Muffling the Left: Watchdog Reveals Effort to Gag Anti-Bush Causes

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 22:47:52 +0900
> From: Adam Peake <ajp () glocom ac jp>
> Subject: Muffling the Left: Watchdog Reveals Effort to Gag Anti-Bush Causes
>
> > ---------------
> >
> > <http://villagevoice.com/issues/0332/lee.php>
> >
> > Watchdog Reveals Effort to Gag Anti-Bush Causes Muffling the Left (in
> > a kind of Christian Taliban action says Jane!)
> >
> > by Chisun Lee
> >
> > August 6 - 12, 2003
> >
> > The Bush administration is actively seeking to gag or punish social
> > service organizations that challenge the party line on such matters
> > as health care for poor children and HIV prevention, according to a
> > new report. Nonprofits that disagree with the president's own
> > solutions, or go further and blame him for problems in the first
> > place, have come to expect unpleasant consequences. Those might
> > include audits of federal-funds spending and reviews of content, such
> > as workshop literature.
> >
> > "If you disagree with the administration on ideological grounds,
> > they're going to come down with a hammer. This has huge implications
> > for the free flow of speech in this country," says Gary Bass,
> > executive director of OMB Watch, itself a nonprofit, which released
> > the report last week as part of its 20-year-old mission to monitor
> > White House budget and spending decisions.
> >
> > As dramatic as that assessment sounds, the assault has been nearly
> > invisible to the public. The Bush administration and its allies have
> > hit progressives under the radar, maneuvering in the soporific -- if
> > enormously important -- realm of nonprofit oversight.
> >
> > The idea of a right-wing conspiracy to audit nonprofits is more
> > likely to set off yawns than outrage. Yet virtually every imaginable
> > social cause -- civil liberties, reproductive rights, affirmative
> > action, accessible health care -- relies on a lifeline of nonprofit
> > advocates, fundraisers, and service providers. Since nonprofits
> > operate on a tax-exempt basis and often receive government funding,
> > they have always been subject to federal oversight and are forbidden
> > from engaging in electoral politics. Under George W. Bush, however,
> > oversight has quietly morphed into ideologically motivated
> > intimidation and censorship, according to OMB Watch's review of some
> > dozen specific conflicts.
> >
> > Even though causes of the right have their own tax-exempt advocates,
> > conservatives have long reviled nonprofits in general for "supporting
> > the welfare state," according to Bass. He points to the major efforts
> > to defund nonprofits and restrict their advocacy during the Reagan
> > administration in the '80s and in Newt Gingrich's Congress in the
> > '90s.
> >
> > But those were head-on, equal opportunity offensives, going after an
> > entire genre. Under obvious attack, "the nonprofits really rose up
> > like a firestorm" and survived, says Bass. The selective, stealthy
> > approach of today is "unprecedented," he says. His organization had
> > wanted to put out the alert months ago, but piecing together the
> > scattered developments took time. "Almost every example we have here,
> > there's a link to the Bush administration directly, not just
> > ideologically," says Bass.
> >
> > Bush spokesperson Allen Abney declined to comment Monday, saying the
> > White House had not yet thoroughly reviewed the July 28 critique.
> >
> > In perhaps the clearest example of the report's claims of squashed
> > dissent, Bush's Health and Human Services Department (HHS) threatened
> > advocates of the nonprofit Head Start -- including parents and
> > teachers of poor children÷with monetary sanctions or even prosecution
> > for speaking out against a presidential proposal.
> >
> > Head Start is the hardly controversial program that has promoted
> > education and healthcare for young children nationwide since 1965.
> > Participating providers launched a campaign earlier this year to get
> > parents and teachers to tell Congress their concerns that standards
> > and funding might fall with Bush's plan to decentralize the program.
> > HHS soon began warning Head Start affiliates that their lobbying
> > might violate nonprofit rules. This summer the National Head Start
> > Association sued the administration, claiming it was interfering with
> > First Amendment rights, and won. But organizers worry that the
> > administration's warnings, wrong as they were, might have frightened
> > many into silence.
> >
> > HHS began its apparent policing of protest a year earlier, when it
> > audited over a dozen AIDS service organizations after they publicly
> > shamed the administration at a July 2002 AIDS conference in
> > Barcelona. There, U.S.-based advocates accused the Bush
> > administration of cheaping out on HIV prevention and, during HHS
> > Secretary Tommy Thompson's closely watched speech, heckled so
> > forcefully as to drown out his entire address. Conservative members
> > of Congress immediately demanded that HHS review the nonprofits'
> > spending of federal funds in Spain. HHS complied.
