Thread: Meet the Woman that Stopped Keytone XL with her checkbook.

The progressive political chant from the Obama camp is "tax the rich" while they seem to bend to the very people that they demonize.
Susie Tompkins Buell, is the co-founder of Esprit clothing. Esprit clothing is sold in 44 countries and is made in China, by mainly young women in that are forced to work 60 to 96 hours a week doing 12 to 15 hour shifts at $.13 and hour with not benefits or healthcare.

Where is Ms. Buell's outrage at the impact of unreglated factories in China on the environment or the human rights abuses that are a continuing condition in the factories that pump out the product that produces all of the millions she uses to buy political influence?American companies know that they can't get away with the inhmane working conditions that endure in China here, unless they are using illegal labor.

Big corporations and trust fund progressives seem to turn a blind eye to the way that they are making all of those million of dollars. Ms Buellis considered to be a philanthropist, but in my opinion, it is not because of moral principle, but because of the sweatshop money that she shovels to progressive polticians to buy influence.

M. Buell's fortune seems to have been made on cheap foreign labor and the lack of jobs in this country doesn't impact her wealth or lifestyle.

Obama losing financial backing of big S.F. donor
Carla Marinucci,Joe GarofoliThursday, February 16, 2012Susie Tompkins Buell, at her home in San Francisco. Buell, one of the country's most generous political donors, has long used her checkbook and her compassion to sway Democratic politics on the national scene.

Francisco

philanthropist Susie Tompkins Buell, one of the Democratic Party's most generous benefactors, is keeping her checkbook closed when President Obama holds high-priced California fundraisers this week."I want to look him in the eye and say, 'Thank you so much' " for his work, said Buell, who expresses deep disappointment in the president's leadership on environmental issues, especially climate change.

With Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in full swing, "I would just love to write my big check ... or have a high-dollar dinner here" on his behalf, she said. "I can't."

Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit clothing company, has donated millions of dollars to Democratic causes and presidential candidates, including Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore and her good friend, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the past 10 years, she has given $25 million to progressive political and charitable causes and has raised $10 million for candidates and committees, her office said.

But as Obama flies from Southern California to San Francisco today to vacuum up donations in the reliable Democratic ATM, Buell will attend neither of his $35,800-per-plate fundraisers in San Francisco, nor a fundraising rally at the Masonic Auditorium.

Buell is a loyal Democrat, but says she hasn't yet opened her wallet for Obama's campaign and probably won't anytime soon.

"I've just given so much money away, and I've never asked for anything," she said in an interview at her Pacific Heights home this week. Now, "I'm asking for something: He's got to be a leader."

Buell and her husband, Mark Buell, have long devoted energy and money to environmental causes such as the Go Green Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit designed to get young people involved in environmental causes. She said she is "very concerned that President Obama has not talked enough about this issue.""I thought that he really did understand 'the urgency of now' on climate change," she said. "He has not been vocal enough ... and I want to encourage him to lead me."

Buell's glaring absence from Obama's fundraising events this week underscores the challenges the president has with his progressive base.

Political angel investor

At the same time, Buell has become an angel investor to promising Democratic candidates in the Bay Area and across the country, and she encourages other donors to do the same.Candidates who have gotten boosts from Buell include Senate candidate hopeful Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, who was recently feted at a fundraiser at Buell's penthouse.

She is also on the finance committee for Democratic North Bay congressional candidate Stacey Lawson and plans a fundraiser in her home Feb. 23 for the candidate, who is running to fill the seat of retiring Rep. Lynn Woolsey.

Ro Khanna, a Democratic rising star in the South Bay, also has Buell's support and donations, as he mulls a future run against 20-term incumbent Rep. Pete Stark in the new 15th Congressional District.

Such strategic actions by Buell do not go unnoticed by the White House as it builds an election war chest.

