weissman, who also serves as co-chair of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards,  reminded the subcommittee it was regulatory failures that helped create the current jobs crisis. He said a freeze on public protections not only would fail to create jobs, but would place the economy in serious jeopardy, particularly if newly created financial regulations were weakened or blocked. A little more on that in minute.

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Posted in: Congress, Consumer Protection, Energy, Environment, Financial Reform, Health, Internet Free Speech, Product Safety, Regulation, Uncategorized, Workplace Health & Safety1 comments

December12

The week ahead: High pay scrutinized, Internet anonymity defended and more

By: Angela Bradbery

One of the hot topics these days is income inequality and the out-of-sight paychecks that CEOs get, even if the company goes downhill on their watch.

That’s why a Public Citizen is helping organize a conference today about executive compensation and how it should be changed. The conference is hosted by Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition where Public Citizen leads leads the executive compensation task force. The point is to examine how the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law was intended to reduce the excessive earnings of senior executives and reduce the risks these pose to the economy. Proposed implementing rules meant to bar compensation schemes that incentivize excessive risk-taking are weak and have been delayed. Speakers include Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO; Robert J. Jackson Jr., a former senior adviser to the Treasury Department on executive compensation and corporate governance; a number of professors and others.

Also today, one of our senior attorneys, Paul Alan Levy, is making an oral argument before the Indiana Court of Appeals in Indianapolis. The case is Miller v. Junior Achievement, and Levy is arguing as amicus curiae. The suit arose from an attempt by the former CEO of Junior Achievement and his wife to unmask online critics who commented about the company’s financial situation. Levy will argue that the Millers have not met the test needed to unmask the identity of the anonymous posters.

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Posted in: Campaign Finance, Congress, Financial Reform, Internet Free Speech, Litigation, This Week0 comments

November1

Bill Moyers remarks for Public Citizen’s 40th Anniversary Gala

By: Editor

Peabody Award-winning journalist Bill Moyers’ keynote remarks for Public Citizen’s 40th Anniversary Gala are found below.

"Bill Moyers" "Public Citizen"

I am honored to share this occasion with you.   No one beyond your collegial inner appreciates more than I do what you have stood for over these 40 years, or is more aware of the battles you have fought, the victories you have won, and the passion for democracy that still courses through your veins.  The great progressive of a century ago, Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin – a Republican, by the way – believed that “Democracy is a life; and involves constant struggle.”  Democracy has been your life for four decades now, and would have been even more imperiled today if you had not stayed the course.

I began my public journalism the same year you began your public advocacy, in 1971. Our paths often paralleled and sometimes crossed. Over these 40 years  journalism for me has been a continuing course in adult education, and I came early on to consider the work you do as part of the curriculum – an open seminar on how government works – and for whom.   Your muckraking investigations – into money and politics, corporate behavior, lobbying, regulatory oversight, public health and safety, openness in government, and consumer protection, among others – are models of accuracy and integrity. They drive home to journalists that while it is important to cover the news, it is more important to uncover the news.  As one of my mentors said, “News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity.”  And when a student asked the journalist and historian Richard Reeves for his definition of “real news”, he answered: “The news you and I need to keep our freedoms.”  You keep reminding us how crucial that news is to democracy.  And when the watchdogs of the press have fallen silent, your vigilant growls have told us something’s up.

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Climate Change, Commercialism, Congress, Consumer Protection, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Financial Reform, Health, Internet Free Speech, Litigation, Nuclear Power, Open Government, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety, Regulation, Social Justice, Texas, Trade, Transportation, Uncategorized, Workplace Health & Safety5 comments

October21

Public Citizen celebrates 40 years of progress!

By: Rachel Lewis

Last night was a night to remember. From the performance of Capitol Movement, to the rousing speech by Public Citizen’s keynote Bill Moyers, energy filled the ballroom at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington, D.C., where  public interest luminaries mingled with the next generation of Naders Raiders to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Public Citizen.

Cocktails were served beginning at 6 p.m. . Following this, attendees went to the main ballroom where dinner was served. Public Citizen board member Steve Skrovan, whose documentary about Public Citizen founder Ralph Nader is currently showing on Showtime, MCed the event and offered the following quote to start the evening off:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
-George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) “Maxims for Revolutionists”

Skrovan went on to say that he believed the ballroom of nearly 600 supporters was probably full of “unreasonable people.” One of those unreasonables: Joan Claybrook. Claybrook, who helped found the organization and served as president of Public Citizen for nearly three decades, spoke about her pride in the organization and all its accomplishments. Her remarks preceded a short video created to explain the origins of Public Citizen and highlight its accomplishments over the last four decades. It’s a must see! CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO . . .


U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), who worked at Public Citizen in our Congress Watch division a number of years ago, recounted the many lessons she had learned working at Public Citizen. Public Citizen board member and commentator Jim Hightower then spoke, telling the audience that he serves on only one nonprofit board. The reason he chose Public Citizen’s board: because Public Citizen knows you can’t sweet talk a pig out of a creek– you need to “get right up behind it and push it!” (He was explaining how hard we push to get things done and how we don’t back down.) Maybe you had to be there.

Hightower’s Texas humor was given a run for its money though when Public Citizen founder Ralph Nader took to the podium. While his remarks were earnest and provided often somber reflections on the history of the consumer movement he fathered and the challenges before our nation, his wit was clear. Nader, who once said the point of leadership “is to create more leaders,” said, “You can always tell a Public Citizen project director but you can’t tell them much.”

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Climate Change, Commercialism, Congress, Consumer Protection, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Financial Reform, Health, Internet Free Speech, Litigation, Nuclear Power, Open Government, Pharmaceuticals, Product Safety, Regulation, Social Justice, Texas, Trade, Transportation, Uncategorized, Workplace Health & Safety4 comments

October12

REINS Act speeds march to repeal the 20th century to double time

By: Rich Robinson

Seems like once or twice a week, Congress is trying to pass some kind of hare-brained legislation to roll back the vital regulatory protections that keep our air and water clean, our food and products safe, etc. What is it with these guys and their attempt at repealing the 20th century?

photo by wallyg via flickr

Next up on their Hit Parade is “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2011 (H.R. 10/S. 299)” which is scheduled for mark-up in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. This bill would require congressional approval of all major rules – within 70 days and with no changes – by both houses of Congress for any to take effect.

Let’s set aside the ridiculous notion that Congress can agree on anything within 70 days and think about this: it already takes years for a federal agency to create the rules necessary to enforce a new law, due to existing review and analysis requirements and public comment procedures. Under “REINS” all that would come to a screeching halt.

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Posted in: Campaign Finance, Congress, Consumer Protection, Energy, Environment, Financial Reform, Health, Internet Free Speech, Product Safety, Regulation, Uncategorized, Workplace Health & Safety0 comments

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