Women of the Storm resorts to Spamming Petition Signers to counter-spin PR of their connections to America's Wetlands Foundation.
~Firstly: I highly resent being contacted this way regardless of signing their petition before realizing their connection to Big Oil through America's Wetlands.
I've never given them my email otherwise. I would assume everyone who signed that petition received this email blast. Now they use this to do Public Relations.
That sucks so in the BP way. It looks and smells like Crude Oil Public Relations.
~2ndly: I resent Women of the Storm portraying themselves as uninterested in having the American Taxpayer foot the bill for the devastation wrought by oil companies. They portray their activities as Apolitical Activists or anything other than a Political Action Committee, when it appears that is Exactly their function
For example, WOS in their first trip to DC, encouraged members of Congress to come to N.O. and see the damage for themselves. But in their second trip to DC, WOS pushed HARD for federal legislation. They lobbied for the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, S. 3711 WOS flew to Washington in a chartered jet and spent the day running all over DC lobbying for the Act. Read that bill, past the "revenue sharing" candy and tell me what you think.
~3rdly: One sentence in their spam bothered me: "The organization has never received direct funding from any oil company or from America’s Wetland Foundation. While America's Wetland Foundation is a strategic partner..." (bold emphasis mine) Oh? "Direct Funding", certainly implies "funding" and sounds like an evasion, a half-lie. What about "Indirect Funding"? I mean try running that one by the IRS who investigates money laundering. I bet they hear the "Direct -vs- Indirect Funding" line all the time. I mean really. And what the hell does "strategic partner" mean exactly. This bothers me because WOS and America's Wetlands are both Private Non-profit Corporations, which means they are not subject to open-records Sunshine Law, Freedom of Information Requests or any other public scrutiny over their financing the way WOS's fund raising front Greater New Orleans Foundation is due to its 501c3 status. Yes you can see who gives WOS money through GNOF but you will not see any financial connection to her husband's oil industry group America's Wetlands without a subpoena.
~Finally~ What does this group actually DO? It seems after they got S. 3711 they sorta just died down as I found reading Karen Dalton-Beninato's article Thursday in New Orleans.com. This statement has stuck with me all day: Milling's wife, Ann Milling, has revived Women of The Storm, which was founded post-Katrina. (Bold mine). This bothers me because I haven't really seen much On The Ground from this group. It did seem to me that they had disappeared after getting that law passed. It seems to me that they are a Political Action Committee, which wouldn't be so bad if this bill weren't such a boon to the oil industry and that her husband shills for oil industry legislation.
It also appears to me that this effort of WOS/AW will take away much needed funding, focus and personal commitment to other more worthy Wetlands Groups that I definitely support, such as Gulf Restoration Network and Voice of the Wetlands ---neither of which appear as "partners" or "sponsors" on the WOS website (which they have re-written since this boo'rah started) or AW.
I signed the petition because I wanted to help and this looked like it had people involved that I could trust and admire. I don't just dive into celebrity endorsements like a goddamn clueless idiot. Sandra Bullock has proven herself to be as straight-up as I thought. Harry Shearer, John Goodman, Drew Brees and even Dr John (all heroleroes of mine) have lent their expensive names to this cause. I was willing to let it shake out depending on how WOS responded. Instead I got Email Spam because I signed their petition.
I'm done with these Women of the Oil, having had quite enough of Oil Industry PR Lobby Greenwashing masked as environmental concern.
Been there, done that and all we got was an oil infected coastline.

BP's "Missing Oil" Washes up in St. Mary's Parish, LA
~The good news is that the cap is holding. The bad news is that, with the well no longer gushing, the oil is out of sight and out of mind and BP is pulling up boom and pulling back workers, skimmers, cleaners, and the rest of the clean-up apparatus all across the Gulf. Even without new oil, the 40,000 barrels a day that spewed from the Macondo well for nearly 100 days continue to wash up on shores, including ones which no one is protecting or cleaning.

Astroturfing Flypaper
~American Zombie