We Knew Ward Connerly was a Liar; He is also a Thief

Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations of Financial Misdeeds

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: January 17, 2012

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WASHINGTON — Ward Connerly, the black businessman who has been the face of the movement to end affirmative action for nearly two decades, is facing accusations from a prominent former ally that he has mismanaged — and exploited for his own benefit — donations to that cause made by fellow conservatives.

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Ward Connerly

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Jennifer Gratz

Moreover, a group Mr. Connerly founded to advance government policies that are race and gender neutral, the Sacramento-basedAmerican Civil Rights Institute, is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and by the attorney general of California, according to documents and interviews.

Mr. Connerly has faced accusations of profiteering before, as supporters of affirmative action highlighted his salary in an effort to discredit his cause. But this time, the allegations are more detailed and come from another significant movement figure: Jennifer Gratz, the named plaintiff in a landmark 2003 Supreme Court case that struck down a race-based admissions policy at the University of Michigan.

After she won that case, Mr. Connerly hired Ms. Gratz to conduct research and run campaigns supporting anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives. She resigned last September and, through her lawyer, sent the group’s board a five-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

“For years, Ms. Gratz was aware of the allegations that Mr. Connerly received excessive compensation,” it said. “She presumed that the issue was politically motivated and raised solely by opponents of the organization’s mission. It has come to her attention, however, that there may be some merit to the allegations of financial impropriety.”

Interviewed by phone and e-mail, Mr. Connerly, 72, acknowledged that his group had had financial difficulties, but said its board had not responded to the letter because “90 percent” of it was false. He portrayed Ms. Gratz as a “disgruntled former employee” trying to “besmirch me personally” because she wanted to replace him.

The letter was written by Ms. Gratz’s lawyer, Robert N. Driscoll, a former deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights in the administration of George W. Bush. In a statement, through him, she said: “I thought it was important to make sure all board members were aware of what was going on even if doing so was unfortunate, sad and uncomfortable and even though it meant that I had to resign from a position within a cause that I will always hold near and dear.”

The dispute is alarming allies.

“I’m sorry to hear this because I’m a great admirer of both of them,” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, which also opposes affirmative action. “She is a courageous, smart person — and Ward is also a courageous, smart person.”

A businessman and a former University of California regent, Mr. Connerly rose to fame in 1996 as the backer of a successful ballot initiative barring public institutions in California from taking race or gender into account. He later founded the institute and a related advocacy group and continued to call for “colorblind government” in matters like contracting and college admissions.

Ms. Gratz’s letter alleges a series of financial irregularities, starting with Mr. Connerly’s pay.

Late last summer, the institute belatedly filed disclosure forms for tax years ending in June2008, 2009, and 2010. (The I.R.S. that summer had revoked the tax-exempt status of its related advocacy group for failing to file such forms.) They showed that his annual pay was between $1.2 million and $1.5 million each year — more than half its revenue.

Because charitable donations are tax deductible, according to I.R.S. rules no employee may get excessive compensation. Two other nonprofit groups opposing affirmative action, the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Center for Individual Rights, pay their leaders about $144,000 and $250,000, respectively.

Mr. Connerly said that “every penny which I receive is directly related to our mission,” and that he used some of his salary to pay others for research and legal work. He also said the group had reduced his pay to $850,000.

One reason Mr. Connerly has been a particularly effective advocate is that he is black. Mr. Clegg said there were “few people who can do or would do what he does,” adding that it is hard to set a salary on a job that requires enduring racially charged name-calling from fellow blacks.

A major financial supporter is the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Its president, Michael W. Grebe, said he was “very comfortable” that its donations to Mr. Connerly’s group were “being spent for public education programs.”

“He’s very effective,” Mr. Grebe said.

Ms. Gratz’s letter contends that the group has been “in financial crisis since March 2010” in part because of Mr. Connerly’s salary and legal fees related to the tax investigations, and has “ceased almost entirely” doing projects furthering its mission since June 2011.

Her letter also says the group has had trouble making payroll and “knowingly” under-reported what it paid employees on payroll tax forms — “irregularities” that “partly result from disruptions in revenue” but that “also appear to be designed to facilitate Mr. Connerly’s high salary.”

Mr. Connerly denied such allegations as “speculation and conjecture,” saying Ms. Gratz was not privy to administrative details. He also said educational activities by him and his group were “instrumental” in passing an anti-affirmative action initiative in Arizona in November 2010, and in laying the groundwork for a vote on a similar measure in Oklahoma set for fall 2012.

Ms. Gratz’s letter said five of the group’s eight employees “are family members” or have “personal or nonprofessional relationships with Mr. Connerly,” and raised questions about its “contracts for services and leases.”