Protesting the pipeline

In October, Buell made headlines after she led a protest of monied Democrats in San Francisco against the controversial 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Her fellow protesters outside an Obama fundraiser included Michael Kieschnick, co-founder of CREDO Mobile and Working Assets, which has donated $75 million to progressive causes; IT executive David desJardins; and Anna Hawken McKay, wife of Rob McKay, a wealthy philanthropist whose father founded Taco Bell.

The Democrats, who could have easily afforded the $5,000-a-plate Obama fundraiser, stood on the curb outside the W Hotel as Buell delivered a tough assessment of the president: "I don't know where he stands on anything," she said.

Kieschnick said Buell's decision to take an aggressive stance was pivotal to the eventual outcome - a White House announcement last month that the application for the pipeline from the Canadian province of Alberta to Texas refineries would be rejected.

"Before her involvement, the powers that be clearly dismissed our concerns" about the long-term environmental impacts of the pipeline, said Kieschnick, who has known Buell for 20 years.

People inside the White House "clearly noticed," he said. "Then they realized this was not only bad policy, this was bad politics."California Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has also won Buell's political backing, said that on Keystone, "the White House had no choice but to pay attention" to her. "We all know this is the biggest ATM machine in the United States, and she's near the top of that list. She has a lot of influence with others who are equally situated in their capacity to contribute," he said. "I think other donors certainly paid attention to that.

"White House officials, asked about Buell's concerns about Obama's record on the environment, cited the administration's move toward more-efficient vehicle fuel standards and alternative-energy plans as examples of the president's commitment to the environment.

Making connections

Political insiders also pay attention to Buell's role as a "connector" - someone who is marshaling her influential contacts to build support for causes and candidates. Lawson, a business executive, educator and first-time candidate, has been boosted by Buell's imprimatur. Despite having nearly no name recognition, she has raised $433,026 - more than all but one candidate in the North Bay race.

With Obama's return this week to San Francisco, Buell is hard at work on Keystone, warning that the fight isn't over. Senate Republicans, arguing that the pipeline will create jobs, have introduced legislation to allow the pipeline and have made it a 2012 campaign issue, as oil companies are renewing their push in support of the pipeline. "I appreciate that (Obama) has postponed the decision," she said. "But I'm worried.

"Buell said she spent this week "calling senators' offices ... donors, saying this is an issue that needs attention."

Asked which elected officials pick up the phone when Buell is on the line, her political and charitable affairs director, Belinda Munoz, said simply: "Whoever has a 'D.' "

Buell said she often wishes that voters without big checkbooks could get the same attention.

"They do it because I represent money. And that's not right," she said. "Isn't it sad, that it's all driven by money?"

Obama losing financial backing of big S.F. donor

A little background on the source of Esprit's income from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.

Behind the Labels: Made in China

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• In the first 10 months of 1997, American companies imported more than one billion garments made in China, which is more than four garments for every man, woman and child in the United States.
• There are four million apparel workers in China, the vast majority young women, rural migrants who are unaware of their legal rights and have never heard of U.S. corporate codes of conduct. Workers can be fired for even discussing factory conditions, and there are no independent human rights, labor or religious organizations to provide protection. American companies have taken advantage of the vulnerability of these workers.
• American companies are acting in ways that are actually lowering standards in China, slashing wages, eliminating benefits, imposing excessive forced overtime, denying legal work contracts and tolerating widespread arbitrary firings.
• Conditions at factories producing garments for export to the U.S. include forced overtime, 60 to 96-hour work weeks, 10-to-15-hour shifts, six to seven days a week for wages of 13 to 28 cents an hour, without benefits. Migrant workers are housed in cramped dorms and fed a thin rice gruel.
• Among the well-known labels produced under many of these conditions are: Ralph Lauren/12-to-15-hour shifts, six days a week, for 23 cents an hour; Ann Taylor/7:00 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, for 14 cents an hour; Kathie Lee/Wal-Mart/12-hour shifts, seven days a week for 13 cents an hour; The Esprit Group/7:30 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week for 13 cents an hour; The Limited/70 hours a week for 32 cents an hour; Liz Claiborne/66 hours a week for 25 cents an hour; J.C. Penney/11-hour shifts, seven days a week for 18 cents an hour, and Kmart/70 hours a week for 28 cents an hour.
• The major apparel producers in China include: Wal-Mart, Liz Claiborne, Dayton-Hudson, Kmart, May Co., Federated and The Limited.
• Despite claims by American companies that they are monitoring factory conditions in China, these factories operate behind a veil of secrecy and are part of a growing subcontracting network in which several factories work on the same order. It is likely that many U.S. companies are not even aware of where their garments are being produced, let alone what human rights conditions are.
• The American people are left completely in the dark, with no way of knowing which companies produce what in China, in which factories, under what conditions and wages. Without corporate disclosure, guaranteeing the public's right to know, there is no way to hold corporations accountable for human and worker rights—and these abuses will continue behind closed doors.

