For Californians who have been inundated by political junk mail, I’m sure you’ve all gotten big campaign mailers from CAIVN (or CAIVP: California Independent Voter Network/Project) which promotes itself (and its website) as hosting fair and impartial analysis of the candidates and propositions currently on the California ballot. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? At first their website seems fairly neutral, until you delve into the "articles", which curiously all have a very carefully soft-pedaled GOP/conservative slant to them.
I wondered—is someone trying to flim-flam me?
There’s definitely flim-flamery going on with California Prop 16, the initiative the sponsors call the "Taxpayers Right to Vote Act" but which, if passed, will really deny to all Californians any say in who provides their electric service and was entirely written and its promotion 99.999% paid for by Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest privately held utility corporation. In fact, PG&E has spent over $50 million dollars promoting this piece of self-serving initiative garbage. I constantly get mailers from Yes on 16, several of them per day sometimes, and they all state, as required by law, "Major funding from Pacific Gas & Electric Company". It’s typical disgraceful conservative politicking—fool the public into thinking the exact opposite of what they’re pushing. (Don’t just take my word for it.)
Now suddenly I find myself getting bombarded with giant CAIVN/CAIVP (California Independent Voter Project) postcards, of a design very similar to the "Yes on 16" junk. I went to their website, where all their supposedly "independent" and "non-partisan" articles have a definite, subtle GOP slant, but nowhere could I find any direct link to other causes or parties.
Until I checked the fine print.
And lo and behold—the return address of the supposedly "Independent" Voter Project is the exact same address as the "Yes on 16" campaign. See for yourself here.
Independent my ass.
What does it say about a political philosophy that it has to disguise and lie about itself in order to gain traction with the voting public? Kind of puts me in mind of those guys the GOP and Tea Partiers are always accusing President Obama of being—communists.