For example, the letter said, the group contracted with a former longtime employee of Mr. Connerly’s profit-making firm to create a report on Oklahoma, for up to 120 hours at $60 an hour; it “consisted mainly of printouts from Wikipedia.”

While the letter did not explain its reference to “leases,” the group’s recent tax filings show that its rent tripled, to just under $70,000, after it moved to a different building about four years ago. Records show a group employee purchased the building in February 2008 for about $444,000.

Mr. Connerly said hiring people he knew was appropriate, given his group’s “controversial” mission. He also said he had instructed the employee to find new offices because they needed more room, and he approved the arrangement she had made.

Despite his salary, Mr. Connerly acknowledged that he had had financial difficulties; public records show that in 2010 and 2011, several hundred thousand dollars in liens for unpaid taxes were leveled against him. He said he was working on paying what he owed. In addition, a disclosure form filed with the IRS says the institute discovered last year that Mr. Connerly had submitted “unsubstantiated” business expenses from his credit card and cellphone bills. He had paid back $10,000 as of September, but still owed about $24,000.

Ms. Gratz was once Mr. Connerly’s defender. In 2008, when anti-affirmative action initiatives were on the ballot in Colorado and Nebraska, a liberal group ran ads portraying him as supporting such measures so he could pocket “nonprofit slush funds.”

Ms. Gratz made a video denouncing the ads as character assassination. But, her letter said, she subsequently realized that Mr. Connerly’s group had “not been adequate stewards of the resources the donors entrusted to the organization,” adding that she “will cooperate with any government investigation.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 18, 2012, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations Of Financial Misdeeds.

The criminal cover-up of Ohio's stolen 2004 election sinks to the fraudulent, the absurd, the pathetic

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
August 2, 2007

The illegal destruction of federally protected 2004 election materials by 56 of 88 Ohio counties has become a fraudulent "dog ate my homework" farce of absurd justifications and criminal coverups.

The mass elimination of the critical evidence that could definitively prove or disprove the presumption that the 2004 election was stolen has all the markings of a Rovian crime perpetrated to hide another one. Indeed, under Ohio law, that's precisely what must be presumed here.

But what makes the situation downright pathetic is that Ohio's new Democratic Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has publicly stated she sees "no evidence" of intentional destruction in the disappearance in more than 60% of the state's counties of the ballots from the 2004 presidential election.

So once again, as did Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, the Democrats seem poised to cave to the on-going GOP coup that has redefined America, and that now involves the criminal destruction of contested evidence in one of the most controversial vote counts in US history.

Ironically, in Florida, under Jeb Bush, the ballot records from the 2000 election in all but one of the state's counties were successfully preserved. They are now stored in a state repository in Tallahassee. An unofficial recount conducted by the national media concluded that Al Gore rightfully carried Florida, and thus the presidency, in 2000.

A parallel preservation was ordained by federal and state law for the election records from Ohio 2004, where a similar examination has been viewed as inevitable.

But a series of excuses that range from the lame to the pathetic to the obviously criminal have left us shocked---shocked!---to learn that despite the protection of established federal law, a federal court order, long-standing Ohio laws, two directives from the Ohio Secretary of State's office, and legal notification letters from plaintiff's attorneys to hold the evidence, a precise recount of Ohio's stolen 2004 election may no longer be possible.

In short, Brunner has informed us that 56 of Ohio's 88 counties have mostly "inadvertently" destroyed all or some of their records from the 2004 presidential election.

Are we surprised?

Wait 'til you hear how these mostly Republican directors say it happened!

The materials were under legal protection "from birth" on November 4, 2004, shielded by national law, acknowledged by Brunner, by Ohio Revised Coded 3505.31, then by a federal court decision in the now-legendary King-Lincoln-Bronzeville lawsuit (in which we are attorney and plaintiff).

The Ohio Revised Code specifically states that in presidential elections "the board shall carefully preserve all ballots prepared and provided by it for use in that election, whether used or unused, for twenty-two months after the day of the election." In this case, that would have been through September 2, 2006.

These records were also essential to reconstructing a credible recount that was most pointedly stifled by then-Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. Brunner blamed the destruction of documents on Blackwell, "…for not giving counties clear instructions and for not notifying them quickly enough about U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley's September 7, 2006 order," according to the conservative Columbus Dispatch.

But many of the ballots were destroyed soon after the election in a series of events whose descriptions grow stranger and more implausible by the day.

In October 25, 2004, just prior to the election, Blackwell issued directive 2004-43, reminding all county election officials of the federal 22-month holding period for presidential ballots. That meant all election-related materials would be under federal protection until September 2, 2006.

On August 23, 2006, plaintiff's attorneys in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville case hand-delivered a letter to the Secretary of State's office and faxed notices to all 88 county Board of Elections offices that the ballots were to be evidence in the forthcoming civil rights suit against Blackwell.