Read more Here



Esprit Hiring Manager for China, Where It Seeks to Double Sales
September 15, 2011, 7:41 PM EDT

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) --
Esprit Holdings Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed clothing retailer that makes most of its sales in Europe, is hiring a manager for China as it plans to more than double sales in the world’s most-populous nation in four years.

The new executive’s goal is to meet Esprit’s stated targets of HK$6 billion ($770 million) sales in China in the fiscal year that ends June 2015, with 1,900 sales outlets, Chief Executive Officer Ronald Van der Vis said yesterday.“Given the importance of China, I want to have one boss who runs wholesale and retail,” said Van der Vis, adding Esprit usually has different managers for the two businesses.

He also aims to build a “dedicated design teamin China,” as he sets up a team of designers in Paris.“We became too safe and boring,” said Van der Vis, who yesterday reported a 98 percent decline in full-year profit on the cost of closing stores and selling its U.S. and Canada operations.

Esprit, which has lost 59 percent of market value this year, hired the brand director and creative director of Hennes & Mauritz AB’s H&M to rejuvenate its fashions.Esprit plummeted 18 percent, the most in more than three years, to HK$15.08 in Hong Kong trading yesterday after saying net income fell to HK$79 million in the year through June 30, from HK$4.23 billion in the previous period.

Return on Investment

The retailer that started in California more than 40 years ago is in talks with to sell its operations in U.S. and Canada, which had a full-year operating loss of HK$410 million.“

It’s a pity, but we have to be realistic -- China is our future, not North America,” Van der Vis said in an interview in Hong Kong. “The return on our investment is so much higher in China on every euro or Hong Kong dollar that we invest than in New York.”

Esprit was started in 1968 by Susie and Doug Tompkins, who sold clothes out of the back of a station wagon in San Francisco, according to the company’s website.

The transformation into a global brand began three years later when they met Michael Ying, who was chairman from 1993 to 2006.Bloomburg


Susie Tompkins Buell used to be just plain old Susie Thompkins hawking clothes out of the back of a station wagon and now she influences presidents with the profits she receives from cheap foreign labor. Personally, I think she is worst sort of hypocrite.

Californians fund super PAC that hounds GOP

9:51 AM, Feb 13, 2012


Everywhere Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney goes, he is followed by "trackers" with video cameras, hoping to catch him making an embarrassing gaffe.

The effort, run by a super political action committee, is funded in part by wealthy Californians. American Bridge 21st Century pulled in more than $1 million from California donors last year, more than from any other state, according to campaign filings.

American Bridge is a liberal research organization in hot pursuit of what is now known as a "macaca" moment. In 2006, then-Sen. George Allen, R-Va., used the term to refer to an Indian American volunteer tracker for Allen's opponent, contributing to the failure of his re-election campaign.

American Bridge's team of about 16 video trackers follows Romney and his Republican rivals to all their events and will become increasingly active in Senate and House races this year, said spokesman Chris Harris. About 25 researchers comb public statements, business records and campaign contributions, and a communications team works to get the message out "in the political bloodstream," Harris said.

