Sean David Morton

SEC Charges 'America's Prophet' With Fraud; Investors Sent $6 Million To Psychic

Justin Elliott | March 5, 2010, 4:11PM

Sean David Morton

The SEC has charged Sean David Morton, a self-described "natural psychic, trained Remote Viewer, intuitive consultant, investigative reporter, and accomplished award winning director, screenwriter and film and TV producer," with securities fraud.

Morton, who is known as "America's Prophet" allegedly solicited investors through a newsletter in which he claimed, "I have called ALL the highs and lows of the market giving EXACT DATES for rises and crashes over the last 14 years."

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Peter Roskam

GOP Rep Runs Taxpayer-Funded Campaign-Style Ads On 'Out Of Control Spending'

Justin Elliott | March 5, 2010, 2:56PM

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) is running campaign-style Web ads for a "tele-town hall" on "out of control spending" that are financed by taxpayer dollars -- and the ads were OKed as permissible under House rules.

The ads, which you can check out one version of below, are set on an American flag background and include a red-white-and-blue button that reads "Congressman."

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Larry Deen

Gun-Rights Extremists Praise Operation Exodus Sheriff: 'This Will Save Lives!!!'

Zachary Roth | March 5, 2010, 2:20PM

A training session for "Operation Exodus" volunteers

The Louisiana sheriff who plans to arm volunteers with a .50 caliber machine gun and other weapons, to maintain security in the event of a terrorist attack or man-made disaster, is being hailed as a hero by survivalists and other gun-rights enthusiasts.

"Awesome. Now there's a Sheriff who thinks outside the box. Good for him," writes one user at SurvivalistBoards.com (slogan: "Endure -- Adapt -- Overcome"), in reference to Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen.

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John Patrick Bedell

Pentagon Shooter Worshipped Private Property Rights, Denounced Government 'Schemes' Like Public Education (AUDIO)

Zachary Roth | March 5, 2010, 11:55AM

John Patrick Bedell

The California man who opened fire last night outside the Pentagon was a property rights extremist who railed against the government's ability to "confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception," and wanted to "eliminate the role of the government in education."

In a recorded manifesto called "Directions To Freedom", the audio of which he posted online in 2006, John Patrick Bedell, of Hollister, California, praised private property as "the most successful basis for structuring society that humanity has ever known."

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Roy Ashburn

FLASHBACK: CA Sen. Spotted At Gay Clubs Fought Gay Marriage For 'The Future Of Our Children'

Justin Elliott | March 5, 2010, 10:57AM

CA Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield)

"We need to preserve traditional values for the future of our children. Children must be raised with morals and principles. As a society, we must provide them with a secured and loving environment that allows them to flourish."

Those are the words of California state Senator Roy Ashburn, a father of four, quoted in a 2005 press release announcing a rally to support "traditional marriage."

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Roy Ashburn

Gay Sacramento Pol: Ashburn Is A Regular At Gay Hotspots

Justin Elliott | March 5, 2010, 9:40AM

CA Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) and West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon (inset)

The openly gay mayor of West Sacramento says that he's spotted state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R), who has racked up a consistently anti-gay voting record over the years, at gay clubs a number of times.

Interviewed by CBS13, the station that reported that Ashburn was at a Sacramento gay club before being arrested for DUI -- with a man in the car -- early Wednesday morning, Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said:

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Liz Cheney

Cheney: Ad That Calls DOJers Terrorist Sympathizers Does Not Question Their Loyalty

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 6:48PM

A shot from Keep America Safe's "Al Qaeda Seven" ad

Via Think Progress: Liz Cheney argued today that the attack ad put out by her group Keep America Safe, which dubs Justice Department lawyers who represented Gitmo detainees "the Al Qaeda Seven," does not "question anybody's loyalty."

The Cheney ad also asks of the DOJ lawyers, "Whose values do they share?" while flashing a picture of Osama bin Laden.

