Jim Greer

FL GOP Sexism Allegations: Party Chair Talked 'Orgasms' To Female Fundraiser

Justin Elliott | July 2, 2010, 2:32PM

Jim Greer, former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, with his wife Lisa.

Police documents released this week in the Jim Greer alleged fraud case make the Republican Party of Florida out to be a fairly ugly, sexist place to work.

A while back, we noted the allegation that Greer became jealous of Meredith O'Rourke, a top fundraiser for Gov. Charlie Crist, after Greer became FL GOP chair in 2007 and saw she O'Rourke making $30,000 per month in fundraising fees. Greer allegedly tried to convince her to give him a share of her profits, and, when she refused, he cut off her access to Crist.

The new documents include a police summary of investigators' interview with O'Rourke in which she describes Greer making "inappropriate sexually related comments in her presence."

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Del Ali

Research 2000 President Has Two Degrees In Recreation

Justin Elliott | July 2, 2010, 12:10PM

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Del Ali of Research 2000 (inset)

As the allegations that polling firm Research 2000 produced bogus or flawed data continue to rock the political world, it's worth taking a moment to look at the somewhat unorthodox background of the man behind R2K, Del Ali.

"I consider myself a political scientist," Ali told TPMmuckraker in an interview today. "If you want to call me a statistical wiz, I am not."

Ali's academic history is primarily in recreation. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Recreation (Public Health) in 1983, according to a university spokesman. Records show he also got an MA in Recreation from Maryland in 1991.

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Research 2000

Research 2000 Prez Lashes Out At Kos In Detailed Response To Fraud Suit

Justin Elliott | July 1, 2010, 6:10PM

DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas and Del Ali (inset), founder of Research 2000.

In response to the lawsuit filed by Daily Kos against him this week, Research 2000 president Del Ali is accusing Kos of owing him money "in the six figure category" and of using "Kos bloggers posing as statisticians" to slander R2K.

"Every charge against my company and myself are pure lies, plain and simple and the motives as to why Kos is doing it will be revealed in the legal process and not before that," Ali writes in a lengthy, at times discursive statement to TPMmuckraker, which you can read in full below.

(Kos, by the way, has said he paid for all the polling he received.)

He also delves into the statistical analysis at the heart of the dispute, which Kos says proves R2K's polls are fraudulent. It was written by three so-called "statistics wizards" who contacted Kos after finding what they call extreme anomalies in R2K's poll data.

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Al Gore Sexual Assault Allegations

Portland Police Chief: 'Procedural Issues' With Original Gore Investigation

Justin Elliott | July 1, 2010, 4:34PM

Former Vice President Al Gore

Portland Police Chief Michael Reese just released a statement on the Al Gore sexual assault allegations saying there were "procedural issues" with the original investigation that merited re-opening the case.

"In reviewing this case, we have determined there were procedural issues with the 2009 investigation that merit re-opening the case," Reese said. "There should have been command level review at the time on the specifics of this case and decisions on whether the investigation should go forward."

Remember, the police declined to pursue an investigation of the 2006 incident after a 2009 interview with the woman who accused Gore of sexual assault, Molly Hagerty. At the time they cited "insufficient evidence." But now Reese appears to be saying that call should have been made at a higher level of the department.

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Jim Greer

Docs Detail Scandal Within Florida GOP Including Hooker Allegation

Justin Elliott | July 1, 2010, 4:23PM

Gov. Charlie Crist (I-FL) and former Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer

Prosecutors Wednesday released hundreds of pages of documents of evidence in the fraud case against former Florida GOP chair Jim Greer.

A couple highlights:

According to a female party official who spoke to investigators, Greer organized a men-only trip to the Bahamas with major donors and "women were involved and paid." Gov. Charlie Crist, who was on the same trip and hand-picked Greer for the top GOP job in 2007, said today that the charge there were escorts or other paid women involved is "absurdly false."

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Al Gore

The Gore Sexual Assault Allegations: An Update

Justin Elliott | July 1, 2010, 2:50PM

Former Vice President Al Gore

Wednesday night the Portland Police Bureau announced it is re-opening an investigation into allegations that Al Gore sexually assaulted a massage therapist in 2006, following the public revelation of the accusation last week by the National Enquirer.

The police had declined to pursue an investigation after interviewing the woman for the first time in 2009, citing insufficient evidence.

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Research 2000

Daily Kos Files Suit Against Research 2000

Justin Elliott | July 1, 2010, 10:36AM

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Del Ali of Research 2000 (inset)

Via Greg Sargent, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos has now sued polling firm Research 2000 for allegedly "fraudulently manufacturing phony results."

Kos' lawyer, Adam Bonin, confirmed to TPMmuckraker that the suit was filed late yesterday. Del Ali of Research 2000, who has vehemently denied Kos' claims, told us this morning that he has not yet seen the suit. (For more on the backstory, check out our past coverage.)

The suit, which you can read below, alleges breach of contract, unfair business practices, breach of implied warranty, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, constructive fraud, and conversion.

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Espionage

Russian Tradecraft Ain't What It Used To Be

Justin Elliott | July 1, 2010, 10:20AM

Accused Russian spy Anna Chapman.

By definition, the 11 eleven alleged secret agents arrested this week were clearly not the best that Russian intelligence has to offer: they got caught.

But perhaps the most striking thread running through the two complaints filed by federal prosecutors this week is the sheer incompetence of the alleged espionage operation. It was, in fact, so incompetent that the American government couldn't even charge the alleged spies with espionage, having to rely solely on charges that the spies acted as unregistered foreign agents and laundered money in order to hold them.

