"The old Bush team will be controlling the finances of the party"

By GottaLaff

Karl Rove and some of his BushCo buddies are behind a new Republican political action committee called "American Crossroads". Why, it's like a reunion! Maybe they'll all wear name tags with old photos of themselves on them, and comment on how their old chums are bald now.

Class of 2001! Rah!

But that's not important now. What is important is that the RNC is getting a little jittery about it. Why? Because re$ources are getting siphoned off from them and into Rove's pot. And by pot I mean big fat hammy arms, not the kind one might smoke (although that might alleviate some of the stress).

This isn't how Michael Steele wants to roll:

If Rove and his team do raise the cash they are boasting about, the RNC will run out of money and the old Bush team will be controlling the finances of the party, the official griped. That may leave top donors looking to American Crossroads and others instead of to the national party in future cycles.

"This is drawing [donors] away from the party and into something else, and its very formation is communicating to the donors nationally that there is no confidence in the Republican party," the former official said. He suggested this would allow the RNC's donor base to atrophy and put the next chairman in a position of needing to completely rebuild.

Oh goody. The nasty, thuggy, Bushie frat boys are back. Now I remember why I avoid reunions.

Is the Tea Party Express, er, PAC, fleecing municipalities in the name of free speech?

By GottaLaff

One of our favorite readers, Joeyess, stumbled on to something that he sent my way. Allow me to share some information on what the Tea Baggers are up to:

The Tea party Express is rolling through Topeka, Kansas tomorrow, and they are assembling at the state house.

If you click on the link at the RSVP button in the bottom right hand corner of this page (that's a screenshot, click to enlarge)...



...it leads you here:



Then, if you Google "ourcountrydeservesbetter.com", you get this:


They're a PAC.

They're fundraising on public grounds. I called Legislative Services to ask if the Tea Tantrumers were getting security and/or clean-up free of charge. I also asked what it takes to get permission to use capitol grounds.

I was told no, they weren't getting those services for free. The woman was a little defensive until I told her I wasn't writing a piece about her, but of the Tea Party. She informed me that the prerequisite was a legislative sponsor, and they got one: A female state senator whose name slipped the woman's mind.

She also told me all they had to do was fill out an application, and if the space was available, it was theirs.

The PAC told her their event was a "free speech rally".

I wouldn't be surprised if they were getting a free ride, considering this is the home of the one and only Westboro Baptist "Church's" own Fred Phelps.

So Joeyess and I are wondering, do they getting freebies anywhere when they shouldn't? Ace reporter Joeyess decided to make a call:

I just talked to Doris at Bettendorf, Iowa parks and recreation. She said that they were charging them a $125 fee for port-o-potties and they expected to have police on site.

I told her that I write a bit about the Tea Party Express, and in my research I found that they are involved with a PAC. She seemed really surprised. She also said that only a permit was required [Laffy Note: This is what I was told in my call to Topeka], and they had applied and received one for the event.

It seems that this Tea Party/PAC is taking advantage of municipalities and their resources, across the midwest at least, without revealing that a PAC is involved. [Laffy Note: The woman I spoke to seemed a little surprised when I told her that, too]

This particular event is taking place at Leach Park. I think they are fleecing municipalities in the name of free speech. $125??? That's chicken feed to FreedomWorks and their ilk.

I think this is endemic to this "movement". They're taking advantage of what are already financially stressed city governments and depleted resources for political purposes. This is not free speech. This is free fundraising.

This begs the question: Does this fall under Citizens United? If so, thank you very much, SCOTUS.

While we're on this topic, let's take a quick look at safety issues.

One of their stops is St. Paul, at the state capitol:

The Minnesota Capitol could be considered on of the most easily accessible public buildings in the state.

This is worrisome:

If you've visited a county office recently, or a courthouse, you've probably had to go through security, even a metal detector. But that kind of security is non-existent at the Minnesota State Capitol and some lawmakers believe the state's most visible landmark is a target.