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Xe

Blackwater: There Will Be No GOP Fundraiser At Moyock Compound

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 5:36PM

RNC Chair Michael Steele and a Blackwater training session

A Xe spokesman says that, contra a slide in the leaked RNC fundraising presentation, the Republican Party will not be holding an April fundraiser at the company's Moyock, North Carolina, training compound.

"The RNC is not coming to Moyock," spokesman Mark Corallo tells TPMmuckraker in an e-mail. "However, like the many corporations and organizations who choose our facilities for retreats and conferences, we would be happy to host the RNC and the DNC."

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Eric Massa

Ethics Committee Says It's Investigating Massa Allegations

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 5:29PM

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY)

The House ethics committee announced today it is investigating "allegations" about Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) but does not detail the charges. According to Politico, Massa has been accused of making unwanted advances toward a male staffer.

You can read the one-sentence ethics announcement here.

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Republican National Committee

GOPers Blast RNC 'Census' Mailers: 'Nothing Could Be More Wrong'

Zachary Roth | March 4, 2010, 5:28PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Two Congressional Republicans today blasted those RNC fundraising mailers that appear made to look like official Census Bureau communications. "Nothing could be more wrong," said one.

During a hearing of the House Oversight committee, which is looking into the mailers, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) declared: "I am obviously a member of the Republican Party. I have seen the Republican Party send out documents that say 'census.' I think it's wrong, I think it's deceptive, and I wish they wouldn't do it. I would hope our party would cease from doing that."

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American Bar Association

ABA Blasts Liz Cheney Ad As 'Divisive And Diversionary'

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 2:43PM

Liz Cheney

In response to the Liz Cheney Web ad that questions the loyalty of lawyers who have represented Guantanamo detainees, the president of the American Bar Association said it is "a divisive and diversionary tactic" to impugn "the character of lawyers who have sought to protect the fundamental rights of unpopular clients."

In a statement to TPMmuckraker, ABA President Carolyn Lamm said that lawyers have an ethical obligation to "provide representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government--even to those accused of heinous crimes against this nation in the name of causes that evoke our contempt."

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Roy Ashburn

Gay Club Manager: I Didn't See Anti-Gay State Senator Here -- It Was Latin Night

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 2:28PM

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-CA)

The manager of the night club where anti-gay California state Sen. Roy Ashburn was reportedly hanging out before his 2 a.m. DUI arrest Wednesday tells TPMmuckraker she didn't see him at the club that night.

Tuesday night is Latin night at Faces, explained manager Laurie Bonifield in a phone interview. The club describes itself as "Sacramento's premier GLBTI Nightclub since 1985."

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Larry Deen

Sheriff's Office Cites Islamic Terror 'Cells' In Bossier Parish

Zachary Roth | March 4, 2010, 12:10PM

A training session for "Operation Exodus" volunteers

The office of the Louisiana sheriff who's forming a citizen militia to defend the parish in the event of a terrorist attack says it has information about possible Islamic terrorist activity in its midst.

"We understand, based on some intelligence that we've collected over the last year, year and a half, that there have been cells and people operating even within our parish that have been trained as terrorists or went overseas to be trained as terrorists," Ed Baswell, a spokesman for the Bossier Parrish Sheriff's Office, told TPMmuckraker this morning.

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Aqueduct Race Track

Probe Of Deal To Build Queens 'Racino' Ensnares Gov. Paterson And ... Jay-Z?

Justin Elliott | March 4, 2010, 11:27AM

Horses run at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens. Inset, from top: Jay-Z, Gov. David Paterson (D-NY), Pastor Floyd Flake

Authorities are investigating the winning bid of a politically connected group of investors -- including a prominent rapper and a former congressman -- to transform a Queens horse track into a "racino" amid suspicions that the contract, doled out by Gov. David Paterson, was awarded improperly.

In the long-awaited deal made by the state, a consortium of companies called Aqueduct Entertainment Group will develop the 50-year-old Aqueduct Race Track in Queens into a "racino" with over 4,000 video slot machines, restaurants, a large "entertainment center," and a hotel.

