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[[Image:Jocelyn-Webster.jpg|frame|left|Rove protégé Jocelyn Webster, now WI Dept. of Administration's Communications Director (photo by Lisa Wells)]] <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/11191 Walker Enlists Karl Rove Protégé to Promote New Protest Policy]</h3> by Brendan Fischer<br> As Wisconsin Governor [[Scott Walker|Scott Walker’s]] new policies restricting protest in the Wisconsin capitol take effect in advance of the anniversary of 2011's historic labor uprisings, the controversial governor has enlisted a new spokesperson to sell the rules, a 28-year old protégé of Karl Rove and new political appointee of the governor. Madison blogger Joe Vittie [http://wisconsinreporters.com/subscribe/walkers-doa-attempts-to-sell-the-constitution/ broke the story] on WisconsinReporters.com about Jocelyn Webster, the person Walker hired as the public face defending the rules. Webster cut her teeth with Rove’s notorious Office of Political Affairs in the George W. Bush Administration. A congressional investigation of the activities of that office yielded allegations -- including specific allegations against Webster -- that Rove’s team was involved in partisan campaigning on the public dime, a claim also leveled at aides of her newest boss during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive. Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/node/11191 here].
SW: update item
[[Image:Voting.jpg|210px|left]]<h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/11208 ALEC-Linked Group Revealed As Major Secret Donor In Referendum On Maine Voting Rights]</h3>by Scott Keyes<br>''Originally published by [http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/12/28/395496/maine-election-day-registration-alec-group/ Think Progress]''<br>Last month, Maine voters delivered a major rebuke to Gov. Paul LePage (R) and the Republican-held legislature when they [http://bangordailynews.com/2011/11/08/politics/early-results-indicate-election-day-voter-registration-restored/ approved] a referendum restoring election day voting registration rights in the state. Earlier this year, state legislators passed a [http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280041037 bill] repealing the state's 38 year-old law allowing citizens to register at the polls on election day. Tens of thousands of Mainers responded by petitioning for the matter to come to a referendum. Issue 1 was one of the most-anticipated votes on election day this year, with pundits watching closely to see how citizens would react to the Republican-led [http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/what-states-are-doing-to-restrict-voting-rights/ war on voting], which ramped up in states across the country this year. Recognizing the referendum's importance, voting rights opponents poured money into the campaign to repeal election day registration. In fact, just two days after the state's campaign finance reporting deadline, a secret conservative donor [http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/11/03/360076/maine-election-day-registration-conservative-money/ funneled $250,000] into the race, allowing the "No On 1" campaign to make significant TV ad buys in an inexpensive media market.Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/node/11208 here.]
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[[Image:NatalineSarkisyanGasland debunked JP 1.jpg|frame210|right|Nataline Sarkisyanframe|Image from the EID website]] <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/11190 The Teenager Who Changed My Life11116 "Energy in Depth," "Counter-Insurgency" Tactics, and Astroturf "Energy Citizens"]</h3>by Sara Jerving<br> The corporations pushing for expanded "hydraulic fracturing" ("[[Wendell Potterfracking]]<br> It was four years ago today ") for "natural gas" are putting big money into PR campaigns due to growing citizen concerns about this damaging drilling process. At a "Media and Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011" meeting this winter, an industry representative went so far as to [http://www.cnbc.com/id/45208498 suggest that I received a phone call from a Los Angeles TV reporter industry] public relations agents download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps' "Counterinsurgency Field Manual." He noted that it would change my lifebe helpful because the industry is "dealing with an insurgency." Chris Tucker, although I certainly didn’t realize it at the time. The reporter said she had been told that spokesperson for [[CIGNAEnergy in Depth]], (EID) defended the big health insurer I worked for back then, statement by saying it was refusing to pay for a liver transplant for meant only as a 17-year-old girljoke, even though her doctors at UCLA believed it would save her life and her family’s policy covered transplantsthat "there are no black helicopters here. I didn’t pay much attention ... We go to township meetings, and we hear what people have to say." But Tucker is heavily involved in the call at first"counterinsurgency, because as chief spokesman " working for one of the company, I had received industry's many calls over the years from reporters seeking comment about benefit denialstentacles of its spin campaign. We took them seriouslyEID is a Washington-based, but usually didn’t have to do more than tell industry-funded [[front group]] that attacks people concerned about the inquiring reporters we couldn’t comment substantively because dangers of patient confidentiality restrictions. If pressed, we’d email a statement to the reporter briefly noting that we covered procedures deemed medically necessary fracking and that patients and their doctors could appeal a denial if they disagreed with a coverage decision. More often than not, the reporter would either drop it or do a piece that was quickly forgotten and would largely go unnoticed outside cocktail of toxic substances being used in the local media market. I assumed the call from LA would be no different. I couldn’t have been more wrongdrilling processes. Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/node/11190 11116 here]. -----
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[[Image:Gavelhand.jpg|180px|right]]<h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/11188 Federal Court Strikes Down Wisconsin Fair Election Law]</h3> by Brendan Fischer<br>A federal appellate court has used the U.S. Supreme Court's ''Citizens United v. F.E.C.'' decision to strike down a Wisconsin law limiting how much a person can donate to "independent expenditure" political groups. For many years, Wisconsin law has prohibited any individual from donating more than an aggregate $10,000 per year to Political Action Committees (PACs) and political candidates. Monday's [http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/docs.fwx?caseno=11-2623&submit=showdkt decision] from a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found unconstitutional that portion of the law limiting contributions to "independent" PACs, which are technically distinct from campaign committees. The outcome is not entirely surprising given recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the identity of the judges on the panel.