The state's biggest donor to American Bridge, with a $200,000 contribution, was Anne Earhart, an Orange County environmentalist, philanthropist and heiress to the Getty Oil fortune. Earhart is founder of the Marisla Foundation, which funds environmental causes and gave $15,000 to the Center for Investigative Reporting for environmental reporting in 2006.

Hollywood producer and Democratic megadonor Steve Bing - known for, among other things, a paternity dispute with actress Elizabeth Hurley - gave $150,000.

Several other big donations came from the San Francisco Bay Area. Susie Buell, co-founder of Esprit clothing company and longtime friend of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave $100,000.

So did David desJardins, a former Google software engineer.
American Bridge is "dedicated to making facts matter" by holding Republicans accountable for what they say, desJardins wrote in an e-mail. He wants American Bridge to catch Romney, for example, appealing to primary voters with more conservative rhetoric than what he would say in the general election.

"I don't care if he takes one position or another, but I don't think he should have his cake and eat it too - if he wants to tell one group what he stands for, then everyone else should hear the same thing," desJardins wrote.

Paul Zygielbaum, an anti-asbestos advocate and chief operating officer of a glucose monitoring device company, also gave $100,000. Stephen Silberstein, co-founder of a library technology company and former board member of the Sierra Club Foundation, chipped in $100,000 as well.

Several of American Bridge's donors are affiliated with the Democracy Alliance, a network of top-level liberal donors that strategically coordinates giving. The group's chairman, Taco Bell heir Rob McKay, gave $50,000 to American Bridge.

American Bridge works with other super PACs, like the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action, to provide research and video clips that can then be used in attack ads.

"They can spend their resources and their time doing what they do best, and we can focus on what we do best," Harris said.
In October, American Bridge accused Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., of plagiarism after it discovered a personal message on Brown's website matched a speech by former Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Brown's office blamed a staff oversight.

When Romney called his income from speaking fees "not very much," American Bridge raced out with an online video criticizing the comment.
The super PAC also provided research for a Los Angeles Times story on tax breaks for a steel company that Romney invested in when he was with Bain Capital.

The group was formed in 2010 by conservative-turned-liberal operative David Brock, who also founded Media Matters for America.

"After we got our butts kicked in the midterms, David Brock realized something needed to be done," Harris said.

The result is "the next iteration of technology impacting politics," said Barbara O'Connor, professor emeritus and former director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at CSU Sacramento.
"It's the marrying of the irate grassroots folks who used to dog people and try to get them to say something they'd regret later ... combined with large amounts of money and staff," she said.

But O'Connor said the incessant focus on gaffes has a big downside.
"What it produces is candidates that are a lot more careful, don't say anything and are vanilla, because they don't want to be caught in that trap," O'Connor said. "And that makes voters even more unhappy."
By: Will Evans
California Watch



The Democracy Alliance.