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Roy Ashburn

Sources: Family Values GOPer Was At Gay Club Before Drunk Driving Arrest

Zachary Roth | March 4, 2010, 9:17AM

CA Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield)

A California Republican family values legislator who was arrested early Wednesday morning for drunk driving had recently left a gay club, sources tell a local news channel.

State senator Roy Ashburn was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on Wednesday at 2am in Sacramento, after police saw the car he was driving swerving erratically. An unidentified male passenger was in the car with Ashburn.

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Larry Deen

'Operation Exodus': Louisiana Sheriff Taps Locals For Emergency Security Plan

Zachary Roth | March 3, 2010, 5:55PM

A training session for "Operation Exodus" volunteers

A Louisiana sheriff plans to arm volunteers with shotguns, riot shields, batons, and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a "war wagon," as part of "Operation Exodus," a program to provide security in the event of a terrorist attack or civic unrest. "It's a calling," he says.

The office of Sheriff Larry Deen of Bossier Parish, near Shreveport in the northwest part of the state, last month selected for the program 200 local residents -- mostly ex-law-enforcement personnel -- and began training them in "defensive techniques in the event of a struggle," reports the Shreveport Times. The plan calls for the new recruits to be sent to protect food from grocery stores, gas from gas stations, and other crucial local resources, should the situation demand it.

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New York Yankees

Ethics Panel: Paterson Broke Law By Accepting Free World Series Tickets

Justin Elliott | March 3, 2010, 2:35PM

Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) in the parade following the Yankees' 2009 World Series victory.

As his administration crumbles around him in an abuse of power scandal related to an aide's domestic violence case, New York Gov. David Paterson now faces new charges that he broke state law by soliciting and receiving free tickets to the opening game of the World Series last year, and then lying about it.

The New York State Commission on Public Integrity found in a report that Paterson got primo tickets -- for seats behind home plate, with a face value of $425 each -- for himself, his son, and a son's friend, in violation of a state gift ban.

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Kris Kobach

Arpaio Paying Right-Wing Lawyer Big Bucks For 'Immigration Enforcement Training'

Zachary Roth | March 3, 2010, 2:32PM

Kris Kobach

The county sheriff's office run by Joe Arpaio is paying a prominent right-wing immigration lawyer between $250 and $300 per hour to train cops on how to enforce immigration laws, according to Arpaio's top deputy.

As we reported last month,the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office hired Kris Kobach -- who was John Ashcroft's top immigration adviser at DOJ, and specializes in crafting local laws designed to go after those who harbor illegal immigrants -- to train deputies in the finer points of immigration enforcement. In announcing the training program, Arpaio appeared to be thumbing his nose at the Justice Department, which recently limited his department's ability to make immigration arrests after numerous civil-rights complaints.

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Bracewell Giuliani

Will Liz Cheney Attack Rudy Giuliani's Firm For Representing 'Terrorist Detainees'?

Justin Elliott | March 3, 2010, 12:22PM

Liz Cheney and Rudy Giuliani

In Liz Cheney's worldview, Rudy Giuliani is a disloyal al Qaeda sympathizer.

Let us explain.

Yesterday, Cheney's outfit, a group called Keep America Safe, went up with a blistering ad that attacked Justice Department lawyers who previously represented Guantanamo detainees and are now working on detainee issues. The ad dubbed the lawyers "the Al Qaeda Seven" and asked "whose values do they share?" while flashing an image of Osama bin Laden.

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Rod Blagojevich

Blagojevich Heckled At Ethics In Politics Panel At Northwestern (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | March 3, 2010, 11:57AM

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL)

Rod Blagojevich was the guest of honor at a Northwestern University panel on ethics in politics last night, where he defended his record and actions in front of a not-so-friendly audience.

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Mark Meckler

Top Tea Party Leader Was Paid By GOP Biz Group's Campaign

Zachary Roth | March 3, 2010, 11:35AM

Tea Party Patriots leader Mark Meckler

A top Tea Party leader who has publicly distanced his group from the GOP was recently paid by a campaign run by an influential California Republican business organization, to gather signatures for a ballot initiative that's long been a key goal of the state party.