On August 31, 2006 that suit was filed in Marbley's federal court in Columbus. The AP reported that same day that Blackwell "has signaled his willingness to keep ballots from the contentious 2004 election beyond their scheduled September 3 destruction date in response to activists who plan to sue him in federal court today."

Ohio laws also require that noticed---for election-related materials and other public records---be offered to the Ohio Historical Society and other public repositories before they are destroyed. Public record forms must be filed and Ohio law requires a Certificate of Destruction. Nonetheless, Blackwell erroneously told the Dispatch the next day that he was "willing to ask the boards not to destroy ballots, but the decision ultimately is a local one."

But under applicable law, the decision was definitely not "a local one." Indeed, Judge Marbley ordered all of Ohio's 88 counties to "…preserve all ballots from the 2004 presidential election on paper or in any other format, including electronic data, unless and until such time otherwise instructed by this court." Thus anyone destroying such records, from Election Day until the time you read this, may have broken various federal or state laws, and be in contempt of a federal court order.

King-Lincoln alleges a wide range of civil rights violations perpetrated by Blackwell and many of Ohio's 88 county boards of elections based on race, economic status, political inclination, wrongful denial of absentee ballots (as in Harvey's case) and more.

Here are some of the stories the counties are telling about the destruction of their ballots: (View the original state documents in a 19.5MB PDF)

Hancock County says it "received verbal directions" from Secretary of State Blackwell's office that unused and soiled ballots "did not have to be retained and these items were destroyed."

But any election audit requires a complete set of used and unused ballots to ensure that the unused ballots weren't stuffed illegally into the ballot box. The law refers specifically to "all" ballots.

Putnam County apparently understood this all too clearly. That's why they informed Brunner that "all unused ballots were destroyed for security purposes."

In Warren County, on Election Day, the board of elections declared a Level 10 Homeland Security alert for which neither the Homeland Security Agency nor the FBI has any documentation or explanation. The alert served as cover for moving the vote count to an isolated warehouse, away from the media. Bush emerged from Warren County with a huge majority, far in excess of what he received in 2000.

Some twenty-two thousand officially unused ballots from Warren County are now mysteriously missing.

Warren County Board of Elections Director Michael E. Moore has written Brunner, stating that, in complete defiance of the law, "They were not accidentally destroyed. They were destroyed pursuant to standard practices that had been used by the Board of Elections for many years in Warren County regarding unused punch card ballots." Moore notes that "The unused ballots were destroyed 60 days after the 2004 election."

Warren, along with neighboring Clermont and Butler counties, provided Bush with more than his entire 118,775 winning margin in Ohio 2004. Thus these three counties were singled out for allegations of fraud in the election contest case Moss v. Bush (though only after surviving the first-ever Congressional challenge to a state's entire Electoral College delegation). The allegations of fraud on a level that could have decided the presidency were thus never tested in court…and now the evidence has been destroyed.

Clermont County "could not locate" the unused ballots, according to Mike Keeley, Board of Elections Director.

Butler County cannot provide the "2004 General Election Ballot Pages." Director Betty McGary says that "at no time was anyone specifically instructed to discard these items. Our staff unintentionally discarded boxes containing Ballot Pages as requested in Directive 2007-07 due to unclear and misinterpreted instructions." For complex reasons having to do with Ohio's precinct ballot rotation law, the ballots from Butler County cannot be recounted with the "Ballot Pages" missing. The pages match the punches to the candidates.

Holmes County BOE Director Lisa Welch wrote Brunner that "a shelving unit collapsed in the Board of Elections storeroom on the morning of Friday, April 7, 2006. That shelving unit held the voted ballots, stubs, soiled and defaced ballot envelopes, and ballot accounting charts from the 2004 General Election. The shelves and stored items collapsed onto a side table holding a working coffee maker. The carafe on the coffee maker was full at the time of the incident. Many of the stored items had to be destroyed due to the broken glass and hot coffee. The ballot pages and unused ballots were stored on a neighboring shelf and were not damaged."

Holmes County was rendered infamous by Karl Rove's legendary spin claiming there was an unprecedented massive turnout of homophobic old order Amish voted for Bush and against gay marriage. (It is well-known that the Amish as a community rarely vote).

Allen County "labeled all voted ballots and placed [them] in our vault for the required 22 months of storage," according to Keith Cunningham, Director. Cunningham distinguished himself as a pro-Bush and Rove mouthpiece when he testified at then-Congressman (now-felon) Bob Ney's cursory March 2005 hearing into the 2004 Ohio election.

Cunningham told the Secretary of State that in the "…latter part of 2004 and into 2005… [we] began to experience problems with storm water migrating and subsequently penetrating our primary storage areas including our vault." He told Free Press reporter Paddy Shaffer that the vault had been flooding for "six years," and he had to put the 2004 presidential ballots on the floor because he needed the shelf space.