Website

• Community. Strategy. Investment. Impact. | Democracy Alliance

Background

"At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades," The Washington Post reported in August, 2005. [1]
Rob Stein's PowerPoint presentation on how the Right built a strong infrastructure of think tanks, non-profits, non-profit groups, scholarship recipients, academics, lobbyists, right wing activists and the media led to the founding of the Democracy Alliance, and also a separate organization, the New Progressive Coalition founded by entrepreneurs Andy and Deborah Rappaport.
The Democracy Alliance tries to keep a low profile and its wealthy donors prefer anonymity. According to published reports, organizations funded by Democracy Alliance are asked not to reveal the funding.
In 2006 a San Francisco, CA, office was established by the Democracy Alliance at the Presidio in the Tides Center, where Alliance member Drummond Pike has his offce.
Rob McKay of the McKay Foundation and Anna Burger of SEIU are the elected chair and vice chair of the board of directors of the Democracy Alliance. [2]
"Members of the Democracy Alliance include billionaires like George Soros and his son Jonathan Soros, former Rockefeller Family Fund president Anne Bartley, San Francisco Bay Area donors Susie Tompkins Buell and Mark Buell, Hollywood director Rob Reiner, Taco Bell heir Rob McKay ... as well as New York financiers like Steven Gluckstern." [3]
In October 2006, an article in The Nation magazine reported "the Alliance's 100 donors have distributed more than $50 million to center-left organizations and activists--a lot of money, yet still largely symbolic given the deep pockets of its members. Even as the donors pour millions into a new political infrastructure, however, problems have emerged that mirror many of the problems of the Democratic Party today and the progressive movement in general. The first is determining what, exactly, the group stands for and wants to accomplish. ... Rob Johnson, an early board member, says the tension in the Alliance is between 'party subsidizers' and 'climate changers'--those who want to fund organizations that work toward more effectively electing candidates versus those who aspire to change the fundamental nature of political debate with a stronger set of governing principles. ... Since its inception, the Alliance has been unabashedly elitist, while also poorly run. ... To stabilize the organization internally after almost a year of early stumbles, the partners chose as its managing director Judy Wade, a member of the elite firm McKinsey & Company, consultants to multinational corporations." [4]
Board of Directors and Members

The Board of Directors identified on the Democracy Alliance website (September, 2007) are:

• Rob McKay, Chair
• Anna Burger, Vice Chair, SEIU
• Drummond Pike, Treasurer
• William Budinger
• Robert H. Dugger
• Al Dwoskin
• Dr. Gail Furman, ACSW, PhD
• Robert A. Johnson
• Steven Phillips
• Charles Rodgers
• Deborah Sagner
• Michael Vachon
• Rob Stein, Founder

Members of the Democracy Alliance self-identified or identified in published articles include:

• Anne Bartley
• Fred Baron
• Ann Bowers
• Mark Buell
• Susie Tompkins Buell
• Lewis B. Cullman
• David Friedman
• Chris Gabrieli
• Tim Gill
• Davidi Gilo
• Robert Glaser
• Steven Gluckstern
• Michael Kieschnick
• Gara LaMarche
• Norman Lear
• Peter Lewis
• John Luongo
• Alan Patricof
• Rob Reiner
• Guy Saperstein
• Bernard Schwartz
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• William Soskin
• George Soros
• Jonathan Soros
• Albert Yates

Source Watch

Thursday, 23 January 2014 11:18 EPA Worked With Enviro Groups to Kill Keystone XL Pipeline



E-mails obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been plotting with environmental groups to kill the Keystone XL pipeline, which would run from Canada to Texas. The request was filed by the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute. Lawmakers indicate that the e-mails are “damning.”

Advocates of the Keystone XL Pipeline claimed that the project would create tens of thousands of jobs in the oil industry, and that the construction alone would have created 20,000 jobs. The plan was rejected by President Obama, and e-mails show that the EPA had been colluding with environmental groups to ensure that the Keystone XL Pipeline project would not come to fruition.
Under its former name, the American Tradition Institute, the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute (EELI) filed two specific 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. For months, the EPA refused to process the requests, and an EPA FOIA specialist admitted that she and her colleague were instructed not to work on the requests.

Much of the e-mails that were exposed as a result of the requests are between the EPA and the Sierra Club.