Given the hostility and threats we've been witness to lately, security is a real issue.

Lawmakers sit just a few feet below unrestricted galleries and the doors to the House, Senate and governor's office are wide open.

"I think sooner or later something is going to happen here," said Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul.

Unfortunately, the state budget is a problem. Security isn't an option at the moment.

"Whether we have a tough budget or not, we should prepare to provide basic safety for the people of Minnesota when they are engaging with their government," Hansen said.

Of course, nobody is accusing Tea Tantrumers of being gun-toting extremists. They'd never do anything rash like, oh I dunno, storm a capitol building. Who'd be that brazen?

Outside the Capitol building, the antiquated air exchange system makes it vulnerable to outside sabotage. [...] And unlike other public buildings, visitors don't get checked at the Capitol door.

So many Tea Tantrum/PAC rallies, so little time. If/when Joeyess and I find out more, I'll pass it on. Meantime, this is plenty to chew on.

UPDATE: One more thing ... Look at all their "tour partners"! See how many PACs you can find:

Who are the "15 new oil & gas explorers" who received $193 million from Alaska in July 2009?

By GottaLaff


There's a story brewing about some shady dealings with Big Oil and SarahPac over at Palingates.

Sarah's old Twitter account "AKGovSarahPalin" has been deleted, but after she resigned, Palingates made a complete PDF-copy of it.

AK is the place to invest. 15 new oil & gas explorers rcvd $193M cash from State for their tax credits in FY09. http://tinyurl.com/l2y68b
10:50 AM Jul 12th from web

That was a sample tweet.

[S]he enjoyed the generosity of a number on Texan business people on June 13, 2009. SarahPac received some large donations on that date [...]

All the above SarahPac donors have connections with the gas and oil industry. [...]

No one has been able to find a list of the 15 new oil and gas explorers who were the recipients of these $193 million dollars. [...]

There may be no connection whatsoever to those companies or people in Giddings, but there are so many coincidences... the timing of Sarah Palin's visit to Giddings, Texas, all the donations to SarahPac on June 13 and this lovely tax break for 15 new investors...

Sarah Palin doesn't believe in coincidences...

That was a sample of what Palingates has documented. Please go read the rest here.

Tea Party Leader Launches Political Outfit + bonus Tea Bagger videos!

By GottaLaff

Mark Scoda is one enterprising, busy, corporation lovin' Tea Bagger:

A leading organizer of the National Tea Party Convention here announced the launch of the Memphis-based Ensuring Liberty Corporation, a political outfit that will include a political action committee to help fund candidates supported by Tea Party activists. [...]

Scoda said the group intends to target House and Senate races this November, in particular the Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, as well as House races in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. [...]

He said the PAC will seek out small donors and will accept corporate donations—which may not sit well with some of the movement’s activists. He also offered a bold prediction: “I think we can raise $10 million this year.” Ensuring Liberty will also partner with California-based Win by Cell, which helps candidates and movements organize and raise money from supports through their cell phones.

He claims he's not into that whole third party thing, and wants to work with the GOP. That would be the same GOP that's so enamored with big, fat, wealthy, enormous, now-officially-people corporations. Hence, the expected infusion of cash to the tune of $10,000,000.

Ten million? Really? Those are some high expectations.

He sure couldn't get that from a few thousand costumed Tea Tantruming grassrooters:



"We will all give Sarah Palin a kiss." He also wants to "rejoice, encourage the dissolution of this tyrannical government and kick them all in the butt in 2010. What say ye?"

Ye say, "You betcha."



"It ain't no tea cup," said the wise Tea Bagger of his new megaphone.



"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Well at least, "You can't blame Bush any more."

Oh yes, yes we can.

Sarah Palin Used PAC Money to Buy Books

By GottaLaff

Skimmy McBookBuy wants her donors to feel fulfilled:

Sarah Palin "has been using her political action committee to buy up thousands of copies of her book, Going Rogue, in order to mail copies of the memoir to her donors," ABC News reports.

