The New York Post reports:
Professional do-gooder Kerry Kennedy — Gov. Cuomo’s ex-wife and the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy — has called the oil-drilled rain forests of Ecuador “the biggest corporate environmental disaster on the face of the Earth, in the history of the world.”
The human-rights activist penned opinion pieces and lobbied officials to voice her outrage at the damage oil companies have caused to the town of Lago Agrio, where 1,700 square miles of rain forest have been destroyed and people sickened.
What Kennedy has never mentioned during her campaign is that she is being paid handsomely for her seemingly selfless advocacy.
"Cashing in on her respected family name and legacy"
...uh, we're talking about the American Kennedys, like the from Boston Kennedys, those guys ...?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThese days there are people standing outside of Sprouts and Whole Foods in my town asking, "Do you care about the rain forest?" I always say "no."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGeez, a Kennedy/Cuomo trading on a name to gain status...liberals; Capt Renaults without the redeeming qualities.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen scientists publish studies that seem to cast a doubt on global warming and it turns out they have been financially supported by fossil fuel companies the Left screams bloody murder and anything that has passed peer review is suddenly worthless to millions upon millions of non-scientists who know no better.
Let's do a fun mental exercise and see if these same bleaters of the biodome will excoriate the money-driven advocacy of this doyenne of dendrolatry.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe claim that any skeptics were being funded by oil companies is just another lie perpetrated by the global warming brigade.
The truth is that one think tank that is critical of the big myth received about 1% of it's funding from groups associated with oil companies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWait a minute, I thought we weren't supposed to attack capitalism and free enterprise? Kennedy's just selling her skills for a market wage.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSeemingly selfless to whom?
If you think that a person who is an advocate for a cause isn't making a profit from his advocacy, you're a moron.
Is the New York Post unaware that it's owned by someone and is supposed to make money for that person? That every single person who publishes anything in the Post - article, column, photograph or ad - is doing precisely what his or her owner or boss has told him or her in order to make money for himself or for that person?
Or does the Post think that its readers are complete morons?
I don't need to be told (or have "disclosed") that someone who says something about something is being paid to say whatever it is. It's none of my business and it's unrelated to whether I'm being told the truth.
Does Mr. Bolduc think that if someone says something for "free" he's more likely to be correct than if he's paid to say it? What kind of bizarre communist universe is that?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, the Kennedy's won't make anything from Chevron on this fraud because Chevron will never pay anything.
From Chevron's recent press release on this matter:
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... "The Lago Agrio judgment was procured through a corrupt and fraudulent scheme, much of which was captured on film and memorialized in the plaintiffs' representatives' own emails and correspondence. Their misconduct includes fabricating expert reports, manufacturing evidence, bribing and colluding with court officials, waging a campaign of intimidation against judges, and even ghostwriting parts of the verdict itself.
"Evidence of these crimes has been provided to Ecuador's courts and prosecutors, but authorities there have taken no corrective actions. In the United States, however, no less than eight federal judges have found that the trial in Ecuador has been marred by the fraud and misconduct of the plaintiffs' representatives. And an international Tribunal presiding in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ordered Ecuador to take all measures at its disposal to suspend enforcement of the Lago Agrio judgment within and without Ecuador.
"Chevron does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud."
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As a Chevron employee, I fully support Chevron's continuing efforts in this matter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePoliticians are paid money from damaging practices such as the coal industry to exert pressure in Washington all the time, the majority of them Republicans.
"The industry has also contributed a substantial $82.1 million to federal candidates, parties and political action committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 80 percent of the industry's contributions have gone to Republicans."
External Link
That this woman was paid to lend her name to a lobbying effort - in this case one that does good, not harm - isn't noteworthy at all. In fact, as a private citizen and not a public official, the impetus for her to disclose this information is less.
Murdoch's minions and the right can hypocritically feign outrage but they should examine their own house first.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRead: It is okay for the Left to make money because its goal are virtuous; since the Right's goal are evil and villainous it is wrong for them to make money.
As for disclosure, we'll remember that the next time the Left demands that (insert conservative here) fails to disclose his or her information seeing as how he or she is a private citizen and not a public official.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile your amateur psychic abilities are amusing. this isn't what I said at all. I never said it was "ok for one side to make money", regardless of whether their goals are "evil and villainous" (your words), I was just pointing out both sides do it. To point to one as scandalous is ridiculous.
And when "the Left" demands a conservative disclose money they make from an honest organization, please let us know. It hasn't happened yet. So far it's just been charlatans like the NOM and the FRC.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseReread everything you wrote. You're so bad that you can't even understand your own writing. Your own writing disproves both paragraphs above.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI will, however, grant you one correction: The Left does not demand the Right disclose its activities. You guys just outright accuse others of bad motives where think there is taint. See Koch Bros. Rupert Murdoch, and Anne Thomas. So, in actuality, yours is worse than demanding disclosure; you just make an outright accusation and expect the accused to prove the accuser wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAh yes, the standard refuge of the left. The claim that what is OK for those on our side, is evil when done by yours.
What is this alleged harm that is being caused by coal companies?
What is the alleged good that Ms. Kennedy is fighting for
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseKennedy and Corruption, a natural pairing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"A consultant earns cash for services provided"
Shock headline!
Oh, wait im not on OWS.com
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMeh... Guys like Frank Gaffney, (Center for Security Policy, $300,000/yr) and Keith Payne, (National Institute For Public Policy, $400,000/yr) shill all the time for Weapons Systems without acknowledging organizational sources of income and/or message coördination with their Defense Contractor bank rolls.
Kennedy... Gaffney... It's a sclerotic Beltway thing...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's the 1% for ya; always exploiting power and privilege to embiggen their own wealth to the detriment of the working class.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"embiggen"? Really? Is that ebonics or something? Could you possibly have meant "enlarge"?
I tell ya, Maw, it's been all downhill since they replaced the ole Webster with that dang i-phone.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's a classic Simpsons joke that has since evolved to become a perfectly cromulent word.
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