One communication revealed Lena Moffit of the Sierra Club writing to three senior policy staffers at the EPA, including Michael Goo, then the associate administrator for policy, on the subject of the Keystone XL pipeline.
An e-mail from Moffit to Alex Barron, EPA senior advisor in the Office of Policy, acknowledges a strategy session that took place the day before with the agency officials: "Thanks so much for taking the time to meet with us on Keystone XL yesterday.... I know this is a tough issue but please do let me know if I can be helpful in any way — particularly in further identifying those opportunities for EPA to engage that don’t involve ‘throwing your body across the tracks,’ as Michael put it.”
Chris Horner of the Energy and Environment Legal Institute asserts that as a government agency, the EPA cannot overtly attempt to kill the pipeline, and therefore must reach out to environmental groups for ideas on how to do it.
"On its face," Horner told Fox News, "it smacks of classic secret dealing and an uncomfortably close working relationship and one that is known to these parties, but quite plainly not advertised to the public."
Lawmakers have seized upon the e-mails as evidence of assertions they have been making all along. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told Fox News, "Despite the fact that Keystone XL has bipartisan support in Congress and from governors, environmental extremists inside and out of the administration are working behind closed doors to kill it.... These damning emails make it clear that the Obama administration has been actively trying to stop this important project for years.”
According to Horner, many EPA staffers share a policy agenda with environmental groups, a fact that is emphasized by the e-mails the EELI obtained.
"This series of correspondence plainly indicates that you've got an agency that's made up its mind — working with allies with whom it is ideologically and substantively aligned on this — trying to find ways to advance their argument without being too obvious about it," Horner told Fox News.
Previous e-mails obtained by the EELI show that the Keystone XL pipeline is not the first item over which the EPA and environmental groups have colluded. Dozens of e-mail exchanges regarding coal and the regulations related to coal-fired power plants reveal this.
In one e-mail, John Coequyt, head of the Sierra Club's "beyond coal" campaign, wrote to Goo and another EPA staffer to pressure the EPA into adopting regulations so strict that coal plants that had already received construction permits could not be built.
"Attached is a list of plants that the companies shelved because of uncertainty around GHG regulations. If a standard is set that these plants could meet, there is a not small chance that they [sic] company could decide to revive the proposal," Coequyt wrote.
More damning is an e-mail from Coequyt to Goo and Alex Barron, wherein Coequyt responded jokingly to an August 2012 article that quoted now-EPA administrator Gina McCarthy as saying the new regulations would not kill coal.
"Pants on fire," wrote Coequyt.
According to an EELI press release, the environmental groups involved sought the aid of others in their opposition:
Other emails reveal that another left wing pressure group, for which Sierra served as liaison to EPA, sought to hire The Brattle Group to assist their campaign, providing a more authoritative voice for their economic claims. Jurgen Weiss, a principal with the consulting firm, raised his concerns about the viability of their approach. Responding to an inquiry from Ryan Salmon, Climate and Energy Policy Coordinator for the National Wildlife Fund (NWF), Weiss said that, although there were obvious political points the green groups might try and score this way, it was not likely a proposal he would fight for internally given, “As you can tell, I am currently not convinced that the argument you are trying to make is really strong based on economics.”
Further e-mails show Goo and Coequyt arranging a meeting at a nearby Starbucks to discuss agendas. Horner contends that the two had purposely chosen an external meeting place to discuss issues without having to sign into the EPA building.
Fox News writes, “There is also evidence, said Horner, that EPA officials sought to keep their deliberations with environmental groups out of the public record by using private email accounts and back-channel communications.”
For example, James Martin, the EPA’s former Region 8 administrator, exchanged e-mails with the Sierra Club’s chief legal counsel Vickie Patton on a “.me” account instead of the official EPA server.
Martin resigned in February of 2013 after a controversy involving the use of his personal e-mail to conduct official communications.
Fox News reports that many of the e-mails provided have been redacted, but with the proposed regulations on coal being published, Horner and the EELI plan to go to court to obtain the original versions.
But Horner asserts that what has already been seen is quite revealing.
Horner notes, “I thank Sierra Club for inadvertently assisting our effort to hold the Obama administration to its promise of transparency. By, according to Ms. Moffitt, repeating in writing what EPA official and former green-group activist Goo only spoke, the public now knows EPA’s involvement, what the Agency told allies it could realistically do to help block Keystone, and that it had opened the floor for suggestions.”

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/e...ne-xl-pipeline


Many in our Government, and their puppets workers are out to steal our Countries natural resources you need to wake up America..I also hope and pray it is very soon.