Mark Meckler, one of two national spokespeople for the Tea Party Patriots, was recently paid $7,500 for "petition circulation management" by the "Citizen Power Campaign Supported by the Lincoln Club of Orange County," according to state disclosure records. Meckler's involvement with the campaign was first reported last month by the website Red County.

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Public Notice

Former Bush Admin. Spox Launches Non-Profit To Combat 'Over-Spending'

Zachary Roth | March 3, 2010, 10:00AM

Gretchen Hamel, former Bush administration spokesperson

A former Bush administration PR specialist has launched a new non-profit designed to raise the alarm about what it sees as "over-spending" in Washington -- but is staying mum on how the group is being funded.

Public Notice launched late last month with a column on the website of US News and World Report, in which executive director Gretchen Hamel argued that "[b]ackroom deals, trillion-dollar deficits, pork-laden spending bills, and multibillion-dollar bailouts have left many Americans wondering if Washington can be trusted with their money." The group's sophisticated-looking website, Bankrupting America, adds that "unprecedented government spending and debt, corporate welfare, higher taxes, and poorly designed bureaucratic red tape are undermining economic progress," and contends that the stimulus bill has been a failure.

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Sue Myrick

Constituents Confront GOP Rep. Myrick Over Muslim-Bashing At Tense Town Hall (AUDIO)

Justin Elliott | March 2, 2010, 6:45PM

Sue Myrick (R-NC)

Muslim constituents repeatedly challenged Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) at an emotional town hall meeting in Charlotte Thursday, with Myrick scrambling to distance herself from the Islam-bashing co-author of the book Muslim Mafia, whose foreword was written by the congresswoman herself.

Myrick has had a tense relationship with her district's Muslim community for many years, but it's been aggravated recently by her campaign to investigate undercover Muslim intern "spies" on Capitol Hill.

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Chamber of Commerce

Microsoft Distances Itself From Chamber On Climate Change

Zachary Roth | March 2, 2010, 5:40PM

Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft

Microsoft is distancing itself from the Chamber of Commerce's controversial opposition to progress on climate change.

The software company today posted the following statement on its "environmental sustainability" blog:

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Justice Department

Anatomy Of A Smear: Cheney Attacks DOJ Attorneys As Terrorist-Friendly (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | March 2, 2010, 3:18PM

Liz Cheney and Attorney General Eric Holder (inset)

An attack on Justice Department officials who previously represented detainees at Guantanamo was spawned by Sen. Chuck Grassley at a hearing last November, ricocheted around the right-wing media, and culminated today in a video release by Liz Cheney's group that all but accuses the lawyers of being terrorists.

The campaign-style ad from Cheney's Keep America Safe dubs the lawyers "the Al Qaeda Seven" and asks, "Whose values do they share?" while flashing a picture of Osama bin Laden. (Watch it below.)

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Mark Meckler

Tea Party Leader Was Involved With GOP-Tied Political Firm

Zachary Roth | March 2, 2010, 11:13AM

Tea Party Patriots leader Mark Meckler

Mark Meckler, a top Tea Party leader, has worked hard to position the movement as a grassroots uprising, independent of both political parties. But just a few years ago, Meckler was involved in an online political consulting firm with ties to the GOP -- a fact that could intensify the fears of some Tea Party activists that their movement is being hijacked by Republican political operatives.

Since last year, Meckler, a northern California lawyer, has emerged as one of two national leaders and spokespeople for the Tea Party Patriots, giving frequent interviews to national news outlets. Working closely with the Atlanta-based Jenny Beth Martin, Meckler has helped build TPP into perhaps the largest and most prominent of the various Tea Party factions. If the notoriously decentralized Tea Party movement can be said to have a spokesman, Meckler has as good a claim to the title as just about anyone.

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David Paterson

Latest NYT Paterson Story: Did Gov Commit A Crime?

Justin Elliott | March 2, 2010, 9:22AM

New York Gov. David Paterson and aide David Johnson

The New York Times is reporting that Gov. David Paterson played a bigger role than previously known reaching out to a woman who was the victim of an alleged assault by one of the governor's top aides.

