Faustine wrote:

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Last year, Brookings had revenues of 29 million. The RAND Corporation had revenues of 157 million.

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One year, one hundred fifty seven million.

Cooincidentally, I bumped into *this*, today. Reminded me of the time, in my teens, when I finally discovered exactly how much unions gross a year in "dues", and what they paid for. Put a big hurt on the whole crunchy-granola rosy-colored hippie-glasses power-to-the-people-raht-on thang, that did... Cheers, RAH

http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=95001590

SCENE & HEARD Activist Inc. Professional agitators can't claim to be a "grassroots" movement anymore. BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL Thursday, December 13, 2001 12:01 a.m. It seems every time you read a story about a domestic conflict--whether it's drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, free trade clashes, or tobacco litigation--two adjectives always describe the opponents. On one side are the "grassroots" organizations--disorganized, under-funded, struggling folk willing to live hand-to-mouth in the name of their noble goal. On the other are "powerful" corporate and political interests--fat-cats with loads of money, contacts and discipline, willing to use any tactic to get their way. David-and-Goliath descriptions add the touch of drama, which is no doubt why journalists continue with the "grassroots-powerful" routine. Yet even as they do, the rest of America is cottoning on to the fact that such descriptions are not only outdated--they're completely backward. These days, most "grassroots" groups are far better moneyed, networked and operated than many corporations and political lobbies. And they've become far more ruthless in accomplishing their goals.

<snip...>

ActivistCash.com, unveiled yesterday, is run by the Guest Choice Network, an organization of 30,000 restaurant and tavern operators. The Guest Choice Network has become a front line defense against today's nanny culture. Or, as its first Web site--nannyculture.com--puts it: "Unofficially we include anybody who stands up against the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, vegetarian activists and meddling bureaucrats who 'know what's best for you.' " The site offers, among other things, information on junk science and food scares.

Now, however, the group has gone further. Over the past year it has used freedom of information laws to get the IRS documents of the country's leading activist groups--more than 100,000 pages of information the activist hope Americans won't see. "What we uncovered is an intricate, organized, well-funded web of what you might call the "'new left,' " says John Doyle, the group's communications director. "It allows a person to finally link the environmental activists with the animal rights activists with the anti-corporate activists, and see that they all operate together in the anti-choice arena."

<Details elided about how most of these organizations have more interlocking boards than a gilded-age Morganized railroad trust, and so on....> -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'