Tea Party Nation

Florida Duo Claiming Rights To Tea Party Name Have History Of Alleged Political Dirty Tricks

Zachary Roth | January 15, 2010, 10:40AM

Tea Party protesters (inset: Doug Guetzloe)

The two-man team of Florida political activists who are claiming the rights to the "Tea Party" name have been accused in the past of engaging in political trickery for profit, including allegedly pressing opposing candidates to pay for the endorsement of their candidate.

In August, Orlando lawyer Fred O'Neal registered the "Tea Party of Florida" (TPOF) as an official political party. Since then, as we reported yesterday, he and his close ally, GOP political consultant Doug Guetzloe, have asserted rights to the Tea Party name, and tried to strong-arm some local groups to drop the well-known moniker.

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Chamber of Commerce

Chamber CEO's 'Striking Innovation': Helping Corporate Backers Fund Attack Ads On The Down-Low

Zachary Roth | January 14, 2010, 3:43PM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

This week, National Journal reported that the health insurance lobby funneled tens of millions of dollars to the Chamber of Commerce to fund an ad campaign attacking heath-care reform. The Chamber essentially acted as a pass-through, allowing the health insurers to avoid having their names tied to the campaign.

The story understandably generated outrage -- with health-care reform advocates now demanding hearings. But it looks like the pass-through tactic is nothing new. In fact, it's a technique the Chamber has been pioneering for almost a decade.

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Texas Textbook Hearings

The Rehabilitation Of Joseph McCarthy? Texas Textbooks Process Grinds On

Justin Elliott | January 14, 2010, 1:55PM

Joseph McCarthy

When we last checked in on the U.S. history textbooks standards setting process down in Texas, the conservative-dominated State Board of Education was mulling one-sided requirements to teach high school students about Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly, and the Moral Majority.

Now, in the home stretch of a process that will set the state's nationally influential standards, a liberal watchdog group is worried that the State Board of Education will try to push through changes to claim that communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy has been vindicated by history, among other right-wing pet issues.

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Tea Parties

Florida Lawyer Claims Rights To Tea Party Name -- Says Activist: He's 'Trying To Hijack Our Movement'

Zachary Roth | January 14, 2010, 12:05PM

At a tea party in Philadelphia in 2009.

A Florida lawyer who registered the "Tea Party" as an official political party doesn't want to share the name that's become synonymous with the fledgling grassroots conservative movement. Fred O'Neal is pressuring activists in the state to rechristen their local Tea Party groups -- and in doing so, he's become the latest figure to be charged with co-opting the movement for personal gain.

In August, O'Neal, an Orlando attorney and anti-tax activist who until then had had little involvement with the Tea Party movement, registered the "Tea Party" as a new political party with the Florida Division of Elections. O'Neal has told the press he intends to recruit conservative candidates under the Tea Party banner -- an idea that hasn't sat well with many Tea Party activists, who view any organized political party with distrust.

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Mohammed al-Awfi

Ex-Gitmo Detainee Who Joined Al Qaeda Accuses U.S. Of Torture At Bagram

Justin Elliott | January 14, 2010, 10:16AM

Mohammed al-Awfi

In a new interview with the BBC, a former Gitmo detainee and former member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula accused the United States of torturing him while at Bagram prison in Afghanistan.

The BBC interviewed Mohammed al-Awfi in the well-appointed apartment where he is being held by Saudi authorities. A Saudi national, al-Awfi's journey took him from Bagram to Guantanamo to the Saudi rehabilitation program to the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and finally back into the hands of Saudi authorities.

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Kabul Shooting

Contractors' Attorney: Blackwater Is Scapegoating My Clients In Kabul Murder Case

Justin Elliott | January 14, 2010, 8:45AM

SUV involved in May 2009 traffic incident

A lawyer for the Blackwater contractors charged last week with killing two men in Kabul says his clients were thrown under the bus by a company desperate to preserve its standing with the Afghan government, after another shooting case in Iraq led to a crackdown on its operations in that country.

Directly after the Kabul shooting last May, Blackwater went into crisis mode, Attorney Daniel Callahan tells TPMmuckraker. That same month, the company fired the two contractors who were charged last week, as well as two others who were involved in the incident, for violating the company's drinking policy.

