The thing is this isn’t a recent change in politics for the Komen Foundation or for its founder, Nancy Brinker. It is a case of Komen misjudging the size of the backlash from their latest right wing maneuver. The immediate fallout is a perfect example of the ease with which information is spread online as well as proof that the average person does not share their right wing agenda. And the discovery of the disturbing truth that has always lurked in the shadows concering the Kormen Foundation's right wing agenda is a testament to the depth and breadth of what is available with a simple internet search or just a little digging through the web. It is no wonder there are forces at work behind the scenes trying to find ways to gag the net.
This is an article that appeared in 2002 about the Komen Foundation's politics.
http://www.alternet.org/story/14014/
And even back in 2000 their political agenda was the same. So really the only difference is now more people are aware. Hopefully that will translate financially into a more equitable distribution of private funding for women’s health care.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/0...litical-Agenda
Behind the Pink Curtain - Komen's Political Agenda
In 2000, when I first became a breast cancer activist, one of my first assignments was contacting the senators and members of Congress in my area to encourage their support for the Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention & Treatment Act. The bill was to provide Medicaid coverage for uninsured women diagnosed through the Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention & Screening Act, which had been passed several years earlier. IOW, the Treatment Act was necessary because uninsured women were getting no-cost breast cancer diagnosis, but still had no means to pay for treatment.
Sounds easy, right? You screen and diagnose them, you have to help them get treatment. Except one of my GOP senators didn't see it that way, and he had another breast cancer group who agreed with him....
Upon calling my GOP senator and speaking with his aide, I was shocked to hear her tell me "Sen.__ can't sign on as a co-sponsor to the bill because all the breast cancer groups aren't in agreement on it." Shocked, I asked her who was opposing it. She told me that Komen opposed the bill. When I asked her why, she explained that Komen felt that treatment for uninsured breast cancer patients should be funded through private donations, like the pink ribbon race. I was speechless, in shock. A phone call to another activist confirmed it was true - Komen was lobbying behind the scenes to kill the bill. A moment later, Sen.__'s aide called me back and begged me not to repeat our conversation to anyone, that she had given me the information by mistake.
Thus my lesson about Komen began in 2000. They spend a lot of money lobbying for a very different agenda.
The bill passed anyway and Bill Clinton, who pushed hard in Congress for its passage, was happy to sign it. Unfortunately, it wasn't the end of Komen (and its founder, Nancy Brinker's) political maneuvering to stall or kill legislation in Congress and in state legislatures that was supported by other breast cancer advocacy groups.
They fought behind the scenes in my state to prevent the governor from adopting the Treatment Program. They worked for several years to stall or kill the Breast Cancer & Environmental Research Act. In the end, they eviscerated it by removing new funding for environmental research and substituting a panel to review all research on breast cancer & environment. Using private funds, they recently collaborated with the Institute of Medicine to develop said report. Released last December, it sadly detailed the same old arguments that there's no evidence of links between environmental toxins and that no further research should be done on the subject since everyone has those toxins in their bodies already. Instead they chose to blame breast cancer patients for getting the disease.
In 2009, Komen lobbied behind the scenes to weaken the health care bill (ACA) as it was being debated in Congress. They hired Hadassah Lieberman, wife of Joe, in an effort to convince Joementum to vote against the Public Option. Komen spent over $1 million in 2008 & 2009, on behind the scenes lobbying related to the health care reform bill, so who knows what else was on their agenda.
Nancy Brinker, the founder of Komen and sister of the famed, now deceased Susan G. Komen, has always thought of herself as a heavy hitting player in politics. As you've seen in other diaries, she raised millions for Bush's election, as well as other GOP lawmakers. She was appointed by Bush to high positions in his administration. She has a very large ego and likes to play the role of political kingmaker, using her corporate backed non-profit organization to further her agenda.
Sorry, folks, but this is how they roll. It's how they've always done things, they're just being more transparent than they have in the past. And as an organization that seldom screws up and who hires some of the best political and marketing consultants in the country, they must think they have a chance at succeeding.
Who's behind them, besides the GOP? Corporations, pharma companies, and probably a lot of very influential hospital and health care associations.