I would just like to point out (in the interest of truth) some facts in
response to the post about the HSUS mentioning the activistcash website
(which is where the url points). That site is owned by a group called
Center for Consumer Freedom.

If you google Center for Consumer Freedom you find:

"The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition of
restaurants, food companies, and consumers working together to
promote personal responsibility"

Hmmmm. Sounds nice doesn't it?

However, it turns out that the website Center for Consumer Freedom is
no longer available - although I accessed it a couple of days ago
before it was removed. If you now go directly to the advertising
link for the site on the right of google's list it apparently has been
taken down and is now redirected to the HSUS who tells you who the CCF
really is.

To research the group for myself, a few days ago I found the "The
Center for Media and Democracy" - a collaborative resource for
citizens and journalists looking for documented information about the
corporations, industries, and people trying to sway public opinion.
Their watchword is "Reporting on Spin and Disinformation since 1994".
They operate "SourceWatch" which tells you who is operating some of
these attack groups who do not like regulation of their industries.

Below are excerpts from what SourceWatch says about The Center for
Consumer Freedom CCF):

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) (formerly called the "Guest
choice Network (GCN) is a front group for the restaurant, alcohol,
tobacco and other industries. CCF is registered as a tax-exempt,
non-profit organization. Its advisory board is comprised mainly of
representatives from the restaurant, meat and alcoholic beverage
industries. "CCF is one of the more active of several front groups
created by a public affairs firm owned by Rick Berman a lobbyist. CCF
actively opposes smoking bans and lowering the legal blood-alcohol
level, while targeting studies on the dangers of meat and dairy,
processed food, fatty foods, soda pop, pharmaceuticals, animal testing,
overfishing and pesticides. Each year they give out the "nanny awards"
to groups who, according to them, try to tell consumers how to live
their lives.

Its enemies list has included such diverse groups and individuals as:

The Alliance of American Insurers; the American Academy of Orthopedic
Surgeons; the AMA; the Arthritis Foundation; the Consumer Federation
of America; the Harvard School of Public Health; Institute for the
Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems; the National Safety
Council; the National Transportation Safety Board; Ralph Nader's
group, and the CDC.

If those are their enemies - who are their friends? Makes you think
perhaps?

If that isn't enough, CCF also owned a website called Activecash.com
(the url mentioned at the end of the post about the HSUS) which also
targeted about 20 groups on behalf of CCF, a few of which were:

HSUS, Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM), PETA, MADD, National Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
Greenpeace USA, Sea Shepherd, Center for Food Safety (CFS).

Feel free to check for yourself at SourceWatch - it's a good site
http://www.sourcewatch.org/
and search for yourself for information on "Center for Consumer
Freedom".

The HSUS is one of many good organizations under attack from this
group. Sometimes things on the web are not what they seem. But,
unfortunately big business has big wads of money.

Meryl

[Posted in FML 7022]