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John McCormack

Weekly Standard Scribe And Coakley Aide In Altercation On DC Street

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 6:35PM

MA AG Martha Coakley

Conservatives are up in arms over an incident last night in which a Weekly Standard reporter who was pursuing Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley ended up on the ground -- with ripped pants -- after an altercation with a Coakley aide.

Here's what seem to have happened, based on video of the incident, and several written accounts, including one by the reporter himself:

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Jamie Dimon

VIDEO: JPMorgan CEO: 'We Have Crises Every Five Or Ten Years' -- So No Biggie

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 3:11PM

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon

The banking crisis that nearly triggered the collapse of the U.S. financial sector in 2008 and continues to cause after-shocks around the world was a routine occurrence, the head of one of the investment banks that helped cause it suggested today.

Here's what Jamie Dimon, CEO of bailout beneficiary JPMorgan Chase, said during testimony before the Washington commission that's probing the causes of the crisis:

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Bill Allen

Star Witness In Alaska Corruption Cases Begins Prison Term

Justin Elliott | January 13, 2010, 2:25PM

Bill Allen, former owner of VECO

Bill Allen, the Alaska businessman whose secretly taped declaration, "Ted, I love you," was played during the Ted Stevens corruption trial, reported to prison in California yesterday, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

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American Future Fund

Conservative Group Backs Off Effort To Undermine Robo-Call Laws

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 12:32PM

A shadowy conservative group is backing off its effort to undermine state laws restricting robo-calls.

Lawyers for American Future Fund Political Action (AFFPA) informed the FEC yesterday afternoon that they were withdrawing their request for an advisory opinion on whether those state laws were pre-empted by a less restrictive federal law. AFFPA had argued in its request that the state laws were indeed pre-empted, and indicated that it planned a barrage of robo-calls for 2010.

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Contractors

U.S. Embassy Guards Now Being Recruited On Craigslist

Justin Elliott | January 13, 2010, 12:01PM

Whitestone Group personnel, mounted.

In what has got to be some kind of milestone in the privatization of government security functions, an Ohio firm has turned to online classifieds service Craigslist to recruit guards for the U.S. embassy in Brazil.

An ad from the Whitestone Group, of Columbus, OH, was posted on Craigslist in Miami under the "security jobs" category. Candidates must have not only "experience managing people," but also "Secret Clearance with ability to obtain Top Secret Clearance."

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Tea Party Nation

Tea Party Convention Organizer Used 'Our Passion For The Movement To Build His Start-Up'

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 11:22AM

National Tea Party Convention organizer Judson Phillips

The organizer of the National Tea Party Convention, at which Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann will speak next month, cynically took advantage of conservative activists' willingness to work on behalf of the Tea Party cause in his bid to launch a money-making enterprise, according to one fellow Tea Partier.

Kevin Smith told TPMmuckraker that Judson Phillips, the Nashville defense lawyer behind the upcoming National Tea Party Convention, abruptly turned Tea Party Nation into a for-profit corporation last year, shocking fellow activists who had discussed setting up the fledgling group as a non-profit.

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Airline Security

Poison Pen: Could Family Disputes Game The New Watchlist System?

Justin Elliott | January 13, 2010, 10:35AM

A TSA agent at Newark Airport

As the Obama Administration prepares to loosen terrorist watchlist standards in the wake of the failed Christmas attack, experts say the phenomenon known as "poison pen" warnings could become a greater problem.

The term refers to a false warning about a potential threat, usually given overseas, and sometimes arising from family or other interpersonal disputes.

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Tea Parties

Key Sponsor Pulls Out Of Tea Party Convention

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 10:01AM

Tea party in Washington, D.C.

One of the key co-sponsors of the National Tea Party Convention has pulled out of the event, citing concerns over the financial arrangements of Tea Party Nation, the group organizing the confab.

Eric Odom of American Liberty Alliance is seen by many as one of the founders of the Tea Party movement. His group had been listed as a "gold" co-sponsor of the convention, and in an interview Friday with TPMmuckraker, Odom sounded bullish about it. But today he writes that his group "will sit out" the event:

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Wall Street

Time For Some Answers: Wall St. CEOs To Go Before Financial Crisis Panel

Zachary Roth | January 13, 2010, 8:57AM

Clockwise from top left: CEO's Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, and John Mack of Morgan Stanley.