Cunningham added that: "As a result of these events, much of what was stored in our vault, including the 2004 general election ballots, were compromised by water damage and subsequently destroyed on or about August 20, 2006. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Allen County Health Department the boxes displaying mold or mildew were set aside to be discarded. Unfortunately, the contractor hired to remove the damaged boxes also accidentally removed the undamaged boxes as well," stated Cunningham, who did manage to save 498 write-in ballots.

The Health Department records recommended destruction or isolation as a solution.

Guernsey County's ballots suffered a similar twisted fate. According to BOE Director Jacqueline Newhart, "The unused ballots as well as the punch card ballot pages were destroyed in error" because "the county maintenance worker, when collecting trash, picked up the boxes" that contained them.

In allegedly mobbed up Mahoning County, the board of elections has blamed environmentalists for inadvertently destroying the ballots. Apparently the "Mahoning County Green Team picked up all recyclables in the storage room for disposal pursuant to the retention schedule," according to Director Thomas McCabe. As a result, some 115, 936 ballots "were accidentally disposed of on Friday, March 23 of 2007."

Down in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), home of the Taft family dynasty, the unvoted and soiled ballots were "inadvertently shredded between January 19th and 26th of '06."

Perhaps the most egregious case of ballot destruction, and easiest to criminally prosecute, is Director Steve Harsman's in Montgomery County. Researcher Richard Hayes Phillips reported in the Free Press that, "…the Board was eager to destroy them [the ballots]. The employees who handled the ballots for me brought up the subject themselves."

Harsman conceded that the "Ohio Revised Code" required a 22-month "retention schedule." Yet, he argues that since the "Certificate of Destruction" had already been "prepared" prior to his receiving the order from Judge Marbley that he had the right to destroy the ballots.

"We literally ran out of space to prepare, stage, and retain material for these elections. It was imperative that we process the 2004 materials for destruction under the guidelines of the 22-month retention. Therefore, all materials were properly destroyed in a timely manner and we were unable to comply due to these circumstances. We did not receive formal notice from the courts prior to preparing the certification of destruction," Harman wrote.

Thus Harman admits to openly defying a federal court order and destroying evidence because he wasn't notified "prior to preparing the certification of destruction."

But Judge Marbley pointed out in his opinion and order of September 11, 2006 in support of his order of September 7, that the Ohio Revised Code 3501.16 makes it a fourth degree felony for, among other things, willfully or negligently violating election laws as a director of a board of elections.

The original story of the ballots being saved for litigation and history made the pages of the New York Times. But the blatant and bizarre destruction of Ohio's 2004 ballots has been relegated to the back page of the Columbus Dispatch Metro & State section. The brief article by Mark Niquette ran below the fold and the weather map, and above an ad for Window World and the Ohio State Medical Center.

Matt Damschroder, the Franklin County (Columbus) Board of Election Director and former Chair of the Republican Party, assured the Dispatch that the "counties did nothing intentionally wrong." Damschroder is the President of the Ohio Association of Election Officials and was suspended without pay for a month after he accepted a $10,000 check from a Diebold representative in his office, made out to the GOP on the day the bidding for e-voting machines opened.

His job was in jeopardy until Board of Elections President Bill Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Democratic Party, intervened to save Damschroder from firing.

King-Lincoln-Bronzeville Attorney Cliff Arnebeck stated that "The nature and scope of the cover-up can tell a lot about the nature and scope of the crime. Destruction of relevant documents can create a presumption that such evidence would have helped the other side in litigation."

Arnebeck also said White House advisor Karl Rove "has had the keys to the US Justice Department for some time. No wonder FBI investigations requested by US Rep. John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee went nowhere. He also used those keys to scuttle two years of work by the IRS and FBI of financial corruption at the Ohio Statehouse."

Overall this blatant destruction of evidence only reinforces the widespread belief that the 2004 election was stolen. The loss of ballot materials in a few isolated counties might be an understandable random event. But for more than 60% of the state's BOEs to have destroyed ballots or ballot materials amidst a series of bizarre, absurd explanations is a joke.

America has been robbed of its history here. The public has a right to know the true outcome of the 2004 election, and to have its laws about preservation of critical records honored.

Under evidence laws, the destruction of material that serves as evidence in a lawsuit is presumed to be fraudulent action by the destroyer.

But the Bush-Rove-Blackwell regime is about nothing if not contempt for the law. And its assault on the documents that could show what really happened in Ohio's contested 2004 election seems yet another obvious confirmation that it was, in fact, stolen.

--
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman's HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, available at freepress.org (where this article first appeared) along with the FITRAKIS FILES. HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE US is at www.solartopia.org.