The former Alaska governor had her PAC spend more than $63,000 on what her reports describe as "books for fundraising donor fulfillment."

The Hotline notes Palin's PAC spent more money buying copies of her book than it gave in contributions to political candidates.

Flyin' off the shelves, you betcha.

Barbara Boxer Supported by Challenger's Former Company, Hewlett-Packard

By GottaLaff

Oh, suh-nap!

The Sacramento Bee reports that Hewlett-Packard's political action committee has given the maximum amount to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) but hasn't contributed toward its own former CEO, Carly Fiorina (R), campaign finance reports show.

That's gotta hurt.

Chambliss' leadership PAC funds more golf outings than candidates

So basically the big corporations are subsidizing Saxby's golf jones? Nice gig if you can get it.

WASHINGTON -- Over the past two years, deep-pocketed donors to Sen. Saxby Chambliss have helped the Georgia Republican enjoy a quarter of a million dollars worth of golf outings at some of the nation's ritziest resorts.

Through their contributions to the senator's Republican Majority Fund -- a type of leadership political action committee established by a member of Congress to support other candidates -- lobbyists and such industry leaders as Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Lockheed Martin footed the bill for Chambliss' rounds of golf at California's Pebble Beach, with its sweeping views of Monterey Bay. There were tourneys at the fabled Greenbrier in West Virginia and jaunts at the Breakers Palm Beach and Ritz Carlton Naples' sun-kissed fairways in Florida.

Chambliss' affinity for golf is so widely known in political circles that President George W. Bush joked about it during a 2003 golf fundraiser for the Georgia lawmaker. In 2005, the senator missed a highly sensitive Iraq war intelligence briefing to tee off with Tiger Woods.

In all, since 2007, Chambliss has used PAC money to golf at roughly a dozen of the nation's top resorts, according to Federal Election Commission records and an analysis by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization.

VIDEO: "Tea Party Express" gets free publicity from Fox, CNN

By GottaLaff



The only report on the so-called Tea Party Express that I've seen was one rather pathetic one on CNN (I don't watch Cluster Fox).

As the reporter struggled (I am not exaggerating) to make the gathering sound newsworthy, the scene behind him was pretty embarrassing. The crowd looked sparse and unenthusiastic until the cameras were turned directly on specific individuals, at least IMHO.

But that didn't stop our dedicated Corporate Media:

The first was a [CNN] fluff piece about what a cool bus the people on the tour get to ride in. Awesome, dood.

Then Tony Harris did an interview with Mark Williams, the chief spokesman for Our Country Deserves Better PAC, the organization behind the "Tea Party Express." [...]

Most of all, Williams was able to flatly deceive the CNN audience about their purpose and intent. [...]

Harris, though, pretended throughout the segment that they were purely a nonpartisan outfit only angry about overtaxation. [...]

The "Our Country Deserves Better" PAC, in fact, was founded in August 2008 -- before the election -- specifically to oppose Barack Obama and his policies. (They called it "drawing contrasts between Senator Barack Obama and John McCain".) In October 2008, for instance, Williams was out on the stump campaigning against Obama as a "socialist" on a previous bus tour called the "Stop Obama Express". They've also runs ads comparing Obama to Hitler.

But that's not all, kids! Lookee here! ClusterFox is actively promoting it:

Clicking through to Fox Nation's "All Aboard" article, one finds nothing but promotions for the Express, including the final sentence: To find out how to participate in the Tea Party Express events across the country, CLICK HERE.

(click on image to enlarge)

And we wonder why the Democrats are struggling to get their message out? How can they when the airwaves are monopolized by anti-TeddyCare lies and propaganda?

Of course, it wouldn't hurt if our side got their act together, either. This approach is a good start.

Sponsors of PAC disclosure law miss own deadline

By GottaLaff

So much for that:

CQ Politics: "Scores of lawmakers missed a deadline to start disclosing their ties to political action committees as required by law. Some of them were sponsors of the law that imposed the new requirement."