What did top banking executives know about the events that led to the near-collapse of the financial system in 2008, and when did they know it? Those are two of the questions that we may start getting answers to this morning, when the commission probing the causes of the crisis holds its first public hearing.

The CEOS of four bailed-out banking behemoths -- Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America -- all will go before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington today.

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Northwest Flight 253

Obama Admin To Congress: It Was Not A One-Way Ticket

Justin Elliott | January 13, 2010, 8:53AM

President Barack Obama

Remember the bogus "one-way ticket" meme we told you about earlier this week? That's the false idea that's been ricocheting around the media that Umar Abdulmutallab bought a one-way fare to fly to Detroit on Christmas, supposedly another red flag missed by authorities.

Well the myth was repeated so many times, the Obama Administration had to go to Congress to disabuse members of the idea. The Los Angeles Times reports:

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Charles Pelton

Former WaPo Exec Behind Salons Flap Back Pushing Corporate-Sponsored Events

Zachary Roth | January 12, 2010, 3:21PM

The former Washington Post Company executive who left amid controversy over a plan to hold corporate-sponsored "salons" is doubling down on his bid to get newsrooms more involved in profit-making ventures.

Charles Pelton resigned in September as the Post Company's general manager of events and conferences, after Politico reported on an initiative that would have brought together Post reporters, administration officials, lawmakers, and corporate lobbyists for off-the-record discussions of policy issues -- paid for by the attending corporations -- at the home of Post publisher Katharine Weymouth. (We followed up with our own report on Atlantic Media's series of similar events.)

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War In Afghanistan

The Blackwater Kabul Shooting Case: What Do We Know?

Justin Elliott | January 12, 2010, 12:39PM

private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Amid a busy news week, the indictment Wednesday of a pair of former Blackwater contractors for the alleged murder of two Afghan civilians hasn't gotten much attention. But the case has the potential to become a big problem for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and for Blackwater's future business prospects in that country.

The particulars of what happened last May 5 -- including whether the contractors had been drinking and whether they were acting in self-defense -- are in dispute, but everyone agrees the shooting occurred after a traffic accident in Kabul.

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Lisa Murkowski

Bushies-Turned-Lobbyists Helped Murkowski Write Anti-Enviro Measure

Zachary Roth | January 12, 2010, 11:49AM

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Two former Bush EPA officials -- now industry lobbyists -- helped Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) write a measure aimed at blocking the agency from limiting global warming emissions.

Jeffrey Holmstead and Roger Martella, Jr. helped the Alaska senator write an amendment that she intended to offer last fall, which would have prevented the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, the Washington Post reported yesterday. Holmstead, an assistant administrator for air and radiation a EPA during the Bush years, is now a lobbyist at Bracewell & Guiliani, where his clients include Southern Company and Duke Energy. Martella, who was the Bush EPA's general counsel, now lobbbies at Sidley Austin, representing timber industry interests, among others.

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Unification Church

Victims Of Moon Church Ponzi Scheme Plead For Leniency For Scamster

Justin Elliott | January 12, 2010, 10:14AM

Unification Church leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The victims of a New Jersey woman who was convicted of bilking investors of as much as $2.5 million pleaded for leniency at her sentencing hearing Monday, arguing that she was fooled by a mysterious business partner -- who authorities believe may not actually exist.

Marcia Sladich, 51, of Clifton was sentenced to 70 months in prison yesterday for the three-year scheme, in which she collected money from fellow members of the local branch of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, promising guaranteed returns from international real estate investments. The scene at the sentencing hearing was reported by The Record newspaper.

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Campaign Finance

Supreme Court Ruling Could Reshape Campaign Finance Laws

Zachary Roth | January 12, 2010, 10:03AM

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)

The Supreme Court could rule this morning on a case that may radically reshape our campaign-finance laws, opening the door for unrestricted amounts of corporate money to flow into American politics.

