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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Lefty Kooks Run McCarthy Campaign Against The Mackinac Center!


    By Theblogprof, Section News
    Posted on Wed Mar 11, 2009 at 01:12:08 PM EST
    Tags: budget, education, Mackinac Center, McCarthyism (all tags)

    cross-posted at theblogprof

    Mackinac Center for Public Policy is under attack today from the press. There's a good reason this campaign has been initiated. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy launched a campaign for transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars. Kenneth M. Braun, policy analyst at the Mackinac Center, challenged every school district in Macomb County to provide an online check register. Since that time, several school districts have agreed to do exactly that - account for where the money is going. Basically, posting their checkbook for taxpayers to see. Transparency. Who could argue with such a move? Apparently, it hasn't set well with some who would rather keep the checkbook secret from those that are forced to give them the funds (that would be the taxpayers).

    I saw this opinion piece over at the Macomb Daily this morning: Should Mackinac Center reveal donors and amount?

    Some school officials and activists, apparently opposed to posting check registers online, have asked an interesting question: Why doesn't the Mackinac Center post online a list of its donors and how much they donated?
    Just to get things straight, the Mackinac Center is a private entity funded with private dollars, while school districts are public entities funded with public dollars. See the diff? The Mackinac Center, by the way, does post federal tax forms for the public to see. In any case, the rest of the post was short and smug. It was nothing short of a big hunk of feces flung at the center for asking school districts do what what they should have been doing all along.

    When you get down to it, is it really a good idea for private entities to post a list of private donors for the public to peruse through? Is this done anywhere? Well, actually yes. Yes it is. Case-in-point: California. It's state law that any political advocacy group has to publish it's private donor list. How's that going? Not good. Here's just one example that I posted on some time ago (Wasn't this known as McCarthyism?):

    From the Volokh Conspiracy (via Gateway Pundit and conservativegrapevine): Proposition 8 Donor Maps! You vote yes, you're on the list! You vote against the gay agenda, and we will target you in public. Tar. Feathers. And all that! Plus this: "Many of the listed contributions are $50 or below." People have already lost their jobs and been harassed by unruly mobs of gay activists. Tolerance for me, but not for thee!
    So here comes McCarthyism, not in California, but rather in the pages of the Macomb Daily! What this will do is open up private individuals to intimidation or worse because of their beliefs. There's much more on the gay activist intimidation in California, as I last updated a month ago (McCarthyism in 2009):
    McCarthyistic tactic has been called out by the New York Times (!!!). It only took them 3 months to acknowledge it too! I had bets that it would take at least 6. Odds were that it was going to be at the same time that hell reaches 32F. In any case, things must be pretty bad for the NYT to acknowledge it. Via Michelle Malkin:

    The New York Times has finally come to the realization that the anti-Prop. 8 mob in California is intimidating traditional marriage supporters with its blacklist maps.What took them so damn long?From the New York Time article:

    "When I see those maps, it does leave me with a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation...

    Yeah, me too. And we want this in Michigan now? Leave private citizens alone! As for the Mackinac Center, why don't the critics address the issues rather than flinging feces around? Don't most people call that "deflection?"

    < Wednesday in the Sphere: March 11 | Making Sense of the Crisis >


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    The Macomb Daily's... (none / 0) (#1)
    by KG One on Wed Mar 11, 2009 at 02:14:01 PM EST
    ...ignorance was astounding when they printed that editorial.

    Don't be too surprised when it goes the way of The Rocky Mountain News in about two years.

    I wonder if they'll be as forthcoming with their finances prior to its collapse?

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