Bush's Cyber Election Hit Squad

Read this along with the next article, Behind the Firewall.

The GOP’s Cyber Election Hit Squad
by Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
April 22, 2007

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush’s re-election?

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio’s “official” Secretary of State website – which gave the world the presidential election results – was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote– from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves – must be added to the growing congressional investigations.

Numerous tech-savvy bloggers, starting with the online investigative consortium epluribusmedia.org and their November 2006 article cross-posted by contributor luaptifer to Dailykos, and Joseph Cannon’s blog at Cannonfire.blogspot.com, outed the RNC tech network. That web-hosting firm is SMARTech Corp. of Chattanooga, TN, operating out of the basement in the old Pioneer Bank building. The firm hosts scores of Republican websites, including georgewbush.com, gop.com and rnc.org.

The software created for the Ohio secretary of state’s Election Night 2004 website was created by GovTech Solutions, a firm co-founded by longtime GOP computing guru Mike Connell. He also redesigned the Bush campaign’s website in 2000 and told “Inside Business” magazine in 1999, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Bush campaign and the Bush family because the Bushes truly are about family and I’m loyal to my network.”

Read more...

Also read: http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2007/04/26/are-roves-missing-e-mails-the-smoking-guns-of-the-stolen-2004-election

...and then something went wrong with his airplane... ~Deb

Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.

The Missing Link

In Part I: The Atwater School of Politics, we detailed the first half of Michael L. Connell's GOP career arc, from college-aged Bush 41 computer prodigy to seasoned smashmouth campaign planner.

In the latter half of the 90s, Connell's return to hi-tech was a no-brainer, as the Internet explosion unearthed new pathways and paradigms for soliciting votes. With the creation of his company New Media Communications, Connell began to blaze a nascent "super-highway" and to begin the task of re-branding the Bush family legacy from "wimp" to "winner." And by the end of the decade, New Media's GeorgeWBush.com and GOP.com gilded Connell's status as "a trusted partisan."

So why was this Internet guru for the Republican Party -- once fired for "unethical" campaign tactics - selected as the first private vendor to set up behind the firewall at the U.S. House of Representatives? And how did GovTech Solutions, the company he co-founded with scandal-ridden lobbyist Thomas J. Synhorst, get security clearance to re-design and install the Intelligence committee's web site on the House intranet?

This article, "Part II: Behind the firewall," picks up the Connell thread in 1996, when after a year of preparations, his company New Media Communications and the GOP start laying the foundation for the 2000 presidential election.

Read More...

...and then something went wrong with his airplane... ~Deb

A Boy Named Bush

http://www.amiright.com/parody/misc/themesong7.shtml

"The Beverly Hillbillies" Based on the performance by Theme Song
"A Boy Named Bush" Parody by Sharon Krebs
Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.

Twenty years later George gets a little bored.
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.

Come November 7, the election ran late.
Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.

Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in.
Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win."
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.
And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.
Y'all come vote now. Ya hear?

Draft dodgers and warmongers: Dick Cheney’s early years

http://www.haleakalatimes.com/news/story2435.aspx



“I look at this White House and I ask myself, how did they get so many draft dodgers in one place? The President; Dick Cheney, five deferments; John Ashcroft, six deferments. Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hassert, Rush Limbaugh – well, you know, there are a lot of people who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Most of them did it because they had moral qualms about that war. But not these people. These people loved the war; they just wanted somebody else to fight it.”
– Robert Kennedy Jr.

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States, played football as a youth and was senior class president at his Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming. His sweetheart and future wife, however, was more popular – she was a state-champion baton twirler and was voted Mustang Queen her senior year. When Lynne Vincent performed her famous flaming baton twirl at public gatherings, it was quiet Dick who put the fire out backstage while she basked in the applause of center stage.

Cheney earned a scholarship to Yale University and went East for the first time, but he was asked to leave after one year because of “poor academic performance,” the university’s polite way of saying that he flunked out. He re-enrolled two more times before dropping out for good, according to Yale’s enrollment records. Jacob Plotkin, a retired MSU mathematics professor, was Cheney’s college roommate during his freshman year.

Click on the link to read the whole article.

Now Here's a Guy who has it all figured out!

Cenk Uygur, in the Genius of Strength at the Huffington Post, explains the continuing horror of the Bush administration, and the continuing weakness of the Democratic Party response.

"In the 2006 election the American people made it clear that they wanted out of Iraq. They replaced 36 Republicans with Democrats in the House and the Senate, and they didn't remove a single Democrat. Yes, there were other factors, but overall, the message was a resounding 36-0 drubbing. The Democrats are right, let's get out of Iraq.

"It's not working.

"So, what did President Bush do? He decided to put more troops in. Genius. I'll tell you why.