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Research 2000

Research 2000 Chief Says Business Has Taken 'A Fatal Hit,' Promises 'Criminal Sanctions' For Kos

Justin Elliott | June 30, 2010, 10:09AM

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Del Ali of Research 2000 (inset)

Research 2000 President Del Ali tells TPMmuckraker in an email that the explosive claim by Daily Kos Tuesday that the firm fabricated poll data has dealt a "fatal" blow to his business, and, "Several long time clients who believe in us have stated that even after we are cleared and criminal sanctions are imposed on Kos, that they can not do business with us due to perception."

It's not clear how Kos' accusing the firm of making up data would result in "criminal sanctions," but the charge is another sign of Ali amping up his pushback against Kos since the allegations were initially leveled.

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polling

Kos Lawyer On R2K: 'He Handed Daily Kos Fiction And Claimed It Was Fact'

Justin Elliott | June 29, 2010, 3:21PM

Markos Moulitsas

The lawyer for Daily Kos is not mincing words when it comes to accusing Research 2000 of outright fraud in its poll data.

"He handed Daily Kos fiction and claimed it was fact and got us to put our name on it," said Attorney Adam Bonin of R2K president Del Ali.

In an interview with TPMmuckraker, Bonin, of the firm Cozen O'Connor in Philadelphia, says he will file suit against Research 2000 in the next week in the Northern District of California, where Kos is based. The suit will allege "breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and a number of other counts." It will seek damages for "the amount that was paid for this polling, and ... things like reputational harm and punitive damages." Ali and his attorney have forcefully denied the allegations.

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Del Ali

Research 2000 President: 'We Conducted EVERY Poll Properly' For Kos

Justin Elliott | June 29, 2010, 2:46PM

Research 2000 President Del Ali, responding to the allegation today by Daily Kos that his firm provided bogus poll data, tells TPMmuckraker in an email, "I will tell you unequivocally that we conducted EVERY poll properly for the Daily Kos."

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Daily Kos

Kos Alleges Top Pollster Provided Bogus Data, Will Sue

Justin Elliott | June 29, 2010, 2:09PM

Markos Moulitsas

Calling into question years worth of polls, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas said today his site will sue pollster Research 2000 after a statistical analysis showed that R2K allegedly "fabricated or manipulated" poll data commissioned by Kos.

Two weeks ago, after Kos dropped R2K for inaccuracy, a group of three of what Kos calls "statistics wizards" began looking at some of the firm's data and found a number of "extreme anomalies" that they claim may be the result of some kind of randomizer.

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Don Siegelman

Supreme Court Orders Review Of Siegelman Conviction By Lower Court

Justin Elliott | June 29, 2010, 10:40AM

Fmr. Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman

The Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to take a new look at the controversial conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman in the wake of its ruling last week narrowing the scope of a key public corruption statute that was used in the Siegelman case.

Siegelman was convicted in 2006 on charges of bribery and honest services fraud, the statute that was limited by the court last week. Siegelman was found to have given former HealthSouth executive Richard Scrushy a seat on a state board regulating hospitals in exchange for $500,000 in donations to a state lottery campaign.

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Bush Administration

GAO Study Finds Improper Burrowing During Bush Years

Justin Elliott | June 29, 2010, 10:02AM

George W. Bush

A study by the Government Accountability Office has found seven instances of improper burrowing -- political appointees shifting to career civil servant positions in a given agency -- during the Bush Administration, though none of the seven occurred close to the 2008 presidential election.

Regular TPMmuckraker readers will remember our reporting on burrowing back in late 2008 when several Bush Administration officials made eyebrow-raising shifts to career positions.

The GAO did an exhaustive study of these so-called "conversions" from political to career positions between May 2005 and May 2009. It found 139 conversions in that period, with the most -- 32 -- occurring at the Justice Department, and the second-most, 17, occurring at the Department of Homeland Security. The GAO found the vast majority, 117, followed "fair and open competition" and proper procedures to ensure that the conversions were justified.

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Espionage

Ten People Arrested For Allegedly Spying For Russia

Justin Elliott | June 28, 2010, 4:08PM

The Justice Department announced today that 11 people have been charged with spying for Russia, 10 of whom were arrested in Manhattan, Boston; Yonkers, NY; Montclair, NJ; and Arlington, VA.

The DOJ alleges that the people were allegedly "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation." The purpose of this assignment, according to the FBI, is "to become sufficiently 'Americanized' such that they can gather information about the U.S. for Russia, and can successfully recruit sources who are in, or are able to infiltrate, United States policy-making circles."

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Blackwater

Obama Just Can't Quit Blackwater

Justin Elliott | June 28, 2010, 12:02PM

A Blackwater employee

In fairness, Barack Obama never said he wanted to quit Blackwater. But it's still notable that the troubled firm made famous by helping to fight George W. Bush's wars has become a permanent part of the U.S. foreign policy tableau, with news of two big contracts issued to the firm by the Obama Administration in recent weeks.

CIA chief Leon Panetta, whose agency's $100 million contract with Blackwater for security in Afghanistan was recently revealed, explained on ABC Sunday (emphasis ours):

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Al Gore

Portland Police Release Audio Of Interview With Gore Accuser

Justin Elliott | June 28, 2010, 9:05AM

Former Vice President Al Gore

The Portland Police Bureau have released audio of the 2009 interview with a massage therapist who alleges Al Gore assaulted her at a Portland hotel in 2006.

We detailed the allegations and the woman's interview here.

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