Why, here they are now!

“We are doing our best to make sure that everybody out there knows about their requirements under the law,” said FEC Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democrat. “It may have fallen off people’s radar screens.” [...]

They include: Reps. John P. Murtha , D-Pa., who controls the Majority PAC; Todd Tiahrt , R-Kan., who runs Heart PAC; Peter J. Visclosky , D-Ind., with Calumet PAC; Alan B. Mollohan , D-W.Va., with Summit PAC; C.W. Bill Young , R-Fla., with Victory Political Action Committee; and Marcy Kaptur , D-Ohio, with the TrueDem Leadership Fund.

Two other Appropriations Committee members filed late: Sen. Patty Murray , D-Wash., tied to M-PAC; and Rep. David R. Obey , D-Wis., who has the Committee for a Progressive Congress.

Time to get your radar equipment fixed, guys.

PACs Collected $30 Million from Employees

By GottaLaff

Oh, where does the money go?

Special interests have deducted nearly $30 million from their employees' salaries over the past two years for donations to political action committees, according to a CQ MoneyLine study.

More from CQ:

Among companies leading the way in PAC contributions from employees was Compass Bancshares, which deducted more than $1.3 million in political contributions from its workforce during the 2008 cycle.

Following closely behind were the lobbying firms of K&L Gates, whose PAC took in $694,000 from employees, and Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, whose employees gave up $678,000 in PAC contributions during the 2008 cycle.

Some employer PACs were almost completely dependent on payroll deductions for the bulk of contributions they passed on to candidates. [...]

Others company PACs that were almost totally dependent on employee salary deductions included Midamerican Energy Company, Barnes & Thornburg and Chevy Chase Bank. All three company PACs took in $100,000 or more from employee salary deductions.

Sarah Palin: The automatic presidential candidate

By GottaLaff

Yesterday, Grandma 2012 denied that she was running for president in 2012. "No, not at all!" she insisted.

This reminds me of beauty pageant conestants who claim their best friends entered them without their knowledge, but, what the heck, they partake anyway. Just wind her up and she runs:

[T]he creation of her PAC apparently automatically registers her as a candidate for President in 2012.

Follow the link.

H/t: Ryan

Palin creates SarahPAC.

By GottaLaff

Grandma RunOn is up to no good:

In a sign Sarah Palin wants to continue to be a player on the national political stage, the Alaska Governor has started a new political action committee to raise funds, SarahPAC.

The PAC is registered in Virginia and is modeled after HillPAC, Hillary Clinton's former political committee. Palin's committee allows her to raise money for other Republicans.

According to the Web site, the committee will also support Palin's "plans to build a better, stronger, and safer America in the 21st century."

Palin continues to have a huge political following. As of noon today, she has 464,000 friends on Facebook.com.

I'm not one of her Facebook friends. I have no desire to write on her wall.

Christians for Obama

By GottaLaff

But.. but... he's one of them Muslims!

A new Christian political action committee backing Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race is escalating its efforts to elect the Illinois senator with the help of Christian voters this November.

The Matthew 25 Network, named after the Bible verse (“I tell you the truth, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”) is a consortium of Christian faith leaders and activists working to elect more Democrats to office who share the same “biblical and gospel values,” said Mara Vanderslice, the head of the PAC.

Obama shares... "biblical and gospel values"? Who knew?

Vanderslice said the group intends to spend at least $500,000 in advertising between now and Nov. 4, and the group will focus mainly on Christian radio and Christian publications, such as the National Catholic Reporter and Relevant Magazine.

A new one-minute radio ad will be airing on Christian radio in Ohio, Michigan, and Colorado in the short-term. Vanderslice said they plan to expand the buy to other swing states, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri, and North Carolina.

[...] The ad underscores Obama’s Christianity.

There shouldn't be a need to underscore his religion, Christian or otherwise.