"Because we're no longer discussing withdrawal, instead we're debating escalation. The Bush people changed the playing field by coming over the top of the Democrats. They moved the discussion from one where they were playing defense to one where they are playing offense.

"So, now the Democrats have introduced legislation to discuss, debate and challenge the escalation - and have done absolutely nothing about withdrawal."

The entire article is awesome. Please send it to your Congresscritter!

Stop Bush's "Final Solution"

From John Edwards:

President Bush's disastrous plan to escalate the war is no longer just a plan: it's a reality.

While the Senate was tied up in knots, President Bush extended tours of duty for thousands of our troops, transferred new brigades into the Middle East and ordered more soldiers into Baghdad: The surge has begun.

Bush has escalated the war - now we must escalate our efforts to stop it. Congress must force a change of course by capping funding to stop the surge and mandate a phased troop withdrawal within 12-18 months. We don't need endless debate; we don't need non-binding resolutions; we need to end this war. Only Congress has the power to do it, and only you can make Congress act.

Please take a minute today to call your senators and representatives. Ask them to take real, binding action to block the escalation and bring our troops home. Please call the capital switchboard right now at:

(202) 224-3121

The Republican Dirty Tricks Blog

I became aware, just today, of a website that catalogues Republican Party or right -wing Dirty Tricks that go back to 1800, and carry forward to today. Read it and weep for America. Is this who we think we are?

Republican Dirty Tricks

For a nation that prides itself on its high moral stance, how can it be tolerable to allow people who engage in continual bad acts to control America? This is Machiavellian to the extreme. Some will claim that it's just human nature. I disagree. Human nature can be both good and bad. Moral systems and laws exist to restrain the bad. The right-wing agenda seems to be that the ends justify the means. In my experience, it has never appeared that good ends are achieved by using dishonest and deceptive tactics in pursuit of those ends.

GOP Chat Room Rules

In my spare time, I visit Yahoo's political chatrooms. Its a great way to connect with like-minded people who are interested in social justice. I have met some wonderful people in these rooms and have forged important alliances. Along with that great benefit, come the Trolls. The trolls who visit the political chatrooms seem to have no grasp of the political theories that have helped America survive over these last two centuries. They support the neoconservative agenda, and want to rob Americans of their civil liberties.

The trolls all say the same things. After a while it became clear that they had a script from which they were working. It also seemed that since they were online so much, with the same dead arguments, that they must be getting paid.

Turns out that both speculations were true! A chatroom member went to a right-wing religious event and got a copy of the script from a Young Republican table.

He scanned it into his computer, and I copied the text verbatim, misspellings and all.

Here is it!


GOP Public Forum & Chat Room Handbook

Forward
Hello my young republican friend. You are apart of a breed of Patriotic Americans that will shape and mold the mighty GOP party. In today's times public forums and chat rooms have became the second most positive and influential place to get out the GOP platform. A few fellow young republicans have put together this little booklet as an aid to help you overcome liberal objections in a public forum or chat room. With YOUR help, we can take the USA and turn it Back into the Moral and Christian nation that God intended it to be.

Remember to check the closing message about logging and reporting any online activities. Donations will be given at random for you help getting the GOP message out.
Get the word out and also have some fun irritating some liberals. K.R.



GOP Public Forum & Chat Room Handbook
Listed here is the Rules for Public Forums and Chat room.. ..
1) CLINTON.. .... Always Blame Clinton (or anyone around him)
As a young republican you will come into contact with lost liberals that need a talking to. The chat room is a wonderful tool for this and spreading the GOP platform. This first rule is what we call a "GOLDEN RULE" The use of Clinton over and over will always frustrate a liberal. You may be in the wrong on the topic at hand but remember to ALWAYS use Clinton as a comeback.
2) ALIBI.. ..Always Alibi when needed.
There will come times when you are alone or out numbered in a public area or chat room. Don't sweet it! If the Clinton rule does not work, you can always ALIBI. Alibi your way out of the topic or to get out of the conversation or out of the chat room. When you do this, make sure you do not show the republicans have lost or make the party look bad. Examples: Say you lost a topic with a liberal.. ..You would go into Alibi mode. Attempt to turn the loss into a win by convincing the liberal he or she has actually lost and encourage them to try again.
3) Annoy
Always remember to annoy if possible. This not only provides fun for you but irritates a liberal to death. Examples: Liberal men hate to be called by the opposite gender. Refer to the male liberal as she or her. Liberal woman hate to be ordered around. When doing this, order the liberal women.
4) GOD (Golden Rule)
We are the GOP.. ..GODS OWN PARTY. Don't let liberals forget this! Always invoke God into anything and it usually gets the topic to change to yours. Liberals will take the bait every time.
5) Always remember to remind liberals that they are GOD LESS and Immoral at ALL COST.
6) CALL OUT ON WAR
Make sure to always call a liberal out on war issues. Remind them that the GOP is the Most Patriotic party. It is ok to wrap yourself the flag. If you have the flag symbol on your chat client, Use it.
7) ABORTION
Liberals hate abortion talk. Being a republican, it is up to US to get the liberals to understand that abortion is wrong! As a reminder, Always use key words such as the ones listed below. Remember to invoke morals and God. Keywords: Breathing, heartbeat, moving, murder and PRO-Abortion.