> >
> > Thompson's deputy, Claude Allen, told The Washington Post at the time
> > that advocacy groups "need to think twice before preventing a
> > Cabinet-level official from bringing a message of hope to an
> > international forum."
> >
> > In an interesting but brief mention, OMB Watch also reveals that
> > groups currently applying for federal grants to provide humanitarian
> > relief in Iraq are required to advertise the U.S. government's
> > generosity. Presumably, any criticism of Bush administration policy
> > would be considered to send the opposite message.
> >
> > Proof that this new scrutiny of nonprofits is political, and not just
> > about careful accounting, shows in the probes of work that groups do
> > with money from nonfederal sources, according to the report. "What is
> > striking is this notion that government may be reaching into groups
> > they don't agree with to see even how their private dollars are being
> > spent -- and using that to decide whether they receive federal
> > dollars," says Bass.
> >
> > Most squarely in the administration's sights are groups that deal
> > progressively and explicitly with sex education. One of them, Stop
> > AIDS, is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has used streetwise
> > language to promote HIV prevention among gay and bisexual men since
> > 1984. Since Bush took office, it has been audited twice by HHS and
> > forced to submit program materials for review by the HHS subsidiary
> > Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to Stop
> > AIDS spokesperson Shana Krochmal.
> >
> > Even after these grillings, Stop AIDS received a letter this June
> > from the CDC objecting to workshops with titles such as, "Oral Sex
> > Safe Sex?" and "In our Prime: Men for Hire," which promised to cover
> > "seven guidelines for safe and friendly relations with escorts." The
> > government letter threatens a "disallowance or discontinuation of
> > federal funding" if Stop AIDS continues to use language the
> > administration believes promotes sexual activity.
> >
> > Krochmal says the organization has been careful not to use its
> > federal funding for such workshops, instead relying on the more
> > progressive support of city government. "We know that what it takes
> > to catch the eye of a guy walking down Castro Street 20 years after
> > the movement began may raise the eyebrows of men in Washington, D.C.
> > But it takes a certain kind of method to get our point across," she
> > says.
> >
> > She called the Bush administration's crackdown on Stop AIDS "about
> > politics, not about public health," because the language it wants
> > quashed has proved effective in luring clients for prevention
> > services.
> >
> > The fight with Washington has forced Stop AIDS to consult with legal
> > counsel, something many resource-strapped nonprofits worry about
> > having to do. If CDC prevails, Krochmal says, it will add another
> > brick in an overall homophobic agenda she sees building under Bush.
> From Stop AIDS's troubles to the proposed federal anti-gay marriage
> > legislation, "It's an institutionalizing of policies that continue to
> > devalue the lives of gay and lesbian people in this country," she
> > says.
> >
> > At the same time the Bush administration is making it harder for some
> > progressive nonprofits to operate, it has bent over backward for
> > those with which it is more ideologically in tune, says Bass. While
> > OMB Watch supports federal funding of faith-based nonprofits, Bass
> > says it is unfair that Bush has granted these groups special
> > exemptions, for instance the ability to discriminate in hiring and
> > substitute religious qualifications for professional ones.
> >
> > Meanwhile, a December 2002 letter from the federal government to
> > groups dealing with HIV prevention and sex education abroad
> > admonished that "all operating units should ensure that USAID-funded
> > programs and publications reflect appropriately the policies of the
> > Bush administration." Some nonprofits worry that the smallest
> > conflict -- for instance over the use of words like "condom" or
> > "abortion" on a website -- could give the government an excuse to
> > funnel funds to groups whose views it prefers.
> >
> > OMB Watch's report also touches on nonprofits' fears about
> > post-September 11 surveillance by law enforcement. A major lawsuit
> > filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim interest
> > groups last week calls unconstitutional a section of the USA Patriot
> > Act that allows investigators to secretly examine organizations'
> > financial and membership records and even seize them without notice.
> > Such probes need only be minimally linked to a national security
> > investigation. The privacy of nonprofits' staff and clients is not
> > guaranteed, and advocates say the fear of attracting the FBI's notice
> > restricts freedom of expression.
> >
> > "If this is a pattern that is sustained, then it erodes a key part of
> > our ability to pursue justice," says Bass of the selective policing
> > of nonprofits. Indeed, Stop AIDS's Krochmal says, "We have been told
> > there is a shortlist of organizations that won't be funded next year.
> > It's obviously of great concern to us."
> >
> > --------
> > ------- End of forwarded message -------
>
> --

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