The woman, Sherr-una Booker, did not appear for a Feb. 8 court hearing to get a protective order against Paterson aide David Johnson, whom she accused of assaulting her last October.

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Sue Myrick

GOP Rep Defends Terrorism-In-Convenience-Stores Comment

Justin Elliott | March 1, 2010, 6:33PM

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) in her "Conversation With America" video.

At a town hall meeting with the Muslim community Thursday, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) seemed to defend comments she made in 2003 about the terrorist threat emanating from the people who run "all the convenience stores across the country."

"I wasn't off the wall," she said, according to the Charlotte Observer. "It may have come across that way, but you have to put it in context."

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Nathan Deal

Did GOP Rep Resign To Squelch Ethics Probe?

Justin Elliott | March 1, 2010, 3:00PM

Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)

Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA), who is under investigation by the ethics committee for reportedly intervening with Georgia officials to preserve a lucrative business agreement with the state, announced today he is leaving Congress, effective next Monday.

Why did he do it?

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Ed Martin

Tea Partiers Call Obama A Marxist And A Dictator ... Get Promoted On GOPer's Site

Zachary Roth | March 1, 2010, 11:47AM

Members of a Tea Party event attended by Republican Congressional candidate Ed Martin

As the Republican Party becomes increasingly dominated by an implacably anti-Obama far-right fringe, it's becoming difficult for even mainstream GOPers to avoid endorsing the loonier rhetoric of the Tea Party wing.

Consider Ed Martin, a former chief of staff to Missouri governor Matt Blunt, who's mounted a strong bid to challenge Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) in the fall. This weekend, Martin campaigned at a Tea Party rally at the Arch in St. Louis, and his campaign posted photographs of the event on his official website. Most of the pictures are unremarkable. But a few show people expressing sentiments that -- though perhaps not so unusual for a Tea Party event -- might raise some eyebrows when they're being promoted by a serious candidate for Congress.

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Dawn Kelly Mobley

Ethics Counsel Admonished For Leaking Info Now Has Top Job For Dem Rep

Justin Elliott | March 1, 2010, 10:54AM

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Chief of Staff Dawn Kelly Mobley (inset)

The former counsel to the chair of the House ethics committee, who was admonished by the panel for leaking confidential information during a review of Caribbean junkets, is still working in a high-level congressional job as chief of staff for a Democratic representative.

The admonishment of Dawn Kelly Mobley, now top aide to Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), came in the report that found Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) improperly took corporate-funded junkets to a pair of Caribbean business conferences run by a group called the Carib News Foundation.

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John Yoo

Yoo On Missing Emails: Leahy Is 'Chasing His Own Tail To Feed Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories'

Zachary Roth | March 1, 2010, 9:54AM

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Yoo

In his op-ed on the OPR report that we just told you about, John Yoo also appears to claim ignorance on the subject of those missing emails, and accuses the Senate Judiciary committee chair of "chasing his own tail to feed left-wing conspiracy theories." But Yoo's bravado raises as many questions as it answers.

As we've detailed, OPR wrote that its probe was "hampered" by the fact that it didn't have access to many of Yoo's emails, and was told that they were missing and unrecoverable. Numerous observers, including the National Archives and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the Judiciary committee chair, have expressed concern about that omission, and asked for more information on what happened to the emails.

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John Yoo

Yoo: OPR Probe Was A 'Farce'

Zachary Roth | March 1, 2010, 9:20AM

John Yoo

John Yoo is celebrating the Justice Department's finding that his Torture Memos did not violate standards of professional conduct, while calling investigators from DOJ's internal ethics unit "incompetent" and "obviously biased," and describing their probe as a "farce."

In a Philadelphia Inquirer column -- his first public comments since the release of the Office of Professional Responsibility report -- Yoo accuses the OPR investigators of "the politicization of national security." He describes their probe as a "witch-hunt" against Bush administration lawyers, and asserts that "OPR's political bias was legion." As evidence, Yoo cites the fact that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and his deputy had argued that there were errors in the report.

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