8) Death Penalty
The death penalty is a touchy subject. People on both sides have different views on it, but being GODS party, we have to do what he says. The bible says "An Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth." So we have to remind liberals of this. One good way to call a liberal on this one is to call them a hypocrite for being pro-choice to kill babies but anti death penalty to kill a murderer. You can use today's topics for examples.
9) GUNS
Always defend the NRA and other gun rights groups. The liberals will try to call you on this issue. Always remind them of the Second Amendment and accuse them of wanting to take your guns away even though you are not a criminal. Keep hitting the Second Amendment over and over if this subject comes up.
10) GAYS
When the topic of gays comes up always remind the liberals that GOD says it is WRONG. Never give into this argument or make any concessions. Always get your point across that gays shouldn't marry or have any rights.
11) GETTING POINT ACROSS
Although we are GODS own party, from time to time we have to do things that do not reflect ourselves. To get the point across you will have to DO ANY MEANS NESSESARY to get it across. This is a time that language or other courses of action are ok. Remember to Pray for Gods forgiveness afterwards.
12) SWAYING
Always remember to use tactics to sway the conversation or topic to make the GOP and Christians look good. Using points such as: Well you have to admit, the choice or law by the president or congress was good for both sides. Bipartisan is another good one. Gets a liberal every time.
13) BUILD YOURSELF UP
Always observe the room and take notes. The notes are your ammo to use against liberals later. You will hear about the education, backgrounds and such. Build yourself up by using some of these examples: Say you have more than one college degree and that makes you smarter or more qualified on the subject of topic.; Claim to have money, always more than any liberal.; Claim you work at a powerful job or own a company (non union of course) that made you millions.; Claim to know powerful people.; A good one is to claim you made money with stocks when the market had crashed.
14) SWAYING TO ADMIT
Always try to get a liberal to say he or she respects the office of president (unless it is a Democrat of course) . By doing this, the liberal will admit he respects the president by accident and you have them on the record now.
15) IGNORE FEATURE
We all know that if we cant be heard, we cant spread the message. If faced with the ignore feature always down play it. Use the "Freedom of Speech" has been taken away. Always claim to win if they ignore you. Lastly, tell the Liberal that they conceded to you because they used the ignore feature.
16) 911
Never let the liberals forget 911. Anytime Homeland security issues, war or terror issues always invoke this rule.
One good thing to do is get a conspiracy theory going and the liberals will fight one another. Always choose the liberal with the biggest mouth, bragger, claims to know everything to get this one started. Every chat room has one.
17) WAR ON TERROR
The war on terror is one issue the liberals like to fight about. It is not helped when the Press is making the war on terror
look bad. Always remind the liberals that the GOP government is keeping them safe and protecting their freedoms.
18) LIBERALS LOVING TERRORIST
One way to get a liberal going is to accuse them of loving terrorist. Beat it in the ground to them if you start this. A good Example is: Call them a Bin Laden lover or supporter.
19) MORE ON WAR
It is important to remind the liberals over and over again that the GOP Army is fighting the terrorist or bad guys over there and not here. If war press is bad, I would suggest not sticking around to much on this topic.
20) TROOPS
Always, Always, Always down the liberals when it comes to the troops. Call them troop haters ... Commies you name it. Most liberals are anti-war but support having a m i l i t q when the cause is on their side. So calling them troop haters will get them going every time.
21) PATRIOTISEM
One way to get a whole room of liberals going mad is to question their patriotism. While in the chat room always remember to call them un-American or unpatriotic as much as possible. Hey we can’t help it if they are not smart enough to be with us! We are the GOP and WE are the ONLY REAL AMERICANS. *note, we don't suggest doing this rule if you are in public and not in a chat room behind the screen.
22) UNIONS
Unions are bad for America. Always remember to put unions down at all cost, at all times. Unions don't create jobs, they take them away by asking for outrageous demands for workers that didn't spend a dime starting the company to begin with. Unions are the REAL reason that jobs leave and people are laid off. Go after them at all cost. Beware though, liberals WILL fight you on this one.
23) FREE TRADE
Free trade will come up very often in the public setting and chat rooms. Usually it is brought up by liberals that are pro union and when the press is giving some bad news about another company leaving the country with jobs.
You will usually get the NAFA topic on this issue. If so. Always remind the liberal that Clinton signed NAFTA into law. *Note* Be careful, this is a topic a liberal might be schooled in and have a lot of ammo on. If they mention Bush Sr. and the people surrounding him drafting the NAFTA bill.. . . . ..&11 the conversation! At all cost kill it. Leave the room if you must.