In a nutshell: The FEC ruled that the conservative group Citizens United (CU) was prohibited by the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law from airing a negative movie about Hillary Clinton. CU received corporate donations and the movie advocated the defeat of a political candidate within 60 days of an election. CU is arguing that the FEC ruling violated its freedom of speech, and that the relevant provision of McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional.

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Tea Parties

RedState Founder: Tea Party Convention 'Smells Scammy'

Zachary Roth | January 12, 2010, 9:22AM

We told you yesterday about the fears among Tea Party activists that a planned national convention, at which Sarah Palin will speak, is too expensive for regular folks to attend -- and may be a bid by corporate or political interests to co-opt the movement. (TPMmuckraker -- or half of it -- talked about the issue with Rachel Maddow last night.)

And it sounds like at least one influential conservative voice agrees.

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Lashonda Booker

Ex-FEMA Worker Charged With Stealing Katrina Relief Money

Justin Elliott | January 11, 2010, 3:04PM

A FEMA official talks to a New Orleans resident after Hurricane Katrina.

A former FEMA worker and her cousin have been charged in Mississippi with stealing $721,000 in disaster relief money, including allegedly diverting $58,000 directly from three victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Lashonda Booker, who worked in FEMA's Biloxi office processing Katrina disaster assistance claims, is accused of conspiring with her cousin to divert FEMA funds to bank accounts Booker controlled, according to court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney Jan. 8.

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Dale Robertson

Tea Partier's Site Shows Photoshopped Image Of Racist Sign

Zachary Roth | January 11, 2010, 12:05PM

Dale Robertson

When you're a Tea Party activist and you've been caught holding a racist sign that refers to taxpayers as the "n" word, maybe it's better to just leave the whole subject alone.

Dale Robertson seems to disagree. Over the weekend, the Houston-based Tea Party leader posted a picture of himself at a rally last year that you can see opposite.

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John Guandolo

Gaffney On Ex-FBI Agent Who Slept With Witness: He Was Fired For Opposing Sharia!

Justin Elliott | January 11, 2010, 11:00AM

Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy

Conservative columnist Frank Gaffney claimed in a recent op-ed that FBI agent John Guandolo lost his job because he was too fiercely opposed to radical Islamic ideology, when in fact Guandolo resigned after sleeping with the key government witness in a major congressional corruption trial.

And in an e-mail exchange with TPMmuckraker, Gaffney is standing by the column, while providing no information to back up his claim.

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Tea Party Express

Yet More Tea Party Spending Went To GOP Consultants

Zachary Roth | January 11, 2010, 10:51AM

Tea Party Express strategist Sal Russo

We told you last month that the political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) directed almost two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm - or entities associated with it -- that created the group in the first place.

But it's actually worse than that. It now appears the figure is over three quarters.

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Tea Party Express

'The Tea Party Movement Is About To Be Hijacked': Activists Slam Plan For Convention

Zachary Roth | January 11, 2010, 9:00AM

In the latest sign of rancor in Tea Party circles, a convention billed as an effort to bring together conservative activists from across the country is being attacked by some leading Tea Partiers as inauthentic, too tied to the GOP, and -- at $549 per head -- too expensive for the working Americans the movement aspires to represent.

The National Tea Party Convention, scheduled for early February in Nashville, grabbed headlines after announcing that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann would appear as speakers, Palin as the keynote. According to a message on the convention's website, the event "is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation." But organizers are a long way from unifying the notoriously fractious movement.

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Northwest Flight 253

The Bogus Flight 253 'One-Way Ticket' Meme: Anatomy Of A Myth

Justin Elliott | January 11, 2010, 8:36AM

Umar Abdulmutallab (Fmr. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, President Obama, and columnist Michael Gerson inset)

In a remarkable example of how bad information can travel far and wide, dozens of media outlets around the world have said Umar Abdulmutallab was traveling on a one-way ticket to Detroit when he allegedly tried to blow up Flight 253, even though that has never been substantiated and appears to be flat wrong.

Abdulmutallab's "one-way ticket" has been cited in recent days by the AP, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, even though the Nigerian government said Dec. 28 that Abdulmutallab had a round-trip ticket, and provided details to back it up.

The "one-way ticket" meme was originally sourced to anonymous U.S. officials and has since been recited as an undisputed fact.

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