Bad Deeds for 10-20-2008

Freddie Mac Secretly Paid Republican Consulting Firm $2 Million to Kill Regulations – Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse. In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI’s chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain’s campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September. Freddie Mac’s payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel’s bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.

 

Representative Michele Bachmann Accuses Obama and Democrats of Being Anti-America – Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota accused Obama and Democrats of being anti-America on Friday on MSNBC’s Hardball. She also said, “Let’s examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America or not pro-America.” (Is she suggesting we return to the McCarthy Un-American Activities witch-hunt hearing days? – JLV) The good news is that Bachmann’s Democratic foe in Minnesota raised nearly $500,000 (Update: Over $700,000 per TV report tonight) because of her remarks on Hardball Friday.

 

McCain Campaign Hits Up Russian Envoy for Cash – Russia’s permanent mission to the UN has received a letter from U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain asking for $5,000 in financial support of his election campaign, the mission said in a statement on Monday. “We have received a letter from Senator John McCain with a request for a financial donation to his presidential election campaign. In this respect we have to reiterate that neither Russia’s permanent mission to the UN nor the Russian government or its officials finance political activities in foreign countries,” the statement said. According to Ruslan Bakhtin, press secretary of the Russian mission, the letter was dated September 29 and was signed by McCain.

 

Obama’s False Medicare Claim – In a TV ad and in speeches, Obama is making bogus claims that McCain plans to cut $880 billion from Medicare spending and to reduce benefits. A TV spot says McCain’s plan requires “cuts in benefits, eligibility or both.” Obama said in a speech that McCain plans “cuts” that would force seniors to “pay more for your drugs, receive fewer services, and get lower quality care.” These claims are false, and based on a single newspaper report that says no such thing. McCain’s policy director states unequivocally that no benefit cuts are envisioned. McCain does propose substantial “savings” through such means as cutting fraud, increased use of information technology in medicine and better handling of expensive chronic diseases.

 

McCain Supporters Heckle Early Voters, Call Them ‘Cheaters’ – At the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in. People were shouting about Obama’s acknowledged cocaine use as a young man, abortion and one man used the word “terrorist.” They also were complaining that Sundays are for church, not voting. Most voters in line ignored the hecklers but a few heckled back. One voter said she was deeply saddened to see people protesting the most fundamental right of democracy.

 

Obama Supporters’ Tires Slashed In North Carolina – Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said. Sheriff’s deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. The slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset.

 

Palin Condemns Robocalls Yesterday, Then Makes Robocalls Today – Sarah Palin may have condemned robocalls yesterday as intrusive and a drain on people’s attention spans, but that didn’t stop her from recording her own robocall on behalf of the McCain campaign. McCain’s Robocalls Have Parents Worried About Their Kids; Palin Criticizes Tactic

 

How Palin Was Chosen as the Republican VP Candidate – In February, 2007, Adam Brickley gave himself a mission: he began searching for a running mate for McCain who could halt the momentum of the Democrats. Brickley began by “randomly searching Wikipedia and election sites for Republican women.” Though he generally opposes affirmative action, gender drove his choice. “People were talking about Hillary at the time,” he recalled. … Brickley registered a Web site—palinforvp.blogspot.com—which began getting attention in the conservative blogosphere. … Brickley said that “the hand of God” played a role in choosing Palin: “The longer I worked on it the less I felt I was driving it. Something else was at work.” (George W. Bush thought he was told by God to run for President, and look how well that worked out. – JLV) Next, Palin was promoted by ultra-conservative Bill Kristol. (Kristol has been wrong on nearly every thing he has said for years, so that explains a lot. – JLV)

 

Voter Registration Fraud Investigation Leads to Arrest – Mark Anthony Jacoby, who owns the firm known as Young Political Majors (YPM), was arrested after allegedly registering himself to vote, once in 2006 and again in 2007, at an address where did not live. An investigation by the Secretary of State’s Election Fraud Investigation Unit revealed that Jacoby twice registered to vote at the address of a childhood home in Los Angeles although he no longer lived there. This arrest comes on the heels of recent media coverage of YPM’s fraudulent tactics sometimes known as “slamming” – where voters are duped into changing their party registrations, or where their registration is simply changed by YPM without the voter’s knowledge: The Times randomly interviewed 46 of the hundreds of voters whose election records show they were recently re-registered as Republicans by YPM, and 37 of them — more than 80% — said that they were misled into making the change or that it was done without their knowledge.

 

Hate You Can Believe In: ACORN Deluged with Threatening and Racist Voicemails and Emails – After McCain outrageously claimed before a national audience on Wednesday night that ACORN was “maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy,” the group came under attack, literally. In the following days, ACORN’s Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized and at least one employee received a death threat. And for nearly two weeks, ACORN offices across the nation have been subjected to an onslaught of racist and threatening voicemails and emails. You can get samples of the ugliness (if you must) at the link.

 

Thousands of Voters ‘Incorrectly’ Purged From Voter Rolls Across Nation – Officials in Wisconsin admit that their database is wrong one out of five times when it flags voters, sometimes for data discrepancies as small as a middle initial or a typo in a birth date. When the six members of the state elections board — all retired judges — ran their registrations through the system, four were incorrectly rejected because of mismatches.

Regards,

Jim
Will you listen to your hopes or your fears?