24) POLLS
As a general rule, Polls are ONLY good when the GOP numbers are positive. If liberals use poll numbers in the argument, always down play them. Always Accuse any poll not conservative to be slant or bias. Note though, if the numbers are high for our cause, issues or office holders, by all means use them.
25) REMINDERS
Another way to break the thread in a room or get under a liberals skin is to remind them they are not in control. Almost like nagging. Example: We won and you lost or We rule and you don't.
26) LIBERAL PRESS
We all know that the press has taken a curve towards the middle and the right over the last 10 years. If there is negative press on the GOP, always ACCUSE the Press of being LIBERAL. Note a good one to go after is the NY TIMES.
27) STATEMENTS
Always make your point. But if something is not going in your direction Start posting your items but refuse to list or Show your sources or links to your sources.
Always make your statement but......Do whatever it takes to make your point, but if something is not totally going your way.....here is how to get it away from you. Post your items and text but remember not to give a source or link. Alibi if ness.
28) CREDITALBE SOURCES
For good issues and support for your cause always use creditable sources. To help you here are a few to help you out. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage to name a few. If you need Christian sources use anything by Pat Robertson, James Dobson.
29) OFFER TO DEBATE
Always offer to debate just to get into the conversation. If it is not going your way in the debate if the liberal takes the challenge, Get YOUR points out and don't acknowledge theirs.
30) ECONOMY
Always point to Ronald Reagan as the source for great economic times. Always try to place Reagan on a pedestal for he is the Father of the Modern GOP party.
31) STOCK MARKET
Never admit the stock market is doing bad. When the market is doing great, credit Reagan or the Current president if he is a GOP one. One way to have fun with liberals on the Stock Market is to claim you own stocks that did great during the crashes.
32) LIBERAL VETS
Liberals are not military men, republicans are. Liberals do not understand war and how it works. So how could a
democrat be a military leader or of importance? Always go after liberal vets. Make sure to know Great republican
war leaders and push it down their throats.
33) GOP MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND
Always remind the liberals that the GOP is to thank for EVERYTHING they enjoy. All the Services, Military and Great, Strong Leadership. Don't let the liberals forget it.
34) WELFARE
Accuse ALL liberals to be on welfare. Always claim the get a check and don't deserve it. Food stamps is another good one. Let them know that the GOP is keeping their lazy asses up and they should go get a job.
35) DIEBOLD
Diebold is a great company that gives back to us. The owners of Diebold are good, God fearing republican members.
They do us and America a great service. Do NOT let liberals trash them.
36) BLACK VOTE
When election talks come up, always accuse the liberals of needing the black vote to even get anyone in office. Tell them if it wasn't for the black vote a third party would finish higher than they would.
37) JEW'S
As God fearing people, we are to defend Israel as a state. God says so! One point is to point out that most American Jews are liberals.
38) U.N.
As the Giant, Mighty and Greatest Country in the world. We DON'T need others to tell us what to do and not to do. The UN is a weak group and not even worthy of topic time if brought up. We would say change subject.
39) ENERGY & OIL
Never allow a liberal to get oil or energy in a topic. They will claim OIL is the root of all evil and the reasons for high prices. Oil and energy companies are our friends and we need to keep them protected.
40) NAMES
Always make chat nick names that will get you recognized right away. This allows you to get in then and not later.
41) WEAK DEMOCRATS
You will come upon weak liberals from time to time. These liberals may can be changed to the GOP. If done right. Take their side. Agree that the USA wants you to vote for the Lesser of two evils. Agree with them that Both Parties are bad and messing things up. Once you get them in. GO for it.

Nooooo doubt about it-Goebbels and us

By Deb

The nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court ought to be the Gunfight at the OK Corral. The nuclear option should be used. The Democrats will either have to show some backbone or watch, for the next 40 years or so, as the now-creeping fascism smartly picks up its pace.

Our grandchildren will wonder why we just went along with the takeover. They will read German history before WWII and say, look. You knew what happened then. It wasn't so long ago. Why didn't you heed the warnings?

Think I'm kidding? Go take a look at the speeches of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of (Love) Propaganda. This choice comment hit me right between the eyes.

The positive national discipline of the German press would never have been possible without the complete elimination of the influence of the liberal-Jewish press. That happened only because of the years-long work of our propaganda.
Joseph Goebbels, 1934
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb59.htm